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their quota. Stevens pronounces, that "the plain sense of the passage seems to be, these ladies rendered that homage which their assumed characters obliged them to pay their queen-a circumstance ornamental to themselves. Each inclined her person so gracefully, that the very act of humiliation was an improvement of her own beauty."

Knight's comment is as follows:-" Warburton proposed to read adorings; and the controversy upon the matter is so full that Boswell prints it as a sort of supplement at the end of the play. We hold to the adornings' of the original."

Collier says, that "tended in the eyes" means nothing else but tended her sight; as in the MIDSUMMER NIght's DREAM We have "gambol in his eyes," for gambol in his sight. Made their bends adornings" is to be understood that they bowed with such grace as to add to their beauty.

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"Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale

Her infinite variety."

Cleopatra, as appears from the tetradrachms of Antony, was no Venus; and indeed the majority of ladies, who most successfully enslaved the hearts of princes, are known to have been less remarkable for personal than mental attractions. The reign of insipid beauty is seldom lasting; but permanent must be the rule of a woman who can diversify the sameness of life by an inexhausted variety of accomplishments.-STEVENS.

SCENE III.

"Whose fortunes shall rise higher, Cæsar's or mine?” With Antonius there was a soothsayer or astronomer of Egypt, that could cast a figure, and judge of men's nativities, to tell them what should happen to them. He, either to please Cleopatra, or else for that he found it so by his art, told Antonius plainly that his fortune (which of itself was excellent good and very great) was altogether blemished and obscured by Cesar's fortune; and therefore he counselled him utterly to leave his company, and to get him as far from him as he could. For thy demon, said he, (that is to say, the good angel and spirit that keepeth thee,) is afraid of his; and, being courageous and high when he is alone, becometh fearful and timorous when he cometh near unto the other.

pected resemblances between the customs of the court of the Pharaohs and those of modern times, that it would not be very surprising to find that Cleopatra might have amused herself with this very game. re-invented centuries after in France. Of course Shakespeare knew nothing of these antiquities, but he knew very well that games of some sort, uniting exercise with manual dexterity and skill, were used in all refined and luxurious communities; and because he could not express an invitation to such an amusement, in a vague circumlocation, he employed the familiar English word for the game most like that he supposed might have been played in old times.

"RAIN thou thy fruitful tidings in mine ears,” etc

The old text has "Ram thou," etc., which Collier retains. Yet the epithets "fruitful" and "barren" are so congruous with " rain," and the same image having

been used in TIMON, (“Rain sacrificial whisperings in his ear,") there seems little doubt that ram is a literal error for "rain."

"But there's no goodness in thy face, if Antony

Be free and healthful:—so tart a favour,” etc. We follow the original reading, as well as punctuation, agreeing with Knight that, thus read, the lines are full of characteristic spirit. The bulk of modern edi tions alter, without reason, the punctuation thus:—

But there's no goodness in thy face: If Antony
Be free, and healthful,-why so tart a favour
To trumpet such good tidings i

"Not like a FORMAL man"—-i. e. A man in his senses. (See COMEDY OF ERRORS, act v. scene 1.) So in the TWELFTH NIGHT-" any formal capacity."

"I'll set thee in a shower of gold, and hail
Rich pearls upon thee."

A magnificent image, which Milton has borrowed, and added to its splendour of diction, by incorporating with it the "Barbarico auro" of Virgil, and an actual custom of the Persian court:

the gorgeous East, with liberal hand, Showers on her kings Barbaric pearl and gold.

"Thou art not what thou'rt sure of"-Such is the reading of the original, which, though obscure from the

in a relenting moment-" Thou (the bearer) art not thyself the evil thing of which you are so certain, and do not merit to bear its odium." If the reader is not satisfied with this, he may adopt the conjectural emendation of M. Mason, adopted by Stevens:

Howsoever it was, the events ensuing proved the Egyp-speaker's hurried brevity, I understand as saying, as if tian's words true: for it is said that, as often as they two drew cuts for pastime who should have anything, or whether they played at dice. Antonius always lost. Oftentimes when they were disposed to see cock-fight, or quails that were taught to fight one with another, Caesar's cocks or quails did ever overcome.-NORTH'S Plutarch.

