In Coriolanus, "lots" is explained “prizes ;" and of that explanation, this passage appears to be a support.

SCENE III.

92. "Before the gods my knee shall bow my prayers."

Mr. Steevens here says, the same construction is found in Coriolanus, "shouting their emulation;" and in King Lear, "smile you my speeches?" But surely these references are inapplicable. "Shouting their emulation," is signifying their emulation by shouts-and "smile you my speeches?" is merely elliptical; do you smile at my speeches? or do you make my speeches a subject to smile at? The present is a bold poetic figure-The action of my knee shall teach or command the humility of my prayers for

the gods.

you to

The superfluous preposition ought certainly here to be dismissed, as it only encumbers the verse: "Would he had never come thence, nor you thither."

46

Mr. M. Mason's emendation is very plausible, nor you hither," and the measure might proceed :

"If you can, sir, your reason?”

66

94. "Cæsar's."

I see't in," &c.

This word might be brought into the metre, by a commodious and slight alteration:

"Cæsar's; so, Antony, stay not by his side."

Thy damon, that's thy spirit which keeps thee, is.”

Instead of "spirit," here, we might, for smoothness, read, as in other places,

Therefore

"sprite."

"Make space enough between you.'
Speak this no more."

I do not know whether a rhyme were intended here, or not; but the hypermeter should at all events be removed :

98.

"Make space enough between you."
Of this no more.”

I believe Mr. Steevens is not accurate, in saying that "moody" is melancholy: it is rather, I think, fitful, suiting any particular gust or strain of passion. Dryden mentions "ireful mood, and Gray, "moody madness laughing wild, amid severest woe;" and our poet, in the Third Part of King Henry VI. "moody, discontented fury."

99. "Ere the ninth hour, I drunk him to his bed."

"Drunk" should be altered to "drank." She gave him his sleeping draught.

"Tires," perhaps, means no more than "robes, general dress," an abridgment of "attire."

101. Antony's dead?”—

The metre here is interrupted. I believe we should order it thus;

Antony's dead?-If, villain, thou say so, "Thou kill'st thy mistress: but if well and free, "If thou so yield him," &c.

First, madam, he's well."

"Madam" might well be spared, to preserve the measure.

"Down thy ill-uttering throat."

Some words seem to have been lost: perhaps, such as these: "therefore look to't."

This appears to be a whimsical expression though Cleopatra might turn pale at the news she heard, how should she herself perceive the paleness?

The consideration of this question will, I believe, be sufficient to confute Mr. Steevens's assertion upon that passage in Hamlet, referring to the actor's visage conforming to the workings of his soul. See note on that passage, Act 2, Scene 2, Page 156. Reid's Edit,

Thou'rt an honest man."

"Thou'rt" might be omitted, and the metre preserved :

Lee has imitated this passage, in The Massacre of Paris :

Adml. "But yet, my lord."

Guj. "No yet, my lord; no yet,
By arms I bear you that."

"Pour out the pack of matter to mine car."

Surely Mr. Capell's emendation, thy pack, was entitled here to a place in the text. The queen says, presently

"The merchandize which thou hast brought from Rome

"Are all too dear for me."

106. "So half my Egypt were submerg'd," &c.

I cannot extract meaning from this passage, as it stands; at least not any apposite meaning: "so" must relate to a consequence; so that, provided that; but Cleopatra would surely be as well pleased to know that Antony was not married, with the possession of her kingdom entire, as with the loss or destruction of half of it, though to purchase that assurance she might be willing to make so great a sacrifice. I am persuaded that, by some typographic error, a word has been changed, and that we should read:

Mess.

Should I lie, madam ?”

Cleop. "O, I would thou did'st,

"Tho' half my Egypt were submerg'd,"

&c.

"So half my Egypt were submerg'd," &c.

I think "so" has the sense of though, here: even if it were so that; it is a licentious construction; but I believe it is Shakspeare's.

CAPEL LOFFT.

"A cistern for scal'd snakes!",

A similar expression occurs in Othello :

A cistern for foul toads

"To knot and gender in."

107. "O, that his fault should make a knave of thee,

"That art not !-IVhat? thou'rt sure

of't?"

None of the commentators, I believe, has explained this passage with sufficient clearness.Mr. Malone proposes "sore-of," instead of "sure-of" but the messenger could only be "sore-of" the blows he had received; and to say he was not, THE BLOWS" would have but little meaning. This appears to me to be the sense :"O strange! that this perfidy of Antony should so infect thee, who relatest it, as to exhibit thee, to my apprehension, not only ugly, but dishonest, and yet thou art not to blame-thou art not the ill tidings that are so hateful-thou only dost report what thou knowest, or art assured of.

113.

Well studied for a liberal thanks."

He had long meditated on a free acknowledgment of Pompey's favours. It is a theatrical phrase; as, in Macbeth, Macdonald is said to have died like one that had been studied in his death.