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Who seeks and will not take when once ’tis offered shall never find it more

PLAY: Antony and Cleopatra ACT/SCENE: 2.7 SPEAKER: Menas CONTEXT: MENAS These three world-sharers, these competitors, Are in thy vessel. Let me cut the cable, And, when we are put off, fall to their throats. All there is thine. POMPEY Ah, this thou shouldst have done And not have spoke on ’t! In me ’tis villainy, In thee ’t had been good service. Thou must know, ’Tis not my profit that does lead mine honour; Mine honour, it. Repent that e’er thy tongue Hath so betrayed thine act. Being done unknown, I should have found it afterwards well done, But must condemn it now. Desist, and drink. MENAS For this, I’ll never follow thy palled fortunes more. Who seeks and will not take when once ’tis offered Shall never find it more.

DUTCH: Wanneer het zoo staat, volg ik Niet langer uw geluksster, zij verbleekt. Wie zoekt, maar wat hij vindt niet grijpen durft, Vindt nooit meer iets.

MORE: Proverb: He that will not when he may, when he would he shall have nay (shall not when he will)

In me=If I were to do it Good service=The action of a good servant Lead=Guide Mine honour, it=My honour takes precedence over it Betrayed=Disclosed Act=Intention Pall=Diminish More=Again Compleat: Service=Dienstbaarheid To lead=Leyden To betray=Verraaden, beklappen Act=Daad, bedryf To pall=Verslaan, verschaalen

Topics: plans/intentions, honesty, advantage/benefit, dignity, integrity, opportunity

Categories: advantage/benefit, Antony and Cleopatra, dignity, integrity, plans/intentions|

I’ll play the penitent to you, but mine honesty shall not make poor my greatness nor my power

PLAY: Antony and Cleopatra
ACT/SCENE: 2.2
SPEAKER: Antony
CONTEXT:
ANTONY
No, Lepidus, let him speak.
The honour is sacred which he talks on now,
Supposing that I lacked it. —But, on, Caesar.
The article of my oath?
CAESAR
To lend me arms and aid when I required them,
The which you both denied.
ANTONY
Neglected, rather,
And then when poisoned hours had bound me up
From mine own knowledge. As nearly as I may
I’ll play the penitent to you, but mine honesty
Shall not make poor my greatness nor my power
Work without it. Truth is that Fulvia,
To have me out of Egypt, made wars here,
For which myself, the ignorant motive, do
So far ask pardon as befits mine honour
To stoop in such a case.

DUTCH:
Zeg: verzuimd;
En wel, toen een vergiftend leven mij
Mijn denkkracht had geroofd. Zooveel ik kan,
Wil ik een boet’ling zijn, doch mijn oprechtheid
Mag nooit mijn aanzien deren, noch mijn macht
Bij de uiting aanzien derven.

MORE:
Proverb: Know thyself

Article=Terms
Bound me up=Prevented me
Poisoned hours=Period of illness
Make poor=Diminish
Ignorant=Unknowing
Motive=Cause, reason
Compleat:
Article=Een lid, artykel, verdeelpunt
To surrender upon articles=Zich by verdrag overgeeven
Bound=Gebonden, verbonden, verpligt, dienstbaar
Poisoned=Vergeeven, vergiftigd
Poison=Vergift, gift, fenyn
Ignorant=Onweetend, onkundig, onbewust
Motive=Beweegreden, beweegoorzaak

Topics: honesty, leadership, authority, integrity

Categories: Antony and Cleopatra, authority, honesty, integrity|

Riotous madness, to be entangled with those mouth-made vows which break themselves in swearing!

PLAY: Antony and Cleopatra
ACT/SCENE: 1.3
SPEAKER: Cleopatra
CONTEXT:
CLEOPATRA
Why should I think you can be mine, and true—
Though you in swearing shake the thronèd gods—
Who have been false to Fulvia? Riotous madness,
To be entangled with those mouth-made vows
Which break themselves in swearing!
ANTONY
Most sweet Queen—
CLEOPATRA
Nay, pray you, seek no colour for your going,
But bid farewell and go. When you sued staying,
Then was the time for words. No going then!
Eternity was in our lips and eyes,
Bliss in our brows’ bent, none our parts so poor
But was a race of heaven. They are so still,
Or thou, the greatest soldier of the world,
Art turned the greatest liar.

DUTCH:
Hoe kon ik u ooit trouw , den mijnen, denken,
Wiens meineed jegens Fulvia de eeuw’ge Goden
Deed rillen op hun tronen? Welk een waanzin,
Verstrikt te zijn door lippeneeden, die
Bij ‘t zweren breken.

