The varying shore o' the world!'-O Antony! Cleo. So it should be, that none but Antony Cleo. 10 thou sun, Peace: Burn the great sphere thou mov'st in!-darkling stand The varying shore o' the world!] Thou is wanting in the old copy, and was supplied by Mr. Pope, whose reading may be justified on the authority of a similar passage in Timon of Athens: "Thou sun, that comfort'st, burn!" Steevens. She desires the sun to burn his own orb, the vehicle of light, and then the earth will be dark. Johnson. The varying shore o' the world! i. e. of the earth, where light and darkness make an incessant variation. Warburton. According to the philosophy which prevailed from the age of Aristotle to that of Shakspeare, and long since, the sun was a planet, and was whirled round the earth by the motion of a solid sphere in which it was fixed.-If the sun therefore was to set fire to the sphere, so as to consume it, the consequence must be, that itself, for want of support, must drop through, and wander in endless space; and in this case the earth would be involved in endless night. Heath. 2 Charmian, help; &c.] Old copy "The varring shore o' th' world. O Antony, Antony, Antony, "Helpe Charmian, helpe Iras helpe: helpe friends "Below, let's draw him hither." For the sake of somewhat like metre, one word has been omitted and others transposed. Steevens. 3 Egypt, dying;] Perhaps this line was originally completed by a further repetition of the participle; and stood thus: I am dying, Egypt, dying, dying; only &c. Steevens. 4 I here impórtune death &c.] I solicit death to delay; or, I trouble death by keeping him in waiting. Johnson. 5 Cleo. I dare not, dear, (Dear my lord, pardon,) I dare not, Lest I be taken: Antony is supposed to be at the foot of the Of the full-fortun'd Cæsar ever shall Be brooch'd with me;7 if knife, drugs, serpents, have monument, and tells Cleopatra that he there importunes death, till he can lay his last kiss upon her lips, which was intimating to her his desire that she should come to him for that purpose. She considers it in that light, and tells him that she dares not. M. Mason. Antony has just said that he only solicits death to delay his end, till he has given her a farewel kiss. To this she replies that she dares not; and, in our author's licentious diction, she may mean, that she, now above in the monument, does not dare to descend that he may take leave of her. But, from the defect of the metre in the second line, I think it more probable that a word was omitted by the compositor, and that the poet wrote: I dare not, dear, (Dear my lord, pardon,) I dare not descend, Lest I be taken. Mr. Theobald amends the passage differently, by adding to the end of Antony's speech-Come down. Malone. Theobald's insertion seems misplaced, and should be made at the end of the next line but one. I would therefore read: (Dear my lord, pardon,) I dare not come down. Ritson. 6 Of the full-fortun'd Cæsar -] So, in Othello: "What a full-fortune doth the thick-lips owe?" Malone. 7 Be brooch'd with me;] Be brooch'd, i. e. adorn'd. A brooch was an ornament formerly worn in the hat. So, in Ben Jonson's Poetaster: "Honour 's a good brooch to wear in a man's hat at all times." Again, in his Staple of News: "The very brooch o' the bench, gem of the city." Again, in The Magnetick Lady: "The brooch to any true state cap in Europe." The Rev. Mr. Lambe observes, in his notes on the ancient metrical History of Flodden Field, that brooches, in the North, are buckles set with stones, such as those with which shirt-bosoms and handkerchiefs are clasped. Steevens. Be brooch'd with me; Brooch is properly a bodkin, or some such instrument, (originally a spit) and ladies' bodkins being headed with gems, it sometimes stands for an ornamental trinket or jewel in general, in which sense it is perhaps used at present; or as probably in its original one, for pinned up, as we now say pin up the basket, brooch'd with me, i. e. pinned up, completed with having me to adorn his triumph. Percy. A brooch is always an ornament; whether a buckle or pin for the breast, hat or hair, or whatever other shape it may assume. A broach is a spit: the spires of churches are likewise so called in the northern counties, as Darnton broach. Brooch'd, in the Edge, sting, or operation, I am safe: Your wife Octavia, with her modest eyes, Ant. O, quick, or I am gone. Cleo. Here 's sport, indeed!-How heavy weighs my lord! Our strength is all gone into heaviness,2 text, certainly means adorn'd, as it has been properly explained by Mr. Steevens. Ritson. 