QUOTES FROM THE BARD

PLAY: Coriolanus ACT/SCENE: 5.4 SPEAKER: Menenius CONTEXT: SICINIUS
He loved his mother dearly.
MENENIUS
So did he me: and he no more remembers his mother
now than an eight-year-old horse. The tartness
of his face sours ripe grapes: when he walks, he
moves like an engine, and the ground shrinks before
his treading: he is able to pierce a corslet with
his eye; talks like a knell, and his hum is a
battery. He sits in his state, as a thing made for
Alexander. What he bids be done is finished with
his bidding. He wants nothing of a god but eternity
and a heaven to throne in.
SICINIUS
Yes, mercy, if you report him truly.
MENENIUS
I paint him in the character. Mark what mercy his
mother shall bring from him: there is no more mercy
in him than there is milk in a male tiger; that
shall our poor city find: and all this is long of
you. DUTCH: Ik schilder hem naar ‘t leven. MORE: Tartness=Sour expression
Engine=Machine
Corslet=Armour
Knell=Tolling bell
Battery=Canon fire
Alexander=Alexander the Great
Want=Lack
Long of=On account of
Compleat:
Tartness=Wrangheid, zuurheid, scherpheid
Engine=Een konstwerk, gereedschap, werktuig; Een list, konstgreep
Corslet=Een borstwapen voor de Piekeniers; een breede gordel
Knell=De doodklok
Battery=Een schietschans, beukery, stormkat, battery
Want=Gebrek Topics: memory, mercy, respect, emotion and mood

Click on one of the Plays or Topics in the Shakespeare.Legal menu on the left for more Shakespeare quotes.