Ant. Then let it do at once The thing why thou haft drawn it. Eros. My dear mafter, My captain, and my emperor! let me fay, Eros. Farewel, great chief. Shall I ftrike now? Eros. Why, there then :-[falls on his fword.] Thus I do escape the forrow Of Antony's death. Ant. Thrice nobler than myself! Thou teacheft me, O valiant Eros, what I should, and thou could'st not. My queen and Eros A nobleness in record: But I will be A bridegroom in my death, and run into't [dies. As to a lover's bed 3. Come then; and, Eros, The guard!-how 4!-O, difpach me. 3 Enter DERCETAS, and Guard, 1. Guard. What's the noise? But I will be A bridgroom in my death, and run into't As to a lover's bed.] Stowe, defcribing the execution of Sir Charles Davers, one of the earl of Effex's affociates, fays, that "having put off his gown and doublet in a most cheerful manner, rather like a bridegroom ban a prifoner appointed for death, he prayed very devoutly." MALONE. This thought has occurred before in Measure for Measure: If I must die, "I will encounter darkness like a bride, "And hug it in mine arms." STEEVENS. 4 The guard! how !] I fufpect the poet wrote; The guard, bo O, difpatch me! So, afterwards: "What bo! the emperor's guard!" In the laft fcene of the third act, he has faid, "Authority melts from me. Of late, when I cried bo, The fame mistake has happened in the Merchant of Venice. See Vol. III. p. 96, n. 6. MALONE. 004 Ant. Ant. I have done my work ill, friends; O, make an end Of what I have begun. 2. Guard. The star is fallen. 1. Guard. And time is at his period. All. Alas, and woe!. Ant. Let him that loves me, strike me dead. 1. Guard. Not I. 2. Guard. Nor I. 3. Guard. Nor any one. [Exeunt Guard, Der. Thy death and fortunes bid thy followers fly. This fword but fhewn to Cæfar, with this tidings, Shall enter me with him, Enter DIOMEDES. Dio. Where's Antony? Der. There, Diomed, there. Dio. Lives he? Wilt thou not answer, man? [Exit DERCETAS Ant. Art thou there, Diomed? Draw thy fword, and give me Sufficing ftrokes for death. Dio. Most abfolute lord, My mistress Cleopatra fent me to thee. Ant. When did she send thee? Dio. Now, my lord. Ant. Where is she? Dio. Lock'd in her monument. She had a prophefying fear Of what hath come to pafs: for when the faw (Which never shall be found) you did suspect I dread, too late. Ant. Too late, good Diomed:-Call my guard, I pr'ythee. 5 She bad difpos'd with Cæfar,] To difpofe, in this inftance, perhaps 6gnifies to make terms, to fettle matters. STEEVENS. Dio. What, ho! the emperor's guard! The guard, what, ho! Come, your lord calls.. Enter fome of the Guard. Ant. Bear me, good friends, where Cleopatra bides; 'Tis the last service that I fhall command you. 1. Guard, Woe, woe are we, fir, you may not live to wear All your true followers out, All. Moft heavy day! Ant. Nay, good my fellows, do not please fharp fate To grace it with your forrows: bid that welcome Which comes to punish us, and we punish it Seeming to bear it lightly. Take me up: And have my thanks for all. [Exeunt, bearing Antony. SCENE XIII. The fame, A Monument. Enter above, CLEOPATRA, CHARMIAN, and Iras. Cleo. O Charmian, I will never go from hence. Cleo. No, I will not: All ftrange and terrible events are welcome, As that which makes it.-How now? is he dead? Enter ANTONY; borne by the Guard. Cleo. O fun, Burn the great sphere thou mov'ft in !-darkling stand The 6 —darkling—] i. e. without light. So, in the Two angry Women af Abingdon, 1599: my mother hath a torch, your wife "Goes darkling up and down." STEEVENS. The varying fhore o'the world!-0 Antony! Not Cæfar's valour hath o'erthrown Antony, Cleo. I dare not, dear, (Dear my lord, pardon,) I dare not, 70 fun, Burn the great fpbere thou mov'ft in!