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Than could his war refifted.

CES.

Antony,

Leave thy lafcivious waffels. When thou once
Waft beaten from Modena, where thou flew'st
Hirtius and Panfa, confuls, at thy heel

Did famine follow; whom thou fought'st against,
Though daintily brought up, with patience more
Than favages could fuffer: Thou didst drink
The ftale of horses, and the gilded puddle'
Which beasts would cough at: thy palate then did
deign

2

The rougheft berry on the rudeft hedge;

Yea, like the ftag, when fnow the pafture fheets,
The barks of trees thou browfed'ft; on the Alps,
It is reported, thou didst eat strange flesh,
Which fome did die to look on: And all this
(It wounds thine honour, that I speak it now,)
Was borne fo like a foldier, that thy cheek
So much as lank'd not.

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.

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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.

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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
Both what by fea and land I can be able,
To 'front this prefent time.

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,
To let me be partaker.

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"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:

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"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:

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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.

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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,
"Shall ever med'cine thee to that sweet sleep-.'

So, in Webfter's Dutchefs of Malfy, 1623: "Come violent death,

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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.

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CLEO. Not now to hear thee fing; I take no pleasure

In aught an eunuch has: 'Tis well for thee,
That, being unfeminar'd, thy freer thoughts
May not fly forth of Egypt. Haft thou affections?
MAR. Yes, gracious madam.

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,
What Venus did with Mars.

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,
Or murmuring, Where's my ferpent of old Nile?

O, treason!] Old copy, coldly and unmetrically,―

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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
"In bloody lines upon thy burgonet." STEEVENS.

For fo he calls me; Now I feed myself
With most delicious poifon :-Think on me,
That am with Phoebus' amorous pinches black,
And wrinkled deep in time? Broad-fronted Cæfar,
When thou waft here above the ground, I was
A morfel for a monarch: and great Pompey
Would stand, and make his eyes grow in my brow;
There would he anchor his afpéct, and die
With looking on his life.

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,-
This orient pearl ;-His speech sticks in my heart.

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.
anchor bis afpéa,] So, in Meafure for Measure:
"Whilft my invention, hearing not my tongue,
"Anchors on Ifabel." STEEVENS,

- 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.

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