But comforts we despise; our fize of forrow, Enter DIOMEDES. As that which makes it.-How now? is he dead? CLEO. Enter ANTONY, borne by the Guard. O thou fun, Burn the great sphere thou mov'ft in !—darkling ' ftand The varying shore o'the world! 3-O Antony! 9 His death's upon him, but not dead.] The defective measure, and want of refpect in the speaker, induce me to suppose, that this line originally flood thus: 2 His death's upon him, madam, but not dead. STEEVENS. - darkling-] i. e. without light. So, in The Two angry Women of Abington, 1599: 66 wife mother hath a torch, your 30 thou fun, Burn the great fphere thou mov'ft in!-darkling ftand The varying bore o' the world!] Thou is wanting in the old copy, and was fupplied by Mr. Pope, whofe reading may be juftified on the authority of a fimilar paffage in Timon of Athens: "Thou fun, that comfort'ft, burn!" STEEVENS. She defires the fun to burn his own orb, the vehicle of light, and then the earth will be dark. JOHNSON, The varying shore o' the world! i. e. of the earth, where light and darkness make an inceffant variation. WARBURTON. According to the philofophy which prevailed from the age of Ariftotle to that of Shakspeare, and long fince, the fun was a planet, and was whirled round the earth by the motion of a folid fphere in which it was fixed.-If the fun therefore was to fet fire to the fphere, fo as to confume it, the confequence must be, that Antony, Antony!-Charmian, help; help, Iras; Help, friends below; let's draw him hither. Peace: ANT. CLEO. So it fhould be, that none but Antony CLEO. 6 I dare not, dear, (Dear my lord, pardon,) I dare not, Left I be taken:' not the imperious show itfelf, for want of fupport, muft drop through, and wander in endless space; and in this cafe the earth would be involved in endless night. HEATH. Charmian, help; &c.] Old copy "The varring fhore o'th' world. O Antony, Antony, Antony Helpe Charmian, helpe Iras helpe: helpe friends "Below, let's draw him hither." For the fake of fomewhat like metre, one word has been omitted and others tranfpofed. STEEVENS. Egypt, dying;] Perhaps this line was originally completed by a further repetition of the participle; and ftood thus: I am dying, Egypt, dying, dying; only &c. STEEVENS. 6 I here impórtune death &c.] I folicit death to delay; or, I trouble death by keeping him in waiting. JOHNSON. 1 Cleo. I dare not, dear, (Dear my lord, pardon,) I dare not, Left I be taken: Antony is fuppofed to be at the foot of the monument, and tells Cleopatra that he there importunes death, till he can lay his laft kifs upon her lips, which was intimating to her his defire that fhe fhould come to him for that purpose. She confiders it in that light, and tells him that the dares not. M. MASON. Antony has juft faid that he only folicits death to delay his end, till he has given her a farewell kifs. To this the replies that he dares not; and, in our authour's licentious diction, the may mean, Of the full-fortun'd Cæfar ever fhall Be brooch'd with me; if knife, drugs, ferpents, have that fhe, now above in the monument, does not dare to defcend that he may take leave of her. But, from the defect of the metre in the fecond line, I think it more probable that a word was omitted by the compofitor, and that the poet wrote: I dare not, dear, (Dear my lord, pardon,) I dare not descend, Left I be taken. Mr. Theobald amends the paffage differently, by adding to the end of Antony's fpeech-Come down. MALONE. Theobald's infertion feems misplaced, and should be made at the end of the next line but one. I would therefore read: I lay upon thy lips. Cleo. I dare not, dear, (Dear my lord, pardon,) I dare not come down. RITSON. 8 Of the full-fortun'd Cæfar] So, in Othello: "What a full-fortune doth the thick-lips owe?" MALONE. 