QUOTES FROM THE BARD

PLAY: Cymbeline
ACT/SCENE: 5.4
SPEAKER: Posthumus Leonatus
CONTEXT:
POSTHUMUS LEONATUS
Sleep, thou hast been a grandsire, and begot
A father to me; and thou hast created
A mother and two brothers: but, O scorn!
Gone! they went hence so soon as they were born:
And so I am awake. Poor wretches that depend
On greatness’ favour dream as I have done,
Wake and find nothing. But, alas, I swerve:
Many dream not to find, neither deserve,
And yet are steep’d in favours: so am I,
That have this golden chance and know not why.
What fairies haunt this ground? A book? O rare one!
Be not, as is our fangled world, a garment
Nobler than that it covers: let thy effects
So follow, to be most unlike our courtiers,
As good as promise.
When as a lion’s whelp shall, to himself unknown,
without seeking find, and be embraced by a piece of
tender air; and when from a stately cedar shall be
lopped branches, which, being dead many years,
shall after revive, be jointed to the old stock and
freshly grow; then shall Posthumus end his miseries,
Britain be fortunate and flourish in peace and plenty.’
‘Tis still a dream, or else such stuff as madmen
Tongue and brain not; either both or nothing;
Or senseless speaking or a speaking such
As sense cannot untie. Be what it is,
The action of my life is like it, which
I’ll keep, if but for sympathy.

DUTCH:
t Is nog een droom, of wel het zinn’loos kallen
Van hersenlooze onnooz’len; dit of niets;
Of zinnelooze taal, of taal waarvan
‘t Verstand den zin niet vat

MORE:
Swerve=Go off course, go astray
Such stuff as madmen tongue=The nonsensical, irrational talk of madmen
Or=Either
Jointed=Grafted
Sympathy=Any conformity, correspondence, resemblance
Compleat:
Swerve=Afdwaaaien, afdoolen, afzwerven
Sympathy (natural agreement of things)=Natuurlyke overeenstemming of trek der dingen

Topics: madness, nature, language, reason