Abbildungen der Seite
PDF
EPUB

Dealt on lieutenantry, and no practice had

In the brave squares of war; Yet now-No matter. Cleo. Ah, stand by.

Eros. The queen, my lord, the queen.

Iras. Go to him, madam, speak to him; He is unqualitied with very shame.

Cleo. Well then,-Sustain me:—Oh!

Eros. Most noble sir, arise; the queen approaches; Her head's declin'd, and death will seize her; but Your comfort makes the rescue.

Ant. I have offended reputation;

A most unnoble swerving.

Eros.

Sir, the queen.

Ant. O, whither hast thou led me, Egypt? See, How I convey my shame out of thine eyes? By looking back on what I have left behind 'Stroy'd in dishonour.

Cleo.

O my lord, my lord!

Forgive my fearful sails! I little thought,
You would have follow'd.

Ant.
Egypt, thou knew'st too well,
My heart was to thy rudder tied by the strings,

6 Dealt on lieutenantry' probably means only fought by proxy,' made war by his lieutenants, or on the strength of his lieutenants. In a former scene Ventidius says:—

'Cæsar and Antony have ever won

More in their officer, than person.'

To deal on any thing' is an expression often used by old writers. In Plutarch's Life of Antony Shakspeare found the following words: They were always more fortunate when they made warre by their lieutenants than by themselves.

"

7 Unqualitied seems to mean here unsoldiered, quality being used for profession by Shakspeare and his cotemporaries. Steevens says, perhaps unqualitied only signifies unmanned in general, disarmed of his usual faculties.'

8 But is here used in its exceptive sense. See vol. i. p. 17,

note 12.

9 How by looking another way, I withdraw my ignominy from your sight.'

And thou should'st tow me after: O'er my spirit
Thy full supremacy thou knew'st; and that
Thy beck might from the bidding of the gods
Command me.

Cleo.

Ant.

O, my pardon.

Now I must

To the young man send humble treaties, dodge
And palter in the shifts of lowness; who
With half the bulk o' the world play'd as I pleas'd,
Making and marring fortunes. You did know,
How much you were my conqueror; and that
My sword, made weak by my affection, would
Obey it on all cause.

Cleo.

O pardon, pardon.

Ant. Fall not a tear, I say; one of them rates 10 All that is won and lost: Give me a kiss;

Even this repays me.-We sent our schoolmaster, Is he come back?-Love, I am full of lead::Some wine, within there, and our viands :-Fortune knows,

e scorn her most, when most she offers blows.

We

[Exeunt.

SCENE X. Cæsar's Camp, in Egypt.

Enter CÆSAR, DOLABELLA, THYREUS, and
Others.

Cæs. Let him appear

Know you him?

Dol.

that's come from Antony.

Cæsar, 'tis his schoolmaster 1:

An argument that he is pluck'd, when hither

He sends so poor a pinion of his wing,

Which had superfluous kings for messengers,
Not many moons gone by.

10 Values.

Euphronius, schoolmaster to Antony's children by Cleopatra.

Cæs.

Enter EUPHRONIUS.

Approach, and speak,

Eup. Such as I am, I come from Antony:
I was of late as petty to his ends,

As is the morn-dew on the myrtle leaf
To his grand sea9.

Cæs.

Be it so; Declare thine office.
Eup. Lord of his fortunes he salutes thee, and
Requires to live in Egypt: which not granted,
He lessens his requests; and to thee sues
To let him breathe between the heavens and earth,
A private man in Athens: This for him.
Next Cleopatra does confess thy greatness;
Submits her to thy might; and of thee craves
The circle of the Ptolemies for her heirs,
Now hazarded to thy grace.

Cæs.
For Antony,
I have no ears to his request. The queen
Of audience, nor desire, shall fail: so she
From Egypt drive her all-disgraced friend1,
Or take his life there: This if she perform,
She shall not sue unheard. So to them both.
Eup. Fortune pursue thee!

Cæs.

Bring him through the bands. [Exit EUPHRONIUS. To try thy eloquence, now 'tis time: Despatch; From Antony win Cleopatra: promise,

[To THYREUS. And in our name, what she requires; add more, From thine invention, offers: women are not, In their best fortunes, strong; but want will perjure

2 His grand sea' appears to mean the sea from which the dew-drop is exhaled. The poet may have considered the sea as the source of dews as well as rain. His we find frequently used for its.

3 The diadem, the crown.

A Friend here means paramour. See Cymbeline, Acti. Sc. 5.

The ne'er-touch'd vestal": Try thy cunning, Thyreus;
Make thine own edict for thy pains, which we
Will answer as a law.

[blocks in formation]

Cas. Observe how Antony becomes his flaw"; And what thou think'st his very action speaks In every power that moves.

Thyr.

Cæsar, I shall. [Exeunt.

SCENE XI.

Alexandria. A Room in the Palace.

Enter CLEOPATRA, ENOBARBUS, CHARMIAN, and IRAS.

Cleo. What shall we do, Enobarbus?

Eno.

Think, and die1. Cleo. Is Antony, or we, in fault for this?

Eno. Antony only, that would make his will Lord of his reason. What though you fled From that great face of war, whose several ranges Frighted each other? why should he follow? The itch of his affection should not then

2

Have nick'd his captainship; at such a point,

5

O opportunity! thy guilt is great,
Thou mak'st the vestal violate her oath,'

Rape of Lucrece.

6 Note how Antony conforms himself to this breach in his fortune.'

1 To think, or take thought, was anciently synonymous with to grieve. Thus in Julius Cæsar, Act ii. Sc. 1:—

all that he can do

Is to himself take thought, and die for Cæsar.' So Viola pined in thought. And in The Beggar's Bush of Beaumont and Fletcher:

'Can I not think away myself and die?'

2 i. e. set the mark of folly upon it. So in The Comedy of Errors:

and the while

His man with scissars nicks him like a fool.'

When half to half the world oppos'd, he being
The mered question 3: 'Twas a shame no less
Than was his loss, to course your flying flags,
And leave his navy gazing.

Cleo.

Pr'ythee, peace.

Enter ANTONY, with EUPHRONIUS.

Ant. Is this his answer?

Eup.

Ay, my lord.

Ant. The queen shall then have courtesy, so she

Will yield us up.

Eup. He says so.

Ant.

Let her know it.

To the boy Cæsar send this grizled head,
And he will fill thy wishes to the brim

With principalities.

Cleo,

That head, my lord?

Ant. To him again; Tell him, he wears the rose

Of youth upon him;

note

from which the world should

Something particular: his coin, ships, legions
May be a coward's; whose ministers would prevail
Under the service of a child, as soon

As i'the command of Cæsar: I dare him therefore

To lay his gay comparisons apart,

And answer me declin'd1, sword against sword,
Ourselves alone; I'll write it; follow me.

[Exeunt ANTONY and EUPHRONIUS.

3 i.e. he being the object to which this great contention is limited, or by which it is bounded. So in Hamlet, Act i. Sc. 1:—

[ocr errors]

the king

That was and is the question of these wars.'

+ His gay comparisons may mean those circumstances of splendour and power in which he, when compared with me, so much exceeds me. I require of Cæsar not to depend on that superiority which the comparison of our different fortunes may exhibit, but to answer me man to man in this decline of my age and power.'

« ZurückWeiter »