CJTranslations - King Lear

QUOTES BY TOPIC

A good man’s fortune may grow out at heels.

PLAY: King Lear ACT/SCENE: 2.2 SPEAKER: Kent CONTEXT: Pray you do not, sir. I have watched and traveled hard.
Some time I shall sleep out. The rest I’ll whistle.
A good man’s fortune may grow out at heels. DUTCH: Ons goed fortuin laat ons soms in de steek;
ik wens u goededag. MORE: Proverb: A good man’s fortune may grow out at heels (luck may run out).
Out at heel=worn out at the heel Topics: fate/destiny, proverbs and idioms, invented or popularised

A knave, a rascal, an eater of broken meats

PLAY: King Lear
ACT/SCENE: 2.2
SPEAKER: Kent
CONTEXT:
A knave, a rascal, an eater of broken meats; a base, proud, shallow, beggarly, three-suited, hundred-pound, filthy, worsted-stocking knave; a lily-livered, action-taking knave; a whoreson, glass-gazing, super-serviceable finical rogue; one-trunk-inheriting slave; one that wouldst be a bawd in way of good service; and art nothing but the composition of a knave, beggar, coward, pander, and the son and heir of a mongrel bitch; one whom I will beat into clamorous whining if thou deniest the least syllable of thy addition

DUTCH:
Dat je een schurk bent, een gladjakker, een pottenlikker,
een lage, verwaten, leeghoofdige bedelaar; een gratis
livreien dragende;

MORE:

White livers used to signify cowardice. Hence lily-livered (Macbeth, 5.3) and milk-livered (King Lear, 4.2), both compounds coined by Shakespeare
Schmidt:
Broken meats=Dcraps, leftovers, such as a menial would eat
Three-suited= Serving men were allotted three suits of clothes
Glass-gazing=Vain
Finical=fussy, fastidious
One-trunk-inheriting=With only enough possessions to fill one trunk
Compleat:
Finical (affected)=Gemaakt, styf
Broken meat=Klieken, overschoten spyze.
Burgersdijk notes:
Bedelachtigen, pronkenigen. Zeer duidelijk zijn de scheldwoorden in het oorspronkelijke niet. Het beggarly zou b. v, wel een bepaling van threesuited kunnen zijn, en dit laatste behoeft dan niet te zien op het vaak verwisselen van kleederen, zooals pronkers doen, maar den dienaar kenschetsen, daar misschien een meester aan zijne knecht drie pakken in ‘t jaar gaf. Het worsted-stocking, dat volgt, ziet op de gewoonte om, zoo het maar even ging, zijden kousen te dragen; wie grofwollen kousen droeg, was niet veel bijzonders.

Topics: insult, invented or popularised, poverty and wealth, order/society, status

And from th’ extremest upward of thy head To the descent and dust below thy foot A most toad-spotted traitor.

PLAY: King Lear
ACT/SCENE: 5.3
SPEAKER: Edgar
CONTEXT:
Despite thy victor sword and fire-new fortune,
Thy valor and thy heart—thou art a traitor,
False to thy gods, thy brother, and thy father,
Conspirant ‘gainst this high illustrious prince,
And from th’ extremest upward of thy head
To the descent and dust below thy foot
A most toad-spotted traitor. Say thou “No,”
This sword, this arm, and my best spirits are bent
To prove upon thy heart, whereto I speak,
Thou liest.

DUTCH:
Verrader van uw schedel tot aan ‘t stof,
Dat onder uwe voeten is, gevlekt
Gelijk de vuilste pad

MORE:
Proverb: From the crown of his head to the soul of his foot (c.1300)
Schmidt:
Fire-new=Brand new, freshly minted
Toad-spotted=Tainted and polluted with venom like the toad
Compleat:
Fire-new (brand new)=Vlinder nieuw
Spotted=Bevlekt, gevlakt

Topics: insult, truth, honesty, conspiracy

And Pat he comes, like the catastrophe of the old comedy.

PLAY: King Lear
ACT/SCENE: 1.2
SPEAKER: Edmund
CONTEXT:
And pat he comes, like the catastrophe of the old comedy. My cue is villainous melancholy, with a sigh like Tom o’ Bedlam. Oh, these eclipses do portend these divisions! Fa, sol, la, mi.

DUTCH:
Ah, daar komt hij, even plotseling als de catastrofe
in een oud tooneelstuk; mijn rol is een schurkachtige
melancholie, met een zucht als van Tom uit het dolhuis.

MORE:
Schmidt:
Pat=To the purpose, fitly (on cue)
Catastrophe= Concluding episode, final event in a drama
Villainous=Wretched
Tom o’Bedlam=Common name for a real or pretended madman (as in an inmate of Bedlam, the ‘London lunatic asylum’.)
Compleat:
Catastrophe=Einde, droevige uytkomst
The catastrophe of a Tragedy=Laast en aanmerkelykst bedryf, tot ontknooping van een Treurspel.

Topics: madness, fate/destiny

And the best quarrels, in the heat, are cursed
By those that feel their sharpness.

PLAY: King Lear
ACT/SCENE: 5.3
SPEAKER: Edmund
CONTEXT:
At this time
We sweat and bleed. The friend hath lost his friend,
And the best quarrels, in the heat, are cursed
By those that feel their sharpness.
The question of Cordelia and her father
Requires a fitter place.

DUTCH:
En in de hitte wordt de beste strijd
Gevloekt door elk, die nog zijn vlijm gevoelt.

MORE:
Schmidt:
Quarrel=Cause, occasion and motive of dispute
Sharpness=Severity, harshness
Fitter place=More appropriate location
Compleat:
Quarrel=Krakeel; twist. A quarrel-breeder=Een krakeel-veroorzaaker, twistzoeker
Sharpness (acrimony) of humours=Scherpheid der vochten
Sharpness (Keenness or point)=Scherpheid, puntigheid

Topics: dispute, dignity, resolution

And worse I may be yet. The worst is not
So long as we can say ‘This is the worst.’

PLAY: King Lear
ACT/SCENE: 4.1
SPEAKER: Edgar
CONTEXT:
I stumbled when I saw. Full oft ’tis seen,
Our means secure us and our mere defects
Prove our commodities. O dear son Edgar,
The food of thy abusèd father’s wrath,
Might I but live to see thee in my touch,
I’d say I had eyes again!
OLD MAN
How now? Who’s there?
EDGAR
(aside) O gods! Who is ’t can say “I am at the worst”?
I am worse than e’er I was.
OLD MAN
(to GLOUCESTER)
‘Tis poor mad Tom.
EDGAR
(aside) And worse I may be yet. The worst is not
So long as we can say “This is the worst.”

DUTCH:
Het ergste is nog niet aan de orde zolang wij nog kunnen zeggen ‘Dit is het ergste’./
En ‘t kan nog erger ; ‘t is nog niet het ergste
Als wij nog zeggen kunnen „Dit is ‘t ergste .”

MORE:
Proverb: ‘The way to be safe is never to be secure’ or ‘He that is secure is not safe’
Our means secure us=Give us a false sense of security (See Macbeth 3.5: ‘Security is mortals’ chiefest enemy’)
Schmidt:
Stumble (in a moral sense)=To err
Means=That which is at a person’s disposal; resources, power, wealth, allowance
Secure=To make careless and confident
Abusèd=Deceived
Compleat:
Secure (fearless or careless)=Onbevreest, zorgeloos

Topics: fate/destiny, adversity

As flies to wanton boys are we to th’ gods:
They kill us for their sport.

