CJTranslations - fate/destiny

QUOTES BY TOPIC

A good man’s fortune may grow out at heels.

PLAY: King Lear ACT/SCENE: 2.2 SPEAKER: Kent CONTEXT: Pray you do not, sir. I have watched and traveled hard.
Some time I shall sleep out. The rest I’ll whistle.
A good man’s fortune may grow out at heels. DUTCH: Ons goed fortuin laat ons soms in de steek;
ik wens u goededag. MORE: Proverb: A good man’s fortune may grow out at heels (luck may run out).
Out at heel=worn out at the heel Topics: fate/destiny, proverbs and idioms, invented or popularised

A horse! a horse! My kingdom for a horse!

PLAY: Richard III
ACT/SCENE: 5.4
SPEAKER: King Richard III
CONTEXT:
KING RICHARD
A horse, a horse, my kingdom for a horse!
CATESBY
Withdraw, my lord. I’ll help you to a horse.
KING RICHARD
Slave, I have set my life upon a cast,
And I will stand the hazard of the die.
I think there be six Richmonds in the field;
Five have I slain today instead of him.
A horse, a horse, my kingdom for a horse!

DUTCH:
Een paard ! een paard! gansch Eng’land voor een paard!

MORE:
One of Shakespeare’s best known lines and quoted as a classic example of Iambic Pentameter, ‘A horse, a horse, my kingdom for a horse’ is still used today (often replacing ‘horse’ with another small item that is desperately needed).

Cast=Throw of the dice
Die=Singular of dice
Compleat:
Die=Een dobbelsteen
To cast=Werpen, smyten, gooijen

Burgersdijk notes:
Een paard! een paard! gansch Eng’land voor een paard ! In ‘t Engelsch : A horse! a horse! my kingdom for a horse! In het andere stuk, dat in 1594 werd uitgegeven (zie boven blz . 448) roept Richard eveneens: A horse! a horse! a fresh horse! Het zou kunnen zijn, dat deze uitroep Shakespeare heeft voorgezweefd, toen hij den diepen indruk makenden regel schreef. – lets anders schijnt hij aan het oudere stuk niet ontleend te hebben.

Topics: misquoted, still in use, courage, fate/destiny

A man that Fortune’s buffets and rewards
Hast ta’en with equal thanks.

PLAY: Hamlet
ACT/SCENE: 3.2
SPEAKER: Hamlet
CONTEXT:
Since my dear soul was mistress of her choice
And could of men distinguish, her election
Hath sealed thee for herself, for thou hast been—
As one in suffering all that suffers nothing—
A man that Fortune’s buffets and rewards
Hast ta’en with equal thanks. And blessed are those
Whose blood and judgment are so well commingled,
That they are not a pipe for Fortune’s finger
To sound what stop she please.

DUTCH:
Gezegend, zij wier inborst en verstand zó zijn verweven /
Gezegend hij, Bij wien verstand en hart zoo zijn gepaard /
En wel gelukkig Zijn zij bij wien zich bloed en geest zoo mengen

MORE:
Schmidt:
Election = preference
Blood=Disposition, temper
Judgment=Faculty of discerning the truth, discernment, good sense, understanding
Commingled= balanced

Topics: fate/destiny, reason, judgment, adversity

Against ill chances men are ever merry, but heaviness foreruns the good event.

PLAY: King Henry IV Part 2
ACT/SCENE: 4.1
SPEAKER: Archbishop
CONTEXT:
MOWBRAY
You wish me health in very happy season,
For I am on the sudden something ill.
ARCHBISHOP
Against ill chances men are ever merry,
But heaviness foreruns the good event.
WESTMORELAND
Therefore be merry, coz, since sudden sorrow
Serves to say thus: “Some good thing comes tomorrow.”

DUTCH:
Als onheil naakt, is steeds de mensch blijmoedig;
Zwaarmoedigheid verkondigt goed geluk./
Bij slechte kansen zijn mensen altijd vrolijk, maar depressies kondigen een gunstige afloop aan

MORE:

Happy season=The appropriate time
Something=Somewhat
Heaviness=Sorrow, sadness, melancholy
Forerun=Precede

Compleat:
Season (a proper time to do a thing)=Een bekwamen tyd om iets te doen
In due season=Ter rechter tyd, recht van pas
Something (somewhat)=Iets, iet, wat
Heaviness (or sadness)=Verdriet, droefheid, leetweezen

Topics: fate/destiny, wellbeing, sorrow

All unavoided is the doom of destiny

PLAY: Richard III
ACT/SCENE: 4.4
SPEAKER: King Richard III
CONTEXT:
KING RICHARD
Her life is safest only in her birth.
QUEEN ELIZABETH
And only in that safety died her brothers.
KING RICHARD
Lo, at their births good stars were opposite.
QUEEN ELIZABETH
No, to their lives ill friends were contrary.
KING RICHARD
All unavoided is the doom of destiny.
QUEEN ELIZABETH
True, when avoided grace makes destiny.
My babes were destined to a fairer death
If grace had blessed thee with a fairer life.
KING RICHARD
You speak as if that I had slain my cousins.

DUTCH:
Niet af te wenden is de wil van ‘t lot.

MORE:
Proverb: It is impossible to avoid (undo) fate (destiny)

Opposite=Opposed to
Contrary=Opposed
Unavoided=Unavoidable
Doom=Judgment, sentence
Avoided=Rejected
Compleat:
Opposite=Tegen over, tegen strydig
Contrary=Tegenstrydig, strydig, tegendeel
Unavoidable=Onvermydelyk
Doom=Vonnis, oordeel, verwyzing
A heavy doom=een zwaar vonnis
To doom=Veroordelen, verwyzen, doemen

Topics: fate/destiny, order/society, proverbs and idioms

And all the courses of my life do show I am not in the roll of common men.

PLAY: King Henry IV Part 1
ACT/SCENE: 3.1
SPEAKER: Glendower
CONTEXT:
Cousin, of many men
I do not bear these crossings. Give me leave
To tell you once again that at my birth
The front of heaven was full of fiery shapes,
The goats ran from the mountains, and the herds
Were strangely clamorous to the frighted fields.
These signs have marked me extraordinary,
And all the courses of my life do show
I am not in the roll of common men.

DUTCH:
En heel de loop mijns levens toont, dat ik
Niet op de rol sta der gewone menschen.

MORE:
Schmidt:
Clamorous=vociferous, loud
Crossings=Contradictions
Onions:
Rolls=list, register (fig.)

Topics: fate/destiny, status, order/society

And let me find a charter in your voice, t’ assist my simpleness

PLAY: Othello
ACT/SCENE: 1.3
SPEAKER: Desdemona
CONTEXT:
DESDEMONA
Nor would I there reside,
To put my father in impatient thoughts
By being in his eye. Most gracious Duke,
To my unfolding lend your prosperous ear
And let me find a charter in your voice,
T’ assist my simpleness.
DUKE
What would you, Desdemona?
DESDEMONA
That I did love the Moor to live with him,
My downright violence and storm of fortunes
May trumpet to the world. My heart’s subdued
Even to the very quality of my lord.
I saw Othello’s visage in his mind,
And to his honours and his valiant parts
Did I my soul and fortunes consecrate.
So that, dear lords, if I be left behind
A moth of peace and he go to the war,
The rites for which I love him are bereft me,
And I a heavy interim shall support
By his dear absence. Let me go with him.

DUTCH:
Achtb’re Doge,
Leen aan mijn bede een toegenegen oor,
En ondersteun met uw welwillend machtwoord
Mijn schucht’ren wensch.

MORE:
Put in impatient thoughts=Irritate
Unfolding=Proposal
Prosperous=Favourable
Charter=Support, approval
Simpleness=Inexperience
Downright violence=Outright breach (of convention)
Quality=Nature, character
Parts=Qualities
Bereft=Deprived
Compleat:
Parts=Deelen, hoedaanigheden, begaafdheden
Unfold=Ontvouwen, open leggen
Prosperous=Voorspoedig
Charter=Handvest, voorrecht
Simpleness=Slechtheyd, eenvoudigheyd
Quality=Hoedaanigheyd, aanzien, staat, bevoegdheyd
Bereft=Beroofd

Topics: fate/destiny, loyalty, love, marriage

And worse I may be yet. The worst is not
So long as we can say ‘This is the worst.’

PLAY: King Lear
ACT/SCENE: 4.1
SPEAKER: Edgar
CONTEXT:
I stumbled when I saw. Full oft ’tis seen,
Our means secure us and our mere defects
Prove our commodities. O dear son Edgar,
The food of thy abusèd father’s wrath,
Might I but live to see thee in my touch,
I’d say I had eyes again!
OLD MAN
How now? Who’s there?
EDGAR
(aside) O gods! Who is ’t can say “I am at the worst”?
I am worse than e’er I was.
OLD MAN
(to GLOUCESTER)
‘Tis poor mad Tom.
EDGAR
(aside) And worse I may be yet. The worst is not
So long as we can say “This is the worst.”

DUTCH:
Het ergste is nog niet aan de orde zolang wij nog kunnen zeggen ‘Dit is het ergste’./
En ‘t kan nog erger ; ‘t is nog niet het ergste
Als wij nog zeggen kunnen „Dit is ‘t ergste .”

MORE:
Proverb: ‘The way to be safe is never to be secure’ or ‘He that is secure is not safe’
Our means secure us=Give us a false sense of security (See Macbeth 3.5: ‘Security is mortals’ chiefest enemy’)
Schmidt:
Stumble (in a moral sense)=To err
Means=That which is at a person’s disposal; resources, power, wealth, allowance
Secure=To make careless and confident
Abusèd=Deceived
Compleat:
Secure (fearless or careless)=Onbevreest, zorgeloos

Topics: fate/destiny, adversity

As flies to wanton boys are we to th’ gods:
They kill us for their sport.

PLAY: King Lear
ACT/SCENE: 4.1
SPEAKER: Gloucester
CONTEXT:
He has some reason, else he could not beg.
I’ th’ last night’s storm I such a fellow saw,
Which made me think a man a worm. My son
Came then into my mind, and yet my mind
Was then scarce friends with him. I have heard more since.
As flies to wanton boys are we to th’ gods.
They kill us for their sport.

DUTCH:
Nu weet ik meer: wij zijn
voor goden slechts wat vliegen zijn voor jongens:
zij doden voor de grap./
Hem toen niet goed gezind ; sinds hoorde ik meer
Den Goden zijn we als vliegen voor kwajongens ;
Zij doode’ ons uit de grap .

MORE:
Compare Job 25.6: ‘How 38-9 How much more man, a worme, euen the sonne of man, which is but a worme?’ (Kittredge); Psalms 22:6 ‘But I am a worm and not a man’.
Schmidt:
Compleat:
Plague=Plaag
Scarce=Hardly, scantly
Those kind of people are the plague (pest or bane) of mankind=Dat soort van menschen is de pest van het menschdom
Plague (punishment or judgment)=Straffe
A wanton child=Een speelsch kind
Scarce (or scarcely)=Naauwlyks

Topics: madness, poverty and wealth, fate/destiny

As good luck would have it

PLAY: The Merry Wives of Windsor
ACT/SCENE:
SPEAKER: Falstaff
CONTEXT:
FALSTAFF
You shall hear. As good luck would have it, comes
in one Mistress Page; gives intelligence of Ford’s
approach; and, in her invention and Ford’s wife’s
distraction, they conveyed me into a buck-basket.
FORD
A buck-basket!
FALSTAFF
By the Lord, a buck-basket! rammed me in with foul
shirts and smocks, socks, foul stockings, greasy
napkins; that, Master Brook, there was the rankest
compound of villainous smell that ever offended nostril.

DUTCH:
Dit zult gij hooren. Het geluk wilde, dat er een
zekere juffrouw Page binnen kwam, die het bericht
bracht van de komst van Ford

MORE:
As good luck would have it was first found in Merry Wives of Windsor, 1600. Now also shortened to ‘as luck would have it’.
A buck-basket=A basket for dirty linen
Compleat:
To buck cloaths=Linnenkleeren in loog wasschen en vryven
Buck-washer=Loog-waschter
If luck serve=Zo ‘t geluk dienen wil

Topics: fate/destiny|still in use|invented or popularised

Be not afraid of shadows

PLAY: Richard III
ACT/SCENE: 5.3
SPEAKER: Ratcliffe
CONTEXT:
RATCLIFFE
Ratcliffe, my lord, ’tis I. The early village cock
Hath twice done salutation to the morn.
Your friends are up and buckle on their armor.
KING RICHARD
O Ratcliffe, I have dreamed a fearful dream!
What think’st thou, will our friends prove all true?
RATCLIFFE
No doubt, my lord.
KING RICHARD
O Ratcliffe, I fear, I fear.
RATCLIFFE
Nay, good my lord, be not afraid of shadows.
KING RICHARD
By the apostle Paul, shadows tonight
Have struck more terror to the soul of Richard
Than can the substance of ten thousand soldiers
Armed in proof and led by shallow Richmond.
‘Tis not yet near day. Come, go with me;
Under our tents I’ll play the eavesdropper
To see if any mean to shrink from me.

DUTCH:
Mijn beste heer, voed toch geen vrees voor schimmen.

MORE:
Threat=Threatens
Shadows=Ghosts, illusions
Proof=Impenetrable
Shallow=Inexperienced
Compleat:
To threaten=Dreygen
Shadow=Schim
Musquet-proof=Daar een musket koegel op afstuyten kan
Shallow=Ondiep
Shallowness, shallow wit=Kleinheid van begrip, dommelykheid

Topics: fate/destiny, loyalty

Be that thou know’st thou art, and then thou art as great as that thou fear’st

PLAY: Twelfth Night
ACT/SCENE: 5.1
SPEAKER: Olivia
CONTEXT:
OLIVIA
Alas, it is the baseness of thy fear
That makes thee strangle thy propriety.
Fear not, Cesario. Take thy fortunes up.
Be that thou know’st thou art, and then thou art
As great as that thou fear’st.
O, welcome, father!
Father, I charge thee, by thy reverence,
Here to unfold (though lately we intended
To keep in darkness what occasion now
Reveals before ’tis ripe) what thou dost know
Hath newly passed between this youth and me.
PRIEST
A contract of eternal bond of love,
Confirmed by mutual joinder of your hands,
Attested by the holy close of lips,
Strengthened by interchangement of your rings,
And all the ceremony of this compact
Sealed in my function, by my testimony,
Since when, my watch hath told me, toward my grave
I have travelled but two hours.

DUTCH:
Helaas, het is de lafheid van uw angst,
Die u uw eigen ik verlooch’nen doet;
Vrees niets, Cesario; grijp slechts uw geluk;
Wees wat gij weet te zijn, dan zijt gij ook
Zoo groot als wat gij ducht.

MORE:
Strangle=Disguise
Propriety=Identity
Unfold=Explain
Occasion=Events
Joinder=Joining
Compact=Contract
Compleat:
Strangle=Verwurgen
Propriety=Eigenschap, eigendom
Unfold=Ontvouwen, open leggen
Occasion=Gelegenheyd, voorval, oorzaak
Compact=Verdrag, verding, verbond

Topics: deceit, identity, fate/destiny, promise

Bring forth this counterfeit module, he has deceived me, like a double-meaning prophesier

PLAY: All’s Well that Ends Well
ACT/SCENE: 4.3
SPEAKER: Bertram
CONTEXT:
BERTRAM
I mean, the business is not ended, as fearing to hear of it hereafter. But shall we have this dialogue between the fool and the soldier? Come, bring forth this counterfeit module, he has deceived me, like a double-meaning prophesier.
SECOND LORD
Bring him forth: has sat i’ the stocks all night, poor gallant knave.
BERTRAM
No matter: his heels have deserved it, in usurping his spurs so long. How does he carry himself?

DUTCH:
Ik bedoel, dat de zaak nog niet ten einde is, daar ik vrees, er later nog wel van te zullen hooren .

MORE:
His heels have deserved it:
The ‘heels’ reference here is probably to the practice of baffling=originally a punishment of infamy, inflicted on recreant knights, one part of which was hanging them up by the heels (Nares). This practice is also referred to in 2.4 (Falstaff: If thou dost it half so gravely, so majestically, both in word and matter, hang me up by the heels for a rabbit- sucker or a poulter’s hare.)
Another punishment was ‘hacking’: chopping off the spurs of a knight when he was to be degraded.

Module=model (OED: “a person… eminently worthy of imitation; a perfect exemplar of some excellence”)
Double-meaning prophesier=Prophecies that can suggest one thing but interpreted to mean another (such as the witches in Macbeth)
Compleat:
Module (measure in architecture)=Model
To lay one by the heels (send to prison)=Iemand gevangen zetten
Stocks (pair of)=De Stok, daar men kwaaddoenders met de beenen insluit
Double (dissembling, treacherous)=Dubbelhartig, geveinst, verraaderlyk
Double-tongued=Tweetongig

Topics: punishment, deceit, fate/destiny

But Exeter hath given the doom of death For pax of little price.

PLAY: King Henry V
ACT/SCENE: 3.6
SPEAKER: Pistol
CONTEXT:

Fortune is Bardolph’s foe and frowns on him,
For he hath stolen a pax and hangèd must he be.
A damnèd death!
Let gallows gape for dog, let man go free,
And let not hemp his windpipe suffocate.
But Exeter hath given the doom of death
For pax of little price.
Therefore go speak—the duke will hear thy voice—
And let not Bardolph’s vital thread be cut
With edge of penny cord and vile reproach.
Speak, Captain, for his life, and I will thee requite.

DUTCH:
Fortuin is Bardolfs vijandin, ziet norsch;
Hij stal zich een monstrans en moet nu hangen.
Een vloekb’re dood!
Voor honden gaap’ de galg, de mensch zij vrij,
En hennep mag zijn gorgel niet verstikken.
Maar Exeter deed de uitspraak van den dood
Voor voddigen monstrans.

MORE:
Doom=Judgment. (Doom (or ‘dome’) was a statute or law (doombooks were codes of laws); related to the English suffix -dom, originally meaning jurisdiction. Shakespeare is credited for first using doom to mean death and destruction in Sonnet 14.)

Compleat:
Doom=Vonnis, oordeel, verwyzing
A heavy doom=een zwaar vonnis

Topics: fate/destiny, offence, punishment, judgment

But now ’tis odds beyond arithmetic and manhood is call’d foolery, when it stands against a falling fabric

PLAY: Coriolanus
ACT/SCENE: 3.1
SPEAKER: Cominius
CONTEXT:
MENENIUS
Be gone;
Put not your worthy rage into your tongue;
One time will owe another.
CORIOLANUS
On fair ground
I could beat forty of them.
COMINIUS
I could myself
Take up a brace o’ the best of them; yea, the two tribunes:
But now ’tis odds beyond arithmetic;
And manhood is call’d foolery, when it stands
Against a falling fabric. Will you hence,
Before the tag return? whose rage doth rend
Like interrupted waters and o’erbear
What they are used to bear.
MENENIUS
Pray you, be gone:
I’ll try whether my old wit be in request
With those that have but little: this must be patch’d
With cloth of any colour.
COMINIUS
Nay, come away.

DUTCH:
Doch thans is hier onmeet rijke overmacht;
En mannenmoed wordt dolheid, als hij poogt
Een stortend huis te houden.

MORE:
Proverb: The stream (current, tide) stopped swells the higher
Proverb: Tag, rag and bobtail (Tag and rag)

Odds beyond arithmetic=Incalculable odds
Take up=Encounter, fight
Brace=Two
Worth=Well-founded, legitimate
Tag=Rabble (See Julius Caesar 1.2, “the tag-rag people”)
Fabric=Structure, frame or large building
Try=Test
Cloth of any colour=By any means available
Compleat:
Tag-rag and bob-tail (company of scoundrels)=Jan rap en zyn maat
Odds (advantage)=Voorrecht, voordeel
To lay odds with one=Een ongelyke weddenschap met iemand aangaan, drie tegen twee, of twee tegen één zetten.

