QUOTES FROM THE BARD

PLAY: The Comedy of Errors ACT/SCENE: 4.2 SPEAKER: Adriana CONTEXT:
ADRIANA
I cannot, nor I will not hold me still;
My tongue, though not my heart, shall have his will.
He is deformèd, crooked, old, and sere,
Ill-faced, worse-bodied, shapeless everywhere,
Vicious, ungentle, foolish, blunt, unkind,
Stigmatical in making, worse in mind.
LUCIANA
Who would be jealous, then, of such a one?
No evil lost is wailed when it is gone.
ADRIANA
Ah, but I think him better than I say,
And yet would herein others’ eyes were worse.
Far from her nest the lapwing cries away.
My heart prays for him, though my tongue do curse. DUTCH: O, maar ik acht hem beter, dan ik zeg;
Als and’rer oog hem maar zoo haatlijk vond!
De kieviet schreeuwt, is hij van ‘t nest ver weg;
Mijn harte bidt voor hem, al vloekt mijn mond. MORE: Proverb: The lapwing cries most when farthest from her nest

Hold me still=Stay quiet
Sere=Withered
Stigmatical=Ugly, deformed
Lapwing=Bird that deceives predators by faking the location of its nest
Compleat:
Still=Stil
Stigmatical=Gebrandmerkt, eerloos
Lapwing=Kievit

Burgersdijk notes:
De kievit schreeuwt, enz. In Sh’s. tijd werd de kievit meermalen hiervoor aangehaald, ja de uitdrukking schijnt spreekwoordelijk geweest te zijn. In LILY’s Campaspe leest men:
„You resemble the lapwing, who crieth most where her nest is not.” Shakespeare zelf herhaalt het beeld in ,Maat voor Maat,” I.4. Topics: deceit, perception, insult, proverbs and idioms, envy, manipulation