PLAY: King Lear
ACT/SCENE: 4.1
SPEAKER: Gloucester
CONTEXT:
He has some reason, else he could not beg.
I’ th’ last night’s storm I such a fellow saw,
Which made me think a man a worm. My son
Came then into my mind, and yet my mind
Was then scarce friends with him. I have heard more since.
As flies to wanton boys are we to th’ gods.
They kill us for their sport.

DUTCH:
Nu weet ik meer: wij zijn
voor goden slechts wat vliegen zijn voor jongens:
zij doden voor de grap./
Hem toen niet goed gezind ; sinds hoorde ik meer
Den Goden zijn we als vliegen voor kwajongens ;
Zij doode’ ons uit de grap .

MORE:
Compare Job 25.6: ‘How 38-9 How much more man, a worme, euen the sonne of man, which is but a worme?’ (Kittredge); Psalms 22:6 ‘But I am a worm and not a man’.
Schmidt:
Compleat:
Plague=Plaag
Scarce=Hardly, scantly
Those kind of people are the plague (pest or bane) of mankind=Dat soort van menschen is de pest van het menschdom
Plague (punishment or judgment)=Straffe
A wanton child=Een speelsch kind
Scarce (or scarcely)=Naauwlyks

Topics: madness, poverty and wealth, fate/destiny

Blow, winds, and crack your cheeks! Rage, blow!

PLAY: King Lear
ACT/SCENE: 3.2
SPEAKER: King Lear
CONTEXT:
Blow, winds, and crack your cheeks! Rage, blow!
You cataracts and hurricanoes, spout
Till you have drenched our steeples, drowned the cocks!
You sulph’rous and thought-executing fires,
Vaunt-couriers of oak-cleaving thunderbolts,
Singe my white head; and thou all-shaking thunder,
Strike flat the thick rotundity o’th’world,
Crack nature’s moulds, all germens spill at once
That makes ingrateful man.
FOOL
O nuncle, court holy water in a dry house is better than this rain-water out o’door. Good nuncle, in, ask thy daughters
blessing. Here’s a night pities neither wise men nor fools.

DUTCH:
Blaas, winden, scheur uw wangen stuk! Raas! Tier!
U, cataracten en orkaanvloed, spuit
de torens weg en overspoel hun hanen!

MORE:
Court holy water=Flattery at court
Schmidt:
Cocks = weathervanes
Thought-executing fires=Lightning that is more rapid than, or precedes, thought
Burgersdijk notes:
Wijwatersprenging. Het geven van mooie woorden, vleien; dit wordt door den Nar aan den koning als middel aanbevolen, om uit den nood te geraken. In ‘t Engelsch staat court holy-water; de Franschen spreken evenzoo van ‘eau bénite du cour’.

Topics: nature, poverty and wealth, order/society, flattery

Get thee glass eyes,
And like a scurvy politician seem
To see the things thou dost not.

PLAY: King Lear
ACT/SCENE: 4.5
SPEAKER: King Lear
CONTEXT:
None does offend—none, I say, none. I’ll able ’em.
Take that of me, my friend, who have the power
To seal th’ accuser’s lips. Get thee glass eyes,
And like a scurvy politician seem
To see the things thou dost not.

DUTCH:
Koop u glazen oogen;
Veins als een staatsman laag, eat ge alles ziet
Wat gij niet ziet./
Voorzie je van een bril en doe dan als
een huichelaar alsof je dingen ziet
die je niet ziet.

MORE:
Schmidt:
Scurvy=despicable
Able=Vouch for, warrant
Compleat:
Scurvy=ondeugend schobbejak

Topics: insult, appearance, perception, intellect, understanding

He that keeps nor crust nor crumb,
Weary of all, shall want some.

PLAY: King Lear
ACT/SCENE: 1.4
SPEAKER: Fool
CONTEXT:
Thou wast a pretty fellow when thou hadst no need to care for her frowning. Now thou art an O without a figure. I am better than thou art now. I am a fool. Thou art nothing.
(to GONERIL) Yes, forsooth, I will hold my tongue. So your face bids me, though you say nothing. Mum, mum,
He that keeps nor crust nor crumb,
Weary of all, shall want some.
(indicating LEAR) That’s a shelled peascod.

DUTCH:
Bedaard, bedaard;
Want wie korst noch kruim bewaart,
Treurt, dat hij niets heeft bespaard.
Die daar is een uitgedopte erwteschil.

MORE:
He that keeps nor crust nor crumb: he who foolishly gives everything away because he is tired of it will eventually need some of it back.
An O without a figure=a cipher, a zero with no other number to give it a value
Schmidt:
Shelled peascod (or pescod)=a shelled peaspod: insult, an empty peapod (een lege peulenschil), a nothing.

Topics: poverty and wealth, excess, value, caution, ruin

He’s mad that trusts in the tameness of a wolf

PLAY: King Lear
ACT/SCENE: 3.6
SPEAKER: Fool
CONTEXT:
EDGAR
The foul fiend bites my back.
FOOL
He’s mad that trusts in the tameness of a wolf, a horse’s health, a boy’s love, or a whore’s oath.

DUTCH:
Hij is gek die vertrouwt op de makheid van een wolf, de gezondheid van een paard, de liefde van een jongen of de eed van een hoer./
Alleen een gek vertrouwt op de tamheid van een wolf, de ge-
zondheid van een paard, de liefde van een jongen of de eed van een hoer.

MORE:

Topics: gullibility, madness, betrayal, trust, deceit

How sharper than a serpent’s tooth it is
To have a thankless child!

PLAY: King Lear
ACT/SCENE: 1.4
SPEAKER: King Lear
CONTEXT:
A babe to honor her. If she must teem,
Create her child of spleen, that it may live
And be a thwart disnatured torment to her.
Let it stamp wrinkles in her brow of youth,
With cadent tears fret channels in her cheeks,
Turn all her mother’s pains and benefits
To laughter and contempt, that she may feel—
That she may feel
How sharper than a serpent’s tooth it is
To have a thankless child.—Away, away!

DUTCH:
Hoe scherper dan een slangentand is het om een ondankbaar kind te hebben!

MORE:
Phrase “Sharper than a serpent’s tooth” said to be invented by Shakespeare. It has even been used as a title for an episode of Star Trek.
CITED IN US LAW:
Mileski v. Locker, 14 Misc.2d 252,257, 178 N.Y.S.2d 911, 917 (N.Y.Civ.Ct. 1958)(Pette, J.); Maas v. Maas, 29 Md. App. 521, 349 A.2d 6.55 (1975).
Schmidt:
Compleat:

Topics: still in use, ingratitude, revenge

I am a man more sinned against than sinning

PLAY: King Lear
ACT/SCENE: 3.2
SPEAKER: King Lear
CONTEXT:
Caitiff, to pieces shake,
That under covert and convenient seeming
Hast practised on man’s life. Close pent-up guilts,
Rive your concealing continents and cry
These dreadful summoners grace. I am a man
More sinned against than sinning.

