CJTranslations - Invented or popularised

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“Budge!” says the fiend.
“Budge not,” says my conscience.
“Conscience,” say I, “you counsel well.”
“Fiend,” say I, “you counsel well.”

PLAY: The Merchant of Venice
ACT/SCENE: 2.2
SPEAKER: Launcelot
CONTEXT:
LAUNCELOT
Certainly my conscience will serve me to run from this
Jew, my master. The fiend is at mine elbow and tempts
me, saying to me, “Gobbo,” “Launcelot Gobbo,” “Good
Launcelot,” or “Good Gobbo,” or “Good Launcelot Gobbo”
—“use your legs, take the start, run away.” My
conscience says, “No. Take heed, honest Launcelot. Take
heed, honest Gobbo,” or as aforesaid, “Honest Launcelot
Gobbo, do not run. Scorn running with thy heels.” Well,
the most courageous fiend bids me pack. “Fia!” says the
fiend. “Away!” says the fiend. “For the heavens, rouse
up a brave mind,” says the fiend, “and run.” Well, my
conscience, hanging about the neck of my heart, says
very wisely to me, “My honest friend Launcelot, being an
honest man’s son”—or rather an honest woman’s son, for
indeed my father did something smack, something grow to.
He had a kind of taste.—Well, my conscience says,
“Launcelot, budge not.” “Budge!” says the fiend. “Budge
not,” says my conscience. “Conscience,” say I, “you
counsel well.” “Fiend,” say I, “you counsel well.” (…)

DUTCH:
Nu, mijn geweten dan zegt: „Lancelot, blijf’, „blijf niet” zegt de booze; „blijf”, zegt mijn geweten. Geweten, zeg ik, uw raad is goed; Booze, zeg ik, uw raad is ook goed.

MORE:
Still in use (budge, budge an inch)
Budge=stir
To budge [bouger, Fr] To stir; to move off the place. A low word. Sir T Herbert uses it not as such [Samuel Johnson:].
They cannot budge till you release, Shakespeare, The Tempest
The mouse ne’er shunn’d the cat, as they did budge from rascalas worse than they. Shakespeare, Coriolanus.
Fiend [Saxon, a foe]1. An enemy; the great enemy of mankind; the devil. “Tom is followed by the foul fiend.” Shakesp.
2. Any infernal being.
Compleat:
Budge=Schudden, omroeren, beweegen
Fiend=Een vijand.
The devil is a foul fiend=De duivel is een booze vyand.

Topics: emotion and mood, misquoted

[B]ut man, proud man, Drest in a little brief authority,
Most ignorant of what he’s most assured,

PLAY: Measure for Measure
ACT/SCENE: 2.2
SPEAKER: Isabella
CONTEXT:
Merciful Heaven,
Thou rather with thy sharp and sulphurous bolt
Split’st the unwedgeable and gnarled oak
Than the soft myrtle: but man, proud man,
Drest in a little brief authority,
Most ignorant of what he’s most assured,
His glassy essence, like an angry ape,
Plays such fantastic tricks before high heaven
As make the angels weep; who, with our spleens,
Would all themselves laugh mortal

DUTCH:
de mensch, de trotsche mensch,
Met korte, nietig kleine macht bekleed,
Het meest vergetend, wat hij ‘t zekerst kent,
Zijn aard van glas, -speelt, als een toornige aap,
Voor ‘t oog des hemels zulke vreemde kluchten,
Dat de eng’len weenen, die, zoo onze luim
Hun eigen waar’, zich sterflijk zouden lachen.

MORE:
Little brief authority=Short-lived and limited power
Glassy essence is traditionally interpreted as fragile nature, but this is disputed (argument that essence overlaps but extends beyond ‘nature’, quintessence)
Compleat:
Essence=Het weezen, de weezendheyd
“Enough to make the angels weep” is still in use

Topics: authority, life, nature, invented or popularised, still in use

Take then thy bond, take thou thy pound of flesh

PLAY: The Merchant of Venice
ACT/SCENE: 4.1
SPEAKER: Portia
CONTEXT:
PORTIA
Tarry a little. There is something else.
This bond doth give thee here no jot of blood.
The words expressly are “a pound of flesh.”
Take then thy bond, take thou thy pound of flesh,
But in the cutting it if thou dost shed
One drop of Christian blood, thy lands and goods
Are by the laws of Venice confiscate
Unto the state of Venice.

DUTCH:
De schuldbrief hier geeft u geen druppel bloeds; De woorden zijn uitdrukk’lijk: een pond vleesch.

MORE:
CITED IN US LAW:
United States Aviation Underwriters, Inc. v. Fitchburg-Leominster, 42 F.3d 84, 86 (1994);
Jones v. Jones, 189 Misc. 186, 70 N.Y.S.2d 111, 112 (N.Y. Civ. Ct. 1947)(Panken, J.)

Tarry a little=Just one moment
Confiscate=Confiscated
Compleat:
To confiscate=Verbeurd maaken, verbeurd verklaaren

Topics: emotion and mood, misquoted

A countenance more in sorrow than in anger.

PLAY: Hamlet
ACT/SCENE: 1.2
SPEAKER: Horatio
CONTEXT:
HAMLET
What, look’d he frowningly?
HORATIO
A countenance more in sorrow than in anger.

DUTCH:
Uit zijn gelaat Sprak eerder leed, dan boosheid /
Een voorkomen meer smartelijk dan toornig

MORE:
Nowadays simply “more in sorrow than in anger” is used for actions as well as a facial expression

Compleat:
Countenance=Gelaat, gezigt, uitzigt, weezen.
A cheerful countenance=Een bly gelaat.
Out of countenance=Bedeesd, verbaasd, ontsteld

Topics: appearance, still in use, invented or popularised

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

PLAY: King Lear
ACT/SCENE: 2.2
SPEAKER: Kent
CONTEXT:
Pray you do not, sir. I have watched and traveled hard.
Some time I shall sleep out. The rest I’ll whistle.
A good man’s fortune may grow out at heels.

DUTCH:
Ons goed fortuin laat ons soms in de steek;
ik wens u goededag.

MORE:
Proverb: A good man’s fortune may grow out at heels (luck may run out).
Out at heel=worn out at the heel

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

A minist’ring angel shall my sister be

PLAY: Hamlet
ACT/SCENE: 5.1
SPEAKER: Laertes
CONTEXT:
Lay her i’ th’ earth,
And from her fair and unpolluted flesh
May violets spring! I tell thee, churlish priest,
A minist’ring angel shall my sister be
When, thou liest howling.

DUTCH:
Gods dienende engel zal mijn zuster zijn /
Mijn zuster is een engel voor Gods aanschijn wanneer jij ligt te janken in de hel. /
Een dienende engel zal mijn zuster zijn.

MORE:
Schmidt:
Minister to=Administer (medicines), to prescribe, to order
Ministering=caring for (ministrations=provision of care).

Topics: invented or popularised, death, nature

All is not well. I doubt some foul play.

PLAY: Hamlet
ACT/SCENE: 1.2
SPEAKER: Hamlet
CONTEXT:
All is not well.
I doubt some foul play. Would the night were come!
Till then sit still, my soul. Foul deeds will rise,
Though all the earth o’erwhelm them, to men’s eyes.

DUTCH:
Iets is mis;
‘k Vermoed iets laags. ‘k Verlang al naar den nacht.

MORE:
Doubt=suspect
Foul deeds will rise=offences will be discovered
Said to be the first use of foul play

Compleat:
A foul copy (a copy full of insertions under erasements)=Een lordige kopy
A foul action=Een slechte daad
To play foul play=Valsch speelen, bedriegelyk speelen
Foul dealing or practices=Kwaade praktyken
Foul means=Kwaade middelen
Never seek that by foul means which thou canst get by fair=Zoekt nooit langs kwaade wegen dat gy langs de goede niet kunt verkrygen

Topics: suspicion, still in use, invented or popularised, foul play, conspiracy

All that glisters is not gold

PLAY: The Merchant of Venice
ACT/SCENE: 2.7
SPEAKER: Morocco
CONTEXT:
MOROCCO
O hell, what have we here?
A carrion death, within whose empty eye
There is a written scroll. I’ll read the writing.
[reads]“All that glisters is not gold—
Often have you heard that told.
Many a man his life hath sold
But my outside to behold.
Gilded tombs do worms enfold.
Had you been as wise as bold,
Young in limbs, in judgment old,
Your answer had not been inscrolled.
Fare you well. Your suit is cold—
Cold, indeed, and labor lost.”
Then, farewell, heat, and welcome, frost!
Portia, adieu. I have too grieved a heart
To take a tedious leave. Thus losers part.

