Abbildungen der Seite
PDF
EPUB

My legions, and my horse; six kings already
Show me the way of yielding.

Eno. I'll yet follow

The wounded chance of Antony, though my reason

Sits in the wind against me.

SCENE IX.

[Exeunt.

Alexandria. A room in the Palace. Enter ANTONY and

Attendants.

Ant. Hark, the land bids me tread no more upon't, It is asham'd to bear me !-Friends, come hither,

4

I am so lated in the world, that I

Have lost my way for ever :-I have a ship
Laden with gold; take that, divide it; fly,
And make your peace with Cæsar.

Att. Fly! not we.

Ant. I have fled myself; and have instructed cowards
To run, and show their shoulders.-Friends, be gone;
I have myself resolv'd upon a course,

Which has no need of you; be gone :
My treasure's in the harbour, take it.-0,
I follow'd that I blush to look upon :
My very hairs do mutiny; for the white

Reprove the brown for rashness, and they them
For fear and doating.-Friends, be gone; you shall
Have letters from me to some friends, that will
Sweep your way for you. Pray you, look not sad,
Nor make replies of loathness: take the hint
Which my despair proclaims; let that be left
Which leaves itself: To the sea-side straightway:
I will possess you of that ship and treasure.
Leave me, I pray, a little: 'pray you now :-
Nay, do so; for, indeed, I have lost command,
Therefore I pray you :-I'll see you by and by.

[Sits down.

Enter EROS, and CLEOPATRA led by CHARMIAN and IRAS. Eros. Nay, gentle madam, to him :-Comfort him.

[S] I know not whether the author, who loves to draw his images from the sports of the field, might not have written,

The wounded chase of Antony,

The allusion is to a deer wounded and chased, whom all other deer avoid. says Enobarbus, follow Antony, tho' chased and wounded."

JOHNSON.

"I will,

14] Alluding to a benighted traveller.
[5] I am not master of my own emotions.

JOHNSON.

JOHNSON.

Iras. Do, most dear queen.
Char. Do! why, what else?
Cleo. Let me sit down.

Ant. No, no, no, no, no.

Eros. See you here, sir?
Ant. O fye, fye, fye.

Char. Madam,

O Juno !

Iras. Madam; O good empress !-
Eros. Sir, sir,-

Ant. Yes, my lord, yes ;-He, at Philippi, kept
His sword even like a dancer; while I struck
The lean and wrinkled Cassius; and 'twas I,
That the mad Brutus ended :" he alone
Dealt on lieutenantry, and no practice had

In the brave squares of war: Yet now-No matter.
Cleo. Ah, stand by.

Eros. The queen, my lord, the queen.
Iras. Go to him, madam, speak to him;

He is unqualitied with very shame.

Cleo. Well then,-Sustain me:-0!

Eros. Most noble sir, arise; the queen approaches;

Her head's declin'd, and death will seize her; but
Your comfort makes the rescue.

Ant. I have offended reputation ;

A most unnoble swerving.

Eros. Sir, the queen,

Ant. O, whither hast thou led me, Egypt? See, How I convey my shame out of thine eyes

[6] In the Morisco, and perhaps anciently in the Pyrrhick dance, the dancers held swords in their hands with the points upward. JOHNSON.

I believe it means that Cæsar never offered to draw his sword, but kept it in the scabbard, like one who dances with a sword on, which was formerly the custom in England. STEEVENS. Bertram, lamenting that he is kept from the wars, says....

"I shall stay here the forehorse to a smock,
Creaking my shoes on the plain masonry,
Till honour be bought up, and no sword worn,
But one to dance with.""

The word worn shows that in both passages our author was thinking of the English, and not of the Pyrrhick, or the Morisco, dance, (as Dr. Johnson supposed,) in which the sword was not worn at the side, but held in the hand with the point upward.

MALONE.

[7] Nothing can be more in character, than for an infamous debauched tyrant to call the heroic love of one's country and public liberty, madness. WARBURTON. [8] I know not whether the meaning is, that Cæsar acted only as lieutenant at Philippi, or that he made his attempts only on lieutenants, and left the generals to Antony. JOHNSON. Dealt on lieutenancy, I believe, means only,-fought by proxy, made war by his lieutenants, or on the strength of his lieutenauts. [9] But has here, the force of except, or unless. JOHNSON.

By looking back on what I have left behind 'Stroy'd in dishonour.

Cleo. O my lord,

my lord!

Forgive my fearful sails! I little thought,
You would have follow'd.

Ant. Egypt, thou knew'st too well,

My heart was to thy rudder tied by the strings,
And thou shouldst tow me after: O'er my spirit
Thy full supremacy thou knew'st; and that'
Thy beck might from the bidding of the gods
Command me.

