Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

Your fweet dependancy; and you shall find
A conqueror, that will pray in aid for kindness,'
Where he for grace is kneel'd to.

CLEO.
I am his fortune's vaffal, and I fend him
The greatness he has got. I hourly learn
A doctrine of obedience; and would gladly
Look him i' the face.

[Within.] Pray you, tell him

PRO. This I'll report, dear lady. Have comfort; for, I know, your plight is pity'd Of him that caus'd it.

GAL. You fee how easily she may be furpriz'd; [Here PROCULEIUS, and two of the guard, afcend the monument by a ladder placed against a window, and having defcended, come behind CLEOPATRA. Some of the guard unbar and open the gates."

Guard her till Cæfar come."

[to PROCULEIUS and the guard. Exit GALLUS.

3 that will pray in aid for kindness,] Praying in aid is a term used for a petition made in a court of juftice for the calling in of help from another that hath an intereft in the cause in queftion. HANMER.

-fend him

The greatness he has got.] I allow him to be my conqueror; I own his fuperiority with complete fubmiffion. JOHNSON. A kindred idea feems to occur in The Tempest:

"Then, as my gift, and thy own acquifition,

"Worthily purchas'd, take my daughter." STEEVENS. Johnfon has mistaken the meaning of this paffage, nor will the words bear the construction he gives them. It appears to me, that by the greatness he has got, fhe means her crown which he has won; and I fuppofe that when the pronounces these words, the delivers to Proculeius either her crown, or fome other enfign of royalty. M. MASON.

In the old copy there is no ftage-direction. That which is now inferted is formed on the old tranflation of Plutarch: Proculeius came to the gates that were very thicke and ftrong, and furely

IRAS. Royal queen !

CHAR. O Cleopatra! thou art taken, queen!

barred; but yet there were fome cranews through the which her voyce might be beard, and fo they without underftood that Cleopatra demaunded the kingdome of Egypt for her fonnes: and that Procu leius aunswered her, that the fhould be of good cheere and not be affrayed to refer all unto Cæfar. After he had viewed the place very well, he came and reported her aunfwere unto Cæfar: who immediately fent Gallus to speak once againe with her, and bad him purposely hold her with talk, whilft Proculeius did fet up a ladder against that high windowe by the which Antonius was trefed up, and came down into the monument with two of his men hard by the gate, where Cleopatra ftood to hear what Gallus faid unto her. One of her women which was fhut in her monument with her, fawe Proculeius by chaunce, as he came downe, and threeked out, O, poore Cleopatra, thou art taken. Then when the fawe Proculeius behind her as the came from the gate, fhe thought to have ftabbed herself with a short dagger fhe wore of purpose by her fide. But Proculeius came fodainly upon her, and taking her by both the hands, fayd unto her, Cleopatra, firft thou fhalt doe thy felfe great wrong, and fecondly unto Cæfar, to deprive him of the occafion and opportunitie openlie to fhew his vauntage and mercie, and to give his enemies cause to accuse the most courteous and noble prince that ever was, and to appeache him as though he were a cruel and mercilesse man, that were not to be trufted. So, even as he fpake the word, he tooke her dagger from her, and shooke her clothes for feare of any poyfon hidden about her." MALONE. 6 Gal. You fee how eafily fhe may be furpriz'd;

Guard her till Cæfar come.] [Mr. Rowe (and Mr. Pope followed him) allotted this fpeech to Charmian.] This blunder was for want of knowing, or obferving, the historical fact. When Cæfar fent Proculeius to the queen, he fent Gallus after him with new instructions: and while one amufed Cleopatra with propofitions from Cæfar, through the crannies of the monument, the other scaled it by a ladder, entered it at a window backward, and made Cleopatra, and thofe with her, prifoners. I have reformed the paffage therefore, (as, I am perfuaded, the author defigned it;) from the authority of Plutarch. [Mr. Theobald gives-You fee bow easily &c. to Gallus; and Guard her &c. to Proculeius.]

THEOBALD.

This line in the first edition is given to Proculeius; and to him it certainly belongs, though perhaps mifplaced. I would put it at the end of his foregoing fpeech:

CLEO. Quick, quick, good hands.

[drawing a dagger.

6 PRO.

Do not yourself fuch wrong, who are in this
Reliev'd, but not betray'd.

CLEO.

Hold, worthy lady, hold:

[Jeizes and difarms her.

What, of death too,

Cleopatra,

That rids our dogs of languifh?"

PRO.

Do not abuse my mafter's bounty, by
The undoing of yourfelf: let the world fee

Where he for grace is kneel'd to.

[Afide to Gallus.] You fee, how easily fhe may be furpriz'd. Then while Cleopatra makes a formal anfwer, Gallus, upon the hint given, feizes her, and Proculeius, interrupting the civility of his anfwer:

-your plight is pity'd Of him that caus'd it.

cries out :

Guard her till Cæfar come. JOHNSON.