Burgersdijk notes:
Houd stand! Gelijk staan vriend en vijand. Door de folio en door de meeste uitgevers worden deze woorden aan Cominius toegeschreven. Veel beter is het echter, ja noodig is het, ze aan Coriolanus toe te kennen en dan te lezen:
Houdt stand! enz. De persoonsaanwijzingen zijn in de folio hier verkeerd; het zeggen: Kom, vriend, ga mee! wordt niet aan Cominius, maar aan Coriolanus toegeschreven en Coriolanus’ woorden: O waren zij barbaren, enz. aan Menenius. Op Coriolanus zeggen: In ‘t open veld enz. spreke dan niet Menenius, maar Cominius, met weglating van het woordjen nog:
,Ikzelf
Een paar der besten, ja, de twee tribunen.
Doch thans is hier onmeet’lijke overmacht, enz.”
Bij het maken der aanteekeningen blijkt mij, dat dit inderdaad de beste verdeeling is.

Topics: fate/destiny, risk, anger, caution

But since the affairs of men rest still incertain, let’s reason with the worst that may befall

PLAY: Julius Caesar
ACT/SCENE: 5.1
SPEAKER: Cassius
CONTEXT:
CASSIUS
Now, most noble Brutus,
The gods today stand friendly that we may,
Lovers in peace, lead on our days to age.
But since the affairs of men rest still incertain,
Let’s reason with the worst that may befall.
If we do lose this battle, then is this
The very last time we shall speak together.
What are you then determinèd to do?
BRUTUS
Even by the rule of that philosophy
By which I did blame Cato for the death
Which he did give himself — I know not how,
But I do find it cowardly and vile,
For fear of what might fall, so to prevent
The time of life — arming myself with patience
To stay the providence of some high powers
That govern us below.

DUTCH:
Doch wijl der menschen lot onzeker blijft,
Zij ‘t ergste, wat gebeuren kan, voorzien!
Verliezen wij den slag, dan is het thans
De laatste maal, dat we ooit elkander spreken.
Wat hebt gij voorgenomen, dan te doen?

MORE:
Proverb: It is good to fear the worst

Rests still=Remains
Reason with=Anticipate the possibility of
Determined=Resolved
Fall=Befall, happen
Prevent=Anticipate
Time=Natural liit
Stay=Await
Providence=Fate decreed
Compleat:
Determined=Bepaald, gesloten
Befall=Gebeuren, overkomen
To prevent=Voorkomen, eerstkomen; afkeeren; verhoeden
To stay=Wagten
Providence=(wariness or foresight) Voorzigtigheid, wysheid

Topics: proverbs and idioms, preparation, hope/optimism, fate/destiny

But turning these jests out of service, let us talk in good earnest

PLAY: As You Like It
ACT/SCENE: 1.3
SPEAKER: Celia
CONTEXT:
CELIA
They are but burs, cousin, thrown upon thee in holiday
foolery. If we walk not in the trodden paths our very
petticoats will catch them.
ROSALIND
I could shake them off my coat. These burs are in my
heart.
CELIA
Hem them away.
ROSALIND
I would try, if I could cry “hem” and have him.
CELIA
Come, come, wrestle with thy affections.
ROSALIND
Oh, they take the part of a better wrestler than
myself.
CELIA
Oh, a good wish upon you. You will try in time, in
despite of a fall. But turning these jests out of
service, let us talk in good earnest. Is it possible on
such a sudden you should fall into so strong a liking
with old Sir Rowland’s youngest son?
ROSALIND
The duke my father loved his father dearly.
CELIA
Doth it therefore ensue that you should love his son
dearly? By this kind of chase I should hate him, for my
father hated his father dearly. Yet I hate not Orlando.

DUTCH:
Het zijn maar klissen, nichtjen, uit een zondaagsche dartelheid op u geworpen; als wij niet op de gebaande wegen gaan, vatten onze rokken ze van zelf vast.

MORE:
Burr=Rough head of the burdock
Foolery=Jesting, buffoonery
Coat=Petticoat
Hem=Cough
Compleat:
Burr=Kliskruid
Foolery=Malligheid
Coat=Een rok. Petti-coat=Een vrouwe onderrok
To hem=Rochelen, oprochelen

Topics: emotion and mood, adversity, fate/destiny, love

By heaven, I’ll make a ghost of him that lets me

PLAY: Hamlet
ACT/SCENE: 1.4
SPEAKER: Hamlet
CONTEXT:
My fate cries out
And makes each petty artery in this body
As hardy as the Nemean lion’s nerve.
Still am I called.—Unhand me, gentlemen.
By heaven, I’ll make a ghost of him that lets me.
I say, away!—Go on. I’ll follow thee.

DUTCH:
Bij God, ik maak een spook van wie mij hindert /
Bij God, wie ‘t mij belet, maak ‘k tot een geest.

MORE:
Let=prevent. (Anglo-Saxon verb ‘lettan’, to prevent. Dutch ‘beletten’.)

Compleat:
To let=beletten, verhinderen.
‘What doth let me why I should no do it’=Wat verhindert my (wat weerhoudt my) dat ik het niet zou doen?
Unhand me=Laat my los, laat my gaan.

Topics: fate/destiny

Come what come may

PLAY: Macbeth
ACT/SCENE: 1.3
SPEAKER: Macbeth
CONTEXT:
Come what come may,
Time and the hour runs through the roughest day.

DUTCH:
Laat komen wat komen wil, ook de ergste dag gaat voorbij./
Kome al wat komen wil; De ruwste dag verloopt, geen uur staat stil.

MORE:
Nowadays: Come what may
Even the worst day comes to an end

Topics: fate/destiny, still in use

Didst thou never hear
That things ill-got had ever bad success?

PLAY: King Henry VI Part 3
ACT/SCENE: 2.2
SPEAKER: King Henry VI
CONTEXT:
Full well hath Clifford play’d the orator,
Inferring arguments of mighty force.
But, Clifford, tell me, didst thou never hear
That things ill-got had ever bad success?
And happy always was it for that son
Whose father for his hoarding went to hell?
I’ll leave my son my virtuous deeds behind;
And would my father had left me no more!
For all the rest is held at such a rate
As brings a thousand-fold more care to keep
Than in possession and jot of pleasure.
Ah, cousin York! Would thy best friends did know
How it doth grieve me that thy head is here!

DUTCH:
Schoon toonde Clifford daar zijn redekunst
En voerde gronden aan van groot gewicht.
Maar, Clifford, zeg mij, hebt gij nooit gehoord,
Dat slecht verworven goed steeds slecht gedijt?

MORE:

Proverb: Evil-gotten (ill-gotten) goods never prove well (prosper, endure)
Proverb: Happy is the child whose father goes to the devil

Full well=Very well
Inferring=Adducing
Success=Result
Happy=Fortunate
Rate=Price

Compleat:
Jot=Zier
To hord up=Opstapelen, vergaaren, byeenschraapen

Burgersdijk notes:
II.2.48. Wiens vader om zijn schrapen voer ter helle. Het spreekwoord, waarop hier gezinspeeld wordt, luidt : Happy the child, whose father went to the devil; „Gelukkig het kind, welks vader door den duivel is gehaald!” Als een vader, die op zondige wijze rijk geworden is, sterft, erft de zoon wel het goed, maar heeft voor de zonden niet meer te boeten. Koning Hendrik betwijfelt blijkbaar de juistheid van het spreekwoord.

Topics: proverbs and idioms, invented or popularised, still in use, corruption, fate/destiny

Even so doth valour’s show and valour’s worth divide in storms of fortune

PLAY: Troilus and Cressida
ACT/SCENE: 1.3
SPEAKER: Nestor
CONTEXT:
NESTOR
With due observance of thy godlike seat,
Great Agamemnon, Nestor shall apply
Thy latest words. In the reproof of chance
Lies the true proof of men: the sea being smooth,
How many shallow bauble boats dare sail
Upon her patient breast, making their way
With those of nobler bulk!
But let the ruffian Boreas once enrage
The gentle Thetis, and anon behold
The strong-ribbed bark through liquid mountains cut,
Bounding between the two moist elements,
Like Perseus’ horse: where’s then the saucy boat
Whose weak untimbered sides but even now
Co-rivalled greatness? Either to harbour fled,
Or made a toast for Neptune. Even so
Doth valour’s show and valour’s worth divide
In storms of fortune; for in her ray and brightness
The herd hath more annoyance by the breeze
Than by the tiger; but when the splitting wind
Makes flexible the knees of knotted oaks,
And flies fled under shade, why, then the thing of
courage
As roused with rage with rage doth sympathize,
And with an accent tuned in selfsame key
Retorts to chiding fortune.

DUTCH:
Zoo wordt door des noodlots storm vertoon van moed
Van echten moed geschift. Bij held’re zon
Is voor het vee de brems een grooter plaag
Dan zelfs de tijger.

MORE:
Observance=Respect to
Apply=Interpret
Reproof of chance=Reproach from events
Bauble=Insignificant
Boreas=North wind
Thetis=Sea goddess
Moist elements=Water and air
Perseus’ horse=Pegasus, the winged horse
Saucy=Impertinent
But even=Just
Toast=Piece of toast that was floated in wine
Knees=Knee timber, hard wood used for shipbuilding
Compleat:
Observance=Gedienstigheyd, eerbiedigheyd, opmerking, waarneeming
Apply=Toepassen
Reproof=Bestraffing, berisping
Bauble=Spulletje, grol
Saucy=Stout, onbeschaamd, baldaadig
The knees of a ship=De Knies of zystukken van een schip

Topics: authority, adversity, success, fate/destiny

Every grise of fortune is smooth’d by that below: the learnèd pate ducks to the golden fool

PLAY: Timon of Athens
ACT/SCENE: 4.3
SPEAKER: Timon
CONTEXT:
TIMON
O blessed breeding sun, draw from the earth
Rotten humidity; below thy sister’s orb
Infect the air! Twinned brothers of one womb,
Whose procreation, residence, and birth,
Scarce is dividant, touch them with several fortunes;
The greater scorns the lesser: not nature,
To whom all sores lay siege, can bear great fortune,
But by contempt of nature.
Raise me this beggar, and deny ‘t that lord;
The senator shall bear contempt hereditary,
The beggar native honour.
It is the pasture lards the rother’s sides,
The want that makes him lean. Who dares, who dares,
In purity of manhood stand upright,
And say, ‘This man’s a flatterer?’ if one be,
So are they all; for every grise of fortune
Is smooth’d by that below: the learnèd pate
Ducks to the golden fool: all is oblique;
There’s nothing level in our cursed natures
But direct villainy. Therefore, be abhorred
All feasts, societies, and throngs of men!
His semblable, yea, himself, Timon disdains:
Destruction fang mankind! Earth, yield me roots!
Who seeks for better of thee, sauce his palate
With thy most operant poison! What is here?
Gold! yellow, glittering, precious gold! No, gods,
I am no idle votarist. Roots, you clear heavens!
Thus much of this will make black white, foul fair,
Wrong right, base noble, old young, coward valiant.

DUTCH:
Geen enk’le trede van Fortuin, die niet
Gevleid wordt door de laag’re; de geleerde
Kruipt voor den gouden domkop. Scheef is alles;
Niets gaat rechtuit in onze vloekb’re wereld,
Dan drieste snoodheid.

MORE:

Breeding=Generative
Sister’s orb=Moon
Residence=Gestation
Scarce=Barely
Dividant=Separate, different
Nature=Human nature
Pasture=Feasting
Want=Lack
Smoothed=Softened, flattered
Pate=The head; used in contempt or in ridicule
Duck=Bow
Oblique=Perverse, misperception
Compleat:
Breeding=Voortteeling, aanfokking, opvoeding
Scarce (or scarcely)=Naauwlyks
To pasture=Weiden
Wamt=Gebrek
Pate=De kop, het hoofd
Grise (grize) (also grice, grece, greese)=Step, degree
To smooth=Glad maaken, stryken
Duck=Met het hoofd buigen
Oblique=Scheef, schuin, krom, overdwars

Burgersdijk notes:
Het is de weide, die het rundvee vetmest. Het Engelsch luidt: It is the pasture lards the brother’s
sides. Houdt men zich aan deze lezing, dan moet zij terugwijzen op het beeld van de tweelingbroeders. — Singer vervangt het woord brother door rother, wat in deze alleenspraak voortreffelijk past. Rother is namelijk, volgens Halliwell , een provincialisme, een noord-Engelsch woord voor hoornvee, dat echter ook elders in Engeland wel bekend was, met name in Warwickshire. In Stratford, Sh.’s geboorteplaats, bestaat nog een Rother-.street, vroeger ook Rother-market geheeten. Doch ook in Londen leeft, volgens de opmerking van K, Elze, het woord voort in Rotherhithe, een gedeelte van Londen op den zuidelijken Theemsoever. Dit woord hithe, uit het Angelsaksisch afkomstig, beteekent een kleine haven, een werf, en wordt in Londen ook aangetroffen in Queenhithe en Lambeth, d. i. Lambhithe. Rotherhithe was dus zeker een laad- en losplaats voor hoornvee, zooals Lambhithe voor klein vee.

Topics: fate/destiny, poverty and wealth, order/society, flattery, money

Expect Saint Martin’s summer, halcyon days, Since I have entered into these wars.

PLAY: King Henry VI Part 1
ACT/SCENE: 1.2
SPEAKER: Joan la Pucelle
CONTEXT:
Assign’d am I to be the English scourge.
This night the siege assuredly I’ll raise:
Expect Saint Martin’s summer, halcyon days,
Since I have entered into these wars.
Glory is like a circle in the water,
Which never ceaseth to enlarge itself
Till by broad spreading it disperse to nought.
With Henry’s death the English circle ends;
Dispersed are the glories it included.
Now am I like that proud insulting ship
Which Caesar and his fortune bare at once.

DUTCH:
Ik ben tot Englands geese! uitverkoren.
Nog deze nacht ontzet ik wis de stad;
Verwacht, nu ik den strijd aanvaard, een schoonen
Sint Maartenszomer, Halcyonendagen.

MORE:
Saint Martin’s summer=Equivalent of an ‘Indian summer’
Halcyon days=Unseasonable calm (so called because when it was calm in winter the kingfisher could build its nest)
Halcyon=Kingfisher
“Pround insulting ship” is a ref. to Plutarch, who wrote that Caesar told the captain of his ship no harm would befall him because he was carrying Caesar and therefore had Caesar’s ‘fortune’
Insulting=Triumphant

Compleat:
Halcyon (a sea-owl)=Een zekere Zee-vogel
Halcyon days=Een tijd van vrede en rust

Burgersdijk notes:
Sint Maartenszomer, Halcyonendagen. Halcyonendagen waren bij de ouden schoone, stormlooze dagen. Het schoone weder, op een storm volgend, wordt hier met een schoonen zomerschen dag in November, op Sint Maarten, vergeleken.

Ik ben nu als dat fiere schip, dat eens Tegader Caesar droeg en zijn geluk. Het verhaal, dat Caesar eens zijn bezorgden schipper toeriep: „Wees goedsmoeds, knaap, want gij hebt Cesar en zijn geluk aan boord”, vond Shakespeare in de vertaling van Plutarchus door North, een werk, dat zeker vlijtig door hem beoefend werd en dat hem aanleiding gaf tot de meeste geleerde toespelingen, waaraan dit stuk rijk is.

Topics: fate/destiny, achievement, hope/optimism, nature

Finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, sermons in stones, and good in everything

PLAY: As You Like It
ACT/SCENE: 2.1
SPEAKER: Duke Senior
CONTEXT:
DUKE SENIOR
Now, my co-mates and brothers in exile,
Hath not old custom made this life more sweet
Than that of painted pomp? Are not these woods
More free from peril than the envious court?
Here feel we not the penalty of Adam,
The seasons’ difference, as the icy fang
And churlish chiding of the winter’s wind,
Which, when it bites and blows upon my body,
Even till I shrink with cold, I smile and say,
“This is no flattery. These are counsellors
That feelingly persuade me what I am.”
Sweet are the uses of adversity,
Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous,
Wears yet a precious jewel in his head.
And this our life, exempt from public haunt,
Finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks,
Sermons in stones, and good in everything.
AMIENS
I would not change it. Happy is your Grace,
That can translate the stubbornness of fortune
Into so quiet and so sweet a style.

DUTCH:
Dit leven, vrij van ‘s werelds woelen, vindt
In boomen tongen, spreuken in de sprengen,
In steenen lessen, goeds in ieder ding.

MORE:
Proverb: Adversity makes men wise
Proverb: Full as a toad of poison
Proverb: Custom makes all things easy

“Sermons in Stones” is still in use.
In folklore, poisonous toads had jewels with medcinal properties in their foreheads

Custom=Habit, regular practice
Painted=Specious, feigned, unreal
Pomp=Magnificence, splendour
Feelingly=So as to be felt or leave an impression
Churlish=Rough, violent, brutal
Public haunt=A place much frequented (see also ‘public haunt of men’, Romeo & Juliet 3.1)
Stubbornness=Roughness, harshness
Compleat:
Pomp=Pracht, praal, staatsi
Feelingly=Gevoeliglyk
Haunt=Gewoonte, aanwendsel. He returns to his old haunt=Hij keert weer tot zyne oud nukken.
Churlish=Woest, boersch, onbeschoft
Stubbornness=Hardnekkigheid, hansterrigheid

Burgersdijk notes:
De pad. Van den fabelachtigen steen, die naar het volksgeloof soms in den kop van een pad voorkwam, werd beweerd, dat hij vergif krachteloos maakte en een uitmuntend geneesmiddel was, vooral tegen den steen of het graveel. Fenton schrijft er van in zijne „Secrete Wonders of Nature” (1569):
That there is found in the heades of old and great toades a stone which they call Borax or Stelon: it is most commonly founde in the head of a hee toad, of power to repulse poysons, and that it is a most sovereigne medicine for the stone.

Topics: fate/destiny, adversity, proverbs and idioms, life

For every cloud engenders not a storm.

PLAY: King Henry VI Part 3
ACT/SCENE: 5.3
SPEAKER: King Edward IV
CONTEXT:
KING EDWARD IV
Thus far our fortune keeps an upward course,
And we are graced with wreaths of victory.
But, in the midst of this bright-shining day,
I spy a black, suspicious, threatening cloud,
That will encounter with our glorious sun,
Ere he attain his easeful western bed:
I mean, my lords, those powers that the queen
Hath raised in Gallia have arrived our coast
And, as we hear, march on to fight with us.
CLARENCE
A little gale will soon disperse that cloud
And blow it to the source from whence it came:
The very beams will dry those vapours up,
For every cloud engenders not a storm.

DUTCH:
Een kleine storm verstrooit welras die wolk,
En blaast haar naar de bron, vanwaar zij kwam;
Uw stralen zelf verdrogen ras die dampen;
Niet ied’re wolk verwekt een onweersbui.

MORE:

Proverb: All clouds bring not rain

Our glorious sun=Edward returns again to the image of the sun that represents the House of York.
Gallia=France
Easeful=Comfortable
Beams=Sunbeams (another reference to the sun emblem)

Topics: fate/destiny, conflict, proverbs and idioms

For we may pity though not pardon thee

PLAY: The Comedy of Errors
ACT/SCENE: 1.1
SPEAKER: Duke
CONTEXT:
DUKE
Nay, forward, old man. Do not break off so,
For we may pity though not pardon thee.
AEGEON
O, had the gods done so, I had not now
Worthily termed them merciless to us.
For, ere the ships could meet by twice five leagues,
We were encountered by a mighty rock,
Which being violently borne upon,
Our helpful ship was splitted in the midst;
So that, in this unjust divorce of us,
Fortune had left to both of us alike
What to delight in, what to sorrow for.
Her part, poor soul, seeming as burdenèd
With lesser weight, but not with lesser woe,
Was carried with more speed before the wind,
And in our sight they three were taken up
By fishermen of Corinth, as we thought.
At length, another ship had seized on us
And, knowing whom it was their hap to save,
Gave healthful welcome to their shipwracked guests,
And would have reft the fishers of their prey
Had not their bark been very slow of sail;
And therefore homeward did they bend their course.
Thus have you heard me severed from my bliss;
That by misfortunes was my life prolonged
To tell sad stories of my own mishaps.

DUTCH:
Neen, oude, breek niet af; want mededoogen
Mag ik u schenken, schoon genade niet..

