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PLAY: The Tempest
ACT/SCENE: 4.1
SPEAKER: Prospero
CONTEXT:
A devil, a born devil on whose nature
Nurture can never stick, on whom my pains,
Humanely taken, all, all lost, quite lost.
And as with age his body uglier grows,
So his mind cankers. I will plague them all,
Even to roaring.

DUTCH:
Een duivel, een geboren duivel, waar
Verpleging aan verspild is, alle zorg,
Die ‘k liefd’rijk droeg, verloren, gansch verloren!


MORE:
Pains humanely taken = efforts with the best intentions
Canker’ blossom (or canker rose): dog rose or wild rose. Also used to refer to something that would destroy, infect or decay.
Compleat:
Humanely=Menschelyker wyze, beleefdelyk
Canker=Inkankeren, ineeten

Topics: insult, good and bad, nature

PLAY: King Lear
ACT/SCENE: 2.2
SPEAKER: Kent
CONTEXT:
A knave, a rascal, an eater of broken meats; a base, proud, shallow, beggarly, three-suited, hundred-pound, filthy, worsted-stocking knave; a lily-livered, action-taking knave; a whoreson, glass-gazing, super-serviceable finical rogue; one-trunk-inheriting slave; one that wouldst be a bawd in way of good service; and art nothing but the composition of a knave, beggar, coward, pander, and the son and heir of a mongrel bitch; one whom I will beat into clamorous whining if thou deniest the least syllable of thy addition

DUTCH:
Dat je een schurk bent, een gladjakker, een pottenlikker,
een lage, verwaten, leeghoofdige bedelaar; een gratis
livreien dragende;

MORE:

White livers used to signify cowardice. Hence lily-livered (Macbeth, 5.3) and milk-livered (King Lear, 4.2), both compounds coined by Shakespeare
Schmidt:
Broken meats=Dcraps, leftovers, such as a menial would eat
Three-suited= Serving men were allotted three suits of clothes
Glass-gazing=Vain
Finical=fussy, fastidious
One-trunk-inheriting=With only enough possessions to fill one trunk
Compleat:
Finical (affected)=Gemaakt, styf
Broken meat=Klieken, overschoten spyze.
Burgersdijk notes:
Bedelachtigen, pronkenigen. Zeer duidelijk zijn de scheldwoorden in het oorspronkelijke niet. Het beggarly zou b. v, wel een bepaling van threesuited kunnen zijn, en dit laatste behoeft dan niet te zien op het vaak verwisselen van kleederen, zooals pronkers doen, maar den dienaar kenschetsen, daar misschien een meester aan zijne knecht drie pakken in ‘t jaar gaf. Het worsted-stocking, dat volgt, ziet op de gewoonte om, zoo het maar even ging, zijden kousen te dragen; wie grofwollen kousen droeg, was niet veel bijzonders.

Topics: insult, invented or popularised, poverty and wealth, order/society, status

PLAY: All’s Well that Ends Well
ACT/SCENE: 3.6
SPEAKER: Second Lord
CONTEXT:
SECOND LORD
Nay, good my lord, put him to’t; let him have his way.
FIRST LORD
If your lordship find him not a hilding, hold me no
more in your respect.
SECOND LORD
On my life, my lord, a bubble.
BERTRAM
Do you think I am so far deceived in him?
SECOND LORD
Believe it, my lord, in mine own direct knowledge,
without any malice, but to speak of him as my
kinsman, he’s a most notable coward, an infinite and
endless liar, an hourly promise-breaker, the owner
of no one good quality worthy your lordship’s
entertainment.
FIRST LORD
It were fit you knew him; lest, reposing too far in
his virtue, which he hath not, he might at some
great and trusty business in a main danger fail you.

DUTCH:
Geloof mij, edel heer; naar mijn eigen onmiddellijke waarneming, zonder eenige de minste boosheid en om van hem te spreken als van een bloedverwant, hij is een erkende lafaard, een oneindige, grenzenlooze leugenaar, een, die om het uur zijn belofte breekt en geene enkele goede eigenschap bezit, die hem den omgang met uwe edelheid waardig kan maken.

MORE:
A hilding=Worthless, wretched being
Bubble=Cheat
Entertainment=Keeping in employment, service
Compleat:
To bubble=Bedriegen
A bubble=Een onnozel hals
Entertainment=Huysvesting, onderhoud

Topics: insult, reputation, deceit

PLAY: King Henry IV Part 2
ACT/SCENE: 1.2
SPEAKER: Falstaff
CONTEXT:
Let him be damned like the glutton! Pray God his tongue be
hotter! A whoreson Achitophel, a rascally yea-forsooth
knave, to bear a gentleman in hand and then stand upon
security! The whoreson smoothy-pates do now wear
nothing but high shoes and bunches of keys at their girdles;
and if a man is through with them in honest taking up, then
they must stand upon security. I had as lief they would put
ratsbane in my mouth as offer to stop it with “security.”

DUTCH:
Zoo ‘n hondsvot van een Achitofel! zoo’n schoftige ja-waarachtig-schelm! een man van stand aan den praat te houden, en dan op een borgtocht te staan!

MORE:
Yea-forsooth=Too ready to with the oath
Bear in hand=Assure
Stand upon=Demand
Smoothy-pates=Short-haired Puritan businessmen
Keys at their girdles=Self-important, with keys implying assets
Had as lief=Would just as soon
Ratsbane=Rat poison

Compleat:
To bear one in hand (to make fair pretences that a thing shall be done)=Iemand met schoone beloften paaijen
To stand (or insist) upon one’s privilege=Op zyne voorrechten staan, dezelven vorderen
To stand upon his reputation=Op zyne eere staan
I had as lief=Ik wilde al zo lief

Topics: insult, security, business

PLAY: King Henry IV Part 1
ACT/SCENE: 2.3
SPEAKER: Lady Percy
CONTEXT:
Out, you mad-headed ape!
A weasel hath not such a deal of spleen
As you are tossed with. In faith,
I’ll know your business, Harry, that I will.
I fear my brother Mortimer doth stir
About his title, and hath sent for you
To line his enterprise;

DUTCH:
Och kom, wat apenfratsen!
Een wezel zelfs heeft zooveel grillen niet,
Als die ù plagen. Op mijn woord, ik wil
Uw plannen weten, Hendrik; ja, ik wil ’t.

MORE:
The spleen was viewed as a a source of passion and emotion, both positive and negative.
See Cymbeline 3.4: “As quarrelous as the weasel”.
Schmidt:
Toss (metaphorically)=To throw up and down, to cause to rise and fall, to move to and fro.
To line=To fill on the inside; used for money (financial aid, support)
Enterprise= Attempt, undertaking
Compleat:
Spleen=De milt
Spleen (Spite, hatred or grudge)=Spyt, haat, wrak
Enterprise=Onderneemen, onderwinden, bestaan, aanvangen

Topics: conspiracy, plans/intentions, insult, , suspicion, discovery

PLAY: The Taming of the Shrew
ACT/SCENE: 4.1
SPEAKER: Petruchio
CONTEXT:
KATHERINE
Patience, I pray you! ‘Twas a fault unwilling.
PETRUCHIO
A whoreson, beetle-headed, flap-eared knave!—
Come, Kate, sit down. I know you have a stomach.
Will you give thanks, sweet Kate, or else shall I?—
What’s this? Mutton?

DUTCH:
Het is een schoelje, een langoor, een schavuit !
Ga zitten, Kaatjen, gij zult hong’rig zijn .
Doet gij ‘t gebed, mijn lieve Kaatjen, of ik ? –
Wat is dat? Lamsbout?

MORE:
Fault unwilling=Unintentional mistake
Beetle-headed=Blockhead
Stomach=Appetite
Give thanks=Say grace
Compleat:
Unwilling=Ongewillig, ongeneegen
Beetle-headed=Plomp, bot
Stomach=Gramsteurigheyd
Stomach=Trek (appetite); hart (spirit)

Topics: insult, patience, flaw/fault

PLAY: The Comedy of Errors
ACT/SCENE: 4.2
SPEAKER: Adriana
CONTEXT:

ADRIANA
I cannot, nor I will not hold me still;
My tongue, though not my heart, shall have his will.
He is deformèd, crooked, old, and sere,
Ill-faced, worse-bodied, shapeless everywhere,
Vicious, ungentle, foolish, blunt, unkind,
Stigmatical in making, worse in mind.
LUCIANA
Who would be jealous, then, of such a one?
No evil lost is wailed when it is gone.
ADRIANA
Ah, but I think him better than I say,
And yet would herein others’ eyes were worse.
Far from her nest the lapwing cries away.
My heart prays for him, though my tongue do curse.

DUTCH:
O, maar ik acht hem beter, dan ik zeg;
Als and’rer oog hem maar zoo haatlijk vond!
De kieviet schreeuwt, is hij van ‘t nest ver weg;
Mijn harte bidt voor hem, al vloekt mijn mond.

MORE:
Proverb: The lapwing cries most when farthest from her nest

Hold me still=Stay quiet
Sere=Withered
Stigmatical=Ugly, deformed
Lapwing=Bird that deceives predators by faking the location of its nest
Compleat:
Still=Stil
Stigmatical=Gebrandmerkt, eerloos
Lapwing=Kievit

Burgersdijk notes:
De kievit schreeuwt, enz. In Sh’s. tijd werd de kievit meermalen hiervoor aangehaald, ja de uitdrukking schijnt spreekwoordelijk geweest te zijn. In LILY’s Campaspe leest men:
„You resemble the lapwing, who crieth most where her nest is not.” Shakespeare zelf herhaalt het beeld in ,Maat voor Maat,” I.4.

Topics: deceit, perception, insult, proverbs and idioms, envy, manipulation

PLAY: A Midsummer Night’s Dream
ACT/SCENE: 3.2
SPEAKER: Hermia
CONTEXT:
HERMIA
Out, dog! Out, cur! Thou drivest me past the bounds
Of maiden’s patience. Hast thou slain him then?
Henceforth be never numbered among men!
Oh, once tell true, tell true even for my sake—
Durst thou have looked upon him being awake,
And hast thou killed him sleeping? O brave touch!
Could not a worm, an adder, do so much?
An adder did it, for with doubler tongue
Than thine, thou serpent, never adder stung.

DUTCH:
Is ‘t niet een slang, een adder, die zoo doet?
Een adder deed het, ja; en valscher beet
Deed nooit een slang, dan dien gij, adder, deedt.

MORE:
Brave touch=Noble move
Worm=Snake
Doubler=More forked
Compleat:
Brave=Braaf, fraai, treffelyk, dapper
Touch=Aanraaking, gevoel; toets

Topics: insult, truth, deceit, truth

PLAY: King Lear
ACT/SCENE: 5.3
SPEAKER: Edgar
CONTEXT:
Despite thy victor sword and fire-new fortune,
Thy valor and thy heart—thou art a traitor,
False to thy gods, thy brother, and thy father,
Conspirant ‘gainst this high illustrious prince,
And from th’ extremest upward of thy head
To the descent and dust below thy foot
A most toad-spotted traitor. Say thou “No,”
This sword, this arm, and my best spirits are bent
To prove upon thy heart, whereto I speak,
Thou liest.

DUTCH:
Verrader van uw schedel tot aan ‘t stof,
Dat onder uwe voeten is, gevlekt
Gelijk de vuilste pad

MORE:
Proverb: From the crown of his head to the soul of his foot (c.1300)
Schmidt:
Fire-new=Brand new, freshly minted
Toad-spotted=Tainted and polluted with venom like the toad
Compleat:
Fire-new (brand new)=Vlinder nieuw
Spotted=Bevlekt, gevlakt

Topics: insult, truth, honesty, conspiracy

PLAY: As You Like It
ACT/SCENE: 2.7
SPEAKER: Jaques
CONTEXT:
JAQUES
O worthy fool!— One that hath been a courtier
And says, “If ladies be but young and fair,
They have the gift to know it.” And in his brain,
Which is as dry as the remainder biscuit
After a voyage, he hath strange places crammed
With observation, the which he vents
In mangled forms. Oh, that I were a fool!
I am ambitious for a motley coat.
DUKE SENIOR
Thou shalt have one.
JAQUES
It is my only suit
Provided that you weed your better judgements
Of all opinion that grows rank in them
That I am wise. I must have liberty
Withal, as large a charter as the wind,
To blow on whom I please, for so fools have.
And they that are most gallèd with my folly,
They most must laugh. And why, sir, must they so?
The “why” is plain as way to parish church:
He that a fool doth very wisely hit
Doth very foolishly, although he smart,
Not to seem senseless of the bob. If not,
The wise man’s folly is anatomized
Even by the squand’ring glances of the fool.
Invest me in my motley. Give me leave
To speak my mind, and I will through and through
Cleanse the foul body of th’ infected world,
If they will patiently receive my medicine

DUTCH:
Een noob’le nar! — Hij was weleer een hoov’ling,
En zegt, dat, zijn de vrouwen jong en schoon,
Zij ook de gaaf bezitten van ‘t te weten.
Zijn brein, zoo droog als restjens scheepsbeschuit,
Heeft hij gepropt met vreemde spreuken, vol
Opmerkingsgeest; en geeft die wijsheid lucht,
Verminkt, bij stukjens

MORE:
Proverb: As dry as a biscuit
Proverb: Who is nettled at a jest seems to be in earnest

Remainder biscuit=Dry ship’s biscuit
Observation=Experience
Motley=Multicoloured jester outfit
Suit=Petition
Rank=Wild
Charter=Scope, privilege
Gallèd=Irritated
Senseless=Unaware, not feeling
Wisely=Skilfully, successfully
Bob=A rap, a dry wipe, jibe
Anatomised=Analysed, dissected
Squandering=Random
Glances=Hits
Invest=Dress, clothe
Cleanse=Purge
Compleat:
Observation=Waarneeming, gebruyk, onderhouding, aanmerking
Motley=Een grove gemengelde
Suit=Een verzoek, rechtsgeding
Rank (that shoots too many leaves or branches)=Weelig, dat te veel takken of bladen schiet
To grow rank=Al te weelit groeien
Charter=Handvest, voorrecht
To gall (or vex)=Tergen, verbitteren
Senseless=Gevoeleloos, ongevoelig, zinneloos
Bob=Begekking, boert
To bob=Begekken, bedriegen, loeren, foppen
Anatomize=Opsnyding, ontleeden
Glance=Eventjes raaken
Invest=Omcingelen, inhuldigen; in ‘t bezit stellen; rondom insluiten

Elizabethans believed that the three main organsi were the heart, liver and brain. The brain had to be cool and moist to sleep; someone with a ‘cool and moist’ humour would be able to sleep, unlike a choleric person of hot and dry humour. Dryness was also associated with capacity for learning.

Topics: insult, intellect, reason, fashion/trends, proverbs and idioms, language, authority, wisdom

PLAY: As You Like It
ACT/SCENE: 1.1
SPEAKER: Orlando
CONTEXT:
OLIVER
And what wilt thou do—beg when that is spent? Well, sir, get you in. I will not long be troubled with you. You shall have some part of your will. I pray you leave me.
ORLANDO
I will no further offend you than becomes me for my good.
OLIVER
Get you with him, you old dog.
ADAM
Is “old dog” my reward? Most true, I have lost my teeth in your service. God be with my old master. He would not have spoke such a word.

DUTCH:
En wat wilt gij er mee doen? gaan bedelen, als het
verkwist is? Nu, sinjeur, ga maar binnen, ik wil niet
lang meer last van u hebben, gij zult ten deele uw wil
hebben.

