CJTranslations - A Midsummer Night’s Dream

QUOTES BY TOPIC

A good moral, my lord: it is not enough to speak, but to speak true

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

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

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

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

Topics: language, offence, life, truth, honesty

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

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

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

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

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

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

An adder did it, for with doubler tongue than thine, thou serpent, never adder stung

PLAY: A Midsummer Night’s Dream
ACT/SCENE: 3.2
SPEAKER: Hermia
CONTEXT:
HERMIA
Out, dog! Out, cur! Thou drivest me past the bounds
Of maiden’s patience. Hast thou slain him then?
Henceforth be never numbered among men!
Oh, once tell true, tell true even for my sake—
Durst thou have looked upon him being awake,
And hast thou killed him sleeping? O brave touch!
Could not a worm, an adder, do so much?
An adder did it, for with doubler tongue
Than thine, thou serpent, never adder stung.

DUTCH:
Is ‘t niet een slang, een adder, die zoo doet?
Een adder deed het, ja; en valscher beet
Deed nooit een slang, dan dien gij, adder, deedt.

MORE:
Brave touch=Noble move
Worm=Snake
Doubler=More forked
Compleat:
Brave=Braaf, fraai, treffelyk, dapper
Touch=Aanraaking, gevoel; toets

Topics: insult, truth, deceit, truth

And lead these testy rivals so astray as one come not within another’s way

PLAY: A Midsummer Night’s Dream
ACT/SCENE: 3.2
SPEAKER: Oberon
CONTEXT:
OBERON
Thou seest these lovers seek a place to fight.
Hie therefore, Puck, overcast the night.
The starry welkin cover thou anon
With drooping fog as black as Acheron,
And lead these testy rivals so astray
As one come not within another’s way.
Like to Lysander sometime frame thy tongue,
Then stir Demetrius up with bitter wrong.
And sometime rail thou like Demetrius.
And from each other look thou lead them thus,
Till o’er their brows death-counterfeiting sleep
With leaden legs and batty wings doth creep.
Then crush this herb into Lysander’s eye,
Whose liquor hath this virtuous property
To take from thence all error with his might
And make his eyeballs roll with wonted sight.
When they next wake, all this derision
Shall seem a dream and fruitless vision.
And back to Athens shall the lovers wend,
With league whose date till death shall never end.
Whiles I in this affair do thee employ,
I’ll to my queen and beg her Indian boy.
And then I will her charmèd eye release
From monster’s view, and all things shall be peace.

DUTCH:
Dus haast u, Puck, en hul ze in donkre nacht;
Bedek met nevels ‘t lichte firmament,
Zoo zwart als enkel de onderwereld kent;
En leid die mededingers zoo rondom,
Dat de een niet in ‘t bereik des andren kom.

MORE:
Hie=Hurry
Welkin=Sky
Acheron=A traditionally black river (in hell)
Wrong=Insult
Batty=Bat-like
Virtuous=Good
Wonted=Usual
Derision=Mocking
Wend=Go
Compleat:
To hie (hye)=Reppen, haasten
Hie thee=Rep u, haast u
Wrong=Nadeel
Virtuous=Deugdelyk, deugdzaam, vroom
Wonted=Gewoon, gewoonlyk
Derision=Uitlaching, belaching, bespotting

Topics: plans/intentions, fate/destiny, love

And so far am I glad it so did sort, as this their jangling I esteem a sport

PLAY: A Midsummer Night’s Dream
ACT/SCENE: 3.2
SPEAKER: Oberon
CONTEXT:
PUCK
Believe me, King of Shadows, I mistook.
Did not you tell me I should know the man
By the Athenian garment he had on?
And so far blameless proves my enterprise,
That I have ‘nointed an Athenian’s eyes.
And so far am I glad it so did sort,
As this their jangling I esteem a sport.
OBERON
Thou seest these lovers seek a place to fight.
Hie therefore, Puck, overcast the night.
The starry welkin cover thou anon
With drooping fog as black as Acheron,
And lead these testy rivals so astray
As one come not within another’s way.
Like to Lysander sometime frame thy tongue,
Then stir Demetrius up with bitter wrong.
And sometime rail thou like Demetrius.
And from each other look thou lead them thus,
Till o’er their brows death-counterfeiting sleep
With leaden legs and batty wings doth creep.
Then crush this herb into Lysander’s eye,
Whose liquor hath this virtuous property
To take from thence all error with his might
And make his eyeballs roll with wonted sight.
When they next wake, all this derision
Shall seem a dream and fruitless vision.
And back to Athens shall the lovers wend,
With league whose date till death shall never end.
Whiles I in this affair do thee employ,
I’ll to my queen and beg her Indian boy.
And then I will her charmèd eye release
From monster’s view, and all things shall be peace.

DUTCH:
En verre dwaalde ik niet, want ik bestreek
Een jonkman de oogen, die Athener bleek,
En in zoo verre ben ik puik geslaagd,
Dat heel die twist mij kostlijk heeft behaagd.

MORE:
Jangling=Discordant noise
Hie=Hurry
Welkin=Sky
Acheron=A traditionally black river (in hell)
Wrong=Insult
Batty=Bat-like
Virtuous=Good
Wonted=Usual
Derision=Mocking
Wend=Go
Compleat:
Jangling=Krakkeeling, gehassebas
To hie (hye)=Reppen, haasten
Hie thee=Rep u, haast u
Wrong=Nadeel
Virtuous=Deugdelyk, deugdzaam, vroom
Wonted=Gewoon, gewoonlyk
Derision=Uitlaching, belaching, bespotting

Topics: plans/intentions, fate/destiny, love

And the country proverb known—that every man should take his own

PLAY: A Midsummer Night’s Dream
ACT/SCENE: 3.2
SPEAKER: Puck
CONTEXT:
PUCK
(…)
When thou wakest,
Thou takest
True delight
In the sight
Of thy former lady’s eye.
And the country proverb known—
That every man should take his own—
In your waking shall be shown.
Jack shall have Jill.
Nought shall go ill.
The man shall have his mare again, and all shall be
well.

DUTCH:
Wat de boerenspreuk beweert,
„Elk het zijne” is niet verkeerd.

MORE:
Proverb: Let every man have his own
Proverb: All is well and the man has his mare again
Proverb: All shall be well and Jack shall have his Jill

Topics: proverbs and idioms, fate/destiny

And then the whole quire hold their hips and laugh

PLAY: A Midsummer Night’s Dream
ACT/SCENE: 2.1
SPEAKER: Puck
CONTEXT:
PUCK
Thou speak’st aright.
I am that merry wanderer of the night.
I jest to Oberon and make him smile
When I a fat and bean-fed horse beguile,
Neighing in likeness of a filly foal.
And sometime lurk I in a gossip’s bowl
In very likeness of a roasted crab,
And when she drinks, against her lips I bob
And on her withered dewlap pour the ale.
The wisest aunt telling the saddest tale
Sometime for three-foot stool mistaketh me.
Then slip I from her bum, down topples she,
And “Tailor!” cries, and falls into a cough,
And then the whole quire hold their hips and laugh,
And waxen in their mirth, and neeze, and swear
A merrier hour was never wasted there.
But, room, fairy! Here comes Oberon.

DUTCH:
En heel de kring, die eerst nog in de hand
Wou proesten, giert van ‘t lachen, en roept uit:
„Dat was daar van de preek een mooi besluit!” —
Maar, elfjen , daar komt Oberon! Op zij!

MORE:
Gossip’s bowl=Christening cup that would have held caudle (spiced ale), passed around to celebrate a birth. It later became linked to drunken, gossiping women.
Crab=Crab apple
Sad=Serious
Quire=Choir, troupe
Waxen=Increase
Neeze=Sneeze
Wasted=Spent
Compleat:
Gossip=Een dooophefster, gemoeder, peet
A drinking gossip=Een zuipster, dronkene slet
A tattling gossip=Een labbei, kakelaarster
To waste=Verwoesten, verquisten, verteeren, vernielen, doorbrengen
Quire=Een koor

Topics: manipulation, deceit

And this same progeny of evils comes from our debate, from our dissension

PLAY: A Midsummer Night’s Dream
ACT/SCENE: 2.1
SPEAKER: Titania
CONTEXT:
TITANIA
These are the forgeries of jealousy.
And never, since the middle summer’s spring,
Met we on hill, in dale, forest, or mead,
By pavèd fountain, or by rushy brook,
Or in the beachèd margent of the sea,
To dance our ringlets to the whistling wind,
But with thy brawls thou hast disturbed our sport.
Therefore the winds, piping to us in vain,
As in revenge, have sucked up from the sea
Contagious fogs, which falling in the land
Have every pelting river made so proud
That they have overborne their continents.
The ox hath therefore stretched his yoke in vain,
The ploughman lost his sweat, and the green corn
Hath rotted ere his youth attained a beard.
The fold stands empty in the drownèd field,
And crows are fatted with the murrain flock.
The nine-men’s-morris is filled up with mud,
And the quaint mazes in the wanton green
For lack of tread are undistinguishable.
The human mortals want their winter here.
No night is now with hymn or carol blessed.
Therefore the moon, the governess of floods,
Pale in her anger, washes all the air,
That rheumatic diseases do abound.
And thorough this distemperature we see
The seasons alter: hoary-headed frosts
Fall in the fresh lap of the crimson rose,
And on old Hiems’ thin and icy crown
An odorous chaplet of sweet summer buds
Is, as in mockery, set. The spring, the summer,
The childing autumn, angry winter change
Their wonted liveries, and the mazèd world,
By their increase, now knows not which is which.
And this same progeny of evils comes
From our debate, from our dissension.
We are their parents and original

DUTCH:
En heel deez’ sleep van plagen komt alleen
Van onze oneenigheid, van onzen twist;
Wij hebben dien verwekt, dien voortgebracht.

MORE:
Forgeries=Lies
Rushy=Bordered with rushes
Ringlets=Dances
Brawls=Quarrels
Pelting=Paltry (or pelting)
Continent=Bank
Murrain=Diseased (murrain is a disease affecting sheep and cattle)
Nine-men’s-morris=An outdoor game
Quaint=Intricate
Lack of tread=Where nobody walks
Hiems=Winter god
Childing=Fruitful
Change=Exchange
Wonted=Usual
Liveries=Clothing
Mazèd=Bewildered
Debate=Dispute
Compleat:
Forgery=Een verdichtsel, verziersel
Brawl=Gekyf
Continent=Het vaste land
Murrain (murren)=Sterfte onder de beesten
Quaint=Cierlyk
To tread=Treeden, betreeden
Livery=een Lievry
Wonted=Gewoon, gewoonlyk
It put me in a maze=Het deed my versteld staan, het maakte my bedwelmd
Debate=Twist, verschil, krakkeel

Topics: nature, dispute

And those things do best please me that befall preposterously

PLAY: A Midsummer Night’s Dream
ACT/SCENE: 3.2
SPEAKER: Puck
CONTEXT:
OBERON
Stand aside. The noise they make
Will cause Demetrius to awake.
PUCK
Then will two at once woo one.
That must needs be sport alone.
And those things do best please me
That befall preposterously.
LYSANDER
Why should you think that I should woo in scorn?
Scorn and derision never come in tears.
Look, when I vow, I weep. And vows so born,
In their nativity all truth appears.
How can these things in me seem scorn to you,
Bearing the badge of faith to prove them true?

DUTCH:
Want dat is mijn grootste pret,
Als ik ‘t onderst boven zet.

MORE:
Alone=Unique
Befall=Happen
Preposterously=Perversely
Compleat:
Befall=Gebeuren, overkomen
Preposterously=Verkeerdelyk, het achterste voor

Topics: manipulation, love

Are you sure that we are awake? It seems to me that yet we sleep, we dream.

PLAY: A Midsummer Night’s Dream
ACT/SCENE: 4.1
SPEAKER: Demetrius
CONTEXT:
DEMETRIUS
These things seem small and undistinguishable,
Like far-off mountains turnèd into clouds.
HERMIA
Methinks I see these things with parted eye,
When everything seems double.
HELENA
So methinks.
And I have found Demetrius like a jewel,
Mine own, and not mine own.
DEMETRIUS
Are you sure
That we are awake? It seems to me
That yet we sleep, we dream. Do not you think
The duke was here, and bid us follow him?

DUTCH:
Ik denk,
Wij droomen nog. — Was niet de hertog hier,
Die ons den last van hem te volgen gaf?

MORE:
Parted eye=Eyes out of focus
Mine own and not mine own=Mine because I have found it, finder’s keepers

Topics: perception, imagination

Be as thou wast wont to be; see as thou wast wont to see

PLAY: A Midsummer Night’s Dream
ACT/SCENE: 4.1
SPEAKER: Oberon
CONTEXT:
OBERON
Welcome, good Puck. Seest thou this sweet sight?
Her dotage now I do begin to pity.
For, meeting her of late behind the wood,
Seeking sweet favours from this hateful fool,
I did upbraid her and fall out with her.
For she his hairy temples then had rounded
With a coronet of fresh and fragrant flowers,
And that same dew, which sometime on the buds
Was wont to swell like round and orient pearls,
Stood now within the pretty flowerets’ eyes
Like tears that did their own disgrace bewail.
When I had at my pleasure taunted her
And she in mild terms begged my patience,
I then did ask of her her changeling child,
Which straight she gave me and her fairy sent
To bear him to my bower in Fairyland.
And now I have the boy, I will undo
This hateful imperfection of her eyes.
And, gentle Puck, take this transformèd scalp
From off the head of this Athenian swain,
That, he awaking when the other do,
May all to Athens back again repair
And think no more of this night’s accidents
But as the fierce vexation of a dream.
But first I will release the fairy queen.
Be as thou wast wont to be.
See as thou wast wont to see.
Dian’s bud o’er Cupid’s flower
Hath such force and blessèd power.
Now, my Titania, wake you, my sweet queen.

