As he shall like, to quit me:7 Urge it thou: [Exit THYR. Alack, our terrene moon I must stay his time. Is now eclip'sd; and it portends alone The fall of Antony! Cleo. Ant. To flatter Cæsar, would you mingle eyes With one that ties his points? Cleo. Not know me yet? Ant. Cold-hearted toward me? Ah, dear, if I be so, From my cold heart let heaven engender hail, 7 to quit me:] To repay me this insult; to requite me: Johnson. 8 With one that ties his points?] i. e. with a menial attendant. Points were laces with metal tags, with which the old trunkhose were fastened. 9 Malone. as it determines,] That is, as the hailstone dissolves. So, in King Henry IV, P. II: "Till his friend sickness hath determin'd me.” See Vol. IX. p. 147, n. 4. Steevens. M. Mason. 1 The next Cæsarion smite!] Cæsarion was Cleopatra's son by Julius Cæsar. Steevens. The folio has smile. This literal error will serve to corroborate Dr. Farmer's conjecture in King Henry V, Vol. IX, p. 135, n. 6. Reed. 2 By the discandying of this pelleted storm,] The old folios read, discandering: from which corruption both Dr. Thirlby and I saw, we must retrieve the word with which I have reformed the text. Theobald. Discandy is used in the next Act. Malone. 3 till the flies and gnats of Nile Have buried them for prey!] We have a kindred thought in Macbeth: Ant. I am satisfied. Cæsar sits down in Alexandria; where Have knit again, and fleet, threat'ning most sea-like. Cleo. That's my brave lord! Ant. I will be treble-sinew'd,6 hearted, breath'd, and fleet,] Float was a modern emendation, perhaps right. The old reading is— and fleet, Johnson. I have replaced the old reading. Float and fleet were synonymous. So, in the tragedy of Edward II, by Marlow, 1598: "This isle shall fleet upon the ocean." Again, in Tamburlaine, 1590: "Shall meet those Christians fleeting with the tide." Again, in The Cobler's Prophecy, 1594: "And envious snakes among the fleeting fish.". Again, in Spenser's Fairy Queen, B. II, c. vii : "And in frayle wood on Adrian gulfe doth fleet.” Again, in Harding's Chronicle, 1543: "The bodies flete amonge our shippes eche daye." Mr. Tollet has since furnished me with instances in support of this old reading, from Verstegan's Restitution of decay'd Intelligence, Holinshed's Description of Scotland, and Spenser's Colin Clout's come home again. Steevens. The old reading should certainly be restored. Fleet is the old word for float. See Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, 1598, 2399, 4883. Tyrwhitt. 5 I and my sword will earn our chronicle;] I and my sword will do such acts as shall deserve to be recorded. Malone. So, in a former part of this scene Enobarbus has said: "And earns a place i' the story." Steevens. 6 I will be treble-sinew'd,] So, in The Tempest: 66 which to do, "Trebles thee o'er." Antony means to say, that he will be treble-hearted, and treble-breath'd, as well as treble-sinew'd. Malone. 7 Were nice and lucky,] Nice, for delicate, courtly, flowing in peace. Warburton. Nice rather seems to be, just fit for my purpose, agreeable to my Of me for jests; but now, I'll set my teeth,' Cleo. It is my birth-day: I had thought, to have held it poor; but, since my lord Is Antony again, I will be Cleopatra.2 Ant. We'll yet do well. Cleo. Call all his noble captains to my lord. wish. So we vulgarly say of any thing that is done better than was expected, it is nice. Johnson. Nice is trifling. So, in Romeo and Juliet, Act V, sc. ii : "The letter was not nice, but full of charge." See a note on this passage. Steevens. Again, in King Richard III: 8 My lord, this argues conscience in your grace, "But the respects thereof are nice and trivial." Malone. when mine hours Were nice and lucky, men did ransome lives Of me for jests; but now &c.] There is some resemblance between this passage and the following speech of Achilles in the 21st Iliad, as translated by Chapman: 9 "Till his death, I did grace to Troy; and many lives di rate "At price of ransome; but none now, of all the brood of Troy "(Who ever Jove throwes to my hands) shall any breath enjoy." Steevens. I'll set my teeth,] So, in Coriolanus: " his teeth and tear it" &c. See this volume, p. 23. 