Eno. There I deny my land service. But give me your hand, Menas: If our eyes had authority, here they might take two thieves kissing. Men. All men's faces are true, whatsoe'er their hands are. Eno. But there is never a fair woman has a true face. Men. No slander; they steal hearts. fortune. Eno. If he do, sure he cannot weep it back again. Men. You have said, sir. We looked not for Mark Antony here; Pray, you, is he married to Cleopatra ? Eno. Cæsar's sister is call'd Octavia. Men. True, sir; she was the wife of Caius Marcellus. Eno. But she is now the wife of Marcus Antonius. Men. Pray you, sir? Eno. "Tis true. Men. Then is Cæsar, and he, for ever knit together. Eno. If I were bound to divine of this unity, I would not prophesy so. will do me no service, as a partizan I could not heave. 1 Serv. To be called into a huge sphere, and not to be seen to move in't, are the holes where eyes should be, which pitifully disaster the checks." A Sennet sounded. Enter CESAR, ANTONY, POMPEY, LEPIDUS, AGRIPPA, MECENAS, ENOBA £BUS, MENAS, with other Captains. Ant. Thus do they, sir: [To CESAR.] They By certain scales i' the pyramid; they know, Lep. You have strange serpents there. Lep. Your serpent of Egypt is bred now of your mud by the operation of your sun: so is your crocodile. Eno. Not till you have slept: I fear me, you'll Men. I think, the policy of that purpose made more in the marriage, than the love of the parties.be in, till then. Eno. I think so too. But you shall find, the band that seems to tie their friendship together, will be the very strangler of their amity: Octavia is of a holy, cold, and still conversation.1 Men. Who would not have his wife so? Eno. Not he, that himself is not so; which is Mark Antony. He will to his Egyptian dish again: then shall the sighs of Octavia blow the fire up in Cæsar; and, as I said before, that which is the strength of their amity, shall prove the immediate author of their variance. Antony will use his af fection where it is; he married but his occasion here. Men. And thus it may be. Come, sir, will you aboard? I have a health for you. Eno. I shall take it, sir: we have used our throats in Egypt. Men. Come; let's away. [Exeunt. SCENE VII. On board Pompey's Galley, lying near Misenum. Music. Enter two or three Servants, with a Banquet.2 1 Serv. Here they'll be, man: Some o' their plants are ill rooted already, the least wind i' the world will blow them down. 2 Serv. Lepidus is high-coloured. 1 Serv. They have made him drink alms drink.4 2 Serv. As they pinch one another by the disposition, he cries out, no more; reconciles them to his entreaty, and himself to the drink. 1 Serv. But it raises the greater war between him and his discretion. 2 Serv. Why, this it is to have a name in great men's fellowship: I had as lief have a reed that 1 Conversation is behaviour, manner of acting in common life. He useth no virtue or honest conversation at all: Nec habet ullum cum virtute commercium.-Baret. Lep. Nay, certainly, I have heard, the Ptoleries' are very goodly things; without conpyramises tradiction, I have heard that. Men. Pompey, a word. [Asule. Pom. Say in mine ear: What is't? Men. Forsake thy seat, I do beseech thee, captain, [Asule. And hear me speak a word. Pom. This wine for Lepidus. Forbear me till anon.— Lep. What manner o' thing is your crocodile ? Ant. It is shaped, sir, like itself; and it is as broad as it hath breadth; it is just so high as it is, which nourisheth it; and the elements once out of and moves with its own organs: it lives by that it, it transmigrates. Lep. What colour is it of? And the tears of it are wet. Pom. [To MENAS aside.] Go, hang, sir, hang; Pom. Do as I bid you.-Where's this cup I call'd for? Be jolly, lords. 