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PLAY: Cymbeline
ACT/SCENE: 5.4
SPEAKER: Posthumus Leonatus
CONTEXT:
POSTHUMUS LEONATUS
Sleep, thou hast been a grandsire, and begot
A father to me; and thou hast created
A mother and two brothers: but, O scorn!
Gone! they went hence so soon as they were born:
And so I am awake. Poor wretches that depend
On greatness’ favour dream as I have done,
Wake and find nothing. But, alas, I swerve:
Many dream not to find, neither deserve,
And yet are steep’d in favours: so am I,
That have this golden chance and know not why.
What fairies haunt this ground? A book? O rare one!
Be not, as is our fangled world, a garment
Nobler than that it covers: let thy effects
So follow, to be most unlike our courtiers,
As good as promise.
When as a lion’s whelp shall, to himself unknown,
without seeking find, and be embraced by a piece of
tender air; and when from a stately cedar shall be
lopped branches, which, being dead many years,
shall after revive, be jointed to the old stock and
freshly grow; then shall Posthumus end his miseries,
Britain be fortunate and flourish in peace and plenty.’
‘Tis still a dream, or else such stuff as madmen
Tongue and brain not; either both or nothing;
Or senseless speaking or a speaking such
As sense cannot untie. Be what it is,
The action of my life is like it, which
I’ll keep, if but for sympathy.

DUTCH:
Een boek? 0 kleinood!
0, wees niet als de wereld thans, een kleed,
Dat eed’ler is dan wat het dekt; uw inhoud
Blijke, ongelijk aan onze hovelingen,
Zoo goed als gij gelooft.


MORE:
Swerve=Go off course, go astray
Such stuff as madmen tongue=The nonsensical, irrational talk of madmen
Or=Either
Jointed=Grafted
Sympathy=Any conformity, correspondence, resemblance
Compleat:
Swerve=Afdwaaaien, afdoolen, afzwerven
Sympathy (natural agreement of things)=Natuurlyke overeenstemming of trek der dingen

Topics: madness, nature, language, reason

PLAY: Hamlet
ACT/SCENE: 2.2
SPEAKER: Polonius
CONTEXT:
How pregnant sometimes his replies are. A happiness that often madness hits on, which reason and sanity could not so prosperously be delivered of.

DUTCH:
Wat zijn zijn antwoorden soms gevat! Een gelukkige eigenschap van de waanzin, waar de redelijkheid niet zo voor­spoedig van bevalt /
Hoe raak zijn soms zijn antwoorden ! Een mooi iets, dat krankzinnigheid dikwijls bereikt, terwijl het bij rede en gezond verstand niet zoo voorspoedig loskomt!

MORE:
Schmidt:
Pregnant=expert, clever, ingenious, artful
Prosperously = successfully
Compleat:
A pregnant (or subtle) wit=Een schrander vernuft
Pregnant reasons=Krachtige redenen
Negative pregnant=Eene ontkenning, die een stelling insluit ( negative pregnant denial still used in law today)
Prosperously=Voorspoediglyk

Topics: madness, reason

PLAY: The Comedy of Errors
ACT/SCENE: 4.4
SPEAKER: Adriana
CONTEXT:
ANTIPHOLUS OF EPHESUS
Thou hast suborned the goldsmith to arrest me.
ADRIANA
Alas, I sent you money to redeem you
By Dromio here, who came in haste for it.
DROMIO OF EPHESUS
Money by me! heart and goodwill you might,
But surely, master, not a rag of money.
ANTIPHOLUS OF EPHESUS
Went’st not thou to her for a purse of ducats?
ADRIANA
He came to me, and I delivered it.
LUCIANA
And I am witness with her that she did.
DROMIO OF EPHESUS
God and the rope-maker bear me witness
That I was sent for nothing but a rope.
PINCH
Mistress, both man and master is possessed.
I know it by their pale and deadly looks.
They must be bound and laid in some dark room.

DUTCH:
Helaas, ik zond u geld voor uw bevrijding,
Door Dromio hier, die ‘t ijlings hebben moest.

MORE:
Suborned=Arranged for
Rag of money=Smallest coin
Redeem=Bail out
Bound and laid in a dark room=Treatment for madness (see Twelfth Night 4.2)
Compleat:
To suborn=Heymelyk beschikken, besteeken, uytmaaken
Redeem=Verlossen, vrykoopen, lossen

Topics: money, debt/obligation, madness, truth

PLAY: Titus Andronicus
ACT/SCENE: 3.2
SPEAKER: Marcus Andronicus
CONTEXT:
TITUS ANDRONICUS
O, O, O,
Then pardon me for reprehending thee,
For thou hast done a charitable deed.
Give me thy knife, I will insult on him;
Flattering myself, as if it were the Moor
Come hither purposely to poison me.—
There’s for thyself, and that’s for Tamora.
Ah, sirrah!
Yet, I think, we are not brought so low,
But that between us we can kill a fly
That comes in likeness of a coal-black Moor.
MARCUS ANDRONICUS
Alas, poor man! grief has so wrought on him,
He takes false shadows for true substances.
TITUS ANDRONICUS
Come, take away. Lavinia, go with me:
I’ll to thy closet; and go read with thee
Sad stories chanced in the times of old.
Come, boy, and go with me: thy sight is young,
And thou shalt read when mine begin to dazzle..

DUTCH:
Gij stomme klaagster, ‘k wil uw taal verstaan.
Mij zullen uw gebaren zoo vertrouwd
Als bedelkluiz’naars hun gebeden zijn.

MORE:
Reprehend=Blame
Insult on=Overcome, triumph over
Flattering myself=Pretending
Closet=Room
Chanced=Occurred
Dazzle=Grow dim
Compleat:
Reprehend=Berispen, bestraffen
To chance=Voorvallen, gebeuren
To dazle or dazzle=Verblinden; de ogen doen schermeren

Topics: madness, grief

PLAY: Twelfth Night
ACT/SCENE: 4.2
SPEAKER: Malvolio
CONTEXT:
FOOL
Master Malvolio?
MALVOLIO
Ay, good fool.
FOOL
Alas, sir, how fell you besides your five wits?
MALVOLIO
Fool, there was never a man so notoriously abused: I
am as well in my wits, Fool, as thou art.
FOOL
But as well? Then you are mad indeed, if you be no
better in your wits than a fool.
MALVOLIO
They have here propertied me, keep me in darkness, send
ministers to me —asses!—and do all they can to face me
out of my wits.
FOOL
Advise you what you say. The minister is here.
Malvolio, Malvolio, thy wits the
heavens restore! Endeavor thyself to sleep, and leave
thy vain bibble-babble.

DUTCH:
Helaas, heerschap, hoe zijt ge toch uw verstand zoo
kwijt geraakt?

MORE:
Fall besides=Out of (lose your wits)
Five wits=Shakespeare distinguishes between the five senses (sight, smell, hearing, taste, touch) and the five wits (see Sonnet 141). The five wits are said to be common wit (or common sense), imagination, fancy, estimation and memory.
Propertied=Treated, owned, ordered
Face (out of)=Bully
Out of my wits=Witless
Advise you=Take care
Compleat:
He is beside himself=Hy is buiten verstand
Property=Werktuig
The nature of his employment makes him a property to all the measures of the court=Den aart van zyne bediening maakt hem tot een werktuig in alle de maatregelen van ‘t Hof
To face out or down=(or to outface)=Iemand iets in het gezigt staande houden, of zo lang aanzien dat hy zyn oogen moet neerslaan
He makes me out of my wits=Hy maakt my dol

Topics: madness, punishment, abuse, innocence

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

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

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

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

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

PLAY: King Henry VIII
ACT/SCENE: 3.1
SPEAKER: Queen Katherine
CONTEXT:
CARDINAL WOLSEY
Madam, this is a mere distraction;
You turn the good we offer into envy.
QUEEN KATHERINE
You turn me into nothing: woe upon you
And all such false professors! would you have me—
If you have any justice, any pity;
If you be any thing but churchmen’s habits—
Put my sick cause into his hands that hates me?
Alas, has banish’d me his bed already,
His love, too long ago! I am old, my lords,
And all the fellowship I hold now with him
Is only my obedience. What can happen
To me above this wretchedness? all your studies
Make me a curse like this.

DUTCH:
Wat kan mij overkomen,
Nog boven deze ellend’? Uw streven maakt
Mij zulk een vloek.

MORE:
Distraction=Deranged, madness
Envy=Spite, malice
Professor=One who professes, declares (here: to be Christian)
Habit=Clothes
Sick=Poor, weak
Studies=Efforts
Fellowship=Relationship, bond
Compleat:
Distraction=Gescheurdheyd, verwydering; krankzinnigheyd
Envy=Nyd, afgunst
To profess=(hold a doctrine) Een leer belyden, gelooven, belydenis doen
To study=Benaarstigen, betrachten
Fellowship=Gemeenschap, medegenootschap, gezelschap

Topics: madness, justice

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

PLAY: Twelfth Night
ACT/SCENE: 5.1
SPEAKER: Fool
CONTEXT:
OLIVIA
He shall enlarge him. Fetch Malvolio hither:
And yet, alas, now I remember me,
They say, poor gentleman, he’s much distract.
A most extracting frenzy of mine own
From my remembrance clearly banished his.
How does he, sirrah?
FOOL
Truly, madam, he holds Beelzebub at the staves’ end as
well as a man in his case may do. Has here writ a letter
to you. I should have given ’t you today morning, but
as a madman’s epistles are no gospels, so it skills not
much when they are delivered.
OLIVIA
Open ’t, and read it.
FOOL
Look then to be well edified when the fool delivers the
madman.“By the Lord, madam,”—
OLIVIA
How now? Art thou mad?

