Then bid adieu to me, and say the tears Like perfect honour. Ant. You'll heat my blood: no more! Cleo. You can do better yet; but this is meetly. Ant. Now, by my sword,— Cleo. And target!-Still he mends; But this is not the best :-look, prithee, Charmian, How this Herculean Roman does become The carriage of his chief.2 Ant. I'll leave you, lady. Cleo. Courteous lord, one word. Sir, you and I must part,-but that's not it: And I am all forgotten! 4 Ant. But that your royalty Holds idleness your subject,5 I should take you For idleness itself. Cleo. 'T is sweating labour To bear such idleness so near the heart As Cleopatra this. But, sir, forgive me; You can do better yet.] You can come out more strongly yet: This is a taunting reference to Antony's preceding speech. 2 His chief.] In the original it is 'his chafe'; but a reference to Extracts from Plutarch, 1, will show that Shakspeare must have meant a reference to Hercules, as the chief of the family of the Antonii. That you know, &c.] It is something that you know well which I would say. There is here one of the many peculiar inversions of ordinary arrangement characteristic of Shakspeare. My oblivion, &c.] The thought of Antony overwhelms (causes oblivion of) all other thoughts, and I am lost in forgetfulness. Holds idleness, &c.] Has a claim of service on all idleness. Since my becomings kill me, when they do not And all the gods go with you! upon your sword Be strewed before your feet! Ant. Let us go. Come: Our separation so abides, and flies,2 That thou, residing here, go'st yet with me, [Exeunt. SCENE IV.-Rome. An Apartment in Cæsar's House. Enter OCTAVIUS CESAR, reading a letter, LEPIDUS, and Attendants. Caes. You may see, Lepidus, and henceforth know, It is not Cæsar's natural vice to hate Our great competitor: from Alexandria This is the news:-he fishes, drinks, and wastes The lamps of night in revel: is not more man-like Than Cleopatra; nor the queen of Ptolemy 3 More womanly than he hardly gave audience, Or vouchsafed to think he had partners. You shall find there A man who is the abstract of all faults That all men follow.4 1 Eye well to you.] Appear well in your eyes. 2 Our separation, &c.] Our separation is such a mixture of remaining and removing. 3 The queen of Ptolemy.] Ptolemy Dionysius and his sister Cleopatra were married that they might reign jointly. men. That all men follow.] That follow, beset, or pertain to, all Lep. I must not think there are Evils enow to darken all his goodness: His faults, in him, seem as the spots of heaven, 1 Cas. You are too indulgent. amiss To tumble on the bed of Ptolemy; Let us grant, 't 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 composure3 must be rare indeed Whom these things cannot blemish,-yet must Antony 4 So great weight in his lightness. If he filled Full surfeits, and the dryness of his bones, Purchased.] Acquired. 2 Keep the turn, &c.] See Extracts from Plutarch, 2. 8 His composure.] A man's composition. His soils.] The blemishes of his character. 5 His vacancy.] His leisure hours. • Full surfeits, &c.] Let full surfeits, &c., call him to account for it. "To confound such time.] To consume or waste such time. See p. 5, note 7. Speaks as loud, &c.] Speaks with the urgency of his own state and ours in hazard. Pawn their experience to their present pleasure, And so rebel to judgment. Lep. Here's more news. Enter a Messenger. Mess. Thy biddings have been done; and every hour, Most noble Cæsar, shalt thou have report How 't is abroad. Pompey is strong at sea; And it appears he is beloved of those That only have feared Cæsar: to the ports The discontents1 repair, and men's reports Give him 2 much wronged. Cæs. I should have known no less: It hath been taught us from the primal state, And the ebbed man, ne'er loved till ne'er worth love, Goes to, and back, lackeying the varying tide, To rot itself with motion. Mess. Cæsar, I bring thee word, Menecrates and Menas, famous pirates,5 Make the sea serve them, which they ear and wound With keels of every kind: many hot inroads They make in Italy; the borders maritime Lack blood to think on 't, and flush youth revolt: 1 Discontents.] Malcontents. 2 Give him.] Represent him as; give him out to be. 3 Comes deared.] Becomes endeared. The original has feared. Vagabond.] Floating about; drifting. 5 Menecrates, &c.] Extracts from Plutarch, 20. • Ear.] Plough. • Lack blood to think on 't.] Grow pale in thinking of it. Taken as seen; for Pompey's name strikes more Than could his war resisted.1 Cas. Leave thy lascivious wassails.2 Antony, When thou once Wast beaten from Modena,3 where thou slew'st Did famine follow; whom thou fought'st against, Which beasts would cough at: thy palate then did deign Yea, like the stag, when snow the pasture sheets, (It wounds thine honour that I speak it now) Lep. 'T is pity of him. Cas. Let his shames quickly Drive him to Rome; 't is time we twain Did show ourselves i' the field; and to that end Assemble we immediate council. Pompey Lep. To-morrow, Cæsar, 1 Than could his war resisted.] Than could his weapons of war if he were resisted. 2 Wassails.] The old text has Vassailes. When thou once, &c.] Extracts from Plutarch, 7. The ancient name of Modena was Mutina, and both names should be accented on the first syllable. Mutina was a Roman colony of Cisalpine Gaul. Whom.] The antecedent to this word is Famine. 5 With patience more.] More patiently. For the source of this speech, see Extracts from Plutarch, 8. |