8 if knife, drugs, serpents, have Edge, sting, or operation,] Here is the same irregular position of the words, that Mr. Warner would avoid or amend in Hamlet; and yet Shakspeare seems to have attended to this matter in the play before us, Act III, sc. ii. Tollet. This thought occurs in Queen Elizabeth's Entertainment in Suffolke and Norfolke, by Churchyard, no date, 4to. where Beautie says - "If he do dye, by mightie Jove I sweare "I will not live, if sword or knife be found" &c. Again, in Pericles, Prince of Tyre: 9 "If fires be hot, knives shaip, or waters deep, "Untied I still my virgin knot will keep." Steevens. still conclusion.] Sedate determination; silent coolness of resolution. Johnson. 1 Here's sport, indeed!] I suppose the meaning of these strange words is, here's trifling, you do not work in earnest. Johnson. Perhaps, rather, here's a curious game, the last we shall ever play with Antony! Or, perhaps, she is thinking of fishing with a line, a diversion of which we have been already told she was fond. Shakspeare has introduced ludicrous ideas with as much incongruity in other places. Malone. Cleopatra, perhaps, by this affected levity, this phrase which has no determined signification, only wishes to inspire Antony with cheerfulness, and encourage those who are engaged in the melancholy task of drawing him up into the monument. Steevens. into heaviness,] Heaviness is here used equivocally for sorrow and weight. Malone. 2 Quicken with kissing; had my lips that power, All. A heavy sight! Give me some wine, and let me speak a little. One word, sweet queen: Ant. Ant. Gentle, hear me: None about Cæsar trust, but Proculeius. Cleo. My resolution, and my hands, I 'll trust; None about Cæsar. Ant. The miserable change now at my end, Lament nor sorrow at: but please your thoughts, In feeding them with those my former fortunes 3 where thou hast liv'd:] Old copy-when thou, &c. Corrected by Mr. Pope. Malone. 4 Quicken with kissing;] That is, Revive by my kiss. Johnson.` So, in Heywood's Royal King, 1637 : "And quickens most where he would most destroy." Steevens. 5 Give me some wine, &c.] This circumstance, like almost every other, Shakspeare adopted from Plutarch. Sir Thomas North, in his translation, says" Antony made her cease from lamenting, and called for wine, either because he was athirst, or else for that thereby to hasten his death. When he had dronke he, earnestly prayed her, and persuaded that she would seeke to save her life, if she could possible, without reproache and dishonour: and that she should chiefly trust Proculeius above any man else about Cæsar." Steevens. 6 housewife Fortune-] This despicable line has occurred before. Johnson. See As you Like it, Vol. V, p. 16, n. 8: "Let us sit, and mock the good housewife Fortune from her wheel," &c. Malone. 7 The miserable change &c.] This speech stands thus in Sir Thomas North's translation of Plutarch: "As for himself, she should not lament nor sorrow for the miserable change of his fortune at the end of his days; but rather, that she should think him the more fortunate, for the former triumphs and honours he had received, considering that while he lived, he was the noblest and greatest prince of the world, and that now he was overcome, not cowardly, but valiantly, a Roman, by another Roman," Steevens. Wherein I liv'd, the greatest prince o' the world, Cleo. Noblest of men, woo 't die? Hast thou no care of me? shall I abide In this dull world, which in thy absence is [Dies. The soldier's pole is fallen; young boys, and girls, And there is nothing left remarkable Beneath the visiting moon." Char. [She faints. O, quietness, lady! Iras. She is dead too, our sovereign. Char. Iras. Char. O madam, madam, madam! Iras. Empress! Char. Peace, peace, Iras. Lady, Madam, Royal Egypt! Cleo. No more, but e'en a woman;1 and commanded The soldier's pole-] He at whom the soldiers pointed, as at a pageant held high for observation. Johnson. And there is nothing left remarkable Beneath the visiting moon.] So, in Macbeth: 66 "There's nothing serious in mortality: "All is but toys; renown, and grace, is dead; 1 No more, but e'en a woman;] Cleopatra is discoursing with her women; but she naturally replies to Iras, who had addressed herself to her, and not to Charmian, who only interposed to prevent Iras from continuing to speak. Strike out the speech of Charmian, which is said aside to Iras, and the sense will be evident. Iras addresses Cleopatra by the titles of Royal Egypt and Empress! which Cleopatra rejects as ill suited to her present condition; and says, she is no more in that state of elevation, but on a level with. the rest of her sex. M. Mason. Iras has just said,-Royal Egypt, Empress! Cleopatra com |