QUOTES FROM THE BARD

When shall I hear all through? This fierce abridgement hath to it circumstantial branches which distinction should be rich in

PLAY: Cymbeline
ACT/SCENE: 5.5
SPEAKER: Cymbeline
CONTEXT:
CYMBELINE
When shall I hear all through?
This fierce abridgement
Hath to it circumstantial branches which
Distinction should be rich in. Where, how lived you?
And when came you to serve our Roman captive?
How parted with your brothers ? How first met them?
Why fled you from the court? And whither? These,
And your three motives to the battle, with
I know not how much more, should be demanded,
And all the other by-dependences
From chance to chance; but nor the time nor place
Will serve our long interrogatories. See,
Posthumus anchors upon Imogen;
And she, like harmless lightning, throws her eye
On him, her brothers, me, her master, hitting
Each object with a joy; the counterchange
Is severally in all. Let’s quit this ground,
And smoke the temple with our sacrifices.
Thou art my brother, so we’ll hold thee ever.

DUTCH:
O, wond’re neiging!
Wanneer verneem ik alles nog? Deez’ schets,
Zoo haastig, duidt het overrijke takwerk
Nauw aan, dat ik nog volgen, kennen moet.
Waar leefdet gij, en hoe?


MORE:
Fierce=Savagely cut (abstract)
Abridgement=Summary, abstract
Circumstantial branches which distinction should be rich in=Providing ample narrative for consideration of parts and details
Your three motives=The motives of you three
By-dependences=Side issues
Interrogatories [Intergatories]=Examination, question
Chance to chance=Describing every event
Counterchange=Reciprocation
Severally=Every one in his particular way and manner
Smoke=Perfume with smoke
Compleat:
Fierce=Heftig, vel, vinnig; wreed; trots
Abridgement=Een verkortsel
Circumstantial=Omstandig
To circumstantiate=Met omstandigheden beschryven
Dependance, dependency=Afhangendheid, afhanglykheid, vertrouwen, steunsel, steun
Interrogatory=Ondervraagende; een ondervraaging, vraagstuk
Chance=Geval, voorval, kans
Counter-change=Ruilen
Severally=Verscheidenlyk


Topics: intellect, nature, justification, reason, reply

Nor the time nor place will serve our long interrogatories

PLAY: Cymbeline
ACT/SCENE: 5.5
SPEAKER: Cymbeline
CONTEXT:
CYMBELINE
When shall I hear all through?
This fierce abridgement
Hath to it circumstantial branches which
Distinction should be rich in. Where, how lived you?
And when came you to serve our Roman captive?
How parted with your brothers ? How first met them?
Why fled you from the court? And whither? These,
And your three motives to the battle, with
I know not how much more, should be demanded,
And all the other by-dependences
From chance to chance; but nor the time nor place
Will serve our long interrogatories. See,
Posthumus anchors upon Imogen;
And she, like harmless lightning, throws her eye
On him, her brothers, me, her master, hitting
Each object with a joy; the counterchange
Is severally in all. Let’s quit this ground,
And smoke the temple with our sacrifices.
Thou art my brother, so we’ll hold thee ever.

DUTCH:
Ja meer, veel meer nog heb ik na te vragen,
En al wat daarmee samenhangt te volgen,
En stap voor stap. Doch ‘t is nu tijd noch plaats
Voor zulk een onderzoekend vragen.

