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PLAY: Hamlet ACT/SCENE: 1.2 SPEAKER: Hamlet CONTEXT: “Seems,” madam? Nay, it is. I know not “seems.”
‘Tis not alone my inky cloak, good mother,
Nor customary suits of solemn black,
Nor windy suspiration of forced breath,
No, nor the fruitful river in the eye,
Nor the dejected ‘havior of the visage,
Together with all forms, moods, shapes of grief,
That can denote me truly.
DUTCH: “Schijnt” ? Neen, mevrouw, het is. Ik ken geen „schijnt”/
Niet schijnt, Mevrouw, neen is; ik ken niet ‘schijnt’.
MORE:
Suspiration=breathing
Windy suspiration=laboured breathing
Fruitful river in the eye=copious tears
Dejected ‘havior of the visage=Dejected expression

Compleat:
Suspiration=Zuchting Topics: appearance, emotion and mood

PLAY: Measure for Measure
ACT/SCENE: 1.3
SPEAKER: Duke Vincentio
CONTEXT:
I prithee,
Supply me with the habit and instruct me
How I may formally in person bear me
Like a true friar. More reasons for this action
At our more leisure shall I render you;
Only, this one: Lord Angelo is precise;
Stands at a guard with envy; scarce confesses
That his blood flows, or that his appetite
Is more to bread than stone : hence shall we see,
If power change purpose, what our seemers be.

DUTCH:
Zoo machtbezit een mensch kan toetsen, blijkt
Bij hem ook, of zijn aard zijn schijn gelijkt.

MORE:
Biblical reference; Matthew 7
(Or what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone?)
Schmidt:
At our more leisure=When we have more time
Seemer=One who makes a show of something
Purpose=That which a person pursues and wishes to obtain, aim, object, and hence bent of mind

Topics: appearance, ambition, reason, justification, authority, purpose

PLAY: Hamlet
ACT/SCENE: 1.2
SPEAKER: Horatio
CONTEXT:
HAMLET
What, look’d he frowningly?
HORATIO
A countenance more in sorrow than in anger.

DUTCH:
Uit zijn gelaat Sprak eerder leed, dan boosheid /
Een voorkomen meer smartelijk dan toornig

MORE:
Nowadays simply “more in sorrow than in anger” is used for actions as well as a facial expression

Compleat:
Countenance=Gelaat, gezigt, uitzigt, weezen.
A cheerful countenance=Een bly gelaat.
Out of countenance=Bedeesd, verbaasd, ontsteld

Topics: appearance, still in use, invented or popularised

PLAY: King Henry IV Part 1
ACT/SCENE: 2.4
SPEAKER: Falstaff
CONTEXT:
My own knee? When I was about thy years, Hal, I was not an eagle’s talon in the waist. I could have crept into any alderman’s thumb-ring. A plague of sighing and grief! It blows a man up like a bladder.

DUTCH:
My own knees? When I was your age, Hal, my waist was as skinny as an eagle’s talon; I could have crawled through a councilman’s thumb ring. But damn all that sighing and sadness! It blows a man up like a balloon.

MORE:
Schmidt:
Thumb-ring, a ring worn on the thumb as was the custom of grave personages

Topics: appearance, age/experience, excess

PLAY: All’s Well that Ends Well
ACT/SCENE: 4.5
SPEAKER: Lafew
CONTEXT:
CLOWN
O madam! yonder ‘s my lord your son with a
patch of velvet on ‘s face: whether there be a
scar under ‘t or no, the velvet knows; but ’tis a
goodly patch of velvet. His left cheek is a cheek
of two pile and a half, but his right cheek is worn
bare.
LAFEW
A scar nobly got, or a noble scar, is a good livery of honour; so belike is that.
CLOWN
But it is your carbonadoed face.
LAFEW
Let us go see your son, I pray you: I long to talk
with the young noble soldier.
CLOWN
Faith there’s a dozen of ’em, with delicate fine
hats and most courteous feathers, which bow the head
and nod at every man.

DUTCH:
Een roemvol verworven schram, of een roemvolle schram, kleedt den adel goed en zoo doet waarschijnlijk ook deze.

MORE:
Patch of velvet: velvet patches were used to cover scars or marks (cicatrice)
Pile=Measure of the depth of velvet (three pile being the thickest)
Belike=As it seems, it should seem, I suppose
Livery=Uniform
Belike=Probably
Compleat:
Her face was full of patches=Haar aangezigt was vol zwarte pleistertjes
Livery=Lievry

Topics: appearance, dignity, honour

PLAY: Twelfth Night
ACT/SCENE: 3.4
SPEAKER: Sir Toby
CONTEXT:
SIR TOBY BELCH
[reads] “Fare thee well, and God have mercy upon one
of our souls. He may have mercy upon mine, but my hope
is better, and so look to thyself. Thy friend, as thou
usest him, and thy sworn enemy,
Andrew Aguecheek”
If this letter move him not, his legs cannot. I’ll give
’t him.
MARIA
You may have very fit occasion for ’t. He is now in
some commerce with my lady and will by and by depart.
SIR TOBY BELCH
Go, Sir Andrew. Scout me for him at the corner the
orchard like a bum-baily. So soon as ever thou seest
him, draw, and as thou drawest, swear horrible, for it
comes to pass oft that a terrible oath, with a
swaggering accent sharply twanged off, gives manhood
more approbation than ever proof itself would have
earned him. Away!

DUTCH:
Zoodra gij hem ontwaart, trek dan; en als gij trekt, vloek dan ontzettend; want het komt dikwijls voor, dat een verschrikkelijke vloek, op een snoevenden toon snijdend uitgekrijscht, aan de manhaftigheid meer bijval bezorgt, dan het beste proefstuk zou hebben ingeoogst.

MORE:
Hope=Hope of surviving
Usest=Treats
Commerce=Transaction, conversation
Scout=Look out for
Bum-bailie=Derogratory term for a bailiff who collected debts or arrested debtors, often from behind (also bum-baily, bum-bailiff)
Horrible=Horribly
Swaggering accent=Arrogant tone
Twanged=Uttered shrilly
Approbation=Credit
Proof=Trial
Compleat:
He was out of hope of life=Hy hoopte iniet langer te leeven
To use (treat)=Behandelen
Commerce=Gemeenschap, onderhandeling, ommegang
To scout up and down=Gins en weer gaan spieden
A bum-baiily=Een diender, luizevanger
Horribly=Op een schrikkelyke wyze, schroomelyk
To swagger=Snoeven, pochgen, snorken
Twang=Een schor geluid
Approbation=Goedkeuring
Proof=Beproeving

Topics: hope/optimism, fate/destiny, reputation, courage, appearance

PLAY: Richard III
ACT/SCENE: 2.2
SPEAKER: Duchess
CONTEXT:
BOY
Grandam, we can, for my good uncle Gloucester
Told me the king, provoked to it by the queen,
Devised impeachments to imprison him;
And when my uncle told me so, he wept,
And pitied me, and kindly kissed my cheek,
Bade me rely on him as on my father,
And he would love me dearly as a child.
DUCHESS
Ah, that deceit should steal such gentle shape,
And with a virtuous visor hide deep vice.
He is my son, ay, and therein my shame,
Yet from my dugs he drew not this deceit.

DUTCH:
Ach, dat bedrog zoo zachte trekken steelt,
En diepe boosheid dekt met deugdzaam mom!
Hij is mijn zoon, ja, en mijn schande er door,
Maar zoog aan mijn borst die arglist niet.

MORE:
CITED IN US LAW:
Amsterdam v. Amsterdam,56 N.Y.S.2d 19, 21 (N.Y.Civ.Ct. 1945)(Hammer, J.).

Proverb: He sucked evil from the dug

Impeachments=Charges
Shape=Appearance
Visor=Mask
Dug=Breast, teat
Compleat:
Impeachment=Betichting, beschuldiging, aanklagte
Dug=Een speen
Vizard=Een momaanzigt, mombakkus, masker

Topics: cited in law, proverbs and idioms, good and bad, appearance, deceit, betrayal

PLAY: Cymbeline
ACT/SCENE: 4.2
SPEAKER: Guiderius
CONTEXT:
BELARIUS
My ingenious instrument!
Hark, Polydore, it sounds! But what occasion
Hath Cadwal now to give it motion? Hark!
GUIDERIUS
Is he at home?
BELARIUS
He went hence even now.
GUIDERIUS
What does he mean? since death of my dear’st mother
it did not speak before. All solemn things
Should answer solemn accidents. The matter?
Triumphs for nothing and lamenting toys
Is jollity for apes and grief for boys.
Is Cadwal mad?
BELARIUS
Look, here he comes,
And brings the dire occasion in his arms
Of what we blame him for.

DUTCH:
Wat meent hij? Sinds mijn lieve moeder stierf,
Klonk die muziek niet weer. Een plechtigheid
Vereischt een plechtige oorzaak.

MORE:
Ingenious=Of curious structure
Occasion=Cause
Answer=Correspond to
Accidents=Events
Lamenting toys=Crying over nothing
Dire=Dreadful
Compleat:
Ingenious=Zinryk, vernuftig, scherpzinnig, verstandig, geestig, aardig
Occasion=Gelegenheyd, voorval, oorzaak, nood
To answer to the purpose=Ter zaake antwoorden
Accident=Een toeval, quaal, aankleefsel
Dire=Wreed, yslyk, gruuwelyk

Topics: sorrow, justification, appearance, emotion and mood

PLAY: Coriolanus
ACT/SCENE: 4.6
SPEAKER: Cominus
CONTEXT:
COMINIUS
Ay; and you’ll look pale
Before you find it other. All the regions
Do smilingly revolt; and who resist
Are mock’d for valiant ignorance,
And perish constant fools. Who is’t can blame him?
Your enemies and his find something in him.
MENENIUS
We are all undone, unless
The noble man have mercy.
COMINIUS
Who shall ask it?
The tribunes cannot do’t for shame; the people
Deserve such pity of him as the wolf
Does of the shepherds: for his best friends, if they
Should say ‘Be good to Rome,’ they charged him even
As those should do that had deserved his hate,
And therein show’d like enemies.

DUTCH:
Ja wis; gij zult verbleeken;
Maar ‘t anders vinden, — neen. Elk wingewest
Valt lachend af; en elk, die weerstand biedt,
Wordt om zijn dapp’re domheid fel bespot,
En sterft als trouwe nar.

MORE:
Pale=White with fear
Smilingly=Happily, willingly
Undone=Ruined
Compleat:
Pale=Bleek, doodsch
Smiling=Grimlaching, toelaching, smyling, smylende
Undone=Ontdaan, losgemaakt

Topics: appearance, courage, blame, mercy

PLAY: The Merchant of Venice
ACT/SCENE: 1.1
SPEAKER: Solanio
CONTEXT:
SOLANIO
Not in love neither? Then let us say you are sad
Because you are not merry— and ’twere as easy
For you to laugh and leap and say you are merry
Because you are not sad. Now, by two-headed Janus,
Nature hath framed strange fellows in her time.
Some that will evermore peep through their eyes
And laugh like parrots at a bagpiper,
And other of such vinegar aspect
That they’ll not show their teeth in way of smile
Though Nestor swear the jest be laughable.

DUTCH:
Natuur brengt soms toch rare snuiters voort:
Die knijpt voortdurend de oogen toe van ‘t lachen,
Als bij een doedelzak een papegaai;
En de ander heeft zoo’n uitzicht van azijn,
Dat hij van ‘t lachen nooit zijn tanden toont,
Al deed een grap ook de’ ouden Nestor schaat’ren.

MORE:
Laugh like parrots at a bagpiper=parrots were thought of as foolish, bagpipe music as melancholy.
Vinegar aspect=sour (‘sowr’) disposition.
Janus=A Roman God with two faces, one at the front and one at the back of his head (although not thought to have expressed contrasting moods). Janus was the god of beginnings duality, gates and doors, passages and endings.
Nestor, legendary wise King of Pylos in Homer’s Odyssey.
Compleat:
To sowr=Zuur worden, zuur maaken, verzuuren.
Sowred=Gezuurd, verzuurd. Sowrish=Zuurachtig.
To look sowrly upon one=Iemand zuur aanzien

Topics: emotion and mood, misquoted

PLAY: Hamlet
ACT/SCENE: 1.5
SPEAKER: Hamlet
CONTEXT:
But come—
Here, as before, never, so help you mercy,
How strange or odd some’er I bear myself—
As I perchance hereafter shall think meet
To put an antic disposition on—

DUTCH:
Hoe vreemd of raar ik me ook gedragen zal,
Wanneer ik goed vind naderhand misschien
Een wonderen gemoedsaard te vertoonen.

MORE:
Put an antic disposition on=act irrationally.
Compleat:
Disposition (or Inclination)=Genegenheid, Lust
Disposition of mind=Gesteltenis van gemoed
The greatness of his disposition=Zyn grootmoedige, zyn uitmuntende gesteltenis
He put on a smiling countenance=Hij zette een vriendelyk gezigt

Topics: appearance, madness

PLAY: Julius Caesar
ACT/SCENE: 1.2
SPEAKER: Brutus
CONTEXT:
CASSIUS
Brutus, I do observe you now of late
I have not from your eyes that gentleness
And show of love as I was wont to have.
You bear too stubborn and too strange a hand
Over your friend that loves you.
BRUTUS
Cassius,
Be not deceived. If I have veiled my look,
I turn the trouble of my countenance
Merely upon myself. Vexèd I am
Of late with passions of some difference,
Conceptions only proper to myself,
Which give some soil perhaps to my behaviours.
But let not therefore, my good friends, be grieved—
Among which number, Cassius, be you one—
Nor construe any further my neglect
Than that poor Brutus, with himself at war,
Forgets the shows of love to other men.

DUTCH:
Bedrieg u niet; heb ik mijn blik omsluierd,
De wrevel van mijn oog en houding keert zich
Slechts tegen mij alleen.

MORE:
Now of late=Recently
Show=Manifestation (not pretended)
Wont=Accustomed, usual
Strange=Unfriendly
Veiled=Concealed
Of some difference=Conflicting
Proper=Appropriate
Soil=Disgrace, contrast
Construe any further=See anything more in
Compleat:
Show=Vertooning
Wont=Gewoonte
Strange=Vreemd, misselyk, zeldzaam
Veil (vail)=Bedekken, besluyeren
To difference=Verschil maaken, onderscheyden
Proper=Bequaam
Soiled=Bezoedeld, vuy gemaakt, bevlekt
Construe (conster)=Woordenschikken; t’Zamenschikken, t’zamenstellen

Topics: appearance, friendship, negligence

PLAY: The Tempest
ACT/SCENE: 1.2
SPEAKER: Prospero
CONTEXT:
Go make thyself like a nymph o’ th’ sea. Be subject
To no sight but thine and mine, invisible
To every eyeball else. Go take this shape
And hither come in ’t. Go hence with diligence.

DUTCH:
Ga, word in vorm een zeenimf; u ontware
Geen ander oog dan ‘t mijne; blijf onzichtbaar
Voor ieder ander. Ga, neem die gestalt’nis,
En kom zoo herwaarts; ga, en spoed u; vlieg!

MORE:
Schmidt:
Diligence=Assiduity in service, officiousness, serviceableness
Compleat:
Diligence=Naerstigheid, vlyt

Topics: appearance, secrecy

PLAY: The Two Gentlemen of Verona
ACT/SCENE: 2.4
SPEAKER: Valentine
CONTEXT:
DUKE
Welcome him then according to his worth.
Sylvia, I speak to you, and you, Sir Thurio;
For Valentine, I need not cite him to it.
I will send him hither to you presently.
VALENTINE
This is the gentleman I told your ladyship
Had come along with me but that his mistress
Did hold his eyes locked in her crystal looks.
SYLVIA
Belike that now she hath enfranchised them
Upon some other pawn for fealty.

DUTCH:
Zoo heet hem naar zijn waarde welkom hier.
‘k Zeg, Silvia, dit tot u, en u, heer Thurio; —
Want Valentijn heb ik niet aan te manen.
Ik zend hem oogenblikk’lijk naar u toe.

MORE:
Welcome=Receive
According to his worth=Appropriate to his reputation
Cite=Incite, urge
Had=Would have
Belike=Probably
Enfranchised=Liberated
Compleat:
+G38
To enfranchise=Tot eenen burger of vry maaken, vryheyd vergunnen
A thing of great worth=Een Zaak van groote waarde
A person of worth=Een voortreffelyk persoon

Topics: status, order/society, appearance

PLAY: Cymbeline
ACT/SCENE: 1.6
SPEAKER: Iachimo
CONTEXT:
IMOGEN
Thanks, good sir:
You’re kindly welcome.
IACHIMO
All of her that is out of door most rich!
If she be furnish’d with a mind so rare,
She is alone the Arabian bird, and I
Have lost the wager. Boldness be my friend!
Arm me, audacity, from head to foot!
Or, like the Parthian, I shall flying fight;
Rather directly fly.
IMOGEN
‘He is one of the noblest note, to whose
kindnesses I am most infinitely tied. Reflect upon
him accordingly, as you value your trust—
Leonatus.’
So far I read aloud:
But even the very middle of my heart
Is warm’d by the rest, and takes it thankfully.
You are as welcome, worthy sir, as I
Have words to bid you, and shall find it so
In all that I can do.

DUTCH:
O, driestheid, wees mijn vriend,
En wapen, stoutheid, mij van top tot teen!
Of als de Parth, moet ik al vluchtend vechten,
Neen, vluchten en niets meer.

MORE:
Proverb: As rare as the Phoenix

Arabian bird=Phoenix (never is there more than one Phoenix in the world at one time)
Out of door=External, outward appearance
Value your trust=Value the charge entrusted to you. (Some editors have this as ‘truest’, making this the close of the letter.)
Reflect upon=Consider him
Compleat:
Boldness=Stoutheyd, koenheyd, vrymoedigheyd, onvertsaagheyd
Audacity=Stoutheyd
It would be well for every one to reflect upon himself=’t Zou wel zyn dat een yder zich zelven aanmerkte; ‘t was goed dat elk op zich zelven lette
To lay a wager=Wedden, een wedspel aan gaan
Wager of law=Aanbieding van te beedigen, dat men zynen eyscher niets schuldig is

Burgersdijk notes:
Uw getrouwsten Leonatus. Hier is de gissing van Mason gevolgd, die, éene letter e bijvoegende, leest your truest Leonatus. Imogeen loopt den brief haastig door en deelt dan aan Jachimo, die inmiddels bij zichzelf gesproken heeft, beleefd het slot, dat op hem betrekking heeft, mede. Wil men de lezing der folio-uitgave behouden: as you value your trust, dan moet men dit, veel minder eenvoudig, als eene soort van bezwering opvatten: „zoo waar gij uwe bezworen trouw in eere houdt” en aannemen, dat Imogeen uit het midden van den brief eenige woorden hardop leest, dan de lezing ten einde brengt en alleen de onderteekening weder uitspreekt.

Topics: appearance, intellect, value, trust, judgment, proverbs and idioms

PLAY: Hamlet
ACT/SCENE: 1.2
SPEAKER: Hamlet
CONTEXT:
These indeed “seem,”
For they are actions that a man might play.
But I have that within which passeth show,
These but the trappings and the suits of woe.

DUTCH:
Ik draag iets meer-dan-toonbaar in mijn hart /
Maar meer dan ‘t zichtb’re zit mij diep in ‘t hart.

MORE:
Trappings=ornamental appendages (from horse furniture).
Actions that a man might play = It has all the hallmarks of acting
For they are actions that a man might play:
Want al dat doen kan best vertooning zijn/Want dit zijn dingen die een mens kan spelen

Topics: appearance, sorrow, grief

PLAY: Twelfth Night
ACT/SCENE: 2.4
SPEAKER: Viola
CONTEXT:
ORSINO
And what’s her history?
VIOLA
A blank, my lord. She never told her love,
But let concealment, like a worm i’ the bud,
Feed on her damask cheek. She pined in thought,
And with a green and yellow melancholy
She sat like patience on a monument,
Smiling at grief. Was not this love indeed?
We men may say more, swear more, but indeed
Our shows are more than will, for still we prove
Much in our vows, but little in our love.

DUTCH:
Is wit papier. Nooit sprak zij van haar liefde; —
‘t Verbergen mocht, gelijk een worm de knop,
Haar wangen knagen, haar verdriet was stom.

MORE:
CITED IN LAW: In a direct quotation or ‘borrowed eloquence’ in Porter v Magill, Weeks v Magill [2001] UKHL 67, Lord Scott’s opening remarks (at [132]) noted that political corruption like “Like Viola’s ‘worm i’th bud” feeds upon democratic institutions from within” (Twelfth Night).
https://www.counselmagazine.co.uk/articles/quote-or-not-quote-…

Proverb: Grief pent up will break the heart
Proverb: Grief is lessened when imparted to others
Proverb: When shared, joy is doubled and sorrow halved

Damask=Pink and white (damask rose)
Patience on a monument=A statue depicting patience
Will=Passion
Still=Always
Compleat:
Damask=Damast. A Damask rose=Roos van Damast
Patience=Geduld, lydzaamheid, verduldigheid
Still=Steeds, gestadig, altyd

Topics: cited in law, proverbs and idioms, patience, appearance, promise, debt/obligation

PLAY: King Henry VI Part 3
ACT/SCENE: 2.1
SPEAKER: York
CONTEXT:
RICHARD
But what art thou, whose heavy looks foretell
Some dreadful story hanging on thy tongue?
MESSENGER
Ah, one that was a woeful looker-on
Whenas the noble Duke of York was slain,
Your princely father and my loving lord!
EDWARD
O, speak no more, for I have heard too much.
RICHARD
Say how he died, for I will hear it all.

DUTCH:
Maar wie zijt gij, wiens sombre blik verraadt,
Dat booze tijding op de tong u zweeft?

MORE:

Whenas=When
Heavy looks=Sorrowful face
Foretell=Indicate, predict

Compleat:
Heavy=(sad) Droevig, verdrietig
Foretell=Voorzeggen, voorspellen

Topics: appearance

PLAY: Othello
ACT/SCENE: 1.3
SPEAKER: Brabantio
CONTEXT:
DUKE
Let me speak like yourself and lay a sentence
Which, as a grise or step, may help these lovers
Into your favour.
When remedies are past, the griefs are ended
By seeing the worst, which late on hopes depended.
To mourn a mischief that is past and gone
Is the next way to draw new mischief on.
What cannot be preserved when fortune takes,
Patience her injury a mock’ry makes.
The robbed that smiles steals something from the thief,
He robs himself that spends a bootless grief.
BRABANTIO
So let the Turk of Cyprus us beguile,
We lose it not, so long as we can smile.
He bears the sentence well that nothing bears
But the free comfort which from thence he hears.
But he bears both the sentence and the sorrow
That, to pay grief, must of poor patience borrow.
These sentences to sugar or to gall,
Being strong on both sides, are equivocal.
But words are words. I never yet did hear
That the bruised heart was piercèd through the ears.
I humbly beseech you, proceed to th’ affairs of state.

