Endure a further view. Scar. She once being loof'd,9 Claps on his sea-wing, and like a doting mallard, I never saw an action of such shame; Eno. Alack, alack! Enter CANIDIUS. Can. Our fortune on the sea is out of breath, And sinks most lamentably. Had our general Been what he knew himself, it had gone well: O, he has given example for our flight, Most grossly, by his own. Eno. Ay, are you thereabouts? Why then, good night Indeed. Can. Towards Peloponnesus are they fled. Scar. 'Tis easy to 't; and there I will attend Can. To Cæsar will I render Eno. Aside. I'll yet follow 9 [Exeunt. being loof'd,] To loof is to bring a ship close to the wind. This expression is in the old translation of Plutarch. It also occurs frequently in Hackluyt's Voyages. See Vol. III, 589. Steevens. 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. Johnson. The wounded chance of Antony, is a phrase nearly of the same import as the broken fortunes of Antony. The old reading is indisputably the true one. So, in the fifth Act: "Or I shall show the cinders of my spirit, Through the ashes of my chance." Malone. Mr. Malone has judiciously defended the old reading. In Othello we have a phrase somewhat similar to wounded chance; viz. "mangled matter." Steevens. SCENE IX. Alexandria. A Room in the Palace. Enter ANTONY, and Attendants. Ant. Hark, the land bids me tread no more upon 't, Have lost my way for ever:-I have a ship And make your peace with Cæsar. Att. Fly! not we. Ant. I have fled myself; and have instructed cowards To run, and show their shoulders.-Friends, be gone; I have myself resolv'd upon a course, Which has no need of you; be gone:3 My treasure 's in the harbour, take it.-0, Reprove the brown for rashness, and they them 2 so lated in the world,] Alluding to a benighted traveller. Johnson. So, in Macbeth, Act III: 3 "Now spurs the lated traveller apace." Steevens. be gone:] We might, I think, safely complete the mea sure by reading: be gone, I say. Steevens. 4 Sweep your way for you.] So, in Hamlet: 5 66 they must sweep my way, "And marshall me to knavery." let that be left Steevens. Which leaves itself:] Old copy-let them &c. Correctal by Mr. Capell. 6 Malone. I have lost command,] I am not maker of my own emotions. Johnson. Therefore I pray you:-I'll see you by and by. [Site down. Enter EROS, and CLEOPATRA, led by CHARMIAN and IRAS. Eros. Nay, gentle madam, to him:-Comfort him. Iras. Do, most dear queen. Char. Do! Why, what else?7 Cleo. Let me sit down. O Juno! Ant. No, no, no, no, no. Eros. See you here, sir? Char. Madam, · Ant. Yes, my lord, yes;-He, at Philippi, kept His sword even like a dancer; while I struck Surely, he rather means,-I entreat you to leave me, because I have lost all power to command your absence. Steevens. Mr. Steevens is certainly right. So, in King Richard III: "Tell her, the king, that may command, entreats." Malone. Do! Why, what else? &c.] Being uncertain whether these, and other short and interrupted speeches in the scene before us, were originally designed to form regular verses; and suspecting that in some degree they have been mutilated, I have made no attempt at their arrangement. Steevens. 8 He, at Philippi, kept His sword even like a dancer;] In the Morisco, and perhaps anciently in the Pyrrhick dance, the dancers held swords in their hands with the points upward. Johnson. I am told that the peasants in Northumberland have a sworddance which they always practise at Christmas. Steevens. The Goths, in one of their dances, held swords in their hands with the points upwards, sheathed and unsheathed. Might not the Moors in Spain borrow this custom of the Goths who intermixed with them? Tollet. I believe it means that Cæsar never offered to draw his sword, but kept it in the scabbard, like one who dances with a sword on, which was formerly the custom in England. There is a similar allusion in Titus Andronicus, Act II, sc. i: 66 our mother, unadvis'd, "Gave you a dancing rapier by your side." It may also be observed, that the dancers represented in one of the compartments of the shield of Achilles, had weapons by their sides: The lean and wrinkled Cassius; and 'twas I, Dealt on lieutenantry,' and no practice