DUTCH:
Een man meer gezondigd tegen dan zondigend/
Ik ben een man tegen wie meer gezondigd is dan hij zelf gezondigd heeft

MORE:
Sometimes mistranslated, e.g. “tegen wie je meer gezondigd hebt dan je gezondigd hebt” or “Ik ben een man die meer heeft gezondigd dan de zondigen”
Seeming=Hypocrisy
Caitiff=Wretch
Continent=Container, cover.
Close pent-up guilts=Concealed crimes
Practised on=Plotted against
Rive=open up
Summoner=official who summoned offenders to appear before ecclesiastical courts
Compleat:
To rive asunder=Opscheuren, opsplyten, opbarsten
Summoner=Een gerechtsboode

Topics: mercy, offence, conspiracy, secrecy, blame

I cannot daub it further

PLAY: King Lear
ACT/SCENE: 4.1
SPEAKER: Edgar
CONTEXT:
I cannot daub it further

DUTCH:
Ik kan niet langer veinzen.

MORE:
Daub it further=Keep dissembling. (Old French ‘dauber’, whitewash).
See also Richard III: “So smooth he daub’d his vice with show of virtue.” (Richard, 3.5)

Topics: truth, honesty

I mean the whispered ones, for they are yet but ear-kissing arguments.

PLAY: King Lear
ACT/SCENE: 2.1
SPEAKER: Curan
CONTEXT:
Nay, I know not. You have heard of the news abroad?— I mean the whispered ones, for they are yet but ear-kissing arguments.

DUTCH:
Ik bedoel de zaken waarover gefluisterd wordt, want het zijn onderwerpen die je alleen maar heel voorzichtig kunt aanroeren.

MORE:
Schmidt:
News abroad=Talk going around
Ear-kissing (or ear-bussing)= Whispered
Arguments=Subjects, topics
Compleat:
To set a story abroad=Een gerucht verspreiden

Topics: conspiracy

I will be the pattern of all patience. I will say nothing.

PLAY: King Lear
ACT/SCENE: 3.2
SPEAKER: King Lear
CONTEXT:
LEAR
No, I will be the pattern of all patience.
I will say nothing.

DUTCH:
Nee, toonbeeld wil ik wezen van geduld;
ik zal niets zeggen.

MORE:
Schmidt:
Pattern=something of supreme excellence, fit to serve as a model or exemplar
Compleat:
Pattern=Een voorbeeld, staal

Topics: patience, respect

I will do such things—
What they are yet I know not, but they shall be
The terrors of the earth.

PLAY: King Lear
ACT/SCENE: 2.4
SPEAKER: King Lear
CONTEXT:
I will have such revenges on you both
That all the world shall—I will do such things—
What they are yet I know not, but they shall be
The terrors of the earth. You think I’ll weep?
No, I’ll not weep.

DUTCH:
k oefen zulk een wraak,
Hoe, weet ik zelf nog niet, maar ‘t zal de schrik
Der aarde zijn.

MORE:
CITED IN EU LAW:
Opinion of Advocate General Hogan, 12 May 2021. Case C-124/20. ECLI:EU:C:2021:386.
“In these circumstances, the threat of ‘dissuasive’ sanctions in the laws of the Member States envisaged by Article 9 of that statute would likely be a hollow one and the Union and its Member States would be reduced, like Shakespeare’s King Lear, to protesting that they would ‘do such things … I know not [what], but they shall be the terrors of the earth’.”

Topics: revenge, cited in law, law/legal

Ingratitude, thou marble-hearted fiend

PLAY: King Lear
ACT/SCENE: 1.4
SPEAKER: King Lear
CONTEXT:
Ingratitude, thou marble-hearted fiend,
More hideous when thou show’st thee in a child
Than the sea monster.

DUTCH:
Ondankbaarheid, jij marmerharde fielt, die in een kind nog malicieuzer lijkt dan het groot zeegedrocht./
O ondank, duivel met een marm’ren hart, Afgrijslijker, als ge in een kind u toont, Dan ‘t moordendst zeegedrocht!

MORE:
Proverb: Ingratitude comprehends all faults
CITED IN US LAW:
Springham v. Kordek, 55 Md. App. 449, 462 A.2d 567, 568 (1983)(Liss, J.).

Topics: cited in law, ingratitude

Is there any cause in nature that makes these hard hearts?

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

Jesters do oft prove prophet

PLAY: King Lear
ACT/SCENE: 5.3
SPEAKER: Regan
CONTEXT:
ALBANY
That were the most if he should husband you.
REGAN
Jesters do oft prove prophets.
GONERIL
Holla, holla!
That eye that told you so looked but asquint.

DUTCH:
Een dwaas blijkt dikwijls een profeet. /
Spotters zijn vaak profeten.

MORE:
Proverb: Many a true word spoken in jest
Schmidt:
Jester=One who cracks jokes, a scoffer
Compleat:
To husband=To supply with a husband, to marry

Topics: language, proverbs and idioms, still in use

Let him fly far.
Not in this land shall he remain uncaught.

PLAY: King Lear
ACT/SCENE: 2.1
SPEAKER: Gloucester
CONTEXT:
Let him fly far.
Not in this land shall he remain uncaught.
And found—dispatch. The noble duke my master,
My worthy arch and patron, comes tonight.

DUTCH:
Hij vliede ver;
In dit land toeft hij niet of wordt gevat

MORE:
Schmidt:
Dispatch=Kill
Arch and patron=Chief patron
Compleat:
Arch=Opper-

Topics: offence, punishment

Love’s not love When it is mingled with regards that stand Aloof from th’ entire point.

PLAY: King Lear
ACT/SCENE: 1.1
SPEAKER: King of France
CONTEXT:
Is it no more but this—a tardiness in nature
Which often leaves the history unspoke
That it intends to do?—My lord of Burgundy,
What say you to the lady? Love’s not love
When it is mingled with regards that stands
Aloof from th’ entire point. Will you have her?
She is herself a dowry.

DUTCH:
Want liefde is geen liefde, als zij met zaken wordt vermengd die daar volkomen vreemd aan zijn./
Die liefde is geen liefde, Waarmeê gedachten zich vermengen, verre Van ‘t ware doelwit dwalend.

MORE:

Tardiness=Slowness, or rather a habit of being behindhand in sth.
Aloof=Irrelevant to
Mingled with=Adulterated by
Regards=Consideration, respect, account
Compleat:
Tardiness=Traagheyd, Slofheyd, Langzaamheyd
Aloof=To loofwaard, loof op. In de ruymte, van verre

Topics: caution, value, , marriage, purpose

Machinations, hollowness, treachery, and all ruinous disorders
follow us disquietly to our graves

PLAY: King Lear
ACT/SCENE: 1.2
SPEAKER: Gloucester
CONTEXT:
This villain of mine comes under the prediction—there’s son against father. The king falls from bias of nature—there’s father against child. We have seen the best of our time. Machinations, hollowness, treachery, and all ruinous disorders follow us disquietly to our graves.

DUTCH:
De tijd onthult, wat slinksche list ook heel’;
Aan heim’lijk kwaad valt schande in ‘t eind ten deel.
Het ga u wel.

