You fhall not kneel: I pray you, rise; rise, Egypt. CLEO. Sir, the gods Will have it thus; my mafter and my lord I must obey. CES. Take to you no hard thoughts: The record of what injuries you did us, Though written in our flesh, we shall remember As things but done by chance. CLEO. Sole fir o' the world, I cannot project mine own caufe fo well + 4 I cannot project mine own caufe fo well] Project fignifies to invent a caufe, not to plead it; which is the fenfe here required. It is plain that we should read: I cannot proctor my own cause fo well. The technical term, to plead by an advocate. WARBURTON. I cannot parget my own caufe meaning, I cannot whitewash, varnish, or glofs my cause. I believe the prefent reading to be right. To project a caufe is to reprefent a caufe; to project it well, is to plan or contrive a scheme of defence. JOHNSON, The old reading may certainly be the true one. Sir John Harrington in his Metamorphofis of Ajax, 1596, p. 79, fays: "I have chofen Ajax for the project of this difcourfe." Yet Sir Thomas Hanmer's conjecture may be likewise countenanced; for the word he wishes to bring in, is ufed in the 4th eclogue of Drayton : "Scorn'd paintings, pargit, and the borrow'd hair." And feveral times by Ben Jonfon. So, in The Silent Woman: fhe's above fifty too, and pargets." STEEVENS. 66 In Much ado about Nothing, we find thefe lines: "Nor take no fhape nor project of affection, I cannot project, &c. means therefore, I cannot shape or form my caufe, &c. MALONE. CES. Cleopatra, know, We will extenuate rather than enforce: If you apply yourself to our intents, (Which towards you are most gentle,) you shall find Antony's course, you shall bereave yourself CLEO. And may, through all the world: 'tis yours; and we Your 'fcutcheons, and your figns of conqueft, fhall Hang in what place you please. Here, my good lord. CES. You fhall advise me in all for Cleopatra." CLEO. This is the brief of money, plate, and jewels, I am poffefs'd of: 'tis exactly valued; Not petty things admitted."-Where's Seleucus? 5 You fball advise me in all for Cleopatra.] You fhall yourself be my counsellor, and suggest whatever you wish to be done for your relief. So, afterwards: "For we intend fo to difpofe you, as "Yourself fhall give us counfel." MALONE. 6 'tis exally valued; Not petty things admitted.] Sagacious editors! Cleopatra gives in a lift of her wealth, fays, 'tis exactly valued, but that petty things are not admitted in this lift: and then the appeals to her treasurer, that the has referved nothing to herself. And when he betrays her, the is reduced to the fhift of exclaiming against the ingratitude of fervants, and of making apologies for having fecreted certain trifles. Who does not fee, that we ought to read: Not petty things omitted? For this declaration lays open her falfhood; and makes her angry, when her treasurer detects her in a direct lie. THEOBALD. Notwithstanding the wrath of Mr. Theobald, I have reftored the old reading. She is angry afterwards, that the is accused of SEL. Here, madam. CLEO. This is my treasurer; let him speak, my lord, Upon his peril, that I have referv'd To myself nothing. Speak the truth, Seleucus. I had rather feel my lips," than, to my peril, CLEO. What have I kept back? SEL. Enough to purchase what you have made known. CAS. Nay, blush not, Cleopatra ; I approve Your wisdom in the deed. See, Cæfar! O, behold, CLEO. How pomp is follow'd! mine will now be yours; And, fhould we shift eftates, yours would be mine. The ingratitude of this Seleucus does Even make me wild :-O flave, of no more truft Than love that's hir'd!-What, goeft thou back? thou shalt Go back, I warrant thee; but I'll catch thine eyes, Though they had wings: Slave, foul-lefs villain, dog! O rarely base! 8 CES. Good queen, let us entreat you. CLEO. O Cæfar, what a wounding fhame is this;" having referved more than petty things. Dr. Warburton and Sir T. Hanmer follow Theobald. JOHNSON. 