QUOTES FROM THE BARD

Will you mock at an ancient tradition begun upon an honorable respect

PLAY: King Henry V ACT/SCENE: 5.1 SPEAKER: Gower CONTEXT: Go, go. You are a counterfeit cowardly knave. Will you mock at an ancient tradition begun upon an honorable respect and worn as a memorable trophy of predeceased valour, and dare not avouch in your deeds any of your words? I have seen you gleeking and galling at this gentleman twice or thrice. You thought because he could not speak English in the native garb, he could not therefore handle an English cudgel. You find it otherwise, and henceforth let a Welsh correction teach you a good English condition. Fare you well. DUTCH: Wilt gij spotten over een oud gebruik, dat uit een eervolle aanleiding ontsproot en als een gedenkwaardig teeken van vroegere dapperheid gedragen wordt, en waagt gij het niet, zelfs éen uwer woorden door daden waar te maken? MORE:
To gleek=Scoff, sneer
Schmidt:
To gall (with at)=To quiz, to scoff: “gleeking and galling at this gentleman”
Predeceased valour=Brave men who have died
Garb=Fashion
Correction=Chastisement
Condition=Disposition

Compleat:
Condition=Staat, gesteltenis
Good-conditioned=Goedaardig
Correction=Verbetering, tuchtiging, berisping
Garb=Kleeding; (carriage)=houding Topics: betrayal, language, promise, appearance, intellect

Haply a woman’s voice may do some good, When articles too nicely urged be stood on.

PLAY: King Henry V
ACT/SCENE: 5.2
SPEAKER: King Henry
CONTEXT:
QUEEN ISABEL
Our gracious brother, I will go with them.
Haply a woman’s voice may do some good,
When articles too nicely urged be stood on.
KING HENRY
Yet leave our cousin Katherine here with us.
She is our capital demand, comprised
Within the fore-rank of our articles.

DUTCH:
Doorluchte broeder, ik wil met hen gaan.
Wellicht bewerkt een vrouwestem iets goeds,
Als eenige eisch te sterk wordt aangedrongen.

MORE:

Schmidt:
Haply=Perhaps
Capital=Chief, principal
Nicely=Putiliously, scrupulously
Forerank=Priority, first rank, front

Compleat:
Haply=Misschien
To be nice in something=Keurig

Topics: civility, manipulation, achievement

Every subject’s duty is the king’s, but every subject’s soul is his own.

PLAY: King Henry V
ACT/SCENE: 4.1
SPEAKER: King Henry
CONTEXT:
Now, if these men have defeated the law and outrun native punishment, though they can outstrip men, they have no wings to fly from God. War is His beadle, war is His vengeance, so that here men are punished for before-breach of the king’s laws in now the king’s quarrel. Where they feared the death, they have borne life away; and where they would be safe, they perish. Then, if they die unprovided, no more is the king guilty of their damnation than he was before guilty of those impieties for the which they are now visited. Every subject’s duty is the king’s, but every subject’s soul is his own. Therefore should every soldier in the wars do as every sick man in his bed: wash every mote out of his conscience.

DUTCH:
De dienst van iederen onderdaan is des konings, maar de ziel van iederen onderdaan is zijn eigene. Daarom moest ieder soldaat in den oorlog doen, wat ieder kranke in zijn bed doet: zijn geweten rein wasschen van ieder stofjen.

MORE:

Out-run=Escaped
Native punishment=Punishment in their own country
Unprovided=Not properly prepared
Before-breach=A breach committed in former times
Beadle=Official responsible for punishment, whipping

Compleat:
Unprovided=Onvoorien, onverzorgd.
To take one unprovided=Iemand verrassen
Beadle=Een gerechtsdienaar, boode, deurwaarder.
A beadle of beggars=Een verjaager van bedelaars, luizevanger

Topics: guilt, debt/obligation, punishment, justice, offence

I should be angry with you if the time were convenient.

PLAY: King Henry V
ACT/SCENE: 4.1
SPEAKER: King Henry
CONTEXT:
WILLIAMS
You pay him then. That’s a perilous shot out of an elder gun, that a poor and private displeasure can do against a monarch. You may as well go about to turn the sun to ice with fanning in his face with a peacock’s feather. You’ll “never trust his word after.” Come, ’tis a foolish saying.
KING HENRY
Your reproof is something too round. I should be angry with you if the time were convenient.
WILLIAMS
Let it be a quarrel between us, if you live.

DUTCH:
Uw uitval is wel wat al te heftig; ik zou boos op u
zijn, als de tijd dit toeliet.

MORE:
Perilous=Dangerous
Elder-gun=Gun made of elderwood
Round=Direct, blunt, plain speaking

Topics: anger, time

Categories: , |

By Jove, I am not covetous for gold Nor care I who doth feed upon my cost

PLAY: King Henry V
ACT/SCENE: 4.3
SPEAKER: King Henry
CONTEXT:
If we are marked to die, we are enough
To do our country loss; and if to live,
The fewer men, the greater share of honour.
God’s will, I pray thee wish not one man more.
By Jove, I am not covetous for gold
Nor care I who doth feed upon my cost;
It yearns me not if men my garments wear;
Such outward things dwell not in my desires.
But if it be a sin to covet honour,
I am the most offending soul alive.

DUTCH:
Bij Jupiter, ik heb geen dorst naar goud,
En vraag niet, wie er op mijn kosten teert.

MORE:

Admiration=Wonder
Prating=Prattling, chattering
Coxcomb=Fool (From fool’s cap)
Meet=Appropriate

Compleat:
Admiration=Verwondering
To prate=Praaten
Coxcomb=Een haanekam; een nar, uilskuiken
An ignorant coxcomb=Een onweetende zotskap
Mee

Topics: proverbs and idioms, sill in use, honour

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