CJTranslations

QUOTES BY TOPIC

All their minds transfigured so together, more witnesseth than fancy’s images

PLAY: A Midsummer Night’s Dream
ACT/SCENE: 5.1
SPEAKER: Hippolyta
CONTEXT:
THESEUS
More strange than true. I never may believe
These antique fables nor these fairy toys.
Lovers and madmen have such seething brains,
Such shaping fantasies, that apprehend
More than cool reason ever comprehends.
The lunatic, the lover, and the poet
Are of imagination all compact.
One sees more devils than vast hell can hold—
That is the madman. The lover, all as frantic,
Sees Helen’s beauty in a brow of Egypt.
The poet’s eye, in fine frenzy rolling,
Doth glance from heaven to Earth, from Earth to heaven.
And as imagination bodies forth
The forms of things unknown, the poet’s pen
Turns them to shapes and gives to airy nothing
A local habitation and a name.
Such tricks hath strong imagination,
That if it would but apprehend some joy,
It comprehends some bringer of that joy.
Or in the night, imagining some fear,
How easy is a bush supposed a bear!
HIPPOLYTA
But all the story of the night told over,
And all their minds transfigured so together,
More witnesseth than fancy’s images
And grows to something of great constancy,
But, howsoever, strange and admirable.

DUTCH:
Maar al wat zij vertellen van deez’ nacht,
En hun gezindheid, zoo gelijk veranderd,
Moet meer zijn dan een spel der phantasie.
Het toont verband, het wordt tot werkelijkheid;
Doch altijd blijft het vreemd en wonderbaar.

MORE:
Proverb: He thinks every bush a bugbear (bear)
Proverb: Great wits (poets) to madness sure are near allied
Proverb: It is no more strange than true

More witnesseth=Is evidence of more (than imagination)
Constancy=Consistency
Howsoever=In any case
Admirable=Unbelievable
Antique=Strange, ancient
Toys=Trifles
Apprehend=Perceive
Comprehends=1) Understands; 2) Deduces, imagines
Compact=Composed
Helen=Helen of Troy
Bringer=Source
Compleat:
A mere toy=Een voddery
Comprehend=Begrypen, bevatten, insluyten
To compact=In een trekken, dicht t’zamenvoegen
To witness=Getuygen, betuygen
Constancy=Standvastigheyd, volharding, bestendigheyd
Howsoever=Hoedaanig ook, hoe ook

Topics: proverbs and idioms, skill/talent, madness, imagination, memory, evidence

Be you well assured no more than he’ll unswear

PLAY: Othello
ACT/SCENE: 4.1
SPEAKER: Iago
CONTEXT:
OTHELLO
By heaven, I would most gladly have forgot it.
Thou saidst—Oh, it comes o’er my memory,
As doth the raven o’er the infectious house,
Boding to all—he had my handkerchief.
IAGO
Ay, what of that?
OTHELLO
That’s not so good now.
IAGO
What if I had said I had seen him do you wrong?
Or heard him say—as knaves be such abroad,
Who having, by their own importunate suit,
Or voluntary dotage of some mistress,
Convincèd or supplied them, cannot choose
But they must blab—
OTHELLO
Hath he said any thing?
IAGO
He hath, my lord, but be you well assured
No more than he’ll unswear.

DUTCH:
Ja, heer, maar wees verzekerd, liegen heet hij ‘t,
Des noods bij eede.

MORE:
Boding=Ominous (ravens were thought to hover over houses where there was infection)
Abroad=About
Voluntary dotage=Infatuation
Convincèd=Prevailed on
Supplied=Satisfied
Unswear=Deny by oath
Compleat:
Ill-boding=Kwaad voorspellende
Abroad=Buyten
Dotage=Suffery, dweepery
To convince=Overtuygen

Topics: memory, promise, betrayal

Frame yourself to orderly solicits, and be friended with aptness of the season

PLAY: Cymbeline
ACT/SCENE: 2.3
SPEAKER: Queen
CONTEXT:
CLOTEN
I have assailed her with music, but she vouchsafes no
notice.
CYMBELINE
The exile of her minion is too new;
She hath not yet forgot him: some more time
Must wear the print of his remembrance out,
And then she’s yours.
QUEEN
You are most bound to the king,
Who lets go by no vantages that may
Prefer you to his daughter. Frame yourself
To orderly solicits, and be friended
With aptness of the season; make denials
Increase your services; so seem as if
You were inspired to do those duties which
You tender to her; that you in all obey her,
Save when command to your dismission tends,
And therein you are senseless.

