Ant. To flatter Cæsar, would you mingle eyes With one that ties his points ?1 Cleo. Ant. Cold-hearted toward me! Not know me yet? Ah, dear, if I be so, From my cold heart let heaven engender hail, Ant. I am satisfied. Cæsar sits down6 in Alexandria; where I will oppose his fate. Our force by land Hath nobly held :7 our severed navy too Have knit again, and fleet,8 threatening most sea-like. One that ties his points.] A servant that fastens his dress. Points are laces. 2 As it determines.] As the hail-stone dissolves on my breast. To determine is to come to an end. • The discandying.] To discandy is to dissolve. Pelleted.] Composed of pellets. Buried them.] Covered them with their swarms. • Sits down.] Encamps as a besieger. "Held.] Held together; kept whole. 8 Fleet.] Float. • Where hast thou been, &c.] Antony here reproaches his own heart. Cleo. That's my brave lord! Ant. I will be treble-sinewed, hearted, breathed,' Cleo. It is my birthday :4 Ant. We will yet do well. Cleo. Call all his noble captains to my lord. Ant. Do so, we 'll speak to them; and to-night I'll force The wine peep through their scars.- -Come on, my queen: I'll make Death love me; for I will contend Even with his pestilent scythe." [Exeunt all except ENOBARBUS. Eno. Now he'll outstare the lightning. To be furious, Is to be frighted out of fear; and in that mood The dove will peck the estridge; and I see still 6 A diminution in our captain's brain 1 Breathed.] Exercised; kept in breath. 2 Fight maliciously.] Compare Coriolanus, iv. 5, 'I will fight against my cankered country with the spleen of all the under fiends.' 3 Gaudy.] Festive. It is my birthday.] Extracts from Plutarch, 42. 5 Contend, &c.] Vie with him in the havoc he makes when he kills with pestilence. I see still.] I always see. Restores his heart: when valour preys on reason, Some way to leave him. [Exit. It eats the sword, &c.] It deprives a man of that judgment without which he cannot fight successfully. ACT IV. SCENE I.-Cæsar's Camp before Alexandria. Enter CESAR, reading a letter; AGRIPPA, MECENAS, and others. Cæs. He calls me boy; and chides, as he had power To beat me out of Egypt; my messenger He hath whipped with rods; dares me to personal combat: I have 2 many other ways to die; mean time, Mec. Cæsar must think, When one so great begins to rage, he 's hunted Let our best heads Cæs. 4 1 Cæsar to Antony.] Cæsar, in reply to Antony, says. 2 I have.] Shakspeare should have written 'He hath,' that is, Antony has. The poet here mistook the language of North's Plutarch. See Extracts from Plutarch, 44. 3 Make boot.] Make profit; take advantage. • Enough to fetch him in.] Enough to make him yield. See Extracts from Plutarch, 46. See it done.] See that our best heads know,' &c. And feast the army; we have store to do 't, And they have earned the waste. Poor Antony! [Exeunt. SCENE II.-Alexandria. A Room in the Palace. Enter ANTONY, CLEOPATRA, ENOBARBUS, CHARMIAN, Ant. He will not fight with me, Domitius. Eno. Ant. Why should he not? No. Eno. He thinks, being twenty times of better fortune, He is twenty men to one. Ant. To-morrow, soldier, By sea and land I'll fight,-Or1 I will live, Or bathe my dying honour in the blood Shall make it live again.-Woot2 thou fight well? Ant. Well said; come on. Call forth my household servants; let's to-night Enter Servants. Give me thy hand, Thou hast been rightly honest;-so hast thou; Thou,--and thou,-and thou:-you have served me well, And kings have been your fellows. Cleo. [Aside to ENO.] What means this? Eno. [Aside to CLEO.] 'T is one of those odd tricks which sorrow shoots Out of the mind. 1 Or.] Either. 2 Woot.] Woult or woot was a provincial expression for wilt. Woult weep? woult fight?' &c. Hamlet, v. 1. I'll strike, &c.] This is intentionally ambiguous: one of the meanings of to strike being to give in. |