"Becomes a FEAR"-A "Fear" was a personage in some of the old Moralities. (See TROILUS AND CRESSIDA, act iii. scene 2.) The whole thought is borrowed from North's translation of Plutarch.

"and his QUAILS ever

Beat mine, IN HOOP'D, at odds. Shakespeare derived this from Plutarch. The ancients used to match quails as we match cocks. Julius Pollux relates that a circle was made, in which the birds were placed, and he whose quail was first driven out of the circle lost the stake. We are told by Mr. Marsden that the Sumatrans practise these quail combats. The Chinese have always been extremely fond of quail fighting. Mr. Douce has given a print, from an elegant Chinese miniature painting, which represents some ladies engaged at this amusement, where the quails are actually inhooped.-Douce's Illustrations of Shake

speare.

SCENE V.

"-let us to BILLIARDS"-The critics pounce upon this from all quarters. "The game (as Malone says) was not known in ancient times." The later explorations of Egyptian antiquities have shown so many unex

O, that his fault should make a knave of thee, That art not!-What? thou'rt sure of't!

SCENE VI.

"Your hostages I have, so have you mine," etc. Sextus Pompeius at that time kept in Sicilia, and so made many an inroad into Italy with a great number of pinnaces and other pirate-ships, of the which were cap tains two notable pirates, Menas and Menecrates, who so scoured all the sea thereabouts that none durst peep out with a sail. Furthermore, Sextus Pompeius had dealt very friendly with Antonius, for he had courteously received his mother when she fled out of Italy with Fulvia; and therefore they thought good to make peace with him. So they met all three together by the Mount of Misena, upon a hill that runneth far into the sea; Pompey having his ships riding hard by at anchor, and Antonius and Caesar their armies upon the shore side, directly over against him. Now, after they had agreed that Sextus Pompeius should have Sicily and Sardinia, with this condition, that he should rid the sea of all thieves and pirates, and make it safe for passengers, and withal that he should send a certain quantity of wheat to Rome, one of them did feast another, and drew cuts who should begin. It was Pompeins' chance to invite them first. Whereupon Antonius asked him, And where shall we sup? There, said Pompey; and showed him

his admiral galley, which had six banks of oars: That (said he) my father's house they have left me. He spake it to taunt Antonius, because he had his father's house, that was Pompey the Great. So he cast anchors

enow into the sea, and then built a bridge of wood to convey them to his galley, from the head of Mount Misena: and there he welcomed them, and made them great cheer. Now, in the midst of the feast, when they fell to be merry with Antonius' love unto Cleopatra, Menas the pirate came to Pompey, and, whispering in his ear, said unto him, Shall I cut the cables of the anchors, and make thee lord, not only of Sicily and Sardinia, but of the whole empire of Rome besides? Pompey, having paused awhile upon it, at length answered him, Thou shouldst have done it, and never have told it me; but now we must content us with what we have; as for myself, I was never taught to break my faith, nor to be counted a traitor. The other two also did likewise feast him in their camp, and then he returned into Sicily.-NORTH's Plutarch.

"much TALL youth"-"Tall" is used in its old colloquial sense, for brave, manly.

At land, indeed,

Thou dost o'ERCOUNT me of my father's house," etc. That is-At land indeed thou dost exceed me in possessions; having added to thy own my father's house. "O'ercount" seems to be used equivocally, and Pompey perhaps is meant to insinuate that Antony not only outnumbered, but had overreached him. The circumstance of Antony's obtaining the house of Pompey's father, the Poet had from Plutarch.

"since the cuckoo builds not for himself"—i. e. Since, like the cuckoo, that seizes the nests of other birds, you have invaded a house which you could not build, keep it while you can.

