CJTranslations - intellect

QUOTES BY TOPIC

A fusty nut with no kernel

PLAY: Troilus and Cressida
ACT/SCENE: 2.1
SPEAKER: Thersites
CONTEXT:
THERSITES
I serve here voluntarily.
ACHILLES
Your last service was sufferance, ’twas not
voluntary: no man is beaten voluntary: Ajax was
here the voluntary, and you as under an impress.
THERSITES
E’en so; a great deal of your wit, too, lies in your
sinews, or else there be liars. Hector have a great
catch, if he knock out either of your brains: a’
were as good crack a fusty nut with no kernel.

DUTCH:
Hector zal een mooie vangst doen, als hij aan een van u de hersens inslaat; even goed alsof hij eene boze noot, een zonder kern, kraakte.

MORE:
Sufferance=Unwillingly
Impress=Conscription (pressed to serve in the army); beating
Were as good=Could just as well
Compleat:
Sufferance=Verdraagzaamheid, toegeevendheid

Topics: intellect, insult

And being fap, sir, was, as they say, cashiered; and so conclusions passed the careers

PLAY: The Merry Wives of Windsor
ACT/SCENE:
SPEAKER: Bardolph
CONTEXT:
BARDOLPH
Why, sir, for my part I say the gentleman had drunk
himself out of his five sentences.
SIR HUGH EVANS
It is his five senses: fie, what the ignorance is!
BARDOLPH
And being fap, sir, was, as they say, cashiered; and
so conclusions passed the careers.
SLENDER
Ay, you spake in Latin then too; but ’tis no
matter: I’ll ne’er be drunk whilst I live again,
but in honest, civil, godly company, for this trick:
if I be drunk, I’ll be drunk with those that have
the fear of God, and not with drunken knaves.
SIR HUGH EVANS
So Got udge me, that is a virtuous mind.
FALSTAFF
You hear all these matters denied, gentlemen; you hear
it.

DUTCH:
En toen hij vetjens was, Sir, werd hij, om zoo te zeggen,
gecasseerd; en zoo gingen zijn conclusa’s de spiegaten
uit.

MORE:
Sentences=Bardolph means the five senses
Latin=Meaning a different language (he doesn’t understand the terms used)
Fap=Drunk
Cashiered=Dismissed from service (punning on cash-sheared, i.e. robbed)
Passed the careers=Got out of hand (careering)
For this trick=Because of this trick
God udge me=Judge me
Compleat:
Cashiered=Afgedankt, de zak gekreegen, ontslagen
Career=Een loop, renperk, wedloop
Trick=Een looze trek, greep, gril

Topics: language, communication, understanding, intellect

And wide unclasp the tables of their thoughts to every ticklish readert

PLAY: Troilus and Cressida
ACT/SCENE: 4.6
SPEAKER: Ulysses
CONTEXT:
ULYSSES
Fie, fie upon her!
There’s language in her eye, her cheek, her lip,
Nay, her foot speaks; her wanton spirits look out
At every joint and motive of her body.
O, these encounterers, so glib of tongue,
That give accosting welcome ere it comes,
And wide unclasp the tables of their thoughts
To every ticklish reader! set them down
For sluttish spoils of opportunity
And daughters of the game.

DUTCH:
0, die aanhaal’gen, die, zoo glad van tong,
Een groet, eer die geuit werd, welkom heeten
En ‘t boek van haar gedachten openslaan
Voor elk, wien ‘t lust te lezen! Reken haar
Gelegenheids onkuische en lichte buit
En dochters van den boozen lust.

MORE:
Language=Expression of thought
Motive=Instrument, limb
Glib=Slippery
Unclasp=Reveal
Ticklish=Willing
Set down=Classify
Compleat:
Motive faculty=Het bewegende vermogen
Glib=Glad, glibberig; To run glib=Vloeijend spreken
His tongue runs very glib=Zyn tong is gansch niet belemmerd; de tong is hem wel gehangen
To unclasp a boek=De slooten van een boek opdoen
Ticklish=Kittelachtig; ligt geraakt

Topics: intellect, communication

Are you a god? would you create me new?

PLAY: The Comedy of Errors
ACT/SCENE: 3.2
SPEAKER: Antipholus of Syracuse
CONTEXT:
ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE
Sweet mistress—what your name is else I know not,
Nor by what wonder you do hit of mine,—
Less in your knowledge and your grace you show not
Than our earth’s wonder, more than earth divine.
Teach me, dear creature, how to think and speak.
Lay open to my earthy gross conceit,
Smothered in errors, feeble, shallow, weak,
The folded meaning of your words’ deceit.
Against my soul’s pure truth why labour you
To make it wander in an unknown field?
Are you a god? would you create me new?
Transform me, then, and to your power I’ll yield.
But if that I am I, then well I know
Your weeping sister is no wife of mine,
Nor to her bed no homage do I owe.
Far more, far more, to you do I decline.
O, train me not, sweet mermaid, with thy note
To drown me in thy sister’s flood of tears.
Sing, Siren, for thyself, and I will dote.
Spread o’er the silver waves thy golden hairs,
And as a bed I’ll take them and there lie,
And in that glorious supposition think
He gains by death that hath such means to die.
Let Love, being light, be drownèd if she sink.

DUTCH:
Zijt ge een godin, die mij vervormen wil?
Vervorm mij dan! ik geef mij in uw hand.

MORE:
Hit=Guess, discover
Gross conceit=Weak intellect
Folded=Concealed
Compleat:
To hit (succeed, happen)=Aankomen, gelukken, ontmoeten; (agree) over eens worden
I can’t hit of his name=Ik an niet op zyn naam komen
To conceit=Zich verbeelden, achten
Conceit=Waan, bevatting, opvatting, meening

Topics: understanding, error, intellect, learning/education, respect

Better a witty fool than a foolish wit

PLAY: Twelfth Night
ACT/SCENE: 1.5
SPEAKER: Fool
CONTEXT:
MARIA
You are resolute, then?
FOOL
Not so, neither, but I am resolved on two points.
MARIA
That if one break, the other will hold. Or, if both
break, your gaskins fall.
FOOL
Apt, in good faith, very apt. Well, go thy way. If Sir
Toby would leave drinking, thou wert as witty a piece of
Eve’s flesh as any in Illyria.
MARIA
Peace, you rogue, no more o’ that. Here comes my lady.
Make your excuse wisely, you were best.
FOOL
Wit, an ’t be thy will, put me into good
fooling! Those wits, that think they have thee, do very
oft prove fools. And I, that am sure I lack thee, may
pass for a wise man. For what says Quinapalus? “Better a
witty fool, than a foolish wit.”

DUTCH:
Beter een wijze nar, dan een dwaze wijze.

MORE:

Proverb: He that is wise in his own conceit is a fool
Proverb: The first chapter of fools is to hold themselves wise
Proverb: There is more hope of a fool than of him that is wise in his own eyes
Proverb: Every man is wise in his own conceit
Proverb: The wise man knows himself to be a fool, the fool thinks he is wise

Resolute=Firm
Resolved=Decided
Points=Issues
Gaskins=Breaches
Witty=Clever
You were best=You’d better
Wit=Intelligence
Quinapalus=Fool invents an apocryphal philosopher as an authority
Compleat:
Resolute=Onbeschroomd, onbeteuterd, onversaagd
Resolve (deliberation, decision)=Beraad, beslissing, uitsluitsel
Point=Punt, zaak (a material point=een punt/zaak van belang)
Witty=Verstandig, vernuftig, schrander
Wit (understanding)=Vinding, schranderheid, verstand

Burgersdijk notes:
Als jonker Tobias het drinken maar wilde laten. De nar heeft gemerkt, dat Maria het er op toelegt, met jonker Tobias te trouwen.
Quinapalus. Een door den nar uitgedachte oude wijsgeer.

Topics: proverbs and idoms, still in use, wisdom, intellect

Blow, thou winter wind. Thou art not so unkind as man’s ingratitude

PLAY: As You Like It
ACT/SCENE: 2.7
SPEAKER: Amiens
CONTEXT:
DUKE SENIOR
Welcome. Fall to. I will not trouble you
As yet to question you about your fortunes.—
Give us some music, and, good cousin, sing.
AMIENS
[sings]Blow, blow, thou winter wind.
Thou art not so unkind
As man’s ingratitude.
Thy tooth is not so keen,
Because thou art not seen,
Although thy breath be rude.
Heigh-ho, sing heigh-ho, unto the green holly.
Most friendship is feigning, most loving mere folly.
Then heigh-ho, the holly.
This life is most jolly.
Freeze, freeze, thou bitter sky,
That dost not bite so nigh
As benefits forgot.
Though thou the waters warp,
Thy sting is not so sharp
As friend remembered not.
Heigh-ho, sing heigh-ho, unto the green holly.
Most friendship is feigning, most loving mere folly.
Then heigh-ho, the holly.
This life is most jolly.

DUTCH:
Blaas, blaas, gij winterwind!
Gij zijt niet valsch gezind,
Als menschenondank is;
En daar men nooit u ziet,
Zijt gij zoo schrikk’lijk niet,
Schoon zonder deerenis.

MORE:
Keen=Sharp
Rude=Harsh, rough
Holly=Linked to festivities
Feigning=Pretence, fake
Nigh=Piercing, closely felt
Benefits=Acts of kindness
Compleat:
Keen=Scherp, bits, doordringend
Rude=Ruuw. Rudely (or coarsly)=Groffelyk
Feigning=Verdichting, veynzing
Nigh=Na, naby, dicht
Benefit=Voordeel, weldaad, but, genot, baat

Topics: ingratitude, nature, intellect

But wherefore waste I time to counsel thee

PLAY: The Two Gentlemen of Verona
ACT/SCENE: 1.1
SPEAKER: Valentine
CONTEXT:
PROTEUS
Yet writers say, as in the sweetest bud
The eating canker dwells, so eating love
Inhabits in the finest wits of all.
VALENTINE
And writers say, as the most forward bud
Is eaten by the canker ere it blow,
Even so by love the young and tender wit
Is turned to folly, blasting in the bud,
Losing his verdure even in the prime
And all the fair effects of future hopes.
But wherefore waste I time to counsel thee,
That art a votary to fond desire?
Once more adieu! My father at the road
Expects my coming, there to see me shipped.

DUTCH:
Doch wat spil ik mijn tijd met raad aan u,
Die u verpand hebt aan den minnewaan?
Nog eens, vaarwel! want aan de haven wacht
Mijn vader reeds om mij aan boord te brengen.

MORE:
Canker=Canker worm
Blow=Blossom
Blasting=Withering
Verdure=Freshness
Prime=Spring
Votary=One who takes a vow
Fond=Foolish
Shipped=Aboard
Compleat:
Canker=Kanker
To blow=Bloeijen
To blast=Doen verstuyven, wegblaazen, verzengen, door ‘t weer beschaadigen
Verdure=Groente, groenheyd
Prime=Eerste, voornaamste
Votary=Een die zich door een (religieuse) belofte verbonden heeft; die zich ergens toe heeft overgegeeven
Fond=Zot, dwaas, ongerymt
To ship=Scheepen, inscheepen

Burgersdijk notes:
Want aan de haven wacht enz. In ‘t Engelsch staat at the road, aan de reede; men zou dus zeggen, dat Verona hier als een zeestad beschoowd worden. Er zijn bewijzen genoeg, dat Shakespeare met de geographie van Italië zeer goed vertrouwd was; men behoeft hem volstrekt niet van onwetendheid te verdenken. De toeschouwers waren Londenaars; bij grootere reizen naar een anderen staat moesten waterwegen gevolgd worden; de dichter maakt er voor zijne personen daarom ook gebruik van en stelt hiermede de reis zijnen toeschouwers aanschouwelijk voor oogen; al ontleent hij de namen van personen en plaatsen aan Italië, Engelsche toestanden staan hem voor den geest; hier geeft hem weldra het nagenoeg eveneens klinken van ship en scheep (schip en schaap) aanleiding tot een woordspeling; later wil Lans (I1. 3. es.) het stroombed met tranen vullen, waarbij den toeschouwers de Theems voor den geest kwam; bij struikroovers dachten deze terstond aan de bekende roovers van Sherwood-forest, bij wie broeder Tuck kapelaan was; daarom laat de dichter (IV. 1. 36.) Italiaansche roovers hij de geschoren kruin van dien pater zweren. Zulk een dichterlijke vrijheid, die de voorgestelde zaken recht aanschouwelijk maakte, veroorloofden zich in de middeleeuwen de dichters algemeen, en dit gebruik was tot den tijd van Shakespeare in zwang gebleven. Aan onwetendheid des dichters behoeft men niet te denken.

Topics: proverbs and idioms, language, intellect

By indirections find directions out.

PLAY: Hamlet
ACT/SCENE: 2.1
SPEAKER: Polonius
CONTEXT:
By indirections find directions out.
So by my former lecture and advice
Shall you my son. You have me, have you not?

DUTCH:
Op averechtsche wijs den rechten weg /
Zo gaan wij, de slimmen en bekwamen, langs kronkelpaden recht op ons doel af.

MORE:
The effectiveness of indirect questioning (see “your bait of falsehood takes this carp of truth”).
Schmidt:
Indirection=oblique course or means
Compleat:
The directing of one’s intentions=Het bestieren van iemands voorneemen

Topics: truth, discovery, intellect, skill/talent

By my faith, he is very swift and sententious

PLAY: As You Like It
ACT/SCENE: 5.4
SPEAKER: Touchstone
CONTEXT:
DUKE SENIOR
By my faith, he is very swift and sententious.
TOUCHSTONE
According to the fool’s bolt, sir, and such dulcet
diseases.
JAQUES
But for the seventh cause. How did you find the quarrel
on the seventh cause?
TOUCHSTONE
Upon a lie seven times removed.

DUTCH:
Op mijn woord, hij is zeer gevat en spreukrijk

MORE:
Swift=Quick-witted
Sententious=Full of wise sayings
Bolt=Arrow
Dulcet diseases=Sweet faults
Compleat:
As swift as an arrow out of a bow=Zo snel als een pyl uit een boog
Sententious=Zinryk, spreukryk, vol spreuken
To dulcify=Zoet maaken

Topics: intellect, wisdom, dispute

By my troth, we that have good wits have much to answer for

PLAY: As You Like It
ACT/SCENE: 5.1
SPEAKER: Touchstone
CONTEXT:
AUDREY
Faith, the priest was good enough, for all the old
gentleman’s saying.
TOUCHSTONE
A most wicked Sir Oliver, Audrey, a most vile Martext.
But, Audrey, there is a youth here in the forest lays
claim to you.
AUDREY
Ay, I know who ’tis. He hath no interest in me in the world.
Here comes the man you mean.
TOUCHSTONE
It is meat and drink to me to see a clown. By my
troth, we that have good wits have much to answer for.
We shall be flouting. We cannot hold.

DUTCH:
Op mijn eer, wij die geest hebben, hebben
veel te verantwoorden, wij moeten voor den gek houden;
wij kunnen het niet laten.

MORE:
Interest in=Claim to
Clown=Bumpkin
Flouting=Mocking
Hold=Refrain
Compleat:
Interest=Belang
Clown=Een plompeboerk, kinkel, kloen
To flout=Bespotten, beschimpen

Topics: intellect, appearance, wisdom

Cudgel thy brains no more about it,

PLAY: Hamlet
ACT/SCENE: 5.1
SPEAKER: Gravedigger
CONTEXT:
Cudgel thy brains no more about it, for your dull ass will not mend his pace with beating. And when you are asked this question next, say “A grave-maker.” The houses that he makes last till doomsday. Go, get thee in. Fetch me a stoup of liquor.

DUTCH:
Knuppel je hersens er niet langer om /
Breek er je kop niet langer mee /
Breek er je kop maar niet meer over

MORE:
Cudgel thy brains=rack your brains
Compleat:
To cudgel one’s brains about a thing=Zyn hoofd ergens méde breeken. Cudgelled=Geknuppeld

Topics: intellect, insult

Cunning in Greek, Latin, and other languages

PLAY: The Taming of the Shrew
ACT/SCENE: 2.1
SPEAKER: Gremio
CONTEXT:
GREMIO
I doubt it not, sir, but you will curse your wooing.—
neighbour, this is a gift very grateful,
I am sure of it. To express the like kindness, myself,
that have been more kindly beholding to you than any,
freely give unto you this young scholar that hath been long
studying at Rheims, as cunning in Greek, Latin, and
other languages as the other in music and mathematics.
His name is Cambio. Pray accept his service.

