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PLAY: A Midsummer Night’s Dream
ACT/SCENE: Prologue
SPEAKER: Theseus
CONTEXT:
PROLOGUE
If we offend, it is with our good will.
That you should think we come not to offend,
But with good will. To show our simple skill,
That is the true beginning of our end.
Consider then we come but in despite.
We do not come as minding to contest you,
Our true intent is. All for your delight
We are not here. That you should here repent you,
The actors are at hand, and by their show
You shall know all that you are like to know.
THESEUS
This fellow doth not stand upon points.
LYSANDER
He hath rid his prologue like a rough colt. He knows
not the stop. A good moral, my lord: it is not enough to
speak, but to speak true.

DUTCH:
Mishagen we u, we wenschen dit als gunst.
Dat gij ons ijvrig denkt uw lof te winnen,
‘t Kan dwaling zijn. Dit toonen onzer kunst,
‘t Is toch het eind, waarmee we thans beginnen.


MORE:
Quince alters the meaning of the Prologue completely by speaking punctuation in the wrong places.

Minding=Intending
Stand upon=Be concerned with
Points=Punctuation
Compleat:
Minded=Gezind, betracht
To stand upon punctilio’s=Op vodderyen staan blyven
To point=Met punten of stippen onderscheyden, punteeren

Topics: language, offence, life, truth, honesty

PLAY: The Tempest
ACT/SCENE: 3.3
SPEAKER: Sebastian
CONTEXT:
A living drollery. Now I will believe
That there are unicorns, that in Arabia
There is one tree, the phoenix’ throne, one phoenix
At this hour reigning there.

DUTCH:
Een levend poppenspel. ‘k Geloof nu ook
Aan eenhoorns; ik stem toe, dat in Arabië
Eén boom, de troon des Feniks’, wast, een Feniks
Nog heden daar regeert.

MORE:
A living drollery=A comic puppet show enacted by living beings
Compleat:
Drollery=Boertery, snaakery

Topics: life, gullibility, manipulation

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

PLAY: Hamlet
ACT/SCENE: 2.2
SPEAKER: Rosencrantz
CONTEXT:
Happily he’s the second time come to them, for they say an old man is twice a child.

DUTCH:
Men zegt, dat een oud man ten tweede male een kind is /
Men zegt een oud mensch is opnieuw een kind.

MORE:
Shakespeare’s ‘second childhood’ from the Seven Ages of Man
(Jaques, As You Like It: Infant, Schoolboy, Lover, Soldier, Justice, Pantaloon, Second Childishness).

Topics: life, age/experience

PLAY: The Tempest
ACT/SCENE: Epilogue
SPEAKER: Prospero
CONTEXT:
Now my charms are all o’erthrown,
And what strength I have’s mine own,
Which is most faint. Now, ’tis true,
I must be here confined by you,
Or sent to Naples. Let me not,
Since I have my dukedom got
And pardoned the deceiver, dwell
In this bare island by your spell,
But release me from my bands
With the help of your good hands.
Gentle breath of yours my sails
Must fill, or else my project fails,
Which was to please. Now I want
Spirits to enforce, art to enchant,
And my ending is despair,
Unless I be relieved by prayer,
Which pierces so that it assaults
Mercy itself and frees all faults.
As you from crimes would pardoned be,
Let your indulgence set me free.

DUTCH:
k Derf mijn geesten thans en kunst;
Wanhoop is mijn eind, tenzij
Vroom gebed mijn ziel bevrij,
En mij, nimmer smeekensmoe,
Al mijn schuld vergeven doe!
Hoopt gijzelf eens op gená,
Dat uw gunst mij dan ontsla!

MORE:

Topics: pity, mercy, life, offence, punishment, failure

PLAY: Titus Andronicus
ACT/SCENE: 2.3
SPEAKER: Tamora
CONTEXT:
LAVINIA
O, let me teach thee! for my father’s sake,
That gave thee life, when well he might have slain thee,
Be not obdurate, open thy deaf ears.
TAMORA
Hadst thou in person ne’er offended me,
Even for his sake am I pitiless.
Remember, boys, I poured forth tears in vain,
To save your brother from the sacrifice;
But fierce Andronicus would not relent;
Therefore, away with her, and use her as you will,
The worse to her, the better loved of me.

DUTCH:
Die u liet leven, toen hij u kon dooden,
Wees thans niet doof, maar leen mijn beden ‘t oor.

MORE:
Obdurate=Resistant
Compleat:
Obdurate=Verhard, hardnekkig, verstokt

Topics: life, revenge, understanding, punishment

PLAY: Othello
ACT/SCENE: 5.2
SPEAKER: Othello
CONTEXT:
OTHELLO
It is the cause, it is the cause, my soul.
Let me not name it to you, you chaste stars,
It is the cause. Yet I’ll not shed her blood,
Nor scar that whiter skin of hers than snow
And smooth as monumental alabaster.
Yet she must die, else she’ll betray more men.
Put out the light, and then put out the light.
If I quench thee, thou flaming minister,
I can again thy former light restore
Should I repent me. But once put out thy light,
Thou cunning’st pattern of excelling nature,
I know not where is that Promethean heat
That can thy light relume. When I have plucked thy rose
I cannot give it vital growth again,
It must needs wither. I’ll smell thee on the tree.
Oh, balmy breath, that dost almost persuade
Justice to break her sword! One more, one more.
Be thus when thou art dead and I will kill thee
And love thee after.
One more, and that’s the last.
So sweet was ne’er so fatal. I must weep,
But they are cruel tears. This sorrow’s heavenly,
It strikes where it doth love. She wakes.

DUTCH:
Wees, als gij dood zijt, zoo, en ‘k zal u dooden
En voortbeminnen

MORE:
CITED IN US LAW:
Barkauskas v. Lane, 78 F.2d 1031, 1032 (7th Cir. 1989)(Posner, J.); See also Hornstein v. Hornstein, 195 Md. 627, 75 A.2d 103 (Md. Ct. App. 1950)(husband reading from Othello and threatening to treat her as Othello treated Desdemona).

Cause=Ground for the action
Monumental=Used for monuments
Balmy=Fragrant
Sword=Emblem of power and authority
Minister=Aid
Cunning’st pattern=Masterpiece
Repent me=Change my mind
Put out the light, and then put out the light=Extinguish the candle (kill Desdemona)
Relume=Rekindle
Flaming=Carrying a light (Cf. Psalms 104.4; ‘Which maketh he spirits his messengers, and a flaming fire his ministers’.)
Cunning=Dexterously wrought or devised
Promethean heat=Fire that the demigod Prometheus stole from Olympus taught men to use; allusively, fire infuses life
Compleat:
Cause=Oorzaak, reden, zaak
To minister=Bedienen
Cunning=Behendig, Schrander, Naarstig
A cunning fellow=Een doortrapte vent, een looze gast
To cast a cunning look=Iemand snaaks aanzien
Repent=Berouw hebben, leedweezen betoonen, boete doen

Topics: life, strength, regret, death, cited in law

PLAY: Titus Andronicus
ACT/SCENE: 2.3
SPEAKER: Demetrius
CONTEXT:
DEMETRIUS
Listen, fair madam: let it be your glory
To see her tears; but be your heart to them
As unrelenting flint to drops of rain.
LAVINIA
When did the tiger’s young ones teach the dam?
O, do not learn her wrath; she taught it thee;
The milk thou suckedst from her did turn to marble;
Even at thy teat thou hadst thy tyranny.
Yet every mother breeds not sons alike:
Do thou entreat her show a woman pity.
CHIRON
What, wouldst thou have me prove myself a bastard?
LAVINIA
‘Tis true; the raven doth not hatch a lark:
Yet have I heard,—O, could I find it now!—
The lion moved with pity did endure
To have his princely paws pared all away:
Some say that ravens foster forlorn children,
The whilst their own birds famish in their nests:
O, be to me, though thy hard heart say no,
Nothing so kind, but something pitiful!

DUTCH:
Hoor haar, vorstin; het zij uw roem, haar tranen
Te aanschouwen; doch voor deze zij uw hart,
Wat harde keien zijn voor regendroppels.

MORE:
Proverb: Constant dropping will wear the stone
Proverb: An eagle does not hatch a dove
Proverb: He sucked evil from the dug
Proverb: The lion spares the suppliant

Glory=Pride
Learn her=Teach her
Hadst=Took in
Children=Chicks
Forlorn=Wretched, abandoned
Compleat:
Glory=Heerlykheid, gloori, roem
Learn=Leren
Forlorn=Wanhoopig, neerslagtig door een mislukking; Verlaaten

Topics: proverbs and idioms, pride, life, pity

PLAY: Romeo and Juliet
ACT/SCENE: 1.4
SPEAKER: Romeo
CONTEXT:
I fear too early, for my mind misgives
Some consequence yet hanging in the stars
Shall bitterly begin his fearful date
With this night’s revels, and expire the term
Of a despisèd life closed in my breast
By some vile forfeit of untimely death.
But he that hath the steerage of my course,
Direct my sail. On, lusty gentlemen.

DUTCH:
Maar Hij, die op mijn vaart de roerpen houdt,
Richt’ mij mijn zeil!

MORE:
Schmidt:
Mind misgives=To have a presentiment of evil
Vile=Having a bad effect or influence, evil
Forfeit=The loss or penalty incurred by a trespass or breach of condition. Loss of life, death: “expire the term of (…)”
Compleat:
A vile mercenary soul=Een laage haatzuchtige ziel
A vile commodity=Een slegte waar
Forfeit (or default)=Defout.
Forfeit (fine or penalty)=Boete
To forfeit=Verbeuren

Topics: plans/intentions, fate/destiny, life, adversity

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

DUTCH:
Roep wee, verlies, vernieling, val en nood;
De dood is ‘t ergst, en komen moet de dood.

MORE:

Proverb: All men must die (The worst is death, and death will have his day.)

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

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

Topics: proverbs and idioms, still in use, death, life

PLAY: As You Like It
ACT/SCENE: 1.2
SPEAKER: Rosalind
CONTEXT:
ORLANDO
I beseech you, punish me not with your hard thoughts,
wherein I confess me much guilty to deny so fair and
excellent ladies anything. But let your fair eyes and
gentle wishes go with me to my trial, wherein, if I be
foiled, there is but one shamed that was never gracious;
if killed, but one dead that was willing to be so. I
shall do my friends no wrong, for I have none to lament
me; the world no injury, for in it I have nothing. Only
in the world I fill up a place which may be better
supplied when I have made it empty.
ROSALIND
The little strength that I have, I would it were with
you.
CELIA
And mine, to eke out hers.
ROSALIND
Fare you well. Pray heaven I be deceived in you.

DUTCH:
Vaarwel; de Hemel geve, dat het u beter ga dan ik vrees

MORE:
Foiled=Defeated
Deceived=Misled, mistaken
Compleat:
Foiled=Ter neer gestooten; verfoelyd
You are deceived=Gy vergist u.
Heart’s desire=wat zyn hart begeert

Topics: life, fate/destiny, punishment

PLAY: Coriolanus
ACT/SCENE: 4.4
SPEAKER: Coriolanus
CONTEXT:
CORIOLANUS
Thank you, sir: farewell.
O world, thy slippery turns! Friends now fast sworn,
Whose double bosoms seems to wear one heart,
Whose hours, whose bed, whose meal and exercise
Are still together, who twin, as ’twere, in love
Unseparable, shall within this hour,
On a dissension of a doit, break out
To bitterest enmity; so fellest foes,
Whose passions and whose plots have broke their sleep
To take the one the other, by some chance,
Some trick not worth an egg, shall grow dear friends
And interjoin their issues. So with me:
My birthplace hate I, and my love’s upon
This enemy town. I’ll enter. If he slay me,
He does fair justice; if he give me way,
I’ll do his country service.

