Are newly grown to love: the condemn'd Pompey, Into the hearts of such as have not thriv'd Upon the present state, whose numbers threaten; Cleo. Though age from folly could not give me freedom, It does from childishness :-Can Fulvia die? Ant. She's dead, my queen: Look here, and, at thy sovereign leisure, read Cleo. Ant. Quarrel no more, but be prepar'd to know 3 should safe my going,] i. e. should render my going not dangerous, not likely to produce any mischief to you. It does from childishness :- Can Fulvia die?] i. e. Though age has not exempted me from folly, I am not so childish, as to have apprehensions from a rival that is no more. And is Fulvia dead indeed? 5 The garboils she awak'd;] i. e. the commotion she occasioned. The word is derived from the old French garbouil, which Cotgreave explains by hurlyburly, great stir. 60 most false love! Where be the sacred vials thou should'st fill With sorrowful water?] Alluding to the lachrymatory vials, or bottles of tears, which the Romans sometimes put into the urn of a friend. Cleo. But let it be. I am quickly ill, and well : Cut my lace, Charmian, come ; So Antony loves'. My precious queen, forbear; Ant. And give true evidence to his love, which stands An honourable trial. Cleo. So Fulvia told me. I pr'ythee, turn aside, and weep for her; Ant. You'll heat my blood; no more. Cleo. You can do better yet; but this is meetly. Ant. Now, by my sword,— Cleo. And target,-Still he mends; But this is not the best: Look, pr'ythee, Charmian, The carriage of his chafe. Ant. I'll leave you, lady. Cleo. Courteous lord, one word. Sir, you and I must part,-but that's not it: And I am all forgotten'. 7 So Antony loves.] i. e. uncertain as the state of my health, is the love of Antony. 8 9 to Egypt: To me, the queen of Egypt. Herculean Roman -] Antony traced his descent from Anton, a son of Hercules. 1 O, my oblivion is a very Antony, And I am all forgotten.] Cleopatra has something to say, which seems to be suppressed by sorrow; and after many attempts to produce her meaning, she cries out: O, this oblivious memory of mine is as false and treacherous to me as Antony is, and I forget every thing. Oblivion, is boldly used for a memory apt to be deceitful. Ant. But that your royalty Holds idleness your subject, I should take you Cleo. 'Tis sweating labour, To bear such idleness so near the heart And all the gods go with you! upon your sword Be strew'd before your feet! Ant. Let us go. Come; That thou, residing here, go'st yet with me, Away. SCENE IV. [Exeunt. Rome. An Apartment in Cæsar's House. Enter OCTAVIUS CAESAR, LEPIDUS, and Attendants. Cæs. You may see, Lepidus, and henceforth know, It is not Cæsar's natural vice to hate One great competitor: from Alexandria 2 But that your royalty Holds idleness your subject, I should take you For idleness itself.] i. e. But that I know you to be a queen, and that your royalty holds idleness in subjection to you, exalting you far above its influence, I should suppose you to be the very genius of idleness itself. 3 Since my becomings kill me,] There is somewhat of obscurity in this expression; perhaps she may mean—' -That conduct which, in my own opinion, becomes me, as often as it appears ungraceful to you, is a shock to my sensibility. + "Sit laurel victory!"-MALONE. 4 One great competitor :] Competitor means here, as it does wherever the word occurs in Shakspeare, associate or partner. This is the news; He fishes, drinks, and wastes : The lamps of night in revel is not more manlike More womanly than he hardly gave audience, or Vouchsaf'd to think he had partners: You shall find there A man, who is the abstract of all faults That all men follow. Lep. I must not think, there are Evils enough to darken all his goodness: His faults, in him, seem as the spots of heaven, Cæs. You are too indulgent: Let us grant, it is not Amiss to tumble on the bed of Ptolemy; To give a kingdom for a mirth; to sit And keep the turn of tippling with a slave; To reel the streets at noon, and stand the buffet With knaves that smell of sweat; say this becomes him, (As his composure must be rare indeed, Whom these things cannot blemish,) yet must Antony No way excuse his soils, when we do bear So great weight in his lightness. If he fill'd His vacancy with his voluptuousness, Full surfeits, and the dryness of his bones, As we rate boys; who, being mature in knowledge, - purchas'd;] Procured by his own fault or endeavour. So great weight in his lightness.] The word light is one of Shakspeare's favourite play-things. The sense is-His trifling levity throws so much burden upon us. * Call on him for't:] Call on him, is visit him. Says Cæsar-If Antony followed his debaucheries at a time of leisure, I should leave him to be punished by their natural consequences, by surfeits and dry bones. JOHNSON. VOL. VII. Pawn their experience to their present pleasure, Enter a Messenger. Here's more news. Lep. Mess. Thy biddings have been done; and every hour, Cæs. I should have known no less : And the ebb'd man, ne'er lov'd, till ne'er worth love, Goes to, and back, lackeying the varying tide, Mess. Cæsar, I bring thee word, Menecrates and Menas, famous pirates, Make the sea serve them; which they ear and wound With keels of every kind: Many hot inroads They make in Italy; the borders maritime 3 Lack blood to think on't', and flush youth revolt : No vessel can peep forth, but 'tis as soon Taken as seen; for Pompey's name strikes more, 8 The discontents repair,] That is, the malecontents. 9 lackeying the varying tide,] i. e. floating backwards and forwards with the variation of the tide, like a page, or lackey, at his master's heels. 1 which they ear] 2 Lack blood to think on't,] and flush youth 3 To ear is to plough. Turn pale at the thought of it. Flush youth is youth ripened to manhood; youth whose blood is at the flow. |