DUTCH:
Doch woord blijft woord, en dat het spreuken-hooren
Een krank hart heelde, kwam mij nooit ter ooren.
Ik verzoek u nederig, thans tot de staatszaken over
te gaan.

MORE:
Lay a sentence=Offer a maxim, proverb
Grise=(Grize, grece) Step, degree
Remedies=Opportunities for redress
Patience=Endurance
Injury=Harm caused
Injury=Verongelyking, belediging, smaad, verkorting, laster, ongelykFutile
Sentence that nothing bears=Indifferent platitude
Gall=Bitterness, to embitter
Pierced=lanced (and cured)(See LLL, 5.2: Honest plain words best pierce the ear of grief)
Compleat:
Sentence=Een spreuk, zinspreuk
Remedy=Middel
A thing not to be remedy’d=Een zaak die niet te verhelpen is
Take patience=Geduld neemen
Injury=Verongelyking, belediging, smaad, verkorting, laster, ongelyk”

Topics: language, deceit, appearance, emotion and mood, wisdom, understanding

PLAY: The Taming of the Shrew
ACT/SCENE: 4.1
SPEAKER: Grumio
CONTEXT:
CURTIS
By this reck’ning he is more shrew than she.
GRUMIO
Ay, and that thou and the proudest of you all shall
find when he comes home. But what talk I of this? Call
forth Nathaniel, Joseph, Nicholas, Philip, Walter,
Sugarsop, and the rest. Let their heads be slickly
combed, their blue coats brushed, and their garters of
an indifferent knit. Let them curtsy with their left
legs, and not presume to touch a hair of my master’s
horse-tail till they kiss their hands. Are they all
ready?

DUTCH:
Op die manier is hij nog erger helleveeg dan zij.

MORE:
By this reckoning=On that basis, calculation
Blue coats=Uniform
Indifferent=Matching, plain
Curtsy=Show respect
Left legs=To curtsy with the right leg was a sign of defiance
Compleat:
Indifferent=Onvercheelig, middelmaatig, koelzinnig, onzydig, passelyk, taamelyk, tussenbeyde
Curtsy=Nyging, genyg
Make a courtsey (curtsy)=Nygen

Topics: appearance, civility, order/society

PLAY: The Comedy of Errors
ACT/SCENE: 5.1
SPEAKER: Aegeon
CONTEXT:
AEGEON
I am sure you both of you remember me.
DROMIO OF EPHESUS
Ourselves we do remember, sir, by you.
For lately we were bound as you are now.
You are not Pinch’s patient, are you, sir?
AEGEON
Why look you strange on me? you know me well.
ANTIPHOLUS OF EPHESUS
I never saw you in my life till now.
AEGEON
O, grief hath changed me since you saw me last,
And careful hours with time’s deformèd hand
Have written strange defeatures in my face.
But tell me yet, dost thou not know my voice?
ANTIPHOLUS OF EPHESUS
Neither.
AEGEON
Dromio, nor thou?
DROMIO OF EPHESUS
No, trust me, sir, nor I.

DUTCH:
Door zorgvolle uren heeft de maag’re hand
Des Tijds mij vreemde trekken ingegrift

MORE:
Defeatures=Disfigurements
Careful=Full of cares, subject to anxiety, sorrow, or want
Compleat:
Disfigurement=Mismaaktheyd, wanschapenheyd
Carefull=Zorgvuldig, bezorgd, zorgdraagend, bekommerd

Topics: time, age/experience, sorrow, appearance, grief

PLAY: Timon of Athens
ACT/SCENE: 1.2
SPEAKER: Timon
CONTEXT:
TIMON
Ceremony was but devised at first
To set a gloss on faint deeds, hollow welcomes,
Recanting goodness, sorry ere ’tis shown;
But where there is true friendship, there needs none.
Pray, sit; more welcome are ye to my fortunes
Than my fortunes to me.
FIRST LORD
My lord, we always have confessed it.
APEMANTUS
Ho, ho, confessed it! hanged it, have you not?

DUTCH:

Plichtplegingen zijn enkel uitgedacht
Om koele daden, holle vriend’lijkheid
Met glans te sieren; om berouwde goedheid
Vóor ‘t hand’len te herroepen, zijn zij noodig

MORE:
Proverb: Ceremony was but devised at first to set a gloss on faint deeds
Proverb: Full of courtesy full of craft

Ceremony=Rituals, formalities
Set a gloss=Give meaning, make something look good
Recanting=Denying
Hollow=Meaningless
Confessed=Said so, known (not confessed in a criminal or religious sense)
Compleat:
Ceremony=Plegtigheyd
To set a gloss upon a thing=Iets een schoonen opschik geeven
To recant=Herroepen, wederroepen, weer in zyn hals haalen, verzaaken
Hollow=Hol, uytgehold; Hollow-hearted=Geveinst

Burgersdijk notes:
En niet gehangen. Toespeling op het spreekwordelijk zeggen, tegen spitsboeven in gebruik: Confess and be hanged, „Beken en laat je hangen.”

Topics: honesty, manipulation, proverbs and idioms, appearance

PLAY: The Merry Wives of Windsor
ACT/SCENE:
SPEAKER: Falstaff
CONTEXT:
FALSTAFF
By the Lord, thou art a traitor to say so: thou
wouldst make an absolute courtier; and the firm
fixture of thy foot would give an excellent motion
to thy gait in a semi-circled farthingale. I see
what thou wert, if Fortune thy foe were not, Nature
thy friend. Come, thou canst not hide it.
MISTRESS FORD
Believe me, there is no such thing in me.
FALSTAFF
What made me love thee? let that persuade thee
there’s something extraordinary in thee. Come, I
cannot cog and say thou art this and that, like a
many of these lisping hawthorn-buds, that come like
women in men’s apparel, and smell like Bucklersbury
in simple time; I cannot: but I love thee; none
but thee; and thou deservest it.

DUTCH:
Zie, ik kan niet mooipraten, niet zeggen, dat gij dit zijt en dat zijt, gelijk zoovelen van die lispelende hagedoornbloesems, die daar loopen als vrouwen in manskle ren en een geur verspreiden als de apothekersstraat in den kruidentijd

MORE:
Absolute=Perfect, complete
Firm fixture=Firm set
Bucklersbury=A street of apothecaries selling medicinal herbs and plants known as “simples” (in simple time)
Cog=To wheedle, lie, flatter. Also to “cog (load) the dice”
Hawthorn buds=Perfumed men
Compleat:
Absolute=Volslagen, volstrekt, volkomen, onafhangklyk, onverbonden
Coggen=Vleyen, flikflooijen.
Cogger=Een Vleyer, een Valsche dobbelaar

Burgersdijk notes:
De apothekersstraat in den kruiden tijd. In ‘t Engelsch wordt de straat, waarin vele apotheken waren, door den naam, Bucklersbury, aangewezen; de kruidentijd” is natuurlijk de tijd, waarin de meeste kruiden, simples, verzameld en gedroogd werden,

Topics: love|fate/fortune|appearance

PLAY: Measure for Measure
ACT/SCENE: 4.2
SPEAKER: Abhorson
CONTEXT:
Every true man’s apparel fits your thief: if it be
too little for your thief, your true man thinks it
big enough; if it be too big for your thief, your
thief thinks it little enough: so every true man’s
apparel fits your thief.

DUTCH:
Als ze te klein zijn voor den dief, houdt de eerlijke
man ze voor ruim genoeg ; als ze te ruim zijn voor den
dief, vindt de dief ze toch klein genoeg; en dus passen
elken eerlijken mans kleeren den dief.

MORE:
Burgersdijk notes:
Hier is de verdeeling van de folio behouden; de volgende woorden Als ze te klein zijn,” enz . zijn daar, evenals hier, aan den clown, Pompejus, toegekend, en niet, zooals vele uitgevers doen, aan Abhorson (Isegrim), in wiens mond zij veel minder passen. Men denke, dat Isegrim een wijdloopig betoog wil geven, met de kleeren, – die hem na aan ‘t hart liggen, wjjl de kleeren van den gehangene voor den beul waren, – begint, en dat de levendige clown hem terstond in de rede valt . – Wil men veranderen, dan zou het best zijn, een gezegde van den beul in te lasschen en dezen b .v. te laten beginnen : Every hangman’s collar fits your thief, – waarop dan Pompejus kan invallen : Every true man’s apparel fits your thief ; if it be too little etc.

Topics: law/legal, honesty, appearance, reputation

PLAY: Othello
ACT/SCENE: 5.1
SPEAKER: Iago
CONTEXT:
IAGO
I have rubbed this young quat almost to the sense,
And he grows angry. Now, whether he kill Cassio
Or Cassio him, or each do kill the other,
Every way makes my gain. Live Roderigo,
He calls me to a restitution large
Of gold and jewels that I bobbed from him
As gifts to Desdemona.
It must not be. If Cassio do remain
He hath a daily beauty in his life
That makes me ugly. And besides, the Moor
May unfold me to him—there stand I in much peril.
No, he must die. But so, I hear him coming.

DUTCH:
Ik kneep tot berstens toe dien jongen windbuil;
Hij wordt nu boos. Nu, ‘t zij hij Cassio doode,
Of Cassio hem, of dat ze elkander vellen,
Hoe ‘t loop’, ik win er bij.

MORE:
Quat=Contemptible youth; boil or pimple
To the sense=To the quick, raw
Makes my gain=Is to my advantage
Bobbed=Swindled
Unfold=Expose
Compleat:
Unfold=Ontvouwen, open leggen
To bob=Begekken, bedriegen, loeren, foppen
Sense=Het gevoel; gevoeligheid; besef; reden

Burgersdijk notes:
Dien jongen windbuil. In ‘t Engelsch staat quat, welk woord tegelijk een blaar of vin, en een ellendig, verachtelijk wezen beteekent.

Topics: age/experience, learning and education, dispute, appearance, perception

PLAY: Macbeth
ACT/SCENE: 1.1
SPEAKER: Witches
CONTEXT:
Fair is foul, and foul is fair:
Hover through the fog and filthy air.

DUTCH:
Eerlijk is vals en vals is eerlijk/
Eerlijk is vuil en vuil is eerlijk/
Eerlijk is fout en fout is eerlijk/

MORE:
Allusion to the proverb “Fair without but foul within” (c1200). (Macbeth also alludes to the same proverb in Act 1.3: “So foul and fair a day I have not seen.”

Topics: appearance, deceit, proverbs and idioms, still in use

PLAY: The Taming of the Shrew
ACT/SCENE: 4.3
SPEAKER: Petruchio
CONTEXT:
PETRUCHIO
Well, come, my Kate. We will unto your father’s
Even in these honest mean habiliments.
Our purses shall be proud, our garments poor,
For ’tis the mind that makes the body rich,
And as the sun breaks through the darkest clouds,
So honour peereth in the meanest habit.
What, is the jay more precious than the lark
Because his feathers are more beautiful?
Or is the adder better than the eel
Because his painted skin contents the eye?
Oh, no, good Kate. Neither art thou the worse
For this poor furniture and mean array.
If thou account’st it shame, lay it on me,
And therefore frolic! We will hence forthwith
To feast and sport us at thy father’s house.
Go, call my men, and let us straight to him,
And bring our horses unto Long Lane end.
There will we mount, and thither walk on foot.
Let’s see, I think ’tis now some seven o’clock,
And well we may come there by dinnertime.

DUTCH:
Kom nu, mijn Kaatje’, eens naar uw vader toe,
In dit armoedig, doch welvoeg’lijk kleed ;
Met trotsche beurs, schoon need’rig van gewaad;
De geest alleen geeft aan het lijf waardij;

MORE:
Mean habiliments=Plain clothes
Proud=Full
Peereth=Peeps out, can be seen
Habit=Attire
Painted=Patterned
Furniture=Clothes
Array=Attire
Lay it on=Blame
Look what=Whatever
Still=Always
Crossing=Contradicting
Compleat:
Habiliment=Kleeding, dos, gewaad
To peer out=Uitmunten, uitsteeken
Habit=Een kleed, gewaad, dos
Furniture=Stoffeersel
Array=Gewaad, kleeding
To lay upon=Opleggen, te laste leggen
Still=Steeds, gestadig, altyd
To cross=Tegenstreeven, dwars voor de boeg komen, dwarsboomen, wederestreeven, kruisen

Topics: fashion/trends, poverty and wealth, appearance, value, vanity

PLAY: Richard III
ACT/SCENE: 3.4
SPEAKER: Hastings
CONTEXT:
HASTINGS
His grace looks cheerfully and smooth this morning.
There’s some conceit or other likes him well
When that he bids good morrow with such spirit.
I think there’s never a man in Christendom
Can lesser hide his love or hate than he,
For by his face straight shall you know his heart.
STANLEY
What of his heart perceive you in his face
By any livelihood he showed today?
HASTINGS
Marry, that with no man here he is offended,
For were he, he had shown it in his looks.
STANLEY
I pray God he be not, I say.

DUTCH:
De hertog ziet van morgen opgeruimd;
Een streelend denkbeeld zweeft hem voor den geest,
Als hij zoo vroolijk goeden morgen wenscht.
Ik acht, dat niemand in de christenheid
Zijn liefde en haat zoo slecht verbergt als hij;
Wat hij op ‘t hart heeft, leest ge op zijn gelaat.

MORE:
Smooth=Calm
Conceit=Design, plan
Likes him=That he is keen on
Livelihood=Liveliness
Compleat:
Smooth=Glad, effen, vlak
Conceit=Waan, bevatting, opvatting, meening
Livelihood=’t Gene waarvan men zich geneert, de Broodwinning, leeftogt

Topics: appearance, truth, honesty

PLAY: Coriolanus
ACT/SCENE: 3.2
SPEAKER: Volumnia
CONTEXT:
VOLUMNIA
Because that now it lies you on to speak
To the people; not by your own instruction,
Nor by the matter which your heart prompts you,
But with such words that are but rooted in
Your tongue, though but bastards and syllables
Of no allowance to your bosom’s truth.
Now, this no more dishonours you at all
Than to take in a town with gentle words,
Which else would put you to your fortune and
The hazard of much blood.
I would dissemble with my nature where
My fortunes and my friends at stake required
I should do so in honour: I am in this,
Your wife, your son, these senators, the nobles;
And you will rather show our general louts
How you can frown than spend a fawn upon ’em,
For the inheritance of their loves and safeguard
Of what that want might ruin.
MENENIUS
Noble lady!
Come, go with us; s peak fair: you may salve so,
Not what is dangerous present, but the loss
Of what is past.

DUTCH:
En toch, gij wilt aan ‘t lomp gemeen veeleer
Uw fronsblik toonen, dan ‘t met vleien winnen,
Om, door hun gunst, te redden, wat hun haat
Te gronde richten zal.

MORE:
General louts=Vulgar clowns in the community, “common clowns” (Johnson)
Bastards=Not truly coming from the heart
Of no allowance… truth=Not reflecting true feelings
Take in=Capture, occupy
Inheritance=Acquisition or merely possession
That want=Absence of that acquisition
Salve=Rescue
Compleat:
Lout=Een boersche ongeschikte vent
Inheritance=Erfenis, erfdeel
Want=Gebrek

Topics: manipulation, deceit, honour, appearance, truth

PLAY: King Henry IV Part 2
ACT/SCENE: 1 Prologue
SPEAKER: Rumour
CONTEXT:
But what mean I
To speak so true at first? My office is
To noise abroad that Harry Monmouth fell
Under the wrath of noble Hotspur’s sword,
And that the King before the Douglas’ rage
Stooped his anointed head as low as death.
This have I rumoured through the peasant towns
Between that royal field of Shrewsbury
And this worm-eaten hold of ragged stone,
Where Hotspur’s father, old Northumberland,
Lies crafty-sick. The posts come tiring on,
And not a man of them brings other news
Than they have learnt of me. From Rumour’s tongues
They bring smooth comforts false, worse than true wrongs.

DUTCH:
Waar Heetspoors vader, graaf Northumberland,
Sluw krank ligt. Moede boden komen aan,
Doch geen brengt ander nieuws dan ik hem leerde,
Elk zoeten schijntroost, komende uit mijn mond,
Veel erger dan een waar bericht, dat wondt.

MORE:
Schmidt:
To noise abroad=Verb meaning to report or spread rumour
Peasant=Condescending description of village inhabitants as ignorant
Crafty-sick=Feigning illness
Post=Courier, messenger

Compleat:
To noise abroad=Uitbrommen, uittrompetten
Peasant=Landman, boer
Crafty=Loos, listig, schalk, doortrapt, leep

Topics: betrayal, deceit, appearance, perception, language

PLAY: The Taming of the Shrew
ACT/SCENE: 4.3
SPEAKER: Petruchio
CONTEXT:
PETRUCHIO
Thy gown? Why, ay. Come, tailor, let us see ’t.
O mercy, God! What masking stuff is here?
What’s this? A sleeve? ‘Tis like a demi-cannon.
What, up and down, carved like an apple tart?
Here’s snip and nip and cut and slish and slash,
Like to a censer in a barber’s shop.
Why, what i’ devil’s name, tailor, call’st thou this?
HORTENSIO
I see she’s like to have neither cap nor gown.
TAILOR
You bid me make it orderly and well,
According to the fashion and the time.
PETRUCHIO
Marry, and did. But if you be remembered,
I did not bid you mar it to the time.
Go, hop me over every kennel home,
For you shall hop without my custom, sir.
I’ll none of it. Hence, make your best of it.
KATHERINE
I never saw a better-fashioned gown,
More quaint, more pleasing, nor more commendable.
Belike you mean to make a puppet of me.
PETRUCHIO
Why, true, he means to make a puppet of thee.

DUTCH:
Ga, dros maar op, door dik en dun, naar huis,
Dros op, maar zonder mijn klandisie, man;
Ik dank je; zie maar, dat je ‘t elders slijt.

MORE:
Demi-cannon=Large cannon
Like an apple tart=The fashion of slits in material to reveal the colour beneath
Censer=Perfume pan with perforated lid
Masking stuff=Rich material, suitable for a masque
If you be remembered=If you recall
Kennel=Street gutter
Mar it to the time=So fashionable that it will soon be out of fashion
Quaint=Elegant
Compleat:
Demi-cannon=Een bastaard, zekere Kannon
Censer=Een reukvat, wierookvat
Kennel=Een geut
Quaint=Aardig, cierlyk, net

Burgersdijk notes:
‘t Lijkt wel een vuurpot in een scheerderswinkel. In de scheerwinkels, waar dikwijls veel menschen bijeen waren, werd reukwerk gebrand. Daartoe dienden metalen vuurpotten, censers, met opengewerkt deksel.

Topics: appearance, insult, fashion/trends, satisfaction

PLAY: Macbeth
ACT/SCENE: 5.3
SPEAKER:
CONTEXT:
Go, prick thy face and over-red thy fear,
Thou lily-livered boy. What soldiers, patch?
Death of thy soul! Those linen cheeks of thine
Are counselors to fear. What soldiers, whey-face?

DUTCH:
Ga, schram ‘t gelaat en verf uw angsten rood!

MORE:
Pinch your cheeks for some colour
White livers used to signify cowardice. Hence lily-livered (Macbeth, 5.3) and milk-livered (King Lear, 4.2), both compounds coined by Shakespeare

Topics: appearance, courage

PLAY: Hamlet
ACT/SCENE: 3.1
SPEAKER: Hamlet
CONTEXT:
I have heard of your paintings too, well enough. God has given you one face and you make yourselves another. You jig and amble, and you lisp, you nickname God’s creatures and make your wantonness your ignorance.

DUTCH:
God schonk u een aangezicht en gij maakt uzelf een ander

MORE:
Schmidt:
Paintings=Paint, cosmetics
Jig=To sing in the tune of a jig; To amble=To move affectedly, as in a dance; To lisp= To speak affectedly with a particular articulation.
Compleat:
To paint (to beautify the face, like whores do)=Het aanzigt blanketten, als de hoeren doen
Jig=een zekere dans; Amble=een pas gaan, een tel gaan

Topics: appearance, marriage, vanity

PLAY: Richard II
ACT/SCENE: 4.1
SPEAKER: King Richard II
CONTEXT:
HENRY BOLINGBROKE
Lords, you that here are under our arrest,
Procure your sureties for your days of answer.
Little are we beholding to your love,
And little look’d for at your helping hands.
KING RICHARD II
Alack, why am I sent for to a king,
Before I have shook off the regal thoughts
Wherewith I reign’d? I hardly yet have learn’d
To insinuate, flatter, bow, and bend my limbs:
Give sorrow leave awhile to tutor me
To this submission. Yet I well remember
The favours of these men: were they not mine?
Did they not sometime cry, ‘all hail!’ to me?
So Judas did to Christ: but he, in twelve,
Found truth in all but one: I, in twelve thousand, none.
God save the king! Will no man say amen?
Am I both priest and clerk? well then, amen.
God save the king! although I be not he;
And yet, amen, if heaven do think him me.
To do what service am I sent for hither?

DUTCH:
Den koning heil! — zegt niemand „Amen”? Moet ik
En priester zijn en leek? Nu goed dan, — Amen!
Den koning ,heil! schoon ik het niet meer zij ;
En Amen óók, erkent de hemel mij. —
Tot welken dienst werd ik hierheen gebracht?

