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Cas. He calls me boy; and chides, as he had
power

To beat me out of Egypt: my messenger,
He hath whipp'd with rods; dares me to personal
combat,

Cæsar to Antony: Let the old ruffian know,
I have many other ways to die; mean time,
Laugh at his challenge.

Mec.
Cæsar must think,
When one so great begins to rage, he's hunted
Even to falling. Give him no breath, but now
Make boots of his distraction: Never anger
Made good guard for itself.
Cas.

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He is twenty mien to one.
Ant.

Let our best heads
Know, that to-morrow the last of many battles
We mean to fight :-Within our files there are
Of those that serv'd Mark Antony but late,
Enough to fetch him in. See it be done;
And feast the army: we have store to do't,
And they have earn'd the waste. Poor Antony!
[Exeunt.
SCENE II. Alexandria. A Room in the Palace.
Enter ANTONY, CLEOPATRA, ENOBARBUS,
CHARMIAN, IRAS, ALEXAS, and others.
Ant. He will not fight with
me, Domitius.
Eno.

Ant. Why should he not?

No.

To-morrow, soldier,

By sea and land I'll fight: or I will live,
Or bathe my dying honour in the blood
Shall make it live again. Woo't thou fight well?
Eno. I'll strike; and cry, Take all."
Ant.
Well said; come on.—
Call forth my household servants; let's to-night
Enter Servants.

Be bounteous at our meal.-Give me thy hand,
Thou hast been rightly honest ;-so hast thou;-
And thou, and thou,-and thou:-you have serv'd
me well,
And kings have been
your fellows.
Cleo.
What means this?
Eno. 'Tis one of those odd tricks, which sorrow
shoots
[Aside.
Out of the mind.

1 Feast days, in the colleges of either university, are called gaudy days, as they were formerly in the Inns of Court. From gaudium, (says Blount,) because, to say truth, they are days of joy, as bringing good cheer to the hungry students.'

2 This may have been caught from Harington's Ari. osto, b. xii. :

'Death goeth about the field, rejoicing mickle
To see a sword that so surpass'd his sickle.'

Ant.

And thou art honest too.
I wish, I could be made so many men ;
And all of you clapp'd up together in
An Antony; that I might do you service,
So good as you have done.

Serv.
The gods forbid !
Ant. Well, my good fellows, wait on me to-night:
Scant not my cups; and make as much of me,
As when mine empire was your fellow too,
And suffer'd my command.

Cleo.

What does he mean?
Eno. To make his followers weep.
Ant.

Tend me to-night;

May be, it is the period of your duty:
Haply, you shall not see me more; or if,
A mangled shadow: perchance, to-morrow
You'll serve another master. I look on you,
As one that takes his leave. Mine honest friends,
I turn you not away; but, like a master
Married to your good service, stay till death:
Tend me to-night two hours, I ask no more,
And the gods yield you for't!

Eno.
What mean you, sir,
To give them this discomfort? Look, they weep;
And I, an ass, am onion-ey'd ;10 for shame,
Transform us not to wonen.

Ant.

Ho, ho, ho !!!

Now the witch take me, if I meant it thus!
Grace grow where those drops fall! My hearty

friends,

You take me in too dolorous a sense:

I spake to you for your comfort: did desire you
To burn this night with torches: Know, my hearts,
I hope well of to-morrow; and will lead you,
Where rather I'll expect victorious life,
Than death and honour. Let's to supper; come,
And drown consideration.
[Exeunt.
SCENE III. The same. Before the Palace. Enter
Two Soldiers, to their Guard.

1 Sold. Brother, good night: to-morrow is the day.

6 i. e. take advantage of.

7 Let the survivor take all; no composition; victory or death. So in King Lear :-

unbonneted he runs, And bids what will, take all.'

8 Or if you see me more, you will see me a mangled shadow, only the external form of what I was.' The

Death is armed with a weapon in Statius, Theb. i. 633-thought is, as usual, taken from North's translation of

'Mors fila sororum
Ense metit.'

