Do we shake hands.-All come to this?-The hearts, Oh, this falfe foul of Egypt! this grave charm, Whofe eye beck'd forth my wars, and call'd them home, Whose bofom was my crownet, my chief end, 4 Enter Cleopatra. Ah! thou fpell! avaunt. Cleo. Why is my lord enrag'd against his love? Ant. Vanish; or I fhall give thee thy deferving, And blemish Cæfar's triumph. Let him take thee, And hoift thee up to the fhouting Plebeians; 2 That Spaniel'd me at heels.-] All the editions read, That pannell'd me at heels, Sir T. Hanmer fubftituted Spaniel'd by an emendation, with which it was reasonable to expect that even rival commentators would be fatisfied; yet Dr. Warburton propofes pantler'd, in a note, of which he is not injur'd by the fuppreffion; and Mr. Upton having in his first edition propofed plaufibly enough, 3 That paged me at heels, in the fecond edition retracts his alteration, and maintains par nell'd to be the right reading, being a metaphor taken, he fays, from a pannel of wainscot. JOHNSON. — this grave charm,] I know not by what authority, nor for what reafon, this grave charm, which the firft, the only original copy exhibits, has been through all the modern editions changed to this gay charm. By this grave charm, is meant, this fublime, this majestic beauty. JOHNSON. to the very heart of lofs.] To the utmoft lofs poffible. JOHNSON. Follow his chariot, like the greatest spot 6 'Tis well thou'rt gone, If it be well to live. But better 'twere, 7 Let me lodge, Lichas, on the horns o' the moon, - Moft monster-like be sheron For poor'ft diminutives, for DOLTS;- -] As the allusion here is to monsters carried about in fhews, it is plain, that the words, for pooreft diminutives, muft mean for the leaft piece of money; we must therefore read the next word, -for DOITS, i. e. farthings, which fhews what he means by pooreft diminutives. WARBURTON. • With her prepared nails-] i. e. with nails which she suffered to grow for this purpofe. WARB Let me lodge, Lickas-- -] Sir T. Hanner reads thus, This reading, harsh as it is, Dr. Warburton has received, after having rejected many better. The meaning is, Let me do fomething in my rage, becoming the fucceffor of Hercules. JOHNS. Let me lodge, Lichas, on the horns o' th' moon,] This image our poet feems to have taken from Seneca's Hercules, who fays Lichas being launched into the air, fprinkled the clouds with his blood. Sophocles, on the fame occafion, talks at a much foberer rate. WARBURTON. SCENE SCENE XI. Enter Cleopatra, Charmian, Iras, and Mardian. Cleo. Help me, my women! oh, he is more mad Than Telamon for his fhield; the boar of Theffaly Was never fo embofs'd." Char. To the monument, There lock yourself, and fend him word you are dead. Cleo. To the monument : Mardian, go tell him I have flain myself, And word it, pr'ythee, piteoufly: Hence, Mardian, And bring me how he takes my death.-To the [Exeunt. monument. Re-enter Antony and Eros. Ant. Eros, thou yet behold'st me? Eros. Ay, noble lord. Ant. Sometime, we fee a cloud that's dragonish; A vapour, fometime, like a bear, or lion, A tower'd citadel, a pendant rock, 3 Was never fo embofs'd.] A hunting term: when a deer is hard run and foams at the mouth, he is faid to be imboft. A dog alfo, when he is ftrained with hard running, will have his knees fwelled, and then he is faid to be imboft, from the French word beffe, which fignifies a tumour. HANMER. Sometimes we fee a cloud that's dragonish, &c.] So Ariftophanes, Nubes, v. 345. Ηδη ποτ' ἀναβλέψας ειδες νεφέλην Κενταύρω ομοίαν ; RAWLINSON. A forked mountain, or blue promontory They are black Vefper's pageants. Ant. That, which is now a horfe, even with a thought, 'The rack diflimns; and makes it indiftinct, As water is in water. Eros. It does, my lord. Ant. My good knave, Eros, now thy captain is Even fuch a body: here I am Antony, Yet cannot hold this vifible fhape, my knave. Nay, weep not, gentle Eros; there is left us, The rack diflimns, -] i. e. The fleeting away of the clouds deftroys the picture. 2 STEEVENS. Pack'd cards with Cafar, and falfe play'd my glory Unto an en my's triumph.. -] Shakespeare has here, as ufual, taken his metaphor from a low trivial fubject; but has enobled it with much art, by fo contriving that the principal term in the fubject from whence the metaphor was taken, fhould belong to, and fuit the dignity of the subject to which the metaphor is transferred: thereby providing at once for the integrity of the figure, and the nobleness of the thought. And this by the word TRIUMPH, which either fignifies Octavius's conqueft, or what we now call, contractedly, the trump at cards, then called the triumph or the triumphing fort. WARB. This explanation is very juft, the thought did not deferve fa good an annotation. JOHNSON. Enter Oh, thy vile lady! Enter Mardian. She has robb'd me of my fword. Mar. No, Antony; My mistress lov'd thee, and her fortunes mingled Ant. Hence, faucy eunuch; peace. She hath betray'd me, and fhall die the death. Mar. Death of one perfon can be paid but once; And that she hath difcharg'd. What thou wouldst do, Is done unto thy hand; the last she spake Was, Antony! most noble Antony ! Then in the midft a tearing groan did break The name of Antony; it was divided Between her heart and lips: fhe rendred life, Thy name fo buried in her. Ant. Dead then? Mar. Dead. Ant. Unarm, Eros; the long day's task is done, And we must sleep:-That thou depart'ft hence fafe, Does pay thy labour richly. Go.- [Exit Mardian. Off, pluck off;— The feven-fold fhield of Ajax cannot keep 3 The battery from my heart. Oh, cleave my fides! You have been nobly borne.-From me a while.- I will o'ertake thee, Cleopatra, and Weep for my pardon. So it must be, for now 3 The battery from my heart.] I would read, This battery from my heart. JOHNSON. |