MORE:

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

Under our arrest=Any restraint upon a person binding him to be responsible to the law, bound to appear on the trial date set (Rest under gage – See: “Lords appellants, Your differences shall all rest under gage”.)
Beholding=Indebted, obliged (beholden)
Procure your sureties=Arrange for guarantors
Days of answer=Defence
Bend my limbs=Bow, go on bended knee
Wherewith=With which
Insinuate=To ingratiate oneself (in a negative sense)
Favour=Face
Clerk=Reader of responses in church service, usually minor cleric or a lay person

Compleat:
Arrest=Raadsbesluit
Beholding, beholden=Gehouden, verplicht, verschuldigt
Surety=Borg, vastigheid
To bend his knees=Zyne knien buigen
Insinuate=Inboezemen, inflyen, inschuiven, indringen
Clerk=Een Kerkelyke, geestelyke, Kerk, schryver; Sekretaris

Topics: law/legal, respect, order/society, status, appearance, defence

PLAY: The Merry Wives of Windsor
ACT/SCENE:
SPEAKER: Falstaff
CONTEXT:
MISTRESS PAGE
If you go out in your own semblance, you die, Sir
John. Unless you go out disguised.
MISTRESS FORD
How might we disguise him?
MISTRESS PAGE
Alas the day, I know not! There is no woman’s gown
big enough for him otherwise he might put on a hat,
a muffler and a kerchief, and so escape.
FALSTAFF
Good hearts, devise something: any extremity rather
than a mischief.

DUTCH:
Lieve vrouwtjens, bedenkt toch iets; het onmoog’lijkste
nog eer dan een ongeluk.

MORE:
Own semblance=Looking like yourself
Extremity=Extreme measure
Mischief=Disaster
Compleat:
Semblance=Gelykenis, schyn
Extremity=het Uyterste, ‘t uyterste eynd, de uyterste nood, uytendigheyd
Mischief=Onheyl, quaad, ongeluk, ramp, verderf, heylloosheyd

Topics: appearance|deceit|secrecy

PLAY: King Henry VIII
ACT/SCENE: 3.2
SPEAKER: Cromwell
CONTEXT:
CARDINAL WOLSEY
The packet, Cromwell.
Gave’t you the king?
CROMWELL
To his own hand, in’s bedchamber.
CARDINAL WOLSEY
Look’d he o’ the inside of the paper?
CROMWELL
Presently
He did unseal them: and the first he view’d,
He did it with a serious mind; a heed
Was in his countenance. You he bade
Attend him here this morning.

DUTCH:
Terstond verbrak hij ‘t zegel;
En nauwlijks had hij ‘t eerste stuk ontvouwd,
Of hij werd ernstig; heel zijn wezen drukte
Zijn spanning uit.

MORE:
Packet=Package of papers
Presently=Immediately
Heed=Attention
Countenance=Face, expression
Compleat:
Presently=Terstond, opstaandevoet
Heed=Hoede, zorg, acht, toezigt
To heed=Acht hebben, in acht neemen
Countenance=Gelaat, gezigt, uytzigt, weezen

Topics: appearance, concern

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

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

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

Topics: memory, value, appearance, nature

PLAY: As You Like It
ACT/SCENE: 5.4
SPEAKER: Duke Senior
CONTEXT:
JAQUES
Is not this a rare fellow, my lord? He’s as good at anything
and yet a fool.
DUKE SENIOR
He uses his folly like a stalking-horse, and under the presentation
of that he shoots his wit.
HYMEN
Then is there mirth in heaven
When earthly things, made even,
Atone together.

DUTCH:
Hij gebruikt zijn narrerij als een vogelaar zijn paard, en schuilt er achter om zijn pijlen af te schieten.

MORE:
Stalking horse=Horse used as a hide (hunting)
Presentation=Appearance
Compleat:
Stalking horse=Een jachtpaerd
Atone=Verzoeen, bevreedigen

Burgersdijk notes:
Als een vogelaar zijn paard. Like a stalking-horse. Een echt, opgezet, houten of geschilderd paard, waarachter de vogelaar wegschool; zoo schiet ook de nar zijn geest (his wit) af.

Topics: intellect, skill/talent, appearance

PLAY: Cymbeline
ACT/SCENE: 1.3
SPEAKER: First Lord
CONTEXT:
CLOTEN
I would they had not come between us.
SECOND LORD
So would I, till you had measured how long
a fool you were upon the ground.
CLOTEN
And that she should love this fellow and refuse me!
SECOND LORD
If it be a sin to make a true election, she
is damned.
FIRST LORD
Sir, as I told you always, her beauty and her brain
go not together: she’s a good sign, but I have seen
small reflection of her wit.
SECOND LORD
She shines not upon fools, lest the
reflection should hurt her.

DUTCH:
Zooals ik u altijd zeide, heer, haar verstand houdt
geen gelijken tred met haar schoonheid.

MORE:
Proverb: Beauty and folly are often matched together

In Shakespeare’s time beauty was seen as a signifier of virtue. See Thomas Hoby’s translation of the Castiglione’s Book of the Courtier (1561). Fourth Book: True beauty, the reflection of goodness.
Her beauty and her brain go not together=Her brain can’t match her beauty.
A good sign=Semblance. (Fig.: something of a deceptive semblance, not answering the promise)
Reflection=Shining back AND thoughtful consideration
Compleat:
Reflection=Terugkaatzing
Reflection=Overdenking, overpeinzing

Topics: appearance, intellect, perception, proverbs and idioms

PLAY: As You Like It
ACT/SCENE: 5.4
SPEAKER: Jaques
CONTEXT:
ORLANDO
My lord, the first time that I ever saw him
Methought he was a brother to your daughter.
But, my good lord, this boy is forest-born
And hath been tutored in the rudiments
Of many desperate studies by his uncle,
Whom he reports to be a great magician
Obscurèd in the circle of this forest.
JAQUES
There is sure another flood toward, and these couples
are coming to the ark. Here comes a pair of very strange
beasts, which in all tongues are called fools.
TOUCHSTONE
Salutation and greeting to you all.
JAQUES
Good my lord, bid him welcome. This is the
motley-minded gentleman that I have so often met in the
forest. He hath been a courtier, he swears.

DUTCH:
Daar komt een paar zeer vreemde beesten aan, die in alle talen den naam van narren dragen.

MORE:
Desperate=Dangerous
Obscurèd=Hidden
Toward=Near at hand, on its way
Motley-minded=As confused as the jester’s costume
Compleat:
Obscured=Verdonkerd, verduisterd
Toward=Na toe
Motley=Een grove gemengelde

Topics: appearance, reputation, language, intellect

PLAY: The Two Gentlemen of Verona
ACT/SCENE: 1.2
SPEAKER: Julia
CONTEXT:
JULIA
And yet I would I had o’erlooked the letter:
It were a shame to call her back again
And pray her to a fault for which I chid her.
What a fool is she, that knows I am a maid,
And would not force the letter to my view!
Since maids, in modesty, say ‘no’ to that
Which they would have the profferer construe ‘ay.’
Fie, fie, how wayward is this foolish love
That, like a testy babe, will scratch the nurse
And presently all humbled kiss the rod!
How churlishly I chid Lucetta hence,
When willingly I would have had her here!
How angerly I taught my brow to frown,
When inward joy enforced my heart to smile!
My penance is to call Lucetta back
And ask remission for my folly past.
What ho! Lucetta!

DUTCH:
Hoe vinnig keef ik daar Lucetta weg,
Toen ik haar innig gaarne bij mij hield;
Hoe toornig plooide ik mijn gelaat tot rimpels,
Terwijl de vreugd mijn hart tot lachen dwong!

MORE:
Overlooked=Examined
Shame=Shameful
Pray to=Beg, entreat
Chid=Scolded
Testy=Irritable
Remission=Pardon
Compleat:
Shame (reproach, ignominy)=Schande
Shamefull=Schandelyk, snood; Op een schandelyke wyze
Pray=Verzoeken
Chide=Kyven, bekyven
Testy=Korzel, kribbig, gramsteurig, gemelyk
Remission=Vergiffenis, vergeeving, quytschelding

Topics: love, emotion and mood, appearance, mercy, regret

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

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

MORE:

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

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

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

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

PLAY: King Henry IV Part 1
ACT/SCENE: 2.4
SPEAKER: Prince Hal
CONTEXT:
Here comes lean Jack. Here comes bare-bone.—How now, my sweet creature of bombast? How long is ’t ago, Jack, since thou sawest thine own knee?

DUTCH:
Daar komt schrale Hans, daar komt Klapperbeen.—Nu, mijn allerliefste watten popje! hoe lang is het geleden, Hans, dat je je eigen knie gezien hebt?

MORE:
Cotgrave: “Cottoner. To bumbast, stuff with cotton”.
Schmidt:
Lean=Wanting flesh, meager, thin
Bare-bone=Lean skinny person
Bombast=Cotton used to stuff out garments
Compleat:
Bombast=Bombazyne of kattoene voering; fustian
Bombast=Hoogdraavende wartaal, ydel gezwets
To bumbast=Met bombazyn voeren
Bumbast: Bombazyn als ook Brommende woorden

Topics: insult, language, appearance

PLAY: King Henry V
ACT/SCENE: 2.2
SPEAKER: Westmorland
CONTEXT:

NYM
The king is a good king, but it must be as it may.
He passes some humours and careers.
PISTOL
Let us condole the knight, for, lambkins, we will live.
BEDFORD
’Fore God, his Grace is bold to trust these traitors.
EXETER
They shall be apprehended by and by.
WESTMORELAND
How smooth and even they do bear themselves,
As if allegiance in their bosoms sat
Crownèd with faith and constant loyalty.
BEDFORD
The king hath note of all that they intend,
By interception which they dream not of.

DUTCH:
Wat doen zij zich eenvoudig, arg’loos voor,
Alsof de oprechtheid in hun boezem woonde,
Gekroond door liefde en ongekrenkte trouw.

MORE:

Passes humours=Indulges in strange tendencies
Careers=Short sprints, race
Smooth=unruffled, even, balanced
Hath note of=Is informed of
Interception=The stopping and seizing of something in its passage
Constant=Faithful

Compleat:
The humours=De humeuren van het lichaam; grillen
Humour (dispositon of the mind)=Humeur, of gemoeds gesteldheid

Topics: deceit, conspiracy, appearance, loyalty, betrayal

PLAY: Othello
ACT/SCENE: 2.1
SPEAKER: Desdemona
CONTEXT:
DESDEMONA
I am not merry, but I do beguile
The thing I am by seeming otherwise.
Come, how wouldst thou praise me?
IAGO
I am about it, but indeed my invention
Comes from my pate as birdlime does from frieze,
It plucks out brains and all. But my Muse labours
And thus she is delivered:
If she be fair and wise, fairness and wit,
The one’s for use, the other useth it.

DUTCH:
Ik ben niet vroolijk, neen, maar ik misleid
Wat ik in waarheid ben, door vreemden schijn.

MORE:
Beguile=Divert attention from
Birdlime=Sticky substance put on trees to catch small birds
Frieze=Coarse woollen cloth
Compleat:
Beguile=Bedriegen, om den tuin leiden
Bird-lime=Vogellym
Frieze=Friesdoek

Topics: appearance, perception

PLAY: King Henry VI Part 3
ACT/SCENE: 3.2
SPEAKER: Gloucester
CONTEXT:
Why, I can smile, and murder whiles I smile,
And cry ‘Content’ to that which grieves my heart,
And wet my cheeks with artificial tears,
And frame my face to all occasions.
I’ll drown more sailors than the mermaid shall;
I’ll slay more gazers than the basilisk;
I’ll play the orator as well as Nestor,
Deceive more slily than Ulysses could,
And, like a Sinon, take another Troy.
I can add colours to the chameleon,
Change shapes with Proteus for advantages,
And set the murderous Machiavel to school.
Can I do this, and cannot get a crown?
Tut, were it farther off, I’ll pluck it down.

DUTCH:
Ik kan ‘t kameleon zelfs kleuren leenen,
Als Proteus mij verand’ren , beter zelfs,
Den wreeden Macchiavelli lesjens geven;

MORE:

Proverb: The chameleon can change to all colours save white
Proverb: As many shapes as Proteus
Proverb: The basilisk’s eye is fatal

Artificial=Fake, feigned
Basilisk=Serpent whose gaze was fatal
Nestor=A wise and eloquent warrior in the Trojan War.
Ulysses (or Odysseus)=King of Ithaca, known for his cunning.
Sinon=The Greek soldier responsible for the fall of Troy, who delivered the Wooden Horse concealing the soldiers who attacked the city
Proteus=A shape-shifting sea god.
Machieavel=Niccolò Machiavelli, Italian political philosopher known for ruthless political deception and cunning.

Compleat:
Artificial=Konstig, behendig, aardig, dat niet natuurlyk is
Basilisk=Een basiliskus, als ook zeker zwaar geschut, een Slang genaamd

Topics: deceit, proverbs and idioms, deceit, appearance, betrayal

PLAY: All’s Well that Ends Well
ACT/SCENE: 2.3
SPEAKER: Lafew
CONTEXT:
LAFEW
I did think thee, for two ordinaries, to be a pretty wise fellow: thou didst make tolerable vent of thy travel; it might pass: yet the scarfs and the bannerets about thee did manifoldly dissuade me from believing thee a vessel of too great a burthen.
I have now found thee; when I lose thee again, I care not; yet art thou good for nothing but taking up, and that thou’rt scarce worth.
PAROLLES
Hadst thou not the privilege of antiquity upon thee
LAFEW
Do not plunge thyself too far in anger, lest thou
hasten thy trial; which if—Lord have mercy on thee
for a hen! So, my good window of lattice, fare thee
well: thy casement I need not open, for I look
through thee. Give me thy hand.
PAROLLES
My lord, you give me most egregious indignity.

DUTCH:
Ik hield u, nadat ik een paar maal met u aan een open tafel gezeten had, voor een redelijk verstandigen knaap; gij maaktet tamelijk veel ophef van uw reizen;
dit kon er mee door; maar die wimpels en vlaggen aan u weerhielden mij telkens, u voor een schip met al te
groote lading te houden.

MORE:
Proverb: As good (better) lost as (than) found

Ordinaries=Mealtimes
Tolerable vent=Reasonable account
Banneret=Little flag
Taking up=Contradict
Window of lattice=Transparent like a latticed window (punning on Lettice, used for ruffs and caps)
Casement=Part of a window that opens on a hinge
Egregious=Extraordinary, enormous
Indignity=Contemptuous injury, insult
Compleat:
Ordinary=Drooggastery, Gaarkeuken, Ordinaris
Vent=Lugt, togt, gerucht
To eat ant an ordinary=In een ordinaris eten
Take up=Berispen; bestraffen
Lattice=Een houten traali
Casement=Een kykvernstertje, een glaze venster dat men open doet
Egregious=Treffelyk, braaf, heerlyk
Indignity=Smaad

Topics: proverbs and idioms, wisdom, appearance, discovery, understanding

PLAY: All’s Well that Ends Well
ACT/SCENE: 1.1
SPEAKER: Lafew
CONTEXT:
COUNTESS
‘Tis the best brine a maiden can season her praise
in. The remembrance of her father never approaches
her heart but the tyranny of her sorrows takes all
livelihood from her cheek. No more of this, HELEN;
go to, no more; lest it be rather thought you affect
a sorrow than have it.
HELEN
I do affect a sorrow indeed, but I have it too.
LAFEW
Moderate lamentation is the right of the dead,
excessive grief the enemy to the living.
COUNTESS
If the living be enemy to the grief, the excess
makes it soon mortal.

DUTCH:
t Is waar, ik toon kommer, maar ik heb dien ook.

MORE:
Affect=An outward show
Mortal=Deadly
Season=Preserve
Livelihood=Liveliness, spirit
Right=Owed to
Compleat:
Affect=Naäapen
Affectation=Gemaaktheid
Mortal=Sterflyk, doodelyk
Birth-right=Geboorte-recht
Lamentation=Weeklaage, jammerklagt, gekerm, geklag

Burgersdijk notes:
Kruiden kan. In ‘t Engelsch season, kruiden, waarbij het denkbeeld van conserveeren, bewaren, in frisschen staat houden, steeds komt; vergelijk Romeo en Julia, II.3, en Driekoningenavond, 1.1.
Als de levende een vijand is van droefenis. “If the living be enemy to the grief, the excess makes it soon mortal”. De gravin herhaalt en dringt aan, wat LAFEW gezegd heeft, dat HELEN zich niet te zeer aan hare droefheid moet overgeven, met de smart niet to zeer in vijandschap moet leven, want dat overmaat van smart doodelijk is . Mortal is namelijk hetzelfde als deadly, fatal .(…)

Topics: death, grief, appearance, excess

PLAY: Troilus and Cressida
ACT/SCENE: 3.3
SPEAKER: Ulysses
CONTEXT:
ULYSSES
I do not strain at the position,—
It is familiar,—but at the author’s drift;
Who, in his circumstance, expressly proves
That no man is the lord of any thing,
Though in and of him there be much consisting,
Till he communicate his parts to others:
Nor doth he of himself know them for aught
Till he behold them formed in the applause
Where they’re extended; who, like an arch, reverberates
The voice again, or, like a gate of steel
Fronting the sun, receives and renders back
His figure and his heat. I was much wrapt in this;
And apprehended here immediately
The unknown Ajax.
Heavens, what a man is there! a very horse,
That has he knows not what. Nature, what things there are
Most abject in regard and dear in use!
What things again most dear in the esteem
And poor in worth! Now shall we see to-morrow—
An act that very chance doth throw upon him—
Ajax renowned. O heavens, what some men do,
While some men leave to do!
How some men creep in skittish fortune’s hall,
Whiles others play the idiots in her eyes!
How one man eats into another’s pride,
While pride is fasting in his wantonness!
To see these Grecian lords!— why, even already
They clap the lubber Ajax on the shoulder,
As if his foot were on brave Hector’s breast
And great Troy shrinking.

DUTCH:
Wat mij verbaast, is niet de stelling zelf,
Die elk wel kent, maar wel ‘t besluit des schrijvers

MORE:
Strain at=Struggle to accept
Position=Argument
Drift=Meaning, gist
Circumstance=Detail of an argument
Expressly=In full, explicitly
In and of=He and his actions
Consisting=Quality, substance
Parts=Qualities
Formed in=Reflected in
Arch=Vault
Figure=Appearance
Abject in regard=Despised
Dear in use=Useful
Dear in the esteem=Highly regarded
Poor in worth=Of little value
Lubber=Lout
Shrinking=Weakening
Compleat:
Strain hard=Alle zyne krachten inspannen; lustig zyn best doen
Position=Legging, stelling
Drift=Oogmerk, opzet, vaart
Circumstance=Omstandigheyd
Circumstanced=Met omstandigheden belegd, onder omstandigheden begreepen
Expressely or Expresly=Duidelyk; uitdrukkelyk
Consistence=Bestaanlykheid; saamenbestaanlykheid
Parts=Deelen, hoedaanigheden, begaafdheden
Form=Wyze, gedaante
Arch=Een gewelf, boog
Figure (or representation)=Afbeelding
Figure (or appearance)=Gedaante, aanzien
Abject=Veracht, gering, snood, lafhartig, verworpen
Dear=Waard, lief, dierbaar, duur
Lubber=Een sul, slokker, zwabber, een lubbert

Topics: communication, persuasion, reputation, value, appearance, merit

PLAY:
ACT/SCENE: 1.4
SPEAKER: Kent
CONTEXT:
I do profess to be no less than I seem, to serve him truly that will put me in trust, to love him that is honest, to converse with him that is wise and says little, to fear judgement, to fight when I cannot choose, and to eat no fish.

DUTCH:

MORE:
Profess=Declare, claim as a calling or trade.
Eat no fish=May mean not a Papist (Re.: Catholic abstenance from meat on Fridays but not fish)

Topics: identity, claim, appearance, identity, honesty, trust, integrity

PLAY: Twelfth Night
ACT/SCENE: 1.4
SPEAKER: Orsino
CONTEXT:
ORSINO
Dear lad, believe it.
For they shall yet belie thy happy years
That say thou art a man. Diana’s lip
Is not more smooth and rubious. Thy small pipe
Is as the maiden’s organ, shrill and sound,
And all is semblative a woman’s part.
I know thy constellation is right apt
For this affair.
Some four or five attend him.
All, if you will, for I myself am best
When least in company. Prosper well in this,
And thou shalt live as freely as thy lord,
To call his fortunes thine.

DUTCH:
Hoe min gewoel hoe liever; ‘t allerbest
Is de eenzaamheid. — Heb voorspoed op uw tocht,
En noem dan, vrij gelijk uw vorst, al ‘t zijne
Het uwe.

MORE:
Proverb: Never less alone than when alone
Proverb: He is never alone who is accompanied by noble thoughts

Belie=Misrepresent
Pipe=Voice
Semblative=Like
Constellation=Character, talent
Freely=Independently
Compleat:
Belie (bely)=Beliegen
Constellation=Gesternte, ‘t zamensterring, Hemelteken
Freely=Vryelyk

Topics: proverbs and idioms, imagination, independence, appearance, nature

PLAY: The Two Gentlemen of Verona
ACT/SCENE: 1.3
SPEAKER: Lucetta
CONTEXT:
LUCETTA
Madam,
Dinner is ready, and your father stays.
JULIA
Well, let us go.
LUCETTA
What, shall these papers lie like tell-tales here?
JULIA
If you respect them, best to take them up.
LUCETTA
Nay, I was taken up for laying them down:
Yet here they shall not lie, for catching cold.
JULIA
I see you have a month’s mind to them.
LUCETTA
Ay, madam, you may say what sights you see;
I see things too, although you judge I wink.

DUTCH:
Ja goed, mejonkvrouw, zeg maar, wat gij ziet;
Maar ik zie ook, al denkt ge dat ik dommel.

MORE:
Stays=Is waiting
Tell-tales=Ready to divulge secrets
Respect=Value
Taken up=Rebuked
For=For fear of
Month’s mind=Great longing
Wink=Sleep, eyes closed
Compleat:
To stay=Wachten, stil staan, stil houden, vertoeven; stuyten
Tell-tale=Een verklikker, klikspaan
Respect=Aanzien, opzigt, inzigt, ontzag, eerbiedigheyd
Wink=Knikken, winken, blikken

Burgersdijk notes:
Dat gij ze diep vereert. Er staat: you have a month mind to them, gij zijt er zeer belust Op, zooals een vrouw soms heftige, voorbijgaande veelangsten heeft.

Topics: appearance, understanding, perception

PLAY: The Merry Wives of Windsor
ACT/SCENE:
SPEAKER: Falstaff
CONTEXT:
FALSTAFF
I would all the world might be cozened; for I have
been cozened and beaten too. If it should come to
the ear of the court, how I have been transformed
and how my transformation hath been washed and
cudgelled, they would melt me out of my fat drop by
drop and liquor fishermen’s boots with me; I warrant
they would whip me with their fine wits till I were
as crest-fallen as a dried pear. I never prospered
since I forswore myself at primero. Well, if my
wind were but long enough to say my prayers, I would
repent.

