As Cleo. Go on: Right royal. Thyr. He knows, that you embrace not Antony Thyr. The fears upon your honour, therefore, he Not as deferv'd. Cleo. He is a god, and knows What is moft right: Mine honour was not yielded, Eno. To be fure of that, I will ask Antony.-Sir, fir, thou art so leaky, Thyr. Shall I fay to Cæfar [Afide. [Exit ENOBARBUS, What you require of him? for he partly begs To be defir'd to give. It much would please him, To lean upon: but it would warm his spirits, The univerfal landlord. Cleo. What's your name? Say to great Cæfar this, In difputation fee p. 527,) that she might make feparate and advantageous terms for herself. I fufpect that the preceding speech belongs to Cleopatra, not to Enobarbus. Printers ufually keep the names of the perfons who appear in each scene, ready compofed; in confequence of which, fpeeches are often attributed to thofe to whom they do not belong. Is it probable that Enobarbus fhould prefume to interfere here? The whole dialogue naturally proceeds between Cleopatra and Thyreus, till Enobarbus thinks it neceflary to attend to his own intereft, and fays what he speaks when he goes out. The plural number, (as) which fuits Cleopatra, who throughout the play affumes that royal style, strengthens my conjecture. The words, our mafter, it may be faid, are inconfiftent with this fuppofition; but I apprehend, Cleopatra might have thus defcribed Antony, with fufficient propriety.-They are afterwards explained: "Whofe he is, we are." Antony was the mafter of her fate. MALONE. 9 that you embrace not-] The authour probably wrote-embrac'd. MALONE. I kifs his conqu❜ring hand': tell him, I am prompt Thyr. 'Tis your nobleft course. 1 Say to great Cæfar this, In difputation, Ikifs bis conquiring band:] The poet certainly wrote, I kifs bis conquering band: i. e. by proxy; I depute you to pay him that duty in my name. WARE. I am not certain that this change is neceflary.I kifs bis band in difputation-may mean, I own he has the better in the controversy ;-I confefs my inability to difpute or contend with him. To difpute may have no immediate reference to words or language by which controverfies are agitated. So, in Macbeth, "Difpute it like a man ;" and Macduff, to whom this thort fpeech is addreffed, is difputing or contending with himself only. Again, in Twelfth Night :- For though my foul difputes well with my fenfe."-If Dr. Warburton's change be adopted, we should read-" by deputation." STEEVENS. I think Dr. Warburton's conjecture extremely probable. The objec tion founded on the particle in being ufed, is in my apprehenfion, of little weight. Though by deputation is the phrafeology of the prefent day, the other might have been common in the time of Shakspeare. Thus a deputy fays in the firft fcene of King John, "Thus, after greeting, speaks the king of France, In my behaviour, to his majesty, "The borrow'd majefty of England here." Again, in King Henry IV. P. I. "Of all the favourites that the abfent king "In deputation left behind him here." Suppofing difputation to mean, as Mr. Steevens conceives, not verbal controversy, but struggle for power, or the contention of adverfaries, to say that one kifles the hand of another in contention, is furely a strange phrase: but to kiss by proxy, and to marry by proxy, was the language of Shakspeare's time, and is the language of this day. I have, however, found no example of in deputation being used in the sense required here. MALONE. 2 Tell him, that from bis all obeying breath, &c.] All-obeying breath is, in Shakspeare's language, breath which all obey. Obeying tor obeyed. So, inexpreffive for inexpreffible, delighted for delighting, &c. MALONE. In the Gentlemen of Verona, Shakspeare uses longing, a participle active, with a paffive fignification: "To furnish me upon my longing journey." i. e. my journey long'd for. In the Unnatural Combat, by Maffinger, the active participle is more irregularly employed; "For the recovery of a ftrangling bushand." j. e. one that was to be ftrangled. STEEVENS Wisdom Wifdom and fortune combating together, If that the former dare but what it can, No chance may shake it. Give me grace3 to lay Cleo. Your Cæfar's father oft, When he hath mus'd of taking kingdoms in 4, Re-enter ANTONY, and ENOBARBUS. Thyr. One, that but performs The bidding of the fulleft man3, and worthiest Eno. You will be whipp'd. Ant. Approach, there:-Ah, you kite!