Than could his war refifted. CES. Antony, Leave thy lafcivious waffels. When thou once Did famine follow; whom thou fought'st against, 2 The rougheft berry on the rudeft hedge; Yea, like the ftag, when fnow the pafture fheets, LEP. It is pity of him. CAS. Let his shames quickly Drive him to Rome: 'Tis time we twain thy lafcivious waffels.] Waffel is here put for intemperance in general. For a more particular account of the word, fee Mac beth, Vol. VII. p. 396, n. 4. The old copy, however, readsvaffailes. STEEVENS. Vafals is, without question, the true reading. HENLEY. The ftale of borfes,] All these circumstances of Antony's dif tress, are taken literally from Plutarch. STEEVENS. 3 gilded puddle-] There is frequently obfervable on the furface of stagnant pools that have remained long undisturbed, a reddish gold coloured flime: to this appearance the poet here refers, HENLEY. 4 Drive him to Rome: 'Tis time we twain &c.] The defect of the metre induces me to believe that some word has been inadver tently omitted. Perhaps our author wrote: Drive him to Rome difgrac'd: 'Tis time we twain, &c. Did fhow ourselves i' the field; and, to that end, Affemble we immediate council: Pompey Thrives in our idleness. LEP. To-morrow, Cæfar, I fhall be furnish'd to inform you rightly CES. Till which encounter, It is my business too. Farewell. LEP. Farewell, my lord: What you fhall know mean time Of stirs abroad, I fhall befeech you, fir, "From Egypt drive her all-difgraced friend." MALONE. I had rather perfect this defective line, by the infertion of an adverb which is frequently used by our author, and only enforces what he apparently defigned to fay, than by the introduction of an epithet which he might not have chofen. I would therefore read: -'Tis time indeed we train Did fhow ourselves &c. STEEVENS. 5 Affemble we immediate council:] [Old copy-affemble me.] Shakspeare frequently ufes this kind of phrafeology, but I do not recollect any inftance where he has introduced it in folemn dialogue, where one equal is fpeaking to another. Perhaps therefore the correction made by the editor of the fecond folio is right: Affemble we, &c. So afterwards: "Yet, ere we put ourselves in arms, difpatch we," &c. Since this note was written, I have obferved the fame phraseology ufed by our poet in grave dialogue. See Troilus and Creffida, Act III. fc. iii: A ftrange fellow here "Writes me, that man, however dearly parted," &c. MALONE. I adhere to the reading of the fecond folio. Thus, in King Henry IV. P. II. King Henry V. fays: "Now call we our high court of parliament." STEEVENS. Enter CLEOPATRA, CHARMIAN, IRAS, and MARDIAN. CLEO. Charmian,— CHAR. Madam. CLEO. Ha, ha! Give me to drink mandragora.? CHAR. Why, madam? CLEO. That I might fleep out this great gap of time, My Antony is away. 6 I knew it for my bond.] That is, to be my bounden duty. M. MASON. 7 -mandragora.] A plant of which the infufion was fuppofed to procure fleep. Shakspeare mentions it in Othello: "Not poppy, nor mandragora, "Nor all the drowfy fyrups of the world, So, in Webfter's Dutchefs of Malfy, 1623: "Come violent death, JOHNSON. "Serve for mandragora, and make me fleep." STEEVENS, Gerard, in his Herbal, fays of the mandragoras: "Diofcorides doth particularly fet downe many faculties hereof, of which notwithstanding there be none proper unto it, fave thofe that depend upon the drowfie and fleeping power thereof." In Adlington's Apuleius (of which the epiftle is dated 1566) reprinted 1639, 4to, bl. 1. p. 187, lib, 10:" I gave him no poy fon, but a doling drink of mandragoras, which is of fuch force, that it will caufe any man to fleepe, as though he were dead.” PERCY. See alfo Pliny's Nat. Hift. by Holland, 1601, and Plutarch's Morals, 1602, p. 19. RITSON. CLEO. Not now to hear thee fing; I take no pleasure In aught an eunuch has: 'Tis well for thee, CLEO. Indeed? MAR. Not in deed, madam; for I can do nothing But what in deed is honeft to be done : Yet have I fierce affections, and think, CLEO. O Charmian, Where think'ft thou he is now? Stands he, or fits he? Or does he walk? or is he on his horfe? O happy horse, to bear the weight of Antony! Do bravely, horfe! for wot'ft thou whom thou mov'ft? The demi-Atlas of this earth, the arm And burgonet of men.3-He's speaking now, O, treason!] Old copy, coldly and unmetrically,― O, 'tis treafon!" STEEVENS. And burgonet of men.-] A burgonet is a kind of helmet. So, in King Henry VI: "This day I'll wear aloft my burgonet." Again, in The Birth of Merlin, 1662: "This, by the gods and my good fword, I'll fet For fo he calls me; Now I feed myself ALEX. Enter ALEXAS, Sovereign of Egypt, hail! CLEO. How much unlike art thou Mark Antony! Yet, coming from him, that great medicine hath With his tinct gilded thee.3. How goes it with my brave Mark Antony? ALEX. Laft thing he did, dear queen, He kifs'd, the laft of many doubled kiffes,- 9- Broad-fronted Cæfar,] Mr. Seward is of opinion, that the poet wrote-bald-fronted Cæfar. STEEVENS. 3 Broad-fronted, in allufion to Cæfar's baldnefs. HENLEY. - that great medicine hath With his tinct gilded thee.] Alluding to the philofopher's ftone, which, by its touch, converts bafe metal into gold. The alchemists call the matter, whatever it be, by which they perform tranfmutation, a medicine. JOHNSON. Thus Chapman, in his Shadow of Night, 1594: "O then, thou great elixir of all treafures." And on this paffage he has the following note: "The philofopher's ftone, or philofophica medicina, is called the great Elixir, to which he here alludes." Thus, in The Chanones Yemannes Tale of Chaucer, Mr. Tyrwhitt's edit. v. 16330: "the philofophre's ftone, "Elixir cleped, we feken faft eche on." See Vol. III. p. 159, n. 7. STEEVENS. |