SCENE IV Rome. An Apartment in CESAR's House. Enter OCTAVIUS CESAR, LEPIDUS, and Attendants. Cas. 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 That all men follow. Lep. I must not think, there are Evils enough to darken all his goodness: Cæs. You are too indulgent: Let us grant, it is not 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 So great weight in his lightness. If he fill'd His vacancy with his voluptuousness, Full surfeits, and the dryness of his bones, [6] Perhaps-Our great competitor. JOHNSON. [7] If by spots are meant stars, as night has no other fiery spots, the comparison is forced and harsh, stars having been always supposed to beautify the night; nor do I comprehend what there is in the counterpart of this simile, which answers to night's blackness. Hanmer reads, -spots ou ermine, Or fires by night's blackness. JOHNSON. It is objected, that stars rather beautify than deform the night. But the poet considers them here only with respect to their prominence and splendor. It is sufficient for him that their scintillations appear stronger in consequence of darkness, as jewels are more resplendent on a black ground than on any other. MALONE. [8] Purchas'd---Procured by his own fault or endeavour. JOHNSON. 191 The word light is one of Shakespeare's favourite play-things. The sense is, His trifling levity throws so much burden upon us. JOHNSON. Call on him for't:' but, to confound such time, As we rate boys; who, being mature in knowledge,' Enter a Messenger. Lep. Here's more news. Mes. 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 :3 to the ports The discontents repair, and men's reports Give him much wrong'd. 4 Caes. I should have known no less : It hath been taught us from the primal state, And the ebb'd man, ne'er lov'd, till ne'er worth love, Goes to, and back, lackeying the varying tide, Mes. Cæsar, I bring thee word, Menecrates and Menas, famous pirates, Make the sea serve them; which they ear and wound 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, 8 Leave thy lascivious wassals. When thou once [1] Call on him, is, visit him. Says Cæsar---If Antony followed his debaucheries at a time of leisure, I should leave him to be punished by their natural consequences, by surfeits and dry bones. JOHNSON. [2] Boys old enough to know their duty. JOHNSON. [3] Those whom not love but fear made adherents to Cæsar, now show their affection for Pompey. JOHNSON. [4] i. e. the malcontents. [5] To ear, is to plough. JOHNSON. 6 Turn pale at the thought of it. JOHNSON. { MALONE. [7] Youth ripened to manhood; youth whose blood is at the flow. STEEVENS. Wassel is bere put for intemperance in general. See Macbeth, p. 287 The old copy, however, reads vaissailes. STEEVENS. assals is, without question, the true reading. HENLEY. Hirtius and Pansa, consuls, at thy heel Did famine follow; whom thou fought'st against, Which beasts would cough at: Thy palate then did deign Lep. It is pity of him. Cas. Let his shames quickly Drive hime to Rome: 'Tis time we twain Lep. To-morrow, Cæsar, I shall be furnish'd to inform you rightly Cas. 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.. Cas. Doubt not, sir I knew it for my bond.* [Exeunt. [3] There is frequently observable on the surface of stagnant pools that have remained long undisturbed, a reddish gold coloured slime; to this appearance the poet here refers. HENLEY. [4] That is, to be my boundén duty. MASON. Give me to drink mandragora.9 Char. Why, madam ? Cleo. That I might sleep out this great gap of time, My Antony is away. Char. You think of him Too much. Cleo. O, treason! Char. Madam, I trust, not so. Cleo. Thou, eunuch, Mardian! Mar. What's your highness' pleasure? Cleo. Not now to hear thee sing; I take no pleasure 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? Mar. Yes, gracious madam. Cleo. Indeed? Mar. Not indeed, madam; for I can do nothing But what indeed is honest to be done : Yet have I fierce affections, and think, What Venus did with Mars. 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 ? And burgonet of men.'-He's speaking now, Enter ALEXAS. Alex. Sovereign of Egypt, hail ! [9] Mandragora---a plant of which the infusion was supposed to procure sleep. Shakespeare mentions it in Othello: "Not poppy, nor mandragora, Nor all the drowsy syrups of the world, Shall ever med'cine thee to that sweet sleep-." A burgonet---is a kind of helmet STEEVENS. JOHNSON. Cleo. How much unlike art thou Mark Antony! How goes it with my brave Mark Antony? He kiss'd, the last of many doubled kisses,- Say, the firm Roman to great Egypt sends Her opulent throne with kingdoms: All the East, So he nodded, And soberly did mount a termagant steed, Who neigh'd so high, that what I would have spoke Cleo. What, was he sad, or merry? Alex. Like to the time o'the year between the extremes Of hot and cold; he was nor sad, nor merry. Cleo. O well-divided disposition !-Note him, Note him, good Charmian, 'tis the man ; but note him : Cleo. Who's born that day When I forget to send to Antony, Shall die a beggar.—Ink and paper, Charmian.- Char. O that brave Cæsar! Cleo. Be chok'd with such another emphasis ! Say, the brave Antony. Char. The valiant Cæsar! Cleo. By Isis, I will give thee bloody teeth, If thou with Cæsar paragon again [3] Alluding to the philosopher's stone, which, by its touch, converts base metal into gold. The alchemists call the matter, whatever it be, by which they perform transmutation, a medicine. JOHNSON. |