Beyond the mark of thought: and the high gods, Of us, and those that love you. Best of comfort; Agr. Welcome, lady. Mec. Welcome, dear madam. Each heart in Rome does love and pity you : Only the adulterous Antony, most large In his abominations, turns you off; And gives his potent regiment to a trull, Oct. Is it so, sir? Cas. Most certain. Sister, welcome : Pray you, Be ever known to patience: My dearest sister! [Exeunt. SCENE VII. ANTONY'S Camp, near the Promontory of Actium. Enter CLEOPATRA and ENOBARBUS. Cleo. I will be even with thee, doubt it not. Eno. But why, why, why? Cleo. Thou hast forspoke my being in these wars ;7 And say'st, it is not fit. Eno. Well, is it? is it? Cleo. Is't not? Denounce against us, why should not we Be there in person? Eno. [Aside.] Well, I could reply: If we should serve with horse and mares together, Cleo. What is't you say? [6] Regiment--is government, authority; he puts his power and his empire into the hands of a false woman. It may be observed, trull was not, in our author's time, a term of mere infamy, but a word of slight contempt, as wench is now. JOHNSON. [7] To forspeak, is to contradict, to speak against, as forbid is to order negatively, JOHNSON. [8] Cleopatra means to say, "Is not the war denounced against us? Why should we not then attend in person?" She says, a little lower, "A charge we bear i' the war, And, as the president of my kingdom, will She speaks of herself in the plural number, according to the usual style of sovereigns. M. MASON. I read with the old copy, introducing only the change of a single letter,---denounc't instead of denounc'd. There is, however, in the folio, a comma after the word not, and no point of interrogation at the end of the sentence. MALONE. Surely no valid inference can be drawn from such uncertain premises as the punctuation of the old copy, which (to use the words of Rosalind and Touchstone in As you like it) is "as fortune will, or as the destinies decree." STEEVENS. Eno. Your presence needs must puzzle Antony; Take from his heart, take from his brain, from his time, What should not then be spar'd. He is already Traduc'd for levity; and 'tis said in Rome, That Photinus an eunuch, and your maids, Cleo. Sink Rome; and their tongues rot, That speak against us! A charge we bear i'the war, Appear there for a man. I will not stay behind. Eno. Nay, I have done : Here comes the emperor. Speak not against it; Enter ANTONY and CANIDIUS. Ant. Is't not strange, Canidius, That from Tarentum, and Brundusium, He could so quickly cut the Ionian sea, And take in Toryne ?-You have heard on't, sweet? Than by the negligent. Ant. A good rebuke, Which might have well become the best of men, To taunt at slackness.-Canidius, we Will fight with him by sea. Cleo. By sea! what else? Can. Why will my lord do so? Ant. For he dares us to't. Eno. So hath my lord dar'd him to single fight. Can. Ay, and to wage this battle at Pharsalia, Where Cæsar fought with Pompey: But these offers, Which serve not for his vantage, he shakes off; And so should you. Eno. Your ships are not well-mann'd : Your mariners are muleteers, reapers, people Are those, that often have 'gainst Pompey fought : Being prepar'd for land. Ant. By sea, by sea. Eno. Most worthy sir, you therein throw away The absolute soldiership you have by land; Distract your army, which doth most consist [9] Yare--generally signifies dextrous, manageable. STEEVENS. Of war-mark'd footmen; leave unexecuted Ant. I'll fight at sea. Cleo. I have sixty sails, Cæsar none better.› Ant. Our overplus of shipping will we burn; And, with the rest full-mann'd, from the head of Actium Beat the approaching Cæsar. But if we fail, Enter a Messenger. We then can do't at land.-Thy business? Mes. The news is true, my lord; he is descried ; Ant. Can he be there in person? 'tis impossible; Away, my Thetis !-How now, worthy soldier? This sword, and these my wounds? Let the Egyptians, Have used to conquer, standing on the earth, And fighting foot to foot. Ant. Well, well, away. [Exe. ANT. CLEO. and ENO. Sold. By Hercules, I think, I am i'the right. Can. Soldier, thou art but his whole action grows Not in the power on't: So our leader's led, And we are women's men. Sold. You keep by land The legions and the horse whole, do you not? Publicola, and Cælius, are for sea : But we keep whole by land. This speed of Cæsar's Sold. While he was yet in Rome, His power went out in such distractions, as [1] That is, his whole conduct becomes ungoverned by the right or by reason JOHNSON. Canidius means to say, His whole conduct in the war is not founded upon that which is his greatest strength, (namely, his land force,) but on the caprice of a woman, who wishes that he should fight by sea. MALONE. STEEVENS. Perhaps this phrase is from archery. Beguil'd all spies. Can. Who's his lieutenant, hear you? Can. Well I know the man. Enter a Messenger. Mes. The emperor calls for Canidius. Can. With news the time's with labour, and throes forth, Each minute, some. [Exeunt. SCENE VIII. A Plain near Actium. Enter CESAR, TAURUS, Officers, and others. Cas. Taurus,— Taur. My lord. Cas. Strike not by land; keep whole : Provoke not battle, till we have done at sea. Do not exceed the prescript of this scroll: Our fortune lies upon this jump.* In Enter ANTONY and ENOBArbus. [Exeunt. Ant. Set we our squadrons on yon' side o'the hill, [Exeunt. Enter CANIDIUS, marching with his land army one way over the stage and TAURUS, the lieutenant of CESAR, the other way. After their going in, is heard the noise of a seafight. Alarum. Re-enter ENOBarbus. Eno. Naught, naught, all naught! I can behold no longer: The Antoniad, the Egyptian admiral,' With all their sixty, fly, and turn the rudder; To see't, mine eyes are blasted. Enter SCARUS. Scar. Gods, and goddesses, All the whole synod of them! Eno. What's thy passion? [4] Jump-hazard. So, in Macbeth: "We'd jump the life to come." STEEVENS. [5] The Antoniad--which Plutarch says, was the name of Cleopatra's ship. POPE. Scar. The greater cantle of the world" is lost With very ignorance; we have kiss'd away Kingdoms and provinces. Eno. How appears the fight? Scar. On our side like the token'd pestilence," Both as the same, or rather ours the elder,- Eno. That I beheld: mine eyes Did sicken at the sight on't, and could not Scar. She once being loof'd, The noble ruin of her magic, Antony, Claps on his sea-wing, and like a doating mallard, Eno, Alack, alack! Enter CANIDIUS, Can. Our fortune on the sea is out of breath, And sinks most lamentably. Had our general Been what he knew himself, it had gone well: O, he has given example for our flight, Most grossly, by his own. Eno. Ay, are you thereabouts? Why then, good night Indeed. Can. Towards Peloponnesus are they fled. Scar. 'Tis easy to it; and there I will attend What further comes. Can. To Cæsar will I render [Aside. [6] Cantle--a piece or lump. POPE. Cantle is rather a corner. Cæsar, in this play, mentions the three-nook'd world. Of this triangular world every triumvir had a corner. JOHNSON. [7] Token'd, spotted. JOHNSON. The death of those visited by the plague was certain, when particular eruptions STEEVENS. appeared on the skin; and these were called God's tokens. [8] A Ribald is a lewd fellow. Yon ribald-rid nag, means "yon strumpet who is common to every wanton fellow." STEEVENS. [9] Leprosyan epidemical distemper of the Egyptians; to which Horace probably alludes in the controverted line. Contaminato cum grege turpium Morbo virorum. [1] The brize or oestrum, the fly that stings cattle. To loof is to bring a ship close to the wind. JOHNSON. |