When thou wast here above the ground, I was With looking on his life. Alex. Enter ALEXAS. Sovereign of Egypt, hail! Cleo. How much unlike art thou Mark Antony! How goes it with my brave Mark Antony? He kiss'd, the last of many doubled kisses,— Good friend, quoth he, Alex. Her opulent throne with kingdoms; All the east. the poet wrote-bald-fronted Cæsar. The compound epithetbroad-franted, occurs, however, in the tenth Book of Chapman's version of the Iliad: 5 6 a heifer most select, "That never yet was tam'd with yoke, broad-fronted, one Broad-fronted, in allusion to Cæsar's baldness. Henley. "Anchors on Isabel." Steevens. that great medicine hath With his tinct gilded thee.] Alluding to the philosopher's stone, which, by its touch, converts base metal into gold. The alchemists call the matter, whatever it be, by which they perform transmutation, a medicine. Johnson. Thus Chapman, in his Shadow of Night, 1594: "O then, thou great elixir of all treasures." And on this passage he has the following note: "The philosopher's stone, or philosophica medicina, is called the great Elixir, to which he here alludes." Thus, in The Chanones Yemannes Tale of Chaucer, Mr. Tyrwhitt's edit. v. 16,330: 66- the philosophre's stone, "Elixir cleped, we scken fast eche on." See Vol. II, p. 134, n. 8. Steevens. Who neigh'd so high, that what I would have spoke 7 termagant steed,] Old copy-arm-gaunt; i. e. his steed worn lean and thin by much service in war. So, Fairfax: "His stall-worn stced the champion stout bestrode." Warburton. 'On this note Mr. Edwards has been very lavish of his pleasantry, and indeed has justly censured the misquotation of stallworn, for stall-worth, which means strong, but makes no attempt to explain the word in the play. Mr. Seward, in his preface to Beaumont and Fletcher, has very elaborately endeavoured to prove, that an arm-gaunt steed is a steed with lean shoulders. Arm is the teutonic word for want, or poverty. Arm-gaunt may be therefore an old word, signifying, lean for want, ill fed. Edwards's observation, that a worn-out horse is not proper for Atlas to mount in battle, is impertinent; the horse here mentioned seems to be a post-horse, rather than a war-horse. Yet as arm-gaunt seems not intended to imply any defect, it perhaps means, a horse so slender that a man might clasp him, and therefore formed for expedition. Hanmer reads: •arm-girt steed. Johnson. On this passage, which I believe to be corrupt, I have nothing satisfactory to propose. It is clear, that whatever epithet was used, it was intended as descriptive of a beautiful horse, such (we may presume) as our author has described in his Venus and Adonis. Dr. Johnson must have looked into some early edition of Mr. Edwards's book, for in his seventh edition he has this note: "I have sometimes thought, that the meaning may possibly be, thinshoulder'd, by a strange composition of Latin and English:-gaunt quoad armos." Malone. I suppose there must be some error in the passage, and should amend it by reading: And soberly did mount a termagant steed, That neigh'd &c. Termagant means furious. So Douglas, in Henry IV, is called the termagant Scot, an epithet that agrees well with the steed's neighing so high. Besides, by saying that Antony mounted composedly a horse of such mettle, Alexas presents Cleopatra with a flattering image of her hero, which his mounting slowly a jaded post-horse, would not have done. M. Mason. When I first met with Mr. Mason's conjecture, I own I was startled at its boldness; but that I have since been reconciled to it, its appearance in the present text of Shakspeare will sufficiently prove. It ought to be observed, in defence of this emendation, that the word termagaunt (originally the proper name of a clamorous Saracenical deity) did not, without passing through several gradations of meaning, become appropriated (as at present) to a turbulent female. I may add, that the sobriety displayed by Antony in mounting a steed of temper so opposite, reminds us Was beastly dumb'd by him.3 Cleo. What, was he sad, or merry? Alex. Like to the time o' the year between the ex tremes Of hot and cold; he was nor sad, nor merry. Cleo. O well-divided disposition!-Note him, O heavenly mingle! Be'st thou sad, or merry, So does it no man else.-Met'st thou my posts? Cleo. Who 's born that day Shall die a beggar.-Ink and paper, Charmian.