CJTranslations - punishment

QUOTES BY TOPIC

A backfriend, a shoulder clapper, one that countermands the passages of alleys, creeks, and narrow lands

PLAY: The Comedy of Errors ACT/SCENE: 4.2 SPEAKER: Dromio of Syracuse CONTEXT: DROMIO OF SYRACUSE
Here, go—the desk, the purse! Sweet, now make haste.
LUCIANA
How hast thou lost thy breath?
DROMIO OF SYRACUSE
By running fast.
ADRIANA
Where is thy master, Dromio? Is he well?
DROMIO OF SYRACUSE
No, he’s in Tartar limbo, worse than hell.
A devil in an everlasting garment hath him,
One whose hard heart is buttoned up with steel;
A fiend, a fairy, pitiless and rough;
A wolf, nay, worse, a fellow all in buff;
A backfriend, a shoulder clapper, one that countermands
The passages of alleys, creeks, and narrow lands;
A hound that runs counter and yet draws dryfoot well,
One that before the judgment carries poor souls to hell. DUTCH: Hij is in ‘t voorportaal, neen, in de hel!
Hem heeft een duivel beet, in eeuw’gen dos,
Een man, wiens hart met staal benageld is,
Een wreede booze geest, een wolf, neen, meer,
Een kerel, gansch gehuld in buffelleêr MORE: Tartar=Tartarus, hell in classical mythology
Fairy=Malign spirit
Buff=Hardwearing material; buff jerkins were worn by the sergeant
Backfriend=Backslapper who pretends to be a friend (shoulder-clapper was also slang for an arresting officer)
Countermand=Prohibit, with pun on ‘counter’ (name for debtor’s prison)
Passage=Access, entry, avenue, way leading to and out of something
Compleat:
Buff leather=Buffels of ossen leer op zeem bereid
Counter-mand=Tegenbeveelen; een bevel herroepen
Counter=Twee gevangenenhuizen in Londen die dus genoemd worden
Tartarean (of hell, from the Latin ‘tartarus’)=Helsch
To mend his draught=Zich eens verhaalen in ‘t drinken

Burgersdijk notes:
Hij is in’t voorportaal, neen, in de hel. In ‘t Engelsch staat: He is in Tartar’s limbo ; de uitdrukking schijnt aan de Engelschen uit Dante’s Goddelijke Comedie gemeenzaam te zijn geworden, men vindt haar meermalen bij Shakespeare en ook in Spencer’s Elfenkoningin. De hel was in Sh.’s tijd, en nog een eeuw later, de naam van een gevangenis. Evenzoo was counter (reg. 39) de naam van eene gevangenis; maar to run counter is ook een uitdrukking voor een jachthond, die op een valsch spoor is of in verkeerde richting loopt. — De gerechtsdienaars waren in leder gekleed, zie K. Hendrik IV. I. Topics: law/legal, flattery, punishment, authority

A heavy sentence, my most sovereign liege, And all unlook’d for from your highness’ mouth:

PLAY: Richard II
ACT/SCENE: 1.3
SPEAKER: Thomas Mowbray
CONTEXT:
KING RICHARD II
Norfolk, for thee remains a heavier doom,
Which I with some unwillingness pronounce:
The sly slow hours shall not determinate
The dateless limit of thy dear exile;
The hopeless word of ‘never to return’
Breathe I against thee, upon pain of life.
THOMAS MOWBRAY
A heavy sentence, my most sovereign liege,
And all unlook’d for from your highness’ mouth:
A dearer merit, not so deep a maim
As to be cast forth in the common air,
Have I deserved at your highness’ hands.

DUTCH:
Een drukkend vonnis, hooge vorst en heer,
En nooit verwacht van uwer hoogheid mond;

MORE:
CITED IN LAW: 2008] Bancoult, R (On The Application of) v Secretary of State For Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs [2008] UKHL 61 (22 October 2008)/3 WLR 955, [2009] 1 AC 453, [2009] AC 453, [2008] UKHL 61, [2008] 4 All ER 1055
Quoetd by Lord Mance in his dissenting opinion in the British Indian Ocean Territory case, concluding: “the Chagossians were entitled to say, like the Duke of Norfolk…‘A heavy sentence, my most sovereign liege, And all unlook’d for from your Highness’ mouth.’ To which in my opinion the Crown cannot here simply reply: ‘It boots thee not to be compassionate; After our sentence plaining comes too late’.”

Doom=Judgment. (Doom (or ‘dome’) was a statute or law (doombooks were codes of laws); related to the English suffix -dom, originally meaning jurisdiction. Shakespeare is credited for first using doom to mean death and destruction in Sonnet 14.)
Regreet=Return to
Dateless=Indefinite
Dear=Painful
Dearer merit=Greater reward, recompense
Maim=Wound
Determinate=Put an end to

Compleat:
Doom=Vonnis, oordeel, verwyzing
A heavy doom=een zwaar vonnis
Dooms-man=een Rechter, Scheidsman
Dear-bought experience=Een duurgekogte ondervinding
Maim=Wond, verlamming

Topics: cited in law, language, punishment

Adversity’s sweet milk, philosophy

PLAY: Romeo and Juliet
ACT/SCENE: 3.3
SPEAKER: Friar Lawrence
CONTEXT:
ROMEO
Oh, thou wilt speak again of banishment.
FRIAR LAWRENCE
I’ll give thee armor to keep off that word—
Adversity’s sweet milk, philosophy—
To comfort thee though thou art banishèd.
ROMEO
Yet “banishèd”? Hang up philosophy!
Unless philosophy can make a Juliet,
Displant a town, reverse a prince’s doom,
It helps not, it prevails not. Talk no more.

DUTCH:
k Geef u een harnas, waar dat woord op afstuit,
De zoetste melk in ‘t leed: philosophie,
Die u, al zijt gij balling, troosten zal.

MORE:
Schmidt:
Displant=transplant, transpose

Topics: punishment

And fashion your demeanour to my looks, or I will beat this method in your sconce

PLAY: The Comedy of Errors
ACT/SCENE: 2.2
SPEAKER: Antipholus of Syracuse
CONTEXT:
ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE
Because that I familiarly sometimes
Do use you for my fool and chat with you,
Your sauciness will jest upon my love
And make a common of my serious hours.
When the sun shines, let foolish gnats make sport,
But creep in crannies when he hides his beams.
If you will jest with me, know my aspect,
And fashion your demeanour to my looks,
Or I will beat this method in your sconce.
DROMIO OF SYRACUSE
“Sconce” call you it? So you would leave battering,
I had rather have it a “head.” An you use these blows long, I must get a sconce for my head and ensconce it too, or else I shall seek my wit in my shoulders. But I pray, sir, why am I beaten?

DUTCH:
Omdat ik soms gemeenzaam scherts en keuvel,
Als met een nar, misbruikt ge in overmoed
Mijn vriendlijkheid en neemt mijn ernstige uren,
Alsof ze u toebehoorden, in beslag.
Maar dans’ de mug ook in den zonneschijn,
Zij kruipt in reten, als de lucht betrekt

MORE:
Proverb: He has more wit in his head than you in both your shoulders

Jest upon=Trifle with
Sauciness=Impertinence, impudence
Make a common of my serious hours=Treat my hours of business as common property (reference to property law, where racts of ground were allocated to common use and known as “commons”)
Aspect=Look, glance; possible reference to astrology, with the aspect being the position of one planet in relation to others and its potential to exert influence
Sconce=(1) Head; (2) Fortification, bulwark
Fashion your demeanour to my looks=Check my mood and act accordingly
Compleat:
To jest=Boerten, schertsen, jokken, gekscheeren
Sconce=(Sconse) Een bolwerk of blokhuis
To sconce (university word to signify the setting up so much in the buttery-book, upon one’s head, to be paid as a punishment for a duty neglected or an offence committed)=In de boete beslaan, eene boete opleggen, straffen
Sconsing=Beboeting, beboetende
To fashion=Een gestalte geeven, vormen, fatzoeneeren

Burgersdijk notes:
Op mijn bol? In ‘t Engelsch een woordspeling met sconce, dat „bol” of „hoofd” beteekent, en ook, schans”, waarom ook het woord ensconce, ,,verschansen” volgt. Bij het maken der aanteekeningen komt het mij voor, dat het woord bolwerk had kunnen dienen om het origineel nauwkeuriger terug te geven: „Mijn bol noemt gij dit, heer? als gij het slaan wildet laten, zou ik het liever voor een hoofd houden, maar als gij met dat ranselen voortgaat, moet ik een bolwerk voor mijn hoofd zien te krijgen en het goed dekken (of versterken), of mijn verstand in mijn rug gaan zoeken.”

Topics: respect, misunderstanding, punishment, emotion and mood, proverbs and idioms

As you from crimes would pardoned be,
Let your indulgence set me free.

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

Away with him!
He has a familiar under his tongue.

PLAY: King Henry VI Part 2
ACT/SCENE: 4.7
SPEAKER: Cade
CONTEXT:
I feel remorse in myself with his words; but I’ll bridle it:
he shall die, an it be but for pleading so well for his life.
Away with him! He has a familiar under his tongue;
he speaks not o’ God’s name. Go, take him away,
I say, and strike off his head presently;
and then break into his son-in-law’s house,
Sir James Cromer, and strike off his head,
and bring them both upon two poles hither.

DUTCH:
Weg met hem! hij heeft een dienstbaren duivel onder zijn tong, hij spreekt niet in den naam van God

MORE:

Bridle=Rein in, constrain
Familiar=Demon or spirit
An be it but for=If only for

Compleat:
To bridle=Intoomen, breidelen, beteugelen
Familiar=Een gemeenzaame geet, queldrommel

Topics: language, deceit, truth, punishment, regret

Be not obdurate, open thy deaf ears

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

Be patient, For the world is broad and wide

PLAY: Romeo and Juliet
ACT/SCENE: 3.3
SPEAKER: Friar Lawrence
CONTEXT:
FRIAR LAWRENCE
Hence from Verona art thou banishèd.
Be patient, for the world is broad and wide.
ROMEO
There is no world without Verona walls
But purgatory, torture, hell itself.
Hence “banishèd” is banished from the world,
And world’s exile is death. Then “banishèd,”
Is death mistermed. Calling death “banishment,”
Thou cutt’st my head off with a golden ax
And smilest upon the stroke that murders me.

DUTCH:
Wees geduldig want de wereld is groot en wijd /
Wees kalm, de wereld toch is ruim en wijd.

MORE:

Topics: patience, proverbs and idioms, punishment

Be you content, fair maid;
It is the law, not I, condemn your brother

PLAY: Measure for Measure
ACT/SCENE: 2.2
SPEAKER: Angelo
CONTEXT:
Be you content, fair maid;
It is the law, not I condemn your brother:
Were he my kinsman, brother, or my son,
It should be thus with him: he must die tomorrow.

DUTCH:
Schoone maagd, berust;
Het recht, niet ik, veroordeelt uwen broeder;

MORE:
Content=Contentedness, satisfaction
Compleat:
Content=Voldoening, genoegen
To give content, take content=Voldoening geeven, genoegen neemen
Contented with little=Met weinig te vreede

Topics: law/legal, satisfaction, punishment, judgment

Bring forth this counterfeit module, he has deceived me, like a double-meaning prophesier

PLAY: All’s Well that Ends Well
ACT/SCENE: 4.3
SPEAKER: Bertram
CONTEXT:
BERTRAM
I mean, the business is not ended, as fearing to hear of it hereafter. But shall we have this dialogue between the fool and the soldier? Come, bring forth this counterfeit module, he has deceived me, like a double-meaning prophesier.
SECOND LORD
Bring him forth: has sat i’ the stocks all night, poor gallant knave.
BERTRAM
No matter: his heels have deserved it, in usurping his spurs so long. How does he carry himself?

DUTCH:
Ik bedoel, dat de zaak nog niet ten einde is, daar ik vrees, er later nog wel van te zullen hooren .

MORE:
His heels have deserved it:
The ‘heels’ reference here is probably to the practice of baffling=originally a punishment of infamy, inflicted on recreant knights, one part of which was hanging them up by the heels (Nares). This practice is also referred to in 2.4 (Falstaff: If thou dost it half so gravely, so majestically, both in word and matter, hang me up by the heels for a rabbit- sucker or a poulter’s hare.)
Another punishment was ‘hacking’: chopping off the spurs of a knight when he was to be degraded.

Module=model (OED: “a person… eminently worthy of imitation; a perfect exemplar of some excellence”)
Double-meaning prophesier=Prophecies that can suggest one thing but interpreted to mean another (such as the witches in Macbeth)
Compleat:
Module (measure in architecture)=Model
To lay one by the heels (send to prison)=Iemand gevangen zetten
Stocks (pair of)=De Stok, daar men kwaaddoenders met de beenen insluit
Double (dissembling, treacherous)=Dubbelhartig, geveinst, verraaderlyk
Double-tongued=Tweetongig

Topics: punishment, deceit, fate/destiny

But Exeter hath given the doom of death For pax of little price.

PLAY: King Henry V
ACT/SCENE: 3.6
SPEAKER: Pistol
CONTEXT:

Fortune is Bardolph’s foe and frowns on him,
For he hath stolen a pax and hangèd must he be.
A damnèd death!
Let gallows gape for dog, let man go free,
And let not hemp his windpipe suffocate.
But Exeter hath given the doom of death
For pax of little price.
Therefore go speak—the duke will hear thy voice—
And let not Bardolph’s vital thread be cut
With edge of penny cord and vile reproach.
Speak, Captain, for his life, and I will thee requite.