DUTCH:
Wees, zooals ge placht te zijn;
Zie weer ‘t wezen, niet den schijn;
Deze struik, Diana’s roem,
Fnuike alsnu Cupido’s bloem.

MORE:
Dotage=Fondness
Orient=Lustrous (the best pearls were said to come from the Orient)
Wont to be=Accustomed to
Swain=Peasant
Compleat:
Dotage=Suffery, dweepery
Wont=Gewoonte
A country swain=Een Boer

Burgersdijk notes:
Deze struik, Diana’s roem, zal wel de Vitex agnus castus zijn; het sap uit de knop er van zou dus de werking van het viooltjenssap doen ophouden. Een tak van deze voor allerlei vlechtwerk gebezigde plant zon, in bed gelegd, volgens de oude Grieken kuischheid bevorderen; men zegt, dat dit geloof nog in Griekenland bestaat en dat de plant nog dien dienst moet doen.

Topics: love, pity, imagination

Bless thee, Bottom! Bless thee! Thou art translated

PLAY: A Midsummer Night’s Dream
ACT/SCENE: 3.1
SPEAKER: Quince
CONTEXT:
PUCK
I’ll follow you. I’ll lead you about a round
Through bog, through bush, through brake, through
brier.
Sometime a horse I’ll be, sometime a hound,
A hog, a headless bear, sometime a fire.
And neigh, and bark, and grunt, and roar, and burn,
Like horse, hound, hog, bear, fire, at every turn.
BOTTOM
Why do they run away? This is a knavery of them to make
me afeard.
SNOUT
O Bottom, thou art changed! What do I see on thee?
BOTTOM
What do you see? You see an ass head of your own, do
you?
QUINCE
Bless thee, Bottom, bless thee. Thou art translated.

DUTCH:
God bewaar je, Spoel! je bent verfigureerd!

MORE:
Proverb: An asshead of your own

Translated=Transformed
Compleat:
To translate=Overzetten, vertaalen, overvoeren, verplaatsen
Knavery=Guitery, boertery

Topics: proverbs and idioms, appearance

But being overfull of self-affairs, my mind did lose it

PLAY: A Midsummer Night’s Dream
ACT/SCENE: 1.1
SPEAKER: Theseus
CONTEXT:
LYSANDER
I am, my lord, as well derived as he,
As well possessed. My love is more than his.
My fortunes every way as fairly ranked,
If not with vantage as Demetrius’.
And—which is more than all these boasts can be—
I am beloved of beauteous Hermia.
Why should not I then prosecute my right?
Demetrius, I’ll avouch it to his head,
Made love to Nedar’s daughter, Helena,
And won her soul. And she, sweet lady, dotes,
Devoutly dotes, dotes in idolatry
Upon this spotted and inconstant man.
THESEUS
I must confess that I have heard so much
And with Demetrius thought to have spoke thereof,
But being overfull of self-affairs,
My mind did lose it. But, Demetrius, come.
And come, Egeus. You shall go with me.
I have some private schooling for you both.
For you, fair Hermia, look you arm yourself
To fit your fancies to your father’s will,
Or else the law of Athens yields you up
Which by no means we may extenuate
To death, or to a vow of single life.
Come, my Hippolyta. What cheer, my love?
Demetrius and Egeus, go along.
I must employ you in some business
Against our nuptial and confer with you
Of something nearly that concerns yourselves.
EGEUS
With duty and desire we follow you.

DUTCH:
k Erken, dat ik ‘t vernam, en ‘k was van zins
Demetrius hierover aan te spreken;
Maar eigen zaken boeiden mij te zeer,
Het is me ontgaan

MORE:
Well derived=The same status, as well born
As well possessed=As wealthy
Fairly ranked=Equal
With vantage=Better
Prosecute=Pursue
Avouch=Declare
Head=Face
Spotted=Stained (in a moral sense)
Self-affairs=Personal affairs
Schooling=Advice
Arm yourself=Prepare
Fancies=Affection
Compleat:
Derived=Afgeleyd, voortgekomen
To possess oneself=Bezit neemen
Ranked among=Gerekend onder
Vantage=Toegift, toemaat, overmaat, overwigt
Prosecute=Vervolgen, achtervolgen, voortzzetten, bevorderen
To avouch=Vastelyk verzekeren, bewaarheden, zyn onschuld doen blyken
Spotted=Bevlekt, gevlakt
Fancy=Liefhebberij. To fancy=Iets beminnen.

Topics: poverty and wealth, concern s, love, authority

But wonder on, till truth make all things plain

PLAY: A Midsummer Night’s Dream
ACT/SCENE: 5.1
SPEAKER: Prologue (Quince)
CONTEXT:
PROLOGUE
Gentles, perchance you wonder at this show.
But wonder on, till truth make all things plain.
This man is Pyramus, if you would know.
This beauteous lady Thisbe is certain.
This man, with lime and roughcast, doth present
Wall, that vile wall which did these lovers sunder.
And through Wall’s chink, poor souls, they are content
To whisper. At the which let no man wonder.
This man, with lanthorn, dog, and bush of thorn,
Presenteth Moonshine. For, if you will know,
By moonshine did these lovers think no scorn
To meet at Ninus’ tomb—there, there to woo.
This grisly beast, which “Lion” hight by name,
The trusty Thisbe, coming first by night,
Did scare away, or rather did affright.
And, as she fled, her mantle she did fall,
Which Lion vile with bloody mouth did stain.
Anon comes Pyramus, sweet youth and tall,
And finds his trusty Thisbe’s mantle slain.
Whereat, with blade, with bloody blameful blade,
He bravely broached his boiling bloody breast.
And Thisbe, tarrying in mulberry shade,
His dagger drew, and died. For all the rest,
Let Lion, Moonshine, Wall, and lovers twain
At large discourse, while here they do remain.

DUTCH:
Blijf dan verwonderd, tot wij ‘t duid’lijk maken.

MORE:
Proverb: Truth will come to light (break out)

Think no scorn=Consider it no shame
Hight=Called
Fall=Drop
Tall=Valiant
Compleat:
Scorn=Versmaading, verachting, bespotting
Hight=Geheeten

Topics: proverbs and idioms, truth

Eat no onions nor garlic, for we are to utter sweet breath

PLAY: A Midsummer Night’s Dream
ACT/SCENE: 4.2
SPEAKER: Bottom
CONTEXT:
BOTTOM
Not a word of me. All that I will tell you is that the
duke hath dined. Get your apparel together, good strings
to your beards, new ribbons to your pumps. Meet
presently at the palace. Every man look o’er his part.
For the short and the long is, our play is preferred. In
any case, let Thisbe have clean linen. And let not him
that plays the lion pair his nails, for they shall hang
out for the lion’s claws. And most dear actors, eat no
onions nor garlic, for we are to utter sweet breath. And
I do not doubt but to hear them say, “It is a sweet
comedy.” No more words. Away, go away!

DUTCH:
En, mijn allerliefste spelers, eet toch geen uien of knoflook, want wij moeten een liefelijken adem uitblazen en ik twijfel er niet aan, of we zullen ze hooren zeggen, het is een liefelijke komedie! Nu geen woord meer; voort! gaat! voort!

MORE:
Proverb: The long and the short of it

Strings=To attach beards
Presently=Immediately
Preferred=Selected
Compleat:
Presently=Terstond, opstaandevoet
Preferred=Voorgetrokken, meer geacht, bevorderd, verhoogd

Topics: proverbs and idioms, appearance, preparation

Either I mistake your shape and making quite, or else you are that shrewd and knavish sprite

PLAY: A Midsummer Night’s Dream
ACT/SCENE: 2.1
SPEAKER: Fairy
CONTEXT:
FAIRY
Either I mistake your shape and making quite,
Or else you are that shrewd and knavish sprite
Called Robin Goodfellow. Are not you he
That frights the maidens of the villagery,
Skim milk, and sometimes labour in the quern
And bootless make the breathless housewife churn,
And sometime make the drink to bear no barm,
Mislead night-wanderers, laughing at their harm?
Those that “Hobgoblin” call you, and “sweet Puck,”
You do their work, and they shall have good luck.
Are not you he?

DUTCH:
Erken ik wèl uw wijs van doen, uw leest,
Dan zijt ge wis die sluwe, plaagsche geest,
‘t Kahoutertjen.

MORE:
Proverb: Robin Goodfellow

Making=Substance
Shrewd=Mischievous
Villagery=Villages
Skim=Steal
Quern=Mill
Bootless=Pointless
Barm=Froth on beer
Compleat:
A good fellow=Een Vrolyke quant
Making=Maaksel
Shrewd=Loos, doortrapt, sneedig, vinnig, fel
Skim=Schuymen, de schuym afneemen
Quern=een Hand meulen
Bootless=Te vergeefs, vruchteloos
Barm=Gest

Topics: proverbs and idioms, appearance, manipulation, deceit

Enough, enough, my lord. You have enough! I beg the law, the law, upon his head

PLAY: A Midsummer Night’s Dream
ACT/SCENE: 4.1
SPEAKER: Lysander
CONTEXT:
LYSANDER
My lord, I shall reply amazèdly,
Half sleep, half waking. But as yet, I swear,
I cannot truly say how I came here.
But as I think—for truly would I speak,
And now do I bethink me, so it is—
I came with Hermia hither. Our intent
Was to be gone from Athens, where we might,
Without the peril of the Athenian law—
EGEUS
Enough, enough, my lord. You have enough!
I beg the law, the law, upon his head.
They would have stol’n away, they would, Demetrius,
Thereby to have defeated you and me,
You of your wife and me of my consent,
Of my consent that she should be your wife.

DUTCH:
Genoeg, genoeg; mijn vorst, dit zij genoeg;
Thans treff’ de wet, de wet, zijn schuldig hoofd!
‘I’e vluchten was het plan, het plan, Demetrius!
Ze wilden ons berooven, u en mij,
U van uw vrouw, mij van mijn vaderrecht,
Dat recht, waardoor ik haar aan u reeds gaf.

MORE:
Amazèdly=In confusion
Where we might=Wherever we can
Peril=Threat, risk
Defeated=Defrauded
Compleat:
Amazed=Ontzet, verbaasd, ontsteld
Amazedly=Verbaasdelyk
Peril=Gevaar, perykel, nood
To defeat=Verslaan, de neerlaag toebrengen, verydelen

Topics: law/legal, punishment, claim

Four days will quickly steep themselves in night

PLAY: A Midsummer Night’s Dream
ACT/SCENE: 1.1
SPEAKER: Hippolyta
CONTEXT:
THESEUS
Now, fair Hippolyta, our nuptial hour
Draws on apace. Four happy days bring in
Another moon. But oh, methinks how slow
This old moon wanes! She lingers my desires,
Like to a stepdame or a dowager
Long withering out a young man’s revenue.
HIPPOLYTA
Four days will quickly steep themselves in night.
Four nights will quickly dream away the time.
And then the moon, like to a silver bow
New bent in heaven, shall behold the night
Of our solemnities.
THESEUS
Go, Philostrate,
Stir up the Athenian youth to merriments.
Awake the pert and nimble spirit of mirth.
Turn melancholy forth to funerals.
The pale companion is not for our pomp.

DUTCH:
Vier dagen, zij verzinken snel in nacht;
Vier nachten, zij verdroomen snel den tijd;
Dan wordt op nieuw de zilvren boog der maan
Gespannen aan den hemel, en beschouwt
De nacht van ons festijn.

MORE:
Hippolyta=Legendary Queen of the Amazons, women warriors.
Steep themselves=Pass into, be absorbed in
Lingers=Delays
Stepdame=Stepmother
Solemnities=Ceremony
Companion=Fellow, emotion
Compleat:
Steep=Indoopen, te weeken leggel
Linger=Leuteren, draalen, sammelen
Solemnities=Plegtigheyd, hoogtyd, feestelykheyd
Companion=Medegezel, medegenoot, maat, makker”

Topics: time, emotion and mood, nature

Four nights will quickly dream away the time

DUTCH:
Vier nachten, zij verdroomen snel den tijd;
Dan wordt op nieuw de zilvren boog der maan
Gespannen aan den hemel, en beschouwt
De nacht van ons festijn.

Topics: time, emotion and mood, nature

Full of vexation come I with complaint

PLAY: A Midsummer Night’s Dream
ACT/SCENE: 1.1
SPEAKER: Egeus
CONTEXT:
EGEUS
Full of vexation come I with complaint
Against my child, my daughter Hermia.—
Stand forth, Demetrius.—My noble lord,
This man hath my consent to marry her.—
Stand forth, Lysander.—And my gracious duke,
This man hath bewitched the bosom of my child.—
Thou, thou, Lysander, thou hast given her rhymes,
And interchanged love tokens with my child.
Thou hast by moonlight at her window sung
With feigning voice verses of feigning love,
And stol’n the impression of her fantasy
With bracelets of thy hair, rings, gauds, conceits,
Knacks, trifles, nosegays, sweetmeats—messengers
Of strong prevailment in unhardened youth.
With cunning hast thou filched my daughter’s heart,
Turned her obedience (which is due to me)
To stubborn harshness.—And, my gracious duke,
Be it so she will not here before your grace
Consent to marry with Demetrius,
I beg the ancient privilege of Athens.
As she is mine, I may dispose of her—
Which shall be either to this gentleman
Or to her death—according to our law
Immediately provided in that case.

