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QUOTES FROM THE BARD

Who cannot steal a shape that means deceit?

PLAY: King Henry VI Part 2 ACT/SCENE: 3.1 SPEAKER: Queen Margaret CONTEXT: Ah, what’s more dangerous than this fond affiance!
Seems he a dove? His feathers are but borrowed,
For he’s disposed as the hateful raven:
Is he a lamb? His skin is surely lent him,
For he’s inclined as is the ravenous wolf.
Who cannot steal a shape that means deceit?
Take heed, my lord; the welfare of us all
Hangs on the cutting short that fraudful man. DUTCH: Is hij een lam? zijn vacht in hem geleend;
Als van een fellen wolf is zijn gemoed.
Wie steelt geen mom, als hij bedriegen wil?
Vrees op uw hoede, heer; ons aller welzijn
Hangt aan ‘t voorkómen van dien valschen man. MORE:
Proverb: A wolf in sheep’s clothing (‘His skin is surely lent him’)

Raven=Symbolic of a bad omen
Fond=Foolish
Affiance=Confidence
Steal a shape=Create a false impression or appearance
Hateful=Deserving hate
Hangs on=Depends on

Compleat:
Fond (foolish)=Dwaas
Affiance=Vertrouwen, hoop
Hatefull=Haatelyk
These things seem to hang one upon the other=Deeze zaaken schynen van malkander af te hangen Topics: deceit, appearance, good and bad, trust, betrayal, caution

Categories: betrayal, deceit, good and bad, King Henry VI Part 2, trust|

A man unsounded yet and full of deep deceit.

PLAY: King Henry VI Part 2
ACT/SCENE: 3.1
SPEAKER: Suffolk
CONTEXT:
Well hath your highness seen into this duke;
And, had I first been put to speak my mind,
I think I should have told your grace’s tale.
The duchess, by his subornation,
Upon my life, began her devilish practises:
Or, if he were not privy to those faults,
Yet, by reputing of his high descent,
As next the king he was successive heir,
And such high vaunts of his nobility,
Did instigate the bedlam brain-sick duchess
By wicked means to frame our sovereign’s fall.
Smooth runs the water where the brook is deep;
And in his simple show he harbours treason.
The fox barks not when he would steal the lamb.
No, no, my sovereign; Gloucester is a man
Unsounded yet and full of deep deceit.

DUTCH:
Neen, neen, mijn koning; Gloster is een man,
Die ondoorgrondlijk is, vol diep bedrog.

MORE:

Still waters run deep. Proverb of Latin origin meaning a placid exterior hiding a passionate nature.
Proverb: The fox barks not when he would steal the lamb.

Seen into=Penetrated, understood
Subornation=Crime of procuring one to offend, specially to bear false witness
Repute=(+of): Setting great store by, prize
Bedlam=Nickname for Bethlem hospital, for the treatment of mental illness, which has become a byword for chaos and mayhem
Unsounded=Unfathomed (as in depth sounding, i.e. measuring the depth of a body of water)

Compleat:
To see into a thing=Een inzigt in eene zaak hebben, ‘er den grond van beschouwen
Subornation=Besteeking, een bestoken werk, omkooping
To repute=Achten
Bedlam (Bethlem)=Een dolhuis, dulhuis, krankzinnighuis; (mad bodey)=Een dul mensch, een uitzinnige
To sound=Peilen

Topics: proverbs and idioms, appearance, deceit

Categories: deceit, King Henry VI Part 2, proverbs and idioms|

I owe him little duty, and less love.

PLAY: King Henry VI Part 1
ACT/SCENE: 4.4
SPEAKER: Somerset
CONTEXT:
LUCY
And York as fast upon your grace exclaims;
Swearing that you withhold his levied host,
Collected for this expedition.
SOMERSET
York lies; he might have sent and had the horse;
I owe him little duty, and less love;
And take foul scorn to fawn on him by sending.
LUCY
The fraud of England, not the force of France,
Hath now entrapp’d the noble-minded Talbot:
Never to England shall he bear his life;
But dies, betray’d to fortune by your strife.