MORE:
Become=To fit, suit. (Becomes me for my good=than I consider necessary)
Offend=Displease, mortify, affront; trespass on
Compleat:
Become=Betaamen
Offend=Misdoen, ergeren, aanstoot geeven, verstoordmaaken, beledigen

Topics: insult, status, work, value, ingratitude

PLAY: The Taming of the Shrew
ACT/SCENE: 4.3
SPEAKER: Petruchio
CONTEXT:
PETRUCHIO
O monstrous arrogance! Thou liest, thou thread, thou thimble,
Thou yard, three-quarters, half-yard, quarter, nail!
Thou flea, thou nit, thou winter cricket thou!
Braved in mine own house with a skein of thread?
Away, thou rag, thou quantity, thou remnant,
Or I shall so be-mete thee with thy yard
As thou shalt think on prating whilst thou liv’st!
I tell thee, I, that thou hast marred her gown.
TAILOR
Your Worship is deceived. The gown is made
Just as my master had direction.
Grumio gave order how it should be done.
GRUMIO
I gave him no order. I gave him the stuff.
TAILOR
But how did you desire it should be made?
GRUMIO
Marry, sir, with needle and thread.
TAILOR
But did you not request to have it cut?
GRUMIO
Thou hast faced many things.
TAILOR
I have.
GRUMIO
Face not me. Thou hast braved many men; brave not me. I
will neither be faced nor braved. I say unto thee, I
bid thy master cut out the gown, but I did not bid him
cut it to pieces. Ergo, thou liest.
TAILOR
Why, here is the note of the fashion to testify.

DUTCH:
Jij endjen draad, mij tarten in mijn huis!
Voort, voort, jij lap, jij vod, jij lomp, jij snipper,
Of ik neem met jouw el je zoo de maat,
Dat heel je leven je deez’ praatjes rouwen!
Dat kleed, zeg ik nog eens, het is verknipt .

MORE:
Nail=Measure of cloth
Nit=Louse egg
Brave=(1) to “dress in fine clothes”; (2) “to defy.”
Yard=Measuring stick
Quantity=Fragment
Be-mete=Measure
Prating=Talking
Stuff=Material
Whilst=For as long as
Compleat:
Nail (one eighth of an ell)=De agste deel van een el
Nit=Een neet
To brave=Trotsen, braveeren, trotseeren; moedig treeden
To prate=Praaten. Prate and prattle=Keffen en snappen. Prate foolishly=Mal praaten

Topics: insult, fashion/trends, work, satisfaction, vanity

PLAY: King Henry IV Part 2
ACT/SCENE: 2.4
SPEAKER: Doll Tearsheet
CONTEXT:
DOLL
Charge me! I scorn you, scurvy companion. What, you poor, base, rascally, cheating lack-linen mate! Away, you mouldy rogue, away! I am meat for your master.
PISTOL
I know you, Mistress Dorothy.
DOLL
Away, you cutpurse rascal, you filthy bung, away!
By this wine, I’ll thrust my knife in your mouldy
chaps an you play the saucy cuttle with me. Away,
you bottle-ale rascal, you basket-hilt stale juggler,
you. Since when, I pray you, sir? God’s light, with
two points on your shoulder? Much!

DUTCH:
Voor mij? Loop heen, gij smerige hondsvot! Wat!
Zoo ‘n arme, gemeene, schelmachtige, zwendelende sinjeur
Zonderhemd! Weg, gij beschimmelde schavuit, weg!
Ik ben een lekkerbeetjen voor uw meester.

MORE:

Proverb: To be meat for another’s mouth (1598)

Bung=Cutpurse; sharper. In thieving, nipping a bung was to cut a purse. Later also used to describe a pocket.
Cuttle=Knife used by sharpers to cut the bottom of purses (worn hanging from a belt).
Two points=Mark of a commission

Compleat:
Sharper=Een die door behendigheid, ‘t zy met recht of onrecht, iets poogt te bekoomen, een inhaalige vent

Topics: insult, proverbs and idioms, invented or popularised

PLAY: Cymbeline
ACT/SCENE: 3.4
SPEAKER: Pisanio
CONTEXT:
PISANIO
But to win time
To lose so bad employment; in the which
I have consider’d of a course. Good lady,
Hear me with patience.
IMOGEN
Talk thy tongue weary; speak
I have heard I am a strumpet; and mine ear
Therein false struck, can take no greater wound,
Nor tent to bottom that. But speak.
PISANIO
Then, madam,
I thought you would not back again.
IMOGEN
Most like;
Bringing me here to kill me.
PISANIO
Not so, neither:
But if I were as wise as honest, then
My purpose would prove well. It cannot be
But that my master is abused:
Some villain, ay, and singular in his art.
Hath done you both this cursed injury.

DUTCH:
Maar als ik even slim als eerlijk ben,
Dan slaagt mijn plan wellicht. Het is gewis,
Afschuwlijk werd mijn arme heer bedrogen.

MORE:
Talk thy tongue weary=Say as much as you like
Ear false struck=Hit by the slander
Tent=Probe for searching wounds
Bottom=Go deeper
Back again=Return
Purpose=Plan
Prove well=Succeed
Compleat:
To weary=Vermoeijen, moede maaken
Tent (for a wound)=Tentyzer
To bottom=Gronden, grondvesten
Purpose (design, resolution, project)=Voorneemen, besluit, ontwerp

Topics: communication, language, insult, offence

PLAY: Timon of Athens
ACT/SCENE: 4.3
SPEAKER: Timon
CONTEXT:
TIMON
Consumptions sow
In hollow bones of man; strike their sharp shins,
And mar men’s spurring. Crack the lawyer’s voice,
That he may never more false title plead,
Nor sound his quillets shrilly: hoar the flamen,
That scolds against the quality of flesh,
And not believes himself: down with the nose,
Down with it flat; take the bridge quite away
Of him that, his particular to foresee,
Smells from the general weal: make curled-pate
ruffians bald;
And let the unscarred braggarts of the war
Derive some pain from you: plague all;
That your activity may defeat and quell
The source of all erection. There’s more gold:
Do you damn others, and let this damn you,
And ditches grave you all!

DUTCH:
Zaait in der mannen holle beend’ren tering!
Maakt hun de schrale schenkels lam, en breek
Des ruiters kracht, de stem des pleitbezorgers,
Dat die geen onrecht ooit meer steun’, geen schrille
Spitsvondigheên meer krijsche.

MORE:
Consumptions=Infections
Hollow bones=Effect of syphilis
Crack the voice=Effect of syphilis
Quillet=Tricks in argument, distinctions, subtleties, ambiguities
Hoar=Whiten, effect of syphilis
Flamen=Cleric
Braggarts=Boastful
Grave=Entomb
Compleat:
Consumption=Verteering, verquisting, vertier
Hollow=Hol, uitgehold
Quillet=(The querks and quillets of the law): De kneepen en draaijen der Rechtsgeleerden
Hoariness=Beryptheid, grysheid, beschimmeldheid
Braggart, braggard or Braggadochio=Een pocher, Blaaskaak

Topics: insult, lawyers, defence, advantage/benefit

PLAY: All’s Well that Ends Well
ACT/SCENE: 4.3
SPEAKER: Bertram
CONTEXT:
BERTRAM
Damnable both-sides rogue !
FIRST SOLDIER
[Reads] ‘When he swears oaths, bid him drop gold, and take it;
After he scores, he never pays the score:
Half won is match well made; match, and well make it;
He ne’er pays after-debts, take it before;
And say a soldier, Dian, told thee this,
Men are to mell with, boys are not to kiss:
For count of this, the count’s a fool, I know it,
Who pays before, but not when he does owe it.
Thine, as he vowed to thee in thine ear, Parolles.’
BERTRAM
He shall be whipped through the army with this rhyme
in’s forehead.
SECOND LORD
This is your devoted friend, sir, the manifold linguist and the armipotent soldier.

DUTCH:
Die vervloekte, dubbeltongige schurk!

MORE:
Both-sides=Double-tongued, two-faced
Score=(1) Hit the mark (2) Bill
Half-won=Well negotiated is half the game
After-debts=Money payable upon receipt
Mell=Meddle, mess around with (sexually)
Pays before=Pays in advance
Armipotent=Mighty in arms
Manifold=Multiple
Compleat:
Jack on both sides=Slinks en rechts
To score=Op rekening zetten
Score=Rekening, kerfstok
Manifold=Veelvoudig, veelvuldig

Topics: insult, offence, integrity, truth

PLAY: King Henry IV Part 1
ACT/SCENE: 3.3
SPEAKER: Falstaff
CONTEXT:
BARDOLPH
Why, you are so fat, Sir John, that you must needs be out of all compass, out of all reasonable compass, Sir John.
FALSTAFF
Do thou amend thy face, and I’ll amend my life. Thou art our admiral, thou bearest the lantern in the poop, but ’tis in the nose of thee. Thou art the knight of the burning lamp.

DUTCH:
Verbeter gij uw gezicht, en ik wil mijn leven beteren.

MORE:
Schmidt:
Compass=Extent in general, limit (“lived well and in good c.; and now I live out of all c.”)
Poop=The hindmost part of a ship.
Compleat:
To keep within compass=Iemand in den band (in bedwang) houden
To keep within compass=Zynen plicht betrachten
To draw a thing within a narrow compass=Iets in een klein begrip besluiten

Topics: insult, appearance, excess

PLAY: King Lear
ACT/SCENE: 4.5
SPEAKER: King Lear
CONTEXT:
None does offend—none, I say, none. I’ll able ’em.
Take that of me, my friend, who have the power
To seal th’ accuser’s lips. Get thee glass eyes,
And like a scurvy politician seem
To see the things thou dost not.

DUTCH:
Koop u glazen oogen;
Veins als een staatsman laag, eat ge alles ziet
Wat gij niet ziet./
Voorzie je van een bril en doe dan als
een huichelaar alsof je dingen ziet
die je niet ziet.

MORE:
Schmidt:
Scurvy=despicable
Able=Vouch for, warrant
Compleat:
Scurvy=ondeugend schobbejak

Topics: insult, appearance, perception, intellect, understanding

PLAY: As You Like It
ACT/SCENE: 2.7
SPEAKER: Jaques
CONTEXT:
JAQUES
O worthy fool!— One that hath been a courtier
And says, “If ladies be but young and fair,
They have the gift to know it.” And in his brain,
Which is as dry as the remainder biscuit
After a voyage, he hath strange places crammed
With observation, the which he vents
In mangled forms. Oh, that I were a fool!
I am ambitious for a motley coat.
DUKE SENIOR
Thou shalt have one.
JAQUES
It is my only suit
Provided that you weed your better judgements
Of all opinion that grows rank in them
That I am wise. I must have liberty
Withal, as large a charter as the wind,
To blow on whom I please, for so fools have.
And they that are most gallèd with my folly,
They most must laugh. And why, sir, must they so?
The “why” is plain as way to parish church:
He that a fool doth very wisely hit
Doth very foolishly, although he smart,
Not to seem senseless of the bob. If not,
The wise man’s folly is anatomized
Even by the squand’ring glances of the fool.
Invest me in my motley. Give me leave
To speak my mind, and I will through and through
Cleanse the foul body of th’ infected world,
If they will patiently receive my medicine

DUTCH:
Geef mij verlof,
Vrij uit te spreken, en ik zal de wereld,
Hoe voos, bedorven en onrein, doorzuiv’ren,
Als zij mijn midd’len maar geduldig neemt.

MORE:
Proverb: As dry as a biscuit
Proverb: Who is nettled at a jest seems to be in earnest

Remainder biscuit=Dry ship’s biscuit
Observation=Experience
Motley=Multicoloured jester outfit
Suit=Petition
Rank=Wild
Charter=Scope, privilege
Gallèd=Irritated
Senseless=Unaware, not feeling
Wisely=Skilfully, successfully
Bob=A rap, a dry wipe, jibe
Anatomised=Analysed, dissected
Squandering=Random
Glances=Hits
Invest=Dress, clothe
Cleanse=Purge
Compleat:
Observation=Waarneeming, gebruyk, onderhouding, aanmerking
Motley=Een grove gemengelde
Suit=Een verzoek, rechtsgeding
Rank (that shoots too many leaves or branches)=Weelig, dat te veel takken of bladen schiet
To grow rank=Al te weelit groeien
Charter=Handvest, voorrecht
To gall (or vex)=Tergen, verbitteren
Senseless=Gevoeleloos, ongevoelig, zinneloos
Bob=Begekking, boert
To bob=Begekken, bedriegen, loeren, foppen
Anatomize=Opsnyding, ontleeden
Glance=Eventjes raaken
Invest=Omcingelen, inhuldigen; in ‘t bezit stellen; rondom insluiten

Elizabethans believed that the three main organsi were the heart, liver and brain. The brain had to be cool and moist to sleep; someone with a ‘cool and moist’ humour would be able to sleep, unlike a choleric person of hot and dry humour. Dryness was also associated with capacity for learning.

Topics: insult, intellect, reason, fashion/trends, proverbs and idioms, language, authority, wisdom

PLAY: The Taming of the Shrew
ACT/SCENE: 3.2
SPEAKER: Baptista
CONTEXT:
TRANIO
Patience, good Katherine, and Baptista too.
Upon my life, Petruchio means but well,
Whatever fortune stays him from his word:
Though he be blunt, I know him passing wise;
Though he be merry, yet withal he’s honest.
KATHERINE
Would Katherine had never seen him, though!
BAPTISTA
Go, girl. I cannot blame thee now to weep,
For such an injury would vex a very saint,
Much more a shrew of thy impatient humour.

DUTCH:
Ga, kind, het spreekt van zelf dat gij nu weent,
Want zulk een hoon verdroeg geen heil’ge zelfs,
Laat staan een driftkop van uw kreeg’len aard.

MORE:
Blunt=Rude, coarse
Passing=Exceedingly
Merry=A joker
Injury=Insult
Compleat:
Blunt=Stomp, bot, plomp, onbebouwen
A passing (or excellent) beauty=Een voortreffelyke schoonheid
Merry=Vrolyk
Injury=Verongelyking, belediging, smaad, verkorting, laster, ongelyk

Topics: insult, honesty

PLAY: All’s Well that Ends Well
ACT/SCENE: 4.3
SPEAKER: Parolles
CONTEXT:
PAROLLES
He will steal, sir, an egg out of a cloister: for rapes and ravishments he parallels Nessus: he professes not keeping of oaths; in breaking ’em he is stronger than Hercules: he will lie, sir, with such volubility, that you would think truth were a fool: drunkenness is his best virtue, for he will be swine-drunk; and in his sleep he does little harm, save to his bed-clothes about him; but they know his conditions and lay him in straw. I have but little more to say, sir, of his honesty: he has every thing that an honest man should not have; what an honest man should have, he has nothing.

DUTCH:
[H]ij heeft alles, wat een rechtgeaard man niet moest hebben; en van wat een deugdzaam man wel moet hebben, heeft hij niets.

MORE:
Proverb: Dispraise by evil men is praise
Proverb: As drunk as a swine
Proverb: Honest is a fool

Egg=Eggs being worthless, of no value (so untrustworthy that he would steal something worthless from a sacred place)
Nessus=Centaur who attempted to rape Hercules’ wife
Professes=Claims (not to believe in)
Truth were a fool=To be honest is foolish
With such volubility=So fluently, easily
Compleat:
To profess=(hold a doctrine) Een leer belyden, gelooven, belydenis doen
Volubility=Raddigheyd, vloeijendheyd, rollendheyd

Topics: honesty, reputation, insult, proverbs and idioms

PLAY: Troilus and Cressida
ACT/SCENE: 5.1
SPEAKER: Thersites
CONTEXT:
THERSITES
With too much blood and too little brain, these two
may run mad; but, if with too much brain and too
little blood they do, I’ll be a curer of madmen.
Here’s Agamemnon, an honest fellow enough and one
that loves quails; but he has not so much brain as
earwax: and the goodly transformation of Jupiter
there, his brother, the bull,—the primitive statue,
and oblique memorial of cuckolds; a thrifty
shoeing-horn in a chain, hanging at his brother’s
leg,— to what form but that he is, should wit larded
with malice and malice forced with wit turn him to?
To an ass, were nothing; he is both ass and ox: to
an ox, were nothing; he is both ox and ass. To be a
dog, a mule, a cat, a fitchew, a toad, a lizard, an
owl, a puttock, or a herring without a roe, I would
not care; but to be Menelaus, I would conspire
against destiny. Ask me not, what I would be, if I
were not Thersites; for I care not to be the louse
of a lazar, so I were not Menelaus! Hey-day!