3 Plutarch says of Antony, He used a manner of phrase in his speeche called Asiatic, which carried the best grace at that time, and was much like to him in his manners and life; for it was full of ostentation, foolish braverie, and vaine ambition.'-North's Translation. 4 i. e. the estridge falcon.

5 Upton would read :

'He hath many other ways to die: mean time I laugh at his challenge.' This is certainly the sense of Plutarch, and given so in modern translations; but Shakspeare was misled by the ambiguity of the old one :- Antonius sent again to challenge Cæsar to fight him: Cæsar answered, that he had many other ways to die than so."

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And full of purpose.

4 Sold.

1 Sold.

'Tis a brave army,

Music of Hautboys under the Stage.
Peace, what noise?
List, list!

More tight at this, than thou: Despatch.-O love,
That thou could'st see my wars to-day, and know'st
The royal occupation; thou should'st see

Enter an Officer, armed.

A workman in't.-Good morrow to thee; welcome:
Thou look'st like him that knows a warlike charge:
To business that we love, we rise betime,
And go to it with delight.
180.
A thousand, sir,
Early though it be, have on their riveted trim,'
And at the port expect you.

[Shout. Trumpets. Flourish.

Enter other Officers, and Soldiers.

2 Off. The morn is fair.-Good morrow, general. All. Good morrow, general.

Ant.

'Tis well blown, lads.
This morning, like the spirit of a youth
That means to be of note, begins betimes.-
So, so; come, give me that: this way; well said.
Fare thee well, dame, whate'er becomes of me:
This is a soldier's kiss; rebukable, [Kisses her.
And worthy shameful check it were, to stand
It signs' well, On more mechanic compliment; I'll leave thee
Now, like a man of steel.--You, that will fight,
Follow me close; I'll bring you to't.-Adieu.
[Exeunt ANTONY, EROS, Officers, and
Soldiers.

2 Sold. Hark!

1 Sold. Music i'the air.

3 Sold.

Under the earth.

4 Sold.

Does't not?

S Sold. No.

1 Sold. Peace, I say. What should this mean? 2 Sold. "Tis the god Hercules, whom Antony lov'd,

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2 This is from the old translation of Plutarch:Within a little of midnight, when all the citie was quiet, full of feare, and sorrowe, thinking what would be the issue and end of this warre, it is saide that sodainely they heard a marvellous sweete harmonie of sundry sortes of instruments of musicke, with the cry of a multitude of people as they had beene dauncinge, and had song as they use in Bacchus feastes, with movinges and turnings after the manner of the satyres: and it seemed that this daunce went through the city unto the gate that opened to the enemies, and that all the troupe that made this noise they heard went out of the

Char. Please you, retire to your chamber?
Cleo.

Lead me,

He goes forth gallantly. That he and Cæsar might
Determine this great war in single fight:
Then, Antony,-But now,-Well, on. [Exeunt.
SCENE V.-Antony's Camp near Alexandria.
Trumpets sound. Enter ANTONY and EROS; a
Soldier meeting them.

Sold. The gods make this a happy day to Antony!
Ant. 'Would, thou and those thy scars had once
prevail'd
To make me fight at land!

Sold.
Had'st thou done so,
The kings that have revolted, and the soldier
That has this morning left thee, would have still
Follow'd thy heels.

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Sold.
Most certain.
Ant. Go, Eros, send his treasure after; do it;
Detain no jot, I charge thee: write to him

(I will subscribe) gentle adieus, and greetings:
Say, that I wish he never find more cause
To change a master.--O, my fortunes have
Corrupted honest men :--Despatch:-Enobarbus!

[Exeunt.

SCENE VI. Cæsar's Camp before Alexandria.
Flourish. Enter CESAR with AGRIPPA, ENO-
BARBUS, and others.

Cas. Go forth, Agrippa, and begin the fight;
Our will is, Antony be took alive;
Make it so known.

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Cas.