("For this is from the PRESENT")-i. e. Foreign to the object of our present discussion. Shakespeare uses the "present" as a substantive many times.

"You and I have KNOWN"-i. e. Have been acquainted. So in CYMBELINE:-"Sir, we have known together at Orleans."

Octavia is of a holy, cold, and still CONVERSATION"-" Conversation" is behaviour; manner of acting in common life. "He useth no virtue or honest conversation at all: Nec habet ullum cum virtute commercium."-BARET.

SCENE VII.

A phrase

"They have made him drink alms-drink"(says Warburton) among good fellows, to signify that liquor of another's share which his companions drink to ease him. But it satirically alludes to Cæsar and Antony's admitting him into the triumvirate, in order to take off from themselves the load of envy."

"-pinch one another by the disposition"-Warburton explains this phrase as equivalent to one still in use, of "touching one in a sore place."

"-a PARTIZAN I could not heave"-A "partizan" was a weapon between a pike and a halberd; not being so long, it was made use of in mounting a breach, etc. They take the flow o' the Nile," etc.

Shakespeare might have found a description of the rise of the Nile, and the estimate of plenty or scarcity thereon depending, in Holland's translation of Pliny. The Nilometer is described in Leo's "History of Africa." translated by John Pory. Both works were published at the beginning of the seventeenth century.

"Whate'er the ocean PALFs, or sky INCLIPS"-i. e. Every thing that the ocean encloses, or the sky embraces.

"Plumpy Bacchus, with PINK EYNE," etc.

The modern reader will take this in the sense of pink-coloured, as if alluding to the redness of the eyes of the god of Bacchanals—a good and appropriate sense,

but not the one in the Poet's mind. The old Latin and English dictionaries, and translators contemporary with Shakespeare, all show that "pink eyes" meant small eyes, (as Bishop Wilkins's Dictionary-" Pink-eyed; narrow-eyed.") Fleming, in his "Nomenclator," gives as synonymous, "Ayant fort petits yeux: that hath little eyes-pink-eyed."

ACT III.-SCENE I.

"Without the which a soldier, and his sword,

GRANTS scarce distinction."

"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.

SCENE II.

"-hearts, tongues, figures, scribes, bards, poets," etc. This whimsical arrangement of words, as it is here jocosely introduced, seems a passing sneer at the tastes of the day, in affecting this conceit in graver poetry. Thus, in Daniel's eleventh Sonnet :

Yet will I weep, vow, pray to cruel shee;

Flint, frost, disdaine, weares, melts, and yields we see. And Sir Philip Sydney's "Excellent Sonnet of a Nymph," printed in "England's Helicon," is a tissue of this kind.

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"Band" and bond were of old used indiscriminately. Octavius charges his sister to prove such as he thinks her, and as his amplest bond would be given that she would prove.

"He were the worse for that, were he a horse," etc. Stevens says, that "a horse is said to have a cloud in his face when he has a black or dark-coloured spot in his forehead, between his eyes." It is thought to indicate a vicious temper. Burton applies the phrase to an ugly woman. "Every lover admires his mistress, though she be thin, leane, chitty-face, have clouds in her face, be crooked," etc (Anatomy of Melancholy.)

"What willingly he did CONFOUND"-i. e. Destroy.

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- did it from his teeth"-i. e. To appearance only; not seriously. Thus Dryden, in his “ Wild Gallant:""I am confident she only angry from the teeth outward." So Chapman, in his version of the fifteenth "Iliad:"

She laughed, but meerly from her lips. And Fuller, in his "Holie Warre," (book iv. chap. 17:)— "This bad breath, though it came but from the teeth of some, yet proceeded from the corrupt lungs of others."

"I'll raise the preparation of a war

Shall STAIN your brother."

This seems so obscure, in the ordinary sense of "stain," that Theobald changed it to strain, and Boswell suggested stay; either of which may have been the author's word. Yet, as we find in some of the poets of the time, "stain," used in the sense of to eclipse, to throw in the shade, it may have been the word, and is therefore retained. Thus, among several examples quoted by the commentators, we have, in Churchyard's poem of Charitie," (1595)—

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"Thou hast FORS POKE"-i. e. Spoken against, or forbidden.

