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The people will remain uncertain whilst ’twixt you there’s difference; but the fall of either makes the survivor heir of all

PLAY: Coriolanus ACT/SCENE: 5.6 SPEAKER: Third Conspirator CONTEXT: SECOND CONSPIRATOR
Most noble sir,
If you do hold the same intent wherein
You wish’d us parties, we’ll deliver you
Of your great danger.
AUFIDIUS
Sir, I cannot tell:
We must proceed as we do find the people.
THIRD CONSPIRATOR
The people will remain uncertain whilst
’Twixt you there’s difference; but the fall of either
Makes the survivor heir of all.
AUFIDIUS
I know it;
And my pretext to strike at him admits
A good construction. I raised him, and I pawn’d
Mine honour for his truth: who being so heighten’d,
He water’d his new plants with dews of flattery,
Seducing so my friends; and, to this end,
He bow’d his nature, never known before
But to be rough, unswayable and free. DUTCH: Steeds wankel blijft het volk, zoolang er strijd
Is tusschen u en hem, maar de ondergang
Van de’ een doet de’ ander alles erven. MORE: Construction=Interpretation
A good construction=Well-founded
Pawn=Pledge
To bow=To crush, to strain
Compleat:
To bow=Buigen, neigen, bukken
Construction=Uitlegging; woordenschikking
To pawn=Verpanden Topics: reputation, uncertainty, conflict, rivalry

Categories: conflict, Coriolanus, reputation, rivalry|

He water’d his new plants with dews of flattery, seducing so my friends

PLAY: Coriolanus
ACT/SCENE: 5.6
SPEAKER: Aufidius
CONTEXT:
THIRD CONSPIRATOR
The people will remain uncertain whilst
’Twixt you there’s difference; but the fall of either
Makes the survivor heir of all.
AUFIDIUS
I know it;
And my pretext to strike at him admits
A good construction. I raised him, and I pawn’d
Mine honour for his truth: who being so heighten’d,
He water’d his new plants with dews of flattery,
Seducing so my friends; and, to this end,
He bow’d his nature, never known before
But to be rough, unswayable and free.

DUTCH:
Doch, pas verheven,
Bedauwde hij met vleierij zijn planten,
En trok mijn vrienden van mij af; hij plooide
Daartoe zijn aard, dien niemand vroeger anders
Dan ruw, onbuigzaam, eigenwillig kende.

MORE:
Construction=Interpretation
A good construction=Well-founded
Pawn=Pledge
To bow=To crush, to strain
Compleat:
To bow=Buigen, neigen, bukken
Construction=Uitlegging; woordenschikking
To pawn=Verpanden

Topics: flattery, achievement, reputation

Categories: Coriolanus, flattery, reputation|

One fire drives out one fire; one nail, one nail; rights by rights falter, strengths by strengths do fail

PLAY: Coriolanus
ACT/SCENE: 4.7
SPEAKER: Aufidius
CONTEXT:
AUFIDIUS
All places yield to him ere he sits down;
And the nobility of Rome are his:
The senators and patricians love him too:
The tribunes are no soldiers; and their people
Will be as rash in the repeal, as hasty
To expel him thence. I think he’ll be to Rome
As is the osprey to the fish, who takes it
By sovereignty of nature. First he was
A noble servant to them; but he could not
Carry his honours even: whether ’twas pride,
Which out of daily fortune ever taints
The happy man; whether defect of judgment,
To fail in the disposing of those chances
Which he was lord of; or whether nature,
Not to be other than one thing, not moving
From the casque to the cushion, but commanding peace
Even with the same austerity and garb
As he controll’d the war; but one of these—
As he hath spices of them all, not all,
For I dare so far free him— made him fear’d,
So hated, and so banish’d: but he has a merit,
To choke it in the utterance. So our virtues
Lie in the interpretation of the time:
And power, unto itself most commendable,
Hath not a tomb so evident as a chair
To extol what it hath done.
One fire drives out one fire; one nail, one nail;
Rights by rights falter, strengths by strengths do fail.
Come, let’s away. When, Caius, Rome is thine,
Thou art poor’st of all; then shortly art thou mine.