DUTCH:
(…) veroorloof ik mij, u dezen jeugdigen geleerde voor te stellen, die lang in Reims gestudeerd heeft en even zoo bedreven is in het Latijn, Grieksch en andere talen, als die ander in muziek en wiskunde ; zijn naam is Cambio; ik bid u, neem zijn diensten aan.

MORE:
Grateful=Gracious, pleasing
Beholding=Beholden, indebted
The like kindness=My own affection
Compleat:
Gratefull=Dankbaar, erkentelyk
Beholding=Gehouden, verpligt, verschuldigd
I never saw the like=Ik heb diergelyk nooit gezien
Kindness=Vrindschap, vrindlykheyd, goedertierenheyd

Topics: skill/talent, learning/education, intellect, language

Defect of judgment is oft the cause of fear

PLAY: Cymbeline
ACT/SCENE: 4.2
SPEAKER: Belarius
CONTEXT:
BELARIUS
I cannot tell. Long is it since I saw him,
But time hath nothing blurred those lines of favour
Which then he wore. The snatches in his voice
And burst of speaking were as his. I am absolute
’Twas very Cloten.
ARVIRAGUS
In this place we left them.
I wish my brother make good time with him,
You say he is so fell
BELARIUS
Being scarce made up,
I mean to man, he had not apprehension
Of roaring terrors; for defect of judgment
Is oft the cause of fear.
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.

DUTCH:
Nauw’lijks opgegroeid,
Ik meen, tot man, ontbrak hem elk begrip
Van iets gevaarlijks ; en gebrek aan oordeel
Wekt vaak vermetelheid. Daar is uw broeder.

MORE:
Scarce made up=Not fully developed, still and immature youth; or not ‘all there’
Lines of favour=Lines on the countenance
Snatches=Catches, seizures followed by a ‘burst of speaking’. (Irish ‘ganch’ meaning stammer)
Absolute=Positive, have no doubt
Roaring=Loud-tongued
Compleat:
Snatch=Een ruk, hap, beet
A snatch and away=Een mond vol en weg ‘er mee
To do a thing by girds and snatches=Ies met horten en stooten doen; met menigvuldige tusschenpoosingen verrigten
Absolute=Volslagen, volstrekt, volkomen, onafhangklyk, onverbonden
To roar=Uitbrullen

Burgersdijk notes:
Gebrek aan oordeel wekt vaak vermetelheid. Het oorspronkelijke is hier blijkbaar bedorven, de folio heeft: for defect of judgment is oft the cause of fear; Shakespeare moet ongeveer het tegendeel gezegd hebben, want de doldriestheid van Cloten wordt uit zijn gebrek aan oordeel verklaard.
Hanmer las daarom: is oft the arre of fear, en dienovereenkomstig is hier vertaald. Doch ook Theobald’s verbetering is zeer opmerkelijk: for the effect of judgment is oft the cause of fear; „want des oordeels werking is oorzaak vaak van vrees” ; de zin van beide verbeteringen is nagenoeg gelijk; de tegenstelling tusschen gevolg of werking en oorzaak pleit er misschien voor, dat Theobald de uitdrukking des dichters getroffen heeft.

Topics: language, memory, judgment, intellect, age/experience

Every one of us has a single honour, in giving him our own voices with our own tongues

PLAY: Coriolanus
ACT/SCENE: 2.3
SPEAKER:
CONTEXT:
THIRD CITIZEN
Nay, your wit will not so soon out as another man’s
will; ’tis strongly wedged up in a block-head, but
if it were at liberty, ‘twould, sure, southward.
SECOND CITIZEN
Why that way?
THIRD CITIZEN
To lose itself in a fog, where being three parts
melted away with rotten dews, the fourth would return
for conscience sake, to help to get thee a wife.
SECOND CITIZEN
You are never without your tricks: you may, you may.
THIRD CITIZEN
Are you all resolved to give your voices? But
that’s no matter, the greater part carries it. I
say, if he would incline to the people, there was
never a worthier man.
Here he comes, and in the gown of humility: mark his
behaviour. We are not to stay all together, but to
come by him where he stands, by ones, by twos, and
by threes. He’s to make his requests by
particulars; wherein every one of us has a single
honour, in giving him our own voices with our own
tongues: therefore follow me, and I direct you how
you shall go by him.
ALL
Content, content.
MENENIUS
O sir, you are not right: have you not known
The worthiest men have done’t?

DUTCH:
TWEEDE BURGER
Gij kunt uw kwinkslagen niet laten; — ga door, ga door!
DERDE BURGER
Hebt gij allen besloten, hem uw stem te geven? Maar
het doet er niet toe: de meerderheid beslist. Ik zeg, als
hij meer hart voor het volk had, dan zou er nimmer
een waardiger man zijn.

MORE:
Wit=Mental faculty, intellectual power of any kind; understanding, judgment, imagination
Gown=Gown of humility (candidates for public office in Rome wore plain white togas)
Resolved=Determined
Voices=Votes
Compleat:
Wits=Zinnen, oordeel
Resolve (deliberation, decision)=Beraad, beslissing, uitsluitsel
Voice=Stem, recht van stemmen

Topics: intellect, imagination, respect

Get thee glass eyes,
And like a scurvy politician seem
To see the things thou dost not.

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

He uses his folly like a stalking-horse, and under the presentation of that he shoots his wit

PLAY: As You Like It
ACT/SCENE: 5.4
SPEAKER: Duke Senior
CONTEXT:
JAQUES
Is not this a rare fellow, my lord? He’s as good at anything
and yet a fool.
DUKE SENIOR
He uses his folly like a stalking-horse, and under the presentation
of that he shoots his wit.
HYMEN
Then is there mirth in heaven
When earthly things, made even,
Atone together.

DUTCH:
Hij gebruikt zijn narrerij als een vogelaar zijn paard, en schuilt er achter om zijn pijlen af te schieten.

MORE:
Stalking horse=Horse used as a hide (hunting)
Presentation=Appearance
Compleat:
Stalking horse=Een jachtpaerd
Atone=Verzoeen, bevreedigen

Burgersdijk notes:
Als een vogelaar zijn paard. Like a stalking-horse. Een echt, opgezet, houten of geschilderd paard, waarachter de vogelaar wegschool; zoo schiet ook de nar zijn geest (his wit) af.

Topics: intellect, skill/talent, appearance

Her will, recoiling to her better judgement

PLAY: Othello
ACT/SCENE: 3.3
SPEAKER: Iago
CONTEXT:
OTHELLO
And yet how nature, erring from itself—
IAGO
Ay, there’s the point. As, to be bold with you,
Not to affect many proposèd matches
Of her own clime, complexion, and degree,
Whereto we see in all things nature tends—
Foh! One may smell in such a will most rank,
Foul disproportions, thoughts unnatural.
But—pardon me—I do not in position
Distinctly speak of her, though I may fear
Her will, recoiling to her better judgement,
May fall to match you with her country forms,
And happily repent.

DUTCH:
Doch, heer, vergeef, ik pas, wat ik daar zeg,
Niet toe op haar; hoewel ik altijd vrees,
Dat eens haar oogelust, haar rede wrakend,
U toetsend naast haar landgenooten plaats’, —
Wellicht berouw gevoel’.

MORE:
Erring from itself=Acting against its nature
Affect=Prefer
Bold=Frank
Clime=Region
Rank=Sick, corrupted, morbid
Disproportions=Inconsistencies, unnatural tendencies, abnormalities
In position=In those words, in arguing thus
Distinctly=In particular
Recoiling=Reverting
May fall=Happen to be
Her country forms=The like of her countrymen
Happily=Haply (by chance)
Compleat:
Erring=Dwaaling
Affect=Liefde toedragen, ter harte gaan, beminnen
Bold=Stout, koen, vrymoedig, onbevreesd, onverslaagd, vrypostig
Climate=Streek, luchtstreek, gewest
Rank=Vunsig, garstig, oolyk
Disproportion=Ongelykheid, onevenmaatigheyd, onevenredenheyd
Distinctly=Onderscheydentlyk
To recoil=Achteruytspringen, te rug springen, aerzelen
Haply=Misschien

Topics: free will, judgment, intellect

Here comes a pair of very strange beasts, which in all tongues are called fools

PLAY: As You Like It
ACT/SCENE: 5.4
SPEAKER: Jaques
CONTEXT:
ORLANDO
My lord, the first time that I ever saw him
Methought he was a brother to your daughter.
But, my good lord, this boy is forest-born
And hath been tutored in the rudiments
Of many desperate studies by his uncle,
Whom he reports to be a great magician
Obscurèd in the circle of this forest.
JAQUES
There is sure another flood toward, and these couples
are coming to the ark. Here comes a pair of very strange
beasts, which in all tongues are called fools.
TOUCHSTONE
Salutation and greeting to you all.
JAQUES
Good my lord, bid him welcome. This is the
motley-minded gentleman that I have so often met in the
forest. He hath been a courtier, he swears.

DUTCH:
Daar komt een paar zeer vreemde beesten aan, die in alle talen den naam van narren dragen.

MORE:
Desperate=Dangerous
Obscurèd=Hidden
Toward=Near at hand, on its way
Motley-minded=As confused as the jester’s costume
Compleat:
Obscured=Verdonkerd, verduisterd
Toward=Na toe
Motley=Een grove gemengelde

Topics: appearance, reputation, language, intellect

His givings-out were of an infinite distance
From his true-meant design

PLAY: Measure for Measure
ACT/SCENE: 1.4
SPEAKER: Lucio
CONTEXT:
The duke is very strangely gone from hence;
Bore many gentlemen, myself being one,
In hand and hope of action: but we do learn
By those that know the very nerves of state,
His givings-out were of an infinite distance
From his true-meant design. Upon his place,
And with full line of his authority,
Governs Lord Angelo; a man whose blood
Is very snow-broth; one who never feels
The wanton stings and motions of the sense,
But doth rebate and blunt his natural edge
With profits of the mind, study and fast.

DUTCH:
Dat wat hij voorgaf hemelsbreed verschilt
Van wat hij inderdaad bedoelt.

MORE:
Schmidt:
Givings-out=Utterances, assertions
True-meant design=Intention
Sting=Impulse, incitement.
Rebate=Abate
Profit of the mind=Proficiency, improvement

Topics: perception, justification, innocence, integrity, intellect, learning/education

His wit’s as thick as Tewksbury mustard.

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

How did you find the quarrel on the seventh cause?
– Upon a lie seven times removed.

DUTCH:
Maar nu die zevende graad, hoe bevondt gij het geschil tot den zevenden graad?
– Door een logenstraffing, zevenmaal herhaald.

Topics: intellect, wisdom, dispute

How hard it is to hide the sparks of nature!

PLAY: Cymbeline
ACT/SCENE: 3.3
SPEAKER: Belarius
CONTEXT:
(…) How hard it is to hide the sparks of nature!
These boys know little they are sons to the king;
Nor Cymbeline dreams that they are alive.
They think they are mine; and though train’d
up thus meanly
I’ the cave wherein they bow, their thoughts do hit
The roofs of palaces, and nature prompts them
In simple and low things to prince it much
Beyond the trick of others. This Polydore,
The heir of Cymbeline and Britain, who
The king his father call’d Guiderius,— Jove!
When on my three-foot stool I sit and tell
The warlike feats I have done, his spirits fly out
Into my story: say ‘Thus, mine enemy fell,
And thus I set my foot on ‘s neck;’ even then
The princely blood flows in his cheek, he sweats,
Strains his young nerves and puts himself in posture
That acts my words. The younger brother, Cadwal,
Once Arviragus, in as like a figure,
Strikes life into my speech and shows much more
His own conceiving.— Hark, the game is roused!
O Cymbeline! heaven and my conscience knows
Thou didst unjustly banish me: whereon,
At three and two years old, I stole these babes;
Thinking to bar thee of succession, as
Thou reft’st me of my lands. Euriphile,
Thou wast their nurse; they took thee for their mother,
And every day do honour to her grave:
Myself, Belarius, that am Morgan call’d,
They take for natural father. The game is up.

DUTCH:
Hoe zwaar is ‘t, spranken der natuur te dooven!
Zij gissen niet, dat zij des konings zonen,

MORE:
Know little=Have no idea
Meanly=Humbly
Prince it=Act like a prince
Trick=Skill
Shows=Reveals
Conceiving=Thoughts
Compleat:
Meanly=Op een gierige, slechte wyze
Trick=Een looze trek, greep, gril

Topics: nature, learning/education, intellect

How poor are they that have no patience

PLAY: Othello
ACT/SCENE: 2.3
SPEAKER: Iago
CONTEXT:
IAGO
How poor are they that have not patience!
What wound did ever heal but by degrees?
Thou know’st we work by wit and not by witchcraft,
And wit depends on dilatory time.
Does’t not go well? Cassio hath beaten thee.
And thou, by that small hurt, hath cashiered Cassio.
Though other things grow fair against the sun,
Yet fruits that blossom first will first be ripe.
Content thyself awhile. In troth, ’tis morning.
Pleasure and action make the hours seem short.
Retire thee, go where thou art billeted.
Away, I say, thou shalt know more hereafter.
Nay, get thee gone.
Two things are to be done:
My wife must move for Cassio to her mistress.
I’ll set her on.
Myself, the while, to draw the Moor apart
And bring him jump when he may Cassio find
Soliciting his wife. Ay, that’s the way.
Dull not device by coldness and delay.

DUTCH:
Armzalig zij, wien ‘t aan geduld ontbreekt!
Geneest een wond ooit anders dan allengskens?

MORE:
Proverb: He that has no patience has nothing

Cashiered=Dismissed
Depends on dilatory time=Time moves slowly
Other things grow fair=Long-term plans blossom slowly
Fruits that blossom first=Preliminary plans (have already borne fruit)
Move for=Plead for
Jump=At that precise time
Device=Plot
When=At the point when
Device=Plan
To dull=To incapacitate, make inert
Coldness=Lack of enthusiasm or energy
Compleat:
To move (to stir up, to egg on, to solicit or persuade)=Aanstooken, oprokkenen
To move to compassion=Tot medelyden beweegen
Dilatory=Uitstel-zoekende
Dull=Bot, stomp, dof, dom, loom, vadsig, doodsch
It dulls my brains=Het maakt myn verstand stomp

Topics: intellect, patience, proverbs and idioms, purpose

How prove you that in the great heap of your knowledge?

PLAY: As You Like It
ACT/SCENE: 1.2
SPEAKER: Celia
CONTEXT:
TOUCHSTONE
No, by mine honour, but I was bid to come for you.
ROSALIND
Where learned you that oath, fool?
TOUCHSTONE
Of a certain knight that swore by his honour they were good pancakes, and swore by his honour the mustard was naught. Now, I’ll stand to it, the pancakes were naught and the mustard was good, and yet was not the knight forsworn.
CELIA
How prove you that in the great heap of your knowledge?
ROSALIND
Ay, marry, now unmuzzle your wisdom.
TOUCHSTONE
Stand you both forth now: stroke your chins and swear by your beards that I am a knave.
CELIA
By our beards (if we had them), thou art.
TOUCHSTONE
By my knavery (if I had it), then I were. But if you
swear by that that is not, you are not forsworn. No more
was this knight swearing by his honour, for he never had
any; or if he had, he had sworn it away before ever he
saw those pancakes or that mustard.

DUTCH:
Hoe kunt gij dit uit den rijken schat van uw geleerdheid bewijzen ?

MORE:
Stand to=Swear to; to maintain, affirm
Naught=Worthless
To forswear=To swear falsely, commit perjury
Unmuzzle=Free from restraint
Compleat:
Stand to=To side with, to assist, to support; to maintain, to guard, to be firm in the cause of
To forswear one’s self=Eenen valschen eed doen, meyneedig zyn
To forswear a thing=Zweeren dat iets zo niet is
Muzzled=Gemuilband
Nought=Niets, niet met al

Topics: honour, promise, evidence, intellect, wisdom

I am not only witty in myself, but the cause that wit is in other men.

