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QUOTES FROM THE BARD

One that converses more with the buttock of the night than with the forehead of the morning

PLAY: Coriolanus ACT/SCENE: 2.1 SPEAKER: Menenius CONTEXT: MENENIUS
Why, then you should discover a brace of
unmeriting, proud, violent, testy magistrates, alias
fools, as any in Rome.
SICINIUS
Menenius, you are known well enough, too.
MENENIUS
I am known to be a humorous patrician, and one that
loves a cup of hot wine with not a drop of allaying
Tiber in’t; said to be something imperfect in
favouring the first complaint; hasty and tinder-like
upon too trivial motion; one that converses more
with the buttock of the night than with the forehead
of the morning: what I think I utter, and spend my
malice in my breath. Meeting two such wealsmen as
you are—I cannot call you Lycurguses—if the drink
you give me touch my palate adversely, I make a
crooked face at it. I can’t say your worships have
delivered the matter well, when I find the ass in
compound with the major part of your syllables: and
though I must be content to bear with those that say
you are reverend grave men, yet they lie deadly that
tell you you have good faces. If you see this in
the map of my microcosm, follows it that I am known
well enough too? what barm can your bisson
conspectuities glean out of this character, if I be
known well enough too? DUTCH: [M]en geeft mij na, dat
ik wel wat het zwak heb den eersten klager te veel gelijk
te geven, wat driftig ben en tonderachtig bij een al
te geringe aanleiding, meer met het achterdeel van de
nacht, dan met het voorhoofd van den morgen vertrouwd
ben. MORE: Humorous=Capricious, whimsical
Converses more=Is more conversant with
Too trivial motion=Too trifling a provocation
Spend my malice in my breath=Vent my anger in words
Weal=(1) Welfare, prosperity, happiness; (2) Commonwealth, body politic
Wealsmen=Legislators
Testy=Easily angry, fretful, peevish
Motion=Incitement
Delivered=Spoken, presented
Good faces=(1) Honest faces; (2) Handsome faces
Reverend=Entitled to respect, venerable
Bisson (beesom)=Purblind
Conspectuities=Sight, vision
Glean=Conclude, infer
Map of my microcosm=Face
Compleat:
To deliver (or speak out in discourse)=Een redevoering doen
Purblind=Stikziende
The common-weal=’t Welvaaren van ‘t algemeen
A common-wealths man=Een republyks gezinde
Testy=Korzel, kribbig, gramsteurig, gemelyk
Crooked=Krom, geboogen, scheef Topics: respect, authority, intellect, value, adversity

Categories: adversity, Coriolanus, intellect, respect, value|

Your virtue is to make him worthy whose offence subdues him and curse that justice did it

PLAY: Coriolanus
ACT/SCENE: 1.1
SPEAKER: Martius
CONTEXT:
He that will give good words to thee will flatter
Beneath abhorring. What would you have, you curs,
That like nor peace nor war? The one affrights you,
The other makes you proud. He that trusts to you,
Where he should find you lions, finds you hares;
Where foxes, geese: you are no surer, no,
Than is the coal of fire upon the ice,
Or hailstone in the sun. Your virtue is
To make him worthy whose offence subdues him
And curse that justice did it.
Who deserves greatness
Deserves your hate; and your affections are
A sick man’s appetite, who desires most that
Which would increase his evil. He that depends
Upon your favours swims with fins of lead
And hews down oaks with rushes. Hang ye! Trust Ye?
With every minute you do change a mind,
And call him noble that was now your hate,
Him vile that was your garland. What’s the matter,
That in these several places of the city
You cry against the noble senate, who,
Under the gods, keep you in awe, which else
Would feed on one another? What’s their seeking?

