Are level now with men: the odds is gone, CHAR. [She faints. O, quietness, lady! IRAS. She is.dead too, our sovereign. CHAR. IRAS. Lady, Madam, Royal Egypt! CHAR. O madam, madam, madam ! IRAS. Empress! CHAR. Peace, peace, Iras. CLEO. No more, but e'en a woman2; and commanded "Cut is the branch that might have growne ful straight, "And burned is Apolloes laurel bough." BOSWELL. the odds is gone, And there is nothing left remarkable Beneath the visiting moon.] So, in Macbeth: 66 "There's nothing serious in mortality: "All is but toys; renown, and grace, is dead; 2 No more, but E'EN a woman ;] Iras has just said,-Royal Egypt, Empress! Cleopatra completes the sentence, (without taking notice of the intervening words spoken by Charmian,)— Empress no more; but e'en a woman," now on a level with the meanest of my sex. So, in Julius Cæsar, vol. xii. p. 32, Cassius says 66 " No, it is Casca; one incorporate "To our attempts. Am I not staied for, Cinna?" to which Cinna replies, without taking any notice of the latter words [Am I not stay'd for?]: "I am glad on't." i. e. I am glad that Casca is incorporate to our attempts. See also Coriolanus, Act II. Sc. I. The old copy reads-but in a woman. The emendation was made by Dr. Johnson. The same error has happened in many other places in these plays. Thus, in Romeo and Juliet, quarto, 1599: "Is it in so? then I deny yon stars.” See also vol. x. p. 337. MALONE. By such poor passion as the maid that milks, Ere death dare come to us ?-How do you, women? What, what? good cheer! Why, how now, Charmian ? My noble girls!—Ah, women, women! look, heart: noble, Let's do it after the high Roman fashion, Come, away: This case of that huge spirit now is cold. 3 [Exeunt; those above bearing off ANTONY'S Body. Peace, peace, Iras, is said by Charmian, when she sees the queen recovering, and thinks speech troublesome. JOHNSON. the meanest CHARES.] i. e. task-work. Hence our term chare-woman. So, in Heywood's Rape of Lucrece, 1630: “She, like a good wife, is teaching her servants sundry chares." Again, in Heywood's Brazen Age, 1613: 66 66 spins, Cards, and does chare-work Again, in Warner's Albion's England, ch. 91, Robin Good fellow says "And at my crummed messe of milke, each night from maid or dame, "To do their chares, as they suppos'd," &c. STEEVENS. ACT V. SCENE I. CESAR'S Camp before Alexandria. Enter CESAR, AGRIPPA, DOLABELLA, MECÆNAS*, GALLUS, PROCULEIUS, and Others. CES. Go to him, Dolabella, bid him yield; Being so frustrate, tell him, he mocks us by The pauses that he makes". 4 Enter Cæsar, Agrippa, Dolabella, and [Old copy] MENAS, &c.] But Menas and Menecrates, we may remember, were two famous pirates, linked with Sextus Pompeius, and who assisted him to infest the Italian coast. We no where learn, expressly, in the play, that Menas ever attached himself to Octavius's party. Notwithstanding the old folios concur in marking the entrance thus, yet in the two places in the scene, where this character is made to speak, they have marked in the margin, Mec. so that, as Dr. Thirlby sagaciously conjectured, we must cashier Menas, and substitute Mecænas in his room. Menas, indeed, deserted to Cæsar no less than twice, and was preferred by him. But then we are to consider, Alexandria was taken, and Antony killed himself, anno U. C. 723. Menas made the second revolt over to Augustus, U. C. 717; and the next year was slain at the siege of Belgrade, in Pannonia, five years before the death of Antony. THEOBALD. 