The rack diflimns; and makes it indiftinct, Eros. It does, my lord. Ant. My good knave, Eros, now thy captain is Yet cannot hold this vifible shape, my knave. Nay, weep not, gentle Eros; there is left us Enter MARDIAN. She has robb'd me of my fword. Mar. No, Antony; 8 The rack diflimns;] i. e. The fleeting away of the clouds destroys the picture. STEEVENS. 9 My good knave, Eros,] Knave is fervant. So, in A Mery Gefte of Robyn Hoode, bl. 1. no date: "I fhall thee lende lyttle John my man, "For he fhall be thy knave." STEEVENS. ■ Pack'd cards with Cafar, and false play'd my glory Unto an enemy's triumph.] Shakspeare has here, as ufual, taken his metaphor from a low trivial fubject; but has enobled it with much art, by so contriving that the principal term in the subject from whence the metaphor was taken, fhould belong to, and fuit the dignity of the fubject to which the metaphor is transferred: thereby providing at once for the integrity of the figure, and the nobleness of the thought. And this by the word triumpb, which either fignifies Octavius's conqueft, or what we now call, contractedly, the trump at cards, then called the sriumph or the triumphing fort. WARBURTON. This explanation is very just ; the thought did not deserve so good an annotation. JOHNSON. I believe Dr. Warburton here, as in many other places, faw more than his authour meant. Shakspeare, I think, only intended to say, that Cleopatra by collufion play'd the great game they were engaged in falfely, fo as to facrifice Antony's fame to that of bis enemy. The playing falic to the adverfary's trump card (as Dr. Warburton explains the words,) conveys no diftinct idea. The plain fenfe of the paffage will appear from the following dialogue in Florio's Second Frutes, 1591: S. What a fhouffling do you keepe with thofe cardes ?—A. I plaie fair playe, and fhooffel them as lought. S. Methinks you packe, and let them." MALONE. My My mistress lov'd thee, and her fortunes mingled Ant. Hence, faucy eunuch; peace; She hath betray'd me, and shall die the death. Mar. Death of one perfon can be paid but once; And that she has difcharg'd: What thou would't do, Is done unto thy hand; the laft she spake Was, Antony! moft noble Antony ! Then in the midst a tearing groan did break Between her heart and lips: fhe render'd life, Ant. Dead then? Mar. Dead. Ant. Unarm, Eros; the long day's task is done, The seven-fold shield of Ajax cannot keep [Exit Eaos. I will o'ertake thee, Cleopatra, and The battery from my beart. I would read: Eros! -3-tby continent,] i. e. the thing that contains thee. So, in añother of our author's plays: "You fhall find in him the continent of what part a gentleman would fee." STEEVENS. 4 Seal then, and all is done.-] Metaphor taken from civil contracts, where, when all is agreed on, the fealing compleats the contract; fo he hath determined to die, and nothing remain'd but to give the stroke, WARBURTON. I be 002 Eros!-I come, my queen :-Eros!-Stay for me: And all the haunt be ours.-Come, Eros, Eros! Eros. What would my lord? Ant. Since Cleopatra dy'd, I have liv'd in fuch difhonour, that the gods Quarter'd the world, and o'er green Neptune's back Than fhe, which, by her death, our Cæfar tells, I believe the reading is: -feel then, and all is done. I am To feel bawks, is to close their eyes. The meaning will be: Clofe thine eyes for ever, and be quiet. JOHNSON. In a former fcene we have: "The wife gods feel our eyes "In our own filth." MALONE. 5 Dido and ber Æneas fhall want troops,] Dr. Warburton has juftly obferved that the poet feems not to have known that Dido and Æneas were not likely to be found thus lovingly affociated, where fouls do couch on flowers." He undoubtedly had read Phaer's tranflation of Virgil, but probably had forgot the celebrated defcription in the fixth book: Talibus Æneas ardentem et torva tuentem Lenibat dictis animum, lacrimafque ciebat. Illa folo fixos oculos averfa tenebat.:Tandem proripuit fefe, atque inimica refugit In nemus umbriferum.- MALONE. 