QUOTES FROM THE BARD

Experience, O, thou disprovest report!

PLAY: Cymbeline
ACT/SCENE: 4.2
SPEAKER: Imogen
CONTEXT:
IMOGEN
These are kind creatures. Gods, what lies I have heard!
Our courtiers say all’s savage but at court:
Experience, O, thou disprovest report!
The imperious seas breed monsters, for the dish
Poor tributary rivers as sweet fish.
I am sick still; heart-sick. Pisanio,
I’ll now taste of thy drug.
GUIDERIUS
I could not stir him:
He said he was gentle, but unfortunate;
Dishonestly afflicted, but yet honest.
ARVIRAGUS
Thus did he answer me: yet said, hereafter
I might know more.
BELARIUS
To the field, to the field!
We’ll leave you for this time: go in and rest.

DUTCH:
Wat zijn zij goed! 0 goden,
Wat liegt de wereld toch! Gij, hoov’ling, noemt,
Wat niet de hoflucht ademt, woest en ruw,
Hoe logenstraft thans ondervinding u !


MORE:
Imperious=Imperial
Poor=Small, minor
Sweet=Tasty
Stir=Persuade to talk
Gentle=High bred, noble
Dishonestly=In bad faith
Compleat:
Imperious=Heerschzuchtig
Poor=(mean, pitiful) Arm, elendig
To stir=Beweegen; verwekken
Gentle=Aardig, edelmoedig
Dishonestly=Oneerlyker wyze

Topics: status, truth, civility, sorrow, honesty

All solemn things should answer solemn accidents

PLAY: Cymbeline
ACT/SCENE: 4.2
SPEAKER: Guiderius
CONTEXT:
BELARIUS
My ingenious instrument!
Hark, Polydore, it sounds! But what occasion
Hath Cadwal now to give it motion? Hark!
GUIDERIUS
Is he at home?
BELARIUS
He went hence even now.
GUIDERIUS
What does he mean? since death of my dear’st mother
it did not speak before. All solemn things
Should answer solemn accidents. The matter?
Triumphs for nothing and lamenting toys
Is jollity for apes and grief for boys.
Is Cadwal mad?
BELARIUS
Look, here he comes,
And brings the dire occasion in his arms
Of what we blame him for.

DUTCH:
Wat meent hij? Sinds mijn lieve moeder stierf,
Klonk die muziek niet weer. Een plechtigheid
Vereischt een plechtige oorzaak.

MORE:
Ingenious=Of curious structure
Occasion=Cause
Answer=Correspond to
Accidents=Events
Lamenting toys=Crying over nothing
Dire=Dreadful
Compleat:
Ingenious=Zinryk, vernuftig, scherpzinnig, verstandig, geestig, aardig
Occasion=Gelegenheyd, voorval, oorzaak, nood
To answer to the purpose=Ter zaake antwoorden
Accident=Een toeval, quaal, aankleefsel
Dire=Wreed, yslyk, gruuwelyk

Topics: sorrow, justification, appearance, emotion and mood

And with mine eyes I’ll drink the words you send, though ink be made of gall

PLAY: Cymbeline
ACT/SCENE: 1.1
SPEAKER: Posthumus
CONTEXT:
IMOGEN
O, dissembling courtesy! How fine this tyrant
Can tickle where she wounds! My dearest husband,
I something fear my father’s wrath; but nothing—
Always reserved my holy duty—what
His rage can do on me: you must be gone;
And I shall here abide the hourly shot
Of angry eyes, not comforted to live,
But that there is this jewel in the world
That I may see again.
POSTHUMUS LEONATUS
My queen, my mistress!
O lady, weep no more, lest I give cause
To be suspected of more tenderness
Than doth become a man. I will remain
The loyal’st husband that did e’er plight troth.
My residence in Rome at one Philario’s,
Who to my father was a friend, to me
Known but by letter; thither write, my queen,
And with mine eyes I’ll drink the words you send,
Though ink be made of gall.

DUTCH:
k Neem mijn verblijf in Rome, bij Philario,
Een vriend mijns vaders, dien ikzelf alleen
Uit brieven ken; geliefde, schrijf mij daar;
Mijn oogen zullen uwe woorden drinken,
Al wordt ook inkt uit gal bereid.