- Char. O that brave Cæsar! Cleo. Be chok'd with such another emphasis! Say, the brave Antony. Char. The valiant Cæsar! of a similar contrast in Addison's celebrated comparison of the Angel: "Calm and serene he drives the furious blast." Let the critic who can furnish a conjecture nearer than termagaunt to the traces of the old reading arm-gaunt, or can make any change productive of sense more apposite and commodious, displace Mr. M. Mason's amendment, which, in my opinion, is to be numbered among the feliciter audentia of criticism, and meets at least with my own unequivocal approbation. Steevens. 8 Was beastly dumb'd by him.] The old copy has dumbe. The correction was made by Mr. Theobald. "Alexas means (says he) the horse made such a neighing, that if he had spoke, he could not have been heard." Malone. The verb which Mr. Theobald would introduce, is found in Pericles, Prince of Tyre, 1609 : 9 "Deep clerks she dumbs" &c. Steevens, so thick?] i. e. in such quick succession. So, in Macbeth: As thick as tale, See Vol. VII, p. 37, n..5. Steevens Cleo. By Isis, I will give thee bloody teeth, If thou with Cæsar paragon again My man of men. Char. By your most gracious pardon, I sing but after you. My sallad days; When I was green in judgment:-Cold in blood, ACT II.... SCENE I. Messina. A Room in Pompey's House. Enter POMPEY, MENECRATES, and MENAS.3 Pom. If the great gods be just, they shall assist The deeds of justest men. Mene. Know, worthy Pompey, That what they do delay, they not deny. Pom. Whiles we are suitors to their throne, decays The thing we sue for. 1 My saliad days; When I was green in judgment:-Cold in blood, To say, as I said then!] Cold in blood, is an upbraiding expostulation to her maid. Those, says she, were my sallad days, when I was green in judgment; but your blood is as cold as my judgment, if you have the same opinion of things now as I had then. Warburton. 2 unpeople Egypt.] By sending out messengers. Johnson. 3 The persons are so named in the first edition; but I know not why Menecrates appears; Menas can do all without him. Johnson. All the speeches in this scene that are not spoken by Pompey and Varrius, are marked in the old copy, Mene, which must stand for Menecrates. The course of the dialogue shows that some of them at least belong to Menas; and accordingly they are to him attributed in the modern editions; or, rather, a syllable [Men] has been prefixed, that will serve equally to denote the one or the other of these personages. I have given the first two speeches to Menecrates, and the rest to Menas. It is a matter of little consequence. Malone. 4 Whiles we are suitors to their throne, decays The thing we sue for.] The meaning is, While we are praying, the thing for which we pray is losing its value. Johnson. Mene. powers We, ignorant of ourselves, Pom. I shall do well: The people love me, and the sea is mine; My power's a crescent,5 and my auguring hope In Egypt sits at dinner, and will make No wars without doors: Cæsar gets money, where Of both is flatter'd; but he neither loves, Men. Men. From Silvius, sir. Pom. He dreams; I know, they are in Rome together, Looking for Antony: But all charms of love, Salt Cleopatra, soften thy wan'd lip!7 5 My power's a crescent, &c.] In old editions: What does the relative it belong to? It cannot in sense relate to hope, nor in concord to powers. The poet's allusion is to the moon; and Pompey would say, he is yet but a half moon, or crescent; but his hopes tell him, that crescent will come to a full orb. · Theobald. 6 - charms-] Old copy-the charms - The article is here omitted, on account of metre. Steevens. 7 thy wan'd lip!] In the old edition it is thy wand lip! Perhaps, for fond lip, or warm lip, says Dr. Johnson. Wand, if it stand, is either a corruption of wan, the adjective, or a contraction of wanned, or made wan, a participle. So, in Hamlet: "That, from her working, all his visage wan'd." Again, in Beaumont and Fletcher's Queen of Corinth: "Now you look wan and pale; lips' ghosts you are." Again, in Marston's Antonio and Mellida: 66 a cheek "Not as yet wan'd." Or perhaps waned lip, i. e. decreased, like the moon, in its beauty. So, in The Tragedy of Mariam, 1613: "And Cleopatra then to seek had been "So firm a lover of her wained face." Again, in The Skynner's Play, among the Chester collection of Mysteries, MS. Harl. 1013, p. 152: |