Antony

Go, charge Agrippa,
Plant those that have revolted in the van,
That Antony may seem to spend his fury
Upon himself.
[Exeunt CESAR and his Train.
Eno. Alexas did revolt; and went to Jewry,
On affairs of Antony; there did persuade
Great Herod to incline himself to Cæsar,
And leave his master Antony: for this pains,
Caesar hath hang'd him. Canidius, and the rest
That fell away, have entertainment, but
No honourable trust. I have done ill,
Of which I do accuse myself so sorely,
That I will joy no more.

Enter a Soldier of Cæsar's.
Sold.
Enobarbus, Antony
Hath after thee sent all thy treasure, with
His bounty overplus: The messenger
Came on my guard; and at thy tent is now,
Unloading of his mules.
Eno. I give it you.

Sold.

Mock not, Enobarbus. I tell you true: Best you saf'd the bringer Out of the host; I must attend mine office, Or would have done't myself. Your emperor Continues still a Jove. [Exit Soldier. Eno. I am alone the villain of the earth, And feel I am so most. O, Antony, Thou mine of bounty, how would'st thou have paid My better service, when my turpitude

Thou dost so crown with gold! This blows my

heart:

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Ant.

They do retire.

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Before the sun shall see us, we'll spill the blood
That has to-day escap'd. I thank you all;
For doughty-handed are you: and have fought
Not as you served the cause, but as it had been
Each man's like mine; you have shown all Hectors.
Enter the city, clip your wives, your friends,
Tell them your feats; whilst they with joyful tears
Wash the congealment from your wounds, and kiss
The honour'd gashes whole.-Give me thy hand;
[To SCARUS.

Enter CLEOPATRA, attended.

To this great fairy I'll commend thy acts, Make her thanks bless thee.-O, thou day o' the world,

Chain mine arm'd neck; leap thou, attire and all, Through proof of harness to my heart, and there Ride on the pants triumphing.

Cleo.

Lord of lords!

O, infinite virtue! com'st thou smiling from The world's great snare uncaught?

Ant.

My nightingale, We have beat them to their beds. What, girl? though gray

Do something mingle with our younger brown; yet have we

A brain that nourishes our nerves, and can
Get goal for goal of youth." Behold this man;
Commend unto his lips thy favouring hand;-
Kiss it, my warrior :-He hath fought to-day,
As if a god, in hate of mankind, had
Destroy'd in such a shape.
Cleo.

An armour all of gold: it was a king's.
I'll give thee, friend,

Ant. He has deserv'd it: were it carbuncled

Like holy Phoebus' car.-Give me thy hand;
Through Alexandria make a jolly march;
Bear our hack'd targets like the men that owe them:10
Had our great palace the capacity

To camp this host, we all would sup together
And drink carouses to the next day's fate,
Which promises royal peril.-Trumpeters,
With brazen din blast you the city's ear;
Make mingle with our rattling tabourines ;11

Scar. We'll beat 'em into bench-holes ; I have That heaven and earth may strike their sounds toyet

Room for six scotches more.

Enter EROS.

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Eros. They are beaten, sir; and our advantage in Cecil's Secret Correspondence, published by Lord

serves

For a fair victory.

I The meaning is that the world shall then enjoy the blessings of peace undisturbed. sages illustrate this passage:-

Hailes, 1766: And beside, until a man be sure that this embryo is likely to receive life, I will leave it like an abort in a bench-hole.

5 Antony, after his success, intends to bring his offiThe following pas-cers to sup with Cleopatra, and orders notice to be given her of their coming. 6 Fairy, in former times, did not signify only a diminutive imaginary being, but an enchanter; in which sense it is used here.

'Come the three corners of the world in arms, And we shall shock them. King John. There is not now a rebel's sword unsheath'd, But peace puts forth her olive every where.' King Henry VI. Part II. Act iv. Sc. 4. 2 This generosity (says Enobarbus) swells my heart, so that it will quickly break, I thought break it not, Bloon is used for puffed or swelled in the last scene:on her breast

There is a vent of blood, and something blown.' And in Lear:

'No blown ambition doth our arms excite.' Thought here also signifies grief. See Act iii. Sc. 2. 3 Our oppression' means the force by which we are oppressed or overpowered.