DUTCH:
Daar hebt gij Agamemnon, een tamelijk flinken
kerel en een liefhebber van een lekker boutjen, maar
hersens heeft hij niet zooveel als oorsmeer;

MORE:
Blood=Passion
Brain=Thought
Here’s=For example
Transformation of Jupiter=Into a bull to rape Europe
Primitive=Archetypal
Thrifty=Economical, for profit
Fitchew=Polecat
Puttock=Kite, not a hawk worthy of training (a kite, buzzard or marsh harrier)
Care not to be=Don’t mind being, wouldn’t care if I were
Lazar=Leper
Compleat:
Primitive=Eerst, aaloud, eerstbeginnend
Thrifty=Zuynig, spaarzaam
Puttock (buzzard)=Een buizard, zekere roofvogel

Burgersdijk notes:
Een liefhebber van een lekker boutjen. One that loves quails. Quail is “kwartel” en ook “lichtzinnig
vrouwspersoon”. In ‘t Fransch caille.

Topics: insult, intellect

PLAY: King Henry IV Part 2
ACT/SCENE: 1.2
SPEAKER: Falstaff
CONTEXT:
The juvenal, the Prince your master, whose chin is not yet
fledge—I will sooner have a beard grow in the palm
of my hand than he shall get one off his cheek,
and yet he will not stick to say his face is a face royal.
God may finish it when He will.
’Tis not a hair amiss yet.
He may keep it still at a face royal, for a barber
shall never earn sixpence out of it,
and yet he’ll be crowing as if he had writ man
ever since his father was a bachelor.
He may keep his own grace, but he’s
almost out of mine, I can assure him.

DUTCH:
Een prinselijke genade kan hij zijn en
blijven, maar bij mij is hij bijna uit de genade, dat kan
ik hem verzekeren

MORE:

Juvenal=Youth
Amiss=Out of time and order, wrong
Not a hair amiss=Not a hair out of place
Fledge=Covered with down
Stick=Hesitate
Face royal=Majestic face
Writ man=Having reached maturity, manhood
Barber shall never earn a sixpence=Barber would have nothing to shave

Compleat:
Stick=Schroomen
To stick at a thing (to make a conscience or a scruple)=Geweetenswerk ergens van maaken
He sticks at nothing for lucre’s sake=Hij ontziet niets om voordeels wille
Grace (agreeableness)=Bevalligheid
Grace=Genade
Fledged=Met veeren voorzien

Topics: insult, patience, pity, respect, age/experience

PLAY: Othello
ACT/SCENE: 1.2
SPEAKER: Iago
CONTEXT:
IAGO
Though in the trade of war I have slain men,
Yet do I hold it very stuff o’ th’ conscience
To do no contrived murder. I lack iniquity
Sometimes to do me service. Nine or ten times
I had thought t’ have yerked him here under the ribs.
OTHELLO
‘Tis better as it is.
IAGO
Nay, but he prated
And spoke such scurvy and provoking terms
Against your honour
That, with the little godliness I have,
I did full hard forbear him. But I pray you, sir,
Are you fast married? Be assured of this:
That the Magnifico is much beloved
And hath in his effect a voice potential
As double as the Duke’s. He will divorce you,
Or put upon you what restraint and grievance
The law (with all his might to enforce it on)
Will give him cable.

DUTCH:
Neen, maar hij relde,
En sprak op zulk een tergend lage wijs
Uw eer te na,
Dat, met het luttel vroomheid dat ik heb,
Ik nauw mij inhield.

MORE:
Contrived=Premeditated
Yerked=Stabbed
Full hard forbear=Made great effort at restraint
Scurvy=Insulting
Grievance=Injury, punishment
Magnifico=Here meaning Brabantio
Potential=Powerful
Cable=Will give him rope (scope) (nautical)
Compleat:
Contrived=Bedacht, verzonnen, toegesteld
To yerk=Gispen, slaan
Forbear=Zich van onthouden
Scurvy=Kwaad, slecht
Grievance=Bezwaarenis
Potential=Kragtverleenend, vermoogend

Topics: insult, dispute, punishment, law/legal

PLAY: Timon of Athens
ACT/SCENE: 1.1
SPEAKER: Apemantus
CONTEXT:
APEMANTUS
Art not a poet?
POET
Yes.
APEMANTUS
Then thou liest: look in thy last work, where thou
hast feigned him a worthy fellow.
POET
That’s not feigned; he is so.
APEMANTUS
Yes, he is worthy of thee, and to pay thee for thy
labour: he that loves to be flattered is worthy o’
the flatterer. Heavens, that I were a lord!

DUTCH:
Ja, hij is u waardig, en waardig, dat hij u voor uw
werk betaalt; hij, die zich gaarne laat vleien, is zijn
vleier waardig. 0 hemel, ware ik eens een groot heer!

MORE:
Proverb: Painters and poets have leave to lie
Proverb: He that loves to be flattered is worthy of the flatterer

Feigned=Misrepresented
That I were=If only I were
Compleat:
To feign=Voorwenden, veinzen; beraadslaan

Topics: proverbs and idioms, invented or popularised, insult, flattery

PLAY: The Merchant of Venice
ACT/SCENE: 1.1
SPEAKER: Bassanio
CONTEXT:
ANTONIO
Farewell. I’ll grow a talker for this gear.
GRATIANO
Thanks, i’ faith, for silence is only commendable
In a neat’s tongue dried and a maid not vendible.
ANTONIO
Is that any thing now?
BASSANIO
Gratiano speaks an infinite deal of nothing, more than
any man in all Venice. His reasons are as two grains of
wheat hid in two bushels of chaff —you shall seek all day
ere you find them, and when you have them they are not
worth the search.

DUTCH:
Zijn verstandige gedachten zijn als twee tarwekorrels in twee schepels kaf; gij kunt er den geheelen dag naar zoeken, eer gij ze vindt.

MORE:
CITED IN US LAW:
Crowley Marine Services, Inc. v. National labour Relations Board, 344 U.S. App. D.C. 165; 234 F.3d 1295 (2000);
Kneale v. Kneale, 67 So. 2d 233, 234 (Fla., 1953).

His reasons are as two grains of wheat hid in two bushels of chaff=Ill-reasoned argument.

Topics: emotion and mood, misquoted

PLAY: King Henry IV Part 2
ACT/SCENE: 2.2
SPEAKER: Falstaff
CONTEXT:
DOLL TEARSHEET
They say Poins has a good wit.
FALSTAFF
He a good wit? Hang him, baboon. His wit’s as thick as
Tewksbury mustard. There’s no more conceit in him than is
in a mallet.
DOLL TEARSHEET
Why does the Prince love him so then?
FALSTAFF
Because their legs are both of a bigness, and he plays at quoits well, and eats conger and fennel, and drinks off candles’ ends for flap-dragons, and rides the wild mare with the boys, and jumps upon joint stools, and swears with a good grace, and wears his boots very smooth, like unto the sign of the Leg, and breeds no bate with telling of discreet stories, and such other gambol faculties he has that show a weak mind and an able body, for the which the Prince admits him; for the Prince himself is such another. The weight of a hair will turn the scales between their avoirdupois.

DUTCH:
Hij nog al geest? aan den galg met den baviaan! Zijn
geest is zoo dik als Tewksburger mosterd, hij heeft niet
meer vernuft, dan er in een wilden woerd zit.

MORE:
Tewkesbury mustard, reputedly the finest in England, was only sold in the form of mustard balls. Renowned for its sharp flavour. Legend has it that Henry VIII was presented with gold leaf-covered Tewkesbury Mustard Balls when he visited Tewkesbury.

Schmidt:
Conceit=Wit, imagination
Mallet=Heavy wooden hammer
Quoits=Game in which metal rings are thrown at a pin in the ground
Conger and fennel=Eel (thought to blunt the wit) seasoned with fennel
Flapdragons=Drinking game
Wild-mare=See-saw
Bate=Quarrel
Avoirdupois=Weight

Compleat:
Conceit=Waan, bevatting, opvatting, meening
Conger=Een soort van groote paling
Avoirdupois=Gewigt van xvi oncen in ‘t pond

Topics: insult, imagination, intellect

PLAY: King Henry IV Part 1
ACT/SCENE: 2.4
SPEAKER: Prince Hal
CONTEXT:
Here comes lean Jack. Here comes bare-bone.—How now, my sweet creature of bombast? How long is ’t ago, Jack, since thou sawest thine own knee?

DUTCH:
Daar komt schrale Hans, daar komt Klapperbeen.—Nu, mijn allerliefste watten popje! hoe lang is het geleden, Hans, dat je je eigen knie gezien hebt?

MORE:
Cotgrave: “Cottoner. To bumbast, stuff with cotton”.
Schmidt:
Lean=Wanting flesh, meager, thin
Bare-bone=Lean skinny person
Bombast=Cotton used to stuff out garments
Compleat:
Bombast=Bombazyne of kattoene voering; fustian
Bombast=Hoogdraavende wartaal, ydel gezwets
To bumbast=Met bombazyn voeren
Bumbast: Bombazyn als ook Brommende woorden

Topics: insult, language, appearance

PLAY: As You Like It
ACT/SCENE: 3.2
SPEAKER: Orlando
CONTEXT:
ROSALIND
‘Tis he. Slink by, and note him.
JAQUES
I thank you for your company, but, good faith, I had as
lief have been myself alone.
ORLANDO
And so had I, but yet, for fashion’ sake, I thank you
too for your society.
JAQUES
God be wi’ you. Let’s meet as little as we can.
ORLANDO
I do desire we may be better strangers.
JAQUES
I pray you mar no more trees with writing love songs in
their barks.
ORLANDO
I pray you mar no more of my verses with reading them
ill-favouredly.

DUTCH:
Ik hoop, dat wij meer en meer van elkaar vervreemden

MORE:
I pray you mar no more of my verses “by reading them ill-favouredly”. See Sir John Harington’s Epigrams (1618)
‘Sextus, an ill reader’:
‘For shame poynt better, and pronounce it cleerer,
Or be no Reader, Sextus, be a Hearer’.
( Poynt=punctuate)

As lief=Just as soon, happily
For fashion sake=For appearance’ sake
Ill-favouredly=Badly, unsympathetically
Compleat:
I had as lief=Ik wilde al zo lief
Ill-favoured=Leelyk, afschuwelyk

Topics: insult, relationship, civility

PLAY: The Merchant of Venice
ACT/SCENE: 1.2
SPEAKER: Portia
CONTEXT:
PORTIA
If I live to be as old as Sibylla, I will die as chaste
as Diana unless I be obtained by the manner of my
father’s will. I am glad this parcel of wooers are so
reasonable, for there is not one among them but I dote
on his very absence. And I pray God grant them a fair
departure.

DUTCH:
Ik ben blij, dat dit partijtjen
vrijers zoo verstandig is, want er is er niet een
bij, of ik smacht naar zijn afzijn, en ik bid God, hun
een voorspoedige heenreis te verleenen.

MORE:
Sibylla=The Sibyl (female prophet in Ancient Greece who asked Apollo for longevity but forgot to ask for eternal youth)
Shakespearean wordplay with the word dote.

Topics: emotion and mood, misquoted

PLAY: King Henry IV Part 1
ACT/SCENE: 5.4
SPEAKER: Douglas
CONTEXT:
I fear thou art another counterfeit,
And yet, in faith, thou bear’st thee like a king.
But mine I am sure thou art, whoe’er thou be,
And thus I win thee.

DUTCH:
Ik vrees, dat gij ook weer een namaak zijt,
Schoon gij, voorwaar, u voordoet als een koning;
Doch wie gij zijt, mijn zijt gij, dit bezweer ik;
En zoo maak ik u mijn.

MORE:
Counterfeit=Deceitful imitation

Topics: deceit, conflict, insult, suspicion

PLAY: King Henry IV Part 1
ACT/SCENE: 3.1
SPEAKER: Hotspur
CONTEXT:
But marked him not a word. O, he is as tedious
As a tired horse, a railing wife,
Worse than a smoky house: I had rather live
With cheese and garlic in a windmill, far,
Than feed on cates and have him talk to me.

DUTCH:
O veel, veel liever zou ik
Op kaas en knoflook zitten, in een molen,
Dan wildbraad eten en zijn praatjens hooren
In eenig lustslot van de christenheid

MORE:
Proverb: A smoky chimney and a scolding wife are two bad companions.
Cates=delicacies

Topics: insult, civility

PLAY: Hamlet
ACT/SCENE: 3.2
SPEAKER: Hamlet
CONTEXT:
O, there be players that I have seen play and heard others praise (and that highly), not to speak it profanely, that, neither having th’ accent of Christians nor the gait of Christian, pagan, nor man, have so strutted and bellowed that I have thought some of nature’s journeymen had made men and not made them well, they imitated humanity so abominably.

DUTCH:
Dat de gedachte bij mij opkwam enkele losse werklui, bij natuur in dienst, hadden menschen gemaakt en hadden ze niet goed gemaakt /
Dat ik wel denken moest of hier soms een van natuurs daglooners menschen had gemaakt en niet goed gemaakt, zoo afgrijselijk bootsten zij de menschheid na.

MORE:
Schmidt:
To strut=To walk with a proud gait or affected dignity
Journeymen= unskilled workers
Gait=manner
Compleat:
To strut out=Opgeblaazen zyn, ‘t hoofd om hoog en den buik uitsteeken
Struttingly=Verwaandelyk, hoogmoediglyk

Topics: nature, appearance, insult, intellect

PLAY: The Two Gentlemen of Verona
ACT/SCENE: 2.4
SPEAKER: Valentine
CONTEXT:
VALENTINE
Yourself, sweet lady, for you gave the fire. Sir Thurio borrows his wit from your ladyship’s looks, and spends what he borrows kindly in your company.
THURIO
Sir, if you spend word for word with me, I shall make your wit bankrupt.
VALENTINE
I know it well, sir; you have an exchequer of words, and, I think, no other treasure to give your followers, for it appears, by their bare liveries, that they live by your bare words.

DUTCH:
Ik weet wel, heer, gij hebt een schatkist vol woorden,
en, naar ik geloof, geen andere munt om uw dienaars
te betalen, want men mag uit hun kale livereien vermoeden
dat zij van uw kale woorden moeten leven.

