Haft fold me to this novice; and my heart I have done all :-Bid them all fly, be gone. [Exit SCAR. O fun, thy uprise fhall I fee no more: Fortune and Antony part here; even here Do we shake hands. All come to this?-The hearts Whofe Auguftus. It is not likely (he adds,) that in recollecting her turnings, Antony thould not have that in contemplation which gave him moft offence." This interpretation is fufficiently plaufible, but there are two objections to it. According to this account of the matter, her connexion with Cneius Pompey is omitted, though the poet certainly was apprized of it, as appears by the paflage juft quoted. 2. There is no ground for fuppofing that Antony meant to infinuate that Cleopatra had granted any perfonal favour to Auguftus, though he was periuaded that he had "fold him to the novice," Mr. Tollet fuppofed that Cleopatra had been mistress to Pompey the Great; but her lover was his eldest fon, Cneius Pompey. MALONE. $ That spaniel'd me at beels,] Old Copy-pannel'd: The emendation was made by Sir T. Hanmer. MALONE. Spaniel'd is fo happy a conjecture, that I think we ought to acquiefce in it. It is of fome weight with me that spaniel was often formerly written Spannel. Hence there is only the omiffion of the first letter, which has happened elsewhere in our poet, as in the word chear, &c. To dog them at the heels is not an uncommon expreffion in Shakspeare; and in the Midfummer-Night's Dream, Act II. fc. ii. Helena fays to Demetrius: "I am your spaniel,-only give me leave, "Unworthy as I am, to follow you." TOLLET. Spannel for Spaniel is yet the inaccurate pronunciation of fome perfone, above the vulgar in rank, though not in literature. Our authour has in like manner ufed the fubftantive page as a verb in Timon of Aibens: 66 Will thefe moift trees "That have out-liv'd the eagle, page thy beels," &c. In K. Richard III. we have 6 1 "Death and deftruction dog thee at the heels." MALONE. - this grave charm,] I know not by what authority, nor for what reafon, this grave charm, which the first, the only original copy exhibits, has Whose eye beck'd forth my wars, and call'd them home; Like a right gipfy, hath, at fast and loose, Enter has been through all the modern editions changed to this gay charm. By this grave charm, is meant, this fublime, this majeftick beauty. JOHNSON. I believe grave charm means only deadly, or deftructive piece of witchcraft. In this fenfe the epithet grave is often used by Chapman in his tranflation of Homer. So, in the 19th book: -- 19 but not far hence the fatal minutes are "Of thy grave ruin." It seems to be employed in the fense of the Latin word gravis. STEEVENS 7-was my crownet, my chief end,-1 Dr. Johnfon fuppofes that Crownet means laft purpose, probably from finis coronat opus. Chapman, in his tranflation of the second book of Homer, uses crown in the fente which my learned coadjutor would recommend: "all things have their crowne." Again, in our author's Cymbeline: "My fupreme crown of grief," STEEVENS. 8 Like a right gipfy, bath, at fast and loose, Beguil'd me, &c.] There is a kind of pun in this paffage, arifing from the corruption of the word Egyptian into gitfey. The old law books term fuch perfons as ramble about the country, and pretend skill in palmistry and fortune-telling, Egyptians. Faft and loofe is a term to fignify a cheating game, of which the following is a defcription. A leathern belt is made up into a number of intricate folds, and placed edgewife upon a table. One of the folds is made to refemble the middle of the girdle, fo that whoever should thrust a skewer into it would think he held it faft to the table; whereas, when he has fo done, the perfon with whom he plays may take hold of both ends and draw it away. This trick is now known to the common people, by the name of pricking at the belt or girdle, and perhaps was practifed by the Gypfies in the time of Shakspeare. Sir J. HAWKINS. Sir John Hawkins's fuppofition is confirm'd by the following Epigram in an ancient collection called Run and a great Caft, by T. Freeman, 1614; In Egyptum fufpenfum. Epig. 95. "Charles the Egyptian, who by jugling could You Enter CLEOPATRA. Ah, thou fpell! Avaunt. Cleo. Why is my lord enrag'd against his love? With her prepared nails. [Exit CLEO.] 