DUTCH:
Vol leedgevoel verschijn ik en verklaag
Mijn kind hier, mijne dochter Hermia

MORE:
Vexation=Anger, agitation
Feigning=Pretence, fake
Gauds=Gaudy gifts
Conceits=Trinkets
Unhardened=Innocent, inexperienced
Be it so=If
Privilege of Athens=Where father has total authority
Compleat:
Vexation=Quelling, plaaging, quellaadje
Feigning=Verdichting, veynzing
Gaudy=Weydsch, zwierig
Hardened=Gehard, verhard

Topics: anger, complaint, love, marriage

Give me your hands, if we be friends, and Puck shall restore amends

PLAY: A Midsummer Night’s Dream
ACT/SCENE: 5.1
SPEAKER: Puck
CONTEXT:
PUCK
If we shadows have offended,
Think but this, and all is mended—
That you have but slumbered here
While these visions did appear.
And this weak and idle theme,
No more yielding but a dream,
Gentles, do not reprehend.
If you pardon, we will mend.
And, as I am an honest Puck,
If we have unearnèd luck
Now to ‘scape the serpent’s tongue,
We will make amends ere long.
Else the Puck a liar call.
So good night unto you all.
Give me your hands if we be friends,
And Puck shall restore amends.

DUTCH:
Goede nacht nu, al te gaar!
Zijt ge overtuigd, juicht toe dan, juicht,
Nu Puck tot afscheid voor u buigt!

MORE:
No more yielding but=Yielding no more than
Serpent’s tongue=Hissing (audience)
Hands=Applause
Amends=Atonement
Compleat:
Yielding=Overgeeving, toegeeving, uitlevering; overgeevende, toegeeflyk, meegeeflyk
Hiss=Sissen als een slang
Amends=Vergoeding
Make amends=Vergoeding doen, vergoeden

Topics: friendship, remedy, civility

Have you the lion’s part written? Pray you, if it be, give it me, for I am slow of study

PLAY: A Midsummer Night’s Dream
ACT/SCENE: 1.2
SPEAKER: Snug the Joiner
CONTEXT:
SNUG
Have you the lion’s part written? Pray you, if it be,
give it me, for I am slow of study.
QUINCE
You may do it extempore, for it is nothing but roaring.
BOTTOM
Let me play the lion too. I will roar, that I will do
any man’s heart good to hear me. I will roar, that I
will make the duke say, “Let him roar again. Let him
roar again.”
QUINCE
An you should do it too terribly, you would fright the
duchess and the ladies, that they would shriek. And that
were enough to hang us all.

DUTCH:
Hebt ge de rol van den leeuw ook op papier? Och
toe, hebt ge ze, geef ze mij dan, want ik ben zoo hardleersch.

MORE:
Lion’s part=Lion’s share
Slow of study=Slow at learning (esp. a part)
Extempore=Improvised, off the cuff
Compleat:
Extempore=Voor de vuyst, opstaandevoet

Topics: learning/education, intellect, preparation

His speech was like a tangled chain. Nothing impaired,
but all disordered. Who is next?

PLAY: A Midsummer Night’s Dream
ACT/SCENE: 5.1
SPEAKER: Theseus
CONTEXT:
LYSANDER
He hath rid his prologue like a rough colt. He knows
not the stop. A good moral, my lord: it is not enough to
speak, but to speak true.
HIPPOLYTA
Indeed he hath played on his prologue like a child on a
recorder—a sound, but not in government.
THESEUS
His speech was like a tangled chain. Nothing impaired,
but all disordered. Who is next?

DUTCH:
Zijn aanspraak was als een verwarde keten, geen schakel
stuk, maar heel en al warboel.

MORE:
Recorder=Child’s instrument
Government=Control
Disordered=Jumbled
Compleat:
Recorder=een Zeker slach van fluyt
Government=Bestiering, heersching
Disordered=In wanorde gebragt, in de war gebragt

Topics: truth, language, communication

How low am I, thou painted maypole?

PLAY: A Midsummer Night’s Dream
ACT/SCENE: 3.2
SPEAKER: Hermia
CONTEXT:
HERMIA
“Puppet”? Why so? Ay, that way goes the game.
Now I perceive that she hath made compare
Between our statures. She hath urged her height,
And with her personage, her tall personage,
Her height, forsooth, she hath prevailed with him.
And are you grown so high in his esteem
Because I am so dwarfish and so low?
How low am I, thou painted maypole? Speak.
How low am I? I am not yet so low
But that my nails can reach unto thine eyes.

DUTCH:
Hoe klein ben ik, gij bonte hoonenstaak?
Hoe klein ben ik? zoo klein toch niet, dat ik
Uw oogen met mijn nagels niet bereik!

MORE:
Proverb: As tall as a maypole

Puppet=Counterfeit; doll
Painted=Wearing makeup
Maypole=Tall and thin person
Compleat:
Puppet=een Poppetje, pop
Puppet-play=een Spel van poppetjes, gelyk hier in ‘t Dool-hof of de Marionetten
May-pole=een May-paal, meyboom

Burgersdijk notes:
Bonte boonenstaak. In ‘t Engelsch wordt de lange Helena met een meiboom vergeleken, die, met bloemen en linten bont gesierd werd.

Topics: proverbs and idioms, appearance

I am amazèd at your passionate words. I scorn you not. It seems that you scorn me.

PLAY: A Midsummer Night’s Dream
ACT/SCENE: 3.2
SPEAKER: Hermia
CONTEXT:
HERMIA
I am amazèd at your passionate words.
I scorn you not. It seems that you scorn me.
HELENA
Have you not set Lysander, as in scorn,
To follow me and praise my eyes and face?
And made your other love, Demetrius—
Who even but now did spurn me with his foot—
To call me goddess, nymph, divine, and rare,
Precious, celestial? Wherefore speaks he this
To her he hates? And wherefore doth Lysander
Deny your love, so rich within his soul,
And tender me, forsooth, affection,
But by your setting on, by your consent?
What though I be not so in grace as you—
So hung upon with love, so fortunate—
But miserable most, to love unloved?
This you should pity rather than despise.

DUTCH:
Ik sta verbaasd van uw verstoorde taal,
Ik hoon u niet; maar gij hoont, schijnt het, mij.

MORE:
Tender=Offer
Grace=Favour
Compleat:
Grace of God=de Genade Gods
To grace=Vercieren, bevallig maaken
Graced=Begaafd
Tender of money=een Aanbieding van geld

Topics: anger, pity, love

I am sent with broom before to sweep the dust behind the door

PLAY: A Midsummer Night’s Dream
ACT/SCENE: 5.1
SPEAKER: Puck
CONTEXT:
PUCK
Now the hungry lion roars
And the wolf behowls the moon,
Whilst the heavy ploughman snores,
All with weary task fordone.
Now the wasted brands do glow,
Whilst the screech-owl, screeching loud,
Puts the wretch that lies in woe
In remembrance of a shroud.
Now it is the time of night
That the graves all gaping wide,
Every one lets forth his sprite,
In the churchway paths to glide.
And we fairies, that do run
By the triple Hecate’s team
From the presence of the sun,
Following darkness like a dream,
Now are frolic. Not a mouse
Shall disturb this hallowed house.
I am sent with broom before
To sweep the dust behind the door.

DUTCH:
Niet een muis
Store dit gewijde huis;
‘k Veeg het met den bezem schoon,
Dat geen smetjen zich vertoon’!

MORE:
Proverb: The dog (wolf) barks in vain at the moon

Triple Hecate=Greek goddess of moon and light with the realms of heaven, hell and earth. Sometimes with three faces
Behowls=Howls at
Fordone=Exhausted
Wasted brands=Burned logs
Frolic=Merry
Broom=One of Puck’s emblems as he was said to help good housekeepers
Compleat:
Fore-do=Benaadeelen
Howl=Huylen, gieren
Wasted=Verwoest, verquist, verteerd
Brand=Brand-hout
Frolick=Vrolyk

Topics: proverbs and idioms, nature, preparation

I frown upon him, yet he loves me still

PLAY: A Midsummer Night’s Dream
ACT/SCENE: 1.1
SPEAKER: Hermia
CONTEXT:
HELENA
Call you me “fair?” That “fair” again unsay.
Demetrius loves your fair. O happy fair!
Your eyes are lodestars, and your tongue’s sweet air
More tunable than lark to shepherd’s ear
When wheat is green, when hawthorn buds appear.
Sickness is catching. Oh, were favour so,
Yours would I catch, fair Hermia, ere I go.
My ear should catch your voice. My eye, your eye.
My tongue should catch your tongue’s sweet melody.
Were the world mine, Demetrius being bated,
The rest I’d give to be to you translated.
O, teach me how you look and with what art
You sway the motion of Demetrius’ heart.
HERMIA
I frown upon him, yet he loves me still.
HELENA
Oh, that your frowns would teach my smiles such skill!

DUTCH:
Ik frons het voorhoofd, toch zoekt hij mijn gunst.

MORE:
Fair=Beautiful
Happy=Lucky to be
Lodestar=Guiding star
Air=Melody
Tuneable=Musical
Favour=Good looks
Bated=Excepted
Translated=Transformed
Motion=Affection
Compleat:
Fair=Schoon, braaf, fraai, oprecht
Happy=Gelukkig, gelukzalig
Loadstar=Noordstar
Air of musick=Een deuntje
Tunable=Welluydend, dat een goeden toon heeft
Bate=Verminderen, afkorten, afslaan
To translate=Overzetten, vertaalen, overvoeren, verplaatsen

Burgersdijk notes:
Leidster is de poolster, die den stuurman zijn weg doet vinden.

Topics: fate/destiny, appearance, nature

I go, I go, look how I go! Swifter than arrow from the Tartar’s bow

PLAY: A Midsummer Night’s Dream
ACT/SCENE: 3.2
SPEAKER: Puck
CONTEXT:
OBERON
About the wood go swifter than the wind,
And Helena of Athens look thou find—
All fancy-sick she is and pale of cheer,
With sighs of love, that costs the fresh blood dear.
By some illusion see thou bring her here.
I’ll charm his eyes against she do appear.
PUCK
I go, I go. Look how I go,
Swifter than arrow from the Tartar’s bow.

DUTCH:
Ik ijl, ik ijl, zie hoe ik ijl:
Sneller dan ooit van Parthers hoog een pijl.

MORE:
Proverb: As swift as an arrow

Fancy-sick=Lovesick
Against=In preparation for
Tartars were renowned for their skill at archery, hence Tartar’s bow.
Compleat:
Against tomorrow=Tegens morgen
Fancy=Inbeelding, verbeelding, neyging

Topics: proverbs and idioms, still in use, love, emotion and mood

I have a venturous fairy that shall seek the squirrel’s hoard and fetch thee new nuts

PLAY: A Midsummer Night’s Dream
ACT/SCENE: 4.1
SPEAKER: Bottom
CONTEXT:
BOTTOM
Nothing, good monsieur, but to help Cavalery Cobweb to
scratch. I must to the barber’s, monsieur, for methinks
I am marvellous hairy about the face. And I am such a
tender ass, if my hair do but tickle me, I must scratch.
TITANIA
What, wilt thou hear some music, my sweet love?
BOTTOM
I have a reasonable good ear in music. Let’s have the
tongs and the bones.
TITANIA
Or say, sweet love, what thou desirest to eat.
BOTTOM
Truly, a peck of provender. I could munch your good dry
oats. Methinks I have a great desire to a bottle of
hay. Good hay, sweet hay, hath no fellow.
TITANIA
I have a venturous fairy that shall seek
The squirrel’s hoard and fetch thee new nuts.

DUTCH:
Ik heb een waagzieke elf, die uit de schuur
Eens eekhoorns nieuwe noten voor u haal’.

MORE:
Tongs and bones=Fire-tongs and clappers (triangle and sticks were played as a sort of rudimentary clapper)
Provender=Animal feed
Bottle=Bundle
Compleat:
Provender=Voeder; paerden-voer

Topics: love

I have had a most rare vision. I have had a dream, past the wit of man to say what dream it was

PLAY: A Midsummer Night’s Dream
ACT/SCENE: 4.1
SPEAKER: Bottom
CONTEXT:
BOTTOM
When my cue comes, call me, and I will answer.
My next is “Most fair Pyramus.” Heigh-ho! Peter Quince?
Flute the bellows-mender? Snout the tinker? Starveling?
God’s my life, stolen hence, and left me asleep? I have
had a most rare vision. I have had a dream—past the wit
of man to say what dream it was. Man is but an ass if
he go about to expound this dream. Methought I was—there is no man can tell what. Methought I was, and methought I had—but man is but a patched fool if he will offer to say what methought I had. The eye of man hath not heard, the ear of man hath not seen, man’s hand is not able to taste, his tongue to conceive, nor his heart to report what my dream was. I will get Peter Quince to write a ballad of this dream. It shall be called “Bottom’s Dream” because it hath no bottom. And I will sing it in the latter end of a play before the duke. Peradventure, to make it more gracious, I shall sing it at her death.

DUTCH:
Ik heb een allervreerndst gezicht gehad. k heb een droom gehad, — het gaat boven iemand zijn verstand, te zeggen, wat voor een
droom het was.