DUTCH:
Hier heb ik een brief van hem aan u; eigenlijk
had ik u dien van ochtend al moeten geven; maar, daar
dollemansbrieven geen evangeliën zijn, komt het er niet
veel op aan, wanneer zij besteld worden.

MORE:
Proverb: All is not gospel that comes out of his mouth

Enlarge=Release
Much distract=Deranged
Skill=Matter
It skills not much=It doesn’t make much difference
Look then=Be prepared
Well edified=Learn a lot
Compleat:
Distracted=(troubled) Ontsteld; (mad) Dul, krankzinnig; (rend) Gescheurd
To edify=Stichten, opbouwen

Topics: madness, language, communication

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

PLAY: Cymbeline
ACT/SCENE: 4.2
SPEAKER: Imogen
CONTEXT:
IMOGEN
(…) These flowers are like the pleasures of the world;
This bloody man, the care on’t. I hope I dream;
For so I thought I was a cave-keeper,
And cook to honest creatures: but ’tis not so;
‘Twas but a bolt of nothing, shot at nothing,
Which the brain makes of fumes: our very eyes
Are sometimes like our judgments, blind. Good faith,
I tremble stiff with fear: but if there be
Yet left in heaven as small a drop of pity
As a wren’s eye, fear’d gods, a part of it!
The dream’s here still: even when I wake, it is
Without me, as within me; not imagined, felt.
A headless man! The garments of Posthumus!
I know the shape of’s leg: this is his hand;
His foot Mercurial; his Martial thigh;
The brawns of Hercules: but his Jovial face
Murder in heaven?—How!—’Tis gone. Pisanio,
All curses madded Hecuba gave the Greeks,
And mine to boot, be darted on thee! Thou,
Conspired with that irregulous devil, Cloten,
Hast here cut off my lord. To write and read
Be henceforth treacherous! Damn’d Pisanio
Hath with his forged letters,—damn’d Pisanio—
From this most bravest vessel of the world
Struck the main-top! O Posthumus! alas,
Where is thy head? where’s that? Ay me!
where’s that?

DUTCH:
O, groote goden,
Is boven nog erbarming, slechts een drup,
Als ‘t oog der grasmusch, schenkt me een deel er van!

MORE:
A fume=A vapour, a delusion, phantasm, anything hindering the function of the brain, like a mist
Madded=Made mad (with revenge)
To boot=As well
Irregulous=Lawless
Main-top=Top of the mast
Compleat:
The glory of mortals is but a fume=De eerre der stervelingen is maar rook
To be in a fume=In een woede zyn

Topics: pity, imagination, madness, evidence

PLAY: The Comedy of Errors
ACT/SCENE: 5.1
SPEAKER: Adriana
CONTEXT:
ADRIANA
May it please your Grace, Antipholus my husband,
Whom I made lord of me and all I had
At your important letters, this ill day
A most outrageous fit of madness took him,
That desp’rately he hurried through the street,
With him his bondman, all as mad as he,
Doing displeasure to the citizens
By rushing in their houses, bearing thence
Rings, jewels, any thing his rage did like.
Once did I get him bound and sent him home
Whilst to take order for the wrongs I went
That here and there his fury had committed.
Anon, I wot not by what strong escape,
He broke from those that had the guard of him,
And with his mad attendant and himself,
Each one with ireful passion, with drawn swords,
Met us again and, madly bent on us,
Chased us away, till, raising of more aid,
We came again to bind them. Then they fled
Into this abbey, whither we pursued them,
And here the Abbess shuts the gates on us
And will not suffer us to fetch him out,
Nor send him forth that we may bear him hence.
Therefore, most gracious duke, with thy command
Let him be brought forth and borne hence for help.

DUTCH:
Mijn man, dien ik, op aandrang van uw hoogheid,
Tot heer van mij en ‘t mijne maakte, werd
Deez’ boozen dag van razernij bevangen,
Zoodat hij, met zijn even dollen dienaar,
Als een bezeet’ne door de straten liep,

MORE:
Important letters=Requests
Doing displeasure=Upsetting, offending
Take order for=Deal with, take measures to repair
Wot not=Don’t know
Ireful passion=Anger
Suffer=Permit
Compleat:
Displeasure=Misnoegen, mishaagen, ongenade
To do a displeasure to one=Iemand verdriet aandoen
To order=Schikken, belasten, beveelen, ordineeren
I wot not=Ik weet niet
Irefull=Zeer gram, zeer vertoornt
Passion=Lyding, hartstogt, drift, ingenomenheyd, zydigheyd, zucht
Suffer=Toelaten

Topics: madness, authority, offence

PLAY: Twelfth Night
ACT/SCENE: 4.2
SPEAKER: Fool
CONTEXT:
FOOL
Master Malvolio?
MALVOLIO
Ay, good fool.
FOOL
Alas, sir, how fell you besides your five wits?
MALVOLIO
Fool, there was never a man so notoriously abused: I
am as well in my wits, Fool, as thou art.
FOOL
But as well? Then you are mad indeed, if you be no
better in your wits than a fool.
MALVOLIO
They have here propertied me, keep me in darkness, send
ministers to me —asses!—and do all they can to face me
out of my wits.
FOOL
Advise you what you say. The minister is here. [in the
voice of Sir Topas] Malvolio, Malvolio, thy wits the
heavens restore! Endeavor thyself to sleep, and leave
thy vain bibble-babble.

DUTCH:
Tracht eens te slapen en staak uw ijdel geklap!

MORE:
Fall besides=Out of (lose your wits)
Five wits=Shakespeare distinguishes between the five senses (sight, smell, hearing, taste, touch) and the five wits (see Sonnet 141). The five wits are said to be common wit (or common sense), imagination, fancy, estimation and memory.
Propertied=Treated, owned, ordered
Face (out of)=Bully
Out of my wits=Witless
Advise you=Take care
Compleat:
He is beside himself=Hy is buiten verstand
Property=Werktuig
The nature of his employment makes him a property to all the measures of the court=Den aart van zyne bediening maakt hem tot een werktuig in alle de maatregelen van ‘t Hof
To face out or down=(or to outface)=Iemand iets in het gezigt staande houden, of zo lang aanzien dat hy zyn oogen moet neerslaan
He makes me out of my wits=Hy maakt my dol

Topics: madness, punishment, abuse, innocence

PLAY: King Henry IV Part 2
ACT/SCENE: 1.3
SPEAKER: Lord Bardolph
CONTEXT:
LORD BARDOLPH
It was, my lord; who lined himself with hope,
Eating the air on promise of supply,
Flatt’ring himself in project of a power
Much smaller than the smallest of his thoughts,
And so, with great imagination
Proper to madmen, led his powers to death
And, winking, leapt into destruction.
HASTINGS
But, by your leave, it never yet did hurt
To lay down likelihoods and forms of hope.

DUTCH:
Geheel, Inylord; hij voedde zich met hoop,
Met de’ ijdlen klank van toegezegden bijstand,
Zich vleiend met het droombeeld eener macht,
Die minder bleek zelfs dan zijn minste raming;

MORE:

Proverb:
Look before you leap

Schmidt:
To eat the air=To be deluded with hopes, living on nothing
Likelihood=Probability, chance
Project of=A chalking out, a forming in the mind, an idea
Wink=To shut the eyes or to have them shut so as not to see
Forms of hope=Hopeful plans

Compleat:
To line=To fortify, to strengthen
To wink=Door de vingeren zien
Likelyhood=Waarschynlykheid

Topics: hope/optimism, promise, imagination, madness

PLAY: Macbeth
ACT/SCENE: 5.1
SPEAKER: Doctor
CONTEXT:
Foul whisp’rings are abroad. Unnatural deeds
Do breed unnatural troubles. Infected minds
To their deaf pillows will discharge their secrets.
More needs she the divine than the physician.

DUTCH:
Men fluistert gruw’len. Onnatuurlijk doen
Baart onnatuurlijk wee.

MORE:
Schmidt:
Foul=Disgraceful, derogatory, detractive
Whisperings = rumours
Unnatural = supernatural (sleepwalkers were considered to be cursed; sleepwalking a sign of demonic possession)

Topics: madness, guilt, conspiracy, language

PLAY: The Comedy of Errors
ACT/SCENE: 4.4
SPEAKER: Adriana
CONTEXT:
ANTIPHOLUS OF EPHESUS
Thou hast suborned the goldsmith to arrest me.
ADRIANA
Alas, I sent you money to redeem you
By Dromio here, who came in haste for it.
DROMIO OF EPHESUS
Money by me! heart and goodwill you might,
But surely, master, not a rag of money.
ANTIPHOLUS OF EPHESUS
Went’st not thou to her for a purse of ducats?
ADRIANA
He came to me, and I delivered it.
LUCIANA
And I am witness with her that she did.
DROMIO OF EPHESUS
God and the rope-maker bear me witness
That I was sent for nothing but a rope.
PINCH
Mistress, both man and master is possessed.
I know it by their pale and deadly looks.
They must be bound and laid in some dark room.