DUTCH:
En zij, die felle vijandschap steeds scheidde,
Wien haat en woede, door verdelgingsplannen,
Niet slapen liet, — zij worden door een toeval,
Een gril, geen ei zelfs waard, tot boezemvrienden,
Verzwaag’ren hunne kind’ren

MORE:
Slippery turns=Instability, sudden changes
Dissension of a doit=An insignificant, trifling dispute
Interjoin issues=Marry their children
Doit=Smallest piece of money, a trifle
Fell=Fierce, savage, cruel, pernicious
Compleat:
Dissension=Oneenigheid, verdeeldheid
Doit=Een duit (achtste deel van een stuiver)
Fell (cruel)=Wreede, fel

Topics: friendship, loyalty, dispute, betrayal, life

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

PLAY: Hamlet
ACT/SCENE: 3.2
SPEAKER: Hamlet
CONTEXT:
Why, let the stricken deer go weep,
The hart ungallèd play.
For some must watch while some must sleep.
So runs the world away.

DUTCH:
Men kan verheugd zijn of benard, Zo is ’t op aard verdeeld. /
Gewaakt er moet, zal slapen eene: Zoo blijft de wereld aan ‘t rollen. /
Wij komen voor- of achteraan, Zoo is de loop der zaken.

MORE:
“For some must watch while some must sleep” is still in use today; also the basis for titles of several works.

Topics: life, still in use, status, order/society, status

PLAY: King Henry IV Part 1
ACT/SCENE: 2.4
SPEAKER: Falstaff
CONTEXT:
Peace, good pint-pot. Peace, good tickle-brain.— Harry, I do not only marvel where thou spendest thy time, but also how thou art accompanied. For though the camomile, the more it is trodden on, the faster it grows, so youth, the more it is wasted, the sooner it wears.

DUTCH:
Al waren er gronden zoo overvloedig als bramen, van mij zou niemand een grond door dwang vernemen, van mij niet.

MORE:
Schmidt:
Tickle-brain=A species of strong liquor
Marvel=To find something strange, to wonder
Burgersdijk notes:
De naam Spraakwater is in het Engelsch Ticklebrain, de naam van een likeur.

Topics: life, age/experience, excess, integrity, identity, respect

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

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

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

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

PLAY: Antony and Cleopatra
ACT/SCENE: 4.4
SPEAKER: Antony
CONTEXT:
ANTONY
Well, well,
We shall thrive now.—Seest thou, my good fellow?
Go put on thy defences.
EROS
Briefly, sir.
CLEOPATRA
Is not this buckled well?
ANTONY
Rarely, rarely.
He that unbuckles this, till we do please
To doff ’t for our repose, shall hear a storm.—
Thou fumblest, Eros, and my Queen’s a squire
More tight at this than thou. Dispatch. —O love,
That thou couldst see my wars today, and knew’st
The royal occupation! Thou shouldst see
A workman in ’t.
Good morrow to thee. Welcome.
Thou look’st like him that knows a warlike charge.

DUTCH:
Goed, goed;
Nu is de zege ons zeker. — Ziet gij, knaap?
Ga, wapen thans uzelven.

MORE:
Proverb: What we do willingly is easy

Defences=Armour
Briefly=Soon
Doff=Take off
Tight=Adept
Workman=Expert
Compleat:
Armour=Wapenrusting, wapentuyg, rusting, geweer
To doff=Afligen, afdoen
Tight=Net, geschikt, ordentlyk, styf, dicht

Topics: life, satisfaction

PLAY: King Henry IV Part 2
ACT/SCENE: 4.2
SPEAKER: Falstaff
CONTEXT:
LANCASTER
A famous rebel art thou, Colevile.
FALSTAFF
And a famous true subject took him.
COLEVILE
I am, my lord, but as my betters are
That led me hither. Had they been ruled by me,
You should have won them dearer than you have.
FALSTAFF
I know not how they sold themselves, but thou, like a kind fellow, gavest thyself away gratis, and I thank thee for thee.

DUTCH:
Ik weet niet, waarvoor zij zich verkocht hebben; maar
gij, goede jongen, gaaft uzelven voor niet weg, en ik
dank u voor u.

MORE:

You should have won them dearer=Victory would have cost you more

Topics: life, dispute, achievement

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

PLAY: All’s Well that Ends Well
ACT/SCENE: 1.1
SPEAKER: Lafew
CONTEXT:
COUNTESS
What hope is there of his majesty’s amendment?
LAFEW
He hath abandoned his physicians, madam; under whose
practices he hath persecuted time with hope, and
finds no other advantage in the process but only the
losing of hope by time.
COUNTESS
This young gentlewoman had a father, —O, that
‘had’! how sad a passage ’tis! —whose skill was
almost as great as his honesty; had it stretched so
far, would have made nature immortal, and death
should have play for lack of work. Would, for the
king’s sake, he were living! I think it would be
the death of the king’s disease.

DUTCH:
Hij heeft aan zijne artsen hun afscheid gegeven, mevrouw, nadat hij onder hunne behandeling den tijd met hoop vervolgd had, en er op den duur geen ander voordeel van heeft, dan dat hij met den tijd de hoop verloor.

MORE:
Amendment=Recovery
Persecute=To afflict, to harass; not very intelligibly used.
Persecuted time with hope=Wasted his time hoping for a cure.
Passage=Punning on passing
Compleat:
Persecute=Lastig vallen; vervolgen.

Topics: hope/optimism, remedy, time, trust, life, death

PLAY: Macbeth
ACT/SCENE: 5.5
SPEAKER: Macbeth
CONTEXT:
I have almost forgot the taste of fears.
The time has been my senses would have cooled
To hear a night-shriek, and my fell of hair
Would at a dismal treatise rouse and stir
As life were in ’t. I have supped full with horrors.
Direness, familiar to my slaughterous thoughts
Cannot once start me.

DUTCH:
k Heb schier vergeten, hoe het vreezen smaakt.

MORE:
Onions:
Fell=Skin, covering
Schmidt:
Treatise=Discourse, talk, tale
Dismal=Striking the mind with sorrow or dismay
Compleat:
Treatise=Een verhandeling, traktaat
Dismal=Schrikkelyk, gruuwelyk, yslyk, overdroevig, naar
Fell (skin)=Vel, huid

Topics: time, memory, age/experience, life

PLAY: As You Like It
ACT/SCENE: 4.1
SPEAKER: Rosalind
CONTEXT:
JAQUES
I have neither the scholar’s melancholy, which is
emulation; nor the musician’s, which is fantastical; nor
the courtier’s, which is proud; nor the soldier’s,
which is ambitious; nor the lawyer’s, which is politic;
nor the lady’s, which is nice; nor the lover’s, which is
all these, but it is a melancholy of mine own,
compounded of many simples, extracted from many objects,
and indeed the sundry contemplation of my travels, in
which my often rumination wraps me in a most humorous
sadness.
ROSALIND
A traveler. By my faith, you have great reason to be
sad. I fear you have sold your own lands to see other
men’s. Then to have seen much and to have nothing is to
have rich eyes and poor hands.
JAQUES
Yes, I have gained my experience.
ROSALIND
And your experience makes you sad. I had rather have a
fool to make me merry than experience to make me sad—and
to travel for it, too.

DUTCH:
Ik heb noch de melancholie van den geleerde, die niets
dan naijver is, noch die van den musicus, die phantastisch, noch die van den hoveling, die trotsch, noch die van den soldaat, die roemgierig, noch die van den jurist, die staatzuchtig …is;

MORE:
Emulation=Rivalry; jealousy, envy, envious contention
Fantastical=Indulging the vagaries of imagination, capricious, whimsical
Politic=Prudent, wise, artful, cunning
Humorous=Sad
Compleat:
Emulation=Haayver, volgzucht, afgunst
Fantastical=Byzinnig, eigenzinnig, grilziek
Politick (or cunning)=Slim, schrander, doorsleepen

Topics: life, nature, skill/talent, identityemotion and mood

PLAY: As You Like It
ACT/SCENE: 2.4
SPEAKER: Celia
CONTEXT:
ROSALIND
I pray thee, if it stand with honesty,
Buy thou the cottage, pasture, and the flock,
And thou shalt have to pay for it of us.
CELIA
And we will mend thy wages. I like this place,
And willingly could waste my time in it.
CORIN
Assuredly the thing is to be sold.
Go with me. If you like upon report
The soil, the profit, and this kind of life,
I will your very faithful feeder be
And buy it with your gold right suddenly.

DUTCH:
En hooger loon. Dit oord bevalt mij goed,
En gaarne wil ik hier mijn leven slijten.

MORE:
Stand with=Consistent with
To pay=Money to pay
Mend=Improve
Waste=Spend
Feeder=Servant
Compleat:
Mend=Beteren, verbeteren
To waste=Verwoesten, verquisten, verteeren, vernielen, doorbrengen
Feeder=Een voeder, spyzer, weyder, eeter

Topics: honesty, money, loyalty, work, life

PLAY: King Henry V
ACT/SCENE: 4.1
SPEAKER: King Henry
CONTEXT:
KING HENRY
Even as men wracked upon a sand, that look to be washed off the next tide.
BATES
He hath not told his thought to the king?
KING HENRY
No. Nor it is not meet he should, for, though I speak it to you, I think the king is but a man as I am. The violet smells to him as it doth to me. The element shows to him as it doth to me. All his senses have but human conditions. His ceremonies laid by, in his nakedness he appears but a man, and though his affections are higher mounted than ours, yet when they stoop, they stoop with the like wing. Therefore, when he sees reason of fears as we do, his fears, out of doubt, be of the same relish as ours are. Yet, in reason, no man should possess him with any appearance of fear, lest he, by showing it, should dishearten his army.

DUTCH:
Want, al zeg ik dit tot u, ik geloof, dat de koning maar een mensch is zooals ik ben. Het viooltjen ruikt voor hem evenals voor mij

MORE:
Wracked=Wrecked
The element=The sky (Latin clementum ignis as a name for the starry sphere – or with a mixture of the sense of ‘air’)
Meet=Appropriate

Compleat:
Wrack (or shipwrack)=Schipbreuk
Affections=Emotions, feelings
Stoop=Another allusion to falconry. The hawk soars (mounts) and then descends (stoops)
To go to wrack=Verlooren gaan, te gronde gaan
Wrack ( the part of the ship that is perished and cast a shoar, belonging to the King)=Wrak van een verongelukt Schip
Wracked=Aan stukken gestooten, te gronde gegaan
Meet=Dienstig

Topics: nature, order/society, life

PLAY: Othello
ACT/SCENE: 3.4
SPEAKER: Desdemona
CONTEXT:
DESDEMONA
I prithee, do so.
Something, sure, of state,
Either from Venice, or some unhatched practice
Made demonstrable here in Cyprus to him,
Hath puddled his clear spirit, and in such cases
Men’s natures wrangle with inferior things,
Though great ones are their object. ‘Tis even so,
For let our finger ache and it endues
Our other healthful members even to that sense
Of pain. Nay, we must think men are not gods,
Nor of them look for such observances
As fit the bridal. Beshrew me much, Emilia,
I was, unhandsome warrior as I am,
Arraigning his unkindness with my soul,
But now I find I had suborned the witness,
And he’s indicted falsely.
EMILIA
Pray heaven it be
State matters, as you think, and no conception
Nor no jealous toy concerning you.

DUTCH:
k Liet, tegen alle krijgstucht in, daar toe,
Dat wegens stuurschheid hem mijn ziel verklaagde;
Thasn ken ik die getuige als omgekocht
En hem als valsch beticht.

