4. CIT. For your dwelling,-briefly. CIN. Briefly, I dwell by the Capitol. 3. CIT. Your name, fir, truly. CIN. Truly, my name is Cinna. 1. Cir. Tear him to pieces, he's a confpirator. CIN. I am Cinna the poet, I am Cinna the poet. 4. Cir. Tear him for his bad verses, tear him for his bad verses. CIN. I am not Cinna the confpirator. 4. CIT. It is no matter, his name's Cinna; pluck but his name out of his heart, and turn him going. 3. Cır. Tear him, tear him. Come, brands, ho! fire-brands. To Brutus', to Caffius'; burn all. Some to Decius' house, and fome to Cafca's; some to Ligarius': away; go. [Exeunt. ACT IV. SCENE I. The fame. A Room in Antony's boufe." ANTONY, OCTAVIUS, and LEPIDUS, feated at a table. ANT. These many then shall die; their names are prick'd. Antony's boufe.] Mr. Rowe, and Mr. Pope after him, have mark'd the scene here to be at Rome. The old copies fay nothing of the place. Shakspeare, I dare fay, knew from Plutarch, that thefe triumvirs met, upon the profcription, in a little island; which Appian, who is more particular, fays, lay near Mutina, upon the river Lavinius. THEOBALD. A fmall island in the little river Rhenus near Bononia. HANMER. Ocr. Your brother too muft die; Confent you, Lepidus? 'LEP. I do confent. Ост. Prick him down, Antony. LEP. Upon condition Publius fhall not live, Who is your fifter's fon, Mark Antony. ANT. He fhall not live; look, with a fpot I damn him.' So, in the old tranflation of Plutarch: "Thereuppon all three met together (to wete, Cæfar, Antonius, & Lepidus) in an island enuyroned round about with a little riuer, & there remayned three dayes together. Now as touching all other matters, they were eafily agreed, & did deuide all the empire of Rome betwene them, as if it had bene their owne inheritance. But yet they could hardly agree whom they would put to death: for euery one of them would kill their enemies, and faue their kinfmen and friends. Yet at length, giving place to their greedy defire to be reuenged of their enemies, they fpurned all reuerence of blood and holines of friendfhip at their feete. For Cæfar left Cicero to Antonius' will, Antonius alfo forfooke Lucius Cæfar, who was his vncle by his mother: and both of them together fuffred Lepidus to kill his own brother Paulus." That Shakspeare, however, meant the scene to be at Rome, may be inferred from what almoft immediately follows: "Lep. What, fhall I find you here? "O. Or here, or at the Capitol." STEEVENS. The paffage quoted by Steevens, clearly proves that the scene fhould be laid in Rome. M. MASON. It is manifeft that Shakspeare intended the fcene to be at Rome, and therefore I have placed it in Antony's houfe, MALONE. 8 Upon condition Publius fhall not live,] Mr. Upton has fufficiently proved that the poet made a mistake as to this character mentioned by Lepidus. Lucius, not Publius, was the perfon meant, who was uncle by the mother's fide to Mark Antony and in confequence of this, he concludes that Shakspeare wrote: You are his fifter's fon, Mark Antony. The mistake, however, is more like the mistake of the author, than of his tranfcriber or printer. STEEVENS. 9- -damn him.] i. e. condemn him. So, in Promos and Caffandra, 1578: "Vouchfafe to give my damned husband life." Again, in Chaucer's Knightes Tale, v. 1747, Mr. Tyrwhitt's edit : But, Lepidus, go you to Cæfar's house; LEP. What, fhall I find Ост. The Capitol. you here? ANT. This is a flight unmeritable man, The three-fold world divided, he should stand Ост. ANT. Octavius, I have seen more days than you : And though we lay thefe honours on this man, To ease ourselves of divers flanderous loads, He shall but bear them as the afs bears gold,* To groan and fweat under the business, Either led or driven, as we point the way; And having brought our treasure where we will, Then take we down his load, and turn him off, Like to the empty afs, to fhake his ears, And graze in commons. Ост. You may do your will; But he's a tried and valiant foldier. ANT. So is my horfe, Octavius; and, for that, I do appoint him ftore of provender. It is a creature that I teach to fight, 2 by your confeffion "Hath damned you, and