7 To be called into a huge sphere, and not to be seen to move in it, is a sight as unseemly as the boles where the eyes should be, without the_animating pre 2 A banquet here is a refection, similar to our dessence of the eye to fill them. The sphere in which the sert. 3 Plants, besides its common meaning, is used here for the foot, from the Latin. Thus in Chapman's version of the sixteenth Iliad :-- "Even to the low plants of his feete his forme was altered. The French still use plantc du pied for the sole of the foot. eye moves is an expression Shakspeare has used more than once : 'How have mine eyes out of their spheres been fitted.' Sonnet 119. 'Make thy two eyes like stars start from their spheres. Hamlet. 8 Foizon is plenty, abundance. land's translation. Or from Leo's History of Africa, translated by John Pery, 1600. 4 A phrase (says Warburton) among good fellows, 9 Shakspeare seems to have derived his information to signify that liquor of another's share which his com-respecting the Nilometer from Pliny, b. v. c. ix. Hol panions drink to ease him. But it satirically alludes to Cæsar and Antony's admitting him into the triumvirate, in order to take off from themselves the load of envy. 10 Pyramis for pyramid was in common use former5 Warburton explains this phrase as equivalent to ly: from this word Shakspeare formed the plural pyra one still in use, of Touching one in a sore place.' mises, to mark the indistinct pronunciation of a man 6 A partizan was a weapon between a pike and a nearly intoxicated, whose tongue is now beginning to halberd; not being so long, it was made use of in mount-split what it speaks.' The usual ancient plural was ing a breach, &c. pyramides. Ant. These quicksands, Lepidus, Keep off them, for you sink. Men. Wilt thou be lord of all the world? What say'st thou? Pom. Let's ha't, good soldier. Ant. Come, let us all take hands ; Till that the conquering wine hath steep'd our sense In soft and delicate Lethe. Eno. All take hands.Make battery to our ears with the loud music;The while, I'll place you: Then the boy shall sing But entertain it, and, The holding' every man shall bear, as loud Although thou think me poor, I am the man As his strong sides can volley. Will give thee all the world." Pom. How should that be? Pom. Pom. Show me which way. Men. These three world-sharers, these competitors, 2 Are in thy vessel: Let me cut the cable; Pom. [Aside. I'll never follow thy pall'd' fortunes more, Pom. This health to Lepidus. Ant. Bear him ashore.-I'll pledge it for him, Pompey. Enobarbus, welcome. Eno. Here's to thee, Menas. Men. Eno. [Music plays. ENOBARBUS places them hand in hand. No, to my cabin. [Pointing to the Attendant who carries off These drums!--these trumpets, flutes! what!- Why? He bears 1 i. e. encloses and embraces. 2 i. e. confederates. See, in the present play, Act i. 8c. 4. 3 Palled is vapid, past its time of excellence; palled wine is wine that has lost its sprightliness. 4 Difficulties have been made about this passage, in which I must confess I see none. Menas says, 'The third part of the world is drunk (meaning Lepidus, one of the triumvirs;) would it were all so, that it might go on wheels, i. e. turn round or change. To which Enobarbus replies, Drink thou; increase the reels,' i. e. increase its giddy course. 5 i. e. tap them, broach them. So in the last scene of Fletcher's Monsieur Thomas: Home, Launce, and strike a fresh piece of wine, the town's ours.' See Cotgrave in v. Tapper. 6 The half line omitted in this place may be supplied with words resembling those in Milton's Comus:'Come let us all take hands, and beat the ground, Till,' &c. SCENE I. A Plain in Syria. Enter VENTIDIUS, Ven. Now, darting Parthia, art thou struck; 10 Pleas'd fortune does of Marcus Crassus' death Sil. 7 The holding is the burden or under-song. Thus in The Serving Man's Comfort, 1598, 4to. Where a song is to be sung, the under-song or holding whereof is The fugitive Parthians follow; spur through Media, Ven. More in their officer, than person: Sossius, I could do more to do Antonius good, Sil. Ven. I'll humbly signify what in his name, Where is he now? Ven. He purposeth to Athens: whither with what haste The weight we must convey with us will permit, We shall appear before him.