DUTCH:
Voor nagels wijken nagels, gloed voor gloed;
Door rechten struik’len rechten, moed breekt moed.

MORE:
Proverb: Fire drives out fire (1592)
Proverb: One fire (or one nail or one poison) drives out another.

Casque=Battlefield
Cushion=Senate
Austerity and garb=Modest attire
In the interpretation of the time=Evaluation according to prevailing standards
Unto itself most commendable=Having a very high opinion of itself
Extol=Praise, magnify
Chair=A seat of public authority
Compleat:
Chair of state=Zetel
Extoll=Verheffen, pryzen, looven
To extol one, raise him up to the sky=Iemand tot den Hemel toe verheffen
Highly commendable=Ten hoogste pryselyk

Topics: proverbs and idioms, still in use, merit, virtue, reputation, ruin, remedy

Categories: Coriolanus, merit, proverbs and idioms, reputation, virtue|

He was a kind of nothing, titleless, till he had forged himself a name

PLAY: Coriolanus
ACT/SCENE: 5.1
SPEAKER: Cominius
CONTEXT:
COMINIUS
He would not seem to know me.
MENENIUS
Do you hear?
COMINIUS
Yet one time he did call me by my name.
I urged our old acquaintance, and the drops
That we have bled together. “Coriolanus”
He would not answer to, forbade all names.
He was a kind of nothing, titleless,
Till he had forged himself a name o’ th’ fire
Of burning Rome.

DUTCH:
Hij was een soort van niets, gansch zonder naam,
Tot hij zich uit de vlam van ‘t brandend Rome
Een naam gesmeed had.

MORE:
To urge=To speak of, to mention
Yet=Only
Forge=To frame in general
Compleat:
Forge=Smeden; uitvinden
To urge=Dringen, pressen, aandringen, aanstaan

Topics: status, authority, reputation

Categories: Coriolanus, reputation, status|

You are well understood to be a perfecter giber for the table than a necessary bencher in the Capitol

PLAY: Coriolanus
ACT/SCENE: 2.1
SPEAKER:
CONTEXT:
MENENIUS
You know neither me, yourselves nor any thing. You are ambitious for poor knaves’ caps and legs: you wear out a good wholesome forenoon in hearing a cause between an orange wife and a fosset-seller; and then rejourn the controversy of three pence to a second day of audience. When you are hearing a matter between party and party, if you chance to be pinched with the colic, you make faces like mummers; set up the bloody flag against all patience; and, in roaring for a chamber-pot, dismiss the controversy bleeding the more entangled by your hearing: all the peace you make in their cause is calling both the parties knaves. You are a pair of strange ones.
BRUTUS
Come, come, you are well understood to be a
perfecter giber for the table than a necessary
bencher in the Capitol.

DUTCH:
Kom, kom, het is overbekend, dat gij veeleer een onverbeterlijk grappenmaker aan tafel zijt, dan een onontbeerlijk bijzitter op het Kapitool.

MORE:
Proverb: Know thyself

Ambitious for caps and legs=Wanting people to bow and doff caps
Bencher=member of a court or council
Set up the bloody flag=Declare war on (patience)
Fosset, forset, faucet=Kind of tap for drawing liquor from a barrel; only in “faucet-seller”
Giber=entertainer, (aftr-dinner) jester
Mummer=Someone wearing a mask
The more entangled=To make (the dispute) more confused and intricate
Compleat:
To gibe=Boerten, gekscheeren
Bencher=Een byzitter, Raad, een Rechtsgeleerde van den eersten rang in ‘t Genootschap
Mummer=Een vermomde
Faucet (or peg)=Zwikje, pennetje tot een vat

Topics: proverbs and idioms, language, intellect, reputation, judgment, dispute

Categories: Coriolanus, intellect, judgment, proverbs and idioms, reputation|

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