"If not denounc'd against us, why should not we," etc. The modern reading is

Is't not? Denounce against us why should not we With Malone and Knight, we follow the original, the meaning of which is, If there be no special denunciation against us, why should we not be there?

"MERELY lose"-i. e. Entirely.

"TAKE IN Toryne"-i. e. Gain by conquest.

"O noble emperor, do not fight by sea,” etc. So when Antonius had determined to fight by sea, he set all the other ships on fire but threescore ships of Egypt, and reserved only the best and greatest galleys, from three banks unto ten banks of oars. Into them he put two-and-twenty thousand fighting men, with two thousand darters and slingers. Now, as he was setting his men in order of battle, there was a captain, a valiant man, that had served Antonius in many battles and conflicts, and had all his body hacked and cut, who, as Antonius passed by him, cried unto him, and said, O noble emperor, how cometh it to pass that you trust to these vile brittle ships? What, do you mistrust these wounds of mine, and this sword? Let the Egyptians and Phonicians fight by sea, and set us on the main land, where we use to conquer, or to be slain on our feet. Antonius passed by him and said never a word, but only beckoned to him with his hand and head, as though he willed him to be of good courage, although, indeed, he had no great courage himself.-NORTH's Plutarch.

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in such DISTRACTIONS"-i. e. Detachments.

SCENE VIII.

upon this JUMP"-i. e. Upon this hazard, as the verb to "jump" is used in MACBETH and CORIOLANUS. "CANTLE of the world"-i. e. Portion.

"the TOKEN'D pestilence"-i. e. The pestilence which is mortal, when those spots appear on the skia which were called God's tokens.

"Yon' RIBALD NAG of Egypt"-i. e. That obscene jade-a natural burst of indignation. The old folios print it "ribaudred nag." which Stevens has changed to ribald-rid; but the ancient form of "ribald" was ribaud, or ribauld, or ribaudrous, as ribaldry was spelled ribaudrie. Ribaudred, then, seems to have been a mere misprint for one of the older forms of "ribald." Thus, in TROILUS AND CRESSIDA, we have, in the folios, “ribauld crows." Hag of Egypt" is also the reading of many of the modern editions; but the allusion to the "brize," or gad-fly, the summer torment of horses and cattle, indicates" nag" to be the word intended.

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"Dealt on LIEUTENANTRY"-Stevens has well explained this passage, which Johnson and others misunderstood. He says, Dealt on lieutenantry" means 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" anything is an expression often used by old writers. In Plutarch's Life of Antony," Shakespeare found the following words:-" They were always more fortunate when they made warre by their licutenants than by themselves."

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That was and is the question of these wars. Antony was the subject, to which the whole war was limited.

"To lay his gay comparisons apart,

And answer me DECLIN'D, sword against sword," etc. Johnson explains the passage thus:-"I require of Cæsar not to depend on that superiority which the comparison of our different fortunes may exhibit to him, but to answer me man to man, in this decline of my age or power."

"A messenger from Cæsar."

Therewithal he sent Thyreus, one of his men, unto her, a very wise and discreet man, who, bringing letters of credit from a young lord unto a noble lady, and that, besides, greatly liked her beauty, might easily by his eloquence have persuaded her. He was longer in talk with her than any man else was, and the queen herself also did him great honour, insomuch as he made Antonius jealous of him. Whereupon Antonius caused him to be taken and well favouredly whipped, and so sent him unto Cæsar, and bade him tell him that he made him angry with him, because he showed himself proud and disdainful towards him; and now, specially, when he was easy to be angered by reason of his present misery. To be short, if this mislike thee, (said he,) thou hast Hipparchus, one of my enfranchised bondmen, with thee; hang him if thou wilt, or whip him at thy pleasure, that we may cry quittance. From henceforth, Cleopatra, to clear herself of the suspicion he had of her, made more of him than ever she did. For, first of all, where she did solemnize the day of her birth very meanly and sparingly, fit for her present misfortune, she now in contrary manner did keep it with such solemnity that she exceeded all measure of sumptuousness and magnificence, so that the guests that were bidden to the feasts, and came poor, went away rich.-NORTH's Plutarch.

