Not by a public minister of justice, Hath, with the courage which the heart did lend it, I robb'd his wound of it; behold it stain'd With his most noble blood. Cas. The gods rebuke me, but it is a tidings Agr. Look you sad, friends? And strange it is, His taints and honours A rarer spirit never That nature must compel us to lament Mec. Waged equal with him.' Agr. Did steer humanity: but you, gods, will give us Mec. When such a spacious mirror 's set before him, He needs must see himself. Cas. O Antony! I have follow'd thee to this;-But we do lance 8 -a tidings-] Thus the second folio. In the first, the article had been casually omitted. Steevens. 9 but it is a tidings To wash the eyes of kings.] That is, May the gods rebuke me, if this be not tidings to make kings weep. But, again, for if not. Johnson. 1 Waged equal with him.] For waged, [the reading of the first folio,] the modern editions have weighed. Johnson. It is not easy to determine the precise meaning of the word wage. In Othello it occurs again: "To wake and wage a danger profitless." It may signify to oppose. The sense will then be, his taints and honours were an equal match; i. e. were opposed to each other in just proportions, like the counterparts of a wager. Steevens. Read-weigh, with the second folio, where it is only misspelled way. So, in Shore's Wife, by A. Chute, 1593: 2 66 notes her myndes disquyet "To be so great she seemes downe wayed by it." Ritson. But we do lance Diseases in our bodies:] [Old copy-launch.-] Launch was the ancient, and is still the vulgar pronunciation of lance. Nurses always talk of launching the gums of children, when they have difficulty in cutting teeth. Have shown to thee such a declining day, Our equalness to this.-Hear me, good friends,---- The business of this man looks out of him, We'll hear him what he says.-Whence are you?5 Mess. A poor Egyptian yet. The queen my mistress, I have followed thee, says Cæsar, to this; i. e. I have pursued thee, till I compelled thee to self-destruction. But, adds the speaker, (at once extenuating his own conduct, and considering the deceased as one with whom he had been united by the ties of relationship as well as policy, as one who had been a part of himself,) the violence, with which I proceeded, was not my choice; I have done but by him as we do by our own natural bodies. I have employed force, where force only could be effectual. I have shed the blood of the irreclaimable Antony, on the same principle that we lance a disease incurable by gentler means. Steevens. When we have any bodily complaint, that is curable by scarifying, we use the lancet; and if we neglect to do so, we are destroyed by it. Antony was to me a disease; and by his being cut off, I am made whole. We could not both have lived in the world together. Launch, the word in the old copy, is only the old spelling of baunce. See Minsheu's Dictionary, in v. So also Daniel, in one of his Sonnets: 3 66 sorrow's tooth ne'er rankles more, "Than when it bites, but launcheth not the sore." Malone. his thoughts] His is here used for its. M. Mason. 4 Our equalness to this.] That is, should have made us, in our equality of fortune, d. agree to a pitch like this, that one of us must die. Johnson. 5 Whence are you?] The defective metre of this line, and the irregular reply to it, may authorize a supposition that it originally stood thus: We'll hear him what he says.-Whence, and who are you? Siceveng Confin'd in all she has, her monument, Cas. Bid her have good heart; Determine for her: for Cæsar cannot live Mess. So the gods preserve thee! [Exit. We purpose her no shame: give her what comforts The quality of her passion shall require; Lest, in her greatness, by some mortal stroke And, with your speediest, bring us what she says, Pro. Cæsar, I shall. [Exit PRO. Cas. Gallus, go you along.-Where 's Dolabella, To second Proculeius? [Exit GAL. Agr. Mec. Dolabella! A poor Egyptian yet. The queen my mistress, &c.] If this punctuation be right, the man means to say, that he is yet an Ægyptian, that is yet a servant of the Queen of Egypt, though soon to become a subject of Rome. Johnson. 7 How honourable and how kindly we-] Our author often uses adjectives adverbially. So, in Julius Cæsar: "Young man, thou could'st not die more honourable.” See also Vol. VIII, p. 302, n. 6. The modern editors, however, all read-honourably. Malone. To be ungentle.] The old copy has leave. Mr. Pope made the emendation. Malone. 9 her life in Rome Would be eternal in our triumph:] Hanmer reads, judiciously enough, but without necessity: Would be eternalling our triumph: The sense is, If she dies here, she will be forgotten, but if I send her in triumph to Rome, her memory and my glory will be eternal. Johnson. The following passage in The Scourge of Venus, &c. a poent, 1614, will sufficiently support the old reading: "If some foule-swelling ebon cloud would fall, Steevens. Cas. Let him alone, for I remember now SCENE II. Alexandria. A Room in the Monument. [Exeunt. Enter CLEOPATRA,1 CHARMIAN, and IRAS. 1 Enter Cleopatra, &c.] Our author, here, (as in King Henry VIII, Vol. XI, p. 334, n. 8,) has attempted to exhibit at once the outside and the inside of a building. It would be impossible to represent this scene in any way on the stage, but by making Cleopatra and her attendants speak all their speeches till the queen is seized, within the monument. Malone. 2 - fortune's knave,] The servant of fortune. Johnson. 3 And it is great To do that thing that ends all other deeds; Which shackles accidents, and bolts up change; Which sleeps, and never palates more the dung, The beggar's nurse and Cæsar's.] The difficulty of the passage, if any difficulty there be, arises only from this, that the act of suicide, and the state which is the effect of suicide, are confounded. Voluntary death, says she, is an act which bolts up change; it produces a state, Which sleeps, and never palates more the dung, The beggar's nurse and Cæsar's. Which has no longer need of the gross and terrene sustenance, in the use of which Cæsar and the beggar are on a level. The speech is abrupt, but perturbation in such a state is surely natural. Johnson. It has been already said in this play, that our dungy earth alike Feeds man as beast". Enter, to the Gates of the Monument, PROCULEIUS, GALLUS, and Soldiers. Pro. Cæsar sends greeting to the queen of Egypt; And bids thee study on what fair demands Thou mean'st to have him grant thee. Cleo. [within] Pro. My name is Proculeius. Cleo. [within] What's thy name? Antony Did tell me of you, bade me trust you; but I do not greatly care to be deceived, That have no use for trusting. If your master Would have a queen his beggar, you must tell him, No less beg than a kingdom: if he please Pro. Cleo. [within] Pray you, tell him And Mr. Tollet observes, "that in Herodotus, B. III, the Æthiopian king, upon hearing a description of the nature of wheat, replied, that he was not at all surprized, if men, who eat nothing but dung, did not attain a longer life." Shakspeare has the same epithet in The Winter's Tale: the face to sweeten Again, in Timon: 66 the earth's a thief "That feeds and breeds by a composture stolen "From general excrement.' Steevens. 4 He gives me so much of mine own, as I Will kneel to him with thanks.] I would read-and I, instead of-as I. M. Mason. I believe the old reading to be the true one. 5 Steevens. that will pray in aid for kindness.] Praying in aid is a term used for a petition made in a court of justice for the calling in of help from another that hath an interest in the cause in ques tion. Hanmer. |