DUTCH:
God en de touwverkooper zijn getuigen:
Niets anders moest ik halen dan een touw.

MORE:
Suborned=Arranged for
Rag of money=Smallest coin
Redeem=Bail out
Bound and laid in a dark room=Treatment for madness (see Twelfth Night 4.2)
Compleat:
To suborn=Heymelyk beschikken, besteeken, uytmaaken
Redeem=Verlossen, vrykoopen, lossen

Topics: money, debt/obligation, madness, truth

PLAY: Twelfth Night
ACT/SCENE: 5.1
SPEAKER: Olivia
CONTEXT:
FABIAN
Good madam, hear me speak,
And let no quarrel nor no brawl to come
Taint the condition of this present hour,
Which I have wonder’d at. In hope it shall not,
Most freely I confess, myself and Toby
Set this device against Malvolio here,
Upon some stubborn and uncourteous parts
We had conceived against him. Maria writ
The letter at Sir Toby’s great importance,
In recompense whereof he hath married her.
How with a sportful malice it was followed,
May rather pluck on laughter than revenge,
If that the injuries be justly weighed
That have on both sides passed.
OLIVIA
Alas, poor fool, how have they baffled thee!
FOOL
Why, “some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrown upon them.” I was one, sir, in this interlude, one Sir Topas, sir, but that’s all one.
“By the Lord, fool, I am not mad.”—But do you remember? “Madam, why laugh you at such a barren rascal; an you smile not, he’s gagged?” and thus the whirligig of time brings in his revenges.
MALVOLIO
I’ll be revenged on the whole pack of you.
OLIVIA
He hath been most notoriously abused.

DUTCH:
Voorwaar, hij is verschrikk’lijk boos gefopt.

MORE:
Taint=Blemish
Uncourteous parts=Uncivil aspects
Condition=Situation
Conceived against=Discerned in
Importance=Importuning
Pluck on=Induce
Baffled=Humiliated
Interlude=Comedy
Whirligig=Spinning top, merry-go-round
Compleat:
To taint (attaint)=Overtuigen van misdaad, schuldig verklaaren, betichten; bevlekken, bederf aanzetten
Attainted=Overtuigd van misdaad, misdaadig verklaard
Uncourteous=Onbeleefd, onheusch
Condition=Staat, gesteltenis. gelegenheyd
Conceive=Bevatten, begrypen, beseffen, zich inbeelden; scheppen
To importune=Lastig vallen, zeer dringen, gestadig aanhouden, overdringen, aandringen
To pluck=Rukken, plukken
To baffle=Beschaamd maaken
Whirligig=Een kinder meulentje of draaitolletje

To taint (attaint)=Overtuigen van misdaad, schuldig verklaaren, betichten; bevlekken, bederf aanzetten

Topics: madness, reputation, leadership, status, honour, conspiracy

PLAY: Twelfth Night
ACT/SCENE: 3.2
SPEAKER: Sir Andrew
CONTEXT:
SIR TOBY BELCH
Come, we’ll have him in a dark room and bound. My niece
is already in the belief that he’s mad. We may carry it
thus, for our pleasure and his penance, till our very
pastime, tired out of breath, prompt us to have mercy on
him, at which time we will bring the device to the bar
and crown thee for a finder of madmen. But see, but see!
FABIAN
More matter for a May morning.
SIR ANDREW
Here’s the challenge, read it.
Warrant there’s vinegar and pepper in ’t.
FABIAN
Is ’t so saucy?
SIR ANDREW
Ay, is ’t, I warrant him. Do but read.

DUTCH:
Daar is de uitdaging; leest ze; ik verzeker u, er is
peper en azijn in.

MORE:
Dark room and bound=Treatment for madness
Carry it=Continue
To the bar=Into the open (bringing a case to court to be resolved)
Matter=Material
Saucy=Insolent
Compleat:
To carry=Draagen, voeren, brengen
The bar=Een rechtbank
Matter=Stoffe, zaak, oorzaak
Saucy=Stout, onbeschaamd, baldaadig

Topics: complaint, plans/intentions, madness

PLAY: Titus Andronicus
ACT/SCENE: 4.4
SPEAKER: Saturninus
CONTEXT:
SATURNINUS
Why, lords, what wrongs are these! was ever seen
An emperor in Rome thus overborne,
Troubled, confronted thus; and, for the extent
Of equal justice, used in such contempt?
My lords, you know, as know the mightful gods,
However these disturbers of our peace
Buzz in the people’s ears, there nought hath passed,
But even with law, against the willful sons
Of old Andronicus. And what an if
His sorrows have so overwhelmed his wits,
Shall we be thus afflicted in his wreaks,
His fits, his frenzy, and his bitterness?
And now he writes to heaven for his redress:
See, here’s to Jove, and this to Mercury;
This to Apollo; this to the god of war;
Sweet scrolls to fly about the streets of Rome!
What’s this but libelling against the senate,
And blazoning our injustice every where?
A goodly humour, is it not, my lords?
As who would say, in Rome no justice were.
But if I live, his feigned ecstasies
Shall be no shelter to these outrages:
But he and his shall know that justice lives
In Saturninus’ health, whom, if she sleep,
He’ll so awake as she in fury shall
Cut off the proud’st conspirator that lives.

DUTCH:
Gij, heeren, weet, gelijk de groote goden,
Dat, — wat ook vredestoorders mogen blazen
In ‘t oor des volks, — er met de drieste zoons
Van de’ ouden Andronicus niets geschiedde,
Dan volgens wet en rech

MORE:
Overborne=Oppressed, overwhelmed, overruled
For the extent=In return for
Equal=Equitable
Even=In accordance
Wreaks=Vindictiveness
Humour=Disposition, caprice
Ecstasy=Madness
Compleat:
Overbear=Onderdrukken, overtreffen
He overbore him with blows=Hy kreeg hem onder met slagen
Humour (or disposition of the mind)=Humeur, gemoeds gesteldheid
To wreak one’s anger upon one=Zynen moed op iemand koelen
Extasy=Verrukking, opgetoogenheid, vertrekking van zinnen

Topics: status, respect, order/society, madness, justice

PLAY: The Comedy of Errors
ACT/SCENE: 5.1
SPEAKER: Antipholus
CONTEXT:
ANTIPHOLUS OF EPHESUS
My liege, I am advisèd what I say,
Neither disturbed with the effect of wine,
Nor heady-rash, provoked with raging ire,
Albeit my wrongs might make one wiser mad.
This woman locked me out this day from dinner.
That goldsmith there, were he not packed with her,
Could witness it, for he was with me then,
Who parted with me to go fetch a chain,
Promising to bring it to the Porpentine,
Where Balthasar and I did dine together.
Our dinner done and he not coming thither,
I went to seek him. In the street I met him,
And in his company that gentleman.
There did this perjured goldsmith swear me down
That I this day of him received the chain,
Which, God he knows, I saw not; for the which
He did arrest me with an officer.
I did obey, and sent my peasant home
For certain ducats. He with none returned.
Then fairly I bespoke the officer
To go in person with me to my house.
By th’ way we met
My wife, her sister, and a rabble more
Of vile confederates. Along with them
They brought one Pinch, a hungry, lean-faced villain,
A mere anatomy, a mountebank,
A threadbare juggler, and a fortune-teller,
A needy, hollow-eyed, sharp-looking wretch,
A living dead man. This pernicious slave,
Forsooth, took on him as a conjurer,
And, gazing in mine eyes, feeling my pulse,
And with no face (as ’twere) outfacing me,
Cries out I was possessed. Then all together
They fell upon me, bound me, bore me thence,
And in a dark and dankish vault at home
There left me and my man, both bound together,
Till gnawing with my teeth my bonds in sunder,
I gained my freedom and immediately
Ran hither to your Grace, whom I beseech
To give me ample satisfaction
For these deep shames and great indignities.

DUTCH:
Mijn vorst en heer! ik weet wel wat ik zeg;
‘k Ben niet door wijn beneveld, hen niet dol,
Niet blind door woede, schoon, wat mij weêrvoer,
Genoeg ware, om een wijs man gek te maken.

MORE:
Advisèd=Considered, of sound mind
Heady-rash=Provoked by passion
Packed=In league
With an=With the help of an
Pernicious=Harmful
In sunder=Apart
Compleat:
Advised=Geraaden, beraaden, bedacht
Heady=Hoofdig, koppig
Rash=Voorbaarig, haastig, onbedacht, roekeloos
To pack (up)=t’zamen pakken
Pernicious=Schaadelyk, verderflyk
To rive asunder=Opscheuren, opsplyten, opbarsten
To put asunder=Elk byzonder zetten, van één scheiden

Topics: advice, caution, anger, madness

PLAY: The Comedy of Errors
ACT/SCENE: 5.1
SPEAKER: Angelo
CONTEXT:
ABBESS
Be quiet, people. Wherefore throng you hither?
ADRIANA
To fetch my poor distracted husband hence.
Let us come in, that we may bind him fast
And bear him home for his recovery.
ANGELO
I knew he was not in his perfect wits.
SECOND MERCHANT
I am sorry now that I did draw on him.
ABBESS
How long hath this possession held the man?
ADRIANA
This week he hath been heavy, sour, sad,
And much different from the man he was.
But till this afternoon his passion
Ne’er brake into extremity of rage.
ABBESS
Hath he not lost much wealth by wrack of sea?
Buried some dear friend? Hath not else his eye
Stray’d his affection in unlawful love,
A sin prevailing much in youthful men
Who give their eyes the liberty of gazing?
Which of these sorrows is he subject to?

