Not as you serv'd the cause, but as it had been Tell them your feats; whilst they with joyful tears Enter CLEOPATRA, attended. To this great fairy I'll commend thy acts, Make her thanks bless thee.-Oh, thou day o' the world! Through proof of harness to my heart, and there Cleo. Lord of lords! Oh infinite virtue! com'st thou smiling from Ant. My nightingale, We have beat them to their beds. What, girl! though grey Cleo. I'll give thee, friend, An armour all of gold; it was a king's. Ant. He hath deserv'd it, were it carbuncled Like holy Phoebus' car'.-Give me thy hand: Bear our hack'd targets like the men that owe them. To camp this host, we all would sup together, 7 - CLIP your wives,] i. e. Embrace your wives. See Vol. iv. p. 687, &c. 8 Like holy Phoebus' car.] "Like glowing Phoebus' car" in the corr. fo. 1632, but we do not consider the epithet "holy," in the mouth of Roman Antony, by any means so inappropriate as to warrant the exclusion of it. 9 - our rattling TABOURINES;] We have had this word used for drums in "Troilus and Cressida," A. iv. sc. 5, Vol. iv. p. 569. That heaven and earth may strike their sounds together, Applauding our approach. SCENE IX. [Exeunt. CESAR'S Camp. Sentinels on their post. Enter ENOBARBUS. 1 Sold. If we be not reliev'd within this hour, We must return to the court of guard. The night Is shiny, and, they say, we shall embattle By the second hour i' the morn. Eno. Be witness to me, oh thou blessed moon! When men revolted shall upon record Bear hateful memory, poor Enobarbus did Eno. Oh, sovereign mistress of true melancholy! The poisonous damp of night disponge upon me, That life, a very rebel to my will, May hang no longer on me: throw my heart Against the flint and hardness of my fault, Which, being dried with grief, will break to powder, Oh Antony! oh Antony! 2 Sold. Let's speak to him. 1 Sold. Let's hear him; for the things he speaks May concern Cæsar. 3 Sold. Let's do so. But he sleeps. [Dies. 1 Sold. Swoons rather; for so bad a prayer as his Was never yet 'fore sleep'. 2 Sold. Go we to him. 3 Sold. Awake, sir, awake! speak to us. 2 Sold. 1 Sold. The hand of death hath raught him'. Hark! the drums Hear you, sir? [Drums afar off. Do early wake the sleepers. Let us bear him Enter ANTONY and SCARUS, with Forces, marching. Ant. Their preparation is to-day by sea: We please them not by land. Scar. For both, my lord. I Was never yet 'FORE sleep.] Mr. Singer is here content to take an emendation (never before hinted at) from our corr. fo. 1632 without saying more than that "the old copies have for." He could not resist the insertion of it, yet apparently could not prevail upon himself to admit the origin of the change: as it stands, according to his representation, he was himself the author of the alteration. Like "gests" for guests, he found it (or might have found it) on p. 499 of our Vol. of "Notes and Emendations." 2 The hand of death hath RAUGHT him.] "Raught" was most frequently used as the past tense of to reach. See Vol. ii. p. 130; Vol. iii. p. 618; Vol. iv. p. 231. But it is also sometimes made the past tense of to reave, as in Vol. iv. p. 39, and in Nash's "Pierce Penniless," 1592, "I raught his head from his shoulders, and sheathed my sword in his body." See the reprint of this tract by the Shakespeare Society, p. 82. In this place in our text either sense will answer the purpose, for the "1 Soldier" may mean either that death has reached, or has reft Enobarbus. 3 DO EARLY wake the sleepers.] Another indisputable emendation from the corr. fo. 1632, which Mr. Singer notices as suggested (see our 'Notes and Emendations," p. 500), although again he could not bring himself to state where it had been proposed. The text has always been "Demurely wake the sleepers," but how could the rattling of drums, with any propriety, be called demure? Demurely was a mere printer's error (from misreading the MS. most likely) for "Do early," and we have no difficulty in inserting the latter: the Soldier has already said that they were to be "embattled by the second hour." Ant. I would, they'd fight i' the fire, or i' the air; Shall stay with us (order for sea is given, Where their appointment we may best discover, Enter CESAR, and his Forces, marching. Cæs. But being charg'd, we will be still by land, Re-enter ANTONY and SCARUS. [Exeunt. [Exeunt. Ant. Yet they are not join'd. Where yond' pine does stand, I shall discover all: I'll bring thee word Straight, how 'tis like to go. Scar. [Exit. Swallows have built In Cleopatra's sails their nests: the augurers' Say, they know not, they cannot tell ;-look grimly, Is valiant, and dejected; and by starts (order for sea is given, [Alarum afar off, as at a sea-fight. : They have put forth the haven)] These words, as Mr. Knight suggests, are parenthetical, and we have printed them accordingly without them, the sense runs on quite clearly, and any addition to the text, such as "Let's seek a spot," proposed by Malone; or "Farther on," recommended by Monck Mason, is unnecessary. Antony says, our foot shall stay with us upon the hills adjoining to the city-where we may best discover the appointment, and look upon the endeavour of the enemy." For "this it is," above, we might read thus it is." ... " BUT being charg'd,] i. e. Unless we be charged. "But" is still frequently employed in the north of England as a preposition, equivalent to without. Several ancient instances may be found in the "Coventry Mysteries," printed by the Shakespeare Society, and edited by Mr. Halliwell. Steevens collects authorities on the point, but they are not necessary: he derives "but," in this sense, from the Sax. butan. In Cleopatra's SAILS their nests: the AUGURERS] According to Plutarch (North's Transl., 1579, p. 999), the swallows built under the poop of Cleopatra's ship, the Antoniade, and those birds which first settled there were driven away by others, which the old biographer calls “a marvelous ill signe." For "augurers of the corr. fo. 1632, the old copies read auguries. This foul Egyptian hath betrayed me: That spaniel'd me at heels', to whom I gave Their wishes, do discandy, melt their sweets On blossoming Cæsar; and this pine is bark'd, That overtopp'd them all. Betray'd I am. Oh this false spell of Egypt! this great charm, [Exit SCARUS. Whose eye beck'd forth my wars, and call'd them home, Like a right gipsy, hath, at fast and loose", What, Eros! Eros! Enter CLEOPATRA. Ah, thou spell! Avaunt! Cleo. Why is my lord enrag'd against his love? 7 That SPANIEL'D me at heels,] The credit of this happy emendation is due to Sir T. Hanmer: the folios all read, no doubt corruptly, "that pannelled me at heels ;" and it is rather singular that the corr. fo. 1632 makes no change. 8 Oh this false SPELL of Egypt! this GREAT charm,] An irresistible emendation; and Mr. Singer, in adopting it, with acknowledgment, attributes to the corr. fo. 1632 what in reality does not belong to it: he says that the emendation there is "spell" for soul, and "grand" for grave; but the fact is that "great" is the emendation in the corr. fo. 1632 for grave. He therefore prints "grand charm" without any authority, either in type or in manuscript. 9 Like a right GIPSY, hath, at FAST AND LOOSE,] "Fast and loose" was the same game as that now commonly called "pricking in the garter," and it was commonly (Sir J. Hawkins observes) employed by gipsies, as a mode of defrauding the unwary. Steevens quoted T. Freeman's Epigrams, 1614, at length, but the two first lines are all that really illustrate the text : "Charles the Egyptian, who by jugling could Make fast or loose, or whatsoere he would," &c. |