PLAY: Troilus and Cressida
ACT/SCENE: 2.3
SPEAKER: Thersites
CONTEXT:
THERSITES
Agamemnon is a fool to offer to command Achilles;
Achilles is a fool to be commanded of Agamemnon;
Thersites is a fool to serve such a fool, and
Patroclus is a fool positive.
PATROCLUS
Why am I a fool?
THERSITES
Make that demand of the prover. It suffices me thou
art. Look you, who comes here?
ACHILLES
Patroclus, I’ll speak with nobody.
Come in with me, Thersites.
THERSITES
Here is such patchery, such juggling and such
knavery! all the argument is a cuckold and a
whore; a good quarrel to draw emulous factions
and bleed to death upon. Now, the dry serpigo on
the subject! and war and lechery confound all!

DUTCH:
Al die beweging is om een
horendrager en een lichtekooi; een fraaie twist, om partijen
tot naijver op te hitsen en er voor dood te bloeden!
Nu, dat melaatschheid de oorzaak sla, en krijg en ontucht
hen allen verderven!


MORE:
Positive=Absolute
Prover=Other editions have the word Creator
Patchery=Incompetence
Juggling=Deception
Draw=Attract
Emulous=Envious, rival
Serpigo=Ringworm, skin disease
Confound=Ruin, destroy
Compleat:
Positive=(absolute or certain) Volstrekt, zeker
Patcher=Een lapper, flikker
Juggling=Guicheling; Moffeling. Jugglingly=Bedriegelyk
Emulous=Naayverig, nydig
Confound=Verwarren, verstooren, te schande maaken, verbysteren

Topics: leadership, status, authority, manipulation

PLAY: Titus Andronicus
ACT/SCENE: 1.1
SPEAKER: Marcus
CONTEXT:
MARCUS ANDRONICUS
Princes, that strive by factions and by friends
Ambitiously for rule and empery,
Know that the people of Rome, for whom we stand
A special party, have, by common voice,
In election for the Roman empery,
Chosen Andronicus, surnamed Pius
For many good and great deserts to Rome:
A nobler man, a braver warrior,
Lives not this day within the city walls:
He by the senate is accited home
From weary wars against the barbarous Goths;
That, with his sons, a terror to our foes,
Hath yoked a nation strong, trained up in arms.
Ten years are spent since first he undertook
This cause of Rome and chastised with arms
Our enemies’ pride: five times he hath returned
Bleeding to Rome, bearing his valiant sons
In coffins from the field;
And now at last, laden with horror’s spoils,
Returns the good Andronicus to Rome,
Renowned Titus, flourishing in arms.
Let us entreat, by honour of his name,
Whom worthily you would have now succeed.
And in the Capitol and senate’s right,
Whom you pretend to honour and adore,
That you withdraw you and abate your strength;
Dismiss your followers and, as suitors should,
Plead your deserts in peace and humbleness

DUTCH:
Een eed’ler man, een kloeker krijgsheld leeft
In de’ omtrek van Oud-Rome’s wallen niet.

MORE:
Empery=Office of emperor
For whom we stand a special party=Whose interests we represent
Common voice=Unanimous vote
Chosen=Nominated
Deserts to=Meriting reward
Accited=summoned
Yoked=Subdued
Up in arms=Angry, rebellious, protesting
Compleat:
To stand in defence of a thing=Iets voorstaan
Common=Gemeen, gewoonlyk
Voice=Stem. A casting voice=Een doordringende stem
Yoke=Een juk; (yoke of bondage) Het juk der dienstbaarheid
To stoop onder the yoke=Onder ‘t juk buigenCompleat:
Up in arms =In de wapenen zyn

Topics: ambition, respect, leadership, rivalry

PLAY: Richard III
ACT/SCENE: 3.7
SPEAKER: Richard, Duke of Gloucester
CONTEXT:
LORD MAYOR
Do, good my lord. Your citizens entreat you.
BUCKINGHAM
Refuse not, mighty lord, this proffered love.
CATESBY
O, make them joyful. Grant their lawful suit.
RICHARD
Alas, why would you heap this care on me?
I am unfit for state and majesty.
I do beseech you, take it not amiss;
I cannot, nor I will not, yield to you.

DUTCH:
Ach, waarom dringt gij deze zorg mij op?
Ik deug niet voor vertoon en majesteit;
Ik bid u, neemt het mij niet euvel af.
Ik kan en wil uw wenschen niet verhooren.

MORE:
Entreat=Beg
Suit=Action
Care=Responsibility
State=Power
Compleat:
To entreat=Bidden, ernstig verzoeken
Suit=Een verzoek, rechtsgeding
Care=Zorg, bezorgdheid, zorgdraagendheid, zorgvuldigheid, vlytigheid

Topics: concern , status, leadership

PLAY: Coriolanus
ACT/SCENE: 2.1
SPEAKER: Brutus
CONTEXT:
CORIOLANUS
Know, good mother,
I had rather be their servant in my way,
Than sway with them in theirs.
COMINIUS
On, to the Capitol!
BRUTUS
All tongues speak of him, and the bleared sights
Are spectacled to see him: your prattling nurse
Into a rapture lets her baby cry
While she chats him: the kitchen malkin pins
Her richest lockram ’bout her reechy neck,
Clambering the walls to eye him: stalls, bulks, windows,
Are smother’d up, leads fill’d, and ridges horsed
With variable complexions, all agreeing
In earnestness to see him: seld-shown flamens
Do press among the popular throngs and puff
To win a vulgar station: or veil’d dames
Commit the war of white and damask in
Their nicely-gawded cheeks to the wanton spoil
Of Phoebus’ burning kisses: such a pother
As if that whatsoever god who leads him
Were slily crept into his human powers
And gave him graceful posture.
SICINIUS
On the sudden,
I warrant him consul.

DUTCH:
Van hem spreekt ied’re tong; om hem bebrilt
Zich ieder zwak gezicht; de babbelmin
Snapt altijd door van hem, al schreeuw’ haar zuig’ling
De stuipen zich op ‘t lijf; de keukentrijn
Speldt om haar zwarten hals haar beste lompen
En klimt den muur op;

MORE:
Sway=Rule
Bleared sights=Those with poor sight
Spectacled=Put on spectacles
Chats=Gossips about
Malkin=Woman of the lower classes
Lockram=Coarse fabric
Reechy=Filthy
To eye=To see
Horsed=Straddled
Complexions=Temperaments
Seld-shown=Seldom seen
Flamen=Priest
Phoebus=Apollo (god of many things, including the sun, music, art and poetry)
Pother=Disturbance
Compleat:
To bear sway=Heerschappy voeren
To sway=(govern) Regeeren. To sway the scepter=Den schepter zwaaijen
To blear the sight=Het gezigt verduisteren
Chat=Gekakel, gesnap, gepraat
Malkin=Een bakkers stokdweil
Lockram=Zeker grof doek
Complexion=Aart, gesteltenis, gesteldheid
Pother=Leeven, opschudding

Topics: leadership

PLAY: Othello
ACT/SCENE: 2.3
SPEAKER: Iago
CONTEXT:
IAGO
You see this fellow that is gone before,
He is a soldier fit to stand by Caesar
And give direction. And do but see his vice,
‘Tis to his virtue a just equinox,
The one as long as th’ other. ‘Tis pity of him.
I fear the trust Othello puts him in
On some odd time of his infirmity
Will shake this island.
MONTANO
But is he often thus?
IAGO
‘Tis evermore the prologue to his sleep.
He’ll watch the horologe a double set
If drink rock not his cradle.
MONTANO
It were well
The general were put in mind of it.
Perhaps he sees it not, or his good nature
Prizes the virtue that appears in Cassio
And looks not on his evils. Is not this true?

DUTCH:
Gij zaagt dien jonkman, die ons daar verliet;
Hij is een krijger, waard om nevens Caesar
Bevel te voeren; doch gij ziet zijn fout;
Als aan den eev’naar dag en nacht, zoo zijn
Zijn nachtzijde en zijn deugd gelijk;

MORE:
Just=Exact
Equinox=Counterpart
Odd time=Any point
Evermore=For ever
Prologue to=Precedes
Horologue a double set=Twice around the clock
Prizes=Values
Looks not on=Is blind to
Compleat:
Just=Effen, juist, net
Equinoctal=Gelyknachtig
For ever and ever=In alle eeuwigheyd
Prologue=Voorreeden, inleyding
To prize=Waarderen, achten, schatten, op prys stellen

Topics: leadership, good and bad, virtue, flaw/fault

PLAY: King Henry V
ACT/SCENE: 1.1
SPEAKER: Canterbury
CONTEXT:
Turn him to any cause of policy,
The Gordian knot of it he will unloose
Familiar as his garter; that, when he speaks,
The air, a chartered libertine, is still,
And the mute wonder lurketh in men’s ears
To steal his sweet and honeyed sentences;
So that the art and practic part of life
Must be the mistress to this theoric;
Which is a wonder how his Grace should glean it,
Since his addiction was to courses vain,
His companies unlettered, rude, and shallow,

DUTCH:
Waarlijk, als hij spreekt,
Is zelfs de lucht, de vrije woest’ling, stil,
En stom verbazen loert in ieders oor
Om zijner reed’nen honingzeem te buiten

MORE:

Proverb: To cut the Gordian knot

Courses=Habits, way of life, conduct
Chartered=Privileged
Art=Practical skill (the practic part of life)
Theoric=Theory
Gordian knot: Intricate/complex knot. Reference to Gordius (“De knoop doorhakken” also alludes to the Gordian knot.)

Compleat:
The Gordian knot=de Gordiaansche knoop (doorhakken)

Topics: still in use, proverbs and idioms, custom, leadership

PLAY: Julius Caesar
ACT/SCENE: 5.1
SPEAKER: Brutus
CONTEXT:
BRUTUS
No, Cassius, no. Think not, thou noble Roman,
That ever Brutus will go bound to Rome.
He bears too great a mind. But this same day
Must end that work the ides of March begun.
And whether we shall meet again I know not.
Therefore our everlasting farewell take.
Forever and forever farewell, Cassius.
If we do meet again, why, we shall smile.
If not, why then this parting was well made.
CASSIUS
Forever and forever farewell, Brutus.
If we do meet again, we’ll smile indeed.
If not, ’tis true this parting was well made.

DUTCH:
En of we elkander weerzien, weet ik niet.
Daarom, voor altoos afscheid nu genomen!
Vaar, Cassius, vaar voor eeuwig, eeuwig wel!
Zie ik u weer, met blijden lath zal ‘t zijn;
Zoo niet, dan was dit afscheid welgedaan.