7 i. e. armour of proof. Harnois, Fr.; arnese, Ital. 8 i. e. the war. So in the 116th Psalm: The snares of death compassed me round about.' Thus also Statius:

circum undique lethi Vallavere plaga.

9 At all plays of barriers the boundary is called a goal; to win a goal is to be superior in a contest of activity.

10 With spirit and exultation, such as becomes the brave warriors that own them.

11 Tabourines were small drums.'

SCENE IX. Cæsar's Camp. Sentinels on their | We'd fight there too. But this it is; Our foot 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. 2 Sold.

A shrewd one to us.
Eno.

This last day was

O, bear me witness, night

3 Sold. What man is this?
2 Sold.

Stand close, and list him.
Eno. Be witness to me, O, thou blessed moon,
When men revolted shall upon record
Bear hateful memory, poor Enobarbus did
Before thy face repent!-

1 Sold.

3 Sold.

Hark further.

Enobarbus!

Peace;

Eno. O, sovereign mistress of true melancholy,'
The poisonous damp of night disponge2 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;3
Which, being dried with grief, will break to powder,
And finish all foul thoughts. O, Antony,
Nobler than my revolt is infamous.
Forgive me in thine own particular;
But let the world rank me in register
A master-leaver, and a fugitive:

O, Antony! O, Antony!

2 Sold.

To him.

Let's speak

[Dies.

1 Sold. Let's hear him, for the things he speaks May concern Cæsar. 3 Sold. 1 Sold. Swoons rather; for so bad a prayer as his But he sleeps. Was never yet for sleep.

2 Sold.

Let's do so.

Go we to him.

3 Sold. Awake, awake, sir; speak to us.
2 Sold.
1 Sold. The hand of death hath raught him.
Hear you, sir?

Hark, the drums

Demurely wake the sleepers.
To the court of guard; he is of
Is fully out.

3 Sold. Come on, then ; He may recover yet.

Let us bear him
[Drums afar off.

note: our hour

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Hast sold me to this novice; and my heart
Makes only wars on thee.-Bid them all fly;
For when I am reveng'd upon my charm,
I have done all :-Bid them all fly, begone.
O, sun, thy uprise shall I see no more:
[Exit SCARUS.
Fortune and Antony part here; even here
Do we shake hands.-All come to this ?-The hearts
That spaniel'd' me at heels, to whom I gave
Their wishes, to discandy, melt their sweets
On blossoming Caesar; and this pine is bark'd,
That overtopp'd them all. Betray'd I am :
Enter AN-0, this false soul of Egypt! this grave charm12
Whose eye beck'd forth my wars, and call'd them
home;

[Exeunt with the Body.
SCENE X. Between the two Camps.
TONY and SCARUS, with Forces, marching.
Ant. Their preparation is to-day by sea;
We please them not by land.
Scar.
For both, my lord.
Ant. I would, they'd fight i' the fire, or in the air;

1 The court of guard is the guard-room, the place where the guard musters. The phrase is used again in

Othello.

2 Discharge, as a sponge when squeezed discharges the moisture it had imbibed.

3 'It is painful to find the gloomy dignity of this noble scene destroyed by the intrusion of a conceit so far fetched and unaffecting.'-Johnson.

Steevens has justly observed, that Shakspeare, in most of his conceits, is kept in countenance by his contemporaries. We have something similar in Daniel's 118th Sonnet, ed. 1594 :

Still must I whet my young desires abated, Upon the flint of such a heart rebelling.'

4 Raught is the ancient preterite of the verb to reach. 5 Demurely for solemnly.

6 Some words appear to have been accidentally omitted in the old copy, which Malone has supplied by the phrase, Let's seek a spot.' Rowe supplied the omission by the words, 'Further on.'

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7 Where we may but discover their numbers, and see their motions.'