DUTCH:
Ik wed, dat zij mij met hun kwinkslagen
zouden geeselen, tot ik ingeschrompeld was als
een gedroogde peer.

MORE:
Proverb: Fat drops from fat flesh

Cozened=Cheated, tricked
Liquor=Grease
Crestfallen=Dispirited
Compleat:
Cozen=Bedriegen
To liquor boots=Laarzen smeeren
Crest-fallen=Die de kuyf laat hangen, die de moed opgeeft, neerslagtig

Burgersdijk notes:
Primero. Een kaartspel, thans onbekend, ook in K, Hendrik VIII, 5.1, vermeld.

Topics: proverbs and idioms|intellect|appearance|deceit

PLAY: Twelfth Night
ACT/SCENE: 1.5
SPEAKER: Feste
CONTEXT:
OLIVIA
Sir, I bade them take away you.
FOOL
Misprision in the highest degree! Lady, Cucullus non
facit monachum— that’s as much to say as I wear not
motley in my brain. Good madonna, give me leave to prove
you a fool.
OLIVIA
Can you do it?
FOOL
Dexterously, good madonna.
OLIVIA
Make your proof.
FOOL
I must catechise you for it, madonna. Good my mouse of
virtue, answer me.

DUTCH:
Misvatting in den hoogsten graad! — Mejonkvrouw,
cucullus non facit monachum, wat zooveel zeggen wil als:
mijn hersenen zijn niet zoo bont als mijn pak.

MORE:
Misprision=1) Contempt; 2) Mistake, wrong or false imprisonment
Cucullus non facit monachum=The cowl does not make the monk
Motley=Brighty coloured outfit worn by the fool
Compleat:
Misprision=Verwaarloozing, verzuyming, verachteloozing
A monk’s cowl=Een monniks kap
A motly colour=Een grove gemengelde of donker gryze koleur
Dexterously=Behendiglyk

Burgersdijk notes:
Cucullus non facit monachum. “De kap maakt den monnik niet.”

Topics: appearance, gullibility

PLAY: Coriolanus
ACT/SCENE: 2.3
SPEAKER:
CONTEXT:
FOURTH CITIZEN
You have deserved nobly of your country, and you
have not deserved nobly.
CORIOLANUS
Your enigma?
FOURTH CITIZEN
You have been a scourge to her enemies, you have
been a rod to her friends; you have not indeed loved
the common people.
CORIOLANUS
You should account me the more virtuous that I have
not been common in my love. I will, sir, flatter my
sworn brother, the people, to earn a dearer
estimation of them; ’tis a condition they account
gentle: and since the wisdom of their choice is
rather to have my hat than my heart, I will practise
the insinuating nod and be off to them most
counterfeitly; that is, sir, I will counterfeit the
bewitchment of some popular man and give it
bountiful to the desirers. Therefore, beseech you,
I may be consul.
FIFTH CITIZEN
We hope to find you our friend; and therefore give
you our voices heartily.
FOURTH CITIZEN
You have received many wounds for your country.
CORIOLANUS
I will not seal your knowledge with showing them. I
will make much of your voices, and so trouble you no
further.

DUTCH:
En daar zij, in de wijsheid-schap, die hunner keus, van mijn hoed meer gediend zijn dan van mijn hart, wil ik het innemend knikken beoefenen en zooveel mogelijk door naaiping met hen op goeden voet zien te komen; dat wil zeggen, vriend, ik wil de tooverkunsten van den een of anderen volkslieveling naapen, en daar mild mee zijn jegens ieder, die er van gediend is.

MORE:
Enigma=Riddle
Scourge=Torment
Rod=Punishment
Account=Consider, reckon
Dearer=Better
Hat=Cap-doffing
Counterfeit=Imitate
Bewitchment=Charms
Voices=Votes
Seal your knowledge=Confirm what you know
Compleat:
Scourge=Geessel; plaag, pest
To scourge=Kastyden
To account=Rekenen, achten
To doff=Afligen, afdoen
Counterfeit=Naamaaksel, falsch
Bewitching=Betovering
Voice=Stem, recht van stemmen

Topics: honour, loyalty, appearance, deceit, manipulation

PLAY: Coriolanus
ACT/SCENE: 2.3
SPEAKER: Coriolanus
CONTEXT:
CORIOLANUS
Pray you now, if it may stand with the tune of your
voices that I may be consul, I have here the
customary gown.
FOURTH CITIZEN
You have deserved nobly of your country, and you
have not deserved nobly.
CORIOLANUS
Your enigma?
FOURTH CITIZEN
You have been a scourge to her enemies, you have
been a rod to her friends; you have not indeed loved
the common people.
CORIOLANUS
You should account me the more virtuous that I have
not been common in my love. I will, sir, flatter my
sworn brother, the people, to earn a dearer
estimation of them; ’tis a condition they account
gentle: and since the wisdom of their choice is
rather to have my hat than my heart, I will practise
the insinuating nod and be off to them most
counterfeitly; that is, sir, I will counterfeit the
bewitchment of some popular man and give it
bountiful to the desirers. Therefore, beseech you,
I may be consul.
FIFTH CITIZEN
We hope to find you our friend; and therefore give
you our voices heartily.

DUTCH:
En daar zij, in de wijsheid-schap, die hunner keus, van mijn hoed meer gediend zijn dan van mijn hart, wil ik het innemend knikken beoefenen en zooveel mogelijk door naaiping met hen op goeden voet zien te komen; dat wil zeggen, vriend, ik wil de tooverkunsten van den een of anderen volkslieveling naapen, en daar mild mee zijn jegens ieder, die er van gediend is.

MORE:
A dearer estimation of them=That they will think more of me, hold me in higher esteem
Be off to them=Doff my cap to them
Counterfeitly=Feigning respect
Condition=Quality, trait
Gentle=Noble, polite
Popular man=A man who courts popular favour
Bountiful=Liberally
Compleat:
Gentle=Aardig, edelmoedig
Counterfeit=Valsch
Popular=By ‘t gemeene volk bemind, wel by ‘t volk gewild, gemeenzaam
He was a popular man=Hy was een man die wel by ‘t volk gewild was; die zig naar ‘t volk voegde, of die de gunst des volks zocht te verkrygen.

Topics: status, deceit, appearance, order/society, authority, manipulation

PLAY: King Henry VI Part 2
ACT/SCENE: 5.1
SPEAKER: Buckingham
CONTEXT:
YORK
Whom have we here? Buckingham, to disturb me?
The king hath sent him, sure: I must dissemble.
BUCKINGHAM
York, if thou meanest well, I greet thee well.
YORK
Humphrey of Buckingham, I accept thy greeting.
Art thou a messenger, or come of pleasure?
BUCKINGHAM
A messenger from Henry, our dread liege,
To know the reason of these arms in peace;
Or why thou, being a subject as I am,
Against thy oath and true allegiance sworn,
Should raise so great a power without his leave,
Or dare to bring thy force so near the court.

DUTCH:
Zoo gij als vriend komt, York, dan groet ik vriendlijk.

MORE:

Dissemble=Assume a false appearance
Arms=Army
Dread=Greatly revered

Compleat:
To dissemble (conceal)=Bedekken, bewimpelen; veinzen, ontveinzen, verbloemen
Dread sovereign=Geduchte Vorst

Topics: appearance, deceit, civility, purpose, loyalty

PLAY: Richard III
ACT/SCENE: 3.7
SPEAKER: Buckingham
CONTEXT:
RICHARD
What tongueless blocks were they! Would not they speak?
Will not the mayor then and his brethren come?
BUCKINGHAM
The Mayor is here at hand. Intend some fear;
Be not you spoke with but by mighty suit.
And look you get a prayer book in your hand
And stand between two churchmen, good my lord,
For on that ground I’ll make a holy descant.
And be not easily won to our requests.
Play the maid’s part: still answer “nay,” and take it.
RICHARD
I go. An if you plead as well for them
As I can say “nay” to thee for myself,
No doubt we bring it to a happy issue.

DUTCH:
Want op dien grond vertrouw ik, hen te stichten .
Goof ook aan hun verzoek niet snel gehoor,
Maar speel een meisjesrol: zeg „neen”, en grijp het .

MORE:
Proverb: Maids say nay and take it

Brethren=The aldermen
Intend=Pretend
Mighty=Important, weighty
Suit=Petition
Descant=Commentary
Won to=Persuaded by
Compleat:
Brethren=Broeders
Suit=Een verzoek, rechtsgeding
Mighty=Magtig
Descant=Uytbreyding in een reede

Burgersdijk notes:
Want op dien grond vertrouw ik hen te stichten. In het Engelsch bevat de tekst een muzikale
woordspeling: For on that ground I’ll make a holy descant. Ground beteekent zoowel grond als grondtoon, bas; descant zoowel een toelichting, breedvoerige uiteenzetting als hooge stem, discant.

Topics: proverbs and idioms, insult, persuasion, appearance

PLAY: The Merchant of Venice
ACT/SCENE: 3.2
SPEAKER: Bassanio
CONTEXT:
BASSANIO
(…) Look on beauty,
And you shall see ’tis purchased by the weight,
Which therein works a miracle in nature,
Making them lightest that wear most of it.
So are those crispèd snaky golden locks
Which maketh such wanton gambols with the wind,
Upon supposèd fairness, often known
To be the dowry of a second head,
The skull that bred them in the sepulcher.
Thus ornament is but the guilèd shore
To a most dangerous sea, the beauteous scarf
Veiling an Indian beauty—in a word,
The seeming truth which cunning times put on
To entrap the wisest. Therefore then, thou gaudy gold,
Hard food for Midas, I will none of thee.
Nor none of thee, thou pale and common drudge
‘Tween man and man. But thou, thou meagre lead,
Which rather threaten’st than dost promise aught,
Thy paleness moves me more than eloquence,
And here choose I. Joy be the consequence!

DUTCH:
In één woord, schijnwaarheid, tooisel van den sluwen tijd, Om wijzen te verstrikken.

MORE:
Cunning=dexterous and trickish in dissembling.
Guilèd=Armed with deceit, treacherous
Crispèd=Curled
Drudge=Labourer
Compleat:
Cunning=Listigheid
To entrap=Verstrikken, vangen, betrappen (van Trap, een val.)

Topics: emotion and mood, misquoted

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

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

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

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

PLAY: 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

PLAY: The Merchant of Venice
ACT/SCENE: 2.9
SPEAKER: Arragon
CONTEXT:
ARRAGON
And so have I addressed me. Fortune now
To my heart’s hope! Gold, silver, and base lead.
“Who chooseth me must give and hazard all he hath.”
You shall look fairer ere I give or hazard.
What says the golden chest? Ha, let me see.
“Who chooseth me shall gain what many men desire.”
“What many men desire”—that “many” may be meant
By the fool multitude that choose by show,
Not learning more than the fond eye doth teach;
Which pries not to th’ interior, but like the martlet
Builds in the weather on the outward wall,
Even in the force and road of casualty.
I will not choose what many men desire
Because I will not jump with common spirits
And rank me with the barbarous multitudes.
Why then, to thee, thou silver treasure house.
Tell me once more what title thou dost bear.
“Who chooseth me shall get as much as he deserves.”
And well said too—for who shall go about
To cozen fortune and be honorable
Without the stamp of merit? Let none presume
To wear an undeserved dignity.
Oh, that estates, degrees and offices
Were not derived corruptly, and that clear honor
Were purchased by the merit of the wearer!
How many then should cover that stand bare!
How many be commanded that command!
How much low peasantry would then be gleaned
From the true seed of honor! And how much honor
Picked from the chaff and ruin of the times
To be new varnished! Well, but to my choice.
“Who chooseth me shall get as much as he deserves.”
I will assume desert.—Give me a key for this,
And instantly unlock my fortunes here.

DUTCH:
Dat niemand
Een onverdiende waardigheid zich eigen’!
O, werden goed’ren, rang en ambten nooit
Op laakb’re wijs verworven; eere steeds
Onwraakbaar, door verdienste alleen, gekocht!

MORE:
CITED IN EWCA LAW:
Cruddas v Calvert & Ors [2013] EWCA Civ 748 (21 June 2013)
DeRonde v. Regents of the Univ. of California, 102 Cal. App. 3d 221 (1980): “We close with a quotation from Shakespeare, who so eloquently reminds us that competition on the basis of merit alone is the lifeblood of a democratic society: ‘For who shall go about….’.”

Fool multitude=foolish commoners
Fond=doting, simple.
Fond eye=what meets the eye
Jump with=agree with
Barbarous=ignorant, unlettered
Cozen=cheat
Undeservèd=unmerited
Dignity=Elevated rank, high office
Compleat:
Multitude=Menigte, veelheid, het gemeene volk, het gepeupel
Jump (to agree)=Het ééns worden, overenstemmen.
Their opinions jump much with ours=Hunne gevoelens komen veel met de onzen overeen
Wits jump always together=De groote verstanden beulen altijd saamenCozen=Bedriegen
Merit=Verdienste.
What ever may be said of him wil fall short of his merit=Alles wat men van hem zeggen kan, is minder dan zyne verdienste.
Dignity (Merit, importance)=Waardigheid, Staat-ampt, verdiensten.
Dignity (Greatness, Nobleness)=Grootheid, Adelykheid.

Topics: emotion and mood, misquoted

PLAY: King Henry IV Part 2
ACT/SCENE: 2.2
SPEAKER: Prince Hal
CONTEXT:
By this hand, thou thinkest me as far in the
devil’s book as thou and Falstaff for obduracy and
persistency. Let the end try the man. But I tell thee,
my heart bleeds inwardly that my father is so sick;
and keeping such vile company as thou art hath in
reason taken from me all ostentation of sorrow.

DUTCH:
Het eind zal ‘t leeren.

MORE:

Proverb: The end crowns (tries) all

Schmidt:
Obduracy=Hardness of heart, impenitence in wickedness
Ostentation=External show, display (here not boastful)

Compleat:
Ostentation=Beroeming, snorkery, ydele eer, roemzucht, gebral
Obduracy=Hardnekkigheid, verstoktheid

Topics: time, life, age/experience, appearance

PLAY: The Taming of the Shrew
ACT/SCENE: 4.1
SPEAKER: Grumio
CONTEXT:
CURTIS
By this reck’ning he is more shrew than she.
GRUMIO
Ay, and that thou and the proudest of you all shall
find when he comes home. But what talk I of this? Call
forth Nathaniel, Joseph, Nicholas, Philip, Walter,
Sugarsop, and the rest. Let their heads be slickly
combed, their blue coats brushed, and their garters of
an indifferent knit. Let them curtsy with their left
legs, and not presume to touch a hair of my master’s
horse-tail till they kiss their hands. Are they all
ready?

DUTCH:
Laten zij hun haar goed glad kammen, hun blauwe kamizolen goed borstelen en hun kousebanden gelijk strikken ; laten ze een buiging maken met hun linkerbeenen ; en het hart niet hebben om een haar aan te raken van mijn meesters paardestaart, voordat ze hun handen gekust hebben.

MORE:
By this reckoning=On that basis, calculation
Blue coats=Uniform
Indifferent=Matching, plain
Curtsy=Show respect
Left legs=To curtsy with the right leg was a sign of defiance
Compleat:
Indifferent=Onvercheelig, middelmaatig, koelzinnig, onzydig, passelyk, taamelyk, tussenbeyde
Curtsy=Nyging, genyg
Make a courtsey (curtsy)=Nygen

Topics: appearance, civility, order/society

PLAY: The Taming of the Shrew
ACT/SCENE: 4.3
SPEAKER: Petruchio
CONTEXT:
PETRUCHIO
Well, come, my Kate. We will unto your father’s
Even in these honest mean habiliments.
Our purses shall be proud, our garments poor,
For ’tis the mind that makes the body rich,
And as the sun breaks through the darkest clouds,
So honour peereth in the meanest habit.
What, is the jay more precious than the lark
Because his feathers are more beautiful?
Or is the adder better than the eel
Because his painted skin contents the eye?
Oh, no, good Kate. Neither art thou the worse
For this poor furniture and mean array.
If thou account’st it shame, lay it on me,
And therefore frolic! We will hence forthwith
To feast and sport us at thy father’s house.
Go, call my men, and let us straight to him,
And bring our horses unto Long Lane end.
There will we mount, and thither walk on foot.
Let’s see, I think ’tis now some seven o’clock,
And well we may come there by dinnertime.
KATHERINE
I dare assure you, sir, ’tis almost two,
And ’twill be supper time ere you come there.
PETRUCHIO
It shall be seven ere I go to horse.
Look what I speak, or do, or think to do,
You are still crossing it. Sirs, let ’t alone.
I will not go today, and ere I do
It shall be what o’clock I say it is.

DUTCH:
Wie schat den meerkol hooger dan den leeuwrik,
Omdat zijn veed’ren fraaier zijn van kleur?

MORE:
Mean habiliments=Plain clothes
Proud=Full
Peereth=Peeps out, can be seen
Habit=Attire
Painted=Patterned
Furniture=Clothes
Array=Attire
Lay it on=Blame
Look what=Whatever
Still=Always
Crossing=Contradicting
Compleat:
Habiliment=Kleeding, dos, gewaad
To peer out=Uitmunten, uitsteeken
Habit=Een kleed, gewaad, dos
Furniture=Stoffeersel
Array=Gewaad, kleeding
To lay upon=Opleggen, te laste leggen
Still=Steeds, gestadig, altyd
To cross=Tegenstreeven, dwars voor de boeg komen, dwarsboomen, wederestreeven, kruisen

Topics: fashion/trends, poverty and wealth, appearance, value, vanity

PLAY: Othello
ACT/SCENE: 3.3
SPEAKER: Iago
CONTEXT:
IAGO
Men should be what they seem;
Or those that be not, would they might seem none!
OTHELLO
Certain, men should be what they seem.
IAGO
Why then, I think Cassio’s an honest man.
OTHELLO
Nay, yet there’s more in this.
I prithee speak to me as to thy thinkings,
As thou dost ruminate, and give thy worst of thoughts
The worst of words.
IAGO
Good my lord, pardon me;
Though I am bound to every act of duty,
I am not bound to that all slaves are free to.
Utter my thoughts! Why, say they are vile and false?
As where’s that palace, whereinto foul things
Sometimes intrude not? Who has a breast so pure,
But some uncleanly apprehensions
Keep leets and law-days, and in session sit
With meditations lawful?

DUTCH:
Een mensch zij, wat hij schijnt;
En die ‘t niet is, neme ook den schijn niet aan.

MORE:
Proverb: Be what thou would seem to be
Proverb: Thought is free

Ruminate=To muse, to meditate, to ponder
Leet=A manor court, court-leet, private jurisdiction; a day on which such court is held
Apprehensions=Ideas
Compleat:
To ruminate upon (to consider of) a thing=Eene zaak overweegen
Leet, Court leet=Een gerechtshof
Leet-days=Recht-dagen
Apprehension=Bevatting, begryping; jaloezy, achterdogt

Topics: proverbs and idioms, language, duty, betrayal, appearance

PLAY: All’s Well that Ends Well
ACT/SCENE: 1.1
SPEAKER: Lafew
CONTEXT:
COUNTESS
‘Tis the best brine a maiden can season her praise
in. The remembrance of her father never approaches
her heart but the tyranny of her sorrows takes all
livelihood from her cheek. No more of this, HELEN;
go to, no more; lest it be rather thought you affect
a sorrow than have it.
HELEN
I do affect a sorrow indeed, but I have it too.
LAFEW
Moderate lamentation is the right of the dead,
excessive grief the enemy to the living.
COUNTESS
If the living be enemy to the grief, the excess
makes it soon mortal.

DUTCH:
Matige bejammering is het recht van den doode, overmatige droefenis de vijand van den levende.

MORE:
Affect=An outward show
Mortal=Deadly
Season=Preserve
Livelihood=Liveliness, spirit
Right=Owed to
Compleat:
Affect=Naäapen
Affectation=Gemaaktheid
Mortal=Sterflyk, doodelyk
Birth-right=Geboorte-recht
Lamentation=Weeklaage, jammerklagt, gekerm, geklag

Burgersdijk notes:
Kruiden kan. In ‘t Engelsch season, kruiden, waarbij het denkbeeld van conserveeren, bewaren, in frisschen staat houden, steeds komt; vergelijk Romeo en Julia, II.3, en Driekoningenavond, 1.1.
Als de levende een vijand is van droefenis. “If the living be enemy to the grief, the excess makes it soon mortal”. De gravin herhaalt en dringt aan, wat LAFEW gezegd heeft, dat HELEN zich niet te zeer aan hare droefheid moet overgeven, met de smart niet to zeer in vijandschap moet leven, want dat overmaat van smart doodelijk is . Mortal is namelijk hetzelfde als deadly, fatal .(…)

Topics: death, grief, appearance, excess

PLAY: The Merchant of Venice
ACT/SCENE: 1.1
SPEAKER: Solanio
CONTEXT:
SOLANIO
Not in love neither? Then let us say you are sad
Because you are not merry— and ’twere as easy
For you to laugh and leap and say you are merry
Because you are not sad. Now, by two-headed Janus,
Nature hath framed strange fellows in her time.
Some that will evermore peep through their eyes
And laugh like parrots at a bagpiper,
And other of such vinegar aspect
That they’ll not show their teeth in way of smile
Though Nestor swear the jest be laughable.

DUTCH:
Natuur brengt soms toch rare snuiters voort:
Die knijpt voortdurend de oogen toe van ‘t lachen,
Als bij een doedelzak een papegaai;
En de ander heeft zoo’n uitzicht van azijn,
Dat hij van ‘t lachen nooit zijn tanden toont,
Al deed een grap ook de’ ouden Nestor schaat’ren.

MORE:
Laugh like parrots at a bagpiper=parrots were thought of as foolish, bagpipe music as melancholy.
Vinegar aspect=sour (‘sowr’) disposition.
Janus=A Roman God with two faces, one at the front and one at the back of his head (although not thought to have expressed contrasting moods). Janus was the god of beginnings duality, gates and doors, passages and endings.
Nestor, legendary wise King of Pylos in Homer’s Odyssey.
Compleat:
To sowr=Zuur worden, zuur maaken, verzuuren.
Sowred=Gezuurd, verzuurd. Sowrish=Zuurachtig.
To look sowrly upon one=Iemand zuur aanzien

Topics: emotion and mood, misquoted

PLAY: Othello
ACT/SCENE: 5.1
SPEAKER: Iago
CONTEXT:
IAGO
He, he, ’tis he.
Oh, that’s well said—the chair!
Some good man bear him carefully from hence.
I’ll fetch the general’s surgeon.—
For you, mistress,
Save you your labour.—He that lies slain here, Cassio,
Was my dear friend. What malice was between you?
CASSIO
None in the world, nor do I know the man.
IAGO
What, look you pale?—Oh, bear him out o’ the air.—
Do you perceive the gastness of her eye?—Stay you, good
gentlemen.—Look you pale, mistress?—
Nay, if you stare, we shall hear more anon.—
Behold her well. I pray you, look upon her.
Do you see, gentlemen? Nay, guiltiness
Will speak, though tongues were out of use.