DUTCH:
Een vriend’lijk woord tot u waar’ laag gevlei,
Geen afschuw waard

MORE:
Virtue=Merit, what you excel in
Make worthy=Exalt, glorify
Proud=Full of self-esteem, haughty
Offence subdues=Ruined, disabled, tamed, crushed by their crime
Sure=Reliable, stable
Garland=Champion
Compleat:
Worthy=Waardig, eerwaardig, voortreffelyk, uytmuntend, deftig
Subdue=Onderbrengen
Virtue (efficacy, power, propriety)=Kracht, vermogen, hoedanigheid, eigenschap
Proud=Hovaardig, hoogmoedig, verwaand

Topics: flattery, trust, justice, merit, value

Categories: Coriolanus, flattery, justice, merit, value|

When oil and fire, too strong for reason’s force, o’erbears it and burns on

PLAY: All’s Well that Ends Well
ACT/SCENE: 5.3
SPEAKER: Countess§
CONTEXT:
KING
We lost a jewel of her; and our esteem
Was made much poorer by it: but your son,
As mad in folly, lacked the sense to know
Her estimation home.
COUNTESS
‘Tis past, my liege;
And I beseech your majesty to make it
Natural rebellion, done i’ the blade of youth;
When oil and fire, too strong for reason’s force,
O’erbears it and burns on.
KING
My honoured lady,
I have forgiven and forgotten all;
Though my revenges were high bent upon him,
And watched the time to shoot.

DUTCH:
t Is voorbij, mijn vorst;
En ik verzoek uw hoogheid: in uw oogen
Zij ‘t oproer van het jeugdig bloed, dat blaakt,
Als vuur en olie, sterker dan de rede,
Haar overheert en voortbrandt.

MORE:
Esteem=Worth (own worth)
Estimation=Value
Home=To the full
Make=Consider
Blade=Green shoot, callowness of youth
High bent=Bent to breaking point
Watch the time=Wait patiently
Compleat:
Esteem=Achting, waarde
Estimation=Waardering, schatting
Blade=Blad van een gewas; een Jonker
I have got the bent of his bow=Ik weet wel waar hy heen wil
Watch=Waaken, bespieden
Bent=Buiging, neiging

Topics: value, mercy, revenge, proverbs and idioms, still in use

Categories: All's Well That Ends Well, proverbs and idioms, revenge, still in use, value|

I have forgiven and forgotten all

PLAY: All’s Well that Ends Well
ACT/SCENE: 5.3
SPEAKER: King
CONTEXT:
KING
We lost a jewel of her; and our esteem
Was made much poorer by it: but your son,
As mad in folly, lacked the sense to know
Her estimation home.
COUNTESS
‘Tis past, my liege;
And I beseech your majesty to make it
Natural rebellion, done i’ the blade of youth;
When oil and fire, too strong for reason’s force,
O’erbears it and burns on.
KING
My honoured lady,
I have forgiven and forgotten all;
Though my revenges were high bent upon him,
And watched the time to shoot.

DUTCH:
Eed’le vrouw,
Vergeven heb ik alles en vergeten,
Hoe straf mijn toorn op hem gespannen waar’,
Den tijd voor ‘t schot bespiedend.

Topics: value, mercy, revenge, proverbs and idioms, still in use

Categories: All's Well That Ends Well, proverbs and idioms, revenge, still in use, value|

Praising what is lost makes the remembrance dear

PLAY: All’s Well that Ends Well
ACT/SCENE: 5.3
SPEAKER: King
CONTEXT:
LAFEW
This I must say,
But first I beg my pardon, the young lord
Did to his majesty, his mother and his lady
Offence of mighty note; but to himself
The greatest wrong of all. He lost a wife
Whose beauty did astonish the survey
Of richest eyes, whose words all ears took captive,
Whose dear perfection hearts that scorn’d to serve
Humbly call’d mistress.
LAFEW
Praising what is lost
Makes the remembrance dear. Well, call him hither;
We are reconciled, and the first view shall kill
All repetition: let him not ask our pardon;
The nature of his great offence is dead,
And deeper than oblivion we do bury
The incensing relics of it: let him approach,
A stranger, no offender; and inform him
So ’tis our will he should.

DUTCH:
Lofprijzingen van het verleden laten ons verdrinken in dierbare herinneringen./
‘t Verloor’ne hoog te roemen, Maakt ons ‘t herdenken dierbaar.

MORE:
Proverb: Praising what is lost makes the remembrance dear

‘The first view shall kill all repetition’=after the first meeting the past will be forgotten
Incensing relics=Relics that “receive a perfuming with or offering of incense” (OED)
Compleat:
Praising=Pryzing
Remembrance=Gedachtenis, geheugenis

Topics: value, mercy, friendship, proverbs and idioms, still in use

Categories: All's Well That Ends Well, friendship, proverbs and idioms, still in use, value|

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