DUTCH:
Fortuin is Bardolfs vijandin, ziet norsch;
Hij stal zich een monstrans en moet nu hangen.
Een vloekb’re dood!
Voor honden gaap’ de galg, de mensch zij vrij,
En hennep mag zijn gorgel niet verstikken.
Maar Exeter deed de uitspraak van den dood
Voor voddigen monstrans.

MORE:
Doom=Judgment. (Doom (or ‘dome’) was a statute or law (doombooks were codes of laws); related to the English suffix -dom, originally meaning jurisdiction. Shakespeare is credited for first using doom to mean death and destruction in Sonnet 14.)

Compleat:
Doom=Vonnis, oordeel, verwyzing
A heavy doom=een zwaar vonnis

Topics: fate/destiny, offence, punishment, judgment

But since correction lieth in those hands Which made the fault that we cannot correct

PLAY: Richard II
ACT/SCENE: 1.2
SPEAKER: John of Gaunt
CONTEXT:
Alas, the part I had in Woodstock’s blood
Doth more solicit me than your exclaims,
To stir against the butchers of his life!
But since correction lieth in those hands
Which made the fault that we cannot correct,
Put we our quarrel to the will of heaven;
Who, when they see the hours ripe on earth,
Will rain hot vengeance on offenders’ heads.

DUTCH:
Doch wijl de straf in de eigen handen rust,
Die pleegden, wat wij zelf niet kunnen straffen,
Bevelen we onze zaak den hemel aan.

MORE:

Proverb: Vengeance belongs only to God

To solicit=Entreat, petition
Stir=Act
Put we our quarrel to=Put our dispute before, submit our dispute to
See the hours ripe=The time has come
Rain hot vengeance=Divine punishent (Genesis 19:24-5)
Correction=Punishment

Compleat:
Correction=Verbetering, tuchtiging, berisping
Ripe=Ryp
When things are ripe for action=Als het tyd is om aan ‘t werk te gaan
A design ripe for execution=Een ontwerp dat ryp is om ter uitvoer te brengen
Vengeance=Wraak

Topics: dispute, offence, resolution, justice, punishment, proverbs and idioms, time

By your own report a linguist and a man of such perfection as we do in our quality much want

PLAY: The Two Gentlemen of Verona
ACT/SCENE: 4.1
SPEAKER: First Outlaw
CONTEXT:
FIRST OUTLAW
And I for such like petty crimes as these,
But to the purpose—for we cite our faults,
That they may hold excused our lawless lives;
And partly, seeing you are beautified
With goodly shape and by your own report
A linguist and a man of such perfection
As we do in our quality much want—
SECOND OUTLAW
Indeed, because you are a banished man,
Therefore, above the rest, we parley to you:
Are you content to be our general?
To make a virtue of necessity
And live, as we do, in this wilderness?

DUTCH:
En daar wij zien, dat gij met kloeken bouw
Begaafd zijt, en, zooals gij zelf daar meldt,
De talen spreekt, kortom, geheel de man,
Die ons bij dit beroep recht welkom ware

MORE:
Proverb: To make a virtue of necessity (before 1259)
Parley=Speech, language
To the purpose=Get to the point
Hold excused=Pardon
Quality=Profession
Parley to=Negotiate with
Compleat:
Parley=Een gesprek over voorwaarden, onderhandeling, gesprekhouding
To the purpose=Ter zaake
Excused=Ontschuldigd, verschoond

Sometimes the quote “Lawless are they that make their wills the law” is attributed to Shakespeare, but this is a misattribution.

Topics: proverbs and idioms, virtue, law, punishment, offence

Cannot be!
We have record that very well it can, and three examples of the like have been within my age.

PLAY: Coriolanus
ACT/SCENE: 4.6
SPEAKER: Menenius
CONTEXT:
BRUTUS
Go see this rumourer whipp’d. It cannot be
The Volsces dare break with us.
MENENIUS
Cannot be!
We have record that very well it can,
And three examples of the like have been
Within my age. But reason with the fellow,
Before you punish him, where he heard this,
Lest you shall chance to whip your information
And beat the messenger who bids beware
Of what is to be dreaded.
SICINIUS
Tell not me:
I know this cannot be.
BRUTUS
Not possible.
MESSENGER
The nobles in great earnestness are going
All to the senate-house: some news is come
That turns their countenances.
SICINIUS
‘Tis this slave;—
Go whip him, ‘fore the people’s eyes:—his raising;
Nothing but his report.

DUTCH:
„Het kan niet zijn!” Wij weten, ‘t kan zeer goed;
Ik weet er uit mijn eigen levenstijd
Drie staaltjes van.

MORE:
My age=My lifetime
Information=Informant
Raising=Incitement
Compleat:
Informant=Aanbrenger
To raise a sedition=Een oproer verwekken of veroorzaaken

Topics: communication, news, punishment

Chief architect and plotter of these woes

PLAY: Titus Andronicus
ACT/SCENE: 5.3
SPEAKER: Marcus Andronicus
CONTEXT:
MARCUS ANDRONICUS
Now is my turn to speak. Behold this child:
Of this was Tamora delivered;
The issue of an irreligious Moor,
Chief architect and plotter of these woes:
The villain is alive in Titus’ house,
And as he is, to witness this is true.
Now judge what cause had Titus to revenge
These wrongs, unspeakable, past patience,
Or more than any living man could bear.
Now you have heard the truth, what say you, Romans?
Have we done aught amiss,—show us wherein,
And, from the place where you behold us now,
The poor remainder of Andronici
Will, hand in hand, all headlong cast us down.
And on the ragged stones beat forth our brains,
And make a mutual closure of our house.
Speak, Romans, speak; and if you say we shall,
Lo, hand in hand, Lucius and I will fall.

DUTCH:
Nu is ‘t aan mij te spreken. Ziet dit kind;
Aan dezen knaap schonk Tamora het leven;
De telg is ‘t van een godvergeten Moor,
Den hoofdontwerper, smeder dezer jamm’ren.
De booswicht is in Titus’ huis, nog levend,
En moet getuigen, dat dit waarheid is.

MORE:
Unspeakable=Indescribable
Past=Beyond
Patience=Endurance
Ragged=Rugged
Closure=End
Compleat:
Unspeakable=Onuytspreekelyk
Past=Verleegen, geleden, voorby, over, gepasseerd
I am past my Latin (at my wits’ end)=Ik ben het kluwen quyt, ik weet er niet meer uit te komen
Past hope=Geen hoop meer over
Patience=Geduld, lydzaamheid, verduldigheid
Ragged=Aan slenteren gescheurd, versleeten, haaveloos
Rugged=Ruig, schor, oneffen, ruuw; Onbeschaafd; Gestreng
To close=Overeenstemmen; besluiten; eindigen

Topics: revenge, offence, truth, punishment

Come, come, be every one officious to make this banquet; which I wish may prove more stern and bloody than the Centaurs’ feast

PLAY: Titus Andronicus
ACT/SCENE: 5.2
SPEAKER: Titus Andronicus
CONTEXT:
TITUS ANDRONICUS
Come, come, Lavinia; look, thy foes are bound.
Sirs, stop their mouths, let them not speak to me;
But let them hear what fearful words I utter.
O villains, Chiron and Demetrius!
Here stands the spring whom you have stained with mud,
This goodly summer with your winter mixed.
You killed her husband, and for that vile fault
Two of her brothers were condemned to death,
My hand cut off and made a merry jest;
Both her sweet hands, her tongue, and that more dear
Than hands or tongue, her spotless chastity,
Inhuman traitors, you constrained and forced.
What would you say, if I should let you speak?
Villains, for shame you could not beg for grace.
Hark, wretches! how I mean to martyr you.
This one hand yet is left to cut your throats,
Whilst that Lavinia ‘tween her stumps doth hold
The basin that receives your guilty blood.
You know your mother means to feast with me,
And calls herself Revenge, and thinks me mad:
Hark, villains! I will grind your bones to dust
And with your blood and it I’ll make a paste,
And of the paste a coffin I will rear
And make two pasties of your shameful heads,
And bid that strumpet, your unhallowed dam,
Like to the earth swallow her own increase.
This is the feast that I have bid her to,
And this the banquet she shall surfeit on;
For worse than Philomel you used my daughter,
And worse than Progne I will be revenged:
And now prepare your throats. Lavinia, come,

Receive the blood: and when that they are dead,
Let me go grind their bones to powder small
And with this hateful liquor temper it;
And in that paste let their vile heads be baked.
Come, come, be every one officious
To make this banquet; which I wish may prove
More stern and bloody than the Centaurs’ feast.
So, now bring them in, for I’ll play the cook,
And see them ready ‘gainst their mother comes

DUTCH:
Komt, komt, dat nu een elk volijv’rig zij
Voor dit onthaal, dat gruw’lijker moog’ blijken
En bloediger dan der Centauren feest.

MORE:
CITED IN US LAW: Re. The definition of “Centaur”: Centaurian Club of Brooklyn, Inc. 196 Misc. 160, 91 NYS 2d 663, 664 (NY Supreme Court 1949)

Grace=Pardon, mercy
Coffin=Pie crust
Pasties=Pies
Increase=Offspring
Compleat:
Grace=Genade, gunst, bevalligheyd, fraajigheyd, aardige zwier
Pasty=Een groote pasty
An increase of family=Een vermeerdering van huiisgenooten of van kinderen

Burgersdijk notes:
En bloediger dan der Centauren feest. In Ovidius Metamorph. XII, 210 kon Shakespeare de beschrijving vinden van den gruwelijken strijd, die, op de bruiloft van Pirithous, tusschen de Lapithen, tot wier volk de bruid behoorde, en de mede uitgenoodigde Centauren ontstond, en met
de nederlaag der laatsten eindigde.

Topics: cited in law, mercy, punishment

Do not cry havoc where you should but hunt with modest warrant

PLAY: Coriolanus
ACT/SCENE: 3.1
SPEAKER: Menenius
CONTEXT:
MENENIUS
Do not cry havoc, where you should but hunt
With modest warrant.
SICINIUS
Sir, how comes’t that you
Have holp to make this rescue?
MENENIUS
Hear me speak:
As I do know the consul’s worthiness,
So can I name his faults,—

DUTCH:
Schreeuwt niet: „Maakt af,” in plaats van ‘t wild naar de’ eisch met oordeel na te jagen.

MORE:
Cry havoc. Old French ‘crier havot’, originally a signal to plunder. Or Saxon hafoc, meaning a hawk. In Shakespeare it is a military call to battle and slaughter (Julius Caesar) and may have the same meaning in Hamlet and Julius Caesar (“Cry havoc, and let slip the dogs of war.”)
Holp=Helped
Hunt=Pursue
Modest warrant=Limited authority
Compleat:
Holpen=Geholpen
Holp op=Opgeholpen
Ill holp op=In een slegte staat laaten

Topics: punishment, justice

Even then that sunshine brewed a shower for him

PLAY: King Henry VI Part 3
ACT/SCENE: 2.2
SPEAKER: Edward
CONTEXT:
A wisp of straw were worth a thousand crowns,
To make this shameless callet know herself.
Helen of Greece was fairer far than thou,
Although thy husband may be Menelaus;
And ne’er was Agamemnon’s brother wrong’d
By that false woman, as this king by thee.
His father revell’d in the heart of France,
And tamed the king, and made the dauphin stoop;
And had he match’d according to his state,
He might have kept that glory to this day;
But when he took a beggar to his bed,
And graced thy poor sire with his bridal-day,
Even then that sunshine brew’d a shower for him,
That wash’d his father’s fortunes forth of France,
And heap’d sedition on his crown at home.
For what hath broach’d this tumult but thy pride?
Hadst thou been meek, our title still had slept;
And we, in pity of the gentle king,
Had slipp’d our claim until another age.

DUTCH:
En zoo bracht hem die zon een stortbui saam

MORE:

A wisp of straw=A piece of hay or straw was a mark of disgrace, a ‘scold’, for an immodest woman
Callet=(or callat) Trull, drab, jade
Revelled=Indulged himself
Stoop=Submit
Matched=Married
State=Rank, standing
Broached=Opened up
Title still had slept=We would have ignored our claim
Slipped=Passed over

Compleat:
Wisp of straw=Stroo wisch
To stoop=Buigen, bokken of bukken
Broached=Opgestoken; voortgebragt, verspreid
Title=Recht, eisch

Burgersdijk notes:
II. 2. 144. Een stroowisch ware een duizend kronen waard. Kijfzieke of liederlijke vrouwen werden met een stroowisch voor de borst op de kaak gesteld; of haar werd tot hoon een stroowisch voorgehouden.

Topics: punishment, marriage

Every subject’s duty is the king’s, but every subject’s soul is his own.

PLAY: King Henry V
ACT/SCENE: 4.1
SPEAKER: King Henry
CONTEXT:
Now, if these men have defeated the law and outrun native punishment, though they can outstrip men, they have no wings to fly from God. War is His beadle, war is His vengeance, so that here men are punished for before-breach of the king’s laws in now the king’s quarrel. Where they feared the death, they have borne life away; and where they would be safe, they perish. Then, if they die unprovided, no more is the king guilty of their damnation than he was before guilty of those impieties for the which they are now visited. Every subject’s duty is the king’s, but every subject’s soul is his own. Therefore should every soldier in the wars do as every sick man in his bed: wash every mote out of his conscience.