DUTCH:
Al wat blinkt, is nog geen goud

MORE:
CITED IN US LAW:
Deborah Leslie, Ltd. v. Rona, Inc., 630 F. Supp. 1250, 1251 (R.I.,1986) on the marking of items containing silver; “The Bard of Avon, dealing with a somewhat different (but equally suspect) precious metal, captured the essence of the plaintiff’s jeremiad poetically: ‘All that glitters is not gold/ Often have you heard that told.”;
B. F. Hirsch, Inc. v. Enright Ref. Co., 617 F. Supp. 49 (N.J., 1985).
Johnson v. Commissioner, T. C. Memo 1992-369 (1992) (Ref to “All that glitters is not gold” when referring to a failure to demand and recover bad debts).
‘Glisters’ is sometimes replaced by glistens or glitters in more modern versions.
The idea already existed, but this expression as still used today was coined by Shakespeare.
Samuel Johnson:

Proverb: All is not gold that glisters (glitters)
To Glister=To shine, to be bright. Elsewhere in Shakespeare: “A glistering grief”; “in his glist’ring coach”; “All that glisters”.
Compleat:
Glister=Glinsteren, blinken.
*All is not gold that glisters*=Is al geen goud dat ‘er blinkt.
Carrion death=Skull
Tedious=Long drawn out
Part=Depart
Suit is cold=unwelcome, disagreeable
Inscroll=recorded on a scroll (registered)

Topics: emotion and mood, misquoted

All the world’s a stage and all the men and women merely players

PLAY: As You Like It
ACT/SCENE: 2.7
SPEAKER: Jaques
CONTEXT:
JAQUES
All the world’s a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances,
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages. At first the infant,
Mewling and puking in the nurse’s arms.
Then, the whining school-boy with his satchel
And shining morning face, creeping like snail
Unwillingly to school. And then the lover,
Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad
Made to his mistress’ eyebrow. Then, a soldier,
Full of strange oaths, and bearded like the pard,
Jealous in honour, sudden, and quick in quarrel,
Seeking the bubble reputation
Even in the cannon’s mouth. And then, the justice,
In fair round belly, with a good capon lined,
With eyes severe, and beard of formal cut,
Full of wise saws, and modern instances,
And so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts
Into the lean and slippered pantaloon,
With spectacles on nose and pouch on side,
His youthful hose, well saved, a world too wide
For his shrunk shank, and his big manly voice,
Turning again toward childish treble, pipes
And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all,
That ends this strange eventful history,
Is second childishness and mere oblivion,
Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.

DUTCH:
Heel de wereld is tooneel;
En mannen, vrouwen, allen, enkel spelers.

MORE:
CITED IN IRISH LAW: Ellis v Minister for Justice and Equality & Ors [2019] IESC 30 (15 May 2019)
CITED IN US LAW: Re. the definition of “mewling and puking”: Lett v Texas, 727 SW 2d 367, 371 (Tex. Crim. App. 1987)

“Policies of shutting people away for life or for ages within life, in Shakespeare’s sense, may be appropriate depending on the gravity of the crime”.
Bubble reputation=Empty, pointless reputation. Short-lived fame..
Referred to as The Seven Ages of Man monologue

Reference to the “justice, in fair round belly with good capon lined”: from the North Briton, no. 64: “a justice of peace is a human creature; yet, for half a dozen of chickens, will dispense with the whole dozen of penal statutes. These be the basket-justices…”.

Like furnace=Emitting smoke
Mewling=Feeble crying
Jealous in honour=Quick to feel honour has been slighted
Bubble reputation=Fleeting glory
Pard=Leopard
Pantaloon=Comedy figure of an old man (Italian)
Mere oblivion=Total forgetfulness, mentally blank
Compleat:
Wise saws=Sayings, precepts
Instances=Arguments or examples used in a defence
An old saw (for an old saying)=Een oud zeggen
Furnace=Een oven
Bubble=Waterblaaas, waterbel, beuzeling
Oblivion=Vergeeting, vergeetenheid
Pantaloon=Een Hans=worst, een gek

Burgersdijk notes:
Heel de wereld is tooneel enz. In Sh.’s schouwburg, de Globe, was de spreuk van Petronius (die onder keizer Nero leefde) te lezen: Totus mundus agit histrionem. De gedachte is meermalen uitgesproken, vroeger ook reeds door Sh. zelven in “den Koopman van Venetie”, 1. 1. Men herinnert zich ook Vondels:
„De weerelt is een speeltooneel,
Elk speelt zijn rol en krijght zijn deel.”
In zeven levenstrappen. De verdeeling van het leven in zeven bedrijven is reeds zeer oud en wordt aan Hippocrates toegeschreven; zij is in overeenstemming met het aantal planeten (zon, maan en vijf planeten).
En net geknipten baard. Van de snede, die den rechter past, in tegenstelling met den wilden, niet gekorten krijgsmansbaard.

Topics: still in use, cited in law, life, age/experience, invented or popularised

All things that are,
Are with more spirit chased than enjoyed

PLAY: The Merchant of Venice
ACT/SCENE: 2.6
SPEAKER: Gratiano
CONTEXT:
GRATIANO
That ever holds. Who riseth from a feast
With that keen appetite that he sits down?
Where is the horse that doth untread again
His tedious measures with the unbated fire
That he did pace them first? All things that are,
Are with more spirit chased than enjoyed.
How like a younger or a prodigal
The scarfèd bark puts from her native bay,
Hugged and embraced by the strumpet wind!
How like the prodigal doth she return,
With overweathered ribs and ragged sails
Lean, rent, and beggared by the strumpet wind!

DUTCH:
Ja, dat gaat door: wie staat ooit van een feest
Met zooveel eetlust op, als hij ging zitten?
Waar is het paard, dat op zijn lange baan
Terugdraaft met hetzelfde ondoofb’re vuur,
Waarmee het steig’rend wegstoof? Ieder ding
Wordt met meer vuur begeerd dan wel genoten.

MORE:
Current use e.g. The chase is better than the catch.
Untread=retrace (a path, steps)
Unbated=unabated, undimished
Younger=Younger son
Scarfèd=Bedecked, decorated with streamers
Bark (or barque)=Ship
Compleat:
Scarf=Een sluyer
Bark=Scheepje

Topics: emotion and mood, misquoted

And the stony-hearted villains know it well enough.

PLAY: King Henry IV Part 1
ACT/SCENE: 2.2
SPEAKER: Falstaff
CONTEXT:
An ’twere not as good a deed as drink to turn true man and to leave these rogues, I am the veriest varlet that ever chewed with a tooth. Eight yards of uneven ground is threescore and ten miles afoot with me, and the stony-hearted villains know it well enough. A plague upon it when thieves cannot be true one to another!

DUTCH:
Tien ellen oneffen grond te voet zijn voor mij zes dozijn mijlen en meer, en die booswichten met steenen harten weten dat maar al te goed. Naar den duivel er mee, als dieven onder elkaar niet eerlijk kunnen zijn.

MORE:
Phrase ‘stony-hearted’ first recorded in 1569 in Underdown’s translation of the Æthiopian History of Heliodorus: “There is no man so stoany harted, but he shal be made to yeelde with our flatteringe allurmente”.
Schmidt:
Veriest=most veritable
Varlet=A a servant to a knight; A term of reproach; knave, rascal
Compleat:
Stony heart=Een steene hart, verhard hart
Varlet=Een schobbejak. Varlet (valet)=knegt

Topics: invented or popularised, virtue, good and bad

As good luck would have it

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

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

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

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

Away, you mouldy rogue, away!

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

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

MORE:

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

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

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

Topics: insult, proverbs and idioms, invented or popularised

Be collected. No more amazement.
Tell your piteous heart There’s no harm done.

PLAY: The Tempest
ACT/SCENE: 1.2
SPEAKER: Prospero
CONTEXT:
MIRANDA
If by your art, my dearest father, you have
Put the wild waters in this roar, allay them.
The sky, it seems, would pour down stinking pitch,
But that the sea, mounting to th’ welkin’s cheek,
Dashes the fire out. Oh, I have suffered
With those that I saw suffer. A brave vessel
Who had, no doubt, some noble creature in her
Dashed all to pieces. Oh, the cry did knock
Against my very heart! Poor souls, they perished.
Had I been any god of power, I would
Have sunk the sea within the earth or ere
It should the good ship so have swallowed and
The fraughting souls within her.
PROSPERO
Be collected.
No more amazement. Tell your piteous heart
There’s no harm done.
MIRANDA
Oh, woe the day!
PROSPERO
No harm.
I have done nothing but in care of thee,

DUTCH:
Wees niet ontdaan:
Blijf kalm, en zeg tot uw meewarig hart —
Geen ramp viel voor.