DUTCH:
Gij ziet het, heeren? ja, ‘t geweten spreekt,
Al is de tong geboeid.

MORE:
Gastness=Ghastness, ghastliness, haggard look (fear, terror)
Though tongues out of use=Even without the power of speech
Bear him out o’ the air=Take him inside (fresh air being considered bad for wounds)
Compleat:
Guiltiness=Schuldigheid; misdaadigheid

Topics: guilt, language, appearance

PLAY: Twelfth Night
ACT/SCENE: 2.5
SPEAKER: Fabian
CONTEXT:
MALVOLIO
Saying, “Cousin Toby, my fortunes having cast me on
your niece give me this prerogative of speech—”
SIR TOBY BELCH
What, what?
MALVOLIO
“You must amend your drunkenness.”
SIR TOBY BELCH
Out, scab!
FABIAN
Nay, patience, or we break the sinews of our plot.

DUTCH:
Bedaard toch, of wij breken aan ons plan den hals.

MORE:
Amend=Reform
Scab=Scurvy fellow
Sinew=Tendon, fig. strength
Compleat:
Amend=Verbeteren
Scab=Schurft; een roof
Sinew=Zenuw, zeen

Topics: plans/intentions, excess, appearance

PLAY: King Henry IV Part 1
ACT/SCENE: 2.4
SPEAKER: Falstaff
CONTEXT:
Never call a true piece of gold a counterfeit. Thou art essentially made, without seeming so.
PRINCE HENRY
And thou a natural coward without instinct.
FALSTAFF
I deny your major. If you will deny the Sheriff, so; if not, let him enter. If I become not a cart as well as another man, a plague on my bringing up. I hope I shall as soon be strangled with a halter as another.
PRINCE HENRY
Go, hide thee behind the arras. The rest walk up above.—
Now, my masters, for a true face and good conscience.

DUTCH:
Noem een echt goudstuk nooit een valsche munt; gij zijt in waarheid dol, al schijnt gij het niet.

MORE:
Essentially made=Truly royal
Major=The main part of your argument; the first proposition of a syllogism
Cart=hanging cart that carries criminals to execution
Become not=Do not look as good as
Bringing up=Upbringing
Compleat:
To bring up=Opbrengen, opvoeden
A Bringer up of children=Een Opbrenger van kinderen
Burgersdijk notes:
Uw gevolg wijs ik af. In ‘t Engelsch staat: „Ik ontken uw major”. Major is de hoofdstelling van een syllogisme; het woord is gebezigd om tusschen major of mayor en het volgende sheriff een tegenstelling te zoeken.
Verberg u achter het wandtapijt. De tapijten werden wel is waar niet zelden aan haken tegen den muur, maar dikwijls ook op eenigen afstand er van opgehangen, zoodat men er zich zeer wel achter kon verbergen.

Topics: deceit, value, appearance, courage, conscience

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

DUTCH:
En niets kunt gij nog aan een man erkennen
Dan wat hij toont en schijnt.

MORE:
Thoughts’ sovereign=Focus of our thoughts
Weary way=Tiring journey
Crosses=Annoyances, obstacles
Want=Lack
Years=Youth
Jumpeth=Corresponds
Attended to=Heeded
Compleat:
Sovereign (absolute, independent)=Volstrekt, onafhangkelyk, oppermachtig
Weary=Moede; vermoeid; afkeerig
To cross=Tegenstreeven, dwars voor de boeg komen, dwarsboomen, wederestreeven, kruisen
To want=Ontbreeken, missen, van noode hebben, van doen hebben
Years (age)=Ouderdom
Years of discretion=Jaaren van verstand
To jump (agree)=Het eens woorden
Their opinions jump much with ours=Hunne gevoelens komen veel met de onzen overeen
Wits jump always together=De groote verstanden beulen altyd saamen

Topics: appearance, betrayal, deception

PLAY: King Henry VI Part 3
ACT/SCENE: 1.4
SPEAKER: York
CONTEXT:
Thy father bears the type of King of Naples,
Of both the Sicils and Jerusalem,
Yet not so wealthy as an English yeoman.
Hath that poor monarch taught thee to insult?
It needs not, nor it boots thee not, proud queen,
Unless the adage must be verified,
That beggars mounted run their horse to death.
‘Tis beauty that doth oft make women proud;
But, God he knows, thy share thereof is small:
‘Tis virtue that doth make them most admired;
The contrary doth make thee wonder’d at:
‘Tis government that makes them seem divine;
The want thereof makes thee abominable:
Thou art as opposite to every good
As the Antipodes are unto us,
Or as the south to the septentrion.
O tiger’s heart wrapt in a woman’s hide!
How couldst thou drain the life-blood of the child,
To bid the father wipe his eyes withal,
And yet be seen to bear a woman’s face?
Women are soft, mild, pitiful and flexible;
Thou stern, obdurate, flinty, rough, remorseless.
Bids’t thou me rage? why, now thou hast thy wish:
Wouldst have me weep? why, now thou hast thy will:
For raging wind blows up incessant showers,
And when the rage allays, the rain begins.
These tears are my sweet Rutland’s obsequies:
And every drop cries vengeance for his death,
‘Gainst thee, fel Clifford, and thee, false
Frenchwoman.”

DUTCH:
O tijgerhart, in vrouwehuid gehuld!
Hoe kondt gij ‘t levensbloed des kinds verzaam’len,
Opdat de vader daar zijn tranenvloed
Meê droogde, en ‘t uitzicht hebben van een vrouw?

MORE:

CITED IN US LAW:
In the Matter of Sedita v. Kissinger, City Manager of the City of New Rochelle, 66 A.D.2d 357, 359, 413 N.Y.S.2d 25 (1979)(O’Connor, J.).

Proverb: Set a beggar on horseback and he will ride a gallop (run his horse out of breath): newfound power will go to their heads

Type=Title
Yeoman=Landowner
Needs not=Is unnecessary
Boots not=Is futile
Government=Self-control
Obsequies=Funeral rites

Compleat:
Yeoman=Een welgegoed landman, een ryke boer, een Landjonker
It is to no boot=Het doet geen nut, het is te vergeefs
Adage=Spreekwoord
Government=Heersching
Obsequies=Lykplichten, laatste diensten aan den overleedenen

Topics: appearance, status, cited in law, proverbs and idioms, dignity

PLAY: As You Like It
ACT/SCENE: 3.4
SPEAKER: Celia
CONTEXT:
CELIA
“Was” is not “is.” Besides, the oath of a lover is no
stronger than the word of a tapster. They are both the
confirmer of false reckonings. He attends here in the
forest on the duke your father.
ROSALIND
I met the duke yesterday and had much question with
him. He asked me of what parentage I was. I told him, of
as good as he. So he laughed and let me go. But what
talk we of fathers when there is such a man as Orlando?
CELIA
Oh, that’s a brave man. He writes brave verses, speaks
brave words, swears brave oaths, and breaks them
bravely, quite traverse, athwart the heart of his lover,
as a puny tilter that spurs his horse but on one side
breaks his staff like a noble goose; but all’s brave
that youth mounts and folly guides.

DUTCH:
Ja, dat is een prachtig man; hij schrijft prachtige verzen, spreekt prachtige woorden, zweert prachtige eeden en breekt ze prachtig, dwars door, vlak voor het hart van zijn liefste, juist als een sukkelig tournooiruiter, die zijn paard maar aan de eene zijde spoort en als een adellijk uilskuiken zijn lans breekt. Maar alles is prachtig, als jeugd in den zadel zit en dwaasheid den teugel houdt.

MORE:
Tapster=Barman (traditionally considered dishonest)
False=Not right, wrong, erroneous
Reckoning=The money charged by a host (a Bill)
Question=Conversation
Brave=Fine, splendid, beautiful
Traverse=Sideways (in jousting it was dishonourable to break the lance in this way instead of straight at the opponent’s shield)
Puny=Inferior
Compleat:
Tapster=Een tapper, biertapper
False=Valsch, onwaar; nagemaakt, verraderlyk
Reckoning=(in a public house) Gelach
Brave=Braaf, fraai, treffelyk, dapper
Taverse=Overdwaars
Puny=Klein, lief
A puny judge=Een jongste rechter (See Puisny. Puisne (or puisny)=a law term for younger; a name given in the house of lords to the youngest baron, and in Westminster hall to the youngest judge. De jongste Lord in ‘t hogerhuis, of de jongste Rechter in de pleitzaal van Westmunster.)

Topics: language, courage, appearance

PLAY: All’s Well that Ends Well
ACT/SCENE: 1.3
SPEAKER: Countess
CONTEXT:
COUNTESS
Yes, Helen, you might be my daughter-in-law:
God shield you mean it not! daughter and mother
So strive upon your pulse. What, pale again?
My fear hath catched your fondness: now I see
The mystery of your loneliness, and find
Your salt tears’ head: now to all sense ’tis gross
You love my son; invention is ashamed,
Against the proclamation of thy passion,
To say thou dost not: therefore tell me true;
But tell me then, ’tis so ; for, look, thy cheeks
Confess it, th’ one to th’ other; and thine eyes
See it so grossly shown in thy behaviours,
That in their kind they speak it: only sin
And hellish obstinacy tie thy tongue,
That truth should be suspected. Speak, is ‘t so ?
If it be so, you have wound a goodly clew;
If it be not, forswear ‘t : howe’er, I charge thee,
As heaven shall work in me for thine avail,
To tell me truly.

DUTCH:
Slechts zonde
En wederspannige onwil boeit uw tong,
Dat die de waarheid heel’.

MORE:
Proverb: In being your own foe, you spin a fair thread
Proverb: You have spun a fine (fair) thread

Gross=Palpable
Grossly=Conspicuously
Clew=Ball of thread
Compleat:
Gross=Grof, plomp, onbebouwen
You grossly mistake my meaning=Gy vergist u grootelyks omtrent myn meening
Clew=Een kluwen (garen)

Topics: truth, deceit, love, appearance, proverbs and idioms

PLAY: Twelfth Night
ACT/SCENE: 3.4
SPEAKER: Antonio
CONTEXT:
ANTONIO
Let me speak a little. This youth that you see here
I snatched one half out of the jaws of death,
Relieved him with such sanctity of love,
And to his image, which methought did promise
Most venerable worth, did I devotion.
FIRST OFFICER
What’s that to us? The time goes by. Away!
ANTONIO
But oh, how vile an idol proves this god!
Thou hast, Sebastian, done good feature shame.
In nature there’s no blemish but the mind.
None can be called deformed but the unkind.
Virtue is beauty, but the beauteous evil
Are empty trunks o’erflourished by the devil.

DUTCH:
Een enkel woord nog! ‘k Heb dien jongling daar
Aan de open kaken van den dood ontrukt,
Heb hem verpleegd met heil’ge broedermin,
En dat gelaat, dat ik een spiegel dacht
Der eng’lenziel, geëerd en aangebeden!

MORE:
Proverb: He is handsome that handsome does

Sanctity=Devotion
The mind=Character, in the mind
O’erflourished=Decorated, varnished over
Compleat:
Sanctity=Heiligheid
The mind=Het gemoed, de zin, meening, gevoelen
To flourish=Bloeijen

Topics: appearance, virtue, good and bad, manipulation

PLAY: The Two Gentlemen of Verona
ACT/SCENE: 2.7
SPEAKER: Julia
CONTEXT:
JULIA
O, know’st thou not his looks are my soul’s food?
Pity the dearth that I have pined in,
By longing for that food so long a time.
Didst thou but know the inly touch of love,
Thou wouldst as soon go kindle fire with snow
As seek to quench the fire of love with words.
LUCETTA
I do not seek to quench your love’s hot fire,
But qualify the fire’s extreme rage,
Lest it should burn above the bounds of reason.

DUTCH:
O, is zijn blik mijn zielevoedsel niet?
Heb deernis met den honger, die mij kwelt,
Nu ik zoo lang naar voedsel smachten moet.

MORE:
Inly=Inward
Qualify=Moderate
Compleat:
Inward=Inwendig, innerlyk
Qualify=Maatigen, temperen

Topics: appearance, love, perception

PLAY: Twelfth Night
ACT/SCENE: 3.4
SPEAKER: Viola
CONTEXT:
VIOLA
Methinks his words do from such passion fly,
That he believes himself. So do not I.
Prove true, imagination, oh, prove true,
That I, dear brother, be now ta’en for you!
SIR TOBY BELCH
Come hither, knight. Come hither, Fabian. We’ll whisper
o’er a couplet or two of most sage saws.
VIOLA
He named Sebastian. I my brother know
Yet living in my glass. Even such and so
In favour was my brother, and he went
Still in this fashion, colour, ornament,
For him I imitate. Oh, if it prove,
Tempests are kind and salt waves fresh in love!

DUTCH:
Hoe toont zijn woord, de gloed, waarmee hij spreekt,
Een vast geloof, dat mij, helaas! ontbreekt.
Toch hoop ik, — o verbeelding, niet te stout! —
Dat, dierb’re broeder, hij voor u mij houdt!

MORE:
So do not I=I do no
Saws=Sayings
Glass=Mirror
Favour=Appearance
Prove=Proves true
Compleat:
An old saw=Een oud zeggen
Glass=Spiegel
Well-favoured=Aangenaam, bevallig
To prove (become, come to pass)=Uitvallen, bevinden, worden

Topics: language, persuasion, deceit, truth, appearance, imagination

PLAY: Hamlet
ACT/SCENE: 3.1
SPEAKER: Ophelia
CONTEXT:
My honoured lord, you know right well you did,
And with them, words of so sweet breath composed
As made the things more rich. Their perfume lost,
Take these again, for to the noble mind
Rich gifts wax poor when givers prove unkind.

DUTCH:
Overvloedige gaven worden armzalig als gevers liefdeloos blijken. /
Neem ze terug : voor hem, die edel denkt, Is ‘t rijkste poover, als een nurk het schenkt. /
Want voor hen die edel denken, Wordt arm het rijkst geschenk, als hartloos zijn die ‘t schenken.

MORE:
The phrase “Rich gifts wax poor when givers prove unkind” was coined by Shakespeare and is still in use today.

Topics: appearance, honesty, value, proverbs and idioms

PLAY: The Merry Wives of Windsor
ACT/SCENE:
SPEAKER: Falstaff
CONTEXT:
MISTRESS QUICKLY
Ay, forsooth; and then you may come and see the
picture, she says, that you wot of: Master Ford,
her husband, will be from home. Alas! the sweet
woman leads an ill life with him: he’s a very
jealousy man: she leads a very frampold life with
him, good heart.
FALSTAFF
Ten and eleven. Woman, commend me to her; I will
not fail her.
MISTRESS QUICKLY
Why, you say well. But I have another messenger to
your worship. Mistress Page hath her hearty
commendations to you too: and let me tell you in
your ear, she’s as fartuous a civil modest wife, and
one, I tell you, that will not miss you morning nor
evening prayer, as any is in Windsor, whoe’er be the
other: and she bade me tell your worship that her
husband is seldom from home; but she hopes there
will come a time. I never knew a woman so dote upon
a man: surely I think you have charms, la; yes, in
truth.
FALSTAFF
Not I, I assure thee: setting the attractions of my
good parts aside I have no other charms.

DUTCH:
Ik, neen, dat verzeker ik je; behalve de aantrekkelijkheid
van mijn persoon en mijn eigenschappen, heb ik
geen andere toovermiddelen.

MORE:
Frampold=Unhappy
Fartuous=Virtuous
Miss you=Miss, fail to attend
Parts=Qualities

Topics: appearance|virtue|betrayal

PLAY: Romeo and Juliet
ACT/SCENE: 1.5
SPEAKER: Capulet
CONTEXT:
Therefore be patient. Take no note of him.
It is my will, the which if thou respect,
Show a fair presence and put off these frowns,
An ill-beseeming semblance for a feast.

DUTCH:
Wees vriendlijk; neen! toon op ‘t gelaat geen wrevel,
Want dat is iets, wat op een feest niet past.

MORE:
Ill-beseeming=unseemly, unbecoming
Semblance=show, outward appearance
Compleat:
To beseem=betaamen, voegen
Unbecoming=onbetaamelyk, niet voegend
Unbecomingness=Onbetaamelykheid, wanvoegelykheid

Topics: appearance, emotion and mood, civility

PLAY: As You Like It
ACT/SCENE: 1.2
SPEAKER: Celia
CONTEXT:
CELIA
My father’s love is enough to honour him. Enough. Speak
no more of him; you’ll be whipped for taxation one of these days.
TOUCHSTONE
The more pity that fools may not speak wisely what wise
men do foolishly.
CELIA
By my troth, thou sayest true. For, since the little
wit that fools have was silenced, the little foolery
that wise men have makes a great show. Here comes
Monsieur Le Beau.
ROSALIND
With his mouth full of news.
CELIA
Which he will put on us as pigeons feed their young.
ROSALIND
Then shall we be news-crammed.

DUTCH:
Inderdaad, gij hebt gelijk; want sedert het beetjen wijsheid, dat dwazen hebben, tot zwijgen gebracht werd, maakt het beetjen dwaasheid, dat wijzen hebben, een groote vertooning.

MORE:
Proverb: The wise man knows himself to be a fool, the fool thinks he is wise

‘Silenced’ is probably a topical reference, either to new restraints imposed on theatrical companies or to the burning of satirical books in 1599.

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

Whipped=Censure, satire, invective “You’ll be whipped for taxation one of these days”.
Foolery=Absurdity
News-crammed=Full of news (and therefore valuable on the market)
Compleat:
Whipped=Gegeesseld
Foolery=Malligheid
Cram=Kroppen, proppen, mesten, overladen

Topics: intellect, wisdom, appearance, proverbs and idioms

PLAY: As You Like It
ACT/SCENE: 1.3
SPEAKER: Celia
CONTEXT:
ROSALIND
Alas, what danger will it be to us,
Maids as we are, to travel forth so far?
Beauty provoketh thieves sooner than gold.
CELIA
I’ll put myself in poor and mean attire
And with a kind of umber smirch my face.
The like do you. So shall we pass along
And never stir assailants.
ROSALIND
Were it not better,
Because that I am more than common tall,
That I did suit me all points like a man?
A gallant curtal-axe upon my thigh,
A boar-spear in my hand, and in my heart
Lie there what hidden woman’s fear there will,
We’ll have a swashing and a martial outside—
As many other mannish cowards have
That do outface it with their semblances.

DUTCH:
Ik steek mij in een sober kleed, en geef
Met omber mijn gelaat een bruine kleur;
Doe even zoo, dan gaan wij onzes weegs,
En trekken niemands aandacht.

MORE:
Umber=Pigment
Smirch=Besmirch
Stir=Provoke
Suit me=Dress myself
All points=In all ways
Curtal-axe=Cutlass
Swashing=Swashbuckling, swagger
Outface=Bluff out
Semblances=By acting or looking brave
Compleat:
To stir=Beweegen; verwekken
To outface one=Iemand iets stoutelyk opstryden, iemand iets met styve kaaken onststryden
A swashbuckler=Een snoeshaan
Semblance=Gelykenis, schyn

Topics: appearance, deceit, manipulation

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

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

MORE:

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

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

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

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

PLAY: Othello
ACT/SCENE: 3.3
SPEAKER: Desdemona
CONTEXT:
OTHELLO
Who is ’t you mean?
DESDEMONA
Why, your lieutenant, Cassio. Good my lord,
If I have any grace or power to move you
His present reconciliation take.
For if he be not one that truly loves you,
That errs in ignorance and not in cunning,
I have no judgment in an honest face.
I prithee, call him back.
OTHELLO
Went he hence now?
DESDEMONA
Ay, sooth, so humbled
That he hath left part of his grief with me
To suffer with him. Good love, call him back.

DUTCH:
Want is hij niet een man, die trouw u mint,
Die onbewust en niet opzett’Iijk dwaalde,
Dan weet ik niets van lezen op ‘t gelaat;
Ik bid u, roep hem weer.

MORE:
Reconciliation=Repentance
In cunning=Deliberately
I have no judgment in=I cannot judge
Compleat:
Reconciliation=Verzoening, bevreediging, overeenbrenging
Cunning=Behendigheid, Schranderheid, Naarstigheid

Topics: authority, judgment, appearance

PLAY: Troilus and Cressida
ACT/SCENE: 3.3
SPEAKER: Ulysses
CONTEXT:
ULYSSES
I do not strain at the position,—
It is familiar,—but at the author’s drift;
Who, in his circumstance, expressly proves
That no man is the lord of any thing,
Though in and of him there be much consisting,
Till he communicate his parts to others:
Nor doth he of himself know them for aught
Till he behold them formed in the applause
Where they’re extended; who, like an arch, reverberates
The voice again, or, like a gate of steel
Fronting the sun, receives and renders back
His figure and his heat. I was much wrapt in this;
And apprehended here immediately
The unknown Ajax.
Heavens, what a man is there! a very horse,
That has he knows not what. Nature, what things there are
Most abject in regard and dear in use!
What things again most dear in the esteem
And poor in worth! Now shall we see to-morrow—
An act that very chance doth throw upon him—
Ajax renowned. O heavens, what some men do,
While some men leave to do!
How some men creep in skittish fortune’s hall,
Whiles others play the idiots in her eyes!
How one man eats into another’s pride,
While pride is fasting in his wantonness!
To see these Grecian lords!— why, even already
They clap the lubber Ajax on the shoulder,
As if his foot were on brave Hector’s breast
And great Troy shrieking.