MORE:
Stolen hence=Sneaked away
Go about=Try
Patched fool=Jester, idiot
Offer=Venture
Hath no bottom=Is unfathomable, without substance
Peradventure=Perhaps
Compleat:
Hence=Vanhier, hieruyt
To go about=Zich onderwinden of bemoeyen
Patched=Gelapt, geflikt
To bottom=Gronden, grondvesten
Peradventure=Bygeval, misschien

Topics: imagination, madness

I have no gift at all in shrewishness

PLAY: A Midsummer Night’s Dream
ACT/SCENE: 3.2
SPEAKER: Helena
CONTEXT:
HERMIA
“Puppet”? Why so? Ay, that way goes the game.
Now I perceive that she hath made compare
Between our statures. She hath urged her height,
And with her personage, her tall personage,
Her height, forsooth, she hath prevailed with him.
And are you grown so high in his esteem
Because I am so dwarfish and so low?
How low am I, thou painted maypole? Speak.
How low am I? I am not yet so low
But that my nails can reach unto thine eyes.
HELENA
I pray you, though you mock me, gentlemen,
Let her not hurt me. I was never cursed.
I have no gift at all in shrewishness.
I am a right maid for my cowardice.
Let her not strike me. You perhaps may think,
Because she is something lower than myself,
That I can match her.

DUTCH:
Nu haar toch tegen! Twistziek was ik nooit;
‘k Heb geen talent voor kijven, maar ik ben
Echt meisjensachtig schuchter, bloode en laf.

MORE:
Made compare=Compared
Statures=Heights
Urged=Asserted
Maypole=A tall man (in jest)
Shrewishness=Being ill-tempered, having a sharp tongue
Lower=Shorter
Can match=Will be a match for
Compleat:
Stature=Gestalte, groote, lyfsstal
Of low/tall stature=Kort/lang van persoon
May-pole=een May-paal, meyboom
Shrew=Een kyfachtig wyf, een vinnige feeks
To match=Paaren, passen, samenkoppelen; overeenstemming

Topics: skill/talent, appearance, perception

I know you two are rival enemies. How comes this gentle concord in the world,

PLAY: A Midsummer Night’s Dream
ACT/SCENE: 4.1
SPEAKER: Theseus
CONTEXT:
THESEUS
I pray you all, stand up.
I know you two are rival enemies.
How comes this gentle concord in the world,
That hatred is so far from jealousy
To sleep by hate and fear no enmity?
LYSANDER
My lord, I shall reply amazèdly,
Half sleep, half waking. But as yet, I swear,
I cannot truly say how I came here.
But as I think—for truly would I speak,
And now do I bethink me, so it is—
I came with Hermia hither. Our intent
Was to be gone from Athens, where we might,
Without the peril of the Athenian law—

DUTCH:
Van waar die lieflijke eendracht zoo op eens,
Dat vrij van argwaan haat bij haat zich vlijt,
En ijverzucht haar vijand ducht noch mijdt.

MORE:
Jealousy=Distrust
Where=To where
Without=Beyond
Amazèdly=In confusion
Where we might=Wherever we can
Peril=Threat, risk
Compleat:
Jealousy=Belgzucht, naayver, argwaan, volgyver, minnenyd, achterdocht
Without=Buyten
Amazed=Ontzet, verbaasd, ontsteld
Amazedly=Verbaasdelyk
Peril=Gevaar, perykel, nood

Topics: rivalry, envy, resolution, trust

I will condole in some measure. To the rest.

PLAY: A Midsummer Night’s Dream
ACT/SCENE: 1.2
SPEAKER: Bottom
CONTEXT:
BOTTOM
What is Pyramus? A lover or a tyrant?
QUINCE
A lover that kills himself, most gallant, for love.
BOTTOM
That will ask some tears in the true performing of it.
If I do it, let the audience look to their eyes. I will
move storms. I will condole in some measure. To the
rest. Yet my chief humour is for a tyrant. I could play
Ercles rarely, or a part to tear a cat in to make all
split.
The raging rocks
And shivering shocks
Shall break the locks
Of prison gates.
And Phoebus’ car
Shall shine from far
And make and mar
The foolish Fates.
This was lofty! Now name the rest of the players. This
is Ercles’ vein, a tyrant’s vein. A lover is more
condoling.

DUTCH:
Als ik het doe, laten de toeschouwers dan hun zakdoeken klaar houden; ik zal stroomen laten vergieten; ik zal aandoenlijk wezen, dat het liefhebberij is. — Nu de volgenden;

MORE:
True performing=If it is performed well/properly
Look to their eyes=Be careful with their eyes
Condole=To mourn (Bottom means make the audience weep)
Humour=Tendency, inclination (to play)
Ercles=Hercules
Rarely=Excellently
Tear a cat=Rant and rave
Condoling=Grieving
Compleat:
To condole with one=Iemands rouw beklaagen
Humour (or disposition of the mind)=Humeur, gemoeds gesteldheid
Rarely well=Zeer wel, ongemeen wel

Topics: grief, persuasion, manipulation

I will not trust you, I, nor longer stay in your curst company

PLAY: A Midsummer Night’s Dream
ACT/SCENE: 3.2
SPEAKER: Helena
CONTEXT:
HERMIA
You, mistress, all this coil is long of you.
Nay, go not back.
HELENA
I will not trust you, I,
Nor longer stay in your curst company.
Your hands than mine are quicker for a fray.
My legs are longer though, to run away.

DUTCH:
Neen, neen, ‘k vertrouw n niet , gij zijt te fel;
Ik heb genoeg van uw verfoeid gekwel.
Gelukkig, dat, zijt ge ook een handjesnel,
Mijn beenen langer zijn, ‘k ontloop u wel.

MORE:
Coil=Bother
Long=Because
Go not back=Don’t retreat
Fray=Fight
Compleat:
Coil=Geraas, getier
It was long of him=Het was zyn schuld
It is not long of me=’t komt my niet toe, ‘t is myn schuld niet
Fray=een Gevecht, krakkeel

Topics: conflict, trust

I would I had your bond, for I perceive a weak bond holds you. I’ll not trust your word.

PLAY: A Midsummer Night’s Dream
ACT/SCENE: 3.2
SPEAKER: Demetrius
CONTEXT:
LYSANDER
Demetrius, I will keep my word with thee.
DEMETRIUS
I would I had your bond, for I perceive
A weak bond holds you. I’ll not trust your word.
LYSANDER
What, should I hurt her, strike her, kill her dead?
Although I hate her, I’ll not harm her so.
HERMIA
What, can you do me greater harm than hate?
Hate me? Wherefore? O me! What news, my love?
Am not I Hermia? Are not you Lysander?
I am as fair now as I was erewhile.
Since night you loved me. Yet since night you left me.
Why then, you left me—Oh, the gods forbid!—
In earnest, shall I say?

DUTCH:
Uw woord! Wat fraais! Haar hand houdt u terug!
Een zwakke hand! Uw woord, noch hand, zijn iets!

MORE:
Bond=1) Pledge, oath; 2) Restraint
What news=What happened?
Erewhile=A while back
Compleat:
Bond=een Bond, verband, verbinding, verbindschrift, obligatie
Erewhile=Onlangs, niet lang geleeden

Topics: contract, trust

I’ll put a girdle round about the Earth in forty minutes

PLAY: A Midsummer Night’s Dream
ACT/SCENE: 2.1
SPEAKER: Puck
CONTEXT:
OBERON
That very time I saw (but thou couldst not)
Flying between the cold moon and the Earth,
Cupid all armed. A certain aim he took
At a fair vestal thronèd by the west,
And loosed his love shaft smartly from his bow
As it should pierce a hundred thousand hearts.
But I might see young Cupid’s fiery shaft
Quenched in the chaste beams of the watery moon,
And the imperial votaress passèd on,
In maiden meditation, fancy-free.
Yet marked I where the bolt of Cupid fell.
It fell upon a little western flower,
Before milk-white, now purple with love’s wound.
And maidens call it “love-in-idleness.”
Fetch me that flower. The herb I showed thee once.
The juice of it on sleeping eyelids laid
Will make or man or woman madly dote
Upon the next live creature that it sees.
Fetch me this herb, and be thou here again
Ere the leviathan can swim a league.
PUCK
I’ll put a girdle round about the Earth
In forty minutes.

DUTCH:
Een veertigtal minuten, en ik ben
Den aardbol driemaal oni.

MORE:
Three of the moons of the planet Uranus are named after characters from the play, one of them being Puck, which is appropriate in light of this quote. (The others are Oberon and Titania.)

Certain=Sure aim
Vestal=Virgin
Imperial=Majestic
Bolt=Arrow
Love-in-idleness=Pansy
Or man or woman=Either man or woman
Leviathan=Biblical sea monster
Put a girdle round=Go around
Girdle=Circle
Compleat:
To take one’s aim well=Zynen slag wis neemen
Vestal=eene Vestaal, eertyds by de aaloude Romeynen een Nonne van de Godinne Vesta
Bolt=een Grendel, bout
He has shot his holt=Hy heeft zynen slag gedaan

Topics: manipulation, nature

If I had wit enough to get out of this wood, I have enough to serve mine own turn

PLAY: A Midsummer Night’s Dream
ACT/SCENE: 3.1
SPEAKER: Bottom
CONTEXT:
BOTTOM
Not so, neither. But if I had wit enough to get out of
this wood, I have enough to serve mine own turn.
TITANIA
Out of this wood do not desire to go.
Thou shalt remain here whether thou wilt or no.
I am a spirit of no common rate.
The summer still doth tend upon my state.
And I do love thee. Therefore go with me.
I’ll give thee fairies to attend on thee.
And they shall fetch thee jewels from the deep,
And sing while thou on pressèd flowers dost sleep.
And I will purge thy mortal grossness so
That thou shalt like an airy spirit go.
Peaseblossom, Cobweb, Moth, and Mustardseed!

DUTCH:
Och neen, dat ook al niet. Maar als ik nu maar wijsheid
genoeg had om uit dit wond te komen, dan had
ik genoeg om het er mede te stellen.

MORE:
My own turn=My purposes
Rate=Rank
Still=Always
Tend upon=Wait upon (serve)
Grossness=Coarseness, lack of refinement
Compleat:
It will serve my turn=’t is my niet dienstig, ‘t kan my niet te stade komen
Rate=Prys, waardy
Still=Steeds, gestadig, altyd
To attend upon=Opwachten, geleyden

Topics: status, intellect, purpose

If she cannot entreat, I can compel.
– Thou canst compel no more than she entreat.

PLAY: A Midsummer Night’s Dream
ACT/SCENE: 3.2
SPEAKER: Helena
CONTEXT:
HERMIA
I understand not what you mean by this.
HELENA
Ay, do. Persever, counterfeit sad looks,
Make mouths upon me when I turn my back,
Wink each at other, hold the sweet jest up—
This sport, well carried, shall be chronicled.
If you have any pity, grace, or manners,
You would not make me such an argument.
But fare ye well. ‘Tis partly my own fault,
Which death or absence soon shall remedy.
LYSANDER
Stay, gentle Helena. Hear my excuse.
My love, my life, my soul, fair Helena!
HELENA
Oh, excellent!
HERMIA
Sweet, do not scorn her so.
DEMETRIUS
If she cannot entreat, I can compel.
LYSANDER
Thou canst compel no more than she entreat.
Thy threats have no more strength than her weak prayers.
Helen, I love thee. By my life, I do.
I swear by that which I will lose for thee
To prove him false that says I love thee not.
DEMETRIUS
I say I love thee more than he can do.
LYSANDER
If thou say so, withdraw and prove it too.
DEMETRIUS
Quick, come.

DUTCH:
Uw dwang verkrijgt niet meer dan hare heê;
Wat dreigt ge? ‘t Is zoo krachtloos als haar smeeken;
Ik min u, Helena, zoo waar ik leef;
En ‘k zweer, ik waag dat leven, kwam er een,
Die lastren dorst, dat ik u niet bemin.

MORE:
Sad=Serious
Make mouths open=Pull faces, grimace
Sweet jest=Joke
Argument=Subject (of the joke)
Hold the sweet jest up=Keep the joke going
Persever=Persevere
Chronicled=Recorded
Entreat=Succeed by entreating
Compleat:
Sad=Droevig
To make a mouth=Een scheeve mond trekken, een toot zetten
Hy stak my de guyg na (also guych, guich)
To jest=Boerten, schertsen, jokken, gekscheeren
Argument=Bewys, bewysreden, dringreden; kort begrip der zaak die te bewyzen staat; inhoud
Persevere=Volharden, volstandig blyven
To chronicle=In eenen kronyk aanschryven
To entreat=Bidden, ernstig verzoeken

Topics: understanding, communication

If we offend, it is with our good will

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

DUTCH:
Mishagen we u, we wenschen dit als gunst.
Dat gij ons ijvrig denkt uw lof te winnen,

MORE:
Quince alters the meaning of the Prologue completely by speaking punctuation in the wrong places.
Minding=Intending
Stand upon=Be concerned with
Points=Punctuation
Compleat:
Minded=Gezind, betracht
To stand upon punctilio’s=Op vodderyen staan blyven
To point=Met punten of stippen onderscheyden, punteeren

Topics: offence, language

If you have any pity, grace, or manners, you would not make me such an argument

DUTCH:
Wist gij wat goed, wat zacht is, wat betaamt,
Dan hadt gij zulk een schande mij bespaard.

Topics: understanding, communication

If you were civil and knew courtesy, you would not do me thus much injury

PLAY: A Midsummer Night’s Dream
ACT/SCENE: 3.2
SPEAKER: Helena
CONTEXT:
HELENA
O spite! O hell! I see you all are bent
To set against me for your merriment.
If you were civil and knew courtesy,
You would not do me thus much injury.
Can you not hate me, as I know you do,
But you must join in souls to mock me too?
If you were men, as men you are in show,
You would not use a gentle lady so
To vow, and swear, and superpraise my parts,
When I am sure you hate me with your hearts.
You both are rivals, and love Hermia,
And now both rivals to mock Helena—
A trim exploit, a manly enterprise,
To conjure tears up in a poor maid’s eyes
With your derision! None of noble sort
Would so offend a virgin, and extort
A poor soul’s patience, all to make you sport.