MORE:
Worthily=Deservedly, justly
Helpful ship=Mast, which was helpful when the ship was “sinking-ripe”
In the midst=Down the middle
Twice five leagues=Thirty miles
Hap=Luck
Reft=Bereft, deprived
Prey=Those rescued
Bark=Ship
Compleat:
Worthily=Waardiglyk
Helpful=Behulpelyk
Midst=Het middenst, midden
Hap=Het luk, geval, toeval
Bereft=Beroofd
Bark=Scheepje

Topics: pity, mercy, judgment, fate/destiny, life

For where an unclean mind carries virtuous qualities, there commendations go with pity

PLAY: All’s Well that Ends Well
ACT/SCENE: 1.1
SPEAKER: Countess
CONTEXT:
LAFEW
I would it were not notorious. Was this gentlewoman
the daughter of Gerard de Narbon?
COUNTESS
His sole child, my lord, and bequeathed to my
overlooking. I have those hopes of her good that
her education promises; her dispositions she
inherits, which makes fair gifts fairer; for where
an unclean mind carries virtuous qualities, there
commendations go with pity; they are virtues and
traitors too; in her they are the better for their
simpleness; she derives her honesty and achieves her
goodness.
LAFEW
Your commendations, madam, get from her tears.
COUNTESS
‘Tis the best brine a maiden can season her praise
in. The remembrance of her father never approaches
her heart but the tyranny of her sorrows takes all
livelihood from her cheek. No more of this, Helen;
go to, no more; lest it be rather thought you affect
a sorrow than have it.

DUTCH:
Ik heb alle verwachting van het goede, dat hare opvoeding belooft; de natuur, die zij geërfd heeft, maakt de schoone gaven, die opvoeding schenkt, nog schooner;

MORE:
Proverb: Blood is inherited but virtue is achieved

Overlooking=Guardianship
Fated=Fateful (see also King Lear “The plagues that hang fated over men’s faults”, 3.2)
Go with pity=Accompanied by regret
Simpleness=Plainness (being unmixed), unrefined nativeness, innocence
Unclean=(in a moral sense) Impure
Derive=Inherit
Compleat:
Disposition (or Inclination)=Genegenheid, Lust
Disposition of mind=Gesteltenis van gemoed
Simple=Onbeschadigend, eenvoudig
Fated=Door ‘t noodlot beschooren

Topics: nature, learning/education, virtue, innocence, fate/destiny, proverbs and idioms

Fortune brings in some boats that are not steered

PLAY: Cymbeline
ACT/SCENE: 4.3
SPEAKER: Pisanio
CONTEXT:
CYMBELINE
I thank you. Let’s withdraw;
And meet the time as it seeks us. We fear not
What can from Italy annoy us; but
We grieve at chances here. Away!
PISANIO
I heard no letter from my master since
I wrote him Imogen was slain. ’Tis strange.
Nor hear I from my mistress, who did promise
To yield me often tidings. Neither know I
What is betid to Cloten, but remain
Perplexed in all. The heavens still must work.
Wherein I am false I am honest; not true, to be true.
These present wars shall find I love my country,
Even to the note o’ th’ King, or I’ll fall in them.
All other doubts, by time let them be cleared.
Fortune brings in some boats that are not steered.

DUTCH:
De tijd breng’ licht en helpe in mijnen nood;
‘t Geluk redt soms een onbestuurde boot.

MORE:
Tidings=News, intelligence
To betide=To happen, come to pass
Compleat:
Tidings=Tyding, boodschap
To betide=Aankomen, overkomen

Topics: fate/destiny, achievement

Fortune is merry, and in this mood will give us anything

PLAY: Julius Caesar
ACT/SCENE: 3.2
SPEAKER: Antony
CONTEXT:
OCTAVIUS’ SERVANT
He and Lepidus are at Caesar’s house.
ANTONY
And thither will I straight to visit him.
He comes upon a wish. Fortune is merry,
And in this mood will give us anything.
OCTAVIUS’ SERVANT
I heard him say, Brutus and Cassius
Are rid like madmen through the gates of Rome.
ANTONY
Belike they had some notice of the people
How I had moved them. Bring me to Octavius.

DUTCH:
Ik ga terstond er heen om hem te spreken .
Hij komt gewenscht. Het Lot is goed gestemd,
En zal in deze luim ons alles schenken.

MORE:
Straight=Go direct
Merry=In a good mood
Are rid=Have ridden their horses
Belike=Probably
Compleat:
Straightway=Eenswegs, terstond, opstaandevoet
Merry=Vrolyk

Topics: fate/destiny, hope/optimism

Fortune is painted blind, with a muffler afore her eyes

PLAY: King Henry V
ACT/SCENE: 3.6
SPEAKER: Fluellen
CONTEXT:
PISTOL
Bardolph, a soldier firm and sound of heart and
of buxom valor, hath, by cruel Fate and giddy
Fortune’s furious fickle wheel, that goddess blind,
that stands upon the rolling restless stone
FLUELLEN
By your patience, Aunchient Pistol, Fortune is painted blind, with a muffler afore her eyes, to signify to you that Fortune is blind; and she is painted also with a wheel to signify to you, which is the moral of it, that she is turning and inconstant, and mutability and variation; and her foot, look you, is fixed upon a spherical stone, which rolls and rolls and rolls. In good truth, the poet makes a most excellent description of it. Fortune is an excellent moral.

DUTCH:
Fortuin wordt plind gemalen met een pand voor haar oogen om u te betuiten, dat Fortuin blind is.

MORE:
Proverb: Fortune is blind
Proverb: Fortune is fickle
Proverb: Fortune’s wheel is every turning

Fortune is an excellent moral: provides an excellent lesson
Painted with a wheel=Attribute of Fortune, as the emblem of mutability
Schmidt:
Aunchient=Fluellen’s Welsh pronunciation ofancient (ensign)

Compleat:
The wheel (or vicissitudes) of fortune=Het Rad van Avontuuren

Topics: fate/destiny, uncertainty

Full well hath Clifford play’d the orator,
Inferring arguments of mighty force.

PLAY: King Henry VI Part 3
ACT/SCENE: 2.2
SPEAKER: King Henry VI
CONTEXT:
KING HENRY VI
Full well hath Clifford play’d the orator,
Inferring arguments of mighty force.
But, Clifford, tell me, didst thou never hear
That things ill-got had ever bad success?
And happy always was it for that son
Whose father for his hoarding went to hell? I
‘ll leave my son my virtuous deeds behind;
And would my father had left me no more!
For all the rest is held at such a rate
As brings a thousand-fold more care to keep
Than in possession and jot of pleasure.
Ah, cousin York!
Would thy best friends did know
How it doth grieve me that thy head is here!

DUTCH:
Schoon toonde ClifTord daar zijn redekunst
En voerde gronden aan van groot gewicht.

MORE:

Proverb: Evil-gotten (ill-gotten) goods never prove well (prosper, endure)
Proverb: Happy is the child whose father goes to the devil

Full well=Very well
Inferring=Adducing
Success=Result
Happy=Fortunate
Rate=Price

Compleat:
Jot=Zier
To hord up=Opstapelen, vergaaren, byeenschraapen

Topics: proverbs and idioms, invented or popularised, still in use, corruption, fate/destiny

Glad am I that your highness is so arm’d To bear the tidings of calamity.

PLAY: Richard II
ACT/SCENE: 3.2
SPEAKER: Sir Stephen Scroop
CONTEXT:
KING RICHARD II
Mine ear is open and my heart prepared;
The worst is worldly loss thou canst unfold.
Say, is my kingdom lost? why, ’twas my care
And what loss is it to be rid of care?
Strives Bolingbroke to be as great as we?
Greater he shall not be; if he serve God,
We’ll serve Him too and be his fellow so:
Revolt our subjects? that we cannot mend;
They break their faith to God as well as us:
Cry woe, destruction, ruin and decay:
The worst is death, and death will have his day.
SIR STEPHEN SCROOP
Glad am I that your highness is so arm’d
To bear the tidings of calamity.
Like an unseasonable stormy day,
Which makes the silver rivers drown their shores,
As if the world were all dissolved to tears,
So high above his limits swells the rage
Of Bolingbroke, covering your fearful land
With hard bright steel and hearts harder than steel.
White-beards have arm’d their thin and hairless scalps
Against thy majesty; boys, with women’s voices,
Strive to speak big and clap their female joints
In stiff unwieldy arms against thy crown:
The very beadsmen learn to bend their bows
Of double-fatal yew against thy state;
Yea, distaff-women manage rusty bills
Against thy seat: both young and old rebel,
And all goes worse than I have power to tell.

DUTCH:
t Verheugt mij, dat mijn vorst gewapend is,
Om tijdingen van onheil te vernemen.

MORE:

Care=Worry, responsibillity
His fellow=Equal
Mend=Remedy
Bear the tidings of calamity=Cope with calamitous news
Women’s voices=High, shrill voices
Double-fatal=Dangerous or deadly in two ways (on account of the poisonous quality of the leaves, and of the wood being used for instruments of death)
Billls=Weapons
Distaff=The staff from which the flax is drawn in spinning

Compleat:
Care=Zorg, bezorgdheid, zorgdraagendheid, zorgvuldigheid, vlytigheid
He has not his fellow=Hy heeft zyns gelyk niet, hy heeft zyn weerga niet
Bill=Hellebaard, byl
Distaff=Een spinrok, spinrokken

Topics: preparation, strength, fate/destiny, failure, conflict

Glory is like a circle in the water, Which never ceaseth to enlarge itself Till by broad spreading it disperse to nought.

DUTCH:
Ik ben tot Englands geese! uitverkoren.
Nog deze nacht ontzet ik wis de stad;
Verwacht, nu ik den strijd aanvaard, een schoonen
Sint Maartenszomer, Halcyonendagen.

Compleat:
Halcyon (a sea-owl)=Een zekere Zee-vogel
Halcyon days=Een tijd van vrede en rust

Topics: fate/destiny, achievement, hope/optimism, nature

Good wombs have borne bad sons.

PLAY: The Tempest
ACT/SCENE: 1.2
SPEAKER: Miranda
CONTEXT:
MIRANDA
I should sin
To think but nobly of my grandmother;
Good wombs have borne bad sons.
PROSPERO
Now the condition.
This King of Naples, being an enemy
To me inveterate, hearkens my brother’s suit,
Which was that he, in lieu o’th’ premises
Of homage, and I know not how much tribute,
Should presently extirpate me and mine
Out of the dukedom and confer fair Milan,
With all the honours, on my brother. Whereon –
A treacherous army levied – one midnight
Fated to th’ purpose did Antonio open
The gates of Milan and i’th’ dead of darkness
The ministers for th’ purpose hurried thence
Me and thy crying self.

DUTCH:
t Waar’ zonde, zoo ik
Zelfs in gedachte een blaam wierp op uw moeder;
Reeds menig eed’le schoot droeg slechte zoons.

MORE:
In lieu o’th’ premises=In exchange for the stipulations (of the agreement with the King of Naples)
Schmidt:
Homage=Fealty and service professed to a superior lord
Tribute=Stated payment made in acknowledgment of submission, or as the price of peace, or by virtue of a treaty
Extirpate=To root out, to remove completely
Fated=Destined by fate
Ministers=Agents (assigned to the task)
Compleat:
Homage=Hulde, hulding, manschap, onderdaanigheid
Tribute=Cynsgeld, schatting; Tol, impost
He was the principal minister (or instrument) of his revenge=Hy was het voornaamste werktuig van zyne wraak
Fated=Door’t noodlot beschooren

Topics: contract, promise, fate/destiny, good and bad, envy, honour, revenge

Hapless Aegeon, whom the fates have marked to bear the extremity of dire mishap

PLAY: The Comedy of Errors
ACT/SCENE: 1.1
SPEAKER: Duke
CONTEXT:
DUKE
Hapless Aegeon, whom the fates have marked
To bear the extremity of dire mishap,
Now, trust me, were it not against our laws,
Against my crown, my oath, my dignity,
Which princes, would they, may not disannul,
My soul would sue as advocate for thee.
But though thou art adjudgèd to the death,
And passèd sentence may not be recalled
But to our honour’s great disparagement,
Yet will I favor thee in what I can.
Therefore, merchant, I’ll limit thee this day
To seek thy life by beneficial help.
Try all the friends thou hast in Ephesus;
Beg thou, or borrow, to make up the sum,
And live. If no, then thou art doom’d to die.—
Jailer, take him to thy custody.
JAILER
I will, my lord.
AEGEON
Hopeless and helpless doth Aegeon wend,
But to procrastinate his lifeless end.

DUTCH:
Rampzaal’ge Aegeon, door het lot bestemd
Om zulk een overmaat van leed te dragen!

MORE:
Dignity=Rank
Disannul=Nullify
Sue=Plead
Limit=Permit
Hap=Luck
Wend=Approach
Procrastinate=Delay
Compleat:
Dignity (greatness, nobleness)=Grootheid, adelykheid; (merit, importance)=Waardigheid, staat-empot, verdiensten
To annul=Vernietigen, afschaffen
To sue=Voor ‘t recht roepen, in recht vervolgen; iemand om iets aanloopen
Hap=Het luk, geval, toeval
Procrastinate=Van dag tot dag uytstellen, verschuyven

Topics: fate/destiny, dignity, honour, punishment, delay

Happy is your grace, that can translate the stubbornness of fortune into so quiet and so sweet a style

PLAY: As You Like It
ACT/SCENE: 2.1
SPEAKER: Amiens
CONTEXT:
DUKE SENIOR
Now, my co-mates and brothers in exile,
Hath not old custom made this life more sweet
Than that of painted pomp? Are not these woods
More free from peril than the envious court?
Here feel we not the penalty of Adam,
The seasons’ difference, as the icy fang
And churlish chiding of the winter’s wind,
Which, when it bites and blows upon my body,
Even till I shrink with cold, I smile and say,
“This is no flattery. These are counsellors
That feelingly persuade me what I am.”
Sweet are the uses of adversity,
Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous,
Wears yet a precious jewel in his head.
And this our life, exempt from public haunt,
Finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks,
Sermons in stones, and good in everything.
AMIENS
I would not change it. Happy is your Grace,
That can translate the stubbornness of fortune
Into so quiet and so sweet a style.

DUTCH:
t Is u een groote zegen,
Mijn vorst, in ‘t harde vonnis van Fortuin
Een zin, zoo zacht en zoet, te kunnen lezen.

MORE:
Proverb: Adversity makes men wise
Proverb: Full as a toad of poison
Proverb: Custom makes all things easy

“Sermons in Stones” is still in use.
In folklore, poisonous toads had jewels with medcinal properties in their foreheads

Topics: fate/destiny, adversity, proverbs and idioms, life

Hath not old custom made this life more sweet

DUTCH:
Maakt niet gewoonte reeds dit leven zoeter
Dan dat van glimp en praal?

MORE:
Proverb: Adversity makes men wise
Proverb: Full as a toad of poison
Proverb: Custom makes all things easy

“Sermons in Stones” is still in use.
In folklore, poisonous toads had jewels with medcinal properties in their foreheads

Topics: fate/destiny, adversity, proverbs and idioms, life

He was the author, thou the instrument.

PLAY: King Henry VI Part 3
ACT/SCENE: 4.6
SPEAKER: King Henry VI
CONTEXT:
KING HENRY VI
For what, lieutenant? For well using me?
Nay, be thou sure I’ll well requite thy kindness,
For that it made my imprisonment a pleasure;
Ay, such a pleasure as incaged birds
Conceive when after many moody thoughts
At last by notes of household harmony
They quite forget their loss of liberty.
But, Warwick, after God, thou set’st me free,
And chiefly therefore I thank God and thee;
He was the author, thou the instrument.
Therefore, that I may conquer fortune’s spite
By living low, where fortune cannot hurt me,
And that the people of this blessed land
May not be punish’d with my thwarting stars,
Warwick, although my head still wear the crown,
I here resign my government to thee,
For thou art fortunate in all thy deeds.

DUTCH:
Hij was hiervan de ontwerper, gij het werktuig

MORE:

Using=Treating
Requite=Repay
Moody=Melancholy
Thwarting=Perverse, obstructive
Fortunate=Favoured by fortune

Compleat:
To use (or treat) one well or ill=Iemand wel of kwaalyk behandelen
To requite=Vergelden
To requite a man in his own way=Iemand met gelyke munt betaalen
To requite a kindness=Een vriendschap vergelden
To thwart=Dwarsdryven, draaiboomen, dwars voor de boeg komen, beletten

Topics: fate/destiny, mercy

Her brain-sick raptures cannot distaste the goodness of a quarrel

PLAY: Troilus and Cressida
ACT/SCENE: 2.2
SPEAKER: Hector
CONTEXT:
HECTOR
Now, youthful Troilus, do not these high strains
Of divination in our sister work
Some touches of remorse? or is your blood
So madly hot that no discourse of reason,
Nor fear of bad success in a bad cause,
Can qualify the same?
TROILUS
Why, brother Hector,
We may not think the justness of each act
Such and no other than event doth form it,
Nor once deject the courage of our minds,
Because Cassandra’s mad: her brain-sick raptures
Cannot distaste the goodness of a quarrel
Which hath our several honours all engaged
To make it gracious. For my private part,
I am no more touched than all Priam’s sons:
And Jove forbid there should be done amongst us
Such things as might offend the weakest spleen
To fight for and maintain!

DUTCH:
Haar dolle vlagen
Vermogen niet een goeden strijd te onteeren,
Dien wij, onze eer verpandend, allen zwoeren
Als vroom te doen erkennen.

MORE:
Strains=Motions, impulses; drift
Divination=Prophecy
Discourse of reason=Rational argument
Success=Outcome
Qualify=Moderate
Event=Result
Raptures=Possession, fit
Distaste=To make distasteful
Several=Separate
Weakest spleen=The least courageous
Compleat:
Strain=Trant
Divination=Waarzegging, waarzeggerij, voorzegging
Discourse=Redeneering, reedenvoering, gesprek, vertoog
Success=Uitkomst, hetzij goed of kwaad
Qualify=Maatigen, temperen
Event=Uytkomst, uytslag
Rapture=Verrukking
Distaste=Weersmaak, weerzin, misnoegen
To give distaste=Misnoegen veroorzaaken
Several=Verscheyden
Spleen (Spite, hatred or grudge)=Spyt, haat, wrak

Topics: fate/destiny, reason, dispute, justification

Hinge thy knee, and let his very breath, whom thou’lt observe, blow off thy cap

PLAY: Timon of Athens
ACT/SCENE: 4.3
SPEAKER: Apemantus
CONTEXT:
APEMANTUS
This is in thee a nature but infected;
A poor unmanly melancholy sprung
From change of fortune. Why this spade? this place?
This slave-like habit? and these looks of care?
Thy flatterers yet wear silk, drink wine, lie soft;
Hug their diseased perfumes, and have forgot
That ever Timon was. Shame not these woods,
By putting on the cunning of a carper.
Be thou a flatterer now, and seek to thrive
By that which has undone thee: hinge thy knee,
And let his very breath, whom thou’lt observe,
Blow off thy cap; praise his most vicious strain,
And call it excellent: thou wast told thus;
Thou gavest thine ears like tapsters that bid welcome
To knaves and all approachers: ’tis most just
That thou turn rascal; hadst thou wealth again,
Rascals should have ‘t. Do not assume my likeness.

DUTCH:
Neen, wordt nu zelf een vleier, tracht te stijgen
Door dat, wat uw verderf was; knik uw knieën,
En laat den ademtocht van wien gij huldigt,
Uw muts afblazen; roem zijn schandlijkste ondeugd
En noem die prachtig.