DUTCH:
Die, dit ontwikk’lend, hier uitdrukk’lijk leert,
Dat niemand heer en meester is van iets, —
Hoe veel hij ook bezitte en in zich hebbe, —
Eer hij zijn gaven and’ren mededeelt;

MORE:
Strain at=Struggle to accept
Position=Argument
Drift=Meaning, gist
Circumstance=Detail of an argument
Expressly=In full, explicitly
In and of=He and his actions
Consisting=Quality, substance
Parts=Qualities
Formed in=Reflected in
Arch=Vault
Figure=Appearance
Abject in regard=Despised
Dear in use=Useful
Dear in the esteem=Highly regarded
Poor in worth=Of little value
Lubber=Lout
Shrinking=Weakening
Compleat:
Strain hard=Alle zyne krachten inspannen; lustig zyn best doen
Position=Legging, stelling
Drift=Oogmerk, opzet, vaart
Circumstance=Omstandigheyd
Circumstanced=Met omstandigheden belegd, onder omstandigheden begreepen
Expressely or Expresly=Duidelyk; uitdrukkelyk
Consistence=Bestaanlykheid; saamenbestaanlykheid
Parts=Deelen, hoedaanigheden, begaafdheden
Form=Wyze, gedaante
Arch=Een gewelf, boog
Figure (or representation)=Afbeelding
Figure (or appearance)=Gedaante, aanzien
Abject=Veracht, gering, snood, lafhartig, verworpen
Dear=Waard, lief, dierbaar, duur
Lubber=Een sul, slokker, zwabber, een lubbert

Topics: communication, persuasion, reputation, value, appearance, merit

PLAY: Hamlet
ACT/SCENE: 1.5
SPEAKER: Hamlet
CONTEXT:
O most pernicious woman!
O villain, villain, smiling, damnèd villain!
My tables!—Meet it is I set it down
That one may smile, and smile, and be a villain.
At least I’m sure it may be so in Denmark.

DUTCH:
O, schurk, glimlachende schurk, verdoemde schurk! /
Schurk, schurk ! O, lachende en vervloekte schurk!

MORE:
Schmidt:
Pernicious= Mischievous, malicious, wicked
Compleat:
Pernicious=Schadelyk, verderflyk
A pernicious counsel=Een schadelyke, snoode raad
A pernicious doctrine=Een schadelijke stokregel, verderflyke leer

Topics: appearance, deceit

PLAY: King Henry VIII
ACT/SCENE: 5.2
SPEAKER: Gardiner
CONTEXT:
CRANMER
Ah, my good Lord of Winchester, I thank you;
You are always my good friend; if your will pass,
I shall both find your lordship judge and juror,
You are so merciful: I see your end;
‘Tis my undoing: love and meekness, lord,
Become a churchman better than ambition:
Win straying souls with modesty again,
Cast none away. That I shall clear myself,
Lay all the weight you can upon my patience,
I make as little doubt, as you do conscience
In doing daily wrongs. I could say more,
But reverence to your calling makes me modest.
GARDINER
My lord, my lord, you are a sectary,
That’s the plain truth: your painted gloss discovers,
To men that understand you, words and weakness.

DUTCH:
Mylord, mylord, gij zijt een sektemaker;
Ziedaar de waarheid. Uw vernis, hoe glad,
Toont hem, die u doorziet, uw zwakte en praatjes.

MORE:
Cited in Shakespeare’s Legal Maxims (William Lowes Rushton).
Pass=Is approved, if you get your way
End=Objective
Undoing=Ruin
Become=Befits
Reverence=Respect for
Discover=Reveal
Sectary=Member of a heretical sect
Painted gloss=False external appearance
Weakness=Flawed reasoning
Compleat:
Pass=Doorbrengen, passeeren
End=Eynde, oogmerk
Undoing=Losmaaking, bederving
Become=Betaamen
Reverence=Eerbiedigheyd, eerbiedenis, eerbewys
Discover=Ontdekken, bespeuren, aan ‘t licht brengen
Sectary=Een aanhanger van een Sekte
Gloss=Glans, luyster, glimp; Uitlegging
Weakness=Zwakheyd, slapheyd, slaphartigheyd

Topics: appearance, deceit, law/legal

PLAY: Hamlet
ACT/SCENE: 1.3
SPEAKER: Polonius
CONTEXT:
Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy, But not express’d in fancy; rich, not gaudy; For the apparel oft proclaims the man

DUTCH:
Kleed u zo kostbaar als uw beurs het lijdt, maar gekk’lijk nooit, wel rijk, nooit overladen, want aan de kleren kent men vaak de man

MORE:
Oft-quoted list of maxims in Polonius’ ‘fatherly advice’ monologue to Laertes. Many of these nuggets have acquired proverb status today, although they weren’t invented by Shakespeare (here, for example, Apparel (clothes) makes the man, c1500, Let every man cut his coat according to his cloth).
The apparel oft proclaims the man is still in use today.
De kleren maken de man, also a Dutch proverb in the 16th century (‘de cleederen maken den man, diese heeft doese aen’), is still in use in Dutch.

Topics: appearance, still in use, proverbs and idioms

PLAY: The Merry Wives of Windsor
ACT/SCENE:
SPEAKER: Fenton
CONTEXT:
FENTON
From time to time I have acquainted you
With the dear love I bear to fair Anne Page;
Who mutually hath answer’d my affection,
So far forth as herself might be her chooser,
Even to my wish: I have a letter from her
Of such contents as you will wonder at;
The mirth whereof so larded with my matter,
That neither singly can be manifested,
Without the show of both; fat Falstaff
Hath a great scene: the image of the jest
I’ll show you here at large. Hark, good mine host.
To-night at Herne’s oak, just ‘twixt twelve and one,
Must my sweet Nan present the Fairy Queen;
The purpose why, is here: in which disguise,
While other jests are something rank on foot,
Her father hath commanded her to slip
Away with Slender and with him at Eton
Immediately to marry: she hath consented: Now, sir,
Her mother, ever strong against that match
And firm for Doctor Caius, hath appointed
That he shall likewise shuffle her away,
While other sports are tasking of their minds,
And at the deanery, where a priest attends,
Straight marry her: to this her mother’s plot
She seemingly obedient likewise hath
Made promise to the doctor. Now, thus it rests:
Her father means she shall be all in white,
And in that habit, when Slender sees his time
To take her by the hand and bid her go,
She shall go with him: her mother hath intended,
The better to denote her to the doctor,
For they must all be mask’d and vizarded,
That quaint in green she shall be loose enrobed,
With ribands pendent, flaring ’bout her head;
And when the doctor spies his vantage ripe,
To pinch her by the hand, and, on that token,
The maid hath given consent to go with him.

DUTCH:
Zij spreekt daar van een grap, die met mijn zaak
Zoo innig samenhangt, dat geen van beiden
Alleen te ontvouwen is, maar slechts als de and’re
Ook wordt gemeld.

MORE:
So far forth=As far
Larded=Mixed
Matter=Substance; concern
Singly=Separately
Manifested=Revealed, shown
Present=Appear, act as
Rank on foot=Profuse
Tasking of=Occupying
Riband=Ribbon
Pendent=Hanging
Vantage=Opportunity
Compleat:
To lard=Doorspekken
Matter=Stof
Singly=Enkelyk
To manifest=Openbaaren, openbaar maaken
To present=Zich vertoonen
To grow rank=Al te weelit groeien
Tasking=Taakzetting
Riban=Een lint
Pendent=Hangende
Vantage=Toegift, toemaat, overmaat, overwigt

Topics: marriage|deceit|appearance

PLAY: Richard II
ACT/SCENE: 1.1
SPEAKER: Thomas Mowbray
CONTEXT:
THOMAS MOWBRAY
Myself I throw, dread sovereign, at thy foot.
My life thou shalt command, but not my shame:
The one my duty owes; but my fair name,
Despite of death that lives upon my grave,
To dark dishonour’s use thou shalt not have.
I am disgraced, impeach’d and baffled here,
Pierced to the soul with slander’s venom’d spear,
The which no balm can cure but his heart-blood
Which breathed this poison.
KING RICHARD II
Rage must be withstood:
Give me his gage: lions make leopards tame.
THOMAS MOWBRAY
Yea, but not change his spots: take but my shame.
And I resign my gage. My dear dear lord,
The purest treasure mortal times afford
Is spotless reputation: that away,
Men are but gilded loam or painted clay.
A jewel in a ten-times-barr’d-up chest
Is a bold spirit in a loyal breast.

DUTCH:
De vlekken blijven. ‘k Gaav’ dit pand u, nam
Uw macht mij eerst den smaad af. Hoor mij, heer;
De reinste schat des levens is onze eer,
Die vlekk’loos blijven moet; want ja, ontneem
Den man zijn eer, hij is geschilderd leem.

MORE:

Proverb: A leopard (panther) cannot change his spots

No boot=No point, profit, advantage
Impeached=Accused of an offence
Baffle=Originally a punishment of infamy, inflicted on recreant knights, one part of which was hanging them up by the heels” (Nares).
Gage=Pledge, pawn pledge (usu. a glove thrown on the ground) of a person’s appearance to do battle in support of his assertions, challenge
Gilded loam or painted clay=Mere earth with a decorative coating

Compleat:
No boot=Te vergeefs, vruchteloos
To impeach=Betichten, beschuldigen, aanklagen
To impeach (or oppose) the truth of a thing=Zich tegen de waarheid van een zaak aankanten
Gage=Pand, onderpand
To baffle=Beschaamd maaken

Burgersdijk notes:
De leeuw maakt panthers tam. De koningen van Engeland voeren den leeuw, de Norfolks gouden
panthers in hun wapen.

Topics: reputation, honour, appearance, integrity, proverbs and idioms, still in use, invented or popularised

PLAY: The Tempest
ACT/SCENE: 3.3
SPEAKER: Gonzalo
CONTEXT:
If in Naples
I should report this now, would they believe me?
If I should say, I saw such islanders—
For, certes, these are people of the island—
Who, though they are of monstrous shape, yet note,
Their manners are more gentle-kind than of
Our human generation you shall find
Many—nay, almost any.

DUTCH:
En wis, dit zijn toch lieden van het eiland,
Die, schoon ook monsterachtig van gedaante,
Zoo lief’lijk , vriend’lijk waren in hun doen,
Als gij bij enk’len slechts van ‘t menschenras,
Ja, schier bij niemand vindt.

MORE:
Gentle-kind = courteous
For certes = certainly
Compleat:
Courteous (gentle, kind)=Beleefd, hoffelyk
Generation (or lineage)=Nakomelinschap, makroost

Topics: appearance, virtue, civility

PLAY: The Merchant of Venice
ACT/SCENE: 1.1
SPEAKER: Gratiano
CONTEXT:
GRATIANO
(…) I tell thee what, Antonio—
I love thee, and ’tis my love that speaks—
There are a sort of men whose visages
Do cream and mantle like a standing pond,
And do a willful stillness entertain
With purpose to be dressed in an opinion
Of wisdom, gravity, profound conceit,
As who should say, “I am Sir Oracle,
And when I ope my lips, let no dog bark!”
O my Antonio, I do know of these
That therefore only are reputed wise
For saying nothing, when I am very sure
If they should speak, would almost damn those ears
Which, hearing them, would call their brothers fools.
I’ll tell thee more of this another time.
But fish not with this melancholy bait
For this fool gudgeon, this opinion.—
Come, good Lorenzo.—Fare ye well awhile.
I’ll end my exhortation after dinner.

DUTCH:
Er is een slag van lieden, wier gelaat
Steeds ondoorschijnend is als stilstaand water,
Die eigenzinnig zwijgen altijd door,
Met doel om zich een dunk en roep te geven
Van wijsheid, waardigheid en diepen zin,

MORE:
CITED IN US LAW:
Jaszai et al. v. Christie’s et al., 279 A.D. 2d 186, 188-189 (2001).

Proverb: All dogs bark not (no dogs shall bark) at him
Proverb: Fools are wise as long as silent
Proverb: Few words show men wise

Cream=To gather a covering on a surface, to mantle.
Mantle=A green surface on a standing pool. To mantle=to cloak.
Standing pond=stagnant pond
Gudgeon=Small fish
Compleat:
Mantle=Deken
To mantle=Schuimen of werken. The hawk mantles=De valk spreidt zyne wieken uit.
Gudgeon=Een Grundel [zekere visch]To swallow a gudgeon=Een hoon verdraagen

Topics: emotion and mood, misquoted

PLAY: All’s Well that Ends Well
ACT/SCENE: 2.5
SPEAKER: Lafew
CONTEXT:
LAFEW
Fare you well, my lord; and
believe this of me, there can be no kernel in this
light nut; the soul of this man is his clothes.
Trust him not in matter of heavy consequence;
I have kept of them tame, and know their natures.
Farewell, monsieur: I have spoken better
of you than you have or will to deserve at my
hand; but we must do good against evil.

DUTCH:
Vaarwel, mijn heer, en geloof mij, in deze vooze noot kan geen pit schuilen; de ziel van dezen mensch zit in zijn kleederen.

MORE:
Light nut=Lightweight
Consequence=Influence, importance
Compleat:
Consequence=Belang

Topics: status, merit, respect, good and bad, appearance, fashion/trend

PLAY: Macbeth
ACT/SCENE: 1.4
SPEAKER: Duncan
CONTEXT:
There’s no art
To find the mind’s construction in the face.
He was a gentleman on whom I built
An absolute trust.

DUTCH:
Er is geen kunst,
Die ‘s menschen ziel leert lezen op ‘t gelaat

MORE:

Schmidt:
Art=The power of doing something not taught by nature, skill, dexterity
Construction=Interpretation
Compleat:
Art (Cunning or Industry)=Behendigheid, gebranderheid, narstigheid
Construction=Saamenstelling, saamenvoeging, gebouw, uitlegging
We ought to make the best construction of other men’s words=Men behoort de woorden van anderen ten besten te duiden
Construction=Woordenschikking
Proverbs: “The face is the index of the heart” (1575) or the older proverb “Deem not after the face” (1395)
CITED IN IRISH LAW:
Doherty (A. P. U. M.) -v- Quigley [2011] IEHC 361 (05 July 2011)/[2011] IEHC 361
CITED IN US LAW:
U.S. v. Vines, 214 F.Supp. 642, 645 (N.D.N.Y. 1963)(Foley, J.);
CITED IN EU LAW:
W. -v- W. [2009] IEHC 542 (18 December 2009) (cited in turn in High Court of Ireland, McDonald -v- Conroy & Ors [2017] IEHC 559 (09 October 2017))
‘In Shakespeare’s play Macbeth, Duncan says about the deceitful main character: “There’s no art to find the mind’s construction in the face: he was a gentlemen on whom I built an absolute trust”.’

Topics: appearance, deceit, trust, honesty, cited in law, still in use, proverbs and idioms

PLAY: Coriolanus
ACT/SCENE: 2.3
SPEAKER: Sicinius
CONTEXT:
BRUTUS
Get you hence instantly, and tell those friends,
They have chose a consul that will from them take
Their liberties; make them of no more voice
Than dogs that are as often beat for barking
As therefore kept to do so.
SICINIUS
Let them assemble,
And on a safer judgment all revoke
Your ignorant election; enforce his pride,
And his old hate unto you; besides, forget not
With what contempt he wore the humble weed,
How in his suit he scorn’d you; but your loves,
Thinking upon his services, took from you
The apprehension of his present portance,
Which most gibingly, ungravely, he did fashion
After the inveterate hate he bears you.
BRUTUS
Lay
A fault on us, your tribunes; that we laboured,
No impediment between, but that you must
Cast your election on him.
SICINIUS
Say, you chose him
More after our commandment than as guided
By your own true affections, and that your minds,
Preoccupied with what you rather must do
Than what you should, made you against the grain
To voice him consul: lay the fault on us.

DUTCH:
Gaat, spoedt u tot die vrienden; maakt hun duid’lijk,
Dat zij een consul kozen, die hun rechten
Hun nemen zal, hun zooveel stem zal laten
Als honden, die men ranselt om hun blaffen
En toch voor ‘t blaffen houdt.

MORE:
Proverb: Goes against the grain

Took from you the apprehension …portance=Blinded you to his behaviour
Ungravely=Without appropriate gravity or seriousness
Fashion after=Frame to conform with
Gibingly=Mockingly
Portance=Carriage, demeanour
Weeds=Clothing
Inveterate=Long-standing
Compleat:
Weeds (habit or garment)=Kleederen, gewaad
Inveterate=Verouderd, ingeworteld
The inveterate hatred=Een ingeworteld haat
To gibe=Boerten, gekscheeren
To fashion=Een gestalte geeven, vormen, fatzoeneeren

Topics: appearance, deceit, blame, gullibility, proverbs and idioms

PLAY: Coriolanus
ACT/SCENE: 2.1
SPEAKER: Menenius
CONTEXT:
MENENIUS
Why, then you should discover a brace of
unmeriting, proud, violent, testy magistrates, alias
fools, as any in Rome.
SICINIUS
Menenius, you are known well enough, too.
MENENIUS
I am known to be a humorous patrician, and one that
loves a cup of hot wine with not a drop of allaying
Tiber in’t; said to be something imperfect in
favouring the first complaint; hasty and tinder-like
upon too trivial motion; one that converses more
with the buttock of the night than with the forehead
of the morning: what I think I utter, and spend my
malice in my breath. Meeting two such wealsmen as
you are—I cannot call you Lycurguses—if the drink
you give me touch my palate adversely, I make a
crooked face at it. I can’t say your worships have
delivered the matter well, when I find the ass in
compound with the major part of your syllables: and
though I must be content to bear with those that say
you are reverend grave men, yet they lie deadly that
tell you you have good faces. If you see this in
the map of my microcosm, follows it that I am known
well enough too? what barm can your bisson
conspectuities glean out of this character, if I be
known well enough too?

DUTCH:
En hoewel ik het mij getroosten moet hen te laten uitspreken, die u eerbied-wardige mannen van gewicht noemen, vertellen toch zij, die zeggen, dat gij redelijk goede gezichten hebt, een leugen om van te barsten.

MORE:
Humorous=Capricious, whimsical
Converses more=Is more conversant with
Too trivial motion=Too trifling a provocation
Spend my malice in my breath=Vent my anger in words
Weal=(1) Welfare, prosperity, happiness; (2) Commonwealth, body politic
Wealsmen=Legislators
Testy=Easily angry, fretful, peevish
Motion=Incitement
Delivered=Spoken, presented
Good faces=(1) Honest faces; (2) Handsome faces
Reverend=Entitled to respect, venerable
Bisson (beesom)=Purblind
Conspectuities=Sight, vision
Glean=Conclude, infer
Map of my microcosm=Face
Compleat:
To deliver (or speak out in discourse)=Een redevoering doen
Purblind=Stikziende
The common-weal=’t Welvaaren van ‘t algemeen
A common-wealths man=Een republyks gezinde
Testy=Korzel, kribbig, gramsteurig, gemelyk
Crooked=Krom, geboogen, scheef

Topics: insult, perception, appearance, truth, honesty, deceit

PLAY: King Henry VIII
ACT/SCENE: 3.1
SPEAKER: Queen Katherine
CONTEXT:
QUEEN KATHARINE
Pray their graces
To come near.
What can be their business
With me, a poor weak woman, fall’n from favour?
I do not like their coming, now I think on ’t.
They should be good men, their affairs as righteous.
But all hoods make not monks.

DUTCH:
Mij bevalt,
Nu ik er over denk, hun komen niet.
Zij moesten goed zijn, hun bedrijf rechtschapen;
Maar elke kap maakt nog geen monnik.

MORE:
Proverb: The hood (habit, cowl) makes not the monk
Proverb: A holy habit cleanses not a foul soul

Topics: proverbs and idioms, honesty, deceit, appearance

PLAY: Cymbeline
ACT/SCENE: 3.6
SPEAKER: Belarius
CONTEXT:
BELARIUS
Prithee, fair youth,
Think us no churls, nor measure our good minds
By this rude place we live in. Well encounter’d!
‘Tis almost night: you shall have better cheer
Ere you depart: and thanks to stay and eat it.
Boys, bid him welcome.
GUIDERIUS
Were you a woman, youth,
I should woo hard but be your groom. In honesty,
I bid for you as I’d buy.
ARVIRAGUS
I’ll make’t my comfort
He is a man; I’ll love him as my brother:
And such a welcome as I’d give to him
After long absence, such is yours: most welcome!
Be sprightly, for you fall ‘mongst friends.

DUTCH:
Acht ons geen lomperds; schat ons zacht gemoed
Niet naar de woeste woning

MORE:
Churl=Peasant, rude and ill-bred fellow
To measure=To judge
Sprightly=Lively, in good spirits
Compleat:
Churl=Een plompe boer; een vrek
Churlish=Woest, boersch, onbeschoft
To measure a thing by one’s own profit=Een zaak schatten naar het voordeel dat men ‘er van trekt
To measure other peoples corn by one’s own bushel=Een ander by zich zelven afmeeten
Sprightly=Wakker, levendig, vol moeds, vol vuurs

Topics: civility, order/society, appearance, value, judgment, poverty and wealth

PLAY: King Henry VI Part 1
ACT/SCENE: 2.3
SPEAKER: Countess of Avergne
CONTEXT:
TALBOT
No, no, I am but shadow of myself:
You are deceived, my substance is not here;
For what you see is but the smallest part
And least proportion of humanity:
I tell you, madam, were the whole frame here,
It is of such a spacious lofty pitch,
Your roof were not sufficient to contain’t.
COUNTESS
This is a riddling merchant for the nonce;
He will be here, and yet he is not here:
How can these contrarieties agree?

DUTCH:
Dit is een raads’len-kramer naar ik zie;
Nu zegt hij hier te zijn en dan weer niet;
Hoe rijm ik al die tegenstrijdigheden?

MORE:

Proportion=Part
Shadow=Image (contrasted with substance)
Riddling=Speaking in riddles, enigmatically
Frame=Structure, e.g. the body or the army
Nonce=For the purpose, as required
Contrariety=Contradiction, inconsistency

Compleat:
Shadow=Een schaduw, schim
Riddle=Een raadsel
Frame (form, figure, composition)=Maakzel
Nonce=Als. For the nonce=Al willens, met opzet
He did it for the nonce=Hy deed het al willens
Contrariety=Strydigheid, tegenstrydigheid

Topics: appearance, language

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

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

MORE:

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

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

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

PLAY: Coriolanus
ACT/SCENE: 4.5
SPEAKER: Aufidius
CONTEXT:
AUFIDIUS
What is thy name?
CORIOLANUS
A name unmusical to the Volscians’ ears,
And harsh in sound to thine.
AUFIDIUS
Say, what’s thy name?
Thou hast a grim appearance, and thy face
Bears a command in’t; though thy tackle’s torn.
Thou show’st a noble vessel: what’s thy name?
CORIOLANUS
Prepare thy brow to frown: know’st
thou me yet?
AUFIDIUS
I know thee not: thy name?

