SCENE V. The Palace in Alexandria. Enter Cleopatra, Charmian, Iras, and Mardian. Cleo. Charmian, Char. Madam? Cleo. Ha, ha-give me to drink ' mandragora. Cleo. That I might fleep out this great gap My Antony is away. Char. You think of him too much. Cleo. O, 'tis treason. Char. Madam, I truft not fo. Cleo. Thou! eunuch! Mardian! Mar. What's your highnefs' pleasure? of time, Cleo. Not now to hear thee fing. I take no pleasure In aught an eunuch has: 'tis well for thee, That, being unfeminar'd, thy freer thoughts May not fly forth of Egypt.. Haft thou affections? Mar. Yes, gracious madam. Cleo. Indeed? Mar. Not in deed, madam; for I can do nothing But what in deed is honeft to be done : Yet have I fierce affections, and think, What Venus did with Mars. Cleo. Oh, Charmian! Where think'st thou he is now? Stands he, or fits he? Or does he walk? or is he on his horfe? Oh happy horse, to bear the weight of Antony! Do bravely, 'horfe! for, wot'ft thou, whom thou mov't? 5-mandragora.] A plant of which the infufion was supposed to procure fleep. Shakespeare mentions it in Othello: Not poppy, nor mandragora, Can ever med'cine thee to that fweet fleep. JOHNSON The The demy Atlas of this earth, the arm Enter Alexas. Alex. Sovereign of Ægypt, hail! 8 Cleo. How much art thou unlike Mark Antony! Yet coming from him, that great medicine hath With his tinct gilded thee. How goes it with my brave Mark Antony? Say, the firm Roman to great Egypt fends This treafure of an oyfter: at whofe foot, And burgonet of man.] A burgonet is a kind of b. lmet. Hen. VI. This day I'll wear aloft my burgonet. So in Heywood's Iron Age, 1632. I'll hammer on thy proof-fleel'd burgonet. STEEVENS. "Broad-fronted Cafar.] Mr. Seyward is of opinion, that the poet wrote bald-fronted Caefar. STEEVENS 3-that great medicine bath with his tin gilded thee.] Allading to the philofopher's ftone, which, by its touch, converts bafe metal into gold. The alchemifts call the matter, whatever it be, by which they perform tranfmutation, a medicine. JOHNSON. To mend the petty prefent, I will piece Her opulent throne with kingdoms. All the ecft, 9 Who neigh'd fo high, that what I would have spoke, Was beaftly dumb by him. Clea. What, was he fad or merry? Alex. Like to the time o' the year, between the extreams Of hot and cold; he was nor fad, nor merry. But He was not fad, for he would fhine on those -arm-gaunt feed.] i. e. his ftced worn lean and thin by much fervice in war. So Fairfax, His fta l-worn feed the champion fout beftrode. WARB. On this rote Mr. Edwards has been very lavish of his pleafantry, and indeed has juftly cenfured the mifquotation of allworn, for fall worth, which means freng, but makes no attempt to explain the word in the play. Mr. Seyward, in his preface to Beaumont, has very elaborately endeavoured to prove, that an arm-gaunt feed is a fteed with lean fheulders. Arm is the Teutonick word for want, or joverty. Arm-aunt may be therefore an old word, fignifying, lean for avant, ill fed. Edwards's obfervation, that a worn out hor'e is not proper for Atlas to mount in battle, is impertinent; the horse here mentioned feems to be a poft horfe, rather than a war horfe. Yet as arm-guunt feems not intended to imply any defect. it perhaps means, a horse so flender that a man might clafp him, and therefore formed for expedition. Hanmer reads, arm-girt fired. JOHNSON. Was beafly DUMB by him.] Mr. Theobald reads dumb'd, put to filence. Alexas means, (fays he) the horse made fuch a neighing, that if he had spoke he could not have been heard. JOHNSON. The The violence of either thee becomes, So does it no man elfe. Met'ft thou my posts? Cleo. Who's born that day, When I forget to fend to Antony, Shall die a beggar.--Ink and paper, Charmian.-Welcome, my good Alexas.-Did I, Charmian, Ever love Cæfar fo? Char. Oh, that brave Cæfar! Cleo. Be choak'd with fuch another emphafis! Say, the brave Antony. Char. The valiant Cæfar! Cleo. By Ifis I will give thee bloody teeth, If thou with Cæfar paragon again My man of men Char. By your moft gracious pardon, I fing but after you. 2 Cleo. My fallad days! When I was green in judgment. Cold in blood! To fay, as I faid then.-But come away; 2 My fallad days! When I was green in judgment, cold in blood! To fay, as I faid then. This puzzles the late editor, Mr. Theobald. He fays, Cleopatra may Speak very naturally here with contempt of ber judgment at that period: but how truly with regard to the coldness of her blood may admit fome queftion and then employs his learning to prove, that at this cold feafon of her blood, he had feen twenty good years. But vet he thinks his author may be justified, because Plutarch calls Cleopatra at thofe years, Kógn, which by ill luck proves just the contrary; for that ftate which the Greeks defigned by Kign, was the very height of blood. But Shakespeare's beft juftification is restoring his own fenfe, which is done merely by a different pointing: My fallad days; When I was green in judgment. Celd in blood! Cold in blood, is an upbraiding expoftulation to her maid. Those, fays fhe, were my fallad days, when I was green in judgment; but your blood is as cold as my ju1gment, if you have the fame opinion of things now as I had then. WARBURTON. K 4 Get Get me ink and paper: he shall have every day [Exeunt. I ACT II. SCENE I. Melina. Pompey's Houfe. Enter 4 Pompey, Menecrates, and Menas. POMPEY. F the great Gods be juft, they fhall affift Men. Know, worthy Pompey, That what they do delay, they not deny. Pomp. While we are fuitors to their throne, decays The thing we fue for. Men. 3-unpeople Egypt.] By fending out meffengers. JOHNSON. 4 The perfons are fo named in the first edition; but I know not why Menecrates appears; Menas can do all without him. JOHNSON. 5 While we are fuitors to their throne, DECAYS This nonfenfe fhould be read thus, While we are fuiters to their throne, DELAY's The thing que fue for. Menecrates had faid, The Gods do not deny that which they delay. The other turns his words to a different meaning, and replies, Delay is the very thing we beg of them, i. e. the delay of our enemies in making preparation against us: which he explains afterwards, by faying, Mark Antony was tied up by luft in Egypt; Cæfar by avarice at Rome; and Lepidus employed in keeping well with both. WARB. It is not always prudent to be too hafty in exclamation; the reading which Dr. Warburton rejects as nonfenfe, is in my opinion |