QUOTES FROM THE BARD

PLAY: Timon of Athens
ACT/SCENE: 4.2
SPEAKER: Flavius
CONTEXT:
FLAVIUS
All broken implements of a ruined house.
THIRD SERVANT
Yet do our hearts wear Timon’s livery;
That see I by our faces; we are fellows still,
Serving alike in sorrow: leaked is our bark,
And we, poor mates, stand on the dying deck,
Hearing the surges threat: we must all part
Into this sea of air.
FLAVIUS
Good fellows all,
The latest of my wealth I’ll share amongst you.
Wherever we shall meet, for Timon’s sake,
Let’s yet be fellows; let’s shake our heads, and say,
As ’twere a knell unto our master’s fortunes,
‘We have seen better days.’ Let each take some;
Nay, put out all your hands. Not one word more:
Thus part we rich in sorrow, parting poor.

DUTCH:
Als waar’ ‘t een doodsgelui om ‘s meesters lot:
„Wij kenden beet’re dagen.”

MORE:
To mean coming on hard times, fortunes being in decline/Shakespeare probably didn’t invent the phrase (Sir Thomas Moore, Play, 1590)

Implements=Instruments, objects
Livery=Uniform
Fellows=Comrades
Barque=Ship
Dying=Sinking
Knell=Toll of a bell
Compleat:
Implements=Gereedschap, huisraad
Livery=een Lievry
Fellow=Medgezel
Bark=Scheepje
Knell=De doodklok

Topics: ruin, money, poverty and wealth, equality