MORE:
Proverb: We are but men, not gods

Unhandsome=Unskilled, unfair, illiberal
Suborned=Influenced to bear false witness
Observancy=Homage
Arraigning=Accusing
Member=Limb
Compleat:
Member=Lid, Lidmaat. Member of the body=Een lid des lichaams
Arraign=Voor ‘t recht ontbieden; voor ‘t recht daagen
To suborn a witness=Eenen getuige opmaaken of omkoopen
Unhandsomly=Op een fatsoenlyke wyze
Abuser=Misbruiker, belediger, smyter en vegter

Topics: proverbs and idioms, nature, life, manipulation

PLAY: As You Like It
ACT/SCENE: 2.3
SPEAKER: Adam
CONTEXT:
ORLANDO
O good old man, how well in thee appears
The constant service of the antique world,
When service sweat for duty, not for meed.
Thou art not for the fashion of these times,
Where none will sweat but for promotion,
And having that do choke their service up
Even with the having. It is not so with thee.
But, poor old man, thou prun’st a rotten tree
That cannot so much as a blossom yield
In lieu of all thy pains and husbandry.
But come thy ways. We’ll go along together,
And ere we have thy youthful wages spent,
We’ll light upon some settled low content.
ADAM
Master, go on, and I will follow thee
To the last gasp, with truth and loyalty.
From seventeen years till now almost fourscore
Here livèd I, but now live here no more.
At seventeen years, many their fortunes seek,
But at fourscore, it is too late a week.
Yet fortune cannot recompense me better
Than to die well, and not my master’s debtor.

DUTCH:
Ik volg u, meester; ga slechts voor en bouw
Tot aan mijn jongsten snik vast op mijn trouw.

MORE:
Constant=Faithful
Antic=Ancient; (O. Edd. promiscuously antick and antique, but always accented on the first syllable), adj. belonging to the times, or resembling the manners of antiquity
Sweat=Toil, labour
Constant=Faithful
Choke up (Reflectively)=Oppress, make away with, kill; Stop, cease
Low content=Humble contentment
Meed=Reward, recompense, hire
Compleat:
Meed=Belooning, vergelding, verdiensten
Constant=Standvastig, bestending, gestadig
To choke=Verstkken, verwurgen
Contentment=Vergenoeging, vergenoegdheyd, voldoening

Topics: truth, loyalty, work, age/experience, life

PLAY: King Henry V
ACT/SCENE: 3.2
SPEAKER: Boy
CONTEXT:
Would I were in an alehouse in London! I would
give all my fame for a pot of ale, and safety.

DUTCH:
Ik wenschte, dat ik in een bierhuis zat, in Londen!
Ik zou al mijn roem voor een kan bier geven en voor
veiligheid.

MORE:

Topics: adversity, security, life

PLAY: King Henry IV Part 1
ACT/SCENE: 2.5
SPEAKER: Falstaff
CONTEXT:
But to say I know more harm in him than in myself were to say more than I know. That he is old, the more the pity, his white hairs do witness it. But that he is, saving your reverence, a whoremaster, that I utterly deny. If sack and sugar be a fault, God help the wicked. If to be old and merry be a sin, then many an old host that I know is damned. If to be fat be to be hated, then Pharaoh’s lean kine are to be loved. No, my good lord, banish Peto, banish Bardolph, banish Poins, but for sweet Jack Falstaff, kind Jack Falstaff, true Jack Falstaff, valiant Jack Falstaff, and therefore more valiant being, as he is, old Jack Falstaff,
Banish not him thy Harry’s company,
Banish not him thy Harry’s company.
Banish plump Jack, and banish all the world.

DUTCH:
Als sek met suiker boos is, dan sta God de zondaars bij! Als oud en vroolijk zijn zonde is, dan is menig oude waard, dien ik ken, verdoemd; als vet te zijn hatenswaardig is, dan zijn Pharao’s magere koeien beminnelijk.

MORE:
Schmidt:
Sack=The generic name of Spanish and Canary wines
Kine=Cow (Pharaoh’s lean kine: a sign that times of starvation are ahead (Genesis 41))
Host=Innkeeper
Saving your reverence=With respect (used before an impolite remark)
Compleat:
Kine=Koeien
Sack=Sek, een soort van sterke wyn
Host=een Waerd, herbergier
Burgersdijk:
In de wijnhuizen kregen de gasten hij den wijn een zakjen suiker. Men mag er uit vermoeden, dat of de wijn of die hem dronk vaak niet al te best van smaak was.

Topics: life, age/experience, excess, offence

PLAY: King Henry IV Part 1
ACT/SCENE: 2.5
SPEAKER: Falstaff
CONTEXT:
But to say I know more harm in him than in myself were to say more than I know. That he is old, the more the pity, his white hairs do witness it. But that he is, saving your reverence, a whoremaster, that I utterly deny. If sack and sugar be a fault, God help the wicked. If to be old and merry be a sin, then many an old host that I know is damned. If to be fat be to be hated, then Pharaoh’s lean kine are to be loved. No, my good lord, banish Peto, banish Bardolph, banish Poins, but for sweet Jack Falstaff, kind Jack Falstaff, true Jack Falstaff, valiant Jack Falstaff, and therefore more valiant being, as he is, old Jack Falstaff,
Banish not him thy Harry’s company,
Banish not him thy Harry’s company.
Banish plump Jack, and banish all the world.

DUTCH:
Als sek met suiker boos is, dan sta God de zondaars bij! Als oud en vroolijk zijn zonde is, dan is menig oude waard, dien ik ken, verdoemd; als vet te zijn hatenswaardig is, dan zijn Pharao’s magere koeien beminnelijk.

MORE:
Schmidt:
Sack=The generic name of Spanish and Canary wines
Kine=Cow
Compleat:
Kine=Koeien
Sack=Sek, een soort van sterke wyn

Topics: life, age/experience, excess, offence

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: The Merchant of Venice
ACT/SCENE: 3.1
SPEAKER: Shylock
CONTEXT:
SHYLOCK
To bait fish withal. If it will feed nothing else, it
will feed my revenge. He hath disgraced me and hindered
me half a million, laughed at my losses, mocked at my
gains, scorned my nation, thwarted my bargains, cooled
my friends, heated mine enemies—and what’s his reason? I
am a Jew. Hath not a Jew eyes? Hath not a Jew hands,
organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions? Fed
with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject
to the same diseases, healed by the same means, warmed
and cooled by the same winter and summer as a Christian
is? If you prick us, do we not bleed? If you tickle us,
do we not laugh? If you poison us, do we not die? And if
you wrong us, shall we not revenge? If we are like you
in the rest, we will resemble you in that. If a Jew
wrong a Christian, what is his humility? Revenge. If a
Christian wrong a Jew, what should his sufferance be by
Christian example? Why, revenge. The villainy you teach
me I will execute—and it shall go hard but I will better
the instruction.

DUTCH:
Als gij ons een messteek geeft, bloeden wij dan
niet? als gij ons vergiftigt, sterven wij dan niet? en als
gij ons beleedigt, zullen wij dan geen wraak nemen?

MORE:
If you prick us with a pin, don’t we bleed? If you tickle us, don’t we laugh? If you poison us, don’t we die? And if you treat us badly, won’t we try to get revenge? If we’re like you in everything else, we’ll resemble you in that respect

CITED IN EWCA LAW:
In a direct quotation or “borrowed eloquence” psychiatric injury also prompted Lady Justice Hale in Sutherland v Hatton and other appeals [2002] EWCA Civ 76 at [23] to differentiate it from physical harm saying: “Because of the very nature of psychiatric disorder … it is bound to be harder to foresee than is physical injury. Shylock could not say of a mental disorder, ‘If you prick us, do we not bleed?’” (https://www.counselmagazine.co.uk/articles/quote-or-not-quote-…)
CITED IN US LAW:
National Life Ins., Co. v. Phillips Publ., Inc., 793 F. Supp. 627 (1992) – in reference to commercial interests: “A corporation’s reputation interest is primarily commercial. To paraphrase Shylock, ‘If you prick them they do not bleed.’ Nor do corporations have the same intense interest in dignity that so defines society’s interest in protecting private individual plaintiffs.”

Hindered me=Lost me, cost me
Bargain=Deal, contract
Thwart=Frustrate, interfere with
Cooled my friends=Turned my friends against me
Compleat:
To hinder=Beletten, weerhouden, verhinderen
Bargain=Een verding, verdrag, koop
Thwart=Dwarsdryven, draaiboomen, beleetten
To wrong=Verongelyken, verkoten
He wrongs me=Hy verongelykt my. I was very much wronged=Ik wierd zeer veerongelykt.
To revenge=Wreeken. To revenge an affront=Een belédiging wreeken.

Topics: emotion and mood, misquoted

PLAY: King Lear
ACT/SCENE: 3.6
SPEAKER: King Lear
CONTEXT:
Then let them anatomise Regan; see what breeds about her
heart. Is there any cause in nature that makes these hardhearts?
[To Edgar] You, sir, I entertain for one of my hundred,
only I do not like the fashion of your garments. You will say
they are Persian; but let them be changed.

DUTCH:
Is er een natuurlijke oorzaak die harten zo hard maakt?

MORE:
Schmidt:
Anatomize = dissect
Compleat:
Anatomize=Opsnyding, ontleeden

Topics: life, nature, mercy, appearance, fashion/trends

PLAY: Richard III
ACT/SCENE: 3.2
SPEAKER: Catesby
CONTEXT:
HASTINGS
Good morrow, Catesby. You are early stirring.
What news, what news in this our tott’ring state?
CATESBY
It is a reeling world indeed, my lord,
And I believe will never stand upright
Till Richard wear the garland of the realm.
HASTINGS
How “wear the garland?” Dost thou mean the crown?
CATESBY
Ay, my good lord.
HASTINGS
I’ll have this crown of mine cut from my shoulders
Before I’ll see the crown so foul misplaced.
But canst thou guess that he doth aim at it?

DUTCH:
t Is waar, mylord, hot is een dwarrelwereld;
Zij komt, geloof ik, niet tot vasten stand,
Eer Richard met don krans van ‘t rijk gesierd is.

MORE:
Tottering=Unstable
Reeling=Unsteady
Compleat:
To totter=Schudden, waggelen
To reel=Waggelen, heen en weer zwieren
Reeling=Waggeling; haspeling

Topics: life, news, plans/intentions, order/society

PLAY: Macbeth
ACT/SCENE: 5.5
SPEAKER: Macbeth
CONTEXT:
Out, out, brief candle!
Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.

DUTCH:
Het is een sprookjen,
Verteld, vol galm en drift, door een onnooz’le,
Gansch zonder zin.

MORE:
CITED IN US LAW:
Chamber of Commerce of the United States of America v. Occupational Safety and Health Administration, 636 F.2d 464, 469 (D.C.Cir. 1980);
McNeil v. Butz, Secretary of Agriculture, 480 F.2d 314, 323 (4th Cir. 1973)(|Winter, J): In a due process case the court writes that “without the right of confrontation, the process provided by the government here is mere sound and fury signifying nothing.”;
Action for Children’s Television v. Federal Communications Commission, 821 F.2d 741, 747 (D.C.Cir. 1987);
Jenkins v. Tatem, 795 F.2d 112, 113 (D.C.Cir. 1986);
Schering Corporation v. Vitarine Pharmaceuticals, Inc., 124 F.R.D. 580, 587 (D.N.J. 1989);
Bell v. Busse, 633 F.Supp. 628, 632 (S.D.Ohio 1986);
Cebula v. General Electric Company, 614 F.Supp. 260, 265 (N.D.Ill. 1985)(Aspen, J.): In disparaging the plaintiff’ s statistical evidence, the court writes, “the so-called statistical evidence … is filled with sound and fury…”;
Hoffman-LaRoche, Inc. v. Campbell, 512 So.2d 72.5, 729 Ala. 1987);
Arnold v. Parry, 173 Ind. App. 300, 363 N.E.2d 1055, 1061 (1977);
Claybrooks v. State, 36 Md. A,pp. 295,374 A.2d 365 (1977);
State v. Schweikert, 39 Ohio St.3d 603,604,529 N.E.2d 1271 (1988).

