He hath whipp'd with rods; dares me to personal combat,
Cæsar to Antony: Let the old ruffian know,

I have many other ways to die ; mean time,
Laugh at his challenge.

Mec.

Cæsar must think,7

When one so great begins to rage, he 's hunted
Even to falling. Give him no breath, but now
Make boot of his distraction: Never anger
Made good guard for itself.

Let our best heads

Cas. Know, that to-morrow the last of many battles We mean to fight:-Within our files there are Of those that serv'd Mark Antony but late, Enough to fetch him in. See it be done;1 And feast the army: we have store to do 't, And they have earn'd the waste. Poor Antony! [Exeunt.

I have many other ways to die;] What a reply is this to Antony's challenge? 'tis acknowledging that he should die under the unequal combat; but if we read

He hath many other ways to die: mean time,

I laugh at his challenge.

In this reading we have poignancy, and the very repartee of Cæsar. Let's hear Plutarch. After this, Antony sent a challenge to Cesar, to fight him hand to hand, and received for answer, that he might find several other ways to end his life. Upton.

I think this emendation deserves to be received. It had, before Mr. Upton's book appeared, been made by Sir T. Hanmer. Johnson. Most indisputably this is the sense of Plutarch, and given so in the modern translations; but Shakspeare was misled by the ambiguity of the old one: "Antonius sent again to challenge Cæsar to fight him: Cæsar answered, that he had many other ways to die, than so." Farmer.

This is a very probable supplement for the syllable here apparently lost. So, in King Henry VIII:

"But I must needs to the Tower."

Steevens.

8 Make boot of -] Take advantage of. Johnson.

9 Enough to fetch him in.] So, in Cymbeline:

1

break out, and swear
Steevens.

"He'd fetch us in.”

See it be done;] Be was inserted by Sir T. Hanmer, to complete the measure. Steevens.

SCENE II.

Alexandria. A Room in the Palace.

Enter ANTONY, CLEOPATRA, ENOBARBUS, CHARMIAN, IRAS, ALEXAS, and Others.

Ant. He will not fight with me, Domitius.

Eno.

Ant. Why should he not?

No.

Eno. He thinks, being twenty times of better fortune, He is twenty men to one.

Ant.

To-morrow, soldier,

By sea and land I 'll fight: or I will live,

Or bathe my dying honour in the blood

Shall make it live again. Woo 't thou fight well?
Eno. I'll strike; and cry, Take all.2

Ant.

Well said; come on.

Call forth my household servants; let 's to-night

Enter Servants.

Be bounteous at our meal.—Give me thy hand,
Thou hast been rightly honest;—so hast thou ;—
And thou,3—and thou,—and thou:- you have serv'd me

well,

And kings have been your fellows.

What means this?

Cleo. Eno. 'Tis one of those odd tricks, which sorrow shoots Out of the mind.

Ant.

And thou art honest too.

1 wish, I could be made so many men; And all of you clapp'd up together in

2

[Aside.

Take all.] Let the survivor take all. No composition, victory or death. Johnson.

So, in King Lear:

unbonneted he runs,

"And bids what will, take all."

Steevens.

3 And thou,] And, which is wanting in the old copy, was supplied by Sir Thomas Hanmer.

Steevens.

4 one of those odd tricks,] I know not what obscurity the editors find in this passage. Trick is here used in the sense in which it is uttered every day by every mouth, elegant and vulgar: yet Sir T. Hanmer changes it to freaks, and Dr. Warburton, in his rage of Gallicism, to traits. Johnson.

An Antony; that I might do you service,
So good as you have done.

Serv.

The gods forbid!
Ant. Well, my good fellows, wait on me to-night:
Scant not my cups; and make as much of me,
As when mine empire was your fellow too,
And suffer'd my command.

Cleo.

What does he mean?

Eno. To make his followers weep.
Ant.

Tend me to-night;

May be, it is the period of your duty:
Haply, you shall not see me more; or if,
A mangled shadow:5 perchance,6 to-morrow
You'll serve another master. I look on you,
As one that takes his leave. Mine honest friends,
I turn you not away; but, like a master
Married to your good service, stay till death:
Tend me to-night two hours, I ask no more,
And the gods yield you for 't!?

Eno.

What mean you, sir, To give them this discomfort? Look, they weep; And I, an ass, am onion-ey'd; for shame,

5

or if,

A mangled shadow:] Or if you see me more, you will see me a mangled shadow, only the external form of what I was. Johnson. The thought is, as usual, taken from Sir Thomas North's translation of Plutarch: "So being at supper, (as it is reported) he commaunded his officers and household seruauntes that waited on him at his bord, that they shold fill his cuppes full, and make as much of him as they could: for said he, you know not whether you shall doe so much for me to morrow or not, or whether you shall serue an other maister: and it may be you shall see me no more, but a dead bodie. This notwithstanding, perceiuing that his frends and men fell a weeping to heare him say so, to salue that he had spoken, he added this more vnto it; that he would not leade them to battell, where he thought not rather safely to returne with victorie, than valiantly to dye with honor." Steevens.