MORE:
Infected=Corrupted
Cunning=Shrewdness
Carper=Cynic, complainer, censurer
Hinge=Bend
Observe=Follow, flatter
Strain=Characteristic
Tapsters=Barkeepers
Rascal=Rogue
Compleat:
Infected=Besmet; Infected with a false opinion=Door een valsch gevoelen vergiftigd
Cunning=Behendigheid, Schranderheid, Naarstigheid
A cunning fellow=Een doortrapte vent, een looze gast
Carper=Een pluizer, muggezifter
To observe=Waarneemen, gadeslaan, onderhouden, aanmerken, opmerken
Strain=Trant
Tapster=Een tapper, biertapper
Rascal=Een schelm, guit, schobbejak, schurk,vlegel, schavuit

Topics: nature, emotion and mood, fate/destiny, flattery

His rash fierce blaze of riot cannot last, For violent fires soon burn out themselves

PLAY: Richard II
ACT/SCENE: 2.1
SPEAKER: John of Gaunt
CONTEXT:
Methinks I am a prophet new inspired
And thus expiring do foretell of him:
His rash fierce blaze of riot cannot last,
For violent fires soon burn out themselves;
Small showers last long, but sudden storms are short;
He tires betimes that spurs too fast betimes;
With eager feeding food doth choke the feeder:
Light vanity, insatiate cormorant,
Consuming means, soon preys upon itself.

DUTCH:
Zijn dol en wulpsch geflakker kan niet duren,
Want ieder heftig vuur brandt schielijk uit

MORE:

Proverb: Nothing violent can be permanent
Proverb: Untimeous [untimely] spurring spoils the steed

Expiring=(a) Dying; (b) Expiration
Riot=Dissolute behaviour
Betimes=Early, at an early hour

Compleat:
Expiration=Eindiging, uitgang, verloop, uitblaazing van den laatsten adem
To expire=Den geest geeven, sterven
To riot=Optrekken, rinkinken, pypestellen
Betimes=Bytyds,vroeg

Topics: proverbs and idioms, invented or popularised, fate/destiny, haste

How now, wit, whither wander you?

PLAY: As You Like It
ACT/SCENE: 1.2
SPEAKER: Celia
CONTEXT:
ROSALIND
Indeed, there is Fortune too hard for Nature, when
Fortune makes Nature’s natural the cutter-off of
Nature’s wit.
CELIA
Peradventure this is not Fortune’s work neither, but
Nature’s, who perceiveth our natural wits too dull to
reason of such goddesses, and hath sent this natural for
our whetstone, for always the dullness of the fool is
the whetstone of the wits. How now, wit, whither wander
you?
TOUCHSTONE
Mistress, you must come away to your father.
CELIA
Were you made the messenger?
TOUCHSTONE
No, by mine honor, but I was bid to come for you.

DUTCH:
Zeg eens, Wijsheid, waarheen zijt gij op den loop?

MORE:
Peradventure=Perhaps
Reason=Debate, speak of
Natural=Idiot (name for fools and clowns)
Dullness=Stupidity, bluntness
Wit, whither wander you=Saying use for those who talk without thinking
Compleat:
Peradventure=Bygeval, misschien
To whet a knife=een Mes wetten (of slypen)
Whet-stone=een Wetsteen, Slypsteen
Whetted=Gewet, gesleepen, scherp gemaakt
A natural fool=Een geboren gek
Dullness=Botheyd, stompheyd, domheyd, loomheyd, dofheyd, vadsigheyd

Topics: fate/destiny, intellect, nature

I am fortune’s fool

PLAY: Romeo and Juliet
ACT/SCENE: 3.1
SPEAKER: Romeo
CONTEXT:
BENVOLIO
Romeo, away, be gone!
The citizens are up, and Tybalt slain.
Stand not amazed. The Prince will doom thee death
If thou art taken. Hence, be gone, away!
ROMEO
Oh, I am fortune’s fool!

DUTCH:
k Ben speelbal der Fortuin!

MORE:
Prince=Prince of Cats = figure from Reynard the Fox, also called Tybalt

Topics: fate/destiny, punishment

I crave our composition may be written and sealed between us

PLAY: Antony and Cleopatra
ACT/SCENE: 2.6
SPEAKER: Pompey
CONTEXT:
CAESAR
Since I saw you last
There’s a change upon you.
POMPEY
Well, I know not
What counts harsh Fortune casts upon my face,
But in my bosom shall she never come
To make my heart her vassal.
LEPIDUS
Well met here.
POMPEY
I hope so, Lepidus. Thus we are agreed.
I crave our composition may be written
And sealed between us.
CAESAR
That’s the next to do.
POMPEY
We’ll feast each other ere we part, and let’s
Draw lots who shall begin.
ANTONY
That will I, Pompey.
POMPEY
No, Antony, take the lot. But, first or last,
Your fine Egyptian cookery shall have
The fame. I have heard that Julius Caesar
Grew fat with feasting there.

DUTCH:
Dit hoop ik, Lepidus. — Wij zijn verzoend.
Doch thans zij ons verdrag op schrift gebracht
En onderteekend.

MORE:
CITED IN US LAW: Re. the definition of “composition”: In re. Adler, 103 F. 444 (W.D. Tenn. 1900)

Counts=Accounts, shows
Harsh=Cruel
Vassal=Servant
Composition=Agreement
Take the lot=Draw the straw
Compleat:
Count=Rekenen, achten
Harsh=Schor, ruuw, wrang, streng
Vassal=Leenman, onderdaan
Composition=Bylegging; t’Zamenstelling, toestelling, afmaaking, t’zamenmengsel, vermenging
To draw lots=Loten trekken, looten

Topics: cited in law, contract, understanding, fate/destiny

I frown upon him, yet he loves me still

PLAY: A Midsummer Night’s Dream
ACT/SCENE: 1.1
SPEAKER: Hermia
CONTEXT:
HELENA
Call you me “fair?” That “fair” again unsay.
Demetrius loves your fair. O happy fair!
Your eyes are lodestars, and your tongue’s sweet air
More tunable than lark to shepherd’s ear
When wheat is green, when hawthorn buds appear.
Sickness is catching. Oh, were favour so,
Yours would I catch, fair Hermia, ere I go.
My ear should catch your voice. My eye, your eye.
My tongue should catch your tongue’s sweet melody.
Were the world mine, Demetrius being bated,
The rest I’d give to be to you translated.
O, teach me how you look and with what art
You sway the motion of Demetrius’ heart.
HERMIA
I frown upon him, yet he loves me still.
HELENA
Oh, that your frowns would teach my smiles such skill!

DUTCH:
Ik frons het voorhoofd, toch zoekt hij mijn gunst.

MORE:
Fair=Beautiful
Happy=Lucky to be
Lodestar=Guiding star
Air=Melody
Tuneable=Musical
Favour=Good looks
Bated=Excepted
Translated=Transformed
Motion=Affection
Compleat:
Fair=Schoon, braaf, fraai, oprecht
Happy=Gelukkig, gelukzalig
Loadstar=Noordstar
Air of musick=Een deuntje
Tunable=Welluydend, dat een goeden toon heeft
Bate=Verminderen, afkorten, afslaan
To translate=Overzetten, vertaalen, overvoeren, verplaatsen

Burgersdijk notes:
Leidster is de poolster, die den stuurman zijn weg doet vinden.

Topics: fate/destiny, appearance, nature

I knew what you would prove. My friends told me as much, and I thought no less.

PLAY: As You Like It
ACT/SCENE: 4.1
SPEAKER: Rosalind
CONTEXT:
ROSALIND
Marry, to say she came to seek you there. You shall
never take her without her answer unless you take her
without her tongue. Oh, that woman that cannot make her
fault her husband’s occasion, let her never nurse her
child herself, for she will breed it like a fool.
ORLANDO
For these two hours, Rosalind, I will leave thee.
ROSALIND
Alas, dear love, I cannot lack thee two hours.
ORLANDO
I must attend the duke at dinner. By two o’clock I will
be with thee again.
ROSALIND
Ay, go your ways, go your ways. I knew what you would
prove. My friends told me as much, and I thought no
less. That flattering tongue of yours won me. ‘Tis but
one cast away, and so, come, death. Two o’clock is your
hour?

DUTCH:
Nu, ga dan, ga dan! — Ik heb het wel van u voorzien;
mijn vrienden hebben er mij wel voor gewaarschuwd
en ikzelf heb het ook wel gedacht; — die vleitong
van u heeft mij overgehaald;

MORE:
Occasion=Opportunity (to blame her husband for her own fault)
Lack=Be without
Attend=Accompany
Go your ways=Go on
Prove=Turn out to be
Compleat:
Occasion=Gelegenheyd, voorval, oorzaak, nood
To attend=Opwachten, verzellen

Topics: fate/destiny, flattery, persuasion

I perceive in you so excellent a touch of modesty that you will not extort from me what I am willing to keep in

PLAY: Twelfth Night
ACT/SCENE: 2.1
SPEAKER: Sebastian
CONTEXT:
SEBASTIAN
By your patience, no. My stars shine darkly over me. The malignancy of my fate might perhaps distemper yours. Therefore I shall crave of you your leave that I may bear my evils alone. It were a bad recompense for your love to lay any of them on you.
ANTONIO
Let me yet know of you whither you are bound.
SEBASTIAN
No, sooth, sir. My determinate voyage is mere extravagancy. But I perceive in you so excellent a touch of modesty that you will not extort from me what I am willing to keep in. Therefore it charges me in manners the rather to express myself. You must know of me then, Antonio, my name is Sebastian, which I called Roderigo. My father was that Sebastian of Messaline, whom I know you have heard of. He left behind him myself and a sister, both born in an hour. If the heavens had been pleased, would we had so ended! But you, sir, altered that, for some hour before you took me from the breach of the sea was my sister drowned.

DUTCH:
Maar toch, — ik merk in u zulk een voorbeeldige bescheidenheid op, dat gij mij niet wilt ontwringen, wat ik
gaarne voor mij houd; en daarom gebiedt de beleefdheid
mij te meer, openhartig te zijn.

MORE:

Stars=Fortunes
Distemper=Infect
Sooth=Truly, in truth
Determinate=Planned
Extravagancy=Vagrancy
Modesty=Civility
Willing=Wanting
Charges me=Is incumbent upon me
Manners=Politeness
Express=Reveal
Breach=Breaking waves
Compleat:
To distemper=Ongesteld maaken, ontstellen
Sooth=Zéker, voorwaar
Determinate (determine)=Bepaalen, besluyten, vaststellen, vonnissen, beslissen
Extravagancy=Uytspoorigheyd, spooreloosheyd
Modesty=Zeedigheyd, eerbaarheyd
To will=Willen, begeeren, voorneemen, besluiten
To charge=Belasten, beveelen, opleggen, te laste leggen, beschuldigen, betichten, laaden, aanvallen
Manners=Zeden, manieren, manierlykheid
To express=Uytdrukken
Breach=Breuk, bres, scheur

Burgersdijk notes:
Sebastiaan van Metelin. In het oorspronkelijke staat Messaline, waarvoor men Mettaline of Metelin, — het oude Mytilene, — in plaats heeft gesteld.

Topics: fate/destiny, , civility, relationship

I see men’s judgments are a parcel of their fortunes

PLAY: Antony and Cleopatra
ACT/SCENE: 3.13
SPEAKER: Enobarbus
CONTEXT:
ENOBARBUS
(aside) Yes, like enough, high-battled Caesar will
Unstate his happiness and be staged to th’ show
Against a sworder! I see men’s judgments are
A parcel of their fortunes, and things outward
Do draw the inward quality after them
To suffer all alike. That he should dream,
Knowing all measures, the full Caesar will
Answer his emptiness! Caesar, thou hast subdued
His judgment too.

DUTCH:
k Zie, des menschen oordeel
Is één met zijn geluk; wat buiten ons is
Sleept in zijn val ons innigst wezen mee
En alles stort te zaam.

MORE:
High-battled=Commanding many armies
Unstate=Deprive, divest
Staged=Displayed
To the show=To the public
Sworder=Fencer
Parcel=Piece, part
Things outward=External factors
Inward=Internal
All measures=Good and bad fortune
Answer=Respond to
Compleat:
To parcel=In hoopen verdeelen, in partyen deelen
Outward=Uytwendig, uyterlyk
Inward=Inwendig, innerlyk
Answer=Beantwoorden; antwoord geven

Topics: judgment, status, order/society, fate/destiny

I shall beseech him to befriend himself

PLAY: Julius Caesar
ACT/SCENE: 2.4
SPEAKER: Soothsayer
CONTEXT:
PORTIA
Thou hast some suit to Caesar, hast thou not?
SOOTHSAYER
That I have, lady. If it will please Caesar
To be so good to Caesar as to hear me,
I shall beseech him to befriend himself.
PORTIA
Why, know’st thou any harm’s intended towards him?
SOOTHSAYER
None that I know will be; much that I fear may chance.
Good morrow to you. Here the street is narrow.
The throng that follows Caesar at the heels,
Of senators, of praetors, common suitors,
Will crowd a feeble man almost to death.
I’ll get me to a place more void, and there
Speak to great Caesar as he comes along.

DUTCH:
Dat heb ik, eed’le vrouw; behaagt het Caesar,
Uit goedheid jegens Caesar mij te hooren,
Dan bid ik hem zijn eigen vriend te zijn .

MORE:
Suit=Plea
Chance=Happen
Praetor=Senior judge
More void=Emptier, not as crowded
Compleat:
Suit=Een verzoek, rechtsgeding
To chance=Voorvallen, gebeuren
Void=Leedig, ontleedigd

Burgersdijk notes:
‘k Weet niets, dat moet, vrees veel, dat kan gebeuren. Ten onrechte vervangen verscheidene uitgevers dezen waarzegger, die niets bepaalds weet, maar beduchtheid koestert, door Artemidorus, die van de samenzwering veel nauwkeuriger kennis draagt .

Topics: defence, communication, fate/destiny

I speak this in hunger for bread, not in thirst for revenge

PLAY: Coriolanus
ACT/SCENE: 1.1
SPEAKER: First Citizen
CONTEXT:
FIRST CITIZEN
Let us kill him, and we’ll have corn at our own price.
Is’t a verdict?
ALL
No more talking on’t; let it be done: away, away!
SECOND CITIZEN
One word, good citizens.
FIRST CITIZEN
We are accounted poor citizens, the patricians good.
What authority surfeits on would relieve us: if they
would yield us but the superfluity, while it were
wholesome, we might guess they relieved us humanely;
but they think we are too dear: the leanness that
afflicts us, the object of our misery, is as an
inventory to particularise their abundance; our
sufferance is a gain to them. Let us revenge this with
our pikes, ere we become rakes: for the gods know I
speak this in hunger for bread, not in thirst for
revenge.
SECOND CITIZEN
Would you proceed especially against Caius Marcius?
ALL
Against him first: he’s a very dog to the commonalty.

DUTCH:
Laat ons dit wreken met onze pieken, eer wij dun als harken worden! Want de goden weten het, ik zeg dit uit honger naar brood, niet uit dorst naar wraak.

MORE:
Proverb: As lean as a rake

The patricians good=Good (mercantile), meaning wealthy, well monied
Guess=Think, suppose
Object=Spectacle, sight
Accounted=Thought of as
To particularise=Specify
Sufferance=Suffering, misery
Rake=A lean person (as thin as a rake)
Compleat:
As lean as a rake=Zo mager als een hout
Abundance=Overvloed
Sufferance=Verdraagzaamheid, toegeevendheid

Burgersdijk notes:
De patriciërs als goede. Omdat zij arm zijn, worden de plebejers niet voor vol geteld, niet „goed” gerekend. Vergelijk: Koopman v. Venetië”, 1. 3. 16.

Topics: proverbs and idioms, poverty and wealth, order/society, fate/destiny

If haply won, perhaps a hapless gain; if lost, why then a grievous labour won

PLAY: The Two Gentlemen of Verona
ACT/SCENE: 1.1
SPEAKER: Valentine
CONTEXT:
VALENTINE
To be in love, where scorn is bought with groans,
Coy looks with heartsore sighs, one fading moment’s mirth
With twenty watchful, weary, tedious nights.
If haply won, perhaps a hapless gain;
If lost, why then a grievous labour won;
However, but a folly bought with wit,
Or else a wit by folly vanquishèd.
PROTEUS
So, by your circumstance, you call me fool.
VALENTINE
So, by your circumstance, I fear you’ll prove.
PROTEUS
‘Tis love you cavil at: I am not Love.

DUTCH:
Bij zoete zege steeds een neêrlaag wint,
Bij neêrlaag zure moeite als overwinst
Liefde is een dwaasheid, door vernuft gekocht,
Of wel vernuft, door dwaasheid overmocht.

MORE:
Haply=By chance
Hapless=Unhappy, unfortunate
Circumstance=Argument, logic
Folly=Perversity of judgment, absurdity, foolishness
Compleat:
Haply=Misschien
Circumstance=Omstandigheyd
Circumstanced=Met omstandigheden belegd, onder omstandigheden begreepen
Folly=Ondeugd, buitenspoorigheid, onvolmaaktheid

Topics: fate/destiny, love, achievement

If you can look into the seeds of time
And say which grain will grow and which will not

PLAY: Macbeth
ACT/SCENE: 1.3
SPEAKER: Banquo
CONTEXT:
To me you speak not.
If you can look into the seeds of time
And say which grain will grow and which will not,
Speak, then, to me, who neither beg nor fear
Your favors nor your hate.

DUTCH:
Als je in de zaden van de tijd kunt kijken, en zeg welk graan zal groeien en welke niet. /
Kunt gij der tijden zaad doorschouwen, spellen,
Wat korrel kiemen zal, wat korrel niet

MORE:
Seeds of time is thought to have been coined by Shakespeare; still in use, it has been adopted by many as a title including John Wyndham.

Topics: fate/destiny, still in use, invented or popularised

If your mind dislike anything obey it

PLAY: Hamlet
ACT/SCENE: 5.2
SPEAKER: Horatio
CONTEXT:
HORATIO
If your mind dislike anything, obey it. I will forestall their repair hither and say you are not fit.
HAMLET
Not a whit. We defy augury. There’s a special providence in the fall of a sparrow. If it be now, ’tis not to come. If it be not to come, it will be now. If it be not now, yet it will come—the readiness is all. Since no man of aught he leaves knows, what is ’t to leave betimes? Let be.

DUTCH:
Als uw innerlijk zich ergens tegen verzet, gehoorzaam het dan. /
Als uw gemoed met jets geen vrede heeft, geef er gehoor
aan. /
Als uw gemoed van iets afkeerig mocht zijn, luister er naar.

MORE:
Not a whit: not at all
Schmidt:
Forestall=Anticipate, to be beforehand with, to prevent
Repair hither=arrival
Augury=Art of prophesying
Compleat:
Forestall=Voor-inneemen, onderscheppen, verrassen, voor-opkoopen
Augury=Wichlery, vogelwaarzeggery

Topics: fate/destiny, free will, plans/intentions, preparation

If? Thou protector of this damnèd strumpet, talk’st thou to me of “ifs?”

PLAY: Richard III
ACT/SCENE: 3.4
SPEAKER: Richard, Duke of Gloucester
CONTEXT:
RICHARD
Then be your eyes the witness of their evil.
Look how I am bewitched! Behold mine arm
Is like a blasted sapling withered up;
And this is Edward’s wife, that monstrous witch,
Consorted with that harlot, strumpet Shore,
That by their witchcraft thus have markèd me.
HASTINGS
If they have done this deed, my noble lord—
RICHARD
If? Thou protector of this damnèd strumpet,
Talk’st thou to me of “ifs?” Thou art a traitor—
Off with his head. Now by Saint Paul I swear
I will not dine until I see the same.
Lovell and Ratcliffe, look that it be done.
The rest that love me, rise and follow me.

DUTCH:
„Als” ! gij beschermer van die vloekb’re snol,
Spreekt gij van „Als” ? – Gij zijt een aartsverrader ;
Het hoofd hem of !

MORE:
Proverb: If’s and and’s

Blasted=Damaged
Consorted=In an alliance with
Compleat:
To blast=Doen verstuyven, wegblaazen, verzengen, door ‘t weer beschaadigen
To blast one’s reputation=Iemands goeden naam doen verstuyven

Topics: proverbs and idioms, good and bad, fate/destiny

In the reproof of chance lies the true proof of men

DUTCH:
Des menschen ware toetssteen
Is de ongunst van het lot. Bij effen zee
Waagt moedig meen’ge vlakke kleine boot
Zich op haar kalme borst en stevent voort
Naast eed’ler zeekasteelen.