DUTCH:
Spreek, uw naam?
Bar is uw uitzicht, iets gebiedends lees ik
In uw gelaat; zij ‘t want ook stukgereten,
Een edel vaartuig schijnt gij. Spreek, uw naam?

MORE:
Tackle=Clothing
Vessel=(fig.) You have a noble stature
Compleat:
Tackling=(things, goods, stuff): Dinge, goederen, gereedschap
Vessel=Vat

Topics: appearance, status, authority

PLAY: Romeo and Juliet
ACT/SCENE: 3.1
SPEAKER: Mercutio
CONTEXT:
Thou wilt quarrel with a man for cracking nuts, having no other reason but because thou hast hazel eyes;–what eye but such an eye would spy out such a quarrel?

DUTCH:
Gij krijgt met iemand twist, als hij een kastanje schilt, alleen omdat gij kastanje-bruine oogen hebt.

MORE:
Shakespeare is said to have been the first to use hazel as a description of eye colour. It was considered then to be a reddish brown.

Topics: dispute, conflict, appearance

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

PLAY: All’s Well that Ends Well
ACT/SCENE: 2.3
SPEAKER: Lafew
CONTEXT:
LAFEW
I did think thee, for two ordinaries, to be a pretty wise fellow: thou didst make tolerable vent of thy travel; it might pass: yet the scarfs and the bannerets about thee did manifoldly dissuade me from believing thee a vessel of too great a burthen.
I have now found thee; when I lose thee again, I care not; yet art thou good for nothing but taking up, and that thou’rt scarce worth.
PAROLLES
Hadst thou not the privilege of antiquity upon thee
LAFEW
Do not plunge thyself too far in anger, lest thou
hasten thy trial; which if—Lord have mercy on thee
for a hen! So, my good window of lattice, fare thee
well: thy casement I need not open, for I look
through thee. Give me thy hand.
PAROLLES
My lord, you give me most egregious indignity.

DUTCH:
En daarmee, mijn good tralievenster, vaarwel! ik behoef uw luik niet te openen, want ik zie u door en door. Geef mij de hand.

MORE:
Proverb: As good (better) lost as (than) found

Ordinaries=Mealtimes
Tolerable vent=Reasonable account
Banneret=Little flag
Taking up=Contradict
Window of lattice=Transparent like a latticed window (punning on Lettice, used for ruffs and caps)
Casement=Part of a window that opens on a hinge
Egregious=Extraordinary, enormous
Indignity=Contemptuous injury, insult
Compleat:
Ordinary=Drooggastery, Gaarkeuken, Ordinaris
Vent=Lugt, togt, gerucht
To eat ant an ordinary=In een ordinaris eten
Take up=Berispen; bestraffen
Lattice=Een houten traali
Casement=Een kykvernstertje, een glaze venster dat men open doet
Egregious=Treffelyk, braaf, heerlyk
Indignity=Smaad

Topics: proverbs and idioms, wisdom, appearance, discovery, understanding

PLAY: Cymbeline
ACT/SCENE: 4.2
SPEAKER: Guiderius
CONTEXT:
CLOTEN
Thou art a robber,
A lawbreaker, a villain. Yield thee, thief.
GUIDERIUS, [as Polydor]To who? To thee? What art thou? Have not I
An arm as big as thine? A heart as big?
Thy words, I grant, are bigger, for I wear not
My dagger in my mouth. Say what thou art,
Why I should yield to thee.
CLOTEN
Thou villain base,
Know’st me not by my clothes?

DUTCH:
Is niet mijn arm
Zoo sterk als de uwe, niet mijn hart zoo sterk?
In woorden kunt gij sterker zijn; ik draag
Mijn dolk niet in mijn mond.

MORE:
Proverb: The tailor makes the man

“My dagger is my mouth” ref. Solimon and Perseda, “I fight not with my tongue; this (pointing to sword) is my oratrix”
Base=Of low station, of mean account, i.e. base metal
Compleat:
A base fellow=Een slechte vent, oolyke boef
Base=Ondergeschikt

Topics: language, learning/education, order/society, status, appearance, proverbs and idioms

PLAY: The Comedy of Errors
ACT/SCENE: 3.2
SPEAKER: Luciana
CONTEXT:
LUCIANA
And may it be that you have quite forgot
A husband’s office? Shall, Antipholus,
Even in the spring of love thy love-springs rot?
Shall love, in building, grow so ruinous?
If you did wed my sister for her wealth,
Then for her wealth’s sake use her with more kindness.
Or if you like elsewhere, do it by stealth—
Muffle your false love with some show of blindness.
Let not my sister read it in your eye;
Be not thy tongue thy own shame’s orator;
Look sweet, be fair, become disloyalty;
Apparel vice like virtue’s harbinger.
Bear a fair presence, though your heart be tainted.
Teach sin the carriage of a holy saint.
Be secret-false. What need she be acquainted?
What simple thief brags of his own attaint?
‘Tis double wrong to truant with your bed
And let her read it in thy looks at board.
Shame hath a bastard fame, well managèd;
Ill deeds is doubled with an evil word.
Alas, poor women, make us but believe,
Being compact of credit, that you love us.
Though others have the arm, show us the sleeve;
We in your motion turn, and you may move us.
Then, gentle brother, get you in again.
Comfort my sister, cheer her, call her wife.
‘Tis holy sport to be a little vain
When the sweet breath of flattery conquers strife.

DUTCH:
Een weinig huich’lens is een vroom bedrog,
Als zoete vleitaal twist bedwingen kan.

MORE:
Proverb: Fine words dress ill deeds

Attaint=Offence, disgrace, corruption
Well-managed=Put a good spin on
Bastard fame=Illegitimate honour
Compact of credit=Made of credulity, entirely believable
Compleat:
To attaint=Overtuigen van misdaad, schuldig verklaaren, betichten; bevlekken, bederf aanzetten
Attainted=Overtuigd van misdaad, misdaadig verklaard
To compact=In een trekken, dicht t’saamenvoegen
Credit=Geloof, achting, aanzien, goede naam

Topics: flattery, offence, appearance, gullibility

PLAY: Richard II
ACT/SCENE: 2.1
SPEAKER: Lord Ross
CONTEXT:
NORTHUMBERLAND
(…) If then we shall shake off our slavish yoke,
Imp out our drooping country’s broken wing,
Redeem from broking pawn the blemish’d crown,
Wipe off the dust that hides our sceptre’s gilt
And make high majesty look like itself,
Away with me in post to Ravenspurgh;
But if you faint, as fearing to do so,
Stay and be secret, and myself will go.
LORD ROSS
To horse, to horse! urge doubts to them that fear.
LORD WILLOUGHBY
Hold out my horse, and I will first be there.

DUTCH:
Te paard, te paard! nooit ducht de moed gevaar.

MORE:

Imp out=Mend (another falconry term, to imp a hawk, meaning to repair feathers that were broken or had dropped out)
Broking pawn=The custody of the pawnbroker
Sceptre’s gilt=Superficial display of gold (with ref also to ‘guilt’)
Faint=Are fearful, hesitant
Urge doubts=Speak about doubts
Hold out my horse=If my horse holds out

Compleat:
To shake off the yoke=Het juk afwerpen
To imp=Enten, korten, afknippen
To imp a feather in a hawk’s wing=Een veder in de vleugel van een valk steeken
To imp the wings of one’s fame=Iemands befaamdheid besnoeijen
To imp the feathers of time=Den tyd kortwieken
To hold out=Uithouden, duuren

Topics: courage, statuds, appearance

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

PLAY: King Henry IV Part 2
ACT/SCENE: 1 Prologue
SPEAKER: Rumour
CONTEXT:
Open your ears, for which of you will stop
The vent of hearing when loud Rumour speaks?
I, from the orient to the drooping west,
Making the wind my post-horse, still unfold
The acts commenced on this ball of earth.
Upon my tongues continual slanders ride,
The which in every language I pronounce,
Stuffing the ears of men with false reports.
I speak of peace while covert enmity
Under the smile of safety wounds the world.

DUTCH:
Voortdurend zweeft er laster op mijn topgen,
En dien verkondig ik in elke taal ,
Der menschen oor met valsche tijding vullend.
Van vrede spreek ik, als verholen haat,
Schijngoedig lachend, diep de wereld wondt;

MORE:

Stop=Block
Vent of hearing=Ears
Post-horse=A horse kept at a post-house or the inn for messengers or travellers; emblem of swiftness
Drooping=West, where the sun sets
Unfold=Reveal

Compleat:
Unfold=Ontvouwen, open leggen
Drooping=Neerslagtig, moedeloosheid; quynenende

Topics: betrayal, deceit, appearance, perception, language

PLAY: The Merry Wives of Windsor
ACT/SCENE:
SPEAKER: Falstaff
CONTEXT:
NYM
I will run no base humour: here, take the
humour-letter: I will keep the havior of reputation.
FALSTAFF
Hold, sirrah, bear you these letters tightly;
Sail like my pinnace to these golden shores.
Rogues, hence, avaunt! vanish like hailstones, go;
Trudge, plod away o’ the hoof; seek shelter, pack!
Falstaff will learn the humour of the age,
French thrift, you rogues; myself and skirted page.

DUTCH:
Hier, knaap, breng gij de brieven en met zorg.
Zeil als mijn bootjen naar die gouden kusten. —
Weg, schurken! smelt, verdwijnt als hagelsteenen

MORE:
Haviour of reputation=Appearance of respectability
Pinnace=Small fast vessel
Avaunt=Be off
Humour=Spirit
Compleat:
Pinnace=Een Pynas scheepje, pynasje

Topics: appearance, reputation, honour, money

PLAY: Coriolanus
ACT/SCENE: 4.6
SPEAKER: Cominus
CONTEXT:
COMINIUS
Ay; and you’ll look pale
Before you find it other. All the regions
Do smilingly revolt; and who resist
Are mock’d for valiant ignorance,
And perish constant fools. Who is’t can blame him?
Your enemies and his find something in him.
MENENIUS
We are all undone, unless
The noble man have mercy.
COMINIUS
Who shall ask it?
The tribunes cannot do’t for shame; the people
Deserve such pity of him as the wolf
Does of the shepherds: for his best friends, if they
Should say ‘Be good to Rome,’ they charged him even
As those should do that had deserved his hate,
And therein show’d like enemies.

DUTCH:
Wij allen zijn verloren, toont niet die eed’le erbarmen

MORE:
Pale=White with fear
Smilingly=Happily, willingly
Undone=Ruined
Compleat:
Pale=Bleek, doodsch
Smiling=Grimlaching, toelaching, smyling, smylende
Undone=Ontdaan, losgemaakt

Topics: appearance, courage, blame, mercy

PLAY: Hamlet
ACT/SCENE: 3.1
SPEAKER: Hamlet
CONTEXT:
What should such fellows as I do crawling between earth and heaven? We are arrant knaves, all. Believe none of us. Go thy ways to a nunnery. Where’s your father?

DUTCH:
Wij zijn aartsschavuiten; geloof niemand van ons. Ga je weg naar een klooster./
Wij zijn allemaal deugnieten, geloof niemand van ons. Ga uws weegs naar een klooster!

MORE:
Interestingly, ‘nunnery’ is translated as hoerenhuis in one Dutch translation – nunnery was Elizabethan slang for house of prostitution. OED interprets nunnery in Hamlet to have the original meaning (convent).

Topics: appearance, deceit

PLAY: Hamlet
ACT/SCENE: 3.1
SPEAKER: Polonius
CONTEXT:
We are oft to blame in this,
‘Tis too much proved, that with devotion’s visage
And pious action we do sugar o’er
The devil himself

DUTCH:
Vaak zijn wij te laken dat wij met devoot gelaat en vroom gebaar de duivel zelf verbloemen./
Soms, doen wij berispelijk, – Te vaak ‘t vertoond werd, dat met vroom gelaat En heilge handling we oversuikeren Den duivel zelf.

MORE:
Schmidt:
Sugar (over)= To sweeten (in a metaphorical sense), to embellish, to colour
Compleat:
To sugar=Zoet maken.
Sugared words=Gesuikerede woorden

Topics: appearance, deceit, guilt

PLAY: Julius Caesar
ACT/SCENE: 1.2
SPEAKER: Cassius
CONTEXT:
CASSIUS
I know that virtue to be in you, Brutus,
As well as I do know your outward favour.
Well, honour is the subject of my story.
I cannot tell what you and other men
Think of this life, but, for my single self,
I had as lief not be as live to be
In awe of such a thing as I myself.
I was born free as Caesar. So were you.
We both have fed as well, and we can both
Endure the winter’s cold as well as he.
For once upon a raw and gusty day,
The troubled Tiber chafing with her shores,
Caesar said to me, “Darest thou, Cassius, now
Leap in with me into this angry flood
And swim to yonder point?” Upon the word,
Accoutred as I was, I plungèd in
And bade him follow. So indeed he did.
The torrent roared, and we did buffet it
With lusty sinews, throwing it aside
And stemming it with hearts of controversy.
But ere we could arrive the point proposed,
Caesar cried, “Help me, Cassius, or I sink!”
I, as Aeneas, our great ancestor,
Did from the flames of Troy upon his shoulder
The old Anchises bear, so from the waves of Tiber
Did I the tired Caesar. And this man
Is now become a god, and Cassius is
A wretched creature and must bend his body
If Caesar carelessly but nod on him.
He had a fever when he was in Spain,
And when the fit was on him, I did mark
How he did shake. ‘Tis true, this god did shake!
His coward lips did from their colour fly,
And that same eye whose bend doth awe the world
Did lose his luster. I did hear him groan,
Ay, and that tongue of his that bade the Romans
Mark him and write his speeches in their books—
“Alas,” it cried, “give me some drink, Titinius,”
As a sick girl. Ye gods, it doth amaze me
A man of such a feeble temper should
So get the start of the majestic world
And bear the palm alone.

DUTCH:
Nu, eer is onderwerp van wat ik spreek

MORE:
Favour=Appearance
As lief not=Rather not
Chafing with=Raging against
Accoutred=Equipped
Bend his body=Bow
From their colour fly=Turn pale; desert their flag
Bend=Glance
Temper=Constitution
Get the start of=Take a lead over
Compleat:
Well-favoured=Aangenaam, bevallig
I had as lief=Ik wilde al zo lief
Chafing=Verhitting, oploopendheid, wryving, schaaving
To accoutre=Toerusten, opschikken
Colour=Een vaandel
A man of an instable temper=Een man van een ongestadig humeur, van eenen wispelteurigen aart

Topics: virtue, honour, appearance, wellbeing

PLAY: As You Like It
ACT/SCENE: 3.3
SPEAKER: Touchstone
CONTEXT:
TOUCHSTONE
No, truly, unless thou wert hard-favoured, for honesty
coupled to beauty is to have honey a sauce to sugar.
JAQUES
A material fool.
AUDREY
Well, I am not fair, and therefore I pray the gods make
me honest.
TOUCHSTONE
Truly, and to cast away honesty upon a foul slut were
to put good meat into an unclean dish.
AUDREY
I am not a slut, though I thank the gods I am foul.
TOUCHSTONE
Well, praised be the gods for thy foulness;
sluttishness may come hereafter. But be it as it may be,
I will marry thee; and to that end I have been with Sir
Oliver Martext, the vicar of the next village, who hath
promised to meet me in this place of the forest and to
couple us.
JAQUES
I would fain see this meeting.

DUTCH:
Nu, dank de goden alvast voor uw leelijkheid, de slonsigheid
kan nog komen.

MORE:
Hard-favoured=Ugly
Material=With good sense
Fain=Very much like
Compleat:
Ill-favoured=Leelyk, afschuwelyk
Material=Van belang
Fain=Gaern

Topics: appearance, marriage, relationship, respect

PLAY: Twelfth Night
ACT/SCENE: 1.2
SPEAKER: Viola
CONTEXT:
VIOLA
There is a fair behavior in thee, captain,
And though that nature with a beauteous wall
Doth oft close in pollution, yet of thee
I will believe thou hast a mind that suits
With this thy fair and outward character.
I prithee—and I’ll pay thee bounteously—
Conceal me what I am, and be my aid
For such disguise as haply shall become
The form of my intent. I’ll serve this duke.
Thou shall present me as an eunuch to him.
It may be worth thy pains, for I can sing
And speak to him in many sorts of music
That will allow me very worth his service.
What else may hap to time I will commit.
Only shape thou thy silence to my wit.

DUTCH:
De tijd moog’ leeren, wat gebeuren kan,
Steun gij door uw stilzwijgendheid mijn plan.

MORE:
Proverb: The face is the index of the heart (mind)

Prattle=Discuss
Fresh in murmur=New rumours
Delivered=Revealed
Shortly=Soon after
Abjure=Renounce
Occasion=Opportunity
Mellow=Ripe
Estate=Social status
Compass=Bring about
Suit=Petition
Compleat:
Prate and prattle=Keffen en snappen
To murmur=Morren, murmureeren
To murmur against=Tegen morren
Shortly=Kortelyk, in ‘t kort, binnen korten
To abjure=Afzweeren
Occasion=Gelegenheyd, voorval, oorzaak
Mellow=Murw, rijp
To mellow=Rypen, ryp of murw worden
Estate=Bezit, middelen
Suit=Een verzoek, rechtsgeding

Burgersdijk notes:
Ik wil dien vorst als jonkman dienen. In het oorspronkelijke staat, dat Viola ,””als eunuuk”” aan den hertog wenscht voorgesteld te worden. — Daarom zegt dan ook de kapitein, aan de eunuken en stommen van het serail en aan de daar gebruikelijke straf van verblinden denkende, in zijn antwoord: Wees gij zijn eunuuk, en ik zal uw stomme zijn; zoo mijn tong klapt, laat dan mijne oogen niet meer zien””. Geheel juist en volledig waren deze twee regels, die op de woorden “”als eunuuk”” slaan, niet terug te geven. Daarom zijn deze twee woorden weggelaten, wat te eerder veroorloofd scheen, daar Sh. later op deze uitdrukking niet meer gelet heeft en Viola aan het hof des hertogs geenszins de voorgenomen rol speelt, maar door allen als een jonkman behandeld wordt, zoodat men zich verwonderen kan, dat Shakespeare in dit met zooveel zorg bewerkte stuk de woorden niet gewijzigd heeft.”

Topics: proverbs and idioms, good and bad, appearance, plans/intentions

PLAY: Richard II
ACT/SCENE: 4.1
SPEAKER: Bishop of Carlisle
CONTEXT:
Worst in this royal presence may I speak,
Yet best beseeming me to speak the truth.
Would God that any in this noble presence
Were enough noble to be upright judge
Of noble Richard! then true noblesse would
Learn him forbearance from so foul a wrong.
What subject can give sentence on his king?
And who sits here that is not Richard’s subject?
Thieves are not judged but they are by to hear,
Although apparent guilt be seen in them;
And shall the figure of God’s majesty,
His captain, steward, deputy-elect,
Anointed, crowned, planted many years,
Be judged by subject and inferior breath,
And he himself not present?

DUTCH:
Kan ooit een onderdaan zijn koning richten?
En wie hier is niet Richards onderdaan?

MORE:

Worst=Lowest-ranking, meanest, most unfit (to speak in the royal presence)
Beseeming=Befitting
Learn him=Teach him
Forbearance=Act of abstaining, restraint, refraining from
Figure=Image
Inferior=Subordinate, lower in station

Compleat:
To beseem=Betaamen, voegen, passen
To learn (teach)=Leeren, onderwyzen
Forbearance=Verdraagzaamheid, verduldigheid, lydzaamheid, langmoedigheid
Forbearance is no acquittance=Uitstellen is geen quytschelden
Figure (representation)=Afbeelding
Inferior=Minder, laager

Topics: order/society, status, truth, appearance, guit, judgmnet

PLAY: The Taming of the Shrew
ACT/SCENE: 4.3
SPEAKER: Petruchio
CONTEXT:
PETRUCHIO
Well, come, my Kate. We will unto your father’s
Even in these honest mean habiliments.
Our purses shall be proud, our garments poor,
For ’tis the mind that makes the body rich,
And as the sun breaks through the darkest clouds,
So honour peereth in the meanest habit.
What, is the jay more precious than the lark
Because his feathers are more beautiful?
Or is the adder better than the eel
Because his painted skin contents the eye?
Oh, no, good Kate. Neither art thou the worse
For this poor furniture and mean array.
If thou account’st it shame, lay it on me,
And therefore frolic! We will hence forthwith
To feast and sport us at thy father’s house.
Go, call my men, and let us straight to him,
And bring our horses unto Long Lane end.
There will we mount, and thither walk on foot.
Let’s see, I think ’tis now some seven o’clock,
And well we may come there by dinnertime.
KATHERINE
I dare assure you, sir, ’tis almost two,
And ’twill be supper time ere you come there.
PETRUCHIO
It shall be seven ere I go to horse.
Look what I speak, or do, or think to do,
You are still crossing it. Sirs, let ’t alone.
I will not go today, and ere I do
It shall be what o’clock I say it is.

DUTCH:
Wie schat den meerkol hooger dan den leeuwrik,
Omdat zijn veed’ren fraaier zijn van kleur?

MORE:
Mean habiliments=Plain clothes
Proud=Full
Peereth=Peeps out, can be seen
Habit=Attire
Painted=Patterned
Furniture=Clothes
Array=Attire
Lay it on=Blame
Look what=Whatever
Still=Always
Crossing=Contradicting
Compleat:
Habiliment=Kleeding, dos, gewaad
To peer out=Uitmunten, uitsteeken
Habit=Een kleed, gewaad, dos
Furniture=Stoffeersel
Array=Gewaad, kleeding
To lay upon=Opleggen, te laste leggen
Still=Steeds, gestadig, altyd
To cross=Tegenstreeven, dwars voor de boeg komen, dwarsboomen, wederestreeven, kruisen

Topics: fashion/trends, poverty and wealth, appearance, value, vanity

PLAY: Macbeth
ACT/SCENE: 2.3
SPEAKER: Donalbain
CONTEXT:
Our separated fortune
Shall keep us both the safer. Where we are,
There’s daggers in men’s smiles. The near in blood,
The nearer bloody.

DUTCH:
Naar Ierland ik; het veiligst voor ons beiden
Is, dat we uiteengaan; in een glimlach schuilt
Hier licht een dolk. Hoe nader in den bloede,
Des te eerder bloedig.