PLAY: King Henry IV Part 2
ACT/SCENE: 1.2
SPEAKER: Falstaff
CONTEXT:
Men of all sorts take a pride to gird at me. The brain of this
foolish-compounded clay, man, is not able to invent
anything that tends to laughter more than I invent, or is
invented on me. I am not only witty in myself, but the cause
that wit is in other men. I do here walk before thee like a sow that hath
overwhelmed all her litter but one. If the Prince put
thee into my service for any other reason than to set me off,
why then I have no judgment. Thou whoreson mandrake,
thou art fitter to be worn in my cap than to wait at my heels.
I was never manned with an agate till now, but I will inset
you neither in gold nor silver, but in vile apparel, and send
you back again to your master for a jewel.

DUTCH:
Het brein van die dwaas samengestelde klei, die mensch heet, is niet in staat iets uit te denken, wat tot lachen dient, dan wat ik uitdenk, of wat over mij wordt uitgedacht; ik heb niet alleen geest in mijzelf, maar ben ook oorzaak, dat andere menschen
geestig zijn.

MORE:

Schmidt:
To gird at=To quiz, to taunt
Foolish-compounded=Clay made of folly
Overwhelmed=Squashed
Set me off=Make me look good, show me to my best advantage (by contrast)
Mandrake=The plant Atropa mandragora, the root of which was thought to resemble the human figure, and to cause madness and even death, when torn from the ground
Worn in my cap=As an ornament
Agate=Small person (from the little figures cut in a stone of the flint kind, often worn in rings)

Compleat:
To gird=Boerten
Compounded=Saamengezet, bygelegd, afgemaakt, vereffend
To set off a thing=Iets fraai voor doen
Mandrake=Alrin, Mandragora
Agate=Agaat

Topics: intellect, respect

I have seen the dumb men throng to see him and the blind to hear him speak

PLAY: Coriolanus
ACT/SCENE: 2.1
SPEAKER: Brutus
CONTEXT:
BRUTUS
What’s the matter?
MESSENGER
You are sent for to the Capitol. ‘Tis thought
That Marcius shall be consul:
I have seen the dumb men throng to see him and
The blind to hear him speak: matrons flung gloves,
Ladies and maids their scarfs and handkerchers,
Upon him as he pass’d: the nobles bended,
As to Jove’s statue, and the commons made
A shower and thunder with their caps and shouts:
I never saw the like.
BRUTUS
Let’s to the Capitol;
And carry with us ears and eyes for the time,
But hearts for the event.
SICINIUS
Have with you.

DUTCH:
Ik zag doofstommen
In ‘t dicht gedrang om hem te zien, en blinden
Om hem te hooren spreken.

MORE:
Bended=Bowed
Commons=Commoners
Hearts for=Keep in our hearts
Event=The matter in hand, enterprise, plan
Have with you=I agree, I’m with you
Compleat
To bend=Buigen, krommen, aanspannen
The common (vulgar) people=Het gemeene Volk
To be heart and hand for a thing=Van ganscher harte tot iets geneegen zyn

Topics: leadership, independence, free will, intellect

I have thought some of nature’s journeymen
had made men and not made them well

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

I must go send some better messenger: I fear my Julia would not deign my lines, receiving them from such a worthless post

PLAY: The Two Gentlemen of Verona
ACT/SCENE: 1.1
SPEAKER: Proteus
CONTEXT:
PROTEUS
What said she? Nothing?
SPEED
No, not so much as ‘Take this for thy pains.’ To
testify your bounty, I thank you, you have testerned
me; in requital whereof, henceforth carry your
letters yourself: and so, sir, I’ll commend you to my
master.
PROTEUS
Go, go, be gone, to save your ship from wreck,
Which cannot perish having thee aboard,
Being destined to a drier death on shore.
I must go send some better messenger:
I fear my Julia would not deign my lines,
Receiving them from such a worthless post.

DUTCH:
Ik moet een beet’ren bode tot haar zenden,
Mijn Julia, vrees ik, acht mijn regels niets,.
Die haar een knaap, zoo diep onwaardig, brengt

MORE:
Proverb: He that is born to be hanged (drowned) will never be drowned (hanged)

Testify=Witness
Testerned=Gave a tip of sixpence
Requital=Repayment
Commend=Recommend
Deign=Condescend to read
Post=Messenger; blockhead
Compleat:
Testify=Getuygen, betuygn
Tester=Een stukje van zes stuyvers
Requital=Vergelding
To commend=Pryzen, aanbeloolen, aanpryzen
Deign=Genadiglyk verleenen, gehengen
Post=(Messenger) Post, bode; (Post) Paal

Burgersdijk notes:
De grootte uwer mildheid enz. Hier heeft het Engelsch een woordspeling met testify, betuigen, en testern, met een tester, — een geldstukje van een halven shilling waarde, waar een kop, testa, tëte, op gestempeld was, — begiftigen; een woord van Sh’s maaksel.

Gij zijt de veiligheid van ‘t schip. Op het zeggen, dat wie voor de galg bestemd is , niet verdrinkt, zinspeelt Sh. ook in den „Storm”.

Topics: proverbs and idioms, language, intellect

I will not jump with common spirits
And rank me with the barbarous multitudes.

PLAY: The Merchant of Venice
ACT/SCENE: 2.9
SPEAKER: Arragon
CONTEXT:
ARRAGON
And so have I addressed me. Fortune now
To my heart’s hope! Gold, silver, and base lead.
“Who chooseth me must give and hazard all he hath.”
You shall look fairer ere I give or hazard.
What says the golden chest? Ha, let me see.
“Who chooseth me shall gain what many men desire.”
“What many men desire”—that “many” may be meant
By the fool multitude that choose by show,
Not learning more than the fond eye doth teach;
Which pries not to th’ interior, but like the martlet
Builds in the weather on the outward wall,
Even in the force and road of casualty.
I will not choose what many men desire
Because I will not jump with common spirits
And rank me with the barbarous multitudes.
Why then, to thee, thou silver treasure house.
Tell me once more what title thou dost bear.
“Who chooseth me shall get as much as he deserves.”
And well said too—for who shall go about
To cozen fortune and be honorable
Without the stamp of merit? Let none presume
To wear an undeserved dignity.
Oh, that estates, degrees and offices
Were not derived corruptly, and that clear honor
Were purchased by the merit of the wearer!
How many then should cover that stand bare!
How many be commanded that command!
How much low peasantry would then be gleaned
From the true seed of honor! And how much honor
Picked from the chaff and ruin of the times
To be new varnished! Well, but to my choice.
“Who chooseth me shall get as much as he deserves.”
I will assume desert.—Give me a key for this,
And instantly unlock my fortunes here.

DUTCH:
Ik wil mij niet naar lage geesten schikken,
Niet voegen bij den grooten dommen hoop.

MORE:
CITED IN EWCA LAW:
Cruddas v Calvert & Ors [2013] EWCA Civ 748 (21 June 2013)
DeRonde v. Regents of the Univ. of California, 102 Cal. App. 3d 221 (1980): “We close with a quotation from Shakespeare, who so eloquently reminds us that competition on the basis of merit alone is the lifeblood of a democratic society: ‘For who shall go about….’.”

Fool multitude=Foolish commoners
Fond=Doting, simple.
Fond eye=What meets the eye
Jump with=Agree with
Barbarous=Ignorant, unlettered
Cozen=Cheat
Undeservèd=Unmerited
Dignity=Elevated rank, high office
Compleat:
Multitude=Menigte, veelheid, het gemeene volk, het gepeupel
Jump (to agree)=Het ééns worden, overenstemmen.
Their opinions jump much with ours=Hunne gevoelens komen veel met de onzen overeen
Wits jump always together=De groote verstanden beulen altijd saamenCozen=Bedriegen
Merit=Verdienste.
What ever may be said of him wil fall short of his merit=Alles wat men van hem zeggen kan, is minder dan zyne verdienste.
Dignity (Merit, importance)=Waardigheid, Staat-ampt, verdiensten.
Dignity (Greatness, Nobleness)=Grootheid, Adelykheid.

Burgersdijk notes:
Als de zwaluw. De huiszwaluw, in het Engelsch martlet (Hirundo urbica), maakt haar nest aan de buitenzijde van gebouwen; meestal vindt men er verscheidene dicht bijeen, zooals Sh. uitvoeriger in Macbeth I. 6.4. beschrijft. Sh. wist, welke soort hij koos; de boerenzwaluw (Hirundo rustics) nestelt
binnenshuis, b.v. in stallen, of, in onbewoonde streken, in rotsholten enz.

Topics: emotion and mood, misquoted

I would be loath to cast away my speech, for besides that it is excellently well penned, I have taken great pains to con it

PLAY: Twelfth Night
ACT/SCENE: 1.5
SPEAKER: Viola
CONTEXT:
VIOLA
Most radiant, exquisite and unmatchable beauty—I pray you, tell me if this be the lady of the house, for I never saw her. I would be loath to cast away my speech, for besides that it is excellently well penned, I have taken great pains to con it. Good beauties, let me sustain no scorn. I am very comptible, even to the least sinister usage.
OLIVIA
Whence came you, sir?
VIOLA
I can say little more than I have studied, and that question’s out of my part. Good gentle one, give me modest assurance if you be the lady of the house, that I may proceed in my speech.

DUTCH:
Ik zou niet gaarne mijne toespraak tot de verkeerde
richten, want, behalve dat zij meesterlijk gesteld is, heb
ik er veel werk aan besteed om ze van buiten te leeren.

MORE:
Penned=Written, composed
Con=Learn, memorize
Sustain=Suffer
Comptible=Sensitive (accurate in accounting)
Studied=Learned by heart
Sinister usage=Lack of civility
Modest=Adequate
Compleat:
Penned=In geschrifte gesteld, beschreeven
The letter was very ill penned=De brief was zeer qualyk ingesteld of bewoord
To penn well=Wel schryven, wel instellen
To conn=Zyne lesse kennen, of van buiten leeren
To sustain=Lyden, uytstaan, verdraagen
Sinister=Slinksch, averechts, valsch
Modest=Zeedig, eerbaar

Burgersdijk notes:
Ik ben zeer susceptibel. Ook in ‘t oorspronkelijke bezigt Viola eene gezochte uitdrukking: 1 am very
comptible, eigenlijk: precies in ‘t rekenen; van plan om iedere beleediging nauwkeurig terug te geven.

Topics: proverbs and idioms, civility, communication, intellect, learning/education

I’ll try whether my old wit be in request with those that have but little: this must be patched with cloth of any colour

PLAY: Coriolanus
ACT/SCENE: 3.1
SPEAKER: Menenius
CONTEXT:
MENENIUS
Pray you, be gone:
I’ll try whether my old wit be in request
With those that have but little: this must be patch’d
With cloth of any colour.
COMINIUS
Nay, come away.
A PATRICIAN
This man has marr’d his fortune.
MENENIUS
His nature is too noble for the world:
He would not flatter Neptune for his trident,
Or Jove for’s power to thunder. His heart’s his mouth:
What his breast forges, that his tongue must vent;
And, being angry, does forget that ever
He heard the name of death.

DUTCH:
Hij is voor de aard te grootsch; hij zou Neptunus
Niet om zijn drietand vleien, Jupiter
Niet om zijn dondermacht. Zijn hart en tong
Zijn één; wat de eene smeedt, moet de ander uiten;
En wordt hij toornig, dan vergeet hij steeds,
Dat hij den naam van dood ooit hoorde

MORE:
Proverb: The heart of a fool is in his tongue (mouth)
Proverb: What the heart thinks the tongue speaks

Wit=Sound sense or judgement, understanding. Intelligence
In request=To be of use

Topics: proverbs and idioms, honour, intellect, reason, honesty

If th’ other two be brained like us, the state totters.

PLAY: The Tempest
ACT/SCENE: 3.2
SPEAKER: Trinculo
CONTEXT:
Tell not me. When the butt is out, we will drink water. Not a drop before. Therefore bear up and board ’em.—Servant- monster, drink to me.
TRINCULO
“Servant-monster”? The folly of this island. They say there’s but five upon this isle. We are three of them. If th’ other two be brained like us, the state totters.

DUTCH:
Onderdaan-monster ? Een dwaas eiland! Er zouden
er maar vijf op dit eiland zijn; wij zijn er drie van; als
die andere twee niet beter bij zinnen zijn dan wij, dan
waggelt de geheele staat.

MORE:
Butt=A cask for wine or ale containing two hogsheads
Out=Empty
Board ’em: a naval command used figuratively to mean ‘Drink up!’
Brained=Pickled
Compleat:
A barrel that is out=Een vat dat leeg is
Crackt brained=Een zot

Topics: intellect, excess

If the drink you give me touch my palate adversely I make a crooked face at it

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:
Als ik twee zulke staatslieden als gij zijt, — Lycurgussen kan ik u niet noemen, — ontmoet, en gij mij een dronk aanbiedt, die mijn gehemelte onaangenaam aandoet, dan trek ik er een scheef gezicht bij.

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: respect, authority, intellect, value, adversity

If we shall stand still in fear our motion will be mocked or carped at, we should take root here where we sit.

PLAY: King Henry VIII
ACT/SCENE: 1.2
SPEAKER: Cardinal Wolsey
CONTEXT:
CARDINAL WOLSEY
And for me,
I have no further gone in this than by
A single voice, and that not passed me but
By learnèd approbation of the judges. If I am
Traduced by ignorant tongues, which neither know
My faculties nor person, yet will be
The chronicles of my doing, let me say
’Tis but the fate of place, and the rough brake
That virtue must go through. We must not stint
Our necessary actions in the fear
To cope malicious censurers, which ever,
As ravenous fishes, do a vessel follow
That is new trimmed, but benefit no further
Than vainly longing. What we oft do best,
By sick interpreters, once weak ones, is
Not ours or not allowed; what worst, as oft,
Hitting a grosser quality, is cried up
For our best act. If we shall stand still
In fear our motion will be mocked or carped at,
We should take root here where we sit,
Or sit state-statues only.

DUTCH:
Zijn wij roerloos,
Bevreesd voor smalen zoo we iets doen, wij moesten
Hier, waar wij zitten, wortel slaan, of als
Staatsbeelden zitten.

MORE:
Approbation=Approval
Traduced=Slandered
Faculties=Qualities
Doing=Actions
Brake=Thicket, as an obstacle
Cope=Face, deal with
Sick=Malicious
Compleat:
Approbation=Goedkeuring
Traduce=Kwaadspreeken, lasteren; (accuse) beschuldigen
Faculties=Vermoogens
Doing=Een doening, daad
Brake=Een Vlas-braak

Topics: intellect, betrayal, order/society, merit

Instructed by the antiquary times, he must, he is, he cannot but be wise

PLAY: Troilus and Cressida
ACT/SCENE: 2.3
SPEAKER: Ulysses
CONTEXT:
ULYSSES
Thank the heavens, lord, thou art of sweet composure;
Praise him that got thee, she that gave thee suck:
Famed be thy tutor, and thy parts of nature
Thrice famed, beyond all erudition:
But he that disciplined thy arms to fight,
Let Mars divide eternity in twain,
And give him half: and, for thy vigour,
Bull-bearing Milo his addition yield
To sinewy Ajax. I will not praise thy wisdom,
Which, like a bourn, a pale, a shore, confines
Thy spacious and dilated parts: here’s Nestor;
Instructed by the antiquary times,
He must, he is, he cannot but be wise:
Put pardon, father Nestor, were your days
As green as Ajax’ and your brain so tempered,
You should not have the eminence of him,
But be as Ajax.