-darkling ftand of The varying bore o' th' world!] She defires the fun to burn his own orb, the vehicle of light, and then the earth will be dark. JoHNSON. The varying fhore o' th' world! i. e. of the earth, where light and darkness make an inceffant variation. WARBURTON. According to the philosophy which prevailed from the age of Aristotle to that of Shakspeare, and long fince, the fun was a planet, and was whirled round the earth by the motion of a solid sphere in which it was fixed. If the fun therefore was to fet fire to the fphere, fo as to confume it, the confequence muft be, that itself, for want of fupport, muft drop through, and wander in endless space; and in this cafe the earth would be involved in endless night. HEATH. 8 I bere importune death-] I folicit death to delay; or, trouble death by keeping him in waiting. JOHNSON. 9 Idare not, dear, (Dear my lord, pardon,) I dare not, Left I be taken:] Antony has juft faid that he only folicits death to delay his end, till he has given her a farewell kifs. To this the replies that he dares not; and, in our authour's licentious diction, the may mean, that fhe, now above in the monument, does not dare to defcend that he may take leave of her. But, from the defect of the metre in the fecond line, I think it more probable that a word was omitted by the compofitor, and that the poet wrote; I dare not, dear, (Dear my lord, pardon,) I dare not descend, Mr. Theobald amends the paffage differently, by adding to the end of Antony's fpeech-Come down. His note has been preserved in the late editions Of the full-fortun'd Cæfar' ever shall Be brooch'd with me?; if knife, drugs, ferpents, have Your wife Octavia, with her modeft eyes, And ftill conclufion+, fhall acquire no honour Affift, good friends. Ant. O, quick, or I am gone, Cleo. Here's fport, indeed!-How heavy weighs my lord! editions, but, his emendation not being mentioned, it is perfectly unintelligible. MALONE. ▪ Of the full-fortun'd Cæfar-] So, in Othello: A brooch was an "What a full-fortune doth the thick-lips owe?" MALONE. 2 Be brooch'd with me.] Be brooch'd, i. e. adorn'd. ornament formerly worn in the hat. So in Ben Jonson's Poetafter, "Honour's a good brooch to wear in a man's hat at all times." The Rev. Mr. Lambe obferves in his notes on the ancient metrical Hiftory of Floddon Field, that brooches in the North are buckles fet with ftones, fuch as those with which fhirt-bofoms and handkerchiefs are clasped. STEEVENS Brooch is properly a bodkin, or fome fuch inftrument (originally a spit) and ladies' bodkins being headed with gems, it fometimes stands for an ornamental trinket or jewel in general, in which fenfe it is perhaps ufed at prefent. PERCY. Our authour in All's well that ends well fpeaks of the brooch and the toothpick, as at one time conftantly worn by those who affected elegance. 3 if knife, drugs, ferpents, bave MALONE. Edge, fting, or operation,] Here is the fame irregular position of the words, that Mr. Warner would avoid or amend in Hamlet: and yet Shakspeare feems to have attended to this matter in the very play before us, Act III. fc. ii. TOLLET. This thought occurs in Pericles Prince of Tyre: "If fires be hot, knives sharp, or waters deep, "Unty'd I still my virgin knot will keepe." STEEVENS. 4-ftill conclufion,] Sedate determination; filent coolness of refolution. JOHNSON. 5 Here's fport, indeed!] I fuppofe the meaning of these strange words is, bere's trifling, you do not work in earneft. JOHNSON. Perhaps rather, here's a curious game, the laft we fhall ever play with Antony! Or perhaps the is thinking of fishing with a line, a diverfion of which we have been already told the was fond. Shakspeare has introduced ludicrous ideas with as much incongruity in other places. MALONE. Our |