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QUOTES FROM THE BARD

Though those that are betray’d do feel the treason sharply, yet the traitor stands in worse case of woe

PLAY: Cymbeline
ACT/SCENE: 3.4
SPEAKER: Imogen
CONTEXT:
IMOGEN
Why, I must die;
And if I do not by thy hand, thou art
No servant of thy master’s. Against self-slaughter
There is a prohibition so divine
That cravens my weak hand. Come, here’s my heart.
Something’s afore’t. Soft, soft! we’ll no defence;
Obedient as the scabbard. What is here?
The scriptures of the loyal Leonatus,
All turn’d to heresy? Away, away,
Corrupters of my faith! you shall no more
Be stomachers to my heart. Thus may poor fools
Believe false teachers: though those that are betray’d
Do feel the treason sharply, yet the traitor
Stands in worse case of woe.
And thou, Posthumus, thou that didst set up
My disobedience ‘gainst the king my father
And make me put into contempt the suits
Of princely fellows, shalt hereafter find
It is no act of common passage, but
A strain of rareness: and I grieve myself
To think, when thou shalt be disedged by her
That now thou tirest on, how thy memory
Will then be pang’d by me. Prithee, dispatch:
The lamb entreats the butcher: where’s thy knife?
Thou art too slow to do thy master’s bidding,
When I desire it too.

DUTCH:
Van hier, van hier,
Die mijn geloof vervalscht hebt! Weg! niet langer
Dekt gij mij ‘t hart! O, arme dwazen schenken
Geloof aan valsche leeraars. Doch hoe diep
‘t Verraad ook de bedroog’nen griev’, toch treft
Hem, die verraadt, veel erger wee.

MORE:
Disedged=Blunted, with the edge taken off (Cf. Hamlet 3.2, “It would cost you a groaning to take off my edge”)
False teachers=Teachers of heresy
Stomacher=Ornamental covering for the breast worn by women
To tire=To prey or feed ravenously “upon”, rend prey to pieces
Pang=To afflict with great pain, to torment
Compleat:
To blunt=Stomp maaken, verstompen
A false prophet=Een valsch Propheet
A false (erroneous) opinion=Een dwaalend gevoelen

Topics: corruption, manipulation, betrayal, order/society, memory, consequences

Categories: betrayal, corruption, Cymbeline, memory, order/society|

Frame yourself to orderly solicits, and be friended with aptness of the season

PLAY: Cymbeline
ACT/SCENE: 2.3
SPEAKER: Queen
CONTEXT:
CLOTEN
I have assailed her with music, but she vouchsafes no
notice.
CYMBELINE
The exile of her minion is too new;
She hath not yet forgot him: some more time
Must wear the print of his remembrance out,
And then she’s yours.
QUEEN
You are most bound to the king,
Who lets go by no vantages that may
Prefer you to his daughter. Frame yourself
To orderly solicits, and be friended
With aptness of the season; make denials
Increase your services; so seem as if
You were inspired to do those duties which
You tender to her; that you in all obey her,
Save when command to your dismission tends,
And therein you are senseless.

DUTCH:
Zorg, dat gij haar met ernst
Uw hulde brengt; maak u gelegenheid,
Den juisten tijd tot vriend;

MORE:
Vantages=Opportunities
Prefer=Commend
Frame=To mould, to fashion, to work into a certain shape
Orderly solicits=established (courtship) rituals
Be friended with=Favour
Aptness of the season=properly timed solicitation
Dismission=Rejection
Senseless=Insensitive, having no ear
Compleat:
Vantage=Toegift, toemaat, overmaat, overwigt
To prefer one=Iemand bevorderen
To frame=Een gestalte geeven, toestellen, maaken, ontwerpen, schikken, beraamen
Orderly=Geschiktlyk, geregeld, ordentlyk
Senseless=Gevoeleloos, ongevoelig, zinneloos

Topics: debt/obligation, duty, memory

Categories: Cymbeline, debt/obligation, memory|

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|

It is qui, quae, quod: if you forget your ‘quies,’ your ‘quaes,’ and your ‘quods,’ you must be preeches

PLAY: The Merry Wives of Windsor
ACT/SCENE:
SPEAKER: Sir Hugh Evans
CONTEXT:
SIR HUGH EVANS
Show me now, William, some declensions of your pronouns.
WILLIAM PAGE
Forsooth, I have forgot.
SIR HUGH EVANS
It is qui, quae, quod: if you forget your ‘quies,’
your ‘quaes,’ and your ‘quods,’ you must be
preeches. Go your ways, and play; go.
MISTRESS PAGE
He is a better scholar than I thought he was.
SIR HUGH EVANS
He is a good sprag memory. Farewell, Mistress Page.

DUTCH:
Het is: qui, quae, quod; als chij vercheet uw
qui’s, uw quae’s, uw quod’s, tan moest chij worden
chepritst. Cha nu heen en speel; cha.

MORE:
Preeches=Breeching (old term meaning flogging (e.g. of a schoolboy)).
Sprag=Sprack (active)
Compleat:
To breech=Op de billen slaan

Topics: punishment|learning/education|memory

Categories: memory, punishment, The Merry Wives of Windsor|

Methinks I hear him now: his plausive words he scattered not in ears, but grafted them, to grow there and to bear

PLAY: All’s Well that Ends Well
ACT/SCENE: 1.2
SPEAKER: King
CONTEXT:
BERTRAM
His good remembrance, sir,
Lies richer in your thoughts than on his tomb;
So in approof lives not his epitaph
As in your royal speech.
KING
Would I were with him! He would always say—
Methinks I hear him now: his plausive words
He scatterd not in ears, but grafted them,
To grow there and to bear ;—” Let me not live,”
Thus his good melancholy oft began,
On the catastrophe and heel of pastime.
When it was out,—” Let me not live,” quoth he,
“After my flame lacks oil, to be the snuff
Of younger spirits, whose apprehensive senses
All but new things disdain; whose judgments are
Mere fathers of their garments; whose constancies
Expire before their fashions. This he wished;
I after him do after him wish too,
Since I nor wax nor honey can bring home,
I quickly were dissolved from my hive,
To give some labourers room.

DUTCH:
O, dat ik bij hem waar! Hij zeide steeds:
Mij is ‘t, als hoor ik hem; hij strooide niet
Zijn gulden taal in ‘t oor, maar entte er die,
Zoodat ze er vruchten droeg,

MORE:
Approof=Testimony
Plausive=Pleasing, specious, plausible
Catastrophe, Heel=Both meaning end
Scattered not but grafted=Not thrown carelessly but carefully planted
Snuff=The burning wick of a candle, as darkening the flame or remaining after it.
Apprehensive=Imaginative
Compleat:
Plausible=Op een schoonschynende wyze
To snuff out a candle=Een kaars uitsnuiten
Apprehensive (sensible of)=Een ding gewaar worden

Topics: fashion/trends, language, reason, understanding, memory, legacy

Categories: All's Well That Ends Well, fashion/trends, memory, reason, understanding|

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