SCENE II. Alexandria. A Room in the Palace. Enter ANTONY, CLEOPATRA, ENOBARBUS, CHARMIAN, IRAS, ALEXAS, and Others. Ant. He will not fight with me, Domitius. Eno. Ant. Why should he not? No. Eno. He thinks, being twenty times of better fortune, He is twenty men to one. Ant. To-morrow, soldier, By sea and land I 'll fight: or I will live, Or bathe my dying honour in the blood Shall make it live again. Woo 't thou fight well? Well said; come on. Ant. Enter Servants. Be bounteous at our meal.-Give me thy hand, And kings have been your fellows. -so hast thou ; you have serv'd me What means this? [Aside. Cleo. Eno. 'Tis one of those odd tricks,4 which sorrow shoots Out of the mind. Ant. And thou art honest too. I wish, I could be made so many men; 2 Take all.] Let the survivor take all. No composition, victory or death. Johnson. So, in King Lear: 66 unbonneted he runs, "And bids what will, take all." Steevens. 3 And thou,] And, which is wanting in the old copy, was supplied by Sir Thomas Hanmer. Steevens. 4 -one of those odd tricks,] I know not what obscurity the editors find in this passage. Trick is here used in the sense in which it is uttered every day by every mouth, elegant and vulgar: yet Sir T. Hanmer changes it to freaks, and Dr. Warburton, in his rage of Gallicism, to traits. Johnson. An Antony; that I might do you service, Serv. The gods forbid! Ant. Well, my good fellows, wait on me to-night: Cleo. What does he mean? Eno. To make his followers weep. Tend me to-night; May be, it is the period of your duty: Eno. What mean you, sir, To give them this discomfort? Look, they weep; And I, an ass, am onion-ey'd; for shame, 5 or if, A mangled shadow:] Or if you see me more, you will see me a mangled shadow, only the external form of what I was. Johnson. The thought is, as usual, taken from Sir Thomas North's translation of Plutarch: So being at supper, (as it is reported) he commaunded his officers and household seruauntes that waited on him at his bord, that they shold fill his cuppes full, and make as much of him as they could: for said he, you know not whether you shall doe so much for me to morrow or not, or whether you shall serue an other maister: and it may be you shall see me no more, but a dead bodie. This not withstanding, perceiuing that his frends and men fell a weeping to heare him say so, to salue that he had spoken, he added this more vnto it; that he would not leade them to battell, where he thought not rather safely to returne with victorie, than valiantly to dye with honor." Steevens. 6 perchance,] To complete the verse, might we not read— nay, perchance, &c.? Nay, on this occasion, as on many others, would be used to signify-Not only so, but more. Steevens. 7 And the gods yield you for 't!] i. e. reward you. See a note on Macbeth, Vol. VII, p. 62, n. 5; and another on As you Like it, Vol. V, p. 136, n. 3. Steevens. 8 onion-ey'd;] I have my eyes as full of tears as if they had been fretted by onions. Johnson. Ho, ho, ho!9 Transform us not to women. Ant. Now the witch take me, if I meant it thus! Grace grow where those drops fall! My hearty friends, I spake to you for your comfort: did desire you So, in The birth of Merlin, 1662: "I see something like a peel'd onion; "It makes we weep again." See p. 205, n. 2. Malone. Steevens. 9 Ant. Ho, ho, ho!] i. e. stop or desist. Antony desires his followers to cease weeping. So, in Chaucer-The Knightes Tale, v. 1706, edit. 1775: "This duk his courser with his sporres smote, "And pulled out a swerd, and cried, ho! "No more, up peine of lesing of your hed." But Mr. Tyrwhitt, in a note on ver. 2535 of The Canterbury Tales, doubts whether this interjection was used except to command a cessation of fighting. The succeeding quotations, however, will, while they illustrate an obscurity in Shakspeare, prove that ho was by no means so confined in its meaning. Gawin Douglas translates-" Helenum farique vetat Saturnia Juno," (Eneid, L. III, v. 380,) "The douchter of auld Saturn Juno "Forbiddis Helenus to speik it, and crys ho." In the Glossary to the folio edition of this translation, Edinb. 