6 - perchance,] To complete the verse, might we not readnay, perchance, &c.? Nay, on this occasion, as on many others, would be used to signify-Not only so, but more. Steevens.

7 And the gods yield you for 't!] i. e. reward you. See a note on Macbeth, Vol. VII, p. 62, n. 5; and another on As you Like it, Vol. V, p. 136, n. 3. Steevens.

8 onion-ey'd;] I have my eyes as full of tears as if they had been fretted by onions. Johnson.

Ho, ho, ho!9

Transform us not to women.

Ant.

Now the witch take me, if I meant it thus!

Grace grow where those drops fall! My hearty friends,
You take me in too dolorous a sense:

I spake to you for your comfort: did desire you
To burn this night with torches: Know my hearts,
I hope well of to-morrow; and will lead you,
Where rather I 'll expect victorious life,

So, in The birth of Merlin, 1662:

"I see something like a peel'd onion;
"It makes we weep again."

See p. 205, n. 2.

Malone.

Steevens.

9 Ant. Ho, ho, ho!] i. e. stop or desist. Antony desires his followers to cease weeping. So, in Chaucer-The Knightes Tale, v. 1706, edit. 1775:

"This duk his courser with his sporres smote,
"And at a stert he was betwix hem two,

"And pulled out a swerd, and cried, ho!

"No more, up peine of lesing of your hed."

But Mr. Tyrwhitt, in a note on ver. 2535 of The Canterbury Tales, doubts whether this interjection was used except to command a cessation of fighting. The succeeding quotations, however, will, while they illustrate an obscurity in Shakspeare, prove that ho was by no means so confined in its meaning. Gawin Douglas translates-" Helenum farique vetat Saturnia Juno," (Eneid, L. III, v. 380,)

"The douchter of auld Saturn Juno

"Forbiddis Helenus to speik it, and crys ho."

In the Glossary to the folio edition of this translation, Edinb. 1710, it is said that "Ho is an Interjection commanding to desist or leave off."

It occurs again in Langham's Letter concerning Queen Elizabeth's Entertainment at Killingworth Castle, 1575, 12mo, p. 61, cited in The Reliques of Antient Poetry: "Heer was no ho in devout drinkyng."

And in The Myrrour of good Maners, compyled in Latyn by Domynike Mancyn, and translated into Englishe by Alexander Bercley, Prest, imprynted by Rychard Pynson, bl. 1. no date, fol. Ambition is compared to

"The sacke insaciable,

"The sacke without botome, which never can say ho." H. White.

1 Grace grow where those drops fall!] So, in K. Richard: "Here did she drop a tear; here, in this place, "I'll set a bank of rue, sour herb of grace." Steevens. I spake to you -] Old copy, redundantly: For I spake to you

2

Steevens.

Than death and honour.3 Let 's to supper; come,
And drown consideration.

SCENE III.

The same. Before the Palace.

Enter Two Soldiers, to their Guard.

[Exeunt.

1 Sold. Brother, good night; to-morrow is the day. 2 Sold. It will determine one way: fare you well. Heard you of nothing strange about the streets? 1 Sold. Nothing: What news?

2 Sold.

Good night to you.

1 Sold.

Belike, 'tis but a rumour:

Well, sir, good night.

Enter Two other Soldiers.

2 Sold.

Have careful watch.

3 Sold.

Soldiers,

And you: Good night, good night. [The first Two place themselves at their Posts. 4 Sold. Here we: [they take their Posts] and if to

morrow

Our navy thrive, I have an absolute hope

Our landmen will stand up.

3 Sold.

And full of purpose.

4 Sold.

3

'Tis a brave army,

[Musick of Hautboys under the Stage. Peace, what noise ?5

death and honour.] That is, an honourable death. Upton.

4 Musick of Hautboys under the Stage.] This circumstance (as I collect from Mr. Warton) might have been suggested to Shakspeare by some of the machineries in masques. Holinshed, describing a very curious device or spectacle presented before Queen Elizabeth, insists particularly on the secret or mysterious musick of some fictitious nymphs, "which, (he adds) surely had been a noble hearing, and the more melodious for the varietie [noveltie] thereof, because it should come secretlie and strangelie out of the earth." Vol. III, f. 1297. Steevens.

Peace, what noise?] So, in the old translation of Plutarch: "Furthermore, the selfe same night within little of midnight, when all the citie was quiet, full of feare, and sorrowe, thinking what would be the issue and ende of this warre; it is said that sodzinly they heard a maruelous sweete harmonie of sundry sortes of instrumentes of musicke, with the crie of a multitude of peo