DUTCH:
Zorg, dat gij haar met ernst
Uw hulde brengt; maak u gelegenheid,
Den juisten tijd tot vriend;

MORE:
Vantages=Opportunities
Prefer=Commend
Frame=To mould, to fashion, to work into a certain shape
Orderly solicits=established (courtship) rituals
Be friended with=Favour
Aptness of the season=properly timed solicitation
Dismission=Rejection
Senseless=Insensitive, having no ear
Compleat:
Vantage=Toegift, toemaat, overmaat, overwigt
To prefer one=Iemand bevorderen
To frame=Een gestalte geeven, toestellen, maaken, ontwerpen, schikken, beraamen
Orderly=Geschiktlyk, geregeld, ordentlyk
Senseless=Gevoeleloos, ongevoelig, zinneloos

Topics: debt/obligation, duty, memory

He that is strucken blind cannot forget
The precious treasure of his eyesight lost.

PLAY: Romeo and Juliet
ACT/SCENE: 1.1
SPEAKER: Romeo
CONTEXT:
He that is strucken blind cannot forget
The precious treasure of his eyesight lost.
Show me a mistress that is passing fair;
What doth her beauty serve but as a note
Where I may read who passed that passing fair?
Farewell. Thou canst not teach me to forget.

DUTCH:
De blindgeword’ne kan den dierb’ren schat
Van ‘t licht, dat hij moet derven, nooit vergeten.

MORE:
Onions:
Passing=Exceedingly
Compleat:
A passing (or excellent) beauty=Een voortreffelyke schoonheid

Topics: memory, value, appearance, nature

I paint him in the character

PLAY: Coriolanus
ACT/SCENE: 5.4
SPEAKER: Menenius
CONTEXT:
SICINIUS
He loved his mother dearly.
MENENIUS
So did he me: and he no more remembers his mother
now than an eight-year-old horse. The tartness
of his face sours ripe grapes: when he walks, he
moves like an engine, and the ground shrinks before
his treading: he is able to pierce a corslet with
his eye; talks like a knell, and his hum is a
battery. He sits in his state, as a thing made for
Alexander. What he bids be done is finished with
his bidding. He wants nothing of a god but eternity
and a heaven to throne in.
SICINIUS
Yes, mercy, if you report him truly.
MENENIUS
I paint him in the character. Mark what mercy his
mother shall bring from him: there is no more mercy
in him than there is milk in a male tiger; that
shall our poor city find: and all this is long of
you.

DUTCH:
Ik schilder hem naar ‘t leven.

MORE:
Tartness=Sour expression
Engine=Machine
Corslet=Armour
Knell=Tolling bell
Battery=Canon fire
Alexander=Alexander the Great
Want=Lack
Long of=On account of
Compleat:
Tartness=Wrangheid, zuurheid, scherpheid
Engine=Een konstwerk, gereedschap, werktuig; Een list, konstgreep
Corslet=Een borstwapen voor de Piekeniers; een breede gordel
Knell=De doodklok
Battery=Een schietschans, beukery, stormkat, battery
Want=Gebrek

Topics: memory, mercy, respect, emotion and mood

I repent me much that so I harried him

PLAY: Antony and Cleopatra
ACT/SCENE: 3.3
SPEAKER: Cleopatra
CONTEXT:
CLEOPATRA
Bear’st thou her face in mind? Is ’t long or round?
MESSENGER
Round, even to faultiness.
CLEOPATRA
For the most part, too, they are foolish that are so.
Her hair, what colour?
MESSENGER
Brown, madam, and her forehead
As low as she would wish it.
CLEOPATRA
There’s gold for thee.
Thou must not take my former sharpness ill.
I will employ thee back again; I find thee
Most fit for business. Go make thee ready;
Our letters are prepared.
CHARMIAN
A proper man.
CLEOPATRA
Indeed, he is so. I repent me much
That so I harried him. Why, methinks, by him,
This creature’s no such thing.

DUTCH:
Dat is hij, ja; het spijt mij zelfs, dat ik
Hem vroeger hard viel. Spreekt hij waar, dan heeft
Dat wezen niets aantrekk’lijks.

