Dido and her Æneas shall want troops,5 Re-enter EROS. EROS. What would my lord? ANT. Since Cleopatra died, I have liv'd in such dishonour, that the gods Detest my baseness. I, that with my sword Quarter'd the world, and o'er green Neptune's back With ships made cities, condemn myself, to lack The courage of a woman; less noble mind 6 Than she, which, by her death, our Cæsar tells, 5 Dido and her Æneas shall want troops,] Dr. Warburton has justly observed that the poet seems not to have known that Dido and Æneas were not likely to be found thus lovingly associated, "where souls do couch on flowers." He undoubtedly had read Phaer's translation of Virgil, but probably had forgot the celebrated description in the sixth Book: "Talibus Æneas ardentem et torva tuentem Dr. Warburton has also observed that Shakspeare most probably wrote-Sichæus. At least, I believe, he intended to have written so, on the strength of the passage immediately following the lines already quoted: 66 conjux ubi pristinus illi "Respondet curis, æquatque Sichæus amorem." Thus rendered by Phaer, edit. 1558: 66 where ioynt with her, her husband old, Sycheus doth complayne, and equall loue with her doth holde." But Æneas being the more familiar name of the two, our author inadvertently substituted the one for the other. 6 condemn myself, to lack The courage of a woman; less noble mind STEEVENS. Than she,] Antony is here made to say, that he is destitute I am conqueror of myself. Thou art sworn, Eros, That, when the exigent should come, (which now of even the courage of a woman; that he is destitute of a less noble mind than Cleopatra. But he means to assert the very contrary that he must acknowledge he has a less noble mind than she. I therefore formerly supposed that Shakspeare might have written : · condemn myself to lack The courage of a woman; less noble-minded But a more intimate acquaintance with his writings has shown me that he had some peculiar inaccuracies, which it is very idle to endeavour to amend. For these the poet, not his editor, must answer. We have the same inaccurate phraseology in The Winter's Tale: 3 66 I ne'er heard yet, "That any of these bolder vices wanted "Less impudence to gainsay what they did, Again, in Macbeth: "Who cannot want the thought, how monsterous "It was for Malcolm and for Donalbain "To kill their gracious father?" Again, in King Lear, Act II. sc. iv: 66 I have hope, "You less know how to value her desert, See Vol. IX. p. 238, n. 3; p. 84, n. 5; and p. 293, n. 6. The passage in North's translation of Plutarch, which Shakspeare has here copied, shows that, however inaccurate, the text is not corrupt: "When he had sayd these words, he went into a chamber, and unarmed himselfe, and being naked say'd thus: O Cleopatra, it grieveth me not that I have lost thy companie, for I will not be long from thee; but I am sorrie that having been so great a captaine and emperour, I am indeede condemned to be judged of lesse corage and noble MINDE than a woman. Instead of "to be judged of less," which applies equally well to courage, and to mind, Shakspeare substituted the word lack, which is applicable to courage, but cannot without a solecism be connected with "less noble mind." MALONE. "Condemn myself to lack," &c. however licentiously, may have been employed to signify-condemn myself for lacking even the courage of a woman. Is come, indeed,) when I should see behind me Disgrace and horror, that, on my command, EROS. ANT. Eros, Would'st thou be window'd in great Rome, and see Thy master thus with pleach'd arms, bending down To mind, in this instance, may be a verb, signifying to intend, incline, or be disposed. So, in Spenser's State of Ireland: "When one of them mindeth to go into rebellion, he will convey away all his lordships" &c. Again, in Chapman's version of the 24th Iliad: 66 "To thy grave person." Again, in the Third Part of our author's King Henry VI: "Belike, she minds to play the Amazon." Again, ibid: "But if you mind to hold your true obedience.” There may still, however, remain a slight corruption, viz. noble instead of nobly. I would therefore read condemn myself to lack The courage of a woman; less nobly mind Than she, &c. i. e. am less nobly inclined than she is. STEEVENS. 7 -pleach'd arms,] Arms folded in each other. JOHNSON. A passage very like this occurs in Thomas Kyd's translation of Robert Garnier's Cornelia, published in 1594: "Now shalt thou march (thy hands fast bound behind thee,) "Thy head hung down, thy cheeks with tears besprent, "Before the victor; while thy rebel sona "With crowned front triumphing follows thee." STEEVENS. 8 His corrigible neck, his face subdued To penetrative shame; whilst the wheel'd seat Of fortunate Cæsar, drawn before him, branded His baseness that ensued ?9 EROS. I would not see't. ANT. Come then; for with a wound I must be Draw that thy honest sword, which thou hast worn Most useful for thy country. EROS. O, sir, pardon me. ANT. When I did make thee free,' swor'st thou not then • His corrigible neck,] Corrigible for corrected, and afterwards penetrative for penetrating. So Virgil has "penetrabile frigus" for "penetrans frigus,” in his Georgicks. STEEVENS. 9 His baseness that ensued?] The poor conquered wretch that followed. JOHNSON. 1 When I did make thee free, &c.] So, in the old translation of Plutarch: "Now he had a man of his called Eros, whom he loued and trusted much, and whom he had long before caused to sweare vnto him, that he should kill him when he did commaunde him; and then he willed him to keepe his promise. His man drawing his sworde, lift it vp as though he had ment to haue striken his maister: but turning his head at one side, he thrust his sword into him selfe, and fell downe dead at his maister's foote. Then said Antonius, O noble Eros, I thanke thee for this, and it is valiantly done of thee, to show me what I should do to my selfe, which thou couldest not doe for me. Therewithall he tooke his sword, and thrust it into his bellie, and so fell downe vpon a little bed. The wounde he had, killed him not presently, for the blood stinted a little when he was layed: and when he came somewhat to him selfe againe, he praied them that were about him to dispatch him. But they all fled out of the chamber, and left him crying out and tormenting him selfe vntil at last there came a secretarie vnto him called Diomedes, who was commaunded to bring him into the tombe or monument where Cleopatra was. When he heard that she was aliue, he verie earnestlie prayed his men to carie his bodie thither, and so he was caried in his men's armes into the entry of the monument." STEEVENS. To do this when I bade thee? Do it at once; But accidents unpurpos'd. Draw, and come. EROS. Turn from me then that noble counte My dear master, The thing why thou hast drawn it. EROS. ANT. 'Tis said, man ;—and farewell. EROS. Farewell, great chief. Shall I strike now? Of Antony's death. ANT. [Dies. Thrice nobler than myself! Thou teachest me, O valiant Eros, what I should, and thou could'st not. My queen and Eros A bridegroom in my death,3 and run into't the worship of the whole world-] The worship, is the dignity, the authority. JOHNSON. So, in King John: By giving it the worship of revenge." STEEVENS. A bridegroom in my death, &c.] This thought has occurred before in Measure for Measure: "I will encounter darkness as a bride, "And hug it in my arms.' |