Saturday 16 November 2019

Much ado about nothing – Shakespeare





“Don John:
There is no measure in the occasion that breeds
It; therefore the sadness is without limit.
Conrade:
You should hear reason.
Don John:
And when I have heard it what blessing bringeth
It?
Conrade:
If not a present remedy, yet a patient sufferance.
Don John:
(…) I cannot hide what I am: I must be sad when I have cause,
And smile at no man’s jests; eat when I have
Stomach, and wait for no man’s leisure.” (Shakespeare, 1992, p.524).

“Benedick:
Well, every one can master a grief but he that has it.” (Shakespeare, 1992, p.533).


“Benedick:
(…) for man is a giddy thing, and this is my conclusion.” (Shakespeare, 1992, p.549).


King Henry the Fifth – William Shakespeare


“O for a muse of fire, that would ascend
The brightest heaven of invention, -
A kingdom for a stage, princes to act,
And monarchs to behold the swelling scene!
Then should the warlike Harry, like himself,
Assume the port of Mars; and at his heels,
Leasht in like hounds, should famine, sword and fire,
Couch for employment.” (Shakespeare, 1992, p.485).





“Archbishop of Canterbury:
(…) A thousand pounds a year: thus runs the bill.
Bishop of Ely:
This would run deep.
Archbishop of Canterbury:
                                   ‘Twould drink the cup and all.” (Shakespeare, 1992, p.486).

  
“King Henry:
No king of England if not king of France.” (Shakespeare, 1992, p.493).


“Chorus:
Now entertain conjecture of a time
When creeping murmur and the poring dark
Fills the wide vessel of the universe.
From camp to camp, though the foul womb of night,
The hum of either army stilly sounds,
That the fixt sentinels almost receive
The secret whispers of each other’s watch:
Fire answer fire.” (Shakespeare, 1992, p.503).

“Michael Williams:
We see yonder the beginning of the day, but I
Think we shall never see the end of it.” (Shakespeare, 1992, p.504)


King Henry:
The king
Is not bound to answer the particular endings of
his soldiers, the father of his son, nor the master
of his servant.
(…) Every subject’s duty is the king’s; but every subject’s soul is his own.” (Shakespeare, 1992, p.505).


King Henry:
“Wherein thou art less happy being fear’d
Than they in fearing.
(…)
Not all these, laid in bed majestical,
Can sleep so soundly as the wretched slave,
Who, with a body fill’d and vacant mind,
Gets him to rest, cramm’d with distressful bread.
(…) Winding up days with toil and nights with sleep,
Had the fore-head and the vantage of a king,
The slave, a member of the country’s peace
Enjoys it; but in gross brain little wots
What watch the king to maintain the peace,
Whose hours the peasant best advantages.” (Shakespeare, 1992, p.506).

“King Henry:
(…)
If we are markt to die, we are enow
To do our country loss; and if to live,
The fewer men, the greater the share of honor.
God’s will! I pray thee, wish not one man more.
(…)
Rather proclaim it, Westmoreland, through my host,
That he which hath no stomach to this fight,
Let him depart; his passport shall be made,
And crowns for convoy put into his purse:
We would not die in that man’s company
That fears his fellowship to die with us” (Shakespeare, 1992, p.508).

“Katharine:
Is it possible dat I should love de enemy of France.
Henry:
No; it is not possible you should love the enemy
Of France, Kate: but, in loving me, you should
Love the friend of France; for I love France so well,
That I will not part with a village of it; I will have
It all mine: and, Kate, when France is mine and
I am yours, then yours is France and you are
Mind.
Katharine:
I cannot tell vat is dat.
King Heny:
No, Kate? I will tell thee in French; which I am
sure will hang upon my tongue like a new-mar-
ried wife about her husband’s neck, hardly to be
shook off. (…)
                                   It is as easy for me,
Kate, to conquer the kingdom, as to speak so
Much more French: I shall never move thee in
French, unless it be to laugh at me.” (Shakespeare, 1992, p.517).

“King Henry:
It is not fashion for the maids in France to kiss
Before they are married, would she say?
Alice
Qui, vraiment.
King Henry:
O Kate, nice customs court’sy to great kings.
Dear Kate, you and I cannot be confined within
the weak list of a country’s fashion: we are the makers of the manners.” (Shakespeare, 1992, p.517).

“Chorus:
Thus far, with rough and all unable pen,
Our bending author hath pursued the story;
In little room confining mighty men,
Mangling by starts the full course of their glory.
Small time, but in that small, most greatly liv’d
This star of England: fortune made his sword;
By which the world’s best garden he achieved,
And of it left his son imperial lord.” (Shakespeare, 1992, p.519).