MORE:
Bound=Tied
End=Outcome
Compleat:
Bound=Gebonden, verbonden, verpligt, dienstbaar

Topics: leadership, friendship

PLAY: King Henry VI Part 3
ACT/SCENE: 2.6
SPEAKER: Edward
CONTEXT:
Here burns my candle out; ay, here it dies,
Which, whiles it lasted, gave King Henry light.
O Lancaster, I fear thy overthrow
More than my body’s parting with my soul!
My love and fear glued many friends to thee;
And, now I fall, thy tough commixture melts.
Impairing Henry, strengthening misproud York,
The common people swarm like summer flies;
And whither fly the gnats but to the sun?
And who shines now but Henry’s enemies?
O Phoebus, hadst thou never given consent
That Phaethon should check thy fiery steeds,
Thy burning car never had scorch’d the earth!
And, Henry, hadst thou sway’d as kings should do,
Or as thy father and his father did,
Giving no ground unto the house of York,
They never then had sprung like summer flies;
I and ten thousand in this luckless realm
Had left no mourning widows for our death;
And thou this day hadst kept thy chair in peace.
For what doth cherish weeds but gentle air?

DUTCH:
Maar nu ik val, nu smelt die taaie menging,
Maakt Hendrik zwak, versterkt den driesten York.
Waar vliegen muggen heen, dan in de zon?

MORE:

Proverb: His candle burns within the socket

Commixture=Compound (the ‘glued’ friends)
Misproud=Arrogant, viciously proud (Schmidt)
Phoebus=Apollo
Check=Control
Car=Chariot
Swayed=Governed, ruled
Give ground=Yield, recede
Chair=Throne
Cherish=Encourage (growth)

Compleat:
To keep a check on one=Iemand in den teugel houden
Sway=(power, rule, command) Macht, gezach, heerschappy
To bear sway=Heerschappy voeren
To sway=(govern) Regeeren. To sway the scepter=Den schepter zwaaijen
To cherish=Koesteren, opkweeken, streelen, aankweeken

Topics: proverbs and idioms, uthority, leadership

PLAY: Titus Andronicus
ACT/SCENE: 1.2
SPEAKER: Marcus Andronicus
CONTEXT:
MARCUS ANDRONICUS
And welcome, nephews, from successful wars,
You that survive, and you that sleep in fame!
Fair lords, your fortunes are alike in all,
That in your country’s service drew your swords:
But safer triumph is this funeral pomp,
That hath aspired to Solon’s happiness
And triumphs over chance in honour’s bed.
Titus Andronicus, the people of Rome,
Whose friend in justice thou hast ever been,
Send thee by me, their tribune and their trust,
This palliament of white and spotless hue;
And name thee in election for the empire,
With these our late-deceased emperor’s sons:
Be candidatus then, and put it on,
And help to set a head on headless Rome.

DUTCH:
Wees alzoo candidatus, sla dit om,
En schenk aan ‘t hoofdloos Rome weer een hoofd.

MORE:

Solon=Ancient greek philosopher who said “Call no man happy until he is dead”
Palliament=White robe, here the emperor’s ceremonial robe
Asired=Risen
Candidatus=Latin for candidate for office
Headless=Without a leader
Compleat:
Candidate=Amptverzoeker, mededinger naar een ampt, naastander
Headless=Hoofdeloos

Burgersdijk notes:
Wees alzoo candidatus, d. i. met de witte toga bekleed, waarin zij zich wikkelden, die hij de overheid en het volk naar openbare ambten dongen; het Latijnsche woord beteekent hier dus kroonpretendent. De voorgangers van Sh. spreidden gaarne hunne geleerdheid ten toon en bezigden Latijnsche
en zelfs Grieksche woorden. *) Sh. treedt hier in hun voetstappen en brengt later (Blz. 14, I. 1. 28o) het zeggen „Suum cuique”, „Aan ieder het zijne”, te pas.

Topics: leadership, respect, satisfaction

PLAY: Titus Andronicus
ACT/SCENE: 5.3
SPEAKER: Marcus
CONTEXT:
MARCUS ANDRONICUS
You sad-faced men, people and sons of Rome,
By uproar severed, like a flight of fowl
Scattered by winds and high tempestuous gusts,
O, let me teach you how to knit again
This scattered corn into one mutual sheaf,
These broken limbs again into one body;
Lest Rome herself be bane unto herself,
And she whom mighty kingdoms court’sy to,
Like a forlorn and desperate castaway,
Do shameful execution on herself.
But if my frosty signs and chaps of age,
Grave witnesses of true experience,
Cannot induce you to attend my words,

Speak, Rome’s dear friend, as erst our ancestor,
When with his solemn tongue he did discourse
To love-sick Dido’s sad attending ear
The story of that baleful burning night
When subtle Greeks surprised King Priam’s Troy,
Tell us what Sinon hath bewitched our ears,
Or who hath brought the fatal engine in
That gives our Troy, our Rome, the civil wound.
My heart is not compact of flint nor steel;
Nor can I utter all our bitter grief,
But floods of tears will drown my oratory,
And break my utterance, even in the time
When it should move you to attend me most,
Lending your kind commiseration.
Here is a captain, let him tell the tale;
Your hearts will throb and weep to hear him speak.

DUTCH:
Ontstelde mannen, Romes volk en zonen,
Verstrooid door ‘t oproer als een vogelzwerm,
Dien wind en stormgeloei uiteen doen spatten
Laat mij u leeren, die verspreide halmen
Op nieuw tot éene garve saam te voegen,
Die stukgereten leden tot éen lijf (…)

MORE:
CITED IN US LAW: Re the definition of: “fowl”: State v Davis, 72 NJL 345, 61 A.2 (1905)

Corn=Grain
Mutual=Unified
Bane=Destroyer
Chaps=Cracks, wrinkles
Erst=Erstwhile, former
Dido=Queen of Carthage, abandoned by Aeneas
Sad-attending=Listening seriously
Sinon=Greek soldier who persuaded the Trojans to accept the wooden horse
Fatal=Deadly
Engine=Instrumenet of war
Civil wound=Wound inflicted in a civil war
Compleat:
Corn=Koorn, graan
Mutual=Onderling, wederzyds
Bane=Verderf, vergif
A chap=Een kooper, bieder
Erst=Voorheen
Sad=Droevig
Fatal=Noodlottig, noodschikkelyk, verderflyk, doodelyk
Engine=Een konstwerk, gereedschap, werktuig; Een list, konstgreep§

Topics: cited in law, mercy, remedy, leadership, order/society, conflict

PLAY: Richard III
ACT/SCENE: 5.3
SPEAKER: King Richard III
CONTEXT:
KING RICHARD
Up with my tent!—Here will I lie tonight.
But where tomorrow? Well, all’s one for that.
Who hath descried the number of the traitors?
NORFOLK
Six or seven thousand is their utmost power.
KING RICHARD
Why, our battalia trebles that account.
Besides, the king’s name is a tower of strength
Which they upon the adverse party want.
Up with the tent!—Come, noble gentlemen,
Let us survey the vantage of the ground.
Call for some men of sound direction.
Let’s lack no discipline, make no delay,
For, lords, tomorrow is a busy day.

DUTCH:
Roept een’ge welervaren krijgers saam

MORE:
Descried=Discovered
Battalia=Army
Account=Number
Want=Lack
Vantage of the ground=Vantage point
Sound direction=Used to taking orders
Compleat:
Vantage=Toegift, toemaat, overmaat, overwigt
To descry=Ontdekken, bespeuren
Want=Gebrek, nood
Sound (judicious)=Verstandig, schrander, gegrond

Topics: leadership, conflict, advantage/benefit, life

PLAY: Antony and Cleopatra
ACT/SCENE: 4.8
SPEAKER: Cleopatra
CONTEXT:
ANTONY
We have beat him to his camp. Run one before
And let the Queen know of our gests. Tomorrow,
Before the sun shall see ’s, we’ll spill the blood
That has today escaped. I thank you all,
For doughty-handed are you, and have fought
Not as you served the cause, but as ’t had been
Each man’s like mine. You have shown all Hectors.
Enter the city. Clip your wives, your friends.
Tell them your feats, whilst they with joyful tears
Wash the congealment from your wounds and kiss
The honoured gashes whole.
CLEOPATRA
Lord of lords!
O infinite virtue, com’st thou smiling from
The world’s great snare uncaught?

DUTCH:
Gij held der helden!
O weêrgalooze moed ! Keert gij, zoo lachend
En vrij, van ‘t net des doods?

MORE:
Gests=Deeds
Beat him=Beat him back
Shown all Hectors=Behaved like Hector (known for his valour, Trojan leader in Homer’s Iliad)
Clip=Embrace
Snare=Noose
Compleat:
Gests=Daaden, verrichtingen

Topics: leadership, achievement, virtue

PLAY: Titus Andronicus
ACT/SCENE: 1.1
SPEAKER: Titus Andronicus
CONTEXT:
TITUS
Content thee, prince, I will restore to thee
The people’s hearts, and wean them from themselves.
BASSIANUS
Andronicus, I do not flatter thee,
But honour thee, and will do till I die:
My faction if thou strengthen with thy friends,
I will most thankful be; and thanks to men
Of noble minds is honourable meed.
TITUS ANDRONICUS
People of Rome, and people’s tribunes here,
I ask your voices and your suffrages:
Will you bestow them friendly on Andronicus?
TRIBUNES
To gratify the good Andronicus,
And gratulate his safe return to Rome,
The people will accept whom he admits.

DUTCH:
Wees kalm, mijn prins; de harten van Het volk
Geef ik u weer, die van zichzelf vervreemdend.

MORE:
Content thee=Don’t worry
Meed=Reward
Voices=Support
Suffrages=Votes
Gratulate=Please, gratify
Admit=Acknowledge
Compleat:
To content=Voldoen, te vreede stellen, genoegen geeven
Voice=Stem
Suffrage=Een stem, keurstem
Gratulate=Geluk wenschen, verwelkomen
To admit=Toelaaten, tot zich neenmen, toestaan, inschikken, toegang verleenen

Topics: flattery, respect, leadership, judgment

PLAY: Coriolanus
ACT/SCENE: 2.3
SPEAKER: Coriolanus
CONTEXT:
CORIOLANUS
Most sweet voices!
Better it is to die, better to starve,
Than crave the hire which first we do deserve.
Why in this woolvish gown should I stand here,
To beg of Hob and Dick, that do appear,
Their needless vouches? Custom calls me to’t:
What custom wills, in all things should we do’t,
The dust on antique time would lie unswept,
And mountainous error be too highly heapt
For truth to o’er-peer. Rather than fool it so,
Let the high office and the honour go
To one that would do thus. I am half through;
The one part suffer’d, the other will I do.
Here come more voices.
Your voices: for your voices I have fought;
Watch’d for your voices; for Your voices bear
Of wounds two dozen odd; battles thrice six
I have seen and heard of; for your voices have
Done many things, some less, some more your voices:
Indeed I would be consul.