'Tis well thou'rt gone, If it be well to live: But better 'twere "You countrymen Egyptians make fuch fots, "Had you been there, but to see the caft, "You would have won, had you but laid-'tis faft." STEEV. That the Egyptians were great adepts in this art before Shakspeare's time, may be feen in Scot's Difcoverie of Witchcraft, 1584, p. 336, where these practices are fully explained. REED. 9-to the very heart of lofs.] To the utmost lofs poffible. JOHNSON. For poor'ft diminutives, for doits;] The old copy has-delts. The emendation was made by Dr. Warburton. I have received it, because the letter i, in confequence of the dot over it, is fometimes confounded with / at the prefs. Mr. Tyrwhitt would read-For poor'ft diminutives to dolts. "This (fays he) aggravates the contempt of her fuppofed fituation, to be fhewn, as monfiers are, not only for the smallest piece of money, but to the most stupid and vulgar spectators." It appears to me, however, much more probable that dolts fhould have been printed for doits, than that for fhould have been fubftituted for to. Whichfoever of these emendations be admitted, there is still a difficulty. Though monsters are fhewn to the ftupid and the vulgar for poor ft diminutives, yet Cleopatra, according to Antony's fuppofition, would certainly be exhibited to the Roman populace for nothing. Nor can it be faid that he means that he would be exhibited gratis, as mon fters are fhewn for fmall pieces of money; because his words are "monfter-like," be [tbou] fhewn for poor'ft diminutives, &c. I have fome. times therefore thought that Shakspeare might have written, 'Fore poor'ft diminutives, 'fore dolts. In this conjecture however I have very little confidence. MALONE. 2 With her prepared nails.-] i. e. with nails which she suffered to grow for this purpose. WARBURTON. The The fhirt of Neffus is upon me: Teach me, Let me lodge Lichas 3 on the horns o' the moon ; SCENE XI. Alexandria. A Room in the Palace. [Exit, Enter CLEOPATRA, CHARMIAN, IRAS, and MARDIAN. Char. To the monument; There lock yourself, and fend him word you are dead. Cleo. To the monument: Mardian, go tell him I have flain myself; And word it, pr'ythee, piteoufly: Hence, Mardian ; ment. 3 Let me lodge Licbas-] The meaning is, Let me do fomething in my rage, becoming the fucceffor of Hercules. JOHNSON. Hercules threw Lichas from the top of mount Ætna into the fea. MALUNE. This image our poet feems to have taken from Seneca's Hercules, who fays, Lichas being launched into the air, sprinkled the clouds with his blood. Sophocles, on the fame occafion, talks at a much foberer WARBURTON. rate. 4 Than Telamon for his field;-] i. e. than Ajax Telamon for the armour of Achilles, the most valuable part of which was the shield. The boar of Theffaly was the boar killed by Meleager. STEEVENS. 5 Was never jo embofs'd.] A hunting term: when a deer is hard run, and foams at the mouth, he is faid to be imboft. HANMER. See Vol. III. p. 246, n. 2. MALONE. The foul and lody rive not more in parting, Than greatness going off.] So, in King Henry VIII. "As foul and body's fevering." MALONE. SCENE SCENE XII. The fame. Another Room. Enter ANTONY, and EROS. Ant. Eros, thou yet behold'ft me? Eros. Ay, noble lord. Ant. Sometime, we fee a cloud that's dragonish"; A vapour, fometime, like a bear, or lion, A tower'd citadel, a pendant rock, A forked mountain, or blue promontory With trees upon't, that nod unto the world, And mock our eyes with air: Thou haft seen these signs; They are black vefper's pageants7. Eros. Ay, my lord. Ant. That, which is now a horse, even with a thought, Sometime, we fee a cloud that's dragonish, &c.] So, Aristophanes, Nubes, v. 345: Ηδη ποτ' ἀναξέψας εἶδες νήφελην Κενταύρω ομοίαν; Η παρδάλει, * λύκα, ἥ ταύρω ; Sir W. RAWLINSON, Perhaps Shakspeare received the thought from P. Holland's translation of Pliny's Nat. Hift. b. ii. c. 3: "our eiefight testifieth the same, whiles in one place there appeareth the resemblance of a waine or chariot, in another of a beare, the figure of a bull in this part, &c." or from Chapman's Monfieur D'Olive, 1606: "Like to a mafs of clouds, that now feem like "An elephant, and ftraightways like an ox, STEEVENS. I find the fame thought in Chapman's Buffy d' Ambois, 1607: like empty clouds, "In which our faulty apprehenfions forge "When they hold no proportion." Perhaps, however, Shakspeare had the following paffage in A Trea tife of Spectres, &c. quarto, 1605, particularly in his thoughts: "The cloudes fometimes will feem to be monsters, lions, bulls, and wolves; painted and figured: albeit in truth the fame be nothing but a moyft bumour mounted in the ayre, and drawne up from the earth, not having any figure or colour, but fuch as the ayre is able to give unto it." MALONE. 7 They are black vefper's pageants.] The beauty both of the expreffion and the allufion is loft, unless we recollect the frequency and the nature of these fhewes in Shakspeare's age. T. WARTON. VOL. VII. The |