Cleo. What is't you say? Eno. Your presence needs must puzzle Antony; Take from his heart, take from his brain, from his time, What should not then be spar'd. He is already That Photinus a eunuch, and your maids, Cleo. Sink Rome; and their tongues rot, Appear there for a man. Speak not against it; Eno. Nay, I have done: Here comes the emperor. Ant. Enter ANTONY and CANIDIUS. Is't not strange, Canidius, That from Tarentum, and Brundusium, He could so quickly cut the Ionian sea, And take in Toryne?-You have heard on't, sweet? Than by the negligent. Ant. A good rebuke, Which might have well becom'd the best of men, Will fight with him by sea. Cleo. By sea! What else? Can. Why wil my lord do so? 4 Take, subdue. This phrase occurs frequently in Shakspeare, and has been already explained. 5 i. e. cause that, or that is the cause. See vol. i. p. 109, note 12; vol. iii. p. 284, note 4. Where Cæsar fought with Pompey: But these offers, Which serve not for his vantage, he shakes off; And so should you. Eno. Your ships are not well mann'd: Your mariners are muleteers, reapers, people Ingross'd by swift impress; in Caesar's fleet Are those, that often have 'gainst Pompey fought: Their ships are yare; yours, heavy. No disgrace Shall fall you for refusing him at sea, Being prepar'd for land. Ant. By sea, by sea. Eno. Most worthy sir, you therein throw away The absolute soldiership you have by land; Distract your army, which doth most consist Of war-mark'd footmen; leave unexecuted Your own renowned knowledge; quite forego The way which promises assurance; and Give up yourself merely to chance and hazard, From firm security. Ant. I'll fight at sea. Cleo. I have sixty sails, Cæsar none better. Ant. Our overplus of shipping will we burn; And, with the rest full-mann'd, from the head of Actium Beat the approaching Cæsar. But if we fail, Enter a Messenger. We then can do't at land.-Thy business? 6 Yare is quick, nimble, ready. So in The Tempest, Act v. Sc. 1:—Our ship is tight and yare. The word seems to have been much in use with sailors formerly. "The lesser [ship] will come and go, leave and take, and is yare; whereas the greater is slow.'-Raleigh. 'Cæsar's ships were not built for pomp, high and great, &c.; but they were light of yarage.' North's Plutarch. Ant. Can he be there in person? 'tis impossible; Away, my Thetis 8!-How now, worthy soldier? And the Phoenicians, go a ducking: we Have used to conquer, standing on the earth, Ant. Well, well, away. [Exeunt ANTONY, CELOPATRA, and ENOBARBUS. grows Sold. By Hercules, I think, I am i' the right. Can. Soldier, thou art: but his whole action Not in the power on't9: So our leader's led, And we are women's men. Sold. You keep by land The legions and the horse whole, do you not? Can. Marcus Octavius, Marcus Justeius, Publicola, and Cælius, are for sea: But we keep whole by land. This speed of Cæsar's Carries 10 beyond belief. 7 Strange that his forces should be there. 8 Antony may address Cleopatra by the name of this seanymph, because she had just promised him assistance in his naval expedition; or perhaps in allusion to her voyage down the Cydnus, when she appeared, like Thetis, surrounded by the Nereids. 9 His whole conduct in the war is not founded upon that which is his greatest strength (namely his land force), but on the caprice of a woman, who wishes that he should fight by sea.' 10 i. e. passes all belief. I should not have noticed this, but for Steevens's odd notion of its being a phrase from archery. Sold. While he was yet in Rome, 11 His power went out in such distractions 11, as Enter a Messenger. Mess. The emperor calls Canidius. Can. With news the time's with labour; and throes 12 forth, Each minute, some. [Exeunt. SCENE VIII. A Plain near Actium. Enter CESAR, TAURUS, Officers, and Others. Cæs. Taurus, Taur. Cæs. My lord. Strike not by land; keep whole: Provoke not battle, till we have done at sea. Do not exceed the prescript of this scroll: [Exeunt. Enter ANTONY and ENOBARBUS. Ant. Set we our squadrons on yon' side o' the hill, In eye of Cæsar's battle; from which place We may the number of the ships behold, And so proceed accordingly. 11 Detachments, separate bodies. [Exeunt 12 i.e. emits as in parturition. So in The Tempest: proclaim a birth, Which throes thee much to yield.' 1i. e. this hazard. Thus in Macbeth : 'We'd jump the life to come.' Enter CANIDIUS, marching with his Land Army one Way over the Stage; and TAURUS, the Lieutenant of Cæsar, the other Way. After their going in, is heard the Noise of a Sea-fight. Alarum. Re-enter ENOBARBUS. Eno. Naught, naught, all naught! I can behold no longer : The Antoniad, the Egyptian admiral, With all their sixty, fly, and turn the rudder; Scar. Enter SCARUS. Gods and goddesses, What's thy passion? All the whole synod of them! Eno. Scar. The greater cantle3 of the world is lost With very ignorance; we have kiss'd away Kingdoms and provinces. Eno. How appears the fight? Scar. On our side like the token'd pestilence, Where death is sure. Yon' ribaudred hag 5 of Egypt, 2 The Antoniad, Plutarch says, was the name of Cleopatra's ship. 3 A cantle is a portion, a scantling, a fragment: it also signi fied a corner, and a quarter-piece of any thing. It is from the old French chantel, or eschantille. 4 The death of those visited by the plague was certain, when particular eruptions appeared on the skin; and these were called God's tokens. See vol. ii. p. 394, note 32. 5 The old copy reads, ribaudred nay,' which was altered by Steevens and Malone into ribald-rid nag,' but quite unnecessarily. Ribaudred is obscene, indecent in words or acts. Thus Baret: A ribaudrous and filthie tongue; os obscænum et impudicum. Ribaudrie, vilanie in actes or wordes, filthiness, uncleanness.' And in Horman's Vulgaria: Refrayne fro suche foule and rebaudry wordes.' Mr. Tyrwhitt saw that the context required we should read hag instead of nag, which was an easy typographical error. |