Act 3 Flashcards
(whose remembrance yet) lives in men’s eyes and will to ears and tongues
Be theme and hearing ever,
i.e. is evident in the changes which he brought to Britain, and will be talked about forever
Famous in Caesar’s praises no whit less/than in his feats deserving it
the fame Cassibelan gained through Caesar’s praises was no less than his actions merited
untendered
unpaid
And to kill the marvel, shall be so ever
and to kill the Romans’ surprise at non-payment by making it an established practice, this will forever after be the case
(and we will nothing pay) for wearing our own noses
for being ourselves (also associates the Romans with crooked noses)
That opportunity
Which then they had to take from ‘s, to resume
We have again.
We can now take back (resume) the advantage that the they (the Romans) took by force (when they demanded payment and allegiance)
My liege
My lord/sovereign
The natural bravery of your isle
the threatening character of the landscape (i.e. the island is naturally well-fortified)
which stands As Neptune's park, ribbed and paled in With oaks unscalable and roaring waters, With sands that will not bear your enemies' boats, But suck them up to the topmast.
which is like a park belonging to the God of the sea, guarded by a thick border of unclimable trees and dangerous waters containing quicksands that will sink any boat up to its highest mast
Ribbed and paled in
ribbed = the ribs around a ships hulk pales = vertical stakes driven into the ground
i.e. enclosed in as if by a ships ribbing and fenced in as if by pales
Twice beaten
Beaten by the Britons on two separate occasions
His shipping/poor ignorant baubles, on our terrible seas/like eggshells moved upon their surges, cracked/as easily ‘gainst our rocks
His ships, like little toys, were as fragile as eggshells on our terrible seas and cracked just as easily against our rocks.
for joy whereof
The famed Cassibelan, who was once at point—
O giglot fortune!—to master Caesar’s sword,
Made Lud’s town with rejoicing fires bright
And Britons strut with courage.
To celebrate his job, the famous Cassibelan, who once almost defeated Caesar, and would have had not fickle fortune (‘giglot fortune’), made London burn bright with victory fires and Britons swagger with courage
but to owe such straight arms, none
but no Roman rulers possessed (‘owe’) such strong (‘straight’) and unbending arms as did Caesar
We have yet many among us can grip(e) as hard as
Cassibelan
There are lots of us who can complain as loudly as Cassibelan. (in our text, it’s grip, but there must be a pun on complaining)
Caesar’s ambition,
Which swell’d so much that it did almost stretch
The sides o’ the world
Caesar was so ambitious that the whole world almost seemed too small for him
against all colour here/did put the yoke upon’s
without any pretence of reason or justice, did here place us under the yoke of roman rule
Mulmutius which ordained our laws
Son of Cloten, King of Cornwall in Geoffrey’s History, and establish Mulmutius’s laws which were later codified by Alfred the Great
whose use the sword of Caesar hath too much mangled
whose practice of the laws were violently corrupted by Caesar’s force
whose repair and franchise/shall, by the power we hold, be our deed
the restoration and free exercise of which/shall, by our power, be enacted by us
(that I am to) pronounce (Augustus Caesar)
proclaim
which did put
His brows within a golden crown
to put on a crown
that hath moe kings his servants than/thyself domestic officers
who has more kings as his servants than you have household attendants
Thus defied,
I thank thee for myself.
So, although I have to declare you an enemy, I thank you for how well you’ve treated me.
of him I gather’d honour;
Which he to seek of me again, perforce,
Behoves me keep at utterance. (difficult one - think carefully)
I gained honour under him, and his violently (perforce) seeking to take it (the honour) back (by requiring tribute), requires me to defend (it?) to the uttermost
I am perfect
I am positive
For their liberties are now in arms, a precedent which not to read would show the Britons cold
Are now fighting for their freedom, a precedent which not to interpret would make the Britons seem apathetic (‘cold’)
Let proof speak
Let the outcome speak for itself
if
you seek us afterwards in other terms, you
shall find us in our salt-water girdle
If you come back for a different purpose, you’ll find us buckled here in our salt-water belt (the defensive belt of water surrounding the British Isles)
(if you fall in the) adventure
enterprise/endeavour
I know your master’s pleasure and he mine:
All the remain is ‘Welcome!’
I know what your king wants and he knows what I want. All that’s left to say is, “Welcome!”