MORE:
To faultiness=To a fault
As low as she would wish it=High foreheads were considered attractive in Shakespeare’s time
Employ thee back=Send you again as a messenger
Sharpness=Severity
Proper=Admirable
By him=Judging by his report
No such thing=Nothing out of the ordinary
Compleat:
Fault=Fout, feyl, misslag, schld, misdryf
Sharpness (acrimony) of humours=Scherpheid der vochten
Sharpness (Keenness or point)=Scherpheid, puntigheid
Proper=Bequaam, van een bequaame lengte

Topics: memory, appearance

I should not urge thy duty past thy might

PLAY: Julius Caesar
ACT/SCENE: 4.3
SPEAKER: Brutus
CONTEXT:
BRUTUS
Bear with me, good boy, I am much forgetful.
Canst thou hold up thy heavy eyes awhile,
And touch thy instrument a strain or two?
LUCIUS
Ay, my lord, an ’t please you.
BRUTUS
It does, my boy.
I trouble thee too much, but thou art willing.
LUCIUS
It is my duty, sir.
BRUTUS
I should not urge thy duty past thy might.
I know young bloods look for a time of rest.
LUCIUS
I have slept, my lord, already.
BRUTUS
It was well done, and thou shalt sleep again.
I will not hold thee long. If I do live,
I will be good to thee.

DUTCH:
lk moest niet meer verlangen dan gij kunt;
1k weet, het jonge bloed wil rust op tijd.

MORE:
Hold up heavy eyes=Stay awake
A strain=Strain of music
An=If
Past=Beyond
Might=Capabilities
Compleat:
A strain of musick=Een trant van muzyk
Past=Verleegen, geleden, voorby, over, gepasseerd
Might=Magt, vermoogen, kracht

Topics: memory, duty, loyalty

If I could have remembered a gilt counterfeit, thou wouldst not have slipped out of my contemplation

PLAY: Troilus and Cressida
ACT/SCENE: 2.3
SPEAKER: Thersites
CONTEXT:
THERSITES
If I could have remembered a gilt counterfeit, thou
wouldst not have slipped out of my contemplation: but
it is no matter; thyself upon thyself! The common
curse of mankind, folly and ignorance, be thine in
great revenue! heaven bless thee from a tutor, and
discipline come not near thee! Let thy blood be thy
direction till thy death! then if she that lays thee
out says thou art a fair corse, I’ll be sworn and
sworn upon’t she never shrouded any but lazars.
Amen. Where’s Achilles?

DUTCH:
Als ik mij een vergulde valsche munt had kunnen
herinneren, dan zoudt gij mij niet uit de gedachte gebleven
zijn.

MORE:
Gilt counterfeit=Forged gold coin
Contemplation=Prayers, meditation
Bless=Preserve
Discipline=Instruction
Blood=Passion
Direction=Guide
Corse=Corpse
Lazar=Leper
Compleat:
Counterfeit=Naamaaksel
Contemplation=Beschouwing, bespiegeling, opgetoogenheid, overpeinzing
To discipline=Onderwyzen, oeffenen, in tucht houden, tuchtigen, onder tzim houden
Direction=Het bestier, aanwijzing
Corse=Lijk

Burgersdijk notes:
Een vergulde valsche munt. In ‘t Engelsch: a gild counterfeit. Een valsche munt, counterfeit, wordt ook slip genoemd, en hierop doelt het volgende slipped; men vergelijke (in het oorspronkelijke) Romeo en Julia, II. 4. 51. – Dat hier ook met den gelijken klank van gild, verguld, en guilt, schuld, gespeeld wordt, is duidelijk.

Topics: memory, loyalty, integrity

It is qui, quae, quod: if you forget your ‘quies,’ your ‘quaes,’ and your ‘quods,’ you must be preeches

PLAY: The Merry Wives of Windsor
ACT/SCENE:
SPEAKER: Sir Hugh Evans
CONTEXT:
SIR HUGH EVANS
Show me now, William, some declensions of your pronouns.
WILLIAM PAGE
Forsooth, I have forgot.
SIR HUGH EVANS
It is qui, quae, quod: if you forget your ‘quies,’
your ‘quaes,’ and your ‘quods,’ you must be
preeches. Go your ways, and play; go.
MISTRESS PAGE
He is a better scholar than I thought he was.
SIR HUGH EVANS
He is a good sprag memory. Farewell, Mistress Page.

DUTCH:
Het is: qui, quae, quod; als chij vercheet uw
qui’s, uw quae’s, uw quod’s, tan moest chij worden
chepritst. Cha nu heen en speel; cha.