DUTCH:
O hel! Ik zie, u allen is ‘t genot,
Als gij mij overladen kunt met spot!
Wist gij, wat edel en wat passend is,
Gij zocht geen vreugd in mijne droefenis.

MORE:
Bent=(1) Disposed; (2) Straining
Merriment=Entertainment
Join in souls=Unite
Superpraise=Overpraise
Parts=Qualities
Trim=Impressive
Sort=Status
Derision=Mockery
Extort=Torture
Compleat:
Bent=Buiging, neiging
Merriment=Vreugd, vrolykheid, kortswyl
Parts=Deelen, hoedaanigheden, begaafdheden
Trim=Net, opgeschikt, puntig
Derision=Uitlaching, belaching, bespotting
Extort=Afpersen, afdwingen, afknevelen, ontwringen

Topics: civility

In maiden meditation, fancy-free

PLAY: A Midsummer Night’s Dream
ACT/SCENE: 2.1
SPEAKER: Oberon
CONTEXT:
OBERON
That very time I saw (but thou couldst not)
Flying between the cold moon and the Earth,
Cupid all armed. A certain aim he took
At a fair vestal thronèd by the west,
And loosed his love shaft smartly from his bow
As it should pierce a hundred thousand hearts.
But I might see young Cupid’s fiery shaft
Quenched in the chaste beams of the watery moon,
And the imperial votaress passèd on,
In maiden meditation, fancy-free.
Yet marked I where the bolt of Cupid fell.
It fell upon a little western flower,
Before milk-white, now purple with love’s wound.
And maidens call it “love-in-idleness.”
Fetch me that flower. The herb I showed thee once.
The juice of it on sleeping eyelids laid
Will make or man or woman madly dote
Upon the next live creature that it sees.
Fetch me this herb, and be thou here again
Ere the leviathan can swim a league.

DUTCH:
De hooge kluiz’naresse ging haar weg,
In maagdlijke overdenking, ongedeerd.

MORE:
Certain=Sure aim
Vestal=Virgin
Imperial=Majestic
Bolt=Arrow
Love-in-idleness=Pansy
Or man or woman=Either man or woman
Leviathan=Biblical sea monster
Compleat:
To take one’s aim well=Zynen slag wis neemen
Vestal=eene Vestaal, eertyds by de aaloude Romeynen een Nonne van de Godinne Vesta
Bolt=een Grendel, bout
He has shot his holt=Hy heeft zynen slag gedaan

Burgersdijk notes:
Op een Vestale. Onder de Vestale versta men eenvoudig de Maangodin, die zich in het westen, dat is naar den kant van Engeland toe, aan den heuvel vertoonde, niet Koningin Elizabeth, zooals men dikwijls gewild heeft. Het bloempjen, door Cupido’s pijl geraakt, „Liefde uit lediggang” heet in ‘t Engelsch Love-in-idleness; dit is een der volksnamen van het driekleurig viooltjen.

Topics: love, fate/destiny, nature

Jack shall have Jill, nought shall go ill

DUTCH:
Als ge ontwaakt, want, ziet!
Hans krijgt zijn Griet.

MORE:
Proverb: Let every man have his own
Proverb: All is well and the man has his mare again
Proverb: All shall be well and Jack shall have his Jill

Topics: proverbs and idioms, fate/destiny

Leave it to his discretion, and let us listen to the moon

PLAY: A Midsummer Night’s Dream
ACT/SCENE: 5.1
SPEAKER: Theseus
CONTEXT:
THESEUS
A very gentle beast, of a good conscience.
DEMETRIUS
A very best at a beast, my lord, that e’er I saw.
LYSANDER
This lion is a very fox for his valour.
THESEUS
True. And a goose for his discretion.
DEMETRIUS
Not so, my lord. For his valour cannot carry his
discretion, and the fox carries the goose.
THESEUS
His discretion, I am sure, cannot carry his valour, for
the goose carries not the fox. It is well. Leave it to
his discretion, and let us listen to the moon.

DUTCH:
En ik ben overtuigd, dat zijn verstand zijn dapperheid
niet meêsleept, want de gans loopt niet met den vos weg.
Maar komaan; wij zullen dat maar aan zijn verstand te
raden geven, en nu naar de maan luisteren.

MORE:
Goose=Symbol of foolishness
Fox=Symbol of low cunning, not courage
Compleat:
Goose-cap=Een gek, zotskap
Fox=Vos. A cunning fox=Een looze vos
To play the fox=Schalk zyn als een vos

Topics: courage, conscience, appearance

Lord, what fools these mortals be!

PLAY: A Midsummer Night’s Dream
ACT/SCENE: 3.2
SPEAKER: Puck
CONTEXT:
PUCK
Captain of our fairy band,
Helena is here at hand,
And the youth, mistook by me,
Pleading for a lover’s fee.
Shall we their fond pageant see?
Lord, what fools these mortals be!
OBERON
Stand aside. The noise they make
Will cause Demetrius to awake.
PUCK
Then will two at once woo one.
That must needs be sport alone.
And those things do best please me
That befall preposterously.

DUTCH:
God! hoe dwaas zijn toch die liên !

MORE:
Fond=Foolish
Pageant=Spectacle, show
Fee=Reward
Compleat:
Fond=Toegeeflyk, involgend, mal
Pageant=een Triomfhoog, triomfwagen; schijn
Fee=Loon

Topics: manipulation, love

Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind, and therefore is winged Cupid painted blind

PLAY: A Midsummer Night’s Dream
ACT/SCENE: 1.1
SPEAKER: Helena
CONTEXT:
HELENA
How happy some o’er other some can be!
Through Athens I am thought as fair as she.
But what of that? Demetrius thinks not so.
He will not know what all but he do know.
And as he errs, doting on Hermia’s eyes,
So I, admiring of his qualities.
Things base and vile, holding no quantity,
Love can transpose to form and dignity.
Love looks not with the eyes but with the mind.
And therefore is winged Cupid painted blind.
Nor hath Love’s mind of any judgment taste—
Wings and no eyes figure unheedy haste.
And therefore is Love said to be a child,
Because in choice he is so oft beguiled.
As waggish boys in game themselves forswear,
So the boy Love is perjured everywhere.
For ere Demetrius looked on Hermia’s eyne,
He hailed down oaths that he was only mine.
And when this hail some heat from Hermia felt,
So he dissolved, and showers of oaths did melt.
I will go tell him of fair Hermia’s flight.
Then to the wood will he tomorrow night
Pursue her. And for this intelligence
If I have thanks, it is a dear expense.
But herein mean I to enrich my pain,
To have his sight thither and back again.

DUTCH:
Zelfs aan wat leelijk en nietswaardig is,
Leent liefde schoonheid en beteekenis.
Zij ziet niet met het oog, maar met het hart,
Van daar is ze in haar oordeel vaak verward,
En daarom heet de god der liefde blind.

MORE:
Happy=Lucky
Other some=Some others
Any judgement=Any rationality
Quantity=Proportion
Waggish=Playful
Eyne=Eyes
Compleat:
Judgement=Gevoelen, verstand
Quantity=Hoegrootheyd, grootheyd
Waggish=Potsachtig

Topics: love, fate/destiny, reason

Lysander riddles very prettily

PLAY: A Midsummer Night’s Dream
ACT/SCENE: 2.2
SPEAKER: Hermia
CONTEXT:
HERMIA
Lysander riddles very prettily.
Now much beshrew my manners and my pride
If Hermia meant to say Lysander lied.
But, gentle friend, for love and courtesy
Lie further off in human modesty.
Such separation as may well be said
Becomes a virtuous bachelor and a maid.
So far be distant. And, good night, sweet friend.
Thy love ne’er alter till thy sweet life end!

DUTCH:
Gij haalt er dat „vertrouwen” aardig bij; —
Geloof toch, ‘t was geen wantrouwen of vrees,
Dat ik u maar wat verder ginds verwees.

MORE:
Riddles very prettily=Is skilful with language
Beshrew=Curse
Compleat:
Riddle=een Raadsel
Beshrew=Bekyven, vervloeken

Topics: language, pride, love

Never anything can be amiss when simpleness and duty tender it

PLAY: A Midsummer Night’s Dream
ACT/SCENE: 5.1
SPEAKER: Theseus
CONTEXT:
PHILOSTRATE
Hard-handed men that work in Athens here,
Which never laboured in their minds till now,
And now have toiled their unbreathed memories
With this same play against your nuptial.
THESEUS
And we will hear it.
PHILOSTRATE
No, my noble lord.
It is not for you. I have heard it over,
And it is nothing, nothing in the world—
Unless you can find sport in their intents,
Extremely stretched and conned with cru ‘l pain
To do you service.
THESEUS
I will hear that play.
For never anything can be amiss
When simpleness and duty tender it.
Go, bring them in. And take your places, ladies.
HIPPOLYTA
I love not to see wretchedness o’ercharged
And duty in his service perishing.

DUTCH:
Want nooit is iets verkeerd of ongepast,
Wat eenvoud in oprechten ijver biedt.

MORE:
Hard-handed=”Mechanic” hands use for manual work; horny-handed sons of toil
Unbreathed=Unexercised (brains)
Against=In preparation for
Conned=Memorised
Simpleness=Innocence
Wretchedness=Low class or untalented
O’ercharged=Overwhelmed
Perishing=Failing
Compleat:
Mechanick=handwerkman
To conn=Zyne lesse kennen, of van buiten leeren
Simpleness=Eenvoudigheyd
Wretchedness=Elendigheyd, heylloosheyd, oneugendheyd
To perish=Vergaan, sneuvelen, verlooren gaan

Topics: intellect, work, negligence

Never did I hear such gallant chiding

PLAY: A Midsummer Night’s Dream
ACT/SCENE: 4.1
SPEAKER: Hippolyta
CONTEXT:
HIPPOLYTA
I was with Hercules and Cadmus once,
When in a wood of Crete they bayed the bear
With hounds of Sparta. Never did I hear
Such gallant chiding. For, besides the groves,
The skies, the fountains, every region near
Seemed all one mutual cry. I never heard
So musical a discord, such sweet thunder.
THESEUS
My hounds are bred out of the Spartan kind,
So flewed, so sanded, and their heads are hung
With ears that sweep away the morning dew,
Crook-kneed, and dew-lapped like Thessalian bulls,
Slow in pursuit, but matched in mouth like bells,
Each under each. A cry more tunable
Was never hollaed to, nor cheered with horn,
In Crete, in Sparta, nor in Thessaly.
Judge when you hear.
But, soft! What nymphs are these?

DUTCH:
Ik was met Hercules en Cadmus eens,
Die met Spartaansche honden op een beer
In Greta’s bosschen jaagden; ‘k hoorde nooit
Een schooner jachtrumoer;

MORE:
Bayed=Brought to bay (surrounded)
Chiding=Barking
Flewed=With heavy jowls
Sanded=Sand-coloured
Dewlapped=With folds of skin around the neck
Tunable=Tuneful
Cheered=Encouraged
Compleat:
To hold at bay=Door ‘t blaffen verschrikken, in den loop sluyten, op een zekere afstand houden, in twyfel houden
To chide=Kyven, bekyven
The dew-lap of an ox=De quab die den ossen onder aan den keel hangt, de kossem
To chear up=Moed in spreken, moed scheppen

Topics: courage, conflict

No epilogue, I pray you; for your play needs no excuse

PLAY: A Midsummer Night’s Dream
ACT/SCENE: 5.1
SPEAKER: Theseus
CONTEXT:
BOTTOM
No, I assure you. The wall is down
that parted their fathers. Will it please you to see the
epilogue, or to hear a Bergomask dance between two of
our company?
THESEUS
No epilogue, I pray you, for your play needs no excuse.
Never excuse—for when the players are all dead, there
needs none to be blamed. Marry, if he that writ it had
played Pyramus and hanged himself in Thisbe’s garter, it
would have been a fine tragedy. And so it is, truly,
and very notably discharged. But come, your Bergomask.
Let your epilogue alone.
The iron tongue of midnight hath told twelve.
Lovers, to bed. ‘Tis almost fairy time.
I fear we shall outsleep the coming morn
As much as we this night have overwatched.
This palpable-gross play hath well beguiled
The heavy gait of night. Sweet friends, to bed. A
fortnight hold we this solemnity,
In nightly revels and new jollity.

DUTCH:
Geen epiloog, verzoek ik u, want uw stuk heeft geen
verontschuldiging noodig

MORE:
Bergomask dance=Dance named after Bergamo, Italy
Told=Struck, tolled
Overwatched=Stayed awake too late
Palpable-gross=Crude
Foredone=Exhausted
Compleat:
Told=Geteld
Palpable=Tastelyk, tastbaar
Gross=Grof, plomp, onbehouwen
Fore-do=Benaadeelen

Burgersdijk notes:
Zelf bedachten dans, Met een dans eindigden de tusschenspelen vaak. In het oorspronkelijke staat Bergomaskerdans, naar Bergamo zoo genoemd. De landlieden uit den omtrek dier stad waren bekend om hunne lompe manieren en speelden bij grof boertige vertooningen nog al eens een rol; in de geschiedenis van den Italiaanschen Arlequino is Bergamo van belang. Een Bergomasker-dans is dus een Hansworstendans.

Topics: justification, honesty, time

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

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

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

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

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

Reason becomes the marshal to my will

PLAY: A Midsummer Night’s Dream
ACT/SCENE: 2.2
SPEAKER: Lysander
CONTEXT:
HELENA
Do not say so, Lysander. Say not so.
What though he love your Hermia? Lord, what though?
Yet Hermia still loves you. Then be content.
LYSANDER
Content with Hermia? No. I do repent
The tedious minutes I with her have spent.
Not Hermia but Helena I love.
Who will not change a raven for a dove?
The will of man is by his reason swayed,
And reason says you are the worthier maid.
Things growing are not ripe until their season.
So I, being young, till now ripe not to reason.
And touching now the point of human skill,
Reason becomes the marshal to my will
And leads me to your eyes, where I o’erlook
Love’s stories written in love’s richest book.

