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QUOTES FROM THE BARD

Out of these convertites there is much matter to be heard and learned

PLAY: As You Like It
ACT/SCENE: 5.4
SPEAKER: Jaques
CONTEXT:
JAQUES
Sir, by your patience: if I heard you rightly,
The duke hath put on a religious life
And thrown into neglect the pompous court.
JAQUES DE BOYS
He hath.
JAQUES
To him will I. Out of these convertites
There is much matter to be heard and learned.
– You to your former honor I bequeath;
Your patience and your virtue well deserves it.
– You to a love that your true faith doth merit.
– You to your land, and love, and great allies.
– You to a long and well-deservèd bed.
– And you to wrangling, for thy loving voyage
Is but for two months victualled.— So to your pleasures.
I am for other than for dancing measures.
DUKE SENIOR
Stay, Jaques, stay.
JAQUES
To see no pastime I. What you would have
I’ll stay to know at your abandoned cave.

DUTCH:
Dan spoed ik mij tot hem; van die bekeerden
Is menig ding, dat nuttig is, te hooren.

MORE:
Pompous=Ceremonious
Convertites=Converts
Compleat:
Pompous=Prachtig, staatelyk
Convert=Een bekeerde

Topics: authority, life, order/society, marriage

Categories: As You Like It, authority, marriage, order/society|

If it be true that good wine needs no bush, ‘t is true that a good play needs no epilogue

PLAY: As You Like It
ACT/SCENE: 5.4
SPEAKER: Rosalind
CONTEXT:
ROSALIND
It is not the fashion to see the lady the epilogue, but
it is no more unhandsome than to see the lord the
prologue. If it be true that good wine needs no bush,
’tis true that a good play needs no epilogue. Yet to
good wine they do use good bushes, and good plays prove
the better by the help of good epilogues. What a case am
I in, then, that am neither a good epilogue nor cannot
insinuate with you in the behalf of a good play. I am
not furnished like a beggar; therefore to beg will not
become me. My way is to conjure you, and I’ll begin with
the women. I charge you, O women, for the love you bear
to men, to like as much of this play as please you. And
I charge you, O men, for the love you bear to women—as
I perceive by your simpering, none of you hates
them—that between you and the women the play may please.
If I were a woman, I would kiss as many of you as had
beards that pleased me, complexions that liked me, and
breaths that I defied not. And I am sure as many as have
good beards, or good faces, or sweet breaths will, for
my kind offer, when I make curtsy, bid me farewell.

DUTCH:
Is ‘t waar, dat goede wijn geen krans behoeft, even waar is het, dat een goed stuk geen epiloog behoeft maar waar goede wijn is, hangt men fraaie kransen uit, en goede stukken doen zich beter voor met behulp van goede epilogen.

MORE:
Proverb “Good wine needs no bush”
“A good bush” here refers to Ivy, which was hung out at vintners’ doors and in windows to advertise that the hostelry had a good wine.
Also from Sir John Harington’s Epigrams (1618)
“And with this prouerbe proued it labour lost:
Good Ale doth need no signe, good Wine no bush,
Good verse of praisers, need not passse a rush.”

Unhandsome=Unbecoming
Insinuate=To ingratiate one’s self (in a bad sense); to intermeddle
Case=Situation, plight, legal dilemma or actionable state
Furnished=Dressed
Liked=Pleased
Defied=Rejected
Compleat:
Unhandsome=Niet fraai
Insinuate=Inboezemen, inflyen, indringe, inschuyven
Case=Zaak, geval
Furnished=Verzorgd, voorzien, gestoffeerd

Topics: reputation, skill/talent, value, proverbs and idioms

Categories: As You Like It, proverbs and idioms, reputation, value|

How did you find the quarrel on the seventh cause?
– Upon a lie seven times removed.