had That Mr. Steevens's explanation is just, appears from a passage in All's Well that Ends Well. Bertram, lamenting that he is kept from the wars, says― "I shall stay here the forehorse to a smock, "Till honour be bought up, and no sword worn, The word worn shows that in both passages our author was thinking of the English, and not of the Pyrrhick, or the Morisco, dance, (as Dr. Johnson supposed) in which the sword was not worn at the side, but held in the hand with the point upward. Malone. That the mad Brutus ended:] Nothing can be more in character, than for an infamous debauched tyrant to call the heroick love of one's country and publick liberty, madness. Warburton. Dealt on lieutenantry,] I know not whether the meaning is, that Cæsar acted only as lieutenant at Philippi, or that he made his attempts only on lieutenants, and left the generals to Antony. Johnson. Dealt on lieutenantry, I believe, means only,-fought by proxy, made war by his lieutenants, or on the strength of his lieutenants. So, in a former scene, Ventidius observes "Cesar and Antony have ever won Again, in the Countess of Pembroke's Antonie, 1595: "March'd against us, by us twice put to flight, To deal on any thing, is an expression often used in the old plays. So, in The Roaring Girl, 1611: "You will deal upon men's wives no more." The prepositions on and upon are sometimes oddly employed by our ancient writers. So, in Drayton's Miseries of Queen Margaret: "That it amaz'd the marchers, to behold "Men so ill arm'd, upon their bows so bold." Upon their bows must here mean on the strength of their bows, relying on their bows. Again, in Have with you to Saffron Walden, &c. by Nashe, 1596: "At Wolfe's he is billeted, sweating and dealing upon it most intentively." Again, in Othello? Upon malicious bravery dost thou come "To start my quiet." Again, in King Richard III: are they that I would have thee deal upon." Steevens. Steevens's explanation of this passage is just, and agreeable to the character here given of Augustus. Shakspeare represents In the brave squares of war: Yet now-No matter. Cleo. Ah, stand by. Eros. The queen, my lord, the queen. Iras. Go to him, madam, speak to him; He is unqualitied2 with very shame. Cleo. Well then,-sustain me:-O! Eros. Most noble sir, arise; the queen approaches; Her head 's declin'd, and death will seize her; but Your comfort makes the rescue. Ant. I have offended reputation; A most unnoble swerving. Eros. Sir, the queen. Ant. O, whither hast thou led me, Egypt? See, How I convey my shame out of thine eyes him, in the next Act, as giving his orders to Agrippa, and remaining unengaged himself: Again: 66 "Go forth, Agrippa, and begin the fight,” "Go, charge, Agrippa." M. Mason. In the Life of Antony, Shakspeare found the following passage: they were always more fortunate when they made warre by their lieutenants, than by themselves;”—which fully explains that before us. The subsequent words also-" and no practice had," &c. show that Mr. Steevens has rightly interpreted this passage. The phrase to deal on is likewise found in Pierce Pennylesse his Supplication to the Devil, by T. Nashe, 1592: "When, dice, lust and drunkenness, all have dealt upon him, if there be never a plaie for him to go for his pennie, he sits melancholie in his chamber." Malone. 2 He is unqualitied-] I suppose she means, he is unsoldier'd. Quality, in Shakspeare's age, was often used for profession. It has, I think, that meaning in the passage in Othello, in which Desdemona expresses her desire to accompany the Moor in his military service: 66 My heart 's subdued "Even to the very quality of my lord." Malone. Perhaps, unqualitied, only signifies unmanned in general, disarmed of his usual faculties, without any particular reference to soldiership. Steevens. Your comfort &c.] But has here, as once before in this play, the force of except, or unless. Johnson. I rather incline to think that but has here its ordinary signification. If it had been used for unless, Shakspeare would, I conceive, have written, according to his usual practices, make. Malone. How I convey my shame~] How, by looking another way, I withdraw my ignominy from your sight. Johnson. |