MORE:
Preeches=Breeching (old term meaning flogging (e.g. of a schoolboy)).
Sprag=Sprack (active)
Compleat:
To breech=Op de billen slaan

Topics: punishment|learning/education|memory

Let me put in your minds, if you forget, what you have been ere this, and what you are

PLAY: Richard III
ACT/SCENE: 1.3
SPEAKER: Queen Margaret
CONTEXT:
RICHARD
Ere you were queen, ay, or your husband king,
I was a packhorse in his great affairs,
A weeder-out of his proud adversaries,
A liberal rewarder of his friends.
To royalize his blood, I spent mine own.
QUEEN MARGARET
Ay, and much better blood than his or thine.
RICHARD
In all which time, you and your husband Grey
Were factious for the house of Lancaster.—
And, Rivers, so were you.— Was not your husband
In Margaret’s battle at Saint Albans slain?
Let me put in your minds, if you forget,
What you have been ere this, and what you are;
Withal, what I have been, and what I am.

DUTCH:
Laat mij, zijt gij ‘t vergeten, u herinn’ren,
Wat gij voordezen waart en wat gij zijt,
Alsook, wat ik geweest ben en nu ben .

MORE:
Packhorse=Beast of burden
Factious=Fighting
Battle=Army
Put in your mind=Remind
Compleat:
Packhorse=Een lastdraagend paerd
Factious=Oproerig
It puts me in mind=Het maakt my indachtig; het brengt my in den zin

Topics: relationship, status, order/society, memory, work

Let me put in your minds, if you forget, what you have been ere this, and what you are

DUTCH:
Laat mij, zijt gij ‘t vergeten, u herinn’ren,
Wat gij voordezen waart en wat gij zijt,
Alsook, wat ik geweest ben en nu ben .

Topics: relationship, status, order/society, memory, work

Methinks I hear him now: his plausive words he scattered not in ears, but grafted them, to grow there and to bear

PLAY: All’s Well that Ends Well
ACT/SCENE: 1.2
SPEAKER: King
CONTEXT:
BERTRAM
His good remembrance, sir,
Lies richer in your thoughts than on his tomb;
So in approof lives not his epitaph
As in your royal speech.
KING
Would I were with him! He would always say—
Methinks I hear him now: his plausive words
He scatterd not in ears, but grafted them,
To grow there and to bear ;—” Let me not live,”
Thus his good melancholy oft began,
On the catastrophe and heel of pastime.
When it was out,—” Let me not live,” quoth he,
“After my flame lacks oil, to be the snuff
Of younger spirits, whose apprehensive senses
All but new things disdain; whose judgments are
Mere fathers of their garments; whose constancies
Expire before their fashions. This he wished;
I after him do after him wish too,
Since I nor wax nor honey can bring home,
I quickly were dissolved from my hive,
To give some labourers room.

DUTCH:
O, dat ik bij hem waar! Hij zeide steeds:
Mij is ‘t, als hoor ik hem; hij strooide niet
Zijn gulden taal in ‘t oor, maar entte er die,
Zoodat ze er vruchten droeg,

MORE:
Approof=Testimony
Plausive=Pleasing, specious, plausible
Catastrophe, Heel=Both meaning end
Scattered not but grafted=Not thrown carelessly but carefully planted
Snuff=The burning wick of a candle, as darkening the flame or remaining after it.
Apprehensive=Imaginative
Compleat:
Plausible=Op een schoonschynende wyze
To snuff out a candle=Een kaars uitsnuiten
Apprehensive (sensible of)=Een ding gewaar worden

Topics: fashion/trends, language, reason, understanding, memory, legacy

Note this: the King is weary Of dainty and such picking grievances.

PLAY: King Henry IV Part 2
ACT/SCENE: 4.1
SPEAKER: Archbishop
CONTEXT:
Note this: the King is weary
Of dainty and such picking grievances,
For he hath found to end one doubt by death
Revives two greater in the heirs of life;
And therefore will he wipe his tables clean
And keep no telltale to his memory
That may repeat and history his loss
To new remembrance.

DUTCH:
Neen, neen, mylord. Bedenk: de koning is
Dat vergezocht, spitsvondig wrokken moe.