MORE:
Mouth-made=Not from the heart, insincere
Swearing=Taking oaths
Colour=Pretext
Sued=Begged to
Parts=Attributes
Compleat:
To swear=Zweeren, beëedigen
Colour=Koleur, schyn, dekmantel
Under colour of=Onder den schyn van
To sue=Voor ‘t recht roepen, in recht vervolgen; iemand om iets aanloopen
Parts=Deelen, hoedaanigheden, begaafdheden

Topics: promise, honour, integrity

Categories: Antony and Cleopatra, integrity, promise|

For who so firm that cannot be seduced?

PLAY: Julius Caesar
ACT/SCENE: 1.2
SPEAKER: Cassius
CONTEXT:
CASSIUS
Well, Brutus, thou art noble. Yet I see
Thy honourable mettle may be wrought
From that it is disposed. Therefore it is meet
That noble minds keep ever with their likes,
For who so firm that cannot be seduced?
Caesar doth bear me hard, but he loves Brutus.
If I were Brutus now and he were Cassius,
He should not humour me. I will this night,
In several hands, in at his windows throw,
As if they came from several citizens,
Writings all tending to the great opinion
That Rome holds of his name, wherein obscurely
Caesar’s ambition shall be glancèd at.
And after this let Caesar seat him sure,
For we will shake him, or worse days endure.

DUTCH:
Dies sluite steeds
Een hooge geest zich zijnsgelijken aan ;
Wie is zoo vast, dat niets hem ooit verleidt?

MORE:
Mettle=Spirit (Punning on metal and wrought)
Wrought=Altered
Disposed=Natural qualities
Bear me hard=Dislike me
Humour=Influence
Keep ever with=Stay with
Likes=Equals
Tending=Leaning towards
Glanced=Hinted at
Seat him sure=Comfortable, safe
Compleat:
Full of mettle=Vol vuurs, moedig
Wrought=Gewerkt, gewrocht
Dispose=Beschikken, schikken
Like=Gelyk
To tend=Strekken
To glance upon a thing=Eventjes raaken; Ter loop iets aanroeren

Burgersdijk notes:
Nimmer leende ik aan hem het oor. In ‘t Engelsch : He should not humour me ; “hij zou mij niet winnen, niet bewerken, zijn luim niet doen dienen.” Mij dunkt, er staat duidelijk : Als ik Brutus was, en hij Cassius, dan zou hij mij niet bepraten, niet ompraten.” Er is geen reden om dit He op Caesar te laten slaan, en het zeggen op te vatten : „Dan zou Caesar, of Caesar’s liefde, mij niet bewegen, zjjn luim te dienen .” Deze verklaring komt mij gedwongen voor en past niet goed in het verband, dat naar de hier gegeven vertaling duidelijk genoeg is. “Als Cassius een hooger, edeler geest was, zooals Brutus, alzoo aan Caesar’s geest nader stond, en bovendien zich in Caesar’s liefde mocht verheugen, zou hij zich niet laten ompraten, maar zich aan Caesar houden.”

Topics: integrity, honour, reputation

Categories: integrity, Julius Caesar, reputation|

Reputation, reputation, reputation! Oh, I have lost my reputation!

PLAY: Othello
ACT/SCENE: 2.3
SPEAKER: Cassio
CONTEXT:
CASSIO
Reputation, reputation, reputation! O, I have lost my
reputation! I have lost the immortal part of myself, and what remains is bestial. My reputation, Iago, my reputation!
IAGO
As I am an honest man, I thought you had received some
bodily wound. There is more sense in that than in
reputation. Reputation is an idle and most false
imposition, oft got without merit and lost without
deserving. You have lost no reputation at all unless you
repute yourself such a loser. What, man, there are ways
to recover the general again. You are but now cast in
his mood, a punishment more in policy than in malice,
even so as one would beat his offenceless dog to
affright an imperious lion. Sue to him again and he’s
yours.

DUTCH:
Mijn goede naam, mijn goede naam, niijn goede naam!
0 ik heb mijn goeden naam verloren! Ik heb mijn onsterflijk
deel verloren, en wat mij rest is dierlijk! — Mijn
goeden naam, Jago, mijn goeden naam!

MORE:
Proverb: A man is weal or woe as he thinks himself so

Cast=Dismissed
Mood=Anger
In policy=Public demonstration
Speak parrot=Nonsense
Fustian=Bombastic, high-sounding nonsense
Imposition=Cheat, imposture
Repute (yourself)=To think, to account, to hold
Compleat:
To cast off=Afwerpen, verwerpen, achterlaaten
To cast his adversary at the bar=Zyn party in rechte verwinnen
To be cast=’t Recht verlooren hebben
Mood=Luym, aardt, wyze
Fustian (or bombast)-Gezwets, snorkery
Fustian language=Grootspreeking, opsnyery
Imposition=Oplegging, opdringing, belasting, bedrog
Repute=Achten

Topics: reputation, merit, honesty, value, integrity, wellbeing, proverbs and idioms

Categories: honesty, integrity, Othello, reputation, value|

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