QUOTES FROM THE BARD

PLAY: All’s Well that Ends Well
ACT/SCENE: 1.1
SPEAKER: Helen
CONTEXT:
HELEN
Our remedies oft in ourselves do lie,
Which we ascribe to heaven: the fated sky
Gives us free scope, only doth backward pull
Our slow designs when we ourselves are dull.
What power is it which mounts my love so high,
That makes me see, and cannot feed mine eye?
The mightiest space in fortune nature brings
To join like likes and kiss like native things.
Impossible be strange attempts to those
That weigh their pains in sense and do suppose
What hath been cannot be: who ever strove
To show her merit, that did miss her love?
The king’s disease—my project may deceive me,
But my intents are fixed and will not leave me.

DUTCH:
Vaak vinden we in onszelf de hulp en baat,
Die wij den hemel vragen. ‘t Noodlot laat
Den weg ons vrij, en spert dien enkel dan,
Wanneer wij loom en traag zijn, zonder plan.

MORE:
Proverb: Like will to like (“To join like likes”)

Fated=Fateful (see also King Lear “The plagues that hang fated over men’s faults”, 3.2)
Mightiest space in fortune=Greatest difference in social rank
Weigh their pains=Count the cost
In sense=In advance
Miss=Fail to gain
Compleat:
Fated=Door ‘t noodlot beschooren
Sense=Het gevoel; gevoeligheid; besef; reden
To take pains=Moeite doen, arbeid aanwenden

Topics: independence, fate/destiny , remedy, satisfaction, achievement, proverbs and idioms