MORE:
Schmidt:
Hollowness= Emptiness and insincerity
Disquietly= In a manner destroying tranquillity and ease (unquietly)
Bias of nature= Natural course or tendency
Compleat:
Hollow=Hol. A hollow heart=Een geveynsd hart
Treachery=Trouwloosheyd, verraadery
Unquietly=Onrustiglyk

Topics: deceit, reputation, legacy, conspiracy, betrayal

Meantime we shall express our darker purpose.

PLAY: King Lear
ACT/SCENE: 1.1
SPEAKER: King Lear
CONTEXT:
Meantime we shall express our darker purpose.—
Give me the map there.—Know that we have divided
In three our kingdom, and ’tis our fast intent
To shake all cares and business from our age,
Conferring them on younger strengths while we
Unburdened crawl toward death.—Our son of Cornwall,
And you, our no less loving son of Albany,
We have this hour a constant will to publish
Our daughters’ several dowers, that future strife
May be prevented now.

DUTCH:
k Ontvouw u midd’lerwijl ‘t verborgen plan.
Geef mij die kaart. Verneemt, wij deelden ‘t rijk
In drieën, en wij schudden, dit is ‘t plan,
Van de oude schoud’ren alle moeite en zorg
Op jonger krachten, om, van last bevrijd,
Grafwaarts te kruipen.

MORE:
Darker purpose= Secret intention
Constant=Unswerving (Schmidt: Constant=Firm, unshaken, persevering)
Will=Intention
Publish=Publicly proclaim
Compleat:
Dark=Duyster, donker
A dark saying=Een duystere reeden
Burgersdijk notes:
Bij de verdeeling van het koninkrijk. De dichter wil hier eenvoudig voor bereiden op de verdeeling, die door den koning weldra zal worden medegedeeld. Gloster meent de zaak te kennen, maar schijnt niet veel meer te weten, dan dat de beide hertogen gelijke deelen krijgen; misschien verbeeldt
hij zich, dat Lear nog een gedeelte voor zich behoudt, gelijk in de oude verhalen staat. Lear deelt het geheimer deel van zijn plan mede (darker purpose), waarbij het rijk in drieën verdeeld is en hijzelf het bestuur geheel nederlegt. Voor Cordelia was het beste derde gedeelte bestemd en Lear meende zeker te zijn, dat Cordelia hare liefde op de treffendste wijze zou uiten; hij hoopte daarmede zijn begunstiging van haar bij den adel des rijks, hier plechtig vereenigd, te rechtvardigen. Nu hij in zijne stellige verwachting teleurgesteld wordt, verandert de heftige vorst, aan geene zelfbeheersching gewoon, plotseling van plan.

Topics: plans/intentions, legacy, relationship, manipulation, secrecy

Mend when thou canst. Be better at thy leisure.

PLAY: King Lear
ACT/SCENE: 2.4
SPEAKER: King Lear
CONTEXT:
I do not bid the thunder-bearer shoot,
Nor tell tales of thee to high-judging Jove.
Mend when thou canst. Be better at thy leisure.
I can be patient. I can stay with Regan,
I and my hundred knights.

DUTCH:
Herzie je als het kan en jou dat schikt.
Ik heb geduld.

MORE:
Schmidt:
Thunder-bearer=Jove, the god of sky and thunder
Compleat:
Jove, chief god of the heathens=Jovus of Jupiter
Cloud-compelling Jove=De Bliksemende Jupiter

Topics: mercy, patience, wellbeing

Methinks thy voice is altered, and thou speak’st
In better phrase and matter than thou didst.

PLAY: King Lear
ACT/SCENE: 4.5
SPEAKER: Gloucester
CONTEXT:
GLOUCESTER
So may it be indeed.
Methinks thy voice is altered, and thou speak’st
In better phrase and matter than thou didst.
EDGAR
Y’are much deceived. In nothing am I changed
But in my garments.
GLOUCESTER
Methinks y’are better spoken.
EDGAR
Come on, sir, here’s the place. Stand still. How fearful
And dizzy ’tis to cast one’s eyes so low.
The crows and choughs that wing the midway air
Show scarce so gross as beetles. Half-way down
Hangs one that gathers samphire, dreadful trade!

DUTCH:
Mij komt
Uw stem ook anders voor; uw spreken, en
Ook wat gij zegt, is beter dan voorheen.

MORE:
Onions:
Choughs=Jackdaws, or possibly the Cornishi chough or red-legged crow.
Burgersdijk notes:
Zeevenkel zaam ‘lend. Zeevenkel, sampire of samphire, Crithmum maritimum, een plant tot de schermdragende gewassen behoorende, blauwachtig green van kleur, met gevinde vleezige blaadjens, groeit aan zeekusten, op plaatsen, die door de zee niet bereikt worden; van daar hier: halfweg de hoogte der rots. Die de plant inzamelden, moesten dikwijls van den top der klippen aan een touw verscheidene vademen diep worden neergelaten. De bladen worden als salade of, in azijn ingelegd, als toespijs gebruikt. In Sh’s tijd werd zij veel ingezameld en in de straten te koop geveild. Tegenwoordig is de voor het verbruik verlangde hoeveelheid wel op gemakkelijker toegankelijke plaatsen te bekomen.

Topics: language, appearance

Mine enemy’s meanest dog,
Though he had bit me, should have stood
that night Against my fire.

PLAY: King Lear
ACT/SCENE: 4.7
SPEAKER: Cordelia
CONTEXT:
To stand against the deep dread-bolted thunder
In the most terrible and nimble stroke
Of quick cross lightning? To watch—poor perdu!—
With this thin helm? Mine enemy’s meanest dog,
Though he had bit me, should have stood that night
Against my fire.

DUTCH:
De wolfshond van mijn vijand,
al had hij mij gebeten, had die nacht
tegen mijn haard gestaan./
Had de hond van mijn vijand mij gebeten,
Ik had hem bij mijn vuur een plaats gegeven
Dien nacht.

MORE:
Perdu= (1) Lost soul; (2) Sentry in an advanced and dangerous position

Topics: mercy, pity

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

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

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

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

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

Nothing will come of nothing: speak again

PLAY: King Lear
ACT/SCENE: 1.1
SPEAKER: King Lear
CONTEXT:
LEAR
(…) To thee and thine hereditary ever
Remain this ample third of our fair kingdom,
No less in space, validity, and pleasure
Than that conferred on Goneril.—But now, our joy,
Although our last and least, to whose young love
The vines of France and milk of Burgundy
Strive to be interessed. What can you say to draw
A third more opulent than your sisters? Speak.
CORDELIA
Nothing, my lord.
LEAR
Nothing?
CORDELIA
Nothing.
LEAR
How? Nothing will come of nothing. Speak again.
CORDELIA
Unhappy that I am, I cannot heave
My heart into my mouth. I love your majesty
According to my bond, no more nor less.
LEAR
How, how, Cordelia? Mend your speech a little,
Lest you may mar your fortunes.

DUTCH:
Door niets wordt niets verkregen; spreek nog eens.