MORE:
There’s no harm done’ still in use today.
By your art=Magic
Welkin=Edge of the sea or sky
Fraughting=Freight, freighted, freighting
Amazement=Terror, horror
Compleat:
Fraught=Bevracht, van “to Freight”
Burgersdijk notes:
O dag van wee! enz. De gewone, overgeleverde tekst luidt: Pros. Tell your piteous heart, There’s no harm done. — Mir. O, woe the day. — Pros. No harm. I have done etc., zoodat Prospero zegt: ,Zeg uw meewarig hart: Geen ramp viel voor” (of: „Geen leed geschiedde”), waarop Miranda, vreemd genoeg na dezen troostgrond, uitroept: „O, dag van wee !” en Prospero herneemt: „Geen ramp (of ,;Geen leed”). Niets deed ik” enz. Veel natuurlijker is het zoo, volgens Elze’s verbetering, Miranda met hare weeklacht haren vader in de reden valt, alvorens deze haar heeft kunnen troosten; zoodra haar vader gezegd heeft: tell your piteous heart , roept zij uit: O woe the day! en op het vertroostend zeggen van haar vader: There ‘s no harm done, vraagt zij verbaasd en verrast: No harm ? waarop Prospero herneemt: I have done nothing etc. Deze gissing van Elze is in de vertaling gevolgd.

Topics: understanding, status, invented or popularised, still in use

But I will wear my heart upon my sleeve for daws to peck at

PLAY: Othello
ACT/SCENE: 1.1
SPEAKER: Iago
CONTEXT:
IAGO
O sir, content you.
I follow him to serve my turn upon him.
We cannot all be masters, nor all masters
Cannot be truly followed. You shall mark
Many a duteous and knee-crooking knave
That (doting on his own obsequious bondage)
Wears out his time much like his master’s ass
For naught but provender, and when he’s old, cashiered.
Whip me such honest knaves. Others there are
Who, trimmed in forms and visages of duty,
Keep yet their hearts attending on themselves
And, throwing but shows of service on their lords,
Do well thrive by them. And when they have lined their coats,
Do themselves homage. These fellows have some soul,
And such a one do I profess myself. For, sir,
It is as sure as you are Roderigo,
Were I the Moor, I would not be Iago.
In following him, I follow but myself.
Heaven is my judge, not I for love and duty,
But seeming so, for my peculiar end.
For when my outward action doth demonstrate
The native act and figure of my heart
In compliment extern, ’tis not long after
But I will wear my heart upon my sleeve
For daws to peck at. I am not what I am.

DUTCH:
In mijn uitwendig doen of mijn gebaren
Zich toont, dan wil ik fluks daarop mijn hart
Ronddragen op de mouw, opdat er kraaien
Naar pikken; dan ben ik mijzelf niet meer.

MORE:
Proverb: Every man cannot be a master (lord)
Proverb: To wear one’s heart upon one’s sleeve (1604)

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”

Content you=Don’t worry
Knave=Servant
Cashiered=Dismissed
Peculiar=Private, personal
End=Purpose
Complement extern=External show, form
Daws: Jackdaws
Not what I am=Not what I seem to be
Doting=to be fond, to love to excess
Knee-crooking=Flattering
Obsequious=Zealous, officious, devoted
Wear out=To spend all of, to come to the end of
Provender=Dry food for beasts
Compleat:
Dote upon=Op iets verzot zyn; zyne zinnen zeer op iets gezet hebben
Obsequious=Gehoorzaam, gedienstig
To cashiere=Den zak geeven, afdanken, ontslaan
Jack daw=Een exter of kaauw
Extern=Uitwendig, uiterlyk
End=Voorneemen, oogmerk

Topics: deceit, appearance, invented or popularised, proverbs and idioms, still in use, purpose

But screw your courage to the sticking-place,
And we’ll not fail.

PLAY: Macbeth
ACT/SCENE: 1.7
SPEAKER: Lady Macbeth
CONTEXT:
We fail?
But screw your courage to the sticking-place,
And we’ll not fail. When Duncan is asleep—
Whereto the rather shall his day’s hard journey
Soundly invite him—his two chamberlains
Will I with wine and wassail so convince
That memory, the warder of the brain,
Shall be a fume, and the receipt of reason
A limbeck only: when in swinish sleep
Their drenchèd natures lie as in a death,
What cannot you and I perform upon
The unguarded Duncan? What not put upon
His spongy officers, who shall bear the guilt
Of our great quell?

DUTCH:
Mislukken!
Schroef slechts uw moed tot aan het hoogste punt,
En het mislukt ons niet.

MORE:
There are several definitions of ‘sticking place’: Samuel Johnson descibes it as the place of being stopped, unable to proceed. It is also described as the point at which a tuning peg is set in its hole and the mark to which a soldier screwed up the cord of a crossbow (OED).
Schmidt:
Sticking-place= the place in which the peg of a stringed instrument remains fast; the proper degree of tension
Convince=Overcome, defeat
Warder=A guard, a keeper, a sentinel “Memory, the warder of the brain”
A fume=A delusion, a phantasm, anything hindering, like a mist, the function of the brain
Limbeck=An alembic (alchemical still)
Onions:
Sticking-place=Point at which (it) remains firm
The rather=The more quickly
Compleat:
Limbeck=Een afzyphelm
Alembick=Een Destilleerhelm, in de Scheikonst

Topics: invented or popularised, still in use, plans/intentions, conspiracy, deceit, offence

But those that understood him smiled at one another and shook their heads. But, for mine own part, it was Greek to me.

PLAY: Julius Caesar
ACT/SCENE: 1.2
SPEAKER: Casca
CONTEXT:
CASSIUS
Did Cicero say anything?
CASCA
Ay, he spoke Greek.
CASSIUS
To what effect?
CASCA
Nay, an I tell you that, I’ll ne’er look you i’ th’ face again. But those that understood him smiled at one another and shook their heads. But, for mine own part, it was Greek to me. I could tell you more news too. Murellus and Flavius, for pulling scarfs off Caesar’s images, are put to silence. Fare you well. There was more foolery yet, if I could remember it.
CASSIUS
Will you sup with me tonight, Casca?
CASCA
No, I am promised forth.
CASSIUS
Will you dine with me tomorrow?
CASCA
Ay, if I be alive and your mind hold and your dinner worth the eating.

DUTCH:
Maar die hem verstonden, glimlachten
tegen elkaar en schudden het hoofd; maar wat mij aangaat,
voor mij was het Grieksch.

MORE:
Proverb: It is Greek to me

Forth=Elsewhere
Hold=Stays the same
Compleat:
Forth=Uyt, na buyten
Hold on=Aanhouden, volharden

Burgersdijk notes:
Ja, lets in bet Grieksch. Er werd onder de voorname Romeinen zeer veel Grieksch gesproken; hier zou men kunnen vermoeden , dat Cicero het deed, opdat het volk hem niet zou verstaan, doch men behoeft er dit niet achter te zoeken. Casca had het zeker ook kunnen verstaan, als hij er dicht genoeg bij was geweest; wat hij laat volgen: „voor mij was het Grieksch”, is als een spreekwoordelijk gezegde op te vatten voor iets onverstaanbaars.

Topics: langage, understanding, still in use, invented or popularised, proverbs and idioms

By what rule, sir?
– By a rule as plain as the plain bald pate of Father Time himself

PLAY: The Comedy of Errors
ACT/SCENE: 2.2
SPEAKER: Dromio of Syracuse
CONTEXT:
ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE
By what rule, sir?
DROMIO OF SYRACUSE
Marry, sir, by a rule as plain as the plain bald pate of Father
Time himself.
ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE
Let’s hear it.
DROMIO OF SYRACUSE
There’s no time for a man to recover his hair that grows bald by nature.
ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE
May he not do it by fine and recovery?
DROMIO OF SYRACUSE
Yes, to pay a fine for a periwig, and recover the lost hair of another man.

DUTCH:
Wel, heer, op een grond zoo glad als de gladde kale
kop van Vader Tijd zelf.

