QUOTES FROM THE BARD

Yet who would have thought the old man to have had so much blood in him.

PLAY: Macbeth ACT/SCENE: 5.1 SPEAKER: Lady Macbeth CONTEXT: Out, damned spot! Out, I say!—One, two. Why, then, ’tis time to do ’t. Hell is murky!—Fie, my lord, fie! A soldier, and afeard? What need we fear who knows it, when none can call our power to account?—Yet who would have thought the old man to have had so much blood in him. DUTCH: Maar wie zou gedacht hebben, dat de oude
man zooveel bloed bij zich had?
MORE:
Three oft-quoted phrases from this monologue:
1. Out, damned spot; out, I say.
2. Hell is murky
3. Who would have thought the old man to have so much blood in him. Topics: still in use
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What need we fear who knows it, when none
can call our power to account?

PLAY: Macbeth
ACT/SCENE: 5.1
SPEAKER: Lady Macbeth
CONTEXT:
Out, damned spot! Out, I say!—One, two. Why, then, ’tis time to do ’t. Hell is murky!—Fie, my lord, fie! A soldier, and afeard? What need we fear who knows it, when none can call our power to account?—Yet who would have thought the old man to have had so much blood in him.

DUTCH:
Wat behoeven wij te duchten, dat iemand het te weten
komt, als niemand onze macht ter verantwoording kan
roepen

MORE:
Cited in Shakespeare’s Legal Maxims (William Lowes Rushton)

Topics: law/legal, authority, guilt, suspicion, consequence, punishment

Now does he feel his title
Hang loose about him

PLAY: Macbeth
ACT/SCENE: 5.2
SPEAKER: Angus
CONTEXT:
Now does he feel
His secret murders sticking on his hands.
Now minutely revolts upbraid his faith-breach.
Those he commands move only in command,
Nothing in love. Now does he feel his title
Hang loose about him, like a giant’s robe
Upon a dwarfish thief.

DUTCH:
Thans voelt hij recht, hoe los zijn waardigheid
Om ‘t lijf hem hangt

MORE:
Schmidt:
Faith-breach= Breach of fidelity, disloyalty
Minutely=Continual, happening every minute
Revolt= Desertion, going to the enemy
Upbraid=Reproach; with an accusation of the thing

Topics: loyalty, disappointment, failure, truth, discovery

Therein the patient
Must minister to himself.

PLAY: Macbeth
ACT/SCENE: 5.3
SPEAKER: Doctor
CONTEXT:
MACBETH
Cure her of that.
Canst thou not minister to a mind diseased,
Pluck from the memory a rooted sorrow,
Raze out the written troubles of the brain
And with some sweet oblivious antidote
Cleanse the stuffed bosom of that perilous stuff
Which weighs upon the heart?
DOCTOR
Therein the patient
Must minister to himself.
MACBETH
Throw physic to the dogs; I’ll none of it.

DUTCH:
Hier moet de kranke Zichzelf tot arts zijn.

MORE:
Schmidt:
Minister to=Administer (medicines), to prescribe, to order
CITED IN LAW: In a direct quotation or “borrowed eloquence” in White v Chief Constable of the South Yorkshire Police [1999] 1 All ER 1, considering the concepts of foreseeability and psychiatric injury, Lord Hoffmann noted, as the Doctor of Physic tells Macbeth: “therein the patient must minister to himself” (Macbeth Act 5, Scene 3).

Topics: madness, memory, guilt, conscience, remedy

Go, prick thy face and over-red thy fear

PLAY: Macbeth
ACT/SCENE: 5.3
SPEAKER:
CONTEXT:
Go, prick thy face and over-red thy fear,
Thou lily-livered boy. What soldiers, patch?
Death of thy soul! Those linen cheeks of thine
Are counselors to fear. What soldiers, whey-face?

DUTCH:
Ga, schram ‘t gelaat en verf uw angsten rood!

MORE:
Pinch your cheeks for some colour
White livers used to signify cowardice. Hence lily-livered (Macbeth, 5.3) and milk-livered (King Lear, 4.2), both compounds coined by Shakespeare

Topics: appearance, courage

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