MORE:
Proverb: Nothing will come of nothing (Ex nihilo nihil fit)
Mend your speech=revise your statement, think about what you’ve said
In the context of King Lear telling Cordelia she’ll be disinherited if she doesn’t speak more kindly.
Schmidt:
Heave=Raise, lift (Poss. ref. to Eccles. 21:26 = The heart of fools is in their mouth: but the mouth of the wise is in their heart.)
Bond=(Filial) obligation
To be interessed=To have a right or share (OED). Often amended to ‘interested’ in more modern versions.
Draw=Win (gambling metaphor)
A third more opulent=not equal thirds
Compleat:
Bond=Verbinding, obligatie
Interessed=Betrokken, gegreepen, een part in hebbende.
To interess oneself in a matter=Zich aan eene zaak laaten gelegen zyn.

Topics: honesty, truth, duty, relationship, proverbs and idioms, still in use

O sir, to wilful men,
The injuries that they themselves procure
Must be their schoolmasters

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

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

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

Topics: life, age/experience, gullibility, manipulation

O, reason not the need!

PLAY: King Lear
ACT/SCENE: 2.4
SPEAKER: King Lear
CONTEXT:
O, reason not the need! Our basest beggars
Are in the poorest thing superfluous.
Allow not nature more than nature needs,
Man’s life’s as cheap as beast’s. Thou art a lady.
If only to go warm were gorgeous,
Why, nature needs not what thou gorgeous wear’st,
Which scarcely keeps thee warm. But, for true need—
You heavens, give me that patience, patience I need.

DUTCH:
Spreek niet van nodig! De armste bedelaar
heeft aan een vod nog meer dan nodig is./
0, zwijgt van noodig! De armste beed’laar zelfs
Heeft iets, hoe min ook, nog in overvloed;

MORE:

Schmidt:
Reason not= Don’t argue or debate (the need)
Basest = poorest, lowest.
True need=Non-material needs

Topics: reason, life, justification, poverty and wealth, patience

Oh, that way madness lies; let me shun that

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

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

Topics: emotion and mood, wellbeing, madness, punishment

Plate sin with gold,
And the strong lance of justice hurtless breaks.
Arm it in rags, a pigmy’s straw does pierce it.

PLAY: King Lear
ACT/SCENE: 4.6
SPEAKER: King Lear
CONTEXT:
The usurer hangs the cozener.
Through tattered clothes great vices do appear;
Robes and furred gowns hide all. Plate sin with gold,
And the strong lance of justice hurtless breaks.
Arm it in rags, a pigmy’s straw does pierce it.

DUTCH:
Bepantser zonde met goud, en de sterke lans van rechtvaardigheid zal zonder pijn te doen breken, bewapen het met vodden, en een rietje van een pygmee zal het doorboren./
Dek zonde af met goud;
de sterke lans van ’t recht schampt eropaf;
een vod wordt door een strohalm nog doorboord.

MORE:
Proverb: The great thieves hang the little ones
Proverb: When looked at through tattered clothes, all vices are great
Usery became legal in 1571 and userers were gaining respectabillty.
Cozener=Sharper, cheat
Schmidt:
Plate=Cover in armour plate
Pygmy’s straw=Weak weapon
Compleat:
Usury=Woeker
To lend upon usury=Op rente leenen

Topics: poverty and wealth, justice, equality, law/legal, order/society

See how yon justice rails upon yon simple thief.

PLAY: King Lear
ACT/SCENE: 4.6
SPEAKER: King Lear
CONTEXT:
What, art mad? A man may see how this world goes with no eyes. Look with thine ears. See how yon justice rails upon yon simple thief. Hark in thine ear: change places and, handy-dandy, which is the justice, which is the thief? Thou hast seen a farmer’s dog bark at a beggar?

DUTCH:
Zie hoe die
rechter daar to keer gaat tegen dien onnoozelen dief./
Zie je hoe die rechter daar zo’n armzalige dief ervanlangs
geeft? Ik fluister het je in: verwissel ze van plaats, en rara,
in welke hand zit de rechter, in welke de dief?

MORE:
Schmidt:
Handy-dandy=Game involving sleight of hand by which something imperceptibly is changed from one hand into the other.
Simple=Humble, ordinary or weak-witted
Compleat:
Simple=De zwakken; Eenvoudig, onbeschadigende
Handy-dandy=Handje klap

Topics: law, justice, corruption, understanding, intellect

So distribution should undo excess,
And each man have enough.

PLAY: King Lear
ACT/SCENE: 4.1
SPEAKER: Gloucester
CONTEXT:
Let the superfluous and lust-dieted man,
That slaves your ordinance, that will not see
Because he doth not feel, feel your power quickly.
So distribution should undo excess,
And each man have enough. Dost thou know Dover?

DUTCH:
Dan zal verdeeling overdaad goedmaken,
En elk heeft dan genoeg.

MORE:
Schmidt:
Lust-dieted=Faring and feeding voluptuously
Slave=To make subject or subservient to
Ordinance=Rules, dispensation
Feel (1)= Sympathise. Feel (2)= Experience
Distribution=Administration of justice; Sharing out
Compleat:
Superfluous (or overmuch)=Meer als genoeg overvloedig
Ordinance=Inzetting, instelling, willekeur, ordinancie
Distribution=Uitdeeling
The distributive Justice=De uitdeelbaare gerechtigheid

Topics: poverty and wealth, equality, excess

Striving to be better, oft we mar what’s well.

PLAY: King Lear
ACT/SCENE: 1.4
SPEAKER: Albany
CONTEXT:
GONERIL
No, no, my lord,
Though I condemn not, yet under pardon
You are much more ataxed for want of wisdom
Than praised for harmful mildness.
ALBANY
How far your eyes may pierce I cannot tell.
Striving to better, oft we mar what’s well.

DUTCH:
Hoe scherp jouw blik is, kan men slechts bevroeden;
het betere is vaak vijand van het goede.

MORE:
Later versions have replaced “ataxt’ (ataxed= text, censured) with “attaskt”.
Proverb: Let well alone or ‘Some men so strive in cunning to excell/That oft they marre the worke before was well’ (Dent)
Schmidt:
Harmful mildness=Gentleness, clemency (leniency resulting in further harm)
Attasked=To reprove, to blame
How far your eyes may pierce=How perceptive you are
Compleat:
To pierce=Doorboren, Doordringen
Taxed=Geschat; Beschuldigd

Topics: blame, wisdom

Such smiling rogues as these,
Like rats, oft bite the holy cords a-twain,

PLAY: King Lear
ACT/SCENE: 2.2
SPEAKER: Kent
CONTEXT:
That such a slave as this should wear a sword,
Who wears no honesty. Such smiling rogues as these,
Like rats, oft bite the holy cords a-twain,
Which are too intrince t’unloose; smooth every passion
That in the natures of their lords rebel,
Being oil to fire, snow to the colder moods,
Renege, affirm, and turn their halcyon beaks
With every gall and vary of their masters,
Knowing naught, like dogs, but following.

DUTCH:
Dat zulk een deugniet, zonder hart in ‘t lijf,
Een zwaard aan ‘t lijf draagt. Zulk een vleilach-tuig
Doorknaagt, als ratten, vaak de heil’ge banden,
Die onontknoopbaar zijn; vleit ied’ren hartstocht,
Die in de borst van hun gebieders woelt;
Werpt olie op hun vuur, ijs op hun koelheid;
Knikt ja, schudt neen, en draait als weerhaan rond,
Met ied’re vlaag en wiss’ling van hun meesters;
Loopt hun als honden na, het kent niets anders.