DUTCH:
Dit wil ‘t gebruik? — Maar deden
Wij alles naar den eisch van oude zeden,
Dan wierd het stof des tijds nooit weggevaagd;
De dwaling wies tot berg, en nimmer waagt
De waarheid dan de slechting

MORE:
Proverb: Custom makes sin no sin

Voices=Votes
Hob and Dick=Tom, Dick and Harry
Vouches=Attestations
Custom=(1) Common use, received order; (2) Habit, regular practice
O’erpeer (archaic definition)=Rise or tower above, overcome, excel.
Compleat:
Voice=Stem, recht van stemmen
To vouch=Staande houden, bewyzen, verzekeren
Custom=Gewoonte, neering
The customary laws of a nation=De gewoone wetten van een Volk
Peer=Gelyk, weergaa

Topics: merit, achievement, status, authority, leadership, proverbs and idioms

PLAY: Twelfth Night
ACT/SCENE: 5.1
SPEAKER: Olivia
CONTEXT:
FABIAN
Good madam, hear me speak,
And let no quarrel nor no brawl to come
Taint the condition of this present hour,
Which I have wonder’d at. In hope it shall not,
Most freely I confess, myself and Toby
Set this device against Malvolio here,
Upon some stubborn and uncourteous parts
We had conceived against him. Maria writ
The letter at Sir Toby’s great importance,
In recompense whereof he hath married her.
How with a sportful malice it was followed,
May rather pluck on laughter than revenge,
If that the injuries be justly weighed
That have on both sides passed.
OLIVIA
Alas, poor fool, how have they baffled thee!
FOOL
Why, “some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrown upon them.” I was one, sir, in this interlude, one Sir Topas, sir, but that’s all one.
“By the Lord, fool, I am not mad.”—But do you remember? “Madam, why laugh you at such a barren rascal; an you smile not, he’s gagged?” and thus the whirligig of time brings in his revenges.
MALVOLIO
I’ll be revenged on the whole pack of you.
OLIVIA
He hath been most notoriously abused.

DUTCH:
Voorwaar, hij is verschrikk’lijk boos gefopt.

MORE:
Taint=Blemish
Uncourteous parts=Uncivil aspects
Condition=Situation
Conceived against=Discerned in
Importance=Importuning
Pluck on=Induce
Baffled=Humiliated
Interlude=Comedy
Whirligig=Spinning top, merry-go-round
Compleat:
To taint (attaint)=Overtuigen van misdaad, schuldig verklaaren, betichten; bevlekken, bederf aanzetten
Attainted=Overtuigd van misdaad, misdaadig verklaard
Uncourteous=Onbeleefd, onheusch
Condition=Staat, gesteltenis. gelegenheyd
Conceive=Bevatten, begrypen, beseffen, zich inbeelden; scheppen
To importune=Lastig vallen, zeer dringen, gestadig aanhouden, overdringen, aandringen
To pluck=Rukken, plukken
To baffle=Beschaamd maaken
Whirligig=Een kinder meulentje of draaitolletje

To taint (attaint)=Overtuigen van misdaad, schuldig verklaaren, betichten; bevlekken, bederf aanzetten

Topics: madness, reputation, leadership, status, honour, conspiracy

PLAY: King Henry IV Part 2
ACT/SCENE: 2.3
SPEAKER: Lady Percy
CONTEXT:
(…) Who then persuaded you to stay at home?
There were two honours lost, yours and your son’s.
For yours, the God of heaven brighten it.
For his, it stuck upon him as the sun
In the grey vault of heaven, and by his light
Did all the chivalry of England move
To do brave acts. He was indeed the glass
Wherein the noble youth did dress themselves.
He had no legs that practiced not his gait;
And speaking thick, which nature made his blemish,
Became the accents of the valiant;
For those that could speak low and tardily
Would turn their own perfection to abuse
To seem like him. So that in speech, in gait,
In diet, in affections of delight,
In military rules, humours of blood,
He was the mark and glass, copy and book,
That fashioned others.

DUTCH:
Ja, hij was de spiegel,
Waar heel de jeugdige adel zich voor tooide.

MORE:
Speaking thick=Speaking fast
Accent=Speech pattern
Glass=Mirror
Affectations of delight=Recreations
Humours of blood=Temperament

Compleat:
Humours of the body=De humeuren van het lichaam
Affectation=Een al te nauwkeurige naaaping, gemaaktheid, waanwysheid; gemaakt

Topics: fashion/trends, honour, leadership

PLAY: Timon of Athens
ACT/SCENE: 1.1
SPEAKER: Poet
CONTEXT:
PAINTER
How shall I understand you?
POET
I will unbolt to you.
You see how all conditions, how all minds,
As well of glib and slippery creatures as
Of grave and austere quality, tender down
Their services to Lord Timon: his large fortune
Upon his good and gracious nature hanging
Subdues and properties to his love and tendance
All sorts of hearts; yea, from the glass-faced flatterer
To Apemantus, that few things loves better
Than to abhor himself: even he drops down
The knee before him, and returns in peace
Most rich in Timon’s nod.

DUTCH:
SCHILDER.
Hoe moet ik u verstaan?
dichter
‘k Wil u den zin ontgrend’len.
Gij ziet, hoe alle standen, alle geesten, —
Zoowel die glad en sluip’rig zijn van ziel
Als strenge en stugge mannen, — allen Timon
Ten dienste willen staan.

MORE:
Unbolt=Unfasten, open (fig. reveal)

Topics: communication, understanding, flattery, respect, leadership

PLAY: Richard II
ACT/SCENE: 5.5
SPEAKER: King Richard II
CONTEXT:
Ha, ha! keep time: how sour sweet music is,
When time is broke and no proportion kept!
So is it in the music of men’s lives.
And here have I the daintiness of ear
To cheque time broke in a disorder’d string;
But for the concord of my state and time
Had not an ear to hear my true time broke.
I wasted time, and now doth time waste me;
For now hath time made me his numbering clock:
My thoughts are minutes; and with sighs they jar
Their watches on unto mine eyes, the outward watch,
Whereto my finger, like a dial’s point,
Is pointing still, in cleansing them from tears.

DUTCH:
Een zoete klank wordt bitter,
Wordt tijd miskend en regelmaat gestoord!

MORE:

CITED IN IRISH LAW: Judicial Review of Administrative Action: the Problem of Remedies (Working Paper No. 8-1979) [1979] IELRC 3 (December 1979) (in turn citing State (Kelly) v. District Justice for Bandon [1947] I.R. 258, 262, and State (Walsh) v. District Justice Maguire (not yet reported, Supreme Court, 19 February 1979)).

Proportion=Metre, cadence
Daintiness of ear=Acuity
Outward watch=The marks of the minutes on a dial-plate
Check=Censure
Concord=Harmony (of sound); agreement
Still=Continuously

Compleat:
Proportion=Evenredigheid, regelmaat
Check=Berisping, beteugeling, intooming
Concord=Eendragt, eendragtigheid, saamensstemming

Topics: cited in law, time, age/experience, leadership, unity/collaboration

PLAY: Coriolanus
ACT/SCENE: 2.1
SPEAKER: Brutus
CONTEXT:
CORIOLANUS
Know, good mother,
I had rather be their servant in my way,
Than sway with them in theirs.
COMINIUS
On, to the Capitol!
BRUTUS
All tongues speak of him, and the bleared sights
Are spectacled to see him: your prattling nurse
Into a rapture lets her baby cry
While she chats him: the kitchen malkin pins
Her richest lockram ’bout her reechy neck,
Clambering the walls to eye him: stalls, bulks, windows,
Are smother’d up, leads fill’d, and ridges horsed
With variable complexions, all agreeing
In earnestness to see him: seld-shown flamens
Do press among the popular throngs and puff
To win a vulgar station: or veil’d dames
Commit the war of white and damask in
Their nicely-gawded cheeks to the wanton spoil
Of Phoebus’ burning kisses: such a pother
As if that whatsoever god who leads him
Were slily crept into his human powers
And gave him graceful posture.
SICINIUS
On the sudden,
I warrant him consul.

DUTCH:
Weet, moeder, liever ben ik
Op mijne wijs hun dienaar, dan met hen
Op hun wijs heerscher.

MORE:
Sway=Rule
Bleared sights=Those with poor sight
Spectacled=Put on spectacles
Chats=Gossips about
Malkin=Woman of the lower classes
Lockram=Coarse fabric
Reechy=Filthy
To eye=To see
Horsed=Straddled
Complexions=Temperaments
Seld-shown=Seldom seen
Flamen=Priest
Phoebus=Apollo (god of many things, including the sun, music, art and poetry)
Pother=Disturbance
Compleat:
To bear sway=Heerschappy voeren
To sway=(govern) Regeeren. To sway the scepter=Den schepter zwaaijen
To blear the sight=Het gezigt verduisteren
Chat=Gekakel, gesnap, gepraat
Malkin=Een bakkers stokdweil
Lockram=Zeker grof doek
Complexion=Aart, gesteltenis, gesteldheid
Pother=Leeven, opschudding

Topics: leadership

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

PLAY: King Henry VI Part 3
ACT/SCENE: 4.1
SPEAKER: Gloucester
CONTEXT:
KING EDWARD IV
My love, forbear to fawn upon their frowns:
What danger or what sorrow can befall thee,
So long as Edward is thy constant friend,
And their true sovereign, whom they must obey?
Nay, whom they shall obey, and love thee too,
Unless they seek for hatred at my hands;
Which if they do, yet will I keep thee safe,
And they shall feel the vengeance of my wrath.
GLOUCESTER
[Aside] I hear, yet say not much, but think the more.

DUTCH:
Ik hoor, doch zeg niet veel; maar denk te meer.

MORE:

Proverb: Though he said little he thought the more

Forbear=Avoid, refrain from
Fawn=Wheedle, act in a servile manner

Compleat:
Forbear=Zich van onthouden
To fawn upon=Vleijen, streelen

Topics: proverbs and idioms, loyalty, leadership

PLAY: Julius Caesar
ACT/SCENE: 3.2
SPEAKER: Antony
CONTEXT:
ANTONY
Good friends, sweet friends! Let me not stir you up
To such a sudden flood of mutiny.
They that have done this deed are honourable.
What private griefs they have, alas, I know not,
That made them do it. They are wise and honourable,
And will, no doubt, with reasons answer you.
I come not, friends, to steal away your hearts.
I am no orator, as Brutus is,
But, as you know me all, a plain blunt man
That love my friend. And that they know full well
That gave me public leave to speak of him.
For I have neither wit nor words nor worth,
Action nor utterance nor the power of speech,
To stir men’s blood. I only speak right on.
I tell you that which you yourselves do know,
Show you sweet Caesar’s wounds, poor poor dumb mouths,
And bid them speak for me. But were I Brutus,
And Brutus Antony, there were an Antony
Would ruffle up your spirits and put a tongue
In every wound of Caesar that should move
The stones of Rome to rise and mutiny.