DUTCH:
En heb ik ‘t oordeel nu van onderscheid,
Dan zij ‘t de rede, die mijn keus geleid’;
Die laat mij nu der liefde doen en wezen
In gouden lett’ren uit uw oogen lezen.,

MORE:
What though=What does it matter
Will=Desire
Ripe not=Don’t ripen
Point=Height (of human skill)
Marshal=Officer at arms; officer who established rank at ceremonies
O’erlook=Glance over, read; look over
Reason=Sense of judgement
Compleat:
Will=Wille
Marshal=een Marschalk

Burgersdijk notes:
In gouden lett’ren. Love’s stories, written in love’s richest book. Zooals hier Helena, wordt in Romeo en Julia Graaf Paris met een kostelijk boek vergeleken.

Topics: regret, love, rivalry, nature, reason

Sleep, that sometimes shuts up sorrow’s eye, steal me awhile from mine own company

PLAY: A Midsummer Night’s Dream
ACT/SCENE: 3.2
SPEAKER: Helena
CONTEXT:
HELENA
O weary night, O long and tedious night,
Abate thy hours. Shine comforts from the east,
That I may back to Athens by daylight
From these that my poor company detest.
And sleep, that sometimes shuts up sorrow’s eye,
Steal me awhile from mine own company.
PUCK
Yet but three? Come one more.
Two of both kinds make up four.
Here she comes, cursed and sad.
Cupid is a knavish lad
Thus to make poor females mad.

DUTCH:
O lange, trage nacht, versnel uw gang;
O dag, breng uit het oost mij troost; ik smacht
Dat gij mij huiswaarts leidt; mij is zeer bang,
Want ik ben hier zoo eenzaam en veracht;
Gij slaap, die somtijds de oogen sluit van ‘t leed,
Kom, troost me een wijl, dat ik mij zelf vergeet!§

MORE:
Abate=Shorten
Shuts sorrow’s eye=Provides an escape from worry
Compleat:
To abate=Afkorten, afslaan, afneemen, slechten
Sorrow=Droefheyd

Topics: emotion and mood, sorrow

So quick bright things come to confusion

PLAY: A Midsummer Night’s Dream
ACT/SCENE: 1.1
SPEAKER: Lysander
CONTEXT:
LYSANDER
Or, if there were a sympathy in choice,
War, death, or sickness did lay siege to it,
Making it momentary as a sound,
Swift as a shadow, short as any dream,
Brief as the lightning in the collied night;
That, in a spleen, unfolds both heaven and Earth,
And ere a man hath power to say “Behold!”
The jaws of darkness do devour it up.
So quick bright things come to confusion.

DUTCH:
Of, was ook ziel met ziel aaneengesmeed,
Dan heeft haar ziekte, krijg of dood belaagd,
Voorbijgaand, vluchtig als een klank gemaakt,
Kort als een droombeeld, ijdel als een schim,
Snel als het weerlicht in koolzwarte nacht

MORE:
Proverb: As swift as lightning

Collied=Coal black
Sympathy=Equality
Spleen=Fit of rage
Quick=Lively, alive
Confusion=Ruin
Compleat:
To colly=Zwart maaken, besmodderen
Collyed=Zwart gemaakt, besmodderd
Sympathy=Onderlinge trek
Spreen=Wrok
Quick=Leevendig, snel, rad, dra, scherp
Bate=Verminderen, afkorten, afslaan
Confusion (ruin)=Verwoesting, bederf, ruine

Topics: proverbs and idioms, equality, still in use, fate/destiny, ruin

Such tricks hath strong imagination

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

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

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

Take pains. Be perfect.

PLAY: A Midsummer Night’s Dream
ACT/SCENE: 1.2
SPEAKER: Bottom
CONTEXT:
QUINCE
Some of your French crowns have no hair at all, and
then you will play barefaced. But masters, here are your
parts. And I am to entreat you, request you, and desire
you to con them by tomorrow night and meet me in the
palace wood, a mile without the town, by moonlight.
There will we rehearse, for if we meet in the city we
shall be dogged with company, and our devices known. In
the meantime I will draw a bill of properties such as
our play wants. I pray you, fail me not.
BOTTOM
We will meet, and there we may rehearse most obscenely
and courageously. Take pains. Be perfect. Adieu.
QUINCE
At the duke’s oak we meet.

DUTCH:
We zullen maken dat we er zijn, en daar kunnen wij
in ‘t geniep en vrijmoedig onze rippetitie houden. Doet
je best maar en kent de boel! Atje!

MORE:
Obscene=Bottom possibly means “seemly” or “unseen” but not obscene
Perfect=Word perfect
Hold or cut bowstirngs=Be steadfast or disgraced

Some suggest that “Hold or cut bowstrings” is an allusion to the destruction by militia soldiers of bow strings as an excuse for not keeping their word (i.e. their arms were unserviceable). In other words, that this means that an appointment must be kept.
It could also refer to destruction by soldiers of their weapons as they retreated to prevent them from being used by the enemy. Another suggested origin is the bowstring the fiddlers bow, not that of a soldier or an archer.

Topics: preparation, learning/education

Tedious and brief? That is hot ice and wondrous strange snow.

PLAY: A Midsummer Night’s Dream
ACT/SCENE: 5.1
SPEAKER: Theseus
CONTEXT:
THESEUS
[Reads]“The battle with the Centaurs, to be sung
By an Athenian eunuch to the harp.”
We’ll none of that. That have I told my love,
In glory of my kinsman Hercules.
“The riot of the tipsy Bacchanals,
Tearing the Thracian singer in their rage.”
That is an old device, and it was played
When I from Thebes came last a conqueror.
“The thrice three Muses mourning for the death
Of learning, late deceased in beggary.”
That is some satire, keen and critical,
Not sorting with a nuptial ceremony.
“A tedious brief scene of young Pyramus
And his love Thisbe. Very tragical mirth.”
“Merry” and “tragical?” “Tedious” and “brief?”
That is hot ice and wondrous strange snow.
How shall we find the concord of this discord?

DUTCH:
Een treurspel en een klucht? kort en gerekt?
Dat klinkt als gloeiend ijs en heete sneeuw.
Wie wijst mij de eenheid van die tweeheid aan?

MORE:
Proverb: He that lives with the muses shall die in the straw (Learning ever dies in beggary)

The riot of the tipsy Bacchanals=The murder of Orpheus
Device=Show
Thrice-three=Nine
Sorting with=Befitting
Compleat:
Bacchanals=’t Feest van Bacchus, een slempfeest
Tipsy=Verbuysd

Burgersdijk notes:
Hercules. Hercules was zelf de held in den strijd met de Kentauren. — De zanger van Thracië is Orpheus. Men heeft vermoed, dat De negen Muzen enz. zou doelen op een gedicht van Spenser, The Teares of the Muses (1591), waarin de Muzen achtereenvolgens optreden om over het verval en de geringschatting van kunsten en wetenschappen te klagen. Ht gedicht is echter elegisch en niet een streng bijtende satyre.

Topics: proverbs and idioms, language, clarity/precision, learning/education

That is some satire, keen and critical

PLAY: A Midsummer Night’s Dream
ACT/SCENE: 5.1
SPEAKER: Theseus
CONTEXT:
THESEUS
“The battle with the Centaurs, to be sung
By an Athenian eunuch to the harp.”
We’ll none of that. That have I told my love,
In glory of my kinsman Hercules.
“The riot of the tipsy Bacchanals,
Tearing the Thracian singer in their rage.”
That is an old device, and it was played
When I from Thebes came last a conqueror.
“The thrice three Muses mourning for the death
Of learning, late deceased in beggary.”
That is some satire, keen and critical,
Not sorting with a nuptial ceremony.
“A tedious brief scene of young Pyramus
And his love Thisbe. Very tragical mirth.”
“Merry” and “tragical?” “Tedious” and “brief?”
That is hot ice and wondrous strange snow.
How shall we find the concord of this discord?

DUTCH:
Dat is een strenge, bijtende satyre,
Volstrekt niet passend op een bruiloftsfeest.

MORE:
Proverb: He that lives with the muses shall die in the straw (Learning ever dies in beggary)

The riot of the tipsy Bacchanals=The murder of Orpheus
Device=Show
Thrice-three=Nine
Sorting with=Befitting
Compleat:
Bacchanals=’t Feest van Bacchus, een slempfeest
Tipsy=Verbuysd

Topics: proverbs and idioms, language, clarity/precision, learning/education

That will ask some tears in the true performing of it

DUTCH:
Dat zal een traan of ettelijk kosten, als het natuurlijk
gespeeld wordt. Als ik het doe, laten de toeschouwers
dan hun zakdoeken klaar houden;

Topics: grief, persuasion, manipulation

The course of true love never did run smooth

PLAY: A Midsummer Night’s Dream
ACT/SCENE: 1.1
SPEAKER: Lysander
CONTEXT:
LYSANDER
How now, my love? Why is your cheek so pale?
How chance the roses there do fade so fast?
HERMIA
Belike for want of rain, which I could well
Beteem them from the tempest of my eyes.
LYSANDER
Ay me! For aught that I could ever read,
Could ever hear by tale or history,
The course of true love never did run smooth.
But either it was different in blood—

DUTCH:
Wee mij; naar alles wat ik las en ooit
Uit sagen of geschiedenis vernam,
Vloot nooit de stroom van ware liefde zacht;
Nu was zij te verschillend door geboort’.

MORE:
Proverb: The course of true love never did run smooth

Belike=Probably
Beteem=Grant, afford
Tempest=Flood of tears
Blood=Birthright
Compleat:
Tempest=Omweer, storm

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

The dove pursues the griffin

PLAY: A Midsummer Night’s Dream
ACT/SCENE: 2.1
SPEAKER: Helena
CONTEXT:
DEMETRIUS
I’ll run from thee and hide me in the brakes,
And leave thee to the mercy of wild beasts.
HELENA
The wildest hath not such a heart as you.
Run when you will, the story shall be changed.
Apollo flies and Daphne holds the chase.
The dove pursues the griffin. The mild hind
Makes speed to catch the tiger —bootless speed,
When cowardice pursues and valour flies.
DEMETRIUS
I will not stay thy questions. Let me go.
Or if thou follow me, do not believe
But I shall do thee mischief in the wood.

DUTCH:
Apollo vlucht en Daphne jaagt hem na;
De duif vervolgt den valk.

MORE:
Brakes=Thickets
The story=That Daphne was changed into a laurel tree to escape from Apollo
Hind=Doe
Bootless=Pointless
Compleat:
Brake=een Plaats daar Vaaren groeit
Hind=Hinde
Bootless=Te vergeefs, vruchteloos

Topics: nature, fashion/trends

The more my prayer, the lesser is my grace

PLAY: A Midsummer Night’s Dream
ACT/SCENE: 2.2
SPEAKER: Helena
CONTEXT:
HELENA
Oh, I am out of breath in this fond chase.
The more my prayer, the lesser is my grace.
Happy is Hermia, wheresoe’er she lies,
For she hath blessèd and attractive eyes.
How came her eyes so bright? Not with salt tears.
If so, my eyes are oftener washed than hers.
No, no, I am as ugly as a bear,
For beasts that meet me run away for fear.
Therefore no marvel though Demetrius
Do, as a monster, fly my presence thus.
What wicked and dissembling glass of mine
Made me compare with Hermia’s sphery eyne?

DUTCH:
O ademloos maakt mij deze ijdle jacht!
Hoe meer ik smeek, hoe meer hij mij veracht.

MORE:
Fond=Foolish
Grace=Prayers answered
No marvel=No surprise
Eyne=Eyes
Compleat:
Fond=Toegeeflyk, involgend, mal
Grace of God=de Genade Gods
To grace=Vercieren, bevallig maaken
Graced=Begaafd
I marvel nothing at this=Ik verwonder my niet hierover

Topics: fate/destiny, appearance, nature

The quaint mazes in the wanton green for lack of tread are undistinguishable

DUTCH:
(…) lente, zomer,
De gulle herfst, de stuursche winter ruilden
Van kleed; de wereld, gansch verbijsterd, kent
Hen, zelfs aan bloem en vrucht, niet uit elkaar;
En heel deez’ sleep van plagen komt alleen
Van onze oneenigheid, van onzen twist;
Wij hebben dien verwekt, dien voortgebracht.

Topics: suspicion, truth, time, nature

The will of man is by his reason swayed

DUTCH:
Wie kiest een kraai, als hem een duif verschijnt?
De rede sture steeds den wil des mans;
De rede zegt mij: u behoort de krans.

Burgersdijk notes:
In gouden lett’ren. Love’s stories, written in love’s richest book. Zooals hier Helena, wordt in Romeo en Julia Graaf Paris met een kostelijk boek vergeleken.