MORE:
Proverb: A mouse in time may bite in two a cable (Like rats, oft bite….)
Holy cords=Matrimonial bond
A-twain=In two
Intrince=Entangled, intertwined (Verb to intrince=To untangle)
Onions:
Smooth=Flatter, humour
Halcyon=Kingfisher. (Kingfishers when hung by the beck or tail could serve as a weathervane).
Compleat:
Halcyon (sea fowl)=Een zekere Zeevogel
Burgerdijk notes:
En draait als weerhaan rond. In’t Engelsch: and turn their halcyon beaks; naar het volksgeloof keerde een ijsvogel, aan een draad opgehangen, zijn bek altijd naar den kant, waar de wind van daan kwam.

Topics: insult, proverbs and idioms, flattery, honesty

Take up, take up,
And follow me, that will to some provision
Give thee quick conduct.

PLAY: King Lear
ACT/SCENE: 3.6
SPEAKER: Gloucester
CONTEXT:
There is a litter ready. Lay him in ’t
And drive towards Dover, friend, where thou shalt meet
Both welcome and protection. Take up thy master.
If thou shouldst dally half an hour, his life,
With thine and all that offer to defend him,
Stand in assurèd loss. Take up, take up,
And follow me, that will to some provision
Give thee quick conduct.

DUTCH:
Als gij talmt
Al is ‘t maar een half uur, dan is zijn leven
En dat van u en elk, die hem terzij staat,
Verloren, redd’loos./
Als u een half uur talmt, vindt hij met u
en allen die bereid zijn hem te helpen,
zeker de dood.

MORE:
CITED IN US LAW: Re. the definition of “offer”: State v Ahlgren, , 158 Minn. 334, 197 N.W. 738 (1924)

Topics: cited in law, remedy, time

That sir which serves and seeks for gain,
And follows but for form,
Will pack when it begins to rain
And leave thee in the storm.

PLAY: King Lear
ACT/SCENE: 2.4
SPEAKER: Fool
CONTEXT:
That sir which serves and seeks for gain,
And follows but for form,
Will pack when it begins to rain
And leave thee in the storm.
But I will tarry. The fool will stay.
And let the wise man fly.
The knave turns fool that runs away;
The fool, no knave, perdie.

DUTCH:
Wie zich door geldzucht laat bewegen
en werkt slechts voor de vorm,
gaat ervandoor bij de eerste regen
en laat jou in de storm.

MORE:

Serves and seeks for gain=Self-serving individuals
To rain=A fall in fortune
Schmidt:
Form=Show, appearance
Tarry=to continue in a place, to remain, not to go away
Perdie (or perdy)=In sooth
Compleat:
Tarry (behind) (stay or remain)=Blyven, Agterblyven
Self-seeking=Inhaalend, voor zich zelfs zorgende
Gainery or gainage, these two law words signify the profit most properly that comes by the tillage of land held by the baser kind of fokemen [menfolk] or villains=Deeze twee woorden betekenen allereigentlykst het voordeel dat men trekt van de landen, die door het schuim van volk bebouwt worden.

Topics: loyalty, wisdom, duty, ambition

The art of our necessities is strange
That can make vile things precious.

PLAY: King Lear
ACT/SCENE: 3.2
SPEAKER: King Lear
CONTEXT:
My wits begin to turn.
Come on, my boy. How dost, my boy?
Where is this straw, my fellow?
The art of our necessities is strange
That can make vile things precious. Come, your hovel.
Poor fool and knave, I have one part in my heart
That’s sorry yet for thee.

DUTCH:
Nood leert ons vreemde dingen: uit iets slechts
kan het iets kostbaars maken.

MORE:
Schmidt:
Necessity=Extreme indigence, distress, want of what is needed (poverty)
Art=Experience
Vile=Abject
Compleat:
Vile=Slecht, gering, verachtelyk, eerloos

Topics: poverty and wealth, value, adversity

The laws are mine, not thine.
Who can arraign me for ’t?

PLAY: King Lear
ACT/SCENE: 5.3
SPEAKER: Goneril
CONTEXT:
ALBANY
Shut your mouth, dame,
Or with this paper shall I stop it.—Hold, sir,
Thou worse than any name, read thine own evil.—
(to Goneril) Nay, no tearing, lady. I perceive you know it.
GONERIL
Say, if I do? The laws are mine, not thine.
Who can arraign me for ’t?

DUTCH:
En wat dan nog? Ik ben de wet, niet jij.
Wie klaagt mij daarvoor aan?/
En wat dan nog! Mij is de wet, niet u.
Wie heeft de macht mij aan to klagen?

MORE:
The sovereign could not be tried, having no equal
Cited in Shakespeare’s Legal Maxims (William Lowes Rushton)
Schmidt:
Evil=Moral offence, crime
Arraign=To summon before a court of justice
Compleat:
Arraign=Voor ‘t recht ontbieden; voor ‘t recht daagen

Topics: law/legal, offence, justice, equality

The quality of nothing hath not such need to hide itself.

PLAY: King Lear
ACT/SCENE: 1.2
SPEAKER: Gloucester
CONTEXT:
No? What needed, then, that terrible dispatch of it into your pocket? The quality of nothing hath not such need to hide itself. Let’s see.—Come, if it be nothing, I shall not need spectacles.

DUTCH:
Niets? Waartoe dan die schrikkelijke spoed om het
in uw zak te steken? Wat niets is, behoeft zich zoo
niet te verbergen.

MORE:
Schmidt:
The quality of nothing = If it were nothing (there would be no need to hide it)
Terrible dispatch=Hasty disposition
Compleat:
Dispatch=Afvaerdiging, verrichting, beschikking, vervaerdiging
Make quick dispatch=Maak ‘er u gaauw af

Topics: discovery, truth, secrecy

The weight of this sad time we must obey.
Speak what we feel, not what we ought to say.

PLAY: King Lear
ACT/SCENE: 5.3
SPEAKER: Edgar
CONTEXT:
The weight of this sad time we must obey.
Speak what we feel, not what we ought to say.
The oldest hath borne most. We that are young
Shall never see so much, nor live so long.

DUTCH:
Wij hebben ons bij rampspoed neer te leggen.
Zeg wat je voelt, niet wat wij moeten zeggen./
Ons dwingt van dezen tijd het droef gewicht;
Wij spreken ons gevoel, niet onzen plicht.

MORE:
Schmidt:
Weight=Burden, load
Obey=Comply with, submit to
Compleat:
Weight (importance, consequence)=Gewigt, belang
Obey=Gehoorzaamen
REFERENCED IN E&W LAW: Chambers v Director of Public Prosecutions [2012] EWHC 2157 (Admin) (27 July 2012)
Given the submissions by Mr Cooper, we should perhaps add that for those who have the inclination to use “Twitter” for the purpose, Shakespeare can be quoted unbowdlerised, and with Edgar, at the end of King Lear, they are free to speak not what they ought to say, but what they feel.

Topics: truth, honesty, age/experience, language, wisdom, caution

Then ’tis like the breath of an unfee’d lawyer.
You gave me nothing for ’t.

