Between her brother and Mark Antony. Cleo. Is she as tall as me?4 Mess. 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-voic'd. Cleo. That's not so good:-He cannot like her long.5 Char. Like her? O Isis! 'tis impossible. Cleo. I think so, Charmian: Dull of tongue, and dwarfish! 4 Is she as tall as me? &c. &c. &c.] This scene (says Dr. Grey) is a manifest allusion to the questions put by Queen Elizabeth to Sir James Melvil, concerning his mistress the Queen of Scots. Whoever will give himself the trouble to consult his Memoirs, may probably suppose the resemblance to be more than accidental. Steevens. I see no probability that Shakspeare should here allude to a conversation that passed between Queen Elizabeth and a Scottish ambassador, in 1564, the very year in which he was born, and does not appear to have been made publick for above threescore years after his death; Melvil's Memoirs not being printed till 1683. Such enquiries, no doubt, are perfectly natural to rival females, whether queens or cinder-wenches. Ritson. 5 That's not so good:-he cannot like her long.] Cleopatra perhaps does not mean-"That is not so good a piece of intelligence as your last;" but, "That, i. e. a low voice, is not so good as a shrill tongue." That a low voice (on which our author never omits to introduce an elogium when he has an opportunity) was not esteemed by Cleopatra as merit in a lady, appears from what she adds afterwards," Dull of tongue, and dwarfish!"-If the words be understood in the sense first mentioned, the latter part of the line will be found inconsistent with the foregoing. Perhaps, however, the author intended no connection between the two members of this line; and that Cleopatra, after a pause, should exclaim-He cannot like her, whatever her merits be, for any length of time. My first interpretation I believe to be the true one. It has been justly observed that the poet had probably queen Elizabeth here in his thoughts. The description given of her by a contemporary, about twelve years after her death, strongly confirms this supposition. "She was (says the Continuator of Stowe's Chronicle) tall of stature, strong in every limb and joynt, her fingers small and long, her voyce loud and shrill." Malone. It may be remarked, however, that when Cleopatra applies the epithet "shrill-tongued" to Fulvia, (see p. 189,) it is not introduced by way of compliment to the wife of Antony. Steevens. The quality of the voice is referred to, as a criterion similar to that, already noticed, of the hair. See p. 264, n. 1. Henley. What majesty is in her gait? Remember, Mess. She creeps; Her motion and her station are as one: A statue, than a breather. Cleo. Mess. Or I have no observance. 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. Excellent. Cleo. Guess at her years, I pr'ythee. She was a widow. Cleo. Madam, Widow?-Charmian, hark.7 Mess. And I do think, she 's thirty. Cleo. Bear'st thou her face in mind? is it long, or round? Mess. Round even to faultiness. Cleo. For the most part too, They are foolish that are so.8-Her hair, what colour? Mess. Brown, madam: And her forehead is as low9 6 her station -] Station, in this instance, means the act of standing. So, in Hamlet: "A station like the herald Mercury." Steevens. 7 Widow?-Charmian, hark.] 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. Steevens. 8 Round &c. They are foolish that are so.] This is from the old writers on physiognomy. So, 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. 9 Steevens. is as low &c.] For the insertion of is, to help the metre, I am answerable. Steevens. As low as she would wish it.] Low foreheads were, in Shakspeare's age, thought a blemish. So, in The Tempest: 66 - with foreheads villainous low." See also Vol. II, p. 226, n. 3. You and She are not likely to have been confounded; otherwise we might suppose that our author wrote As low as you would wish it. Malone. As she would wish it. Cleo. Char. [Exit Mess. A proper man. Char. O, 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: The phrase employed by the Messenger is still a cant one. I once overheard a chambermaid say of her rival," that her legs were as thick as she could wish them." Steevens. 