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Hath sold me to this novice; and my heart
Makes only wars on thee.-Bid them all fly;
For when I am reveng'd upon my charm,

I have done all:-Bid them all fly, be gone. [Exit SCAR.
O sun, thy uprise shall I see no more:
Fortune and Antony part here; even here

Do we shake hands. All come to this?--The hearts
That spaniel'd me at heels," to whom I gave

Mr. Tollet supposed that Cleopatra had been mistress to Pompey the Great; but her lover was his eldest son, Cneius Pompey. Malone.

She first belonged to Julius Cæsar, then to Antony, and now, as he supposes, to Augustus. It is not likely that in recollecting her turnings, Antony should not have that in contemplation which gave him most offence. M. Mason.

This interpretation is sufficiently plausible, but there are two objections to it. According to this account of the matter, her connection with Cneius Pompey is omitted, though the poet certainly was apprized of it, as appears by the passage just quoted. 2. There is no ground for supposing that Antony meant to insinuate that Cleopatra had granted any personal favour to Augustus, though he was persuaded that she had "sold him to the novice." Malone.

Mr. M. Mason's explanation is, I think, very sufficient; and Antony may well enough be excused for want of circumstantiality in his invective. The sober recollection of a critick should not be expected from a hero who has this moment lost the one half of the world. Steevens.

7 That spaniel'd me at heels,] All the editions read:

That pannell'd me at heels,

Sir T. Hanmer substituted spaniel'd by an emendation, with which it was reasonable to expect that even rival commentators would be satisfied; yet Dr. Warburton proposes pantler'd, in a note, of which he is not injured by the suppression; and Mr. Upton having in his first edition proposed plausibly enough

That paged me at heels,

in the second edition retracts his alteration, and maintains pan. nell'd to be the right reading, being a metaphor taken, he says, from a pannel of wainscot. Johnson.

Spaniel'd is so happy a conjecture, that I think we ought to acquiesce in it. It is of some weight with me that spaniel was often formerly written spannel. Hence there is only the omission of the first letter, which has happened elsewhere in our poet, as in the word chear, &c. To dog them at the heels is not an uncommon expression in Shakspeare; and in A Midsummer Night's Dream, Act II, sc. ii, Helena says to Demetrius:

"I am your spaniel,-only give me leave,
Unworthy as I am, to follow you." Tallet.

Their wishes, do discandy, melt their sweets
On blossoming Cæsar; and this pine is bark'd,
That overtopp'd them all. Betray'd I am :

O this false soul of Egypt! this grave charm,8-
Whose eye beck'd forth my wars, and call'd them home;
Whose bosom was my crownet, my chief end,
Like a right gipsy, hath, at fast and loose,

Spannel for spaniel is yet the inaccurate pronunciation of some persons, above the vulgar in rank, though not in literature. Our author has in like manner used the substantive page as a verb in Timon of Athens:

"Will these moist trees

"That have out-liv'd the eagle, page thy heels, &c. In King Richard III, we have

8

"Death and destruction dog thee at the heels.”

Malone.

this grave charm,] I know not by what authority, nor for what reason, this grave charm, which the first, the only original copy exhibits, has been through all the modern editions changed to this gay charm. By this grave charm, is meant, this sublime, this majestick beauty. Johnson.

I believe grave charm means only deadly, or destructive piece of witchcraft. In this sense the epithet grave is often used by Chap man, in his translation of Homer. So, in the 19th Book:

66

but not far hence the fatal minutes are

"Of thy grave ruin."

Again, in the same translator's version of the 22d Odyssey: and then flew

66

"Minerva, after every dart, and made

"Some strike the threshold, some the walls invade;
"Some beate the doores, and all acts rendred vaine
"Their grave steele offer'd."

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

Steevens.

9 — was my crownet, my chief end,] Dr. Johnson supposes that crownet means last purpose, probably from finis coronat opus. Chapman, in his translation of the Second Book of Homer, uses crown in the sense which my learned coadjutor would recommend:

66 all things have their crowne."

Again, in our author's Cymbeline :

"My supreme crown of grief."

Again, in Troilus and Cressida:

"As true as Troilus shall crown up the verse,

"And sanctify the numbers." Steevens.

So, again, in All's Well that Ends Well:

All's Well that Ends Well; still the fine's the crown." G..

Beguil'd me1 to the very heart of loss.—

What, Eros, Eros!

Enter CLEOPATRA.

Ah, thou spell! Avaunt.

Cleo. Why is my lord enrag'd against his love?
Ant. Vanish; or I shall give thee thy deserving,
And blemish Cæsar's triumph. Let him take thee,
And hoist thee up to the shouting Plebeians:
Follow his chariot, like the greatest spot
Of all thy sex; most monster-like, be shown

1 Like a right gipsy, hath, at fast and loose,

Beguil'd me &c.] There is a kind of pun in this passage, arising from the corruption of the word Ægyptian into gipsy. The old law-books term such persons as ramble about the country, and pretend skill in palmistry and fortune-telling, Ægyptians. Fast and loose is a term to signify a cheating game, of which the following is a description. A leathern belt is made up into a number of intricate folds, and placed edgewise upon a table. One of the folds is made to resemble the middle of the girdle, so that whoever should thrust a skewer into it would think he held it fast to the table; whereas, when he has so done, the person with whom he plays may take hold of both ends, and draw it away. This trick is now known to the common people, by the name of pricking at the belt or girdle, and perhaps was practised by the Gypsies in the time of Shakspeare. Sir J. Hawkins.

