That sleep and feeding may prorogue his honour Enter VARRIUS. How now, Varrius VAR. This is most certain that I shall deliver:Mark Antony is every hour in Rome Expected; since he went from Egypt, 't is A space for farther travel. POM. I could have given less matter A better ear.-Menas, I did not think This amorous surfeiter would have donn'd his helm Is twice the other twain: but let us rear MEN. I cannot hopeb Cæsar and Antony shall well greet together: Ром. I know not, Menas, How lesser enmities may give way to greater. Were't not that we stand up against them all, c 'T were pregnant they should square between themselves; To draw their swords: but how the fear of us Be 't as our gods will have 't! It only stands [Exeunt. (*) First folio, wan'd. may prorogue his honour Even till a Lethe'd dulness-] Malone would have "honour" to be a misprint for hour; but, however unauthorised, Shakespeare certainly uses "prorogue" here, as he employs it in "Pericles,” Act V. Sc. 1, "nor taken sustenance, But to prorogue his grief,”— in the sense of deaden or benumb. b I cannot hope, &c.] As in our early language, to expect most commonly meant to stay or wait, so to hope on some occasions was used where we should now adopt to expect. square-] Quarrel. Our existence solely depends, &c., or it is incumbent on us for our lives' sake, &c. SCENE II.-Rome. A Room in the House of Lepidus. Enter ENOBARBUS and LEPIDUS. LEP. Good Enobarbus, 't is a worthy deed, And shall become you well, to entreat your captain ENO. I shall entreat him Serves for the matter that is then born in 't.' LEP. But small to greater matters must give way. ENO. Not if the small come first. LEP. Your speech is passion: But, pray you, stir no embers up. Here comes The noble Antony. ENO. Enter ANTONY and VENTIDIUS. And yonder Cæsar. Enter CESAR, MECENAS, and AGRIPPA. ANT. If we compose well here, to Parthia! Hark, Ventidius. . Cæs. I do not know, Mecænas; ask Agrippa. That which combin'd us was most great, and let not May it be gently heard: when we debate Our trivial difference loud, we do commit Murder in healing wounds: then, noble partners,— Touch you the sourest points with sweetest terms, ANT. 'Tis spoken well. Were we before our armies, and to fight, I should do thus. CES. Welcome to Rome. ANT. Thank you. CAS. Sit. ANT. Sit, sir. CES. Nay, then. ANT. I learn, you take things ill, which are not so, Or being, concern you not. CAS. I must be laugh'd at, If, or for nothing or a little, I Should say myself offended; and with you, Chiefly i' the world, more laugh'd at, that I should ANT. What was 't to you? My being in Egypt, Cæsar, CES. No more than my residing here at Rome ANT. How intend you, practis'd? CES. You may be pleas'd to catch at mine intent By what did here befall me. Your wife and brother Made wars upon me; and their contestation Was theme for you, you were the word of war.b ANT. You do mistake your business; my brother never Did urge me in his act: I did inquire it; And have my learning from some true reports, That drew their swords with you. Did he not rather And make the wars alike against my stomach, CES. ANT. Your partner in the cause 'gainst which he fought, The third o' the world is yours; which with a snaffle - practise on-] Plot or intrigue against. and their contestation Was theme for you, you were the word of war.] The meaning is apparent, though the construction is obscure and perhaps corrupt. We ought possibly to read, 66 and their contestation Had you for theme," &c. As matter whole you have not to make it with,-] The negative was inserted by Rowe, and is clearly indispensable; but, to satisfy the metre, Shakespeare may have adopted the old form n'have instead of have not, "As matter whole you n'have to make it with." for they So likewise in "Henry the Fifth," Act V. Sc. 2, where the original has, " are all girdled with maiden walls, that war hath entered," we ought probably to read, n'hath entered." ENO. Would we had all such wives, that the men might go to wars with the women! ANT. So much uncurbable, her garboils, Cæsar, CES. I wrote to you Did pocket up my letters, and with taunts Sir, He fell upon me ere admitted; then Out of our question wipe him. You have broken CES. LEP. Soft, Cæsar! ANT. No, Lepidus, let him speak; The honour's sacred which he talks on now, Supposing that I lack'd it.-But, on, Cæsar; The article of my oath, CAS. To lend me arms and aid when I requir'd them; ANT. LEP. "Tis noble spoken. MEC. If it might please you, to enforce no further The griefs between ye: to forget them quite Were to remember that the present need Speaks to atone you. LEP. Worthily spoken, Mecænas. ENO. Or, if you borrow one another's love for the instant, you may, when you hear no more words of Pompey, return it again: you shall have time to wrangle in when you have nothing else to do. ANT. Thou art a soldier only; speak no more. ENO. That truth should be silent, I had almost forgot. ENO. Go to then; your considerate stone." AGR. CES. Speak, Agrippa. Give me leave, Cæsar,- AGR. Thou hast a sister by the mother's side, Admir'd Octavia: great Mark Antony Is now a widower. CES. Say not so,* Agrippa; If Cleopatra heard you, your reproofe ANT. I am not married, Cæsar; let me hear AGR. To hold you in perpetual amity, To make you brothers, and to knit your hearts And all great fears, which now import their dangers, ANT. Will Cæsar speak? (*) Old text, say. your considerate stone.] As silent as a stone was an expression not unusual formerly, and the words in the text may hereafter be found to be proverbial; at present they are inexplicable. b conditions-] Dispositions, natures; thus, in "Othello," Act II. Sc. 1,-"She's full of most blessed condition," and again, Act IV. Sc. 1,-"and then, of so gentle a condition." c your reproof Were well deserv'd of rashness.] Warburton's emendation of the old reading,-" your proofe," &c. The meaning apparently is, The reproof you would receive were well deserved for the rashness of your speech. d truths would be tales, Where now half tales be truths:] Theobald, to perfect the metre, inserted but, would be but tales," &c.; and Steevens, for the same purpose, proposed,—" as tales." Yet the remedy most accordant with the poet's manner is to read, "" truths would be half tales, Where now half tales be truths." 1 |