1710, it is said that "Ho is an Interjection commanding to desist or leave off." It occurs again in Langham's Letter concerning Queen Elizabeth's Entertainment at Killingworth Castle, 1575, 12mo, p. 61, cited in The Reliques of Antient Poetry: "Heer was no ho in devout drinkyng." And in The Myrrour of good Maners, compyled in Latyn by Domynike Mancyn, and translated into Englishe by Alexander Bercley, Prest, imprynted by Rychard Pynson, bl. 1. no date, fol. Ambition is compared to "The sacke insaciable, "The sacke without botome, which never can say ho." H. White. 1 Grace grow where those drops fall!] So, in K. Richard: "Here did she drop a tear; here, in this place, 2 "I'll set a bank of rue, sour herb of grace." Steevens. I spake to you -] Old copy, redundantly: For I spake to you Steevens. Than death and honour.3 Let 's to supper; come, SCENE III. The same. Before the Palace. Enter Two Soldiers, to their Guard. [Exeunt. Sold. Brother, good night; to-morrow is the day. 2 Sold. It will determine one way: fare you well. Heard you of nothing strange about the streets? 1 Sold. Nothing: What news? 2 Sold. Belike, 'tis but a rumour: Well, sir, good night. Enter Two other Soldiers. 2 Sold. Have careful watch. 3 Sold. Soldiers, And you: Good night, good night. [The first Two place themselves at their Posts. 4 Sold. Here we: [they take their Posts] and if to morrow Our navy thrive, I have an absolute hope Our landmen will stand up. 3 Sold. And full of purpose. 4 Sold. 3 4 [Musick of Hautboys under the Stage. Peace, what noise ?5 death and honour.] That is, an honourable death. Upton. Musick of Hautboys under the Stage.] This circumstance (as I collect from Mr. Warton) might have been suggested to Shakspeare by some of the machineries in masques. Holinshed, describing a very curious device or spectacle presented before Queen Elizabeth, insists particularly on the secret or mysterious musick of some fictitious nymphs, "which, (he adds) surely had been a noble hearing, and the more melodious for the varietie [noveltie] thereof, because it should come secretlie and strangelie out of the earth." Vol. III, f. 1297. Steevens. 5 Peace, what noise?] So, in the old translation of Plutarch: "Furthermore, the selfe same night within little of midnight, when all the citie was quiet, full of feare, and sorrowe, thinking what would be the issue and ende of this warre; it is said that sodainly they heard a maruelous sweete harmonie of sundry sortes of instrumentes of musicke, with the crie of a multitude of peo 1 Sold. Peace, I say. What should this mean? 2 Sold. 'Tis the god Hercules, whom Antony lov'd, Now leaves him. 1 Sold. Walk; let's see if other watchmen Do hear what we do. 2 Sold. Sold. How now, masters? How now? How now? do you hear this? [Several speaking together. 1 Sold. Ay; Is 't not strange? 3 Sold. Do you hear, masters? do you hear? 1 Sold. Follow the noise so far as we have quarter; Let's see how 'twill give off. Sold. [Several speaking.] Content: 'Tis strange. [Exeunt: SCENE IV. The same. A Room in the Palace. Enter ANTONY, and CLEOPATRA; CHARMIAN, and Others, attending. Ant. Eros! mine armour, Eros! Cleo. Sleep a little. Ant. No, my chuck.-Eros, come; mine armour, Eros! ple, as they had bene dauncinge, and had song as they vse in Bacchus feastes, with mouinges and turnings after the manner of the satyres: & it seemed that this daunce went through the city vnto the gate that opened to the enemies, & that all the troupe that made this noise they heard, went out of the city at that gate. Now, such as in reason sought the depth of the interpretacion of this wonder, thought that it was the god vnto whom Antonius bare singular deuotion to counterfeate and resemble him, that did forsake them." Steevens. 6 It signs well, &c.] i. e. it is a good sign, it bodes well, &c. Steevens. 7 my chuck.] i. e. chicken. See Vol. VII, p. 139, n. 4. Steevens |