DUTCH:
De dienst van iederen onderdaan is des konings, maar de ziel van iederen onderdaan is zijn eigene. Daarom moest ieder soldaat in den oorlog doen, wat ieder kranke in zijn bed doet: zijn geweten rein wasschen van ieder stofjen.

MORE:

Out-run=Escaped
Native punishment=Punishment in their own country
Unprovided=Not properly prepared
Before-breach=A breach committed in former times
Beadle=Official responsible for punishment, whipping

Compleat:
Unprovided=Onvoorien, onverzorgd.
To take one unprovided=Iemand verrassen
Beadle=Een gerechtsdienaar, boode, deurwaarder.
A beadle of beggars=Een verjaager van bedelaars, luizevanger

Topics: guilt, debt/obligation, punishment, justice, offence

Fare you well. Pray heaven I be deceived in you

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

For now I stand as one upon a rock environed with a wilderness of sea

PLAY: Titus Andronicus
ACT/SCENE: 3.1
SPEAKER: Titus Andronicus
CONTEXT:
TITUS ANDRONICUS
It was my deer; and he that wounded her
Hath hurt me more than had he killed me dead:
For now I stand as one upon a rock
Environed with a wilderness of sea,
Who marks the waxing tide grow wave by wave,
Expecting ever when some envious surge
Will in his brinish bowels swallow him.
This way to death my wretched sons are gone;
Here stands my other son, a banished man,
And here my brother, weeping at my woes.
But that which gives my soul the greatest spurn,
Is dear Lavinia, dearer than my soul.
Had I but seen thy picture in this plight,
It would have madded me: what shall I do
Now I behold thy lively body so?
Thou hast no hands, to wipe away thy tears:
Nor tongue, to tell me who hath martyred thee:
Thy husband he is dead: and for his death
Thy brothers are condemned, and dead by this.
Look, Marcus! ah, son Lucius, look on her!
When I did name her brothers, then fresh tears
Stood on her cheeks, as doth the honey-dew
Upon a gathered lily almost withered.

DUTCH:
Nu sta ik hier, als iemand op een klip,
Omgordeld door een woestenij van zee,
Die het getij met golf op golf ziet stijgen,
En immer wacht, dat fluks de felle branding
Hem zal verzwelgen in haar zilten schoot.

MORE:
Environed=Surrounded
Mark=Perceives
Envious=Malignant
Spurn=Hurt, suffering
Lively=Living
Compleat:
Environed=Omringd, omcingeld
To mark=Merken, tekenen, opletten
Envious=Nydig, afgunstig, wangunstig
To spurn=Agteruit schoppen, schoppen. To spurn away=Wegschoppen

Topics: punishment, suspicion, guilt, regret

God, the widow’s champion and defence

PLAY: Richard II
ACT/SCENE: 1.2
SPEAKER: John of Gaunt
CONTEXT:
JOHN OF GAUNT
God’s is the quarrel; for God’s substitute,
His deputy anointed in His sight,
Hath caused his death: the which if wrongfully,
Let heaven revenge; for I may never lift
An angry arm against His minister.
DUCHESS
Where then, alas, may I complain myself?
JOHN OF GAUNT
To God, the widow’s champion and defence.

DUTCH:
Aan God de wrake, want zijn plaatsvervanger,
Zijn stedehouder, voor zijn oog gezalfd,
Is de oorzaak van zijn dood; is deze een gruwel,
Dan wreke ‘t God, want ik mag nimmer toornig
Den arm verheffen tegen zijn gezant.

MORE:

Minister=Representative, proxy (the King)
God’s quarrel=It is in God’s hands
Complain myself=Complain

Topics: dispute, offence, death, punishment

Hapless Aegeon, whom the fates have marked to bear the extremity of dire mishap

PLAY: The Comedy of Errors
ACT/SCENE: 1.1
SPEAKER: Duke
CONTEXT:
DUKE
Hapless Aegeon, whom the fates have marked
To bear the extremity of dire mishap,
Now, trust me, were it not against our laws,
Against my crown, my oath, my dignity,
Which princes, would they, may not disannul,
My soul would sue as advocate for thee.
But though thou art adjudgèd to the death,
And passèd sentence may not be recalled
But to our honour’s great disparagement,
Yet will I favor thee in what I can.
Therefore, merchant, I’ll limit thee this day
To seek thy life by beneficial help.
Try all the friends thou hast in Ephesus;
Beg thou, or borrow, to make up the sum,
And live. If no, then thou art doom’d to die.—
Jailer, take him to thy custody.
JAILER
I will, my lord.
AEGEON
Hopeless and helpless doth Aegeon wend,
But to procrastinate his lifeless end.

DUTCH:
Rampzaal’ge Aegeon, door het lot bestemd
Om zulk een overmaat van leed te dragen!

MORE:
Dignity=Rank
Disannul=Nullify
Sue=Plead
Limit=Permit
Hap=Luck
Wend=Approach
Procrastinate=Delay
Compleat:
Dignity (greatness, nobleness)=Grootheid, adelykheid; (merit, importance)=Waardigheid, staat-empot, verdiensten
To annul=Vernietigen, afschaffen
To sue=Voor ‘t recht roepen, in recht vervolgen; iemand om iets aanloopen
Hap=Het luk, geval, toeval
Procrastinate=Van dag tot dag uytstellen, verschuyven

Topics: fate/destiny, dignity, honour, punishment, delay

Have you the tongues?

PLAY: The Two Gentlemen of Verona
ACT/SCENE: 4.1
SPEAKER: Valentine
CONTEXT:
SECOND OUTLAW
For what offence?
VALENTINE
For that which now torments me to rehearse:
I killed a man, whose death I much repent;
But yet I slew him manfully in fight,
Without false vantage or base treachery.
FIRST OUTLAW
Why, ne’er repent it, if it were done so.
But were you banished for so small a fault?
VALENTINE
I was, and held me glad of such a doom.
SECOND OUTLAW
Have you the tongues?
VALENTINE
My youthful travel therein made me happy,
Or else I often had been miserable.

DUTCH:
Verstaat gij talen?

MORE:

Torments=Pains
Rehearse=Repeat
False=Unfair
Vantage=Advantage
Have you the tongues=Do youl speak foreign languages
Compleat:
Torments=Pynen, pynigingen
To rehearse=Verhaalen, vertellen, opzeggen
Vantage=Toegift, toemaat, overmaat, overwigt

Topics: offence, regret, punishment

He is my prisoner. If I let him go, the debt he owes will be required of me

PLAY: The Comedy of Errors
ACT/SCENE: 4.4
SPEAKER: Officer
CONTEXT:
OFFICER
Masters, let him go.
He is my prisoner, and you shall not have him.
PINCH
Go, bind this man, for he is frantic too.
ADRIANA
What wilt thou do, thou peevish officer?
Hast thou delight to see a wretched man
Do outrage and displeasure to himself?
OFFICER
He is my prisoner. If I let him go,
The debt he owes will be required of me.
ADRIANA
I will discharge thee ere I go from thee.
Bear me forthwith unto his creditor,
And, knowing how the debt grows, I will pay it.—
Good Master Doctor, see him safe conveyed
Home to my house. O most unhappy day!

DUTCH:
t Is mijn gevang’ne; ontsnapt hij mij, dan wordt,
Wat hij betalen moet, op mij verhaald

MORE:
Cited in Shakespeare’s Legal Maxims (William Lowes Rushton)
“If a sheriff or gaoler suffers a prisoner to escape upon mesne process (that is, during the pendency of a suit), he is liable to action on the case.” (Cro. Eliz. 625, Bennion v Watson)

Peevish=Silly, spiteful
Displeasure=Offence, harm
Outrage=Rude violence, contempt shown to law and decency
Compleat:
Peevish=Kribbig, gemelyk
Outrage=Smaad, spyt, overlast, leed
Displeasure=Misnoegen, mishaagen, ongenade
To do a displeasure to one=Iemand verdriet aandoen

Topics: law/legal, debt/obligation, punishment, remedy, consequence

He prated and spoke such scurvy and provoking terms

PLAY: Othello
ACT/SCENE: 1.2
SPEAKER: Iago
CONTEXT:
IAGO
Though in the trade of war I have slain men,
Yet do I hold it very stuff o’ th’ conscience
To do no contrived murder. I lack iniquity
Sometimes to do me service. Nine or ten times
I had thought t’ have yerked him here under the ribs.
OTHELLO
‘Tis better as it is.
IAGO
Nay, but he prated
And spoke such scurvy and provoking terms
Against your honour
That, with the little godliness I have,
I did full hard forbear him. But I pray you, sir,
Are you fast married? Be assured of this:
That the Magnifico is much beloved
And hath in his effect a voice potential
As double as the Duke’s. He will divorce you,
Or put upon you what restraint and grievance
The law (with all his might to enforce it on)
Will give him cable.

DUTCH:
Neen, maar hij relde,
En sprak op zulk een tergend lage wijs
Uw eer te na,
Dat, met het luttel vroomheid dat ik heb,
Ik nauw mij inhield.

MORE:
Contrived=Premeditated
Yerked=Stabbed
Full hard forbear=Made great effort at restraint
Scurvy=Insulting
Grievance=Injury, punishment
Magnifico=Here meaning Brabantio
Potential=Powerful
Cable=Will give him rope (scope) (nautical)
Compleat:
Contrived=Bedacht, verzonnen, toegesteld
To yerk=Gispen, slaan
Forbear=Zich van onthouden
Scurvy=Kwaad, slecht
Grievance=Bezwaarenis
Potential=Kragtverleenend, vermoogend

Topics: insult, dispute, punishment, law/legal

He’s in Tartar limbo, worse than hell

DUTCH:
Hij is in ‘t voorportaal, neen, in de hel!
Hem heeft een duivel beet, in eeuw’gen dos,
Een man, wiens hart met staal benageld is,
Een wreede booze geest.

MORE:
Tartar=Tartarus, hell in classical mythology
Fairy=Malign spirit
Buff=Hardwearing material; buff jerkins were worn by the sergeant
Backfriend=Backslapper who pretends to be a friend (shoulder-clapper was also slang for an arresting officer)
Countermand=Prohibit, with pun on ‘counter’ (name for debtor’s prison)
Passage=Access, entry, avenue, way leading to and out of something
Compleat:
Buff leather=Buffels of ossen leer op zeem bereid
Counter-mand=Tegenbeveelen; een bevel herroepen
Counter=Twee gevangenenhuizen in Londen die dus genoemd worden
Tartarean (of hell, from the Latin ‘tartarus’)=Helsch
To mend his draught=Zich eens verhaalen in ‘t drinken

Burgersdijk notes:
Hij is in’t voorportaal, neen, in de hel. In ‘t Engelsch staat: He is in Tartar’s limbo ; de uitdrukking schijnt aan de Engelschen uit Dante’s Goddelijke Comedie gemeenzaam te zijn geworden, men vindt haar meermalen bij Shakespeare en ook in Spencer’s Elfenkoningin. De hel was in Sh.’s tijd, en nog een eeuw later, de naam van een gevangenis. Evenzoo was counter (reg. 39) de naam van eene gevangenis; maar to run counter is ook een uitdrukking voor een jachthond, die op een valsch spoor is of in verkeerde richting loopt. — De gerechtsdienaars waren in leder gekleed, zie K. Hendrik IV. 1.

Topics: punishment, offence

Here stands the spring whom you have stained with mud

DUTCH:
Dit is de bron, door u met vuil besmet,
De lieve zomer, door uw vorst bedorven.

MORE:
CITED IN US LAW: Re. The definition of “Centaur”: Centaurian Club of Brooklyn, Inc. 196 Misc. 160, 91 NYS 2d 663, 664 (NY Supreme Court 1949)

Topics: cited in law, mercy, punishment

How long a time lies in one little word!

PLAY: Richard II
ACT/SCENE: 1.3
SPEAKER: Henry Bolingbroke
CONTEXT:
KING RICHARD II
Uncle, even in the glasses of thine eyes
I see thy grieved heart: thy sad aspect
Hath from the number of his banish’d years
Pluck’d four away.
Six frozen winter spent,
Return with welcome home from banishment.
HENRY BOLINGBROKE
How long a time lies in one little word!
Four lagging winters and four wanton springs
End in a word: such is the breath of kings.

DUTCH:
Wat tijd en macht ligt in een enkel woord!
Vier trage winters en vier dartle Mei’s
Zijn adem, niets, — doet hun een vorst dien eisch.

MORE:

Proverb: The eye is the window of the heart (mind)

Schmidt:
Glasses of thine eyes=Eyeballs
Aspect=Look, glance; possible reference to astrology, with the aspect being the position of one planet in relation to others and its potential to exert influence
Wanton=Bountiful, luxuriant

Compleat:
Aspect=Gezigt, gelaat, aanschouw, stargezigt
Of fierce aspect=Van een straf gelaat

Topics: time, nature, punishment, appearance, proverbs and idioms, still in use

I am Revenge: sent from the infernal kingdom, to ease the gnawing vulture of thy mind

PLAY: Titus Andronicus
ACT/SCENE: 5.2
SPEAKER: Tamora
CONTEXT:
TAMORA
Know, thou sad man, I am not Tamora;
She is thy enemy, and I thy friend:
I am Revenge: sent from the infernal kingdom,
To ease the gnawing vulture of thy mind,
By working wreakful vengeance on thy foes.
Come down, and welcome me to this world’s light;
Confer with me of murder and of death:
There’s not a hollow cave or lurking-place,
No vast obscurity or misty vale,
Where bloody murder or detested rape
Can couch for fear, but I will find them out;
And in their ears tell them my dreadful name,
Revenge, which makes the foul offender quake.