MORE:
Proverb: Take time (occasion) by the forelock, for she is bald behind

Father Time, the personification of Time as a more ‘friendly’ version than personification with a scythe or the Grim Reaper.
Plain (1) open, clear, simplet; (2) even, level, smooth
Fine and recovery. In old English law, “fine” meant “an amicable composition or agreement of astute, either actual or fictitious, by leave of the King or his justices”. Fines and Recoveries were used to circumvent the Statute of Entail, which tended to restrict the free transfer of land, by “suffering a feigned recovery” or “levying a fine”. There was a particular appeal for theatre audiences in the farcicality of the process (alluded to by Shakespeare in three plays: The Merry Wives of Windsor, The Comedy
of Errors and Hamlet).
Compleat:
Plain (even, smooth, flat)=Vlak, effen
A plain superficies=Een gelyke oppervlakte
Plain (clear)=Klaar, duidelyk

Topics: proverbs and idioms, time, invented or popularised, still in use, law/legal

Do not, as some ungracious pastors do,
Show me the steep and thorny way to heaven

PLAY: Hamlet
ACT/SCENE: 1.3
SPEAKER: Ophelia
CONTEXT:
Do not, as some ungracious pastors do,
Show me the steep and thorny way to heaven
Whiles, like a puffed and reckless libertine,
Himself the primrose path of dalliance treads
And recks not his own rede

DUTCH:
Doe niet als enkle booze leeraars doen, Die wijzen ‘t steile doornenpad ten hemel /
Doe niet, als enk’le zond’ge priesters doen, Mij ‘t steil en doornig pad ten hemel wijzen

MORE:
Dalliance = frivolity, wasteful activity.
‘Primrose path’ is a metaphor for the easy life, still in use today.
Also used as the title for numerous books, films and albums.
Reck your own rede= practice what you preach
Schmidt:
Puffed = inflated, arrogant.
Libertine = One leading a dissolute life

Topics: integrity, still in use, invented or popularised

Give me the ocular proof

PLAY: Othello
ACT/SCENE: 3.3
SPEAKER: Othello
CONTEXT:
OTHELLO
I had been happy if the general camp,
Pioneers and all, had tasted her sweet body,
So I had nothing known. Oh, now forever
Farewell the tranquil mind! Farewell content!
Farewell the plumèd troops and the big wars
That makes ambition virtue! Oh, farewell!
Farewell the neighing steed and the shrill trump,
The spirit-stirring drum, th’ ear-piercing fife,
The royal banner, and all quality,
Pride, pomp, and circumstance of glorious war!
And O you mortal engines, whose rude throats
The immortal Jove’s dead clamours counterfeit,
Farewell! Othello’s occupation’s gone.
IAGO
Is ’t possible, my lord?
OTHELLO
Villain, be sure thou prove my love a whore,
Be sure of it. Give me the ocular proof
Or by the worth of mine eternal soul
Thou hadst been better have been born a dog
Than answer my waked wrath!
IAGO
Is ’t come to this?
OTHELLO
Make me to see ’t, or at the least so prove it
That the probation bear no hinge nor loop
To hang a doubt on, or woe upon thy life!

DUTCH:
Bewijs mij, schurk, dat die ik min, hoereert;
Bewijs het; laat het mij met de oogen zien,
Of, bij de waarde mijner eeuw’ge ziel,
Het ware u beter hond te zijn geboren,
Dan dat mijn wrok u treff’!

MORE:

Ocular=Depending on the eye, offered by sight: “give me the o. proof”
Waked=Awakened
Compleat:
Ocular=’t Geen tot het oog behoort
An ocular withness=Een ooggetuige
An ocular inspection=Een onderzoek of beschouwing met zyn eige oogen

Topics: invented or popularised, evidence, still in use, anger

Gratiano speaks an infinite deal of nothing

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

DUTCH:

Gratiano praat oneindig veel, dat niets is

MORE:
CITED IN US LAW:
Crowley Marine Services, Inc. v. National labour Relations Board, 344 U.S. App. D.C. 165; 234 F.3d 1295 (2000): Used by the judge to introduce her dissenting opinion, stating:
“His reasons are as two grains of wheat hid in two bushels of chaff; you shall
seek all day ere you find them, and when you have them, they are not worth the search. …
The court’s per curiam opinion knocks down the modest, but real, requirement that a union requesting information from an employer explain, at the time of its request, the relevance, or at least potential relevance, of information not ordinarily pertinent to its role as bargaining representative…’
Kneale v. Kneale, 67 So. 2d 233, 234 (Fla., 1953).

You speak an infinite deal of nothing: still in use today.

Topics: emotion and mood, misquoted

He is well paid that is well satisfied

PLAY: The Merchant of Venice
ACT/SCENE: 4.1
SPEAKER: Portia
CONTEXT:
PORTIA
He is well paid that is well satisfied;
And I, delivering you, am satisfied,
And therein do account myself well paid:
My mind was never yet more mercenary.
I pray you, know me when we meet again:
I wish you well, and so I take my leave.

DUTCH:
Die weltevreden is, is wel betaald;
Ik ben tevreden, dat ik u bevrijdde,
En reken daardoor reeds mij wel betaald

MORE:
Job satisfaction is payment enough
Satisfied=contented
Exposition=interpretation
Compleat:
To satisfy, content=Voldoen
I will content him for his pains=Ik zal hem voor zyne moeite voldoen
Satisfaction, content=Voldoening
Exposition=Uitlegging

Topics: emotion and mood, misquoted

Heaven truly knows that thou art false as hell

PLAY: Othello
ACT/SCENE: 4.2
SPEAKER: Othello
CONTEXT:
OTHELLO
Some of your function, mistress,
Leave procreants alone and shut the door.
Cough or cry “hem” if any body come.
Your mystery, your mystery! Nay, dispatch!
DESDEMONA
Upon my knee, what doth your speech import?
I understand a fury in your words,
But not the words.
OTHELLO
Why, what art thou?
DESDEMONA
Your wife, my lord. Your true and loyal wife.
OTHELLO
Come, swear it, damn thyself.
Lest, being like one of heaven, the devils themselves
Should fear to seize thee. Therefore be double damned,
Swear thou art honest!
DESDEMONA
Heaven doth truly know it.
OTHELLO
Heaven truly knows that thou art false as hell.
DESDEMONA
To whom, my lord? With whom? How am I false?

DUTCH:
God weet, ja, dat gij valsch zijt als de hel.

MORE:
Proverb: As false as hell

Some of your function=Do your work (on look out duty)
Mystery=Trade (brothel)
Motive=Cause
Import=Mean
Compleat:
False (not true)=Valsch, onwaar
False (counterfeit)=Nagemaakt
False (treacherous)=Verraderlyk
To import=Medebrengen, betekenen; invoeren
Motive=Beweegreden, beweegoorzaak
Mystery or mistery (trade)=Handel, konst, ambacht

Topics: honesty, truth, deceit, proverbs and idioms, invented or popularised

I am as poor as Job, my lord, but not so patient.

PLAY: King Henry IV Part 2
ACT/SCENE: 1.2
SPEAKER: Falstaff
CONTEXT:
CHIEF JUSTICE
To punish you by the heels would amend the attention of your ears, and I care not if I do become your physician.
FALSTAFF
I am as poor as Job, my lord, but not so patient. Your Lordship may minister the potion of imprisonment to me in respect of poverty, but how I should be your patient to follow your prescriptions, the wise may make some dram of a scruple, or indeed a scruple itself.

DUTCH:
Ik ben zoo arm als Job, mylord, maar zulk een lijdzaam lijder zou ik niet zijn. Uwe lordschap kan mij den drank der gevangenschap opdringen; maar of ik als lijder uwe voorschriften zou opvolgen, daarover kan de wijze wel een grein van een scrupel koesteren, ja geheel scrupuleus zijn.

MORE:

Proverb: To have the patience of Job

“To punish you by the heels” is another reference to the punishment of baffling. This was formally a punishment of infamy inflicted on recreant nights, which included hanging them up by the heels.

Schmidt:
Minister to=Administer (medicines), to prescribe, to order
Scruple=The third part of a dram; proverbially a very small quantity
Make a dram of a scruple=Quibble
Potion=Medicine, remedy

Compleat:
Dram=Vierendeel loods; een zoopje, een borrel
Scruple=Een gewigtje van xx greinen
To scrupule=Zwaarigheid maaken

Topics: proverbs and idioms, still in use, invented or popularised, patience

I am very proud, revengeful, ambitious,
with more offences at my beck than I have thoughts to put them in…

PLAY: Hamlet
ACT/SCENE: 3.1
SPEAKER: Hamlet
CONTEXT:
I am myself indifferent honest; but yet I could accuse me of such things that it were better my mother had not borne me: I am very proud, revengeful,ambitious, with more offences at my beck than I have thoughts to put them in, imagination to give them shape, or time to act them in. What should such fellows as I do crawling between earth and heaven? We are arrant knaves, all; believe none of us.

