QUOTES FROM THE BARD

I stand on fire: come to the matter

PLAY: Cymbeline
ACT/SCENE: 5.5
SPEAKER: Cymbeline
CONTEXT:
CYMBELINE
I stand on fire:
Come to the matter.
IACHIMO
All too soon I shall,
Unless thou wouldst grieve quickly. This Posthumus,
Most like a noble lord in love and one
That had a royal lover, took his hint;
And, not dispraising whom we praised,—therein
He was as calm as virtue—he began
His mistress’ picture; which by his tongue being made,
And then a mind put in’t, either our brags
Were crack’d of kitchen-trolls, or his description
Proved us unspeaking sots.
CYMBELINE
Nay, nay, to the purpose.

DUTCH:
Ik sta op kolen, kom toch tot de zaak.

MORE:
Brags=Boasts
Cracked=Blustered
Of=About
Trolls=Maids
Unspeaking=Inarticulate
Sot=Fool
To the purpose=Get to the point
Compleat:
To brag=Pochen, roomen, opsnyen
To crack=Kraaken, barsten, splyten; pochen
Young trollop (serving maid)=Jong meisje, dat eerst begint te dienen
Sot (blockhead)=Zot, domkop

Topics: patience, sorow, truth
Categories: , , |

If you’ll be patient, I’ll no more be mad; that cures us both

PLAY: Cymbeline
ACT/SCENE: 2.3
SPEAKER: Imogen
CONTEXT:
IMOGEN
As I am mad, I do:
If you’ll be patient, I’ll no more be mad;
That cures us both. I am much sorry, sir,
You put me to forget a lady’s manners,
By being so verbal: and learn now, for all,
That I, which know my heart, do here pronounce,
By the very truth of it, I care not for you,
And am so near the lack of charity—
To accuse myself—I hate you; which I had rather
You felt than make’t my boast.
CLOTEN
You sin against
Obedience, which you owe your father. For
The contract you pretend with that base wretch,
One bred of alms and foster’d with cold dishes,
With scraps o’ the court, it is no contract, none:
And though it be allow’d in meaner parties—
Yet who than he more mean?—to knit their souls,
On whom there is no more dependency
But brats and beggary, in self-figured knot;
Yet you are curb’d from that enlargement by
The consequence o’ the crown, and must not soil
The precious note of it with a base slave.
A hilding for a livery, a squire’s cloth,
A pantler, not so eminent.

DUTCH:
Ik doe het in mijn waanzin;
En die zal wijken, zijt gij slechts verstandig;
Dit doet ons beidegoed. Het is mij leed,
Dat gij mij dwingt, mijn vrouwenaard verlooch’nend,
Zoo sterk te spreken

MORE:
Put=Cause
Verbal=Talkative
Cold dishes=Leftovers
Dependency=People
Pretent=Claim
Beggary=Destitute people
Enlargement=Freedom
Consequence=Importance
Foil=Defile
Note=Renown
Compleat:
Verbal=Woordelyk, mondelyk; Verbality=Woordelykheid
Dependency=Afhangendheyd, afhanglykheyd, vertrouwen, steunsel, steun
To pretend to=Zich aanmaatigen, zich uitgeeven voor; voorwenden
Beggary=Bedelaary
Enlargement=Vergrooting, wyder uitbreiding; Meerder vryheid dan men te vooren had
Consequence=Belang

Topics: patience, anger, emotion and mood, civility, order/society

When a gentleman is disposed to swear, it is not for any standers-by to curtail his oaths

PLAY: Cymbeline
ACT/SCENE: 2.1
SPEAKER: Cloten
CONTEXT:
CLOTEN
Was there ever man had such luck! when I kissed the
jack, upon an up-cast to be hit away! I had a
hundred pound on’t: and then a whoreson jackanapes
must take me up for swearing; as if I borrowed mine
oaths of him and might not spend them at my pleasure.
FIRST LORD
What got he by that? You have broke his pate with
your bowl.
SECOND LORD
If his wit had been like him that broke it,
it would have run all out.
CLOTEN
When a gentleman is disposed to swear, it is not for
any standers-by to curtail his oaths, ha?
SECOND LORD
No my lord; nor crop the ears of them.