DUTCH:
Zij is uw vijandin, ik uw vriendin.
Ik ben de Wraak, die, uit de hel gezonden,
Den gier, die aan uw harte knaagt, zal stillen,
Uw haters straffen zal met strenge wraak.

MORE:
Gnawing vulture=Allusion to the story of Prometheus
Wreakful=Vengeful
Obscurity=Wasteland
Couch=Hide, lie low
Compleat:
Gnawing=Knaagende
Obscurity=Donkerheyd. duysterheyd
To couch=Neerleggen

Topics: revenge, offence, punishment

I fear there will a worse come in his place

PLAY: Julius Caesar
ACT/SCENE: 3.2
SPEAKER: Antony
CONTEXT:
FIRST PLEBEIAN
Methinks there is much reason in his sayings.
SECOND PLEBEIAN
If thou consider rightly of the matter,
Caesar has had great wrong.
THIRD PLEBEIAN
Has he, masters?
I fear there will a worse come in his place.
FOURTH PLEBEIAN
Marked ye his words? He would not take the crown.
Therefore ’tis certain he was not ambitious.
FIRST PLEBEIAN
If it be found so, some will dear abide it.

DUTCH:
Ik vrees, er komt een erger in zijn plaats.

MORE:
Has had=Has suffered
Rightly=Correctly
Dear abide=Pay dearly for
Compleat:
Wronged=Verongelykt, verkort
Rightly=Billyk
Abide=Blyven, harden, duuren, uytstaan
Dear=Waard, lief, dierbaar, dier

Topics: reason, language, ambition, punishment, error

I have great comfort from this fellow.
Methinks he hath no drowning mark upon him.

PLAY: The Tempest
ACT/SCENE: 1.1
SPEAKER: Gonzalo
CONTEXT:
I have great comfort from this fellow. Methinks he hath no drowning mark upon him. His complexion is perfect gallows. Stand fast, good Fate, to his hanging. Make the rope of his destiny our cable, for our own doth little advantage. If he be not born to be hanged, our case is miserable.

DUTCH:
Die kerel is mij een ware troost; hij ziet er mij niet naar uit om te verdrinken; hij heeft een echte galgentronie.

MORE:
Proverb: “He that is born to be hanged shall never be drowned.”
Advantage=Benefit
Complexion=According to the four humours the four complexions were: sanguine, melancholic, choleric and phlegmatic.
Rope=Halter, hangman’s noose
Compleat:
Rope=Een touw, strop, koord, kabel
Complexion=Aart, gesteltenis, gesteldheid
Gallows=Een Galg

Topics: punishment, fate/destiny, emotion and mood

I seem’d his follower, not partner

PLAY: Coriolanus
ACT/SCENE: 5.5
SPEAKER: Aufidius
CONTEXT:
AUFIDIUS
That I would have spoke of:
Being banish’d for’t, he came unto my hearth;
Presented to my knife his throat: I took him;
Made him joint-servant with me; gave him way
In all his own desires; nay, let him choose
Out of my files, his projects to accomplish,
My best and freshest men; served his designments
In mine own person; holp to reap the fame
Which he did end all his; and took some pride
To do myself this wrong: till, at the last,
I seem’d his follower, not partner, and
He waged me with his countenance, as if
I had been mercenary.
FIRST CONSPIRATOR
So he did, my lord:
The army marvell’d at it, and, in the last,
When he had carried Rome and that we look’d
For no less spoil than glory,—
AUFIDIUS
There was it:
For which my sinews shall be stretch’d upon him.
At a few drops of women’s rheum, which are
As cheap as lies, he sold the blood and labour
Of our great action: therefore shall he die,
And I’ll renew me in his fall. But, hark!

DUTCH:
Ja, ‘k was
Er trotsch op, dus mijzelf te knotten; eind’lijk
Scheen ik zijn dienaar, niet zijn medeveldheer,
En was hij uit de hoogte mij genadig,
Als ware ik hem een huurling.

MORE:
I would have spoke=I was getting to
Joint-servant=Colleague, equal
Files=Ranks
Designments=Plans
Waged=Paid
Countenance=Look
Compleat:
A file of soldiers=Een gelid of ry soldaaten
Wages=Loon, jaargeld; belooning, bezolding
Countenance=Gelaat, gezigt, uitzigt, weezen.

Topics: punishment, pride, ingratitude, regret, betrayal

I’ll amerce you with so strong a fine

PLAY: Romeo and Juliet
ACT/SCENE: 3.1
SPEAKER: Prince
CONTEXT:
I have an interest in your hate’s proceeding.
My blood for your rude brawls doth lie a-bleeding.
But I’ll amerce you with so strong a fine
That you shall all repent the loss of mine.
I will be deaf to pleading and excuses.
Nor tears nor prayers shall purchase out abuses,
Therefore use none.

DUTCH:
Maar zulk een boete valle u thans te beurt,
Dat ge allen dit verlies van mij betreurt.

MORE:
Amerce = To punish, penalise
Abuses= offences, transgressions
CITED IN US LAW: Browning-Ferries Industries of Vermont, Inc. v Kelco Disposal, Inc. 492 US 257, 290, 109 Supreme Court 2909, 2928, 106 L.Ed.2d 1073 (1978) (Brennan, J) (dissenting). Cited by Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, who, first noting that Shakespeare was ‘an astute observer of English law and politics’, then pointed to his interchangeable use of ‘fine’ and ‘amercement’ to make the point that money and punishment are synonymous. (This elicited the response from Justice Blackmun in his own verse that “Though Shakespeare, of course, knew the law of his time, He was foremost a poet In search of a rhyme”.)

Topics: cited in law, money, punishment

I’ll be sworn I have sat in the stocks for puddings he hath stolen

PLAY: The Two Gentlemen of Verona
ACT/SCENE: 4.4
SPEAKER: Lance
CONTEXT:
LANCE
When a man’s servant shall play the cur with him,
look you, it goes hard: one that I brought up of a
puppy; one that I saved from drowning, when three or
four of his blind brothers and sisters went to it.
I have taught him, even as one would say precisely,
‘thus I would teach a dog.’ I was sent to deliver
him as a present to Mistress Silvia from my master;
and I came no sooner into the dining-chamber but he
steps me to her trencher and steals her capon’s leg:
O, ’tis a foul thing when a cur cannot keep himself
in all companies! I would have, as one should say,
one that takes upon him to be a dog indeed, to be,
as it were, a dog at all things. If I had not had
more wit than he, to take a fault upon me that he did,
I think verily he had been hanged for’t; sure as I
live, he had suffered for’t; you shall judge. He
thrusts me himself into the company of three or four
gentlemanlike dogs under the duke’s table: he had
not been there—bless the mark!—a pissing while, but
all the chamber smelt him. ‘Out with the dog!’ says
one: ‘What cur is that?’ says another: ‘Whip him
out’ says the third: ‘Hang him up’ says the duke.
I, having been acquainted with the smell before,
knew it was Crab, and goes me to the fellow that
whips the dogs: ‘Friend,’ quoth I, ‘you mean to whip
the dog?’ ‘Ay, marry, do I,’ quoth he. ‘You do him
the more wrong,’ quoth I; ”twas I did the thing you
wot of.’ He makes me no more ado, but whips me out
of the chamber. How many masters would do this for
his servant? Nay, I’ll be sworn, I have sat in the
stocks for puddings he hath stolen, otherwise he had
been executed; I have stood on the pillory for geese
he hath killed, otherwise he had suffered for’t.
Thou thinkest not of this now. Nay, I remember the
trick you served me when I took my leave of Madam
Silvia: did not I bid thee still mark me and do as I
do? When didst thou see me heave up my leg and make
water against a gentlewoman’s farthingale? Didst
thou ever see me do such a trick?

DUTCH:
Ja, ik kan er een eed op doen, ik heb in het voetblok
gezeten voor worsten, die hij gestolen had, anders was
hij er om afgemaakt.

MORE:
Proverb: To be old dog at it
Play the cur=Behave like a dog
Trencher-knight=Parasite
Keep=Behave
A dog at=Adept at
Bless the mark=Apology for misspeaking
Wot=Know
Farthingales=Hooped petticoats to support wide skirts
Sat in the stocks=Been pilloried. (For public punishment, criminals were put in the stocks.)
Compleat:
Trencher=Tafelbord, houten tafelbord
I wot=Ik weet

Topics: punishment, learning/education, loyalty, age/experience

I’ll not be tied to hours nor ‘pointed times

PLAY: The Taming of the Shrew
ACT/SCENE: 3.1
SPEAKER: Bianca
CONTEXT:
BIANCA
Why, gentlemen, you do me double wrong
To strive for that which resteth in my choice.
I am no breeching scholar in the schools.
I’ll not be tied to hours nor ‘pointed times
But learn my lessons as I please myself.
And, to cut off all strife, here sit we down.
Take you your instrument, play you the whiles.
His lecture will be done ere you have tuned.
HORTENSIO
You’ll leave his lecture when I am in tune?
LUCENTIO
That will be never.
Tune your instrument.

DUTCH:
Ik ben geen schoolkind, dat de roede ducht;
‘k Wil aan geen uur of tijd gebonden zijn,
Maar neem mijn les zooals ik zelf verkies,

MORE:
Double wrong=You are both doing me wrong
Breeching is an old term meaning flogging (e.g. of a schoolboy). “I am no breeching scholar”=I am not “liable to be whipped”.
Tied to=Bound by
Strife=Dispute
Compleat:
To wrong=Verongelyken, verkorten
He did me wrong=Hy deed my ongelyk
To breech=Op de billen slaan
Tied=Gebonden
Strife=Twist, tweedragt, krakkeel, pooging

Topics: punishment, civility, time

I’ll strive with troubled thoughts to take a nap

PLAY: Richard III
ACT/SCENE: 5.3
SPEAKER: Richmond
CONTEXT:
RICHMOND
Good lords, conduct him to his regiment:
I’ll strive with troubled thoughts to take a nap,
Lest leaden slumber peise me down tomorrow,
When I should mount with wings of victory.
Once more, good night, kind lords and gentlemen..
O Thou, whose captain I account myself,
Look on my forces with a gracious eye.
Put in their hands thy bruising irons of wrath,
That they may crush down with a heavy fall
The usurping helmets of our adversaries!
Make us thy ministers of chastisement,
That we may praise thee in the victory!
To thee I do commend my watchful soul,
Ere I let fall the windows of mine eyes.
Sleeping and waking, O, defend me still!

DUTCH:
Leidt, waarde lords, hem naar zijn schare op weg .
Ik tracht, verhit van hoofd, een wijl te sluim’ren,
Opdat geen looden slaap mij morgen drukk’,
Als ik op zegewieken stijgen moest.

MORE:
Strive with=Fight against
Peise=Weigh
Irons=Swords
Windows=Shutters
Compleat:
To strive against one=Tegen iemand stryven of stribbelen

Topics: conflict, imagination, conscience, punishment

If it be confessed, it is not redressed

PLAY: The Merry Wives of Windsor
ACT/SCENE:
SPEAKER: Shallow
CONTEXT:
SHALLOW
He hath wronged me, Master Page.
PAGE
Sir, he doth in some sort confess it.
SHALLOW
If it be confessed, it is not redress’d: is not that
so, Master Page? He hath wronged me; indeed he
hath, at a word, he hath, believe me: Robert
Shallow, esquire, saith, he is wronged.
PAGE
Here comes Sir John.
FALSTAFF
Now, Master Shallow, you’ll complain of me to the king?

DUTCH:
Bekend is nog niet geboet; is het zoo niet, mijnheer
Page? Hij heeft mij beleedigd; inderdaad, dat heeft
hij; — in een woord, dat heeft hij; — geloof mij; —
Robert Zielig, esquire, zegt, dat hij beleedigd is.

MORE:
Proverb: Confession of a fault is half amends

In some sort=To some extent
At a word=In short
Compleat:
In a word=In ‘t kort, in weynig woorden

Topics: proverbs and idioms, blame, justice, offence, punishment, secrecy

If the King blame me for ’t, I’ll lay you all by th’ heels, and suddenly — and on your heads clap round fines for neglect

PLAY: King Henry VIII
ACT/SCENE: 5.4
SPEAKER: Porter
CONTEXT:
PORTER
An ’t please Your Honour,
We are but men, and what so many may do,
Not being torn a-pieces, we have done.
An army cannot rule ’em
CHAMBERLAIN
As I live,
If the King blame me for ’t, I’ll lay you all
By th’ heels, and suddenly — and on your heads
Clap round fines for neglect. You’re lazy knaves,
And here you lie baiting of bombards, when
You should do service.

DUTCH:
Zoo waar ik leef,
Berispt de koning mij er om, dan leg ik
Uw voeten in het blok, en op uw hoofd
Een goed rond boetgeld.