DUTCH:
lk kom niet, vrienden, om uw hart te stelen;
lk ben geen reed’naar, zooals Brutus is;
Slechts, daarvoor kent gij mij , een boersch, rond man,
Mijn vriend getrouw ; dit wisten zij zeer goed,
Die mij vergunden hier van hem to spreken.
Ik heb geen woorden, wijsheid, geen gewicht,
Noch kunst, noch voordracht, noch de macht der taal,
Om ‘s menschen bloed te prikk’len, spreek eenvoudig,
Zeg enkel wat gijzelf wel weet.

MORE:
The “Nervii,” or Nervians, were a Belgian tribe whom Caesar defeated in battle in 57 BC

Stir up=Incite
Flood=Surge
Griefs=Grievances
Plain=Plain-speaking
Public leave to speak=Permission to speak privately
Words=Vocabulary
Worth=Authority
Right on=What I think
Utterance=Delivery
Ruffle up=Enrage
Compleat:
To stir up=Gaande maaken, verwekken, opwekken, aanprikkelen
To stir up to anger=Tot toorn verwekken
Grievance=Bezwaarenis
Plain=Vlak, effen, klaar, duydelyk, slecht, eenvoudig, oprecht
Vocabulary=Een klein woordenboek
Utterance=Uytspraak; aftrek, vertier

Topics: language, persuasion, leadership

PLAY: Richard II
ACT/SCENE: 5.5
SPEAKER: King Richard II
CONTEXT:
Ha, ha! keep time: how sour sweet music is,
When time is broke and no proportion kept!
So is it in the music of men’s lives.
And here have I the daintiness of ear
To cheque time broke in a disorder’d string;
But for the concord of my state and time
Had not an ear to hear my true time broke.
I wasted time, and now doth time waste me;
For now hath time made me his numbering clock:
My thoughts are minutes; and with sighs they jar
Their watches on unto mine eyes, the outward watch,
Whereto my finger, like a dial’s point,
Is pointing still, in cleansing them from tears.

DUTCH:
Doch voor den welstand van mijn staat en tijd
Had ik geen oor, al was de maat verbroken.
‘k Verdeed mijn tijd, nu doet de tijd het mij;

MORE:

CITED IN IRISH LAW: Judicial Review of Administrative Action: the Problem of Remedies (Working Paper No. 8-1979) [1979] IELRC 3 (December 1979) (in turn citing State (Kelly) v. District Justice for Bandon [1947] I.R. 258, 262, and State (Walsh) v. District Justice Maguire (not yet reported, Supreme Court, 19 February 1979)).

Proportion=Metre, cadence
Daintiness of ear=Acuity
Outward watch=The marks of the minutes on a dial-plate
Check=Censure
Concord=Harmony (of sound); agreement
Still=Continuously

Compleat:
Proportion=Evenredigheid, regelmaat
Check=Berisping, beteugeling, intooming
Concord=Eendragt, eendragtigheid, saamensstemming

Topics: cited in law, time, age/experience, leadership, unity/collaboration

PLAY: King Henry VIII
ACT/SCENE: 1.2
SPEAKER: Queen Katherine
CONTEXT:
QUEEN KATHERINE
I am much too venturous
In tempting of your patience; but am bolden’d
Under your promised pardon. The subjects’ grief
Comes through commissions, which compel from each
The sixth part of his substance, to be levied
Without delay; and the pretence for this
Is named, your wars in France: this makes bold mouths:
Tongues spit their duties out, and cold hearts freeze
Allegiance in them; their curses now
Live where their prayers did: and it’s come to pass,
This tractable obedience is a slave
To each incensed will. I would your highness
Would give it quick consideration, for
There is no primer business.

DUTCH:
O, mocht uw hoogheid
Dit daad’lijk willen overwegen, want
Geen zaak is sterker dringend!

MORE:
Venturous=Daring
Commissions=Taxes, instructions to impose tax
Grief=Complaints, grievances
Substance=Assets, wealth
Spit=Tongues spit out: Refuse with disrespectful language
Tractable=Compliant
Primer=More significant
Compleat:
Venturous=Ligtwaagend, stout
Commission=Last, volmagt, lastbrief, provisie
Grievance=Bezwaarenis
Substance=Zelfsandigheyd; bezit
Spit out=Uytspuuwen
Tractable=Handelbaar, leenig, buygzaam, zachtzinnnig
Prime=Eerste, voornaamste

Topics: loyalty, language, order/society, leadership

PLAY: Richard III
ACT/SCENE: 5.3
SPEAKER: Richmond
CONTEXT:
RICHMOND
Why, then ’tis time to arm and give direction.
More than I have said, loving countrymen,
The leisure and enforcement of the time
Forbids to dwell upon. Yet remember this:
God and our good cause fight upon our side.
The prayers of holy saints and wrongèd souls,
Like high-reared bulwarks, stand before our faces.
Richard except, those whom we fight against
Had rather have us win than him they follow.
For what is he they follow? Truly, gentlemen,
A bloody tyrant and a homicide;
One raised in blood, and one in blood established;
One that made means to come by what he hath,
And slaughtered those that were the means to help him;
A base foul stone, made precious by the foil
Of England’s chair, where he is falsely set;
One that hath ever been God’s enemy.
Then if you fight against God’s enemy,
God will, in justice, ward you as his soldiers.
If you do sweat to put a tyrant down,
You sleep in peace, the tyrant being slain.
If you do fight against your country’s foes,
Your country’s fat shall pay your pains the hire.
If you do fight in safeguard of your wives,
Your wives shall welcome home the conquerors.
If you do free your children from the sword,
Your children’s children quits it in your age.
Then, in the name of God and all these rights,
Advance your standards. Draw your willing swords.
For me, the ransom of my bold attempt
Shall be this cold corpse on the earth’s cold face;
But if I thrive, the gain of my attempt
The least of you shall share his part thereof.
Sound drums and trumpets boldly and cheerfully;
God and Saint George! Richmond and victory!

DUTCH:
Behoedt gij uwe kind’ren voor het zwaard,
Uw grijsheid loonen ‘t uwer kind’ren kind’ren .

MORE:
Bulwarks=Ramparts
Raised=Came to the throne
Ward=Protect
Fat=Surfeit
Thrive=Succeed
Compleat:
Bulwark=Bolwerk
To ward=Bewaaren, de wacht hebben, op de wacht zyn
To ward off=Afweeren
To thrive=Voorspoedig zyn, tyk worden, wel tieren, bedyen

Topics: leadership, fate/destiny, life, justice, manipulation

PLAY: Antony and Cleopatra
ACT/SCENE: 1.4
SPEAKER: Caesar
CONTEXT:
FIRST MESSENGER
Thy biddings have been done, and every hour,
Most noble Caesar, shalt thou have report
How ’tis abroad. Pompey is strong at sea,
And it appears he is beloved of those
That only have feared Caesar. To the ports
The discontents repair, and men’s reports
Give him much wronged.
CAESAR
I should have known no less.
It hath been taught us from the primal state
That he which is was wished until he were,
And the ebbed man, ne’er loved till ne’er worth love,
Comes deared by being lacked. This common body,
Like to a vagabond flag upon the stream,
Goes to and back, lackeying the varying tide
To rot itself with motion.

DUTCH:
O, dit kon ik wachten.
Van de’ oudsten tijd af weten wij ‘t: wie klimt,
Hem hangt, zoolang hij klimt, de wereld aan;
Wie valt en, eer hij niets was, nooit geliefd werd,
Hem schat men om ‘t gemis.

MORE:
Proverb: He will be missed when he is gone

Biddings=Orders
Discontents=Malcontents
Give him=Say he is
State=Government
Deared=Valued
Common body=Common people, plebeians
Vagabond flag=Drifting leaf, iris
Compleat:
Bidding=Gebieding, noodiging
To bid=Gebieden, beveelen, belasten, heeten, noodigen, bieden
A discontent=Een misnoegde
The common people=’t Gemeene Volk
Vagabond=Een landlooper, schooijer, zwerver

Topics: proverbs and idioms, value, leadership

PLAY: Titus Andronicus
ACT/SCENE: 1.1
SPEAKER: Bassianus
CONTEXT:
SATURNINUS
Noble patricians, patrons of my right,
Defend the justice of my cause with arms,
And, countrymen, my loving followers,
Plead my successive title with your swords:
I am his first-born son, that was the last
That wore the imperial diadem of Rome;
Then let my father’s honours live in me,
Nor wrong mine age with this indignity.
BASSIANUS
Romans, friends, followers, favourers of my right,
If ever Bassianus, Caesar’s son,
Were gracious in the eyes of royal Rome,
Keep then this passage to the Capitol
And suffer not dishonour to approach
The imperial seat, to virtue consecrate,
To justice, continence and nobility;
But let desert in pure election shine,
And, Romans, fight for freedom in your choice

DUTCH:
En duldt niet, dat onwaardigheid den zetel
Des keizers nader’, die aan kloekheid, recht,
Gematigdheid en adel is gewijd;
Maar laat verdienste schitt’ren door uw oordeel,
En vecht, Romeinen, voor uw vrije keus.

MORE:
Patricians=Followers (Senators represented the patrician class, the Tribunes represented the plebeian class)
Patrons=Supporters
Successive title=Right to succeed
Age=Seniority
Indignity=Being passed over
Gracious=Acceptable
Keep=Guard
Dishonour=Disgrace
Pure election=Free choice
Compleat
Patrician=Een Roomsch Edelling
Patron=Een voorstander, beschermheer, schutheer, begeever van een Predikants plaats, Patroon
Successive=Achtervolgend
Succession=Achtervoling, erfnaavolging, volgreeks, naazaatschap
Gracious=Genadig, genadenryk, aangenaam, lieftallig, gunstig
Keep=Houden, bewaaren, behouden
Dishonour=Onteeren, schande aandoen

Burgersdijk notes:
Mijn voorrang. In ‘t Engelseh staat age, waarmede Saturninus bedoelt, dat hij ouder is dan Bassianus en naar het recht van eerstgeboorte den voorrang moet hebben. — Als Bassianus zich, twee regels verder, Cesars zoon noemt, bedenke men, dat alle keizers den naam van Cisar droegen; hij wil den weg naar het kapitool bezet houden, opdat de Romeinen zich niet aan het eerstgeboorterecht behoefden te onderwerpen, maar vrij konden kiezen; Bassianus meent door zijne verdiensten meer aanspraak te hebben op den troon.

Topics: claim, reputation, merit, leadership, legacy

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

PLAY: King Henry VI Part 2
ACT/SCENE: 5.1
SPEAKER: York
CONTEXT:
From Ireland thus comes York to claim his right
And pluck the crown from feeble Henry’s head.
Ring, bells, aloud! Burn, bonfires, clear and bright
To entertain great England’s lawful king!
Ah, sancta maiestas, who would not buy thee dear?
Let them obey that knows not how to rule.
This hand was made to handle naught but gold.
I cannot give due action to my words
Except a sword or scepter balance it.
A scepter shall it have, have I a soul,
On which I’ll toss the fleur-de-luce of France.

