II.ii.113 (146,6) I do not much dislike the matter, but/The manner of his speech] I do not, says Caesar, think the man wrong, but too free of him interposition; for’t cannot be, we shall remain in friendship: yet if it were possible, I would endeavour it.
II.ii.123 (147,7) your reproof/Were well deserv’d] In the old edition,
— your proof
Were well deserv’d —
Which Mr. Theobald, with his usual triumph, changes to approof, which he explains, allowance. Dr. Warburton inserted reproof very properly into Hanmer’s edition, but forgot it in his own.
II.ii.159 (148,8) Lest my remembrance suffer ill report] Lest I be thought too willing to forget benefits, I must barely return him thanks, and then I will defy him.
II.ii.210 (150,1) And what they undid, did] It might be read less harshly,
And what they did, undid.
II.ii.212 (150,2) tended her i’ the eyes] Perhaps tended her by th’ eyes, discovered her will by her eyes.
II.iii.21 (153,6) thy angel/Becomes a Fear] Mr.Uptan reads,
Becomes afear’d, —
The common reading is more poetical.
II.iii.37 (154,7) his quails ever/Beat mine] The ancients used to match quails as we match cocks.
II.iii.38 (154,8) inhoop’d, at odds] Thus the old copy. Inhoop’d is inclosed, confined, that they may fight. The modern editions read,
Beat mine, in whoop’d-at odds. —
II.v.1 (155,9) musick, moody food] [The mood is the mind, or mental disposition. Van Haaren’s panegyrick on the English begins, Groot-moedig Volk, great-minded nation.] Perhaps here is a poor jest intended between mood the mind and moods of musick.
II.v.41 (l57,4) Not like a formal man] [Formal, for ordinary. WARB.] Rather decent, regular.
II.v.103 (161,8) Thou art not what thou’rt sure of!] For this, which is not easily understood, Sir Thomas Hanmer has given,
That say’st but what thou’rt sure of!
I am not satisfied with the change, which, though it affords sense, exhibits little spirit. I fancy the line consists only of abrupt starts.
Oh that his fault should make a knave of thee,
That art — not what? — Thou’rt sure on’t. — Get thee
hence.
That his fault should make a knave of thee that art — but what shall I say thou art not? Thou art then sure of this marriage. — Get thee hence.
Dr. Warburton has received Sir T. Hanmer’s emendation.
II.v.115 (161,9) Let him for ever go] She is now talking in broken sentences, not of the messenger, but Antony.
II.vi.24 (163,2) Thou canst not fear us] Thou canst not affright us with thy numerous navy.
II.vi.28 (163,3) But since the cuckow builds not for himself] Since, like the cuckow, that seizes the nests of other birds, you have invaded a house which you could not build, keep it while you can.
II.vii.1 (167,6) some o’ their plants] Plants, besides its common meaning, is here used for the foot, from the Latin.
II.vii.14 (167,9) a partizan] A pike.
II.vii.16 (167,1) To be call’d into a huge sphere, and not to be seen to move in’t, are the holes where eyes should be, which pitifully disaster the cheeks] This speech seems to be mutilated; to supply the deficiencies is impossible, but perhaps the sense was originally approaching to this.
To be called into a huge sphere, and not to be seen to move in it, is a very ignominious state; great offices are the holes where eyes should be, which, if eyes be wanting, pitifully disaster the cheeks.
II.vii.88 (170,2) thy pall’d fortunes] Palled, is vapid, past its time of excellence; palled wine, is wine that has lost its original spriteliness.
II.vii.102 (171,3) Strike the vessels] Try whether the casks sound as empty.
II.vii.116 (171,4) The holding every man shall bear] Every man shall accompany the chorus by drumming on his sides, in token of concurrence and applause. [Theobald had emended “beat” to “bear”] (1773)
III.i.1 (173,6) Now, darting Parthia, art thou struck] Struck alludes to darting. Thou whose darts have so often struck others, art struck now thyself. (1773)
III.ii.12 (175,8) Arabian bird!] The phoenix.
III.ii.16 (176,9)
Ho! hearts, tongues, figure, scribes, bards, poets, cannot
Think, speak, cast, write, sing, number, ho!]
Not only the tautology of bards and poets, but the want of a correspondent action for the poet, whose business in the next line is only to number, makes me suspect some fault in this passage, which I know not how to mend.