MORE:
Proverb: Men are but men
Lay by the heels=To punish, i.e. send to prison or put in the stocks
Clap round=Impose
Bombard=Leather wine jug; a drunk
Compleat:
Lay by the heels=Iemand in de boeijen sluiten

Topics: proverbs and idioms, life, punishment

If the wars eat us not up, they will; and there’s all the love they bear us

PLAY: Coriolanus
ACT/SCENE: 1.1
SPEAKER: First Citizen
CONTEXT:
MENENIUS
I tell you, friends, most charitable care
Have the patricians of you. For your wants,
Your suffering in this dearth, you may as well
Strike at the heaven with your staves as lift them
Against the Roman state, whose course will on
The way it takes, cracking ten thousand curbs
Of more strong link asunder than can ever
Appear in your impediment. For the dearth,
The gods, not the patricians, make it, and
Your knees to them, not arms, must help. Alack,
You are transported by calamity
Thither where more attends you, and you slander
The helms o’ the state, who care for you like fathers,
When you curse them as enemies.
FIRST CITIZEN
Care for us! True, indeed! They ne’er cared for us
yet: suffer us to famish, and their store-houses
crammed with grain; make edicts for usury, to
support usurers; repeal daily any wholesome act
established against the rich, and provide more
piercing statutes daily, to chain up and restrain
the poor. If the wars eat us not up, they will; and
there’s all the love they bear us.

DUTCH:
Als de oorlog ons niet opeet, dan doen zij het; en dat is al hunne liefde jegens ons.

MORE:
Piercing statutes=Biting laws (See Measure for Measure, 1.3)
True indeed=Ironical
Edicts for usury=Laws, decrees for money-lending
Wholesome=Suitable, beneficial
Eat us up=To devour, to consume, to waste, to destroy
Suffer=To bear, to allow, to let, not to hinder
Compleat:
To pierce=Doorbooren, doordringen
Edict=Een gebod, bevel, afkondiging
Wholesom=Gezond, heylzaam, heelzaam
Eat up=Opeeten, vernielen
Suffer=Toelaten

Topics: poverty and wealth, order/society, punishment, equality

If you will jest with me, know my aspect

PLAY: The Comedy of Errors
ACT/SCENE: 2.2
SPEAKER: Antipholus of Syracuse
CONTEXT:
DROMIO OF SYRACUSE
Hold, sir, for God’s sake! Now your jest is earnest.
Upon what bargain do you give it me?
ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE
Because that I familiarly sometimes
Do use you for my fool and chat with you,
Your sauciness will jest upon my love
And make a common of my serious hours.
When the sun shines, let foolish gnats make sport,
But creep in crannies when he hides his beams.
If you will jest with me, know my aspect,
And fashion your demeanour to my looks,
Or I will beat this method in your sconce.
DROMIO OF SYRACUSE
“Sconce” call you it? So you would leave battering,
I had rather have it a “head.” An you use these blows long, I must get a sconce for my head and ensconce it too, or else I shall seek my wit in my shoulders. But I pray, sir, why am I beaten?

DUTCH:
Maar dans’ de mug ook in den zonneschijn,
Zij kruipt in reten, als de lucht betrekt;
Begluur, als gij wilt schertsen, mijn gelaat,
En richt uw doen naar mijnen blik, of ik
Leer op uw bol u beter maat te houën.

MORE:
Proverb: He has more wit in his head than you in both your shoulders

Topics: respect, misunderstanding, punishment, emotion and mood, proverbs and idioms

Is’t possible that so short a time can alter the condition of a man!

PLAY: Coriolanus
ACT/SCENE: 5.4
SPEAKER: Sicinius
CONTEXT:
MENENIUS
See you yond coign o’ the Capitol, yond
corner-stone?
SICINIUS
Why, what of that?
MENENIUS
If it be possible for you to displace it with your
little finger, there is some hope the ladies of
Rome, especially his mother, may prevail with him.
But I say there is no hope in’t: our throats are
sentenced and stay upon execution.
SICINIUS
Is’t possible that so short a time can alter the
condition of a man!
MENENIUS
There is differency between a grub and a butterfly;
yet your butterfly was a grub. This Marcius is grown
from man to dragon: he has wings; he’s more than a
creeping thing.

DUTCH:
Is het mogelijk, dat een zoo korte tijd de geaardheid
van een mensch zoo kan veranderen?

MORE:
Yond=Yonder
Coign=Corner
Stay=Wait
Compleat:
Yonder=Ginder
To stay=Wagten

Topics: time, age/experience, punishment

It boots thee not to be compassionate: After our sentence plaining comes too late.

PLAY: Richard II
ACT/SCENE: 1.3
SPEAKER: King Richard II
CONTEXT:
THOMAS MOWBRAY
(…) Doubly portcullis’d with my teeth and lips;
And dull unfeeling barren ignorance
Is made my gaoler to attend on me.
I am too old to fawn upon a nurse,
Too far in years to be a pupil now:
What is thy sentence then but speechless death,
Which robs my tongue from breathing native breath?
KING RICHARD II
It boots thee not to be compassionate:
After our sentence plaining comes too late.

DUTCH:
Vergeefsch dat roerend jamm’ren; ‘t geeft geen baat;
Uw klacht is, nu ons vonnis viel, te laat.

MORE:

A semi-literal allusion to a proverb of the time, ‘Good that the teeth guard the tongue’ (1578) and the virtue of silence. Ben Jonson recommended a ‘wise tongue’ that should not be ‘licentious and wandering’. (See also the Lucio in Measure for Measure: “’tis a secret must be locked within the
teeth and the lips”.)

Cunning=Skilful
Sentence=Verdict (punning on language)
Breathing native breath=Speaking native English (and breathing English air)
No boot=No point, profit, advantage
Compassionate=Pitiful
Plaining=Making a formal complaint

Compleat:
Cunning=Behendig
No boot=Te vergeefs, vruchteloos

Topics: mercy, regret, pity, punishment

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

Knock at his study, where, they say, he keeps, to ruminate strange plots of dire revenge

PLAY: Titus Andronicus
ACT/SCENE: 5.2
SPEAKER: Tamora
CONTEXT:
TAMORA
Thus, in this strange and sad habiliment,
I will encounter with Andronicus,
And say I am Revenge, sent from below
To join with him and right his heinous wrongs.
Knock at his study, where, they say, he keeps,
To ruminate strange plots of dire revenge;
Tell him Revenge is come to join with him,
And work confusion on his enemies.
TITUS ANDRONICUS
Who doth molest my contemplation?
Is it your trick to make me ope the door,
That so my sad decrees may fly away,
And all my study be to no effect?
You are deceived: for what I mean to do
See here in bloody lines I have set down;
And what is written shall be executed.
TAMORA
Titus, I am come to talk with thee.
TITUS ANDRONICUS
No, not a word; how can I grace my talk,
Wanting a hand to give it action?
Thou hast the odds of me; therefore no more.

DUTCH:
Bezoek ik Andronicus nu, en zeg,
Dat ik de Wraak ben, uit de hel gezonden,
Om voor zijn jammer met hem recht te doen.
Klopt aan zijn boekvertrek; daar toeft hij, zegt men,
En broedt op plannen, vreemd en woest, van wraak;
Zegt hem, de Wraak kwam hier, om saam met hem
Verderf op al zijn haters uit te storten.

MORE:
Sad=Gloomy
Habiliment=Clothes
Encounter with=Meet
Keeps=Stays
Ruminate=Consider
Work confusion on=Destroy
Molest=Disrupt
Sad=Solemn
Decree=Resolution
Ope=Open
Compleat:
Sad=Droevig
Habiliment=Kleeding, dos, gewaad
Encounter=Bestryden, bevechten, aanvallen
To ruminate upon (to consider of) a thing=Eene zaak overweegen
Confusion (ruin)=Verwoesting, bederf, ruine
Molest=Moeielyk vallen, lastig vallen, quellen, overlast aandoen
Decree=Besluit, Raadsbesluit

Topics: revenge, offence, punishment

Know, then, that some of us are gentlemen

PLAY: The Two Gentlemen of Verona
ACT/SCENE: 4.1
SPEAKER: Third Outlaw
CONTEXT:
SECOND OUTLAW
Tell us this: have you any thing to take to?
VALENTINE
Nothing but my fortune.
THIRD OUTLAW
Know, then, that some of us are gentlemen,
Such as the fury of ungovern’d youth
Thrust from the company of lawful men:
Myself was from Verona banished
For practising to steal away a lady,
An heir, and near allied unto the duke.
SECOND OUTLAW
And I from Mantua, for a gentleman,
Who, in my mood, I stabb’d unto the heart.

DUTCH:
Weet, een’gen onder ons zijn edellieden,
Die de overmoed der teugellooze jeugd
Uit de gemeenschap stiet van eerb’re lieden

MORE:
To take to=To take recourse to
Fortune=Fate, luck (not wealth)
Lawful=Law-abiding
Practising=Plotting
Near=Closely
Compleat:
Fortune=’t Geval, geluk, Fortuyn
Lawfull=Op een wettige wyze
A near concern=Een zaak die van naby raakt

Topics: fate/destiny, civility, order/society, punishment

Mercy but murders, pardoning those that kill.

PLAY: Romeo and Juliet
ACT/SCENE: 3.1
SPEAKER: Prince
CONTEXT:
But I’ll amerce you with so strong a fine
That you shall all repent the loss of mine.
I will be deaf to pleading and excuses.
Nor tears nor prayers shall purchase out abuses,
Therefore use none. Let Romeo hence in haste,
Else, when he’s found, that hour is his last.
Bear hence this body and attend our will.
Mercy but murders, pardoning those that kill.

DUTCH:
Genâ voor moord’naars is zoo goed als moord.

MORE:
Amerce = To punish, penalised
Purchase out=redeem
Abuses= offences, transgressions
But = only. Showing mercy (by pardoning murderers) will only lead to more killing.
Compleat:
Redeem=Verlossen, vrykoopen, lossen
Redeemed=Verlost, vrygekogt, gelost

Topics: mercy, pity, punishment

Mine’s not an idle cause

PLAY: Othello
ACT/SCENE: 1.2
SPEAKER: Brabantio
CONTEXT:
BRABANTIO
To prison, till fit time
Of law and course of direct session
Call thee to answer.
OTHELLO
What if I do obey?
How may the Duke be therewith satisfied,
Whose messengers are here about my side
Upon some present business of the state
To bring me to him?
OFFICER
‘Tis true, most worthy signior.
The Duke’s in council and your noble self,
I am sure, is sent for.
BRABANTIO
How? The Duke in council?
In this time of the night? Bring him away.
Mine’s not an idle cause. The Duke himself,
Or any of my brothers of the state,
Cannot but feel this wrong as ’twere their own.
For if such actions may have passage free,
Bondslaves and pagans shall our statesmen be.

DUTCH:
Wat! de Doge
Houdt raad! in ‘t holst der nacht! — Daarheen met hem;
Mijn zaak is van gewicht; de Doge zelf
En elk van mijne broeders in den raad
Voelt dezen smaad als aan hemzelf gepleegd

MORE:
Course of direct session=Regular court hearing
Present=Pressing
Idle=Trivial
Compleat:
Session=Een zitting
Present=Tegenwoordig
Idle=Ydel

Topics: punishment, justice, judgment

Mistake me not, my lord; ’tis not my meaning To raze one title of your honour out:

PLAY: Richard II
ACT/SCENE: 2.3
SPEAKER: Lord Berkeley
CONTEXT:
Mistake me not, my lord; ’tis not my meaning
To raze one title of your honour out:
To you, my lord, I come, what lord you will,
From the most gracious regent of this land,
The Duke of York, to know what pricks you on
To take advantage of the absent time
And fright our native peace with self-born arms.

DUTCH:
Versta mij goed, mylord; mijn doel is niet,
Een enklen eeretitel u te schrappen

MORE:

One form of punishment was apparently to deface the arms of traitors and rebels. (Camden’s “Remains”: How the names of them, which for capital crimes against majestie, were erased out of the public records, tables, and registers, or forbidden to be borne by their posteritie, when their memory was damned, I could show at large.”) Bolingbrook also refers to this punishment in 3.1.

Raze=Erase, scrap away
What lord you will=Whatever title you’d like me to use
Prick=Spur
Absent time=Time of (the king’s) absence

Compleat:
To raze out=Uitschrabben, doorhaalen, uitkladden, uitveegen
To prick=Prikken, steeken, prikkelen
Absence=Afwezendheid, afzyn, verstrooidheid

Topics: punishment, honour

My brother killed no man; his fault was thought, and yet his punishment was bitter death

PLAY: Richard III
ACT/SCENE: 2.1
SPEAKER: Richard, Duke of Gloucester
CONTEXT:
KING EDWARD
Have I a tongue to doom my brother’s death,
And shall the tongue give pardon to a slave?
My brother killed no man; his fault was thought,
And yet his punishment was bitter death.
Who sued to me for him? Who, in my wrath,
Kneeled at my feet, and bade me be advised?
Who spoke of brotherhood? Who spoke of love?
Who told me how the poor soul did forsake
The mighty Warwick and did fight for me?
Who told me, in the field by Tewkesbury,
When Oxford had me down, he rescued me,
And said “Dear brother, live, and be a king?”
Who told me, when we both lay in the field
Frozen almost to death, how he did lap me
Even in his garments and did give himself,
All thin and naked, to the numb-cold night?
All this from my remembrance brutish wrath
Sinfully plucked, and not a man of you
Had so much grace to put it in my mind.
But when your carters or your waiting vassals
Have done a drunken slaughter and defaced
The precious image of our dear Redeemer,
You straight are on your knees for pardon, pardon,
And I, unjustly too, must grant it you. (…)

DUTCH:
Mijn broeder deed geen doodslag; in gedachte
Bestond zijn schuld; toch leed hij bitt’ren dood.