Topics: life, death, sorrow, cited in law, still in use

PLAY: Cymbeline
ACT/SCENE: 4.2
SPEAKER: Belarius
CONTEXT:
GUIDERIUS
Why, worthy father, what have we to lose
But that he swore to take, our lives? The law
Protects not us. Then why should we be tender
To let an arrogant piece of flesh threat us,
Play judge and executioner all himself,
For we do fear the law? What company
Discover you abroad?
BELARIUS
No single soul
Can we set eye on, but in all safe reason
He must have some attendants. Though his humour
Was nothing but mutation—ay, and that
From one bad thing to worse—not frenzy,
Not absolute madness could so far have raved
To bring him here alone. Although perhaps
It may be heard at court that such as we
Cave here, hunt here, are outlaws, and in time
May make some stronger head, the which he hearing—
As it is like him—might break out and swear
He’d fetch us in, yet is ’t not probable
To come alone, either he so undertaking
Or they so suffering. Then on good ground we fear,
If we do fear this body hath a tail
More perilous than the head.
ARVIRAGUS
Let ordinance
Come as the gods foresay it: howsoe’er,
My brother hath done well.

DUTCH:
Laat komen, wat
De wil der goden is; hoe ‘t zij, mijn broeder
Heeft wel gedaan.

MORE:
Proverb: To go from bad to worse

For (we do fear)=Because
Humour=Disposition
Mutation=Change (as an effect of inconsistency)
Stronger head=Gather strength
Fetch us in=Capture us
Tender=Delicate, in a physical and moral sense: easily impressed
Compleat:
Humour (or disposition of the mind)=Humeur, gemoeds gesteldheid
Mutation=Verandering, verwisseling
To draw to a head=Zich tot dragt zetten, de verhaaalde zaaken in een trekken
Tender=Teder, week, murw

Topics: proverbs and idioms, still in use, law/legal, life, flaw/fault

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: As You Like It
ACT/SCENE: 2.6
SPEAKER: Orlando
CONTEXT:
ADAM
Dear master, I can go no further. Oh, I die for food.
Here lie I down and measure out my grave. Farewell, kind master.
ORLANDO
Why, how now, Adam? No greater heart in thee? Live a
little, comfort a little, cheer thyself a little. If
this uncouth forest yield anything savage, I will either
be food for it or bring it for food to thee. Thy
conceit is nearer death than thy powers. For my sake, be
comfortable. Hold death awhile at the arm’s end. I will
here be with thee presently, and if I bring thee not
something to eat, I will give thee leave to die. But if
thou diest before I come, thou art a mocker of my labour.
Well said. Thou look’st cheerly, and I’ll be with thee
quickly. Yet thou liest in the bleak air. Come, I will
bear thee to some shelter, and thou shalt not die for
lack of a dinner if there live anything in this desert.
Cheerly, good Adam.

DUTCH:
Komaan, Adam, hoe is het? hebt gij niet meer hart
in ‘t lijf? Leef nog wat, verman u wat, vervroolijk u
wat! Als dit woeste woud iets wilds voortbrengt, zal
ik er spijs voor zijn, of het u als spijze brengen.

MORE:
Conceit=Conception, idea, image in the mind
Power=Vital organ, physical or intellectual function
Comfortable=Comforted
Well said=Well done
Cheerly=Cheerful
Anything savage=Game
Compleat:
Conceit=Waan, bevatting, opvatting, meening
Power (ability or force)=Vermogen, kracht
Comfortable=Vertroostelyk, troostelyk
Cheerful (chearfull)=Blymoedig, blygeestig
Savage=Wild

Topics: life, wellbeing, imagination, nature, proverbs and idioms

PLAY: Hamlet
ACT/SCENE: 4.5
SPEAKER: Ophelia
CONTEXT:
Well, God’ield you! They say the owl was a baker’s daughter. Lord, we know what we are, but know not what we may be. God be at your table.

DUTCH:
Wij weten wat we zijn, maar wij weten niet wat we misschien zullen worden /
Ach, heer, wij weten wel wat we zijn, maar niet wat we nog worden kunnen.

MORE:
God yield you= God bless you
The legend had been often used to enkindle kind feelings for the poor and unfortunate. The story, which is current to-day among the nursery tales of Gloucestershire, relates that the Savior in disguise entered a baker’s shop, asking for some bread; and, when the baker charitably put a large piece of dough into the oven to bake for Him, his daughter rebuked him, and for her unkindness was changed into an owl.

Burgersdijk notes:
Men zegt, dat de uil een bakkersdochter geweest is. Ophelia denkt aan een oude legende, die in Glocestershire algemeen in omloop was: de Heiland vroeg eens een bakkersvrouw om brood, wat zij hem ook dadelijk wilde
bakken. De dochter vond, dat hare moeder er te veel deeg voor gebruikte en nam het grootste deel er van weg. Toen zwol het overschot plotseling allergeweldigst op, zoodat de dochter, in haar verbazing, kreten uitte, niet ongelijk aan uilengeschreenw, waarop de Heiland haar in een uil veranderde. Vandaar Ophelia’s zeggen: „wij weten niet, wat wij kunnen worden .” Dit verhaal werd aan kinderen gedaan, om hun barmhartigheid in te prenten.

Topics: status, fate/destiny, life

PLAY: All’s Well that Ends Well
ACT/SCENE: 2.3
SPEAKER: Lafew
CONTEXT:
LAFEW
In a most weak—and debile minister, great power, great
transcendence: which should, indeed, give us a further
use to be made than alone the recovery of the king, as
to be—generally thankful.
PAROLLES
I would have said it; you say well. Here comes the king.
LAFEW
Lustig, as the Dutchman says: I’ll like a maid
the better, whilst I have a tooth in my head.
Why, he’s able to lead her a carranto.
PAROLLES
Mort du vinaigre! is not this Helen?

DUTCH:
En lustigjes, lustigjes, zooals de Hollander zegt; nu mag ik de meisjes nog te meer lijden, zoolang ik een tand in mijn mond heb. Wel, ik acht hem in staat een coranto met haar te dansen.

MORE:
Lustig: Dutch word used by English writers in Shakespeare’s time (lustick, lustique).
Carranto (Coranto)=Lively dance (from French courant or couranto)
Mort du vinaigre=What a ridiculous oath
Compleat:
Coranto (Courant)=Een soort van een dans
Stout (lusty)=Lustig

Burgersdijk notes:
En lustigjes, lustigjes, zooals de Hollander zegt. De folio heeft: Lustique, as the Dutchman saies. Capell teekent bij deze plaats aan: ,In een oud stuk, dat groote verdiensten bezit, getiteld The Weakest goeth to the Wall, gedrukt in 1600, maar hoeveel vroeger en door wien geschreven, is mij onbekend, – komt een Hollander voor, Jacob van Smelt geheeten, die een mengelmoes van Hollandsch en onze taal spreekt en bij verschillende gelegenheden ditzelfde woord (lustick) gebruikt, dat in het Engelsch lusty is .”

Topics: life, age/experience

PLAY: Titus Andronicus
ACT/SCENE: 3.2
SPEAKER: Titus Andronicus
CONTEXT:
TITUS ANDRONICUS
Peace, tender sapling; thou art made of tears,
And tears will quickly melt thy life away.
What dost thou strike at, Marcus, with thy knife?
MARCUS ANDRONICUS
At that that I have killed, my lord; a fly.
TITUS ANDRONICUS
Out on thee, murderer! thou kill’st my heart;
Mine eyes are cloyed with view of tyranny:
A deed of death done on the innocent
Becomes not Titus’ brother: get thee gone:
I see thou art not for my company.
MARCUS ANDRONICUS
Alas, my lord, I have but killed a fly.
TITUS ANDRONICUS
But how, if that fly had a father and mother?
How would he hang his slender gilded wings,
And buzz lamenting doings in the air!
Poor harmless fly, That, with his pretty buzzing melody, Came here to make us merry! and thou hast killed him.

DUTCH:
Foei, schaam u, moord’naar! mij doodt gij het hart.
Mijn oogen zijn verzaad van ‘t zien van gruw’len

MORE:
Cloyed=Satiated
View=Perception
Becomes not=Is not becoming for
But=Only
Compleat:
To cloy=Verkroppen, overlaaden
To view=Beschouwen, bezien
Become=Betaamen
But=Maar, of, dan, behalven, maar alleen

Topics: life, regret, nature, error, guilt

PLAY: Timon of Athens
ACT/SCENE: 2.2
SPEAKER: Flavius
CONTEXT:
FLAVIUS
No care, no stop! so senseless of expense,
That he will neither know how to maintain it,
Nor cease his flow of riot: takes no account
How things go from him, nor resumes no care
Of what is to continue: never mind
Was to be so unwise, to be so kind.
What shall be done? he will not hear, till feel:
I must be round with him, now he comes from hunting.
Fie, fie, fie, fie!

DUTCH:
Hij berekent niet,
Wat door zijn vingers druipt, wil niet bedenken,
Hoe ‘t voort kan gaan. Nooit was er een gemoed,
Bij zooveel onverstand zoo innig goed.
En wat te doen? Hij hoort niet eer hij voelt;
Toch, als hij van de jacht komt, zal ik spreken.

MORE:
Senseless=Insensitive, having no ear
Flow of riot=Destructive path
Till feel=Until he suffers, experiences
Be round=Speak plainly
Compleat:
Senseless=Gevoeleloos, ongevoelig, zinneloos
To riot=Optrekken, rinkinken, pypestellen
Riot=(in law, the forcible doing of an unlawful thing by three or more persons): Eene geweldenaary door drie of vier persoonen bedreven
To feel=Voelen, tasten, gevoelen, vewaar worden
Roundly=(Honestly, sincerely): Oprechtelyk, voor de vuist

Topics: life, nature, trust, offence, skill/talent

PLAY: Macbeth
ACT/SCENE: 1.4
SPEAKER: Malcolm
CONTEXT:
Nothing in his life
Became him like the leaving it. He died
As one that had been studied in his death
To throw away the dearest thing he owed
As ’twere a careless trifle.

DUTCH:
Niets in heel zijn leven
Deed hij zoo schoon als ‘t gaan ter dood; hij stierf
Als een, die zijnen dood had bestudeerd

MORE:
Schmidt:
Careless (passive sense)=Not cared for, indifferent (worthless)

Topics: life, value, dignity

PLAY: King Lear
ACT/SCENE: 2.4
SPEAKER: Regan
CONTEXT:
O sir, to wilful men,
The injuries that they themselves procure
Must be their schoolmasters. Shut up your doors.
He is attended with a desperate train.
And what they may incense him to, being apt
To have his ear abused, wisdom bids fear.

DUTCH:
Wie eigenzinnig is; Heeft in het leed, dat hij zichzelf bereidt; Een goede leerschool./
Dwarskoppen moeten
hun lesje leren van het leed dat zij
zichzelf toebrengen.