Cleo. O, my pardon.

Ant. Now I must

To the young man send humble treaties, dodge
And palter in the shifts of lowness; who
With half the bulk o'the world play'd as I pleas'd,
Making, and marring fortunes. You did know,
How much you were my conqueror; and that
My sword, made weak by my affection, would
Obey it on all cause.

Cleo. O pardon, pardon.

Ant. Fall not a tear, I say; one of them rates All that is won and lost: Give me a kiss ;

[ocr errors]

Even this repays me. We sent our schoolmaster,
Is he come back?-Love, I am full of lead :-
Some wine, within there, and our viands:

knows,

We scorn her most, when most she offers blows.

-Fortune

SCENE X.

[Exeunt.

CESAR'S Camp, in Egypt. Enter CESAR, DOLABELLA,

THYREUS, and others.

Cas. Let him appear that's come from Antony.

Know you him?

Dol. Cæsar, 'tis his schoolmaster :3

An argument that he is pluck'd, when hither

He sends so poor a pinion of his wing,

Which had superfluous kings for messengers,
Not many moons gone by.

That is, by the heart-string. JOHNSON.
He was schoolmaster to Antony's children by Cleopatra.

MALONE.

Enter EUPHROnius.

Cas. Approach, and speak.

Eup. Such as I am, I come from Antony :
I was of late as petty to his ends,

As is the morn-dew on the myrtle leaf
To his grand sea.

Cæs. Be it so; Declare thine office.

Eup. Lord of his fortunes he salutes thee, and
Requires to live in Egypt: which not granted,
He lessens his requests; and to thee sues

To let him breathe between the heavens and earth,
A private man in Athens: This for him.
Next, Cleopatra does confess thy greatness;
Submits her to thy might; and of thee craves
The circle of the Ptolemies for her heirs,*
Now hazarded to thy grace.

Cæs. For Antony,

I have no ears to his request. The queen
Of audience, nor desire, shall fail; so she
From Egypt drive her all-disgraced friend,
Or take his life there: This if she perform,
She shall not sue unheard. So to them both.
Eup. Fortune pursue thee!

Cas. Bring him through the bands.

[Exit Eur.

To try thy eloquence, now 'tis time: Despatch;

From Antony win Cleopatra: promise,

[To THYREUS.

And in our name, what she requires; add more,
From thine invention, offers: women are not,

In their best fortunes, strong; but want will perjure
The ne'er-touch'd vestal. Try thy cunning, Thyreus ;
Make thine own edict for thy pains, which we
Will answer as a law,

Thyr. Cæsar, I go.

Cas. Observe how Antony becomes his flaw ; And what thou think'st his very action speaks In every power that moves.

Thyr. Cæsar, I shall.

[4] The circle--the diadem; the ensign of royalty. JOHNSON.

[Exeunt.

[5] i. e. how Antony conforms himself to this breach of his fortune. JOHNSON.

[ocr errors]

SCENE XI.

Alexandria. A Room in the Palace. Enter CLEOPATRA,
ENOBARBUS, CHARMIAN, and Iras.

Cleo. What shall we do, Enobarbus ?
Eno. Think, and die."

Cleo. Is Antony, or we, in fault for this?
Eno. Antony only, that would make his will
Lord of his reason. What although you fled
From that great face of war, whose several ranges
Frighted each other? why should he follow ?
The itch of his affection should not then

Have nick'd his captainship; at such a point,
When half to half the world oppos'd, he being
The meered question: "Twas a shame no less
Than was his loss, to course your flying flags,
And leave his navy gazing.

Cleo. Pr'ythee, peace.

Enter ANTONY, with EUPHRONIUS.

Ant. Is this his answer?

Eup. Ay, my lord.

Ant. The queen

Shall then have courtesy, so she will yield

Us up.

Eup. He says so.

Ant. Let her know it.—

To the boy Cæsar send this grizzled head,

And he will fill thy wishes to the brim

With principalities.

Cleo. That head, my lord?

Ant. To him again; Tell him, he wears the rose

[6] Sir T. Hanmer reads---Drink and die. I adhere to the old reading, which may be supported by the following passage in Julius Cæsar:

66

--------all that he can do

Is to himself; take thought, and die for Cæsar."

Mr. Tollet observes, that the expression of taking thought, in our old English writers, is equivalent to the being anxious or solicitous, or laying a thing much to heart. So, says he, it is used in our translations of The New Testament, Matthew vi. 25. &c. STEEVENS. Think and die :---Consider what mode of ending your life is most preferable, and immediately adopt it. HENLEY.

[7] Mere--is a boundary, and the meered question, if it can mean any thing, may, with some violence of language, mean, the disputed boundary. JOHNSON.

« ZurückWeiter »