Topics: authority, adversity, success, fate/destiny

Injurious time now with a robber’s haste crams his rich thievery up, he knows not how

PLAY: Troilus and Cressida
ACT/SCENE: 4.5
SPEAKER: Troilus
CONTEXT:
TROILUS
And suddenly; where injury of chance
Puts back leave-taking, justles roughly by
All time of pause, rudely beguiles our lips
Of all rejoindure, forcibly prevents
Our locked embrasures, strangles our dear vows
Even in the birth of our own labouring breath:
We two, that with so many thousand sighs
Did buy each other, must poorly sell ourselves
With the rude brevity and discharge of one.
Injurious time now with a robber’s haste
Crams his rich thievery up, he knows not how:
As many farewells as be stars in heaven,
With distinct breath and consigned kisses to them,
He fumbles up into a loose adieu,
And scants us with a single famished kiss,
Distasted with the salt of broken tears.

DUTCH:
De booze tijd steekt, met de haast eens diefs,
Zijn rijken roofbuit op, hij weet niet hoe;

MORE:
Injury of chance=Bad luck
Puts back=Prevents
Justle=Press, force
Prevent our lips from meeting=(1) Cannot kiss; (2) Cannot close their mouths
Rudely=Roughly
Beguile=Cheat, rob
Rejoinder=Rejoining
Thievery=Stolen goods
Distinct=Separate
Scants=Limit, begrudge
Compleat:
To put back=Te rug zetten, achter uit zetten
Justle=Stooten, horten
Rude=Ruuw. Rudely (or coarsly)=Groffelyk
To beguile=Bedriegen, om den tuyn leyden
Thievery=Dievery
Distinct=Onderscheyden, afzonderlyk, duydelyk
Scant=Bekrompen, schaars

Topics: fate/destiny, time

It is a charge too heavy for my strength, but yet we’ll strive to bear it

PLAY: All’s Well that Ends Well
ACT/SCENE: 3.3
SPEAKER: Bertram
CONTEXT:
DUKE
The general of our horse thou art; and we,
Great in our hope, lay our best love and credence
Upon thy promising fortune.
BERTRAM
Sir, it is
A charge too heavy for my strength, but yet
We’ll strive to bear it for your worthy sake
To the extreme edge of hazard.
DUKE
Then go thou forth;
And fortune play upon thy prosperous helm,
As thy auspicious mistress!
BERTRAM
This very day,
Great Mars, I put myself into thy file:
Make me but like my thoughts, and I shall prove
A lover of thy drum, hater of love.

DUTCH:
Wees overste onzer ruiterij; wij vesten,
Vol hoop, de beste vriendschap, groot vertrouwen,
Op uw geluk, dat schoone dingen spelt.

MORE:
Horse=Cavalry
Great in our hope=”Pregnant with great hope”
Credence=Faith, trust
File=Rank of soldiers
Compleat:
Cavalry=Ruytery
Credence=Geloof, achting
A file of soldiers=Een gelid of ry soldaaten

Topics: hope/optimism, trust, fate/destiny, risk

Know, then, that some of us are gentlemen

PLAY: The Two Gentlemen of Verona
ACT/SCENE: 4.1
SPEAKER: Third Outlaw
CONTEXT:
SECOND OUTLAW
Tell us this: have you any thing to take to?
VALENTINE
Nothing but my fortune.
THIRD OUTLAW
Know, then, that some of us are gentlemen,
Such as the fury of ungovern’d youth
Thrust from the company of lawful men:
Myself was from Verona banished
For practising to steal away a lady,
An heir, and near allied unto the duke.
SECOND OUTLAW
And I from Mantua, for a gentleman,
Who, in my mood, I stabb’d unto the heart.

DUTCH:
Weet, een’gen onder ons zijn edellieden,
Die de overmoed der teugellooze jeugd
Uit de gemeenschap stiet van eerb’re lieden

MORE:
To take to=To take recourse to
Fortune=Fate, luck (not wealth)
Lawful=Law-abiding
Practising=Plotting
Near=Closely
Compleat:
Fortune=’t Geval, geluk, Fortuyn
Lawfull=Op een wettige wyze
A near concern=Een zaak die van naby raakt

Topics: fate/destiny, civility, order/society, punishment

Let us sit and mock the good housewife Fortune from her wheel, that her gifts may henceforth be bestowed equally

PLAY: As You Like It
ACT/SCENE: 1.2
SPEAKER: Celia
CONTEXT:
ROSALIND
What shall be our sport, then?
CELIA
Let us sit and mock the good housewife Fortune from her
wheel, that her gifts may henceforth be bestowed equally.
ROSALIND
I would we could do so, for her benefits are mightily
misplaced, and the bountiful blind woman doth most
mistake in her gifts to women.
CELIA
‘Tis true, for those that she makes fair she scarce
makes honest, and those that she makes honest she makes
very ill-favouredly.
ROSALIND
Nay, now thou goest from Fortune’s office to Nature’s.
Fortune reigns in gifts of the world, not in the
lineaments of Nature.

DUTCH:
Laat ons gaan zitten, en die nijvere huisvrouw met dat wiel, Fortuin, door spot er van af jagen, opdat voortaan haar gaven wat onpartijdiger worden uitgedeeld.

MORE:
Wheel=The attribute of Fortune, emblem of mutability
Blind woman=Fortune, the blind goddess
Scarce=Rarely
Misplaced=Unfairly distributed
Honest=Virtous
Lineaments=Features
Compleat:
Wheel=Rad (van avontuur)
Scarce (or scarcely)=Naauwlyks
To misplace=Verkeerdelyk plaatsen, een onrechte plaats geeven
Honest=Eerlyk, oprecht, vroom
Lineament=Een trek

Burgersdijk notes:
Die nijvere huisvrouw. Alsof het rad of wiel van Fortuin een spinnewiel was. Zie ook „Antonius en Cleopatra”, IV, 15.

Topics: fate/destiny, life, status, poverty and wealth, equality

Men at some time are masters of their fates.
The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves

PLAY: Julius Caesar
ACT/SCENE: 1.2
SPEAKER: Cassius
CONTEXT:
CASSIUS
Why, man, he doth bestride the narrow world
Like a Colossus, and we petty men
Walk under his huge legs and peep about
To find ourselves dishonourable graves.
Men at some time are masters of their fates.
The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars
But in ourselves, that we are underlings.
Brutus and Caesar—what should be in that “Caesar”?
Why should that name be sounded more than yours?
Write them together, yours is as fair a name;
Sound them, it doth become the mouth as well;
Weigh them, it is as heavy; conjure with ’em,
“Brutus” will start a spirit as soon as “Caesar.”
Now, in the names of all the gods at once,
Upon what meat doth this our Caesar feed
That he is grown so great? Age, thou art shamed!
Rome, thou hast lost the breed of noble bloods!
When went there by an age, since the great flood,
But it was famed with more than with one man?
When could they say, till now, that talked of Rome,
That her wide walks encompassed but one man?
Now is it Rome indeed, and room enough
When there is in it but one only man.
O, you and I have heard our fathers say
There was a Brutus once that would have brooked
Th’ eternal devil to keep his state in Rome
As easily as a king.

DUTCH:
Soms is de mensch zelf meester van zijn lot;
Niet door de schuld van ons gesternte, Brutus,
Neen, door onszelve zijn wij klein en nietig.

MORE:
Misquoted as: “It is not in the stars to hold our destiny but in ourselves.”

CITED IN US LAW:
Myers v. Penzoil Company, 889 F.2d 1457, 1462 (5th Cir. 1989);
Brandywine-Main Line Radio, Ine. v. Federal Communications Commission, 473 F.2d 16, (D.C. Cir. 1972);
Continental X-Ray Corporation v. Popovich, 1992 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1510, at 8 (N.D. Ill.); Cole v. Erie Lackawanna Railway, 396 F.Supp. 65, 68 (N.D. Ohio 1975)(“The fact that an employee may be required to join the union only points up more clearly the urgent need for permitting him to press his own claim and to secure his own future. ‘Men at some time .. .’ “);
Clark v. State, 308 Ark. 84, 824 S.W.2d 345 (1992).

At sometime=Once
Stars=Astrology
Sounded=Trumpeted, proclaimed
Meat=Food
Age=This era
Noble bloods=Noble lineage
Famed with=Renowned for
Compleat:
Somewhile=Een wyl tyd, te eeniger tyd
To sound=Blaazen
Age=Eeuw
Of noble extraction=Van adel, van edelen afkomst
To get a fame=Vermaard worden, in naam komen

Burgersdijk notes:
Na den grooten vloed. Cassius kan natuurlijk alleen aan den grooten vloed denken, waar Deucalion en Pyrrha uit overbleven. Dat de tooneeldichter, met het oog op zjjn gehoor, hier niet op Noach’s zondvloed gezinspeeld heeft, is echter moeilijk te beweren. Een oogenblik later wordt van den “opperduivel” gesproken, in ‘t Engelsch van the eternal devil, den alouden, eeuwigen duivel”. De woordspeling met Rome en ruim klinkt, of klonk, in het Engelsch beter dan in het Nederlandsch: de overeenkomst in de uitspraak van beide woorden is grooter.

Topics: fate/destiny, misquoted, cited in law

Mine ear is open and my heart prepared

PLAY: Richard II
ACT/SCENE: 3.2
SPEAKER: King Richard II
CONTEXT:
KING RICHARD II
Mine ear is open and my heart prepared;
The worst is worldly loss thou canst unfold.
Say, is my kingdom lost? why, ’twas my care
And what loss is it to be rid of care?
Strives Bolingbroke to be as great as we?
Greater he shall not be; if he serve God,
We’ll serve Him too and be his fellow so:
Revolt our subjects? that we cannot mend;
They break their faith to God as well as us:
Cry woe, destruction, ruin and decay:
The worst is death, and death will have his day.
SIR STEPHEN SCROOP
Glad am I that your highness is so arm’d
To bear the tidings of calamity.
Like an unseasonable stormy day,
Which makes the silver rivers drown their shores,
As if the world were all dissolved to tears,
So high above his limits swells the rage
Of Bolingbroke, covering your fearful land
With hard bright steel and hearts harder than steel.
White-beards have arm’d their thin and hairless scalps
Against thy majesty; boys, with women’s voices,
Strive to speak big and clap their female joints
In stiff unwieldy arms against thy crown:
The very beadsmen learn to bend their bows
Of double-fatal yew against thy state;
Yea, distaff-women manage rusty bills
Against thy seat: both young and old rebel,
And all goes worse than I have power to tell.

DUTCH:
Mijn oor is open, voorbereid mijn hart;
Wereldsch verlies is ‘t ergst, wat gij kunt melden.

Topics: preparation, strength, fate/destiny, failure, conflict

Mischief, thou art afoot. Take thou what course thou wilt

PLAY: Julius Caesar
ACT/SCENE: 3.2
SPEAKER: Antony
CONTEXT:
ANTONY
Moreover, he hath left you all his walks,
His private arbours and new-planted orchards,
On this side Tiber. He hath left them you
And to your heirs forever—common pleasures,
To walk abroad and recreate yourselves.
Here was a Caesar! When comes such another?
FIRST PLEBEIAN
Never, never.—Come, away, away!
We’ll burn his body in the holy place,
And with the brands fire the traitors’ houses.
Take up the body.
SECOND PLEBEIAN
Go fetch fire.
THIRD PLEBEIAN
Pluck down benches.
FOURTH PLEBEIAN
Pluck down forms, windows, anything.
ANTONY
Now let it work. Mischief, thou art afoot.
Take thou what course thou wilt!

DUTCH:
Nu werk’ het voort! Verderf, gij zijt op weg;
Neem welken loop gij wilt !

MORE:
Idiom: There’s mischief afoot

Arbour=Garden
Common pleasures=Public recreation
Windows=Shutters
Compleat:
Arbour=Prieeltje
Common=Gemeen

Topics: fate/destiny, consequence, still in use, proverbs and idioms

Misery acquaints a man with strange bedfellows.

PLAY: The Tempest
ACT/SCENE: 2.2
SPEAKER: Trinculo
CONTEXT:
TRINCULO
(…) Were I in England now, as once I was, and had but this fish painted, not a holiday fool there but would give a piece of silver. There would this monster make a man. Any strange beast there makes a man. When they will not give a doit to relieve a lame beggar, they will lay out ten to see a dead Indian. Legged like a man and his fins like arms! Warm, o’ my troth. I do now let loose my opinion, hold it no longer: this is no fish, but an islander that hath lately suffered by a thunderbolt.
Alas, the storm is come again! My best way is to creep under his gaberdine. There is no other shelter hereabouts. Misery acquaints a man with strange bedfellows. I will here shroud till the dregs of the storm be past.

DUTCH:
Ellende laat een man kennis maken met vreemde kameraden./
De nood brengt een mensch al bij vreemde slaapkameraden.

MORE:
Proverb:Misery makes strange bedfellows
Gaberdine=Cloak
Doit=A former Dutch coin, equivalent to half a farthing
Compleat:
Doit=Een duit (achtste deel van een stuiver)
He is not worth a doit or doitkin=Het is geen duit waard
Fellow ( or companion)=Medgezel
A bed-fellow=Een byslaap, bedgenoot

Topics: fate/destiny, relationship, proverbs and idioms, still in use, adversity

My pride fell with my fortunes

PLAY: As You Like It
ACT/SCENE: 1.2
SPEAKER: Rosalind
CONTEXT:
ROSALIND
Gentleman,
Wear this for me—one out of suits with fortune
That could give more but that her hand lacks means.
—Shall we go, coz?
CELIA
Ay.—Fare you well, fair gentleman.
ORLANDO
Can I not say “I thank you?” My better parts
Are all thrown down, and that which here stands up
Is but a quintain, a mere lifeless block.
ROSALIND
He calls us back. My pride fell with my fortunes.
I’ll ask him what he would.— Did you call, sir?
Sir, you have wrestled well and overthrown
More than your enemies.

DUTCH:
Hij roept ons; met mijn rang ontvlood mijn trots. ‘k Vraag, wat hij wenscht. — Hebt gij geroepen, heer? Schoon was uw worst’ling en gij overwon’t. Niet vijanden alleen.

MORE:
Quintain=a post or figure set up for beginners in tilting to run at.
Out of suits=Out of favour (with fortune)
Pride=Self-esteem, mostly in a bad sense, haughtiness, arrogance
Compleat:
Quintain=Een bruilofts steekspel, alwaar men met zwaare speeren tegen een eike plank rent.
Pride=Hovaardy, grootsheid, hoogmoed, trotsheid, verwaandheid

Burgersdijk notes:
Een pop bij ‘t steekspel. A quintain: een houten figuur, die vooral bij oefeningen in het toernooirijden als doel voor de lans diende. Volgens Douce was dit doel, in zijn meest volkomen vorm, een afgezaagde boomstam, waarop een menschelijke figuur geplaatst was, die aan den linkerarm een schild, in de rechterhand een zak met zand vasthield. De toernooiruiters poogden in galop met hun lans den kop of het lijf van de pop te treffen; mislukte dit en raakten zij het schild, dan draaide de pop snel om en gaf hun, tot groot vermaak der toeschouwers, een slag met den zandzak.

Topics: fate/destiny, life

My wounds ache at you

PLAY: Timon of Athens
ACT/SCENE: 3.5
SPEAKER: Alcibiades
CONTEXT:
ALCIBIADES
Hard fate! he might have died in war.
My lords, if not for any parts in him—
Though his right arm might purchase his own time
And be in debt to none —yet, more to move you,
Take my deserts to his, and join ’em both:
And, for I know your reverend ages love
Security, I’ll pawn my victories, all
My honours to you, upon his good returns.
If by this crime he owes the law his life,
Why, let the war receive ‘t in valiant gore
For law is strict, and war is nothing more.
FIRST SENATOR
We are for law: he dies; urge it no more,
On height of our displeasure: friend or brother,
He forfeits his own blood that spills another.
ALCIBIADES
Must it be so? it must not be. My lords,
I do beseech you, know me.
SECOND SENATOR
How!
ALCIBIADES
Call me to your remembrances.
THIRD SENATOR
What!
ALCIBIADES
I cannot think but your age has forgot me;
It could not else be, I should prove so base,
To sue, and be denied such common grace:
My wounds ache at you.
FIRST SENATOR
Do you dare our anger?
‘Tis in few words, but spacious in effect;
We banish thee for ever.

DUTCH:
Wis roofde u de ouderdom ‘t geheugen; anders
Waar’ nooit mijn waarde zoo van mij geweken,
Dat ik om zulk een gunst vergeefs zou smeeken.
Mijn wonden branden.

MORE:
Deserts=Rewards
Security=Collateral
Pawn=Put up as security
Returns=Repayments (of kindness)
Know me=Understand me
Remembrances=Remember me
Compleat:
Desert=Verdienste, verdiende loon
Security=Verzekering; borg
To pawn=Verpanden, te pande zetten
Return=(Remitment of money)=Een weder betaaling van een somme gelds, remise
Remembrance=Gedachtenis, geheugenis

Topics: fate/destiny, money, security, law/legal, punishment

None that I know will be, much that I fear may chance

DUTCH:
k Weet niets, dat moet, vrees veel, dat kan gebeuren.
Doch goeden dag!

MORE:
Suit=Plea
Chance=Happen
Praetor=Senior judge
More void=Emptier, not as crowded
Compleat:
Suit=Een verzoek, rechtsgeding
To chance=Voorvallen, gebeuren
Void=Leedig, ontleedigd

Topics: defence, communication, fate/destiny

O fortune, fortune! all men call thee fickle

PLAY: Romeo and Juliet
ACT/SCENE: 3.5
SPEAKER: Juliet
CONTEXT:
O fortune, fortune! All men call thee fickle.
If thou art fickle, what dost thou with him
That is renowned for faith? Be fickle, fortune,
For then, I hope, thou wilt not keep him long,
But send him back.

DUTCH:
Fortuin, fortuin! een ieder noemt u wuft!
En zijt gij wuft, wat doet ge dan met hem,
Die zich getrouw betoont? Wees wuft, Fortuin

MORE:
Compleat:
Fickle=Wispeltuurig, veranderlyk, wuft, ongestadig

Topics: fate/destiny, loyalty

Oh, my fortunes have corrupted honest men!

PLAY: Antony and Cleopatra
ACT/SCENE: 4.5
SPEAKER: Antony
CONTEXT:
EROS
Sir, his chests and treasure
He has not with him.
ANTONY
Is he gone?
SOLDIER
Most certain.
ANTONY
Go, Eros, send his treasure after. Do it.
Detain no jot, I charge thee. Write to him—
I will subscribe—gentle adieus and greetings.
Say that I wish he never find more cause
To change a master. Oh, my fortunes have
Corrupted honest men! Dispatch.—Enobarbus!

DUTCH:
Ga, Eros, zend zijn schat hem na; ja, doe het;
Houd niets terug; verstaan? En schrijf hem ook, —
Ik onderteeken ‘t, — mijn vaarwel en groeten;
Meld hem mijn wensch, dat niets hem ooit meer noop’
Van meester te veranderen. — O, mijn rampen
Doen braven schurk zijn. — Spoed u! — Enobarbus!

MORE:
Detain=Hold back
Jot=Smallest quantity
Charge=Order
Subscribe=Sign
Compleat:
Jot=Zier
Charge=Belasten
Subscribe=Onderschryven

Topics: fate/destiny, honesty, loyalty

Or I shall show the cinders of my spirit through th’ ashes of my chance

PLAY: Antony and Cleopatra
ACT/SCENE: 5.2
SPEAKER: Cleopatra
CONTEXT:
CLEOPATRA
O Caesar, what a wounding shame is this,
That thou, vouchsafing here to visit me,
Doing the honour of thy lordliness
To one so meek, that mine own servant should
Parcel the sum of my disgraces by
Addition of his envy! Say, good Caesar,
That I some lady trifles have reserved,
Immoment toys, things of such dignity
As we greet modern friends withal, and say
Some nobler token I have kept apart
For Livia and Octavia, to induce
Their mediation, must I be unfolded
With one that I have bred? The gods! It smites me
Beneath the fall I have. Prithee, go hence,
Or I shall show the cinders of my spirit
Through th’ ashes of my chance. Wert thou a man,
Thou wouldst have mercy on me.