7 -feel my lips,] Sew up my mouth. JOHNSON. It means, close up my lips as effectually as the eyes of a hawk are clofed. To feel hawks was the technical term. STEEVENS. O rarely bafe!] i. e. base in an uncommon degree. STEEVENS. 9 O Cæfar, &c.] This fpeech of Cleopatra is taken from Sir That thou, vouchfafing here to visit me, To one fo meek," that mine own fervant should Addition of his envy! Say, good Cæfar, That I fome lady trifles have referv'd, Thomas North's tranflation of Plutarch, where it ftands as follows. "O Cæfar, is not this great fhame and reproach, that thou having vouchsafed to take the pains to come unto me, and haft done me this honour, poor wretch and caitiff creature, brought into this pitiful and miferable estate, and that mine own fervants fhould come now to accufe me. Though it may be that I have reserved fome jewels and trifles meet for women, but not for me (poor foul) to fet out myself withal; but meaning to give fome pretty prefents unto Octavia and Livia, that they making means and interceffion for me to thee, thou mightest yet extend thy favour and mercy upon me," &c. STEEVENS. 2 To one fo meek,] Meek, I fuppofe, means here, tame, fubdued by adverfity. So, in the parallel paffage in Plutarch:-" poor wretch, and caitiff creature, brought into this pitiful and miferable eftate- Cleopatra in any other fenfe was not eminent for meekness. Our author has employed this word in The Rape of Lucrece, in the fame fenfe as here: "Feeble defire, all recreant, poor, and meek, "Like to a bankrupt beggar, wails his cafe." MALONE. 3 Parcel the fum of my difgraces by] To parcel her difgraces, might be expreffed in vulgar language, to bundle up her calamities. JOHNSON. The meaning, I think, either is, "that this fellow fhould add one more parcel or item to the fum of my difgraces, namely, his own malice;"—or, "that this fellow should tot up the fum of my difgraces, and add his own malice to the account.' Parcel is here ufed technically. So, in King Henry IV. P. I. "That this fellow [Francis, the drawer,] thould have fewer words than a parrot! his eloquence the parcel of a reckoning." There it means, either an item, or the accumulated total formed by various items. MALONE, of his envy!] Envy is here, as almoft always in these plays, malice. See Vol. XI. p. 61, n. 9; and p. 105. MALONE. Immoment toys, things of fuch dignity With one that I have bred? The gods! It fmites me Beneath the fall I have. Pr'ythee, go hence; [To SELEUCUS. Or I shall show the cinders of my spirits Through the afhes of my chance:-Wert thou a man, 5 ·modern friends-] Modern means here, as it generally does in these plays, common or ordinary. M. MASON. So, in As you like it: “Full of wife faws and modern instances.” See Vol. VI. P. 68, n.9. STEEVENS. 6 Through the afbes of my chance:] Or fortune. The meaning is, Begone, or I fhall exert that royal fpirit which I had in my profperity, in spite of the imbecillity of my prefent weak condi tion. This taught the Oxford editor to alter it to mischance. WARBURTON. We have had already in this play-" the wounded chance of Antony." MALONE. Or I shall how the cinders of my Spirits Through the afhes of my chance:] Thus Chaucer in his Canterbury Tales, Tyrwhitt's edit. v. 3180: "Yet in our afhen cold is fire yreken." And thus (as the learned editor has obferved) Mr. Gray in his Church-yard Elegy: "Even in our afbes live their wonted fires." Mr. Gray refers to the following paffage in the 169 (171) fonnet of Petrarch, as his original: "Ch'i veggio nel penfier, dolce mio foco, "Fredda una lingua, e due begli occhi chiufi "Rimaner dopo noi pien di faville." Edit. 1564. p. 271. Again, in our authour's 73d Sonnet: "In me thou fee'ft the glowing of fuch fire, STEEVENS. "That on the ashes of his youth doth lic." MALONE. |