Topics: regret, love, rivalry, nature, reason

Their sense thus weak, lost with their fears thus strong, made senseless things begin to do them wrong

PLAY: A Midsummer Night’s Dream
ACT/SCENE: 3.2
SPEAKER: Puck
CONTEXT:
PUCK
My mistress with a monster is in love.
Near to her close and consecrated bower,
While she was in her dull and sleeping hour,
A crew of patches, rude mechanicals
That work for bread upon Athenian stalls,
Were met together to rehearse a play
Intended for great Theseus’ nuptial day.
The shallowest thick-skin of that barren sort,
Who Pyramus presented in their sport,
Forsook his scene and entered in a brake,
When I did him at this advantage take,
An ass’s nole I fixèd on his head.
Anon his Thisbe must be answerèd,
And forth my mimic comes. When they him spy,
As wild geese that the creeping fowler eye,
Or russet-pated choughs, many in sort,
Rising and cawing at the gun’s report,
Sever themselves and madly sweep the sky,
So at his sight away his fellows fly;
And, at our stamp, here o’er and o’er one falls.
He “Murder!” cries and help from Athens calls.
Their sense thus weak, lost with their fears thus strong,
Made senseless things begin to do them wrong.
For briers and thorns at their apparel snatch,
Some sleeves, some hats—from yielders all things catch.
I led them on in this distracted fear
And left sweet Pyramus translated there.
When in that moment so it came to pass,
Titania waked and straightway loved an ass.

DUTCH:
Hun ziel, zoo zwak, gaf, gansch verbijsterd, toen
Zielloozen dingen kracht hun leed te doen;
Deez’ neemt een struik de mouw, aan dien den hoed
Zij vlieden door, half naakt, met duhb’len spoed;

MORE:
Close=Secret
Consecrated=Sacred
Dull=Drowsy
Patch=Clown
Rude=Ignorant
Mechanicals=Labourers
Thick-skin=Blockhead
Barren sort=Witless troupe
Present=Act
Nole=Head
Anon=Shortly
Mimic=Clumsy actor
Fowler=Bird hunter
Russet-pated=Grey-headed
In sort=As a group
Sever=Break away
Translated=Transformed
Yielders=The weak
Compleat:
Close=Besloten
Consecrate=Heiligen, wyen, toewyen
Dull=Lui, traag; lomp, ongevoelig
Rude=Ruuw. Rudely (or coarsly)=Groffelyk
Mechanick=Handwerkman
Anon=Daadelyk, straks, aanstonds
Mimick=Een nabootser
Mimical=Potsachtig, guyghelachtig
Fowler=Vogelaar
To sever=Affscheyden, afzonderen
To translate=Overzetten, vertaalen, overvoeren, verplaatsen
Yielding=Overgeeving, toegeeving, uitlevering; overgeevende, toegeeflyk, meegeeflyk

Topics: love, courage

These things seem small and undistinguishable, like far-off mountains turned into clouds

DUTCH:
t Is alles ver en klein, onkenbaar flauw,
Als verre bergen, door een wolk omhuld.

MORE:
Parted eye=Eyes out of focus
Mine own and not mine own=Mine because I have found it, finder’s keepers

Topics: perception, imagination

Things base and vile, holding no quantity, love can transpose to form and dignity

Topics: love, fate/destiny, reason

Things growing are not ripe until their season

PLAY: A Midsummer Night’s Dream
ACT/SCENE: 2.2
SPEAKER: Lysander
CONTEXT:
LYSANDER
Content with Hermia? No. I do repent
The tedious minutes I with her have spent.
Not Hermia but Helena I love.
Who will not change a raven for a dove?
The will of man is by his reason swayed,
And reason says you are the worthier maid.
Things growing are not ripe until their season.
So I, being young, till now ripe not to reason.
And touching now the point of human skill,
Reason becomes the marshal to my will
And leads me to your eyes, where I o’erlook
Love’s stories written in love’s richest book.

DUTCH:
Wat groeit, bereikt zijn rijpheid schreê voor schrede
Mijn jeugd eerst nu de rijpheid van de rede.

Burgersdijk notes:
In gouden lett’ren. Love’s stories, written in love’s richest book. Zooals hier Helena, wordt in Romeo en Julia Graaf Paris met een kostelijk boek vergeleken.

Topics: regret, love, rivalry, nature, reason

This fellow doth not stand upon points.

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

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

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

Topics: language, offence, life, truth, honesty

This is the silliest stuff that ever I heard

PLAY: A Midsummer Night’s Dream
ACT/SCENE: 5.1
SPEAKER: Theseus
CONTEXT:
DEMETRIUS
No remedy, my lord, when walls are so wilful to hear
without warning.
HIPPOLYTA
This is the silliest stuff that ever I heard.
THESEUS
The best in this kind are but shadows, and the worst
are no worse if imagination amend them.
HIPPOLYTA
It must be your imagination then, and not theirs.
THESEUS
If we imagine no worse of them than they of themselves,
they may pass for excellent men. Here come two noble
beasts in, a man and a lion.

DUTCH:
Dit is wel het onzinnigste ding, dat ik ooit gehoord heb.

MORE:
Proverb: Walls (hedges) have ears (eyes)

Shadows=Without substance, illusions
Compleat:
Shadow=een Schaduw, schim

Topics: proverbs and idioms, communication, language

This is to make an ass of me, to fright me, if they could

PLAY: A Midsummer Night’s Dream
ACT/SCENE: 3.1
SPEAKER: Bottom
CONTEXT:
BOTTOM
I see their knavery: this is to make an ass of me, to
fright me if they could. But I will not stir from this
place, do what they can. I will walk up and down here
and I will sing, that they shall hear I am not afraid.
The ouzel cock, so black of hue
With orange-tawny bill,
The throstlewith his note so true,
The wren with little quill—
TITANIA
[Waking] What angel wakes me from my flowery bed?
BOTTOM
[Sings]The finch, the sparrow, and the lark,
The plainsong cuckoo grey,
Whose note full many a man doth mark
And dares not answer “Nay”—
For indeed, who would set his wit to so foolish a bird?
Who would give a bird the lie, though he cry “cuckoo”
never so?

DUTCH:
Ik ruik hun schelmerij; ze zouden een ezel van me
willen maken; me schrik willen aanjagen, als ze maar
konden.

MORE:
Proverb: Do not set your wit against a fool’s (a child)

Pun on ass=animal or burden and ass=dolt
A current saying it still ‘to make an ass (fool) of oneself’.
Ouzel or ousel cock=Blackbird
Throstle=Thrush
Quill=Reed pipe
Set wit to=Argue with
Give the lie=Call a liar
Compleat:
Owzel=een Meerl
Ass=Ezel. Een ezelachtig domheid=Dullness, great ignorance
He talks like an ass=Hy praat als een gek
Quill=een Schaft, pen
To give the lie=Loogenstraffen

Burgersdijk notes:
De koekoek, met dat woord. De woordspeling van cuckoo en cuckold, horendrager, komt bij Sh. meermalen voor.

Topics: proverbs and idioms, dignity, nature, deceit

Thou coward, art thou bragging to the stars?

PLAY: A Midsummer Night’s Dream
ACT/SCENE: 3.2
SPEAKER: Demetrius
CONTEXT:
DEMETRIUS
Lysander, speak again!
Thou runaway, thou coward, art thou fled?
Speak! In some bush? Where dost thou hide thy head?
PUCK
Thou coward, art thou bragging to the stars,
Telling the bushes that thou look’st for wars,
And wilt not come? Come, recreant. Come, thou child!
I’ll whip thee with a rod. He is defiled
That draws a sword on thee.
DEMETRIUS
Yea, art thou there?
PUCK
Follow my voice. We’ll try no manhood here.
LYSANDER
He goes before me and still dares me on.
When I come where he calls, then he is gone.
The villain is much lighter-heeled than I.
I followed fast, but faster he did fly,
That fallen am I in dark uneven way,
And here will rest me.
Come, thou gentle day!
For if but once thou show me thy grey light,
I’ll find Demetrius and revenge this spite.

DUTCH:
Gij bloodaard! snoeft gij tegen ‘t zwerk en pocht
Gij tegen ‘tbosch, dat ge, o zoo gaarne! vocht,
En komt gij niet?

MORE:
Recreant=Wretch, coward
Try=Test
Lighter-heeled=Faster at running
Defile=Pollute, sully
Compleat:
Recreant=Een die zyn woord in zyn hals haalt, een laf hartige
To try=Beproeven
To betake himself to his heels=Het op ‘t loopen zetten; ‘t haazenpad kiezen
To defile=Besmetten, bevlekken, verontreynigen, door een engte trekken

Topics: courage, conflict

Thou runn’st before me, shifting every place, and darest not stand nor look me in the face

PLAY: A Midsummer Night’s Dream
ACT/SCENE: 3.2
SPEAKER: Demetrius
CONTEXT:
PUCK
Ho, ho, ho! Coward, why comest thou not?
DEMETRIUS
Abide me, if thou darest! For well I wot
Thou runn’st before me, shifting every place,
And darest not stand nor look me in the face.
Where art thou now?
PUCK
Come hither. I am here.
DEMETRIUS
Nay, then, thou mock’st me. Thou shalt buy this dear
If ever I thy face by daylight see.
Now go thy way. Faintness constraineth me
To measure out my length on this cold bed.
By day’s approach look to be visited.
[Lies down and sleeps]

DUTCH:
Kom hier dan, als gij durft; maar ‘k weet, gij biedt
Mij geen gelegenheid, wacht mij niet af,
Maar loopt nu hier, dan daar, en ducht uw straf.
Waar zijt ge?

MORE:
Abide=Wait for
Wot=Know
Buy dear=Pay dearly for
Faintness=Tiredness
Constraineth=Forces
Compleat:
Abide=Blyven, harden, duuren, uytstaan
I wot=Ik weet
It cost me very dear=Het staat myn zeer dier
Faintness=Flaauwheyd, moeheyd
To constrain=Bedwingen, beteugelen, dringen, praamen

Topics: dispute, courage

Thou Wall, O Wall, O sweet and lovely Wall, show me thy chink to blink through with mine eyne!

PLAY: A Midsummer Night’s Dream
ACT/SCENE: 5.1
SPEAKER: Pyramus
CONTEXT:
THESEUS
Would you desire lime and hair to speak better?
DEMETRIUS
It is the wittiest partition that ever I heard
discourse, my lord.
THESEUS
Pyramus draws near the wall. Silence!
PYRAMUS
O grim-looked night! O night with hue so black!
O night, which ever art when day is not!
O night, O night! Alack, alack, alack,
I fear my Thisbe’s promise is forgot!
And thou, O Wall, O sweet, O lovely Wall,
That stand’st between her father’s ground and mine.
Thou Wall, O Wall, O sweet and lovely Wall,
Show me thy chink to blink through with mine eyne!
Thanks, courteous Wall. Jove shield thee well for this!
But what see I? No Thisbe do I see.
O wicked Wall through whom I see no bliss!
Cursed be thy stones for thus deceiving me!
THESEUS
The wall, methinks, being sensible, should curse again.

DUTCH:
En gij, o Muur, o lieve, beste Muur!
Die ‘t huis haars vaders en het mijne scheidt,
Gij Muur, o Muur, o lieve, beste Muur,
Toon mij uw spleet, waar ik mijn blik door weid’.

MORE:
Lime and hair=Used to build walls
Discourse=Converse
Grim-looked=Grim-looking
Wittiest=Cleverest
Sensible=Capable of feeling, conscious
Curse again=Retort, curse back
Compleat:
Discourse=Redeneering, reedenvoering, gesprek, vertoog
Grim=Grimmig, bars, nors, stuursch
Sensible=Gevoelig, voelbaar

Topics: communication, language, intellect

Though she be but little, she is fierce

PLAY: A Midsummer Night’s Dream
ACT/SCENE: 3.2
SPEAKER: Helena
CONTEXT:
LYSANDER
Be not afraid. She shall not harm thee, Helena.
DEMETRIUS
No, sir, she shall not, though you take her part.
HELENA
Oh, when she’s angry, she is keen and shrewd!
She was a vixen when she went to school.
And though she be but little, she is fierce.
HERMIA
“Little” again? Nothing but “low” and “little”!
Why will you suffer her to flout me thus?
Let me come to her.
Get you gone, you dwarf,
You minimus of hind’ring knotgrass made,
You bead, you acorn

DUTCH:
O, in haar toorn is zij zoo valsch en fel!
Reeds toen ze school ging, was zij al een feeks,
En ze is een echte draak, zoo min als ze is.

MORE:
Keen=Sharp
Flout=Mock
Compleat:
Keen=Scherp, bits, doordringend
Shrewd=Loos, doortrapt, sneedig, vinnig, fel
To flout=Bespotten, beschimpen

Burgersdijk notes:
Gij peuzel, gij onuitgegroeide kriel.
Het Engelsch heeft: You minimus, of hindering knotgrass made.
Knotgrass is een soort van Polygonum of Duizendknoop, namelijk
het Kreupelgras of Polygonum aviculare; van het afkooksel werd
geloofd, dat het den groei van een mensch of dier tegenhield.

Topics: intellect, anger

Throttle their practiced accent in their fears

PLAY: A Midsummer Night’s Dream
ACT/SCENE: 5.1
SPEAKER: Theseus
CONTEXT:
THESEUS
The kinder we, to give them thanks for nothing.
Our sport shall be to take what they mistake,
And what poor duty cannot do, noble respect
Takes it in might, not merit.
Where I have come, great clerks have purposèd
To greet me with premeditated welcomes,
Where I have seen them shiver and look pale,
Make periods in the midst of sentences,
Throttle their practiced accent in their fears,
And in conclusion dumbly have broke off,
Not paying me a welcome. Trust me, sweet,
Out of this silence yet I picked a welcome,
And in the modesty of fearful duty
I read as much as from the rattling tongue
Of saucy and audacious eloquence.
Love, therefore, and tongue-tied simplicity
In least speak most, to my capacity.

