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QUOTES FROM THE BARD

All solemn things should answer solemn accidents

PLAY: Cymbeline
ACT/SCENE: 4.2
SPEAKER: Guiderius
CONTEXT:
BELARIUS
My ingenious instrument!
Hark, Polydore, it sounds! But what occasion
Hath Cadwal now to give it motion? Hark!
GUIDERIUS
Is he at home?
BELARIUS
He went hence even now.
GUIDERIUS
What does he mean? since death of my dear’st mother
it did not speak before. All solemn things
Should answer solemn accidents. The matter?
Triumphs for nothing and lamenting toys
Is jollity for apes and grief for boys.
Is Cadwal mad?
BELARIUS
Look, here he comes,
And brings the dire occasion in his arms
Of what we blame him for.

DUTCH:
Wat meent hij? Sinds mijn lieve moeder stierf,
Klonk die muziek niet weer. Een plechtigheid
Vereischt een plechtige oorzaak.

MORE:
Ingenious=Of curious structure
Occasion=Cause
Answer=Correspond to
Accidents=Events
Lamenting toys=Crying over nothing
Dire=Dreadful
Compleat:
Ingenious=Zinryk, vernuftig, scherpzinnig, verstandig, geestig, aardig
Occasion=Gelegenheyd, voorval, oorzaak, nood
To answer to the purpose=Ter zaake antwoorden
Accident=Een toeval, quaal, aankleefsel
Dire=Wreed, yslyk, gruuwelyk

Topics: sorrow, justification, appearance, emotion and mood

Categories: appearance, Cymbeline, emotion and mood, sorrow|

If you’ll be patient, I’ll no more be mad; that cures us both

PLAY: Cymbeline
ACT/SCENE: 2.3
SPEAKER: Imogen
CONTEXT:
IMOGEN
As I am mad, I do:
If you’ll be patient, I’ll no more be mad;
That cures us both. I am much sorry, sir,
You put me to forget a lady’s manners,
By being so verbal: and learn now, for all,
That I, which know my heart, do here pronounce,
By the very truth of it, I care not for you,
And am so near the lack of charity—
To accuse myself—I hate you; which I had rather
You felt than make’t my boast.
CLOTEN
You sin against
Obedience, which you owe your father. For
The contract you pretend with that base wretch,
One bred of alms and foster’d with cold dishes,
With scraps o’ the court, it is no contract, none:
And though it be allow’d in meaner parties—
Yet who than he more mean?—to knit their souls,
On whom there is no more dependency
But brats and beggary, in self-figured knot;
Yet you are curb’d from that enlargement by
The consequence o’ the crown, and must not soil
The precious note of it with a base slave.
A hilding for a livery, a squire’s cloth,
A pantler, not so eminent.

DUTCH:
Ik doe het in mijn waanzin;
En die zal wijken, zijt gij slechts verstandig;
Dit doet ons beidegoed. Het is mij leed,
Dat gij mij dwingt, mijn vrouwenaard verlooch’nend,
Zoo sterk te spreken

MORE:
Put=Cause
Verbal=Talkative
Cold dishes=Leftovers
Dependency=People
Pretent=Claim
Beggary=Destitute people
Enlargement=Freedom
Consequence=Importance
Foil=Defile
Note=Renown
Compleat:
Verbal=Woordelyk, mondelyk; Verbality=Woordelykheid
Dependency=Afhangendheyd, afhanglykheyd, vertrouwen, steunsel, steun
To pretend to=Zich aanmaatigen, zich uitgeeven voor; voorwenden
Beggary=Bedelaary
Enlargement=Vergrooting, wyder uitbreiding; Meerder vryheid dan men te vooren had
Consequence=Belang

Topics: patience, anger, emotion and mood, civility, order/society

Categories: civility, Cymbeline, emotion and mood, order/society, patience|

I paint him in the character

PLAY: Coriolanus
ACT/SCENE: 5.4
SPEAKER: Menenius
CONTEXT:
SICINIUS
He loved his mother dearly.
MENENIUS
So did he me: and he no more remembers his mother
now than an eight-year-old horse. The tartness
of his face sours ripe grapes: when he walks, he
moves like an engine, and the ground shrinks before
his treading: he is able to pierce a corslet with
his eye; talks like a knell, and his hum is a
battery. He sits in his state, as a thing made for
Alexander. What he bids be done is finished with
his bidding. He wants nothing of a god but eternity
and a heaven to throne in.
SICINIUS
Yes, mercy, if you report him truly.
MENENIUS
I paint him in the character. Mark what mercy his
mother shall bring from him: there is no more mercy
in him than there is milk in a male tiger; that
shall our poor city find: and all this is long of
you.

DUTCH:
Ik schilder hem naar ‘t leven.