MORE:
Fire=Spark, kindling; impetus
Kindly=Appropriately
Exchequer=Treasury
Bare=(1) Threadbare, shabby; (2) Mere
Compleat:
Exchequer=’s Lands Schatkist, de plaats daar ‘t geld tot de Kroon behoorende ontvangen wordt
Bare (of money)=Geldeloos; (bare in clothes) Bar in kleeding, kaal

Topics: friendship, language, learning/education, persuasion, insult

PLAY: Coriolanus
ACT/SCENE: 2.1
SPEAKER: Menenius
CONTEXT:
MENENIUS
Why, ’tis no great matter; for a very little thief of
occasion will rob you of a great deal of patience:
give your dispositions the reins, and be angry at
your pleasures; at the least if you take it as a
pleasure to you in being so. You blame Marcius for
being proud?
BRUTUS
We do it not alone, sir.
MENENIUS
I know you can do very little alone; for your helps
are many, or else your actions would grow wondrous
single: your abilities are too infant-like for
doing much alone. You talk of pride: O that you
could turn your eyes toward the napes of your necks,
and make but an interior survey of your good selves!
O that you could!
BRUTUS
What then, sir?
MENENIUS
Why, then you should discover a brace of unmeriting,
proud, violent, testy magistrates, alias fools, as
any in Rome.

DUTCH:
Ik weet wel, gij kunt zeer weinig alleen doen, want
uwe hulpen zijn velen, of uwe daden zouden verbazend
enkel wezen; uw vermogens zijn te zuiglingachtig om veel
alleen te doen.

MORE:
Reference to Aesop’s Fable Jupiter’s Two Wallets .(When Jupiter made Man, he gave him two wallets, one for his neighbour’s faults, the other for his own. The Man kept the one in front for his neighbour’s faults, and the one behind for his own so while the front wallet was always under his nose, it took more effort to see the wallet behind him.)

Dispositions=Emotions
Wondrous=Strangely
Single=Insignificant, trivial
Compleat:
Disposition (or Inclination)=Genegenheid, Lust
Disposition of mind=Gesteltenis van gemoed
Wondrous=Wonderlyk; wonderbaarlyk, uitmuntend

Topics: insult, skill/talent

PLAY: King Henry VI Part 1
ACT/SCENE: 5.3
SPEAKER: Joan la Pucelle
CONTEXT:
JOAN LA PUCELLE
A plaguing mischief light on Charles and thee!
And may ye both be suddenly surprised
By bloody hands, in sleeping on your beds!
YORK
Fell banning hag, enchantress, hold thy tongue!
JOAN LA PUCELLE
I prithee, give me leave to curse awhile.
YORK
Curse, miscreant, when thou comest to the stake.

DUTCH:
Treffe u en Karel beide’ een folt’rend onheil,
En moge een hand des bloeds u beiden plotsling
Bij ‘t slapen in uw bedden overvallen!

MORE:
Fell=Cruel, vicious, intense, savage.
Banning=Cursing
Plaguing=Tormenting, afflicting
Mischief=Calamity, misfortune

Compleat:
Fell=(cruel) Wreed
To ban=Vervloeken, in den ban doen (also ‘bann’)
Plaguing=Plaagende
Mischief=Onheil, kwaad, ongeluk, ramp, verderf, heilloosheid

Topics: language, civility, insult

PLAY: As You Like It
ACT/SCENE: 1.1
SPEAKER: Orlando
CONTEXT:
OLIVER
And what wilt thou do—beg when that is spent? Well, sir, get you in. I will not long be troubled with you. You shall have some part of your will. I pray you leave me.
ORLANDO
I will no further offend you than becomes me for my good.
OLIVER
Get you with him, you old dog.
ADAM
Is “old dog” my reward? Most true, I have lost my teeth in your service. God be with my old master. He would not have spoke such a word.

DUTCH:
Ik zal u niet langer lastig vallen, dan in mijn belang
noodzakelijk is.

MORE:
Become=To fit, suit. (Becomes me for my good=than I consider necessary)
Offend=Displease, mortify, affront; trespass on
Compleat:
Become=Betaamen
Offend=Misdoen, ergeren, aanstoot geeven, verstoordmaaken, beledigen

Topics: insult, status, work, value, ingratitude

PLAY: The Comedy of Errors
ACT/SCENE: 3.1
SPEAKER: Dromio of Syracuse
CONTEXT:
DROMIO OF SYRACUSE
Mome, malt-horse, capon, coxcomb, idiot, patch!
Either get thee from the door or sit down at the hatch.
Dost thou conjure for wenches, that thou call’st for
such store
When one is one too many? Go, get thee from the door.
DROMIO OF EPHESUS
What patch is made our porter? My master stays in the
street.
DROMIO OF SYRACUSE
Let him walk from whence he came, lest he
catch cold on ’s feet.
ANTIPHOLUS OF EPHESUS
Who talks within there? Ho, open the door.
DROMIO OF SYRACUSE
Right, sir, I’ll tell you when an you tell me wherefore.

DUTCH:
Ja heer, ‘k zeg u wanneer, als gij mij zegt, waarvoor.

MORE:
Mome=Blockhead, dolt
Malt-horse=Brewer’s horse (expression of contempt)
Capon=Castrated cock (term of reproach)
Coxcomb=Jester’s cap
Patch=Fool, clown
An=If
Wherefore=Why
Apparel=Dress up, cloak (vice as the forerunner of virtue)
Compleat:
Mome (or mawn)=Een gek, zotskap
Capon=Kapoen
To capon=Lubben
Patched=Gelapt, geflikt

Topics: insult,

PLAY: Othello
ACT/SCENE: 5.2
SPEAKER: Emilia
CONTEXT:
OTHELLO
Ay, ’twas he that told me on her first.
An honest man he is, and hates the slime
That sticks on filthy deeds.
EMILIA
My husband!
OTHELLO
What needs this iterance, woman? I say thy husband.
EMILIA
O mistress, villainy hath made mocks with love!
My husband say that she was false!
OTHELLO
He, woman.
I say “thy husband”—dost understand the word?
My friend, thy husband, honest, honest Iago..
EMILIA
If he say so, may his pernicious soul
Rot half a grain a day! He lies to th’ heart.
She was too fond of her most filthy bargain.

DUTCH:
Als hij dat zegt, dan moog’ zijn onheilsziel
Bij greinen daags verrotten! liegen doet hij ‘t;
Zij was te dol op haar begroesden koop.

MORE:
Proverb: He lies to th’heart (Cf. Macbeth 2.3: “That it did, sir, i’ th’ very throat on me; but I requited him for his lie’)

Iterance=Repetition
Made mocks with=Derided
Grain=The smallest weight
Pernicious=Mischievous, malicious, wicked
Compleat:
Iteration=Herhaaling, hervatting
Pernicious=Schadelyk, verderflyk
Grain=Een greyn

Topics: insult, truth, proverbs and idioms

PLAY: As You Like It
ACT/SCENE: 2.7
SPEAKER: Duke Senior
CONTEXT:
DUKE SENIOR
I think he be transformed into a beast,
For I can nowhere find him like a man.
FIRST LORD
My lord, he is but even now gone hence.
Here was he merry, hearing of a song.
DUKE SENIOR
If he, compact of jars, grow musical,
We shall have shortly discord in the spheres.
Go seek him. Tell him I would speak with him.
FIRST LORD
He saves my labour by his own approach.
DUKE SENIOR
Why, how now, monsieur? What a life is this
That your poor friends must woo your company?
What, you look merrily.

DUTCH:
Wordt hij, gansch wanklank, muzikaal, dan dreigt
Der spheren harmonie ontstemd te worden

MORE:
Compact=Composed of
Jar=Discord (as in jarring notes)
Spheres=Planets (moving in harmony, as in music)
Woo=Seek
Compleat:
To compact=In een trekken, dicht t’saamenvoegen
Jar=Krakkeelen, twisten, harrewarren, oneens zyn, kyven
To jar (in music)=Uit de maat zyn
A string that jars=Een snaar die niet eenstemmig klinkt
To woo=Bidden

Topics: insult, conflict

PLAY: Hamlet
ACT/SCENE: 3.1
SPEAKER: Hamlet
CONTEXT:
If thou dost marry, I’ll give thee this plague for thy dowry. Be thou as chaste as ice, as pure as snow, thou shalt not escape calumny. Get thee to a nunnery, go. Farewell. Or, if thou wilt needs marry, marry a fool, for wise men know well enough what monsters you make of them.

DUTCH:
Als je met alle geweld trouwen wilt, trouw dan een idioot, want mannen met hersens weten vooruit dat je hun de horens opzet. /
Of, zoo ge dan toch wilt trouwen, trouw met een dwaas; want wijze mannen weten al te wel, wat monsters gij van hen maakt. /
Of, wilt gij met geweld trouwen, trouw een malloot, want wijze mannen weten maar al te goed wat voor monsters gij van hen maakt.

MORE:
Schmidt:
Plague=Hence it almost seems that, in some expressions, the word has quite passed into the sense of curse: “I’ll give thee this p. for thy dowry”
Calumny= Slander
Compleat:
Calumny=Een lastering, klad

Topics: insult, still in use, wisdom

PLAY: The Two Gentlemen of Verona
ACT/SCENE: 2.4
SPEAKER: Thurio
CONTEXT:
VALENTINE
Yourself, sweet lady; for you gave the fire. Sir
Turio borrows his wit from your ladyship’s looks,
and spends what he borrows kindly in your company.
TURIO
Sir, if you spend word for word with me, I shall
make your wit bankrupt.
VALENTINE
I know it well, sir; you have an exchequer of words,
and, I think, no other treasure to give your
followers, for it appears by their bare liveries,
that they live by your bare words.
SILVIA
No more, gentlemen, no more:—here comes my father.

DUTCH:
Als gij, heer, u aan een woordenwisseling met mij
waagt, zal ik al uw geest bankroet maken.

MORE:
Fire=Spark, kindling; impetus
Kindly=Appropriately
Exchequer=Treasury
Bare=(1) Threadbare, shabby; (2) Mere
Compleat:
Exchequer=’s Lands Schatkist, de plaats daar ‘t geld tot de Kroon behoorende ontvangen wordt
Bare (of money)=Geldeloos; (bare in clothes) Bar in kleeding, kaal

Topics: friendship, language, learning/education, persuasion, insult

PLAY: Hamlet
ACT/SCENE: 3.2
SPEAKER: Hamlet
CONTEXT:
O, it offends me to the soul to hear a robustious periwig-pated fellow tear a passion to tatters, to very rags, to split the ears of the groundlings, who for the most part are capable of nothing but inexplicable dumb-shows and noise. I would have such a fellow whipped for o’erdoing Termagant. It out-Herods Herod. Pray you, avoid it.

DUTCH:
Ik zou zoo’n kerel gegeeseld willen hebben, enkel en alleen omdat hij Tergament overdrijft en nog erger Herodest dan Herodes. /
Ik zou zoo’n kerel gegeeseld willen hebben voor zijn overdrijving van Termagant ; ‘t is erger den Herodes uithangen dan Herodes doet.

MORE:
Over the top, usually in evil or extravagance: “to be more outrageous than the most outrageous”
Schmidt:
Periwig-pated=Wearing a periwig
Robustious=Violent, boisterous
Compleat:
Periwig=Paruik. Perwig=Een Pruyk, Perruyk
Robusteous=Sterk, grof, kloek van lyf en leden

Topics: insult, still in use

PLAY: Timon of Athens
ACT/SCENE: 3.7
SPEAKER: Timon
CONTEXT:
TIMON
May you a better feast never behold,
You knot of mouth-friends. Smoke and lukewarm water
Is your perfection. This is Timon’s last;
Who, stuck and spangled with your flatteries,
Washes it off, and sprinkles in your faces
Your reeking villainy.
Live loathed and long,
Most smiling, smooth, detested parasites,
Courteous destroyers, affable wolves, meek bears,
You fools of fortune, trencher-friends, time’s flies,
Cap and knee slaves, vapours, and minute-jacks!
Of man and beast the infinite malady
Crust you quite o’er! What, dost thou go?
Soft! take thy physic first—thou too—and thou;—
Stay, I will lend thee money, borrow none.

DUTCH:
Moogt gij een beter gastmaal nimmer zien,
Mondvriendenbende! Wasem en lauw water
Is heel uw wezen.

MORE:
Knot=Group, cluster
Mouth-friends=Sycophants, flatterers
Smoke=Steam
Perfection=What you deserve
Stuck=Fixed
Smooth=Slippery
Trencher-friends=Partying friends, parasites (friends for the duration of a meal (trencher being a plate))
Cap-and-knee=Bowing and scraping, fake; the equivalent of kneel, doff cap, tug forelock greeting
Vapours=Nothings
Minute-jack=A fickle person who changes his mind all the time
Compleat:
Knot=Een rist of trop
Smooth=(courteous) Beleefd, hoffelyk; (easy style) Een vloeiende styl
Trencher=Een tafelbord
Trencher-friend=Panlikker, teljoorlikker, tys tafelbezem
Vapour=Damp, qualm, waassem
Jack=Een dommekragt

Topics: insult, flattery, manipulation, deceit, money

PLAY: Coriolanus
ACT/SCENE: 2.1
SPEAKER: Menenius
CONTEXT:
BRUTUS
Come, come, you are well understood to be a
perfecter giber for the table than a necessary
bencher in the Capitol.
MENENIUS
Our very priests must become mockers, if they shall
encounter such ridiculous subjects as you are. When
you speak best unto the purpose, it is not worth the
wagging of your beards; and your beards deserve not
so honourable a grave as to stuff a botcher’s
cushion, or to be entombed in an ass’s packsaddle.
Yet you must be saying, Marcius is proud;
who in a cheap estimation, is worth predecessors
since Deucalion, though peradventure some of the
best of ’em were hereditary hangmen. God-den to
your worships: more of your conversation would
infect my brain, being the herdsmen of the beastly
plebeians: I will be bold to take my leave of you.

DUTCH:
Nu, ik wensch uw’ edelbeden goeden avond; mij meer met u in te laten, mocht mijn hersens besmetten.

MORE:
The wagging of your beards=The effort of speaking
Cheap estimation=Lowest possible valuation
Peradventure=Perhaps
Mocker=Scoffer
Botcher=One who mends and patches old clothes (See Twelfth Night, 1.5)
God-den=Good evening (God give you good even.)
Beastly=Coarse, bestial
Plebeians=The common people of ancient Rome
Compleat:
Mocker=Bespotter, schimper, spotvogel
Wagging=Schudding, waggeling
Botcher=Een lapper, knoeijer, boetelaar, broddelaar
Peradventure=Bygeval, misschien
Beastly=Onbeschoft, morsig

Topics: insult, intellect, status, respect

PLAY: As You Like It
ACT/SCENE: 2.7
SPEAKER: Duke Senior
CONTEXT:
DUKE SENIOR
Fie on thee! I can tell what thou wouldst do.
JAQUES
What, for a counter, would I do but good?
DUKE SENIOR
Most mischievous foul sin in chiding sin,
For thou thyself hast been a libertine,
As sensual as the brutish sting itself,
And all th’ embossèd sores and headed evils
That thou with license of free foot hast caught
Wouldst thou disgorge into the general world.
JAQUES
Why, who cries out on pride
That can therein tax any private party?
Doth it not flow as hugely as the sea
Till that the weary very means do ebb?
What woman in the city do I name,
When that I say the city-woman bears
The cost of princes on unworthy shoulders?
Who can come in and say that I mean her,
When such a one as she such is her neighbour?
Or what is he of basest function
That says his bravery is not of my cost,
Thinking that I mean him, but therein suits
His folly to the mettle of my speech?
There then. How then, what then? Let me see wherein
My tongue hath wronged him. If it do him right,
Then he hath wronged himself. If he be free,
Why then my taxing like a wild goose flies
Unclaimed of any man. But who comes here?