MORE:
Schmidt:
Wilful=Obstinate, stubborn, refractory
Train=Retinue
To have his ear abused=Susceptible to misleading tales
Compleat:
Wilfull (obstinate)=Halstarrig

Topics: life, age/experience, gullibility, manipulation

PLAY: As You Like It
ACT/SCENE: 5.2
SPEAKER: Orlando
CONTEXT:
ROSALIND
Oh, I know where you are. Nay, ’tis true. There was
never anything so sudden but the fight of two rams and
Caesar’s thrasonical brag of “I came, saw, and
overcame.” For your brother and my sister no sooner met
but they looked, no sooner looked but they loved, no
sooner loved but they sighed, no sooner sighed but they
asked one another the reason, no sooner knew the reason
but they sought the remedy; and in these degrees have
they made a pair of stairs to marriage, which they will
climb incontinent, or else be incontinent before
marriage. They are in the very wrath of love, and they
will together. Clubs cannot part them.
ORLANDO
They shall be married tomorrow, and I will bid the duke
to the nuptial. But Oh, how bitter a thing it is to
look into happiness through another man’s eyes. By so
much the more shall I tomorrow be at the height of
heart-heaviness, by how much I shall think my brother
happy in having what he wishes for.
ROSALIND
Why, then, tomorrow I cannot serve your turn for
Rosalind?

DUTCH:
Maar ach! hoe bitter is het, gelukzaligheid door eens anders oogen te zien!

MORE:
Thrasonical=Boasting (Thraso, bragging solider in ‘The Eunuch’)
Degrees=Stages
Incontinent=(1) Hastily (2) Unchaste
Heart-heaviness=Sadness
Compleat:
Thrasonical=Pochachtig, snorkachtig
Degree=Een graad, trap
Incontinent=Ontuchtig

Topics: life, satisfaction, emotion and mood, envy

PLAY: Richard III
ACT/SCENE: 3.1
SPEAKER: Richard, Duke of Gloucester
CONTEXT:
RICHARD
Welcome, dear cousin, my thoughts’ sovereign.
The weary way hath made you melancholy.
PRINCE
No, uncle, but our crosses on the way
Have made it tedious, wearisome, and heavy.
I want more uncles here to welcome me.
RICHARD
Sweet prince, the untainted virtue of your years
Hath not yet dived into the world’s deceit;
Nor more can you distinguish of a man
Than of his outward show, which, God He knows,
Seldom or never jumpeth with the heart.
Those uncles which you want were dangerous.
Your Grace attended to their sugared words
But looked not on the poison of their hearts.
God keep you from them, and from such false friends.
PRINCE
God keep me from false friends, but they were none.

DUTCH:
Neen, oom; maar wat mij op mijn weg weervoer,
Heeft dien mij lang, bedroevend, zwaar gemaakt;
Ik wenschte meerdere ooms hier tot ontvangst.

MORE:
Thoughts’ sovereign=Focus of our thoughts
Weary way=Tiring journey
Crosses=Annoyances, obstacles
Want=Lack
Years=Youth
Jumpeth=Corresponds
Attended to=Heeded
Compleat:
Weary=Moede; vermoeid; afkeerig
To cross=Tegenstreeven, dwars voor de boeg komen, dwarsboomen, wederestreeven, kruisen
To want=Ontbreeken, missen, van noode hebben, van doen hebben
Years (age)=Ouderdom
Years of discretion=Jaaren van verstand
To jump (agree)=Het eens woorden
Their opinions jump much with ours=Hunne gevoelens komen veel met de onzen overeen
Wits jump always together=De groote verstanden beulen altyd saamen
To attend unto=Opmerken, gadeslaan
To attend to the inward checks of conscience=Op de inwendige berispingen des gemoeds acht geeven

Topics: life, adversity, age/experience

PLAY: Othello
ACT/SCENE: 5.2
SPEAKER: Othello
CONTEXT:
OTHELLO
It is the cause, it is the cause, my soul.
Let me not name it to you, you chaste stars,
It is the cause. Yet I’ll not shed her blood,
Nor scar that whiter skin of hers than snow
And smooth as monumental alabaster.
Yet she must die, else she’ll betray more men.
Put out the light, and then put out the light.
If I quench thee, thou flaming minister,
I can again thy former light restore
Should I repent me. But once put out thy light,
Thou cunning’st pattern of excelling nature,
I know not where is that Promethean heat
That can thy light relume. When I have plucked thy rose
I cannot give it vital growth again,
It must needs wither. I’ll smell thee on the tree.
Oh, balmy breath, that dost almost persuade
Justice to break her sword! One more, one more.
Be thus when thou art dead and I will kill thee
And love thee after. (kissing her) One more, and that’s
the last.
So sweet was ne’er so fatal. I must weep,
But they are cruel tears. This sorrow’s heavenly,
It strikes where it doth love. She wakes.

DUTCH:
Doe uit het licht, en dan — doe uit het licht;
O dienstb’re vlam, indien ik uw licht doof,
Dan kan ik u uw vroeger licht hergeven,
Zoo ‘t mij berouwt; maar doof ik eens het uwe,
Gij kunstrijkst werk der scheppende natuur,
Waar vind ik de Prometheus-vonk, die u
Uw licht hergeeft?

MORE:
Cause=Ground for the action
Monumental=Used for monuments
Balmy=Fragrant
Sword=Emblem of power and authority
Minister=Aid
Cunning’st pattern=Masterpiece
Repent me=Change my mind
Put out the light, and then put out the light=Extinguish the candle (kill Desdemona)
Relume=Rekindle
Flaming=Carrying a light (Cf. Psalms 104.4; ‘Which maketh he spirits his messengers, and a flaming fire his ministers’.)
Cunning=Dexterously wrought or devised
Promethean heat=Fire that the demigod Prometheus stole from Olympus taught men to use; allusively, fire infuses life
Compleat:
Cause=Oorzaak, reden, zaak
To minister=Bedienen
Cunning=Behendig, Schrander, Naarstig
A cunning fellow=Een doortrapte vent, een looze gast
To cast a cunning look=Iemand snaaks aanzien
Repent=Berouw hebben, leedweezen betoonen, boete doen

Topics: life, strength, regret, death

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:
Gezicht en tanden, smaak en alles kwijt

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

PLAY: Othello
ACT/SCENE: 1.3
SPEAKER: Othello
CONTEXT:
OTHELLO
Her father loved me, oft invited me,
Still questioned me the story of my life
From year to year, the battles, sieges, fortunes,
That I have passed.
I ran it through, even from my boyish days,
To th’ very moment that he bade me tell it,
Wherein I spoke of most disastrous chances,
Of moving accidents by flood and field,
Of hair-breadth ’scapes i’ th’ imminent deadly breach,
Of being taken by the insolent foe
And sold to slavery, of my redemption thence
And portance in my traveler’s history.
Wherein of antres vast and deserts idle,
Rough quarries, rocks, hills whose heads touch heaven
It was my hint to speak—such was my process—
And of the Cannibals that each others eat,
The Anthropophagi, and men whose heads
Grew beneath their shoulders. These things to hear
Would Desdemona seriously incline.
But still the house affairs would draw her hence,
Which ever as she could with haste dispatch,
She’d come again, and with a greedy ear
Devour up my discourse, which I, observing,
Took once a pliant hour and found good means
To draw from her a prayer of earnest heart
That I would all my pilgrimage dilate,
Whereof by parcels she had something heard
But not intentively. I did consent,
And often did beguile her of her tears
When I did speak of some distressful stroke
That my youth suffered. My story being done
She gave me for my pains a world of sighs.
She swore, in faith, ’twas strange, ’twas passing strange,
‘Twas pitiful, ’twas wondrous pitiful.
She wished she had not heard it, yet she wished
That heaven had made her such a man. She thanked me
And bade me, if I had a friend that loved her,
I should but teach him how to tell my story
And that would woo her. Upon this hint I spake.
She loved me for the dangers I had passed,
And I loved her that she did pity them.
This only is the witchcraft I have used.
Here comes the lady. Let her witness it.

DUTCH:
Bij die verhalen
Was Desdemona steeds gespannen luist’rend,
Maar telkens riep huishoud’lijk werk haar weg;
Doch nauw had ze in der ijl haar taak volbracht ,
Of zij kwam weder en haar gretig oor
Verslond mijn woorden

MORE:
Boyish days=Youth
Portance=Conduct, behaviour
Imminent deadly breach=Imminent death
Taken=Captured
Anthropophagi=Cannibals
Pliant=Suitable
Dilate=Relate accurately
Parcels=Piecemeal
Intentively=Intently
Passing=Exceedingly
Hint=Prompt
Compleat:
Boyish=Kinderachtig
Imminent=Naakend, over ‘t hoofd hangend
Pliant=Buygelyk, buygzaam, dat zig ligt laat buygen
Dilate=Uitbreyden
To parcel=In hoopen verdeelen, in partyen deelen
Intentively=Aandachtiglyk
Passing=Zeer, uitsteekend
Hint=Een leus, waarschouwing, indachtigmaaking, stille gewagmaaking

Topics: age/experience, fate/destiny, life

PLAY: Cymbeline
ACT/SCENE: 4.2
SPEAKER: Imogen
CONTEXT:
BELARIUS
You are not well: remain here in the cave;
We’ll come to you after hunting.
ARVIRAGUS
Brother, stay here.
Are we not brothers?
IMOGEN
So man and man should be;
But clay and clay differs in dignity,
Whose dust is both alike. I am very sick.
GUIDERIUS
Go you to hunting; I’ll abide with him.
IMOGEN
So sick I am not, yet I am not well;
But not so citizen a wanton as
To seem to die ere sick: so please you, leave me;
Stick to your journal course: the breach of custom
Is breach of all. I am ill, but your being by me
Cannot amend me; society is no comfort
To one not sociable: I am not very sick,
Since I can reason of it. Pray you, trust me here:
I’ll rob none but myself; and let me die,
Stealing so poorly.

DUTCH:
Menschen moesten ‘t zijn;
Maar stof en stof verschillen wel in rang,
Hoezeer hun asch gelijk zij.

MORE:
Proverb: All are of the same dust

Journal course=Daily routine
Citizen a wanton=City-bred (soft) “wanton” spoilt child or indulged and self-indulgent youth
Reason=Speak of it
Compleat:
We are but dust and ashes=Wy zyn niet dan stof en asch
Journal=Dag-register, dag-verhaal
Wanton=Onrein, vuil, ontuchtig
To grow wanton with too much prosperity=In voorspoed weeldrig worden

Topics: wellbeing, emotion and mood, custom, life, status, proverbs and idioms

PLAY: Cymbeline
ACT/SCENE: 4.2
SPEAKER: Imogen
CONTEXT:
BELARIUS
You are not well: remain here in the cave;
We’ll come to you after hunting.
ARVIRAGUS
Brother, stay here.
Are we not brothers?
IMOGEN
So man and man should be;
But clay and clay differs in dignity,
Whose dust is both alike. I am very sick.
GUIDERIUS
Go you to hunting; I’ll abide with him.
IMOGEN
So sick I am not, yet I am not well;
But not so citizen a wanton as
To seem to die ere sick: so please you, leave me;
Stick to your journal course: the breach of custom
Is breach of all. I am ill, but your being by me
Cannot amend me; society is no comfort
To one not sociable: I am not very sick,
Since I can reason of it. Pray you, trust me here:
I’ll rob none but myself; and let me die,
Stealing so poorly.

DUTCH:
Gezelschap helpt niet wie niet gezellig is;

MORE:
Proverb: All are of the same dust

Journal course=Daily routine
Citizen a wanton=City-bred (soft) “wanton” spoilt child or indulged and self-indulgent youth
Reason=Speak of it
Compleat:
We are but dust and ashes=Wy zyn niet dan stof en asch
Journal=Dag-register, dag-verhaal
Wanton=Onrein, vuil, ontuchtig
To grow wanton with too much prosperity=In voorspoed weeldrig worden

Topics: wellbeing, emotion and mood, custom, life, status, proverbs and idioms

PLAY: Cymbeline
ACT/SCENE: 4.2
SPEAKER: Imogen
CONTEXT:
BELARIUS
You are not well: remain here in the cave;
We’ll come to you after hunting.
ARVIRAGUS
Brother, stay here.
Are we not brothers?
IMOGEN
So man and man should be;
But clay and clay differs in dignity,
Whose dust is both alike. I am very sick.
GUIDERIUS
Go you to hunting; I’ll abide with him.
IMOGEN
So sick I am not, yet I am not well;
But not so citizen a wanton as
To seem to die ere sick: so please you, leave me;
Stick to your journal course: the breach of custom
Is breach of all. I am ill, but your being by me
Cannot amend me; society is no comfort
To one not sociable: I am not very sick,
Since I can reason of it. Pray you, trust me here:
I’ll rob none but myself; and let me die,
Stealing so poorly.

