Not Cæsar's valour hath o'erthrown Antony, ANT. I am dying,-Egypt,-dying; only CLEO. I dare not, dear, (Dear my lord, pardon,) I dare not, Lest I be taken: not the imperious show Of the full-fortun'd Cæsar ever shall Be brooch'd with me; if knife, drugs, serpents, have Edge, sting, or operation, I am safe: ANT. O, quick, or I ani gone! CLEO. Here's sport, indeed!—How heavy weighs my lord! Our strength is all gone into heaviness; That the false housewife, Fortune," break her wheel, Provok'd by my offence. ANT. CLEO. They do not go together. Gentle, hear me ; ANT. The miserable change now at my end, Lament nor sorrow at; but please your thoughts, In feeding them with those my former fortunes Wherein I liv'd, the greatest prince o' the world, The noblest; and do now not basely die, Not cowardly put off my helmet to My countryman,-a Roman by a Roman Valiantly vanquish'd.(3) Now, my spirit is going;I can no more.CLEO. Noblest of men, woo 't die? Hast thou no care of me? shall I abide In this dull world, which in thy absence is No better than a sty ?-O, see, my women, [ANTONY dies. The crown o' the earth doth melt!-My lord!O, wither'd is the garland of the war! The soldier's pole is fall'n: young boys and girls Are level now with men; the odds is gone, And there is nothing left remarkable Beneath the visiting moon. CHAR. [Faints. O, quietness, lady! -housewife, Fortune.-] "Housewife" is here used in the loose sense, which it often bore, of hussy, or harlot. So in "Henry V." Act V. Sc. 1, Pistol asks,-"Doth Fortune play the busife with me now?" and do now not basely die, Not cowardly put off my helmet to My countryman,-] Thus the textus receptus, but perhaps we ought to read, " and do now not basely die, Not cowardly, but doff my helmet to My countryman," &c. And there is nothing left remarkable-] In Shakespeare's time, the word "remarkable" bore a far more impressive and appropriate meaning than with us. It then expressed not merely observable or Hoteworthy, but something profoundly striking and uncommon. d Good sirs, take heart:- Mr. Dyce has shown that this form IRAS. Empress! CHAR. Peace, peace, Iras! [commanded CLEO. No more, but e'en a woman, and By such poor passion as the maid that milks, And does the meanest chares.-It were for me To throw my sceptre at the injurious gods; To tell them that this world did equal theirs, Till they had stol'n our jewel.-All's but nought; Patience is sottish, and impatience does Become a dog that's mad: then is it sin To rush into the secret house of death, Ere death dare come to us?-How do you, women? [Charmian! What, what! good cheer! Why, how now, My noble girls!-Ah, women, women! look, Our lamp is spent, it's out!-Good sirs, take heart :[noble, We'll bury him; and then, what's brave, what's Let's do it after the high Roman fashion, And make Death proud to take us. Come, away: This case of that huge spirit now is cold.-- [Exeunt; those above bearing off ANTONY's body. (*) First folio, in, corrected by Capell. of addressing women was not unusual; and, consequently, that the modern stage direction here, "[To the Guard below." is improper. Thus, as quoted by Mr. Dyce from Beaumont and Fletcher's play of "The Coxcomb," Act IV. Sc. 3, the mother, speaking to Viola, Nan, and Madge, says, "Sirs, to your tasks, and shew this little novice How to bestir herself," &c. Again, as quoted by Mr. Dyce from the same authors' "A King and No King," Act III. Sc. 1, "Spa. I do beseech you, madam, send away A few sad words, which, set against your joys, Pan. Sirs, leave me all. [Exeunt Waiting-women. DER. CES. make "tell him, that he mocks us and Mr. Sidney Walker would adhere to the old text, but, as was not unusual with the poet's contemporaries, pronounce "frustrate" trisyllabically. A greater crack: the round world" Should have shook lions into civil streets, And citizens to their dens :-the death of Antony Is not a single doom; in the name lay A moiety of the world. DER. He is dead, Cæsar, Not by a public minister of justice, Nor by a hired knife; but that self hand, Hath, with the courage which the heart did lend it, I robb'd his wound of it; behold it, stain'd CES. MEC. His taints and honours A rarer spirit never Wag'd equal with him. He needs must see himself. CES. O, Antony ! I have follow'd thee to this; -but we do lance Where mine his thoughts did kindle,—that our stars, Unreconciliable, should divide CLEO. My desolation does begin to make A better life. "Tis paltry to be Cæsar; Our equalness to this.-Hear me, good friends, To do that thing that ends all other deeds; The beggar's nurse and Casar's.] Which shackles accidents, and bolts up change; Which sleeps, and never palates more the dug," The beggar's nurse and Cæsar's. |