Thou doft fo crown with gold! This blows my heart: 8 If fwift thought break it not, a swifter mean Shall outstrike thought: but thought will do't, I feel." I fight against thee!-No: I will go feek Some ditch, wherein to die; the foul'ft beft fits SCENE VII. Field of battle between the Camps. [Exit. Alarum. Drums and Trumpets. Enter AGRIPPA, and Others. AGR. Retire, we have engag'd ourselves too far: Cæfar himself has work, and our oppreffion Exceeds what we expected. [Exeunt. This blows my heart :] All the latter editions have: This bows my heart: I have given the original word again the place from which I think it unjustly excluded. This generofity, (fays Enobarbus,) fwells my heart, fo that it will quickly break, if thought break it not, a fwifter mean. JOHNSON. 'That to blow means to puff or fwell, the following inftance, in the last scene of this play, will fufficiently prove: 66 on her breaft "There is a vent of blood, and fomething blown." Again, in King Lear: 9 "No blown ambition doth our arms excite-." STEEVENS. but thought will do't, I feel.] Thought, in this paffage, as in many others, "fignifies melancholy. See p. 570, n. MALONE. Alarum. Enter ANTONY and SCARUS, wounded. SCAR. O my brave emperor, this is fought indeed! Had we done fo at first, we had driven them home With clouts about their heads. ANT. Thou bleed'ft apace. SCAR. I had a wound here that was like a T, But now 'tis made an H. ANT. They do retire. SCAR. We'll beat 'em into bench-holes; I have EROS. They are beaten, fir; and our advantage ferves For a fair victory. SCAR. Let us score their backs, And fnatch 'em up, as we take hares, behind; 'Tis fport to maul a runner. ANT. Once for thy fpritely I will reward thee comfort, and ten-fold I'll halt after. [Exeunt. Sir T. Hanmer has received oppofition. Perhaps rightly. JOHNSON. Our oppreffion means, the force by which we are opprefs'd or overpowered. MALONE. So, in Romeo and Juliet: "At thy good heart's oppreffion." STEEVENS. SCENE VIII. Under the walls of Alexandria. Alarum. Enter ANTONY, marching; SCARUS, and Forces. ANT. We have beat him to his camp: Run one before, And let the queen know of our guests.'-To-mor row, Before the fun fhall fee us, we'll fpill the blood Enter CLEOPATRA, attended. To this great fairy' I'll commend thy acts, Make her thanks blefs thee.-O thou day o' the world, 3 Run one before, And let the queen know of our guests.] Antony after his fuccefs intends to bring his officers to fup with Cleopatra, and orders notice to be given of their guests. JOHNSON. 4 clip your wives,] To clip is to embrace. See Vol. III. p. 121, n. 2; and Vol. VII. p. 189, n. 4. STEEVENS. 5 To this great fairy] Mr. Upton has well obferved, that Chain mine arm'd neck; leap thou, attire and all, Through proof of harness to my heart, and there Ride on the pants triumphing. CLEO. Lord of lords! O infinite virtue! com'ft thou fmiling from ANT. We have beat them to their beds. though grey My nightingale, What, girl? 7 Do fomething mingle with our brown; yet have we fairy, which Dr. Warburton and Sir T. Hanmer explain by Inchantrefs, comprifes the idea of power and beauty. JOHNSON. Fairy in former times did not fignify only a diminutive imaginary being, but an inchanter, in which laft fenfe, as has been obferved, it is used here. But Mr. Upton's affertion that it comprizes the idea of beauty as well as power, feems queftionable; for Sir W. D'Avenant employs the word in defcribing the weird fifters, (who certainly were not beautiful,) in the argument prefixed to his alteration of Macbeth, 4to. 1674: "Thefe two, travelling together through a foreft, were met by three fairie witches, (weirds the Scotch call them,)" &c. See alfo Vol. VII. p. 275, n. 5. MALONE. Surely, Mr. Upton's remark is not indefenfible. Beauty united with power, was the popular characteristick of Fairies generally confidered. Such was that of The Fairy Queen of Spenfer, and Titania in A Midfummer-Night's Dream. Sir W. Davenant's particular ufe of any word is by no means decifive. That the language of Shakspeare was unfamiliar to him, his own contemptible alterations of it have fufficiently demonftrated. STEEVENS. 6 -proof of harness-] i. e. armour of proof. Harnois, Fr. Arnefe, Ital. STEEVENS. See Vol. VII. p. 573, n.7. MALONE. with our brown ;] Old copy-younger brown: but as this epithet, without improving the idea, fpoils the measure, I have not fcrupled, with Sir Thomas Hanmer and others, to omit it as an interpolation. See p. 621, n. 4. STEEVENS. Get goal for goal of youth.] At all plays of barriers, the boun VOL. XII. Rr Commend unto his lips thy favouring hand;- Destroy'd in fuch a fhape. CLEO. I'll give thee, friend, An armour all of gold; it was a king's. ANT. He has deferv'd it, were it carbuncled Like holy Phoebus' car.-Give me thy hand;Through Alexandria make a jolly march; Bear our hack'd targets like the men that owe them: " Had our great palace the capacity To camp this hoft, we all would fup together; Applauding our approach. [Exeunt. dary is called a goal; to win a goal, is to be a fuperiour in a contest of activity. JOHNSON. 8—it was a king's.] So, in Sir T. North's tranflation of Plutarch: "Then came Antony again to the palace greatly boafting of this victory, and fweetly kiffed Cleopatra, armed as he was when he came from the fight, recommending one of his men of arms unto her, that had valiantly fought in this fkirmish. Cleopatra, to reward his manlinefs, gave him an armour and headpiece of clean gold." STEEVENS. 9 Bear our back'd targets like the men that owe them:] i. c. hack'd as much as the men to whom they belong. WARBURTON. Why not rather, Bear our back'd targets with spirit and exultation, fuch as becomes the brave warriors that own them ?" JOHNSON. 2 tabourines;] A tabourin was a fmall drum. It is often mentioned in our ancient romances. So, in The Hiftory of Helyas Knight of the Swanne, bl. 1. no date: "Trumpetes, clerons, ta bourins, and other minstrelly." STEEVENS, |