PLAY: King Lear
ACT/SCENE: 1.4
SPEAKER: Fool
CONTEXT:
FOOL
Mark it, nuncle.
Have more than thou showest,
Speak less than thou knowest,
Lend less than thou owest,
Ride more than thou goest,
Learn more than thou trowest,
Set less than thou throwest,
Leave thy drink and thy whore
And keep in-a-door,
And thou shalt have more
Than two tens to a score
KENT
This is nothing, Fool.
FOOL
Then ’tis like the breath of an unfee’d lawyer. You gave me nothing for ’t.—Can you make no use of nothing, nuncle?

DUTCH:
Dan is het als het pleidooi van een gratis advocaat: u hebt me
er niets voor betaald.

MORE:
CITED IN US LAW:
From William Domnarski, Shakespeare in the Law: “In a bankruptcy case in which the lawyers are trying to keep their legal fees from being discharged, “tis like the breath of an unfee’d lawyer” seems to be a great quotation to use to describe what the court characterizes as the “fuming outrage” of the lawyers, especially if we misread “unfee’ d” for “fetid,” hut on examination the quotation does not wash. Shakespeare, knowing lawyers as he did, uses the quotation to describe the emptiness of a lawyer’s advice when he is not being paid for it.” (In Re Samuel Homyak, 40 Bankr. 99, 100 (S.D.N.Y. 1984).
Reference to the proverb: ‘A lawyer will not plead but for a fee’
Schmidt:
Breath= Speech, i.e. pleading

Topics: lawyers, cited in law, proverbs and idioms

They told me I was everything: ’tis a lie, I am not ague-proof.

PLAY: King Lear
ACT/SCENE: 4.6
SPEAKER: King Lear
CONTEXT:
They flattered me like a dog and told me I had white hairs in my beard ere the black ones were there. To say “Ay” and “No” to everything that I said “Ay” and “No” to was no good divinity. When the rain came to wet me once, and the wind to make me chatter, when the thunder would not peace at my bidding—there I found ’em, there I smelt ’em out. Go to, they are not men o’ their words. They told me I was everything. ‘Tis a lie, I am not ague-proof.

DUTCH:
Zij zeiden mij, dat ik alles en nog wat was ;
gelogen is ‘t – ik kan niet eens tegen de koorts op./
Loop heen, hun woorden betekenden
niets, ze zeiden dat ik alles voor hen was. Dat is een leugen.
Ik ben niet onvatbaar voor koorts.

MORE:
Schmidt:
Ague-proof=Able to resist the causes which produce agues (also: Immune to severe chill)
Divinity=Theology
Compleat:
Ague=Koorts die met koude komt, een verpoozende koorts

Topics: flattery, deceit, truth, promise, betrayal

This is the excellent foppery of the world

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

DUTCH:

Dit is wel de uitstekende dwaasheid der wereld

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

Topics: life, nature, fate/destiny

Thou art the thing itself.

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

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

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

Topics: order/society, nature, life

Thou shouldst not have been old till thou hadst been wise.

PLAY: King Lear
ACT/SCENE: 1.5
SPEAKER: Fool
CONTEXT:
FOOL
Thou shouldst not have been old till thou hadst been wise.
LEAR
O, let me not be mad, not mad, sweet heaven! I would not be mad. Keep me in temper. I would not be mad.

DUTCH:
Je had niet oud moeten zijn voordat je wijs geworden was.

MORE:
Schmidt:
Wise=In one’s right mind
In temper= Emphatically, wonted disposition, freedom from excess or extravagance, equanimity
Compleat:
A man of an instable temper=Een man van een ongestadig humeur, van eenen wispelteurigen aart.

Topics: insult, wisdom, madness

Thou whoreson zed, thou unnecessary letter!

PLAY: King Lear
ACT/SCENE: 2.2
SPEAKER: Kent
CONTEXT:
Thou whoreson zed, thou unnecessary letter!—My lord, if you will give me leave, I will tread this unbolted villain into mortar and daub the wall of a jakes with him.—Spare my gray beard, you wagtail?

DUTCH:
Jij smerig, overbodig stuk ellende! Als u mij dat toestaat,
mijn lord, zal ik deze ongebuilde bandiet tot mortel stampen
en daarmee de latrinemuren bepleisteren.

MORE:
In Shakespeare’s time, the letter Z was used even less than it is today: dictionaries of the time ignored the letter. Hence the jibe that as a parasite, Oswald is as unnecessary as the letter Z.
Unbolted=Unsifted, coarse (flour or cement)
Onions:
Jakes=Privy
Wagtail (term of contempt)=Obsequious person
Compleat:
Jakes=Een kakhuis
Jakes-cleanser=Een huisjes ruimer, nachtwerker, stilleveeger.

Topics: insult, language, status

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

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

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

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

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

Time shall unfold what plighted cunning hides

PLAY: King Lear
ACT/SCENE: 1.1
SPEAKER: Cordelia
CONTEXT:
Time shall unfold what plighted cunning hides,
Who covers faults at last with shame derides.
Well may you prosper.

DUTCH:
De tijd brengt alles aan het licht./
Wie fouten maken en dat sluw maskeren,
zal tijd ons later met een spotlach leren.

MORE:
Onions:
To plight=Pleated, folded (concealed)
Cunning=Dissimulation, falseness

Topics: deceit, discovery, time, secrecy

Tis the time’s plague when madmen lead the blind

PLAY: King Lear
ACT/SCENE: 4.1
SPEAKER: Gloucester
CONTEXT:
Tis the time’s plague when madmen lead the blind.
Do as I bid thee. Or rather, do thy pleasure.
Above the rest, be gone.

DUTCH:
Het is de plaag
van onze tijd dat gekken blinden leiden./
‘t Is de kwaal des tijds, dat gekken blinden leiden .
Doe wat ik vroeg, of liever, wat gij wilt,
Maar hoe dan ook, ga heen.

MORE:
Schmidt:
The time’s plague=The curse of the age/time
Madmen=Mad rulers
Blind=Unseeing, ignorant

Topics: authority, madness, corruption, order/society

Truth’s a dog that must to kennel.

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

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

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

Topics: truth, honesty, punishment

We are not ourselves
When nature, being oppressed, commands the mind
To suffer with the body.

PLAY: King Lear
ACT/SCENE: 2.4
SPEAKER: King Lear
CONTEXT:
Infirmity doth still neglect all office
Whereto our health is bound. We are not ourselves
When nature, being oppressed, commands the mind
To suffer with the body. I’ll forbear,
And am fallen out with my more headier will
To take the indisposed and sickly fit
For the sound man.

DUTCH:
Wij zijn onszelf niet als
natuur ’t benauwd krijgt en de geest beveelt
te lijden met ons vlees.

MORE:
Schmidt:
Infirmity=Disease
Office= Duties, obligations
Compleat:
Office (part, or duty)=Plicht.
He did his office=Hy nam zyn ampt of plicht waar

Topics: wellbeing, debt/obligation, duty

What you have charged me with, that have I done,
And more, much more

PLAY: King Lear
ACT/SCENE: 5.3
SPEAKER: Edmund
CONTEXT:
What you have charged me with, that have I done,
And more, much more; the time will bring it out.
‘Tis past, and so am I. But what art thou
That hast this fortune on me? If thou’rt noble,
I do forgive thee.
EDGAR
Let’s exchange charity.
I am no less in blood than thou art, Edmond.
If more, the more th’hast wronged me.
My name is Edgar, and thy father’s son.
The gods are just, and of our pleasant vices
Make instruments to plague us.
The dark and vicious place where thee he got
Cost him his eyes.