DUTCH:
Ik zwijg nog van uw wijsheid,
Want die begrenst gelijk een paal, steen, strand,
‘t Ruim veld van uwe deugden. Hier is Nestor;
Diep in de grauwende oudheid doorgedrongen,
Kan, moet hij wijs zijn, kan niet anders zijn

MORE:
Composure=Disposition
Parts of nature=Natural qualities
Erudition=Learning
Milo=Greek athlete who famously competed whilst carrying a bull on his shoulders.
Addition=Title, reputation
Bourn=Boundary
Pale=Fence; enclosure
Antiquary times=Antiquity
Father=Not literal, but a sign of respect
Green=Young, fresh; gullible
Eminence=Superiority
Compleat:
Composure of mind=Bezadigdheid des gemoeds
Parts=Deelen, hoedaanigheden, begaafdheden
Erudition=Geleerdheid
Addition=Bydoening, byvoegsel
Bourn=Een bron
To pale in=Met paalen afperken, afpaalen. Paled in=Rondom met paalen bezet, afgepaald
Green: (not ripe)=Onryp; (raw)=Een nieuweling
Eminence=Uytsteekendheyd, hoogte

Topics: learning/education, civility, wisdom, intellect

It lies as coldly in him as fire in a flint, which will not show without knocking

PLAY: Troilus and Cressida
ACT/SCENE: 3.3
SPEAKER: Thersites
CONTEXT:
THERSITES
Why, he stalks up and down like a peacock,—a stride
and a stand: ruminates like an hostess that hath no
arithmetic but her brain to set down her reckoning:
bites his lip with a politic regard, as who should
say ‘There were wit in this head, an ‘twould out;’
and so there is, but it lies as coldly in him as fire
in a flint, which will not show without knocking.
The man’s undone forever; for if Hector break not his
neck i’ the combat, he’ll break ‘t himself in
vain-glory. He knows not me: I said ‘Good morrow,
Ajax;’ and he replies ‘Thanks, Agamemnon.’ What think
you of this man that takes me for the general? He’s
grown a very land-fish, language-less, a monster.
A plague of opinion! a man may wear it on both
sides, like a leather jerkin.

DUTCH:
Het huist zoo koud in hem als vuur in een
keisteen en komt alleen door slaan voor den dag

MORE:
Proverb: In the coldest flint there is hot fire

Ruminate=To muse, to meditate, to ponder
Arithmetic=Table or other aid for multiplication
Set down=Determine
Reckoning=Bill
Politic=Judicious
Undone=Ruined
Vain-glory=Vanity
Opinion=Self-regard
Compleat:
To ruminate upon (to consider of) a thing=Eene zaak overweegen
Arithmetick=Rekenkonst
Reckoning=Rekenen
Politick (or cunning)=Slim, schrander, doorsleepen
Undone=Ontdaan, losgemaakt
Vain-glory=Ydele glorie
Opinion=Goeddunken, meening, gevoelen, waan

Topics: proverbs and idioms, pride, vanity, intellect, reputation

It shall serve among wits of no higher breeding than thine.

PLAY: King Henry IV Part 2
ACT/SCENE: 2.2
SPEAKER: Prince Hal
CONTEXT:
POINS
How ill it follows, after you have laboured so hard, you should talk so idly! Tell me, how many good young princes would do so, their fathers being so sick as yours at this time is?
PRINCE HENRY
Shall I tell thee one thing, Poins?
POINS
Yes, faith, and let it be an excellent good thing.
PRINCE HENRY
It shall serve among wits of no higher breeding than thine.
POINS
Go to. I stand the push of your one thing that you will tell.

DUTCH:
Het zal voor geesten, die niet hooger staan dan gij, zijn dienst kunnen doen.

MORE:

Push=A thrust, calculated either to overturn something, or to set it in motion; hence attack, onset
Stand the push=Withstand the attack
Wits=intellects

Compleat:
To push=Stooten, duwen

Topics: intellect, equality, learning/education

Let them if I say fine, cry ‘fine’; if death, cry ‘death’

PLAY: Coriolanus
ACT/SCENE: 3.3
SPEAKER: Sicinius
CONTEXT:
SICINIUS
Have you a catalogue
Of all the voices that we have procured
Set down by the poll?
AEDILE
I have; ’tis ready.
SICINIUS
Have you collected them by tribes?
AEDILE
I have.
SICINIUS
Assemble presently the people hither;
And when they bear me say ‘It shall be so
I’ the right and strength o’ the commons,’ be it either
For death, for fine, or banishment, then let them
If I say fine, cry ‘Fine;’ if death, cry death.’
Insisting on the old prerogative
And power i’ the truth o’ the cause.
AEDILE
I shall inform them.
BRUTUS
And when such time they have begun to cry,
Let them not cease, but with a din confused
Enforce the present execution
Of what we chance to sentence.

DUTCH:
Roep het volk dan daad’lijk hier;
En hooren zij mij zeggen: „Zoo zal ‘t zijn,
Naar recht en eisch van ‘t volk,” hetzij een boete,
Dood of verbanning, laat hen „boete” roepen
Wanneer ik „boete” zeg; „dood “, zeg ik „dood”
Dit vord’rend krachtens onze aloude rechten
En onze goede zaak.

MORE:
Catalogue=Record
Voices=Votes
By the poll=By name
Tribes=Votes were cast by tribe (each tribe having one vote for the favoured person of that tribe)
Old prerogative=Traditional right
Compleat:
Catalogue=Een lyst, naamrol, naamlyst, register
Voice=Stem, recht van stemmen
Poll=Alle de naamen der geenen die een stem in ‘t verkiezen hebben opneemen
Tribe=(A kindred or company of people that dwells together in the same ward or liberty): Stam, gedeete van een gantsch volk; soort
Prerogative=Een voorrecht

Burgersdijk notes:
En naar de wijken opgemaakt, nietwaar? In ‘t Engelsch: Have you collected then by tribes? Plutarchus moge hier opheldering geven: And first of all, the tribunes would in any case (whatsoever came of it) that the people should proceed to give their voices by tribes, and not by hundreds, for by this means the multitude of the poor needy people — — came to be of greater force — because their voices were numbered by the poll — than the noble honest citizens etc.

Topics: leadership, independence, free will, intellect

Look he’s winding up the watch of his wit.
By and by it will strike.

PLAY: The Tempest
ACT/SCENE: 2.1
SPEAKER: Gonzalo
CONTEXT:
SEBASTIAN
He receives comfort like cold porridge.
ANTONIO
The visitor will not give him o’er so.
SEBASTIAN
Look he’s winding up the watch of his wit. By and by it will strike.
GONZALO
(to ALONSO) Sir—
SEBASTIAN
One. Tell.
GONZALO
When every grief is entertained that’s offered,
comes to th’entertainer –
SEBASTIAN
A dollar.
GONZALO
Dolour comes to him, indeed. You have spoken truer than you purposed.

DUTCH:
Zie, hij windt het uurwerk van zijn vernuft op, zoo
aanstonds zal het slaan.

MORE:
A visitor is ‘One who visits from charitable motives or with a view of doing good’ (OED)
Dollar=’The English name for the German thaler, a large silver coin’ (OED).
Dolour=Sorrow, grief (wordplay on ‘dollar’)
Tell=Count
Entertain=To conceive, to harbour, to feel, to keep (When everyone who feels grief embraces every grief that comes their way)
Compleat:
Entertain (receive or believe) a principle, an opinion, etc.=Een stelling, een gevoelen aanneemen, koesteren’ gelooven of voorstaan
Dolor=Droefheid, smerte
Dolorous=Pynlyk, droevig
To visit (to go about to see whether things be as they should)=Bezoeken, nazien, onderzoeken
To visit (to affect, to try)=Bezoeken, beproeven

Topics: grief, sorrow, adversity, intellect

Men of singular integrity and learning, Yea, the elect o’ th’ land, who are assembled To plead your cause.

PLAY: King Henry VIII
ACT/SCENE: 2.4
SPEAKER: Cardinal Wolsey
CONTEXT:
CARDINAL WOLSEY
You have here, lady,
And of your choice, these reverend fathers; men
Of singular integrity and learning,
Yea, the elect o’ the land, who are assembled
To plead your cause: it shall be therefore bootless
That longer you desire the court; as well
For your own quiet, as to rectify
What is unsettled in the king.

DUTCH:
Gij hebt hier, hooge vrouwe, —
Naar eigen keuze, — deze eerwaarde vaders,
Voorbeeldig door hun braafheid en geleerdheid,
Ja, de uitverkoor’nen van het land, vergaderd
Als uwe pleitbezorgers.

MORE:
Singular=Unmatched
Bootless=Futile, unavailing
Desire=Ask, entreat
Quiet=Peace of mind
Compleat:
Singular=Byzonder, op zich zelven
To desire=Verlangen, verzoeken
Bootless=Te vergeefs, vruchteloos

Topics: intellect, remedy

Nay, if our wits run the wild-goose chase, I am done

PLAY: Romeo and Juliet
ACT/SCENE: 2.4
SPEAKER: Mercutio
CONTEXT:
Nay, if our wits run the wild-goose chase, I am done, for thou hast more of the wild-goose in one of thy wits than, I am sure, I have in my whole five. Was I with you there for the goose?

DUTCH:
Neen, als wij onze geestigheden als wilde ganzen tegen
elkaar op laten snateren, dan ben ik verloren; want gij
hebt in uw pink meer van een wilde gans dan ik in mijn
geheele lichaam, dat is zeker

MORE:
Wild goose chase originally meant a horse race that was popular in Shakespeare’s time. It’s modern meaning was probably coined by Dr Samuel Johnson, who defined it as a pursuit of something as unlikely to be caught as a wild goose. Current definition is a hopeless search.
Five wits = Another reference to the five inward wits which were originally memory, estimation, fancy, imagination and common sense.

Topics: intellect, dispute, equality, still/talent

Nay, your wit will not so soon out as another man’s will

PLAY: Coriolanus
ACT/SCENE: 2.3
SPEAKER: Third Citizen
CONTEXT:
FIRST CITIZEN
And to make us no better thought of, a little help
will serve; for once we stood up about the corn, he
himself stuck not to call us the many-headed multitude.
THIRD CITIZEN
We have been called so of many; not that our heads
are some brown, some black, some auburn, some bald,
but that our wits are so diversely coloured: and
truly I think if all our wits were to issue out of
one skull, they would fly east, west, north, south,
and their consent of one direct way should be at
once to all the points o’ the compass.
SECOND CITIZEN
Think you so? Which way do you judge my wit would
fly?
THIRD CITIZEN
Nay, your wit will not so soon out as another man’s
will; ’tis strongly wedged up in a block-head, but
if it were at liberty, ‘twould, sure, southward.

DUTCH:
Nu, uw verstand kan er niet zoo snel uit als dat van
een ander; het is te stevig in een harden kop vastgeklemd;
maar als het eens vrij was , ging het zeker zuidwaarts.

MORE:
Proverb: A multitude of people is a beast of many heads

Stood up about=Rose up, protested/fought about
Many-headed multitude=Proverbial, referring to ficklemess of the masses
Stuck not=Did not hestitate
Wit=Mental faculty, intellectual power of any kind; understanding, judgment, imagination
Of many=By many
Consent of=Agreement on.
Consent of one direct way=Agreement to go in one direction
If all our wishes…out of one skull=To suppose all their wits to issue from one skull, and that their common consent and agreement to go all one way, should end in their flying to every point of the compass, is a just description of the variety and inconsistency of the opinions, wishes, and actions of the multitude.(M. Mason)
Compleat:
To stand up=Opstaan, verdedigen
Coloured=Geverfd, gekleurd, afgezet, geblanket
With one consent=Eendragtiglyk
Wits=Zinnen, oordeel

Topics: status, poverty and wealth, intellect, independence

Never anything can be amiss when simpleness and duty tender it

PLAY: A Midsummer Night’s Dream
ACT/SCENE: 5.1
SPEAKER: Theseus
CONTEXT:
PHILOSTRATE
Hard-handed men that work in Athens here,
Which never laboured in their minds till now,
And now have toiled their unbreathed memories
With this same play against your nuptial.
THESEUS
And we will hear it.
PHILOSTRATE
No, my noble lord.
It is not for you. I have heard it over,
And it is nothing, nothing in the world—
Unless you can find sport in their intents,
Extremely stretched and conned with cru ‘l pain
To do you service.
THESEUS
I will hear that play.
For never anything can be amiss
When simpleness and duty tender it.
Go, bring them in. And take your places, ladies.
HIPPOLYTA
I love not to see wretchedness o’ercharged
And duty in his service perishing.

DUTCH:
Want nooit is iets verkeerd of ongepast,
Wat eenvoud in oprechten ijver biedt.

MORE:
Hard-handed=”Mechanic” hands use for manual work; horny-handed sons of toil
Unbreathed=Unexercised (brains)
Against=In preparation for
Conned=Memorised
Simpleness=Innocence
Wretchedness=Low class or untalented
O’ercharged=Overwhelmed
Perishing=Failing
Compleat:
Mechanick=handwerkman
To conn=Zyne lesse kennen, of van buiten leeren
Simpleness=Eenvoudigheyd
Wretchedness=Elendigheyd, heylloosheyd, oneugendheyd
To perish=Vergaan, sneuvelen, verlooren gaan

Topics: intellect, work, negligence

Nor i’ the judgment, for idiots in this case of favour would be wisely definite

PLAY: Cymbeline
ACT/SCENE: 1.6
SPEAKER: Iachimo
CONTEXT:
IMOGEN
‘He is one of the noblest note, to whose
kindnesses I am most infinitely tied. Reflect upon
him accordingly, as you value your trust—
Leonatus.’
So far I read aloud:
But even the very middle of my heart
Is warm’d by the rest, and takes it thankfully.
You are as welcome, worthy sir, as I
Have words to bid you, and shall find it so
In all that I can do.
IACHIMO
Thanks, fairest lady.
What, are men mad? Hath nature given them eyes
To see this vaulted arch, and the rich crop
Of sea and land, which can distinguish ‘twixt
The fiery orbs above and the twinn’d stones
Upon the number’d beach? and can we not
Partition make with spectacles so precious
‘Twixt fair and foul?
IMOGEN
What makes your admiration?
IACHIMO
It cannot be i’ the eye, for apes and monkeys
‘Twixt two such shes would chatter this way and
Contemn with mows the other; nor i’ the judgment,
For idiots in this case of favour would
Be wisely definite; nor i’ the appetite;
Sluttery to such neat excellence opposed
Should make desire vomit emptiness,
Not so allured to feed.

DUTCH:
t Ligt niet aan ‘t oog: toon aap of baviaan
Twee zulke vrouwen; hierheen zal hij lachen,
Naar de and’re grijnzend schreeuwen; niet aan ‘t oordeel:
Een idioot zou bij deez’ schoonheidskeur
Scherpzinnig zijn en wijs;

MORE:
Reflect=Consider
Orbs=Stars
Identical=Twinned
Unnumbered=Innumerable
Spectacles so precious=Eyes
Partition make=Draw distinction
Compleat:
To reflect=Overpeinzen, overwegen
Orb=Een kloot, rond, hemelkring
Partition=Een verdeeling, middelschot

Topics: reputation, trust, nature, intellect

Nor the time nor place will serve our long interrogatories

PLAY: Cymbeline
ACT/SCENE: 5.5
SPEAKER: Cymbeline
CONTEXT:
CYMBELINE
When shall I hear all through?
This fierce abridgement
Hath to it circumstantial branches which
Distinction should be rich in. Where, how lived you?
And when came you to serve our Roman captive?
How parted with your brothers ? How first met them?
Why fled you from the court? And whither? These,
And your three motives to the battle, with
I know not how much more, should be demanded,
And all the other by-dependences
From chance to chance; but nor the time nor place
Will serve our long interrogatories. See,
Posthumus anchors upon Imogen;
And she, like harmless lightning, throws her eye
On him, her brothers, me, her master, hitting
Each object with a joy; the counterchange
Is severally in all. Let’s quit this ground,
And smoke the temple with our sacrifices.
Thou art my brother, so we’ll hold thee ever.

DUTCH:
Ja meer, veel meer nog heb ik na te vragen,
En al wat daarmee samenhangt te volgen,
En stap voor stap. Doch ‘t is nu tijd noch plaats
Voor zulk een onderzoekend vragen.