III.ii.26 (176,1) as my furthest bond] As I will venture the greatest pledge of security, on the trial of thy conduct.
III.ii.40 (177,1) The elements be kind to thee, and make/Thy spirits all of comfort!] This is obscure. It seems to mean, May the different elements of the body, or principles of life, maintain such proportion and harmony as may keep you cheerful.
III.iv.26 (182,7) I’ll raise the preparation of a war/Shall stain your brother] [T: strain] I do not see but stain may be allowed to remain unaltered, meaning no more than shame or disgrace.
III.iv.30 (182,8) Wars ‘twixt you ‘twain would be/As if the world should cleave] The sense is, that war between Caesar and Antony would engage the world between them, and that the slaughter would be great in so extensive a commotion.
III.v.8 (183,9) rivality] Equal rank.
III.v.11 (183,1) Upon his own appeal] To appeal, in Shakespeare, is to accuse; Caesar seized Lepidus without any other proof than Caesar’s accusation.
III.v.21 (184,3) More, Domitius] I have something more to tell you, which I might have told at first, and delayed my news. Antony requires your presence.
III.vi.9 (184,4) made her/Of Lower Syria, Cyprus, Lydia./Absolute queen] For Lydia, Mr. Upton, from Plutarch, has restored Lybia.
III.vi.68-75 (187,6) Mr. Upton remarks, that there are some errours in this enumeration of the auxiliary kings; but it is probable that the authour did not much wish to be accurate.
III.vi.95 (188,7) And gives his potent regiment to a trull] Regiment, is government, authority; he puts his power and his empire into the hands of a false woman.
It may be observed, that trull was not, in our author’s time, a term of mere infamy, but a word of slight contempt, as wench is now.
III.vii.3 (188,8) forespoke my being] To forespeak, is to contradict, to speak against, as forbid is to order negatively.
III.vii.68 (191,1)
By Hercules, I think, I am i’ the right.
Can. Soldier, thou art: but his whole action grows
Not in the power on’t]
That is, his whole conduct becomes, ungoverned by the right, or by reason.
III.vii.77 (191,2) distractions] Detachments; separate bodies.
III.x.6 (193,4) The greater cantle] [A piece or lump. POPE.] Cantle is rather a corner. Caesar in this play mentions the three-nook’d world. Of this triangular world every triumvir had a corner. (see 1765, VII, 185, 6)
III.x.9 (193,5) token’d pestilence] Spotted.
III.x.10 (193,6) Yon’ ribauld nag of Aegypt] The word is in the old edition ribaudred, which I do not understand, but mention it, in hopes others may raise some happy conjecture. [Tyrwhitt: hag] The brieze, or oestrum, the fly that stings cattle, proves that nag is the right word. (1773)
III.x.11 (193,7) Whom leprosy o’ertake!] Leprosy, an epidemical distemper of the Aegyptians; to which Horace probably alludes in the controverted line.
Contaminato cum grege turpium
Morbo virorum.
III.x.36 (195,1) The wounded chance of Antony] I know not whether the author, who loves to draw his images from the sports of the field, might not have written,
The wounded chase of Antony, —
The allusion is to a deer wounded and chased, whom all other deer avoid. I will, says Enobarbus, follow Antony, though chased and wounded.
The common reading, however, may very well stand.
III.xi.3 (195,2) so late
d in the world] Alluding to a benighted traveller.
III.xi.23 (196,3) I have lost command] I am not master of my own emotions.
III.xi.35 (196,4) He at Philippi kept/His sword e’en like a dancer] In the Moriaco, and perhaps anciently in the Pyrrhick dance, the dancers held swords in their hands with the points upward.
III.xi.39 (196,6) he alone/Dealt on lieutenantry] I know not whether the meaning is, that Caesar acted only as lieutenant at Philippi, or that he made his attempts only on lieutenants, and left the generals to Antony.
III.xi.47 (197,7) death will seize her; but/Your comfort] But has here, as once before in this play, the force of except, or unless.
III.ii.52 (197,8) How I convey my shame] How, by looking another way, I withdraw my ignominy from your sight.
III.ii.57 (197,9) ty’d by the strings] That is by the heart string.
III.xii.18 (199,1) The circle of the Ptolemies] The diadem; the ensign of royalty.
III.xii.34 (199,2) how Antony becomes his flaw] That is, how Antony conforms himself to this breach of his fortune.
