His bounty overplus: The messenger Eno. I give it you. Sold. Mock me not, Enobarbus. I tell you true: Best that you saf'd the bringer Eno. I am alone the villain of the earth, [Exit Sold. Thou mine of bounty, how would'st thou have paid Thou dost so crown with gold! This blows my heart:s 3 Hath after thee sent all thy treasure, &c.] So, in the old translation of Plutarch: "Furthermore, he dealt very friendly and courteously with Domitius, and against Cleopatraes mynde. For, he being sicke of an age we when he went, and tooke a little boate to go to Cæsar's campe, Antonius was very sory for it, but yet he sent after him all his caryage, trayne, and men: and the same Domitius, as though he gaue him to vnderstand that he repented his open treason, he died immediately after." Steevens. 5 4 Mock me not,] Me was supplied by Mr. Theobald. Steevens. Best that] For the insertion of the pronoun-that, to assist the metre, I am answerable. Steevens. 6 saf'd the bringer -] I find this verb in Chapman's version of the Fourth Book of Homer's Odyssey: "Sail with his ruin, for his father saf't." Steevens. And feel I am so most.] That is, and feel I am so, more than any one else thinks it. M. Mason. Surely, this explanation cannot be right. I am alone the villain of the earth, means, I am pre-eminently the first, the greatest villain of the earth. To stand alone, is still used in that sense, where any one towers above his competitors.-And feel I am so most, must signify, I feel or know it myself, more than any other person can or does feel it. Reed. 8 This blows my heart:] All the latter editions have: This bows my heart: I have given the original word again the place from which I think it unjustly excluded. This generosity, (says Enobarbus) swells my heart, so that it will quickly break, if thought break it not, a swifter mean. Johnson. That to blow means to puff or swell, the following instance, the last scene of this play, will sufficiently prove : on her breast "There is a vent of blood, and something blown.” If swift thought break it not, a swifter mean Some ditch, wherein to die; the foul'st best fits [Exit. SCENE VII. Field of Battle between the Camps. Alarum. Drums and Trumpets. Enter AGRIPPA, and Others. Agr. Retire, we have engag'd ourselves too far: Gæsar himself has work, and our oppression1 Exceeds what we expected. [Exeunt: Alarum. Enter ANTONY and SCARUS, wounded. Scar. O my brave emperor, this is fought indeed! Had we done so at first, we had driven them home With clouts about their heads. Ant. Thou bleed'st apace. Ant. They do retire. Scar. We'll beat 'em into bench-holes; I have yet Room for six scotches more. Enter EROS. Eros. They are beaten, sir; and our advantage serves For a fair victory. Scar. Let us score their backs, And snatch 'em up, as we take hares, behind; 'Tis sport to maul a runner. Ant. I will reward thee Once for thy spritely comfort, and ten-fold Again, in King Lear: 9 "No blown ambition doth our arms excite Steevens. but thought will do 't, I feel.] Thought, in this passage, as in many others, signifies melancholy. See p. 314, n. 1. Malone. and our oppression -] Oppression for opposition. 1 Warburton. Sir T. Hanmer has received opposition. Perhaps rightly. Johnson Our oppression means, the force by which we are oppressed or overpowered. Malone. So, in Romeo and Juliet: "At thy good heart's oppression." Steevens. Scar. I'll halt after. [Exeunt. SCENE VIII. Under the Walls of Alexandria. Alarum. Enter ANTONY, marching; SCARUS, and Forces. Ant. We have beat him to his camp: Run one before, And let the queen know of our guests.-To-morrow, Before the sun shall see us, we 'll spill the blood That has to-day escap'd. I thank you all; For doughty-handed are you; and have fought Not as you serv'd the cause, but as it had been Each man's like mine; you have shown all Hectors. Enter the city, clip your wives,3 your friends, Tell them your feats; whilst they with joyful tears Wash the congealment from your wounds, and kiss The honour'd gashes whole.-Give me thy hand; Enter CLEOPATRA, attended. To this great fairy4 I'll commend thy acts, 2 Run one before, [To SCAR. And let the queen know of our guests.] Antony, after his success, intends to bring his officers to sup with Cleopatra, and orders notice to be given of their guests. Johnson. 