QUOTES BY TOPIC

QUOTES FROM THE BARD

Be that thou know’st thou art, and then thou art as great as that thou fear’st

PLAY: Twelfth Night
ACT/SCENE: 5.1
SPEAKER: Olivia
CONTEXT:
OLIVIA
Alas, it is the baseness of thy fear
That makes thee strangle thy propriety.
Fear not, Cesario. Take thy fortunes up.
Be that thou know’st thou art, and then thou art
As great as that thou fear’st.
O, welcome, father!
Father, I charge thee, by thy reverence,
Here to unfold (though lately we intended
To keep in darkness what occasion now
Reveals before ’tis ripe) what thou dost know
Hath newly passed between this youth and me.
PRIEST
A contract of eternal bond of love,
Confirmed by mutual joinder of your hands,
Attested by the holy close of lips,
Strengthened by interchangement of your rings,
And all the ceremony of this compact
Sealed in my function, by my testimony,
Since when, my watch hath told me, toward my grave
I have travelled but two hours.

DUTCH:
Helaas, het is de lafheid van uw angst,
Die u uw eigen ik verlooch’nen doet;
Vrees niets, Cesario; grijp slechts uw geluk;
Wees wat gij weet te zijn, dan zijt gij ook
Zoo groot als wat gij ducht.

MORE:
Strangle=Disguise
Propriety=Identity
Unfold=Explain
Occasion=Events
Joinder=Joining
Compact=Contract
Compleat:
Strangle=Verwurgen
Propriety=Eigenschap, eigendom
Unfold=Ontvouwen, open leggen
Occasion=Gelegenheyd, voorval, oorzaak
Compact=Verdrag, verding, verbond

Topics: deceit, identity, fate/destiny, promise

Categories: deceit, fate/destiny, promise, Twelfth Night|

As a madman’s epistles are no gospels, so it skills not much when they are delivered

PLAY: Twelfth Night
ACT/SCENE: 5.1
SPEAKER: Fool
CONTEXT:
OLIVIA
He shall enlarge him. Fetch Malvolio hither:
And yet, alas, now I remember me,
They say, poor gentleman, he’s much distract.
A most extracting frenzy of mine own
From my remembrance clearly banished his.
How does he, sirrah?
FOOL
Truly, madam, he holds Beelzebub at the staves’ end as
well as a man in his case may do. Has here writ a letter
to you. I should have given ’t you today morning, but
as a madman’s epistles are no gospels, so it skills not
much when they are delivered.
OLIVIA
Open ’t, and read it.
FOOL
Look then to be well edified when the fool delivers the
madman.“By the Lord, madam,”—
OLIVIA
How now? Art thou mad?

DUTCH:
Hier heb ik een brief van hem aan u; eigenlijk
had ik u dien van ochtend al moeten geven; maar, daar
dollemansbrieven geen evangeliën zijn, komt het er niet
veel op aan, wanneer zij besteld worden.

MORE:
Proverb: All is not gospel that comes out of his mouth

Enlarge=Release
Much distract=Deranged
Skill=Matter
It skills not much=It doesn’t make much difference
Look then=Be prepared
Well edified=Learn a lot
Compleat:
Distracted=(troubled) Ontsteld; (mad) Dul, krankzinnig; (rend) Gescheurd
To edify=Stichten, opbouwen

Topics: madness, language, communication

Categories: communication, madness, Twelfth Night|

Thou shalt be both the plaintiff and the judge of thine own cause

PLAY: Twelfth Night
ACT/SCENE: 5.1
SPEAKER: Olivia
CONTEXT:
MALVOLIO
Lady, you have. Pray you, peruse that letter.
You must not now deny it is your hand.
Write from it if you can, in hand or phrase;
Or say ’tis not your seal, not your invention:
You can say none of this. Well, grant it then
And tell me, in the modesty of honour,
Why you have given me such clear lights of favour,
Bade me come smiling and cross-gartered to you,
To put on yellow stockings, and to frown
Upon Sir Toby and the lighter people?
And, acting this in an obedient hope,
Why have you suffered me to be imprisoned,
Kept in a dark house, visited by the priest,
And made the most notorious geck and gull
That e’er invention played on? Tell me why.
OLIVIA
Alas, Malvolio, this is not my writing,
Though, I confess, much like the character.
But out of question, ’tis Maria’s hand.
And now I do bethink me, it was she
First told me thou wast mad, then camest in smiling,
And in such forms which here were presupposed
Upon thee in the letter. Prithee, be content.
This practice hath most shrewdly passed upon thee;
But when we know the grounds and authors of it,
Thou shalt be both the plaintiff and the judge
Of thine own cause.

DUTCH:
Doch wees getroost;
Met boos beleid is u die streek gespeeld;
Maar kennen we eens de reed’nen en de daders,
Dan zult gij, beide, klager zijn en rechter,
In eigen zaak.