1 - he did so set Steevens. - gaudy night:] This is still an epithet bestowed on feast days in the colleges of either university. Steevens. Gowdy, or Grand days in the Inns of court, are four in the year, Ascension day, Midsummer day, All-saints day, and Candlemas day. "The etymology of the word," says Blount, in his Dictionary, may be taken from Judge Gawdy, who (as some affirm) was the first institutor of those days; or rather from gaudium, because (to say truth) they are days of joy, as bringing good cheer to the hungry students. In colleges they are most commonly called Gawdy, in inns of court Grand days, and in some other places they are called Collar days." Reed. Days of good cheer, in some of the foreign universities, are called Gaudeamus days. C. 2 Is Antony again, &c.] I shrewdly suspect that—again, which spoils the verse, is an interpolation, on the players' old principle of opening the sense, without regard to the metre. Steevens. Ant. Do so, we 'll speak to them; and to-night I'll force The wine peep through their scars.-Come on, my queen; There's sap in 't yet.3 The next time I do fight, and Attendants. Restores his heart: When valour preys on reason, [Exit. ACT IV..... SCENE I. Cæsar's Camp at Alexandria. Enter CESAR, reading a Letter; AGRIPPA, MECENAS, and Others. Cas. He calls me boy; and chides, as he had power To beat me out of Egypt: my messenger 3 There's sap in 't yet.] So, in King Lear: "Then there 's life in 't." 4 The next time I do fight, Steevens. I'll make death love me; for I will contend Even with his pestilent scythe.] This idea seems to have been caught from the 12th Book of Harrington's translation of The Orlando Furioso, 1591: "Death goeth about the field, rejoicing mickle, "To see a sword that so surpass'd his sickle." This idea, however is not entirely modern; for in Statius, Thebaid I, v. 633, we find that death is armed with a weapon: "Mors fila sororum "Ense metit." Steevens. 5 Now he'll out-stare the lightning.] Our author, in many of the speeches that he has attributed to Antony, seems to have had the following passage in North's translation of Plutarch in his thoughts: "He [Antony] used a manner of phrase in his speeche, called Asiatick, which carried the best grace at that time, and was much like to him in his manners and life; for it was full of ostentation, foolish braverie, and vaine ambition." Malone. See Dr. Johnson's note, at the conclusion of the play. Steevens. He hath whipp'd with rods; dares me to personal combat, I have many other ways to die ; mean time, Cæsar must think,7 Mec. Let our best heads Cas. Know, that to-morrow the last of many battles We mean to fight:-Within our files there are Of those that serv'd Mark Antony but late, Enough to fetch him in. See it be done;1 And feast the army: we have store to do 't, And they have earn'd the waste. Poor Antony! [Exeunt. 6 I have many other ways to die;] What a reply is this to Antony's challenge? 'tis acknowledging that he should die under the unequal combat; but if we read He hath many other ways to die: mean time, I laugh at his challenge. In this reading we have poignancy, and the very repartee of Cæsar. Let's hear Plutarch. After this, Antony sent a challenge to Cesar, to fight him hand to hand, and received for answer, that he might find several other ways to end his life. Upton. I think this emendation deserves to be received. It had, before Mr. Upton's book appeared, been made by Sir T. Hanmer. Johnson. Most indisputably this is the sense of Plutarch, and given so in the modern translations; but Shakspeare was misled by the ambiguity of the old one: "Antonius sent again to challenge Cæsar to fight him: Cæsar answered, that he had many other ways to die, than so." Farmer. 7 Cæsar must think,] Read: Cæsar needs must think, This is a very probable supplement for the syllable here apparently lost. So, in King Henry VIII: "But I must needs to the Tower." Steevens. 8 Make boot of -] Take advantage of. Johnson. 9 Enough to fetch him in.] So, in Cymbeline: 1 break out, and swear "He'd fetch us in." Steevens. See it be done;] Be was inserted by Sir T. Hanmer, to complete the measure. Steevens. |