Eno. O sovereign mistress of true melancholy, May hang no longer on me: Throw my heart? 1 Sold. Let's hear him, for the things he speaks May concern Cæsar. 3 Sold. Let's do so. But he sleeps. [Dies. 1 Sold. Swoons rather; for so bad a prayer as his Was never yet for sleeping. 6 2 Sold. 3 Sold. Awake, awake, sir; 2 Sold. Go we to him. speak to us. Hear you, sir? 1 Sold. The hand of death hath raught him. Hark, the drums [Drums afar off. disponge upon me;] i. e. discharge, as a sponge, when squeezed, discharges the moisture it had imbibed. So, in Hamlet: it is but squeezing you, and, sponge, you shall be dry again.” This word is not found in Dr. Johnson's Dictionary. Steevens. 7 Throw my heart-] The pathetick of Shakspeare too often ends in the ridiculous. It is painful to find the gloomy dignity of this noble scene destroyed by the intrusion of a conceit so far-fetched and unaffecting. Johnson. Shakspeare, in most of his conceits, is kept in countenance by his contemporaries. Thus, Daniel, in his 18th Sonnet, 1594, somewhat indeed less harshly, says 8 "Still must I whet my young desires abated, "Upon the flint of such a heart rebelling." Malone. for sleeping.] Old copy-sleep. I am responsible for the substitution of the participle in the room of the substantive, for the sake of measure. Steevens. Demurely1 wake the sleepers. Let us bear him Enter ANTONY and SCARUS, with Forces, marching. We please them not by land. Scar. For both, my lord. Ant. I would, they 'd fight i' the fire, or in the air; Shall stay with us: order for sea is given; They have put forth the haven: Further on,2 9 The hand of death hath raught him.] Raught is the ancient preterite of the verb to reach. See Vol. IV, p. 69, n. 8. Steevens. 1 Hark, the drums Demurely-] Demurely for solemnly. Warburton. 2 They have put forth the haven: Further on,] These words, Further on, though not necessary, have been inserted in the later editions, and are not in the first. Johnson. I think these words are absolutely necessary for the sense. As the passage stands, Antony appears to say, "that they could best discover the appointment of the enemy at the haven after they had left it." But if we add the words Further on, his speech will be consistent: "As they have put out of the haven, let us go further on where we may see them better." And accordingly in the next page but one he says- Where yonder pine does stand, "I shall discover all." Mr. Malone, instead of-Further on, reads-Let's seek a spot. Steevens. The defect of the metre in the old copy shows that some words were accidentally omitted. In that copy, as here, there is a colon at haven, which is an additional proof that something must have been said by Antony, connected with the next line, and relativeto the place where the enemy might be reconnoitered. The haven itself was not such a place; but rather some hill from which the haven and the ships newly put forth could be viewed. What Antony says upon his re-entry, proves decisively that he had not gone to the haven, nor had any thoughts of going thither. "I see, (says he) they have not yet joined; but I'll now choose a more VOL. XIII. Hh Where their appointment we may best discover, [Exeunt. Enter CÆSAR, and his Forces, marching. Cas. But being charg'd, we will be still by land, Which, as I take 't, we shall;4 for his best force convenient station near yonder pine, and I shall discover all." A preceding passage in Act III, sc. vi, adds such support to the emendation now made, that I trust I shall be pardoned for giving it a place in my text: "Set we our battles on yon side of the hill, "And so proceed accordingly." Mr. Rowe supplied the omission by the words Further on; and the four subsequent editors have adopted his emendation. In Hamlet there is an omission similar to that which has here been supplied: "And let them know both what we mean to do, "And what's untimely done. [So viperous slander] "As level as the cannon to his blank," &c. The words" So viperous slander," which are necessary both to the sense and metre, are not in the old copies. Malone. 3 Where their appointment we may best discover, And look on their endeavour.] i. e. where we may best discover their numbers, and see their motions. Warburton. 4 But being charg'd we will be still by land, Which, as I take 't, we shall;] i. e. unless we be charg'd we will remain quiet at land, which quiet I suppose we shall keep. But being charg'd was a phrase at that time, equivalent to unless we be. Warburton. 