MORE:
Cited in Shakespeare’s Legal Maxims (William Lowes Rushton):
Proverb: No man ought to be judge in his own cause

Invention=Composition
Light=Sign
Lighter=Lesser
Suffer=Allow
Geck=Fool
Gull=Dupe, easily deceived
Invention=Trick
Character=Handwriting
Practice=Trick
Passed=Imposed
Shrewdly=Grievously
Compleat:
Invention=Uitvindzel
Suffer=Toelaten
Practice=(underhand dealing, intrigue, plot) Praktyk, bedekten handel, list
Gull=Bedrieger
To gull=Bedriegen, verschalken. You look as if you had a mind to gull me=Hete schynt of gy voorneemens waart om my te foppen
Character=Een merk, merkteken, letter, afbeeldsel, uitdruksel, print, stempel, uitgedruktbeeld, uitbeelding
Shrewdly (very much)=Sterk

Topics: learning/education, language, communication, madness, punishment, deceit

Categories: communication, learning/education, madness, punishment, Twelfth Night|

He hath been most notoriously abused

PLAY: Twelfth Night
ACT/SCENE: 5.1
SPEAKER: Olivia
CONTEXT:
FABIAN
Good madam, hear me speak,
And let no quarrel nor no brawl to come
Taint the condition of this present hour,
Which I have wonder’d at. In hope it shall not,
Most freely I confess, myself and Toby
Set this device against Malvolio here,
Upon some stubborn and uncourteous parts
We had conceived against him. Maria writ
The letter at Sir Toby’s great importance,
In recompense whereof he hath married her.
How with a sportful malice it was followed,
May rather pluck on laughter than revenge,
If that the injuries be justly weighed
That have on both sides passed.
OLIVIA
Alas, poor fool, how have they baffled thee!
FOOL
Why, “some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrown upon them.” I was one, sir, in this interlude, one Sir Topas, sir, but that’s all one.
“By the Lord, fool, I am not mad.”—But do you remember? “Madam, why laugh you at such a barren rascal; an you smile not, he’s gagged?” and thus the whirligig of time brings in his revenges.
MALVOLIO
I’ll be revenged on the whole pack of you.
OLIVIA
He hath been most notoriously abused.

DUTCH:
Voorwaar, hij is verschrikk’lijk boos gefopt.

MORE:
Taint=Blemish
Uncourteous parts=Uncivil aspects
Condition=Situation
Conceived against=Discerned in
Importance=Importuning
Pluck on=Induce
Baffled=Humiliated
Interlude=Comedy
Whirligig=Spinning top, merry-go-round
Compleat:
To taint (attaint)=Overtuigen van misdaad, schuldig verklaaren, betichten; bevlekken, bederf aanzetten
Attainted=Overtuigd van misdaad, misdaadig verklaard
Uncourteous=Onbeleefd, onheusch
Condition=Staat, gesteltenis. gelegenheyd
Conceive=Bevatten, begrypen, beseffen, zich inbeelden; scheppen
To importune=Lastig vallen, zeer dringen, gestadig aanhouden, overdringen, aandringen
To pluck=Rukken, plukken
To baffle=Beschaamd maaken
Whirligig=Een kinder meulentje of draaitolletje

To taint (attaint)=Overtuigen van misdaad, schuldig verklaaren, betichten; bevlekken, bederf aanzetten

Topics: madness, reputation, leadership, status, honour, conspiracy

Categories: honour, leadership, madness, status, Twelfth Night|

What is the opinion of Pythagoras concerning wildfowl?

PLAY: Twelfth Night
ACT/SCENE: 4.2
SPEAKER: Fool
CONTEXT:
FOOL
Madman, thou errest. I say, there is no darkness but ignorance, in which thou art more puzzled than the Egyptians in their fog.
MALVOLIO
I say, this house is as dark as ignorance, though ignorance were as dark as hell. And I say, there was never man thus abused. I am no more mad than you are. Make the trial of it in any constant question.
FOOL
What is the opinion of Pythagoras concerning wildfowl?
MALVOLIO
That the soul of our grandam might haply inhabit a bird.

DUTCH:
Wat is de leer van Pythagoras ten opzichte van het
wild gevogelte ?

MORE:
Proverb: The hood (habit, cowl) makes not the monk

Puzzled=Bewildered
Fog=One plague in Egypt was the ‘black darkness’ (Exodus)
Haply=Perhaps
Constant=Logical, common sense
Question=Consideration, discussion
Compleat:
Puzzled=In ‘t naauw gebragt, verbysterd
Foggy=Mistig, mistachtig; log, loom
Haply=Misschien
Constant=Standvastig, bestending, gestadig
Question=Verschil, twyfel

Topics: proverbs and idioms, still in use, learning/education, madness

Categories: learning/education, madness, proverbs and idioms, Twelfth Night|

12 Next