DUTCH:
Gaat uw gewonen gang; wordt die gestoord,
Licht wordt de mensch ook zelf verstoord.

MORE:
Proverb: All are of the same dust

Journal course=Daily routine
Citizen a wanton=City-bred (soft) “wanton” spoilt child or indulged and self-indulgent youth
Reason=Speak of it
Compleat:
We are but dust and ashes=Wy zyn niet dan stof en asch
Journal=Dag-register, dag-verhaal
Wanton=Onrein, vuil, ontuchtig
To grow wanton with too much prosperity=In voorspoed weeldrig worden

Topics: wellbeing, emotion and mood, custom, life, status, proverbs and idioms

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

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

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

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

PLAY: King Henry IV Part 1
ACT/SCENE: 5.2
SPEAKER: Hotspur
CONTEXT:
O gentlemen, the time of life is short!
To spend that shortness basely were too long,
If life did ride upon a dial’s point,
Still ending at the arrival of an hour
An if we live, we live to tread on kings;
If die, brave death, when princes die with us.
Now, for our consciences, the arms are fair
When the intent of bearing them is just.

DUTCH:
De tijd van leven is kort: die korte tijd laag bij de gronds doorbrengen zou te lang zijn

MORE:
Dial’s point=Hand of a sun-dial
Tread on=Bring about the downfall of
Compleat:
Dial, sun-dial=Zonnewyzer.

Topics: life, nature, time, hope/optimism, conscience, merit, value

PLAY: The Two Gentlemen of Verona
ACT/SCENE: 1.3
SPEAKER: Proteus
CONTEXT:
ANTONIO
Look, what thou want’st shall be sent after thee:
No more of stay! To-morrow thou must go.
Come on, Panthino: you shall be employ’d
To hasten on his expedition.
PROTEUS
Thus have I shunn’d the fire for fear of burning,
And drench’d me in the sea, where I am drown’d.
I fear’d to show my father Julia’s letter,
Lest he should take exceptions to my love;
And with the vantage of mine own excuse
Hath he excepted most against my love.
O, how this spring of love resembleth
The uncertain glory of an April day,
Which now shows all the beauty of the sun,
And by and by a cloud takes all away!

DUTCH:
O, hoe gelijkt toch deze liefdelente
Op eens Aprildags onbetrouwb’re pracht

MORE:
Shunned=Avoided
Take exceptions=Raise objection
Vantage=Advantage
Excepted=Objected
Compleat
To shun=Vermyden, ontwyken, ontvlieden
To take exception=Zich over iets belgen
Vantage=Toegift, toemaat, overmaat, overwigt

Topics: life, age/experience, love, nature

PLAY: All’s Well that Ends Well
ACT/SCENE: 4.3
SPEAKER: First Lord
CONTEXT:
FIRST LORD
How mightily sometimes we make us comforts of our
losses!
SECOND LORD
And how mightily some other times we drown our gain
in tears! The great dignity that his valour hath
here acquired for him shall at home be encountered
with a shame as ample.
FIRST LORD
The web of our life is of a mingled yarn, good and
ill together: our virtues would be proud, if our
faults whipped them not; and our crimes would
despair, if they were not cherished by our virtues.

DUTCH:
Het weefsel van ons leven bestaat uit gemengd garen,
goed en slecht dooreen; onze deugden zouden trotsch
zijn, indien zij niet door onze ondeugden gestriemd werden; en onze slechtheid zou wanhopig zijn, als ze niet door onze deugden vertroost werd.

MORE:
Cherish=Comfort, encourage, console
Despair=Cause (us to) despair
Whipped (Metaphorically)=to lash with sarcasm, to have a lash at, to put to the blush
Compleat:
To put to the blush=Iemand eene kleur aanjaagen, beschaamd maaken
Cherish=Koesteren, opkweeken, streelen, aankweeken

Topics: life, virtue, good and bad

PLAY: Cymbeline
ACT/SCENE: 4.2
SPEAKER: Belarius
CONTEXT:
GUIDERIUS
Why, worthy father, what have we to lose
But that he swore to take, our lives? The law
Protects not us. Then why should we be tender
To let an arrogant piece of flesh threat us,
Play judge and executioner all himself,
For we do fear the law? What company
Discover you abroad?
BELARIUS
No single soul
Can we set eye on, but in all safe reason
He must have some attendants. Though his humour
Was nothing but mutation—ay, and that
From one bad thing to worse—not frenzy,
Not absolute madness could so far have raved
To bring him here alone. Although perhaps
It may be heard at court that such as we
Cave here, hunt here, are outlaws, and in time
May make some stronger head, the which he
hearing—
As it is like him—might break out and swear
He’d fetch us in, yet is ’t not probable
To come alone, either he so undertaking
Or they so suffering. Then on good ground we fear,
If we do fear this body hath a tail
More perilous than the head.
ARVIRAGUS
Let ordinance
Come as the gods foresay it: howsoe’er,
My brother hath done well.

DUTCH:
k Vrees met grond,
Dat deze romp nog wel een nasleep heeft,
Gevaarlijker dan ‘t hoofd.

MORE:
Proverb: To go from bad to worse

For (we do fear)=Because
Humour=Disposition
Mutation=Change (as an effect of inconsistency)
Stronger head=Gather strength
Fetch us in=Capture us
Tender=Delicate, in a physical and moral sense: easily impressed
Compleat:
Humour (or disposition of the mind)=Humeur, gemoeds gesteldheid
Mutation=Verandering, verwisseling
To draw to a head=Zich tot dragt zetten, de verhaaalde zaaken in een trekken
Tender=Teder, week, murw

Topics: proverbs and idioms, still in use, law/legal, life, flaw/fault

PLAY: King Henry IV Part 1
ACT/SCENE: 5.1
SPEAKER: King
CONTEXT:
PRINCE HENRY
The southern wind
Doth play the trumpet to his purposes,
And by his hollow whistling in the leaves
Foretells a tempest and a blust’ring day.
KING
Then with the losers let it sympathize,
For nothing can seem foul to those that win.

DUTCH:
Zoo uite hij zijn leed aan wie ‘t verliezen,
Want aan wie winnen dunkt geen weder slecht.

MORE:
Play trumpet to=Announce, proclaim
Compleat:
To proclaim by sound of trumpet=Met trompetten geschal afkondigen.

Topics: life, nature, conflict, hope/optimism

PLAY: Coriolanus
ACT/SCENE: 3.3
SPEAKER: Coriolanus
CONTEXT:
SICINIUS
We know your drift: speak what?
BRUTUS
There’s no more to be said, but he is banish’d,
As enemy to the people and his country:
It shall be so.
CITIZENS
It shall be so, it shall be so.
CORIOLANUS
You common cry of curs! whose breath I hate
As reek o’ the rotten fens, whose loves I prize
As the dead carcasses of unburied men
That do corrupt my air, I banish you;
And here remain with your uncertainty!
Let every feeble rumour shake your hearts!
Your enemies, with nodding of their plumes,
Fan you into despair! Have the power still
To banish your defenders; till at length
Your ignorance, which finds not till it feels,
Making not reservation of yourselves,
Still your own foes, deliver you as most
Abated captives to some nation
That won you without blows! Despising,
For you, the city, thus I turn my back:
There is a world elsewhere.

DUTCH:
Ook elders is een wereld!

MORE:
Plume=Feathers which serve to adorn, particularly a tuft of feathers worn as an ornament
Making not reservation (in some versions “making but reservations”)
Abated=Humbled, discouraged
Ignorance=Stupidity
Compleat:
Plume=Pluim, veder
He had a white plume of feathers upon his hat=Hy had witte pluimen op zyn hoed
To abate one’s pride=Iemands hoogmoed fnuiken

Topics: life, free will, independence, failure

PLAY: Titus Andronicus
ACT/SCENE: 3.1
SPEAKER: Lucius
CONTEXT:
MARCUS ANDRONICUS
Now let hot Etna cool in Sicily,
And be my heart an ever-burning hell!
These miseries are more than may be borne.
To weep with them that weep doth ease some deal;
But sorrow flouted at is double death.
LUCIUS
Ah, that this sight should make so deep a wound,
And yet detested life not shrink thereat!
That ever death should let life bear his name,
Where life hath no more interest but to breathe!

DUTCH:
Dit leed is grooter dan te dragen is.
Meêschreien met die schreien brengt wel troost,
Maar leed, door hoon verscherpt, is dubb’le dood.

MORE:
Weep with them that week=Biblical (Romans)
Flouted at=Mocked
Some deal=Somewhat
Interest=Concern
Compleat:
Flout=Spotterny, schimpscheut
Interest=Belang

Topics: grief, regret, life

PLAY: A Midsummer Night’s Dream
ACT/SCENE: Prologue
SPEAKER: Theseus
CONTEXT:
PROLOGUE
If we offend, it is with our good will.
That you should think we come not to offend,
But with good will. To show our simple skill,
That is the true beginning of our end.
Consider then we come but in despite.
We do not come as minding to contest you,
Our true intent is. All for your delight
We are not here. That you should here repent you,
The actors are at hand, and by their show
You shall know all that you are like to know.
THESEUS
This fellow doth not stand upon points.
LYSANDER
He hath rid his prologue like a rough colt. He knows
not the stop. A good moral, my lord: it is not enough to
speak, but to speak true.

DUTCH:
Die knaap let niet bijzonder op komma’s en punten.

MORE:
Quince alters the meaning of the Prologue completely by speaking punctuation in the wrong places.

Minding=Intending
Stand upon=Be concerned with
Points=Punctuation
Compleat:
Minded=Gezind, betracht
To stand upon punctilio’s=Op vodderyen staan blyven
To point=Met punten of stippen onderscheyden, punteeren

Topics: language, offence, life, truth, honesty

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

DUTCH:

Dit is wel de uitstekende dwaasheid der wereld

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

Topics: life, nature, fate/destiny

PLAY: King Lear
ACT/SCENE: 3.4
SPEAKER: King Lear
CONTEXT:
Why, thou wert better in thy grave than to answer with thy uncovered body this extremity of the skies.—Is man no more than this? Consider him well.—Thou owest the worm no silk, the beast no hide, the sheep no wool, the cat no perfume. Ha! Here’s three on ’s are sophisticated. Thou art the thing itself.
Unaccommodated man is no more but such a poor, bare, forked animal as thou art.
Off, off, you lendings! Come, unbutton here.

DUTCH:
“Ach nee, wij drieën zijn niet werkelijk natuurlijk meer, jij bent
nog helemaal echt. Zonder kleren is de mens niet meer dan
zo’n povere, naakte, gevorkte tweevoeter als jij.