I wol it recorde." STEEVENS. as the afs bears gold,] This image had occurred before in Meajure for Measure, Act III. fc. i: 66 like an afs whofe back with ingots bows, STEEVENS. go To wind, to stop, to run directly on; one that feeds On objects, arts, and imitations; &c. forth: "Tis hard to conceive, why he fhould be call'd a barren-spirited fellow that could feed either on objects or arts: that is, as I prefume, form his ideas and judgment upon them: ftale and obfolete imitation, indeed, fixes fuch a character. I am perfuaded, to make the poet confonant to himself, we must read, as I have restored the text': On abject orts, i. e. on the fcraps and fragments of things rejected and despised by others. THEOBALD. Sure, it is eafy enough to find a reason why that devotee to pleafure and ambition, Antony, fhould call him barren-spirited who could be content to feed his mind with objects, i. e. Speculative knowledge, or arts, i. e. mechanick operations. I have therefore brought back the old reading, though Mr. Theobald's emendation is ftill left before the reader. Lepidus, in the tragedy of Antony and Cleopatra, is reprefented as inquifitive about the structures of Egypt, and that too when he is almoft in a state of intoxication. Antony, as at present, makes a jeft of him, and returns him unintelligible answers to very reasonable questions. Objects, however, may mean things objected or thrown out to him. In this fenfe Shakspeare ufes the verb to object in another play, where I have given an inftance of its being employ'd by Chapman on the fame occafion. A man who can avail himself of neglected hints thrown out by others, though without original ideas of his own, is no uncommon character. STEEVENS. Objects means, in Shakspeare's language, whatever is presented to the eye. So, in Timon of Athens, Swear against objects,” which Mr. Steevens has well illuftrated by a line in our poet's 1528 Sonnet: 2 "And made them fwear against the thing they fee." - and fal'd by other men, MALONE. Begin bis fashion:] Shakspeare has already woven this circum But as a property.3 And now, Octavius, Our best friends made, and our best means ftretch'd out; + He came ever ftance into the character of Juftice Shallow: in the rearward of the fashion; and fung those tunes that he heard the carmen whiftle." STEEVENS. 3 a property.] i. e. as a thing quite at our difpofal, and to be treated as we pleafe. So, in Twelfth-Night: old They have here propertied me, kept me in darknefs," &c. STEEVENS. Our best friends made, and our beft means ftretch'd out;] In the сору by the carelessness of the tranfcriber or printer this line is thus imperfectly exhibited: Our best friends made, our means ftretch'd ; The editor of the fecond folio fupplied the line by reading Our best friends made, and our beft means ftretch'd out. This emendation, which all the modern editors have adopted, was, like almost all the other corrections of the second folio, as ill conceived as poffible. For what is beft means? Means, or abilities, if ftretch'd out, receive no additional ftrength from the word beft, nor does means, when confidered without reference to others, as the power of an individual, or the aggregated abilities of a body of men, seem to admit of a degree of comparison. However that may be, it is highly improbable that a tranfcriber or compofitor fhould be guilty of three errors in the fame line; that he should omit the word and in the middle of it; then the word beft after our, and laftly the concluding word. It is much more probable that the omiffion was only at the end of the line, (an error which is found in other places in these plays ;) and that the author wrote, as I have printed: Our best friends made, our means ftretch'd to the utmost. So, in a former scene: -and, you know, his means, "If he improve them, may well fretch fo far,—." Again, in the following paffage in Coriolanus, which, I truft, will justify the emendation, now made: for thy revenge, "Wrench up your power to the higheft." MALONE. I am fatisfied with the reading of the fecond folio, in which I perceive neither aukwardness nor want of perfpicuity. Beft is a |