DUTCH:
Ik ben erg hoogmoedig, wraakzuchtig en eergierig, en ik heb meer wandaden voor ’t grijpen dan gedachten om ze uit te drukken. /
Ik ben zeer trotsch, wraakgierig, eerzuchtig; met meer slechtigheden op mijn wenken klaar dan ik gedachten heb ze aan te zetten.

MORE:
At my beck=I can summon; nowadays ‘at my beck and call’.
(Compleat):
Beck=Wenk
He keeps him at his beck=Hy houdt hem op zynen wenk.
To be at one’s beck=Op iemands wenk gereed staan.
Van Looy translation: op mijn wenken klaar

Burgersdijk notes:
Ik ben zeer trotsch enz Men vulle het volgende woord aan en leze: “Ik ben zeer trotsch, wraakzuchtig, eergierig;” enz . Bij den druk bleef toevallig het woord „wraakzuchtig” na de afbreking onvolkomen.

Topics: invented or popularised, revenge, ambition

I desire more acquaintance of you

PLAY: The Merry Wives of Windsor
ACT/SCENE:
SPEAKER: Ford
CONTEXT:
FORD
Sir, I am a gentleman that have spent much; my name is
Brook.
FALSTAFF
Good Master Brook, I desire more acquaintance of you.
FORD
Good Sir John, I sue for yours: not to charge you;
for I must let you understand I think myself in
better plight for a lender than you are: the which
hath something emboldened me to this unseasoned
intrusion; for they say, if money go before, all
ways do lie open.
FALSTAFF
Money is a good soldier, sir, and will on.
FORD
Troth, and I have a bag of money here troubles me:
if you will help to bear it, Sir John, take all, or
half, for easing me of the carriage.
FALSTAFF
Sir, I know not how I may deserve to be your porter.

DUTCH:
Beste heer Beek, ik hoop nader met u bekend te
worden.

MORE:
Proverb: If money go before, all ways lie open
Proverb: An ass laden with gold climbs to the top of the castle
Proverb: Gold goes in at any gate except heaven’s
Proverb: No lock will hold against the power of gold

Desire more acquaintance=Ied like to get to know you better
Unseasoned=Untimely
Carriage=Burden
Compleat:
Seasonably=Recht van pas
Acquaintance=Kennis, verkeering, ommegang, een bekende
Carriage=Wagenvragt, voerloon, handell en wandel

Topics: proverbs and idioms|money|invented or popularised

I like not fair terms and a villain’s mind.

PLAY: The Merchant of Venice
ACT/SCENE: 1.3
SPEAKER: Bassanio
CONTEXT:
SHYLOCK
Then meet me forthwith at the notary’s.
Give him direction for this merry bond,
And I will go and purse the ducats straight,
See to my house left in the fearful guard
Of an unthrifty knave, and presently
I will be with you.
ANTONIO
Hie thee, gentle Jew.
The Hebrew will turn Christian. He grows kind.
BASSANIO
I like not fair terms and a villain’s mind.
ANTONIO
Come on. In this there can be no dismay.
My ships come home a month before the day.

DUTCH:
k Vertrouw geen goedheid van een boos gemoed

MORE:
There can be no dismay=No cause for concern
Compleat:
Dismay=Vreeze

Topics: emotion and mood, misquoted

I love not the humour of bread and cheese

PLAY: The Merry Wives of Windsor
ACT/SCENE:
SPEAKER: Nim
CONTEXT:
FORD
I will be patient; I will find out this.
NYM
And this is true; I like not the humour
of lying. He hath wronged me in some humours: I
should have borne the humoured letter to her; but I
have a sword and it shall bite upon my necessity.
He loves your wife; there’s the short and the long.
My name is Corporal Nym; I speak and I avouch; ’tis
true: my name is Nym and Falstaff loves your wife.
Adieu. I love not the humour of bread and cheese,
and there’s the humour of it. Adieu.

DUTCH:
Vaarwel; ik mag den kaas- en
broodhumour niet; en dat is de humour er van. Vaarwel.

MORE:
Find out this=Investigate
Short and the long=Long and the short, the whole story. (This wasn’t invented by Shakespeare. The “long and short of it”, which dates back to around 1500, was originally “the short and long of it” (see also Merry Wives of Windsor 2.1; A Midsummer Night’s Dream 4.2; and The Merchant of Venice 2.2.)
Compleat:
To find out=Uytvinden, gewaar worden

Topics: invented or popularised, still in use

I once did hold it …
A baseness to write fair,

PLAY: Hamlet
ACT/SCENE: 5.2
SPEAKER: Hamlet
CONTEXT:
Being thus benetted round with villainies—
Ere I could make a prologue to my brains,
They had begun the play—I sat me down,
Devised a new commission, wrote it fair.
I once did hold it, as our statists do,
A baseness to write fair, and labored much
How to forget that learning, but, sir, now
It did me yeoman’s service. Wilt thou know
Th’ effect of what I wrote?

DUTCH:
Ik meende eens, op ‘t voorbeeld onzer staatsliên, Dat ‘t klerksch was mooi te schrijven /
Ik vond het vroeger, zooals staatslui nog, Een min ding mooi te schrijven /
Ik hield het eens – als onze staatsbestuurders – voor laag om fraai te schrijven.

MORE:
Yeoman or Yeoman’s service still in use: sterling work, good service
Schmidt:
Baseness=That which becomes a low station
Benetted=Snared
Yeoman=A gentleman servant
Statist=A statesman, politician
Compleat:
Statist=Staatkundige, staatsbedienaar

Topics: learning/education, still in use, invented or popularised

If money go before, all ways do lie open

DUTCH:
Beste Sir John, ik wensch dit als gunst van u; niet
om u lastig te vallen, want ik moet u doen opmerken,
dat ik mijzelven beter in staat acht om geld uit te leenen
dan gij het zijt; en dit heeft mij ook eenigszins
moed gegeven tot dit ontijdig binnendringen, want waar
geld vooruitgaat, zegt men, staan alle wegen open.

Topics: proverbs and idioms|money|invented or popularised

If ye should lead her into a fool’s paradise, as they say,
it were a very gross kind of behavior, as they say

PLAY: Romeo and Juliet
ACT/SCENE: 2.4
SPEAKER: Nurse
CONTEXT:
Pray you, sir, a word. And as I told you, my young lady bid me inquire you out. What she bade me say, I will keep to myself. But first let me tell ye, if ye should lead her into a fool’s paradise, as they say, it were a very gross kind of behavior, as they say. For the gentlewoman is young, and therefore, if you should deal double with her, truly it were an ill thing to be offered to any gentlewoman, and very weak dealing.

DUTCH:
(A)ls gij haar om den tuin wilt leiden, om zoo te zeggen, dat
het een heel leelijke manier van doen zou wezen, om zoo te zeggen,

MORE:
To live in a fool’s paradise: Idiom=in a state of happiness based on a delusion. (Phrase already in use in 1400s before it became popular after inclusion in R&J)

Topics: invented or popularised, proverbs and idioms, still in use, deceit, manipulation

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

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

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

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

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

In the end truth will out.

PLAY: The Merchant of Venice
ACT/SCENE: 2.2
SPEAKER: Launcelot
CONTEXT:
GOBBO
Alack the day, I know you not, young gentleman. But I
pray you, tell me, is my boy, God rest his soul, alive
or dead?
LAUNCELOT
Do you not know me, Father?
GOBBO
Alack, sir, I am sand-blind. I know you not.
LAUNCELOT
Nay, indeed if you had your eyes, you might fail of
the knowing me. It is a wise father that knows his own
child. Well, old man, I will tell you news of your son.
Give me your blessing. Truth will come to light. Murder
cannot be hid long—a man’s son may, but in the end truth
will out.

DUTCH:
De waarheid komt altijd aan het licht; een moord kan niet lang verborgen blijven, wel de zoon van een vader; maar toch, ten langen leste, komt de waarheid uit.

