Mess. Madam, in Rome I look'd her in the face; and saw her led Cleo. Is she as tall as me? She is not, madam. Cleo. Didst hear her speak? Is she shrill-tongu'd, or low? Mess. Madam, I heard her speak; she is low- Cleo. That's not so good:-he cannot like her long. Cleo. I think so, Charmian: Dull of tongue, and What majesty is in her gait? Remember, If e'er thou look'dst on majesty. Mess. She creeps; Her motion and her station1 are as one: A statue, than a breather. Cleo. Mess. Or I have no observance. Char. Cannot make better note. Cleo. Is this certain? Three in Egypt He's very knowing, I do perceive't:-There's nothing in her yet:- Char. Cleo. Guess at her years, I pr'ythee. Mess. She was a widow. Cleo. Excellent. Madam, Mess. And I do think, she's thirty. 1 Station here means the act of standing. So in Hamlet:'A station like the herald Mercury.' 2 Cleopatra rejoices in this circumstance, as it sets Octavia on a level with herself, who was no virgin, when she fell to the lot of Antony. Cleo. Bear'st thou her face in mind? is't long, or round? Mess. Round even to faultiness. Cleo. For the most part too, they are foolish that are so3. Her hair, what colour? Mess. Brown, madam: And her forehead As low as she would wish it. Cleo. There is gold for thee. Thou must not take my former sharpness ill:I will employ thee back again; I find thee Most fit for business: Go, make thee ready; Our letters are prepar❜d. Char. Cleo. Indeed, he is so: [Exit Messenger. A proper man. I repent me much, That I so harry'd him. Why, methinks, by him, This creature's no such thing. Char. Nothing, madam. Cleo. The man hath seen some majesty, and should know. Char. Hath he seen majesty ? Isis else defend, And serving you so long! Cleo. I have one thing more to ask him yet, good Charmian:- But 'tis no matter; thou shalt bring him to me [Exeunt. 3 This is from the old writers on physiognomy. Thus in Hill's Pleasant History, &c. 1613: The head very round, to be forgetful and foolish. Again:-' The head long, to be prudent and wary.' A low forehead,' &c. p. 218. 4 To harry is to harass, to worry, to use roughly, to vex, or molest, from the old Norman-French harier of the same meaning. The word occurs frequently in our old writers. Thus in The Revengers' Tragedy, 1607 : He harry'd her amidst a nest of pandars.' So Nash, in his Lenten Stuff:- As if he were harrying and chasing his enemies.' SCENE IV. Athens. A Room in Antony's House. Enter ANTONY and OCTAVIA. Ant. Nay, nay, Octavia, not only that, New wars 'gainst Pompey: made his will, and read it Spoke scantly of me; when perforce he could not Oct. When I shall pray2, O bless my lord and husband! O, bless my brother! Husband win, win brother, Let Ant. your Gentle Octavia, best love draw to that point, which seeks Best to preserve it: If I lose mine honour, 1 i. e. to appearance only, not seriously. Thus Dryden in his Wild Gallant:- I am confident she is only angry from the teeth outward.' So Chapman, in his version of the fifteenth Iliad :-'She laught, but meerly from her lips.' And Fuller, in his Holie Warre, b. iv. c. 17:~ This bad breath, though it came but from the teeth of some, yet proceeded from the corrupt lungs of others.' 2 The situation and sentiments of Octavia resemble those of Lady Blanch in King John, Act iii. Se. 1. I lose myself: better I were not yours, Shall stain your brother; Make your soonest haste; Oct. Thanks to my lord. The Jove of power make me most weak, most weak, Your reconciler! Wars 'twixt you twain would be As if the world should cleave, and that slain men Should solder up Ant. When it the rift. where this begins, appears to you Turn your displeasure that way; for our faults Can never be so equal, that your love Can equally move with them. Provide your going; Choose your own company, Your heart has mind to. and command what cost SCENE V. [Exeunt. The same. Another Room in the same. Enter ENOBARBUS and EROS, meeting. Eros. There's strange news come, sir. 3 Mr. Boswell suggests that, perhaps, we should read, 'Shall stay your brother.' To stain is not here used for to shame or disgrace, as Johnson supposed; but for to eclipse, extinguish, throw into the shade, to put out; from the old French esteindre. In this sense it is used in all the examples cited by Steevens: here at hand approacheth one Whose face will stain you all.' Tottel's Miscellany, 1568. 'So Shore's wife's face made fowle Brownetta blush, As pearle staynes pitch, or gold surmounts a rush.' Shore's Wife, by Churchyard, 1593. Whose beautie staines the faire Helen of Greece.' Churchyard's Charitie, 1595. the praise and yet the stain of all womankind.' Sidney's Arcadia. Eno. What, man? Eros. Cæsar and Lepidus have made wars upon Pompey. Eno. This is old; What is the success? Eros. Cæsar, having made use of him in the wars 'gainst Pompey, presently denied him rivality 1! would not let him partake in the glory of the action: and not resting here, accuses him of letters he had formerly wrote to Pompey; upon his own appeal, seizes him: So the poor third is up, till death enlarge his confine. Eno. Then, world, thou hast a pair of chaps, no more 3; And throw between them all the food thou hast, They'll grind the one the other. Where's Antony? Eros. He's walking in the garden-thus; and spurns The rush that lies before him; cries, Fool, Lepidus! And threats the throat of that his officer, That murder'd Pompey. Eno. Our great navy's rigged. Eros. For Italy, and Cæsar. More, Domitius; My lord desires you presently: my news I might have told hereafter. Eno. But let it be.-Bring me to Antony. Eros. Come, sir. "Twill be naught: [Exeunt. 1i. e. equal rank. In Hamlet Horatio and Marcellus are styled by Bernardo 'the rivals' of his watch.' out 2 Appeal here means accusation. Cæsar seized Lepidus withany other proof than Cæsar's accusation. 3 No more does not signify no longer; but has the same meaning as if Shakspeare had written and no more: Thou hast now a pair of chaps, and only a pair. Cæsar and Antony will make war on each other, though they have the world to prey on between them.' The old copy reads would instead of world, and omits one the in the third line of this speech. |