8 But, in its exceptive sense, for be out, i. e. without. Steevens has adduced a passage from the MS. Romance of Guillaume de Palerne, in the Library of King's Coll. Cambridge, in which the orthography almost explains the word:

'I sayle now in the see as schip boute mast, Boute anker, or ore, or any semlych sayle.' 9 The old copy reads, auguries. Augurs, the plural of augur, was anciently spelled augures, which we

Whose bosom was my crownet,13 my chief end,
Beguil'd me to the very heart of loss.---
Like a right gipsy, hath, at fast and loose,14
What, Eros, Eros!

should read here, and not augurers, improperly sub-
stituted by Malone.

10 Cleopatra first belonged to Julius Cæsar, then to Antony, and now, as Antony supposes, to Augustus. happy emendation of Sir Thomas Hanmer. In A Mid11 The old editions read, pannell'd. Spaniel'd is the summer Night's Dream, Helena says to Demetrius :I am your spaniel,-only give me leave, Unworthy as I am, to follow you.'

12 This grave charm' probably means this deadly or destructive peace of witchcraft. In this sense the epithet grave is often used by Chapman in his translation of Homer. Thus in the nineteenth book :

"but not far hence the fatal minutes are It seems to be employed in the sense of the Latin word Of thy grave ruin.' gravis.

13 That which I looked to as the reward or crown of In All's Well that Ends Well we have:- Still the fine's my endeavours.' The allusion is to finis coronal opus. the crown.'

pricking at the belt or girdle, still practised by juggling 14 The allusion is to the game of fast and loose, or cheats at fairs, and which was practised by the gipsies in Shakspeare's time, as appears in an Epigram of Thomas Freeman's, in his collection, called Run and a great Cast,' 1614, which is printed in the Variorum tion of the game. See also Scot's Discoverie of WitchShakspeare, together with Sir John Hawkins's descripcraft, 1584, p. 336.

Enter CLEOPATRA.

Ah, thou spell! Avaunt.

Cleo. Why is my lord enrag'd against his love?
Ant. Vanish; or I shall give thee thy deserving,
And blemish Caesar's triumph. Let him take thee,
And hoist thee up to the shouting plebeians:
Follow his chariot, like the greatest spot
Of all thy sex: most monster-like, be shown
For poor'st diminutives, for doits; and let
Patient Octavia plough thy visage up

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Eros.

It does, my lord.

Ant. My good knave, Eros, now thy captain is
Even such a body: here I am Antony;
Yet cannot hold this visible shape, my knave.
I made these wars for Egypt; and the queen,-
Whose heart, I thought, I had, for she had mine;

With her prepared nails. [Exit CLEO.] Tis well Which, whilst it was mine, had annex'd unto't

thour't gone,

If it be well to live: But better 'twere

Thou fell'st into my fury, for one death
Might have prevented many.---Eros, ho!---
The shirt of Nessus is upon me: Teach me,
Alcides, thou mine ancestor, thy rage:

Let me lodge Lichas on the horns o' the moon;
And with those hands, that grasp'd the heaviest

club,

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A million more, now lost,-she, Eros, has
Pack'd cards10 with Caesar, and false play'd my glory
Unto an enemy's triumph.-

Nay, weep not, gentle Eros; there is left us
Ourselves to end ourselves.-O, thy vile lady
Enter MARDIAN.

She has robb'd me of my sword.

Ant.

Mar.
No, Antony;
My mistress lov'd thee, and her fortunes mingled
With thine entirely.
Hence, saucy eunuch; peace;
She hath betray'd me, and shall die the death.
Mar. Death of one person can be paid but once;
And that she has discharg'd: What thou wouldst dɔ,
Is done unto thy hand; the last she spake
Was Antony! most noble Antony!
Then in the midst a tearing groan did break
The name of Antony; it was divided
Between her heart and lips: she render'd life,
Thy name so buried in her.

Ant.
Mar.

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Dead, then?