MORE:
Fierce=Savagely cut (abstract)
Abridgement=Summary, abstract
Circumstantial branches which distinction should be rich in=Providing ample narrative for consideration of parts and details
Your three motives=The motives of you three
By-dependences=Side issues
Interrogatories [Intergatories]=Examination, question
Chance to chance=Describing every event
Counterchange=Reciprocation
Severally=Every one in his particular way and manner
Smoke=Perfume with smoke
Compleat:
Fierce=Heftig, vel, vinnig; wreed; trots
Abridgement=Een verkortsel
Circumstantial=Omstandig
To circumstantiate=Met omstandigheden beschryven
Dependance, dependency=Afhangendheid, afhanglykheid, vertrouwen, steunsel, steun
Interrogatory=Ondervraagende; een ondervraaging, vraagstuk
Chance=Geval, voorval, kans
Counter-change=Ruilen
Severally=Verscheidenlyk

Topics: intellect, nature, justification, reason, reply

Now you see, sir, how your fooling grows old, and people dislike it

PLAY: Twelfth Night
ACT/SCENE: 1.5
SPEAKER: Sir Toby
CONTEXT:
OLIVIA
Fetch him off, I pray you. He speaks nothing but
madman. Fie on him!
Go you, Malvolio. If it be a suit from the count, I am
sick, or not at home. What you will, to dismiss it.
Now you see, sir, how your fooling grows old, and
people dislike it.
FOOL
Thou hast spoke for us, madonna, as if thy eldest son should be a fool, whose skull Jove cram with brains, for— here he comes—one of thy kin has a most weak pia mater.

DUTCH:
Gij hebt nu eens gezien, nar, hoe uw grappen
uit den tijd raken en bij de menschen niet meer
opgaan.

MORE:
Madman=The language of a madman
Suit=Petition, request
Old=Stale
Pia mater=Brain (now used for just a small part)
Compleat:
Suit=Een verzoek, rechtsgeding
Pia master=Het hersenvlies

Burgersdijk notes:
Pia mater. Het dunne vlies, dat de hersenen omgeeft, hier ook genomen voor de hersenen zelf

Topics: intellect, claim

O, ’tis a verse in Horace; I know it well: I read it in the grammar long ago

PLAY: Titus Andronicus
ACT/SCENE: 4.2
SPEAKER: Aaron
CONTEXT:
DEMETRIUS
What’s here? A scroll; and written round about?
Let’s see;
‘Integer vitae, scelerisque purus,
Non eget Mauri jaculis, nec arcu.’
CHIRON
O, ’tis a verse in Horace; I know it well:
I read it in the grammar long ago.
AARON
Ay, just; a verse in Horace; right, you have it.
Now, what a thing it is to be an ass!
Here’s no sound jest! the old man hath found their
guilt;
And sends them weapons wrapped about with lines,
That wound, beyond their feeling, to the quick.
But were our witty empress well afoot,
She would applaud Andronicus’ conceit:
But let her rest in her unrest awhile.
And now, young lords, was’t not a happy star
Led us to Rome, strangers, and more than so,
Captives, to be advanced to this height?
It did me good, before the palace gate
To brave the tribune in his brother’s hearing.

DUTCH:
Een vers is ‘t uit Horatius; ik ken het;
Ik las het in mijn spraakkunst, lang geleên.

MORE:
Proverb: He touches him to the quick

“The man who is of pure life and free from crime needs not the bows and arrows of the Moor” (Horace)
Grammar=Latin grammar book. This is quoted in William Lily’s grammar, which was popular in Elizabethan schools
Just=Precisely
Sound=Straightforward
Afoot=Up and about
Conceit=Design, plan
Stranger=Foreigner
Brave=Confront, defy
Compleat:
Cut to the quick=Tot aan ‘t leeven snyden
Conceit=Waan, bevatting, opvatting, meening
To brave=Trotsen, braveeren, trotseeren, moedig treden
Sound=Gaaf
Stranger=Vreemdeling

Burgersdijk notes:
Integer vitae enz. Daar de regels uit Horatius (Od. 1. 22. 1.) zeggen, dat de reine en schuldelooze geen Mauretanische pijl en boog, met andere woorden, geen wapenen behoeft, is door de toezending van wapenen uitgedrukt, dat Tamora’s zonen niet rein en schuldeloos zijn. Als de slimme Tamora niet juist wegens hare zwangerschap onwel was, zou zij de schranderheid van den vond toelachen. — Men merke op, dat het adjectivische Manris van Horatius hier in Mauri “van den Moor”, veranderd is.

Topics: proverbs and idioms, still in use, learning/education, intellect, dignity, wisdom

O, what a noble mind is here o’erthrown!

PLAY: Hamlet
ACT/SCENE: 3.1
SPEAKER: Ophelia
CONTEXT:
O, what a noble mind is here o’erthrown!
The courtier’s, soldier’s, scholar’s, eye, tongue, sword,
Th’ expectancy and rose of the fair state,
The glass of fashion and the mould of form,
Th’ observed of all observers, quite, quite down!

DUTCH:
O, wat een edele geest is hier verscheurd! /
O, wat een eedle geest ging hier te loor!

MORE:
Noble=Magnanimous, elevated, dignified, generous
Expectancy=Hope
Glass= Mirror, reflection
Compleat:
Nobly (or generously)=Edemoediglyk
Expectance. To be an expectation of something=Iets verwagten, ergens op hoopen

Topics: sorrow, madness, intellect, honour, hope

One that converses more with the buttock of the night than with the forehead of the morning

DUTCH:
[M]en geeft mij na, dat
ik wel wat het zwak heb den eersten klager te veel gelijk
te geven, wat driftig ben en tonderachtig bij een al
te geringe aanleiding, meer met het achterdeel van de
nacht, dan met het voorhoofd van den morgen vertrouwd
ben.

Topics: respect, authority, intellect, value, adversity

Purpose so barred, it follows nothing is done to purpose

PLAY: Coriolanus
ACT/SCENE: 3.1
SPEAKER: Coriolanus
CONTEXT:
BRUTUS
Enough, with over-measure.
CORIOLANUS
No, take more:
What may be sworn by, both divine and human,
Seal what I end withal! This double worship,
Where one part does disdain with cause, the other
Insult without all reason, where gentry, title, wisdom,
Cannot conclude but by the yea and no
Of general ignorance,— it must omit
Real necessities, and give way the while
To unstable slightness: purpose so barr’d,
it follows,
Nothing is done to purpose. Therefore, beseech you,—
You that will be less fearful than discreet,
That love the fundamental part of state
More than you doubt the change on’t, that prefer
A noble life before a long, and wish
To jump a body with a dangerous physic
That’s sure of death without it, at once pluck out
The multitudinous tongue; let them not lick
The sweet which is their poison: your dishonour
Mangles true judgment and bereaves the state
Of that integrity which should become’t,
Not having the power to do the good it would,
For the in which doth control’t.
BRUTUS
Has said enough.
SICINIUS
Has spoken like a traitor, and shall answer
As traitors do.
CORIOLANUS
Thou wretch, despite o’erwhelm thee!
What should the people do with these bald tribunes?
On whom depending, their obedience fails
To the greater bench: in a rebellion,
When what’s not meet, but what must be, was law,
Then were they chosen: in a better hour,
Let what is meet be said it must be meet,
And throw their power i’ the dust.

DUTCH:
Dit dubbel staatsbewind, (…) ‘t laat, natuurlijk,
Het noodigst ongedaan, aan vooze wuftheid
Den vrijen loop; geen weg naar ‘t doel is vrij,
Dus wordt geen doel bereikt.

MORE:
Cited in Shakespeare’s Legal Maxims (William Lowes Rushton)

Proverb: He lives long that lives well

Over-measure=Excess
Double worship=Divided allegiance
Nothing is done to purpose=No policy is effective
Conclude=Decide
General ignorance=The ignorant public (crowd)
Jump=Jolt, put at stake, hazard
Unstable slightness=Inconstant and trifling issues
Less fearful than discreet=More out of prudence than timidity
Should become it=The appropriate (integrity)
Bereave=To rob, take from
Multitudinous=Belonging to the multitude
Become=To fit, suit
Compleat:
Become=Betaamen
An invincible ignorance=Een onverbeterlyke domheid
Unstable=Onbestendig, ongestadig
To conclude=Besluiten, sluiten
To no purpose=Niet baaten

Topics: order/society, conflict, intellect, status, integrity

Purse and brain, both empty

PLAY: Cymbeline
ACT/SCENE: 5.4
SPEAKER: First Jailer
CONTEXT:
FIRST JAILER
A heavy reckoning for you, sir. But the comfort
is, you shall be called to no more payments, fear
no more tavern bills, which are often the sadness
of parting as the procuring of mirth. You come in
faint for want of meat, depart reeling with too
much drink; sorry that you have paid too much,
and sorry that you are paid too much; purse and
brain both empty; the brain the heavier for being
too light; the purse too light, being drawn of heaviness:
of this contradiction you shall now be
quit. O, the charity of a penny cord! It sums up
thousands in a trice: you have no true debitor and
creditor but it; of what’s past, is, and to come,
the discharge: your neck, sir, is pen, book and
counters; so the acquittance follows.

DUTCH:
Hoofd en beurs
beide leeg, het hoofd des te zwaarder, naarmate het
lichter is, de beurs des te opgeruimder, naarmate zij
meer zwaarte verloren heeft.

MORE:
Proverb: A heavy purse makes a light heart
Proverb: In a trice

Heavier=Sleepier with drink
Drawn=Emptied
Drawn of heaviness=Lighter, being emptied of coins
Paid too much=Punished by excess drinking
To quit=To set at liberty, to free, to deliver
Acquittance=Receipt in full
Compleat:
To quit (dispense with, excluse)=Bevryden, verschoonen, ontslaan
I quit you from it=Ik ontsla ‘er u van
Forbearance is no acquittance=Uitstellen is geen quytschelden

Topics: proverbs and idioms, still in use, intellect, excess, money, debt/obligation

See how yon justice rails upon yon simple thief.

PLAY: King Lear
ACT/SCENE: 4.6
SPEAKER: King Lear
CONTEXT:
What, art mad? A man may see how this world goes with no eyes. Look with thine ears. See how yon justice rails upon yon simple thief. Hark in thine ear: change places and, handy-dandy, which is the justice, which is the thief? Thou hast seen a farmer’s dog bark at a beggar?

DUTCH:
Zie hoe die
rechter daar to keer gaat tegen dien onnoozelen dief./
Zie je hoe die rechter daar zo’n armzalige dief ervanlangs
geeft? Ik fluister het je in: verwissel ze van plaats, en rara,
in welke hand zit de rechter, in welke de dief?

MORE:
Schmidt:
Handy-dandy=Game involving sleight of hand by which something imperceptibly is changed from one hand into the other.
Simple=Humble, ordinary or weak-witted
Compleat:
Simple=De zwakken; Eenvoudig, onbeschadigende
Handy-dandy=Handje klap

Topics: law, justice, corruption, understanding, intellect

See now how wit may be made a Jack-a-Lent, when ’tis upon ill employment!

PLAY: The Merry Wives of Windsor
ACT/SCENE:
SPEAKER: Falstaff
CONTEXT:
FALSTAFF
And these are not fairies? I was three or four
times in the thought they were not fairies: and yet
the guiltiness of my mind, the sudden surprise of my
powers, drove the grossness of the foppery into a
received belief, in despite of the teeth of all
rhyme and reason, that they were fairies. See now
how wit may be made a Jack-a-Lent, when ’tis upon
ill employment!

DUTCH:
Nu blijkt het, hoe het verstand tot een vastenavondzot kan worden, als het op booze wegen wandelt.

MORE:
Proverb: Neither rhyme nor reason
Proverb: In spite of one’s teeth

Surprise=Bewilderment
Foppery=Foolishness
Jack-a-Lent was a puppet that people would throw stones at
Compleat:
Surprise=Overval, verrassing, overyling, ontsteltenis, onverwacht voorval
Foppery=Zottte kuuren, grollen, snaakery

Topics: proverbs and idioms|reason|intellect

Shall remain! Hear you this Triton of the minnows? mark you his absolute ‘shall’?

PLAY: Coriolanus
ACT/SCENE: 3.1
SPEAKER: Coriolanus
CONTEXT:
SICINIUS
It is a mind
That shall remain a poison where it is,
Not poison any further.
CORIOLANUS
Shall remain!
Hear you this Triton of the minnows? mark you
His absolute ‘shall’?
COMINIUS
’Twas from the canon.

DUTCH:
„Blijven moet!” —
Hoort gij dien katvisch-Triton? merkt gij daar
‘t Gebiedend,,moet”?

MORE:
Proverb: A Triton among the minnows

Canon=Rule, law
Absolute=Positive, certain, decided, not doubtful
Compleat:
Canonical=Regelmaatig
Triton=De trompetter van Neptunus; (weather-cock)=Een weerhaan, windwyzer

Burgersdijk notes:
Dien kat visch-Triton. Triton is een mindere zeegod, die dus alleen over de kleine vischjes gebied voert.

Topics: proverbs and idioms, language, intellect, authority, judgment, law/legal

Short summers lightly have a forward spring

PLAY: Richard III
ACT/SCENE: 3.1
SPEAKER: Richard, Duke of Gloucester
CONTEXT:

PRINCE
That Julius Caesar was a famous man.
With what his valour did enrich his wit,
His wit set down to make his valour live.
Death makes no conquest of this conqueror,
For now he lives in fame, though not in life.
I’ll tell you what, my cousin Buckingham—
BUCKINGHAM
What, my gracious lord?
PRINCE
An if I live until I be a man,
I’ll win our ancient right in France again
Or die a soldier, as I lived a king.
RICHARD
Short summers lightly have a forward spring.

DUTCH:
Vroeg wordt na vroege lent de groei geschorst .

MORE:
Proverb: Too soon wise to live long
Proverb: Sharp frosts bite forward springs
Proverb: The good die young
Proverb: Soon ripe soon rotten

Wit=Intellect
Right=Claim (to the French throne)
Compleat:
Wit (understanding)=Vinding, schranderheid, verstand
Birth-right=Geboorte-recht

Topics: time, life, proverbs and idioms, intellect

Since the little wit that fools have was silenced, the little foolery that wise men have makes a great show

PLAY: As You Like It
ACT/SCENE: 1.2
SPEAKER: Celia
CONTEXT:
CELIA
My father’s love is enough to honour him. Enough. Speak
no more of him; you’ll be whipped for taxation one of these days.
TOUCHSTONE
The more pity that fools may not speak wisely what wise
men do foolishly.
CELIA
By my troth, thou sayest true. For, since the little
wit that fools have was silenced, the little foolery
that wise men have makes a great show. Here comes
Monsieur Le Beau.
ROSALIND
With his mouth full of news.
CELIA
Which he will put on us as pigeons feed their young.
ROSALIND
Then shall we be news-crammed.

DUTCH:
Inderdaad, gij hebt gelijk; want sedert het beetjen wijsheid, dat dwazen hebben, tot zwijgen gebracht werd, maakt het beetjen dwaasheid, dat wijzen hebben, een groote vertooning.

MORE:
Proverb: The wise man knows himself to be a fool, the fool thinks he is wise

‘Silenced’ is probably a topical reference, either to new restraints imposed on theatrical companies or to the burning of satirical books in 1599.

Whipping was a cruel punishment. In the days of Henry VIII an Act decreed that vagrants were to be carried to some market town, or other place, and there tied to the end of a cart, naked, and beaten with whips throughout such market-town, or other place, till the body should be bloody by reason of such whipping. The punishment was mitigated in Elizabeth’s reign, to the extent that vagrants need only to be “stripped naked from the middle upwards and whipped till the body should be bloody”.

Whipped=Censure, satire, invective “You’ll be whipped for taxation one of these days”.
Foolery=Absurdity
News-crammed=Full of news (and therefore valuable on the market)
Compleat:
Whipped=Gegeesseld
Foolery=Malligheid
Cram=Kroppen, proppen, mesten, overladen

Topics: intellect, wisdom, appearance, proverbs and idioms

Take our good meaning, for our judgment sits
Five times in that ere once in our five wits.

PLAY: Romeo and Juliet
ACT/SCENE: 1.4
SPEAKER: Mercutio
CONTEXT:
MERCUTIO
I mean, sir, in delay.
We waste our lights in vain, like lights by day.
Take our good meaning, for our judgment sits
Five times in that ere once in our five wits.

DUTCH:
Kom mee, wij meenen ‘t goed, stel dit op prijs,
Veel meer dan onzen geest, dan doet gij wijs.