DUTCH:
Ik wist wel, dat hij in de war moest zijn.

MORE:
Throng=Crowd
Hither=Here
Distracted=Agitated
Reprehend=Reprimand
Haply=Perhaps
Wrack of sea=Shipwreck
Compleat:
Throng=Gedrang, een menigte volks
Hither=Herwaards
Distracted=Van een gescheurd, ontroerd
Reprehend=Berispen, bestraffen
Haply=Misschien
Wrack=Een wrak, vergaan schip
To go to wrack=Verlooren gaan, te gronde gaan
Ship-wrack=Schipbreuk

Topics: sorrow, emotion and mood, madness, anger

PLAY: The Comedy of Errors
ACT/SCENE: 4.1
SPEAKER: Antipholus of Ephesus
CONTEXT:
ANTIPHOLUS OF EPHESUS
How now? A madman? Why, thou peevish sheep,
What ship of Epidamnum stays for me?
DROMIO OF SYRACUSE
A ship you sent me to, to hire waftage.
ANTIPHOLUS OF EPHESUS
Thou drunken slave, I sent thee for a rope
And told thee to what purpose and what end.
DROMIO OF SYRACUSE
You sent me for a rope’s end as soon.
You sent me to the bay, sir, for a bark.
ANTIPHOLUS OF EPHESUS
I will debate this matter at more leisure
And teach your ears to list me with more heed.
To Adriana, villain, hie thee straight.
Give her this key, and tell her in the desk
That’s cover’d o’er with Turkish tapestry
There is a purse of ducats. Let her send it.
Tell her I am arrested in the street,
And that shall bail me. Hie thee, slave. Begone.—
On, officer, to prison till it come.

DUTCH:
ik doe die zaak wel nader met u af,
En leer uw ooren beter acht te geven.

MORE:
Peevish=Foolish
Waftage=Passage
Rope’s end=Whipping
List me=Listen to me
Hie=Make haste, go
Compleat:
Peevish=Kribbig, gemelyk
Waft=Wuiving, een teken dat de schepen in en op sommige voorvallen geeven, ‘t zy met iets uit te steeken, of iets op en neer te hyffen
Wafter=Een geleischip, konvooijer
To hie (hye)=Reppen, haasten

Topics: madness, respect, time

PLAY: Twelfth Night
ACT/SCENE: 3.4
SPEAKER: Fabian
CONTEXT:
FABIAN
If this were played upon a stage now, I could condemn it as an improbable fiction.
SIR TOBY BELCH
His very genius hath taken the infection of the device, man.
MARIA
Nay, pursue him now, lest the device take air and taint.
FABIAN
Why, we shall make him mad indeed.
MARIA
The house will be the quieter.
SIR TOBY BELCH
Come, we’ll have him in a dark room and bound. My niece is already in the belief that he’s mad. We may carry it thus, for our pleasure and his penance, till our very pastime, tired out of breath, prompt us to have mercy on him, at which time we will bring the device to the bar and crown thee for a finder of madmen. But see, but see!

DUTCH:
Als dit op een tooneel vertoond werd, zou ik het als
een onwaarschijnlijke verdichting kunnen veroordeelen.

MORE:
Device=Plot, design
Take air=Be exposed to the air
Taint=Spoil
Dark room and bound=Treatment for madness
Carry it=Continue
To the bar=Into the open (bringing a case to court to be resolved)
Compleat:
To taint (attaint)=Overtuigen van misdaad, schuldig verklaaren, betichten; bevlekken, bederf aanzetten
Device (cunning trick)=Een listige streek
Device (invention or contrivance)=Uitvinding, vinding
To carry=Draagen, voeren, brengen
The bar=Een rechtbank

Burgersdijk notes:
Zijn geheele ziel enz. Het oorspronkelijke zegt: His very genius, „zijn geleigeest zelf”. Onder Genius
wordt de goede of kwade geest verstaan, die ondersteld werd de handelingen van een mensch te regelen.

Topics: complaint, plans/intentions, madness

PLAY: Othello
ACT/SCENE: 4.1
SPEAKER: Iago
CONTEXT:
LODOVICO
Are his wits safe? Is he not light of brain?
IAGO
He’s that he is. I may not breathe my censure
What he might be. If what he might he is not,
I would to heaven he were!
LODOVICO
What? Strike his wife?
IAGO
‘Faith, that was not so well. Yet would I knew
That stroke would prove the worst!
LODOVICO
Is it his use?
Or did the letters work upon his blood
And new-create his fault?
IAGO
Alas, alas! It is not honesty in me to speak
What I have seen and known. You shall observe him,
And his own courses will denote him so
That I may save my speech. Do but go after
And mark how he continues.
LODOVICO
I am sorry that I am deceived in him.

DUTCH:
Is hij bij zinnen? is zijn brein niet krank?
– Hij is zooals hij is; ik uit geen oordeel.

MORE:
Censure=Opinion (on his soundness of mind)
Use=Custom, habit
Blood=Passion
New-create=Start, instigate
Courses=Actions
Denote him=Explain
Deceived in=Have misjudged
Compleat:
Censure=Bestraffing, berisping, oordeel, toets
Use=Gewoonte, gebruyk
Blood=Disposition, temper
Courses=Wegen of middelen
Denote=Betekenen

Topics: madness, appearance, communication, trust

PLAY: The Merry Wives of Windsor
ACT/SCENE:
SPEAKER: Ford
CONTEXT:
FORD
Hum! ha! is this a vision? is this a dream? do I
sleep? Master Ford awake! awake, Master Ford!
there’s a hole made in your best coat, Master Ford.
This ’tis to be married! this ’tis to have linen
and buck-baskets! Well, I will proclaim myself
what I am: I will now take the lecher; he is at my
house; he cannot ‘scape me; ’tis impossible he
should; he cannot creep into a halfpenny purse,
nor into a pepper-box: but, lest the devil that
guides him should aid him, I will search
impossible places. Though what I am I cannot avoid,
yet to be what I would not shall not make me tame:
if I have horns to make one mad, let the proverb go
with me: I’ll be horn-mad.

DUTCH:
Wat! hoe! is dit een vizioen? is dit een droom? slaap
ik?

MORE:
Proverb: To pick a hole in a man’s coat
Proverb: He is horn-mad

Hole made in your best coat=Reputation is damaged
Take=Catch
Horn-mad=Especially insane form of anger; especially at being cuckolded (given horns)
Compleat:
To beat one’s coat=Iemand wat op zyn rokje geeven, iemand afsmeeren
She bestows a pair of horns upon her husband=Zy zet haaren man een paar hoorns op ‘t hoofd; Zy kroont hem met het wapen van Boksbergen
Horn-mad=Minnenydig, jaloers

Topics: proverbs and idioms|imagination|marriage|madness

PLAY: Hamlet
ACT/SCENE: 5.2
SPEAKER: Hamlet
CONTEXT:
Hamlet is of the faction that is wronged.
His madness is poor Hamlet’s enemy.
Sir, in this audience,
Let my disclaiming from a purposed evil
Free me so far in your most generous thoughts
That I have shot mine arrow o’er the house
And hurt my brother.

DUTCH:
Laat mijn ontkenning van opzetlijk kwaad Me ontheffen in uw ridderziel tot op: Dat ik mijn pijl schoot over ‘t huis en trof
Mijn broeder. /
Laat mijn ontkenning hier van kwaad bedoelen Mijn vrijspraak zijn in uw grootmoedig denken, Dat ik mijn pijl heb over ‘t huis geschoten En trof mijn broeder.

MORE:
Cited in Shakespeare’s Legal Maxims (William Lowes Rushton)
Schmidt:
Disclaiming= disavowal
To purpose= plan, design
Compleat:
To disclaim=Otkennen, verzaaken, afstaan
To purpose=Voornemen, voor hebben

Topics: madness, innocence, law/legal, conspiracy

PLAY: Hamlet
ACT/SCENE: 3.1
SPEAKER: Claudius
CONTEXT:
POLONIUS
We heard it all.—My lord, do as you please.
But, if you hold it fit, after the play
Let his queen mother all alone entreat him
To show his grief. Let her be round with him,
And I’ll be placed, so please you, in the ear
Of all their conference. If she find him not,
To England send him or confine him where
Your wisdom best shall think.
CLAUDIUS
It shall be so.
Madness in great ones must not unwatched go.

DUTCH:
Uw raad staat me aan; ‘n Hooggeplaatste en gek mag vrij niet gaan /
Dat zal ik, want de waanzin van vorstenzonen eist een wakend oog. /
‘t Zij zoo. Onderwijl Waanzin bij grooten eischt een oog in ‘t zeil.