MORE:
Proverb: Thought is free

Doom=Judge
Lap=Wrap
Vassals=Servants
Compleat:
Doom=Vonnis, oordeel, verwyzing
A heavy doom=een zwaar vonnis
To doom=Veroordelen, verwyzen, doemen
To lap up=Bewinden

Topics: proverbs and idioms, judgment, punishment, mercy

My conscience hath a thousand several tongues, and every tongue brings in a several tale

PLAY: Richard III
ACT/SCENE: 5.3
SPEAKER: King Richard III
CONTEXT:
KING RICHARD
Give me another horse! Bind up my wounds!
Have mercy, Jesu!—Soft, I did but dream.
O coward conscience, how dost thou afflict me!
The lights burn blue. It is now dead midnight.
Cold fearful drops stand on my trembling flesh.
What do I fear? Myself? There’s none else by.
Richard loves Richard; that is, I and I.
Is there a murderer here? No. Yes, I am.
Then fly! What, from myself? Great reason why:
Lest I revenge. What, myself upon myself?
Alack, I love myself. Wherefore? For any good
That I myself have done unto myself?
O, no! Alas, I rather hate myself
For hateful deeds committed by myself.
I am a villain. Yet I lie. I am not.
Fool, of thyself speak well. Fool, do not flatter.
My conscience hath a thousand several tongues,
And every tongue brings in a several tale,
And every tale condemns me for a villain.
Perjury, perjury, in the highest degree;
Murder, stern murder, in the direst degree;
All several sins, all used in each degree,
Throng to the bar, crying all, “Guilty! guilty!”
I shall despair. There is no creature loves me,
And if I die no soul will pity me.
And wherefore should they, since that I myself
Find in myself no pity to myself?
Methought the souls of all that I had murdered
Came to my tent, and every one did threat
Tomorrow’s vengeance on the head of Richard.

DUTCH:
O, mijn geweten heeft veel duizend tongen,
En ied’re tong vertelt een ander stuk,
En ieder stuk veroordeelt mij als schurk.

MORE:
Fly=Flee
Several=Separate
Burn blue=Indicating spirits
Compleat:
Flee=Vlieden, vlugten
Several=Verscheyden

Topics: conscience, imagination, punishment, guilt, pity

My lord, you do me most insupportable vexation

PLAY: All’s Well that Ends Well
ACT/SCENE: 2.3
SPEAKER: Lafew
CONTEXT:
PAROLLES
My lord, you give me most egregious indignity.
LAFEW
Ay, with all my heart; and thou art worthy of it.
PAROLLES
I have not, my lord, deserved it.
LAFEW
Yes, good faith, every dram of it; and I will not
bate thee a scruple.
PAROLLES
Well, I shall be wiser.
LAFEW
Even as soon as thou canst, for thou hast to pull at
a smack o’ the contrary. If ever thou be’st bound
in thy scarf and beaten, thou shalt find what it is
to be proud of thy bondage. I have a desire to hold
my acquaintance with thee, or rather my knowledge,
that I may say in the default, he is a man I know.
PAROLLES
My lord, you do me most insupportable vexation.
LAFEW
I would it were hell-pains for thy sake, and my poor
doing eternal: for doing I am past: as I will by
thee, in what motion age will give me leave.

DUTCH:
Mijn heer, gij doet mij den uitgezochtsten schimp aan .

MORE:

Egregious=Extraordinary, enormous
Indignity=Contemptuous injury, insult
Bate=Deduct, abate
Pull at=Swallow
A smack=A taste
Insupportable=Unbearable
Vexation=Anger, agitation
Compleat:
Egregious=Treffelyk, braaf, heerlyk
Indignity=Smaad
To bate=Verminderen, afkorten, afsyaan
Smack=Smaak
Insupportable=Onverdraagbaar, ondraagelyk, onlydelyk
Vexation=Quelling, plaaging, quellaadje

Topics: merit, offence, punishment

My wounds ache at you

PLAY: Timon of Athens
ACT/SCENE: 3.5
SPEAKER: Alcibiades
CONTEXT:
ALCIBIADES
Hard fate! he might have died in war.
My lords, if not for any parts in him—
Though his right arm might purchase his own time
And be in debt to none —yet, more to move you,
Take my deserts to his, and join ’em both:
And, for I know your reverend ages love
Security, I’ll pawn my victories, all
My honours to you, upon his good returns.
If by this crime he owes the law his life,
Why, let the war receive ‘t in valiant gore
For law is strict, and war is nothing more.
FIRST SENATOR
We are for law: he dies; urge it no more,
On height of our displeasure: friend or brother,
He forfeits his own blood that spills another.
ALCIBIADES
Must it be so? it must not be. My lords,
I do beseech you, know me.
SECOND SENATOR
How!
ALCIBIADES
Call me to your remembrances.
THIRD SENATOR
What!
ALCIBIADES
I cannot think but your age has forgot me;
It could not else be, I should prove so base,
To sue, and be denied such common grace:
My wounds ache at you.
FIRST SENATOR
Do you dare our anger?
‘Tis in few words, but spacious in effect;
We banish thee for ever.

DUTCH:
Wis roofde u de ouderdom ‘t geheugen; anders
Waar’ nooit mijn waarde zoo van mij geweken,
Dat ik om zulk een gunst vergeefs zou smeeken.
Mijn wonden branden.

MORE:
Deserts=Rewards
Security=Collateral
Pawn=Put up as security
Returns=Repayments (of kindness)
Know me=Understand me
Remembrances=Remember me
Compleat:
Desert=Verdienste, verdiende loon
Security=Verzekering; borg
To pawn=Verpanden, te pande zetten
Return=(Remitment of money)=Een weder betaaling van een somme gelds, remise
Remembrance=Gedachtenis, geheugenis

Topics: fate/destiny, money, security, law/legal, punishment

No, they cannot touch me for coining. I am the king himself.

PLAY: King Lear
ACT/SCENE: 4.6
SPEAKER: King Lear
CONTEXT:
LEAR
No, they cannot touch me for coining. I am the king himself.
EDGAR
O thou side-piercing sight!
LEAR
Nature’s above art in that respect. There’s your press- money. That fellow handles his bow like a crowkeeper. Draw me a clothier’s yard. Look, look, a mouse! Peace,

DUTCH:
Neen, zij kunnen niets tegen mij doen voor het muntslaan . Ik
ben de koning zelf;/
Ze kunnen me niet van valsemunterij betichten.
Ik ben de koning zelf.

MORE:
Cited in Shakespeare’s Legal Maxims (William Lowes Rushton)
Schmidt:
Coining=Minting coins (a royal prerogative)
Crow-keeper=Scarecrow or person employed to scare off crows; here a bad archer
Clothier’s yard=Full length of the arrow
Press-money=Payment for enlistment or impressment into the king’s army.
Compleat:
To coin=Geld slaan, geld munten
To coin new words=Nieuwe woorden smeeden (of verzinnen)
Press-money=Vroeger hand-, loop- of aanritsgel
Burgersdijk notes:
Zij kunnen mij niets doen voor het muntslaan. Er loopt een draad door de waanzinnige redeneringen van Lear. Hij wil met een legermacht zich op zijne ondankbare dochters wreken. Daarom wil hij geld slaan, om krijgers te werven; maar zich van de deugdelijkheid zijner manschappen overtuigen, door hunne bekwaamheid in de behandeling van den handboog te toetsen; ook komt hem eene uitdaging voor den geest, zoowel eene mondelinge, waarvoor hij zijn handschoen nederwerpt, als een schriftelijke; daartoe ook het toelaten van ontucht om krijgers te erlangen en het bekleeden der paardehoeven met vilt.

Topics: law/legal, justice, punishment, equality, order/society, status

Now you have heard the truth, what say you, Romans?

DUTCH:
En nu gij alles weet, spreekt nu, Romeinen:
Is iets door ons misdreven?

Topics: revenge, offence, truth, punishment

O deadly sin! O rude unthankfulness!

PLAY: Romeo and Juliet
ACT/SCENE: 3.3
SPEAKER: Friar Lawrence
CONTEXT:
O deadly sin! O rude unthankfulness!
Thy fault our law calls death, but the kind Prince,
Taking thy part, hath rushed aside the law,
And turned that black word “death” to “banishment.”
This is dear mercy, and thou seest it not.

DUTCH:
O zware zonde, o, zwarte ondankbaarheid!

MORE:
Schmidt:
To rush=vb. to move with suddenness and eager impetuosity
Metaphorically: “the prince hath –ed aside the law,”
Compleat:
To rush in=Invallen, instuiven, met een vaart inloopen, inrennen

Topics: ingratitude, law/legal offence, mercy, punishment

O, it is excellent To have a giant’s strength;
but it is tyrannous To use it like a giant.

PLAY: Measure for Measure
ACT/SCENE: 2.2
SPEAKER: Isabella
CONTEXT:
ANGELO
I show it most of all when I show justice;
For then I pity those I do not know,
Which a dismiss’d offence would after gall;
And do him right that, answering one foul wrong,
Lives not to act another. Be satisfied;
Your brother dies to-morrow; be content.
ISABELLA
So you must be the first that gives this sentence,
And he, that suffer’s. O, it is excellent
To have a giant’s strength; but it is tyrannous
To use it like a giant.

DUTCH:
Het is fantastisch om reuzenkracht te hebben, maar tiranniek het als een reus te gebruiken.

MORE:
CITED IN E&W LAW:
In a direct quotation or ‘borrowed eloquence’, one of the most vivid instances of quotation is Lord Justice Waite’s observation in Thomas v Thomas [1995] 2 FLR 668 on judicial power, noting that: “it is excellent to have a giant’s strength but tyrannous to use it like a giant”).
CITED IN US LAW:
Gardiner v. A.H. Robins Company, lnc., 747 F.2d 1180, 1194, n. 21 (8th Cir. 1984);
Davis v. Ohio Barge Line, Ine., 697 F.2d 549, 558 (3d Cir. 1982)(“Federal judges are the final arbiters of whether a case comes within our gigantic power and authority. But at all times we should heed the admonition of the Bard of Stratford-Avon: … );
People v. Fatone, 165 Cal. App.3d 1164, 1180, 211 Cal. Rptr. 288, 297 (1985);
Lewis v. Bill Robertson & Sons, Inc., 162 Cal. App. 3d 650,656, 208 Cal. Rptr. 699, 703 (1984).
Burgersdijk notes:
Reuzenkracht bezitten. In ‘t Engelsch: To have a giant ‘s strength. Hier werd door Sh. waarschijnlijk aan de Titanen gedacht, die den hemel bestormden, – zie Vroolijke Vrouwtjes van Windsor, II.1.81, – veeleer dan aan de reuzen uit ridderromans.

Topics: justice, cited in law, judgment, punishment, authority

Oh, that way madness lies; let me shun that

PLAY: King Lear
ACT/SCENE: 3.4
SPEAKER: King Lear
CONTEXT:
Thou think’st ’tis much that this contentious storm
Invades us to the skin. So ’tis to thee.
But where the greater malady is fixed
The lesser is scarce felt. Thou’dst shun a bear,
But if thy flight lay toward the raging sea
Thou’dst meet the bear i’ th’ mouth. When the mind’s free,
The body’s delicate. The tempest in my mind
Doth from my senses take all feeling else
Save what beats there—filial ingratitude.
Is it not as this mouth should tear this hand
For lifting food to ’t? But I will punish home.
No, I will weep no more. In such a night
To shut me out! Pour on, I will endure.
In such a night as this! O Regan, Goneril,
Your old kind father, whose frank heart gave all—
Oh, that way madness lies. Let me shun that.
No more of that.

DUTCH:
O, Regan, Goneril,
uw goede vader die u alles gaf…
nee, daar niet heen, daar wacht de waanzin mij;
niet meer daarover.

Topics: emotion and mood, wellbeing, madness, punishment

She hath despised me rejoicingly, and I’ll be merry in my revenge

PLAY: Cymbeline
ACT/SCENE: 3.5
SPEAKER: Cloten
CONTEXT:
CLOTEN
Meet thee at Milford-Haven!—I forgot to ask him one
thing; I’ll remember’t anon:—even there, thou
villain Posthumus, will I kill thee. I would these
garments were come. She said upon a time—the
bitterness of it I now belch from my heart—that she
held the very garment of Posthumus in more respect
than my noble and natural person together with the
adornment of my qualities. With that suit upon my
back, will I ravish her: first kill him, and in her
eyes; there shall she see my valour, which will then
be a torment to her contempt. He on the ground, my
speech of insultment ended on his dead body, and
when my lust hath dined,—which, as I say, to vex
her I will execute in the clothes that she so
praised,—to the court I’ll knock her back, foot
her home again. She hath despised me rejoicingly,
and I’ll be merry in my revenge.
Be those the garments?

DUTCH:
Zij heeft er genot in gevonden
mij te verachten, en ik wil mij vroolijk maken
door mijn wraak.

MORE:
Were come=Had arrived
Insultment=Contemptuous triumph
Knock=Beat
Foot=Kick
Compleat:
Insultation=Schamperheid
Knock=Slag, klop, klap

Topics: dispute, respect, regret, punishment, insult, revenge

Some rise by sin, and some by virtue fall.

PLAY: Measure for Measure
ACT/SCENE: 2.1
SPEAKER: Escalus
CONTEXT:
Well, heaven forgive him! and forgive us all!
Some rise by sin, and some by virtue fall:
Some run from brakes of vice, and answer none:
And some condemned for a fault alone.