DUTCH:
Recht booze zonde, als gij op zonde raast;
Want gij zijt zelf een woesteling geweest,
Een slaaf, niet min dan ‘t vee, der zinn’lijkheid;

MORE:
Counter=Coin or counter having no value
Sting=Carnal appetite
Embossed=Swollen
Evils=Boils
Licence=Licentiousness (and permission)
Free foot=Freedom of movement
Tax=Accuse
Means=Source
City-woman=Extravagantly dressed city wife
Mettle=Spirit
Do him=Describe him
Right=Correctly
Free=Innocent
Compleat:
Sting=Prikkel, steekel
Licence=Verlof, oorlof, vergunning, toelaating, vrygeeving, goedkeuring; vryheyd
To tax=Beschuldigen
Full of mettle=Vol vuurs, moedig
Right=Recht, behoorlyk

Topics: advantage/benefit, pride, language, insult

PLAY: Timon of Athens
ACT/SCENE: 3.7
SPEAKER: Timon
CONTEXT:
TIMON
May you a better feast never behold,
You knot of mouth-friends I smoke and lukewarm water
Is your perfection. This is Timon’s last;
Who, stuck and spangled with your flatteries,
Washes it off, and sprinkles in your faces
Your reeking villainy.
Live loathed and long,
Most smiling, smooth, detested parasites,
Courteous destroyers, affable wolves, meek bears,
You fools of fortune, trencher-friends, time’s flies,
Cap and knee slaves, vapours, and minute-jacks!
Of man and beast the infinite malady
Crust you quite o’er! What, dost thou go?
Soft! take thy physic first—thou too—and thou;—
Stay, I will lend thee money, borrow none.

DUTCH:
Glad, grijnzend volk, verfoeide tafelschuimers,
Aaimoord’naa.rs, lieve wolven, zachte beren,
Fortuins zotskappen, vleiers, zonnevliegen,
Mutsknievee, dampen, en minutenventjes!

MORE:
Knot=Group, cluster
Mouth-friends=Sycophants, flatterers
Smoke=Steam
Perfection=What you deserve
Stuck=Fixed
Smooth=Slippery
Trencher-friends=Partying friends, parasites (friends for the duration of a meal (trencher being a plate))
Cap-and-knee=Bowing and scraping, fake; the equivalent of kneel, doff cap, tug forelock greeting
Vapours=Nothings
Minute-jack=A fickle person who changes his mind all the time
Compleat:
Knot=Een rist of trop
Smooth=(courteous) Beleefd, hoffelyk; (easy style) Een vloeiende styl
Trencher=Een tafelbord
Trencher-friend=Panlikker, teljoorlikker, tys tafelbezem
Vapour=Damp, qualm, waassem
Jack=Een dommekragt

Topics: insult, flattery, manipulation, deceit, money

PLAY: King Henry IV Part 1
ACT/SCENE: 2.1
SPEAKER: Gadshill
CONTEXT:
I am joined with no foot-land-rakers, no long-staff sixpenny strikers, none of these mad mustachio purple-hued malt-worms, but with nobility and tranquillity, burgomasters and great oneyers, such as can hold in, such as will strike sooner than speak, and speak sooner than drink, and drink sooner than pray, and yet, zounds, I lie, for they pray continually to their saint the commonwealth, or rather not pray to her but prey on her, for they ride up and down on her and make her their boots.

DUTCH:
Ik sluit mij niet aan bij land-loopers te voet, niet bij knuppeldragende schellingafzetters, niet bij dolle moutwurmen met purperroode bierknevels: maar bij adel en renteniers; bij burgemeesters en groote hansen; bij mannen, die hun stand ophouden, die eer zullen toeslaan dan spreken, eer spreken dan drinken, en eer drinken dan bidden; doch neen, hier lieg ik; want zij roepen telkens hun heilige aan: ‘s lands welvaren; of liever zij roepen het niet aan, maar houden het aan, en het varen in dat schuitjen is hun bestaan

MORE:
Malt-worms=Tipplers of ale
Foot-land-raker=Pedestrian vagabond (Schmidt); footpad (Onions)
Boot=Booty from plundering
Burgersdijk:
Zij roepen het niet aan, maar houden het aan. In ‘t Engelsch: not pray to her, but prey on her. Daarop volgt weder een woordspeling met boots, dat buit en laarzen beteekent, en dan met liquored, dat smeereis (van laarzen) en dronken maken beteekenen kan. Varenzaad, waarvan daarna gesproken wordt, is nagenoeg onzichtbaar en wordt als middel vermeld, waarmee iemand, die het bij zich draagt, zich onzichtbaar kan maken. Maar het moet alsdan op St. Jans-avond en op het oogenblik van de geboorte des heiligen ingezameld zijn.

Topics: insult, excess

PLAY: The Merry Wives of Windsor
ACT/SCENE:
SPEAKER: Falstaff
CONTEXT:
MISTRESS FORD
Go to, then: we’ll use this unwholesome humidity,
this gross watery pumpion; we’ll teach him to know
turtles from jays.
FALSTAFF
Have I caught thee, my heavenly jewel? Why, now let
me die, for I have lived long enough: this is the
period of my ambition: O this blessed hour!

DUTCH:
Is nu mijn hemelsch kleinood mijn? O, nu moge ik
sterven, want ik heb lang genoeg geleefd; nu ben ik
aan den eindpaal van mijn eerzucht! O welk een zalig uur!

MORE:
Humidity=Moisture
Pumpion=Gourd, pumpkin
Turtles from the jays=Faithful from the flirts
Period=End
Compleat:
Humidity=vochtigheyd, dofheyd
Pumpion=Pompoen
To bring to a period=Tot een eyde brengen

Burgersdijk notes:
Van kraaien. From jays. Jay is de Vlaamsche gaai of meerkol, Corvus glandarius; het woord wordt ook tot aanwijzing van lichte vrouwen gebezigd, zie Cymbeline 3.4
„Is nu mijn hemelsch kleinood mijn?” Have I caught thee, my heavenly jewel? Zoo begint het tweede lied uit Sidney’s Astrophel and Stella. Alleen is in de folio-uitgave het woord thee ingevoegd.

Topics: ambition|achievement|insult

PLAY: Richard III
ACT/SCENE: 1.2
SPEAKER: Anne
CONTEXT:
ANNE
Villain, thou know’st not law of God nor man.
No beast so fierce but knows some touch of pity.
RICHARD
But I know none, and therefore am no beast.
ANNE
O, wonderful, when devils tell the truth!
RICHARD
More wonderful, when angels are so angry.
Vouchsafe, divine perfection of a woman,
Of these supposèd crimes to give me leave
By circumstance but to acquit myself.
ANNE
Vouchsafe, diffused infection of a man,
Of these known evils but to give me leave
By circumstance to curse thy cursèd self.

DUTCH:
O wondervreemd, ook duivels spreken waar!

MORE:
Proverb: The devil sometimes speaks the truth

Vouchsafe=Grant
Circumstance=Argument
Diffused=Sprawling
Compleat:
To vouchsafe=Gewaardign, vergunnen
Circumstanced=Met omstandigheden belegd, onder omstandighede begreepen
To diffuse=Verspreyden

Topics: insult, proverbs and idioms

PLAY: Richard III
ACT/SCENE: 1.2
SPEAKER: Anne
CONTEXT:
ANNE
Villain, thou know’st not law of God nor man.
No beast so fierce but knows some touch of pity.
RICHARD
But I know none, and therefore am no beast.
ANNE
O, wonderful, when devils tell the truth!
RICHARD
More wonderful, when angels are so angry.
Vouchsafe, divine perfection of a woman,
Of these supposèd crimes to give me leave
By circumstance but to acquit myself.
ANNE
Vouchsafe, diffused infection of a man,
Of these known evils but to give me leave
By circumstance to curse thy cursèd self.

DUTCH:
O wondervreemd, ook duivels spreken waar!

MORE:
Proverb: The devil sometimes speaks the truth

Vouchsafe=Grant
Circumstance=Argument
Diffused=Sprawling
Compleat:
To vouchsafe=Gewaardign, vergunnen
Circumstanced=Met omstandigheden belegd, onder omstandighede begreepen
To diffuse=Verspreyden

Topics: insult, proverbs and idioms

PLAY: Richard III
ACT/SCENE: 1.2
SPEAKER: Anne
CONTEXT:
RICHARD
Here.
Why dost thou spit at me?
ANNE
Would it were mortal poison for thy sake.
ANNE
I wish my spit were deadly poison.
RICHARD
Never came poison from so sweet a place.
ANNE
Never hung poison on a fouler toad.
Out of my sight! Thou dost infect mine eyes.
RICHARD
Thine eyes, sweet lady, have infected mine.
ANNE
Would they were basilisks to strike thee dead.

DUTCH:
En nooit kleefde er vergif aan snooder pad .
Uit mijn gezicht! want gij verzengt mijn oogen .

MORE:
Proverb: The sore eye infects the sound
Proverb: The basilisk’s eye is fatal

Poison on a fouler toad=Toads were considered to be venomous
Would=If only they were
Basilisk=Mythical reptiles that can kill with one look
Compleat:
To swell like a toad=Zwellen als een pad

Burgersdijk notes:
O waren ‘ t basilisken. Naar ‘t oude volksgeloof doodde de blik van den basilisk .

Topics: insult, proverbs and idioms

PLAY: Richard III
ACT/SCENE: 1.2
SPEAKER: Anne
CONTEXT:
RICHARD
Here.
Why dost thou spit at me?
ANNE
Would it were mortal poison for thy sake.
ANNE
I wish my spit were deadly poison.
RICHARD
Never came poison from so sweet a place.
ANNE
Never hung poison on a fouler toad.
Out of my sight! Thou dost infect mine eyes.
RICHARD
Thine eyes, sweet lady, have infected mine.
ANNE
Would they were basilisks to strike thee dead.

DUTCH:
En nooit kleefde er vergif aan snooder pad .
Uit mijn gezicht! want gij verzengt mijn oogen .

MORE:
Proverb: The sore eye infects the sound
Proverb: The basilisk’s eye is fatal

Poison on a fouler toad=Toads were considered to be venomous
Would=If only they were
Basilisk=Mythical reptiles that can kill with one look
Compleat:
To swell like a toad=Zwellen als een pad

Burgersdijk notes:
O waren ‘ t basilisken. Naar ‘t oude volksgeloof doodde de blik van den basilisk .

Topics: insult, proverbs and idioms

PLAY: King Henry IV Part 1
ACT/SCENE: 2.4
SPEAKER: Falstaff
CONTEXT:
Sblood, you starveling, you elfskin, you dried neat’s tongue, you bull’s pizzle, you stockfish! O, for breath to utter what is like thee! You tailor’s-yard, you sheath, you bowcase, you vile standing tuck—

DUTCH:
Stilgezwegen, jij hongerlijder, jij aalshuid, jij gedroogde kalfstong, jij bullepees, jij stokvisch,—O, had ik maar adem genoeg om te zeggen, waar je op gelijkt!—jij snijdersel, jij degenscheê, jij boogfoedraal, jij erbarmelijk, rechtopstaand rapier,

MORE:
Schmidt:
Starveling=A hunger-starved and extremely lean person
Neat=horned cattle
Tuck=Rapier
Compleat:
Starveling=Een uitgehongerde, een die zeer mager en niet dan vel en been is
Neat=Een rund, varre (os of koe)

Topics: insult

PLAY: King Henry V
ACT/SCENE: 2.4
SPEAKER: Exeter
CONTEXT:
Scorn and defiance, slight regard, contempt,
And anything that may not misbecome
The mighty sender, doth he prize you at.
Thus says my king: an if your father’s Highness
Do not, in grant of all demands at large,
Sweeten the bitter mock you sent his Majesty,
He’ll call you to so hot an answer of it
That caves and womby vaultages of France
Shall chide your trespass and return your mock
In second accent of his ordinance.

DUTCH:
Uittarting en verachting, hoon en spot,
En alles, wat den grooten zender niet
Onteeren kan.

MORE:

Slight regard=Scant regard, disregard
Misbecome=To suit ill, not to befit, to be unseemly in
In grant of=The act of granting or bestowing, concession, permission
Mock=Ridicule, derision, sneer
Womby=Hollow, capacious
Vaultage=Cavern
Answer=Reply to a charge
Accent=Sound of voice
Second accent=Echo
Ordinance=Artillery

Compleat:
Misbecome=Misstaan, niet wel voegen
It misbecomes him=Het misstaat hem

Topics: status, order/society, value, insult

PLAY: As You Like It
ACT/SCENE: 3.5
SPEAKER: Rosalind
CONTEXT:
ROSALIND
And why, I pray you? Who might be your mother,
That you insult, exult, and all at once,
Over the wretched? What though you have no beauty—
As, by my faith, I see no more in you
Than without candle may go dark to bed—
Must you be therefore proud and pitiless?
Why, what means this? Why do you look on me?
I see no more in you than in the ordinary
Of nature’s sale-work.— ‘Od’s my little life,
I think she means to tangle my eyes, too.
—No, faith, proud mistress, hope not after it.
‘Tis not your inky brows, your black silk hair,
Your bugle eyeballs, nor your cheek of cream
That can entame my spirits to your worship.
—You foolish shepherd, wherefore do you follow her,
Like foggy south puffing with wind and rain?
You are a thousand times a properer man
Than she a woman. ‘Tis such fools as you
That makes the world full of ill-favoured children.
‘Tis not her glass but you that flatters her,
And out of you she sees herself more proper
Than any of her lineaments can show her.
—But, mistress, know yourself. Down on your knees
And thank heaven, fasting, for a good man’s love,
For I must tell you friendly in your ear,
Sell when you can; you are not for all markets.
Cry the man mercy, love him, take his offer.
Foul is most foul, being foul to be a scoffer.
—So take her to thee, shepherd. Fare you well.

DUTCH:
Want hoor, wat ik als vriend in ‘t oor u zeg,
Sla toe bij ‘t bod; uw waar is niet gewild.
Snel, vraag vergiff’nis, ras zijn min gekroond!
Wie leelijk is, is ‘t leelijkst, als zij hoont.

MORE:
All at once=In one breath
Ordinary=Ordinary run
Sale-work=Ready made retail goods (of inferior quality)
Bugle=Beads, usually black
Wind and rain=Sighs and tears
Properer=More handsome
Tangle=Ensnare
Cry mercy=Take mercy on
Scoffer=Mocker. Scoffer was used for political and religious abuse.
Compleat:
At once=Op een reis, teffens, te gelyk, ten eersten
Ordinary=Gewoonlyk, gemeen
To scoff=Spotten, schimpen. To scoff at=Bespotten beschimpen.
Buggle=Een glaze kraal
Proper=Bequaam, van een bequaame lengte
To tangle=Verwarren
Mercy=Barmhartifheid, genade
To cry mercy=Om genade roepen

Topics: insult, marriage, value, ingratitude

PLAY: Cymbeline
ACT/SCENE: 3.5
SPEAKER: Cloten
CONTEXT:
CLOTEN
Meet thee at Milford-Haven!—I forgot to ask him one
thing; I’ll remember’t anon:—even there, thou
villain Posthumus, will I kill thee. I would these
garments were come. She said upon a time—the
bitterness of it I now belch from my heart—that she
held the very garment of Posthumus in more respect
than my noble and natural person together with the
adornment of my qualities. With that suit upon my
back, will I ravish her: first kill him, and in her
eyes; there shall she see my valour, which will then
be a torment to her contempt. He on the ground, my
speech of insultment ended on his dead body, and
when my lust hath dined,—which, as I say, to vex
her I will execute in the clothes that she so
praised,—to the court I’ll knock her back, foot
her home again. She hath despised me rejoicingly,
and I’ll be merry in my revenge.
Be those the garments?

DUTCH:
Zij heeft er genot in gevonden
mij te verachten, en ik wil mij vroolijk maken
door mijn wraak.