1 so I harry'd him.] To harry, is to use roughly, harass, subdue. So, in the Chester Whitsun-Playes, MS. Harl. 2013, the Cookes' Company are appointed to exhibit the 17th pageant ofthe harrowinge of helle." The same word occurs also in The Revenger's Tragedy, 1607: "He harried her, and midst a throng," &c. Again, in The Downfall of Robert Earl of Huntingdon, 1601: "Will harry me about instead of her." Holinshed, p. 735, speaking of the body of Richard III, says, it was "harried on horseback, dead." The same expression had been used by Harding, in his Chro nicle. Again, by Nash, in his Lenten Stuff, 1599: “ -as if he were harrying and chasing his enemies.” Steevens. To harry, is, literally, to hunt. Hence the word harrier. King James threatened the Puritans that "he would harry them out of the land." Henley. Minsheu, in his Dictionary, 1617, explains the word thus: "To turmoile or vexe.” Cole, in his English Dictionary, 1676, interprets haried by the word pulled, and in the sense of pulled and lugged about, I believe the word was used by Shakspeare. See the marginal direction in p. 498. In a kindred sense it is used in the old translation of Plutarch: "Pyrrhus seeing his people thus troubled, and harried to and fro," &c. See also Florio's Italian Dictionary, 1590: "Tartassare. To rib-baste, to bang, to tugge, to hale, to harrie." Malone. 2 O, nothing,] The exclamation-0, was, for the sake of measure, supplied by Sir Thomas Hanmer. Steevens. But 'tis no matter; thou shalt bring him to me SCENE IV. Athens. A Room in Antony's House. Enter ANTONY and OCTAVIA. [Exeunt. 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 But pay me terms of honour, cold and sickly He vented them; most narrow measure lent me: Oct. If this division chance, ne'er stood between, 3 When the best hint was given him, he not took 't,] The first folio reads, not look'd. Dr. Thirlby advised the emendation, which I have inserted in the text. Theobald. 4 Or did it from his teeth.] Whether this means, as we now say, in spite of his teeth, or that he spoke through his teeth, so as to be purposely indistinct, I am unable to determine. A similar passage, however, occurs in a very scarce book entitled A Courtlie Controversie of Cupid's Cautels: conteyning five Tragicall Histories, &c. translated out of French, &c. by H. W. [Henry Wotton] 4to. 1578: "The whyche the factor considering, incontinently made his reckning that it behoued him to speake clearely, and not betweene his teeth, if he would practise surely," &c. Again, in Chapman's version of the fifteenth Iliad: "She laught, but meerly from her lips: -" Again, in Fuller's Historie of the Holy Warre, B. IV, ch. 17: "This bad breath, though it came but from the teeth of some, yet proceeded from the corrupt lungs of others." 66 Again, in P. Holland's translation of the Eleventh Book of Pliny's Natural History: the noise which they make commeth but from their teeth and mouth outward." Steevens. And the good gods will mock me presently, 6 When I shall pray, 0, bless my lord and husband! O, bless my brother! Husband win, win brother, Ant. Gentle Octavia, Let your best love draw to that point, which seeks I lose myself: better I were not yours, Than yours so branchless. But, as you requested, Shall stain your brother; Make your soonest haste; 5 And I have supplied this conjunction, for the sake of metre. Steevens. 6 When I shall pray, &c.] The situation and sentiments of Octavia resemble those of Lady Blanch in King John. See Vol. VIL, p. 437. Steevens. 7 Than yours so branchless.] Old copy-your. Corrected in the second folio. This is one of the many mistakes that have arisen from the transcriber's ear deceiving him, or so and yours so, being scarcely distinguishable in pronunciation. Malone. 8 The mean time, lady, I'll raise the preparation of a war Shall stain your brother;] Thus the printed copies. But, sure, Antony, whose business here is to mollify Octavia, does it with a very ill grace: and 'tis a very odd way of satisfying her, to tell her the war, he raises, shall stain, i. e. cast an odium upon her brother. I have no doubt, but we must read, with the addition only of a single letter Shall strain your brother; i. e. shall lay him under constraints; shall put him to such shifts, that he shall neither be able to make a progress against, or to prejudice me. Plutarch says, that Octavius, understanding the sudden and wonderful preparations of Antony, was astonished at it; for he himself was in many wants, and the people were sorely oppressed with grievous exactions. Theobald. I do not see but stain may be allowed to remain unaltered, meaning no more than shame or disgrace. Johnson. So, in some anonymous stanzas among the poems of Surrey and Wyatt: - here at hand approacheth one "So Shore's wife's face made foule Browneta blush, |