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QUOTES FROM THE BARD

Learn to jest in good time. There’s a time for all things.

PLAY: The Comedy of Errors ACT/SCENE: 2.2 SPEAKER: Antipholus of Syracuse CONTEXT: DROMIO OF SYRACUSE
If it be, sir, I pray you, eat none of it.
ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE
Your reason?
DROMIO OF SYRACUSE
Lest it make you choleric and purchase me another dry basting.
ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE
Well, sir, learn to jest in good time. There’s a time for all things.
DROMIO OF SYRACUSE
I durst have denied that before you were so choleric. DUTCH: Het mocht u de gal doen overloopen en mij een tweede klopping bezorgen, MORE: CITED IN US LAW:
Griffith v. City of Trenton, 76 N.J.L. 23, 69 A. 29 (1908)

Proverb: There is a time for all things (Everything has its time)

Choleric=According to the four humours the four complexions were: sanguine, melancholic, choleric and phlegmatic. Choler was credited with being hot and dry and the choleric man was hot-tempered or irritable
Basting=(1) Keep meat covered with fat or juices to avoid drying out; (2)=Beating with a stick. Dry basting=Severe drubbing
Compleat:
Cholerick=Oploopend, haastig, toornig. To be in choler=Toornig zyn
To jest=Boerten, schertsen, jokken, gekscheeren
Basting=Met een stok slaan, afroffing
Basting of meat=Het bedruipen van ‘t vleesch Topics: cited in law, caution, time, proverbs and idioms, misunderstanding, emotion and mood

Categories: cited in law, misunderstanding, proverbs and idioms, The Comedy of Errors, time|

I know also life is a shuttle

PLAY: The Merry Wives of Windsor
ACT/SCENE:
SPEAKER: Falstaff
CONTEXT:
FALSTAFF
I went to her, Master Brook, as you see, like a poor
old man: but I came from her, Master Brook, like a
poor old woman. That same knave Ford, her husband,
hath the finest mad devil of jealousy in him,
Master Brook, that ever governed frenzy. I will tell
you: he beat me grievously, in the shape of a
woman; for in the shape of man, Master Brook, I fear
not Goliath with a weaver’s beam; because I know
also life is a shuttle. I am in haste; go along
with me: I’ll tell you all, Master Brook. Since I
plucked geese, played truant and whipped top, I knew
not what ’twas to be beaten till lately. Follow
me: I’ll tell you strange things of this knave
Ford, on whom to-night I will be revenged, and I
will deliver his wife into your hand. Follow.
Strange things in hand, Master Brook! Follow

DUTCH:
Heer Beek, vrees ik zelfs Goliath niet met zijn weversboom, omdat ik ook weet: „het leven vliegt als een weversspoel.”

MORE:
CITED IN US LAW: Re. the definition of “shuttle”: Eastern Air Lines, Inc. v New York Air Lines, 559 F.Supp. 1270, 1274 (SD NY 1983).

Proverb: Life is a shuttle

Life is a shuttle=Job 7:6. “My days pass over more speedily than a weaver’s shuttle.”

Topics: cited in law|proverbs and idioms|envy

Categories: cited in law, envy, The Merry Wives of Windsor|

Wives may be merry, and yet honest too

PLAY: The Merry Wives of Windsor
ACT/SCENE:
SPEAKER: Mistress Page
CONTEXT:
MISTRESS FORD
We’ll try that; for I’ll appoint my men to carry the
basket again, to meet him at the door with it, as
they did last time.
MISTRESS PAGE
Nay, but he’ll be here presently: let’s go dress him
like the witch of Brentford.
MISTRESS FORD
I’ll first direct my men what they shall do with the
basket. Go up; I’ll bring linen for him straight.
MISTRESS PAGE
Hang him, dishonest varlet! we cannot misuse him enough.
We’ll leave a proof, by that which we will do,
Wives may be merry, and yet honest too:
We do not act that often jest and laugh;
‘Tis old, but true, Still swine eat all the draff.

DUTCH:
Aan de galg met dien ontuchtigen schelm! wij kunnen
hem niet genoeg beetnemen.
Bedriegen kan, zoo leere ons doen, de schijn;
Een vrouw kan vroolijk en toch eerbaar zijn;
Zij is niet slecht, die gaarne schertst en lacht,
Neem eer voor stille waat’ren u in acht.

