Cleo. Good my lord, Ant. You have been a boggler ever :- Cleo. O, is it come to this? Ant. I found you as a morsel, cold upon Though you can guess what temperance should be, Cleo. Wherefore is this? Ant. To let a fellow that will take rewards, The horned herd!" for I have savage cause; A halter'd neck, which does the hangman thank 1 Att. Soundly, my lord. Ant. Cry'd he? and begg'd he pardon? 1 Att. He did ask favour. Ant. If that thy father live, let him repent Thou wast not made his daughter: and be thou sorry Thou hast been whipp'd for following him: henceforth, Shake thou to look on't.-Get thee back to Cæsar, [7] It is not without pity and indignation that the reader of this great poet meets so often with this low jest, which is too much a favourite to be left out of either mirth or fury. JOHNSON. The idea of the horned herd was caught from Psalm xxii. 12: "Many oxen are come about me: fat bulls of Basan close me in on every / side." STEEVENS. 10 VOL. VIII. G When my good stars, that were my former guides, Ant. Alack, our terrene moon Is now eclips'd; and it portends alone Cleo. I must stay his time. [Exit THYREUS. Ant. To flatter Cæsar, would you mingle eyes With one that ties his points? Cleo. Not know me yet? Ant. Cold-hearted toward me? Cleo. Ah, dear, if I be so, From my cold heart let heaven engender hail, Ant. I am satisfied: Cæsar sits down in Alexandria; where I will oppose his fate. Our force by land Have knit again, and fleet,' threat'ning most sea-like. If from the field I shall return once more To kiss these lips, I will appear in blood; I and my sword will earn our chronicle; There is hope in't yet. Cleo. That's my brave lord! Ant. I will be treble-sinew'd, hearted, breath'd, And fight maliciously for when mine hours : [8] To repay me this insult to requite me. [9] Determines, that is, dissolves. M. MASON. JOHNSON. STEEV. Cesarion was son to Cleopatra by Julius Cesar. Were nice and lucky, men did ransome lives Cleo. It is my birth-day: I had thought, to have held it poor; but, since my lord Is Antony again, I will be Cleopatra. Ant. We'll yet do well. Cleo. Call all his noble captains to my lord. Ant. Do so, we'll speak to them; and to-night I'll force The wine peep through their scars.-Come on, my queen ; There's sap in't yet. The next time I do fight, I'll make death love me; for I will contend Even with his pestilent scythe. [Exeunt ANT. CLEO. and Attend. Eno. Now he'll out-stare the lightning. To be furious, Is, to be frighted out of fear; and in that mood, The dove will peck the estridge; and I see still, A diminution in our captain's brain Restores his heart. When valour preys on reason, [Exit. ACT IV. SCENE I.-CÆSAR's Camp at Alexandria. Enter CÆSAR, reading a letter; AGRIPPA, MECENAS, and others. Cas. He calls me boy; and chides, as he had power To beat me out of Egypt: my messenger 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, [3] Nice--seems to be, just fit for my purpose, agreeable to my wish. So we vulgarly say of any thing that is done better than was expected, it is nice. JOHNSON. [4] This is still an epithet bestowed on feast days in the colleges of either univer sity. STEEVENS. Gawdy, or Grand Days in the Inns of court, are four in the year, Ascension day, Midsummer day, All-saints day, and Candlemas day. REED Laugh at his challenge." Mec. Cæsar must think, When one so great begins to rage, he's hunted Cæs. Let our best heads Know, that to-morrow the last of many battles Poor Antony ! [Exeunt. 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. No. Ant. Why should he not? 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? Ant. Well said; come on. Call forth my household servants; let's to-night, [5] What a reply is this to Antony's challenge? 'tis acknowledged 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. Most indisputably this is the sense of Plutarch, and given so in the modern transla. tions; but Shakespeare was misled by the ambiguity of the old one. [6] Read: FARMER. Cæsar needs must think. RITSON. [8] Let the survivor take all. No composition, victory or death. JOHNSON. Enter Servants. Be bounteous at our meal.-Give me thy hand, And thou ;-and thou,--and thou :-you have serv'd me well, And kings have been your fellows. Cleo. What means this? Eno. [Aside.] 'Tis one of those odd tricks, which sor-row shoots Out of the mind. Ant. And thou art honest too. I wish, I could be made so many men ; Serv. The gods forbid ! Ant. Well, my good fellows, wait on me to-night: 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; I look on you, I turn you not away; but, like a master Eno. What mean you, sir, To give them this discomfort? Look, they weep; Transform us not to women. Ant. Ho, ho, ho!2 [1] I have my eyes as full of tears as if they had been fretted by onions. JOHNSON. [2] That is, stop, or desist. So, in Chaucer, The Knightes Tale, v. 1706, edit. 1775: "This duk his courser with his sporres smote, And at a stert he was betwixt hem two, And pulled out a swerd, and cried, ho! And in Myrrour of good Manners, Ambition is compared to "The sacke insatiable, The sacke without bottome, which never can say ho." H. WHITE. |