MORE:
CITED IN US LAW:
Reed v. King, 145 Cal. App.3d 261, 193 Cal. Rptr. 130 (1983)(Blease, J.), concerning the obligation of a house seller to disclose that the house had been the site of a murder: “Truth will come to light; murder cannot be hid long.”;
Retirement Bd. of the Police Retirement Sys. of Kansas City, 652 S.W.2d 874 (Mo., 1983)
Simpson v. Blackburn, 414 S.W.2d 795, 805 (Mo., 1967)
June B. v. Edward L., 69 A.D.2d 612, 614 (N.Y., 1979)
: REFERENCED IN E&W LAW:
Jacques & Anor (t/a C&E Jacques Partnership) v Ensign Contractors Ltd [2009] EWHC 3383 (TCC) (22 December 2009)
‘The case put together by the Referring party relies entirely on ignoring the Contract between the parties…
Paraphrasing Shakespeare, ‘lies cannot be hid long; but at length the truth will out’.’

Proverb: It is a wise child (father) that knows his own father (child)
Truth will come to light/Truth will out invented/popularised by Shakespeare
Compleat:
Wise (learned, skill’d, cunning, whitty)=Wys, geleerd, ervaaren, listig, schrander.
A wise man may be caught by a fool=Een wys man kan door een gek gevangen worden

Topics: emotion and mood, misquoted

It is a wise father that knows his own child.

DUTCH:
Het is een knappe vader, die zijn eigen kind kent /
Dàt is eerst een knappe vader die zijn eigen kind kent.

MORE:
CITED IN US LAW:
American Radio-Telephone Serv. v. PSC of Maryland. Opinion “It was the Bard of Avon who first suggested, ‘It is a wise father that knows his own child.’” And in the same case: “In this case, the Public Service Commission of Maryland has had greater difficulty in determining thelineage of a ‘grandfather.'”
Retirement Board of the Police Retirement System of Kansas City, Missouri v. Noel, 652 S.W.2d 874, 880 (Mo.Ct. App. 1983)(paternity);
Simpson v. Blackburn, 414 S.W.2d 795, 805 (Mo. App.Ct. 1967)(paternity);
American Radio-Telephone Service, Inc. v. Public Service Commission of Maryland, 33 Md. App.
423, 365 A.2d 314 (1976).

Topics: emotion and mood, misquoted

Let Hercules himself do what he may,
The cat will mew and dog will have his day.

PLAY: Hamlet
ACT/SCENE: 5.1
SPEAKER: Hamlet
CONTEXT:
Hear you, sir.
What is the reason that you use me thus?
I loved you ever. But it is no matter.
Let Hercules himself do what he may,
The cat will mew and dog will have his day.

DUTCH:
Of Hercules al raast en tiert, of treurt, De poes miauwt, een hond, die krijgt zijn beurt. /
Al deed hier Hercules al wat hij kan, De kat zou mauwen en de bond ging an.

MORE:
CITED IN US LAW:
City of Columbus v. Becher, 115 Ohio App. 239, 240, 184 N.E.2d 617,618. In a case involving a dog control ordinance (1961)(McLaughlin, J.);

Topics: invented or popularised, still in use, cited in law, revenge

Make … each particular hair … stand on end

PLAY: Hamlet
ACT/SCENE: 1.5
SPEAKER: Ghost
CONTEXT:
Make thy two eyes, like stars, start from their spheres,
Thy knotted and combinèd locks to part
And each particular hair to stand on end,
Like quills upon the fearful porpentine.

DUTCH:
Uw saamgestrengde lokken scheiden zou En ieder haar recht overeind doen staan /
Je haren zouden overeind gaan staan als stekels van een gemelijke egel

MORE:
The phrase making your hair stand on end is first found in Hamlet.
Compleat:
To stand up an (sic) end=Ryzen, over end staan
His hair stand up an (sic) end=De haairen ryzen hem te berg

Topics: invented or popularised, still in use

My poor body, madam, requires it: I am driven on by the flesh; and he must needs go that the devil drives

PLAY: All’s Well that Ends Well
ACT/SCENE: 1.3
SPEAKER: Clown
CONTEXT:
COUNTESS
Wilt thou needs be a beggar?
CLOWN
I do beg your good will in this case.
COUNTESS
In what case?
CLOWN
In Isbel’s case and mine own. Service is no
heritage: and I think I shall never have the
blessing of God till I have issue o’ my body; for
they say barnes are blessings.
COUNTESS
Tell me thy reason why thou wilt marry.
CLOWN
My poor body, madam, requires it: I am driven on
by the flesh; and he must needs go that the devil
drives.

DUTCH:
Mijn arm lichaam, doorluchte vrouw, verlangt het; ik
word door het vleesch er toe gedreven; en wien de duivel aandrijft, die moet loopen.

MORE:
Proverb: He must needs go that the devil drives
Proverb: Service is no heritage (inheritance)

Issue=Offspring
Compleat:
He must needs go that the devil drives=Hy moet wel loopen die door de duivel gedreven word

Topics: marriage, reason, proverbs and idioms, still in use, invented or popularised, necessity

No, pardon; ’tis a secret must be locked within the teeth and the lips

PLAY: Measure for Measure
ACT/SCENE: 3.2
SPEAKER: Lucio
CONTEXT:
No, pardon; ’tis a secret must be locked within the
teeth and the lips: but this I can let you
understand, the greater file of the subject held the
duke to be wise.

DUTCH:
Neen, vergeef mij, dat is een geheim, dat achter tanden
en lippen besloten moet blijven

MORE:
A semi-literal allusion to a proverb of the time, ‘Good that the teeth guard the tongue’ (1578) and the virtue of silence. Ben Jonson recommended a ‘wise tongue’ that should not be ‘licentious and wandering’. (See also the Thomas Mowbray in Richard II: “Within my mouth you have engaol’d my tongue, / Doubly portcullis’d with my teeth and lips”.)

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

O brave new world,
That has such people in’t!

PLAY: The Tempest
ACT/SCENE: 5.1
SPEAKER: Miranda
CONTEXT:
MIRANDA
O, wonder!
How many goodly creatures are there here!
How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world,
That has such people in’t!
PROSPERO
‘Tis new to thee.

DUTCH:
O, wonder!
Wat pracht van scheps’len zie ik daar! Wat is
Het menschdom schoon! O nieuwe, heerlijke aarde,
Die zulke wezens draagt!

MORE:

Use of ‘brave new world’ in Hamlet is ironic to describe drunken sailors staggering off the wreckage of their ship. Use is also ironic in the dystopian novel of the same name by Aldous Huxley (1931), (which quotes from several other Shakespeare plays).

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

Sad hours seem long.

PLAY: Romeo and Juliet
ACT/SCENE: 1.1
SPEAKER: Romeo
CONTEXT:
Oh my, time goes by slowly when you’re sad. Was that my father who left here in such a hurry?

DUTCH:
Ach, tijd valt lang door zorgen.

MORE:
The idiom today would say the oppposite: ‘Time flies when you’re enjoying yourself”.

Topics: time, emotion and mood, proverbs and idioms, invented or popularised

Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything

DUTCH:
Gezicht en tanden, smaak en alles kwijt

Topics: still in use, cited in law, life, age/experience, invented or popularised

Seal up your lips, and give no words but mum:
The business asketh silent secrecy.

PLAY: King Henry VI Part 2
ACT/SCENE: 1.2
SPEAKER: Hume
CONTEXT:
Hume must make merry with the duchess’ gold;
Marry, and shall. But how now, Sir John Hume!
Seal up your lips, and give no words but mum:
The business asketh silent secrecy.
Dame Eleanor gives gold to bring the witch:
Gold cannot come amiss, were she a devil.
Yet have I gold flies from another coast;
I dare not say, from the rich cardinal
And from the great and new-made Duke of Suffolk,
Yet I do find it so; for to be plain,
They, knowing Dame Eleanor’s aspiring humour,
Have hired me to undermine the duchess
And buz these conjurations in her brain.
They say ‘A crafty knave does need no broker;’
Yet am I Suffolk and the cardinal’s broker.
Hume, if you take not heed, you shall go near
To call them both a pair of crafty knaves.
Well, so it stands; and thus, I fear, at last
Hume’s knavery will be the duchess’ wrack,
And her attainture will be Humphrey’s fall:
Sort how it will, I shall have gold for all.

DUTCH:
Maar wat nu, John Hume?
Steeds mondjendicht; geen ander woord, dan. . . mum!