MORE:
Cat=Civet cat, which secretes civet musk used in perfume
Unaccommodated=without the trappings of civilization
Sophisticated=Unadulterated
Forked=Two-legged
Lendings=borrowed clothes
Compleat:
Accommodated=Geriefd

Topics: order/society, nature, life

PLAY: As You Like It
ACT/SCENE: 2.4
SPEAKER: Rosalind
CONTEXT:
ROSALIND
Alas, poor shepherd, searching of thy wound,
I have by hard adventure found mine own.
TOUCHSTONE
And I mine. I remember when I was in love I broke my
sword upon a stone and bid him take that for coming anight
to Jane Smile. And I remember the kissing of her
batler, and the cow’s dugs that her pretty chapped hands
had milked. And I remember the wooing of a peascod
instead of her, from whom I took two cods and, giving
her them again, said with weeping tears, “Wear these for
my sake.” We that are true lovers run into strange
capers. But as all is mortal in nature, so is all nature
in love mortal in folly.
ROSALIND
Thou speak’st wiser than thou art ware of.
TOUCHSTONE
Nay, I shall ne’er be ware of mine own wit till I break
my shins against it.

DUTCH:
Gij spreekt wijzer, dan gij zelf gewaar wordt

MORE:
Searching of=Probing
Caper=A leap, a spring, in dancing or mirth: “we that are true lovers run into strange –s,”
Folly=Foolishness
Ware=Aware; cautious
Compleat:
Caper=een Kaper, als mede een Sprong
Folly=Dwaasheid, zotheid, zotterny
Folly (Vice, excess, imperfection)=Ondeugd, buitenspoorigheid, onvolmaaktheid

Topics: love, wisdom, life, nature

PLAY: King Lear
ACT/SCENE: 3.7
SPEAKER: Cornwall
CONTEXT:
Though well we may not pass upon his life
Without the form of justice, yet our power
Shall do a courtesy to our wrath, which men
May blame, but not control.—Who’s there? The traitor?

DUTCH:
Al mag ik zonder rechtspraak hem niet dooden,
Ik zal mijn macht nu voor mijn toorn doen buigen,
En wie dit ook veroordeelt, niemand zal
Het tegengaan./
Al kan ik hem niet zonder een proces
ter dood veroordelen, mijn rechtsmacht zal
zich voegen naar mijn toorn.

MORE:
Schmidt:
Pass upon=Pass judgment on
Courtesy (curtsy in some versions)=Do a courtesy to, yield to (bend to)
Compleat:
To make a courtesy (curtsy)=Neigen
To pass sentence upon one=Vonnis over iemand vellen, vonnis over iemand uitspreeken,
Burgersdijk notes:
Zonder rechtspraak. Men bedenke, dat Gloster onder de pairs van het rijk te rekenen is.

Topics: life, justice, authority, punishment, blame, judgment

PLAY: As You Like It
ACT/SCENE: 3.2
SPEAKER: Rosalind
CONTEXT:
ORLANDO
And why not the swift foot of time? Had not that been
as proper?
ROSALIND
By no means, sir. Time travels in diverse paces with
diverse persons. I’ll tell you who time ambles withal,
who time trots withal, who time gallops withal, and who
he stands still withal.
ORLANDO
I prithee, who doth he trot withal?
ROSALIND
Marry, he trots hard with a young maid between the
contract of her marriage and the day it is solemnized.
If the interim be but a se’nnight, time’s pace is so hard
that it seems the length of seven year.
ORLANDO
Who ambles time withal?
ROSALIND
With a priest that lacks Latin and a rich man that hath n
ot the gout, for the one sleeps easily because he
cannot study and the other lives merrily because he
feels no pain—the one lacking the burden of lean and
wasteful learning, the other knowing no burden of heavy
tedious penury. These time ambles withal.
ORLANDO
Who doth he gallop withal?
ROSALIND
With a thief to the gallows, for though he go as softly
as foot can fall, he thinks himself too soon there.
ORLANDO
Who stays it still withal?
ROSALIND
With lawyers in the vacation, for they sleep between
term and term, and then they perceive not how time moves.

DUTCH:
Volstrekt niet, heer; de Tijd reist met verschillende
personen in verschillenden gang. Ik kan u zeggen, met
wie de Tijd den tel gaat, met wie de Tijd draaft, met
wie de Tijd galoppeert en met wie hij stil staat.

MORE:
Withal=With
Proper=Appropriate
Paces=Speeds
Se’ennight=Week
Hard=Slow
Wasteful=Exhausting
Penury=Poverty and indigence
Term=The time in which a court is held for the trial of causes. The legal year was divided into terms with recesses in between
Compleat:
Withall=Daar beneeven, mede, met eene
Proper=Bequaam, van een bequaame lengte
Pace=Een stap, treede, schreede, tred, gang, pas, voortgang
Wasted=Verwoest, vervallen, uitgeteerd
Penury=Behoeftigheid, armoede, gebrek
The four terms of the year=De vier gezette Rechtsdagen in ‘t jaar

Topics: time, lawyers, life, order/society

PLAY: Hamlet
ACT/SCENE: 3.1
SPEAKER: Hamlet
CONTEXT:
To be, or not to be: that is the question:
Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them?

DUTCH:
Various translations. including:
Te zijn of niet te zijn, dat is de kwestie/
Zijn of niet zijn, daar komt het hier op neêr /
Te zijn of niet te zijn, daar gaat het om/
Zijn of niet zijn; dat is de vraag /
Leven, of niet ?.. .. Dit is het, waar ‘t om gaat

MORE:
Hamlet’s “To be or not to be” soliliquy.
CITED IN EU LAW:
Opinion of A-G Bobek delivered on 7 September 2017(1) in Case C‑298/16.
“To be or not to be within the scope of EU law, that is indeed the question (again)”.
CITED IN US LAW:
Slip Opinion US Supreme Court Ford Motor Co. v. Montana Eighth Judicial District Court et al.
Certiorari to the Supreme Court of Montana No. 19–368. Argued October 7, 2020—Decided March 25, 202: “Really, their strategy was to do business without being seen to do business. Id., at 438 (“No longer is the foreign corporation confronted with the problem ‘to be or not to be’—it can both be and not be!”).”
Wetzel v. Liberty Mutual Ins. Co., 508 F.2d 239, 248 (3d Cir. 1975) cert. denied, 421 U.S. 1011 (1976):
“Whether (b)(2) or not (b)(2) is indeed the question.”

Topics: life, proverbs and idioms, cited in law, still in use

PLAY: Antony and Cleopatra
ACT/SCENE: 4.4
SPEAKER: Antony
CONTEXT:
ANTONY
Well, well,
We shall thrive now.—Seest thou, my good fellow?
Go put on thy defences.
EROS
Briefly, sir.
CLEOPATRA
Is not this buckled well?
ANTONY
Rarely, rarely.
He that unbuckles this, till we do please
To doff ’t for our repose, shall hear a storm.—
Thou fumblest, Eros, and my Queen’s a squire
More tight at this than thou. Dispatch. —O love,
That thou couldst see my wars today, and knew’st
The royal occupation! Thou shouldst see
A workman in ’t.
Good morrow to thee. Welcome.
Thou look’st like him that knows a warlike charge.

DUTCH:
Zoo, goeden morgen; welkom;
‘t Is wel te zien, u is de krijg niet vreemd.
Men staat vroeg op voor de arbeid, dien men lief heeft,
En gaat met lust er aan.

MORE:
Proverb: What we do willingly is easy

Defences=Armour
Briefly=Soon
Doff=Take off
Tight=Adept
Workman=Expert
Compleat:
Armour=Wapenrusting, wapentuyg, rusting, geweer
To doff=Afligen, afdoen
Tight=Net, geschikt, ordentlyk, styf, dicht

Topics: life, satisfaction

PLAY: Timon of Athens
ACT/SCENE: 4.3
SPEAKER: Timon
CONTEXT:
TIMON
Nor on the beasts themselves, the birds, and fishes;
You must eat men. Yet thanks I must you con
That you are thieves professed, that you work not
In holier shapes: for there is boundless theft
In limited professions. Rascal thieves,
Here’s gold. Go, suck the subtle blood o’ the grape,
Till the high fever seethe your blood to froth,
And so ‘scape hanging: trust not the physician;
His antidotes are poison, and he slays
Moe than you rob: take wealth and lives together;
Do villainy, do, since you protest to do’t,
Like workmen. I’ll example you with thievery.
The sun’s a thief, and with his great attraction
Robs the vast sea: the moon’s an arrant thief,
And her pale fire she snatches from the sun:
The sea’s a thief, whose liquid surge resolves
The moon into salt tears: the earth’s a thief,
That feeds and breeds by a composture stolen
From general excrement: each thing’s a thief:
The laws, your curb and whip, in their rough power
Have unchecked theft. Love not yourselves: away,
Rob one another. There’s more gold. Cut throats:
All that you meet are thieves: to Athens go,
Break open shops; nothing can you steal,
But thieves do lose it: steal no less for this
I give you; and gold confound you howsoe’er! Amen.

DUTCH:
Vertrouwt geen arts;
Zijn tegengift is gift; hij moordt meer menschen,
Dan gij berooft.

MORE:
To con thanks=Be thankful
Limited professions=Restricted professions
Blood of the grape=Wine
Seethe=Boil
Froth=Churn
Resolves=Melts
Composture=Manure of animals, compost
Curb=Restraint
Howsoe’er=Anyway
Compleat:
To conn one thanks=Iemand bedanken
Profession (trade or calling)=Beroep, handteering, kostwinning
To seeth=Zieden, kooken
To froth=Schuimen, opschuimen
To resolve (melt)=Smelten, ontbinden, oplossen
To curb=Betoomen, intoomen, bedwingen, beteugelen
To curb one’s ambition=Iemands hoogmoed fnuiken

Topics: life, nature, trust, offence, skill/talent

PLAY: The Tempest
ACT/SCENE: 4.1
SPEAKER: Prospero
CONTEXT:
You do look, my son, in a moved sort,
As if you were dismayed. Be cheerful, sir.
Our revels now are ended. These our actors,
As I foretold you, were all spirits and
Are melted into air, into thin air.
And like the baseless fabric of this vision,
The cloud-capped towers, the gorgeous palaces,
The solemn temples, the great globe itself—
Yea, all which it inherit—shall dissolve,
And like this insubstantial pageant faded,
Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff
As dreams are made on, and our little life
Is rounded with a sleep. Sir, I am vexed.
Bear with my weakness. My old brain is troubled.
Be not disturbed with my infirmity.
If you be pleased, retire into my cell
And there repose. A turn or two I’ll walk
To still my beating mind.

DUTCH:
Wij zijn van de stof, Waar droomen van gevormd zijn; ‘t korte leven Is van een slaap omringd./
Van dezelfde stof zijn wij als onze dromen; en ons kleine leven is door de slaap omringd

MORE:
Frequently misquoted as “Such stuff as dreams are made of”
These our actors…not a rack behind. This passage is often extracted from its context and treated as farewell to his art; Al Pacino recited it in his 1996 film ‘Looking for Richard’.
In a moved sort=Agitated, upset
Revels=Courtly entertainment
Insubstantial pageant=imagined pageant
Baseless fabric of this vision=Having no basis in reality
Rack=’driving mist or fog’ (OED): scarcely a trace
Compleat:
Pageant=Een grootsche vertooning. Pageantry+Praal, pracht, triiomfelyke vertooning. Het is but meer (sic) pageantry=Het is maar klatergoud, niets anders dan een ydele vertooning.
Moved=Bewoogen, verroerd, ontroerd

Topics: life, age/experience, misquoted

PLAY: Othello
ACT/SCENE: 1.3
SPEAKER: Othello
CONTEXT:
BRABANTIO
Look to her, Moor, if thou hast eyes to see.
She has deceived her father, and may thee.
OTHELLO
My life upon her faith!—Honest Iago,
My Desdemona must I leave to thee.
I prithee, let thy wife attend on her,
And bring them after in the best advantage.
Come, Desdemona, I have but an hour
Of love, of worldly matter and direction,
To spend with thee. We must obey the time.

DUTCH:
Kom, Desdemona; slechts een enkel uur
Is mij voor liefde en reeg’ling van ons huis
Met u vergund; de tijd beheerscht ons doen.