3 clip your wives,] To clip is to embrace. See Vol. II, p. 104, n. 3; and Vol. VI, p. 312, n. 9. Steevens. To this great fairy-] Mr. Upton has well observed, that fairy, which Dr. Warburton and Sir T. Hanmer explain by Inchantress, comprises the idea of power and beauty. Johnson. Fairy, in former times, did not signify only a diminutive imaginary being, but an inchanter, in which last sense, as has been observed, it is used here. But Mr. Upton's assertion, that it comprizes the idea of beauty as well as power, seems questionable; for Sir W. D'Avenant employs the word in describing the weird sisters, (who certainly were not beautiful) in the argument prefixed to his alteration of Macbeth, 4to. 1674: "These two, travelling together through a forest, were met by three fairie witches, (weirds the Scotch call them,)" &c. See also Vol. VI, p. 378, n. 6. Malone. Surely, Mr. Upton's remark is not indefensible. Beauty united with power, was the popular characteristick of Fairies generally considered. Such was that of The Fairy Queen of Spenser, and Titania, in A Midsummer Night's Dream. Sir W. D'Avenant's particular use of any word is by no means decisive. That the language of Shakspeare was unfamiliar to him, his own contemptible alterations of it have sufficiently demonstrated. Steevens. Make her thanks bless thee.-O thou day o' the world, Cleo. Lord of lords! O infinite virtue! com'st thou smiling from Ant. My nightingale, We have beat them to their beds. What, girl? though grey Do something mingle with our brown; yet have we Cleo. -- I'll give thee, friend, An armour all of gold; it was a king's.1 5 - proof of harness-] i. e. armour of proof. Harnois, Fr. Arnese, Ital. Steevens. See Vol. VII, p. 234, n. 3. Malone. 6 — triúmphing.] This word is so accented by Chapman, in his version of the Eleventh Iliad: "Crept from his covert and triumph'd: Now thou art maim'd, said he." Steevens. 7 The world's great snare —] i. e. the war. So, in the 116th Psalm: "The snares of death compassed me round about." Thus also Statius: "Vallavere plage." Steevens. 8 - with our brown;] Old copy-younger brown: but as this epithet, without improving the idea, spoils the measure, I have not scrupled, with Sir Thomas Hanmer and others, to omit it as an interpolation. See p. 356, n. 6. Steevens. 9 Get goal for goal of youth.] At all plays of barriers, the boundary is called a goal; to win a goal, is to be superior in a contest of activity. Johnson. 1 it was a king's.] So, in Sir T. North's translation of Plutarch: "Then came Antony again to the palace greatly boasting of this victory, and sweetly kissed Cleopatra, armed as he was when he came from the fight, recommending one of his men of arms unto her, that had valiantly fought in this skirmish. Cleopatra, to reward his manliness, gave him an armour and headpiece of clean gold." Steevens. Ant. He has deserv'd it, were it carbuncled Like holy Phoebus' car.-Give me thy hand;— Through Alexandria make a jolly march; Bear our hack'd targets like the men that owe them:2 To camp this host, we all would sup together; That heaven and earth may strike their sounds together, SCENE IX. Cæsar's Camp. [Exeunt. Sentinels on their Post. Enter ENOBARBUS. 1 Sold. If we be not reliev'd within this hour, We must return to the court of guard:4 The night Is shiny; and, they say, we shall embattle By the second hour i' the morn. 2 Sold. A shrewd one to us. Eno. This last day was 3 Sold. What man is this? 2 Sold. Stand close, and list to him.5 Eno. Be witness to me, O thou blessed moon, When men revolted shall upon record 2 Bear our hack'd targets like the men that owe them:] i. e. hack'd as much as the men to whom they belong. Warburton. Why not rather, Bear our hack'd targets with spirit and exultation, such as becomes the brave warriors that own them? Johnson. 3 tabourines;] A tabourin was a small drum. It is often mentioned in our ancient romances. So, in The History of Helyas Knight of the Swanne, bl. 1. no date: "Trumpetes, elerons, tabourins, and other minstrelsy." Steevens. 4 the court of guard:] i. e. the guard-room, the place where the guard musters. The same expression occurs again in Othello. Steevens. 5 list to him.] I am answerable for the insertion of the preposition-to. Thus, in King Henry IV, P. I: "Pr'ythee, let her alone, and list to me." Steevens. |