(what a) strange (infection)
foreign
(what false Italian) as poisonous tongued as handed
as skilled in verbal poison (slander) as administering poisonous substances by hand
(she’s punished for her) truth and undergoes…
(she’s being punished for her) loyalty/fidelity (to you), and endures…
…and undergoes more goddess-like than wife-like, such assaults/as would take in some virtue
and endures these attacks of her honour more like a goddess than like a wife, in such a way that would conquer some virtue (? - check this translation)
thy mind to her is now as low as were thy fortunes
your opinion of her is as inferior as your fortunes previously were
Her blood
Should I shed her (royal) blood
It it be so to do good service, never/let me be counted serviceable
If in doing so I’d become a good servant, then never let me become a dutiful servant
(Serviceable literally = dutiful in service by performing all of my master’s commands)
See comparison with King Lear when Cornwall’s servant tries to prevent him from taking out Gloucester’s other eye.
How look I,/That I should seem to lack humanity
so much as this fact comes to?
Do I really look like someone who so lacks human qualities that he could perform this evil deed (fact)?
black (as the ink that’s on thee) - 2 possible meanings
deadly/slanderous
Senseless bauble
insentient trifle
Art thou a fedary for this act, and look’st
So virgin-like without?
Are you an accomplice to this act, even whilst looking so innocent on the outside?
(without = on the outside)
I am ignorant in what I am commanded
I must give no hint of what I have been ordered to do
Who, thy lord? That is my lord, Leonatus?
Who? Your lord? That’s my lord, Leonatus!
(Playing on the difference between Posthumus as Pisanio’s master and Innogen’s husband, since Lord was appropriate to both)
O, learn’d indeed were that astronomer
That knew the stars as I his characters;
He’ld lay the future open.
Wise indeed would the astronomer be, who could read the stars as I can read his handwriting; he could see well into the future
(let what is contained) relish (of love)
taste
… (let what is contained relish…) … of his content - yet not that we two are asunder
*i.e. focus on the meaning of the ‘not’
(let what is within taste) of his contentment - yet let him not be content that we are apart
For it doth physic love
for it increases love’s strength
Of his content, all but in that
Let him be happy in everything but that respect!
Good wax, thy leave. Blest be
You bees that make these locks of counsel!
Wax seal, let me open you. Bless you, you bees who make these seals that keeps confidentiality!
Lovers and men in dangerous bonds pray not alike/
Lovers and men in jail differ in their prayers; (i.e. they differ in their prayers because lovers welcome the secrecy which the wax seal permits, whereas men in jail dread the official notice which sends them to prison)
though forfeiters you cast in prison, yet you clasp young Cupid’s tables.
Although you (referring to the wax seals) cast men who have broken their agreements (forfeiters) into prison, you also seal the writing tablets (tables) of lovers
forfeiters
those who have broken their agreements (and hence are cast into prison by sealed bonds)
- Negative meaning of the ‘as’
Justice, and your father’s wrath, should he take me
in his dominion, could not be so cruel to me, as
you, O the dearest of creatures, would even renew me
with your eyes.
(n.b. as = the key word here, swinging the entire meaning of the letter)
The justice system and your father’s anger, if he captured me in his country, could not be as cruel to me as you, O most beautiful of creatures, a sentiment which just the sight of you could renew in me
- Positive meaning of the ‘as’
Justice, and your father’s wrath, should he take me
in his dominion, could not be so cruel to me, as
you, O the dearest of creatures, would even renew me
with your eyes.
(n.b. as = the key word here, swinging the entire meaning of the letter)
The justice system and your father’s anger, if he captured me in his country, could not be so cruel but that a mere gaze from you would renew me, O most beautiful of creatures.
Cambria
A latinized form of the medieval Welsy Cymry
Milford Haven
A seaport in southern Wales
That remains loyal to this vow, and your increasing in love. (2 possible meanings)
To you who remains loyal to your marital promise and thereby increases Posthumus’s love/to you on the condition that you remain loyal to your vows (thereby increasing your love)
If one of mean affairs
If someone having unimportant business
(O let me bate)
O allow me to modify (my statement)
But not like me, yet long’st/but in a fainter kind
Not as much as I am, still eager, but less so
For mine’s beyond beyond
My longing exceeds that which already surpasses expression
(Say and) speak thick
tell me quickly
Love’s counsellor should fill the bores of hearing to th’smothering of the sense
An advisor to love (i.e. someone who is counselling about love) should fill the passages of one’s ears (bores of hearing) so entirely that the sense are overwhelmed
T’inherit
To possess
How we may steal from hence
How do we move stealthily from here
And for the gap/that we shall make in time, from our hence-going and our return, to excuse
And how do we explain (excuse) the temporal gap between our leaving and our return?
Why should excuse be born or ere begot?
Why should excuse be born before the need for it even exists?