Sir John Hawkins's supposition is confirmed by the following Epigram in an ancient collection called Run and a great Cast, by Thomas Freeman, 1614:

"In Ægyptum suspensum. Epig. 95.

"Charles the Egyptian, who by jugling could
"Make fast or loose, or whatsoere he would;

66

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Surely it seem'd he was not his craft's master,
Striving to loose what struggling he made faster:
"The hangman was more cunning of the twaine,
"Who knit what he could not unknit againe.
"You countrymen Ægyptians make such sots,
"Seeming to loose indissoluble knots;

"Had you been there, but to have seen the cast,
"You would have won, had but you laid-'tis fast."
Steevens

That the Egyptians were great adepts in this art before Shakspeare's time, may be seen in Scot's Discoverie of Witchcraft, 1584, p. 336, where these practices are fully explained. Reed. to the very heart of loss.] To the utmost loss possible. Johnson..

2

So, in The Merry Wives of Windsor :
"Here is the heart of my purpose." Steevens.

For poor'st diminutives, to dolts;3 and let
Patient Octavia plough thy visage up

With her prepared nails. [Exit CLEO.] 'Tis well thou 'rt

gone,

If it be well to live: But better 'twere
Thou fell'st into my fury, for one death
Might have prevented many.-Eros, ho!—
The shirt of Nessus is upon me: Teach me,
Alcides, thou mine ancestor, thy rage:

Let me lodge Lichas on the horns o' the moon;
And with those hands, that grasp'd the heaviest club,

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For poor'st diminutives, to dolts;] [Old copy-for dolts ;] As the allusion here is to monsters carried about in shows, it is plain, that the words, for poorest diminutives, must mean for the feast piece of money. We must therefore read the next word:

- for doits,

i. e. farthings, which shows what he means by poorest diminutives. Warburton.

There was surely no occasion for the poet to show what he meant by purest diminutives. The expression is clear enough, and certainly acquires no additional force from the explanation. I rather believe we should read:

For poor'st diminutives, to dolts;

This aggravates the contempt of her supposed situation; to be shown, as monsters are, not only for the smallest piece of money, but to the most stupid and vulgar spectators. Tyrwhitt.

I have adopted this truly sensible emendation. Steevens.

It appears to me much more probable that dolts should have been printed for doits, than that for should have been substituted for to.

Whichsoever of these emendations be admitted, there is still a difficulty. Though monsters are shown to the stupid and the vulgar for poor'st diminutives, yet Cleopatra, according to Antony's supposition, would certainly be exhibited to the Roman populace for nothing. Nor can it be said that he means that she would be exhibited gratis, as monsters are shown for small pieces of money; because his words are "monster-like," be [thou] shown for poor'st diminutives, &c.

The following passage in Troilus and Cressida adds some support to my conjecture: "How this poor world is pester'd with such water-flies; diminutives of nature !" Malone.

4 With her prepared nails.] i. e. with nails which she suffered

to grow for this purpose. Warburton.

5 Let me lodge Lichas &c.] Sir T. Hanmer reads thus:

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Subdue my worthiest self. The witch shall die;
To the Roman boy she hath sold me, and I fall
Under this plot: she dies for 't.-Eros, ho!

SCENE XI.

Alexandria. A Room in the Palace.

[Exit.

Enter CLEOPATRA, CHARMIAN, IRAS, and MARDIAN. Cleo. Help me, my women! O, he is more mad Than Telamon for his shield; the boar of Thessaly Was never so emboss'd.

This reading, harsh as it is, Dr. Warburton has received, af ter having rejected many better. The meaning is, Let me do something in my rage, becoming the successor of Hercules.

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Johnson.

Let me lodge Lichas on the horns o' the moon;] This image our poet seems to have taken from Seneca's Hercules, who says Lichas being launched into the air, sprinkled the clouds with his blood. Sophocles, on the same occasion, talks at a much soberer rate. Warburton.

Shakspeare was more probably indebted to Golding's version of Ovid's Metamorphoses, B. IX, edit. 1575:

6

66

Behold, as Lychas trembling in a hollow rock did lurk, "He spyed him: And as his griefe did all in furie work, He sayd, art thou syr Lychas, he that broughtest unto

mee

"This plagye present? Of my death must thou the woorker bee?

"Hee quaak't and shaak't and looked pale, and fearfully 'gan make

"Excuse. But as with humbled hands hee kneeling too him spake,

"The furious Hercule caught him up, and swindging

him about

"His head a halfe a doozen tymes or more, he floong

him out

Into th' Euboyan sea, with force surmounting any sling: "He hardened intoo peble stone as in the ayre he hing,"

&c. Steevens.

the Roman boy-] Old copy-the young Roman boy-. See p. 346, n. 8, where a similar interpolation has been already ejected, for similar reasons.

Steevens.

7 Than Telamon for his shield;] ie. than Ajax Telamon for the armour of Achilles, the most valuable part of which was the shield. The boar of Thessaly was the boar killed by Meleager.

Steegens

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