MORE:
Were come=Had arrived
Insultment=Contemptuous triumph
Knock=Beat
Foot=Kick
Compleat:
Insultation=Schamperheid
Knock=Slag, klop, klap

Topics: dispute, respect, regret, punishment, insult, revenge

PLAY: Cymbeline
ACT/SCENE: 3.4
SPEAKER: Pisanio
CONTEXT:
PISANIO
But to win time
To lose so bad employment; in the which
I have consider’d of a course. Good lady,
Hear me with patience.
IMOGEN
Talk thy tongue weary; speak
I have heard I am a strumpet; and mine ear
Therein false struck, can take no greater wound,
Nor tent to bottom that. But speak.
PISANIO
Then, madam,
I thought you would not back again.
IMOGEN
Most like;
Bringing me here to kill me.
PISANIO
Not so, neither:
But if I were as wise as honest, then
My purpose would prove well. It cannot be
But that my master is abused:
Some villain, ay, and singular in his art.
Hath done you both this cursed injury.

DUTCH:
Een fielt, ja wel een uitgeleerde schurk,
Heeft u en hem deez’ helschen streek gespeeld.

MORE:
Talk thy tongue weary=Say as much as you like
Ear false struck=Hit by the slander
Tent=Probe for searching wounds
Bottom=Go deeper
Back again=Return
Purpose=Plan
Prove well=Succeed
Compleat:
To weary=Vermoeijen, moede maaken
Tent (for a wound)=Tentyzer
To bottom=Gronden, grondvesten
Purpose (design, resolution, project)=Voorneemen, besluit, ontwerp

Topics: communication, language, insult, offence

PLAY: The Merry Wives of Windsor
ACT/SCENE:
SPEAKER: Host
CONTEXT:
HOST
What wouldst thou have, boor? what: thick-skin?
speak, breathe, discuss; brief, short, quick, snap.
SIMPLE
Marry, sir, I come to speak with Sir John Falstaff
from Master Slender.
HOST
There’s his chamber, his house, his castle, his
standing-bed and truckle-bed; ’tis painted about
with the story of the Prodigal, fresh and new. Go
knock and call; he’ll speak like an Anthropophaginian
unto thee: knock, I say.

DUTCH:
Waar naar toe, boer? wat wilt gij, dikhuid? Spreek,
geef geluid, deel mee, kort, bondig, vlug, snel!

MORE:
Discuss=Disclose
Truckle-bed=Low bed on castors that could be stored under a standing bed
Anthropophaginian=Cannibal
Compleat:
Discuss=Onderzoeken, uytpluyzen, naavorschen
Truckle-bed=Rol bed, uythaal bed

Burgersdijk notes:
Veldbed. Trucklebed, een laag bed, op rollen, dat onder het groote bed kon geborgen worden en meest voor een bediende bestemd was.

Topics: insult|clarity/precision|communication

PLAY: King Lear
ACT/SCENE: 2.2
SPEAKER: Kent
CONTEXT:
That such a slave as this should wear a sword,
Who wears no honesty. Such smiling rogues as these,
Like rats, oft bite the holy cords a-twain,
Which are too intrince t’unloose; smooth every passion
That in the natures of their lords rebel,
Being oil to fire, snow to the colder moods,
Renege, affirm, and turn their halcyon beaks
With every gall and vary of their masters,
Knowing naught, like dogs, but following.

DUTCH:
Dat zulk een deugniet, zonder hart in ‘t lijf,
Een zwaard aan ‘t lijf draagt. Zulk een vleilach-tuig
Doorknaagt, als ratten, vaak de heil’ge banden,
Die onontknoopbaar zijn; vleit ied’ren hartstocht,
Die in de borst van hun gebieders woelt;
Werpt olie op hun vuur, ijs op hun koelheid;
Knikt ja, schudt neen, en draait als weerhaan rond,
Met ied’re vlaag en wiss’ling van hun meesters;
Loopt hun als honden na, het kent niets anders.

MORE:
Proverb: A mouse in time may bite in two a cable (Like rats, oft bite….)
Holy cords=Matrimonial bond
A-twain=In two
Intrince=Entangled, intertwined (Verb to intrince=To untangle)
Onions:
Smooth=Flatter, humour
Halcyon=Kingfisher. (Kingfishers when hung by the beck or tail could serve as a weathervane).
Compleat:
Halcyon (sea fowl)=Een zekere Zeevogel
Burgerdijk notes:
En draait als weerhaan rond. In’t Engelsch: and turn their halcyon beaks; naar het volksgeloof keerde een ijsvogel, aan een draad opgehangen, zijn bek altijd naar den kant, waar de wind van daan kwam.

Topics: insult, proverbs and idioms, flattery, honesty

PLAY: Cymbeline
ACT/SCENE: 3.4
SPEAKER: Imogen
CONTEXT:
PISANIO
But to win time
To lose so bad employment; in the which
I have consider’d of a course. Good lady,
Hear me with patience.
IMOGEN
Talk thy tongue weary; speak
I have heard I am a strumpet; and mine ear
Therein false struck, can take no greater wound,
Nor tent to bottom that. But speak.
PISANIO
Then, madam,
I thought you would not back again.
IMOGEN
Most like;
Bringing me here to kill me.
PISANIO
Not so, neither:
But if I were as wise as honest, then
My purpose would prove well. It cannot be
But that my master is abused:
Some villain, ay, and singular in his art.
Hath done you both this cursed injury.

DUTCH:
Spreek, spreek u moede;
Ik hoorde, ik ben een eerloos wijf; mijn oor
Kan, na die valschheid, toch niets ergers lijden;
Onpeilbaar is de wond die ik ontving.

MORE:
Talk thy tongue weary=Say as much as you like
Ear false struck=Hit by the slander
Tent=Probe for searching wounds
Bottom=Go deeper
Back again=Return
Purpose=Plan
Prove well=Succeed
Compleat:
To weary=Vermoeijen, moede maaken
Tent (for a wound)=Tentyzer
To bottom=Gronden, grondvesten
Purpose (design, resolution, project)=Voorneemen, besluit, ontwerp

Topics: communication, language, insult, offence

PLAY: All’s Well that Ends Well
ACT/SCENE: 1.3
SPEAKER: Countess
CONTEXT:
COUNTESS
I will now hear; what say you of this gentlewoman?
STEWARD
Madam, the care I have had to even your content, I
wish might be found in the calendar of my past
endeavours; for then we wound our modesty and make
foul the clearness of our deservings, when of
ourselves we publish them.
COUNTESS
What does this knave here? Get you gone, sirrah:
the complaints I have heard of you I do not all
believe: ’tis my slowness that I do not; for I know
you lack not folly to commit them, and have ability
enough to make such knaveries yours.
CLOWN
‘Tis not unknown to you, madam, I am a poor fellow.
COUNTESS
Well, sir.
CLOWN
No, madam, ’tis not so well that I am poor, though
many of the rich are damned: but, if I may have
your ladyship’s good will to go to the world, Isbel
the woman and I will do as we may.

DUTCH:
[D]e klachten, die ik over u hoorde, wil ik niet alle gelooven; ‘t is uit lankmoedigheid, dat ik het niet doe; want ik weet, dat het u niet aan dwaasheid ontbreekt om zulke streken te begaan, en dat gij handigheid genoeg hebt om ze uit te voeren .

MORE:
Slowness=Dullness of intellect or comprehension (OED)
Folly=Perversity of judgment, absurdity
Knaveries=Roguish tricks
Even=Make even, even out
Compleat:
Slowness=Traagheyd, loomheyd
Folly (vice, excess, imperfection)=Ondeugd, buitenspoorigheid, onvolmaaktheid
Knavery=Guitery, boertery
To even=Effenen, vereffenen, effenmaaken, gelykmaaken

Topics: insult, offence, integrity, truth, trust, gullibility

PLAY: Richard III
ACT/SCENE: 3.4
SPEAKER: Ratcliffe
CONTEXT:
RATCLIFFE
Come, come, dispatch. The duke would be at dinner.
Make a short shrift. He longs to see your head.
HASTINGS
O momentary grace of mortal men,
Which we more hunt for than the grace of God!
Who builds his hopes in air of your good looks
Lives like a drunken sailor on a mast,
Ready with every nod to tumble down
Into the fatal bowels of the deep.

DUTCH:
Kom aan, maak voort; de hertog wil aan tafel;
Biecht this wat kort, hij wacht reeds op uw hoofd.

MORE:
Shriving=To hear confession and absolve (between condemnation and execution of punishment – origin of short shrift (korte metten))
Good looks=Favourable looks
Nod=As in nodding off
Compleat:
To shrive=Biechten

Topics: insult, guilt, legacy

PLAY: The Taming of the Shrew
ACT/SCENE: 4.3
SPEAKER: Tailor
CONTEXT:
PETRUCHIO
O monstrous arrogance! Thou liest, thou thread, thou
thimble,
Thou yard, three-quarters, half-yard, quarter, nail!
Thou flea, thou nit, thou winter cricket thou!
Braved in mine own house with a skein of thread?
Away, thou rag, thou quantity, thou remnant,
Or I shall so be-mete thee with thy yard
As thou shalt think on prating whilst thou liv’st!
I tell thee, I, that thou hast marred her gown.
TAILOR
Your Worship is deceived. The gown is made
Just as my master had direction.
Grumio gave order how it should be done.
GRUMIO
I gave him no order. I gave him the stuff.
TAILOR
But how did you desire it should be made?
GRUMIO
Marry, sir, with needle and thread.
TAILOR
But did you not request to have it cut?
GRUMIO
Thou hast faced many things.
TAILOR
I have.
GRUMIO
Face not me. Thou hast braved many men; brave not me. I
will neither be faced nor braved. I say unto thee, I
bid thy master cut out the gown, but I did not bid him
cut it to pieces. Ergo, thou liest.
TAILOR
Why, here is the note of the fashion to testify.

DUTCH:
Uw edelheid vergist zich; ‘t is gemaakt,
Precies zooals ‘t mijn meester werd besteld.
Hier, Grumio, gaf heel op, hoe ‘t wezen moest.

MORE:
Nail=Measure of cloth
Nit=Louse egg
Brave=(1) to “dress in fine clothes”; (2) “to defy.”
Yard=Measuring stick
Quantity=Fragment
Be-mete=Measure
Prating=Talking
Stuff=Material
Whilst=For as long as
Compleat:
Nail (one eighth of an ell)=De agste deel van een el
Nit=Een neet
To brave=Trotsen, braveeren, trotseeren; moedig treeden
To prate=Praaten. Prate and prattle=Keffen en snappen. Prate foolishly=Mal praaten

Topics: insult, fashion/trends, work, satisfaction

PLAY: King Henry IV Part 1
ACT/SCENE: 1.2
SPEAKER: Falstaff
CONTEXT:
There’s neither honesty, manhood, nor good fellowship in thee, nor thou cam’st not of the blood royal, if thou darest not stand for ten shillings.

DUTCH:
Er is in u geen eerlijkheid, geen manhaftigheid, noch goede kameraadschap, en gij zijt ook niet van koninklijken bloede, als gij het hart niet hebt, een paar kronen in den zak te steken.

MORE:
Schmidt:
Fellowship=Companionableness, a spirit and disposition as they ought to be among comrades
Darest, durst=to have courage, to be bold enough, to venture
Compleat:
You durst not do it=Gy durft het niet doen.

Topics: insult, honesty, friendship, courage

PLAY: The Comedy of Errors
ACT/SCENE: 2.2
SPEAKER: Antipholus of Syracuse
CONTEXT:
DROMIO OF SYRACUSE
Yes, to pay a fine for a periwig, and recover the lost
hair of another man.
ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE
Why is Time such a niggard of hair, being, as it is, so
plentiful an excrement?
DROMIO OF SYRACUSE
Because it is a blessing that he bestows on beasts, and what he hath scanted men in hair, he hath given them in wit.
ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE
Why, but there’s many a man hath more hair than wit.

DUTCH:
Zoo, maar er zijn menschen genoeg, die meer haar hebben dan verstand.

MORE:
Proverb: Bush natural, more hair; than wit
Proverb: An old goat is never themore revered for his beard
Proverb: Wisdom consists not in a beard

Scanted=Been miserly with
Compleat:
Scant=Bekrompen, schaars
I was scanted in time=Ik had er naauwlyks tyd toe

Topics: intellect, appearance, insult, proverbs and idioms, wisdom

PLAY: King Henry IV Part 1
ACT/SCENE: 2.4
SPEAKER: Prince Hal
CONTEXT:
FALSTAFF
But as the devil would have it, three misbegotten knaves in Kendal green came at my back, and let drive at me, for it was so dark, Hal, that thou couldst not see thy hand.
PRINCE HENRY
These lies are like their father that begets them, gross as a mountain, open, palpable. Why, thou claybrained guts, thou knotty-pated fool, thou whoreson, obscene, greasy tallow- catch—
FALSTAFF
What, art thou mad? Art thou mad? Is not the truth the truth?

DUTCH:
Die leugens zijn even als de vader, die hen verwekt, groot en breed als een berg, in het oog vallend, tastbaar. Zeg eens, gij onthersende rolpens, gij knoestkoppige dwaas, gij afschuwelijk, glibberig, smerig talkvat.

MORE:
Schmidt:
Misbegotten=Of a bad origin
Kendal=Place in Westmoreland, famous for its clothing trade
Claybrained=Stupid, Cf. Clodpole, clotpole
Tallow-catch, reading of O. Edd. in H4A II; supposed by some to be tallow-ketch, i. e. a vessel filled with tallow; by others tallow-keech, i. e. fat rolled up in a round lump.
Compleat:
Clothead or clot-pated fellow=Een Plompaard, botterik

Topics: deceit, truth, insult

PLAY: Titus Andronicus
ACT/SCENE: 1.1
SPEAKER: Titus Andronicus
CONTEXT:
SATURNINUS
But go thy ways; go, give that changing piece
To him that flourished for her with his sword
A valiant son-in-law thou shalt enjoy;
One fit to bandy with thy lawless sons,
To ruffle in the commonwealth of Rome.
TITUS ANDRONICUS
These words are razors to my wounded heart.

DUTCH:
Elk woord vlijmt als een dolk mijn bloedend hart.

MORE:
Proverb: As sharp as a razor
Changing=Fickle
Flourished=Drew his sword
To bandy=Squabble, brawl
Ruffle=Swagger
Compleat:
Flourish (with a sword)=Een Zwenking met een degen
Bandy=Betwisten

Topics: relationship, rivalry, insult

PLAY: Hamlet
ACT/SCENE: 2.2
SPEAKER: Hamlet
CONTEXT:
For the satirical rogue says here that old men have gray beards, that their faces are wrinkled, their eyes purging thick amber and plum-tree gum, and that they have a plentiful lack of wit, together with most weak hams.

DUTCH:
Het mangelt hen volop aan verstand dat zij een overvloedig verstandsgemis aan erg zwakke dijen paren

MORE:
Schmidt:
Satirical= full of bitter mockery
Rogue, a term of reproach=rascal, knave
Compleat:
Rogue (or rascal)=Schurk, Schobbejak
The poignancy of a satire=De scherpheid van een schimpdicht

Topics: wisdom, intellect, insult, age/experience

PLAY: Coriolanus
ACT/SCENE: 2.1
SPEAKER: Menenius
CONTEXT:
MENENIUS
Why, then you should discover a brace of
unmeriting, proud, violent, testy magistrates, alias
fools, as any in Rome.
SICINIUS
Menenius, you are known well enough, too.
MENENIUS
I am known to be a humorous patrician, and one that
loves a cup of hot wine with not a drop of allaying
Tiber in’t; said to be something imperfect in
favouring the first complaint; hasty and tinder-like
upon too trivial motion; one that converses more
with the buttock of the night than with the forehead
of the morning: what I think I utter, and spend my
malice in my breath. Meeting two such wealsmen as
you are—I cannot call you Lycurguses—if the drink
you give me touch my palate adversely, I make a
crooked face at it. I can’t say your worships have
delivered the matter well, when I find the ass in
compound with the major part of your syllables: and
though I must be content to bear with those that say
you are reverend grave men, yet they lie deadly that
tell you you have good faces. If you see this in
the map of my microcosm, follows it that I am known
well enough too? what barm can your bisson
conspectuities glean out of this character, if I be
known well enough too?