To this fpeech, as well as the preceding, Pro. [i. e. Proculeius] is prefixed in the old copy. It is clear from the paffage quoted from Plutarch in the following note that this was an error of the compofitor's at the prefs, and that it belongs to Gallus; who, after Proculeius hath, according to his fuggeftion, afcended the monument, goes out to inform Cæfar that Cleopatra is taken. That Cæfar was informed immediately of Cleopatra's being taken, appears from Dolabella's firft fpeech to Proculeius on his entry. See p. 660:

"Proculeius,

"What thou haft done, thy master Cæfar knows," &c. This information, it is to be prefumed, Cæfar obtained from Gallus. The ftage-directions being very imperfect in this fcene in the old copy, no exit is here marked; but as Gallus afterwards enters along with Cæfar, it was undoubtedly the author's intention that he fhould here go out. In the modern editions this as well as the preceding fpeech is given to Proculcius, though the error in the old copy clearly shows that two speakers were intended. MALONE. languifh? So, in Romeo and Juliet, Act I. fc. ii: "One defperate grief cure with another's languish."

[blocks in formation]

STEEVENS,

His nobleness well acted, which your death
Will never let come forth.

CLEO.
Where art thou, death?
Come hither, come! come, come, and take a queen
Worth many babes and beggars! 7

PRO.

O, temperance, lady!

CLEO. Sir, I will eat no meat, I'll not drink, fir; If idle talk will once be neceffary, I'll not fleep neither: This mortal houfe I'll ruin,

7 Worth many babes and beggars!] Why, death, wilt thou not rather feize a queen, than employ thy force upon babes and beggars. JOHNSON.

8 If idle talk will once be necessary,

I'll not fleep neither:] I will not eat, and if it will be necessary now for once to waste a moment in idle talk of my purpose, I will not fleep neither. In common converfation we often ufe will be, with as little relation to futurity. As, Now I am going, it will be fit for me to dine firft. JOHNSON.

Once may mean fometimes. Of this ufe of the word I have already given inftances, both in The Merry Wives of Windfor, and King Henry VIII. The meaning of Cleopatra feems to be this. If idle talking be fometimes neceffary to the prolongation of life, why I will not fleep for fear of talking idly in my fleep.

The fenfe defigned, however, may be-If it be neceffary, for once, to talk of performing impoffibilities, why, I'll not fleep neither. I have little confidence, however, in these attempts to produce a meaning from the words under confideration. STEEVENS.

The explications above given appear to me fo unfatisfactory, and fo little deducible from the words, that I have no doubt that a line has been loft after the word neceffary, in which Cleopatra threatened to obferve an obftinate filence. The line probably began with the words I'll, and the compofitor's eye glancing on the fame words in the line beneath, all that intervened was loft. See p. 539, n. 5, and p. 647, n. 7.

So, in Othello, quarto, 1622, Á& III. fc. i:

"And needs no other fuitor but his likings,
"To take the fafeft occafion by the front,

"To bring you in."

In the folio the fecond line is omitted, by the compofitor's eye, after the first word of it was compofed, glancing on the fame word immediately under it in the fubfequent line, and then proceeding with that line instead of the other." This happens frequently at the

Do Cæfar what he can. Know, fir, that I
Will not wait pinion'd at your master's court;
Nor once be cháftis'd with the fober eye
Of dull Octavia. Shall they hoift me up,
And show me to the shouting varletry

Of cenfuring Rome? Rather a ditch in Egypt
Be gentle grave to me! rather on Nilus' mud
Lay me ftark naked, and let the water-flies
Blow me into abhorring! rather make
My country's high pyramides my gibbet,
And hang me up in chains!

prefs. The omitted line in the paffage which has given rife to the prefent note, might have been of this import:

Sir, I will eat no meat, I'll not drink, fir;

If idle talk will once be neceffary,

I'LL not fo much as fyllable a word;

I'LL not fleep neither: This mortal house I'll ruin, &c. The words I'll not fleep neither, contain a new and distinct menace. I once thought that Shakspeare might have written-I'll not speak neither; but in p. 671, Cæfar comforting Cleopatra, fays, "feed, and fleep" which shows that fleep in the paffage before us is the true reading. MALONE.

I agree that a line is loft, which I fhall attempt to fupply:
Sir, I will eat no meat, I'll not drink, fir;

If idle talk will once be neceffary,

[I will not speak; if fleep be neceffary,]
I'll not fleep neither.

The repetition of the word neceffary may have occafioned the omiffion. RITSON.

9 My country's high pyramides my gibbet,] The poet defigned we fhould read-pyramides, Lat. inftead of pyramids, and fo the folio reads. The verfe will otherwife be defective. Thus, in Dr, Fauftus, 1604:

"Befides the gates and high pyramides

"That Julius Cæfar brought from Africa.”

Again, in Tamburlaine, 1590:

"Like to the fhadows of pyramides."

Again, in Warner's Albion's England, 1602. B. XII. c. Ixxiii: "The theaters, pyramides, the hills of half a mile."

Mr. Tollet obferves, "that Sandys in his Travels, as well as Drayton in the 26th fong of his Polyolbion, ufes pyramides as a quadrifyllable, STEEVENS.

« AnteriorContinuar »