DUTCH:
k Bid u, weg;
Of de oude gloed mijns geestes vlamt nog eens
Uit de asch mijns onheils op! waart gij een man,
Gij hadt erbarmen met mij.

MORE:
Vouchsafe=Deign, condescend
Parcel=Enumerate, specify; add to
Envy=Malice
Lady=Feminine
Immoment=Worthless, insignificant
Modern=Ordinary
Nobler=More valuable
Unfolded with=Exposed by
Cinders=Burning coals
Compleat:
To vouchsafe=Gewaardigen, vergunnen
To parcel=In hoopen verdeelen, in partyen deelen
Envy=Nyd, afgunst
Moment=gewicht, belang. Of great moment=Van groot gewicht.
Modern=Hedendaags
Noble=Edel, adelyk
Unfold=Ontvouwen, open leggen
Cinders=Uytgebrande smitskoolen, koolassche

Topics: fate/destiny, independence, mercy

Our wills and fates do so contrary run

PLAY: Hamlet
ACT/SCENE: 3.2
SPEAKER: Player King
CONTEXT:
Our wills and fates do so contrary run
That our devices still are overthrown.
Our thoughts are ours, their ends none of our own.
So think thou wilt no second husband wed,
But die thy thoughts when thy first lord is dead.

DUTCH:
Ons willen is zoo strijdig met ons lot /
Ons lot en willen zoo contrarie gaan

MORE:
Schmidt:
Devices=contrivance, conceit, stratagem
Compleat:
Device (contrivance or invention)=Uitvinding, vinding
Device (cunning trick)=Een listige streek

Topics: fate/destiny, plans/intentions

Out, out, thou strumpet Fortune!

PLAY: Hamlet
ACT/SCENE: 2.2
SPEAKER: First Player
CONTEXT:
Out, out, thou strumpet Fortune! All you gods
In general synod take away her power,
Break all the spokes and fellies from her wheel,
And bowl the round nave down the hill of heaven,
As low as to the fiends!

DUTCH:
Weg, weg, gij slet Fortuna! /
Weg, lichtekooi, Fortuin!

MORE:
Fortune (i.e., chance, luck) was often called a strumpet, because of the indiscriminae granting of her favours, regardless of worth.
Schmidt:
Strumpet=prostitute
Fortune=the power supposed to distribute the lots of life according to her humour
Compleat:
Fortune (a heathen-ish goddess)=’t Fortuin

Topics: fate/destiny, plans/intentions

Rich men look sad and ruffians dance and leap, The one in fear to lose what they enjoy, The other to enjoy by rage and war:

PLAY: Richard II
ACT/SCENE: 2.4
SPEAKER: Captain
CONTEXT:
CAPTAIN
’Tis thought the king is dead; we will not stay.
The bay-trees in our country are all wither’d
And meteors fright the fixed stars of heaven;
The pale-faced moon looks bloody on the earth
And lean-look’d prophets whisper fearful change;
Rich men look sad and ruffians dance and leap,
The one in fear to lose what they enjoy,
The other to enjoy by rage and war:
These signs forerun the death or fall of kings.
Farewell: our countrymen are gone and fled,
As well assured Richard their king is dead.
EARL OF SALISBURY
Ah, Richard, with the eyes of heavy mind
I see thy glory like a shooting star
Fall to the base earth from the firmament.
Thy sun sets weeping in the lowly west,
Witnessing storms to come, woe and unrest:
Thy friends are fled to wait upon thy foes,
And crossly to thy good all fortune goes.

DUTCH:
De rijken zijn bedrukt en schelmen dansen; —
Die duchten het verlies van geld en goed,
En dezen hopen op geweld en oorlog;

MORE:

Lean-looked=Thin-faced
Meteor=A bright phenomenon, thought to be portentous, harbinger of doom
Fixed stars=Symbol of permanence
Forerun=Precede
Assured=Convinced, persuaded
Witness=Portend
Wait upon=Serve
Crossly=Adversely

Compleat:
To assure=Verzekeren
Portend=Voorduiden, voorzeggen

Topics: ruin, nature, conflict, fate/destiny

Say from whence You owe this strange intelligence

PLAY: Macbeth
ACT/SCENE: 1.3
SPEAKER: Macbeth
CONTEXT:
Stay, you imperfect speakers, tell me more.
By Sinel’s death I know I am thane of Glamis.
But how of Cawdor? The thane of Cawdor lives,
A prosperous gentleman, and to be king
Stands not within the prospect of belief,
No more than to be Cawdor. Say from whence
You owe this strange intelligence, or why
Upon this blasted heath you stop our way
With such prophetic greeting. Speak, I charge you.

DUTCH:
Spreekt, hoe gewerd u
Die wond’re wetenschap? En waarom treedt gij
Op deze barre heide ons in den weg
Met zulk een zienersgroet? Spreekt, ik bezweer u!

MORE:
Schmidt:
Intelligence=Notice, information, news
Compleat:
Intelligence=Kundschap, verstandhouding
To give intelligence=Kundschap geeven, overbrieven

Topics: fate/destiny, evidence, justification, suspicion

Show his eyes and grieve his heart.

PLAY: Macbeth
ACT/SCENE: 4.1
SPEAKER: Witches
CONTEXT:
Show his eyes and grieve his heart.
Come like shadows; so depart!

DUTCH:
Wenscht zijn hart zich leed, verschijnt!
Komt als schimmen, en verdwijnt!

MORE:
Schmidt:
Grieve his heart=make him sorry

Topics: fate/destiny, disappointment, truth, regret

Since every Jack became a gentleman there’s many a gentle person made a Jack.

PLAY: Richard III
ACT/SCENE: 1.3
SPEAKER: Richard, Duke of Gloucester
CONTEXT:
QUEEN ELIZABETH
Brother of Gloucester, you mistake the matter.
The king, on his own royal disposition,
And not provoked by any suitor else,
Aiming belike at your interior hatred
That in your outward actions shows itself
Against my children, brothers, and myself,
Makes him to send, that he may learn the ground.
RICHARD
I cannot tell. The world is grown so bad
That wrens make prey where eagles dare not perch.
Since every jack became a gentleman,
There’s many a gentle person made a jack.
QUEEN ELIZABETH
Come, come, we know your meaning, brother Gloucester.
You envy my advancement, and my friends’.
God grant we never may have need of you.

DUTCH:
lk weet niet; – al te slecht is thans de wereld :
‘t Kleinjantjen rooft, waar de aad’laar zich niet waagt;
Sinds elke schooier edelman hier werd,
Werd menig edelman een kale schooier.

MORE:
Mistake the matter=Misunderstand
Provoked=Encouraged
Belike=No doubt
Made a Jack=Reduced to peasant status (allusion to the jack in bowls)
Compleat:
To ly under a mistake=In een misverstand steeken
To provoke=Tergen, verwekken, aanprikkelen, opscherpen, gaande maaken, ophitsen

Burgersdijk notes:
Deed u ontbieden. In het oorspronkelijke staat hier, in de folio-uitgave, slechts den regel : Makes him to send, that he may learn the ground: doet hem nu zenden om den grond te weten; in de quarto-uitgave vindt men:
“Makes him to send, that thereby he may gather
The ground of your ill-will, and so remove it.”
In beide is de zinbouw onnauwkeurig, hetzij door toevallige onachtzaamheid van Sh., hetzij om de ontroering der koningin uit te drukken, die vergeet, dat zij den zin met de woorden “De koning” begonnen is.

Topics: fate/destiny, order, society, status

Since every Jack became a gentleman there’s many a gentle person made a Jack.

Topics: fate/destiny, order, society, status

Sir, in my heart there was a kind of fighting
That would not let me sleep

PLAY: Hamlet
ACT/SCENE: 5.2
SPEAKER: Hamlet
CONTEXT:
Sir, in my heart there was a kind of fighting
That would not let me sleep. Methought I lay
Worse than the mutines in the bilboes. Rashly—
And praised be rashness for it: let us know
Our indiscretion sometimes serves us well
When our deep plots do pall, and that should teach us.
There’s a divinity that shapes our ends,
Rough-hew them how we will,

DUTCH:
Mijnheer, er was in mij een soort van strijd, Die mij niet slapen liet /
Er was een soort van tweestrijd in mijn ziel, Die ‘s nachts mij wakker hield /
Er woedde in mijn hart een soort van strijd, die mij geen slaap liet /
Daar een godheid is die vormt ons doelen, ‘t Ruw-weg door ons gehouwene.

MORE:
Onions:
Bilboes=shackles used for mutinous sailors and to confine prisoners at sea. This punishment was described by Steevens: “The bilboes is a bar of iron with fetters annexed to it, by which mutinous or disorderly sailors were anciently linked together. The word is derived from Bilboa, a place in Spain where instruments of steel were fabricated in the utmost perfection. To understand Shakespeare’s allusion completely, it should be known that, as these fetters connect the legs of the offenders very close together, their attempts to rest must be as fruitless as those of Hamlet, in his mind there was a ‘kind of fighting that would not let him sleep’.
CITED IN HOUSE OF LORDS: The Hon. W. C. Yelverton, Major in H.M. Royal Artillery v. Maria Theresa Longworth, or Yelverton [1864] UKHL 4_Macqueen_745 (3 June 1864)

Topics: fate/destiny, plans/intentions

Small showers last long, but sudden storms are short

DUTCH:
Kort duurt een stortbui, zachte regens lang;
Wie vroeg te haastig spoort, is weldra moe;
Wie al te gulzig eet, hij stikt in ‘t eten;
Dwaze ijdelheid, die onverzaadbre gier,
Verslindt haar buit en aast dán op zich zelf.

MORE:

Proverb: Nothing violent can be permanent
Proverb: Untimeous [untimely] spurring spoils the steed

Expiring=(a) Dying; (b) Expiration
Riot=Dissolute behaviour
Betimes=Early, at an early hour

Compleat:
Expiration=Eindiging, uitgang, verloop, uitblaazing van den laatsten adem
To expire=Den geest geeven, sterven
To riot=Optrekken, rinkinken, pypestellen
Betimes=Bytyds,vroeg

Topics: proverbs and idioms, invented or popularised, fate/destiny, haste

So quick bright things come to confusion

PLAY: A Midsummer Night’s Dream
ACT/SCENE: 1.1
SPEAKER: Lysander
CONTEXT:
LYSANDER
Or, if there were a sympathy in choice,
War, death, or sickness did lay siege to it,
Making it momentary as a sound,
Swift as a shadow, short as any dream,
Brief as the lightning in the collied night;
That, in a spleen, unfolds both heaven and Earth,
And ere a man hath power to say “Behold!”
The jaws of darkness do devour it up.
So quick bright things come to confusion.

DUTCH:
Of, was ook ziel met ziel aaneengesmeed,
Dan heeft haar ziekte, krijg of dood belaagd,
Voorbijgaand, vluchtig als een klank gemaakt,
Kort als een droombeeld, ijdel als een schim,
Snel als het weerlicht in koolzwarte nacht

MORE:
Proverb: As swift as lightning

Collied=Coal black
Sympathy=Equality
Spleen=Fit of rage
Quick=Lively, alive
Confusion=Ruin
Compleat:
To colly=Zwart maaken, besmodderen
Collyed=Zwart gemaakt, besmodderd
Sympathy=Onderlinge trek
Spreen=Wrok
Quick=Leevendig, snel, rad, dra, scherp
Bate=Verminderen, afkorten, afslaan
Confusion (ruin)=Verwoesting, bederf, ruine

Topics: proverbs and idioms, equality, still in use, fate/destiny, ruin

T’o avoid the censures of the carping world

PLAY: Richard III
ACT/SCENE: 3.5
SPEAKER: Richard, Duke of Gloucester
CONTEXT:
LORD MAYOR
Now fair befall you! He deserved his death,
And your good Graces both have well proceeded
To warn false traitors from the like attempts.
I never looked for better at his hands
After he once fell in with Mrs Shore.
RICHARD
Yet had we not determined he should die
Until your Lordship came to see his end
(Which now the loving haste of these our friends,
Something against our meaning, have prevented),
Because, my lord, I would have had you heard
The traitor speak, and timorously confess
The manner and the purpose of his treasons,
That you might well have signified the same
Unto the citizens, who haply may
Misconstrue us in him, and wail his death.
LORD MAYOR
But, my good lord, your Graces’ words shall serve
As well as I had seen and heard him speak;
And do not doubt, right noble princes both,
But I’ll acquaint our duteous citizens
With all your just proceedings in this case.
RICHARD
And to that end we wished your Lordship here
T’ avoid the censures of the carping world.
BUCKINGHAM
Which since you come too late of our intent,
Yet witness what you hear we did intend.
And so, my good Lord Mayor, we bid farewell.

DUTCH:
Juist hierom wenschten wij uw lordschap hier,
Om elk verwijt te ontgaan der booze wereld.

MORE:
Fair befall=Good fortune to you
The like=Similar
Looked for=Expected
Meaning=Intention
Timorously=Timidly
Haply=Perhaps
Misconster us in him=Misconstrue what we did to him
Case=Business, affair
Carping=Critical, complaining
In all post=In all haste
Compleat:
Befall=Gebeuren, overkomen
I never saw the like=Ik heb diergelyk nooit gezien
Not looked for=Onverwacht, onverhoeds
Meaning=Opzet
Timorous=Vreesachtig, bevreesd, vervaard
Haply=Misschien
Misconstrue=Misduyden, verkeerd uytleggen
To carp=Plukken, pluyzen, bedillen, muggeziften

Topics: fate/destiny, adversity, guilt, betrayal

Tell him of an intent that’s coming toward him

PLAY: Timon of Athens
ACT/SCENE: 5.1
SPEAKER: Poet
CONTEXT:
POET
What have you now to present unto him?
PAINTER
Nothing at this time but my visitation: only I will
promise him an excellent piece.
POET
I must serve him so too, tell him of an intent
that’s coming toward him.
PAINTER
Good as the best.
Promising is the very air o’ the
time: it opens the eyes of expectation:
performance is ever the duller for his act; and,
but in the plainer and simpler kind of people, the
deed of saying is quite out of use. To promise is
most courtly and fashionable: performance is a kind
of will or testament which argues a great sickness
in his judgment that makes it.

DUTCH:
Zoo moet ik hem ook bedienen, en hem vertellen van
een ontworpen gedicht, dat hem is toegedacht.

MORE:
Visitation=Presence, visit
Intent=Planned work
Air=Spirit
Performance=Fulfilment
But in=Except for
Deed of saying=Performance of a promise
Out of use=Out of fashion
Argues=Shows
Compleat:
Visitation=Bezoeking
Intent=Oogmerk, einde, opzet
Performance=Volbrenging, betrachting
I am not satisfied with words=Ik laat my met geen woorden paaijen, ik houde van daaden

Topics: fate/destiny, loyalty

That by misfortunes was my life prolonged to tell sad stories of my own mishaps

DUTCH:
Neen, oude, breek niet af; want mededoogen
Mag ik u schenken, schoon genade niet..

Topics: pity, mercy, judgment, fate/destiny, life

The devil take one party and his dam the other! And so they shall be both bestowed

PLAY: The Merry Wives of Windsor
ACT/SCENE:
SPEAKER: Falstaff
CONTEXT:
FALSTAFF
Now, whence come you?
MISTRESS QUICKLY
From the two parties, forsooth.
FALSTAFF
The devil take one party and his dam the other! and
so they shall be both bestowed. I have suffered more
for their sakes, more than the villainous inconstancy
of man’s disposition is able to bear.
MISTRESS QUICKLY
And have not they suffered? Yes, I warrant;
speciously one of them; Mistress Ford, good heart,
is beaten black and blue, that you cannot see a
white spot about her.

DUTCH:
De duivel haal’ de eene partij, en zijn moêr de andere!
dan zijn zij alle twee verzorgd

MORE:
Proverb: The devil and his dam

Dam=Wife
Villainous=Wretched
Disposition=Nature
Compleat:
Villainous=Snood, schelmachtig
Disposition=Gesteltenis, ordening, gesteldheyd, neyging

Topics: dispute|proverbs and idioms|fate/destiny

The dullness of the fool is the whetstone of the wits

DUTCH:
Wie weet, misschien is ook dit niet het werk van Fortuin, maar van Natuur, die, bespeurende dat onze natuurlijke geest te bot is om over zulke godinnen te redeneeren, ons dezen botterik voor slijpsteen gezonden heeft; want steeds is de botheid van den nar de wetsteen der wijzen.

Topics: fate/destiny, intellect, nature

The force of his own merit makes his way

PLAY: King Henry VIII
ACT/SCENE: 1.1
SPEAKER: Abergavenny
CONTEXT:
NORFOLK
Surely, sir,
There’s in him stuff that puts him to these ends;
For, being not propp’d by ancestry, whose grace
Chalks successors their way, nor call’d upon
For high feats done to the crown; neither allied
For eminent assistants; but, spider-like,
Out of his self-drawing web, he gives us note,
The force of his own merit makes his way
A gift that heaven gives for him, which buys
A place next to the king.
ABERGAVENNY
I cannot tell
What heaven hath given him,—let some graver eye
Pierce into that; but I can see his pride
Peep through each part of him: whence has he that,
If not from hell? the devil is a niggard,
Or has given all before, and he begins
A new hell in himself.

DUTCH:
Want, niet gestut op voorgeslacht, welks glans
Den weg voor ‘t nakroost teekent, niet geroepen
Om grootsche daden, voor de kroon volbracht,
Aan hooge helpers niet verwant, maar als
De spin in ‘t web, door haar geweven, toont
Hij ons, dat hem de kracht van zijn verdienste
Zijn weg baant

MORE:
Stuff=Characteristics, substance
Propped=Propped up, lean on
Grace=Rank, distinction
Chalk=Marks (the path of)
Compleat:
Stuff=Stof, stoffe
Prop=Een stut, steun. To prop=Ondersteunen, stutten
Grace=Gunst, bevalligheid
To chalk=Bekryten, met kryt schetsen. To chalk out=Uytmerken, afteykenen

Burgersdijk notes:
Toont hij ons. In het Engelsch: he gives us note, zooals in de meeste uitgaven, volgens de verbetering van Capell gelezen wordt; de folio heeft hiervoor den tusschenzin: O give us note, als het ware „mark what I say”, welke door Knight voor de juiste lezing gehouden wordt.

Topics: fate/destiny, order/society, wisdom, merit, pride

The law hath not been dead, though it hath slept

PLAY: Measure for Measure
ACT/SCENE: 2.2
SPEAKER: Angelo
CONTEXT:
The law hath not been dead, though it hath slept:
Those many had not dared to do that evil,
If the first that did the edict infringe
Had answer’d for his deed: now ’tis awake
Takes note of what is done; and, like a prophet,
Looks in a glass, that shows what future evils,
Either new, or by remissness new-conceived,
And so in progress to be hatch’d and born,
Are now to have no successive degrees,
But, ere they live, to end.

DUTCH:
De wet was geenszins dood, hoezeer zij sliep.
Die velen hadden ‘t kwaad niet durven doen,
Zoo daad’lijk de eerste, die de wet verbrak,
Geboet had voor zijn doen;

MORE:
CITED Shakespeare’s Legal Maxims (William Lowes Rushton):
“Dormiunt aliquando leges moriuntur nunquam/The law hath not been dead, though it hath slept.”
CITED US LAW:
Labatv. Bennett, 365 F.2d 698,701 (5th Cir. 1966);
U.S. v. Elliott, 266 F.Supp. 318 (S.D.N.Y. 1967);
Waldron v. British Petroleum Co., Ltd., 231 F.Supp. 72 (S.D.N.Y. 1964).

Topics: cited in law, law/legal, fate/destiny

The miserable have no other medicine, but only hope

PLAY: Measure for Measure
ACT/SCENE: 3.1
SPEAKER: Claudio
CONTEXT:
DUKE VINCENTIO
So then you hope of pardon from Lord Angelo?
CLAUDIO
The miserable have no other medicine
But only hope:
I’ve hope to live, and am prepared to die.

DUTCH:
Rampzaal’gen blijft geen andere artsenij
Dan hoop alleen;
Ik hoop te leven, schoon ter dood bereid.

