QUOTES BY TOPIC

QUOTES FROM THE BARD

Your pleasure was my mere offence

PLAY: Cymbeline
ACT/SCENE: 5.5
SPEAKER: Belarius
CONTEXT:
BELARIUS
So sure as you your father’s. I, old Morgan,
Am that Belarius whom you sometime banish’d:
Your pleasure was my mere offence, my punishment
Itself, and all my treason; that I suffer’d
Was all the harm I did. These gentle princes—
For such and so they are—these twenty years
Have I train’d up: those arts they have as I
Could put into them; my breeding was, sir, as
Your highness knows. Their nurse, Euriphile,
Whom for the theft I wedded, stole these children
Upon my banishment: I moved her to’t,
Having received the punishment before,
For that which I did then: beaten for loyalty
Excited me to treason: their dear loss,
The more of you ’twas felt, the more it shaped
Unto my end of stealing them. But, gracious sir,
Here are your sons again; and I must lose
Two of the sweet’st companions in the world.
The benediction of these covering heavens
Fall on their heads like dew! for they are worthy
To inlay heaven with stars.
CYMBELINE
Thou weep’st, and speak’st.
The service that you three have done is more
Unlike than this thou tell’st. I lost my children:
If these be they, I know not how to wish
A pair of worthier sons.

DUTCH:
Uw machtspreuk was mijn heel vergrijp, mijn straf,
En heel mijn hoogverraad; mijn onrecht was
Onrecht te lijden

MORE:
Pleasure=Amusement
Mere offence=Only wrongdoing
Gentle=Noble
Arts=Skills
Moved=Persuaded
Excited=Incited
Unlike=Unlikely
Compleat:
Pleasure=Vermaak, vermaakelykheid, verlustiging, pleizier, welbehaagen
Mere (meer)=Louter, enkel
Gentle=Aardig, edelmoedig
Art=Behendigheid
Moved=Bewoogen, verroerd, ontroerd

Topics: offence, punishment, vanity, betrayal

Categories: betrayal, Cymbeline, offence, vanity|

Though those that are betray’d do feel the treason sharply, yet the traitor stands in worse case of woe

PLAY: Cymbeline
ACT/SCENE: 3.4
SPEAKER: Imogen
CONTEXT:
IMOGEN
Why, I must die;
And if I do not by thy hand, thou art
No servant of thy master’s. Against self-slaughter
There is a prohibition so divine
That cravens my weak hand. Come, here’s my heart.
Something’s afore’t. Soft, soft! we’ll no defence;
Obedient as the scabbard. What is here?
The scriptures of the loyal Leonatus,
All turn’d to heresy? Away, away,
Corrupters of my faith! you shall no more
Be stomachers to my heart. Thus may poor fools
Believe false teachers: though those that are betray’d
Do feel the treason sharply, yet the traitor
Stands in worse case of woe.
And thou, Posthumus, thou that didst set up
My disobedience ‘gainst the king my father
And make me put into contempt the suits
Of princely fellows, shalt hereafter find
It is no act of common passage, but
A strain of rareness: and I grieve myself
To think, when thou shalt be disedged by her
That now thou tirest on, how thy memory
Will then be pang’d by me. Prithee, dispatch:
The lamb entreats the butcher: where’s thy knife?
Thou art too slow to do thy master’s bidding,
When I desire it too.

DUTCH:
Van hier, van hier,
Die mijn geloof vervalscht hebt! Weg! niet langer
Dekt gij mij ‘t hart! O, arme dwazen schenken
Geloof aan valsche leeraars. Doch hoe diep
‘t Verraad ook de bedroog’nen griev’, toch treft
Hem, die verraadt, veel erger wee.

MORE:
Disedged=Blunted, with the edge taken off (Cf. Hamlet 3.2, “It would cost you a groaning to take off my edge”)
False teachers=Teachers of heresy
Stomacher=Ornamental covering for the breast worn by women
To tire=To prey or feed ravenously “upon”, rend prey to pieces
Pang=To afflict with great pain, to torment
Compleat:
To blunt=Stomp maaken, verstompen
A false prophet=Een valsch Propheet
A false (erroneous) opinion=Een dwaalend gevoelen