"begin to SQUARE"-i. e. Begin to Quarrel.

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one that looks on FEEDERS"-Antony is comparing Cleopatra with Octavia. "One that looks on feeders" is one that bestows favours on servants. Eaters, feeders," were terms for servants in the old dramatists. Gifford has shown, in a note to the Silent Woman," that Dr. Johnson was mistaken when he interpreted the passage in the text to mean that Antony was abused by Thyreus-by one that looked on while others fed.

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"By the DISCANDERING of this pelleted storm," etc. This is the word of the original, but the invariable modern reading is discandying; and Malone explains that "discandy is used in the next act." But how is it used?The hearts

That spaniel'd me at heels, to whom I gave
Their wishes, do discandy, melt their sweets,
On blossoming Cæsar.

The expletive melt their sweets gives us the peculiar and more forcible meaning in which the word is here used. But the pelleted storm, which makes Cleopatra's brave Egyptians lie graveless, is utterly opposed to the melting into sweetness of the word discandying. To squander is to scatter, and so Dryden uses the word :

They drive, they squander, the huge Belgian fleet. To dis-cander, we believe then, is to dis-squander. The particle dis is, as Mr. Richardson has stated, "frequently prefixed to words themselves meaning separation, or partition, and augmenting the force of those words." We therefore, without hesitation, restore the original discandering," in the sense of dis-squandering.KNIGHT.

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"Call forth my household servants; let's to-night," etc. Then Antonius seeing there was no way more honourable for him to die than fighting valiantly, he determined to set up his rest both by sea and land. So, being at supper, (as it is reported.) he commanded his officers and household servants that waited on him at his board that they should fill his cup full, and make as much of him as they could, for, said he, You know not whether you shall do so much for me to-morrow or not, or whether you shall serve another master; it may be you shall see me no more, but a dead body. This notwithstanding, perceiving that his friends and men fell a weeping to hear him say so, to salve that he had spoken he added this more unto it, that he would not lead them to battle where he thought not rather safely to return with victory than valiantly to die with honour.-NORTH'S Plutarch.

"the gods YIELD you for 't"-In As You LIKE IT we have the familiar expression, "God 'ild you," which is equivalent to God yield you, or God reward you.

"Ho, ho, ho!"-Boswell suggests that these interjections were intended to express an hysterical laugh; but the old usage of "ho" was to express stop, desist-being but another form of whoe, still used to horses. Thus

Lord Berner, in his " Froissart"-" There was no ho between them;" and Burton ("Anatomy of Melancholy") has, "He is mad, mad, no whoe with him."

SCENE III.

"Peace, what noise?"

Furthermore, the self-same night, within a little of midnight, when all the city was quiet, full of fear and sorrow, thinking what would be the issue and end of this war, it is said that suddenly they heard a marvellous sweet harmony of sundry sorts of instruments of music, with the cry of a multitude of people, as they had been dancing, and had sung as they used in Bacchus' feasts, with movings and turnings after the manner of the Satyrs; and it seemed that this dance went through the city unto the gate that opened to the enemies, and that all the troop that made this noise they heard went out of the city at that gate. Now, such as in reason sought the depth of the interpretation of this wonder, thought that it was the god unto whom Antonius bare singular devotion to counterfeit and resemble him that did forsake them.-NORTH'S Plutarch.

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SCENE VI.

the THREE-NOOK'D world"-i. e. The three-cornered world. It is not easy to explain why three corners, and no more, were allowed the world; but such was the language of the times. Thus in KING JOHN:Come the three corners of the world in arms, And we will shock them.