MORE:
Fierce=Savagely cut (abstract)
Abridgement=Summary, abstract
Circumstantial branches which distinction should be rich in=Providing ample narrative for consideration of parts and details
Your three motives=The motives of you three
By-dependences=Side issues
Interrogatories [Intergatories]=Examination, question
Chance to chance=Describing every event
Counterchange=Reciprocation
Severally=Every one in his particular way and manner
Smoke=Perfume with smoke
Compleat:
Fierce=Heftig, vel, vinnig; wreed; trots
Abridgement=Een verkortsel
Circumstantial=Omstandig
To circumstantiate=Met omstandigheden beschryven
Dependance, dependency=Afhangendheid, afhanglykheid, vertrouwen, steunsel, steun
Interrogatory=Ondervraagende; een ondervraaging, vraagstuk
Chance=Geval, voorval, kans
Counter-change=Ruilen
Severally=Verscheidenlyk

Topics: intellect, nature, justification, reason, reply

A book? O rare one!
Be not, as is our fangled world, a garment nobler than that it covers:

PLAY: Cymbeline
ACT/SCENE: 5.4
SPEAKER: Posthumus Leonatus
CONTEXT:
POSTHUMUS LEONATUS
Sleep, thou hast been a grandsire, and begot
A father to me; and thou hast created
A mother and two brothers: but, O scorn!
Gone! they went hence so soon as they were born:
And so I am awake. Poor wretches that depend
On greatness’ favour dream as I have done,
Wake and find nothing. But, alas, I swerve:
Many dream not to find, neither deserve,
And yet are steep’d in favours: so am I,
That have this golden chance and know not why.
What fairies haunt this ground? A book? O rare one!
Be not, as is our fangled world, a garment
Nobler than that it covers: let thy effects
So follow, to be most unlike our courtiers,
As good as promise.
When as a lion’s whelp shall, to himself unknown,
without seeking find, and be embraced by a piece of
tender air; and when from a stately cedar shall be
lopped branches, which, being dead many years,
shall after revive, be jointed to the old stock and
freshly grow; then shall Posthumus end his miseries,
Britain be fortunate and flourish in peace and plenty.’
‘Tis still a dream, or else such stuff as madmen
Tongue and brain not; either both or nothing;
Or senseless speaking or a speaking such
As sense cannot untie. Be what it is,
The action of my life is like it, which
I’ll keep, if but for sympathy.

DUTCH:
Een boek? 0 kleinood!
0, wees niet als de wereld thans, een kleed,
Dat eed’ler is dan wat het dekt; uw inhoud
Blijke, ongelijk aan onze hovelingen,
Zoo goed als gij gelooft.

MORE:
Swerve=Go off course, go astray
Such stuff as madmen tongue=The nonsensical, irrational talk of madmen
Or=Either
Jointed=Grafted
Sympathy=Any conformity, correspondence, resemblance
Compleat:
Swerve=Afdwaaaien, afdoolen, afzwerven
Sympathy (natural agreement of things)=Natuurlyke overeenstemming of trek der dingen

Topics: madness, nature, language, reason

Or senseless speaking or a speaking such as sense cannot untie

PLAY: Cymbeline
ACT/SCENE: 5.4
SPEAKER: Posthumus Leonatus
CONTEXT:
POSTHUMUS LEONATUS
Sleep, thou hast been a grandsire, and begot
A father to me; and thou hast created
A mother and two brothers: but, O scorn!
Gone! they went hence so soon as they were born:
And so I am awake. Poor wretches that depend
On greatness’ favour dream as I have done,
Wake and find nothing. But, alas, I swerve:
Many dream not to find, neither deserve,
And yet are steep’d in favours: so am I,
That have this golden chance and know not why.
What fairies haunt this ground? A book? O rare one!
Be not, as is our fangled world, a garment
Nobler than that it covers: let thy effects
So follow, to be most unlike our courtiers,
As good as promise.
When as a lion’s whelp shall, to himself unknown,
without seeking find, and be embraced by a piece of
tender air; and when from a stately cedar shall be
lopped branches, which, being dead many years,
shall after revive, be jointed to the old stock and
freshly grow; then shall Posthumus end his miseries,
Britain be fortunate and flourish in peace and plenty.’
‘Tis still a dream, or else such stuff as madmen
Tongue and brain not; either both or nothing;
Or senseless speaking or a speaking such
As sense cannot untie. Be what it is,
The action of my life is like it, which
I’ll keep, if but for sympathy.