Score
a group of 20
twixt hour and hour?
between one hour and the next
‘twixt sun and sun
between sunrise and sunset
(riding wagers/where horses have been nimbler than the sands/that run i’th’ clock’s behalf)
bets placed on horse races, where horses run more swiftly than the sands in an hourglass
Go bid my woman feign a sickness; say
She’ll home to her father
Go tell my attendant to pretend she’s sick. Say she’s going home to her father.
Franklin
A small land-owner, below the gentry (i.e. firmly middle class, not royal)
I see before me, man
I can only see what is immediately before me
nor here, nor here,
Nor what ensues, but have a fog in them,
That I cannot look through.
What’s there, or there (i.e. what is to come), or what will happen in the future, I can’t see.
(A goodly day) not to keep house
Not to stay inside
This gate instructs you how t’adore the heavens and bows you to a morning’s holy office
This entryway to the cave requires that you bow down to leave it, which prompts a humbling act of reverence by making you which functions as a morning ceremony (holy office)
giants may jet through/and keep their impious turbans on without good morrow to the sun
giants may swagger (jet) through, without removing their unholy turbans in order to say ‘good morning’ to the sun (i.e. without acknowledging the forces of nature)
We house i’th’ rock
In a cave
Yet use thee not so hardly/as prouder livers do
Yet we do not treat the heaves so callously as do those who live more grandly
I’ll tread these flats
I’ll tread this plain
(when you above perceive me) like a crow
As small as a crow
That it is place which lessens and sets off;
(Look specifically at the individual meanings of ‘place’ and ‘lessens’
that it’s just context that makes you seem more or less important.
n.b. place can mean physical location, or social rank (as in social place)
whilst ‘lessens’ can mean diminishes, or instructs (as in ‘lessons’)
(and you may then) revolve
consider
This service is not service, so being done,
But being so allow’d.
This service (in courts and war - see above sentence) does not count when it is enacted, only when it is acknowledged (allowed) by those in authority.
To apprehend thus
To view the matter in this way
draws us a profit from all things we see
Allows us to benefit/learn from everything that we see
The sharded beetle in a safer hold/than is the full-winged eagle
The beetle, encased in dung, resides in a more secure place than the eagle.
(this life is nobler than) attending for a check
Doing courtly service, only to receive a rebuke
(richer than) doing nothing for a babe
(more lucrative than) assuming care for a child without providing adequate care (doing nothing)
Such gain the cap of him that makes him fine/yet keeps his book uncrossed.
Such people receive a salute (gain the cap of) from their tailor (him that makes him fine), but do not pay him, so he carries the debt in his account book (which remains uncrossed).
nor know not what air’s from home
what the air is like away from home
Haply
perhaps
sweeter to you
That have a sharper known; well corresponding
With your stiff age
It seems easier to you because you’ve experienced a harder kind of life. It’s right for your old age.
A cell of ignorance
It’s a place that keeps us ignorant (compare with Innogent being kept under house arrest in the court)
travelling abed
we’re travelling via dreams while in bed
debtor
someone who owes money
That not dares to stride a limit
who dares not cross a boundary for fear of arrest
(the rain and wind) beat (dark December)
beat down/mark or indicate the month of December
(In this our) pinching (cave)
confining/bitingly small
beastly
like beasts
subtle as the fox for prey,
Like warlike as the wolf for what we eat
as clever as a fox looking for prey, as brave as a wolf in killing what we need to eat.
Our valour is to chase what flies;
Our courage shows only by chasing animals that flee from us
i.e. they lack outlets for courtly/civic values to express themselves/develop- limited resources to cultivate personalities & characteristics that would settle them into society
our cage/we make a choir, as doth the prisoned bird/and sing our bondage freely
Like imprisoned birds, we turn our cage into a choir and we are only free to sing about our captivity
Did you but know the city’s usuries/ and felt them knowingly
If only you were aware of the city’s practice of lending money at illegal rates of interest/and experienced them with full knowledge (of their injustices)
As hard to leave as keep, whose top to climb/is certain falling
As difficult to quit as to maintain (keep), ensuring a fall when one reaches the top
The toil o’th’war, / A pain that only seems to seek out danger / I’th’name of fame and honour, which dies I’th’ search /
Chaos/trial of war, a labour that tries only to take risks for the fame & honour it brings, which perishes in the seeking
And hath as oft a sland’rous epitaph / As record of fair act
& as often receives a disparaging inscription on a tombstone as public remembrance of a good deed
nay, many times,
Doth ill deserve by doing well
no, frequently, you receive slander/criticism/insult by acting well/in return for good deeds