DUTCH:
Sancta majestas! wie kocht u niet duur?
Dat hij gehoorzaam’, die niet heerschen kan

MORE:

Sancta maiestas=Sacred majesty
Except=Unless
Balance=Add weight to
“Flower-de-luce”=”Fleur-de-lis”

Compleat:
Except=Behalve, uitgezonderd, uitgenomen, uitgezegd
Ballance=Opweegen
“Flower-de-luce”=Fransche lely

Topics: leadership, respect, authority

PLAY: Richard III
ACT/SCENE: 5.3
SPEAKER: King Richard III
CONTEXT:
KING RICHARD
Up with my tent!—Here will I lie tonight.
But where tomorrow? Well, all’s one for that.
Who hath descried the number of the traitors?
NORFOLK
Six or seven thousand is their utmost power.
KING RICHARD
Why, our battalia trebles that account.
Besides, the king’s name is a tower of strength
Which they upon the adverse party want.
Up with the tent!—Come, noble gentlemen,
Let us survey the vantage of the ground.
Call for some men of sound direction.
Let’s lack no discipline, make no delay,
For, lords, tomorrow is a busy day.

DUTCH:
Een deeg’lijk plan beraamd en ras gehandeld,
Want morgen, heeren, wordt een heete dag.

MORE:
Descried=Discovered
Battalia=Army
Account=Number
Want=Lack
Vantage of the ground=Vantage point
Sound direction=Used to taking orders
Compleat:
Vantage=Toegift, toemaat, overmaat, overwigt
To descry=Ontdekken, bespeuren
Want=Gebrek, nood
Sound (judicious)=Verstandig, schrander, gegrond

Topics: leadership, conflict, advantage/benefit, life

PLAY: Coriolanus
ACT/SCENE: 3.1
SPEAKER: Coriolanus
CONTEXT:
CORIOLANUS
‘Shall’!
O good but most unwise patricians! why,
You grave but reckless senators, have you thus
Given Hydra here to choose an officer,
That with his peremptory ‘shall,’ being but
The horn and noise o’ the monster’s, wants not spirit
To say he’ll turn your current in a ditch,
And make your channel his? If he have power
Then vail your ignorance; if none, awake
Your dangerous lenity. If you are learn’d,
Be not as common fools; if you are not,
Let them have cushions by you. You are plebeians,
If they be senators: and they are no less,
When, both your voices blended, the great’st taste
Most palates theirs. They choose their magistrate,
And such a one as he, who puts his ‘shall,’
His popular ‘shall’ against a graver bench
Than ever frown in Greece. By Jove himself!
It makes the consuls base: and my soul aches
To know, when two authorities are up,
Neither supreme, how soon confusion
May enter ‘twixt the gap of both and take
The one by the other.

DUTCH:
O goede, doch kortzichtige adel! achtb’re,
Doch achtelooze senatoren, ziet!
Waarom schonkt ge aan de Hydra hier de keus
Eens ambt’naars,

MORE:
Proverb: As many heads as Hydra
Proverb: Experience is the mistress of fools

The horn and noise=Reference to Triton earlier
Vail your ignorance=”If this man has power, let the ignorance that gave it him vail or bow down before him” (Johnson)
Awake your dangerous lenity=Shake your out of your tolerant attitude
Ignorance=Want of experience and skill, the state of not knowing what to do or how to behave; fault ignorantly committed
Vail=To lower, let fall (From M.English ‘avalen’, French ‘avaler’). (See Taming of the Shrew 5.2, ‘vail your stomacks’, i.e. pride; )
Palate=Taste (Most please the plebeians – popular opinion)
Peremptory=Absolute, positive, so as to cut off all further debate
Hydra=Fig. the multitude
Given=Allowed
Up=On foot, in action
Compleat:
To vail his bonnet to one=Den hoed voor iemand afligten
That won’t fit his palate=Dat zal zyn smaak niet weezen; dt zal met zyn smaak niet overeenkomen
It doth not please my palate=Het smaakt my niet; ik heb er geen smaak in’; ‘t mondt my niet.
Peremptory=Volstrekt, uitvoerig, volkomen, uiteindig

Topics: authority, proverbs and idioms, leadership

PLAY: Titus Andronicus
ACT/SCENE: 5.3
SPEAKER: Marcus Andronicus
CONTEXT:
MARCUS ANDRONICUS
You sad-faced men, people and sons of Rome,
By uproar severed, like a flight of fowl
Scattered by winds and high tempestuous gusts,
O, let me teach you how to knit again
This scattered corn into one mutual sheaf,
These broken limbs again into one body;
Lest Rome herself be bane unto herself,
And she whom mighty kingdoms court’sy to,
Like a forlorn and desperate castaway,
Do shameful execution on herself.
But if my frosty signs and chaps of age,
Grave witnesses of true experience,
Cannot induce you to attend my words,

Speak, Rome’s dear friend, as erst our ancestor,
When with his solemn tongue he did discourse
To love-sick Dido’s sad attending ear
The story of that baleful burning night
When subtle Greeks surprised King Priam’s Troy,
Tell us what Sinon hath bewitched our ears,
Or who hath brought the fatal engine in
That gives our Troy, our Rome, the civil wound.
My heart is not compact of flint nor steel;
Nor can I utter all our bitter grief,
But floods of tears will drown my oratory,
And break my utterance, even in the time
When it should move you to attend me most,
Lending your kind commiseration.
Here is a captain, let him tell the tale;
Your hearts will throb and weep to hear him speak.

DUTCH:
Ontstelde mannen, Romes volk en zonen,
Verstrooid door ‘t oproer als een vogelzwerm,
Dien wind en stormgeloei uiteen doen spatten
Laat mij u leeren, die verspreide halmen
Op nieuw tot éene garve saam te voegen,
Die stukgereten leden tot éen lijf (…)

MORE:
CITED IN US LAW: Re the definition of: “fowl”: State v Davis, 72 NJL 345, 61 A.2 (1905)

Corn=Grain
Mutual=Unified
Bane=Destroyer
Chaps=Cracks, wrinkles
Erst=Erstwhile, former
Dido=Queen of Carthage, abandoned by Aeneas
Sad-attending=Listening seriously
Sinon=Greek soldier who persuaded the Trojans to accept the wooden horse
Fatal=Deadly
Engine=Instrumenet of war
Civil wound=Wound inflicted in a civil war
Compleat:
Corn=Koorn, graan
Mutual=Onderling, wederzyds
Bane=Verderf, vergif
A chap=Een kooper, bieder
Erst=Voorheen
Sad=Droevig
Fatal=Noodlottig, noodschikkelyk, verderflyk, doodelyk
Engine=Een konstwerk, gereedschap, werktuig; Een list, konstgreep§

Topics: cited in law, mercy, remedy, leadership, order/society, conflict

PLAY: Antony and Cleopatra
ACT/SCENE: 3.11
SPEAKER: Antony
CONTEXT:
ANTONY
I have fled myself, and have instructed cowards
To run and show their shoulders. Friends, begone.
I have myself resolved upon a course
Which has no need of you. Begone.
My treasure’s in the harbour. Take it. Oh,
I followed that I blush to look upon!
My very hairs do mutiny, for the white
Reprove the brown for rashness, and they them
For fear and doting. Friends, begone. You shall
Have letters from me to some friends that will
Sweep your way for you. Pray you, look not sad,
Nor make replies of loathness. Take the hint
Which my despair proclaims. Let that be left
Which leaves itself. To the seaside straightway!
I will possess you of that ship and treasure.
Leave me, I pray, a little. Pray you now,
Nay, do so, for indeed I have lost command.
Therefore I pray you. I’ll see you by and by.

DUTCH:
Maar ‘k bid u, laat me een wijl alleen; ik bid u; —
Ach gaat! voorwaar, ik kan niet meer bevelen,
En daarom smeek ik. — Daad’lijk kom ik tot u.

MORE:
Show their shoulders=Turn their backs (run away)
Resolved upon=Decided on
Sweep=Clear
Loathness=Reluctance
Hint=Cue
Leaves=Ceases to be
Command=Authority to command
Compleat:
Resolve (deliberation, decision)=Beraad, beslissing, uitsluitsel
Sweep=Veegen
To loath=Walgen, tegenstaan, verfoeijen
Hint=Een leus, waarschouwing, indachtigmaaking, stille gewagmaaking
Command=Bevel, gebied

Topics: courage, age/experience, leadership

PLAY: Twelfth Night
ACT/SCENE: 2.5
SPEAKER: Malvolio
CONTEXT:
MALVOLIO
“M.O.A.I.” This simulation is not as the former, and
yet to crush this a little, it would bow to me, for
every one of these letters are in my name. Soft, here
follows prose.
[reads]“If this fall into thy hand, revolve. In my stars I am
above thee, but be not afraid of greatness. Some are
born great, some achieve greatness, and some have
greatness thrust upon ’em. Thy Fates open their hands.
Let thy blood and spirit embrace them. And, to inure
thyself to what thou art like to be, cast thy humble
slough and appear fresh. Be opposite with a kinsman,
surly with servants. Let thy tongue tang arguments of
state. Put thyself into the trick of singularity. She
thus advises thee that sighs for thee. Remember who
commended thy yellow stockings and wished to see thee
ever cross-gartered. I say, remember. Go to, thou art
made, if thou desir’st to be so; if not, let me see thee
a steward still, the fellow of servants, and not worthy
to touch Fortune’s fingers. Farewell. She that would
alter services with thee,
The Fortunate Unhappy”
Daylight and champaign discovers not more. This is
open. I will be proud, I will read politic authors, I
will baffle Sir Toby, I will wash off gross
acquaintance, I will be point- devise the very man. I do
not now fool myself, to let imagination jade me, for
every reason excites to this, that my lady loves me. She
did commend my yellow stockings of late, she did praise
my leg being cross-gartered, and in this she manifests
herself to my love, and with a kind of injunction,
drives me to these habits of her liking. I thank my
stars I am happy. I will be strange, stout, in yellow
stockings, and cross-gartered, even with the swiftness
of putting on. Jove and my stars be praised! Here is yet
a postscript.
[reads]“Thou canst not choose but know who I am. If thou
entertainest my love, let it appear in thy smiling. Thy
smiles become thee well. Therefore in my presence still
smile, dear my sweet, I prithee.”
Jove, I thank thee! I will smile. I will do everything
that thou wilt have me.

DUTCH:
Mijn gesternte heeft mij boven u verheven, maar wees niet schroomhartig voor grootheid; sommigen worden groot geboren, anderen worden groot door inspanning, aan enkelen wordt de grootheid in den schoot geworpen.

