QUOTES FROM THE BARD

PLAY: Cymbeline
ACT/SCENE: 1.7
SPEAKER: Imogen
CONTEXT:
IMOGEN
I pray you, sir,
Deliver with more openness your answers
To my demands. Why do you pity me?
IACHIMO
That others do—
I was about to say, enjoy your—but
It is an office of the gods to venge it,
Not mine to speak on ’t.
IMOGEN
You do seem to know
Something of me or what concerns me. Pray you,
Since doubting things go ill often hurts more
Than to be sure they do—for certainties
Either are past remedies, or, timely knowing,
The remedy then born—discover to me
What both you spur and stop.
IACHIMO
Had I this cheek
To bathe my lips upon; this hand, whose touch,
Whose every touch, would force the feeler’s soul
To the oath of loyalty; this object, which
Takes prisoner the wild motion of mine eye,
Fixing it only here; should I, damn’d then,
Slaver with lips as common as the stairs
That mount the Capitol; join gripes with hands
Made hard with hourly falsehood—falsehood, as
With labour; then by-peeping in an eye
Base and unlustrous as the smoky light
That’s fed with stinking tallow; it were fit
That all the plagues of hell should at one time
Encounter such revolt.

DUTCH:
Vaak slaat de vrees voor rampen dieper wond
Dan zekerheid er van.

MORE:
Doubting=Suspecting, fearing
Past remedies=Beyond resolution, beyond our ability to resolve
Timely knowing, the remedy then born=If we know in time, we can devise a solution
What both you spur and stop=Urges on and at the same time holds back
Compleat:
To spur (on)=Aanspooren, noopen, aandryven
To spur a question=Een onverwagte, schielyke vraag doen
Timely=Tydig, gepast

Topics: uncertainty, concern , remedy