MORE:

Schmidt:
Dainty=minute, detailed
Picking=fastidious
Wipe his tables clearn=A tablet of slate or ivory

Compleat:
Picking=Poikking, pluizing; pikkende
Tell-tale=Een verklikker, klikspaan

Topics: memory, truth, patience

Oh, it comes o’er my memory, as doth the raven o’er the infectious house

PLAY: Othello
ACT/SCENE: 4.1
SPEAKER: Othello
CONTEXT:
OTHELLO
By heaven, I would most gladly have forgot it.
Thou saidst—Oh, it comes o’er my memory,
As doth the raven o’er the infectious house,
Boding to all—he had my handkerchief.
IAGO
Ay, what of that?
OTHELLO
That’s not so good now.
IAGO
What if I had said I had seen him do you wrong?
Or heard him say—as knaves be such abroad,
Who having, by their own importunate suit,
Or voluntary dotage of some mistress,
Convincèd or supplied them, cannot choose
But they must blab—
OTHELLO
Hath he said any thing?
IAGO
He hath, my lord, but be you well assured
No more than he’ll unswear.

DUTCH:
Bij God, hoe gaarne had ik dien vergeten.
Gij hebt gezegd, — o ‘t waart mij voor den geest,
Gelijk een raaf een pestziek huis omzwerft
En onheil spelt, — dat hij mijn zakdoek had.

Topics: memory, promise, betrayal

Or in the night, imagining some fear, how easy is a bush supposed a bear!

PLAY: A Midsummer Night’s Dream
ACT/SCENE: 5.1
SPEAKER: Theseus
CONTEXT:
THESEUS
More strange than true. I never may believe
These antique fables nor these fairy toys.
Lovers and madmen have such seething brains,
Such shaping fantasies, that apprehend
More than cool reason ever comprehends.
The lunatic, the lover, and the poet
Are of imagination all compact.
One sees more devils than vast hell can hold—
That is the madman. The lover, all as frantic,
Sees Helen’s beauty in a brow of Egypt.
The poet’s eye, in fine frenzy rolling,
Doth glance from heaven to Earth, from Earth to heaven.
And as imagination bodies forth
The forms of things unknown, the poet’s pen
Turns them to shapes and gives to airy nothing
A local habitation and a name.
Such tricks hath strong imagination,
That if it would but apprehend some joy,
It comprehends some bringer of that joy.
Or in the night, imagining some fear,
How easy is a bush supposed a bear!
HIPPOLYTA
But all the story of the night told over,
And all their minds transfigured so together,
More witnesseth than fancy’s images
And grows to something of great constancy,
But, howsoever, strange and admirable.

DUTCH:
Als ‘s nachts haar angst bekruipt in ‘t woud,
Zij licht een ruigte voor een ondier houdt.

MORE:
Proverb: He thinks every bush a bugbear (bear)
Proverb: Great wits (poets) to madness sure are near allied
Proverb: It is no more strange than true

More witnesseth=Is evidence of more (than imagination)
Constancy=Consistency
Howsoever=In any case
Admirable=Unbelievable
Antique=Strange, ancient
Toys=Trifles
Apprehend=Perceive
Comprehends=1) Understands; 2) Deduces, imagines
Compact=Composed
Helen=Helen of Troy
Bringer=Source
Compleat:
A mere toy=Een voddery
Comprehend=Begrypen, bevatten, insluyten
To compact=In een trekken, dicht t’zamenvoegen
To witness=Getuygen, betuygen
Constancy=Standvastigheyd, volharding, bestendigheyd
Howsoever=Hoedaanig ook, hoe ook

Topics: proverbs and idioms, skill/talent, madness, imagination, memory, evidence

Purpose is but the slave to memory,
Of violent birth, but poor validity

PLAY: Hamlet
ACT/SCENE: 3.2
SPEAKER: Player King
CONTEXT:
I do believe you think what now you speak,
But what we do determine oft we break.
Purpose is but the slave to memory,
Of violent birth, but poor validity,
Which now, like fruit unripe, sticks on the tree,
But fall, unshaken, when they mellow be.

DUTCH:
Al te vaak verbreekt men zijn beloften. Beloften zijn slechts slaven van ‘t geheugen; in aanleg sterk, doch later krachteloos. /
‘t Plan is de slaaf slechts der herinnering

MORE:
Schmidt:
Validity= Strength, efficacy
Compleat:
Validity=Krachtigheid, bondigheid

Topics: honour, still in use, memory, plans/intentions, language

Such tricks hath strong imagination

DUTCH:
Verbeelding is in grillen overrijk;
Zoodra zij iets gevoelt, dat haar verheugt,
Staat haar voor ‘t oog een brenger van de vreugd;

MORE:
Proverb: He thinks every bush a bugbear (bear)
Proverb: Great wits (poets) to madness sure are near allied
Proverb: It is no more strange than true

Topics: proverbs and idioms, skill/talent, madness, imagination, memory, evidence

That I could forget what I have been,
Or not remember what I must be now!