MORE:
Proverb: To wear yellow stockings and cross garters

Simulation=Disguise, puzzle
Crush=Force
Bow=Yield
Revolve=Consider, reflect
Stars=Fortunes
Inure=Accustom
Like=Likely
Slough=Cast off, like a snake’s skin
Opposite=Openly hostile
Tang=Announce loudly
Arguments of state=Important political topics
Into the trick of=Make a habit of
Singularity=Originality, uniqueness
Cross-gartered=Laces tied up the leg
Fellow=Companion
Alter services=Change places
Compleat:
Simulation=Veinzing, bewimpeling
Crush=Pletteren, kneuzen, verbryzelen, pla duurwen, neerdrukken; verderven, ‘t onderbrengen
Bow=Buigen, bukken
Revolve=Overleggen, overdenken, omwentelen, ontuimelen
To inure=Gewennen, verharden, hard worden, vereelten
Like=Waarschynelyk, verkoedelyk
Slough (cast skin of a sname)=De oude huid die een slang afgeworpen heeft
Opposite=Tegen over, tegenstrydig
Tang=Kwaade smaak
Singularity=(uncommonness, excellence) Zeldzaamheid, uitmuntendheid; (affected way of being particular) Eigenzinnigheid, vreemdheid
Gartered=Gekouseband
Fellow=Medegezel

Topics: proverbs and idioms, custom, leadership, fate/destiny/achievement

PLAY: Timon of Athens
ACT/SCENE: 4.3
SPEAKER: Timon
CONTEXT:
TIMON
Rogue, rogue, rogue!
I am sick of this false world, and will love nought
But even the mere necessities upon ‘t.
Then, Timon, presently prepare thy grave;
Lie where the light foam the sea may beat
Thy grave-stone daily: make thine epitaph,
That death in me at others’ lives may laugh.
O thou sweet king-killer, and dear divorce
‘Twixt natural son and sire! thou bright defiler
Of Hymen’s purest bed! thou valiant Mars!
Thou ever young, fresh, loved and delicate wooer,
Whose blush doth thaw the consecrated snow
That lies on Dian’s lap! thou visible god,
That solder’st close impossibilities,
And makest them kiss! that speak’st with
every tongue,
To every purpose! O thou touch of hearts!
Think, thy slave man rebels, and by thy virtue
Set them into confounding odds, that beasts
May have the world in empire!

DUTCH:
Gij, die onmooglijkheden samenwelt,
Ten kus vereent! die spreekt met ied’re tong,
Tot ieder doel! gij toetssteen van de harten!

MORE:
Even the mere=The most basic
Solder=Fuse
Impossibilities=Things that cannot be joined
With every tongue=In every language
Touch of hearts=Touchstone; wounder of hearts
Compleat:
To solder=Soudeeren
The gift of tongues=De gaave der taale
To speak several tongues=Verscheiden taalen spreeken

Topics: value, truth, language, communication, leadership

PLAY: Richard III
ACT/SCENE: 2.2
SPEAKER: Richard, Duke of Gloucester
CONTEXT:
DUCHESS
God bless thee, and put meekness in thy breast,
Love, charity, obedience, and true duty.
RICHARD
[standing] Amen. [aside] And make me die a good old
man!
That is the butt end of a mother’s blessing;
I marvel that her Grace did leave it out.
BUCKINGHAM
You cloudy princes and heart-sorrowing peers
That bear this heavy mutual load of moan,
Now cheer each other in each other’s love.
Though we have spent our harvest of this king,
We are to reap the harvest of his son.
The broken rancour of your high-swoll’n hates,
But lately splintered, knit, and joined together,
Must gently be preserved, cherished, and kept.
Meseemeth good that with some little train
Forthwith from Ludlow the young prince be fet
Hither to London, to be crowned our king.

DUTCH:
De tweespalt uwer hooggezwollen harten,
Zoo kortlings eerst gezet, gespalkt, verbonden,
Vereischt een teed’re zorg, verpleging, hoede.

MORE:
Cloudy=Gloomy
Mutual=Common
Load=Weight
Moan=Sorry
Knit=Repaired
But lately=Only recently
Meseemeth=I tseems to me
Train=Group, entourage
Fet=Fetched
Estate=Government
Compleat:
Cloudy=Wolkig, betoogen
Mutual=Onderling, wederzyds
Load=Laading, last, vracht
Moan or make a moan=Een geklag maaken, jammeren
To knit together=t’Zamenknoopen
Knit together=Verknocht, t’zamengeknoopt
Lately=Onlangs, kortelings
I only perceived it now of late=Ik heb ‘t nu onlangs maar eerst bemerkt
Train, retinue attendance.=Gestoet
A retinue of attendance=Een sleep van knechten
Estate=Staat, middelen

Topics: leadership, conflict, order/society, resolution, relationship

PLAY: King Henry VI Part 3
ACT/SCENE: 2.6
SPEAKER: King Henry VI
CONTEXT:
Here burns my candle out; ay, here it dies,
Which, whiles it lasted, gave King Henry light.
O Lancaster, I fear thy overthrow
More than my body’s parting with my soul!
My love and fear glued many friends to thee;
And, now I fall, thy tough commixture melts.
Impairing Henry, strengthening misproud York,
The common people swarm like summer flies;
And whither fly the gnats but to the sun?
And who shines now but Henry’s enemies?
O Phoebus, hadst thou never given consent
That Phaethon should check thy fiery steeds,
Thy burning car never had scorch’d the earth!
And, Henry, hadst thou sway’d as kings should do,
Or as thy father and his father did,
Giving no ground unto the house of York,
They never then had sprung like summer flies;
I and ten thousand in this luckless realm
Had left no mourning widows for our death;
And thou this day hadst kept thy chair in peace.
For what doth cherish weeds but gentle air?

DUTCH:
Maar nu ik val, nu smelt die taaie menging,
Maakt Hendrik zwak, versterkt den driesten York.
Waar vliegen muggen heen, dan in de zon?

MORE:

Proverb: His candle burns within the socket

Commixture=Compound (the ‘glued’ friends)
Misproud=Arrogant, viciously proud (Schmidt)
Phoebus=Apollo
Check=Control
Car=Chariot
Swayed=Governed, ruled
Give ground=Yield, recede
Chair=Throne
Cherish=Encourage (growth)

Compleat:
To keep a check on one=Iemand in den teugel houden
Sway=(power, rule, command) Macht, gezach, heerschappy
To bear sway=Heerschappy voeren
To sway=(govern) Regeeren. To sway the scepter=Den schepter zwaaijen
To cherish=Koesteren, opkweeken, streelen, aankweeken

Topics: leadership, rivalry, friendship, loyalty, proverbs and idioms

PLAY: Coriolanus
ACT/SCENE: 2.3
SPEAKER: Sicinius
CONTEXT:
MENENIUS
You have stood your limitation; and the tribunes
Endue you with the people’s voice: remains
That, in the official marks invested, you
Anon do meet the senate.
CORIOLANUS
Is this done?
SICINIUS
The custom of request you have discharged:
The people do admit you, and are summon’d
To meet anon, upon your approbation.
CORIOLANUS
Where? at the senate-house?
SICINIUS
There, Coriolanus.
CORIOLANUS
May I change these garments?
SICINIUS
You may, sir.

DUTCH:
t Gebruik van stemmen vragen had zijn eisch;
Het volk geeft u zijn ja, en komt dra saam,
Waar ‘t van zijn keus getuigt en u bekrachtigt.

MORE:
Limitation=Allotted time
Endue=Endow
Voice=Vote
Official marks=Insignia of office
Anon=Immediately
Compleat:
Limitation=Eene bepaaling, afpaaling
To endue=Aandoen, begaaven
Voice=Stem, recht van stemmen
Anon=Daadelyk, straks, aanstonds

Topics: order/status, authority, leadership, duty

PLAY: Coriolanus
ACT/SCENE: 2.3
SPEAKER: Coriolanus
CONTEXT:
CORIOLANUS
Most sweet voices!
Better it is to die, better to starve,
Than crave the hire which first we do deserve.
Why in this woolvish gown should I stand here,
To beg of Hob and Dick, that do appear,
Their needless vouches? Custom calls me to’t:
What custom wills, in all things should we do’t,
The dust on antique time would lie unswept,
And mountainous error be too highly heapt
For truth to o’er-peer. Rather than fool it so,
Let the high office and the honour go
To one that would do thus. I am half through;
The one part suffer’d, the other will I do.
Here come more voices.
Your voices: for your voices I have fought;
Watch’d for your voices; for Your voices bear
Of wounds two dozen odd; battles thrice six
I have seen and heard of; for your voices have
Done many things, some less, some more your voices:
Indeed I would be consul.

DUTCH:
Dit wil ‘t gebruik? — Maar deden
Wij alles naar den eisch van oude zeden,
Dan wierd het stof des tijds nooit weggevaagd;
De dwaling wies tot berg, en nimmer waagt
De waarheid dan de slechting

MORE:
Proverb: Custom makes sin no sin

Voices=Votes
Hob and Dick=Tom, Dick and Harry
Vouches=Attestations
Custom=(1) Common use, received order; (2) Habit, regular practice
O’erpeer (archaic definition)=Rise or tower above, overcome, excel.
Compleat:
Voice=Stem, recht van stemmen
To vouch=Staande houden, bewyzen, verzekeren
Custom=Gewoonte, neering
The customary laws of a nation=De gewoone wetten van een Volk
Peer=Gelyk, weergaa

Topics: merit, achievement, status, authority, leadership, proverbs and idioms

PLAY: Richard III
ACT/SCENE: 2.2
SPEAKER: Buckingham
CONTEXT:
BUCKINGHAM
You cloudy princes and heart-sorrowing peers
That bear this heavy mutual load of moan,
Now cheer each other in each other’s love.
Though we have spent our harvest of this king,
We are to reap the harvest of his son.
The broken rancour of your high-swoll’n hates,
But lately splintered, knit, and joined together,
Must gently be preserved, cherished, and kept.
Meseemeth good that with some little train
Forthwith from Ludlow the young prince be fet
Hither to London, to be crowned our king.
RIVERS
Why “with some little train,” my Lord of Buckingham?
BUCKINGHAM
Marry, my lord, lest by a multitude
The new-healed wound of malice should break out,
Which would be so much the more dangerous
By how much the estate is green and yet ungoverned.
Where every horse bears his commanding rein
And may direct his course as please himself,
As well the fear of harm as harm apparent,
In my opinion, ought to be prevented.
RICHARD
I hope the king made peace with all of us;
And the compact is firm and true in me.

DUTCH:
Opdat, mylord, niet door een grooten stoet
De pas geheelde wond des haats zich oop’ne;
Wat des te meer gevaarlijk wezen zou,
Daar alles groen is en nog leiding mist.