III.xiii.1 (200,3) Think, and die] [Hanmer: Drink] This reading, offered by sir T. Hanmer, is received by Dr. Warburton and Mr. Upton, but I have not advanced it into the page, not being convinced that it is necessary. Think, and die; that is, Reflect on your folly, and leave the world, is a natural answer.
III.xiii.9 (201,4) he being/The meered question] The meered question is a term I do not understand. I know not what to offer, except,
The mooted question. —
That is, the disputed point, the subject of debate. Mere is indeed a boundary, and the meered question, if it can mean any thing, may, with some violence of language, mean, the disputed boundary.
III.xiii.25 (202, 5)
I dare him therefore
To lay his gay comparisons apart
And answer me declin’d]
I require of Caesar not to depend on that superiority which the comparison of our different fortunes may exhibit to him, but to answer me man to man, in this decline of my age or power.
III.xiii.42 (202,6) The loyalty, well held to fools, does make/Our faith meer folly] [T: Though loyalty, well held] I have preserved the old reading: Enobarbus is deliberating upon desertion, and finding it is more prudent to forsake a fool, and more reputable to be faithful to him, makes no positive conclusion. Sir T. Hanmer follows Theobald; Dr. Warburton retains the old reading.
III.xiii.77 (204,9) Tell him, from his all-obeying breath I hear/The doom of Aegypt] Doom is declared rather by an all-commanding, than an all-obeying breath. I suppose we ought to read,
— all-obeyed breath.
III.xiii.81 (205,1) Give me grace] Grant me the favour.
III.xiii.109 (206,3) By one that looks on feeders?] One that waits at the table while others are eating.
III.xiii.128 (207,4) The horned herd] It is not without pity and indignation that the reader of this great poet meets so often with this low jest, which is too much a favourite to be left out of either mirth or fury.
III.xiii.151 (208,5) to quit me] To repay me this insult; to requite me.
III.xiii.180 (209,9) Were nice and lucky] [Nice, for delicate, courtly, flowing in peace. WARBURTON.] Nice rather seems to be, just fit for my purpose, agreeable to my wish. So we vulgarly say of any thing that is done better than was expected, it is nice.
IV.i.5 (210,1) I have many other ways to die] [Upton: He hath.../I laugh] I think this emendation deserves to be received. It had, before Mr. Upton’s book appeared, been made by sir T. Hanmer.
IV.i.9 (211,2) Make boot of] Take advantage of.
IV.ii.8 (212,3) take all] Let the survivor take all. No composition, victory or death.
IV.ii.14 (212,4) one of those odd tricks] I know not what obscurity the editors find in this passage. Trick is here used in the sense in which it is uttered every day by every mouth, elegant and vulgar: yet sir T. Hanmer changes it to freaks, and Dr. Warburton, in his rage of Gallicism, to traits.
IV.ii.26 (213,5) Haply, you shall not see me more; or if,/A mangled shadow] Or if you see me more, you will see me a mangled shadow, only the external form of what I was.
IV.ii.35 (213,6) onion-ey’d] I have my eyes as full of tears as if they had been fretted by onions.
IV.iv.3 (215,8) Come, good fellow, put thine iron on] I think it should be rather,
— mine iron —
IV.iv.5 (215,9) Nay, I’ll help too] These three little speeches, which in the other editions are only one, and given to Cleopatra, were happily disentangled by sir T. Hanmer.
IV.iv.10 (215,1) Briefly, sir] That is, quickly, sir.
IV.v.17 (218,3) Dispatch. Enobarbus!] Thus [Dispatch, my Eros] the modern editors. The old edition reads,
— Dispatch Enobarbus.
Perhaps, it should be,
— Dispatch! To Enobarbus! (see 1765, VII, 208, 3)
IV.vi.12 (219,6) persuade] The old copy has dissuade, perhaps rightly.
IV.vi.34 (219,7) This blows my heart] All the latter editions have,
— This bows my heart;
I have given the original word again the place from which I think it unjustly excluded. This generosity, (says Enobarbus) swells my heart, so that it will quickly break, if thought break it not, a swifter mean.
IV.vii.2 (220,8) and our oppression] Sir T. Hanmer has received opposition. Perhaps rightly.
IV.viii.1 (221,9) run one before,/And let the queen know of our guests] [W: gests] This passage needs neither correction nor explanation. Antony after his success intends to bring his officers to sup with Cleopatra, and orders notice to be given her of their guests.
