QUOTES FROM THE BARD

PLAY: Antony and Cleopatra
ACT/SCENE: 1.4
SPEAKER: Caesar
CONTEXT:
CAESAR
You may see, Lepidus, and henceforth know,
It is not Caesar’s natural vice to hate
Our great competitor. From Alexandria
This is the news: he fishes, drinks, and wastes
The lamps of night in revel; is not more manlike
Than Cleopatra, nor the queen of Ptolemy
More womanly than he; hardly gave audience, or
Vouchsafed to think he had partners. You shall find there
A man who is th’ abstract of all faults
That all men follow.
LEPIDUS
I must not think there are
Evils enough to darken all his goodness.
His faults in him seem as the spots of heaven,
More fiery by night’s blackness, hereditary
Rather than purchased, what he cannot change
Than what he chooses.

DUTCH:
CAESAR
(…) Hij is het kort begrip van ied’re boosheid,
Die eenig man ooit had.
LEPIDUS.
En toch verduistert
Het booze in hem niet alles wat hij goeds heeft;
Zijn feilen komen uit in hem, zooals
‘t Gesternte vuur’ger glanst door ‘t zwart der nacht,
Zijn eer hem aangeboren dan verkregen,
Veeleer geduld, dan met zijn wil hem eigen.

MORE:
Shelley’s Case (1579-81) had made the public familiar with the term “purchase” (acquisition by a title other than descent). The ‘Rule in Shelley’s Case’, which applied until 1925, concerned the distinction between estates acquired by inheritance or descent and those acquired by purchase. Hence Shakespeare’s use of the word ‘purchase’ to distinguish property or qualities not acquired by inheritance, such as here where Lepidus refers to faults that are ‘hereditary rather than purchased”.

Gave audience=Listened
Vouchsafe=Deign
Abstract=Summary, inventory
Spots of heaven=Stars
Compleat:
To give audience=Gehoor geeven, verleenen of vergunnen
To vouchsafe=Gewaardigen, vergunnen
Abstract=Uyttreksel, aftreksel, verkortsel

Topics: good and bad, integrity, excess, law/legal, flaw/fault, leadership