Their wishes, do discandy, melt their sweets On blossoming Cæsar; and this pine is bark'd, 'That overtopp'd them all. Betray'd I am : O this false soul of Egypt! this grave charm,8- Spannel for spaniel is yet the inaccurate pronunciation of some persons, above the vulgar in rank, though not in literature. Our author has in like manner used the substantive page as a verb in Timon of Athens : "Will these moist trees "That have out-liv'd the eagle, page thy heels, &c. In King Richard III, we have 8 "Death and destruction dog thee at the heels." Malone. this grave charm,] I know not by what authority, nor for what reason, this grave charm, which the first, the only original copy exhibits, has been through all the modern editions changed to this gay charm. By this grave charm, is meant, this sublime, this majestick beauty. Johnson. I believe grave charm means only deadly, or destructive piece of witchcraft. In this sense the epithet grave is often used by Chapman, in his translation of Homer. So, in the 19th Book: 66 but not far hence the fatal minutes are "Of thy grave ruin." Again, in the same translator's version of the 22d Odyssey: and then flew "Minerva, after every dart, and made "Some strike the threshold, some the walls invade; It seems to be employed in the sense of the Latin word gravis. 9 Steevens. ·was my crownet, my chief end,] Dr. Johnson supposes that crownet means last purpose, probably from finis coronat opus. Chapman, in his translation of the Second Book of Homer, uses crown in the sense which my learned coadjutor would recommend: 66 all things have their crowne." Again, in our author's Cymbeline: "My supreme crown of grief." Again, in Troilus and Cressida: "As true as Troilus shall crown up the verse, "And sanctify the numbers." Steevens. So, again, in All's Well that Ends Well: All's Well that Ends Well; still the fine 's the crown.” C. Hh2 Beguil'd me1 to the very heart of loss.2— What, Eros, Eros! Enter CLEOPATRA. Ah, thou spell! Avaünt. Cleo. Why is my lord enrag'd against his love? 1 Like a right gipsy, hath, at fast and loose, Beguil'd me &c.] There is a kind of pun in this passage, arising from the corruption of the word Ægyptian into gipsy. The old law-books term such persons as ramble about the country, and pretend skill in palmistry and fortune-telling, Egyptians. Fast and loose is a term to signify a cheating game, of which the following is a description. A leathern belt is made up into a number of intricate folds, and placed edge wise upon a table. One of the folds is made to resemble the middle of the girdle, so that whoever should thrust a skewer into it would think he held it fast to the table; whereas, when he has so done, the person with whom he plays may take hold of both ends, and draw it away. This trick is now known to the common people, by the name of pricking at the belt or girdle, and perhaps was practised by the Gypsies in the time of Shakspeare. Sir J. Hawkins. Sir John Hawkins's supposition is confirmed by the following Epigram in an ancient collection called Run and a great Cast, by Thomas Freeman, 1614: "In Egyptum suspensum. Epig. 95. "Charles the Egyptian, who by jugling could "Had you been there, but to have seen the cast, That the Ægyptians were great adepts in this art before Shakspeare's time, may be seen in Scot's Discoverie of Witchcraft, 1584, p. 336, where these practices are fully explained. Reed. to the very heart of loss.] To the utmost loss possible.. Johnson.. 2 So, in The Merry Wives of Windsor : For poor'st diminutives, to dolts;3 and let With her prepared nails. [Exit CLEO.] 'Tis well thou 'rt gone, If it be well to live: But better 'twere Thou fell'st into my fury, for one death Let me lodge Lichas5 on the horns o' the moon; 3 -most monster-like, be shown For poor'st diminutives, to dolts;] [Old copy-for dolts ;] As the allusion here is to monsters carried about in shows, it is plain, that the words, for poorest diminutives, must mean for the least piece of money. We must therefore read the next word: - for doits, i. e. farthings, which shows what he means by poorest diminutives. Warburton. There was surely no occasion for the poet to show what he meant by purest diminutives. The expression is clear enough, and certainly acquires no additional force from the explanation I rather believe we should read: For poor'st diminutives, to dolts; This aggravates the contempt of her supposed situation; to be shown, as