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I must excuse what cannot be amended

PLAY: Coriolanus ACT/SCENE: 4.7 SPEAKER: Aufidius CONTEXT: LIEUTENANT
I do not know what witchcraft’s in him, but
Your soldiers use him as the grace ’fore meat,
Their talk at table, and their thanks at end;
And you are darken’d in this action, sir,
Even by your own.
AUFIDIUS
I cannot help it now,
Unless, by using means, I lame the foot
Of our design. He bears himself more proudlier,
Even to my person, than I thought he would
When first I did embrace him: yet his nature
In that’s no changeling; and I must excuse
What cannot be amended. DUTCH: Doch zijn wezen
Verzaakt hij hierin niet; ik moet verschoonen,
Wat ik niet beet’ren kan. MORE: Proverb: What cannot be altered must be borne not blamed
Proverb: To be no changeling

Changeling=Sense shifter, inconstant, turncoat, fickle (Arden)
Darkened=Eclipsed, put into the shade
For your particular=For you personally
Compleat:
Changeling=Een wissel-kind, verruild kind
Particular=Byzonder, zonderling, byzonderheid
To darken=Verduisteren, verdonkeren Topics: remedy, understanding, regret, plans/intentions, proverbs and idioms

Categories: Coriolanus, plans/intentions, proverbs and idioms, regret, remedy|

Like a dull actor now, I have forgot my part

PLAY: Coriolanus
ACT/SCENE: 5.3
SPEAKER: Coriolanus
CONTEXT:
VIRGILIA
The sorrow that delivers us thus changed
Makes you think so.
CORIOLANUS
Like a dull actor now,
I have forgot my part, and I am out,
Even to a full disgrace. Best of my flesh,
Forgive my tyranny; but do not say
For that ‘Forgive our Romans.’ O, a kiss
Long as my exile, sweet as my revenge!
Now, by the jealous queen of heaven, that kiss
I carried from thee, dear; and my true lip
Hath virgin’d it e’er since. You gods! I prate,
And the most noble mother of the world
Leave unsaluted: sink, my knee, i’ the earth;
VOLUMNIA
O, stand up blest!
Whilst, with no softer cushion than the flint,
I kneel before thee; and unproperly
Show duty, as mistaken all this while
Between the child and parent.

DUTCH:
Als een verbijsterd speler
Ken ik mijn rol niet meer, blijf steken, sta hier
Tot ieders spot.

MORE:
Proverb: Revenge is sweet

Disgrace=A state of being abashed, of being exposed to contempt; discredit
Tyranny=Cruelty
Dull=Not bright, dim, clouded; awkward, stupid
Compleat:
Disgrace (discredit, dishonour or reproach)=Smaadheid, schande, hoon
Tyranny=Geweldenary, tyranny, dwingelandy
Dull=Lui, traag; lomp, ongevoelig
A dull wit=Een dof verstand

Topics: regret, language, revenge, proverbs and idioms, still in use, invented or popularised

Categories: Coriolanus, proverbs and idioms, regret, revenge, still in use|

O, he’s a limb that has but a disease; mortal, to cut it off; to cure it, easy

PLAY: Coriolanus
ACT/SCENE: 3.1
SPEAKER: Menenius
CONTEXT:
SICINIUS
He’s a disease that must be cut away.
MENENIUS
O, he’s a limb that has but a disease;
Mortal, to cut it off; to cure it, easy.
What has he done to Rome that’s worthy death?
Killing our enemies, the blood he hath lost—
Which, I dare vouch, is more than that he hath,
By many an ounce—he dropp’d it for his country;
And what is left, to lose it by his country,
Were to us all, that do’t and suffer it,
A brand to the end o’ the world.
SICINIUS
This is clean kam.

DUTCH:
Hij is een edel lid, met een gezwel;
Wegsnijding brengt den dood; en ‘t is genees’lijk.

MORE:
Proverb: To go clean cam (awry)

Mortal=Fatal, deadly
Brand=Mark of infamy, stigma
To the end of the world=Eternal
Kam=Awry, twisted. Crooked. Topsy turvy. Perverse or extraordinary (Irish and Welsh cam)
Compleat:
To cast a brand upon one=Iemands eer brandmerken
Mortal=Sterflyk, doodlyk

Burgersdijk notes:
Gebazel! Het Engelsch heeft This is clean kam. “Dit is geheel verkeerd”, tegen den draad in, à contrepoil.