MORE:
An allusion to a ‘received truth’/proverb, “The nearer in kin the less in kindness” (1565).

Topics: conspiracy, deceit, appearance, betrayal, relationship, proverbs and idioms

PLAY: Julius Caesar
ACT/SCENE: 2.1
SPEAKER: Lucius
CONTEXT:
LUCIUS
No, sir. Their hats are plucked about their ears,
And half their faces buried in their cloaks,
That by no means I may discover them
By any mark of favour.
BRUTUS
Let ’em enter.
They are the faction. O conspiracy,
Shamest thou to show thy dangerous brow by night
When evils are most free? O, then by day
Where wilt thou find a cavern dark enough
To mask thy monstrous visage? Seek none, conspiracy.
Hide it in smiles and affability.
For if thou path, thy native semblance on,
Not Erebus itself were dim enough
To hide thee from prevention.

DUTCH:
O gij, samenzwering!
Schroomt gij uw dreigend voorhoofd ‘s nachts to toonen,
Wanneer het kwaad vrij omgaat? Waar dan vindt gij
Bij dag een grot, wier zwart uw monsteraanschijn
Genoeg vermomt? O zoek niet, samenzwering ;
Een glimlach zij uw mom en vriend’lijkheid

MORE:
Proverb: Fair face foul heart

Plucked about=Pulled down over
Discover=Identify
Mark of favour=Feature, identifying mark
Dangerous=Threatening
Native semblance=True appearance
Prevention=Being stopped (recognised)
Compleat:
Plucked=Gerukt
Discover=Ontdekken, bespeuren, aan ‘t licht brengen
Semblance=Gelykenis, schyn
Prevention=Voorkoming, verhoeding, verhinderen

Topics: proverbs and idioms, deceit, appearance, conspiracy

PLAY: Twelfth Night
ACT/SCENE: 3.1
SPEAKER: Fool
CONTEXT:
FOOL
The matter, I hope, is not great, sir, begging but a
beggar. Cressida was a beggar. My lady is within, sir. I
will construe to them whence you come. Who you are and
what you would are out of my welkin, I might say
“element,” but the word is overworn.
VIOLA
This fellow is wise enough to play the fool,
And to do that well craves a kind of wit.
He must observe their mood on whom he jests,
The quality of persons, and the time,
And, like the haggard, check at every feather
That comes before his eye. This is a practise
As full of labor as a wise man’s art,
For folly that he wisely shows is fit.
But wise men, folly-fall’n, quite taint their wit.

DUTCH:
Ik wil haar beduiden, van waar gij komt; wie gij zijt en wat gij wilt, ligt buiten mijn uitspansel; ik kon zeggen „sfeer”, maar dit woord is versleten.

MORE:

Overworn=Spoiled by too much use
Welkin=Sky
Construe=Explain (also ‘conster’)
Compleat:
Construe (conster)=Woordenschikken; t’Zamenschikken, t’zamenstellen
Overworn=Gantsch afgesleeten, uitgesleeten, afgeleefd

Topics: proverbs and idioms, skill/talent, language, intellect, appearance

PLAY: Romeo and Juliet
ACT/SCENE: 1.3
SPEAKER: Nurse
CONTEXT:
A man, young lady! Lady, such a man
As all the world. Why, he’s a man of wax.

DUTCH:
Dat is een man, mejonkvrouw, dat ‘s een man ,
Er is ter wereld, — o, een man van was!

MORE:
Schmidt:
Man of wax: as pretty as if he had been modelled in wax

Topics: appearance, respect, integrity

PLAY: King Henry VI Part 3
ACT/SCENE: 3.2
SPEAKER: Gloucester
CONTEXT:
O monstrous fault, to harbour such a thought!
Then, since this earth affords no joy to me,
But to command, to check, to o’erbear such
As are of better person than myself,
I’ll make my heaven to dream upon the crown,
And, whiles I live, to account this world but hell,
Until my mis-shaped trunk that bears this head
Be round impaled with a glorious crown.
And yet I know not how to get the crown,
For many lives stand between me and home:
And I,—like one lost in a thorny wood,
That rends the thorns and is rent with the thorns,
Seeking a way and straying from the way;
Not knowing how to find the open air,
But toiling desperately to find it out,—
Torment myself to catch the English crown:
And from that torment I will free myself,
Or hew my way out with a bloody axe.
Why, I can smile, and murder whiles I smile,
And cry ‘Content’ to that which grieves my heart,
And wet my cheeks with artificial tears,
And frame my face to all occasions.

DUTCH:
Glimlachen kan ik en glimlachend moorden,
En roepen: „mooi!” bij wat mijn ziele grieft,

MORE:

Proverb: To laugh (smile) in one’s face and cut one’s throat

Check=Rebuke, punish
Overbear=Dominate
Home=My objective
Artificial=Fake, feigned
Rends=Tears

Compleat:
Check=Berisping, beteugeling, intooming
To over-bear=Overtreffen, onderkrygen; (oppress) Onderdrukken
Artificial=Konstig, behendig, aardig, dat niet natuurlyk is
To rend=Scheuren, van een ryten

Topics: proverbs and idioms, deceit, appearance, flaw/fault, ambition

PLAY: Troilus and Cressida
ACT/SCENE: 5.2
SPEAKER: Troilus
CONTEXT:
THERSITES
Will he swagger himself out on’s own eyes?
TROILUS
This she? no, this is Diomed’s Cressida:
If beauty have a soul, this is not she;
If souls guide vows, if vows be sanctimonies,
If sanctimony be the gods’ delight,
If there be rule in unity itself,
This is not she. O madness of discourse,
That cause sets up with and against itself!
Bi-fold authority! where reason can revolt
Without perdition, and loss assume all reason
Without revolt: this is, and is not, Cressid.
Within my soul there doth conduce a fight
Of this strange nature that a thing inseparate
Divides more wider than the sky and earth,
And yet the spacious breadth of this division
Admits no orifex for a point as subtle
As Ariachne’s broken woof to enter.
Instance, O instance! strong as Pluto’s gates;
Cressid is mine, tied with the bonds of heaven:
Instance, O instance! strong as heaven itself;
The bonds of heaven are slipped, dissolved, and loosed;
And with another knot, five-finger-tied,
The fractions of her faith, orts of her love,
The fragments, scraps, the bits and greasy relics
Of her o’er-eaten faith, are bound to Diomed

DUTCH:
Wil hij zich uit zijn eigen oogen zwetsen?

MORE:
Swagger=Bluster
Santimony=(1) Sacred; (2) Sanctity
Discourse=Logical argument, reason
Cause=Case, plea
Bi-fold=Divided
Perdition=Ruin
Conduce=Conduct
Inseparate=Undivided
Subtle=Fine
Woof=Weaving thread
Instance=Case in point
Ort=Remnant
Compleat:
To swagger=Snoeven, pochgen, snorken
Discourse=Redeneering, reedenvoering, gesprek, vertoog
Cause=Oorzaak, reden, zaak
Perdition=Verderf, verlies, ondergang
To conduce=Vorderlyk zyn, dienstig zyn, baaten
Subtle=Listig, loos, sneedig, spitsvindig
Woof=Inslag
Instance=Een voorval, voorbeeld, exempel; aandringing, aanhouding; blyk

Topics: appearance, betrayal

PLAY: King Henry V
ACT/SCENE: 5.1
SPEAKER: Gower
CONTEXT:
Go, go. You are a counterfeit cowardly knave. Will you mock at an ancient tradition begun upon an honorable respect and worn as a memorable trophy of predeceased valour, and dare not avouch in your deeds any of your words? I have seen you gleeking and galling at this gentleman twice or thrice. You thought because he could not speak English in the native garb, he could not therefore handle an English cudgel. You find it otherwise, and henceforth let a Welsh correction teach you a good English condition. Fare you well.

DUTCH:
Wilt gij spotten over een oud gebruik, dat uit een eervolle aanleiding ontsproot en als een gedenkwaardig teeken van vroegere dapperheid gedragen wordt, en waagt gij het niet, zelfs éen uwer woorden door daden waar te maken?

MORE:

To gleek=Scoff, sneer
Schmidt:
To gall (with at)=To quiz, to scoff: “gleeking and galling at this gentleman”
Predeceased valour=Brave men who have died
Garb=Fashion
Correction=Chastisement
Condition=Disposition

Compleat:
Condition=Staat, gesteltenis
Good-conditioned=Goedaardig
Correction=Verbetering, tuchtiging, berisping
Garb=Kleeding; (carriage)=houding

Topics: betrayal, language, promise, appearance, intellect

PLAY: Hamlet
ACT/SCENE: 1.2
SPEAKER: Claudius
CONTEXT:
Therefore our sometime sister, now our queen,
Th’ imperial jointress to this warlike state,
Have we—as ’twere with a defeated joy,
With an auspicious and a dropping eye,
With mirth in funeral and with dirge in marriage,
In equal scale weighing delight and dole—
Taken to wife.

DUTCH:
Met één oog schreiend en één lachend oog,
Met jubel bij lijkdienst en klacht bij bruiloft

MORE:
Sometimes sister=former sister-in-law
Jointress=Dowager
Auspicious= Happy, joyful
Dropping=Tearful, mournful
Dirge=Funeral song.
Dole=Sorrow, grief
Compleat:
Auspicious=Gelukkig, voorspoedig, gunstig.
Dropping=Druipende. Doleful=Jammerlyk, beklaaglyk, droevig.
A doleful voice=Een naare stem. A doleful story=Een droevige vertelling.
Dirge=Lykzang.
Other Dutch interpretations:
Een heilspellend en een tranend oog, / met één stralend oog en ’t andere vol tranen,
Met lijkstoetsjubel en met bruiloftsrouw / monter in rouw en somber bij de bruiloft

Topics: appearance, uncertainty

PLAY: The Merry Wives of Windsor
ACT/SCENE:
SPEAKER: Mistress Page
CONTEXT:
MISTRESS PAGE
Truly, I am so glad you have nobody here.
MISTRESS FORD
Why?
MISTRESS PAGE
Why, woman, your husband is in his old lunes again:
he so takes on yonder with my husband; so rails
against all married mankind; so curses all Eve’s
daughters, of what complexion soever; and so buffets
himself on the forehead, crying, ‘Peer out, peer
out!’ that any madness I ever yet beheld seemed but
tameness, civility and patience, to this his
distemper he is in now: I am glad the fat knight is not
here.

DUTCH:
Waarom? wel, vrouwtjen, uw man heeft weer zijn
oude vlagen.

MORE:
Lunes=Madness (also ‘lines’: tendencies)
Takes on=Rants
Eve’s daughters=Women
Complexion=Disposition; appearance
Peer out=Sprout, peep out
Compleat:
Lunes=Snoertjes die men opsmyt om een valk te rug te doen komen
Complexion=Aardt, gesteltenis, gesteldheyd
To peer out=Uitmunten, uitsteeken

Topics: madness|anger|suspicion|appearance

PLAY: King Henry VIII
ACT/SCENE: 3.1
SPEAKER: Queen Katherine
CONTEXT:
QUEEN KATHERINE
Would I had never trod this English earth,
Or felt the flatteries that grow upon it!
Ye have angels’ faces, but heaven knows your hearts.
What will become of me now, wretched lady!
I am the most unhappy woman living.
Alas, poor wenches, where are now your fortunes!
Shipwreck’d upon a kingdom, where no pity,
No friend, no hope; no kindred weep for me;
Almost no grave allow’d me: like the lily,
That once was mistress of the field and flourish’d,
I’ll hang my head and perish.

DUTCH:
Ja, eng’len schijnt gij, doch God kent uw hart.

MORE:
Would=I wish
Flatteries=Deception, manipulation
Compleat:
Would=’t was te wenschen dat; it zou ‘t wel willen
Flattery=Vleyery

Topics: appearance, plans/intentions, deceit, manipulation, regret

PLAY: King Henry IV Part 2
ACT/SCENE: 1.1
SPEAKER: Northumberland
CONTEXT:
LORD BARDOLPH
Who, he?
He was some hilding fellow that had stolen
The horse he rode on and, upon my life,
Spoke at a venture. Look, here comes more news.
NORTHUMBERLAND
Yea, this man’s brow, like to a title leaf,
Foretells the nature of a tragic volume.
So looks the strand whereon the imperious flood
Hath left a witness’d usurpation.

DUTCH:
Ja, ‘t voorhoofd van dien man spelt, als de titel
Eens treurzangs, reeds den aard van zijn bericht.

MORE:

Strand=beach
Imperious flood=raging flood
Usurpation=Illegal occupation
Leaf=Page
A witness’d usurpation=“An attestation of its ravage” (STEEVENS)

Compleat:
Imperious=Heerschzuchtig
Usurpation=Een onrechtmaatige bezitneeming, of indrang, dwanggebruik, overweldiging

Topics: appearance, sadness

PLAY: Cymbeline
ACT/SCENE: 3.4
SPEAKER: Pisanio
CONTEXT:
IMOGEN
Where then
Hath Britain all the sun that shines? Day, night,
Are they not but in Britain? I’ the world’s volume
Our Britain seems as of it, but not in ‘t;
In a great pool a swan’s nest: prithee, think
There’s livers out of Britain.
PISANIO
I am most glad
You think of other place. The ambassador,
Lucius the Roman, comes to Milford-Haven
To-morrow: now, if you could wear a mind
Dark as your fortune is, and but disguise
That which, to appear itself, must not yet be
But by self-danger, you should tread a course
Pretty and full of view; yea, haply, near
The residence of Posthumus; so nigh at least
That though his actions were not visible, yet
Report should render him hourly to your ear
As truly as he moves.
IMOGEN
O, for such means!
Though peril to my modesty, not death on’t,
I would adventure.
PISANIO
Well, then, here’s the point:
You must forget to be a woman; change
Command into obedience, fear and niceness—
The handmaids of all women, or, more truly,
Woman it pretty self—into a waggish courage,
Ready in gibes, quick-answered, saucy, and
As quarrellous as the weasel. Nay, you must
Forget that rarest treasure of your cheek,
Exposing it—but O, the harder heart!
Alack, no remedy—to the greedy touch
Of common-kissing Titan, and forget
Your laboursome and dainty trims, wherein
You made great Juno angry.
IMOGEN
Nay, be brief
I see into thy end, and am almost
A man already.

DUTCH:
Vergeet, dat gij een vrouw zijt; ruil ‘t gebieden.
Voor dienstbaarheid, de schuchterheid en kieschheid, —
Der vrouwen gezellinnen, ja veeleer,
Haar lieflijk wezen zelf, — voor dart’len moed;
Wees spotziek, onbeschaamd, vlug met de tong,
En twistziek als een wezel;

MORE:
Niceness=Delicacy, daintiness, coyness
Quarrellous as the weasel. Weasels were kept for killing vermin. Cf. Henry IV Part 1: “A weasel hath not such a deal of spleen as you are tossed with.”
Laboursome=Elabourate, requiring much pains and industry (also laboursome petition, Hamlet)
Common-kissing=Kissing anybody and anything
Trims=Ornamental dress
Compleat:
To gibe=Boerten, gekscheeren
Quarrelsome=Krakeelachtig, twistig, twistgierig, kyfachtig
Laboursom=Lastig, verdrdietig, verveelend
Niceness=Viezigheid, keurigheid

Burgersdijk notes:
Den fellen straler van omhoog. In het oorspronkelijke wordt gesproken van the greedg touch of common-kissing Titan. De zonnegod wordt meermalen Titan genoemd.

Topics: appearance, intellect, independence, language, reply

PLAY: King Henry V
ACT/SCENE: 2.4
SPEAKER: Constable
CONTEXT:
Oh peace, Prince Dauphin!
You are too much mistaken in this king.
Question your Grace the late ambassadors
With what great state he heard their embassy,
How well supplied with noble counselors,
How modest in exception, and withal
How terrible in constant resolution,
And you shall find his vanities forespent
Were but the outside of the Roman Brutus,
Covering discretion with a coat of folly,
As gardeners do with ordure hide those roots
That shall first spring and be most delicate.

DUTCH:
Want dan erkent gij, dat zijn vroeg’re dwaasheid
De mom van den Romeinschen Brutus was,
Wijsheid bedekkend met een narrenmantel,
Gelijk tuiniers met vuil die wortels dekken,
Die teer en vroeg, voor de andren, schieten moeten.

MORE:

In Roman history, Lucius Junius Brutus pretended to be slow-witted so that he wouldn’t be regarded as a threat.
(See The Rape of Lucrece, 1594: “Brutus… Began to clothe his wit in state and pride, Burying in Lucrece’ wound his folly’s show. (…) But now he throws that shallow habit by, Wherein deep policy did him disguise And armed his long-hid wits advisedly…”)

Vanities=Empty and vain pursuit, frivolity
Forespent=Past, foregone
Discretion=wisdom
Ordure=manure

Compleat:
Vanity (unprofitableness)=Onprofytelykheid
Vanity (vain-glory)=Idele glorie
Ordure=Vuiligheid, drek, afgang
Discretion=Bescheidenheid, omzigtigheid

Topics: appearance, skill/talent, error

PLAY: Timon of Athens
ACT/SCENE: 3.5
SPEAKER: First Senator
CONTEXT:
FIRST SENATOR
You undergo too strict a paradox,
Striving to make an ugly deed look fair:
Your words have took such pains as if they laboured
To bring manslaughter into form and set quarrelling
Upon the head of valour; which indeed
Is valour misbegot and came into the world
When sects and factions were newly born:
He’s truly valiant that can wisely suffer
The worst that man can breathe, and make his wrongs
His outsides, to wear them like his raiment, carelessly,
And ne’er prefer his injuries to his heart,
To bring it into danger.
If wrongs be evils and enforce us kill,
What folly ’tis to hazard life for ill!

DUTCH:
Gij onderneemt iets al te wonderspreukigs,
Als gij een daad, zoo zwart, blank wasschen wilt;

MORE:
Paradox=Absurdity
Form=Semblance, formality
Misbegot=Misconceived
Outsides=Clothes
Compleat:
Paradox=Een wonderspreuk, een vreemde reden die tegen ‘t gemeen gevoelen schynt aan te loopen
Form=Fatzoen, figuur, gestalte, formaat; manier, wyze
Misbegot=Onecht gebooren

Topics: appearance, good and bad, languagejustice

PLAY: Measure for Measure
ACT/SCENE: 2.1
SPEAKER: Escalus
CONTEXT:
Troth, and your bum is the greatest thing about you;
so that in the beastliest sense you are Pompey the
Great. Pompey, you are partly a bawd, Pompey,
howsoever you colour it in being a tapster, are you
not? come, tell me true: it shall be the better for you.

DUTCH:
Nu voorwaar, uw pof is het grootste wat er aan u te zien is, zoodat gij, in den grofsten zin, Pompejus de Groote zijt.

MORE:
Schmidt:
Bawd=Procurer (pimp)
Tapster=One who draws beer and serves the customers of an alehouse
Compleat:
Tapster=Een tapper, biertapper
Baud (or she-Bawd)=Een Hoerewaardin, koppelaarster
Bawd=Een Hoerewaard
Burgersdijk notes:
De pofbroeken werden in Sh .’s tjjd vaak zoo geweldig groot, met allerlei dingen opgevuld, dat er een
parlementsacte tegen werd uitgevaardigd. Eens bracht men, – zoo verhaalt Nath. Drake, – een overtreder dezer wet voor het gerecht, die uit zijn pofbroek (bum, i. e. great bum of Paris, cul de Paris) de volgende kleinigheden voor den dag haalde: een paar beddelakens, twee tafellakens, tien zakdoeken, vier hemden, een borstel, een spiegel, een kam, verscheidene slaapmutsen enz . Ook met zemelen vulden de modehelden hunne Fransche pofbroeken op. Eens kreeg zulk een fat bij het opstaan van zijn stoel door een splinter een scheur in zijn pofbroek en de zemelen begonnen er uit te loopen. De dames, die het dadelijk opmerkten, begonnen te lachen. De jonge mensch, die meende, dat men om zijne verhalen en invallen lachte, deed harteljk mede, maar hoe meer hij van lachen schudde, des te meer zemelen gaf de molen.

Topics: insult, truth, justice, appearance, deceit

PLAY: King Henry IV Part 2
ACT/SCENE: 1.2
SPEAKER: Chief Justice
CONTEXT:
CHIEF JUSTICE
Well, the truth is, Sir John, you live in great infamy.
FALSTAFF
He that buckles him in my belt cannot live in less.
CHIEF JUSTICE
Your means are very slender, and your waste is great.
FALSTAFF
I would it were otherwise. I would my means were greater and my waist slender.

DUTCH:
Uw middelen zijn zeer klein en uw vertering zeer groot.

MORE:

Schmidt:
Infamy=Disgrace
Slender=Small, inconsiderable, insufficient

Compleat:
Infamy=Eerloosheid, Schandvlek
Slender (small, sorry, pitiful)=Klein, gering, armoedig
To have but a slender estate=Een gering kapitaal hebben

Topics: appearance, money, excess

PLAY: As You Like It
ACT/SCENE: 5.2
SPEAKER: Phoebe
CONTEXT:
ROSALIND
By my life I do, which I tender dearly, though I say I
am a magician. Therefore put you in your best array, bid
your friends; for if you will be married tomorrow, you
shall, and to Rosalind, if you will.
Look, here comes a lover of mine and a lover of hers.
PHOEBE
Youth, you have done me much ungentleness
To show the letter that I writ to you.
ROSALIND
I care not if I have. It is my study
To seem despiteful and ungentle to you.
You are there followed by a faithful shepherd.
Look upon him, love him; he worships you.
PHOEBE
Good shepherd, tell this youth what ’tis to love.
SILVIUS
It is to be all made of sighs and tears,
And so am I for Phoebe.

DUTCH:
Jonkman, dat was niet hupsch van u gedaan,
Dien brief, dien ik u schreef, te laten zien.

MORE:
Best array=Finest clothes
Bid=Invite
Ungentleness=Unkindness, discourtesy
Study=Purposeful endeavour
Despiteful=Contemptuous
Ungentle=Rude
Compleat:
Bidding=Gebieding, noodiging
To bid=Gebieden, beveelen, belasten, heeten, noodigen, bieden
Ungentle= (untractable) Ontembaar, onhandelbaar; (severe, hard) Gestreng, hard
To study (endeavour)=Trachten, poogen
Despiteful=Spytig, boosaardig

Topics: promise, marriage, appearance, communication

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