-Now, gods and devils! Authority melts from me: Of late, when I cry'd, ho! Antony yet. Take hence this Jack, and whip him. Ant. Moon' and stars! Whip him :-Were't twenty of the greatest tributaries That do acknowledge Cæfar, fhould I find them So faucy with the hand of the here, (What's her name, 3-Give me grace-] Grant me the favour. JOHNSON. 4 of taking kingdoms in,] See. p. 160, n. 8. MALONE. 5-the fullest man!] The most complete, and perfect. So, in Orbelle: "What a full fortune doth the thick-lips owe." See Vol. II. p. 248, n. 4. MALONE. 6 Like boys unto a mufs,-] i. c. a fcramble. POPE. So ufed by Ben Jonfon in his Magnetic Lady: 66 nor are they thrown "To make a mufs among the gamefome fuitors." Again, in the Spanish Gipfie, by Middleton and Rowley, 1653: "To fee if thou be'ft alcumy or no, "They'll throw down gold in muffes." STEEVENS. 7 - take bence this Jack,-] See Vol. 11. p. 214, n. 5. MALONE. Since he was Cleopatra ?)-Whip him, fellows, Ant. Tug him away: being whipp'd, * Bring him again :-This Jack of Cæfar's fhall Bear us an errand to him.- [Exeunt Att. with Thyreus Have I my pillow left unprefs'd in Rome, And by a gem of women, to be abus'd Clea Since he was Cleopatra ?] That is, fince the ceafed to be Cleopatra. So, when Ludovico fays, "Where is this rafh and moft unfortunate man? Othello replies, "That's he that was Othello. Here I am." MASON. *This Jack-] Old Copy-The Jack. Corrected by Mr. Pope. MALONE. 9 By one that looks on feeders?] One that waits at the table while others are eating. JOHNSON. A feeder, or an eater, was anciently the term of reproach for a fervant. So in Ben Jonfon's Silent Woman: "Bar my door. Where are all my eaters? My mouths now? bar up my doors, my varlets." One who looks en feeders, is one who throws her regard on fervants, fuch as Antony would reprefent Thyreus to be. Thus, in Cymbeline: 66 that bafe wretch, "One bred of alms, and fofter'd with cold dishes, "The very scraps o' the court." STEEVENS. I incline to think Dr. Johnson's interpretation of this paffage the true one. Neither of the quotations in my apprehenfion fupport Mr. Steevens's explication of feeders as fynonymous to a fervant. So fantaftick and pedantick a writer as Ben Jonfon, having in one paffage made one of his characters call his attendants, his eaters, appears to me a very flender ground for fuppofing feeders and fervants to be synonyIn Timon of Athens this word occurs again: mous. So the gods bless me, "When all our offices have been opprefs'd With riotous feeders," There alfo Mr. Steevens fuppofes feeders to mean fervants. But I do not fee why "all our offices" may not mean all the apartments in Timon's houfe; (for certainly the Steward did not mean to lament the exceffes of Timon's retinue only, without at all noticing that of his mafter and his guests;) or, if offices can only mean fuch parts of a dwelling M m 4 houfe Cleo. Good my lord, Ant. You have been a boggler ever :- (O mifery on't!) the wife gods feel our eyes; Cleo. O, is it come to this? Ant. I found you as a morfel, cold upon Dead Cæfar's trencher: nay, you were a fragment * Luxuriously pick'd out:-For, I am fure, Though you can guess what temperance should be, Cles. Wherefore is this? Ant. To let a fellow that will take rewards, The horned herd! for I have favage cause ; A halter'd neck, which does the hangman thank houfe as are affign'd to fervants, I do not conceive that, because feeders is there defcriptive of those menial attendants who were thus fed, the word used by itself, unaccompanied by others that determine its meaning, as in the paffage before us, should neceffarily fignify a fervant. It must, however, be acknowledged, that a fubfequent paffage may be urged in favour of the interpretation which Mr. Steevens has given : "To flatter Cæfar, would you mingle eyes "With one that ties bis points ?" The wife gods feel our eyes; MALONE. In our own filth, &c.] This punctuation was fuggefted by Mr. Tyrwhitt. Formerly: feal our eyes In our own filth; drop, &c. MALONE. luxuriously-] i. e. lafcivioufly. See Vol. I. p. 302, n. 5; and Vol. II. p. 128, n. 4. MALONE. 2 The borned berd!] It is not without pity and indignation that the reader of this great poet meets fo often with this low jeft, which is too much a favourite to be left out of either mirth or fury, JOHNSON, Re-enter |