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MEN. No, to my cabin.These drums !—these trumpets, flutes! what!Let Neptune hear we bid a loud farewell

To these great fellows: Sound, and be hang'd, sound out.

[A Flourish of Trumpets, with Drums.

ENO. Ho, says 'a !-There's my cap.

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Enter VENTIDIUS, as after Conquest, with SILIUS, and other Romans, Officers, and Soldiers; the dead Body of PACORUS borne before him.

VEN. Now, darting Parthia, art thou struck;' and now

Pleas'd fortune does of Marcus Crassus' death
Make me revenger.-Bear the king's son's body
Before our army:-Thy Pacorus, Orodes,2
Pays this for Marcus Crassus.

SIL.
Noble Ventidius,
Whilst yet with Parthian blood thy sword is warm,
The fugitive Parthians follow; spur through Media,

1

struck;] alludes to darting. Thou whose darts have so often struck others, art struck now thyself. JOHNSON.

2

Thy Pacorus, Orodes,] Pacorus was the son of Orodes, King of Parthia. STEEVENS.

Mesopotamia, and the shelters whither
The routed fly: so thy grand captain Antony
Shall set thee on triumphant chariots, and
Put garlands on thy head.

VEN.

O Silius, Silius,

I have done enough: A lower place, note well,
May make too great an act: For learn this, Silius;
Better leave undone, than by our deed acquire
Too high a fame, when him we serve's away.
Cæsar, and Antony, have ever won

More in their officer, than person: Sossius,
One of my place in Syria, his lieutenant,
For quick accumulation of renown,

Which he achiev'd by the minute, lost his favour.
Who does i'the wars more than his captain can,
Becomes his captain's captain: and ambition,
The soldier's virtue, rather makes choice of loss,
Than gain, which darkens him.

I could do more to do Antonius good,

But 'twould offend him; and in his offence
Should my performance perish.

SIL.

Thou hast, Ventidius,

That without which a soldier, and his sword,

3 Better leave undone, &c.] Old copies, unmetrically (because the players were unacquainted with the most common ellipsis):

4

Better to leave undone, &c. STEEVENS.

when him we serve's away.] Thus the old copy, and such certainly was our author's phraseology. So, in The Winter's Tale:

"I am appointed him to murder you."

See also Coriolanus, Vol. XVI. p. 241, n. 1.

The modern editors, however, all read, more grammatically, when he we serve, &c. MALONE.

That without which-] Here again, regardless of metre, the old copies read:

That without the which-. STEEVENS.

Grants scarce distinction.6 Thou wilt write to

Antony?

VEN. I'll humbly signify what in his name, That magical word of war, we have effected; How, with his banners, and his well-paid ranks, The ne'er-yet-beaten horse of Parthia

We have jaded out o'the field.

SIL.

Where is he now?

VEN. He purposeth to Athens: whither with

what haste

The weight we must convey with us will permit, We shall appear before him.-On, there; pass [Exeunt.

along.

SCENE II.

Rome. An Ante-Chamber in Cæsar's House.

Enter AGRIPPA, and ENOBARBUS, meeting.

AGR. What, are the brothers parted? ENO. They have despatch'd with Pompey, he is gone;

The other three are sealing. Octavia weeps

• That without which a soldier, and his sword,

Grants scarce distinction.] Grant for afford. It is badly and obscurely expressed; but the sense is this: Thou hast that, Ventidius, which if thou didst want, there would be no distinction between thee and thy sword. You would be both equally cutting and senseless. This was wisdom or knowledge of the world. Ventidius had told him the reasons why he did not pursue his advantages; and his friend, by this compliment, acknowledges them to be of weight. WARBURTON.

We have somewhat of the same idea in Coriolanus : "Who, sensible, outdares his senseless sword."

STEEVENS.

To part from Rome: Cæsar is sad; and Lepidus,
Since Pompey's feast, as Menas says, is troubled
With the green sickness.

AGR.
'Tis a noble Lepidus.
ENO. A very fine one: O, how he loves Cæsar!
AGR. Nay, but how dearly he adores Mark
Antony!

ENO. Cæsar? Why, he's the Jupiter of men.
AGR. What's Antony? The god of Jupiter.
ENO. Spake you of Cæsar? How?" the nonpa-
reil!

AGR. O Antony! O thou Arabian bird! ENO. Would you praise Cæsar, say,-Cæsar ;go no further."

7

AGR. Indeed, he ply'd them both with excellent praises.

How?] I believe, was here, as in another place in this play, printed by mistake, for ho. See also Vol. VII. p. 379, n. 1. MALOne.

I perceive no need of alteration. STEEVENS.

Spake you of Caesar? How? the nonpareil!
Agr. O Antony! &c.] We should read-

Of Antony? O, thou Arabian bird!

Speak you of Cæsar, he is the nonpareil; speak you of Antony, he is the Arabian bird. M. MASON.

8

Arabian bird!] The phoenix. JOHNSON.

So, again, in Cymbeline:

She is alone the Arabian bird, and I "Have lost my wager." STEEVENS.

Cæsar;-go no further.] I suspect that this line was designed to be metrical, and that (omitting the impertinent go) we should read:

Would you praise Cæsar, say-Cæsar;-no further.

STEEVENS,

ENO. But he loves Cæsar best;-Yet he loves

Antony:

Ho! hearts, tongues, figures, scribes, bards, poets,' cannot

Think, speak, cast, write, sing, number, ho, his love To Antony. But as for Cæsar,

Kneel down, kneel down, and wonder.

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AGR.

Both he loves.

bards, poets,] Not only the tautology of bards and poets, but the want of a correspondent action for the poet, whose business in the next line is only to number, makes me suspect some fault in this passage, which I know not how to mend."

JOHNSON.

I suspect no fault. The ancient bard sung his compositions to the harp; the poet only commits them to paper. Verses are often called numbers, and to number, a verb (in this sense) of Shakspeare's coining, is to make verses.

This puerile arrangement of words was much studied in the age of Shakspeare, even by the first writers.

So, in An excellent Sonnet of a Nimph, by Sir P. Sidney; printed in England's Helicon, 1600:

"Vertue, beauty, and speach, did strike, wound, charme, My hart, eyes, eares, with wonder, loue, delight: "First, second, last, did binde, enforce, and arme, "His works, showes, sutes, with wit, grace, and vowes-might: "Thus honour, liking, trust, much, farre, and deepe, "Held, pearst, possest, my judgement, sence, and will; "Till wrongs, contempt, deceite, did grow, steale, creepe, "Bands, fauour, faith, to breake, defile, and kill. "Then greefe, unkindnes, proofe, tooke, kindled, taught, "Well grounded, noble, due, spite, rage, disdaine: "But ah, alas (in vaine) my minde, sight, thought, "Dooth him, his face, his words, leaue, shunne, refraine. "For nothing, time, nor place, can loose, quench, ease, "Mine owne, embraced, sought, knot, fire, disease."

Again, in Daniel's 11th Sonnet, 1594:
"Yet I will weep, vow, pray to cruell shee;

STEEVENS.

"Flint, frost, disdaine, weares, melts, and yields, we see."

MALONE.

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