Sit laurel'd victory, and smooth success Ant. Let us go. Come; Our separation so abides, and flies, That thou, residing here, go'st yet with me, Away! [Exeunt. SCENE IV. Rome. An Apartment in CÆSAR'S House. Enter OCTAVIUS CESAR, LEPIDUS, and Attendants. Cæs. You may see, Lepidus, and henceforth know, It is not Cæsar's natural vice to hate One great competitor. From Alexandria This is the news: he fishes, drinks, and wastes More womanly than he: hardly gave audience, or Vouchsaf'd to think' he had partners: you shall find there A man, who is the abstract of all faults That all men follow. Lep. I must not think, there are Evils enow to darken all his goodness: His faults, in him, seem as the spots of heaven, 9 Sit LAUREL'D victory,] "Laurel'd victory" is the emendation of the folio, 1632: that of 1623 has “laurel victory." In all probability the letter d had dropped out in the press. 1 VOUCHSAF'D to think-] Vouchsafe in the folio, 1623, which the folio, 1632, altered to "did vouchsafe." Cæs. You are too indulgent. Let us grant, it is not Amiss to tumble on the bed of Ptolemy; To give a kingdom for a mirth; to sit And keep the turn of tippling with a slave; To reel the streets at noon, and stand the buffet With knaves that smell of sweat: say, this becomes him, (As his composure must be rare indeed, Whom these things cannot blemish) yet must Antony Full surfeits, and the dryness of his bones, Lep. Enter a Messenger. Here's more news. Mess. Thy biddings have been done; and every hour, Most noble Cæsar, shalt thou have report How 'tis abroad. Pompey is strong at sea; And it appears, he is belov'd of those That only have fear'd Cæsar: to the ports Cæs. I should have known no less. 2 No way excuse his FOILS,] Our reading is that of the folio, 1623, and of all the subsequent editions in that form. Malone and modern editors have altered "foils to soils, without sufficient necessity: the "foils" of Antony are his vices, his foibles, which injure the beauty of his character, and foil or defeat the exercise of his virtues. At the same time it must be allowed, that "foils" for soils would be a very easy misprint, the long s and the ƒ being frequently mistaken. And the ebb'd man ne'er lov'd, till ne'er worth love, Goes to, and back, lackeying the varying tide1, To rot itself with motion. Mess. Cæsar, I bring thee word, Menecrates and Menas, famous pirates, Make the sea serve them; which they ear' and wound With keels of every kind: many hot inroads They make in Italy; the borders maritime Lack blood to think on't, and flush youth revolt: Taken as seen; for Pompey's name strikes more, Cæs. Antony, Leave thy lascivious wassails". When thou once Did famine follow; whom thou fought'st against, Which beasts would cough at thy palate then did deign 3 Comes FEAR'D by being lack'd.] So all the old copies; but since Theobald's time the reading has been dear'd for "fear'd." The alteration is plausible, but does not seem necessary. Cæsar may mean, that Pompey, by being so much backed by the people, has become powerful, and is therefore "fear'd." ✦ Goes to, and back, LACKEYING the varying tide,] "Lackeying" is Theobald's change, for lacking of the old copies, and not for lashing, as he erroneously asserts: no folio has lashing. The corruption of lacking for "lackeying" was very easy. Southern, in his folio, 1685, altered lacking to backing; but we much prefer Theobald's emendation. 5 which they EAR—] i. e. plough. See p. 11. 6 Leave thy lascivious WASSAILS.] The question here is, whether cassailes, as the word is printed in the folios, 1623 and 1632, be meant for "wassails,” or merely for cassals. Either reading may be right; but cassal was not usually, though sometimes, spelt rassaile, and nothing is more likely than that the old compositor should use v for w. Cæsar has previously accused Antony of "tippling with a slave,” and “reeling the streets at noon," which countenances "wassails as an old drinking term. It is curious to see modern editors disputing how the word is spelt in the folio, 1623, and all giving it wrongly. The roughest berry on the rudest hedge; Yea, like the stag, when snow the pasture sheets, Lep. 'Tis pity of him. Cæs. Let his shames quickly Drive him to Rome. "Tis time we twain Did show ourselves i' the field; and, to that end, Thrives in our idleness. Lep. To-morrow, Cæsar, I shall be furnish'd to inform you rightly Cæs. Till which encounter, It is my business too. Farewell. Lep. Farewell, my lord. What you shall know mean time Of stirs abroad, I shall beseech you, sir, To let me be partaker. Cæs. Doubt not, sir; I knew it for my bond. [Exeunt. SCENE V. Alexandria. A Room in the Palace. Enter CLEOPATRA, CHARMIAN, IRAS, and MARDIAN. Cleo. Charmian, Char. Madam. we;" 7 Assemble we immediate council:] The first folio misprints me for " an error corrected by the second folio. Lepidus was the equal of Cæsar, and the latter would hardly address to him the mandate, " Assemble me immediate council." Cleo. Ha, ha! Give me to drink mandragora3. Char. Why, madam? Cleo. That I might sleep out this great gap of time, Cleo. Not now to hear thee sing: I take no plea sure In aught an eunuch has. Tis well for thee, That, being unseminar'd, thy freer thoughts May not fly forth of Egypt. Hast thou affections? Cleo. Indeed? Mar. Not in deed, madam; for I can do nothing, But what in deed is honest to be done; Yet have I fierce affections, and think Cleo. O, Charmian! Where think'st thou he is now? Stands he, or sits he? Or does he walk? or is he on his horse? O happy horse to bear the weight of Antony! Do bravely, horse, for wot'st thou whom thou mov'st? The demi-Atlas of this earth, the arm And burgonet of men'.-He's speaking now, Or murmuring, "Where's my serpent of old Nile?" With most delicious poison:-think on me, 8 Give me to drink MANDRAGORA.] A strong opiate. See "Othello," Vol. vii. p. 571. 9 And BURGONET of men.] A " burgonet" was a kind of helmet: by "arm" in the preceding line is probably to be understood weapon. On the next page we meet with the epithet "arm-gaunt," as applied to a horse, which had perhaps become gaunt by bearing arms. However, this is doubtful, and Sir T. Hanmer would substitute arm-girt, and Monck Mason, termagant. |