MORE:
Schmidt:
Round=roundly, straightforwardly and without much ceremony:
Compleat:
To have a round delivery (or clear utterance)=Glad ter taal zyn
Round about=Rondt-om

Topics: madness, caution, trust, order/society

PLAY: Timon of Athens
ACT/SCENE: 1.2
SPEAKER: Apemantus
CONTEXT:
APEMANTUS
Hey-day, what a sweep of vanity comes this way!
They dance! they are mad women.
Like madness is the glory of this life.
As this pomp shows to a little oil and root.
We make ourselves fools, to disport ourselves;
And spend our flatteries, to drink those men
Upon whose age we void it up again,
With poisonous spite and envy.
Who lives that’s not depraved or depraves?
Who dies, that bears not one spurn to their graves
Of their friends’ gift?
I should fear those that dance before me now
Would one day stamp upon me: ‘t has been done;
Men shut their doors against a setting sun.

DUTCH:
k Zou vreezen: die thans voor mij dansen, treden
Mij eens op ‘t hart; dit is niet ongehoord;
Men sluit voor de ondergaande zon de poort.

MORE:
Proverb: The rising, not the setting, sun is worshipped by most men
Proverb: Men more worship the rising than the setting sun

Hey-day=Expression of surprise
Sweep=Elegance
Oil and root=Plain eating, contrast with pomp
Disport=Amuse
Void=Vomit
Compleat:
Disport=Kortswyl
To void=Ontleedigen, leedigen, lossen, afgaan

Burgersdijk notes:
Bereid om hem te vermoorden. Wie een ander zijn goed helpt verkwisten, werkt mede om hem tot wanhoop en zelfmoord te brengen.

Topics: proverbs and idioms, vanity, madness, legacy

PLAY: As You Like It
ACT/SCENE: 1.3
SPEAKER: Celia
CONTEXT:
CELIA
Why, cousin! Why, Rosalind! Cupid have mercy, not a word?
ROSALIND
Not one to throw at a dog.
CELIA
No, thy words are too precious to be cast away upon curs.
Throw some of them at me. Come, lame me with reasons.
ROSALIND
Then there were two cousins laid up, when the one
should be lamed with reasons and the other mad without
any.

DUTCH:
Geen enkel; woorden zouden paarlen voor de honden zijn.

MORE:
Cast away=to throw away, waste or lavish
Lame=Disable me with reasons
Compleat:
To cast away care=Werp de zorg weg
Lame=Verlammen, lam maaken

Topics: language, value, reason, madness

PLAY: Hamlet
ACT/SCENE: 3.1
SPEAKER: Ophelia
CONTEXT:
Now see that noble and most sovereign reason
Like sweet bells jangled, out of tune and harsh;
That unmatched form and feature of blown youth
Blasted with ecstasy. O, woe is me,
T’ have seen what I have seen, see what I see!

DUTCH:
O, wee mij, die gezien heeft wat ik zag, zie wat ik zie! / Wee, wee, o, die Zag wat ik heb gezien, ziet wat ik zie.

MORE:
Woe is me’ wasn’t a Shakespeare invention – there are several instances the Bible (‘woe unto me’ in Job, ‘woe is me’ in Psalms, Isiah and Jeremiah)
Schmidt:
Sovereign= Supreme, paramount, excellent: “That noble and most sovereign reason”
Blasted=Blighted
Ecstasy=Madness
Onions:
Blown=Blossomed (in the full bloom of youth)
Compleat:
Extasy=Verrukking, opgetoogenheid, vertrekking van zinnen
To blast one’s reputation=Iemands goeden naam bezwalken

Topics: still in use, sorrow, madness, still in use

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.

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

Topics: emotion and mood, wellbeing, madness, punishment

PLAY: Timon of Athens
ACT/SCENE: 3.6
SPEAKER: Fourth Lord
CONTEXT:
FIRST LORD
He’s but a mad lord, and nought but humour sways him.
He gave me a jewel th’ other day, and now he has
beat it out of my hat: did you see my jewel?
THIRD LORD
Did you see my cap?
SECOND LORD
Here ’tis.
FOURTH LORD
Here lies my gown.
FIRST LORD
Let’s make no stay.
SECOND LORD
Lord Timon’s mad.
THIRD LORD
I feel ‘t upon my bones.
FOURTH LORD
One day he gives us diamonds, next day stones.

DUTCH:
Juweelen gaf hij gist’ren, heden steenen.

MORE:
Burgersdijk notes:
Juweelen gaf hij gist’ren, heden steenen. In het op blz 477 vermelde stuk liggen er als artisjokken beschilderde steenen in de schotels en begroet Timon met deze zijn gasten.

Topics: madness

PLAY: Macbeth
ACT/SCENE: 1.3
SPEAKER: Banquo
CONTEXT:
Were such things here as we do speak about?
Or have we eaten on the insane root
That takes the reason prisoner?

DUTCH:
Wat? of aten
Wij dolkruid, dat de rede in boeien slaat?

MORE:
Dyce:
The insane root: perhaps hemlock or more probably henbane (Douce: “Henbane . . . is called Insana, mad, for the use thereof is perillous; for if it be eate or dronke, it breedeth madnesse, or slow lykenesse of sleepe. Therefore this hearb is called commonly Mirilidium, for it taketh away wit and reason.” Batman Uppon Bartholome de propriet. rerum, lib. xvii. ch. 87.)
CITED IN US LAW:
Cruzan v. Harmon, 760 S.W.2d 408,413 (Mo. 1988)(Robertson, J.). (One majority writer writes, “the
dissenters work backwards, choosing a result then creating reasons to ‘support’ it. lt is our duty in a case of first impression in this state not only to consider precedents from other states, but also to determine their strength. We have found them wanting and refuse to eat ‘on the insane root which takes the reason prisoner.'”

Topics: madness, reason, justification, cited in law, law/legal

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

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

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

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

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

PLAY: Cymbeline
ACT/SCENE: 5.4
SPEAKER: Posthumus Leonatus
CONTEXT:
POSTHUMUS LEONATUS
Sleep, thou hast been a grandsire, and begot
A father to me; and thou hast created
A mother and two brothers: but, O scorn!
Gone! they went hence so soon as they were born:
And so I am awake. Poor wretches that depend
On greatness’ favour dream as I have done,
Wake and find nothing. But, alas, I swerve:
Many dream not to find, neither deserve,
And yet are steep’d in favours: so am I,
That have this golden chance and know not why.
What fairies haunt this ground? A book? O rare one!
Be not, as is our fangled world, a garment
Nobler than that it covers: let thy effects
So follow, to be most unlike our courtiers,
As good as promise.
When as a lion’s whelp shall, to himself unknown,
without seeking find, and be embraced by a piece of
tender air; and when from a stately cedar shall be
lopped branches, which, being dead many years,
shall after revive, be jointed to the old stock and
freshly grow; then shall Posthumus end his miseries,
Britain be fortunate and flourish in peace and plenty.’
‘Tis still a dream, or else such stuff as madmen
Tongue and brain not; either both or nothing;
Or senseless speaking or a speaking such
As sense cannot untie. Be what it is,
The action of my life is like it, which
I’ll keep, if but for sympathy.

DUTCH:
t Is nog een droom, of wel het zinn’loos kallen
Van hersenlooze onnooz’len; dit of niets;
Of zinnelooze taal, of taal waarvan
‘t Verstand den zin niet vat

MORE:
Swerve=Go off course, go astray
Such stuff as madmen tongue=The nonsensical, irrational talk of madmen
Or=Either
Jointed=Grafted
Sympathy=Any conformity, correspondence, resemblance
Compleat:
Swerve=Afdwaaaien, afdoolen, afzwerven
Sympathy (natural agreement of things)=Natuurlyke overeenstemming of trek der dingen

Topics: madness, nature, language, reason

PLAY: Hamlet
ACT/SCENE: 2.2
SPEAKER: Polonius
CONTEXT:
My liege, and madam, to expostulate
What majesty should be, what duty is,
What day is day, night night, and time is time,
Were nothing but to waste night, day, and time;
Therefore, since brevity is the soul of wit,
And tediousness the limbs and outward flourishes,
I will be brief. Your noble son is mad. . . .

DUTCH:
Beknoptheid is het kenmerk van verstand./
Wijl de ziel van wijsheid kortheid is /
Sinds bondigheid de ziel is van ‘t vernuft

MORE:

If you are quoting this, be aware of the irony that Polonius is a sly and devious blowhard with no self-awareness who says this in the middle of a grand speech!

Proverb: Brevity is the soul of wit

Wit=acumen, keen intelligence.
Soul=quintessence

Compleat:
“Een man van goed verstand”

CITED IN EU LAW: Telefonica SA and Telefonica de Espana v Commission (Advocate General’s Opinion) [2013] EUECJ C-295/12
Opinion of Advocate General Wathelet delivered on 26 September 2013.: ‘It is true that ‘brevity is the soul of wit’ (Shakespeare in Hamlet, 1602), but unlimited jurisdiction requires more than wit’.
CITED IN US LAW:
Louisville and Jefferson County Metropolitan Sewer District v. Simpson, 730 S.W.2d 939, 942 (Ky. 1987)(“Shakespeare described …. This may be true in many situations, hut the majority opinion in this case is not one of them.”);
State v. Eichstedt, 20 Conn. App. 395, 401, 567 A.2d 1237 (1989)(“there must be sufficient
amplification to make an intelligent argument. The briefs fail in this regard.”);
Indiana Alcoholic Beverage Commission v. W-W Associates, Inc., 152 Ind. App. 622,284 N.E.2d
534,536 (1972)(“and while we find no humor in entering judgment against ABC before
its time limit had lapsed within which to answer, we can be brief.”)

