Ant. I am not married, Cæsar: let me hear Agrippa further speak. Agr. To hold you in perpetual amity, To make you brothers, and to knit your hearts And all great fears, which now import their dangers, Ant. Will Cæsar speak? Cas. Not till he hears how Antony is touch'd With what is spoke already." your proof Were well deserved which Mr. Theobald, with his usual triumph, changes to approof, which he explains, allowance. Dr. Warburton inserted reproof very properly into Hanmer's edition, but forgot it in his own. Johnson. Your reproof &c.] That is, you might be reproved for your rashness, and would well deserve it.-Your reproof, means, the reproof you would undergo. The expression is rather licentious; but one of a similar nature occurs in The Custom of the Country, where Arnoldo, speaking to the Physician, says: 66 And by your success "In all your undertakings, propagate Here, your opinion means, the opinion conceived of you. M. Mason. Dr. Warburton's emendation is certainly right. The error was one of many which are found in the old copy, in consequence of the transcriber's ear deceiving him. So, in another scene of this play, we find in the first copy-mine nightingale, instead of my nightingale; in Coriolanus, news is coming, for news is come in; in the same play, higher for hire, &c. &c. Malone. but tales,] The conjunction-but, was supplied by Sir Thomas Hanmer, to perfect the metre. We might read, I think, with less alliteration-as tales. Steevens. 8 9 already.] This adverb may be fairly considered as an interpolation. Without enforcing the sense, it violates the mea sure. Steevens. To this good purpose, that so fairly shows, Cæs. There is my hand. A sister I bequeath you, whom no brother To join our kingdoms, and our hearts; and never Lep. Happily, amen! Ant. I did not think to draw my sword 'gainst Pom pey; For he hath laid strange courtesies, and great, Of late upon me: I must thank him only, At heel of that, defy him. Lep. Of us must Pompey presently be sought, Or else he seeks out us. Ant. Time calls upon us: And where lies he? What 's his strength Cas. About the Mount Misenum. Ant. By land? Cas. Great, and increasing: but by sea He is an absolute master. Ant. So is the fame. 'Would, we had spoke together! Haste we for it: Yet, ere we put ourselves in arms, despatch we The business we have talk'd of. 1 Lest my remembrance suffer ill report;] Lest I be thought too willing to forget benefits, I must barely return him thanks, and then I will defy him. Johnson. 2 Of us &c.] In the language of Shakspeare's time, means— by us. Malone. 3 And where] And was supplied by Sir Thomas Hanmer, for the sake of metre. VOL. XIII. Steevens. Y Cas. And do invite you to, my sister's view, With most gladness; Let us, Lepidus, Noble Antony, Not sickness should detain me. [Flourish. Exeunt Cæs. Mec. Welcome from Egypt, sir. ANT. and LEP. Eno Half the heart of Cæsar, worthy Mecænas!— my honourable friend, Agrippa! Agr. Good Enobarbus! Mec. We have cause to be glad, that matters are so well digested. You stay'd well by it in Egypt. Eno. Ay, sir; we did sleep day out of countenance, and made the night light with drinking. Mec. Eight wild boars roasted whole at a breakfast, and but twelve persons there; Is this true? Eno. This was but as a fly by an eagle: we had much more monstrous matter of feast, which worthily deserved noting. Mec. She's a most triumphant lady, if report be square to her.5 Eno. When she first met Mark Antony, she pursed up his heart, upon the river of Cydnus.6 Agr. There she appeared indeed; or my reporter devised well for her. Eno. I will tell you: The barge she sat in,7 like a burnish'd throne, 4 Part I: 5 most gladness;] i. e. greatest. So, in King Henry VI, "But always resolute in most extremes." Steevens. be square to her.] i. e. if report quadrates with her, or suits with her merits. Steevens. 6 When she first met Mark Antony, she pursed up his heart, upon the river of Cydnus.] This passage is a strange instance of negligence and inattention in Shakspeare. Enobarbus is made to say that Cleopatra gained Antony's heart on the river Cydnus; but it appears from the conclusion of his own description, that Antony had never seen her there; that, whilst she was on the river, Antony was sitting alone, enthroned in the market-place, whistling to the air, all the people having left him to gaze upon her: and that, when she landed, he sent to her to invite her to supper. M. Mason. 