9 Be brooch'd with me ;] Be brooch'd, i. e. adorn'd. A brooch was an ornament formerly worn in the hat. So, in Ben Jonson's Poetafter," Honour's a good brooch to wear in a man's hat at all times." Again, in his Staple of News: "The very brooch o' the bench, gem of the city." Again, in The Magnetick Lady: "The brooch to any true ftate cap in Europe." The Rev. Mr. Lambe obferves in his notes on the ancient metrical Hiftory of Floddon Field, that brooches in the North are buckles fet with ftones, fuch as those with which shirt-bofoms and handkerchiefs are clafped. STEEVENS. be brooch'd with me. Brooch is properly a bodkin, or fome fuch inftrument (originally a fpit) and ladies' bodkins being headed with gems, it fometimes ftands for an ornamental trinket or jewel in general, in which fenfe it is perhaps used at prefent; or as probably in its original one, for pinned up, as we now fay pin up the basket; brooch'd with me, i. e. pinned up, compleated with having me to adorn his triumph. PERCY. A brooch is always an ornament; whether a buckle or pin for the breaft, hat, or hair, or whatever other fhape it may affume. A broach is a fpit: the fpires of churches are likewife fo called in the northern counties, as Darnton breach. Broach'd, in the text, 2 Edge, fting, or operation, I am safe: Your wife Octavia, with her modeft eyes, ANT. O, quick, or I am gone. CLEO. Here's sport, indeed! -How heavy weighs my lord! Our strength is all gone into heavinefs, certainly means adorn'd, as it has been properly explained by Mr. Steevens. RITSON. if knife, drugs, ferpents, have Edge, fing, or operation,] Here is the fame irregular pofition of the words, that Mr. Warner would avoid or amend in Hamlet : and yet Shakspeare feems to have attended to this matter in the very play before us, Act III. fc. ii. TOLLET. This thought occurs in Queen Elizabeth's Entertainment in Suffolke and Norfolke, by Churchyard, no date, 4to. where Beautie fays, "If he do dye, by mightie Jove I sweare "I will not live, if fword or knife be found" &c. Again, in Pericles Prince of Tyre: "If fires be hot, knives fharp, or waters deep, Unty'd I ftill my virgin knot will keep." STEEVENS. 3 ftill conclufion,] Sedate determination; filent coolness of refolution. JOHNSON. 4 Here's Sport, indeed!] I fuppofe the meaning of these strange words is, here's trifling, you do not work in earnest. JOHNSON. Perhaps rather, here's a curious game, the laft we shall ever play with Antony! Or perhaps fhe is thinking of fishing with a line, a diverfion of which we have been already told fhe was fond. Shakspeare has introduced ludicrous ideas with as much incongruity in other places. MALONE. Cleopatra, perhaps, by this affected levity, this phrafe which has no determined fignification, only wishes to infpire Antony with cheerfulness, and encourage thofe who are engaged in the melancholy task of drawing him up into the monument. STEEVENS. into heavinefs,] Heavinefs is here ufed equivocally for farrow and weight. MALONE. 5 That makes the weight: Had I great Juno's power, The ftrong-wing'd Mercury fhould fetch thee up, And fet thee by Jove's fide. Yet come a little,Withers were ever fools ;-O, come, come, come; [They draw ANTONY up. And welcome, welcome! die, where thou haft liv'd: 2 Quicken with kiffing;' had my lips that power, Thus would I wear them out. ALL. A heavy fight! ANT. I am dying, Egypt, dying: Give me fome wine, and let me fpeak a little. CLEO. No, let me fpeak; and let me rail fo high, That the falfe housewife Fortune' break her wheel, Provok'd by my offence. ANT. One word, fweet queen: Of Cæfar feek your honour, with your fafety.-O! 2 where thou haft liv'd:] Old copy-when thou, &c. Corrected by Mr. Pope. MALONE. 3 Quicken with kissing;-] That is, Revive by my kiss. So, in Heywood's Royal King, 1637: JOHNSON. "And quickens most where he would moft destroy." STEEVENS. 4 Give me fome wine, &c.] This circumftance, like almoft every other, Shakspeare adopted from Plutarch. Sir Thomas North, in his tranflation, fays," Antony made her ceafe from lamenting, and called for wine, either because he was athirft, or elfe for that thereby to haften his death. When he had dronke, he carneftly prayed her, and perfuaded that fhe would feeke to fave her life, if The could poffible, without reproache and dishonour: and that the fhould chiefly truft Proculeius above any man elfe about Cæfar." STEEVENS. 5 housewife Fortune-] This defpicable line has occurred before. JOHNSON. See As you like it, Vol. VI. p. 15, n. 7: "Let us fit, and mock the good housewife Fortune from her wheel," &c. MALONE. |