MORE:

Topics: intellect, judgment

That would make his will Lord of his reason

PLAY: Antony and Cleopatra
ACT/SCENE: 3.13
SPEAKER: Enobarbus
CONTEXT:
CLEOPATRA
Is Antony or we in fault for this?
ENOBARBUS
Antony only, that would make his will
Lord of his reason. What though you fled
From that great face of war, whose several ranges
Frighted each other? Why should he follow?
The itch of his affection should not then
Have nicked his captainship at such a point
When half to half the world opposed, he being
The merèd question. ’Twas a shame no less
Than was his loss, to course your flying flags
And leave his navy gazing.

DUTCH:
Slechts aan Antonius; hij toch liet zijn lusten
Zijn oordeel overheerschen

MORE:
In fault=To blame
Ranges=Battle lines
Frighted=Threatened
Merèd=Entire
Nicked=Cut; cheated; caught
Course=Chase
Compleat:
He is in the fault=De fout ligt aan hem
Affrighted=Verwaard, verschrikt, bang
To nick=Inkerven
To course=Jaagen

Topics: blame, guilt, free will, reason, intellect

The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool

PLAY: As You Like It
ACT/SCENE: 5.1
SPEAKER: Touchstone
CONTEXT:
TOUCHSTONE
“Thank God.” A good answer. Art rich?
WILLIAM
‘Faith, sir, so-so.
TOUCHSTONE
“So-so” is good, very good, very excellent good. And
yet it is not: it is but so-so. Art thou wise?
WILLIAM
Ay, sir, I have a pretty wit.
TOUCHSTONE
Why, thou sayst well. I do now remember a saying: “The
fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows
himself to be a fool.” The heathen philosopher, when he
had a desire to eat a grape, would open his lips when he
put it into his mouth, meaning thereby that grapes were
made to eat and lips to open.

DUTCH:
Zoo, goed gezegd! Ik herinner mij daar een spreuk:
„De dwaas denkt, dat hij wijs is, maar de wijze weet,
dat hij een dwaas is

MORE:
Proverb:
The wise man knows himself to be a fool, the fool thinks he is wise

Topics: intellect, appearance, wisdom, proverbs and idioms

The gentleman is learn’d, and a most rare speaker; To nature none more bound.

PLAY: King Henry VIII
ACT/SCENE: 1.2
SPEAKER: King Henry VIII
CONTEXT:
KING HENRY VIII
It grieves many:
The gentleman is learn’d, and a most rare speaker;
To nature none more bound; his training such,
That he may furnish and instruct great teachers,
And never seek for aid out of himself. Yet see,
When these so noble benefits shall prove
Not well disposed, the mind growing once corrupt,
They turn to vicious forms, ten times more ugly
Than ever they were fair. This man so complete,
Who was enroll’d ‘mongst wonders, and when we,
Almost with ravish’d listening, could not find
His hour of speech a minute; he, my lady,
Hath into monstrous habits put the graces
That once were his, and is become as black
As if besmear’d in hell. Sit by us; you shall hear—
This was his gentleman in trust—of him
Things to strike honour sad. Bid him recount
The fore-recited practices; whereof
We cannot feel too little, hear too much.

DUTCH:
Velen smart het;
Hij is geleerd en een voortreff lijk reed’naar,
Groot gunst’ling van natuur, zoo opgevoed,
Dat hij zelfs groote leeraars op kon leiden
Uit zich, met niemands hulp

MORE:
Rare=Extraordinary, excellent
Benefits=Qualities
Disposed=Applied
Enrolled=Recorded
Habits=Behaviour
Grace=Good qualities
Practice=Artifice, stratagem, insidious device
Compleat:
Dispose=Beschikken, schikken
Enroll=In ‘t Stads boek aanteykenen
Habit=Heblykheyd, gewoonte, gesteltenis
Grace=Genade, gunst, fraajigheid
Practice=(underhand dealing, intrigue, plot) Praktyk, bedekten handel, list

Topics: intellect, learning/education, value, reputation

The sum of all I can, I have disclosed

PLAY: Richard III
ACT/SCENE: 2.4
SPEAKER: Messenger
CONTEXT:
MESSENGER
Lord Rivers and Lord Grey are sent to Pomfret,
And, with them, Sir Thomas Vaughan, prisoners.
DUCHESS
Who hath committed them?
MESSENGER
The mighty dukes, Gloucester and Buckingham.
ARCHBISHOP
For what offence?
MESSENGER
The sum of all I can, I have disclosed.
Why, or for what, the nobles were committed
Is all unknown to me, my gracious lord.
QUEEN ELIZABETH
Ay me! I see the ruin of my house.
The tiger now hath seized the gentle hind.
Insulting tyranny begins to jut
Upon the innocent and aweless throne.
Welcome, destruction, blood, and massacre.
I see, as in a map, the end of all.

DUTCH:
Ik heb gemeld al wat ik melden kan .
Waarom, waarvoor die eed’len zijn gevat,
Is mij volkomen onbekend, mylord.

MORE:
Pomfret (or Pontefract)=A castle in Yorkshire, often used for political prisoners
All I can=All I know
Jut=Encroach, disrespect
Aweless=Not inspiring reverence
Map=Picture
Compleat:
To jut over=Voorover hellen, uytsteeken
Jutting out=Overhellende
Awed=Afgeschrikt, in ontzach gehouden
Map=Kaart, landkaart

Topics: honesty, communication, intellect, news

Then learn this of me: to have is to have

PLAY: As You Like It
ACT/SCENE: 5.1
SPEAKER: Touchstone
CONTEXT:
TOUCHSTONE
Then learn this of me: to have is to have. For it is a
figure in rhetoric that drink, being poured out of a cup
into a glass, by filling the one doth empty the other.
For all your writers do consent that ipse is “he.” Now,
you are not ipse, for I am he.
WILLIAM
Which he, sir?
TOUCHSTONE
He, sir, that must marry this woman. Therefore, you
clown, abandon—which is, in the vulgar, “leave”—the
society—which in the boorish is “company”—of this
female—which in the common is “woman” ; which together
is, abandon the society of this female, or, clown, thou
perishest; or, to thy better understanding, diest; or,
to wit, I kill thee, make thee away, translate thy life
into death, thy liberty into bondage. I will deal in
poison with thee, or in bastinado, or in steel. I will
bandy with thee in faction. I will o’errun thee with
policy. I will kill thee a hundred and fifty ways.
Therefore tremble and depart.
AUDREY
Do, good William.
WILLIAM
God rest you merry, sir.

DUTCH:
Leer dan dit van mij. Hebben is hebben; want het
is een redekunstige figuur, dat drinken, als het van een
beker in een glas wordt overgegoten; het eene vol en
het andere ledig maakt

MORE:
Learn of=Learn from
Figure=Figure of speech
Ipse=He himself
Bastinado=Beating
Bandy=Compete
Faction=Insults
Policy=Art, cunning, skil
Compleat:
Figure (of grammer or rhetorick)=Eenbloem in de redeneerkunde
Bastinado=Stokslagen
Bandy=Een bal weer toeslaan; een zaak voor en tegen betwisten
Faction=Samenrotting, saamenspanning, oproerige party, rot, aanhang, partyschap, verdeeldheid
Policy (conduct, address, cunning way)=Staatkunde, beleid, behendigheid

Topics: learning/education, language, intellect

There’s many a man hath more hair than wit

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

There’s some of you, I see, More out of malice than integrity, Would try him to the utmost, had you mean

PLAY: King Henry VIII
ACT/SCENE: 5.2
SPEAKER: King Henry VIII
CONTEXT:
KING HENRY VIII
No, sir, it does not please me.
I had thought I had had men of some understanding
And wisdom of my council; but I find none.
Was it discretion, lords, to let this man,
This good man,—few of you deserve that title,—
This honest man, wait like a lousy footboy
At chamber—door? and one as great as you are?
Why, what a shame was this! Did my commission
Bid you so far forget yourselves? I gave you
Power as he was a counsellor to try him,
Not as a groom: there’s some of you, I see,
More out of malice than integrity,
Would try him to the utmost, had you mean;
Which you shall never have while I live.

DUTCH:
k Gaf u de macht
Hem te verhooren als een lid des raads,
Niet als een stalknecht. ‘k Zie nu, menig uwer
Zou, meer uit boosheid dan rechtvaardigheid,
Ten scherpste hem verhooren, zoo gij mocht;
Maar nimmer zal dit zijn zoolang ik leef.

MORE:
Understanding=Intellect, judgement
Discretion=Wisdom
Lousy=Inferior (or lice-ridden)
Groom=Servant
Try to the utmost=Give the most severe sentence
Mean=The means
Compleat:
Understanding=Verstand
Discretion=Verstand
Valour can do little without discretion=Dapperheyd zonder een goed beleyd heeft weynig om ‘t lyf.
Lousy=Luyzig, luysvoedig
Groom=Stalknecht
Utmost=Uyterste
Mean=Middelen, een middel

Topics: intellect, honesty, authority, judgment

These are old fond paradoxes to make fools laugh i’ th’ alehouse

PLAY: Othello
ACT/SCENE: 2.1
SPEAKER: Desdemona
CONTEXT:
DESDEMONA
These are old fond paradoxes to make fools laugh i’
th’ alehouse.
What miserable praise hast thou for her
That’s foul and foolish?
IAGO
There’s none so foul and foolish thereunto,
But does foul pranks which fair and wise ones do.
DESDEMONA
Oh, heavy ignorance! Thou praisest the worst best. But
what praise couldst thou bestow on a deserving woman
indeed, one that in the authority of her merit did
justly put on the vouch of very malice itself?
IAGO
She that was ever fair and never proud,
Had tongue at will and yet was never loud,
Never lacked gold and yet went never gay,
Fled from her wish and yet said “Now I may,”
She that being angered, her revenge being nigh,
Bade her wrong stay and her displeasure fly,
She that in wisdom never was so frail
To change the cod’s head for the salmon’s tail,
She that could think and ne’er disclose her mind,
See suitors following and not look behind,
She was a wight, if ever such wights were—
DESDEMONA
To do what?
IAGO
To suckle fools and chronicle small beer.
DESDEMONA
Oh, most lame and impotent conclusion! Do not learn of
him, Emilia, though he be thy husband. How say you,
Cassio? Is he not a most profane and liberal counselor?
CASSIO
He speaks home, madam. You may relish him more in the
soldier than in the scholar.

DUTCH:
Dat zijn oude onnoozele spitsvondigheden om zotten in
een bierhuis te doen lachen

MORE:
Fond=Foolish
Paradoxes=Tenets, sayings; statement or tenet contrary to received opinion
Foul=Ugly
In the authority=By virtue
Put on the vouch=Compel approval, recommendation from
Fled from her wish=Did not indulge desires
Wrong=Sense of injury, anger; injustice suffered
Stay=Stop
Chronicle=Record, register
Small beer=Trivia (Shakespeare was supposedly the first to use ‘small beer’ to mean something trivial, here in Othello) Also in French petite bière.
Chronicle small beer=Keep household account for trivial amounts
Liberal=Licentious
Scholar=Intellectual
Compleat:
Fond=Zot, dwaas, ongerymt
Paradox=Een wonderspreuk, een vreemde reden die tegen ‘t gemeen gevoelen schynt aan te loopen
Foul=Vuyl, slordig
To vouch=Staande houden, bewyzen, verzekeren
Wrong=Nadeel. Wronged=Verongelykt, verkort
To chronicle=In eenen kronyk aanschryven
Small beer=Klein bier, dun bier
Liberal=Mild, milddaadig, goedertieren, gulhartig, openhartig
Scholar=Schoolier, student; geleerde

Topics: language, wisdom, free will, intellect

They have had inkling this fortnight what we intend to do, which now we’ll show ’em in deeds

PLAY: Coriolanus
ACT/SCENE: 1.1
SPEAKER: First Citizen
CONTEXT:
MENENIUS
What work’s, my countrymen, in hand? where go you
With bats and clubs? The matter? speak, I pray you.
FIRST CITIZEN
Our business is not unknown to the senate; they have
had inkling this fortnight what we intend to do,
which now we’ll show ’em in deeds. They say poor
suitors have strong breaths: they shall know we
have strong arms too.
MENENIUS
Why, masters, my good friends, mine honest neighbours,
Will you undo yourselves?
FIRST CITIZEN
We cannot, sir, we are undone already.
MENENIUS
I tell you, friends, most charitable care
Have the patricians of you. For your wants,
Your suffering in this dearth, you may as well
Strike at the heaven with your staves as lift them
Against the Roman state, whose course will on
The way it takes, cracking ten thousand curbs
Of more strong link asunder than can ever
Appear in your impediment. For the dearth,
The gods, not the patricians, make it, and
Your knees to them, not arms, must help. Alack,
You are transported by calamity
Thither where more attends you, and you slander
The helms o’ the state, who care for you like fathers,
When you curse them as enemies.

DUTCH:
Den senaat is onze zaak niet onbekend; zij hebben al
wel veertien daag aanwijzing van wat wij voorhebben en
wij willen het hun nu door daden toonen.

MORE:
Inkling=An idea, hint
Suitors=Petitioners
Strong breaths=Bad breath
Undo=Undermine, ruin
Patricians=Senators
Curbs=Curb chain (bridle)
Thither=There
Attends=Awaits
Helms=Leaders
Compleat:
Inkling=Weynigje
Suiter in chancery=een Pleiter in de Kanselarij
To undo=Ontdoen; ontbinden, bederven
Patrician=Een Roomsch Edelling
Hither=Herwaards. Hither and thither=Herwaards en derwaards
To attend=Opwachten, verzellen
Helm=Het roer
To sit at the helm=Aan ‘t roer zitten

Topics: order/society, conflict, intellect, purpose

This fellow is wise enough to play the fool; and to do that well craves a kind of wit

PLAY: Twelfth Night
ACT/SCENE: 3.1
SPEAKER: Viola
CONTEXT:
FOOL
The matter, I hope, is not great, sir, begging but a
beggar. Cressida was a beggar. My lady is within, sir. I
will construe to them whence you come. Who you are and
what you would are out of my welkin, I might say
“element,” but the word is overworn.
VIOLA
This fellow is wise enough to play the fool;
And to do that well craves a kind of wit:
He must observe their mood on whom he jests,
The quality of persons, and the time,
And, like the haggard, check at every feather
That comes before his eye. This is a practice
As full of labour as a wise man’s art
For folly that he wisely shows is fit;
But wise men, folly-fall’n, quite taint their wit.

DUTCH:
Die knaap is wijs genoeg om nar te spelen;
En ja, dit goed te zijn, eischt schranderheid,
Hij moet de luim van hen, met wie hij schertst,
Persoon en tijd met scherpen blik bespién,
En als de valk op ied’re veder stooten,
Die voor zijn oogen kom

MORE:
Proverb: He is out of his element
Proverb: To be in one’e element
Proverb: No man can play the fool as well as the wise man

Overworn=Spoiled by too much use
Welkin=Sky
Construe=Explain (also ‘conster’)
Wit=Intelligence
Haggard=Hawk
Check=Start, be startled
Feather=Fig., birds in general
Practice=Skill
Wisely=Deliberately
Fit=Appropriate
Taint=Discredit
Compleat:
Overworn=Gantsch afgesleeten, uitgesleeten, afgeleefd
Construe (conster)=Woordenschikken; t’Zamenschikken, t’zamenstellen
Wit (understanding)=Vinding, schranderheid, verstand
Hagard=Wild. A hagard hawk=Een wilde valk
To take check a a thing=Zich aan iets stooten, of ergeren
Practize=Oeffening, bewerking, praktyk
Well practised in the Law=Wel in de Rechten geoeffend
Wisely=Wyslyk
Fit=Bequaam, dienstig, betaaamelyk, raadzaam
To taint (attaint)=Overtuigen van misdaad, schuldig verklaaren, betichten; bevlekken, bederf aanzetten

Topics: proverbs and idioms, still in use, skill/talent, language, intellect, appearance

This rudeness is a sauce to his good wit, which gives men stomach to digest his words with better appetite

PLAY: Julius Caesar
ACT/SCENE: 1.2
SPEAKER: Cassius
CONTEXT:
BRUTUS
What a blunt fellow is this grown to be!
He was quick mettle when he went to school.
CASSIUS
So is he now in execution
Of any bold or noble enterprise,
However he puts on this tardy form.
This rudeness is a sauce to his good wit,
Which gives men stomach to digest his words
With better appetite.
BRUTUS
And so it is. For this time I will leave you.
Tomorrow, if you please to speak with me,
I will come home to you; or, if you will,
Come home to me, and I will wait for you.
CASSIUS
I will do so. Till then, think of the world.