MORE:

Proverb: A cunning (crafty) knave needs no broker

Modern usage: Mum’s the word
Not invented by Shakespeare: the word was first used in the 14th century, although Shakespeare probably helped to make it popular. The word ‘mum’ may refer to the humming sound made by a closed mouth.
Asketh=Demands, requires
Buz=(or buzz) Whisper
Conjurations=Incantations; obsecration
Wrack=Ruin
Attainture=Shame; conviction

Compleat:
Knave=Een guit, boef
To buzz into one’s ears=Iemand in ‘t oor blaazen
Conjuration=Samenzweering, eedgespan, vloekverwantschap, bezweering
Wrack=(a ship): Een schip aan stukken stooten
To go to wrack=Verlooren gaan, te gronde gaan
To attaint=Overtuigen van misdaad, schuldig verklaaren, betichten; bevlekken, bederf aanzetten
Attainture (of blood)=Bederving of aansteeking des bloeds

Topics: secrecy, ambition, status, betrayal, invented or popularised

Small herbs have grace; great weeds do grow apace

PLAY: Richard III
ACT/SCENE: 2.4
SPEAKER: Duke of York
CONTEXT:
DUCHESS
Why, my young cousin? It is good to grow.
YORK
Grandam, one night as we did sit at supper,
My uncle Rivers talked how I did grow
More than my brother: “Ay,” quoth my uncle Gloucester,
“Small herbs have grace; great weeds do grow apace.”
And since, methinks I would not grow so fast
Because sweet flowers are slow and weeds make haste.
DUCHESS
Good faith, good faith, the saying did not hold
In him that did object the same to thee!
He was the wretched’st thing when he was young,
So long a-growing and so leisurely,

DUTCH:
„Ja,” zeide oom Gloster toen,
,,Een klein gewas is eel, onkruid groeit veel .”
En sedert wenschte ik minder sterken groei;
Eel kruid komt laat, en onkruid snel in bloei .

MORE:
Proverb: An ill weed grows apace

Grace=Good properties
Since=Since then
Hold=Hold true
Compleat:
Grace=Genade, gunst, bevalligheyd, fraaigheyd, aardige zwier
Weed=Onkruyd
To hold=Houden, vatten; achten

Topics: time, proverbs and idioms, still in use, invented or popularised, good and bad, nature

Stand not upon the order of your going,
But go at once

PLAY: Macbeth
ACT/SCENE: 3.4
SPEAKER: Lady Macbeth
CONTEXT:
I pray you, speak not. He grows worse and worse.
Question enrages him. At once, good night.
Stand not upon the order of your going,
But go at once

DUTCH:
En staat bij ‘t gaan niet op uw rang, maar gaat.

MORE:
Schmidt:
To stand on=To insist on
The order of= Regular disposition, proper state, settled mode of being or proceeding
Compleat:
To stand (or insist) upon one’s privilege=Op zyne voorrechten staan, dezelven vorderen
To stand upon his reputation=Op zyne eere staan

Topics: order/society, civility, still in use, invented or popularised

Such a nature, tickled with good success, disdains the shadow which he treads on at noon

PLAY: Coriolanus
ACT/SCENE: 1.1
SPEAKER: Sicinius
CONTEXT:
SICINIUS
Be-mock the modest moon.
BRUTUS
The present wars devour him: he is grown
Too proud to be so valiant.
SICINIUS
Such a nature,
Tickled with good success, disdains the shadow
Which he treads on at noon: but I do wonder
His insolence can brook to be commanded
Under Cominius.
BRUTUS
Fame, at the which he aims,
In whom already he’s well graced, can not
Better be held nor more attain’d than by
A place below the first: for what miscarries
Shall be the general’s fault, though he perform
To the utmost of a man, and giddy censure
Will then cry out of Marcius ‘O if he
Had borne the business!’

DUTCH:
Een aard als deze,
Door voorspoed nog geprikkeld, zet den voet
Niet op zijn eigen middagschaduw

MORE:
Proverb: When the sun is highest he casts the least shadow

Tickled with=Pleased, excited by (still in use)
Disdain=To think unworthy, to scorn, to treat with contempt
Brook=Bear, endure; put up with
Compleat:
To disdain=Versmaaden, verachten, zich verontwaaardigen
To tickle (pleaes or flatter)=Streelen, vleijen
Brook=Verdraagen, uitstaan
To brook an affront=Een leed verkroppen

Topics: proverbs and idioms, insult, ambition, authority, invented or popularised

That’s a valiant flea that dare eat his breakfast on the lip of a lion

PLAY: King Henry V
ACT/SCENE: 3.7
SPEAKER: Orleans
CONTEXT:
Foolish curs, that run winking into the mouth of a Russian bear and have their heads crushed like rotten apples. You may as well say, that’s a valiant flea that dare eat his breakfast on the lip of a lion.

DUTCH:
Gij kunt even goed zeggen, dat het een dappere vloo is, die haar ontbijt durft nuttigen op de lip
van een leeuw./
Het is een dappere vlo die zijn ontbijt durft te eten op de lip van een leeuw.

MORE:
Proverb: That’s a valiant flea that dare eat his breakfast on the lip of a lion

Topics: courage, proverbs and idioms, invented or popularised

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

This is a sorry sight.

PLAY: Macbeth
ACT/SCENE: 2.2
SPEAKER: Macbeth
CONTEXT:
MACBETH
(looking at his hands) This is a sorry sight.
LADY MACBETH
A foolish thought, to say a sorry sight.

DUTCH:
Een trieste aanblik/
Het is een jammerschouwspel!

MORE:
The phrase ‘sorry sight’ originated in Macbeth to mean woeful or wretched appearance.
Schmidt:
Sorry= Sorrowful, sad
Compleat:
Sorry (bad or paltry)=Slegt, voddig
Sorry days=Droevige dagen

Topics: invented or popularised, still in use

To pluck bright honour from the pale-faced moon

PLAY: King Henry IV Part 1
ACT/SCENE: 1.3
SPEAKER: Hotspur
CONTEXT:
By heaven, methinks it were an easy leap
To pluck bright honor from the pale-faced moon,
Or dive into the bottom of the deep,
Where fathom line could never touch the ground,
And pluck up drownèd honor by the locks,
So he that doth redeem her thence might wear
Without corrival all her dignities.
But out upon this half-faced fellowship!

DUTCH:
Bij God! het komt een lichte sprong mij voor,
De bleeke maan de zilvren eer te ontrukken,
Of, nederduikend tot den grond der zee

MORE:
Schmidt:
Corrival (cf. Co-rival)=Rival, competitor
Dignities=Worthiness, worth, estimation, merit
Compleat:
Corrival=Medeminnaar
Burgersdijk:
Maar dit halfslachtig bondgenootschap, weg! In ‘t Engelsch staat half-faced, een half gezicht vertoonend. Percy wil in zijn opgewondenheid elk gevaar alleen tarten, en luistert nog niet naar zijn oom Worcester, die het plan slechts even heeft aangeduid en dadelijk op het gevaar gewezen. Van angstige helpers of bondgenooten wil Heetspoor niets weten. Eerst later, als hij bespeurt, dat er van een grootschen opstand sprake is, heeft hij er ooren naar, en dan terstond. Van Heetspoor zij hier nog aangeteekend, dat hij zijn bijnaam van de Schotten ontving, met wie hij schier altijd in twist was. Hij was bij den slag te Holmedon 35 jaar oud en dus vrij wat ouder dan Shakespeare hem schetst, veel ouder dan Hendrik Monmouth.

Topics: invented or popularised, honour

Well said, that was laid on with a trowel

PLAY: As You Like It
ACT/SCENE: 1.2
SPEAKER: Celia
CONTEXT:
LE BEAU
What colour, madam? How shall I answer you?
ROSALIND
As wit and fortune will.
TOUCHSTONE
Or as the Destinies decrees.
CELIA
Well said. That was laid on with a trowel.
TOUCHSTONE
Nay, if I keep not my rank—
ROSALIND
Thou losest thy old smell.

DUTCH:
Goed gezegd! dat werd daar nog wat aangevet!

MORE:
Colour=Kind
To lay it on with a trowel=To exaggerate, often with flattery
Rankness=The state of being overgrown and stinking, used of weeds
Compleat:
Colour=Koleur, schyn, dekmantel
Trowel (trowl)=Troffel
Rankness (or fruitfulness)=Vruchtbaarheid
Rankness (or superfluity of leaves, branches)=Weeligheid
Rankness (or strong smell)=Sterkheid van lucht

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

Well, thereby hangs a tale

PLAY: The Merry Wives of Windsor
ACT/SCENE:
SPEAKER: Mistress Quickly
CONTEXT:
FENTON
Yes, marry, have I; what of that?
MISTRESS QUICKLY
Well, thereby hangs a tale: good faith, it is such another Nan; but, I detest, an honest maid as ever broke bread: we had an hour’s talk of that wart. I shall never laugh but in that maid’s company! But indeed she is given too much to allicholy and musing: but for you—well, go to.
FENTON
Well, I shall see her to-day. Hold, there’s money for thee; let me have thy voice in my behalf: if thou seest her before me, commend me.
MISTRESS QUICKLY
Will I? i’faith, that we will; and I will tell your
worship more of the wart the next time we have
confidence; and of other wooers.