monsters are, not only for the smallest piece of money, but to the most stupid and vulgar spectators. Tyrwhitt. I have adopted this truly sensible emendation. Steevens. It appears to me much more probable that dolts should have been printed for doits, than that for should have been substituted for to. Whichsoever of these emendations be admitted, there is still a difficulty. Though monsters are shown to the stupid and the vulgar for poor'st diminutives, yet Cleopatra, according to An tony's supposition, would certainly be exhibited to the Roman populace for nothing. Nor can it be said that he means that she would be exhibited gratis, as monsters are shown for small pieces of money; because his words are "monster-like," [thou] shown for poor'st diminutives, &c. "be The following passage in Troilus and Cressida adds some support to my conjecture: "How this poor world is pester'd with such water-flies; diminutives of nature!" Malone. With her prepared nails.] i. e. with nails which she suffered. to grow for this purpose. Warburton. 5 Let me lodge Lichas &c.] Sir T. Hanmer reads thus: thy rage Led thee lodge Lichas · and Subdue my worthiest self. The witch shall die; SCENE XI. Alexandria. A Room in the Palace. [Exit. Enter CLEOPATRA, CHARMIAN, IRAS, and MARDIAN. Cleo. Help me, my women! O, he is more mad Than Telamon for his shield; the boar of Thessaly Was never so emboss'd.8 This reading, harsh as it is, Dr. Warburton has received, after having rejected many better. The meaning is, Let me do something in my rage, becoming the successor of Hercules. Johnson. Let me lodge Lichas on the horns o' the moon;] This image our poet seems to have taken from Seneca's Hercules, who says Lichas being launched into the air, sprinkled the clouds with his blood. Sophocles, on the same occasion, talks at a much soberer rate. Warburton. Shakspeare was more probably indebted to Golding's version of Ovid's Metamorphoses, B. IX, edit. 1575: 6 "Behold, as Lychas trembling in a hollow rock did lurk, "He spyed him: And as his griefe did all in furie work, "He sayd, art thou syr Lychas, he that broughtest unto mee "This plagye present? Of my death must thou the woorker bee? "Hee quaak't and shaak't and looked pale, and fearfully 'gan make "Excuse. But as with humbled hands hee kneeling too him spake, "The furious Hercule caught him up, and swindging him about "His head a halfe a doozen tymes or more, he floong him out "Into th' Euboyan sea, with force surmounting any sling; "He hardened intoo peble stone as in the ayre he hing," &c. Steevens. -the Roman boy-] Old copy-the young Roman boy-. See p. 346, n. 8, where a similar interpolation has been already ejected, for similar reasons. Steevens. 7 Than Telamon for his shield;] i. e. than Ajax Telamon for the armour of Achilles, the most valuable part of which was the shield. The boar of Thessaly was the boar killed by Meleager. Steevens. Char. To the monument; There lock yourself, and send him word you are dead. Cleo. To the monument: Mardian, go tell him I have slain myself; SCENE XII. [Exeunt. The same. Another Room. Enter ANTONY and EROS. Ant. Eros, thou yet behold'st me? Eros. Ay, noble lord. Ant. Sometime, we see a cloud that 's dragonish ;1 A vapour, sometime, like a bear, or lion, 8 Was never so emboss'd.] A hunting term: when a deer is hard and foams at the mouth, he is said to be imbost. run, See Vol. VI, p. 14, n. 9. Malone. 9 The soul and body rive not more in parting, Than greatness going off.] So, in King Henry VIII: 66 it is a sufferance, panging "As soul and body's severing." Malone. Hanmer. 1 Sometime, we see a cloud that's dragonish; &c.] So, Aristophanes, Nubes, v. 345: 66 Ηδη ποτ' ἀναβλέψας εἶδες νεφέλην Κενταύρω ὁμοίαν; www σε Η παρδάλει, ἢ λύκω, ἥ ταύρω ; Sir W. Rawlinson. Perhaps Shakspeare received the thought from P. Holland's translation of Pliny's Natural History, B. II, ch. iii: “ our eiesight testifieth the same, whiles in one place there appeareth the resemblance of a waine or chariot, in another of a beare, the figure of a bull in this part," &c. or from Chapman's Monsieur D'Olive, 1606: "Like to a mass of clouds that now seem like "An elephant, and straightways like an ox, I find the same thought in Chapman's Bussy d'Ambois, 1607: like empty clouds, 66 "In which our faulty apprehensions forge Perhaps, however, Shakspeare had the following passage in A Treatise of Spectres, &c. quarto, 1605, particularly in his |