QUOTES FROM THE BARD

PLAY: Cymbeline
ACT/SCENE: 5.5
SPEAKER: Belarius
CONTEXT:
BELARIUS
So sure as you your father’s. I, old Morgan,
Am that Belarius whom you sometime banish’d:
Your pleasure was my mere offence, my punishment
Itself, and all my treason; that I suffer’d
Was all the harm I did. These gentle princes—
For such and so they are—these twenty years
Have I train’d up: those arts they have as I
Could put into them; my breeding was, sir, as
Your highness knows. Their nurse, Euriphile,
Whom for the theft I wedded, stole these children
Upon my banishment: I moved her to’t,
Having received the punishment before,
For that which I did then: beaten for loyalty
Excited me to treason: their dear loss,
The more of you ’twas felt, the more it shaped
Unto my end of stealing them. But, gracious sir,
Here are your sons again; and I must lose
Two of the sweet’st companions in the world.
The benediction of these covering heavens
Fall on their heads like dew! for they are worthy
To inlay heaven with stars.
CYMBELINE
Thou weep’st, and speak’st.
The service that you three have done is more
Unlike than this thou tell’st. I lost my children:
If these be they, I know not how to wish
A pair of worthier sons.

DUTCH:
Uw machtspreuk was mijn heel vergrijp, mijn straf,
En heel mijn hoogverraad; mijn onrecht was
Onrecht te lijden

MORE:
Pleasure=Amusement
Mere offence=Only wrongdoing
Gentle=Noble
Arts=Skills
Moved=Persuaded
Excited=Incited
Unlike=Unlikely
Compleat:
Pleasure=Vermaak, vermaakelykheid, verlustiging, pleizier, welbehaagen
Mere (meer)=Louter, enkel
Gentle=Aardig, edelmoedig
Art=Behendigheid
Moved=Bewoogen, verroerd, ontroerd

Topics: offence, punishment, vanity, betrayal