Topics: corruption, manipulation, betrayal, order/society, memory, consequences

Categories: betrayal, corruption, Cymbeline, memory, order/society|

I seem’d his follower, not partner

PLAY: Coriolanus
ACT/SCENE: 5.5
SPEAKER: Aufidius
CONTEXT:
AUFIDIUS
That I would have spoke of:
Being banish’d for’t, he came unto my hearth;
Presented to my knife his throat: I took him;
Made him joint-servant with me; gave him way
In all his own desires; nay, let him choose
Out of my files, his projects to accomplish,
My best and freshest men; served his designments
In mine own person; holp to reap the fame
Which he did end all his; and took some pride
To do myself this wrong: till, at the last,
I seem’d his follower, not partner, and
He waged me with his countenance, as if
I had been mercenary.
FIRST CONSPIRATOR
So he did, my lord:
The army marvell’d at it, and, in the last,
When he had carried Rome and that we look’d
For no less spoil than glory,—
AUFIDIUS
There was it:
For which my sinews shall be stretch’d upon him.
At a few drops of women’s rheum, which are
As cheap as lies, he sold the blood and labour
Of our great action: therefore shall he die,
And I’ll renew me in his fall. But, hark!

DUTCH:
Ja, ‘k was
Er trotsch op, dus mijzelf te knotten; eind’lijk
Scheen ik zijn dienaar, niet zijn medeveldheer,
En was hij uit de hoogte mij genadig,
Als ware ik hem een huurling.

MORE:
I would have spoke=I was getting to
Joint-servant=Colleague, equal
Files=Ranks
Designments=Plans
Waged=Paid
Countenance=Look
Compleat:
A file of soldiers=Een gelid of ry soldaaten
Wages=Loon, jaargeld; belooning, bezolding
Countenance=Gelaat, gezigt, uitzigt, weezen.

Topics: punishment, pride, ingratitude, regret, betrayal

Categories: betrayal, Coriolanus, ingratitude, punishment, regret|

Hadst thou foxship to banish him that struck more blows for Rome than thou hast spoken words?

PLAY: Coriolanus
ACT/SCENE: 4.2
SPEAKER: Volumnia
CONTEXT:
VOLUMNIA
Ay, fool; is that a shame? Note but this fool.
Was not a man my father? Hadst thou foxship
To banish him that struck more blows for Rome
Than thou hast spoken words?
SICINIUS
O blessed heavens!
VOLUMNIA
More noble blows than ever thou wise words;
And for Rome’s good. I’ll tell thee what; yet go:
Nay, but thou shalt stay too: I would my son
Were in Arabia, and thy tribe before him,
His good sword in his hand.
SICINIUS
What then?
VIRGILIA
What then!
He’ld make an end of thy posterity.

DUTCH:
Toondet gij uw vosaard
Door hem te bannen, die meer slagen toebracht
Voor Rome, dan gij woorden spraakt?

MORE:
Foxship=Cunning
Compleat:
To play the fox=Schalk zyn als een vos
Tribe=(A kindred or company of people that dwells together in the same ward or liberty): Stam, gedeete van een gantsch volk; soort
Posterity=De nakomelingschap, afkomst, nakomelingen

Topics: betrayal

Categories: betrayal, Coriolanus|

Fellest foes, whose passions and whose plots have broke their sleep

PLAY: Coriolanus
ACT/SCENE: 4.4
SPEAKER: Coriolanus
CONTEXT:
CORIOLANUS
Thank you, sir: farewell.
O world, thy slippery turns! Friends now fast sworn,
Whose double bosoms seems to wear one heart,
Whose hours, whose bed, whose meal and exercise
Are still together, who twin, as ’twere, in love
Unseparable, shall within this hour,
On a dissension of a doit, break out
To bitterest enmity; so fellest foes,
Whose passions and whose plots have broke their sleep
To take the one the other, by some chance,
Some trick not worth an egg, shall grow dear friends
And interjoin their issues. So with me:
My birthplace hate I, and my love’s upon
This enemy town. I’ll enter. If he slay me,
He does fair justice; if he give me way,
I’ll do his country service.

DUTCH:
En zij, die felle vijandschap steeds scheidde,
Wien haat en woede, door verdelgingsplannen,
Niet slapen liet, — zij worden door een toeval,
Een gril, geen ei zelfs waard, tot boezemvrienden,
Verzwaag’ren hunne kind’ren

MORE:
Slippery turns=Instability, sudden changes
Dissension of a doit=An insignificant, trifling dispute
Interjoin issues=Marry their children
Doit=Smallest piece of money, a trifle
Fell=Fierce, savage, cruel, pernicious
Compleat:
Dissension=Oneenigheid, verdeeldheid
Doit=Een duit (achtste deel van een stuiver)
Fell (cruel)=Wreede, fel

Topics: friendship, loyalty, dispute, betrayal, life

Categories: betrayal, Coriolanus, dispute, friendship, life|

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