Neat trick: to be roused to ambition and reconciled to one's mediocrity at the same time.
My neglected duties crowd around me in my dreams, murmuring.
Good deal: justice for you, mercy for me.
Children use all their wiles to get their way with adults. Adults do the same with children.
The supposed unhappiness of the rich is always a cheerful topic of conversation.
Interpreting the dance: young women in white dancing in a ring can only be virgins; old women in black dancing in a ring can only be witches; but middle-aged women in colors, square dancing...?