MORE:
Cloudy=Gloomy
Mutual=Common
Load=Weight
Moan=Sorry
Knit=Repaired
But lately=Only recently
Meseemeth=I tseems to me
Train=Group, entourage
Fet=Fetched
Estate=Government
Compleat:
Cloudy=Wolkig, betoogen
Mutual=Onderling, wederzyds
Load=Laading, last, vracht
Moan or make a moan=Een geklag maaken, jammeren
To knit together=t’Zamenknoopen
Knit together=Verknocht, t’zamengeknoopt
Lately=Onlangs, kortelings
I only perceived it now of late=Ik heb ‘t nu onlangs maar eerst bemerkt
Train, retinue attendance.=Gestoet
A retinue of attendance=Een sleep van knechten
Estate=Staat, middelen

Topics: leadership, conflict, order/society, resolution, relationship

PLAY: Coriolanus
ACT/SCENE: 2.3
SPEAKER: First Citizen
CONTEXT:
CORIOLANUS
No, sir,’twas never my desire yet to trouble the
poor with begging.
THIRD CITIZEN
You must think, if we give you any thing, we hope to
gain by you.
CORIOLANUS
Well then, I pray, your price o’ the consulship?
FIRST CITIZEN
The price is to ask it kindly.
CORIOLANUS
Kindly! Sir, I pray, let me ha’t: I have wounds to
show you, which shall be yours in private. Your
good voice, sir; what say you?
SECOND CITIZEN
You shall ha’ it, worthy sir.
CORIOLANUS
A match, sir. There’s in all two worthy voices
begged. I have your alms: adieu.

DUTCH:
De prijs is, dat gij vriendlijk er om vraagt.

MORE:
Consulship=Position of consul
A match=Agreement, compact, bargain
Compleat:
Match (or bargain)=Koop, onderhandeling, overeenstemming
Consulship=Consulaat, consulschap

Topics: poverty and wealth, promise, leadership, merit, civility

PLAY: Troilus and Cressida
ACT/SCENE: 2.3
SPEAKER: Nestor
CONTEXT:
NESTOR
Then will Ajax lack matter, if he have lost his
argument.
ULYSSES
No, you see, he is his argument that has his
argument, Achilles.
NESTOR
All the better; their fraction is more our wish than
their faction: but it was a strong composure a fool
could disunite.
ULYSSES
The amity that wisdom knits not, folly may easily
untie. Here comes Patroclus.

DUTCH:
Des te beter; hun tweedracht is meer onze wensch
dan hun eendracht; maar dat was een sterke band, dien
een nar verbreken kon!

MORE:
Matter=Substance, something to say
He is his argument that has his argument=The Achillean argument (endless, insuperable). Subject becomes object and the reverse.
Argument=Theme, subject
Fraction=Division
Faction=Union, alliance
Amity=Understanding, friendship
Compleat:
Matter=Stoffe, zaak, oorzaak
Argument=Bewys, bewysreden, dringreden; kort begrip der zaak die te bewyzen staat; inhoud
Fraction=Breeking; (quarrel)=Krakeel
Faction=Samenrotting, saamenspanning, oproerige party, rot, aanhang, partyschap, verdeeldheid
Amity=Vrindschap, vreede, eendracht

Topics: leadership, status, authority, manipulation

PLAY: Troilus and Cressida
ACT/SCENE: 1.3
SPEAKER: Nestor
CONTEXT:
NESTOR
Yes, ’tis most meet: whom may you else oppose,
That can from Hector bring his honour off,
If not Achilles? Though’t be a sportful combat,
Yet in the trial much opinion dwells;
For here the Trojans taste our dear’st repute
With their finest palate: and trust to me, Ulysses,
Our imputation shall be oddly poised
In this wild action; for the success,
Although particular, shall give a scantling
Of good or bad unto the general;
And in such indexes, although small pricks
To their subsequent volumes, there is seen
The baby figure of the giant mass
Of things to come at large. It is supposed
He that meets Hector issues from our choice
And choice, being mutual act of all our souls,
Makes merit her election, and doth boil,
As ’twere from us all, a man distilled
Out of our virtues; who miscarrying,
What heart receives from hence the conquering part,
To steel a strong opinion to themselves?
Which entertained, limbs are his instruments,
In no less working than are swords and bows
Directive by the limbs.

DUTCH:
En zulk een index, schoon een stip, een niets
Bij ‘t boek, dat volgt, laat toch vooruit, zoo meent men,
In kindsgestalte ‘t reuzenlijf der dingen,
Die komen zullen, zien.

MORE:
Meet=Appropriate
Wild=Reckless
Success=Result
Particular=Relating to a single person
Scantling=Sample, sketchy
Indexes=Indications
Pricks=Indications
Volumes=Books; quantities
Miscarrying=If unsuccessful
Entertained=If established
Working=Effective
Compleat:
Meet=Dienstig, bequaam, gevoeglyk
Wild=Buitenspoorig, onbetaamelyk
Success=Uitkomst, hetzij goed of kwaad
Particular=Byzonder, zonderling, byzonderheid
Scantling=(little piece) Een klein brokje, stukje
Index=Een wyzer, bladwyzer
Prick=Prikkel
Volume=Boek, boekdeel, band
Miscarry=Mislukken, kwaalyk uitvallen
To entertain an opinion=Een stelling, gevoelen aanneemen; koesteren; gelooven of voorstaan
Working=Werkende

Topics: dispute, rivalry, success, leadership, loyalty

PLAY: Julius Caesar
ACT/SCENE: 1.1
SPEAKER: Flavius
CONTEXT:
FLAVIUS
Go, go, good countrymen, and for this fault,
Assemble all the poor men of your sort,
Draw them to Tiber banks, and weep your tears
Into the channel till the lowest stream
Do kiss the most exalted shores of all.
See whether their basest metal be not moved.
They vanish tongue-tied in their guiltiness.
Go you down that way towards the Capitol.
This way will I. Disrobe the images
If you do find them decked with ceremonies.
MURELLUS
May we do so?
You know it is the feast of Lupercal.
FLAVIUS
It is no matter. Let no images
Be hung with Caesar’s trophies. I’ll about
And drive away the vulgar from the streets.
So do you too, where you perceive them thick.
These growing feathers plucked from Caesar’s wing
Will make him fly an ordinary pitch,
Who else would soar above the view of men
And keep us all in servile fearfulness.

DUTCH:
Ruk Caesar’s vleugels deze veeren uit ;
Dit houdt zijn vlucht wat lager bij den grond.

MORE:
Sort=Rank
Kiss=Touch
Most exalted=Highest river level
Metal=Punning on mettle: spirit, disposition
Disrobe=Undress
Ceremonies=Caesar’s supporters would put diadems on statues
Trophies=Symbols of the ruler
Lupercal=A fertility festival
Vulgar=Common people
Pitch=Height, highest point of flight. Plucking feathers would prevent Caesar from rising above ordinary Roman citizens.
Compleat:
Sort=Soort
Exalted=Verhoogd, verheven
Full of mettle=Vol vuurs, moedig
To disrobe=Den tabberd uitschudden; zich ontkleeden
Ceremony=Plegtigheyd
Trophy=Een zeegeteken, trofee
Vulgar=(common) Gemeen
Pitch=Pik

Burgersdijk notes:
Laat met Caesar’s zegeteek’nen enz. Plutarchus vermeldt, dat er beelden van Caesar werden opgericht met diademen op het hoofd, en dat de volkstribunen, Flavius en Marullus, die omverhaalden.
Ruk Caesar’s vleugels deze veed’ren uit. Namelijk de gunst van het gepeupel – the vulgar – een paar regels vroeger genoemd. In ‘t Engelsch wordt gesproken van ‘These growing feathers’, „dit wassend gevederte”; in de vertaling is het woord “wassend” weggevallen.

Topics: guilt, ingratitude, order/society, status, leadership

PLAY: Antony and Cleopatra
ACT/SCENE: 3.2
SPEAKER: Enobarbus
CONTEXT:
ENOBARBUS
But he loves Caesar best; yet he loves Antony.
Hoo! Hearts, tongues, figures, scribes, bards, poets, cannot
Think, speak, cast, write, sing, number—hoo!—
His love to Antony. But as for Caesar,
Kneel down, kneel down, and wonder.
AGRIPPA
Both he loves.
ENOBARBUS
They are his shards, and he their beetle.

DUTCH:
Zij zijn hem vleugelschilden, hij hun tor.

MORE:
Cast=Calculate
Number=Versify
Shard=Wing or wing-case of a beetle
Compleat:
To cast account=Rekenen, cyferen
Beetle=Tor, brems

Topics: love, respect, leadership

PLAY: King Henry IV Part 2
ACT/SCENE: 5.1
SPEAKER: Falstaff
CONTEXT:
It is a wonderful thing to see the semblable coherence of his men’s spirits and his. They, by observing of him, do bear themselves like foolish justices; he, by conversing with them, is turned into a justice-like servingman. Their spirits are so married in conjunction with the participation of society that they flock together in consent like so many wild geese.

DUTCH:
Hun ziel en zijn zie-reclhterachtige zijn onder den invloed van hun onderlingen omgang zoo met elkander getrouwd, dat zij zich eendrachtig opeendringen als even zoovele wilde ganzen.

MORE:

Schmidt:
Semblable=resembling, similar
Birds of a feather flock together wasn’t invented by Shakespeare but was already in use in the mid 16th century.

Compleat:
Semblable=Gelijk. Semblably=Desgelyks
Semblance of truth=Schyn van waarheid

Topics: leadership, friendship

PLAY: Julius Caesar
ACT/SCENE: 3.2
SPEAKER: Antony
CONTEXT:
ANTONY
Good friends, sweet friends! Let me not stir you up
To such a sudden flood of mutiny.
They that have done this deed are honourable.
What private griefs they have, alas, I know not,
That made them do it. They are wise and honourable,
And will, no doubt, with reasons answer you.
I come not, friends, to steal away your hearts.
I am no orator, as Brutus is,
But, as you know me all, a plain blunt man
That love my friend. And that they know full well
That gave me public leave to speak of him.
For I have neither wit nor words nor worth,
Action nor utterance nor the power of speech,
To stir men’s blood. I only speak right on.
I tell you that which you yourselves do know,
Show you sweet Caesar’s wounds, poor poor dumb mouths,
And bid them speak for me. But were I Brutus,
And Brutus Antony, there were an Antony
Would ruffle up your spirits and put a tongue
In every wound of Caesar that should move
The stones of Rome to rise and mutiny.

DUTCH:
Goden, oordeelt, hoe hem Caesar liefhad!
Dit was de stoot, van alle ‘t onnatuurlijkst

MORE:
The “Nervii,” or Nervians, were a Belgian tribe whom Caesar defeated in battle in 57 BC

Stir up=Incite
Flood=Surge
Griefs=Grievances
Plain=Plain-speaking
Public leave to speak=Permission to speak privately
Words=Vocabulary
Worth=Authority
Right on=What I think
Utterance=Delivery
Ruffle up=Enrage
Compleat:
To stir up=Gaande maaken, verwekken, opwekken, aanprikkelen
To stir up to anger=Tot toorn verwekken
Grievance=Bezwaarenis
Plain=Vlak, effen, klaar, duydelyk, slecht, eenvoudig, oprecht
Vocabulary=Een klein woordenboek
Utterance=Uytspraak; aftrek, vertier

Topics: language, persuasion, leadership

PLAY: Coriolanus
ACT/SCENE: 3.1
SPEAKER: Coriolanus
CONTEXT:
CORIOLANUS
‘Shall’!
O good but most unwise patricians! why,
You grave but reckless senators, have you thus
Given Hydra here to choose an officer,
That with his peremptory ‘shall,’ being but
The horn and noise o’ the monster’s, wants not spirit
To say he’ll turn your current in a ditch,
And make your channel his? If he have power
Then vail your ignorance; if none, awake
Your dangerous lenity. If you are learn’d,
Be not as common fools; if you are not,
Let them have cushions by you. You are plebeians,
If they be senators: and they are no less,
When, both your voices blended, the great’st taste
Most palates theirs. They choose their magistrate,
And such a one as he, who puts his ‘shall,’
His popular ‘shall’ against a graver bench
Than ever frown in Greece. By Jove himself!
It makes the consuls base: and my soul aches
To know, when two authorities are up,
Neither supreme, how soon confusion
May enter ‘twixt the gap of both and take
The one by the other.

