SCENE II.

The fame. Another Room.

Enter CHARMIAN, IRAS, ALEXAS, and a Soothsayer.'

CHAR. Lord Alexas, fweet Alexas, moft any thing Alexas, almost most abfolute Alexas, where's the foothsayer that you praised fo to the queen? O, that I knew this husband, which, you say, must change his horns with garlands !?

8 Enter Charmian, Iras, Alexas, and a Soothsayer.] The old copy reads: "Enter Enobarbus, Lamprius, a Southfayer, Rannius, Lucilius, Charmian, Iras, Mardian the Eunuch, and Alexas."

Plutarch mentions his grandfather Lamprias, as his author for fome of the ftories he relates of the profufenefs and luxury of Antony's entertainments at Alexandria. Shakspeare appears to have been very anxious in this play to introduce every incident and every perfonage he met with in his hiftorian. In the multitude of his characters, however, Lamprias is entirely overlook'd, together with the others whofe names we find in this ftage-direction.

STEEVENS.

9change his horns with garlands !] This is corrupt; the true reading evidently is:muft charge his horns with garlands, i. e. make him a rich and honourable cuckold, having his horns hung about with garlands. WARBURTON.

Sir Thomas Hanmer reads, not improbably, change for horns his garlands. I am in doubt, whether to change is not merely to drefs, or to dress with changes of garlands. JOHNSON.

So, Taylor the water-poet, defcribing the habit of a coachman : - with a cloak of fome py'd colour, with two or three change of laces about." Change of clothes in the time of Shakspeare fignified variety of them. Coriolanus fays that he has received" change of honours" from the Patricians. Act II. fc. i.

That to change with," applied to two things, one of which is to be put in the place of the other," is the language of Shakspeare,

ALEX. Soothfayer.

SOOTH. Your will?

Mr. Malone might have learn'd from the following paffage in Cymbeline, A&t I. fc. vi. i. e. the Queen's fpeech to Pifanio: to fhift his being,

"Is to exchange one mifery with another."

Again, in the 4th Book of Milton's Paradise Loft, v. 892 : where thou might'ft hope to change

66

"Torment with ease." STEEVENS.

I once thought that these two words might have been often confounded, by their being both abbreviated, and written chage. But ann, as the Bishop of Dromore obferves to me, was fometimes omitted both in Mf. and print, and the omiffion thus marked, but an r never. This therefore might account for a compofitor inadvertently printing charge inftead of change, but not change instead of charge; which word was never abbreviated. I alfo doubted the phrafcology-change with, and do not at prefent recollect any example of it in Shakspeare's plays or in his time; whilft in The Taming the Shrew, we have the modern phrafeology-change for:

To change true rules for odd inventions.

But a careful revifion of these plays has taught me to place no confidence in fuch obfervations; for from fome book or other of that age, I have no doubt almoft every combination of words that may be found in our author, however uncouth it may appear to our ears, or however different from modern phrafeology, will at fome time or other be justified. In the prefent edition, many which were confidered as undoubtedly corrupt, have been incontrovertibly fupported.

Still, however, I think that the reading originally introduced by Mr. Theobald, and adopted by Dr. Warburton, is the true one, because it affords a clear fenfe: whilft on the other hand, the reading of the old copy affords none; for fuppofing change with to mean exchange for, what idea is conveyed by this paffage? and what other fenfe can thefe words bear? The fubftantive change being formerly used to fignify variety, (as change of cloaths, of honours, &c.) proves nothing: change of cloaths or linen neceffarily imports more than one; but the thing fought for is the meaning of the verb to change, and no proof is produced to fhow that it fignified to drefs; or that it had any other meaning than to exchange. Charmian is talking of her future hufband, who certainly could not change his horns, at prefent, for garlands or any thing elfe, having not yet obtained them; nor could fhe mean, that when he

CHAR. Is this the man?-Is't you, fir, that know things?

SOOTH. In nature's infinite book of fecrecy,

A little I can read.

ALEX.

Show him your hand.

Enter ENOBARBUS.

ENO. Bring in the banquet quickly; wine enough, Cleopatra's health to drink.

CHAR. Good fir, give me good fortune.
SOOTH. I make not, but foresee.

get them, he should change or part with them, for garlands: but he might charge his horns, when he should marry Charmian, with garlands: for having once got them, the intended, we may fuppofe, that he should wear them contentedly for life. Horn charg'd with garlands is an expreffion of a fimilar import with one which is found in Characterifmi, or Lenton's Leafures, 8vo, 1631. In the description of a contented cuckold, he is faid to hold his velvet horns as high as the best of them."