IV.viii.12 (222,1) To this great fairy] Mr. Upton has well observed, that fairy; which Dr. Warburton and sir T. Hanmer explain by Inchantress, comprises the idea of power and beauty.
IV.viii.22 (222,2) get goal for goal of youth] At all plays of barriers, the boundary is called a goal; to win a goal, is to be superiour in a contest of activity.
IV.viii.31 (223,4) Bear our hack’d targets like the men that owe them] i.e. hack’d as much as the men are to whom they belong. WARB.] Why not rather, Bear our hack’d targets with spirit and exaltation, such as becomes the brave warriors that own them?
IV.ix.15 (224,5)
Throw my heart
Against the flint and hardness of my fault;
Which, being dried with grief, will break to powder,
And finish all foul thoughts]
The pathetick of Shakespeare too often ends in the ridiculous. It is painful to find the gloomy dignity of this noble scene destroyed by the intrusion of a conceit so far-fetched and unaffecting.
IV.xii.13 (226,1) Triple turn’d whore!] She was first for Antony, then was supposed by him to have turned to Caesar, when he found his messenger kissing her hand, then she turned again to Antony, and now has turned to Caesar. Shall I mention what has dropped into my imagination, that our author might perhaps have written triple-tongued? Double-tongued is a common term of reproach, which rage might improve to triple-tongued. But the present reading may stand.
IV.xii.21 (227,2) That pannell’d me at heels] All the editions read,
That pannell’d me at heels, —
Sir T. Hanmer substituted spaniel’d by an emendation, with which it was reasonable to expect that even rival commentators would be satisfied; yet Dr. Warburton proposes pantler’d, in a note, of which he is not injur’d by the suppression; and Mr. Upton having in his first edition proposed plausibly enough,
That paged me at heels, —
in the second edition retracts his alteration, and maintains pannell’d to be the right reading, being a metaphor taken, he says, from a pannel of wainscot.
IV.xii.25 (227,3) this grave charm] I know not by what authority, nor for what reason, this grave charm, which the first, the only original copy exhibits, has been through all the modern editors changed to this gay charm. By this grave charm, is meant, this sublime, this majestic beauty.
IV.xii.29 (227,4) to the ve
ry heart of loss] To the utmost loss possible.
IV.xii.45 (228,7) Let me lodge, Lichas] Sir T. Hanmer reads thus,
— thy rage
Led thee lodge Lichas — and —
Subdue thy worthiest self. —
This reading, harsh as it is, Dr. Warburton has received, after having rejected many better. The meaning is, Let me do something in my rage, becoming the successor of Hercules,
IV.xiv.19 (230,2) Pack’d cards with Caesar, and false play’d my glory/Unto an enemy’s triumph] [Warburton had explained and praised Shakespeare’s “metaphor”] This explanation is very just, the thought did not deserve so good an annotation.
IV.xiv.39 (231,3) The battery from my heart] I would read,
This battery from my heart. —
IV.xiv.49 (232,4) Seal then, and all is done] I believe the reading is,
— seel then, and all is done —
To seel hawks, is to close their eyes. The meaning will be,
— since the torch is out,
Lie down, and stray no further. How all labour
Marrs what it does. — Seel then, and all is done.
Close thine eyes for ever, and be quiet.
IV.xiv.73 (233,5) pleach’d arms] Arms folded in each other.
IV.xiv.77 (233,6) His baseness that ensued?] The poor conquered wretch that followed.
IV.xiv.86 (233,7) the worship of the whole world] The worship, is the dignity, the authority.
IV.xv.9 (237,9)
O sun,
Burn the great sphere thou mov’st in! — darkling stand
The varying shore o’ the world]
She desires the sun, to burn his own orb, the vehicle of light, and then the earth will be dark.
IV.xv.19-23 (237,1) I here importune death] [Theobald had regularized the versification and had added two words] Mr. Theobald’s emendation is received by the succeeding editors; but it seems not necessary that a dialogue so distressful should be nicely regular. I have therefore preserved the original reading in the text, and the emendation below.
IV.xv.28 (238,2) still conclusion] Sedate determination; silent coolness of resolution.
IV.xv.32 (236,3) Here’s sport, indeed!] I suppose the meaning of these strange words is, here’s trifling, you do not work in earnest.
Complete Works of Samuel Johnson Page 556