DUTCH:
t Verlaagt de consuls diep, en ‘t grieft mijn ziel,
Die weet, dat als twee machten beide heerschen,
Doch geen het meest, verderf zich in de kloof,
Die beide scheidt, ras dringt en de een door de and’re
Ten onder brengt.

MORE:
Proverb: As many heads as Hydra
Proverb: Experience is the mistress of fools

The horn and noise=Reference to Triton earlier
Vail your ignorance=”If this man has power, let the ignorance that gave it him vail or bow down before him” (Johnson)
Awake your dangerous lenity=Shake your out of your tolerant attitude
Ignorance=Want of experience and skill, the state of not knowing what to do or how to behave; fault ignorantly committed
Vail=To lower, let fall (From M.English ‘avalen’, French ‘avaler’). (See Taming of the Shrew 5.2, ‘vail your stomacks’, i.e. pride; )
Palate=Taste (Most please the plebeians – popular opinion)
Peremptory=Absolute, positive, so as to cut off all further debate
Hydra=Fig. the multitude
Given=Allowed
Up=On foot, in action
Compleat:
To vail his bonnet to one=Den hoed voor iemand afligten
That won’t fit his palate=Dat zal zyn smaak niet weezen; dt zal met zyn smaak niet overeenkomen
It doth not please my palate=Het smaakt my niet; ik heb er geen smaak in’; ‘t mondt my niet.
Peremptory=Volstrekt, uitvoerig, volkomen, uiteindig

Topics: authority, proverbs and idioms, leadership

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:
Niet elk kan meester zijn, noch ieder meester
Oprecht gediend zijn. Zie, wat vindt gij meen’gen
Recht lagen kruiper, slovend in zijn juk,
Die, op zijn eigen slavenboei verzot,
Gedwee, als de ezel van zijn heer, om ‘t voêr

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, discarded from service
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:
To content=Voldoen, te vreede stellen, genoegen geeven
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: loyalty, deceit, proverbs and idioms, leadership, duty

PLAY: Antony and Cleopatra
ACT/SCENE: 5.2
SPEAKER: Caesar
CONTEXT:
CLEOPATRA
Sole sir o’ th’ world,
I cannot project mine own cause so well
To make it clear, but do confess I have
Been laden with like frailties which before
Have often shamed our sex.
CAESAR
Cleopatra, know
We will extenuate rather than enforce.
If you apply yourself to our intents,
Which towards you are most gentle, you shall find
A benefit in this change, but if you seek
To lay on me a cruelty by taking
Antony’s course, you shall bereave yourself
Of my good purposes and put your children
To that destruction which I’ll guard them from
If thereon you rely. I’ll take my leave.
CLEOPATRA
And may, through all the world! ’Tis yours, and we,
Your scutcheons and your signs of conquest, shall
Hang in what place you please. Here, my good lord.

DUTCH:
Weet, Cleopatra,
Te zacht zijn wij veel liever dan te streng;
Wanneer ge u voegen wilt naar onze plannen,
Die jegens u welwillend zijn, dan zult gij
Bij dezen omkeer winnen, maar indien gij
Den weg kiest van Antonius en den schijn
Van wreedheid op ons laadt, dan werpt gij ‘t goede,
Dat ik u toedenk, weg, en geeft uw kind’ren
Aan ‘t onheil prijs, waar ik hen voor bescherm,
Als ge op mij bouwt. — ik ga nu.

MORE:
Project=Shape, form, explain
Clear=Blameless, innocent
Like=Similar
Extenuate=Excuse
Enforce=Emphasise
Apply yourself=Conform
Lay on me a cruelty=Accuse me of tyranny
Bereave=Deprive
Good purposes=Generosity
Guard=Protect
Scutcheon=Shield, trophy
Compleat:
Project=Voorslag, ontwerp, voorneemen
Clear=Klaar, helder, zuiver
Extenuate=Verkleinen
Inforce=Dwinge, opdringen, overhaalen
Bereave=Berooven
Scutcheon=Schild, wapenschild

Topics: leadership, offence, justification, authority, free will

PLAY: Julius Caesar
ACT/SCENE: 1.1
SPEAKER: Flavius
CONTEXT:
FLAVIUS
Go, go, good countrymen, and for this fault,
Assemble all the poor men of your sort,
Draw them to Tiber banks, and weep your tears
Into the channel till the lowest stream
Do kiss the most exalted shores of all.
See whether their basest metal be not moved.
They vanish tongue-tied in their guiltiness.
Go you down that way towards the Capitol.
This way will I. Disrobe the images
If you do find them decked with ceremonies.
MURELLUS
May we do so?
You know it is the feast of Lupercal.
FLAVIUS
It is no matter. Let no images
Be hung with Caesar’s trophies. I’ll about
And drive away the vulgar from the streets.
So do you too, where you perceive them thick.
These growing feathers plucked from Caesar’s wing
Will make him fly an ordinary pitch,
Who else would soar above the view of men
And keep us all in servile fearfulness.

DUTCH:
Voert ze aan des Tibers oevers, en vergiet
Uw tranen in zijn bedding, tot de stroom
Van ‘t laagste deel de hoogste boorden kust.

MORE:
Sort=Rank
Kiss=Touch
Most exalted=Highest river level
Metal=Punning on mettle: spirit, disposition
Disrobe=Undress
Ceremonies=Caesar’s supporters would decorate statues in his honour
Trophies=Symbols of the ruler
Lupercal=A fertility festival
Vulgar=Common people
Pitch=Height, highest point of flight. Plucking feathers would prevent Caesar from rising above ordinary Roman citizens.
Compleat:
Exalted=Verhoogd, verheven
Full of mettle=Vol vuurs, moedig
To disrobe=Den tabberd uitschudden; zich ontkleeden
Ceremony=Plegtigheyd
Trophy=Een zeegeteken, trofee
Vulgar=(common) Gemeen
Pitch=Pik

Burgersdijk notes:
Laat met Caesar’s zegeteek’nen enz. Plutarchus vermeldt, dat er beelden van Caesar werden opgericht met diademen op het hoofd, en dat de volkstribunen, Flavius en Marullus, die omverhaalden.
Ruk Caesar’s vleugels deze veed’ren uit. Namelijk de gunst van het gepeupel – the vulgar – een paar regels vroeger genoemd. In ‘t Engelsch wordt gesproken van ‘These growing feathers’, „dit wassend gevederte”; in de vertaling is het woord “wassend” weggevallen.

Topics: guilt, ingratitude, order/society, status, leadership

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

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

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

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

PLAY: Julius Caesar
ACT/SCENE: 1.1
SPEAKER: Murellus
CONTEXT:
MURELLUS
Wherefore rejoice? What conquest brings he home?
What tributaries follow him to Rome
To grace in captive bonds his chariot wheels?
You blocks, you stones, you worse than senseless things,
O you hard hearts, you cruèl men of Rome,
Knew you not Pompey? Many a time and oft
Have you climbed up to walls and battlements,
To towers and windows, yea, to chimney tops,
Your infants in your arms, and there have sat
The livelong day with patient expectation
To see great Pompey pass the streets of Rome.
And when you saw his chariot but appear,
Have you not made an universal shout
That Tiber trembled underneath her banks
To hear the replication of your sounds
Made in her concave shores?
And do you now put on your best attire?
And do you now cull out a holiday?
And do you now strew flowers in his way
That comes in triumph over Pompey’s blood?
Be gone!
Run to your houses, fall upon your knees,
Pray to the gods to intermit the plague
That needs must light on this ingratitude.

DUTCH:
Gij klompen, steenen, erger dan gevoelloos,
Gij harde harten, Rome’s wreede mannen,
Hebt gij Pompeius niet gekend?

MORE:
Conquest=Victory
Tributaries=Vassals who pay tributes
Grace=Dignify
Senseless=Unfeeling
Livelong=Whole, throughout the day
Replication=Echo
Concave=Hollow
Cull out=Select
Intermit=Interrupt
Light=Land, descend
Compleat:
Conquest=Overwinning, verovering
Tributary=Cynsbaar; schatting onderworpen
To grace=Vercieren, bevallig maaken
Senseless=Gevoeleloos, ongevoelig, zinneloos
Replication=Ontvouwing; een weder antwoord [van den klaager op het eerste antwoord des aangeklaagden]Concave=Hol
To cull=Uitpikken, uitkiezen
To intermit=Aflaaten, verpoozen, ophouden; staaken
Light=Neerzetten

Burgersdijk notes:

Ja, schoorsteentoppen zelfs. Begrijpelijk zeker voor het schouwburgpubliek, al schudden oudheidkenners het hoofd bij die Romeinsche schoorsteenen.

Topics: status, order/society, ingratitude, leadership

PLAY: King Henry VI Part 2
ACT/SCENE: 3.1
SPEAKER: York
CONTEXT:
Well, nobles, well, ’tis politicly done,
To send me packing with an host of men:
I fear me you but warm the starved snake,
Who, cherish’d in your breasts, will sting
your hearts.
‘Twas men I lack’d and you will give them me:
I take it kindly; and yet be well assured
You put sharp weapons in a madman’s hands.
Whiles I in Ireland nourish a mighty band,
I will stir up in England some black storm
Shall blow ten thousand souls to heaven or hell;
And this fell tempest shall not cease to rage
Until the golden circuit on my head,
Like to the glorious sun’s transparent beams,
Do calm the fury of this mad-bred flaw.

DUTCH:
Ik zeg u dank, maar weet, een’ dolhuis-man
Drukt gij recht scherpe wapens in de hand.

MORE:

Proverb: To nourish a viper (snake) in one ‘s bosom
Proverb: Ill putting (put not) a naked sword in a madman’s hand

Politicly=For political reasons
The starved snake=Frozen snake (reference to Aesop’s Fable of the Farmer and the Snake)
Fell=Strong; Vicious, intense, savage

Compleat:
Fell=(cruel) Wreed, fel
Starve=(of cold) Van koude sterven
Politickly=Staatkundiglyk

Topics: proverbs and idioms, ingratitude, leadership

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