Topics: cited in law, proverbs and idioms, still in use, language, madness

PLAY: Titus Andronicus
ACT/SCENE: 3.2
SPEAKER: Titus Andronicus
CONTEXT:
TITUS ANDRONICUS
How now! has sorrow made thee dote already?
Why, Marcus, no man should be mad but I.
What violent hands can she lay on her life?
Ah, wherefore dost thou urge the name of hands;
To bid AEneas tell the tale twice o’er,
How Troy was burnt and he made miserable?
O, handle not the theme, to talk of hands,
Lest we remember still that we have none.
Fie, fie, how franticly I square my talk,
As if we should forget we had no hands,
If Marcus did not name the word of hands!
Come, let’s fall to; and, gentle girl, eat this:
Here is no drink! Hark, Marcus, what she says;
I can interpret all her martyred signs;
She says she drinks no other drink but tears,
Brewed with her sorrow, meshed upon her cheeks:
Speechless complainer, I will learn thy thought;
In thy dumb action will I be as perfect
As begging hermits in their holy prayers:
Thou shalt not sigh, nor hold thy stumps to heaven,
Nor wink, nor nod, nor kneel, nor make a sign,
But I of these will wrest an alphabet
And by still practise learn to know thy meaning.

DUTCH:
Gij stomme klaagster, ‘k wil uw taal verstaan.
Mij zullen uw gebaren zoo vertrouwd
Als bedelkluiz’naars hun gebeden zijn.

MORE:
Dote=Become irrational
Square=Judge, adjust
Signs=Gestures
Mashed or meshed=Brewed
Perfect=Expert, complete
Wrest=Force
Still=Continued
Compleat:
To dote=Suffen, dutten, mymeren
To mash=Mengel, een mengsel maaken, vergruizen
Perfect=Volmaakt, volkomen, voltoid, voleind
To wrest=Verdraaijen, wringen
Still=Altijd

Topics: madness, regret, sorrow, understanding, communication

PLAY: Othello
ACT/SCENE: 4.1
SPEAKER: Iago
CONTEXT:
IAGO
Stand you awhile apart,
Confine yourself but in a patient list.
Whilst you were here o’erwhelmèd with your grief—
A passion most resulting such a man—
Cassio came hither. I shifted him away
And laid good ’scuses upon your ecstasy,
Bade him anon return and here speak with me,
The which he promised. Do but encave yourself,
And mark the fleers, the gibes, and notable scorns
That dwell in every region of his face.
For I will make him tell the tale anew
Where, how, how oft, how long ago, and when
He hath, and is again to cope your wife.
I say, but mark his gesture. Marry, patience,
Or I shall say you are all in all in spleen,
And nothing of a man.
OTHELLO
Dost thou hear, Iago?
I will be found most cunning in my patience,
But—dost thou hear?—most bloody.

DUTCH:
Treed thans een poos ter zijde;
Maar sluit u in de perken van ‘t geduld,

MORE:
In a patient list=Within the bounds of patience
Laid good ‘scuses upon=Made plausible excuses for
Ecstasy=Fit, trance
Encave=Conceal
Fleers=Sneers
Notable=Obvious
Scorns=Signs of disrespect
Gesture=Attitude, bearing
Cope=Sleep with
All in all in spleen=All ruled by emotion (splenic)
Cunning=Dexterous, trickish
Compleat:
List=Perk
Extasy=Verrukking, opgetoogenheid, vertrekking van zinnen
Fleer=Stout aankyken
Notable=Merkelyk, uitneemend, zonderling, merkwaardig, berucht, vermaard
To scorn=Verachten, verfooijen
Gesture=Gebaar, gelaat, aanstelling
To cope=Vechten, slaan; Voortkomen; Uitsteeken
Cunning=Behendigheid, Schranderheid, Naarstigheid; Listigheid

Topics: patience, caution, madness

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

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

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

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

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

PLAY:
ACT/SCENE: 5.1
SPEAKER: Abbess
CONTEXT:
ADRIANA
It was the copy of our conference.
In bed he slept not for my urging it;
At board he fed not for my urging it.
Alone, it was the subject of my theme;
In company I often glancèd it.
Still did I tell him it was vile and bad.
ABBESS
And thereof came it that the man was mad.
The venom clamours of a jealous woman
Poisons more deadly than a mad dog’s tooth.
It seems his sleeps were hinder’d by thy railing,
And therefore comes it that his head is light.
Thou sayst his meat was sauced with thy upbraidings.
Unquiet meals make ill digestions.
Thereof the raging fire of fever bred,
And what’s a fever but a fit of madness?
Thou sayest his sports were hinderd by thy brawls.
Sweet recreation barred, what doth ensue
But moody and dull melancholy,
Kinsman to grim and comfortless despair,
And at her heels a huge infectious troop
Of pale distemperatures and foes to life?
In food, in sport, and life-preserving rest
To be disturbed, would mad or man or beast.
The consequence is, then, thy jealous fits
Have scared thy husband from the use of wits.
LUCIANA
She never reprehended him but mildly
When he demeaned himself rough, rude, and wildly.—
Why bear you these rebukes and answer not?

DUTCH:
Gij zegt, uw kijven stoorde zijn vermaken;
Maar roof eens ied’re vroolijkheid, — wat volgt,
Wat dan droefgeestigheid, dof, zwart, de zuster
Van radelooze, onstuimige vertwijf’ling

MORE:
Copy=Subject matter
Conference=Discussion
Venom clamours=Poisonous words
Upbraidings=Reproaches
To rail=To reproach, scold
Sauced with=Accompanied by
Sport=Entertainment, recreation
Brawls=Arguments
Distemperatures=Disorders
Compleat:
Copy=Afschrift, dubbeld, kopy
Conference=Onderhandeling, t’zamenspraak, mondgemeenschap
Upbraiding=Verwyting
To rail=Schelden
Venom=Venyn, vergif
Clamour=Geroep, geschreeuw, gekrysch
Sauced=Gesausd
To make sport=Lachen, speelen
Brawl=Gekyf
Distemperative=Ongeregeldheid, ongemaatigtheid

Topics: emotion and mood, wellbeing, madness, suspicion

PLAY: Twelfth Night
ACT/SCENE: 4.2
SPEAKER: Fool
CONTEXT:
FOOL
Madman, thou errest. I say, there is no darkness but ignorance, in which thou art more puzzled than the Egyptians in their fog.
MALVOLIO
I say, this house is as dark as ignorance, though ignorance were as dark as hell. And I say, there was never man thus abused. I am no more mad than you are. Make the trial of it in any constant question.
FOOL
What is the opinion of Pythagoras concerning wildfowl?
MALVOLIO
That the soul of our grandam might haply inhabit a bird.

DUTCH:
Waanzinnige, gij dwaalt. Ik zeg, er is geen donkerheid
dan de onwetendheid; waarin gij meer bevangen
zijt, dan de Egyptenaars in hun nevel.

MORE:
Proverb: The hood (habit, cowl) makes not the monk
Puzzled=Bewildered
Fog=One plague in Egypt was the ‘black darkness’ (Exodus)
Haply=Perhaps
Constant=Logical, common sense
Question=Consideration, discussion
Compleat:
Puzzled=In ‘t naauw gebragt, verbysterd
Foggy=Mistig, mistachtig; log, loom
Haply=Misschien
Constant=Standvastig, bestending, gestadig
Question=Verschil, twyfel

Topics: proverbs and idioms, still in use, learning/education, madness

PLAY: Macbeth
ACT/SCENE: 5.3
SPEAKER: Doctor
CONTEXT:
MACBETH
Cure her of that.
Canst thou not minister to a mind diseased,
Pluck from the memory a rooted sorrow,
Raze out the written troubles of the brain
And with some sweet oblivious antidote
Cleanse the stuffed bosom of that perilous stuff
Which weighs upon the heart?
DOCTOR
Therein the patient
Must minister to himself.
MACBETH
Throw physic to the dogs; I’ll none of it.

DUTCH:
Hier moet de kranke Zichzelf tot arts zijn.

MORE:
Schmidt:
Minister to=Administer (medicines), to prescribe, to order
CITED IN LAW: In a direct quotation or “borrowed eloquence” in White v Chief Constable of the South Yorkshire Police [1999] 1 All ER 1, considering the concepts of foreseeability and psychiatric injury, Lord Hoffmann noted, as the Doctor of Physic tells Macbeth: “therein the patient must minister to himself” (Macbeth Act 5, Scene 3).

Topics: madness, memory, guilt, conscience, remedy

PLAY: The Tempest
ACT/SCENE: 3.3
SPEAKER: Prospero
CONTEXT:
Bravely the figure of this harpy hast thou
Performed, my Ariel. A grace it had, devouring.
Of my instruction hast thou nothing bated
In what thou hadst to say.—So with good life
And observation strange, my meaner ministers
Their several kinds have done. My high charms work
And these mine enemies are all knit up
In their distractions. They now are in my power,
And in these fits I leave them while I visit
Young Ferdinand, whom they suppose is drowned,
And his and mine loved darling.

