The third o' the world is yours; which with a fnaffle You may pace eafy, but not fuch a wife. ENO. 'Would, we had all fuch wives, that the men might go to wars with the women! ANT. So much uncurbable, her garboils, Cæfar, Made out of her impatience, (which not wanted Shrewdness of policy too,) I grieving grant, Did you too much difquiet: for that, you must But fay, I could not help it. CES. I wrote to you, ANT. Sir, He fell upon me, ere admitted; then By the words, you had her fpirit, &c. Shakspeare, I apprehend, meant, you were united to, or poffeffed of, a woman with her fpirit. Having formerly mifapprehended this paffage, and fuppofed that Antony wifhed Auguftus to be actuated by a spirit fimilar to Fulvia's, I proposed to read-e'en fuch another, in being frequently printed for e'en in these plays. But there is no need of change. MALONE. Such, I believe, fhould be omitted, as both the verfe and meaning are complete without it. I would you had her spirit in another. The compofitor's eye might have caught the here fuperfluous fuch, from the next line but one, in which fuch is abfolutely neceffary both to the fenfe and metre. The plain meaning of Antony is-I wish you had my wife's fpirit in another wife;-i, e, in a wife of your own. STEEVENS. 3 I told him of myself;] i. e. when he had his laft audience. Told him the condition I was in, As to have afk'd him pardon: Let this fellow Out of our question wipe him. CES. You have broken The article of your oath; which you shall never Have tongue to charge me with. LEP. Lepidus, let him speak; Soft, Cæfar. No, The honour's facred which he talks on now, ▲ The honour's sacred-] Sacred, for unbroken, unviolated. WARBURTON. Dr. Warburton feems to understand this paffage thus; The bonour which he talks of me as lacking, is unviolated, I never lacked it. This perhaps may be the true meaning, but before I read the note, I understood it thus: Lepidus interrupts Cæfar, on the fuppofition that what he is about to fay will be too harsh to be endured by Antony; to which Antony replies, No, Lepidus, let bim fpeak; the fecurity of honour on which he now fpeaks, on which this conference is held now, is facred, even fuppofing that I lacked honour before. JOHNSON. Antony, in my opinion, means to fay,-The theme of honour which he now fpeaks of, namely, the religion of an oath, for which he fuppofes me not to have a due regard, is facred; it is a tender point, and touches my character nearly. Let him therefore urge his charge, that I may vindicate myfelf. MALONE. I do not think that either Johnson's or Malone's explanation of this paffage is fatisfactory. The true meaning of it appears to be this: Cæfar accufes Antony of a breach of honour in denying to fend him aid when he required it, which was contrary to his oath. Antony fays, in his defence, that he did not deny his aid, but in the midft of diffipation neglected to fend it: that having now brought his forces to join him against Pompey, he had redeemed that error; and that therefore the honour which Cæfar talked of, was now facred and inviolate, fuppofing that he had been somewhat deficient before, in the performance of that engagement." The adverb now refers to is, not to talks on; and the line should be pointed thus: The honour's facred that he talks on, now, Suppofing that I lack'd it: But on, Cæfar; The article of my oath, CAS. To lend me arms, and aid, when I requir'd them; The which you both deny❜d. ANT. Neglected, rather; And then, when poison'd hours had bound me up From mine own knowledge. As nearly as I may, I'll play the penitent to you: but mine honefty Shall not make poor my greatnefs, nor my power Work without it: Truth is, that Fulvia, To have me out of Egypt, made wars here; For which myself, the ignorant motive, do So far afk pardon, as befits mine honour To stoop in fuch a cafe. LEP. 'Tis nobly spoken.“ MEC. Ifit 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 spoke, Mecenas. ENO. Or, if you borrow one another's love for the inftant, you may, when you hear no more words of Pompey, return it again: you fhall have time to wrangle in, when you have nothing else to do. ANT. Thou art a foldier only; speak no more. nor my power Work without it: Nor my greatness work without mine honefty. MALONE. 6 'Tis nobly spoken.] Thus the fecond folio. The firft-noble. STEEVENS. The griefs D. 5. STEEVENS. ENO. That truth fhould be filent," I had almost forgot. 7 ANT. You wrong this presence, therefore speak no more. ENO. Go to then; your confiderate ftone." 6 That truth should be filent,] We find a fimilar fentiment in King Lear: “ Truth's a dog that must to kennel,-." STEEVENS. your confiderate ftone.] This line is paffed by all the editors, as if they understood it, and believed it univerfally intelligible. I cannot find in it any very obvious, and hardly any poflible meaning. I would therefore read: Go to then, you confiderate ones. You who diflike my franknefs and temerity of fpeech, and are fo confiderate and difcreet, go to, do your own bufinefs. JOHNSON. I believe, Go to then; your confiderate ftone, means only this: If I must be chidden, henceforward I will be mute as a marble statue, which Jeems to think, though it can fay nothing. As filent as a ftone, however, might have been once a common phrafe. So, in the interlude of Jacob and Efau, 1598: Bring thou in thine, Mido, and fee thou be a ftone. Mido. A flone, how fhould that be, &c. "Rebecca.] I meant thou should't nothing fay." Again, in the old metrical romance of Syr Guy of Warwick, bl. I. no date: "Guy let it paffe as ftill as flone, "And to the steward word fpake none." Again, in Titus Andronicus, Act III. fc. i: Again, Chaucer: "To riden by the way, dombe as the flone." In Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy, Part I. Sect. 2. Memb. 3. Subf. 15. the following paffage occurs as a quotation : -ftatua taciturnior exit, Plerumq; et rifum populi quatit. Mr. Tollet explains the paffage in question, thus: "I will henceforth feem fenfelefs as a tone, however I may obferve and confider your words and actions." STEEVENS. The metre of this line is deficient. It will be perfect, and the fenfe rather clearer, if we read (without altering a letter): 66 your confiderateit one." I doubt indeed whether this adjective is ever ufed in the fuperlative degree; but in the mouth of Enobarbus it might be par doned. BLACKSTONE. 8 CES. I do not much dislike the matter, but The manner of his fpeech: for it cannot be, We shall remain in friendship, our conditions So differing in their acts. Yet, if I knew What hoop should hold us staunch,' from edge to edge O' the world I would pursue it. AGR. CES. Speak, Agrippa. Give me leave, Cæfar, AGR. Thou hast a sister by the mother's fide, Admir'd Octavia: great Mark Antony Is now a widower. CES. Say not fo, Agrippa; * If Cleopatra heard you, your reproof Your, like hour, &c. is used as a diffyllable; the metre therefore is not defective. MALONE. That the metre is completed by reading your as a diffyllable, my car, at leaft, is unconvinced. STEEVENS. As Enobarbus, to whom this line belongs, generally speaks in plain profe, there is no occafion for any further attempt to harmonize it. RITSON. 8 I do not much dislike the matter, but The manner of his speech:] I do not, fays Cæfar, think the man wrong, but too free of his interpofition; for it cannot be, we fball remain in friendship: yet if it were possible, I would endeavour it. JOHNSON. • What hoop should hold us ftaunch,] So, in King Henry IV. P. II: "A hoop of gold, to bind thy brothers in "STEEVENS. Say not fo, Agrippa;] The old copy has-Say not fay. Mr. Rowe made this neceffary correction. MALONE. 3 -your reproof Were well deferv'd -your proof Were well deferv'd -] In the old edition : which Mr. Theobald, with his ufual triumph, changes to ap proof, which he explains, allowance. Dr. Warburton inferted reproof very properly into Hanmer's edition, but forgot it in his own. JOHNSON. |