MORE:
Schmidt:
Miserable=Unhappy, wretched
Compleat:
Miserable=Ellendig, deerlyk, jammerlyk, rampzalig
A miserable wretch=Een arm elendig schepzel

Topics: poverty and wealth, order/society, status, fate/destiny

The more my prayer, the lesser is my grace

PLAY: A Midsummer Night’s Dream
ACT/SCENE: 2.2
SPEAKER: Helena
CONTEXT:
HELENA
Oh, I am out of breath in this fond chase.
The more my prayer, the lesser is my grace.
Happy is Hermia, wheresoe’er she lies,
For she hath blessèd and attractive eyes.
How came her eyes so bright? Not with salt tears.
If so, my eyes are oftener washed than hers.
No, no, I am as ugly as a bear,
For beasts that meet me run away for fear.
Therefore no marvel though Demetrius
Do, as a monster, fly my presence thus.
What wicked and dissembling glass of mine
Made me compare with Hermia’s sphery eyne?

DUTCH:
O ademloos maakt mij deze ijdle jacht!
Hoe meer ik smeek, hoe meer hij mij veracht.

MORE:
Fond=Foolish
Grace=Prayers answered
No marvel=No surprise
Eyne=Eyes
Compleat:
Fond=Toegeeflyk, involgend, mal
Grace of God=de Genade Gods
To grace=Vercieren, bevallig maaken
Graced=Begaafd
I marvel nothing at this=Ik verwonder my niet hierover

Topics: fate/destiny, appearance, nature

The plainer dealer, the sooner lost. Yet he loseth it in a kind of jollity

PLAY: The Comedy of Errors
ACT/SCENE: 2.2
SPEAKER: Dromio of Syracuse
CONTEXT:
DROMIO OF SYRACUSE
The plainer dealer, the sooner lost. Yet he loseth it in a kind of jollity.
ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE
For what reason?
DROMIO OF SYRACUSE
For two, and sound ones too.
ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE
Nay, not sound, I pray you.
DROMIO OF SYRACUSE
Sure ones, then.
ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE
Nay, not sure, in a thing falsing.
DROMIO OF SYRACUSE
Certain ones, then.
ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE
Name them.
DROMIO OF SYRACUSE
The one, to save the money that he spends in tiring; the other, that at dinner they should not drop in his porridge.

DUTCH:
Hoe onnoozeler iemand is, des te eer zorgt hij het
kwijt te raken; maar hij verliest het met een soort van
genot.

MORE:
Proverb: The properer (honester) man the worse luck

Falsing=Deceptive
Tiring=Hairdressing
Sound=Both ‘valid’ and ‘healthy’
Compleat:
Plain dealing=Oprechte handeling
To tire=Optoooijen, de kap zetten
Sound (healthful)=Gezond
Sound (whole)=Gaaf
Sound (judicious)=Verstandig, schrander, gegrond

Topics: honesty, gullibility, satisfaction, fate/destiny, proverbs and idioms

The readiness is all.

DUTCH:
Als uw innerlijk zich ergens tegen verzet, gehoorzaam het dan. /
Als uw gemoed met jets geen vrede heeft, geef er gehoor
aan. /
Als uw gemoed van iets afkeerig mocht zijn, luister er naar.

Topics: fate/destiny, free will

The time is out of joint.

PLAY: Hamlet
ACT/SCENE: 1.5
SPEAKER: Hamlet
CONTEXT:
Rest, rest, perturbèd spirit!—So, gentlemen,
With all my love I do commend me to you,
And what so poor a man as Hamlet is
May do, to express his love and friending to you,
God willing, shall not lack. Let us go in together,
And still your fingers on your lips, I pray.
The time is out of joint. O cursèd spite,
That ever I was born to set it right!
Nay, come, let’s go together

DUTCH:
De tijd is ziek. Vervloekt, moet ik het wezen,
Wiens taak het is dien zieke te genezen!

MORE:
Time is out of joint=Things are not as they should be
De tijd is uit zyn voegen (Burgersdijk: De tijd sprong uit den band)

Schmidt:
Time=The present state of things; circumstances

Compleat:
Times (with relation to the state of things , manners or government)=Tyden
If the times turn=Als de tijden veranderen

Topics: fate/destiny, time

The very dice obey him, and in our sports my better cunning faints under his chance

PLAY: Antony and Cleopatra
ACT/SCENE: 2.3
SPEAKER: Antony
CONTEXT:
SOOTHSAYER
To none but thee, no more but when to thee.
If thou dost play with him at any game,
Thou art sure to lose, and of that natural luck
He beats thee ’gainst the odds. Thy lustre thickens
When he shines by. I say again, thy spirit
Is all afraid to govern thee near him,
But, he away, ’tis noble.
ANTONY
Get thee gone.
Say to Ventidius I would speak with him.
He shall to Parthia. Be it art or hap,
He hath spoken true. The very dice obey him,
And in our sports my better cunning faints
Under his chance. If we draw lots, he speeds.
His cocks do win the battle still of mine
When it is all to naught, and his quails ever
Beat mine, inhooped, at odds. I will to Egypt.
And though I make this marriage for my peace,
I’ th’ East my pleasure lies.

DUTCH:
Het is zoo; zelfs de dobbelsteenen dwingt hij;
In ieder spel schiet mijne kunst te kort
Bij zijn geluk; bij loting treft hij ‘t steeds.

MORE:
Lustre=Brightness
Thickens=Becomes dull, dim
Art=Skill
Hap=Luck
Better=Superior
Cunning=Skill
Faints under=Surrenders to
Speed=Succeed
Cocks=Fighting cocks
All to naught=Against the odds
Inhooped=Confined in hoops
Compleat:
Luster=Luyster, glans
Art (cunning or industry)=Behendigheid, Schranderheid, Naarstigheid
Hap=Het luk, geval, toeval
Betters=Meerderen
Cunning=Behendigheid, Schranderheid, Naarstigheid; Listigheid
Faint=Bezwyken
To speed=Voortspoeden, voorspoedig zyn, wel gelukken
Cock=Haan. Cock-fighting=Haanekamp
Nought=Niets, niet met al
Hooped=Met hoepels beleyd

Topics: fate/destiny, corruption, achievement, failure

There is special providence in the fall of a sparrow

PLAY: Hamlet
ACT/SCENE: 5.2
SPEAKER: Hamlet
CONTEXT:
Not a whit. We defy augury. There’s a special providence in the fall of a sparrow. If it be now, ’tis not to come. If it be not to come, it will be now. If it be not now, yet it will come—the readiness is all. Since no man of aught he leaves knows, what is ’t to leave betimes? Let be.

DUTCH:
Geen mus valt ter aarde, of het is voorbeschikt. /
Er is een bizondere voorzienigheid in den val van een musch /
Wij tarten voorgevoelens; daar bestaat eene bizondere voorzienigheid voor een musch die valt.

MORE:
The sparrow here is an allusion to book of Matthew
Commentators quote Matthew’s Gospel: “Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? And one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father.”

Topics: fate/destiny, nature, plans/intentions

Things at the worst will cease, or else climb upward
To what they were before.

PLAY: Macbeth
ACT/SCENE: 4.2
SPEAKER: Ross
CONTEXT:
I pray you school yourself. But for your husband,
He is noble, wise, judicious, and best knows
The fits o’ th’ season. I dare not speak much further;But cruel are the times when we are traitors
And do not know ourselves; when we hold rumor
From what we fear, yet know not what we fear,
But float upon a wild and violent sea
Each way and none. I take my leave of you.
Shall not be long but I’ll be here again.
Things at the worst will cease, or else climb upward
To what they were before.

DUTCH:
Wat in den afgrond zonk, is weg, of stijgt,
En drijft, als ‘t vroeger deed.

MORE:
Allusion to the proverb, “When things are at the worst they will mend” (1582).
Onions:
Fits of the season=paroxysms, formerly regarded as a periodic disease; applied to critical times – “The violent fits o’ the time” (Cor, 3.2); “The fits o’ the season” (Macbeth, 4.2)
Schmidt:
School=To set to rights, to reprimand
Fits of the season= Any irregular and violent affection of the mind
Compleat:
To school=Bedillen, berispen
A Fit=Een vlaag, bui, overval, stoot
A Mad fits, a fit of madness=Een vlaag van dolheid

Topics: proverbs and idioms, still in use, invented or popularised, fate/destiny,

Things without all remedy
Should be without regard. What’s done is done.

PLAY: Macbeth
ACT/SCENE: 3.2
SPEAKER: Lady Macbeth
CONTEXT:
How now, my lord! Why do you keep alone,
Of sorriest fancies your companions making,
Using those thoughts which should indeed have died
With them they think on? Things without all remedy
Should be without regard. What’s done is done.

DUTCH:
Aan wien zij denken? Naar het onherstelb’re
Niet omgezien! ‘t Gedane blijft gedaan

MORE:
Allusion to the proverb “Things done cannot be undone” (c1460). Earlier version, “What is done may not be undone” (1300). perhaps also the proverb “Past cure, past care” (1567)

Topics: proverbs and idioms, still in use, invented or popularised, fate/destiny,

Think of that, a man of my kidney — think of that — that am as subject to heat as butter

PLAY: The Merry Wives of Windsor
ACT/SCENE:
SPEAKER: Falstaff
CONTEXT:
FALSTAFF
Nay, you shall hear, Master Brook, what I have
suffered to bring this woman to evil for your good.
Being thus crammed in the basket, a couple of Ford’s
knaves, his hinds, were called forth by their
mistress to carry me in the name of foul clothes to
Datchet Lane: they took me on their shoulders; met
the jealous knave their master in the door, who
asked them once or twice what they had in their
basket: I quaked for fear, lest the lunatic knave
would have searched it; but fate, ordaining he
should be a cuckold, held his hand. Well: on went he
for a search, and away went I for foul clothes. But
mark the sequel, Master Brook: I suffered the pangs
of three several deaths; first, an intolerable
fright, to be detected with a jealous rotten
bell-wether; next, to be compassed, like a good
bilbo, in the circumference of a peck, hilt to
point, heel to head; and then, to be stopped in,
like a strong distillation, with stinking clothes
that fretted in their own grease: think of that,—a
man of my kidney,—think of that,—that am as subject
to heat as butter; a man of continual dissolution
and thaw: it was a miracle to scape suffocation.
And in the height of this bath, when I was more than
half stewed in grease, like a Dutch dish, to be
thrown into the Thames, and cooled, glowing hot,
in that surge, like a horse-shoe; think of
that,—hissing hot,—think of that, Master Brook.

DUTCH:
Bedenk dit, — een man van mijn slag, — bedenk dit, —
die voor de hitte zooveel als boter is, een man van
voortdurend dooien en smelten

MORE:
Proverb: He is of the same (a strange) kidney

Compassed=Bent
Bilbo=1) Shackles used for mutinous sailors and to confine prisoners at sea. 2) A bilbo was also a rapier or flexed sword.
Bell-wether=Castrated ram leading the flock of ewes, wearing a bell around its neck; a clamourous person; a cuckold
Kidney=Constitution, temperament
Of my kidney=Having the same character
Dutch dish=Dutch food was considered to be especially greasy
Compleat:
To compass=Omvatten, omringen, bereyken
Bilboes=Zeekere straffe van ‘t bootsvolk
Bell-weather=Een Hamel met een bel aan

Topics: proverbs and idioms|punishment|fate/destiny

This is the excellent foppery of the world

PLAY: King Lear
ACT/SCENE: 1.2
SPEAKER: Edmund
CONTEXT:
This is the excellent foppery of the world, that, when we are sick in fortune, often the surfeit of our own behaviour, we make guilty of our disasters the sun, the moon, and the stars; as if we were villains on necessity; fools by heavenly compulsion; knaves, thieves, and treachers by spherical pre-dominance; drunkards, liars, and adulterers by an enforc’d obedience of planetary influence; and all that we are evil in, by a divine thrusting on. An admirable evasion of whore-master man, to lay his goatish disposition to the charge of a star!

DUTCH:

Dit is wel de uitstekende dwaasheid der wereld

MORE:
Schmidt:
Foppery= Foolishness
Sick in fortune=Down on our luck
Heavenly compulsion=Astrological influence
Divine thrusting on= Supernatural force
Compleat:
Foppery=Zotte kuuren, grillen, snaakerij.
‘T is a mere foppery=Het is loutere dwaasheid

Topics: life, nature, fate/destiny

This is the night that either makes me or fordoes me quite

PLAY: Othello
ACT/SCENE: 5.1
SPEAKER: Iago
CONTEXT:
EMILIA
Oh, fie upon thee, strumpet!
BIANCA
I am no strumpet, but of life as honest
As you that thus abuse me.
EMILIA
As I! Fie upon thee!
IAGO
Kind gentlemen, let’s go see poor Cassio dressed.—
Come, mistress, you must tell ’s another tale.—
Emilia, run you to the citadel
And tell my lord and lady what hath happed.—
Will you go on afore? Aside. This is the night
That either makes me or fordoes me quite.

DUTCH:
Dra blijkt, of deze nacht
Mij hoog verhief of diepen val mij bracht.

MORE:
Proverb: To make one tell another tale

Dressed=Wounds are dressed
Fordoes=Ruins
Tell ‘s another tale=Give us a different account
Compleat:
To dress a wound=Een wond verbinden
To fore-do=Benaadeelen
Tale=Vertelling

Topics: fate/destiny, risk, proverbs and idioms

This spark will prove a raging fire,
If wind and fuel be brought to feed it with

PLAY: King Henry VI Part 2
ACT/SCENE: 3.1
SPEAKER: Queen Margaret
CONTEXT:
YORK
No, not to lose it all, as thou hast done:
I rather would have lost my life betimes
Than bring a burthen of dishonour home
By staying there so long till all were lost.
Show me one scar character’d on thy skin:
Men’s flesh preserved so whole do seldom win.
QUEEN MARGARET
Nay, then, this spark will prove a raging fire,
If wind and fuel be brought to feed it with:
No more, good York; sweet Somerset, be still:
Thy fortune, York, hadst thou been regent there,
Might happily have proved far worse than his.

DUTCH:
Stil, stil, die vonk sloeg wis in vlammen uit,
Zoo wind en brandstof nu het vuur kwam voeden

MORE:

Betimes=Early, at an early hour
Burthen=Burden
Charactered=Written, inscribed, marked

Compleat:
Betimes=Bytyds, vroeg
Burden=Last, pak, vracht
Character=Een merk, merkteken, letter, afbeeldsel, uitdruksel, print, stempel, uitgedruktbeeld, uitbeelding

Topics: fate/destiny, consequence, conflict

Though patience be a tired mare, yet she will plod.

PLAY: King Henry V
ACT/SCENE: 2.1
SPEAKER: Nym
CONTEXT:
NYM
Faith, I will live so long as I may, that’s the certain of it. And when I cannot live any longer, I will do as I may. That is my rest; that is the rendezvous of it.
BARDOLPH
It is certain, corporal, that he is married to Nell Quickly, and certainly she did you wrong, for you were troth-plight to her.
NYM
I cannot tell. Things must be as they may. Men may sleep, and they may have their throats about them at that time, and some say knives have edges. It must be as it may. Though patience be a tired mare, yet she will plod. There must be conclusions. Well, I cannot tell.

DUTCH:
Het moet gaan, zooals het wil; al is
geduld een afgejakkerde knol, voortploeteren doet het
toch.

MORE:

Rendezvous=Refuge, retreat
Troth-plight=Betrothed
Patience be a tired mare=Patience is wearing thin

Compleat:
Troth=Trouw
In troth=Ter goeder trouw

Topics: fate/destiny, patience, trust

Thus must I from the smoke into the smother, from tyrant duke unto a tyrant brother

PLAY: As You Like It
ACT/SCENE: 1.2
SPEAKER: Orlando
CONTEXT:
LE BEAU
Neither his daughter, if we judge by manners,
But yet indeed the smaller is his daughter
The other is daughter to the banished duke,
And here detained by her usurping uncle
To keep his daughter company, whose loves
Are dearer than the natural bond of sisters.
But I can tell you that of late this duke
Hath ta’en displeasure ‘gainst his gentle niece,
Grounded upon no other argument
But that the people praise her for her virtues
And pity her for her good father’s sake;
And, on my life, his malice ‘gainst the lady
Will suddenly break forth. Sir, fare you well.
Hereafter, in a better world than this,
I shall desire more love and knowledge of you.
ORLANDO
I rest much bounden to you. Fare you well.
Thus must I from the smoke into the smother,
From tyrant duke unto a tyrant brother.
But heavenly Rosalind!

DUTCH:
Thans voort, uit smook naar ‘t hol, waar smoring wacht,
Uit vorstendwang in ‘s boozen broeders macht!

MORE:
Proverb: Shunning the smoke, he fell into the fire (Tilley 570)
Fumum fugiens, in ignem incidi – Fleeing from the smoke I fell into the fire

Smother=Thick, suffocating smoke (From the frying pan into the fire.)
Manners=Morals, character
Argument=Reason
Bounden=Obliged, indebted
Compleat:
Manners=Zeden, manieren, manierlykheid
Argument=Bewys, bewysreden, dringreden; kort begrip der zaak die te bewyzen staat; inhoud
Bounden=Schuldig. Bounden duty=Schuldigen pligt

Topics: fate/destiny, relationship, proverbs and idioms

Thy mind is a very opal

PLAY: Twelfth Night
ACT/SCENE: 2.4
SPEAKER: Fool
CONTEXT:
FOOL
No pains, sir. I take pleasure in singing, sir.
ORSINO
I’ll pay thy pleasure then.
FOOL
Truly, sir, and pleasure will be paid, one time or
another.
ORSINO
Give me now leave to leave thee.
FOOL
Now, the melancholy god protect thee, and the tailor
make thy doublet of changeable taffeta, for thy mind is
a very opal. I would have men of such constancy put to
sea, that their business might be everything and their
intent everywhere, for that’s it that always makes a
good voyage of nothing. Farewell.

DUTCH:
Nu, de god der zwaarmoedigheid bescherme u, en de
kleermaker make u een kleed van kameleonzijde, want
uw gemoed is een echte opaal

MORE:
Proverb: There is no pleasure without pain
Proverb: Every dram of delight has a pound of pain
Proverb: No joy without annoy

Melancholy god=Saturn, god of melancholy
Changeable=Colours that change in a different light
Opal=Iridiscent
Nothing=Lack of activity
Compleat:
Melancholy=Zwaarmoedigheyd, zwartgalligheyd, droefgeestigheyd, zwarte gal
Opal=Opaalsteen, een edel gesteente

Topics: proverbs and idioms, achievement, work, fate/destiny

To our honour’s great disparagement

DUTCH:
En, zonder groote schade voor onze eer,
‘t Geslagen vonnis geen herroeping duldt,
Wil ik u gunstig zijn, zooveel ik kan.

Topics: fate/destiny, dignity, honour, punishment, delay

We thank you both: yet one but flatters us, As well appeareth by the cause you come; Namely to appeal each other of high treason.

PLAY: Richard II
ACT/SCENE: 1.1
SPEAKER: King Richard II
CONTEXT:
HENRY BOLINGBROKE
Many years of happy days befall
My gracious sovereign, my most loving liege!
THOMAS MOWBRAY
Each day still better other’s happiness;
Until the heavens, envying earth’s good hap,
Add an immortal title to your crown!
KING RICHARD II
We thank you both: yet one but flatters us,
As well appeareth by the cause you come;
Namely to appeal each other of high treason.
Cousin of Hereford, what dost thou object
Against the Duke of Norfolk, Thomas Mowbray?

DUTCH:
Hebt beiden dank; doch een is slechts een vleier;
De reden van uw hierzijn spreekt dit uit:
Gij legt elkander hoogverraad te last.

MORE:

Schmidt:
Liege=Term used to express allegiance to the king
Hap=Fortune
Appeal=Accuse

Compleat:
A liege Lord=Een Opperheer, die onder niemand staat

Topics: fate/destiny, law/legal, blame, dispute

Well, if Fortune be a woman, she’s a good wench for this gear.