DUTCH:
York liegt; ‘k had ze afgestaan, had hij gevraagd;
‘k Ben hem geen dienst, nog minder liefde schuldig;
‘t Waar’ laag, ‘t waar’ vleien, zoo ik zelf haar zond.

MORE:

Levied host=Raised army (some versions have ‘levied horse’, interpreted as horsemen)
Expedition=A warlike enterprise
Sent and had=Sent for and have had
Foul=Disgraceful, derogatory
Scorn=Disdain, contempt
Fawn upon=To wheedle, to cringe, to be overcourteous; to court servilely and in the manner of a dog
Fraud=Falseness, faithlessness

Compleat:
Host (army)=Een heir, heirleger
Expedition=Een krygsverrichting
Scorn=Versmaading, verachting
To fawn upon=Vleijen, streelen

Topics: deceit, failure, conflict, duty, debt/obligation

Categories: conflict, debt/obligation, deceit, duty, King Henry VI Part 1|

He is not the man that he would gladly make show to the world he is.

PLAY: King Henry V
ACT/SCENE: 3.6
SPEAKER: Fluellen
CONTEXT:
GOWER
Why, ’tis a gull, a fool, a rogue, that now and then goes to the wars to grace himself at his return into London under the form of a soldier. And such fellows are perfect in the great commanders’ names, and they will learn you by rote where services were done—at such and such a sconce, at such a breach, at such a convoy; who came off bravely, who was shot, who disgraced, what terms the enemy stood on. And this they con perfectly in the phrase of war, which they trick up with new-tuned oaths; and what a beard of the general’s cut and a horrid suit of the camp will do among foaming bottles and ale-washed wits is wonderful to be thought on. But you must learn to know such slanders of the age, or else you may be marvelously mistook.
FLUELLEN
I tell you what, Captain Gower. I do perceive he is not the man that he would gladly make show to the world he is. If I find a hole in his coat, I will tell him my mind.

DUTCH:
Ik wil u wat zeggen, oferste Gower; ik heb zeer choed gemerkt; hij is niet de man, dien hij gaarne aan de wereld zou laten zien dat hij is; als ik aan zijn rok een steek los vind, zal ik hem zeggen wat ik denk.

MORE:
New-tuned=Newly coined
Slanders=Disgraces
Onions:
Hole in his coat=A chink in his armour (opportunity to expose)

Topics: deceit, appearance, flaw/fault

Categories: deceit, flaw/fault, King Henry V|

The strawberry grows underneath the nettle

PLAY: King Henry V
ACT/SCENE: 1.1
SPEAKER: Ely
CONTEXT:

ELY
The strawberry grows underneath the nettle,
And wholesome berries thrive and ripen best
Neighbored by fruit of baser quality;
And so the Prince obscured his contemplation
Under the veil of wildness, which, no doubt,
Grew like the summer grass, fastest by night,
Unseen yet crescive in his faculty.
CANTERBURY
It must be so, for miracles are ceased,
And therefore we must needs admit the means
How things are perfected.

DUTCH:
De aardbezie ziet men onder netels groeien,
En onder vruchten van geringer aard
Heilzame beziën best tot rijpheid komen.

MORE:

Note: It was commonly thought that plants imbibed the virtues and faults from neighbouring plants. Sweet flowers were planted close to fruit trees to improve the flavour, but the (probably wild) strawberry – symbol of perfect righteousness in religious emblems – was considered to be the exception and would thrive in the midst of ‘evil’ neighbours without being affected.

Crescive=Growing, increasing
Faculty=Inherent power
Means=Causes
Perfected=Brought about

Compleat:
Faculty (power or virtue)=Vermogen, deugd
To perfect=Volmaaken, voltoooijen; tot volmaaktheid brengen

Topics: deceit, appearance, reason

Categories: deceit, King Henry V, reason|

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