QUOTES FROM THE BARD

PLAY: Cymbeline
ACT/SCENE: 3.4
SPEAKER: Imogen
CONTEXT:
IMOGEN
Why, I must die;
And if I do not by thy hand, thou art
No servant of thy master’s. Against self-slaughter
There is a prohibition so divine
That cravens my weak hand. Come, here’s my heart.
Something’s afore’t. Soft, soft! we’ll no defence;
Obedient as the scabbard. What is here?
The scriptures of the loyal Leonatus,
All turn’d to heresy? Away, away,
Corrupters of my faith! you shall no more
Be stomachers to my heart. Thus may poor fools
Believe false teachers: though those that are betray’d
Do feel the treason sharply, yet the traitor
Stands in worse case of woe.
And thou, Posthumus, thou that didst set up
My disobedience ‘gainst the king my father
And make me put into contempt the suits
Of princely fellows, shalt hereafter find
It is no act of common passage, but
A strain of rareness: and I grieve myself
To think, when thou shalt be disedged by her
That now thou tirest on, how thy memory
Will then be pang’d by me. Prithee, dispatch:
The lamb entreats the butcher: where’s thy knife?
Thou art too slow to do thy master’s bidding,
When I desire it too.

DUTCH:
Van hier, van hier,
Die mijn geloof vervalscht hebt! Weg! niet langer
Dekt gij mij ‘t hart! O, arme dwazen schenken
Geloof aan valsche leeraars. Doch hoe diep
‘t Verraad ook de bedroog’nen griev’, toch treft
Hem, die verraadt, veel erger wee.

MORE:
Disedged=Blunted, with the edge taken off (Cf. Hamlet 3.2, “It would cost you a groaning to take off my edge”)
False teachers=Teachers of heresy
Stomacher=Ornamental covering for the breast worn by women
To tire=To prey or feed ravenously “upon”, rend prey to pieces
Pang=To afflict with great pain, to torment
Compleat:
To blunt=Stomp maaken, verstompen
A false prophet=Een valsch Propheet
A false (erroneous) opinion=Een dwaalend gevoelen

Topics: corruption, manipulation, betrayal, order/society, memory, consequences