DUTCH:
En hoewel ik het mij getroosten moet hen te laten uitspreken, die u eerbied-wardige mannen van gewicht noemen, vertellen toch zij, die zeggen, dat gij redelijk goede gezichten hebt, een leugen om van te barsten.

MORE:
Humorous=Capricious, whimsical
Converses more=Is more conversant with
Too trivial motion=Too trifling a provocation
Spend my malice in my breath=Vent my anger in words
Weal=(1) Welfare, prosperity, happiness; (2) Commonwealth, body politic
Wealsmen=Legislators
Testy=Easily angry, fretful, peevish
Motion=Incitement
Delivered=Spoken, presented
Good faces=(1) Honest faces; (2) Handsome faces
Reverend=Entitled to respect, venerable
Bisson (beesom)=Purblind
Conspectuities=Sight, vision
Glean=Conclude, infer
Map of my microcosm=Face
Compleat:
To deliver (or speak out in discourse)=Een redevoering doen
Purblind=Stikziende
The common-weal=’t Welvaaren van ‘t algemeen
A common-wealths man=Een republyks gezinde
Testy=Korzel, kribbig, gramsteurig, gemelyk
Crooked=Krom, geboogen, scheef

Topics: insult, perception, appearance, truth, honesty, deceit

PLAY: Cymbeline
ACT/SCENE: 4.2
SPEAKER: Giuderius
CONTEXT:
GUIDERIUS
This Cloten was a fool, an empty purse;
There was no money in ’t. Not Hercules
Could have knocked out his brains, for he had none.
Yet I not doing this, the fool had borne
My head as I do his.
BELARIUS
What hast thou done?
GUIDERIUS
I am perfect what: cut off one Cloten’s head,
Son to the Queen, after his own report,
Who called me traitor mountaineer, and swore
With his own single hand he’d take us in,
Displace our heads where, thank the gods, they grow,
And set them on Lud’s Town.

DUTCH:
Deez’ Cloten was een gek, een leêge beurs,
Geen geld er in; geen Hercules kon hem
De hersens inslaan

MORE:
Take in=Subdue
I am perfect, what=I am well-informed, well assured, certain what
Lud’s Town=London
Compleat:
To be perfect in a thing=Iets wel van buiten kennen, in zyn hoofd hebben.

Topics: insult, intellect

PLAY: The Tempest
ACT/SCENE: 2.1
SPEAKER: Antonio
CONTEXT:
Thus, sir:
Although this lord of weak remembrance—this,
Who shall be of as little memory
When he is earthed—hath here almost persuaded
(For he’s a spirit of persuasion only,
Professes to persuade) the king his son’s alive,
‘Tis as impossible that he’s undrowned
And he that sleeps here swims

DUTCH:
Verneem dan, heer:
Al heeft deze edelman met zwak geheugen, —
Dekt eens hem de aard, dan zal zijn heug’nis dra
Zijn weggevaagd, — den vorst schier overreed, —
Hij is een man van overreden, acht dit
Als zijn betrekking, — dat zijn zoon nog leeft,
‘t Is zoo onmoog’lijk dat hij niet verdronk,
Als dat die slaper zwemt.

MORE:
Lord of weak remembrance=Of failing memory
Of as little memory=Also forgotten
Spirit of persuasion=Power, principle of persuasion
Compleat:
Remembrance=Gedachtenis, geheugenis
Persuasion=Overreeding, overtuiging, overstemming, aanraading, wysmaaking
The aim of eloquence is persuasion=Het doelwit der welspreeekendheid is overreeding
Cicero was an eloquent and persuasive orator=Cicero was een welspreekend en overtuigend redenaar

Topics: insult, memory, death

PLAY: Cymbeline
ACT/SCENE: 4.2
SPEAKER: Guiderius
CONTEXT:
CLOTEN
Thou injurious thief,
Hear but my name, and tremble.
GUIDERIUS
What’s thy name?
CLOTEN
Cloten, thou villain.
GUIDERIUS
Cloten, thou double villain, be thy name,
I cannot tremble at it: were it Toad, or Adder, Spider,
‘Twould move me sooner.
CLOTEN
To thy further fear,
Nay, to thy mere confusion, thou shalt know
I am son to the queen.
GUIDERIUS
I am sorry for ‘t; not seeming
So worthy as thy birth.
CLOTEN
Art not afeard?
GUIDERIUS
Those that I reverence, those I fear – the wise;
At fools I laugh, not fear them.

DUTCH:
Ik vrees, die ik eerbiedig: wijze mannen;
Een nar belach ik slechts.

MORE:
Injurious=Insulting
Mere=Total
Confusion=Ruin
Compleat:
Injurious=Verongelykend, beledigend, smaadelyk, lasterlyk
Mere (meer)=Louter, enkel
Confusion (ruin)=Verwoesting, bederf, ruine

Topics: insult, ruin, reputation

PLAY: King Henry IV Part 1
ACT/SCENE: 1.2
SPEAKER: Prince Hal
CONTEXT:
Thou art so fat-witted with drinking of old sack and unbuttoning thee after supper and sleeping upon benches in the afternoon, that thou hast forgotten to demand that truly which thou wouldst truly know. What a devil hast thou to do with the time of the day?

DUTCH:

Gij zijt zoo vet van brein geworden van het oude-sekdrinken, het kamizool-losknoopen na het avondeten, en het slapen op banken na den middag, dat gij verleerd hebt, werkelijk te vragen naar wat gij werkelijk weten wilt. Wat duivel hebt gij met den tijd van den dag te maken?

MORE:
Schmidt:
Fat-witted=Heavy-witted, stupid

Topics: insult, excess, intellect, time

PLAY: Troilus and Cressida
ACT/SCENE: 2.1
SPEAKER: Thersites
CONTEXT:
THERSITES
Ay, do, do; thou sodden-witted lord! thou hast no
more brain than I have in mine elbows; an assinego
may tutor thee: thou scurvy-valiant ass! thou art
here but to thrash Trojans; and thou art bought and
sold among those of any wit, like a barbarian slave.
If thou use to beat me, I will begin at thy heel, and
tell what thou art by inches, thou thing of no
bowels, thou!
AJAX
You dog!
THERSITES
You scurvy lord!
AJAX
You cur!
THERSITES
Mars his idiot! do, rudeness; do, camel; do, do.

DUTCH:
Ja ja, goed zoo, goed zoo, gij groote heer met afgekookten
geest! Gij hebt niet meer hersens, dan ik in
mijn elboog heb; een molenaarsezel kon uw leermeester
wel zijn, gij schurftig-dappere ezel!

MORE:
Proverb: To be bought and sold
Proverb: He has more wit in his head than you in both your shoulders

Assinego (also asnico)=Donkey
Bought and sold=Manipulated
Use=Continue
By inches=Inch by inch

Topics: proverbs and idioms, still in use, conflict, insult

PLAY: Othello
ACT/SCENE: 5.2
SPEAKER: Emilia
CONTEXT:
OTHELLO
Ha!
EMILIA
Do thy worst.
This deed of thine is no more worthy heaven
Than thou wast worthy her.
OTHELLO
Peace, you were best.
EMILIA
Thou hast not half that power to do me harm
As I have to be hurt. O gull! O dolt!
As ignorant as dirt! Thou hast done a deed—
I care not for thy sword, I’ll make thee known
Though I lost twenty lives.— Help! Help, ho! Help!
The Moor hath killed my mistress! Murder, murder!

DUTCH:
Gij hebt niet half de kracht, mij leed te doen,
Die ik heb om te dulden. O gij speelpop!
Onnooz’le hals! gij hebt een daad gedaan, —
Wat geef ik om uw zwaard?

MORE:

Gull=A person easily deceived, a dupe, a fool
Dolt=blockhead, loggerhead
Compleat:
Gull=Bedrieger
To gull=Bedriegen, verschalken. You look as if you had a mind to gull me=Hete schynt of gy voorneemens waart om my te foppen
Dolt=Plompaard; botmuyl

Topics: insult, gullibility, intellect, revenge

PLAY: King Lear
ACT/SCENE: 1.5
SPEAKER: Fool
CONTEXT:
FOOL
Thou shouldst not have been old till thou hadst been wise.
LEAR
O, let me not be mad, not mad, sweet heaven! I would not be mad. Keep me in temper. I would not be mad.

DUTCH:
Je had niet oud moeten zijn voordat je wijs geworden was.

MORE:
Schmidt:
Wise=In one’s right mind
In temper= Emphatically, wonted disposition, freedom from excess or extravagance, equanimity
Compleat:
A man of an instable temper=Een man van een ongestadig humeur, van eenen wispelteurigen aart.

Topics: insult, wisdom, madness

PLAY: King Lear
ACT/SCENE: 2.2
SPEAKER: Kent
CONTEXT:
Thou whoreson zed, thou unnecessary letter!—My lord, if you will give me leave, I will tread this unbolted villain into mortar and daub the wall of a jakes with him.—Spare my gray beard, you wagtail?

DUTCH:
Jij smerig, overbodig stuk ellende! Als u mij dat toestaat,
mijn lord, zal ik deze ongebuilde bandiet tot mortel stampen
en daarmee de latrinemuren bepleisteren.

MORE:
In Shakespeare’s time, the letter Z was used even less than it is today: dictionaries of the time ignored the letter. Hence the jibe that as a parasite, Oswald is as unnecessary as the letter Z.
Unbolted=Unsifted, coarse (flour or cement)
Onions:
Jakes=Privy
Wagtail (term of contempt)=Obsequious person
Compleat:
Jakes=Een kakhuis
Jakes-cleanser=Een huisjes ruimer, nachtwerker, stilleveeger.

Topics: insult, language, status

PLAY: Romeo and Juliet
ACT/SCENE: 1.3
SPEAKER: Nurse
CONTEXT:
For even the day before, she broke her brow.
And then my husband—God be with his soul!
He was a merry man—took up the child.
“Yea,” quoth he, “Dost thou fall upon thy face?
Thou wilt fall backward when thou hast more wit,
Wilt thou not, Jule?” and, by my holy dame,
The pretty wretch left crying and said “ay.”
To see now, how a jest shall come about!

DUTCH:
Gij valt wel achterover, als gij wijs wordt

MORE:

Topics: insult, intellect, emotion and mood

PLAY: Measure for Measure
ACT/SCENE: 1.2
SPEAKER: Lucio
CONTEXT:
FIRST GENTLEMAN
Thou art always figuring diseases in me; but thou
art full of error; I am sound.
LUCIO
Nay, not as one would say, healthy; but so sound as
things that are hollow: thy bones are hollow;
impiety has made a feast of thee.

DUTCH:
Nu, dat wil daarom nog niet zeggen gezond; maar
zoo wel, als iets zijn kan, dat voos en hol is; uw beenderen
zijn hol; goddeloosheid heeft op u geteerd en u
uitgemergeld.

MORE:
Schmidt:
Impiety=Sin, wickedness
Compleat:
Impiety=Ongodvruchtigheid, godloosheid
An impious man=Een ongodsdienstig, onvroom man

Topics: insult, good and bad, excess

PLAY: Timon of Athens
ACT/SCENE: 4.3
SPEAKER: Timon
CONTEXT:
TIMON
First mend my company, take away thyself.
APEMANTUS
So I shall mend mine own, by the lack of thine.
TIMON
‘Tis not well mended so, it is but botched;
if not, I would it were.
APEMANTUS
What wouldst thou have to Athens?
TIMON
Thee thither in a whirlwind. If thou wilt,
Tell them there I have gold; look, so I have.
APEMANTUS
Here is no use for gold.

DUTCH:
t Wordt door die scheuring zeker niet Verbeterd;
Hoe ‘t zij, ik wensch het toch.

MORE:
Mend=Improve
Botched=Spoiled
Have=Have reported
Compleat:
Mend=Beteren, verbeteren
To botch=Lappen, aanflansen; broddelen, knoeijen, boetelen

Topics: insult, money

PLAY: As You Like It
ACT/SCENE: 3.2
SPEAKER: Touchstone
CONTEXT:
TOUCHSTONE
Such a one is a natural philosopher. Wast ever in court, shepherd?
CORIN
No, truly.
TOUCHSTONE
Then thou art damned.
CORIN
Nay, I hope.
TOUCHSTONE
Truly, thou art damned, like an ill-roasted egg, all on one side.
CORIN
For not being at court? Your reason.
TOUCHSTONE
Why, if thou never wast at court, thou never sawest good manners; if thou never sawest good manners, then thy manners must be wicked; and wickedness is sin, and sin is damnation. Thou art in a parlous state, shepherd.
CORIN
Not a whit, Touchstone: those that are good manners at the court are as ridiculous in the country as the behavior of the country is most mockable at the court.
TOUCHSTONE
Instance, briefly. Come, instance.

DUTCH:
Waarachtig, gij wordt gebraden, evenals een slecht gebraden ei, aldoor aan éen kant.

MORE:
Wast=Wast thou
Ill-roasted=Unevenly cooked
Manners=Polite behaviour, morals
Parlous=Perilous, in danger
Behaviour=Conduct
Compleat:
Over-roasted=Al te lang gebraaden
Thou wast=Gy waart
Manners=Zeden, manieren, manierlykheid
Parlous=Gevaarlyk, loos; Onvergelykelyk, weergaloos
Behaviour=Gedrag, handel en wandel, ommegang, aanstelling

Topics: insult, order/society, status, civility

PLAY: King Henry IV Part 1
ACT/SCENE: 2.2
SPEAKER: Prince Hal
CONTEXT:
Got with much ease. Now merrily to horse.
The thieves are all scattered, and possessed with fear
So strongly that they dare not meet each other.
Each takes his fellow for an officer.
Away, good Ned. Falstaff sweats to death,
And lards the lean earth as he walks along.
Were ’t not for laughing, I should pity him.

DUTCH:
Kom meê, vriend Edu. Falstaff zweet zich dood,
En spekt de magere aarde, waar hij loopt;
’k Zou hem beklagen, kon ik dat van ’t lachen.

MORE:
Schmidt:
Lard=To fatten; to enrich, to garnish
Compleat:
To lard=Doorspekken
Larded=Doorspekt, met spek doorreegen

Topics: insult, pity

PLAY: The Merry Wives of Windsor
ACT/SCENE:
SPEAKER: Mistresss Ford
CONTEXT:
FORD
What a damned Epicurean rascal is this! My heart is
ready to crack with impatience. Who says this is
improvident jealousy? my wife hath sent to him; the
hour is fixed; the match is made. Would any man
have thought this? See the hell of having a false
woman! My bed shall be abused, my coffers
ransacked, my reputation gnawn at; and I shall not
only receive this villainous wrong, but stand under
the adoption of abominable terms, and by him that
does me this wrong. Terms! names! Amaimon sounds
well; Lucifer, well; Barbason, well; yet they are
devils’ additions, the names of fiends: but
Cuckold! Wittol!—Cuckold! the devil himself hath
not such a name. Page is an ass, a secure ass: he
will trust his wife; he will not be jealous. I will
rather trust a Fleming with my butter, Parson Hugh
the Welshman with my cheese, an Irishman with my
aqua-vitae bottle, or a thief to walk my ambling
gelding, than my wife with herself; then she plots,
then she ruminates, then she devises; and what they
think in their hearts they may effect, they will
break their hearts but they will effect. God be
praised for my jealousy! Eleven o’clock the hour.
I will prevent this, detect my wife, be revenged on
Falstaff, and laugh at Page. I will about it;
better three hours too soon than a minute too late.
Fie, fie, fie! cuckold! cuckold! cuckold!