MORE:
Tickle=Flatter
Something=Sometimes, to some extent
Hourly=Continually
Gall=Bile; any thing bitter and disagreeable; bitterness of mind, rancour
Gall=An ingredient in ink (iron gall ink)
Compleat:
Gall=Gal
To gall (or vex)=Tergen, verbitteren
Bitter as gall=Zo bitter als gal

Topics: sorrow, appearance, loyalty, language

What shalt thou expect, to be depender on a thing that leans

PLAY: Cymbeline
ACT/SCENE: 1.5
SPEAKER: Queen
CONTEXT:
QUEEN
Weeps she still, say’st thou? Dost thou think in time
She will not quench and let instructions enter
Where folly now possesses? Do thou work:
When thou shalt bring me word she loves my son,
I’ll tell thee on the instant thou art then
As great as is thy master, greater, for
His fortunes all lie speechless and his name
Is at last gasp: return he cannot, nor
Continue where he is: to shift his being
Is to exchange one misery with another,
And every day that comes comes to decay
A day’s work in him. What shalt thou expect,
To be depender on a thing that leans,
Who cannot be new built, nor has no friends,
So much as but to prop him?
Thou takest up
Thou know’st not what; but take it for thy labour:
It is a thing I made, which hath the king
Five times redeem’d from death: I do not know
What is more cordial. Nay, I prethee, take it;
It is an earnest of a further good
That I mean to thee. Tell thy mistress how
The case stands with her; do’t as from thyself.
Think what a chance thou changest on, but think
Thou hast thy mistress still, to boot, my son,
Who shall take notice of thee: I’ll move the king
To any shape of thy preferment such
As thou’lt desire; and then myself, I chiefly,
That set thee on to this desert, am bound
To load thy merit richly. Call my women:
Think on my words.
A sly and constant knave,
Not to be shaked; the agent for his master
And the remembrancer of her to hold
The hand-fast to her lord. I have given him that
Which, if he take, shall quite unpeople her
Of liegers for her sweet, and which she after,
Except she bend her humour, shall be assured
To taste of too.
So, so: well done, well done:
The violets, cowslips, and the primroses,
Bear to my closet. Fare thee well, Pisanio;
Think on my words.

DUTCH:
Want zijn geluk ligt spraak’loos neer, zijn naam
Is stervende. Hij kan niet wederkeeren,
Niet blijven waar hij is.

MORE:
Quench=Grow cool, lose zeal
Shift his being=Relocate, change abode
Leans=Inclining, about to fall
Prop=Support, prop up
Compleat:
Quench=Blusschen, uytblusschen, lesschen, dempen
To lean=Leunen, leenen, steunen
Prop=Een stut, steun. To prop=Ondersteunen, stutten

Topics: sorrow, intellect, remedy, fate/fortune, achievement

Careful hours with Time’s deformèd hand have written strange defeatures in my face

PLAY: The Comedy of Errors
ACT/SCENE: 5.1
SPEAKER: Aegeon
CONTEXT:
AEGEON
I am sure you both of you remember me.
DROMIO OF EPHESUS
Ourselves we do remember, sir, by you.
For lately we were bound as you are now.
You are not Pinch’s patient, are you, sir?
AEGEON
Why look you strange on me? you know me well.
ANTIPHOLUS OF EPHESUS
I never saw you in my life till now.
AEGEON
O, grief hath changed me since you saw me last,
And careful hours with time’s deformèd hand
Have written strange defeatures in my face.
But tell me yet, dost thou not know my voice?
ANTIPHOLUS OF EPHESUS
Neither.
AEGEON
Dromio, nor thou?
DROMIO OF EPHESUS
No, trust me, sir, nor I.

DUTCH:
Door zorgvolle uren heeft de maag’re hand
Des Tijds mij vreemde trekken ingegrift

MORE:
Defeatures=Disfigurements
Careful=Full of cares, subject to anxiety, sorrow, or want
Compleat:
Disfigurement=Mismaaktheyd, wanschapenheyd
Carefull=Zorgvuldig, bezorgd, zorgdraagend, bekommerd

Topics: time, age/experience, sorrow, appearance, grief

Click on one of the Plays or Topics in the Shakespeare.Legal menu on the left for more Shakespeare quotes.

Go to Top