To taunt at slackness.-Canidius, we Will fight with him by sea. CLEO. By sea! What else? For he dares us5 to't. CAN. Why will my lord do so? ENO. So hath my lord dar'd him to single fight. CAN. Ay, and to wage this battle at Pharsalia, Where Cæsar fought with Pompey: But these offers, Which serve not for his vantage, he shakes off; And so should you. ENO. Your ships are not well mann'd: Your mariners are muleteers, reapers, people Ingross'd by swift impress; in Caesar's fleet Are those, that often have 'gainst Pompey fought: Their ships are yare; yours, heavy." No disgrace Shall fall you for refusing him at sea, Being prepar'd for land. ANT. By sea, by sea. ENO. Most worthy sir, you therein throw away For he dares us-] i. e. because he dares us. So, in Othello: 66 - The old copy redundantly reads-For that he. See Vol. XVIII. note on Cymbeline, Act IV. sc. i. STEEVENS. • Your mariners are muleteers, reapers, &c.] The old copy has militers. The correction was made by the editor of the second folio. It is confirmed by the old translation of Plutarch: "-for lacke of watermen his captains did presse by force all sortes of men out of Greece, that they could rake up in the field, as travellers, muliters, reapers, harvest-men," &c. Muliter was the old spelling of muleteer. STEEVENS. 7 Their ships are yare; yours, heavy.] So, in Sir Thomas North's Plutarch: "Cæsar's ships were not built for pomp, high and great, &c. but they were light of yarage." Yare generally signifies, dextrous, manageable. See Vol. IV. p. 5, n. 2. STEEVENS. The absolute soldiership you have by land; ANT. I'll fight at sea. CLEO. I have sixty sails, Cæsar none better. ANT. Our overplus of shipping will we burn; And, with the rest full-mann'd, from the head of Actium Beat the approaching Cæsar. But if we fail, Enter a Messenger. We then can do't at land.-Thy business? ANT. Can he be there in person? 'tis impossible; Strange, that his power should be.-Canidius, Our nineteen legions thou shalt hold by land, And our twelve thousand horse:-We'll to our ship; 8 Cæsar none better.] I must suppose this mutilated line to have originally ran thus: 9 I have sixty sails, Cæsar himself none better. STEEVENS. Strange, that his power should be.] It is strange that his forces should be there. So, afterwards, in this scene: "His power went out in such distractions, as Again, in our author's Rape of Lucrece: "Before the which was drawn the power of Greece." MALONE, Enter a Soldier. Away, my Thetis!'-How now, worthy soldier? SOLD. O noble emperor, do not fight by sea; Trust not to rotten planks: Do you misdoubt This sword, and these my wounds? Let the Egyptians, And the Phoenicians, go a ducking; we Have used to conquer, standing on the earth, ANT. Well, well, away. [Exeunt ANTONY, CLEOPATRA, and ENO BARBUS. SOLD. By Hercules, I think, I am i' the right. CAN. Soldier, thou art: but his whole action Not in the power on't: So our leader's led, 1 -my Thetis !] Antony may address Cleopatra by the name of this sea-nymph, because she had just promised him assistance in his naval expedition; or perhaps in allusion to her voyage down the Cydnus, when she appeared like Thetis surrounded by the Nereids. STEEVENS. 2 O noble emperor, &c.] So, in the old translation of Plutarch: "Now, as he was setting his men in order of battel, there was a captaine, & a valiant man, that had serued Antonius in many battels & conflicts, & had all his body hacked and cut: who as Antonius passed by him, cryed out vnto him, and sayd: 0, noble emperor, how commeth it to passe that you trust to these vile brittle shippes? what, doe you mistrust these woundes of myne, and this sword? let the Ægyptians and Phoenicians fight by sea, and set vs on the maine land, where we vse to conquer, or to be slayne on our feete. Antonius passed by him, and sayd neuer a word, but only beckoned to him with his hand and head, as though he willed him to be of good corage, although indeede he had no great corage himselfe." STEEVENS. SOLD. You keep by land The legions and the horse whole, do you not? CAN. Marcus Octavius, Marcus Justeius, Publicola, and Cælius, are for sea: But we keep whole by land. This speed of Cæsar's Carries beyond belief.* SOLD. 6 His power went out in such distractions, as CAN. While he was 5 yet in Rome, SOLD. They say, one Taurus. CAN. Sold. By Hercules, I think, I am i' the right. Not in the power on't:] That is, his whole conduct becomes ungoverned by the right, or by reason. JOHNSON. I think the sense is very different, and that Canidius means to say, His whole conduct in the war is not founded upon that which is his greatest strength, (namely, his land force,) but on the caprice of a woman, who wishes that he should fight by sea. Dr. Johnson refers the word on't to right in the preceding speech. I apprehend, it refers to action in the speech before us. MALONE. * Carries beyond belief.] Perhaps this phrase is from archery. So, in King Henry IV. P. II: "he would have carried you a forehand shaft a fourteen and fourteen and a half.” STEEVENS. 5 While he was-] Of what use are the words—he was, except to vitiate the metre? STEEVENS. 6 distractions,] Detachments, separate bodies. JOHNSON. The word is thus used by Sir Paul Rycaut, in his Maxims of Turkish Polity: "—and not suffer his affections to wander on other wives, slaves, or distractions of his love." STEEvens. Enter a Messenger. MESS. The emperor calls for Canidius." CAN. With news the time's with labour; and throes forth,8 Each minute, some. SCENE VIII. A Plain near Actium. [Exeunt. Enter CESAR, TAURUS, Officers, and Others. CES. Taurus, TAUR. CES. My lord. Strike not by land; keep whole: Provoke not battle, till we have done at sea. Do not exceed the prescript of this scroll: Enter ANTONY and ENOBARBUS. [Exeunt. ANT. Set we our squadrons on yon' side o'the hill, In eye of Cæsar's battle; from which place may the number of the ships behold, We And so proceed accordingly. [Exeunt. 7 The emperor calls for Canidius.] The preposition-for, was judiciously inserted by Sir Thomas Hanmer, to complete the measure. So, in a future scene: call for Enobarbus,-." STEEVENS. and throes forth,] i. e. emits as in parturition. So, in The Tempest: proclaim a birth "Which throes thee much to yield." STEEVENS. this jump.] i. e. hazard. So, in Macbeth: "We'd jump the life to come." STEEVENS. " |