7 The barge she sat in, &c.] The reader may not be displeased Burn'd on the water: the poop was beaten gold; The winds were love-sick with them: the oars were sil ver; Which to the tune of flutes kept stroke, and made with the present opportunity of comparing our author's description with that of Dryden: "Her galley down the silver Cydnus row'd, "The tackling, silk, the streamers wav'd with gold, "Hernymphs, like Nereids, round her couch were plac'd, "She lay, and leant her cheek upon her hand, "As if, secure of all beholders' hearts, 60 Neglecting she could take 'em: Boys, like Cupids, "Stood fanning with their painted wings the winds "That play'd about her face: But if she smil'd, "A darting glory seem'd to blaze abroad; "That men's desiring eyes were never wearied, "But hung upon the object: To soft flutes "The silver oars kept time; and while they play'd, "The hearing gave new pleasure to the sight, "And both to thought. 'Twas heaven, or somewhat more; "For she so charm'd all hearts, that gazing crowds "To give their welcome voice." Reed. - like a burnish'd throne, Burn'd on the water:] The same idea occurs in Chapman's translation of the tenth Book of the Odyssey: 66 In a throne she plac'd My welcome person. Of a curious frame ""Twas, and so bright, I sat as in a flame." Steevens. "O'er-picturing that Venus, where we see, &c.] Meaning the Venus of Protogenes, mentioned by Pliny, L. XXXV, c. x. Warburton. And what they undid, did.] It might be read less harshly: And what they did, undid. Johnson. Agr. The reading of the old copy is, I believe, right. The wind of the fans seemed to give a new colour to Cleopatra's cheeks, which they were employed to cool; and what they undid, i. e. that warmth which they were intended to diminish or allay, they did, i. e. they seemed to produce. Malone. 2 tended her the eyes,] Perhaps tended her by th' eyes, discovered her will by her eyes. Johnson. So, Spenser, Fairy Queen, B. I, c. iii: he wayted diligent, "With humble service to her will prepar'd; Again, in our author's 149th Sonnet: "Commanded by the motion of thine eyes." The words of the text may, however, only mean, they performed their duty in the sight of their mistress. Malone. 3 And made their bends adornings:] This is sense indeed, and may be understood thus:-Her maids bowed with so good an air, that it added new graces to them. But this is not what Shakspeare would say. Cleopatra, in this famous scene, personated Venus just rising from the waves; at which time, the mythologists tell us, the sea-deities surrounded the goddess to adore, and pay her homage. Agreeably to this fable, Cleopatra had dressed her maids, the poet tells us, like Nereids. To make the whole, therefore, conformable to the story represented, we may be assured, Shakspeare wrote: And made their bends adorings. They did her observance in the posture of adoration, as if she had been Venus. Warburton. That Cleopatra personated Venus, we know; but that Shakspeare was acquainted with the circumstance of homage being paid her by the deities of the sea, is by no means as certain. The old term will probably appear the more elegant of the two to modern readers, who have heard so much about the line of beauty. The whole passage is taken from the following in Sir Thomas North's translation of Plutarch: "She disdained to set forward otherwise, but to take her barge in the riuer of Cydnus, the poope whereof was of golde, the sailes of purple, and the owers of siluer, whiche kept stroke in rowing after the sounde of the musicke of flutes, howboyes, citherns, violls, and such other instruments as they played vpon in the barge. And now for the person of her selfe: she was layed under a pauillion of cloth of gold of tissue, apparelled and attired like the Goddesse Venus, commonly drawn in picture; and hard by her, on either hand of her, pretie faire boyes apparelled as painters do set forth God |