QUOTES FROM THE BARD

PLAY: All’s Well that Ends Well
ACT/SCENE: 1.1
SPEAKER: Countess
CONTEXT:
LAFEW
I would it were not notorious. Was this gentlewoman
the daughter of Gerard de Narbon?
COUNTESS
His sole child, my lord, and bequeathed to my
overlooking. I have those hopes of her good that
her education promises; her dispositions she
inherits, which makes fair gifts fairer; for where
an unclean mind carries virtuous qualities, there
commendations go with pity; they are virtues and
traitors too; in her they are the better for their
simpleness; she derives her honesty and achieves her
goodness.
LAFEW
Your commendations, madam, get from her tears.
COUNTESS
‘Tis the best brine a maiden can season her praise
in. The remembrance of her father never approaches
her heart but the tyranny of her sorrows takes all
livelihood from her cheek. No more of this, Helen;
go to, no more; lest it be rather thought you affect
a sorrow than have it.

DUTCH:
Ik heb alle verwachting van het goede, dat hare opvoeding belooft; de natuur, die zij geërfd heeft, maakt de schoone gaven, die opvoeding schenkt, nog schooner;

MORE:
Proverb: Blood is inherited but virtue is achieved

Overlooking=Guardianship
Fated=Fateful (see also King Lear “The plagues that hang fated over men’s faults”, 3.2)
Go with pity=Accompanied by regret
Simpleness=Plainness (being unmixed), unrefined nativeness, innocence
Unclean=(in a moral sense) Impure
Derive=Inherit
Compleat:
Disposition (or Inclination)=Genegenheid, Lust
Disposition of mind=Gesteltenis van gemoed
Simple=Onbeschadigend, eenvoudig
Fated=Door ‘t noodlot beschooren

Topics: nature, learning/education, virtue, innocence, fate/destiny, proverbs and idioms