DUTCH:
Sommigen rijzen door ondeugd, anderen komen door deugd ten val/
De een stijgt door schuld, door deugd moet de ander vallen

MORE:
Also versions with ‘brakes of ice’.
Schmidt:
Meaning of brakes is disputed; from the context it should be understood in the sense of “engines of torture”. Brakes was used to mean a collection.

Topics: good and bad, corruption, virtue, error, punishment, fate/destiny

Such is the breath of kings.

DUTCH:
Wat tijd en macht ligt in een enkel woord!
Vier trage winters en vier dartle Mei’s
Zijn adem, niets, — doet hun een vorst dien eisch.

MORE:

Proverb: The eye is the window of the heart (mind)

Compleat:
Aspect=Gezigt, gelaat, aanschouw, stargezigt
Of fierce aspect=Van een straf gelaat

Topics: time, nature, punishment, appearance, proverbs and idioms, still in use

There is a devilish mercy in the judge

PLAY: Measure for Measure
ACT/SCENE: 3.1
SPEAKER: Claudio
CONTEXT:
ISABELLA
Yes, brother, you may live:
There is a devilish mercy in the judge,
If you’ll implore it, that will free your life,
But fetter you till death.
CLAUDIO
Perpetual durance?

DUTCH:
Ja, broeder, gij kunt leven; ja, er woont
Een duivelsch medelijden in den rechter;
Roept gij het in, dan redt u dit het leven,
Maar boeit u tot den dood .

MORE:
Schmidt:
Durance=Imprisonment
Compleat:
Durance=Duurzaamheid, gevangkenis
To be in durance=In hechtenisse zyn

Topics: punishment, judgment, law/legal, mercy

There is no more mercy in him than there is milk in a male tiger

PLAY: Coriolanus
ACT/SCENE: 5.4
SPEAKER: Menenius
CONTEXT:
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.
SICINIUS
The gods be good unto us!
MENENIUS
No, in such a case the gods will not be good unto
us. When we banished him, we respected not them;
and, he returning to break our necks, they respect not us.

DUTCH:
Ik schilder hem naar ‘t leven. Geef acht, welke goedertierenheid zijn moeder van hem thuis zal brengen; er is in hem niet meer goedertierenheid, dan melk in een mannetjestijger. Dit zal onze arme stad ondervinden en dit
alles komt door u.

MORE:
Truly=Honestly, accurately
Paint=Describe, represent
Bring from=Elicit
Compleat:
Truly=Warlyk, degelyk, zo als het behoort
Elicit=(Extract): Uittrekken, verkorten

Topics: mercy, revenge, punishment

Thou canst help time to furrow me with age

PLAY: Richard II
ACT/SCENE: 1.3
SPEAKER: John of Gaunt
CONTEXT:
JOHN OF GAUNT
But not a minute, king, that thou canst give:
Shorten my days thou canst with sullen sorrow,
And pluck nights from me, but not lend a morrow;
Thou canst help time to furrow me with age,
But stop no wrinkle in his pilgrimage;
Thy word is current with him for my death,
But dead, thy kingdom cannot buy my breath.
KING RICHARD II
Thy son is banish’d upon good advice,
Whereto thy tongue a party-verdict gave:
Why at our justice seem’st thou then to lour?

DUTCH:
Niet één minuut, o vorst, die gij kunt geven;
Mijn dagen kunt gij korten, ja, door zorgen,
Mij nachten rooven, — leenen — niet éen morgen,
Den tijd wel helpen rimpels mij te groeven,
Zijn doen te stremmen, zult gij niet beproeven;

MORE:

Schmidt:
Current= generally received, of full value, sterling, having currency (Come current as=have currency, be accepted as)
Party-verdict=Joint verdict given by more than one judge
Upon good advice=After careful deliberation, consideration
Lour=Frown, look sullen

Compleat:
Current=Gangbaar
To take a thing for current payment=Iets voor gangbaare munt aanneemen
To lowre=Stuursch kyken, donker uitzien
Lowring countenance=Een stuursch of donker gezigt
Advice=Raad, vermaaning, goedvinden

Topics: time, age/experience, concern , appearance, punishment

Thou shalt be both the plaintiff and the judge of thine own cause

PLAY: Twelfth Night
ACT/SCENE: 5.1
SPEAKER: Olivia
CONTEXT:
MALVOLIO
Lady, you have. Pray you, peruse that letter.
You must not now deny it is your hand.
Write from it if you can, in hand or phrase;
Or say ’tis not your seal, not your invention:
You can say none of this. Well, grant it then
And tell me, in the modesty of honour,
Why you have given me such clear lights of favour,
Bade me come smiling and cross-gartered to you,
To put on yellow stockings, and to frown
Upon Sir Toby and the lighter people?
And, acting this in an obedient hope,
Why have you suffered me to be imprisoned,
Kept in a dark house, visited by the priest,
And made the most notorious geck and gull
That e’er invention played on? Tell me why.
OLIVIA
Alas, Malvolio, this is not my writing,
Though, I confess, much like the character.
But out of question, ’tis Maria’s hand.
And now I do bethink me, it was she
First told me thou wast mad, then camest in smiling,
And in such forms which here were presupposed
Upon thee in the letter. Prithee, be content.
This practice hath most shrewdly passed upon thee;
But when we know the grounds and authors of it,
Thou shalt be both the plaintiff and the judge
Of thine own cause.

DUTCH:
Doch wees getroost;
Met boos beleid is u die streek gespeeld;
Maar kennen we eens de reed’nen en de daders,
Dan zult gij, beide, klager zijn en rechter,
In eigen zaak.

MORE:
Cited in Shakespeare’s Legal Maxims (William Lowes Rushton):
Proverb: No man ought to be judge in his own cause

Invention=Composition
Light=Sign
Lighter=Lesser
Suffer=Allow
Geck=Fool
Gull=Dupe, easily deceived
Invention=Trick
Character=Handwriting
Practice=Trick
Passed=Imposed
Shrewdly=Grievously
Compleat:
Invention=Uitvindzel
Suffer=Toelaten
Practice=(underhand dealing, intrigue, plot) Praktyk, bedekten handel, list
Gull=Bedrieger
To gull=Bedriegen, verschalken. You look as if you had a mind to gull me=Hete schynt of gy voorneemens waart om my te foppen
Character=Een merk, merkteken, letter, afbeeldsel, uitdruksel, print, stempel, uitgedruktbeeld, uitbeelding
Shrewdly (very much)=Sterk

Topics: learning/education, language, communication, madness, punishment, deceit

Thou shalt be whipped with wire and stewed in brine, smarting in ling’ring pickle!

PLAY: Antony and Cleopatra
ACT/SCENE: 2.5
SPEAKER: Cleopatra
CONTEXT:
CLEOPATRA
What say you?
Hence, horrible villain, or I’ll spurn thine eyes
Like balls before me! I’ll unhair thy head!
Thou shalt be whipped with wire and stewed in brine,
Smarting in ling’ring pickle!
MESSENGER
Gracious madam,
I that do bring the news made not the match.
CLEOPATRA
Say ’tis not so, a province I will give thee
And make thy fortunes proud. The blow thou hadst
Shall make thy peace for moving me to rage,
And I will boot thee with what gift beside
Thy modesty can beg.

DUTCH:
Voort,
Afschuw’lijk monster, voort! of met uw oogen
Speel ik als ballen; ‘k ruk het hoofd u kaal;
Met ijz’ren roê laat ik u gees’len, langzaam
U stoven in een zilte loog!

MORE:
Proverb: Messengers should neither be headed nor hanged

Pickle=Brine
Boot=Recompense
What gift beside=Whatever other gift
Compleat:
Pickle=Pekel
Boot=Toegift, winst
Gift=Gaave, gift, begaafdheyd; geschenk
Beside=Behalven, daarenboven, daarbeneven, behalven dat, beneven, bezyde

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

Topics: punishment

Though well we may not pass upon his life
Without the form of justice, yet our power
Shall do a courtesy to our wrath,

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

Thoughts are no subjects; Intents but merely thoughts.

PLAY: Measure for Measure
ACT/SCENE: 5.1
SPEAKER: Isabella
CONTEXT:
Most bounteous sir, Look, if it please you, on this man condemn’d,
As if my brother lived: I partly think
A due sincerity govern’d his deeds,
Till he did look on me: since it is so,
Let him not die. My brother had but justice,
In that he did the thing for which he died:
For Angelo,
His act did not o’ertake his bad intent,
And must be buried but as an intent
That perish’d by the way: thoughts are no subjects;
Intents but merely thoughts.

DUTCH:
Doch Angelo, hoe boos zijn doel ook ware,
Zijn daad bereikte ‘t niet; dus moet zijn daad,
Als een bedoeling, onderweg gestorven,
Begraven worden. Vrij toch zijn gedachten,
Bedoelingen gedachten.

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

Topics: law/legal, plans/intentions, justice, punishment

Thy sin’s not accidental, but a trade.

PLAY: Measure for Measure
ACT/SCENE: 3.1
SPEAKER: Isabella
CONTEXT:
O, fie, fie, fie!
Thy sin’s not accidental, but a trade.
Mercy to thee would prove itself a bawd:
’Tis best thou diest quickly.

DUTCH:
O foei, foei, foei!
Geen toeval was uw zonde, ze is uw ambacht.
Genade wierd, u sparend, koppelaarster;
‘t Best is uw snelle dood.

MORE:
Sin=Offence, transgression
Bawd=Procurer

Topics: punishment, offence, custom, integrity, good and bad, mercy

Tis no sin for a man to labour in his vocation.

PLAY: King Henry IV Part 1
ACT/SCENE: 1.2
SPEAKER: Falstaff
CONTEXT:
FALSTAFF
Zounds, where thou wilt, lad. I’ll make one. An I do not, call me villain and baffle me.
PRINCE HENRY
I see a good amendment of life in thee, from praying to purse-taking.
FALSTAFF
Why, Hal, ’tis my vocation, Hal. ‘Tis no sin for a man to labour in his vocation.

DUTCH:
Wel, Hein, ’t is mijn beroep, Hein; en in zijn beroep werkzaam zijn is geen zonde.

MORE:
Baffle=originally a punishment of infamy, inflicted on recreant knights, one part of which was hanging them up by the heels” (Nares). This practice is also referred to in 2.4 (Falstaff: If thou dost it half so gravely, so majestically, both in word and matter, hang me up by the heels for a rabbit- sucker or a poulter’s hare.)
“‘Tis no sin for a man…”: Corinthians 7:20 “Let every man abide in the same vocation wherein he was called.”
Compleat:
To lay one by the heels (to send someone to prison)=Iemand gevangen zetten
Amendment of life=Verbeteering van leeven

Topics: work, offence, punishment

To make a virtue of necessity

PLAY: The Two Gentlemen of Verona
ACT/SCENE: 4.1
SPEAKER: Second outlaw
CONTEXT:
FIRST OUTLAW
And I for such like petty crimes as these,
But to the purpose—for we cite our faults,
That they may hold excused our lawless lives;
And partly, seeing you are beautified
With goodly shape and by your own report
A linguist and a man of such perfection
As we do in our quality much want—
SECOND OUTLAW
Indeed, because you are a banished man,
Therefore, above the rest, we parley to you:
Are you content to be our general?
To make a virtue of necessity
And live, as we do, in this wilderness?

DUTCH:
En dan vooral, wijl gij een balling zijt,
Daarom voornaam’lijk spreken wij tot u.
Neemt gij ons voorstel aan, ons hoofd te zijn,
En met ons van den nood een deugd te maken,
En in de wildernis , als wij, te leven?

MORE:
Proverb: To make a virtue of necessity (before 1259)

Parley=Speech, language
To the purpose=Get to the point
Hold excused=Pardon
Quality=Profession
Parley to=Negotiate with
Compleat:
Parley=Een gesprek over voorwaarden, onderhandeling, gesprekhouding
To the purpose=Ter zaake
Excused=Ontschuldigd, verschoond

Sometimes the quote “Lawless are they that make their wills the law” is attributed to Shakespeare, but this is a misattribution.

Topics: proverbs and idioms, virtue, law, punishment, offence

To our honour’s great disparagement

DUTCH:
En, zonder groote schade voor onze eer,
‘t Geslagen vonnis geen herroeping duldt,
Wil ik u gunstig zijn, zooveel ik kan.

Topics: fate/destiny, dignity, honour, punishment, delay

Truth’s a dog that must to kennel.

PLAY: King Lear
ACT/SCENE: 1.4
SPEAKER: Fool
CONTEXT:
Truth’s a dog that must to kennel. He must be whipped out, when Lady Brach may stand by th’ fire and stink.

DUTCH:
De waarheid is een hond en moet in ‘t hok; ze moet afgeranseld worden, terwijl juffer hazewindjen aan den haard mag staan en stinken.

MORE:
Fools and jesters were whipped when they got out of line.
Schmidt:
Brach=”kind of scenting-dog”. We still see Brak or Braque breeds today.

Topics: truth, honesty, punishment

Until I know this sure uncertainty I’ll entertain the offered fallacy

PLAY: The Comedy of Errors
ACT/SCENE: 2.2
SPEAKER: Antipholus of Syracuse
CONTEXT:
ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE
To me she speaks; she moves me for her theme.
What, was I married to her in my dream?
Or sleep I now and think I hear all this?
What error drives our eyes and ears amiss?
Until I know this sure uncertainty
I’ll entertain the offered fallacy.
LUCIANA
Dromio, go bid the servants spread for dinner.
DROMIO OF SYRACUSE
O, for my beads! I cross me for a sinner.
This is the fairy land. O spite of spites!
We talk with goblins, ouphs, and sprites:
If we obey them not, this will ensue:
They’ll suck our breath, or pinch us black and blue.

