QUOTES FROM THE BARD

PLAY: All’s Well that Ends Well
ACT/SCENE: 1.3
SPEAKER: Countess
CONTEXT:
COUNTESS
Yes, Helen, you might be my daughter-in-law:
God shield you mean it not! daughter and mother
So strive upon your pulse. What, pale again?
My fear hath catched your fondness: now I see
The mystery of your loneliness, and find
Your salt tears’ head: now to all sense ’tis gross
You love my son; invention is ashamed,
Against the proclamation of thy passion,
To say thou dost not: therefore tell me true;
But tell me then, ’tis so ; for, look, thy cheeks
Confess it, th’ one to th’ other; and thine eyes
See it so grossly shown in thy behaviours,
That in their kind they speak it: only sin
And hellish obstinacy tie thy tongue,
That truth should be suspected. Speak, is ‘t so ?
If it be so, you have wound a goodly clew;
If it be not, forswear ‘t : howe’er, I charge thee,
As heaven shall work in me for thine avail,
To tell me truly.

DUTCH:
Slechts zonde
En wederspannige onwil boeit uw tong,
Dat die de waarheid heel’.


MORE:
Proverb: In being your own foe, you spin a fair thread
Proverb: You have spun a fine (fair) thread

Gross=Palpable
Grossly=Conspicuously
Clew=Ball of thread
Compleat:
Gross=Grof, plomp, onbebouwen
You grossly mistake my meaning=Gy vergist u grootelyks omtrent myn meening
Clew=Een kluwen (garen)

Topics: truth, deceit, love, appearance, proverbs and idioms

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