DUTCH:
Die ruwheid is een toekruid bij zijn geest;
‘t Versterkt de maag der hoorders, om zijn taal
Met beter eetlust te verteren.

MORE:
Blunt=Dull in understanding
Quick mettle=Quick-witted; keen
However=Although
Tardy form=Sluggish appearance
Wit=Intelligence
Rudeness=Roughness, coarseness
Compleat:
To blunt=Stomp maaken, verstompen
A blunt fellow=Een ongeschikte vent, een plompe boer
Full of mettle=Vol vuurs, moedig
Tardy=Slof, traag, langzaam
Wit (understanding)=Vinding, schranderheid, verstand
Rudeness=Ruuwheyd, onbehouwenheyd, plompheyd

Burgersdijk notes:
Denk midd’lerwijl aan ‘s werelds eischen. Er staat eigenlijk: “Denk middelerwijl aan de wereld”,
aan de wereld en hoe het er toegaat; overweeg den toestand .

Topics: intellect, language, understanding, communication

Those wits, that think they have thee, do very oft prove fools

PLAY: Twelfth Night
ACT/SCENE: 1.5
SPEAKER: Fool
CONTEXT:
FOOL
Apt, in good faith, very apt. Well, go thy way. If Sir
Toby would leave drinking, thou wert as witty a piece of
Eve’s flesh as any in Illyria.
MARIA
Peace, you rogue, no more o’ that. Here comes my lady.
Make your excuse wisely, you were best.
FOOL
Wit, an ’t be thy will, put me into good
fooling! Those wits, that think they have thee, do very
oft prove fools. And I, that am sure I lack thee, may
pass for a wise man. For what says Quinapalus? “Better a
witty fool, than a foolish wit.”

DUTCH:
Die geesten, die meenen u in pacht te hebben,
blijken maar al te dikwijls narren te zijn; maar
ik, die maar al te goed weet, dat ik u niet heb, kan
wel voor een wijs man doorgaan

MORE:
Proverb: He that is wise in his own conceit is a fool
Proverb: The first chapter of fools is to hold themselves wise
Proverb: There is more hope of a fool than of him that is wise in his own eyes
Proverb: Every man is wise in his own conceit
Proverb: The wise man knows himself to be a fool, the fool thinks he is wise

You were best=You’d better
Wit=Intelligence
Quinapalus=Fool invents an apocryphal philosopher as an authority
Compleat:
+G31

Topics: proverbs and idoms, still in use, wisdom, intellect

Thou art so fat-witted with drinking of old sack.

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

Thou hast not half that power to do me harm as I have to be hurt

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

Thou know’st we work by wit and not by witchcraft, and wit depends on dilatory time

DUTCH:
Door sluwheid werk ik, niet door tooverij,
Niet waar? en sluwheid wacht op ‘t dralend uur.

MORE:
Proverb: He that has no patience has nothing

Topics: intellect, patience, proverbs and idioms, purpose

Thou Wall, O Wall, O sweet and lovely Wall, show me thy chink to blink through with mine eyne!

PLAY: A Midsummer Night’s Dream
ACT/SCENE: 5.1
SPEAKER: Pyramus
CONTEXT:
THESEUS
Would you desire lime and hair to speak better?
DEMETRIUS
It is the wittiest partition that ever I heard
discourse, my lord.
THESEUS
Pyramus draws near the wall. Silence!
PYRAMUS
O grim-looked night! O night with hue so black!
O night, which ever art when day is not!
O night, O night! Alack, alack, alack,
I fear my Thisbe’s promise is forgot!
And thou, O Wall, O sweet, O lovely Wall,
That stand’st between her father’s ground and mine.
Thou Wall, O Wall, O sweet and lovely Wall,
Show me thy chink to blink through with mine eyne!
Thanks, courteous Wall. Jove shield thee well for this!
But what see I? No Thisbe do I see.
O wicked Wall through whom I see no bliss!
Cursed be thy stones for thus deceiving me!
THESEUS
The wall, methinks, being sensible, should curse again.

DUTCH:
En gij, o Muur, o lieve, beste Muur!
Die ‘t huis haars vaders en het mijne scheidt,
Gij Muur, o Muur, o lieve, beste Muur,
Toon mij uw spleet, waar ik mijn blik door weid’.

MORE:
Lime and hair=Used to build walls
Discourse=Converse
Grim-looked=Grim-looking
Wittiest=Cleverest
Sensible=Capable of feeling, conscious
Curse again=Retort, curse back
Compleat:
Discourse=Redeneering, reedenvoering, gesprek, vertoog
Grim=Grimmig, bars, nors, stuursch
Sensible=Gevoelig, voelbaar

Topics: communication, language, intellect

Though she be but little, she is fierce

PLAY: A Midsummer Night’s Dream
ACT/SCENE: 3.2
SPEAKER: Helena
CONTEXT:
LYSANDER
Be not afraid. She shall not harm thee, Helena.
DEMETRIUS
No, sir, she shall not, though you take her part.
HELENA
Oh, when she’s angry, she is keen and shrewd!
She was a vixen when she went to school.
And though she be but little, she is fierce.
HERMIA
“Little” again? Nothing but “low” and “little”!
Why will you suffer her to flout me thus?
Let me come to her.
Get you gone, you dwarf,
You minimus of hind’ring knotgrass made,
You bead, you acorn

DUTCH:
O, in haar toorn is zij zoo valsch en fel!
Reeds toen ze school ging, was zij al een feeks,
En ze is een echte draak, zoo min als ze is.

MORE:
Keen=Sharp
Flout=Mock
Compleat:
Keen=Scherp, bits, doordringend
Shrewd=Loos, doortrapt, sneedig, vinnig, fel
To flout=Bespotten, beschimpen

Burgersdijk notes:
Gij peuzel, gij onuitgegroeide kriel.
Het Engelsch heeft: You minimus, of hindering knotgrass made.
Knotgrass is een soort van Polygonum of Duizendknoop, namelijk
het Kreupelgras of Polygonum aviculare; van het afkooksel werd
geloofd, dat het den groei van een mensch of dier tegenhield.

Topics: intellect, anger

To change the cod’s head for the salmon’s tail

PLAY: Othello
ACT/SCENE: 2.1
SPEAKER: Iago
CONTEXT:
DESDEMONA
These are old fond paradoxes to make fools laugh i’
th’ alehouse.
What miserable praise hast thou for her
That’s foul and foolish?
IAGO
There’s none so foul and foolish thereunto,
But does foul pranks which fair and wise ones do.
DESDEMONA
Oh, heavy ignorance! Thou praisest the worst best. But
what praise couldst thou bestow on a deserving woman
indeed, one that in the authority of her merit did
justly put on the vouch of very malice itself?
IAGO
She that was ever fair and never proud,
Had tongue at will and yet was never loud,
Never lacked gold and yet went never gay,
Fled from her wish and yet said “Now I may,”
She that being angered, her revenge being nigh,
Bade her wrong stay and her displeasure fly,
She that in wisdom never was so frail
To change the cod’s head for the salmon’s tail,
She that could think and ne’er disclose her mind,
See suitors following and not look behind,
She was a wight, if ever such wights were—
DESDEMONA
To do what?
IAGO
To suckle fools and chronicle small beer.
DESDEMONA
Oh, most lame and impotent conclusion! Do not learn of
him, Emilia, though he be thy husband. How say you,
Cassio? Is he not a most profane and liberal counselor?
CASSIO
He speaks home, madam. You may relish him more in the
soldier than in the scholar.

DUTCH:
Die nooit zoo dom was of zoo onbedreven,
Een zalmstaart voor een schelvischkop te geven

MORE:
Fond=Foolish
Paradoxes=Tenets, sayings; statement or tenet contrary to received opinion
Foul=Ugly
In the authority=By virtue
Put on the vouch=Compel approval, recommendation from
Fled from her wish=Did not indulge desires
Wrong=Sense of injury, anger; injustice suffered
Stay=Stop
Chronicle=Record, register
Small beer=Trivia (Shakespeare was said to be the first to use ‘small beer’ to mean something trivial) Also in French petite bière.
Chronicle small beer=Keep household account for trivial amounts
Liberal=Licentious
Scholar=Intellectual
Compleat:
Fond=Zot, dwaas, ongerymt
Paradox=Een wonderspreuk, een vreemde reden die tegen ‘t gemeen gevoelen schynt aan te loopen
Foul=Vuyl, slordig
To vouch=Staande houden, bewyzen, verzekeren
Wrong=Nadeel. Wronged=Verongelykt, verkort
To chronicle=In eenen kronyk aanschryven
Small beer=Klein bier, dun bier
Liberal=Mild, milddaadig, goedertieren, gulhartig, openhartig
Scholar=Schoolier, student; geleerde

Topics: language, wisdom, free will, intellect

Truly I think if all our wits were to issue out of one skull, they would fly east, west, north, south

DUTCH:
En waarlijk, ik geloof, dat, als al onze verstanden uit ééne hersenkas moesten te voorschijn komen, zij oost, west, noord en zuid zouden vliegen; en een afspraak van hen, om allen éénzelfden rechten weg te volgen, zou er op uitkomen, dat zij allen op eens naar al de streken van het kompas uiteenstoven.

MORE:
Proverb: A multitude of people is a beast of many heads

Topics: status, poverty and wealth, intellect, independence

Twas never merry world since lowly feigning was call’d compliment

PLAY: Twelfth Night
ACT/SCENE: 3.1
SPEAKER: Olivia
CONTEXT:
VIOLA
Cesario is your servant’s name, fair princess.
OLIVIA
My servant, sir! ‘Twas never merry world
Since lowly feigning was call’d compliment.
You’re servant to the Count Orsino, youth.
VIOLA
And he is yours, and his must needs be yours:
Your servant’s servant is your servant, madam.
OLIVIA
For him, I think not on him. For his thoughts,
Would they were blanks, rather than fill’d with me.
VIOLA
Madam, I’ve come on his behalf to improve your feelings
towards him.

DUTCH:
Mijn dienaar? Ach, het ziet er treurig uit,
Sinds laffe vleierij beleefdheid heet.

MORE:
Proverb: He is out of his element
Proverb: To be in one’e element
Proverb: No man can play the fool as well as the wise man

Topics: proverbs and idioms, still in use, skill/talent, language, intellect, appearance, flattery

Twere better for you if it were known in counsel: you’ll be laughed at

PLAY: The Merry Wives of Windsor
ACT/SCENE:
SPEAKER: Falstaff
CONTEXT:
SHALLOW.
Knight, you have beaten my men, killed my deer, and broke open my lodge.
FALSTAFF.
But not kissed your keeper’s daughter?
SHALLOW.
Tut, a pin! this shall be answered.
FALSTAFF.
I will answer it straight: I have done all this.
That is now answered.
SHALLOW.
The Council shall know this.
FALSTAFF.
‘Twere better for you if it were known in counsel:
you’ll be laughed at.

DUTCH:
Gij deedt beter, het in uw geheime lade te houden;
men zal u uitlachen.

MORE:
Proverb: Few words show men wise

Lodge=Hunting or gamekeeper’s lodge
Pin=Small insignificant thing
Known in counsel=Kept quiet, a secret
Compleat:
Lodge=Herberg
Pin=Speld
Not worth a pin=’t is niet een speld waard

Topics: intellect, language, excess, proverbs and idioms

Unless you laugh and minister occasion to him, he is gagged

PLAY: Twelfth Night
ACT/SCENE: 1.5
SPEAKER: Malvolio
CONTEXT:
MALVOLIO
I marvel your ladyship takes delight in such a barren rascal.
I saw him put down the other day with an ordinary fool that
has no more brain than a stone. Look you now, he’s out of his guard already. Unless you laugh and minister occasion to him, he is gagged. I protest I take these wise men that crow so at these set kind of fools no better than the fools’ zanies.
OLIVIA
Oh, you are sick of self-love, Malvolio, and taste with a distempered appetite. To be generous, guiltless, and of free disposition is to take those things for bird-bolts that you deem cannon-bullets. There is no slander in an allowed fool, though he do nothing but rail. Nor no railing in a known discreet man, though he do nothing but reprove.

DUTCH:
Zie maar eens,
hij is nu al van zijn stuk: zoo gij niet lacht en hem aan
den gang helpt, staat hij met den mond vol tanden.
Dit verzeker ik u, ik houd die wijze lieden, die het uitkraaien om deze aangestelde soort van narren, voor niet beter dan de hansworsten der narren.

MORE:
Marvel=Wonder
Put down=Defeated in argument
Ordinary fool=Clowns performing in a hostelry were known as ‘ordinaries’
Out of guard=Not in defensive position (fencing)
Minister=Provide
Occasion=Opportunity
Set=Planned
Zanies=Clowns’ partners
Distempered=Out of sorts, sick
Free=Liberal
Allowed=Licensed
Compleat:
To marvel=Verwonderen, zich verwonderen, verwonderd zyn
Ordinary=Een gaarkeuken, drooggastery, ordinaris
To be upon the gard=Op schildwacht staan. To stand upon gard=Op zyn hoede staan
To come from the gard=Van de wacht komen
To minister=Bedienen, toebedienen
Occasion=Gelegenheyd, voorval, oorzaak
To set=Zetten, stellen
Zany=Een bootsemaaker, gek
Distemper=Een quaal, ongesteldeyd, ongemak
Distempered=Niet wel te pas, quaalyk gesteld, uyt zyn schik
Free=Vry, openhartig
Allowed=Toegestaan, goedgekeurd, geoorloofd

Burgersdijk notes:
Een zeer gewone nar. An ordinary fool. Volgens Staunton’s vermoeden een grappenmaker, die in een
herberg aan de gelagtafel (ordinary) de gasten aangenaam moest bezighouden.

Topics: intellect, gullibility, wisdom, respect

Upon my wit, to defend my wiles

PLAY: Troilus and Cressida
ACT/SCENE: 1.2
SPEAKER:
CONTEXT:
CRESSIDA
Ay, a minced man: and then to be baked with no date
in the pie, for then the man’s date’s out.
PANDARUS
You are such a woman! one knows not at what ward you
lie.
CRESSIDA
Upon my back, to defend my belly; upon my wit, to
defend my wiles; upon my secrecy, to defend mine
honesty; my mask, to defend my beauty; and you, to
defend all these: and at all these wards I lie, at a
thousand watches.
PANDARUS
Say one of your watches.
CRESSIDA
Nay, I’ll watch you for that; and that’s one of the
chiefest of them too: if I cannot ward what I would
not have hit, I can watch you for telling how I took
the blow; unless it swell past hiding, and then it’s
past watching.

DUTCH:
Op mijn rug, om mij van voren te verweren; op mijn
vernuft, om mijn streken te bedekken; (…)

MORE:
Minced=Emasculated
Ward=Fencing term meaning defensive position
Lie=Punning on lying and position taken
Secrecy=Ability to keep a secret
Watch=Act of guarding and observe
Swell past hiding=Pregnancy becomes obvious
Past watching=Too late to be concerned
Compleat:
To mince it=Met een gemaakten tred gaan
Mincing gait=Een trippelende gang, gemaakte tred
To ward off a blow=Eenen slag afweeren
Secrecy=Geheymhouding, bedektheyd
To watch=Waaken, bewaaken, bespieden
Past=Verleegen, geleden, voorby, over, gepasseerd
Past hope=Geen hoop meer over

Topics: intellect, defence, secrecy

We must not stint our necessary actions, in the fear to cope malicious censurers.

PLAY: King Henry VIII
ACT/SCENE: 1.2
SPEAKER: Cardinal Wolsey
CONTEXT:
CARDINAL WOLSEY
And for me,
I have no further gone in this than by
A single voice; and that not pass’d me but
By learned approbation of the judges. If I am
Traduced by ignorant tongues, which neither know
My faculties nor person, yet will be
The chronicles of my doing, let me say
‘Tis but the fate of place, and the rough brake
That virtue must go through. We must not stint
Our necessary actions, in the fear
To cope malicious censurers; which ever,
As ravenous fishes, do a vessel follow
That is new-trimm’d, but benefit no further
Than vainly longing. What we oft do best,
By sick interpreters, once weak ones, is
Not ours, or not allow’d; what worst, as oft,
Hitting a grosser quality, is cried up
For our best act. If we shall stand still,
In fear our motion will be mock’d or carp’d at,
We should take root here where we sit, or sit
State-statues only.