DUTCH:
Als een man van rang verkiest te vloeken, behoeft
niemand het hart te hebben zijn vloeken te kortstaarten;
hè?

MORE:
Proverb: May we not do with our own what we list?

Pate=The head; used in contempt or in ridicule
Curtail=Curtal, having a docked tail (followed by ‘crop the ears’)
Upcast=A throw at the game of bowls
Take up=Rebuke
Kissed the jack … away=The jack being the small ball in bowls, the closest to the jack at the end of the game wins. If the bowl ends up close to it, it is ‘kissing the jack’ (a great advantage). Cloten’s bowl is then hit away by the ‘upcast’ (throw of an opponent).
Compleat:
Jack (in bowling)=Honk, in de klosbaan
To take one up sharply (check, reprimand)=Iemand scherpelyk berispen
Pate=De kop, het hoofd
He threatened to break his pate=Hy dreigde hem den kop in te slaan

Burgersdijk notes:
Had ooit een mensch zulk een geluk?
Cloten spreekt van het geluk, dat zijn tegenspeler gehad heeft.

Topics: language, civility, patience, proverbs and idioms

As if I borrowed mine oaths of him and might not spend them at my pleasure

PLAY: Cymbeline
ACT/SCENE: 2.1
SPEAKER: Cloten
CONTEXT:
CLOTEN
Was there ever man had such luck! when I kissed the
jack, upon an up-cast to be hit away! I had a
hundred pound on’t: and then a whoreson jackanapes
must take me up for swearing; as if I borrowed mine
oaths of him and might not spend them at my pleasure.
FIRST LORD
What got he by that? You have broke his pate with
your bowl.
SECOND LORD
If his wit had been like him that broke it,
it would have run all out.
CLOTEN
When a gentleman is disposed to swear, it is not for
any standers-by to curtail his oaths, ha?
SECOND LORD
No my lord; nor crop the ears of them.

DUTCH:
Ik had er honderd pond op staan;
en dan stuift me zoo’n hondsvot van een aap nog op,
omdat ik hem uitvloek; alsof ik m’n vloeken van hem
geborgd had, en ze niet kon uitgeven, zooals ikzelf verkies!

MORE:
Proverb: May we not do with our own what we list?

Pate=The head; used in contempt or in ridicule
Curtail=Curtal, having a docked tail (followed by ‘crop the ears’)
Upcast=A throw at the game of bowls
Take up=Rebuke
Kissed the jack … away=The jack being the small ball in bowls, the closest to the jack at the end of the game wins. If the bowl ends up close to it, it is ‘kissing the jack’ (a great advantage). Cloten’s bowl is then hit away by the ‘upcast’ (throw of an opponent).
Compleat:
Jack (in bowling)=Honk, in de klosbaan
To take one up sharply (check, reprimand)=Iemand scherpelyk berispen
Pate=De kop, het hoofd
He threatened to break his pate=Hy dreigde hem den kop in te slaan

Burgersdijk notes:
Had ooit een mensch zulk een geluk?
Cloten spreekt van het geluk, dat zijn tegenspeler gehad heeft.

Topics: language, civility, patience, proverbs and idioms

I would crave a word or two, the which shall turn you to no further harm than so much loss of time

PLAY: Coriolanus
ACT/SCENE: 3.1
SPEAKER: Menenius
CONTEXT:
MENENIUS
If, by the tribunes’ leave, and yours, good people,
I may be heard, I would crave a word or two,
The which shall turn you to no further harm
Than so much loss of time.
SICINIUS
Speak briefly then,
For we are peremptory to dispatch
This viperous traitor. To eject him hence
Were but one danger, and to keep him here
Our certain death. Therefore it is decreed
He dies tonight.

DUTCH:
.
Zoo gij, tribunen, en
Gij, goede burgers, mij gehoor verleent,
Vraag ik: vergunt me een woord of twee; zij kosten
U verder niets dan wat verloren tijd.

MORE:
Viperous (venomous, malignant) was a common source of metaphor in Elizabethan writing.
Peremptory=Resolved, determined
Compleat:
Peremptory=Volstrekt, uitvoering, volkomen, uiteindig

Topics: anger, punishment, language, patience

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