MORE:
CITED IN US LAW: Re. the definition of “honesty”: State v Snover, 63 NJL 382, 43 A. 1059 (1899)

Proverb: The quiet swine eats all the hogwash
Proverb: The humble (meek) lamb sucks its own dam and others also
Proverb: The still sow eats up all the draff

Merry=Talkative, cheerful, fun-loving, flirtatious
Honest=Truthful, also virtuous, chaste
Compleat:
Merry=Vrolyk
Honest=Eerlyk, oprecht, vroom

Burgersdijk notes:
Neem eer voor stille waat’ren u in acht. In het Engelsch staat hier het spreekwoord: „Stille varkens eten allen draf.” Ons spreekwoord is: „Stille waters hebben diepe gronden.”

Topics: cited in law|proverbs and idioms|honesty|loyalty

Categories: cited in law, honesty, loyalty, The Merry Wives of Windsor|

All’s well that ends well

PLAY: All’s Well that Ends Well
ACT/SCENE: 4.4
SPEAKER: Helen
CONTEXT:
HELEN
Nor you, mistress,
Ever a friend whose thoughts more truly labour
To recompense your love: doubt not but heaven
Hath brought me up to be your daughter’s dower,
As it hath fated her to be my motive
And helper to a husband. But, O strange men!
That can such sweet use make of what they hate,
When saucy trusting of the cozened thoughts
Defiles the pitchy night: so lust doth play
With what it loathes for that which is away.
But more of this hereafter. You, Diana,
Under my poor instructions yet must suffer
Something in my behalf.
DIANA
Let death and honesty
Go with your impositions, I am yours
Upon your will to suffer.
HELEN
Yet, I pray you:
But with the word the time will bring on summer,
When briers shall have leaves as well as thorns,
And be as sweet as sharp. We must away;
Our wagon is prepared, and time revives us:
All’s well that ends well; still the fine’s the crown;
Whate’er the course, the end is the renown.

DUTCH:
Komt, wij moeten heen;
De wagen staat gereed; de tjd baart rozen;
Eind goed, al goed; aan ‘t einde hangt de kroon;
De loop zij zwaar, het einde brengt het loon.

MORE:
CITED IN US LAW:
In Re San Juan Dupont Plaza Hotel Fire Litigation, 907 F.2d 4, 6 (1st Cir. 1990)(per
curiam); Collett v. State, 133 Ga. App. 318, 211 S.E.2d 198 (Ga. Ct. App: 1974).

Proverb: All’s Well that Ends Well
Proverb: The end crowns (tries) all

Objective achieved; problems experienced along the way can be forgotten.
Shakespeare didn’t invent this; the earliest known version in print is from the 13th century, in The proverbs and idioms of Hendyng.
Fine=End, conclusion
Revive=To bring again to life, to reanimate
Compleat:
In fine=Eindelyk, ten laatsten
Revive=Herleeven, doen herleeven, weder bekomen, verquikken

Topics: cited in law, purpose, achievement, time, nature, proverbs and idioms, still in use

Categories: achievement, All's Well That Ends Well, cited in law, nature, time|

I crave our composition may be written and sealed between us

PLAY: Antony and Cleopatra
ACT/SCENE: 2.6
SPEAKER: Pompey
CONTEXT:
CAESAR
Since I saw you last
There’s a change upon you.
POMPEY
Well, I know not
What counts harsh Fortune casts upon my face,
But in my bosom shall she never come
To make my heart her vassal.
LEPIDUS
Well met here.
POMPEY
I hope so, Lepidus. Thus we are agreed.
I crave our composition may be written
And sealed between us.
CAESAR
That’s the next to do.
POMPEY
We’ll feast each other ere we part, and let’s
Draw lots who shall begin.
ANTONY
That will I, Pompey.
POMPEY
No, Antony, take the lot. But, first or last,
Your fine Egyptian cookery shall have
The fame. I have heard that Julius Caesar
Grew fat with feasting there.

DUTCH:
Dit hoop ik, Lepidus. — Wij zijn verzoend.
Doch thans zij ons verdrag op schrift gebracht
En onderteekend.

MORE:
CITED IN US LAW: Re. the definition of “composition”: In re. Adler, 103 F. 444 (W.D. Tenn. 1900)

Counts=Accounts, shows
Harsh=Cruel
Vassal=Servant
Composition=Agreement
Take the lot=Draw the straw
Compleat:
Count=Rekenen, achten
Harsh=Schor, ruuw, wrang, streng
Vassal=Leenman, onderdaan
Composition=Bylegging; t’Zamenstelling, toestelling, afmaaking, t’zamenmengsel, vermenging
To draw lots=Loten trekken, looten

Topics: cited in law, contract, understanding, fate/destiny

Categories: Antony and Cleopatra, cited in law, fate/destiny, understanding|

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