I shall be furnished to inform you rightly Both what by sea and land I can be able,1 Cæs. It is Till which encounter,2 my business too. Farewell. Lep. Farewell, my lord; what you shall know meantime Of stirs abroad, I shall beseech you, sir, To let me be partaker. Cæs. Doubt not, sir; bond.3 [Exeunt. SCENE V.—Alexandria. A Room in the Palace. Enter CLEOPATRA, CHARMIAN, IRAS, and MARDIAN. Cleo. Charmian,— Char. Madam. Cleo. Ha, ha!-Give me to drink mandragora.4 Cleo. That I might sleep out this great gap of time Char. You think of him too much. Cleo. O, 't is treason !5 Char. Madam, I trust not so. Cleo. O, Charmian, 1 I can be able.] I can be in ability or force. 2 Encounter.] Meeting with you. 3 I knew it for my bond.] I knew it to be my duty from the terms of the covenant of our triumvirate. See Extracts from Plutarch, 18. ↑ Mandragora.] A herb of soporific quality, referred to in Pliny's Natural History. 'Not poppy, nor mandragora, nor all the drowsy ayrups of the world.' Othello, iii. 3. 5 'Tis treason.] His departure is treacherous. 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 wott'st thou whom thou mov'st? The demi-Atlas of this earth, the arm And burgonet of men.-He's speaking now, Or murmuring, Where's my serpent of old Nile ? brow ;2 Alex. Enter ALEXAS. Sovereign of Egypt, hail! Cleo. How much unlike art thou Mark Antony ! Yet, coming from him, that great medicine hath With his tinct gilded thee.3— How goes it with my brave Mark Antony? Alex. Last thing he did, dear queen, He kissed, the last of many doubled kisses, - Think on me, &c.] Will he think of me, whose complexion the sun has made so dark, and who am now so old? 2 Make his eyes grow in my brow.] Look with fixed gaze at, or plant, as it were, his eyes in, my brow. The philosopher's With his tinct, &c.] With its tinct, &c. stone, or powder of projection, was often called a medicine. The old alchymists pretended that with this powder they could transmute prepared metal into gold. 'I will make admirable use i' the pro · jection of my medicine upon this lump of copper.' B. Jonson's Every Man out of his Humour, i. 2. C This orient1 pearl:-his speech sticks in my heart. Good friend, quoth he, Say, the firm Roman to great Egypt sends Her opulent throne with kingdoms: all the east, 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, 't is the man; but 5 note him: In Egypt with his joy; but between both : So does it no man else.-Mett'st thou my posts? 1 Orient.] Bright; glittering. 2 Piece.] Eke; make addition to. Piece out our imperfections with your thoughts.' K. Henry V., Chorus to Act i. 3 Arm-gaunt.] Wright says the epithet here means lean, thin as an arm. We think it refers to the angular parts of the horse's armour, as resembling the projecting bones of a gaunt or lean animal. Dumbed.] So in Pericles, v. 1, Gower says of Marina-' Deep clerks she dumbs.' 5 But.] Only. • So does it.] So as it does; in such a way as it does. 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 choked 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 My man of men ! Char. I sing but after you. Cleo. By your most gracious pardon, My salad days; When I was green in judgment, cold in blood: [Exeunt. 1 To say as I said then!] That you should say the brave Cæsar! How can you say as I said in my cool salad days? 2 Or I'll unpeople Egypt.] Though by sending so many I should unpeople Egypt. Or has the sense of though in K. Richard III. i. 1, 'I will deliver you, or lie [though I lie in prison] for you;' and in Hamlet, ii. 2, The lady shall say her mind freely, or the blank verse shall halt for it.' ACT II. SCENE I.-Messina. A Room in Pompey's House. Enter POMPEY, MENECRATES, and MENAS. Pom. If the great gods be just, they shall assist1 The deeds of justest men. Mene. Know, worthy Pompey, That what they do delay, they not deny. Pom. Whiles we are suitors to their throne, decays The thing we sue for.2 Mene. We, ignorant of ourselves, Beg often our own harms, which the wise powers By losing of our prayers. Pom. I shall do well: The people love me, and the sea is mine; No wars without doors: Cæsar gets money where They shall assist.] We should now say They will assist. 2 Decays, &c.] The thing we sue for decays. 3 Crescent.] Growing like the waxing moon. though an adjective, that the pronoun it in the hope says that crescent will come to full. It is to this word, next line refers: |