DUTCH:
Wat is dat voor een vervloekte Epicurische schurk!

MORE:
Epicurean=Hedonistic (After the philosopher Epicure, who believed that the gods had no interest in men’s actions and that hedonism was the ony aim in life)
Impatience=Rage
Improvident=Rash
Amaimon, Lucifer, Barbason=Names of devils
Additions=Titles
Compleat:
Epicurian=Een epikureer
Impatience=Onlydzaamheyd, ongeduldigheyd, ongeduld
Improvident=Onvoorzigtig, onzorgvuldig, onverhoeds
Addition=Bydoening, toegift, byvoegsel, aanhangsel

Topics: insult|betrayal|revenge

PLAY: King Henry IV Part 1
ACT/SCENE: 2.3
SPEAKER: Hotspur
CONTEXT:
What a lack-brain is this! By the Lord, our plot is a good plot as ever was laid, our friends true and constant—a good plot, good friends, and full of expectation; an excellent plot, very good friends. What a frosty-spirited rogue is this! Why, my Lord of York commends the plot and the general course of the action. Zounds, an I were now by this rascal, I could brain him with his lady’s fan. I

DUTCH:
Wat is dat voor een hersenloos wezen! Bij God, ons plan is zoo goed, als er ooit een plan beraamd is; onze vrienden trouw en standvastig: een goed plan, goede vrienden, en veelbelovend; een uitmuntend plan, zeer goede vrienden!

MORE:
Dr Johnson
La’ckbrain. n.s. [lack and brain.] One that wants wit.
Schmidt:
Lackbrain=A stupid fellow
Action=Enterprise
Frosty-spirited=Cowardly

Topics: insult, plans/intentions

PLAY: Hamlet
ACT/SCENE: 2.2
SPEAKER: Hamlet
CONTEXT:
And yet, to me, what is this quintessence of dust? Man delights not me. No, nor woman neither, though by your smiling you seem to say so.

DUTCH:
En toch, voor mij, wat is ze mij, deze quintessence van stof?

MORE:
Quintesssence in Shakespeare’s time meant the ‘fifth’ or pure essence ( also ‘quintessential’)

Topics: insult

PLAY: King Henry IV Part 2
ACT/SCENE: 1.2
SPEAKER: Chief Justice
CONTEXT:
CHIEF JUSTICE
What, you are as a candle, the better part burnt out.
FALSTAFF
A wassail candle, my lord, all tallow. If I did say of wax, my growth would approve the truth.
CHIEF JUSTICE
There is not a white hair on your face but should have his effect of gravity.

DUTCH:
Denk, gij zijt als een kaars, waar de beste helft van is opgebrand.

MORE:

Schmidt:
Wassail=A drinking-bout, carousing, quaffing and a candle used at festivities
Wax=Punning on growth (wax and wane)
Approve=Prove

Compleat:
Wassail=Een slempmaal, slemp-feest

Topics: insult, excess

PLAY: Coriolanus
ACT/SCENE: 1.1
SPEAKER: Martius
CONTEXT:
MENENIUS
For that, being one o’ the lowest, basest, poorest,
Of this most wise rebellion, thou go’st foremost:
Thou rascal, that art worst in blood to run,
Lead’st first to win some vantage.
But make you ready your stiff bats and clubs:
Rome and her rats are at the point of battle;
The one side must have bale.
Hail, noble Martius!
MARTIUS
Thanks. What’s the matter, you dissentious rogues,
That, rubbing the poor itch of your opinion,
Make yourselves scabs?

DUTCH:
Dank. — Wat wil dit hier, oproertuig, dat gij,
Zoodra u ‘t oordeel jeukt, uzelf door krabben
Gansch uitslag maakt?

MORE:
Stiff bats=Cudgels
Bale=Injury, sorrow
Dissentious=Seditious
Rascal=Person of low social status
Compleat:
Bat=Knuppel
Bale=Een baal
Dissentaneous=Tegenstrijdig
Rascal=Een schelm, guit, schobbejak, schurk, vlegel, schavuit
Dissension=Oneenigheid, verdeeldheid
To sow dissentions amongst friends=Onder vrienden tweedracht zaaijen

Topics: insult, status, conflict, leadership, order/society

PLAY: Coriolanus
ACT/SCENE: 2.1
SPEAKER: Menenius
CONTEXT:
BRUTUS
Come, come, you are well understood to be a
perfecter giber for the table than a necessary
bencher in the Capitol.
MENENIUS
Our very priests must become mockers, if they shall
encounter such ridiculous subjects as you are. When
you speak best unto the purpose, it is not worth the
wagging of your beards; and your beards deserve not
so honourable a grave as to stuff a botcher’s
cushion, or to be entombed in an ass’s packsaddle.
Yet you must be saying, Marcius is proud;
who in a cheap estimation, is worth predecessors
since Deucalion, though peradventure some of the
best of ’em were hereditary hangmen. God-den to
your worships: more of your conversation would
infect my brain, being the herdsmen of the beastly
plebeians: I will be bold to take my leave of you.

DUTCH:
Als gij het best ter zake spreekt, is het niet eens het schudden
van uw baarden waard;

MORE:
The wagging of your beards=The effort of speaking
Cheap estimation=Lowest possible valuation
Peradventure=Perhaps
Mocker=Scoffer
Botcher=One who mends and patches old clothes (See Twelfth Night, 1.5)
God-den=Good evening (God give you good even.)
Beastly=Coarse, bestial
Plebeians=The common people of ancient Rome
Compleat:
Mocker=Bespotter, schimper, spotvogel
Wagging=Schudding, waggeling
Botcher=Een lapper, knoeijer, boetelaar, broddelaar
Peradventure=Bygeval, misschien
Beastly=Onbeschoft, morsig

Topics: insult, intellect, status, respect

PLAY: King Henry IV Part 1
ACT/SCENE: 2.4
SPEAKER: Prince Hal
CONTEXT:
Ungracious boy, henceforth ne’er look on me. Thou art violently carried away from grace. There is a devil haunts thee in the likeness of an old fat man. A tun of man is thy companion. Why dost thou converse with that trunk of humors, that bolting-hutch of beastliness, that swollen parcel of dropsies, that huge bombard of sack, that stuffed cloakbag of guts, that roasted Manningtree ox with the pudding in his belly, that reverend Vice, that gray iniquity, that father ruffian, that vanity in years? Wherein is he good, but to taste sack and drink it? Wherein neat and cleanly but to carve a capon and eat it? Wherein cunning but in craft? Wherein crafty but in villany? Wherein villanous but in all things? Wherein worthy but in nothing?
FALSTAFF
I would your grace would take me with you: whom
means your grace

DUTCH:
Gij laat u met geweld wegsleuren van de genade; er is een duivel, die om u waart in de gedaante van een vetten ouden man; een ton van een man is uw kameraad. Waarom verkeert gij met die kist vol grillen, dien builtrog van dierlijkheid, die opgeblazen baal waterzucht, dat buikig stiikvat sek, dat volgepropte darmenvalies, dien gebraden kermisos met den beuling in ‘t lijf, die eerwaardige ondeugd, die grijze verdorvenheid, dien vader losbol, die ijdelheid op jaren?

MORE:
Schmidt:
Ungracious=impious, wicked
Vanity= worthlessness
Take me with you=Explain your meaning
Burgersdijk notes:
In de Oud-Engelsche spelen trad als komische persoon de Ondeugd, Vice, dikwijls op; hij was met een houten zwaard gewapend.
Dien gebraden kermis-os. In’t Engelsch staat: Dien gebraden Manningtree-ox. Manningtree was een plaats in het weide- en veerijke graafschap Essex, waar op de jaarmarkt steeds een geheele os met de ingewanden in ‘t lijf werd gebraden. Bij die gelegenheid werden er dan ook volksschouwspelen, zoogenaamde Moraliteiten , gegeven, waarin doorgaans de allegorische personen Ondeugd, Goddeloosheid of Verdorvenheid, en IJdelheid, Vice, Iniquity en Vanity, optraden. Van daar dat de Prins Falstaff eerst met den os en dan met die allegorische personen vergelijkt.

Topics: insult, offence, value, order/society, understanding

PLAY: Othello
ACT/SCENE: 1.2
SPEAKER: Iago
CONTEXT:
IAGO
Though in the trade of war I have slain men,
Yet do I hold it very stuff o’ th’ conscience
To do no contrived murder. I lack iniquity
Sometimes to do me service. Nine or ten times
I had thought t’ have yerked him here under the ribs.
OTHELLO
‘Tis better as it is.
IAGO
Nay, but he prated
And spoke such scurvy and provoking terms
Against your honour
That, with the little godliness I have,
I did full hard forbear him. But I pray you, sir,
Are you fast married? Be assured of this:
That the Magnifico is much beloved
And hath in his effect a voice potential
As double as the Duke’s. He will divorce you,
Or put upon you what restraint and grievance
The law (with all his might to enforce it on)
Will give him cable.

DUTCH:
Schoon ‘t krijgsberoep mij menschen deed verslaan,
Toch was mij dit steeds een gewetenszaak,
Geen moord te doen

MORE:
Contrived=Premeditated
Yerked=Stabbed
Full hard forbear=Made great effort at restraint
Scurvy=Insulting
Grievance=Injury, punishment
Magnifico=Here meaning Brabantio
Potential=Powerful
Cable=Will give him rope (scope) (nautical)
Compleat:
Contrived=Bedacht, verzonnen, toegesteld
To yerk=Gispen, slaan
Forbear=Zich van onthouden
Scurvy=Kwaad, slecht
Grievance=Bezwaarenis
Potential=Kragtverleenend, vermoogend

Topics: insult, dispute, punishment, law/legal

PLAY: All’s Well that Ends Well
ACT/SCENE: 2.3
SPEAKER: Lafew
CONTEXT:
LAFEW
The devil it is that’s thy master. Why dost thou
garter up thy arms o’ this fashion? dost make hose of
sleeves? do other servants so? Thou wert best set
thy lower part where thy nose stands. By mine
honour, if I were but two hours younger, I’ld beat
thee: methinks, thou art a general offence, and
every man should beat thee: I think thou wast
created for men to breathe themselves upon thee.
PAROLLES
This is hard and undeserved measure, my lord.
LAFEW
Go to, sir; you were beaten in Italy for picking a
kernel out of a pomegranate; you are a vagabond and
no true traveller: you are more saucy with lords
and honourable personages than the commission of your
birth and virtue gives you heraldry. You are not
worth another word, else Ied call you knave. I leave
you.

DUTCH:
Gij zijt geen woord verder waard; anders zou ik u een schurk noemen.

MORE:
True traveller=Traveller with a government licence
Vagabond=Tramp
Commission=A warrant by which any trust is held, or power exercised
Heraldry=Rank and accomplishments
Knave=Rascal, villain
Compleat:
Vagabond=Een landlooper, schooijer, zwerver
Commission=Last, volmagt, lastbrief, provisie
Knave=Guyt, boef

Topics: insult, order/society, status, respect

PLAY: King Henry VIII
ACT/SCENE: 2.4
SPEAKER: Queen Katherine
CONTEXT:
QUEEN KATHERINE
My lord, my lord,
I am a simple woman, much too weak
To oppose your cunning. You’re meek and humble-mouth’d;
You sign your place and calling, in full seeming,
With meekness and humility; but your heart
Is cramm’d with arrogancy, spleen, and pride.
You have, by fortune and his highness’ favours,
Gone slightly o’er low steps and now are mounted
Where powers are your retainers, and your words,
Domestics to you, serve your will as’t please
Yourself pronounce their office. I must tell you,
You tender more your person’s honour than
Your high profession spiritual: that again
I do refuse you for my judge; and here,
Before you all, appeal unto the pope,
To bring my whole cause ‘fore his holiness,
And to be judged by him.

DUTCH:
U hief ‘t geluk en zijner hoogheid gunst
Licht over lage trappen tot deez’ hoogte,
Waar grooten uw vazallen, en uw woorden
Uw knechten zijn, u dienen, naar uw luim
Hen tot hun ambt benoemt

MORE:
Sign=Show, display
Full seeming=Every outward appearance
Slightly=Effortlessly, carelessly, complacently
Powers=Those in power
Domestics=Servants (words serving)
Tender=Have regard to, care about
Compleat:
Seeming=Schynende
Slightly=Slechtelyk. To make slight=Verachten, kleynachten
Domestick=Een huysgenoot, dienstboode
To tender=Aanbieden, van harte bezinnen, behartigen

Topics: insult, appearance, merit, status

PLAY: King Henry IV Part 2
ACT/SCENE: 2.1
SPEAKER: Falstaff
CONTEXT:
HOSTESS
Good people, bring a rescue or two.—Thou
wot, wot thou? Thou wot, wot ta? Do, do, thou
rogue. Do, thou hempseed.
PAGE
Away, you scullion, you rampallian, you fustilarian!
I’ll tickle your catastrophe.

DUTCH:
Weg, gij vatenwaschster! gij holle keel! gij mufmadam!
Ik zal je voor je catastrofe geven!

MORE:

Scullion=lowest domestic servant, potwasher
Fustilarian=Shakespeare’s word is taken from fustilugs, meaning grown fat and lazy, slovenly. Catastrophe=end (or in this case rear end)

Compleat:
Scullion=Keuken-jongen.
The catastrophe of a Tragedy=Laast en aanmerkelykst bedrijf, tot ontknooping van een Treurspel

Topics: insult, status, order/society

PLAY: Measure for Measure
ACT/SCENE: 2.1
SPEAKER: Escalus
CONTEXT:
Troth, and your bum is the greatest thing about you;
so that in the beastliest sense you are Pompey the
Great. Pompey, you are partly a bawd, Pompey,
howsoever you colour it in being a tapster, are you
not? come, tell me true: it shall be the better for you.

DUTCH:
Nu voorwaar, uw pof is het grootste wat er aan u te zien is, zoodat gij, in den grofsten zin, Pompejus de Groote zijt.

MORE:
Schmidt:
Bawd=Procurer (pimp)
Tapster=One who draws beer and serves the customers of an alehouse
Compleat:
Tapster=Een tapper, biertapper
Baud (or she-Bawd)=Een Hoerewaardin, koppelaarster
Bawd=Een Hoerewaard
Burgersdijk notes:
De pofbroeken werden in Sh .’s tjjd vaak zoo geweldig groot, met allerlei dingen opgevuld, dat er een
parlementsacte tegen werd uitgevaardigd. Eens bracht men, – zoo verhaalt Nath. Drake, – een overtreder dezer wet voor het gerecht, die uit zijn pofbroek (bum, i. e. great bum of Paris, cul de Paris) de volgende kleinigheden voor den dag haalde: een paar beddelakens, twee tafellakens, tien zakdoeken, vier hemden, een borstel, een spiegel, een kam, verscheidene slaapmutsen enz . Ook met zemelen vulden de modehelden hunne Fransche pofbroeken op. Eens kreeg zulk een fat bij het opstaan van zijn stoel door een splinter een scheur in zijn pofbroek en de zemelen begonnen er uit te loopen. De dames, die het dadelijk opmerkten, begonnen te lachen. De jonge mensch, die meende, dat men om zijne verhalen en invallen lachte, deed harteljk mede, maar hoe meer hij van lachen schudde, des te meer zemelen gaf de molen.

Topics: insult, truth, justice, appearance, deceit

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