Let me request you off: our graver business Frowns at this levity.-Gentle lords, let's part; You see, we have burnt our cheeks: strong Enobarbe Is weaker than the wine; and mine own tongue Splits what it speaks: the wild disguise hath almost Antick'd us all. What needs more words? Good night. Good Antony, your hand. Pom. I'll try you o'the shore. Ant. And shall, sir: give's your hand. Pom. O, Antony, You have my father's house 18,-But what? we are friends: Come, down into the boat. Eno. Take heed you fall not. [Exeunt POMPEY, CESAR, ANTONY, and Attendants. Menas, I'll not on shore. Men. No, to my cabin.— These drums!-these trumpets, flutes! what! To these great fellows: Sound, and be hang'd, sound out. [A Flourish of Trumpets, with Drums. Eno. Ho, says 'a!-There's my cap. Men. Come. Ho!-noble captain! [Exeunt. 18 See note 4 on the previous scene. ACT III. SCENE I. A Plain in Syria. Enter VENTIDIUS, as after Conquest, with SILIUS, and other Romans, Officers, and Soldiers; the dead Body of PACORUS borne before him. Ven. Now, darting Parthia, art thou struck'; and now Pleas'd fortune does of Marcus Crassus' death Sil. Noble Ventidius, Whilst yet with Parthian blood thy sword is warm, The routed fly so thy grand captain Antony O Silius, Silius, Ven. I have done enough: A lower place, note well, May make too great an act: For learn this, Silius; Better to leave undone, than by our deed Acquire too high a fame, when him we serve's away. More in their officer, than person: Sossius, For quick accumulation of renown, Which he achiev'd by the minute, lost his favour. 1 Struck alludes to darting. Thou, whose darts have often struck others, art struck now thyself. 2 Pacorus was the son of Orodes, king of Parthia. Who does i' the wars more than his captain can, Becomes his captain's captain: and ambition, The soldier's virtue, rather makes choice of loss, Than gain, which darkens him. I could do more to do Antonius good, But 'twould offend him; and in his offence Should my performance perish. Sil. Thou hast, Ventidius, that Without the which a soldier, and his sword, 3 Grants scarce distinction. Thou wilt write to An tony? Ven. I'll humbly signify what in his name, That magical word of war, we have effected; How, with his banners, and his well paid ranks, The ne'er-yet-beaten horse of Parthia We have jaded out o'the field. Sil. 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. They have despatch'd with Pompey, he is The other three are sealing. Octavia weeps 3 Grants for affords. Thou hast that, Ventidius, which if thou didst want, there would be no distinction between thee and thy sword. You would be both equally cutting and senseless.' This was wisdom, or knowledge of the world, Ventidius had told him why he did not pursue his advantages; and his friend, by this compliment, acknowledges them to be of weight.- Warburton. There is somewhat the same idea in Coriolanus: 'Who sensible outdares his senseless sword.' To part from Rome: Cæsar is sad; and Lepidus, Since Pompey's feast, as Menas says, is troubled With the green-sickness. Agr. "Tis a noble Lepidus. Eno. Would you praise Cæsar, say,-Cæsar;go no further. Agr. Indeed, he ply'd them both with excellent praises. Eno. But he loves Cæsar best;-Yet he loves Antony : Ho! hearts, tongues, figures, scribes, bards, poets, cannot Think, speak, cast, write, sing, number, ho, his love To Antony. But as for Cæsar, Kneel down, kneel down, and wonder. Agr. Both he loves. Eno. They are his shards3, and he their beetle. "So, This is to horse.-Adieu, noble Agrippa. [Trumpets. Agr. Good fortune, worthy soldier; and farewell. 1 The phoenix. So again in Cymbeline: 'She is alone the Arabian bird, and I Have lost my wager.' 2 This puerile arrangement of words was much affected in the of Shakspeare, even by the first writers. Thus in Daniel's 11th Sonnet: age '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 Nimph, printed in England's Helicon, is a tissue of this kind. 6 3 i. e. they are the wings that raise this heavy lumpish insect from the ground. So in Macbeth, The shard-borne beetle.' See vol. iv. p. 266, note 8. Enter CESAR, ANTONY, LEPIDUS, and OCTAVIA. Ant. No further, sir. Cæs. You take from me a great part of myself; Betwixt us, as the cement of our love, Have loved without this mean, if on both parts You shall not find, Though you be therein curious, the least cause For what you seem to fear: So, the gods keep you, And make the hearts of Romans serve your ends! We will here part. Cas. Farewell, my dearest sister, fare thee well; The elements be kind to thee, and make Thy spirits all of comfort! fare thee well. 4 In The Tempest, Prospero, in giving Miranda to Ferdinand, says: 'I have given you here a third of my own life.' 5 Band and bond were synonymous in Shakspeare's time. Sce vol. iv. p. 175, note 12. 6 And ruin'd love, when it is built anew, Grows fairer than at first.' Shakspeare's 119th Sonnet. 7 i.e. scrupulous, particular. So in the Taming of the Shrew:For curious I cannot be with you.' It is singular that this passage could by any means have been misunderstood. Octavia was going to sail 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. |