MORE:
In the best advantage=Most favourable opportunity
Obey the time=Time is pressing
Compleat:
To give one the advantage=Iemand de voortogt geven
Advantage=Voordeel, voorrecht, winst, gewin, toegift

Topics: time, plans/intentions, life, deceit, truth, opportunity

PLAY: Hamlet
ACT/SCENE: 4.4
SPEAKER: Hamlet
CONTEXT:
How all occasions do inform against me,
And spur my dull revenge! What is a man
If his chief good and market of his time
Be but to sleep and feed? A beast, no more.

DUTCH:
Wat is een mensch, Wiens hoogste goed en markt zijns levens gaat Om slaap en voedsel slechts? /
Wat man is dat, Wiens hoogste goed en tijdsbesteding enkel Maar slapen is en eten?

MORE:
Schmidt:
To inform against=to communicate by way of accusation, to denounce
To spur (figurative)=to incite, to impel
Compleat:
To inform against=Iemand verklikken, of beklappen
to spur on=Aanspooren, noopen, aandryven
To spur one a question ( to start him a question in haste)=Een onverwagte, schielyke vraag doen

Topics: life, satisfaction, revenge

PLAY: King Henry IV Part 1
ACT/SCENE: 5.1
SPEAKER: Falstaff
CONTEXT:
PRINCE HENRY
Why, thou owest God a death.
Tis not due yet. I would be loath to pay Him before His day. What need I be so forward with Him that calls not on me? Well, ’tis no matter. Honour pricks me on. Yea, but how if honour prick me off when I come on? How then? Can honor set to a leg? no. Or an arm? no. Or take away the grief of a wound? No. Honour hath no skill in surgery, then? No. What is honour? A word. What is in that word “honour”? What is that “honour”? Air. A trim reckoning. Who hath it? He that died o’ Wednesday. Doth he feel it? No. Doth he hear it? No. ‘Tis insensible, then? Yea, to the dead. But will it not live with the living? No. Why? Detraction will not suffer it. Therefore, I’ll none of it. Honour is a mere scutcheon. And so ends my catechism.

DUTCH:
Wat is eer? Een woord. Wat is het woord eer? Lucht. De rekening sluit! — Wie Iieeft haar? Die woensdag gestorven is. Voelt hij ze? Neen. Hoort hij ze? Neen. Is ze dus niet waar te nemen? Neen, door de dooden niet. Maar leeft ze dan nooit bij de levenden? Neen. Waarom niet? De afgunst duldt dit niet.

MORE:
Death. Debt. The word-play on “death” and “debt” occurs as early as 1400.
Onions:
Prick on=Encourage, incite
Prick off=to mark or indicate by a ‘prick’ or tick, mark or tick off
Set to a leg=Restore a leg cut off
Insensible=Not to be apprehended by the senses
Scutcheon=A shield with armorial ensigns. Scutcheon is the lowest description of heraldic ensign used for funerals.
Compleat:
Scutcheon=Schild, wapenschild
REFERENCED IN E&W LAW: AM v Local Authority & Anor [2009] EWCA Civ 205 (16 March 2009)
Burgersdijk notes:
De eer is niets dan een wapenschild. Dat bij de begrafenis van een edelman mede rond gedragen wordt, zonder dat de doode er iets aan heeft. — Falstaff noemt, wat hij gezegd heeft, een catechismus, omdat hij in vragen en antwoorden zijn geloofsbelijdenis heeft afgelegd.

Topics: honour, cited in law, skill/talent, life

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

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

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

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

PLAY: As You Like It
ACT/SCENE: 2.1
SPEAKER: First Lord
CONTEXT:
DUKE SENIOR
But what said Jaques?
Did he not moralise this spectacle?
FIRST LORD
Oh, yes, into a thousand similes.
First, for his weeping into the needless stream:
“Poor deer,” quoth he, “thou mak’st a testament
As worldlings do, giving thy sum of more
To that which had too much.” Then, being there alone,
Left and abandoned of his velvet friend,
“’Tis right,” quoth he. “Thus misery doth part
The flux of company.” Anon a careless herd,
Full of the pasture, jumps along by him
And never stays to greet him. “Ay,” quoth Jaques,
“Sweep on, you fat and greasy citizens.
‘Tis just the fashion. Wherefore do you look
Upon that poor and broken bankrupt there?”
Thus most invectively he pierceth through
The body of the country, city, court,
Yea, and of this our life, swearing that we
Are mere usurpers, tyrants, and what’s worse,
To fright the animals and to kill them up
In their assigned and native dwelling place.
DUKE SENIOR
And did you leave him in this contemplation?
SECOND LORD
We did, my lord, weeping and commenting
Upon the sobbing deer.
DUKE SENIOR
Show me the place.
I love to cope him in these sullen fits,
For then he’s full of matter.
FIRST LORD
I’ll bring you to him straight.

DUTCH:
Waarom zoudt gij ook
Naar dien bankroeten armen drommel omzien?

MORE:
Moralise=Draw morals from
Quoth=Said
Worldlings=Mere mortals
Velvet=Smooth, prosperous
Flux=Stream
Anon=Soon
Careless=Carefree
By=Past
Wherefore=Why
Mere=Absolute
Cope=Encounter
Matter=Substance, ideas
Straight=Immediately
Compleat:
To moralize=Een zedelyke uitlegging of toepassing op iets maaken
Quoth=Zeide
Worldling=Een waereldsch mensch, waereldling
Velvet=Fluweel
Flux=De vloed, loop; flux and reflux=Eb en vloed
Careless=Zorgeloos, kommerloos, achteloos, onachtzaam
Wherefore (or why)=Waarom
Mere (meer)=Louter, enkel
Cope=Handgemeen worden; ruilebuiten
Matter=Stoffe, zaak, oorzaak
Straightway=Eenswegs, terstond, opstaandevoet

Topics: advice, language, nature, life, order/society

PLAY: The Merchant of Venice
ACT/SCENE: 1.3
SPEAKER: Shylock
CONTEXT:
SHYLOCK
O Father Abram, what these Christians are,
Whose own hard dealings teaches them suspect
The thoughts of others!—Pray you, tell me this:
If he should break his day, what should I gain
By the exaction of the forfeiture?
A pound of man’s flesh taken from a man
Is not so estimable, profitable neither,
As flesh of muttons, beefs, or goats. I say,
To buy his favor I extend this friendship.
If he will take it, so. If not, adieu.
And for my love I pray you wrong me not.

DUTCH:
O vader Abram! hoe de christ’nen toch,
Omdat zij zelf hardvochtig zijn, van andren
Hetzelfde denken!

MORE:
Hard dealings=harsh treatment/experience.
Suspect=Mistrust
Break his day=Fails to pay on the stipulated date (break the deadline)
Compleat:
Dealings=Verkeering
Basely dealt with=Slecht behandeld

Topics: emotion and mood, misquoted

PLAY: Cymbeline
ACT/SCENE: 2.4
SPEAKER: Posthumus Leonatus
CONTEXT:
PHILARIO
What means do you make to him?
POSTHUMUS LEONATUS
Not any, but abide the change of time,
Quake in the present winter’s state and wish
That warmer days would come: in these sear’d hopes,
I barely gratify your love; they failing,
I must die much your debtor.
PHILARIO
Your very goodness and your company
O’erpays all I can do. By this, your king
Hath heard of great Augustus: Caius Lucius
Will do’s commission throughly: and I think
He’ll grant the tribute, send the arrearages,
Or look upon our Romans, whose remembrance
Is yet fresh in their grief.
POSTHUMUS LEONATUS
I do believe,
Statist though I am none, nor like to be,
That this will prove a war; and you shall hear
The legions now in Gallia sooner landed
In our not-fearing Britain than have tidings
Of any penny tribute paid. Our countrymen
Are men more order’d than when Julius Caesar
Smiled at their lack of skill, but found their courage
Worthy his frowning at: their discipline,
Now mingled with their courages, will make known
To their approvers they are people such
That mend upon the world.

DUTCH:
Hun krijgstucht,
Nu met hun moed vereend, zal wie hen aanvalt
Doen kennen, dat zij mannen zijn, voor wie
Ervaring voordeel was.

MORE:
Means=Approaches, contact
Conceive=Think
Seared=Withered, failing
Gratify=Repay
Arrearages=Overdue payments
Look upon=Face
Statist=Politician
Ordered=Organised
Compleat:
Means=Middelen
Conceive=Bevatten, begrypen, beseffen, zich inbeelden
To sear=Schroeijen, branden, verzengen
To gratify=Begunstigen, believen, iets te gevallen doen, involgen
Arrearage=Achterstallige schuld
Disordered=In wanorde gebragt, in de war gebragt

Topics: life, nature, advice

PLAY: The Merchant of Venice
ACT/SCENE: 1.1
SPEAKER: Gratiano
CONTEXT:
GRATIANO
Let me play the fool.
With mirth and laughter let old wrinkles come.
And let my liver rather heat with wine
Than my heart cool with mortifying groans.
Why should a man whose blood is warm within
Sit like his grandsire cut in alabaster,
Sleep when he wakes, and creep into the jaundice
By being peevish?

DUTCH:

’k Wacht dartlend, lachend, rimplige’ ouderdom /
Laat mij maar rimpels krijgen van ‘t lachen en de vrolijkheid /
Laat de oude rimpels komen met gelach

MORE:
Jaundice was thought to be caused by excess choler ( one of the four humors)
Compleat:
Sooth=Zéker, voorwaar
Jaundice=De Geelzucht
Peevish=Kribbig, gémelyk, korsel, ligt geraakt.
Early 16c corsel (now ‘korselig’) (J. de Vries (1971), Nederlands Etymologisch Woordenboek, Leiden)

Topics: emotion and mood, misquoted

PLAY: King Henry VIII
ACT/SCENE: 5.2
SPEAKER: Cromwell
CONTEXT:
CHAMBERLAIN
’Tis now too certain.
How much more is his life in value with him!
Would I were fairly out on ’t!
CROMWELL
My mind gave me,
In seeking tales and informations
Against this man, whose honesty the devil
And his disciples only envy at,
You blew the fire that burns you. Now, have at you!

DUTCH:
k Voelde inwendig,
Dat gij, naar praatjes en berichten zoekend,
Om dezen man te schaden, aan wiens braafheid
De duivel en zijn jong’ren slechts zich erg’ren,
‘t Vuur aanbliest, u ter blaak’ring. Redt u thans!

MORE:
In value to=Worth
Mind gave me=I worried/had misgivings that
Tales=Rumours
Informations=Intelligence
Compleat:
To value=Waardeeren, achten, schatten
Tell tales=Verklikken

Topics: life, value, honesty

PLAY: As You Like It
ACT/SCENE: 3.2
SPEAKER:
CONTEXT:
ORLANDO
You should ask me what time o’ day. There’s no clock
in the forest.
ROSALIND
Then there is no true lover in the forest, else sighing
every minute and groaning every hour would detect the
lazy foot of time as well as a clock.
ORLANDO
And why not the swift foot of time? Had not that been as proper?
ROSALIND
By no means, sir. Time travels in diverse paces with diverse persons. I’ll tell you who time ambles withal, who time trots withal, who time gallops withal, and who he stands still withal.
ORLANDO
I prithee, who doth he trot withal?

DUTCH:
Gij moest liever vragen, welken tijd van den dag het
is, want in het woud is er geen klok.

MORE:
Detect=Reveal, mark
Withal=With
Proper=Appropriate
Paces=Speeds
Compleat:
Detect=Ontdekken, openleggen
Withall=Daar beneeven, mede, met eene
Proper=Bequaam, van een bequaame lengte
Pace=Een stap, treede, schreede, tred, gang, pas, voortgang

Topics: time, order/society, life

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