-On, there; pass along. [Exeunt. SCENE II. Rome. An Antechamber in Cæsar's House. Enter AGRIPPA and ENOBARBUS, meeting. Eno. But he loves Cæsar best;-Yet he loves This is to horse.-Adieu, noble Agrippa. Ces. You take from me a great part of myself;" band Agr. What, are the brothers parted? is gone; The other three are sealing. Octavia weeps Agr. "Tis a noble Lepidus. Eno. A very fine one: O, how he loves Cæsar! Agr. Nay, but how dearly he adores Mark Antony! Eno. Cæsar? Why, he's the Jupiter of men. Agr. What's Antony? the god of Jupiter. Eno. Spake you of Cæsar? How? the nonpareil? Agr. O, Antony! O, thou Arabian bird !2" Eno. Would you praise Caesar, say,-Cæsar ;go no further. Agr. Indeed, he ply'd them both with excellent praises. Octa. I'll tell you in your ear. Ant. Her tongue will not obey her heart, nor can Her heart inform her tongue: the swan's down feather, That stands upon the swell at full of tide, [Aside to AGRIPPA. Eno. That year, indeed, he was troubled with a What willingly he did confound,'' he wail'd: 6 Band and bond were synonymous in Shakspeare's 7 1 Grants for affords. "Thou hast that, Ventidius, 'She is alone the Arabian bird, and I Shakspeare's 119th Sonnet. 8 i. e. scrupulous, particular. So in the Taming of the Shrew: For curious I cannot be with you.' 9 It is singular that this passage could by any means have been misunderstood. Octavia was going to sat! with Antony from Rome to Athens, and her brother wishes that the elements may be kind to her; in other words, that she may have a prosperous voyage. 10 A horse is said to have a cloud in his face, when he has a dark-coloured spot in his forehead between his eyes. This gives him a sour look, and being supposed to indicate an ill temper, is of course looked upon as a great blemish. Burton has applied the phrase to the look of a female:-- Every lover admires his mistress, 3 This puerile arrangement of words was much affected in the age of Shakspeare, even by the first writers. Thus in Daniel's 11th Sonnet :'Yet will I weep, vow, pray to cruel shee; Flint, frost, disdaine, weares, melts, and yields we see.' And Sir Philip Sidney's Excellent Sonnet of a Nymph, printed in England's Helicon, is a tissue of this kind. 4 i. e. they are the wings that raise this heavy lump-though she be very deformed of herselfe-thin, leare, ish insect from the ground. So in Macbeth, 'The shardborne beetle.' 5 In The Tempest, Prospero, in giving Miranda to Ferdinand, says: I have given you here a third of my own hie.' chitty-face, have clouds in her face, be crooked, &c.— Anatomy of Melancholy, p. 524, ed. 1632. 11 To confound is to consume, to destroy. See M sheu's Dictionary, 1617, in voce. 12 Theobald reads, till I wept too.' Mr. Steevens en Cas. No, sweet Octavia, ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA. You shall hear from me still; the time shall not Ant. To thy fair way! Cæs. Farewell, farewell! [Kisses OCTAVIA. ALEXAS. Cleo. Where is the fellow? Half afeard to come? Alex. Enter a Messenger. That Herod's head near. Mess. Most gracious majesty,- Octavia? Mess. Ay, dread queen. Cleo. Mess. Mess. Madam, 289 Widow?-Charmian, hark.* Mess. And I do think, she's thirty. Cleo. Bear'st thou her face in mind? is't long, or round? Mess. Round even to faultiness. Cleo. For the most part too, they are foolish that are so.3 Her hair, what colour? Mess. Brown, madam: And her forehead Thou must not take my former sharpness ill :- Char. Hath he seen majesty? Isis else defend, Cleo. I have one thing more to ask him yet, good But 'tis no matter; thou shalt bring him to me Where? Madam, in Rome I look'd her in the face; and saw her led Mess. Madam, I heard her speak; she is low- Cleo. That's not so good; he cannot like her long. What majesty is in her gait? Remember, Cleo. Guess at her years, I pr'ythee. deavours to give a meaning to the passage as it now 'A station like the herald Mercury.' 