6 condemn myself, to lack The courage of a woman, leis noble mind Than fhe,] Antony is here made to fay, that he is deftitute of even the courage of a woman; that he is deftitute of a lefs noble mind than Cleopatra. But he means to affert the very contrary-that he must acknowledge he has a lefs noble mind than fhe. I therefore formerly fuppofed that Shakspeare might have written : condemn myfelf to lack The courage of a woman; lefs noble-minded Than fhe, &c. But a more intimate acquaintance with his writings has fhewn me that he had fome peculiar inaccuracies, which it is very idle to endeavour to amend. For these the poet, not his editor, muft answer.We have the fame inaccurate phrafeology in the Winter's Tale: -I I am conqueror of myself. Thou art fworn, Eros, Disgrace and horror, that, on my command, Thou then would't kill me: do't, the time is come: Eros. The gods withhold me! Shall I do that, which all the Parthian darts, Ant. Eros, Would'ft thou be window'd in great Rome, and fee "Who cannot want the thought, how monsterous "It was for Malcolm and for Donalbain "To kill their gracious father?" Again, in K. Lear, A&t II, fc, iv. I have hope, "You lefs know how to value her defert, See Vol. IV. p. 138, n. 9; p. 173, n. 6, and p. 379, n. 8. The paffage in North's tranflation of Plutarch which Shakspeare has here copied, fhews that, however inaccurate, the text is not corrupt; "When he had fayd thefe words, he went into a chamber, and unarmed himfelfe, and being naked fay'd thus: O Cleopatra, it grieveth me not that I have loft thy companie, for I will not be long from thee; but I am forrie that having been fo great a captaine and emperour, I am indeede condemned to be judged of leffe corage and noble MINDE than a woman."-Inftead of "to be judged of lefs," which applies equally well to courage, and to mind, Shakspeare fubftituted the word lack, which is applicable to courage, but cannot without a folecifm be connected with lefs noble mind." MALONE. "-pleach'd arms,-] Arms folded in each other. JOHNSON. A paffage very like this occurs in Thomas Kyd's tranflation of Robert Garnier's Cornelia, published in 1594: "Now shalt thou march, (thy hands faft bound behind thee,) With crowned front triumphing follows thee." STEEVENS. 003 His His corrigible neck, his face fubdued To penetrative fhame; whilft the wheel'd feat Eros. I would not fee't. Ant. Come then; for with a wound I must be cur'd. Draw that thy honeft fword, which thou haft worn Most useful for thy country. Eros. O, fir, pardon me. Ant. When I did make thee free, fwor'ft thou not then To do this when I bade thee? Do it at once; Or thy precedent fervices are all But accidents unpurpos'd. Draw, and come. Eros. Turn from me then that noble countenance, Eros. My fword is drawn. [turning from bim. 8 His corrigible neck,—] Corrigible for corrected, and afterwards penstrative for penetrating. So Virgil has “penetrabile frigus" for "penetrans frigus," in his Georgicks. STEEVENS. 9 His bafenefs that enfued?] The poor conquered wretch that fol lowed. JOHNSON. 1 When I did make thee free, &c.] So, in the old translation of Plutarch: "Now he had a man of his called Eros, whom he loued and trufted much, and whom he had long before caused to sweare vnto him, that he should kill him when he did commaunde him: and then he willed him to keepe his promife. His man drawing his fworde, lift it vp as though he had ment to haue ftriken his maister: but turning his head at one fide, he thrust his fword into him felfe, and fell downe dead at his maifter's foote. Then faid Antonius, O noble Eros, I thanke thee for this, and it is valiantly done of thee, to fhew me what I should do to my felfe, which thou couldeft not doe for me. Therewithall he tooke his fword, and thruft it into his bellie, and fo fell downe vpon a little bed. The wounde he had, killed him not prefentJy, for the blood ftinted a little when he was layed: and when he came fomwhat to him felfe againe, he praied them that were about him to dispatch him. But they all fled out of the chamber, and left him crying out and tormenting him felfe: vntill at laft there came a fecretarie vnto him called Diomedes, who was commaunded to bring him into the tombe or monument where Cleopatra was. When he heard that she was aliue, he verie earnestlie prayed his men to carie his bodie thither; and fo he was caried in his men's armes into the entry of the monument." STEEVENS. 2- the worship of the whole world—] The worship, is the dignity, the authority. JOHNSON. Ant. |