MORE:
Tartness=Sour expression
Engine=Machine
Corslet=Armour
Knell=Tolling bell
Battery=Canon fire
Alexander=Alexander the Great
Want=Lack
Long of=On account of
Compleat:
Tartness=Wrangheid, zuurheid, scherpheid
Engine=Een konstwerk, gereedschap, werktuig; Een list, konstgreep
Corslet=Een borstwapen voor de Piekeniers; een breede gordel
Knell=De doodklok
Battery=Een schietschans, beukery, stormkat, battery
Want=Gebrek

Topics: memory, mercy, respect, emotion and mood

Categories: Coriolanus, emotion and mood, memory, respect|

You know the very road into his kindness, and cannot lose your way

PLAY: Coriolanus
ACT/SCENE: 5.1
SPEAKER: Brutus
CONTEXT:
MENENIUS
Well, and say that Marcius
Return me, as Cominius is return’d,
Unheard; what then?
But as a discontented friend, grief-shot
With his unkindness? say’t be so?
SICINIUS
Yet your good will
Must have that thanks from Rome, after the measure
As you intended well.
MENENIUS
I’ll undertake ‘t:
I think he’ll hear me. Yet, to bite his lip
And hum at good Cominius, much unhearts me.
He was not taken well; he had not dined:
The veins unfill’d, our blood is cold, and then
We pout upon the morning, are unapt
To give or to forgive; but when we have stuff’d
These and these conveyances of our blood
With wine and feeding, we have suppler souls
Than in our priest-like fasts: therefore I’ll watch him
Till he be dieted to my request,
And then I’ll set upon him.
BRUTUS
You know the very road into his kindness,
And cannot lose your way.
MENENIUS
Good faith, I’ll prove him,
Speed how it will. I shall ere long have knowledge
Of my success.

DUTCH:
Gij kent den rechten weg tot zijne goedheid,
En slaat geen dwaalpad in.

MORE:
Grief-shot=Grief-stricken
Bite his lip and hum=Suppress angry comment
After the measure=To the extent
Unhearts=Disheartens
Pout upon the morning=Morning bad mood
Speed how it will=However it turns out
Compleat:
To powt=Een leelyke toot zetten; de lip laaten hangen
To powt=(look gruff, surly): Stuurs, knorrig, gemelyk, zuur zien
To speed=Voortspoeden, voorspoedig zyn, wel gelukken

Topics: grief, anger, wellbeing, emotion and mood

Categories: Coriolanus, emotion and mood, grief, wellbeing|

Unquiet meals make ill digestions

PLAY: The Comedy of Errors
ACT/SCENE: 5.1
SPEAKER: Abbess
CONTEXT:
ADRIANA
It was the copy of our conference.
In bed he slept not for my urging it;
At board he fed not for my urging it.
Alone, it was the subject of my theme;
In company I often glancèd it.
Still did I tell him it was vile and bad.
ABBESS
And thereof came it that the man was mad.
The venom clamours of a jealous woman
Poisons more deadly than a mad dog’s tooth.
It seems his sleeps were hinder’d by thy railing,
And therefore comes it that his head is light.
Thou sayst his meat was sauced with thy upbraidings.
Unquiet meals make ill digestions.
Thereof the raging fire of fever bred,
And what’s a fever but a fit of madness?
Thou sayest his sports were hinderd by thy brawls.
Sweet recreation barred, what doth ensue
But moody and dull melancholy,
Kinsman to grim and comfortless despair,
And at her heels a huge infectious troop
Of pale distemperatures and foes to life?
In food, in sport, and life-preserving rest
To be disturbed, would mad or man or beast.
The consequence is, then, thy jealous fits
Have scared thy husband from the use of wits.
LUCIANA
She never reprehended him but mildly
When he demeaned himself rough, rude, and wildly.—
[to ADRIANA] Why bear you these rebukes and answer not?

DUTCH:
Zijn maal werd, zegt gij, met uw twist gekruid;
Onrustig eten stoort de spijsvertering.

MORE:
Copy=Subject matter
Conference=Discussion
Venom clamours=Poisonous words
Upbraidings=Reproaches
To rail=To reproach, scold
Sauced with=Accompanied by
Sport=Entertainment, recreation
Brawls=Arguments
Distemperatures=Disorders
Compleat:
Copy=Afschrift, dubbeld, kopy
Conference=Onderhandeling, t’zamenspraak, mondgemeenschap
Upbraiding=Verwyting
To rail=Schelden
Venom=Venyn, vergif
Clamour=Geroep, geschreeuw, gekrysch
Sauced=Gesausd
To make sport=Lachen, speelen
Brawl=Gekyf
Distemperative=Ongeregeldheid, ongemaatigtheid

Topics: emotion and mood, wellbeing, madness

Categories: emotion and mood, madness, The Comedy of Errors|

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