PLAY: As You Like It
ACT/SCENE: 5.4
SPEAKER: Touchstone
CONTEXT:
DUKE SENIOR
By my faith, he is very swift and sententious.
TOUCHSTONE
According to the fool’s bolt, sir, and such dulcet
diseases.
JAQUES
But for the seventh cause. How did you find the quarrel
on the seventh cause?
TOUCHSTONE
Upon a lie seven times removed.

DUTCH:
Maar nu die zevende graad, hoe bevondt gij het geschil tot den zevenden graad?
– Door een logenstraffing, zevenmaal herhaald.

MORE:
Swift=Quick-witted
Sententious=Full of wise sayings
Bolt=Arrow
Dulcet diseases=Sweet faults
Compleat:
As swift as an arrow out of a bow=Zo snel als een pyl uit een boog
Sententious=Zinryk, spreukryk, vol spreuken
To dulcify=Zoet maaken

Topics: intellect, wisdom, dispute

Categories: As You Like It, dispute, intellect|

All these you may avoid but the lie direct, and you may avoid that, too, with an ‘if’

PLAY: As You Like It
ACT/SCENE: 5.4
SPEAKER: Touchstone
CONTEXT:
TOUCHSTONE
Upon a lie seven times removed.— Bear your body more
seeming, Audrey.— As thus, sir: I did dislike the cut of
a certain courtier’s beard. He sent me word if I said
his beard was not cut well, he was in the mind it was.
This is called “the retort courteous.” If I sent him word
again it was not well cut, he would send me word he cut
it to please himself. This is called “the quip modest.”
If again it was not well cut, he disabled my judgment.
This is called “the reply churlish.” If again it was not
well cut, he would answer I spake not true. This is
called “the reproof valiant.” If again it was not well
cut, he would say I lie. This is called “the
countercheck quarrelsome,” and so to “the lie
circumstantial” and “the lie direct.”

DUTCH:
Die allen kunt gij ontduiken,
behalve de rechtstreeksche logenstraffing; en
ook die kunt gij ontduiken, met een „indien”.

MORE:
CITED IN UK LAW: McNally v Snap Heath Ltd [1998] UKEAT 1013_97_2306 (23 June 1998)
‘and had been met, to quote Shakespeare, by the “countercheck quarrelsome”‘.

Topics: law/legal, cited in law, truth, deceit, dispute, language

Categories: As You Like It, deceit, dispute, law/legal, truth|

Many will swoon when they do look on blood

PLAY: As You Like It
ACT/SCENE: 4.3
SPEAKER: Oliver
CONTEXT:
OLIVER
By and by.
When from the first to last betwixt us two
Tears our recountments had most kindly bathed—
As how I came into that desert place—
In brief, he led me to the gentle duke,
Who gave me fresh array and entertainment,
Committing me unto my brother’s love,
Who led me instantly unto his cave,
There stripped himself, and here upon his arm
The lioness had torn some flesh away,
Which all this while had bled. And now he fainted,
And cried in fainting upon Rosalind.
Brief, I recovered him, bound up his wound,
And after some small space, being strong at heart,
He sent me hither, stranger as I am,
To tell this story, that you might excuse
His broken promise, and to give this napkin
Dyed in his blood unto the shepherd youth
That he in sport doth call his Rosalind.
CELIA
Why, how now, Ganymede, sweet Ganymede?
OLIVER
Many will swoon when they do look on blood.

DUTCH:
Ja, velen vallen flauw, wanneer zij bloed zien.

MORE:
Do not shame=Am not ashamed
By and by=In a moment
Recountments=Accounts, narratives
Entertainment=Hospitality
Recovered=Revived
In sport=In jest
Compleat:
Shame=Beschaamen, beschaamd maaken, schande aandoen
By and by=Zo aanstonds, op ‘t oogenblik
To recount=Verhaalen
Entertainment=Huysvesting, onderhoud
To recover=Weder bekomen, weer krygen, weer opkomen
To make sport=Lachen, speelen

Topics: guilt, promise, mercy

Categories: As You Like It, guilt, mercy|

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