DUTCH:
Hoe velen zag ik sidd’ren en verbleeken,
Ophouden in het midden van een zin;
Angst kneep den anders ruimen gorgel toe;
In ‘t eind verstomden zij en braken af,
En zonder welkomstgroet

MORE:
Proverb: Whom we love best to them we can say least
Proverb: To be tongue-tied
Proverb: To take the will for the deed

Respect=Consideration, generosity
Rightly=Properly
In might, not merit=In terms of quality of giving not performance
Clerk=Scholar
Practised=Rehearsed
Simplicity=Sincerity
To my capacity=In my view
Compleat:
Respect=Aanzien, opzigt, inzigt, ontzag, eerbiedigheyd
Rightly=Billyk
Might=Magt, vermoogen, kracht
Merit=Verdienste
Clerk=Klerk, schryver; sekretaris
Simplicity=Eenvoudigheyd
Capacity=Bevattelykheyd, begryp, bequaamheyd, vatbaarheyd, vermoogen

Topics: proverbs and idioms, language, appearance

To say the truth, reason and love keep little company together nowadays

PLAY: A Midsummer Night’s Dream
ACT/SCENE: 3.1
SPEAKER: Bottom
CONTEXT:
TITANIA
I pray thee, gentle mortal, sing again.
Mine ear is much enamoured of thy note.
So is mine eye enthrallèd to thy shape.
And thy fair virtue’s force perforce doth move me
On the first view to say, to swear, I love thee.
BOTTOM
Methinks, mistress, you should have little reason for
that. And yet, to say the truth, reason and love keep
little company together nowadays. The more the pity that
some honest neighbours will not make them friends. Nay,
I can gleek upon occasion.
TITANIA
Thou art as wise as thou art beautiful.

DUTCH:
Mij dunkt, jonkvrouw, dat gij daar toch wel eenige
reden voor zoudt mogen hebben; maar toch, om de
waarheid te zeggen, rede en liefde gaan tegenwoordig al
heel weinig samen om; het is daarom wel jammer, dat
eenige brave buren de moeite niet willen doen om ze
bijeen te brengen.

MORE:
Shape=Appearance
Perforce doth move me=Compels me
Fair virtue’s force=Good qualities
Gleek=Joke
Compleat:
Shape=Gestalte, gedaante, vorm
Perforce=Met geweld

Topics: appearance, love, wisdom

To you your father should be as a god

PLAY: A Midsummer Night’s Dream
ACT/SCENE: 1.1
SPEAKER: Theseus
CONTEXT:
THESEUS
What say you, Hermia? Be advised, fair maid:
To you your father should be as a god,
One that composed your beauties, yea, and one
To whom you are but as a form in wax,
By him imprinted and within his power
To leave the figure or disfigure it.
Demetrius is a worthy gentleman.
HERMIA
So is Lysander.
THESEUS
In himself he is.
But in this kind, wanting your father’s voice,
The other must be held the worthier.

DUTCH:
Wat zegt gij, Hermia? wees wijs, schoon kind;
Uw vader moet u gelden voor een god,
Die uwe schoonheid schiep;

MORE:
Proverb: Soft wax will take any impression

Be advised=Think carefully
A form in wax=The impression of a seal in wax
Voice=Consent, support
Compleat:
Advised=Geraaden, beraaden, bedacht
Voice=Stem, recht van stemmen
To wax (grow)=Worden

Topics: advice, relationship, respect, proverbs and idioms

Weigh oath with oath, and you will nothing weigh

PLAY: A Midsummer Night’s Dream
ACT/SCENE: 3.2
SPEAKER: Helena
CONTEXT:
LYSANDER
Why should you think that I should woo in scorn?
Scorn and derision never come in tears.
Look, when I vow, I weep. And vows so born,
In their nativity all truth appears.
How can these things in me seem scorn to you,
Bearing the badge of faith to prove them true?
HELENA
You do advance your cunning more and more.
When truth kills truth, O devilish holy fray!
These vows are Hermia’s. Will you give her o’er?
Weigh oath with oath, and you will nothing weigh.
Your vows to her and me, put in two scales,
Will even weigh, and both as light as tales.

DUTCH:
Uw dubbelhartigheid wordt zonneklaar;
Doodt trouwe trouwe, o booze heil’genstrijd !
Uw eed heeft Hermia; verzaakt gij haar?
‘t Weegt niets, die eeden, haar en mij gewijd;
Leg de’ eed aan haar, aan mij elk in een schaal,
Beide even licht, licht als een droomverhaal !

MORE:
In scorn=In mockery
Badge of faith=Tears
Advance=Increase
Cunning=Deceit
Truth kills truth=One truth cancels out another
Tales=Lies
Compleat:
In scorn=Spotswyze
Badge=Teken
Advance=Vordering, voortgang
Cunning=Loosheyd, listigheyd, behendigheyd
To tell tales=Verklikken, sprookjes vertellen

Topics: truth, appearance, love, promise, honesty

What abridgement have you for this evening

PLAY: A Midsummer Night’s Dream
ACT/SCENE: 5.1
SPEAKER: Theseus
CONTEXT:
THESEUS
Come now, what masques, what dances shall we have
To wear away this long age of three hours
Between our after-supper and bedtime?
Where is our usual manager of mirth?
What revels are in hand? Is there no play,
To ease the anguish of a torturing hour?
Call Philostrate.
PHILOSTRATE
Here, mighty Theseus.
THESEUS
Say, what abridgement have you for this evening?
What masque, what music? How shall we beguile
The lazy time if not with some delight?
PHILOSTRATE
There is a brief, how many sports are ripe.
Make choice of which your highness will see first.

DUTCH:
Wat tijdverdrijf biedt ge ons van avond aan?
Muziek? of maskerfeest? Hoe foppen wij
Den tragen tijd, zoo niet door vroolijkheid?

MORE:
After-supper=Dessert
Abridgement=Enterainment to pass the time
Manager of mirth=Master of the Revels, who organised entertainment
Beguile=Pass the time
Compleat:
Abridgement=Een verkortsel
Mirth=Vrolykheyd, geneugte
Beguile=Bedriegen, om den tuyn leyden

Topics: time

Wherefore was I to this keen mockery born?

PLAY: A Midsummer Night’s Dream
ACT/SCENE: 2.2
SPEAKER: Helena
CONTEXT:
HELENA
Wherefore was I to this keen mockery born?
When at your hands did I deserve this scorn?
Is ’t not enough, is ’t not enough, young man,
That I did never, no, nor never can,
Deserve a sweet look from Demetrius’ eye,
But you must flout my insufficiency?
Good troth, you do me wrong, good sooth, you do,
In such disdainful manner me to woo.
But fare you well. Perforce I must confess
I thought you lord of more true gentleness.
Oh, that a lady of one man refused
Should of another therefore be abused!

DUTCH:
Waarom verdiende ik zulk een hoon van ‘t lot,
Wanneer van u, Lysander, zulk een spot?

MORE:
Keen=Bitter, sharp
Mockery=Derision
Flout=Mock
Gentleness=Breeding, gentility
Of another=By another
Compleat:
Keen=Scherp, bits, doordringend
Mockery=Bespotting, spotterny
To flout=Bespotten, beschimpen
Gentility=Edelmanschap

Topics: civility, fate/destiny, dignity

Wherein it doth impair the seeing sense, it pays the hearing double recompense

PLAY: A Midsummer Night’s Dream
ACT/SCENE: 3.2
SPEAKER: Hermia
CONTEXT:
DEMETRIUS
Disparage not the faith thou dost not know,
Lest to thy peril thou aby it dear.
Look, where thy love comes. Yonder is thy dear.
HERMIA
Dark night, that from the eye his function takes,
The ear more quick of apprehension makes.
Wherein it doth impair the seeing sense,
It pays the hearing double recompense.
Thou art not by mine eye, Lysander, found.
Mine ear, I thank it, brought me to thy sound
But why unkindly didst thou leave me so?
LYSANDER
Why should he stay, whom love doth press to go?
HERMIA
What love could press Lysander from my side?

DUTCH:
De nacht ontneem’ zijn werking aan ‘t gezicht,
Wel dubbel goed vervult het oor zijn plicht;
En wat het zintuig van ‘t gezicht verloor,
Hergeeft de nacht verdubbeld aan ‘t gehoor;

MORE:
Disparage=Vilify, be contemptuous of
Aby=Pay for, atone for
Compleat:
Disparagement=Verachting, verkleining, kleinachting
Recompense=Vergelding, beloning

Topics: skill/talent, love, nature

With the juice of this I’ll streak her eyes and make her full of hateful fantasies

PLAY: A Midsummer Night’s Dream
ACT/SCENE: 2.1
SPEAKER: Oberon
CONTEXT:
OBERON
I pray thee, give it me.
I know a bank where the wild thyme blows,
Where oxlips and the nodding violet grows,
Quite overcanopied with luscious woodbine,
With sweet musk roses and with eglantine.
There sleeps Titania sometime of the night,
Lulled in these flowers with dances and delight.
And there the snake throws her enameled skin,
Weed wide enough to wrap a fairy in.
And with the juice of this I’ll streak her eyes
And make her full of hateful fantasies.
Take thou some of it and seek through this grove:
A sweet Athenian lady is in love
With a disdainful youth. Anoint his eyes.
But do it when the next thing he espies
May be the lady. Thou shalt know the man
By the Athenian garments he hath on.
Effect it with some care, that he may prove
More fond on her than she upon her love.
And look thou meet me ere the first cock crow.

DUTCH:
Daar werpt de slang vaak af haar glinsterhuid,
Dat kleed, dat nog niet ruimte een elf omsluit;
ik raak haar de oogen met dit bloemsap aan,
En vul haar ‘t brein niet ijdlen, dollen waan.

MORE:
Woodbine=Honeysuckle
Eglantine=Wild rose
Sometime of=For part of
Weed=Garment
Streak=Smear
Fond on=In love with
Compleat:
Hony-suckle=Geytenblad, memmetjes-kruyd, kamperfoely
Eglantine=Een egelantier
Weeds=Clothes
Streak=Bestreepen
To be fond of=Zeer met iets ingenomen zyn

Topics: nature, love

You draw me, you hard-hearted adamant

PLAY: A Midsummer Night’s Dream
ACT/SCENE: 2.1
SPEAKER: Helena
CONTEXT:
DEMETRIUS
I love thee not, therefore pursue me not.
Where is Lysander and fair Hermia?
The one I’ll slay, the other slayeth me.
Thou told’st me they were stol’n unto this wood.
And here am I, and wood within this wood,
Because I cannot meet my Hermia.
Hence, get thee gone, and follow me no more.
HELENA
You draw me, you hard-hearted adamant.
But yet you draw not iron, for my heart
Is true as steel. Leave you your power to draw,
And I shall have no power to follow you.

DUTCH:
Gij trekt mij aan, gij zeilsteen, hard van hart;
Niet ijzer trekt gij aan; voorwaar, mijn hart
Is deugdlijk staal; leg af de kracht, die trekt;
Dan is de kracht, waarmeê ik volg, voorbij.

MORE:
Proverb: As true (trusty, sure) as steel

And wood=And mad
Adamant=Hard stone, purportedly magnetic
Compleat:
Adamant=een Diamant

Burgersdijk notes:
Gij zeilsteen, hard van hart. You hard-hearted adamant. Adamant beteekent zoowel diamant als magneet en kan dus tegelijk de hardheid en de aantrekkingskracht van Demetrius aanduiden. In een boek van Fenton (1569) leest men: Er is tegenwoordig een soort van diamant, die vleesch aantrekt en wel zoo sterk, dat hij de macht heeft om de twee monden van verschillende personen aan elkaar te hechten en eenen mensch het hart uit het lijf te trekken, zonder dat het lichaam aan eenig
deel beschadigd wordt.”

Topics: proverbs and idioms, truth, trust, love

You speak not as you think. It cannot be.

PLAY: A Midsummer Night’s Dream
ACT/SCENE: 3.2
SPEAKER: Helena
CONTEXT:
HERMIA
You speak not as you think. It cannot be.
HELENA
Lo, she is one of this confederacy!
Now I perceive they have conjoined all three
To fashion this false sport, in spite of me.
Injurious Hermia! Most ungrateful maid!
Have you conspired, have you with these contrived
To bait me with this foul derision?
Is all the counsel that we two have shared,
The sisters’ vows, the hours that we have spent
When we have chid the hasty-footed time
For parting us—oh, is it all forgot?
All schooldays’ friendship, childhood innocence?
We, Hermia, like two artificial gods,
Have with our needles created both one flower,
Both on one sampler, sitting on one cushion,
Both warbling of one song, both in one key,
As if our hands, our sides, voices, and minds,
Had been incorporate. So we grew together,
Like to a double cherry—seeming parted
But yet an union in partition—
Two lovely berries molded on one stem;
So, with two seeming bodies but one heart,
Two of the first, like coats in heraldry,
Due but to one and crownèd with one crest.
And will you rent our ancient love asunder
To join with men in scorning your poor friend?
It is not friendly, ’tis not maidenly.
Our sex, as well as I, may chide you for it,
Though I alone do feel the injury.

DUTCH:
Dat kan niet zijn; gij spreekt uit spotternij.

MORE:
Proverb: To speak as one thinks

Confederacy=Conspiracy, league
Contrived=Plotted
In spite of=To spite
Injurious=Hurtful
Bait=Taunt
Counsel=Confidences
Artificial=Artisan
Incorporate=Unified
Compleat:
Confederacy=Bondgenootschap, bondverwantschap, gespanschap
Contrived=Bedacht, verzonnen, toegesteld
In spite of=In spyt van, in weerwil van
Injurious=Verongelykend, beleedigend, smaadelyk, lasterlyk
To bait=Aas leggen, lokken, lok-aazen
Artificial=Konstig, behendig, aardig
Incorporated=Ingelyfd

Topics: friendship, proverbs and idioms, still in use