That Antony may seem to spend his fury [Exeunt CÆSAR and his Train. SOLD. Enter a Soldier of Cæsar's. Enobarbus, Antony Hath after thee sent all thy treasure, with ENO. I give it you. SOLD. Mock me not,5 Enobarbus. - persuade-] The old copy has dissuade, perhaps rightly. JOHNson. It is undoubtedly corrupt. The words in the old translation of Plutarch are: "for where he should have kept Herodes from revolting from him, he persuaded him to turne to Cæsar." MALONE. Hath after thee sent all thy treasure, &c.] So, in the old translation of Plutarch: "Furthermore, he delt very friendly and courteously with Domitius, and against Cleopatraes mynde. For, he being sicke of an agewe when he went, and took a little boate to go to Cæsar's campe, Antonius was very sory for it, but yet he sent after him all his caryage, trayne, and men: and the same Domitius, as though he gaue him to vnderstand that he repented his open treason, he died immediately after." STEEVENS. * Mock me not,] Me was supplied by Mr. Theobald. STEEVENS. 6 I tell you true: Best that you saf'd the bringer [Exit Soldier. ENO. I am alone the villain of the earth, And feel I am so most. O Antony, 8 Thou mine of bounty, how would'st thou have paid My better service, when my turpitude Thou dost so crown with gold! heart:9 This blows my If swift thought break it not, a swifter mean -Best that-] For the insertion of the pronoun-that, to assist the metre, I am answerable. STEEVENS. 7-saf'd the bringer-] I find this verb in Chapman's version of the fourth Book of Homer's Odyssey: 66 and make all his craft "Sail with his ruin, for his father saf't." STEEVENS. • And feel I am so most.] That is, and feel I am so, more than any one else thinks it. M. MASON. Surely, this explanation cannot be right. I am alone the villain of the earth, means, I am pre-eminently the first, the greatest villain of the earth. To stand alone, is still used in that sense, where any one towers above his competitors. And feel I am so most, must signify, I feel or know it myself, more than any other person can or does feel it. 9 This blows my heart:] This bows my heart: REED. All the latter editions have: I have given the original word again the place from which I think it unjustly excluded. This generosity, (says Enobarbus,) swells my heart, so that it will quickly break, if thought break it not, a swifter mean. JOHNSON. That to blow means to puff or swell, the following instance, in the last scene of this play, will sufficiently prove: 66 on her breast "There is a vent of blood, and something blown.” Again, in King Lear: "No blown ambition doth our arms excite-.? STEEVENS. Shall outstrike thought: but thought will do't, I feel.1 I fight against thee!-No: I will go seek [Exit. SCENE VII. Field of Battle between the Camps. Alarum. Drums and Trumpets. Enter AGRIPPA, and Others. AGR. Retire, we have engag'd ourselves too far: Cæsar himself has work, and our oppression2 Exceeds what we expected. [Exeunt. Alarum. Enter ANTONY and SCARUS, wounded. SCAR. O my brave emperor, this is fought indeed! Had we done so at first, we had driven them home With clouts about their heads. 1 ANT. Thou bleed'st apace. but thought will do't, I feel.] Thought, in this passage, as in many others, signifies melancholy. See p. 179, n. 1. MALONE. and our oppression-] Oppression for opposition. WARBURTON. Sir T. Hanmer has received opposition. Perhaps rightly. JOHNSON. Our oppression means, the force by which we are oppressed or overpowered. MALONE. So, in Romeo and Juliet: "At thy good heart's oppression." STEEVENS. SCAR. I had a wound here that was like a T, But now 'tis made an H. ANT. They do retire. SCAR. We'll beat 'em into bench-holes; I have yet Room for six scotches more. Enter EROS. EROS. They are beaten, sir; and our advantage serves For a fair victory. SCAR. Let us score their backs, And snatch 'em up, as we take hares, behind; 'Tis sport to maul a runner. I will reward thee ANT. SCAR. I'll halt after. [Exeunt. SCENE VIII. Under the Walls of Alexandria. Alarum. Enter ANTONY, marching; SCARUS, and Forces. ANT. We have beat him to his camp; Run one before, And let the queen know of our guests.3-To-mor 3 row, Run one before, And let the queen know of our guests.] Antony, after his Before the sun shall see us, we'll spill the blood Enter CLEOPATRA, attended. To this great fairy5 I'll commend thy acts, success, intends to bring his officers to sup with Cleopatra, and orders notice to be given of their guests. JOHNSON. clip your wives,] To clip is to embrace. See Vol. IV. p. 130, n. 4; and Vol. IX. p. 404, n. 8. STEEVENS. To this great fairy-] Mr. Upton has well observed, that fairy, which Dr. Warburton and Sir T. Hanmer explain by Inchantress, comprises the idea of power and beauty. JOHNSON. Fairy, in former times, did not signify only a diminutive imaginary being, but an inchanter, in which last sense, as has been observed, it is used here. But Mr. Upton's assertion, that it comprizes the idea of beauty as well as power, seems questionable; for Sir W. D'Avenant employs the word in describing the weird sisters, (who certainly were not beautiful,) in the argument prefixed to his alteration of Macbeth, 4to. 1674: "These two, travelling together through a forest, were met by three fairie witches, (weirds the Scotch call them,)" &c. See also Vol. X. p. 284, n. 6. MALONE. Surely, Mr. Upton's remark is not indefensible. Beauty united with power, was the popular characteristick of Fairies generally considered. Such was that of The Fairy Queen of Spenser, and Titania, in A Midsummer-Night's Dream. Sir W. D'Avenant's particular use of any word is by no means decisive. That the language of Shakspeare was unfamiliar to him, his own contemptible alterations of it have sufficiently demonstrated. STEEVENS. |