3 This is from the old writers on physiognomy. Thus in Hill's Pleasant History, &c. 1613: The head very round, to be forgetful and foolish.' Again:-The head long, to be prudent and wary.' 'A low forehead,' &c. p. 218. [Exeunt. Spoke scantly of me; when perforce he could not Oct. Believe not all: or, if you must believe, Ani. I lose myself: better I were not yours, So your desires are yours. So Nash, in his Lenten Stuff: As if he were harry. den in his Wild Gallant :-I am confident she is only 'She laught, but meerly from her lips. those of Lady Blanche in King John, Act iii. Sc. 1. 6 Oct. Thanks to my lord. The Jove of power make me most weak, most weak, Your reconciler! Wars 'twixt you twain would be As if the world should cleave, and that slain men Should solder up the rift. Ant. When it appears to you where this begins, Turn your displeasure that way; for our faults Can never be so equal, that your love Can equally move with them. Provide your going; Choose your own company, and command what cost Your heart has mind to. [Exeunt. SCENE V. The same. Another Room in the same. Enter ENOBARBUS and EROS, meeting. friend Eros? Eno. How now, Eros. There's strange news come, sir. Eros. Cæsar and Lepidus have made wars upon Pompey. Eno. This is old; What is the success? Eros. Cæsar, having made use of him in the wars 'gainst Pompey, presently denied him rivality! would not let him partake in the glory of the action and not resting here, accuses him of letters he had formerly wrote to Pompey; upon his own appeal,2 seizes him: So the poor third is up, death enlarge his confine. till Eno. Then, world, thou hast a pair of chaps, no more ;3 And throw between them all the food thou hast, And threats the throat of that his officer, Eno. Our great navy's rigg'd. Eros. For Italy, and Cæsar. More, Domitius; My lord desires you presently: my news I might have told hereafter. Eno. "Twill be naught; But let it be.-Bring me to Antony. Eros. Come, sir. [Exeunt. SCENE VI. Rome. A Room in Caesar's House. Enter CESAR, AGRIPPA, and MECENAS. Cæs. Contemning Rome, he has done all this: And more; In Alexandria,-here's the manner of it,- Absolute queen. Mec. This in the public eye? Cas. I' the common show-place, where they ex So Shore's wife's face made fowle Brownetta blush. 'As pearle staynes pitch, or gold surmounts a rush.' Shore's Wife, by Churchyard, 1593. "Whose beauties staines the faire Helen of Greece," Churchyard's Charitie, 1595. · the praise and yet the stain of all womankind.' Sidney's Arcadia, 1 i. e. equal rank. In Hamlet, Horatio and Marcellus are styled by Bernardo the rivals' of his watch." 2 Appeal here means accusation. Cæsar seized Lepidus without any other proof than Cæsar's accusa tion. 3 No more does not signify no longer; but has the same meaning as if Shakspeare had written and no dgr. Who, queasy with his insolence Already, will their good thoughts call from him. Cas. The people know it: and have now receiv'd His accusations. Whom does he accuse? Agr. Cas. Cæsar; and that, having in Sicily Sextus Pompeius spoil'd, we had not rated him His part o' the isle: then does he say, he lent me Some shipping unrestor'd; lastly, he frets, That Lepidus of the triumvirate Should be depos'd; and, being, that we detain All his revenue. Sir, this should be answer'd. Cas. 'Tis done already, and the messenger gone. I have told him, Lepidus was grown too cruel; That he his high authority abus'd, Agr. And did deserve his change; for what I have conquer'd, I grant him part; but then, in his Armenia, And other of his conquer'd kingdoms, I Demand the like. Like Cæsar's sister: The wife of Antony Oct. Oct. Bocchus, the king of Libya; Archelaus, Of Paphlagonia; the Thracian king, Adallas: 4 This is closely copied from the old translation of Plutarch. 5 The old copy reads, abstract. The alteration was made by Warburton. 6 That is, which two persons are now levying, &c. Upton observes, that there are some errors in the enumeration of the auxiliary kings: but it is probable that the poet did not care to be scrupulously accurate. He proposed to read : |