Imatges de pàgina
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London. Published by FC&J. Rivington, and Partners, Feb 1823

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We have beat them to their beds. What, girl? though grey

Do something mingle with our brown+; yet have we
A brain that nourishes our nerves, and can
Get goal for goal of youth. Behold this man ;
Commend unto his lips thy favouring hand;-
Kiss it, my warrior :- He hath fought to-day,
As if a god, in hate of mankind, had

Destroy'd in such a shape.

Cleo.

I'll give thee, friend, An armour all of gold; it was a king's.

Ant. He has deserv'd it, were it carbuncled Like holy Phoebus' car.-Give me thy hand; Through Alexandria make a jolly march;

Bear our hack'd targets like the men that owe them:8
Had our great palace the capacity

To camp this host, we all would sup together;
And drink carouses to the next day's fate,
Which promises royal peril.-Trumpeters,
With brazen din blast you the city's ear;

Make mingle with our rattling tabourines ;9

That heaven and earth may strike their sounds together, Applauding our approach.

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our younger brown;" - MALONE.

[Exeunt.

7 Get goal for goal of youth.] At all plays of barriers, the boundary is called a goal; to win a goal, is to be a superior in a contest of activity.

& Bear our hack'd targets like the men that owe them:] i. e. hack'd as much as the men to whom they belong; or perhaps, Bear our hack'd targets with spirit and exultation, such as becomes the brave warriors that own them.

9 tabourines ;] A tabourin was a small drum. It is often mentioned in our ancient romances.

SCENE IX.

Cæsar's Camp.

Sentinels on their Post. Enter ENOBARbus.

1 Sold. If we be not reliev'd within this hour, We must return to the court of guard': The night Is shiny; and, they say, we shall embattle

By the second hour i'the morn.

2 Sold.

A shrewd one to us.

Eno.

This last day was

O, bear me witness, night,—

3 Sold. What man is this?

2 Sold.

Stand close, and list to him. +

Eno. Be witness to me, O thou blessed moon,

When men revolted shall upon record

Bear hateful memory, poor Enobarbus did

Before thy face repent!

1 Sold.

3 Sold.

Hark further.

Enobarbus!

Peace:

Eno. O sovereign mistress of true melancholy,
The poisonous damp of night disponge upon me;2
That life, a very rebel to my will,

May hang no longer on me: Throw my heart3
Against the flint and hardness of my fault;
Which, being dried with grief, will break to powder,
And finish all foul thoughts. O Antony,

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the court of guard:] i. e. the guard-room, the place where the guard musters. The same expression occurs again in Othello. +"list him."-MALONE.

2—

disponge upon me;] i. e. discharge, as a sponge, when squeezed, discharges the moisture it had imbibed. STEEVENS.

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Throw my heart-] The pathetick of Shakspeare too often ends in the ridiculous. It is painful to find the gloomy dignity of this noble scene destroyed by the intrusion of a conceit so far-fetched and unaffecting. JOHNSON.

Nobler than my revolt is infamous,

Forgive me in thine own particular;
But let the world rank me in register
A master-leaver, and a fugitive:

O Antony! O Antony!

2 Sold.

To him.

Let's speak

1 Sold. Let's hear him, for the things he speaks May concern Cæsar.

3 Sold.

[Dies.

Let's do so.

But he sleeps.

1 Sold. Swoons rather; for so bad a prayer as his Was never yet for sleeping.†

2 Sold.

Go we to him.

Hear you, sir?

3 Sold. Awake, awake, sir; speak to us. 2 Sold.

1 Sold. The hand of death hath raught him.*

Hark, the drums

[Drums afar off. Demurely wake the sleepers. Let us bear him To the court of guard; he is of note: our hour Is fully out.

[blocks in formation]

Enter ANTONY and SCARUS, with Forces, marching.

Ant. Their preparation is to-day by sea;

We please them not by land.

Scar.

For both, my lord.

Ant. I would, they'd fight i'the fire, or in the air;

+"sleep." Malone.

4 The hand of death hath raught him.] Raught is the ancient preterite of the verb to reach.

5 Hark, the drums

Demurely-] Demurely for solemnly.

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