DUTCH:
Het is tot mij, dat zij die reed’nen houdt!
Wat! ben ik in den droom met haar getrouwd?
Of slaap ik nu en meen ik, dat ik hoor?
Wat vreemde waan verdwaast mijn oog en oor?
Maar kom, tot mij dit raadsel wordt verklaard,
Zij de opgedrongen dwaling thans aanvaard

MORE:
Proverb: To beat (pinch) one black and blue. Pinching was a traditional punishment associated with fairies

Move=To urge, incite, instigate, make a proposal to, appeal or apply to (a person)
Error=Mistake, deception, false opinion
Ouph=Elf, goblin
Uncertainty=A mystery, the unknown
Entertain=Accept (the delusion)
Compleat:
To move=Verroeren, gaande maaken; voorstellen
Error=Fout, misslag, dwaaling, dooling
To lie under a great errour=In een groote dwaaling steeken
Beadsman=een Bidder, Gety=leezer, Gebed-opzegger

Topics: imagination, evidence, judgment, punishment, proverbs and idioms

Use his men well, Davy, for they are arrant knaves and will backbite.

PLAY: King Henry IV Part 2
ACT/SCENE: 5.1
SPEAKER: Shallow
CONTEXT:
SHALLOW
Yea, Davy. I will use him well. A friend i’ th’ court is better than a penny in purse. Use his men well, Davy, for they are arrant knaves and will backbite.
DAVY
No worse than they are back-bitten, sir, for they have marvellous foul linen.
SHALLOW
Well-conceited, Davy. About thy business, Davy.

DUTCH:
Onthaal zijn manschappen goed, David, want zij zijn aartsschelmen en achter den rug maken zij iemand zwart.

MORE:

Proverb: A friend at court is as good as a penny in the purse.

Schmidt:
Conceited=possessed with an idea; fanciful, imaginative
Marvellous foul=very dirty; filthy
Backbite=to slander one absent
Use=treat

Onions:
Conceited=full of imagination or fancy, ingenious; possessed of an idea

Compleat:
Backbite=Achterklappen, belasteren
Marvellous=Wonderlyk

Burgersdijk notes:
Achter den rug maken iemand zwart. In ‘t Engelsch een dergelijke woordspeling met backbite.

Topics: law, authority, offence, punishment

Were it my cue to fight, I should have known it without a prompter

PLAY: Othello
ACT/SCENE: 1.2
SPEAKER: Othello
CONTEXT:
OTHELLO
Hold your hands,
Both you of my inclining and the rest.
Were it my cue to fight, I should have known it
Without a prompter. Whither will you that I go
To answer this your charge?
BRABANTIO
To prison, till fit time
Of law and course of direct session
Call thee to answer.
OTHELLO
What if I do obey?
How may the Duke be therewith satisfied,
Whose messengers are here about my side
Upon some present business of the state
To bring me to him?

DUTCH:
Steekt op die zwaarden ,
Niet gij slechts aan mijn zij, gij and’ren ook!
Waar’ strijd mijn wachtwoord, ‘k wist het zelf, al blies
Het niemand in. Waar wilt gij, dat ik ga,
Opdat ik mij verantwoord?

MORE:
Hold your hands=Don’t strike
Of my inclining=On my side
Course of direct session=Regular court hearing
Present=Pressing
Compleat:
To hold back=Te rugge houden, onthouden
Inclining=Neyging
Session=Een zitting
Present=Tegenwoordig

Topics: dispute, law/legal, punishment, reply, conflict

What fool hath added water to the sea

PLAY: Titus Andronicus
ACT/SCENE: 3.1
SPEAKER: Titus Andronicus
CONTEXT:
TITUS ANDRONICUS
Faint-hearted boy, arise, and look upon her.
Speak, Lavinia, what accursed hand
Hath made thee handless in thy father’s sight?
What fool hath added water to the sea,
Or brought a faggot to bright-burning Troy?
My grief was at the height before thou camest,
And now like Nilus, it disdaineth bounds.
Give me a sword, I’ll chop off my hands too;
For they have fought for Rome, and all in vain;
And they have nursed this woe, in feeding life;
In bootless prayer have they been held up,
And they have served me to effectless use:
Now all the service I require of them
Is that the one will help to cut the other.
‘Tis well, Lavinia, that thou hast no hands;
For hands, to do Rome service, are but vain.

DUTCH:
Zwakhartig jongling, rijs, en zie haar aan. —
Lavinia, spreek! wat vloekb’re hand heeft u
HandIoos gemaakt voor de oogen van uw vader?
En welke dwaas goot water in de zee,
En wierp in Troja’s laaien brand een mutsaard?

MORE:
Proverb: To cast water into the sea (Thames)

Faint-hearted=Weak
Bootless=Futile, pointless
Martyred=Mutilated
Compleat:
Faint-hearted=Flaauwhartig, lafhartig, slaphartig
Bootless=Te vergeefs, vruchteloos
Martyred=Gemarteld, gepynigd

Topics: proverbs and idioms, fate/destiny, punishment

When the mind’s free,
The body’s delicate

DUTCH:
Een ongestoorde geest
maakt onze leden broos; mijn zielenstorm
ontneemt mijn zinnen alles wat ik voel,
behalve wat dáár klopt:

MORE:
Contentious=Tempestuous
Greater malady=Mental torment (here)
Fixed=Established, diagnosed
Meet the bear i’ th’ mouth=Meet the bear face to face
Home=Thoroughly
Frank=Liberal, bountiful
Compleat:
Home=Goed
Fix=Vaststellen, besluiten
Some translations into Dutch have “Als de geest gewillig is, is het lichaam zwak”, which is not a translation of Shakespeare’s text but of Matthew 26:41, ‘the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak”

Topics: emotion and mood, wellbeing, madness, punishment

Who doth molest my contemplation?

PLAY: Titus Andronicus
ACT/SCENE: 5.2
SPEAKER: Titus Andronicus
CONTEXT:
TAMORA
Thus, in this strange and sad habiliment,
I will encounter with Andronicus,
And say I am Revenge, sent from below
To join with him and right his heinous wrongs.
Knock at his study, where, they say, he keeps,
To ruminate strange plots of dire revenge;
Tell him Revenge is come to join with him,
And work confusion on his enemies.
TITUS ANDRONICUS
Who doth molest my contemplation?
Is it your trick to make me ope the door,
That so my sad decrees may fly away,
And all my study be to no effect?
You are deceived: for what I mean to do
See here in bloody lines I have set down;
And what is written shall be executed.
TAMORA
Titus, I am come to talk with thee.
TITUS ANDRONICUS
No, not a word; how can I grace my talk,
Wanting a hand to give it action?
Thou hast the odds of me; therefore no more.

DUTCH:
Wie stoort mij in mijn overdenking? Is dit
Een kunstgreep om mijn deur mij te doen oop’nen

Topics: revenge, offence, punishment

Write down thy mind, bewray thy meaning so

PLAY: Titus Andronicus
ACT/SCENE: 2.4
SPEAKER: Chiron
CONTEXT:
DEMETRIUS
So, now go tell, an if thy tongue can speak,
Who ’twas that cut thy tongue and ravished thee.
CHIRON
Write down thy mind, bewray thy meaning so,
An if thy stumps will let thee play the scribe.
DEMETRIUS
See, how with signs and tokens she can scrowl.
CHIRON
Go home, call for sweet water, wash thy hands.
DEMETRIUS
She hath no tongue to call, nor hands to wash;
And so let’s leave her to her silent walks.
CHIRON
An ’twere my case, I should go hang myself.
DEMETRIUS
If thou hadst hands to help thee knit the cord.

DUTCH:
Schrijf neder wat gij weet, onthul het zoo;
Speel, laten dit uw stompen toe, voor schrijver.

MORE:
Bewray=Reveal
Sweet=Perfumed
Compleat:
To bewray=Ontedekken, beklappen
Sweet=Frisch

Topics: plans/intentions, deceit, betrayal, punishment

Wrong hath but wrong, and blame the due of blame

PLAY: Richard III
ACT/SCENE: 5.1
SPEAKER: Buckingham
CONTEXT:
BUCKINGHAM
Why, then All Souls’ Day is my body’s doomsday.
This is the day which, in King Edward’s time,
I wished might fall on me when I was found
False to his children and his wife’s allies.
This is the day wherein I wished to fall
By the false faith of him who most I trusted.
This, this All Souls’ Day to my fearful soul
Is the determined respite of my wrongs.
That high All-seer which I dallied with
Hath turned my feignèd prayer on my head
And given in earnest what I begged in jest.
Thus doth he force the swords of wicked men
To turn their own points in their masters’ bosoms.
Thus Margaret’s curse falls heavy upon my neck:
“When he,” quoth she, “shall split thy heart with sorrow,
Remember Margaret was a prophetess.”—
Come, lead me, officers, to the block of shame.
Wrong hath but wrong, and blame the due of blame.

DUTCH:
Komt, leidt mij naar het schandblok, mannen; ‘t loon
Voor onrecht-doen zij onrecht, hoon voor hoon.

MORE:
Doomsday=Day of Judgment
Allies=Kingsmen
Fearful=Terrified
Due=Retribution
Compleat:
Dooms-day=De dag des oordeels
Dooms-day Book=Zeker boek waar in de Landeryën van Engeland en derzelver waarde aangetekend staan
To ally=Vereenigen, verbinden, vermaagschappen
Fearful=Vreesachtig, vreeslyk, schroomelyk
Due=Behoorlyk, schuldig; vervallen

Topics: judgment, status, fate/destiny, blame, punishment

Yet do I hold it very stuff o’ th’ conscience to do no contrived murder

DUTCH:
Schoon ‘t krijgsberoep mij menschen deed verslaan,
Toch was mij dit steeds een gewetenszaak,
Geen moord te doen

Topics: insult, dispute, punishment, law/legal

You are but now cast in his mood, a punishment more in policy than in malice

PLAY: Othello
ACT/SCENE: 2.3
SPEAKER: Cassio
CONTEXT:
IAGO
As I am an honest man, I thought you had received some
bodily wound. There is more sense in that than in
reputation. Reputation is an idle and most false
imposition, oft got without merit and lost without
deserving. You have lost no reputation at all unless you
repute yourself such a loser. What, man, there are ways
to recover the general again. You are but now cast in
his mood, a punishment more in policy than in malice,
even so as one would beat his offenceless dog to
affright an imperious lion. Sue to him again and he’s
yours.
CASSIO
I will rather sue to be despised than to deceive so good a commander with so slight, so drunken, and so indiscreet an officer. Drunk? And speak parrot? And squabble? Swagger? Swear? And discourse fustian with one’s own shadow? O thou invisible spirit of wine, if thou hast no name to be known by, let us call thee devil!

DUTCH:
Kom, man, er zijn middelen om den Generaal weder te winnen; hij verstiet u slechts in zijn drift, een straf meer uit staatkunde dan uit boosheid; juist zooals iemand zijn onschuldigen hond zou slaan om een dreigenden leeuw af te schrikken.

MORE:
Proverb: A man is weal or woe as he thinks himself so

Cast=Dismissed
Mood=Anger
In policy=Public demonstration
Speak parrot=Nonsense
Fustian=Bombastic, high-sounding nonsense
Sue=Petition, entreat
Compleat:
To cast off=Afwerpen, verwerpen, achterlaaten
To cast his adversary at the bar=Zyn party in rechte verwinnen
To be cast=’t Recht verlooren hebben
Fustian (or bombast)-Gezwets, snorkery
Fustian language=Grootspreeking, opsnyery

Topics: punishment, judgment, excess, anger, honesty, proverbs and idioms

You that have so traitorously discovered the secrets of your army and made such pestiferous reports of men very nobly held

PLAY: All’s Well that Ends Well
ACT/SCENE: 4.3
SPEAKER: First Soldier
CONTEXT:
FIRST SOLDIER
I’ll whisper with the general, and know his pleasure.
PAROLLES
I’ll no more drumming; a plague of all
drums! Only to seem to deserve well, and to
beguile the supposition of that lascivious young boy
the count, have I run into this danger. Yet who
would have suspected an ambush where I was taken?
FIRST SOLDIER
There is no remedy, sir, but you must die: the
general says, you that have so traitorously
discovered the secrets of your army and made such
pestiferous reports of men very nobly held, can
serve the world for no honest use; therefore you
must die. Come, headsman, off with his head.
PAROLLES
O Lord, sir, let me live, or let me see my death!
FIRST LORD
That shall you, and take your leave of all your
friends.

DUTCH:
Er helpt niets aan, vriend, gij moet toch sterven. De
generaal zegt, dat gij, die zoo verraderlijk de geheimen
van uw leger verklapt hebt, en zulke vergiftige berichten
gegeven van mannen, door ieder voor hoogst edel
gehouden, op de wereld voor niets goeds te gebruiken zijt ;

MORE:
Seem to deserve well=To appear worthy
Beguile the supposition=Fool the opposition
Discovered=Revealed
Pestiferous=Malignant
Held=Regarded
Compleat:
To deserve=Verdienen
To deserve not well of one=Iemand ondienst doen
To discover=Ontdekken, bespeuren, aan ‘t licht brengen
Pestiferous=Pestveroorzaakend, verderflyk
To hold=Houden, vatten

Topics: courage, appearance, betrayal, punishment