Make her thanks bless thee.-O thou day o'the world, Chain mine arm'd neck; leap thou, attire and all, Through proof of harness to my heart, and there Ride on the pants triumphing.7 CLEO. Lord of lords! O infinite virtue! com'st thou smiling from ANT. 8 My nightingale, We have beat them to their beds. What, girl? though grey Do something mingle with our brown; yet have we Fr. 7 -proof of harness-] i. e. armour of proof. Harnois, Arnese, Ital. STEEVENS. See Vol. X. p. 284, n. 6. MALone. " - triumphing.] This word is so accented by Chapman, in his version of the eleventh Iliad: "Crept from his covert and triumph'd: Now thou art maim'd, said he." STEEVENS. • The world's great snare— -] i. e. the war. So, in the 116th Psalm: "The snares of death compassed me round about." Thus also Statius: 9 66 circum undique lethi "Vallavere plaga." STEEVENS. with our brown ;] Old copy-younger brown: but as this epithet, without improving the idea, spoils the measure, I have not scrupled, with Sir Thomas Hanmer and others, to omit it as an interpolation. See p. 233, n. 7. STEEvens. 1Get goal for goal of youth.] At all plays of barriers, the boundary is called a goal; to win a goal, is to be a superior in a contest of activity. JOHNSON. CLEO. I'll give thee, friend, An armour all of gold; it was a king's.2 ANT. He has deserv'd it, were it carbuncled Like holy Phoebus' car.-Give me thy hand; Through Alexandria make a jolly march; Bear our hack'd targets like the men that owe them :3 Had our great palace the capacity To camp this host, we all would sup together; Applauding our approach. [Exeunt. it was a king's.] So, in Sir T. North's translation of Plutarch: "Then came Antony again to the palace greatly boasting of this victory, and sweetly kissed Cleopatra, armed as he was when he came from the fight, recommending one of his men of arms unto her, that had valiantly fought in this skirmish. Cleopatra, to reward his manliness, gave him an armour and head-piece of clean gold." STEEVENS. * Bear our hack'd targets like the men that owe them :] i. e. hack'd as much as the men to whom they belong. WARBURTON. Why not rather, Bear our hack'd targets with spirit and exultation, such as becomes the brave warriors that own them? JOHNSON. tabourines;] A tabourin was a small drum. It is So, in The History date: "Trumpetes, STEEVENS. often mentioned in our ancient romances. of Helyas Knight of the Swanne, bl. 1. no clerons, tabourins, and other minstrelsy." SCENE IX. Cæsar's Camp. Sentinels on their Post. Enter ENOBARBUS. 1 SOLD. If we be not reliev'd within this hour, We must return to the court of guard :5 The night Is shiny; and, they say, we shall embattle By the second hour i' the morn. Stand close, and list to him." ENO. Be witness to me, O thou blessed moon, When men revolted shall upon record Bear hateful memory, poor Enobarbus did Before thy face repent! 1 SOLD. 3 SOLD. Hark further. Enobarbus! Peace; ENO. O sovereign mistress of true melancholy, The poisonous damp of night disponge upon me;7 5- the court of guard:] i. e. the guard-room, the place where the guard musters. The same expression occurs again in Othello. STEEVENS. 6 list to him.] I am answerable for the insertion of the preposition-to. Thus, in King Henry IV. P. I: “ Pr'ythee, let her alone, and list to me." STEevens. 7 disponge upon me;] i. e. discharge, as a sponge, when squeezed, discharges the moisture it had imbibed. So, in Hamlet: -it is but squeezing you, and, sponge, yous hall be dry again." This word is not found in Dr. Johnson's Dictionary. STEEVENS. 66 That life, a very rebel to my will, May hang no longer on me: Throw my heart And finish all foul thoughts. O Antony, O Antony! O Antony! 2 SOLD. To him. Let's speak [Dies. 1 SOLD. Let's hear him, for the things he speaks May concern Cæsar. 3 SOLD. Let's do so. But he sleeps. 1 SOLD. Swoons rather; for so bad a prayer as his Was never yet for sleeping." 2 SOLD. Go we to him. 3 SOLD. Awake, awake, sir; speak to us. 2 SOLD. Hear you, sir? Throw my heart-] The pathetick of Shakspeare too often ends in the ridiculous. It is painful to find the gloomy dignity of this noble scene destroyed by the intrusion of a conceit so far-fetched and unaffecting. JOHNSON. Shakspeare, in most of his conceits, is kept in countenance by his contemporaries. Thus, Daniel, in his 18th Sonnet, 1594, somewhat indeed less harshly, says "Still must I whet my young desires abated, "Upon the flint of such a heart rebelling." MALOne, -for sleeping.] Old copy-sleep. I am responsible for the substitution of the participle in the room of the substantive, for the sake of measure. STEEVENS. 1 SOLD. The hand of death hath raught him.' Hark, the drums [Drums afar off. Demurely wake the sleepers. Let us bear him To the court of guard; he is of note: our hour Is fully out. 3 SOLD. Come on then ; He may recover yet. [Exeunt with the Body. SCENE X. Between the two Camps. Enter ANTONY and SCARUS, with Forces, marching. ANT. Their preparation is to-day by sea; We please them not by land. SCAR. For both, my lord. ANT. I would, they'd fight i' the fire, or in the air; We'd fight there too. But this it is; Our foot Shall stay with us: order for sea is given; The hand of death hath raught him.] Raught is the ancient preterite of the verb to reach. See Vol. VII. p. 91, n. 8. 2 Hark, the drums 3 STEEVENS. Demurely-] Demurely for solemnly. WARBURton. • They have put forth the haven: Further on,] These words, Further on, though not necessary, have been inserted in the later editions, and are not in the first. JOHNSON. I think these words are absolutely necessary for the sense. As the passage stands, Antony appears to say, "that they could best discover the appointment of the enemy at the haven after they |