"SAF'D the bringer"-i. e. Made safe. This is one of the only two instances of this use of the word, in any author, the other being in Chapman's “Odyssey.”

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(order for sea is given; They have put forth the haven,") etc.

This passage is parenthetical. Omit it, and Antony says, that the foot soldiers shall stay with him, upon the hills adjoining to the city

Where their appointment we may best discover. There is, therefore, no need or propriety of Malone's insertion of "Let's seek a spot," or Rowe's "Further on," before "Where their appointment," etc.

"BUT being charg'd, we will be still by land," etc. That is-Unless a charge is made upon us, we will remain quiet on land. "But," in this sense of unless, or without, is often found in old English, as well as in later Scotch. Stevens quotes two lines from a version of an old French romance

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-as schip boute mast, Boute anker, or ore, etc.

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this GRAVE charm"-Some of the editors of the last century print, without reason, gay charms;" but the words mean, this deadly or destructive piece of witchcraft. In this sense the epithet "grave" is often used by Chapman, in his translation of Homer. Thus, in the nineteenth book:

But not far hence the fatal minutes are

Of thy grave ruin.

It seems to be employed in the sense of the Latin word gravis.

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"For poor'st diminutives, for DOLTS"-We retain the original. The ordinary reading is

For poor'st diminutives to dolts;—

and it is explained that the poorest diminutives are the smallest pieces of money. Others read "for doits”— diminutives and doits each meaning small moneys. "Poor'st diminutives" are the children of the humblest condition, and classed with "dolts"-the silly and ignorant of a larger growth; the whole forming what Cleopatra, in the last scene of the play, calls the "shouting varletry" of Rome. We must, therefore, understand "for" to mean for the gratification of, or adopt a suggestion by Malone, "be shown fore," etc.

We have, with Knight, preferred this old reading to the later reading and explanation, because the context does not lead to the idea of Cleopatra's being made show for money, but represents her as made a public show in Cæsar's triumph.

SCENE XI.

"Was never so EMBOSS'D"-This word is used in the old hunting sense, for foaming at the mouth.

SCENE XII.

"They are black vesper's PAGEANTS"-T. Warton rightly reminds us, that the beauty both of the expres sion and the allusion is lost, unless we recollect the frequency and the nature of these shows in Shakespeare's age. The following apposite passage from a sermon, by Bishop Hall, is cited by Boswell:-"I feare some of you are like the pageants of your great solemnities, wherein there is a show of a solid body, whether of a lion, or elephant, or unicorne; but if they be curiously look'd into, there is nothing but cloth, and sticks, and ayre."

"This is, without doubt, one of the finest pieces of poetry in SHAKESPEARE. The splendour of the imagery, the semblance of reality, the lofty range of picturesque objects hanging over the world, their evanescent nature, the total uncertainty of what is left behind,—are just like the mouldering schemes of human greatness."HAZLITT.

"The rack dislimns"-i. e. The fleeting away of the clouds destroys the picture.

"My mistress lov'd thee, and her fortunes mingled With thine entirely."

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Then she, being afraid of his fury, fled into the tomb which she had caused to be made, and there locked the doors unto her, and shut all the springs of the locks with great bolts, and in the mean time sent unto Antonius to tell him that she was dead. Antonius, believing it, said unto himself, What dost thou look for further, Antonius, sith spiteful fortune hath taken from thee the only joy thou haddest, for whom thou yet reservedst thy life? When he had said these words, he went into a chamber and unarmed himself, and, being naked, said thus:-0, Cleopatra, it grieveth me not that I have lost thy com pany, for I will not be long from thee; but I am sorry that, having been so great a captain and emperor, I ans indeed condemned to be judged of less courage and noble mind than a woman. Now he had a man of his called Eros, whom he loved and trusted much, and whom he had long before caused to swear unto him that he should kill him when he did command him, and ther he willed him to keep his promise. This man, draw ing his sword, lift it up as though he had meant to have

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