QUOTES FROM THE BARD

PLAY: All’s Well that Ends Well
ACT/SCENE: 2.3
SPEAKER: King
CONTEXT:
BERTRAM
But follows it, my lord, to bring me down
Must answer for your raising? I know her well:
She had her breeding at my father’s charge.
A poor physician’s daughter my wife! Disdain
Rather corrupt me ever!
KING
‘Tis only title thou disdain’st in her, the which
I can build up. Strange is it that our bloods,
Of colour, weight, and heat, poured all together,
Would quite confound distinction, yet stand off
In differences so mighty. If she be
All that is virtuous, save what thou dislikest,
A poor physician’s daughter, thou dislikest
Of virtue for the name: but do not so:
From lowest place when virtuous things proceed,
The place is dignified by the doer’s deed:
Where great additions swell’s, and virtue none,
It is a dropsied honour. Good alone
Is good without a name. Vileness is so:
The property by what it is should go,
Not by the title. She is young, wise, fair;
In these to nature she’s immediate heir,
And these breed honour: that is honour’s scorn,
Which challenges itself as honour’s born
And is not like the sire: honours thrive,
When rather from our acts we them derive
Than our foregoers: the mere word’s a slave
Debauched on every tomb, on every grave
A lying trophy, and as oft is dumb
Where dust and damned oblivion is the tomb
Of honoured bones indeed. What should be said?
If thou canst like this creature as a maid,
I can create the rest: virtue and she
Is her own dower; honour and wealth from me.

DUTCH:
Ontspruit een edel doen uit lagen staat,
Die wordt verhoogd, geadeld door de daad;
Wie zwelt van trots, op deugd niet, maar op bloed,
Heeft waterzuchtige’ adel.

MORE:
Proverb: There is no difference of bloods in a basin
Proverb: Man honours the place, not the place the man

Additions=Titles
Dignify=To give lustre to, to honour
Swell (swell us or swell is– debated)=Inflate
Dropsied=Diseased (with dropsy)
Dislike=Disapprove, regard with ill-will or disgust
Compleat:
Addition=Bydoening, byvoegsel
Dropsy=Waterzucht
Swell=Swellen, opblaazen; Uitzetten, grootr worden, oploopen; zwellen
Dislike=Mishaagen, misnoegen

Topics: virtue, order/society, status, dignity, status