PLAY: The Merchant of Venice
ACT/SCENE: 2.2
SPEAKER: Launcelot
CONTEXT:
LAUNCELOT
The old proverb is very well parted between my master
Shylock and you, sir—you have “the grace of God,” sir,
and he hath “enough.”
BASSANIO
Thou speak’st it well.—Go, father, with thy son.—
Take leave of thy old master and inquire
My lodging out.—
Give him a livery
More guarded than his fellows’. See it done.
LAUNCELOT
Father, in. I cannot get a service, no. I have ne’er a
tongue in my head.
Well, if any man in Italy have a fairer table which doth offer to swear upon a book, I shall have good fortune. Go to, here’s a simple line of life. Here’s a small trifle of wives. Alas, fifteen wives is nothing! Eleven widows and nine maids is a simple coming-in for one man. And then to ’scape
drowning thrice and to be in peril of my life with the
edge of a feather-bed—here are simple ’scapes. Well, if
Fortune be a woman, she’s a good wench for this
gear.—Father, come. I’ll take my leave of the Jew in the
twinkling.

DUTCH:
Ik moet zeggen, als Fortuin een vrouw is, dan
is zij in dat opzicht een goeie meid. — Kom, vader; ik
zal in een ommezientjen klaar wezen met dat afscheidnemen
van den jood.

MORE:
Guarded=Edged with braid
Table=Hand palm
Simple=Ordinary
Coming-in=Income
This gear=This matter
Compleat:
Geer or gear=Optooisel, stof
To be in his geers=Gereed staan, vaerdig zyn

Topics: emotion and mood, misquoted

What fates impose, that men must needs abide;
It boots not to resist both wind and tide.

PLAY: King Henry VI Part 3
ACT/SCENE: 4.3
SPEAKER: King Edward IV
CONTEXT:
What fates impose, that men must needs abide;
It boots not to resist both wind and tide.

DUTCH:
De mensch verduur’ zijn noodlot, goed of kwaad;
En wind èn tij te trotsen, geeft geen baat.

MORE:

Must needs=Needs must
Boots not=No point, profit, advantage

Compleat:
It must needs be so=Het moet noodzaakelyk zo zyn
It is to no boot=Het doet geen nut, ‘t is te vergeefs

Topics: fate/destiny

What foul play had we that we came from thence?

PLAY: The Tempest
ACT/SCENE: 1.2
SPEAKER: Miranda
CONTEXT:
PROSPERO
Thy mother was a piece of virtue, and
She said thou wast my daughter; and thy father
Was Duke of Milan, and his only heir
And princess, no worse issued.
MIRANDA
O, the heavens!
What foul play had we that we came from thence?
Or blessed wast we did?
PROSPERO
Both, both, my girl.
By foul play, as thou sayst, were we heaved thence,
But blessedly holp hither.

DUTCH:
0, hemel!
Wat booze treken dreven ons van daar?
Of brachten zij ons zegen?

MORE:
Piece of virtue=Masterpiece, perfect specimen or
Worse issue=Lower (no worse issued = not of lesser birth than a pricess)
Holp=Short for holpen, helped
Compleat:
Holpen=Geholpen
Holp op=Opgeholpen
Ill holp op=In een slegte staat laaten
Issue=Afkomst, afkomeling

Topics: virtue, understanding, status, foul play, fate/destiny

What impossible matter will he make easy next?

PLAY: The Tempest
ACT/SCENE: 2.1
SPEAKER: Antonio
CONTEXT:
GONZALO
I assure you, Carthage.
SEBASTIAN
His word is more than the miraculous harp. He hath raised the wall and houses too.
ANTONIO
What impossible matter will he make easy next?
SEBASTIAN
I think he will carry this island home in his pocket and give it his son for an apple.
ANTONIO
And sowing the kernels of it in the sea, bring forth more islands.
GONZALO
Ay.
ANTONIO
Why, in good time.

DUTCH:
Wat voor een onmogelijkheid zal hij den volgenden
keer uithalen.?

MORE:
Miraculous harp: In Greek mythology, Amphion used a harp to raise the walls of Thebes. Sebastian
suggests that Gonzalo rebuilt all of Carthage by conflating it with Tunis. (Arden)
Compleat:
Miraculous=Wonderbaarlyk
Kernel=Pit, kern, korrel
Burgersdijk notes:
Dan Amphion’s wonderharp. In het oorspronkelijke staat alleen: „dan de wonderharp” of „dan de wonderdoende harp”; de harp, of lier, van Amphion wordt bedoeld, op wier klanken de steenen zich samenvoegden tot den opbouw van Thebe’s muren.

Topics: achievement, ambition, purpose, fate/destiny

What my great-grandfather and grandsire got
My careless father fondly gave away

PLAY: King Henry VI Part 3
ACT/SCENE: 2.2
SPEAKER: Clifford
CONTEXT:
Unreasonable creatures feed their young;
And though man’s face be fearful to their eyes,
Yet, in protection of their tender ones,
Who hath not seen them, even with those wings
Which sometime they have used with fearful flight,
Make war with him that climb’d unto their nest,
Offer their own lives in their young’s defence?
For shame, my liege, make them your precedent!
Were it not pity that this goodly boy
Should lose his birthright by his father’s fault,
And long hereafter say unto his child,
‘What my great-grandfather and grandsire got
My careless father fondly gave away’?
Ah, what a shame were this! Look on the boy;
And let his manly face, which promiseth
Successful fortune, steel thy melting heart
To hold thine own and leave thine own with him.

DUTCH:
Waar’ ‘t niet een jammer, dat die wakk’re knaap
Zijn erfdeel door zijns vaders schuld zou derven,
En tot zijn zoon in later tijd moest zeggen: —
„Wat groot- en oudgrootvader eens verwierven,
Dat gaf mijn zwakke vader zorgloos weg!”

MORE:

Unreasonable=Without the power of reason (unreasonable creatures=animals)
Fearful=(1)Frightening; (2) Terrified
Sometime=On occasion
Fondly=Foolishly
Steel=To harden

Compleat:
To steel (or harden)=Hardmaaken, verharden
Fond=Zot, dwaas, ongerymt

Topics: reason, courage, value, fate/destiny

What they do delay, they not deny

PLAY: Antony and Cleopatra
ACT/SCENE: 2.1
SPEAKER: Menas
CONTEXT:
POMPEY
If the great gods be just, they shall assist
The deeds of justest men.
MENAS
Know, worthy Pompey,
That what they do delay, they not deny.
POMPEY
Whiles we are suitors to their throne, decays
The thing we sue for.
MENAS
We, ignorant of ourselves,
Beg often our own harms, which the wise powers
Deny us for our good, so find we profit
By losing of our prayers.
POMPEY
I shall do well.
The people love me, and the sea is mine.
My powers are crescent, and my auguring hope
Says it will come to th’ full. Mark Antony
In Egypt sits at dinner, and will make
No wars without doors. Caesar gets money where
He loses hearts. Lepidus flatters both,
Of both is flattered, but he neither loves,
Nor either cares for him.

DUTCH:
Geduld, Pompeius!
Wat zij verdagen, is niet afgeslagen.

MORE:
Whiles we are suitors=While we are praying
Decays=Loses value
Auguring=Prophesying
Without doors=Outside
Compleat:
While=Een wyl, poos; terwijl
Between whiles=Bij tusschenpoozen, van tyd tot tyd
Decay=Voorval, afneeming, verwelking, veroudering, vermindering, ondergang
An augur=Een vogel-waarzegger
To augurate=Voorzeggen, voorspellen
Without=Van buyten, buyten

Topics: fate/destiny, honesty, value, wisdom

What you have charged me with, that have I done,
And more, much more

PLAY: King Lear
ACT/SCENE: 5.3
SPEAKER: Edmund
CONTEXT:
What you have charged me with, that have I done,
And more, much more; the time will bring it out.
‘Tis past, and so am I. But what art thou
That hast this fortune on me? If thou’rt noble,
I do forgive thee.
EDGAR
Let’s exchange charity.
I am no less in blood than thou art, Edmond.
If more, the more th’hast wronged me.
My name is Edgar, and thy father’s son.
The gods are just, and of our pleasant vices
Make instruments to plague us.
The dark and vicious place where thee he got
Cost him his eyes.

DUTCH:
Al wat gij mij verweet, ik heb ‘t gedaan,
En meer, veel meer; de tijd zal ‘t openbaren;
‘t Is al voorbij, ik ook. Maar wie zijt gij,
Die mij versloegt ? Zijt gij van adel, dan
Vergeef ik u.

MORE:
Schmidt;
Charity=That disposition of heart which inclines men to think favourably of their fellow-men, and to do them good.

Topics: blame, offence, mercy, civility, fate/destiny, status

What’s past is prologue

PLAY: The Tempest
ACT/SCENE: 2.1
SPEAKER: Antonio
CONTEXT:
She that is Queen of Tunis; she that dwells
Ten leagues beyond man’s life; she that from Naples
Can have no note, unless the sun were post—
The man i’ th’ moon’s too slow—till newborn chins
Be rough and razorable; she that from whom
We all were sea-swallowed, though some cast again,
And by that destiny to perform an act
Whereof what’s past is prologue, what to come
In yours and my discharge.

DUTCH:
Zij, door wier echt de zee ons allen inzwolg,
Schoon ze enk’len weergaf, die zij daardoor wenkt
Een stuk te doen, waarvan ‘t gebeurde een voorspel,
Wat volgt ons beider rol is.

MORE:
CITED IN EU LAW: SARGSYAN v. AZERBAIJAN – 40167/06 – Grand Chamber Judgment [2015] ECHR 588 (16 June 2015)/(2017) 64 EHRR 4, [2015] ECHR 588, 64 EHRR 4
Cast=Thrown ashore
By that destiny=Thus destined
Discharge=Fulfilment, performance, execution (of an obligation, duty, function) (“what to come… discharge”=What is to come is down to you and me)
Compleat:
To earthen=Begraven, met aarde overdekken
To cast up=Opwerpen, braaken
“Past is prologue” even inspired the title of a Star Trek episode!

Topics: life, still in use, fate/destiny, cited in law

Whip me, ye devils, from the possession of this heavenly sight!

PLAY: Othello
ACT/SCENE: 5.2
SPEAKER: Othello
CONTEXT:
OTHELLO
Behold, I have a weapon.
A better never did itself sustain
Upon a soldier’s thigh. I have seen the day
That with this little arm and this good sword
I have made my way through more impediments
Than twenty times your stop. But, oh, vain boast!
Who can control his fate? ’tis not so now.
Be not afraid, though you do see me weaponed.
Here is my journey’s end, here is my butt,
And very sea-mark of my utmost sail.
Do you go back dismayed? ’tis a lost fear.
Man but a rush against Othello’s breast,
And he retires. Where should Othello go?—
Now, how dost thou look now? O ill-starred wench,
Pale as thy smock! When we shall meet at compt
This look of thine will hurl my soul from heaven
And fiends will snatch at it. Cold, cold, my girl,
Even like thy chastity. O cursed, cursed slave!
Whip me, ye devils,
From the possession of this heavenly sight!
Blow me about in winds, roast me in sulphur,
Wash me in steep-down gulfs of liquid fire!—
Oh, Desdemona! Desdemona! dead! Oh! Oh!

DUTCH:
Gij duiv’len, zweept mij
Weg van ‘t genot van dezen hemelaanblik!
Blaast mij in stormen rond en ziedt me in sulfer!
Baadt, dompelt mij in ‘s afgronds vloeibaar vuur!

MORE:
Stop=Ability to stop
Butt=Target, destination
Utmost sail=Final voyage
Sea-mark=Beacon or other marker
Lost=Futile, groundless
Man but a rush=Wield no more than a reed
Retires=Retreats
Compt=Accounting (Judgment Day)
Compleat:
Butt=Een doel of paalsteen
Lost=Verlooren
To retire (withddraw)=Vertrekken, terugtrekken
Accompt=Rekening, begrooting

Topics: fate/destiny, regret

Why, our authority is his consent,
And what we do establish he confirms

PLAY: King Henry VI Part 2
ACT/SCENE: 3.1
SPEAKER: Suffolk
CONTEXT:
CARDINAL
My Lord of York, try what your fortune is.
The uncivil kerns of Ireland are in arms
And temper clay with blood of Englishmen:
To Ireland will you lead a band of men,
Collected choicely, from each county some,
And try your hap against the Irishmen?
YORK
I will, my lord, so please his majesty.
SUFFOLK
Why, our authority is his consent,
And what we do establish he confirms:
Then, noble York, take thou this task in hand.

DUTCH:
Nu, ons gezag is ook des konings jawoord,
En wat wij hier bepalen vindt hij goed;
Dus, eed’le York, belast u met die taak.

MORE:

Kern=Irish footsoldier
In arms=Armed
Temper=To moisten; to mix
Hap=Luck
Collected choicely=Selected carefully
Confirms=Assents to

Compleat:
Kern=Een ligtgewapend Iersch Soldaat
Hap=Het luk, geval, toeval
Choicely=Keurlyk
To confirm=Bevestigen, bekrachtigen, verzekeeren, versterken

Topics: authority, duty, fate/destiny

Wrong hath but wrong, and blame the due of blame

PLAY: Richard III
ACT/SCENE: 5.1
SPEAKER: Buckingham
CONTEXT:
BUCKINGHAM
Why, then All Souls’ Day is my body’s doomsday.
This is the day which, in King Edward’s time,
I wished might fall on me when I was found
False to his children and his wife’s allies.
This is the day wherein I wished to fall
By the false faith of him who most I trusted.
This, this All Souls’ Day to my fearful soul
Is the determined respite of my wrongs.
That high All-seer which I dallied with
Hath turned my feignèd prayer on my head
And given in earnest what I begged in jest.
Thus doth he force the swords of wicked men
To turn their own points in their masters’ bosoms.
Thus Margaret’s curse falls heavy upon my neck:
“When he,” quoth she, “shall split thy heart with sorrow,
Remember Margaret was a prophetess.”—
Come, lead me, officers, to the block of shame.
Wrong hath but wrong, and blame the due of blame.

DUTCH:
Komt, leidt mij naar het schandblok, mannen; ‘t loon
Voor onrecht-doen zij onrecht, hoon voor hoon.

MORE:
Doomsday=Day of Judgment
Allies=Kingsmen
Fearful=Terrified
Due=Retribution
Compleat:
Dooms-day=De dag des oordeels
Dooms-day Book=Zeker boek waar in de Landeryën van Engeland en derzelver waarde aangetekend staan
To ally=Vereenigen, verbinden, vermaagschappen
Fearful=Vreesachtig, vreeslyk, schroomelyk
Due=Behoorlyk, schuldig; vervallen

Topics: judgment, status, fate/destiny, blame, punishment

Yield not thy neck to Fortune’s yoke

PLAY: King Henry VI Part 3
ACT/SCENE: 3.3
SPEAKER: King Lewis
CONTEXT:
QUEEN MARGARET
From such a cause as fills mine eyes with tears
And stops my tongue, while heart is drown’d in cares.
KING LEWIS XI
Whate’er it be, be thou still like thyself,
And sit thee by our side:
KING LEWIS XI
Yield not thy neck
To fortune’s yoke, but let thy dauntless mind
Still ride in triumph over all mischance.
Be plain, Queen Margaret, and tell thy grief;
It shall be eased, if France can yield relief.

DUTCH:
Buig den nek toch niet
Voor ‘t juk van ‘t noodlot; zegevierend drave
Uw kloeke geest, den nood vertrappend, voort;

MORE:

Cares=Grief, sorrow
Still=Always
Yoke=Emblem of slavery
Dauntless=Fearless
Mischance=Misfortune
Tell=Tell about

Compleat:
Care=Zorg, bezorgdheid, zorgdraagendheid, zorgvuldigheid, vlytigheid
Still=Steeds, gestadig, altyd
Yoke=Een juk; (yoke of bondage) Het juk der dienstbaarheid
To stoop onder the yoke=Onder ‘t juk buigen
Dauntless=Onverschrokken, onbevreest
Mischance=Een misval, mislukking, ongeval, ongeluk

Topics: grief, sorrow, fate/destiny

You fools! I and my fellows Are ministers of fate.

PLAY: The Tempest
ACT/SCENE: 3.3
SPEAKER: Ariel
CONTEXT:
You are three men of sin, whom Destiny,
That hath to instrument this lower world
And what is in ’t, the never-surfeited sea
Hath caused to belch up you—and on this island
Where man doth not inhabit, you ’mongst men
Being most unfit to live. I have made you mad,
And even with suchlike valor men hang and drown
Their proper selves.
You fools, I and my fellows
Are ministers of fate. The elements
Of whom your swords are tempered may as well
Wound the loud winds or with bemocked-at stabs
Kill the still-closing waters as diminish
One dowl that’s in my plume. My fellow ministers
Are like invulnerable.

DUTCH:
Gij dwazen! mijne makkers
En ik zijn ‘s noodlots dienaars

MORE:
Surfeit=To feed to excess, to cloy (used only in the partic. –ed: “the never –ed sea,”)
Ministers=Agents, servants
Dowl(e)=Fibre of down in a feather (“diminish one d. that’s in my plume”)
Still-closing=Always coalescing again

Topics: fate/destiny, power, corruption

You need not to stop your nose, sir. I spake but by a metaphor.

PLAY: All’s Well that Ends Well
ACT/SCENE: 5.2
SPEAKER: Parolles
CONTEXT:
PAROLLES
Good Monsieur Lavatch, give my Lord LAFEW this
letter: I have ere now, sir, been better known to
you, when I have held familiarity with fresher
clothes; but I am now, sir, muddied in fortune’s
mood, and smell somewhat strong of her strong
displeasure.
CLOWN
Truly, fortune’s displeasure is but sluttish, if it
smell so strongly as thou speakest of: I will
henceforth eat no fish of fortune’s buttering.
Prithee, allow the wind.
PAROLLES
Nay, you need not to stop your nose, sir; I spake
but by a metaphor.
CLOWN
Indeed, sir, if your metaphor stink, I will stop my
nose; or against any man’s metaphor. Prithee, get thee further.
PAROLLES
Pray you, sir, deliver me this paper.
CLOWN
Foh! prithee, stand away: a paper from fortune’s
close-stool to give to a nobleman! Look, here he
comes himself.

DUTCH:
Neen, gij behoeft uw neus niet dicht te houden, heer;
ik bediende mij daar van beeldspraak .

MORE:
Sluttish=Unclean, nasty
Allow the wind=Stand downwind
Stop=Block, hold your nose
Close-stool=Chamber pot
Compleat:
Sluttish=Sloeriachtig, morsig, kladdig
Close-stool=Kakstoel

Topics: fate/destiny

Your letters did withhold our breaking forth

PLAY: Antony and Cleopatra
ACT/SCENE: 3.6
SPEAKER: Caesar
CONTEXT:
OCTAVIA
Ay me, most wretched,
That have my heart parted betwixt two friends
That does afflict each other!
CAESAR
Welcome hither.
Your letters did withhold our breaking forth
Till we perceived both how you were wrong led
And we in negligent danger. Cheer your heart.
Be you not troubled with the time, which drives
O’er your content these strong necessities,
But let determined things to destiny
Hold unbewailed their way. Welcome to Rome,
Nothing more dear to me. You are abused
Beyond the mark of thought, and the high gods,
To do you justice, makes his ministers
Of us and those that love you. Best of comfort,
And ever welcome to us.

DUTCH:
Uw schrijven slechts weerhield mij op te breken,
Totdat ons bleek, hoe u bedrog omgaf
En dralen ons gevaar bracht. Wees getroost!

MORE:
Parted=Divided, torn
Betwixt=Between
Afflict=Grieve, distress
Withhold=Restrain
Breaking forth=Outbreak (waging war)
Wrong led=Misled, deceived
Negligent danger=At risk because of negligence
Time=The current state of affairs
Determined=Pre-determined
Destiny=Foregone conclusion
Hold their way=Take their course
Mark of thought=Comprehension
Compleat:
Parted=Gedeelt, gescheyden, geschift
Betwixt=Tusschen, tusschenbeide
To afflict=Quellen, lastig vallen, verdrukken, verdriet aandoen
To withhold=Onttrekken, onthouden
To break forth=Uytbarsten, opborlen
Determined=Bepaald, gesloten
Destiny=’t Noodlot, beschooren deel

Topics: fate/destiny, communication, abuse, deceit, negligence