5 Being so FRUSTRATE, tell him, he mocks US BY The pauses that he makes.] Frustrate, for frustrated, was the language of Shakspeare's time. So, in The Tempest: 66 and the sea mocks So consummate for consummated, contaminate for contaminated, &c. Again, in Holland's translation of Suetonius, 1606: “But the designment both of the one and the other were defeated and frustrate by reason of Piso his death." The last two words of the first of these lines are not found in the old copy. The defect of the metre shows that somewhat was omitted, and the passage, by the omission, was rendered unintelligible. When, in the lines just quoted, the sea is said to mock the search of those who were seeking on the land for a body that had been drowned in the ocean, this is easily understood. But in that DOL. Cæsar, I shall. [Exit DOLABElla. before us the case is very different. When Antony himself made these pauses, would he mock, or laugh at them? and what is the meaning of mocking a pause? In Measure for Measure, the concluding word of a line was omitted, and in like manner has been supplied: 66 How I may formally in person bear [me] "Like a true friar." Again, in Romeo and Juliet, 1599, and 1623 : : "And hide me with a dead man in his." shroud or tomb being omitted. Again, in Hamlet, 4to. 1604: "Thus conscience doth make cowards." the words of us all being omitted. Again, ibidem: Seeming to feel this blow," &c. •Then senseless Ilium Seeming to feel this blow." See also note on the words-" mock the meat it feeds on," in Othello, Act III. Sc. III. And similar omissions have happened in many other plays. In further support of the emendation now made, it may be observed, that the word mock, of which our author makes frequent use, is almost always employed as I suppose it to have been used here. Thus, in King Lear: "Pray do not mock me." Again, in Measure for Measure : "You do blaspheme the good in mocking me.” Again, in All's Well That Ends Well: "You barely leave our thorns to prick ourselves, Again, in the play before us : The second interpretation given by Mr. Steevens, in the following note, is a just interpretation of the text as now regulated; but extracts from the words in the old copy a meaning, which, without those that I have supplied, they certainly do not afford. MALONE. I have left Mr. Malone's emendation in the text; though, to complete the measure, we might read-frustrated, or— 66 Being so frustrate, tell him, that he mocks," &c. as I am well convinced we are not yet acquainted with the full and exact meaning of the verb mock, as sometimes employed by Shakspeare. In Othello it is used again with equal departure from its common acceptation. My explanation of the words- "He mocks the pauses that he Enter DERCETAS, with the Sword of ANTONY. CES. Wherefore is that? and what art thou, that dar'st Appear thus to us?? DER. I am call'd Dercetas ; Mark Antony I serv'd, who best was worthy Best to be serv'd: whilst he stood up, and spoke, He was my master; and I wore my life, To spend upon his haters: If thou please To take me to thee, as I was to him I'll be to Cæsar; if thou pleasest not, I yield thee up my life. CES. What is't thou say'st? DER. I say, O Cæsar, Antony is dead. CES. The breaking of so great a thing should make A greater crack: The round world should have shook Lions into civil streets", makes," is as follows: He plays wantonly with the intervals of time which he should improve to his own preservation. Or the meaning may be-Being thus defeated in all his efforts, and left without resource, tell him that these affected pauses and delays of his in yielding himself up to me, are mere idle mockery. "He mocks the pauses," may be a licentious mode of expression for"he makes a mockery of us by these pauses;" i. e. he trifles with STEEVENS. us. 6 Cæsar, I shall.] I make no doubt but it should be marked here, that Dolabella goes out. 'Tis reasonable to imagine he should presently depart upon Cæsar's command; so that the speeches placed to him in the sequel of this scene, must be transferred to Agrippa, or he is introduced as a mute. Besides, that Dolabella should be gone out, appears from this, that when Cæsar asks for him, he recollects that he had sent him on busiTHEOBALD. ness. 7 8 - thus to us ?] With a drawn and bloody sword in thy hand. STEEVENS. The round world should have shook Lions into civil streets, &c.] I think here is a line lost, after which it is in vain to go in quest. The sense seems to have been this : "The round world should have shook," and this great |