Let it alfo be remembered that garlands are ufually wreathed round the head; a circumftance which adds great fupport to the emendation now made. So Sidney:

"A garland made, on temples for to wear."

It is obfervable that the fame mistake as this happened in Coriolanus, where the fame correction was made by Dr. Warburton, and adopted by all the fubfequent editors:

"And yet to charge thy fulphur with a bolt,

"That fhould but rive an oak."

The old copy there, as here, has change. Since this note was written, I have met with an example of the phrafe-to change with, in Lyly's Maydes Metamorphofis, 1600:

"The fweetness of that banquet muft forego,

"Whose pleasant tafte is chang'd with bitter woe."

I am ftill, however, of opinion that charge, and not change, is the true reading, for the reafons affigned in my original note.

MALONE. "To change his horns with [i. e. for] garlands," fignifies, to be a triumphant cuckold; a cuckold who will confider his ftate as

CHAR. Pray then, foresee me one.

SOOTH. You fhall be yet far fairer than you are.

CHAR. He means, in flesh.

IRAS. No, you shall paint when you are old.

CHAR. Wrinkles forbid!

ALEX. Vex not his prefcience; be attentive.
CHAR. Hufh!

SOOTH. You fhall be more beloving, than belov'd.
CHAR. I had rather heat my liver with drinking.
ALEX. Nay, hear him.

CHAR. Good now, fome excellent fortune! Let me be married to three kings in a forenoon, and widow them all: let me have a child at fifty,' to whom Herod of Jewry may do homage: find me

4

an honourable one. Thus, fays Benedick, in Much ado about Nothing: "There is no ftaff more honourable than one tipt with born."-We are not to look for serious argument in such a skipping dialogue" as that before us. STEEVENS.

2 I had rather heat my liver- -] To know why the lady is fo averfe from beating her liver, it must be remembered, that a heated liver is fuppofed to make a pimpled face. JOHNSON.

The following paffage in an ancient fatirical poem, entitled Notes from Blackfryars, 1617, confirms Dr. Johnfon's obfervation: "He'll not approach a taverne, no nor drink ye, "To fave his life, hot water; wherefore think ye? "For heating's liver; which fome may suppose "Scalding hot, by the bubbles on his nofe.'

MALONE.

66

The liver was confidered as the feat of defire. In anfwer to the Soothsayer, who tells her the fhall be very loving, the fays, She had rather heat her liver by drinking, if it was to be heated." M. MASON.

3 - let me have a child at fifty,] This is one of Shakspeare's natural touches. Few circumftances are more flattering to the fair fex, than breeding at an advanced period of life. STEEVENS. to whom Herod of Ferry may do homage:] Herod paid VOL. XII.

E e

to marry me with Octavius Cæfar, and companion me with my mistress.

SOOTH. You fhall outlive the lady whom you ferve.

CHAR. O excellent! I love long life better than figs.

SOOTH. You have feen and prov'd a fairer former fortune

Than that which is to approach.

CHAR. Then, belike, my children shall have no names: Pr'ythee, how many boys and wenches muft I have?

homage to the Romans, to procure the grant of the kingdom of Judea; but I believe there is an allufion here to the theatrical character of this monarch, and to a proverbial expreffion founded on it. Herod was always one of the perfonages in the mysteries of our early stage, on which he was conftantly reprefented as a fierce, haughty, bluftering tyrant, fo that Herod of Jewry became a common proverb, expreffive of turbulence and rage. Thus, Hamlet fays of a ranting player, that he "out-berods Herod." And in this tragedy Alexas tells Cleopatra that "not even Herod of Jewry dare look upon her when he is angry;" i. e. not even a man as fierce as Herod. According to this explanation, the fenfe of the prefent paffage will be-Charmian wishes for fon who may arrive to fuch power and dominion that the proudest and fiercest monarchs of the earth may be brought under his yoke.

STEEVENS. 5I love long life better than figs.] This is a proverbial expreffion. STEEVENS.

6 Then, belike, my children fhall have no names:] If I have already had the best of my fortune, then I fuppofe I shall never name children, that is, I am never to be married. However, tell me the truth, tell me, how many boys and wenches? JOHNSON.

A fairer fortune, I believe, mcans—a more reputable one. Her anfwer then implies, that belike all her children will be baftards, who have no right to the name of their father's family. Thus fays Launce in the third act of The Two Gentlemen of Verona: "That's as much as to fay baftard virtues, that indeed know not their fathers, and therefore have no names." STEEVENS.