Topics: remedy, understanding, regret, plans/intentions, proverbs and idioms

Categories: Coriolanus, plans/intentions, proverbs and idioms, regret, remedy|

We will so: almost all repent in their election

PLAY: Coriolanus
ACT/SCENE: 2.3
SPEAKER: All
CONTEXT:
SICINIUS
One thus descended,
That hath beside well in his person wrought
To be set high in place, we did commend
To your remembrances: but you have found,
Scaling his present bearing with his past,
That he’s your fixed enemy, and revoke
Your sudden approbation.
BRUTUS
Say, you ne’er had done’t—
Harp on that still— but by our putting on;
And presently, when you have drawn your number,
Repair to the Capitol.
ALL
We will so: almost all
Repent in their election.
BRUTUS
Let them go on;
This mutiny were better put in hazard,
Than stay, past doubt, for greater:
If, as his nature is, he fall in rage
With their refusal, both observe and answer
The vantage of his anger.
SICINIUS
To the Capitol, come:
We will be there before the stream o’ the people;
And this shall seem, as partly ’tis, their own,
Which we have goaded onward.

DUTCH:
Dit willen wij;
De keus berouwt schier allen.

MORE:
Scaling=Weighing
Putting on=Urging
Drawn=Gathered these people
Put in hazard=Risked
Stay=Wait
Past doubt=The certainty of
Observe=Watch
Answer the vantage=Take advantage of
Compleat:
To put to=Opdringen, toedringen
To hazard=Waagen, aventuuren, in de waagschaal stellen
To stay=Wagten
To observe=Waarneemen, gadeslaan, onderhouden, aanmerken, opmerken

Topics: relationship, merit, status, regret

Categories: Coriolanus, regret, relationship, status|

Oft our displeasures, to ourselves unjust, destroy our friends and after weep their dust

PLAY: All’s Well that Ends Well
ACT/SCENE: 5.3
SPEAKER: King
CONTEXT:
BERTRAM
Admiringly, my liege, at first
I stuck my choice upon her, ere my heart
Durst make too bold a herald of my tongue
Where the impression of mine eye infixing,
Contempt his scornful perspective did lend me,
Which warp’d the line of every other favour;
Scorn’d a fair colour, or express’d it stolen;
Extended or contracted all proportions
To a most hideous object: thence it came
That she whom all men praised and whom myself,
Since I have lost, have loved, was in mine eye
The dust that did offend it.
KING
Well excused:
That thou didst love her, strikes some scores away
From the great compt: but love that comes too late,
Like a remorseful pardon slowly carried,
To the great sender turns a sour offence,
Crying, ‘That’s good that’s gone.’ Our rash faults
Make trivial price of serious things we have,
Not knowing them until we know their grave:
Oft our displeasures, to ourselves unjust,
Destroy our friends and after weep their dust
Our own love waking cries to see what’s done,
While shame full late sleeps out the afternoon.
Be this sweet Helen’s knell, and now forget her.
Send forth your amorous token for fair Maudlin:
The main consents are had; and here we’ll stay
To see our widower’s second marriage-day.

DUTCH:
Vaak drijft ons booze dolheid, en verslaan
We een vriend, om weenend aan zijn graf te staan;

MORE:
Stuck=Fixed
Perspectives=(a) Multifaceted crystal balls, often mounted; (b) A type of painting which, when viewed obliquely, reveals another (more complex or deeper) meaning
Scores=debits
Compt=Account
Remorseful=Regretful, guilty
Compleat:
Perspective=Een verschiet, doorzigt
A piece of perspective=Een afbeelding in ‘t verschiet
A perspective glass=Een verrekyker
Score=Rekening, kerfstok
Scored up=Op rekening, op de kerfstok gezet
Accompt=Rekening, begrooting
Remorse=Knaaging, wroeging, berouw

Topics: regret, guilt, sorrow

Categories: All's Well That Ends Well, regret, sorrow|

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