Dead. Ant. Unarm, Eros; the long day's task is done, And we must sleep:-That thou depart'st hence safe,

The soul and body rive not more in parting,"
Than greatness going off.
Cleo.
To the monument :-
Mardian, go tell him I have slain myself;
Does pay thy labour richly; Go.-Off, pluck off ;-
Say, that the last I spoke was, Antony,
[Exit MARDIAN.
And word it, pr'ythee, piteously: Hence,
The sevenfold shield of Ajax connot keep
Mardian; and bring me how he takes my death.-The battery from my heart. O, cleave my sides!
To the monument.
[Exeunt. Heart, once be stronger than thy continent, 12
Crack thy frail case-Apace, Eros, apace.-
SCENE XII. The same. Another Room. Enter
No more a soldier:-Bruised pieces, go;
ANTONY and EROS.
You have been nobly borne.-From me awhile.-
[Exit EROS.
I will o'ertake thee, Cleopatra, and
Weep for my pardon. So it must be, for now
All length is torture:13 Since the torch is out,
Lie down, and stray no further: Now all labour
Mars what it does; yea, very force entangles
Itself with strength: Seal, then, 14 and all is done.-
Eros!-I come, my queen :-Eros!-Stay for me:
Where souls do couch on flowers, we'll hand in band,
And with our sprightly port make the ghosts gaze :

Ant. Eros, thou yet behold'st me?
Eros.
Ay, noble lord.
Ant. Sometime, we see a cloud that's dragonish;
A vapour, sometime, like a bear, or lion,

A tower'd citadel, a pendent rock,

A forked mountain or blue promontory
With trees upon't, that nod unto the world,
And mock our eyes with air: Thou hast seen these
signs;

They are black vesper's pageants."
Eros.

Ay, my

lord.

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1 i. e. for the smallest pieces of money. reads, for dolts ;' and, at Mr. Tyrwhitt's suggestion, Steevens reads, "to dolts.'

2 Shakspeare was probably indebted to Golding's translation of Ovid's Metamorphoses, b. ix. for the story of Lichas.

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3 i. e. than Ajax Telamon for the armour of Achilles,
the most valuable part of which was the shield. The
boar of Thessaly was the boar killed by Meleager.
4 When a hunted animal is so hard run that it foams
at the mouth, it is said to be emboss'd.
- It is a sufferance, panging
As soul and body's severing.
King Henry VIII.
6 Like to a mass of clouds, that now seem like
An elephant, and straightway like an ox,
And then a mouse.' Chapman's Mons. D'Olive.
like empty clouds,

In which our faulty apprehensions forge
The forms of dragons, lions, elephants,
When they hold no proportion.'

Bussy D'Ambois, 7 The beauty both of the expression and the allusion is lost, unless we recollect the frequency and the nature of these shows in Shakspeare's age. The following apposite passage from a sermon, by Bishop Hall, is cited by Mr. Boswell:-'I feare some of you are like the pageants of your great solemnities, wherein there is a show of a solid body, whether of a lion, or elephant,

or unicorne; but if they be curiously look'd into, there is nothing but cloth, and sticks, and ayre."

8 i. e. the fleeting away of the clouds destroys the picture.'

9 Knave was familiarly used for servant. Thus in A Mery Geste of Robyn Hoode:

'I shall thee lende lyttle John my man,
For he shall be thy knave.

But it had already begun to have no favourable signifi-
cation when Baret published his Alvearie, in 1573.

10 To pack the cards' was to put them together in an unfair manner. It is often used metaphorically, for contriving together to deceive another. The poet meant to say, that Cleopatra, by collusion, played the great game they were engaged in falsely, so as to sacrifice Antony's fame to that of his enemy. There is an equivoque between trump and triumph. The game of trump (triomphe, Fr.) was then popular; it was a rude prototype of whist.

11 The battery from my heart' means the battery proceeding from my heart, which is strong enough to break through the sevenfold shield of Ajax; I wish it were strong enough to cleave my sides and destroy me.' 12 i. e. the thing that contains thee.

13 Steevens thinks that the poet wrote life, and not length. But length may signify extension or protraction of life.

14 A passage in King Henry V. explains this :-
'And so espous'd to death, with blood he seald
A testament of noble-ending love."

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