DUTCH:
Mijn tooverkracht
Werkt machtig; mijne vijanden zijn allen
Verstrikt in hun verbijst’ring; ik beheersch hen;
En ‘k laat hen in hun waanzin, om nu eerst
Tot Ferdinand, — dien zij verdronken wanen, —
En zijne en mijne liev’ling mij te spoeden.

MORE:
Bated=Omitted, neglected
Schmidt:
Bravely=Admirably
Figure=Image, representation
Harpy=A monster of ancient fable, with the face of a woman and the body of a bird of prey
Strange=extraordinary, enormous, remarkable, singular
Observation strange=Attention to detail
Several=In keeping with their separate natures
High charms=Superior magic
Knit up in=Tied up with, entangled in
Compleat:
Harpy (or fabelous monster)=Harpy, een fabel-achtig monster
Harpy or griping woman=Een giereige feeks
Bate=Verminderen, afkorten, afslaan
Figure (representation)=Afbeelding
Knit together=Verknocht, samengeknoopt
He is knit to his master’s interest=Hy is het belang van zynen Heer zeer toegedaan

Topics: conflict, plans/intentions, madness

PLAY: Richard II
ACT/SCENE: 5.5
SPEAKER: King Richard II
CONTEXT:
Now sir, the sound that tells what hour it is
Are clamorous groans, which strike upon my heart,
Which is the bell: so sighs and tears and groans
Show minutes, times, and hours: but my time
Runs posting on in Bolingbroke’s proud joy,
While I stand fooling here, his Jack o’ the clock.
This music mads me; let it sound no more;
For though it have holp madmen to their wits,
In me it seems it will make wise men mad.
Yet blessing on his heart that gives it me!
For ’tis a sign of love; and love to Richard
Is a strange brooch in this all-hating world.

DUTCH:
Dol maakt mij die muziek, dat zij verstomme!
Want bracht zij dollen soms tot hun verstand,
In mij, zoo schijnt het, maakt zij wijsheid dol

MORE:

Clamorous=Vociferous, loud
Posting=Fast
Jack o’ the clock=Figure who would strike the bell on the clock
Holp=Short for holpen, helped. Have holp=May have helped
Wits=Senses
Brooch=Ornament

Compleat:
Holpen=Geholpen
Holp op=Opgeholpen
Wits=Zinnen, oordeel

Topics: time, regret, madness, wisdom

PLAY: Hamlet
ACT/SCENE: 3.4
SPEAKER: Gertrude
CONTEXT:
GERTRUDE
This the very coinage of your brain.
This bodiless creation ecstasy
Is very cunning in.
HAMLET
Ecstasy?
My pulse as yours doth temperately keep time
And makes as healthful music. It is not madness
That I have uttered. Bring me to the test,
And I the matter will reword, which madness
Would gambol from.

DUTCH:
Het is niets anders dan een hersenschim.Waanzin is sterk in het bezweren van onstoffelijke dingen. /
Dat is een zuiver maaksel van uw hersens, Een schepping zonder houvast, overspanning Is daar een meester in. /
Dit is de muntslag van uw eigen brein, Die lichaamlooze schepping [is] de waanzin!

MORE:

CITED IN US LAW:
Claim of misdiagnosis in McArdle v. Tronetti, 769 F.Supp. 188, 189 (W.D.Pa. 1991)(Mencer,J.)
CITED IN ENGLISH LAW:
Shakespeare entered the English law reports in 1827. Considering the concept of madness and with sensibilities characteristic of the period, Nichol J asked: “What says the great poet of Nature and master of the passions upon the subject? What is one of the tests of madness that he suggests? Hamlet, being charged with ‘coinage of the brain,’ answers: ‘It is not madness That I have uttered; bring me to the test And I the matter will reword which madness cannot’.” (See Groom and Evans v Thomas and Thomas (1829) 162 ER 914.)
https://www.counselmagazine.co.uk/articles/quote-or-not-quote-…

Schmidt:
Ecstasy=Madness

Compleat:
Cunning=Behendig
A cunning fellow=Een doortrapte vent, een looze gast
To cast a cunning look=Iemand snaaks aanzien

Topics: madness, reason, cited in law

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

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

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

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

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

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

PLAY: Hamlet
ACT/SCENE: 2.2
SPEAKER: Polonius
CONTEXT:
HAMLET
Slanders, sir. For the satirical rogue says here that old men have gray beards, that their faces are wrinkled, their eyes purging thick amber and plum-tree gum, and that they have a plentiful lack of wit, together with most weak hams—all which, sir, though I most powerfully and potently believe, yet I hold it not honesty to have it thus set down; for yourself, sir, should be old as I am, if like a crab you could go backward.
POLONIUS
(aside) Though this be madness, yet there is method in ’t.—(to HAMLET) Will you walk out of the air, my lord?

DUTCH:
Al is dit waanzin, er zit toch methode in. /
Al is ‘t krankzinnigheid, er zit methode in. /
Al moge dit gekkepraat zijn, toch is er orde in.

MORE:
Schmidt:
Slander= Defamation, calumny
Satirical= full of bitter mockery
Rogue, a term of reproach=rascal, knave
Compleat:
Rogue (or rascal)=Schurk, Schobbejak
The poignancy of a satire=De scherpheid van een schimpdicht
Method in his madness coined by Shakespeare and still in (frequent) use today.

Topics: still in use, proverbs and idioms, madness, purpose

PLAY: King Henry IV Part 1
ACT/SCENE: 2.3
SPEAKER: Lady Percy
CONTEXT:
Thy spirit within thee hath been so at war,
And thus hath so bestirred thee in thy sleep,
That beads of sweat have stood upon thy brow
Like bubbles in a late-disturbèd stream,
And in thy face strange motions have appeared,
Such as we see when men restrain their breath
On some great sudden hest. O, what portents are these?

DUTCH:
Uw geest in u was zoozeer bij den krijg,
En heeft u zoo in uwen slaap verhit,
Dat parels zweet u op het voorhoofd stonden,
Als blazen op een pas verwoeden stroom;

MORE:

Some great sudden hest=A sudden important command
Schmidt:
Soul=Represented as the seat of real, not only professed, sentiments
Hest=behest
CITED IN IRISH LAW:
Murtagh -v- Minister for Defence & Ors [2008] IEHC 292 (22 July 2008) /[2008] IEHC 292

Topics: madness, conflict, wellbeing, emotion and mood

PLAY: Richard III
ACT/SCENE: 3.2
SPEAKER: Catesby
CONTEXT:
CATESBY
God keep your Lordship in that gracious mind.
HASTINGS
But I shall laugh at this a twelve-month hence,
That they which brought me in my master’s hate,
I live to look upon their tragedy.
Well, Catesby, ere a fortnight make me older
I’ll send some packing that yet think not on ’t.
CATESBY
‘Tis a vile thing to die, my gracious lord,
When men are unprepared and look not for it.
HASTINGS
O monstrous, monstrous! And so falls it out
With Rivers, Vaughan, Grey; and so ’twill do
With some men else that think themselves as safe
As thou and I, who, as thou know’st, are dear
To princely Richard and to Buckingham.

DUTCH:
t Is iets verschriklijks, edel heer, te sterven,
Geheel onvoorbereid en onverwacht.

MORE:
Gracious=Benevolent
Mind=Mindset
Brought me in my master’s hate=Turned my master against me
Compleat:
Gracious=Genadig, genadenryk, aangenaam, lieftallig, gunstig
Disposition of mind=Gesteltenis van gemoed

Topics: madness, preparation, emotion and mood

PLAY: Cymbeline
ACT/SCENE: 4.2
SPEAKER: Imogen
CONTEXT:
IMOGEN
(…) These flowers are like the pleasures of the world;
This bloody man, the care on’t. I hope I dream;
For so I thought I was a cave-keeper,
And cook to honest creatures: but ’tis not so;
‘Twas but a bolt of nothing, shot at nothing,
Which the brain makes of fumes: our very eyes
Are sometimes like our judgments, blind. Good faith,
I tremble stiff with fear: but if there be
Yet left in heaven as small a drop of pity
As a wren’s eye, fear’d gods, a part of it!
The dream’s here still: even when I wake, it is
Without me, as within me; not imagined, felt.
A headless man! The garments of Posthumus!
I know the shape of’s leg: this is his hand;
His foot Mercurial; his Martial thigh;
The brawns of Hercules: but his Jovial face
Murder in heaven?—How!—’Tis gone. Pisanio,
All curses madded Hecuba gave the Greeks,
And mine to boot, be darted on thee! Thou,
Conspired with that irregulous devil, Cloten,
Hast here cut off my lord. To write and read
Be henceforth treacherous! Damn’d Pisanio
Hath with his forged letters,—damn’d Pisanio—
From this most bravest vessel of the world
Struck the main-top! O Posthumus! alas,
Where is thy head? where’s that? Ay me! where’s that? (…)

DUTCH:
Gij, met dien bandeloozen duivel Cloten,
Gij hebt mijn gá vermoord! O, lezen, schrijven,
Zij voortaan hoogverraad! — Pisanio, bloedhond! —
Gij hebt met valschen brief,

MORE:
A fume=A vapour, a delusion, phantasm, anything hindering the function of the brain, like a mist
Madded=Made mad (with revenge)
To boot=As well
Irregulous=Lawless
Main-top=Top of the mast
Compleat:
The glory of mortals is but a fume=De eerre der stervelingen is maar rook
To be in a fume=In een woede zyn

Topics: pity, imagination, madness, evidence

PLAY: Hamlet
ACT/SCENE: 5.1
SPEAKER: Gravedigger
CONTEXT:
HAMLET
Ay, marry, why was he sent into England?
GRAVEDIGGER
Why, because he was mad. He shall recover his wits there, or, if he do not, it’s no great matter there.
HAMLET
Why?
GRAVEDIGGER
‘Twill not be seen in him there. There the men are as mad as he.

