My lord desires you presently: my news I might have told hereafter. ENO. But let it be.-Bring me to Antony. EROS. Come, sir. 'Twill be naught: [Exeunt. SCENE VI. Rome. A Room in Cæsar's House. Enter CESAR, AGRIPPA, and MECENAS. CAS. Contemning Rome, he has done all this And more; 6 In Alexandria.-here's the manner of it,- Unto her the 'stablishment of Egypt; made her "I' the market-place,] So, in the old translation of Plutarch: "For he assembled all the people in the show place, where younge men doe exercise them selues, and there vpon a high tribunall siluered, he set two chayres of gold, the one for him selfe, and the other for Cleopatra, and lower chaires for his children: then he openly published before the assembly, that first of all he did establish Cleopatra queene of Egypt, of Cyprvs, of Lydia, and of the lower Syria, and at that time also, Cæsarion king of the same realmes. This Cæsarion was supposed to be the sonne of Julius Cæsar, who had left Cleopatra great with child. Secondly, he called the sonnes he had by her, the kings of kings, and gaue Alexander for his portion, Armenia, Media, and Parthia, when he had conquered the country: and vnto Ptolemy for his portion, Phenicia, Syria, and Cilicia." STEEVENS. Of lower Syria, Cyprus, Lydia," Absolute queen. MEC. This in the publick eye? CES. I' the common show-place, where they exercise. His sons he theres proclaim'd, The kings of kings: Great Media, Parthia, and Armenia, He gave to Alexander; to Ptolemy he assign'd Syria, Cilicia, and Phoenicia: She In the habiliments of the goddess Isis" That day appear'd; and oft before gave audience As 'tis reported, so. MEC. Inform'd. Let Rome be thus AGR. Who, queasy with his insolence Already, will their good thoughts call from him. 7 For Lydia, Mr. Upton, from Plutarch, has restored Lybia. JOHNSON. In the translation from the French of Amyot, by Tho. North, in folio, 1597,* will be seen at once the origin of this mistake: "First of all he did establish Cleopatra queen of Egypt, of Cyprus, of Lydia, and the Lower Syria." FARMer. The present reading is right: for in page 154, where Cæsar is recounting the several kings whom Antony had assembled, he gives the kingdom of Lybia to Bocchus. M. MASON. 8 -he there-] The old copy has hither. The correction was made by Mr. Steevens. MALONE. 9 the goddess Isis-] So, in the old translation of Plutarch: "Now for Cleopatra, she did not onely weare at that time (but at all other times els when she came abroad) the apparell of the goddesse Isis, and so gaue audience vnto all her subjects, as a new Isis," STEEVENS. * I find the character of this work pretty early delineated: 'Twas Greek at first, that Greek was Latin made, That Latin French, that French to English straid: "Thus 'twixt one Plutarch there's more difference, “Than i' th' same Englishman return'd from France." FARMER. CES. The people know it; and have now receiv'd His accusations. AGR. Whom does he accuse? CES. Cæsar: and that, having in Sicily Sextus Pompeius spoil'd, we had not rated him His part o' the isle: then does he say, he lent me Some shipping unrestor❜d: lastly, he frets, That Lepidus of the triumvirate Should be depos'd; and, being, that we detain All his revenue. AGR. Sir, this should be answer'd. CES. 'Tis done already, and the messenger gone. I have told him, Lepidus was grown too cruel; That he his high authority abus'd, And did deserve his change; for what I have con quer'd, I grant him part; but then, in his Armenia, MEC. He'll never yield to that. CES. Nor must not then be yielded to in this, Enter OCTAVIA. OCT. Hail, Cæsar, and my lord! hail, most dear Cæsar! CES. That ever I should call thee, cast-away! OCT. You have not call'd me so, nor have you cause. CES. Why have you stol'n upon us thus? You come not Like Cæsar's sister: The wife of Antony Long ere she did appear; the trees by the way, Ост. CES. 'The ostent of our love.] Old copy-ostentation. But the metre, and our author's repeated use of the former word in The Merchant of Venice, "-Such fair ostents of love," sufficiently authorize the slight change I have made. Ostent occurs also in King Henry V; 2 "Giving full trophy, signal, and ostent-" STEEVEns. Which soon he granted, Being an obstruct "tween his lust and him.] [Old copyabstract.] Antony very soon complied to let Octavia go at her request, says Cæsar; and why? Because she was an abstract between his inordinate passion and him. This is absurd. We must read: Being an obstruct 'tween his lust and him. i. e. his wife being an obstruction, a bar to the prosecution of his wanton pleasures with Cleopatra. WARBURTON. I am by no means certain that this change was necessary. Mr. Henley pronounces it to be "needless, and that it ought to be rejected, as perverting the sense." One of the meanings of abstracted is-separated, disjoined; and therefore our poet, with his usual licence, might have used it for a disjunctive. I believe OCT. Do not say so, my lord. CES. I have eyes upon him, And his affairs come to me on the wind. Where is he now? Ост. My lord, in Athens.3 CES. No, my most wronged sister; Cleopatra Hath nodded him to her. He hath given his empire Up to a whore; who now are levying The kings o'the earth for war:5 He hath assembled Of Paphlagonia; the Thracian king, Adallas: there is no such substantive as obstruct: besides, we say, an obstruction to a thing, but not between one thing and another. As Mr. Malone, however, is contented with Dr. Warburton's reading, I have left it in our text. STEEVENS. 3 My lord, in Athens.] Some words, necessary to the metre, being here omitted, Sir Thomas Hanmer reads: My lord, he is in Athens. But I rather conceive the omission to have been in the former hemistich, which might originally have stood thus: Where is he, 'pray you, now? -who now are levying-] That is, which two persons now are levying, &c. MALONE. 5 The kings o'the earth for war:] Mr. Upton remarks, that there are some errors in this enumeration of the auxiliary kings: but it is probable that the author did not much wish to be ac curate. JOHNSON. Mr. Upton proposes to read: Polemon and Amintas Of Lycaonia; and the king of Mede." And this obviates all impropriety. STEEVENS. |