DUTCH:
t Is nog een droom, of wel het zinn’loos kallen
Van hersenlooze onnooz’len; dit of niets;
Of zinnelooze taal, of taal waarvan
‘t Verstand den zin niet vat

MORE:
Swerve=Go off course, go astray
Such stuff as madmen tongue=The nonsensical, irrational talk of madmen
Or=Either
Jointed=Grafted
Sympathy=Any conformity, correspondence, resemblance
Compleat:
Swerve=Afdwaaaien, afdoolen, afzwerven
Sympathy (natural agreement of things)=Natuurlyke overeenstemming of trek der dingen

Topics: madness, nature, language, reason

Speak thou, boy: perhaps thy childishness will move him more than can our reasons

PLAY: Coriolanus
ACT/SCENE: 5.3
SPEAKER: Volumnia
CONTEXT:
VOLUMNIA
The end of war’s uncertain, but this certain,
That, if thou conquer Rome, the benefit
Which thou shalt thereby reap is such a name,
Whose repetition will be dogg’d with curses;
Whose chronicle thus writ: ‘The man was noble,
But with his last attempt he wiped it out;
Destroy’d his country, and his name remains
To the ensuing age abhorr’d.’ Speak to me, son:
Thou hast affected the fine strains of honour,
To imitate the graces of the gods;
To tear with thunder the wide cheeks o’ the air,
And yet to charge thy sulphur with a bolt
That should but rive an oak. Why dost not speak?
Think’st thou it honourable for a noble man
Still to remember wrongs? Daughter, speak you:
He cares not for your weeping. Speak thou, boy:
Perhaps thy childishness will move him more
Than can our reasons. There’s no man in the world
More bound to ’s mother; yet here he lets me prate
Like one i’ the stocks. Thou hast never in thy life
Show’d thy dear mother any courtesy,
When she, poor hen, fond of no second brood,
Has cluck’d thee to the wars and safely home,
Loaden with honour. Say my request’s unjust,
And spurn me back: but if it be not so,
Thou art not honest; and the gods will plague thee,
That thou restrain’st from me the duty which
To a mother’s part belongs. He turns away:
Down, ladies; let us shame him with our knees.
To his surname Coriolanus ’longs more pride
Than pity to our prayers. Down: an end;
This is the last: so we will home to Rome,
And die among our neighbours. Nay, behold ’s:
This boy, that cannot tell what he would have
But kneels and holds up hands for fellowship,
Does reason our petition with more strength
Than thou hast to deny ’t. Come, let us go:
This fellow had a Volscian to his mother;
His wife is in Corioli and his child
Like him by chance. Yet give us our dispatch:
I am hush’d until our city be a-fire,
And then I’ll speak a little.

DUTCH:
Die knaap, die niet kan zeggen wat hij wenscht,
Maar met ons meeknielt en de handen heft,
Bepleit ons smeekgebed met meerder kracht,
Dan gij tot weig’ren hebt!

MORE:
Proverb: The chance of war is uncertain
Proverb: To forget a wrong is best revenge (remedy)

Restrain’st=Legal use: keep back, withhold. Among examples in the New Eng. Dict, is: “The rents, issues, and profites thereof [they] have wrongfully restreyned, perceyved, and taken to their owne use.”
‘Longs=Belongs
An end=Let that be an end to it
Reason=Argue for, plead for
Dispatch=Decisive answer
Compleat:
Restrain (sting, limit or confine)=Bepaalen, kort houden
Restrain (repress or curb)=Fnuiken, beteugelen
To restrain one from a thing=Zich ergens van onthouden
To restrain a word to a signification=Een woord tot eene betekenis bekorten
Dispatch=Afvaardiging, verrichting, beschikking, vervaardiging
He is a man of quick dispatch=Het is een vaardig man

Topics: proverbs and idioms, conflict, reason, revenge, risk

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