PLAY: Richard II
ACT/SCENE: 3.3
SPEAKER: King Richard II
CONTEXT:
O God, O God! that e’er this tongue of mine,
That laid the sentence of dread banishment
On yon proud man, should take it off again
With words of sooth! O that I were as great
As is my grief, or lesser than my name!
Or that I could forget what I have been,
Or not remember what I must be now!
Swell’st thou, proud heart? I’ll give thee scope to beat,
Since foes have scope to beat both thee and me.

DUTCH:
O, ware ik zoo groot
Als nu mijn smart, of kleiner dan mijn naam;
Of dat ik kon vergeten, wat ik was,
Of niet begrijpen, wat ik nu moet zijn!

MORE:

Words of sooth=Words of appeasement, comfort (‘sooth’ is sweet as well as true as in the verb ‘to soothe’)
Scope=(a) latitude’ (b) purpose, capabillity

Compleat:
Sooth=Zeker, voorwaar
To sooth up=Vleijen, flikflooijen
To sooth up (lull)=Aanmoedigen
Scope=Oogmerk, ,doelwit
To have free scope (latitude)=De ruimte hebben (vrye loop)

Topics: judgment, punishment, memory, integrity, value

Though those that are betray’d do feel the treason sharply, yet the traitor stands in worse case of woe

PLAY: Cymbeline
ACT/SCENE: 3.4
SPEAKER: Imogen
CONTEXT:
IMOGEN
Why, I must die;
And if I do not by thy hand, thou art
No servant of thy master’s. Against self-slaughter
There is a prohibition so divine
That cravens my weak hand. Come, here’s my heart.
Something’s afore’t. Soft, soft! we’ll no defence;
Obedient as the scabbard. What is here?
The scriptures of the loyal Leonatus,
All turn’d to heresy? Away, away,
Corrupters of my faith! you shall no more
Be stomachers to my heart. Thus may poor fools
Believe false teachers: though those that are betray’d
Do feel the treason sharply, yet the traitor
Stands in worse case of woe.
And thou, Posthumus, thou that didst set up
My disobedience ‘gainst the king my father
And make me put into contempt the suits
Of princely fellows, shalt hereafter find
It is no act of common passage, but
A strain of rareness: and I grieve myself
To think, when thou shalt be disedged by her
That now thou tirest on, how thy memory
Will then be pang’d by me. Prithee, dispatch:
The lamb entreats the butcher: where’s thy knife?
Thou art too slow to do thy master’s bidding,
When I desire it too.

DUTCH:
Van hier, van hier,
Die mijn geloof vervalscht hebt! Weg! niet langer
Dekt gij mij ‘t hart! O, arme dwazen schenken
Geloof aan valsche leeraars. Doch hoe diep
‘t Verraad ook de bedroog’nen griev’, toch treft
Hem, die verraadt, veel erger wee.

MORE:
Disedged=Blunted, with the edge taken off (Cf. Hamlet 3.2, “It would cost you a groaning to take off my edge”)
False teachers=Teachers of heresy
Stomacher=Ornamental covering for the breast worn by women
To tire=To prey or feed ravenously “upon”, rend prey to pieces
Pang=To afflict with great pain, to torment
Compleat:
To blunt=Stomp maaken, verstompen
A false prophet=Een valsch Propheet
A false (erroneous) opinion=Een dwaalend gevoelen

Topics: corruption, manipulation, betrayal, order/society, memory, consequences

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

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

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

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

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

Yea, from the table of my memory
I’ll wipe away all trivial fond records,

PLAY: Hamlet
ACT/SCENE: 1.5
SPEAKER: Hamlet
CONTEXT:
Yea, from the table of my memory
I’ll wipe away all trivial fond records,
All saws of books, all forms, all pressures past
That youth and observation copied there,
And thy commandment all alone shall live
Within the book and volume of my brain,
Unmixed with baser matter

DUTCH:
Ja, van de tafels van mijn heug’nis zal ‘k Wegwisschen alle dwaze beuz’larij /
Ja, van ‘t tablet van mijn geheugen zal Ik wisschen alle onnoozelheden weg.

MORE:
Schmidt:
Fond=Slight, trifling, trivial, not worth considering, nugatory
Saw=A moral saying, a maxim, a sentence
Base= Of low station, of mean account, i.e. base metal
Compleat:
An old saw (for an old saying)=Een oud zeggen
Base (or inferior) court=Een ondergeschikt Hof, een minder Rechtbank
Fond=Zot, dwaas, ongerymt

Topics: memory, secrecy