DUTCH:
Al wat gij mij verweet, ik heb ‘t gedaan,
En meer, veel meer; de tijd zal ‘t openbaren;
‘t Is al voorbij, ik ook. Maar wie zijt gij,
Die mij versloegt ? Zijt gij van adel, dan
Vergeef ik u.

MORE:
Schmidt;
Charity=That disposition of heart which inclines men to think favourably of their fellow-men, and to do them good.

Topics: blame, offence, mercy, civility, fate/destiny, status

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

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

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

Topics: emotion and mood, wellbeing, madness, punishment

Who is it that can tell me who I am?

PLAY: King Lear
ACT/SCENE: 1.4
SPEAKER: King Lear
CONTEXT:
Does any here know me? Why, this is not Lear.
Doth Lear walk thus? Speak thus? Where are his eyes?
Either his notion weakens, or his discernings
Are lethargied. Ha, sleeping or waking?
Sure, ’tis not so.
Who is it that can tell me who I am?

DUTCH:
Is één hier, die mij kent? Dit is niet Lear;
Is dit Lears gang? zijn spraak? zijn dit zijn oogen?
Ja, hij is zwak in ‘t hoofd, of wel, zijn zinnen
Zijn diep in slaap. — Wat, waak ik? ‘t is niet zoo. —
Wie kan mij zeggen, wie ik ben?

MORE:
Schmidt:
Discernings=Intellectual faculties or ability to discriminate
Lethargied=Dulled, paralysed, benumbed
Compleat:
Lethargy=Een slaapende koorts, sluimer koorts, slaapzucht (waar door men zyn geheugenis en verstand verliest).
Discerning faculty=Het vermogen van te kunnen oordelen.

Topics: identity, madness

Why “bastard”? Wherefore “base”?

PLAY: King Lear
ACT/SCENE: 1.2
SPEAKER: Edmund
CONTEXT:
For that I am some twelve or fourteen moonshines
Lag of a brother? Why “bastard”? Wherefore “base”?
When my dimensions are as well compact,
My mind as generous, and my shape as true
As honest madam’s issue? Why brand they us
With “base,” with “baseness,” “bastardy,” “base,” “base” –
Who in the lusty stealth of nature take
More composition and fierce quality
Than doth within a dull, stale, tirèd bed
Go to th’ creating a whole tribe of fops
Got ’tween a sleep and wake?

DUTCH:
Waarom zou ‘k den vloek
Van de oude sleur verdragen, en het dulden,
Dat volksvooroordeel mij onterft, omdat
Mijn broeder twaalf of veertien maneschijnen
Mij voorkwam? Waarom basterd? Wat onecht?

MORE:
CITED IN US LAW: Levy v Louisiana, 391 US 68, 72, n.6, 88 Supreme Court 1509 (1968) (Douglas, J); Williams v Richardson, 347F. Supp. 544, 551 (WDNC 1972).
Schmidt:
Lag of=Behind
Compact= Composed, formed
Generous= Lofty, magnanimous, as befits a gentleman (see also Hamlet 4.7)
True= Proper, correct
Compleat:
Compact=In een trekken, dicht t’saamenvoegen
Generous=Edelmoedig, grootmoedig

Topics: cited in law, relationship, order/society, status

Wisdom and goodness to the vile seem vile.
Filths savor but themselves

PLAY: King Lear
ACT/SCENE: 4.2
SPEAKER: Albany
CONTEXT:
Wisdom and goodness to the vile seem vile.
Filths savor but themselves. What have you done?
Tigers, not daughters, what have you performed?
A father, and a gracious agèd man,
Whose reverence even the head-lugged bear would lick,
Most barbarous, most degenerate, have you madded.

DUTCH:
Verstand en goedheid zijn voor het lage laag: vuiligheid geniet alleen van zich zelf./
Wijsheid en goedheid zijn den lagen laag .
‘t Vuile lust slechts het vuile.

MORE:
Schmidt:
Savour=Like, relish
Head-lugged=Pulled, seized, by the ears
To mad=To madden
Reverence=A character entitled to particular regard
Compleat:
Lug (of the ear)=Het oor-lapje
To lug by the ears=Bij de ooren trekken
To lug (hale or tug)=Sleepen, voorttrekken
To lug one to the gallows=Iemand naar de galg sleepen

Topics: wisdom, good and bad, duty, ingratitude, failure

You are not worth the dust which the rude wind
Blows in your face.

PLAY: King Lear
ACT/SCENE: 4.2
SPEAKER: Albany
CONTEXT:
GONERILL
I have been worth the whistle.
ALBANY
You are not worth the dust which the rude wind
Blows in your face. I fear your disposition.
That nature, which condemns its origin
Cannot be bordered certain in itself.
She that herself will sliver and disbranch
From her material sap perforce must wither
And come to deadly use.
Burgersdijk notes:
Weleer was ik nog ‘t fluiten waard. Een Engelsch spreekwoord zegt: „Het is een armzalige hond, die het fluiten niet waard is.”

DUTCH:
O Goneril,
je bent het stof niet waard dat ruwe wind
jou in ’t gezicht blaast./
Gij zijt het stof niet waard, dat de ruwe wind
U in ‘t gelaat blaast.

MORE:
Proverb: It is a poor dog that is not worth the whistling
Schmidt:
Dust (fig.)= for any worthless thing: “vile gold, dross, dust”
Sliver and disbranch=Detach, break or tear a branch from a tree
Wither and come to deadly use=Degenerate and die
Fear=Have concerns about
Compleat:
Disposition (of mind)=Gesteltenis van gemoed
Deadly=Doodelyk, gruwelyk

Topics: nature, insult, trust, loyalty, relationship

Your looped and windowed raggedness

PLAY: King Lear
ACT/SCENE: 3.4
SPEAKER: King Lear
CONTEXT:
Poor naked wretches, whereso’er you are,
That bide the pelting of this pitiless storm,
How shall your houseless heads and unfed sides,
Your looped and windowed raggedness, defend you
From seasons such as these?
Oh, I have ta’en
Too little care of this! Take physic, pomp.
Expose thyself to feel what wretches feel,
That thou mayst shake the superflux to them
And show the heavens more just.

DUTCH:
O naakte stakkers, waar u ook maar bent,
die ’t neerslaan van dit woest, wreed ontij duldt,
hoe kunt u zich, dakloos, met lege magen,
in lompen vol met gaten, weren tegen
zulk weer als dit?

MORE:
Looped and windowed raggedness = tattered clothes, full of holes. Loopholes were small apertures in thick walls, e.g. arrowslit (through which small bodies could escape, one explanation for the current definition of loophole as a means of escape or avoidance).
Schmidt:
Shake=Lay aside, get rid of, discard
Superflux=the superfluous, their abundance of wealth
Compleat:
Ragged=Aan flenteren (fladderen) gescheurd, versleeten, haaveloos

Topics: poverty and wealth, value, regret, adversity, equality, excess