DUTCH:
Wel, daar is een heel verhaal aan vast. — Goede
hemel, dat is mij een Anneken! maar, dat verzweer ik,
een meisjen zoo zedig, als er ooit een brood gesneden
heeft; — wij hebben wel een uur lang over die wrat
gepraat.

MORE:
Proverb: As honest a man as ever broke bread
Proverb: Thereby hangs a tale

Detest=Prconfotest (malapropism)
Allicholy=Melancholy
Have confidence=Confide in each other
Compleat:
Confidence=Betrouwen, vertrouwen, vrymoedigheyd, verzekerdheyd

Topics: proverbs and idioms, flattery, still in use, invented or popularised, honesty

What seest thou else
In the dark backward and abysm of time?

PLAY: The Tempest
ACT/SCENE: 1.1
SPEAKER: Prospero
CONTEXT:
Thou hadst, and more, Miranda. But how is it
That this lives in thy mind? What seest thou else
In the dark backward and abysm of time?
If thou rememb’rest aught ere thou cam’st here,
How thou cam’st here thou mayst.

DUTCH:
Wat ziet gij verder,
Op de’ achtergrond der donk’re kloof des tijds?

MORE:
Backward=Past portion of time. Shakespeare probably invented this usage.
Abysm=Abyss
Compleat:
Abyss (Abiss)=Afgrond

Topics: memory, time, age/experience, invented or popularised

What, will the line stretch out to th’ crack of doom?

PLAY: Macbeth
ACT/SCENE: 4.1
SPEAKER: Macbeth
CONTEXT:
What, will the line stretch out to th’ crack of doom?

DUTCH:
Wat! strekt die reeks zich uit tot de’ oordeelsdag?

MORE:
Shakespeare created ‘crack of doom’ to mean Day of Judgement. Doom was a term for the Last Judgment, ‘doomsday’ meaning ‘day of last judgment’. The Domesday Book, the “Great Survey” of land and assets in 1086, was also called because its decisions were unalterable.
Doom (or ‘dome’) was a statute or law (doombooks were codes of laws); related to the English suffix -dom, originally meaning jurisdiction.
Shakespeare is credited for first using doom to mean death and destruction in Sonnet 14.
Compleat:
Doom=Vonnis, oordeel, verwyzing
A heavy doom=een zwaar vonnis
Dooms-man=een Rechter, Scheidsman
Dooms-day=De dag des oordeels
Dooms-day Book=Zeker boek waar in de Landeryën van Engeland en derzelver waarde aangetekend staan
Dooms-day in the Afternoon=St Jutmis, nooit
To doom=Veroordelen, verwyzen, doemen
Doomed=Veroordeeld, verweezen.

Topics: invented or popularised

When in the “why” and the “wherefore” is neither rhyme nor reason?

PLAY: The Comedy of Errors
ACT/SCENE: 2.2
SPEAKER: Dromio of Syracuse
CONTEXT:
ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE
Shall I tell you why?
DROMIO OF SYRACUSE
Ay, sir, and wherefore, for they say every why hath a wherefore.
ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE
“Why” first: for flouting me; and then “wherefore”: for urging it the second time to me.
DROMIO OF SYRACUSE
Was there ever any man thus beaten out of season,
When in the “why” and the “wherefore” is neither rhyme nor reason?
Well, sir, I thank you.
ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE
Thank me, sir, for what?
DROMIO OF SYRACUSE
Marry, sir, for this something that you gave me for nothing.
ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE
I’ll make you amends next, to give you nothing for something. But say, sir, is it dinnertime?

DUTCH:
In geen van deze twee daaroms is rijm noch slot noch zin.
Toch, heer, dank ik u.

MORE:
Proverb: Neither rhyme nor reason
Proverb: Every why has a wherefore/There is never a why but there is a wherefore
Proverb: My stomach has struck dinnertime/twelve (rung noon)

Out of season=Unfairly, unseasonably
Dinnertime: shortly before noon
Compleat:
Why and wherefore=Waarom
Out of season=Uit de tyd
To make amends=Vergoeding doen, vergoeden
To flout=Bespotten, beschimpen

Topics: invented or popularised, still in use, reason, proverbs and idioms, remedy

When we have shuffled off this mortal coil

PLAY: Hamlet
ACT/SCENE: 3.1
SPEAKER: Hamlet
CONTEXT:
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause. There’s the respect
That makes calamity of so long life.

DUTCH:
Als we eindelijk schoven af ons aardsch gewurm /
Als we aan ‘t rumoer des levens zijn ontglipt want wat wij in die doodsslaap, bevrijd van aardse onrust, dromen kunnen moet ons doen aarzelen.

MORE:
Also from the To be or not to be soliliquy. Mortal coil (coyle old spelling meaning chaos, confusion).
To give pause still current (hesitate before taking action, consider)
Compleat:
Coil=Geraas, getier
To pause upon=Ergens op peinzen, over peinzen

Topics: death, misquoted, still in use, invented or popularised

Wisely and slow; they stumble that run fast

PLAY: Romeo and Juliet
ACT/SCENE: 2.3
SPEAKER: Friar Lawrence
CONTEXT:
ROMEO
Oh, let us hence. I stand on sudden haste.
FRIAR LAWRENCE
Wisely and slow. They stumble that run fast.

DUTCH:
Al zacht, mijn zoon! wie voortholt, struikelt licht.

MORE:
Still in use
Compleat:
Haste=Haast, spoed
He made too much hast=Hy maakte al te groot een haast
The more haste the worse speed=Hoe meerder haast hoe minder spoed

Topics: patience, caution, proverbs and idioms, invented or popularised, wisdom, haste, still in use

Wrath makes him deaf.

PLAY: King Henry VI Part 3
ACT/SCENE: 1.4
SPEAKER: Queen Margaret
CONTEXT:
YORK
O Clifford, but bethink thee once again,
And in thy thought o’errun my former time;
And, if though canst for blushing, view this face,
And bite thy tongue, that slanders him with cowardice
Whose frown hath made thee faint and fly ere this!
CLIFFORD
I will not bandy with thee word for word,
But buckler with thee blows, twice two for one.
QUEEN MARGARET
Hold, valiant Clifford! for a thousand causes
I would prolong awhile the traitor’s life.
Wrath makes him deaf: speak thou, Northumberland.
NORTHUMBERLAND
Hold, Clifford! do not honour him so much
To prick thy finger, though to wound his heart:
What valour were it, when a cur doth grin,
For one to thrust his hand between his teeth,
When he might spurn him with his foot away?
It is war’s prize to take all vantages;
And ten to one is no impeach of valour.

DUTCH:
Drift maakt hem doof

MORE:

Idiom: To bite one’s tongue

Bethink thee=Reconsider
Bandy=To beat to and fro (fig. of words, looks); exchange words, squabble
Buckler=Ward off (with a buckler, a sort of shield)
O’errun=Review
Cur=Dog
Grin=Bare his teeth
Vantage=Opportunity
Impeach=Discredit

Compleat:
To bethink one’s self=Zich bedenken
Bandy=Een bal weer toeslaan; een zaak voor en tegen betwisten

Topics: anger, proverbs and idioms, still in use, invented or popularised

Yet do I fear thy nature;
It is too full o’ th’ milk of human kindness

PLAY: Macbeth
ACT/SCENE: 1.5
SPEAKER: Lady Macbeth
CONTEXT:
Yet do I fear thy nature;
It is too full o’ th’ milk of human kindness
To catch the nearest way: thou wouldst be great,
Art not without ambition, but without
The illness should attend it. What thou wouldst highly,
That wouldst thou holily; wouldst not play false,
And yet wouldst wrongly win.

DUTCH:
doch ik ducht uw hart;
Dat is te vol van melk der menschlijkheid,
Om ‘t naaste pad te nemen.

MORE:
Milk of human kindness was invented by Shakespeare as a metaphor for a gentle human nature. (Shakespeare also refers to “milky gentleness” in King Lear.)
Schmidt:
Illness= Iniquity, wickedness
Holily=Piously, virtuously, agreeably to the law of God
Compleat:
Ill nature=Kwaadaardigheid

Topics: nature, ambition, invented or popularised, proverbs and idioms, still in use, good and bad