DUTCH:
Het zal niet in hem opvallen daar; daar zijn de menschen even gek als hij. /
Hij mot daar z’n verstand terugkrijgen, en krijgt ie ’t niet terug, dan komp ’t er daar nog niet veel op an.

MORE:
Kin = kindred, family
Kind = generous AND nature, class.
Hamlet’s first words in the play. Claudius is “more than kin” because he is both uncle and stepfather. “Less than kind” can either be taken at face value or “kind” can be taken to mean both generous

Topics: cited in law, still in use, madness, reason

PLAY: The Comedy of Errors
ACT/SCENE: 5.1
SPEAKER: Abbess
CONTEXT:
ADRIANA
It was the copy of our conference.
In bed he slept not for my urging it;
At board he fed not for my urging it.
Alone, it was the subject of my theme;
In company I often glancèd it.
Still did I tell him it was vile and bad.
ABBESS
And thereof came it that the man was mad.
The venom clamours of a jealous woman
Poisons more deadly than a mad dog’s tooth.
It seems his sleeps were hinder’d by thy railing,
And therefore comes it that his head is light.
Thou sayst his meat was sauced with thy upbraidings.
Unquiet meals make ill digestions.
Thereof the raging fire of fever bred,
And what’s a fever but a fit of madness?
Thou sayest his sports were hinderd by thy brawls.
Sweet recreation barred, what doth ensue
But moody and dull melancholy,
Kinsman to grim and comfortless despair,
And at her heels a huge infectious troop
Of pale distemperatures and foes to life?
In food, in sport, and life-preserving rest
To be disturbed, would mad or man or beast.
The consequence is, then, thy jealous fits
Have scared thy husband from the use of wits.
LUCIANA
She never reprehended him but mildly
When he demeaned himself rough, rude, and wildly.—
[to ADRIANA] Why bear you these rebukes and answer not?

DUTCH:
Zijn maal werd, zegt gij, met uw twist gekruid;
Onrustig eten stoort de spijsvertering.

MORE:
Copy=Subject matter
Conference=Discussion
Venom clamours=Poisonous words
Upbraidings=Reproaches
To rail=To reproach, scold
Sauced with=Accompanied by
Sport=Entertainment, recreation
Brawls=Arguments
Distemperatures=Disorders
Compleat:
Copy=Afschrift, dubbeld, kopy
Conference=Onderhandeling, t’zamenspraak, mondgemeenschap
Upbraiding=Verwyting
To rail=Schelden
Venom=Venyn, vergif
Clamour=Geroep, geschreeuw, gekrysch
Sauced=Gesausd
To make sport=Lachen, speelen
Brawl=Gekyf
Distemperative=Ongeregeldheid, ongemaatigtheid

Topics: emotion and mood, wellbeing, madness

PLAY: Timon of Athens
ACT/SCENE: 1.2
SPEAKER: Apemantus
CONTEXT:
APEMANTUS
Hey-day, what a sweep of vanity comes this way!
They dance! they are mad women.
Like madness is the glory of this life.
As this pomp shows to a little oil and root.
We make ourselves fools, to disport ourselves;
And spend our flatteries, to drink those men
Upon whose age we void it up again,
With poisonous spite and envy.
Who lives that’s not depraved or depraves?
Who dies, that bears not one spurn to their graves
Of their friends’ gift?
I should fear those that dance before me now
Would one day stamp upon me: ‘t has been done;
Men shut their doors against a setting sun.

DUTCH:
Ha! welk een zwerm van ijdelheid komt daar!
Daar dansen zij! waanzinnig is dat vrouwvolk!
Juist zulk een waanzin is de glans des levens,
Als deze praal bij mijnen schralen kost.

MORE:
Proverb: The rising, not the setting, sun is worshipped by most men
Proverb: Men more worship the rising than the setting sun

Hey-day=Expression of surprise
Sweep=Elegance
Oil and root=Plain eating, contrast with pomp
Disport=Amuse
Void=Vomit
Compleat:
Disport=Kortswyl
To void=Ontleedigen, leedigen, lossen, afgaan

Burgersdijk notes:
Bereid om hem te vermoorden. Wie een ander zijn goed helpt verkwisten, werkt mede om hem tot wanhoop en zelfmoord te brengen.

Topics: proverbs and idioms, vanity, madness, legacy

PLAY: Twelfth Night
ACT/SCENE: 4.2
SPEAKER: Fool
CONTEXT:
FOOL
Madman, thou errest. I say, there is no darkness but ignorance, in which thou art more puzzled than the Egyptians in their fog.
MALVOLIO
I say, this house is as dark as ignorance, though ignorance were as dark as hell. And I say, there was never man thus abused. I am no more mad than you are. Make the trial of it in any constant question.
FOOL
What is the opinion of Pythagoras concerning wildfowl?
MALVOLIO
That the soul of our grandam might haply inhabit a bird.

DUTCH:
Wat is de leer van Pythagoras ten opzichte van het
wild gevogelte ?

MORE:
Proverb: The hood (habit, cowl) makes not the monk

Puzzled=Bewildered
Fog=One plague in Egypt was the ‘black darkness’ (Exodus)
Haply=Perhaps
Constant=Logical, common sense
Question=Consideration, discussion
Compleat:
Puzzled=In ‘t naauw gebragt, verbysterd
Foggy=Mistig, mistachtig; log, loom
Haply=Misschien
Constant=Standvastig, bestending, gestadig
Question=Verschil, twyfel

Topics: proverbs and idioms, still in use, learning/education, madness

PLAY: King Henry VI Part 1
ACT/SCENE: 4.1
SPEAKER: King Henry VI
CONTEXT:
YORK
Will not this malice, Somerset, be left?
SOMERSET
Your private grudge, my Lord of York, will out,
Though ne’er so cunningly you smother it.
KING HENRY VI
Good Lord, what madness rules in brainsick men,
When for so slight and frivolous a cause
Such factious emulations shall arise!
Good cousins both, of York and Somerset,
Quiet yourselves, I pray, and be at peace.

DUTCH:
God! welk een waanzin heerscht in dolle mannen,
Als om zoo nietige en zoo ijd’le reden
Zoo vinnige partijschap zich verheft! —

MORE:
Be left (leave)=To cease, desist, discontinue
Factious=Dissentious, rebellious, partisan
Emulation=Rivalry

Compleat:
Factious=Oproerig, muitzuchtig, muitziek
Emulation=Naayver, volgzucht, afgunst

Topics: dispute, envy, truth, madness

PLAY: Macbeth
ACT/SCENE: 4.2
SPEAKER: Lady Macduff
CONTEXT:
LADY MACDUFF
He had none.
His flight was madness. When our actions do not,
Our fears do make us traitors.
ROSS
You know not
Whether it was his wisdom or his fear.

DUTCH:
Zijn vlucht was waanzin. Als geen daden ‘t doen,
Maakt onze vrees ons tot verraders.

MORE:

Topics: madness, appearance, wisdom

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:
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

PLAY: The Comedy of Errors
ACT/SCENE: 5.1
SPEAKER: Duke
CONTEXT:
SECOND MERCHANT
Besides, I will be sworn these ears of mine
Heard you confess you had the chain of him
After you first forswore it on the mart,
And thereupon I drew my sword on you,
And then you fled into this abbey here,
From whence I think you are come by miracle.
ANTIPHOLUS OF EPHESUS
I never came within these abbey walls,
Nor ever didst thou draw thy sword on me.
I never saw the chain, so help me heaven,
And this is false you burden me withal.
DUKE
Why, what an intricate impeach is this!
I think you all have drunk of Circe’s cup.
If here you housed him, here he would have been.

DUTCH:
Dit is een zaak vol wondervreemde raadsels!
Het schijnt, gij allen dronkt uit Circe’s nap.
Waar’ hij hier ingevlucht, hij zou er zijn;
En waar’ hij dol, hij pleitte niet zoo kalm

MORE:
Circe=A sorceress in Greek mythology; in Homer’s Odyssey, Circe transforms Odysseus’s men into pigs by giving them a magic potion.
Impeach=Accusation, reproach
Burden=Charge, accuse
Compleat:
To impeach=Betichten, beschuldigen, aanklagen
To impeach (or oppose) the truth of a thing=Zich tegen de waarheid van een zaak aankanten

Topics: law/legal, appearance, evidence, madness

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

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