DUTCH:
Volbrenge een elk
Wat moet gebeuren; niemand weif’le uit angst
Voor strijd met booze vitters, die toch steeds
Als vraat’ge visschen ieder vaartuig volgen,
Dat nieuw is uitgerust, doch niets bejagen
Dan ijdel spart’len

Topics: intellect, betrayal, order/society, merit

What modicums of wit he utters!

PLAY: Troilus and Cressida
ACT/SCENE: 2.1
SPEAKER: Thersites
CONTEXT:
THERSITES
But yet you look not well upon him; for whosoever you
take him to be, he is Ajax.
ACHILLES
I know that, fool.
THERSITES
Ay, but that fool knows not himself.
AJAX
Therefore I beat thee.
THERSITES
Lo, lo, lo, lo, what modicums of wit he utters! his
evasions have ears thus long. I have bobbed his
brain more than he has beat my bones: I will buy
nine sparrows for a penny, and his pia mater is not
worth the ninth part of a sparrow. This lord,
Achilles, Ajax, who wears his wit in his belly and
his guts in his head, I’ll tell you what I say of
him.

DUTCH:
Hahahaha! wat armzalige kwinkslagen stoot hij uit!
Zijne uitvallen hebben ooren, — zoo lang! Ik heb zijn
brein meer gedeukt, dan hij mijn gebeente heeft geraakt.

MORE:
Ajax=Punning on a jakes, or a toilet
Well=Punning on well (favourably) and well (properly)
Evasions=Evasive answers
Bobbed=Thumped
Pia mater=An outer membrane that protects the brain
Compleat:
Evasion=Ontkoming, ontvlugting, uitvlugt, verzet
To bob=Begekken, bedriegen, loeren, foppen;
Pia master=Het hersenvlies

Burgersdijk notes:
Hij is A-jakk’s. In ‘t Engelsch: he is Ajax, waarmede Thersites a jakes, een sekreetkuil of mestvaalt, wil zeggen; zie “Veel Gemin geen Gewin” (Love’s Labour’s lost) V. 2.- Achilles antwoordt, eenvoudig Ajax als eigennaam verstaande, I know that, fool, wat door Thersites opgevat wordt, als had Achilles gezegd: I know that fool, “ik ken dien nar”.

Topics: intellect, insult

When a man’s verses cannot be understood

PLAY: As You Like It
ACT/SCENE: 3.3
SPEAKER: Touchstone
CONTEXT:
TOUCHSTONE
When a man’s verses cannot be understood nor a man’s
good wit seconded with the forward child, understanding,
it strikes a man more dead than a great reckoning in a
little room. Truly, I would the gods had made thee
poetical.
AUDREY
I do not know what “poetical” is. Is it honest in deed
and word? Is it a true thing?
TOUCHSTONE
No, truly, for the truest poetry is the most feigning,
and lovers are given to poetry, and what they swear in
poetry may be said as lovers they do feign.
AUDREY
Do you wish then that the gods had made me poetical?
TOUCHSTONE
I do, truly, for thou swear’st to me thou art honest.
Now, if thou wert a poet, I might have some hope thou
didst feign.

DUTCH:
Als iemands verzen niet begrepen worden en iemands geestigheid niet wordt bijgestaan door het voorlijke kind Verstand,

MORE:
Seconded with=Supported by
Reckoning (substantively)=The money charged by a host (a Bill)
Honest=Respectable
Feigning=Imaginative (and thus deceptive)
Feign=Pretend
Honest=Chaste
Compleat:
Seconded=Bygestaan, bygesprongen, geholpen
Reckoning=(in a public house) Gelach
Honest=Eerlyk, oprecht, vroom
Feigning=Verdichting, veynzing

Topics: intellect, understanding, skill/talent, language

When shall I hear all through? This fierce abridgement hath to it circumstantial branches which distinction should be rich in

DUTCH:
O, wond’re neiging!
Wanneer verneem ik alles nog? Deez’ schets,
Zoo haastig, duidt het overrijke takwerk
Nauw aan, dat ik nog volgen, kennen moet.
Waar leefdet gij, en hoe?

Topics: intellect, nature, justification, reason, reply

Where did you study all this goodly speech?
– It is extempore, from my mother wit.

PLAY: The Taming of the Shrew
ACT/SCENE: 2.1
SPEAKER: Katherine
CONTEXT:
PETRUCHIO
Did ever Dian so become a grove
As Kate this chamber with her princely gait?
Oh, be thou Dian, and let her be Kate,
And then let Kate be chaste and Dian sportful.
KATHERINE
Where did you study all this goodly speech?
PETRUCHIO
It is extempore, from my mother wit.
KATHERINE
A witty mother! Witless else her son.
PETRUCHIO
Am I not wise?
KATHERINE
Yes, keep you warm.

DUTCH:
Waar hebt gij al dien schoonen praat geleerd?

MORE:
Proverb: He is wise enough that can keep himself warm

Dian=Goddess Diana
Grove=Wood
Extempore=Improvised, off the cuff
Mother wit=Natural intelligence
Compleat:
Grove=Een kleyn bosch, een hout
Extempore=Voor de vuyst, opstaandevoet

Burgersdijk notes:
Nu, houd dien geest maar warm. Yes, keep you warm. Een spreekwoordelijk zeggen, vollediger uitgedrukt in “Veel leven om niets”, 1.1: If he have wit enough to keep himself warm, „als hij geest genoeg heeft om zich warm te houden”.

Topics: proverbs and idioms, wisdom, intellect, language, skill/talent

Who is so gross that cannot see this palpable device?
Yet who so bold but says he sees it not?

PLAY: Richard III
ACT/SCENE: 3.6
SPEAKER: Scrivener
CONTEXT:
SCRIVENER
This is the indictment of the good Lord Hastings,
Which in a set hand fairly is engrossed,
That it may be today read o’er in Paul’s.
And mark how well the sequel hangs together:
Eleven hours I have spent to write it over,
For yesternight by Catesby was it sent me;
The precedent was full as long a-doing,
And yet within these five hours Hastings lived,
Untainted, unexamined, free, at liberty.
Here’s a good world the while. Who is so gross
That cannot see this palpable device?
Yet who so bold but says he sees it not?
Bad is the world, and all will come to naught
When such ill dealing must be seen in thought.

DUTCH:
Wie is zoo stomp,
Dat hij then tastb’ren toeleg niet doorziet,
En wie zoo stout, te zeggen, wat hij ziet?

MORE:
Fairly engrossed=Clearly written
Sequel=Chronology of events
Precedent=Original draft
Untainted=Not accused
Gross=Stupid
Palpable device=Obvious strategy
Seen in thought=Not spoken of
Compleat:
To engross=Te boek stellen, in’t net stellen
Precedent=Voorgaande, voorbeeld
Untainted=Gaaf, onbedurven, onbesmet
Gross=Grof, plomp, onbebouwen
Palpable=Tastelyk, tastbaar
Device=List; uytvindsel, gedichtsel

Topics: clarity/precision, communication, intellect, gullibility

Who you are and what you would are out of my welkin, I might say “element,” but the word is overworn

PLAY: Twelfth Night
ACT/SCENE: 3.1
SPEAKER: Fool
CONTEXT:
FOOL
The matter, I hope, is not great, sir, begging but a
beggar. Cressida was a beggar. My lady is within, sir. I
will construe to them whence you come. Who you are and
what you would are out of my welkin, I might say
“element,” but the word is overworn.
VIOLA
This fellow is wise enough to play the fool,
And to do that well craves a kind of wit.
He must observe their mood on whom he jests,
The quality of persons, and the time,
And, like the haggard, check at every feather
That comes before his eye. This is a practise
As full of labor as a wise man’s art,
For folly that he wisely shows is fit.
But wise men, folly-fall’n, quite taint their wit.

DUTCH:
Ik wil haar beduiden, van waar gij komt; wie gij zijt en wat gij wilt, ligt buiten mijn uitspansel; ik kon zeggen „sfeer”, maar dit woord is versleten.

MORE:

Overworn=Spoiled by too much use
Welkin=Sky
Construe=Explain (also ‘conster’)
Compleat:
Construe (conster)=Woordenschikken; t’Zamenschikken, t’zamenstellen
Overworn=Gantsch afgesleeten, uitgesleeten, afgeleefd

Topics: proverbs and idioms, skill/talent, language, intellect, appearance

Will you mock at an ancient tradition begun upon an honorable respect

PLAY: King Henry V
ACT/SCENE: 5.1
SPEAKER: Gower
CONTEXT:
Go, go. You are a counterfeit cowardly knave. Will you mock at an ancient tradition begun upon an honorable respect and worn as a memorable trophy of predeceased valour, and dare not avouch in your deeds any of your words? I have seen you gleeking and galling at this gentleman twice or thrice. You thought because he could not speak English in the native garb, he could not therefore handle an English cudgel. You find it otherwise, and henceforth let a Welsh correction teach you a good English condition. Fare you well.

DUTCH:
Wilt gij spotten over een oud gebruik, dat uit een eervolle aanleiding ontsproot en als een gedenkwaardig teeken van vroegere dapperheid gedragen wordt, en waagt gij het niet, zelfs éen uwer woorden door daden waar te maken?

MORE:

To gleek=Scoff, sneer
Schmidt:
To gall (with at)=To quiz, to scoff: “gleeking and galling at this gentleman”
Predeceased valour=Brave men who have died
Garb=Fashion
Correction=Chastisement
Condition=Disposition

Compleat:
Condition=Staat, gesteltenis
Good-conditioned=Goedaardig
Correction=Verbetering, tuchtiging, berisping
Garb=Kleeding; (carriage)=houding

Topics: betrayal, language, promise, appearance, intellect

Will you set your wit to a fool’s?

PLAY: Troilus and Cressida
ACT/SCENE: 2.1
SPEAKER: Achilles
CONTEXT:
THERSITES
I would have peace and quietness, but the fool will not: he there: that he: look you there. he is the fool, look at him.
AJAX
O thou damned cur! I shall—
ACHILLES
Will you set your wit to a fool’s?
THERSITES
No, I warrant you; for a fool’s will shame it.
PATROCLUS
Good words, Thersites.
ACHILLES
What’s the quarrel?

DUTCH:
Wilt gij uw verstand tegenover dat van een nar stellen?

MORE:
Set your wit to=Pit your wit against
The fool=Ajax

Topics: intellect, insult

Wit, whither wilt?

PLAY: As You Like It
ACT/SCENE: 4.1
SPEAKER: Orlando
CONTEXT:
ROSALIND
Or else she could not have the wit to do this. The wiser, the waywarder. Make the doors upon a woman’s wit, and it will out at the casement. Shut that, and ’twill out at the keyhole. Stop that, ’twill fly with the smoke out at the chimney.
ORLANDO
A man that had a wife with such a wit, he might say “Wit, whither wilt?”
ROSALIND
Nay, you might keep that check for it, till you met your wife’s wit going to your neighbour’s bed.
ORLANDO
And what wit could wit have to excuse that?
ROSALIND
Marry, to say she came to seek you there. You shall
never take her without her answer unless you take her
without her tongue. Oh, that woman that cannot make her
fault her husband’s occasion, let her never nurse her
child herself, for she will breed it like a fool.

DUTCH:
Een man, die een vrouw had met zulk een geest,
mocht wel zeggen: „Geest, geest, waar wilt gij heen ?”

MORE:
Proverb: Wit, whither wilt thou?

Wit=Intellect
Wayward=Capricious and obstinate
Check=Rebuke, reproof; “patience bide each check”.
Compleat:
Wit (understanding)=Vinding, schranderheid, verstand
Wayward=Kribbig, korsel, nors, boos
Check=Berisping, beteugeling, intooming

Topics: intellect, wisdom, marriage, proverbs and idioms, still in use

You are well understood to be a perfecter giber for the table than a necessary bencher in the Capitol

PLAY: Coriolanus
ACT/SCENE: 2.1
SPEAKER:
CONTEXT:
MENENIUS
You know neither me, yourselves nor any thing. You are ambitious for poor knaves’ caps and legs: you wear out a good wholesome forenoon in hearing a cause between an orange wife and a fosset-seller; and then rejourn the controversy of three pence to a second day of audience. When you are hearing a matter between party and party, if you chance to be pinched with the colic, you make faces like mummers; set up the bloody flag against all patience; and, in roaring for a chamber-pot, dismiss the controversy bleeding the more entangled by your hearing: all the peace you make in their cause is calling both the parties knaves. You are a pair of strange ones.
BRUTUS
Come, come, you are well understood to be a
perfecter giber for the table than a necessary
bencher in the Capitol.

DUTCH:
Kom, kom, het is overbekend, dat gij veeleer een onverbeterlijk grappenmaker aan tafel zijt, dan een onontbeerlijk bijzitter op het Kapitool.

MORE:
Proverb: Know thyself

Ambitious for caps and legs=Wanting people to bow and doff caps
Bencher=member of a court or council
Set up the bloody flag=Declare war on (patience)
Fosset, forset, faucet=Kind of tap for drawing liquor from a barrel; only in “faucet-seller”
Giber=entertainer, (aftr-dinner) jester
Mummer=Someone wearing a mask
The more entangled=To make (the dispute) more confused and intricate
Compleat:
To gibe=Boerten, gekscheeren
Bencher=Een byzitter, Raad, een Rechtsgeleerde van den eersten rang in ‘t Genootschap
Mummer=Een vermomde
Faucet (or peg)=Zwikje, pennetje tot een vat

Topics: proverbs and idioms, language, intellect, reputation, judgment, dispute

You have a nimble wit. I think ’twas made of Atalanta’s heels

PLAY: As You Like It
ACT/SCENE: 3.2
SPEAKER: Jaques
CONTEXT:
JAQUES
You are full of pretty answers. Have you not been
acquainted with goldsmiths’ wives and conned them out of
rings?
ORLANDO
Not so. But I answer you right painted cloth, from
whence you have studied your questions.
JAQUES
You have a nimble wit. I think ’twas made of Atalanta’s
heels. Will you sit down with me? And we two will rail
against our mistress the world and all our misery.
ORLANDO
I will chide no breather in the world but myself,
against whom I know most faults.

DUTCH:
Gij hebt een vlug vernuft; ik geloof, dat het van Atalanta’s
hielen gemaakt is. Wilt gij wat naast mij gaan zitten? dan zullen wij beiden eens uitvaren tegen onze meesteres de wereld en al onze ellende.

MORE:
Gold rings were inscribed with religious or inspirational messages or lines from poems (poesy rings). “Goldsmiths’ wives” indicates courtiers’ scorn for citizen taste.

Pretty=Pleasing, neat, fine
Atalanta= Mentioned above in Orlando’s poem, Atalanta was the daughter of Jasius, swift in running
Rail=To use reproachful language, to scold in opprobrious terms
Compleat:
Pretty (pleasant or agreable)=Aangenaam
Nimble=Gaauw, knaphandig, snel
To rail=Schelden

Topics: intellect, money, poverty and wealth

Your bait of falsehood takes this carp of truth.

PLAY: Hamlet
ACT/SCENE: 2.1
SPEAKER: Polonius
CONTEXT:
Your bait of falsehood takes this carp of truth.
And thus do we of wisdom and of reach,
With windlasses and with assays of bias,
By indirections find directions out.
So by my former lecture and advice
Shall you my son. You have me, have you not?

DUTCH:
Uw leugenig lokaas vangt dien waren karper /
Met kunstaas haalt men echte karpers op

MORE:
Schmidt:
Indirection= oblique course or means
Windlasses=Roundabout ways
Bias (in a bad sense)=that which is from the straight line, indirect ways, shifts
Compleat:
To bias=Overhellen, doen overzwaaijen
Windlass=Een katrel met verscheidene schyven, een windaas

Topics: truth, discovery, intellect, skill/talent