66 "But (says Mr. Lambe, in his notes on the ancient metrical history of The Battle of Floddon) signifies without," in which sense it is often used in the North. " Boots but spurs." Vulg. Again, in Kelly's Collection of Scots Proverbs: He could eat me but salt." Again: "He gave me whitings but bones." Again, in Chaucer's Persones Tale, Mr. Tyrwhitt's edit. "Ful oft time I rede, that no man trust in his owen perfection, but he be stronger than Sampson, or holier than David, or wiser than Solomon." But is from the Saxon Butan. Thus butan leas; absque falso, without a lie. Again, in The Vintner's Play, in the Chester Collection, British Museum, MS. Harl. 2013, p. 29: "Abraham. O comely creature, but I the kill, See also Ray's North Country Words; and the MS. version of an ancient French romance, entitled L'Histoire du noble, preux, &vaillant Chevalier Guillaume de Palerne, et de la belle Melior sa mye, lequel Guill, de Palerne fut filz du Roy de Cecille, &c. in the Library of King's College, Cambridge: Is forth to man his gallies. To the vales, Re-enter ANTONY and SCARUS. [Exeunt. Ant. Yet they're not join'd: Where yonder pine does stand, I shall discover all: I'll bring thee word Straight, how 'tis like to go. Scar. [Exit. Swallows have built In Cleopatra's sails their nests: the augurers5 Say, they know not,-they cannot tell;-look grimly, Ant. Alarum afur off, as at a Sea-Fight. Re-enter ANTONY. All is lost; This foul Egyptian hath betrayed me: My fleet hath yielded to the foe; and yonder "I sayle now in the see as schip boute mast "Boute anker, or ore, or ani semlych sayle." P. 86. In ancient writings this preposition is commonly distinguished from the adversative conjunction-but; the latter being usually spelt-bot. Steevens. 5 the augurers] The old copy has auguries. This leads us to what seems most likely to be the true reading-augurers, which word is used in the last Act: "You are too sure an augurer." Malone. 6 Triple-turn'd whore!] She was first for Antony, then was supposed by him to have turned to Cæsar, when he found his messenger kissing her hand; then she turned again to Antony, and now has turned to Cæsar. Shall I mention what has dropped into my imagination, that our author might perhaps have written triple-tongued? Double-tongued is a common term of reproach, which rage might improve to triple-tongued. But the present reading may stand. Johnson. Cleopatra was first the mistress of Julius Cæsar, then of Cneius Pompey, and afterwards of Antony. To this, I think, the epithet triple-turn'd alludes. So, in a former scene: "I found you as a morsel, cold upon "Dead Cæsar's trencher; nay, you were a fragment Hath sold me to this novice; and my heart I have done all:-Bid them all fly, be gone. [Exit SEAR. Do we shake hands. All come to this?—The hearts Mr. Tollet supposed that Cleopatra had been mistress to Pompey the Great; but her lover was his eldest son, Cneius Pompey. Malone. She first belonged to Julius Cæsar, then to Antony, and now, as he supposes, to Augustus. It is not likely that in recollecting her turnings, Antony should not have that in contemplation which gave him most offence. M. Mason. This interpretation is sufficiently plausible, but there are two objections to it. According to this account of the matter, her connection with Cneius Pompey is omitted, though the poet certainly was apprized of it, as appears by the passage just quoted. 2. There is no ground for supposing that Antony meant to insinuate that Cleopatra had granted any personal favour to Augustus, though he was persuaded that she had "sold him to the novice." Malone. Mr. M. Mason's explanation is, I think, very sufficient; and Antony may well enough be excused for want of circumstantiality in his invective. The sober recollection of a critick should not be expected from a hero who has this moment lost the one half of the world. Steevens. 7 That spaniel'd me at heels,] All the editions read: That pannell'd me at heels, Sir T. Hanmer substituted spaniel'd by an emendation, with which it was reasonable to expect that even rival commentators would be satisfied; yet Dr. Warburton proposes pantler'd, in a note, of which he is not injured by the suppression; and Mr. Upton having in his first edition proposed plausibly enough— That paged me at heels, in the second edition retracts his alteration, and maintains pannell'd to be the right reading, being a metaphor taken, he says, from a pannel of wainscot. Johnson. Spaniel'd is so happy a conjecture, that I think we ought to acquiesce in it. It is of some weight with me that spaniel was often formerly written spannel. Hence there is only the omission of the first letter, which has happened elsewhere in our poet, as in the word chear, &c. To dog them at the heels is not an uncommon expression in Shakspeare; and in A Midsummer Night's Dream, Act II, sc. ii, Helena says to Demetrius : "I am your spaniel,—only give me leave, 66 Unworthy as I am, to follow you." Tollet. |