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Nothing emboldens sin so much as mercy

PLAY: Timon of Athens
ACT/SCENE: 3.5
SPEAKER: First Senator
CONTEXT:
FIRST SENATOR
My lord, you have my voice to it; the fault’s
Bloody; ’tis necessary he should die:
Nothing emboldens sin so much as mercy.
SECOND SENATOR
Most true; the law shall bruise him.
ALCIBIADES
Honour, health, and compassion to the senate!
FIRST SENATOR
Now, captain?

DUTCH:
Ik geef mijn stem er toe; ‘t vergrijp is bloedig;
‘t Is noodig, dat de dader sterv’;
Niets maakt de zonde driester dan erbarmen.

MORE:
Proverb: Pardon makes offenders

Voice=Vote, support
Emboldens=Encourages
Bruise=Crush, destroy
Compleat:
Voice=Stem, recht van stemmen
To embolden (imbolden)=Verstouten, moed inspreeken, aanmoedigen
To bruise=Kneuzen, verpletteren, stooten, blutzen

Topics: proverbs and idioms, mercy, offence, law/legal

Categories: law/legal, offence, proverbs and idioms, Timon of Athens|

The law shall bruise him

DUTCH:
t Is juist; de wet moet hem vergruiz’len.

MORE:
Proverb: Pardon makes offenders

Voice=Vote, support
Emboldens=Encourages
Bruise=Crush, destroy
Compleat:
Voice=Stem, recht van stemmen
To embolden (imbolden)=Verstouten, moed inspreeken, aanmoedigen
To bruise=Kneuzen, verpletteren, stooten, blutzen

Topics: proverbs and idioms, mercy, offence, justice

Categories: justice, offence, proverbs and idioms, Timon of Athens|

You undergo too strict a paradox, striving to make an ugly deed look fair

PLAY: Timon of Athens
ACT/SCENE: 3.5
SPEAKER: First Senator
CONTEXT:
FIRST SENATOR
You undergo too strict a paradox,
Striving to make an ugly deed look fair:
Your words have took such pains as if they laboured
To bring manslaughter into form and set quarrelling
Upon the head of valour; which indeed
Is valour misbegot and came into the world
When sects and factions were newly born:
He’s truly valiant that can wisely suffer
The worst that man can breathe, and make his wrongs
His outsides, to wear them like his raiment, carelessly,
And ne’er prefer his injuries to his heart,
To bring it into danger.
If wrongs be evils and enforce us kill,
What folly ’tis to hazard life for ill!

DUTCH:
Gij onderneemt iets al te wonderspreukigs,
Als gij een daad, zoo zwart, blank wasschen wilt;

MORE:
Paradox=Absurdity
Form=Semblance, formality
Misbegot=Misconceived
Outsides=Clothes
Compleat:
Paradox=Een wonderspreuk, een vreemde reden die tegen ‘t gemeen gevoelen schynt aan te loopen
Form=Fatzoen, figuur, gestalte, formaat; manier, wyze
Misbegot=Onecht gebooren

Topics: appearance, good and bad, language justice

Categories: appearance, Timon of Athens|

To revenge is no valour, but to bear

PLAY: Timon of Athens
ACT/SCENE: 3.5
SPEAKER: First Senator
CONTEXT:
FIRST SENATOR
You cannot make gross sins look clear:
To revenge is no valour, but to bear.
ALCIBIADES
My lords, then, under favour, pardon me,
If I speak like a captain.
Why do fond men expose themselves to battle,
And not endure all threats? sleep upon’t,
And let the foes quietly cut their throats,
Without repugnancy? If there be
Such valour in the bearing, what make we
Abroad? why then, women are more valiant
That stay at home, if bearing carry it,
And the ass more captain than the lion, the felon
Loaden with irons wiser than the judge,
If wisdom be in suffering. O my lords,
As you are great, be pitifully good:
Who cannot condemn rashness in cold blood?
To kill, I grant, is sin’s extremest gust;
But, in defence, by mercy, ’tis most just.
To be in anger is impiety;
But who is man that is not angry?
Weigh but the crime with this.
SECOND SENATOR
You breathe in vain.

DUTCH:
Uw spreken maakt geen grove zonden goed,
Niet wraakzucht, maar geduld is ware moed.

MORE:
Cited in Shakespeare’s Legal Maxims (William Lowes Rushton)

Proverb: Who is man that is not angry?

Bear=Endure
Fond=Foolish
Repugnancy=Opposition
Irons=Shackles
Gust=Conception (murder is the greatest sin)
Impiety=Transgression
Compleat:
To bear=Draagen, voeren, verdraagen; dulden
Fond=Zot, dwaas, ongerymt
Repugnance=Strydigheid, tegenstrydigheid
Gust=Begeerlykheid, lust
Impiety=Ongodvruchtigheid, godloosheid

Topics: proverbs and idioms, law/legal, wisdom, anger, defence

Categories: anger, defence, proverbs and idioms, Timon of Athens, wisdom|

Who cannot condemn rashness in cold blood?

PLAY: Timon of Athens
ACT/SCENE: 3.5
SPEAKER: Alcibiades
CONTEXT:
ALCIBIADES
My lords, then, under favour, pardon me,
If I speak like a captain.
Why do fond men expose themselves to battle,
And not endure all threats? sleep upon’t,
And let the foes quietly cut their throats,
Without repugnancy? If there be
Such valour in the bearing, what make we
Abroad? why then, women are more valiant
That stay at home, if bearing carry it,
And the ass more captain than the lion, the felon
Loaden with irons wiser than the judge,
If wisdom be in suffering. O my lords,
As you are great, be pitifully good:
Who cannot condemn rashness in cold blood?
To kill, I grant, is sin’s extremest gust;
But, in defence, by mercy, ’tis most just.
To be in anger is impiety;
But who is man that is not angry?
Weigh but the crime with this.
SECOND SENATOR
You breathe in vain.

DUTCH:
O, waarde heeren,
Weest niet slechts groot, maar deernisvol en goed;
Wie gispt den toorn niet licht bij rustig bloed?