Ant.

Gentle, hear me:

None about Cæsar trust but Proculeius. Cleo. My resolution and my hands I'll trust; None about Cæsar.

Ant. The miserable change now at my end

50

Lament nor sorrow at, but please your thoughts In feeding them with those my former fortunes

Wherein I lived, the greatest prince o' the
world,

The noblest, and do now not basely die,
Not cowardly put off my helmet to
My countryman, a Roman by a Roman

Valiantly vanquish'd. Now my spirit is going;
I can no more.

Cleo.

Noblest of men, woo't die?

Hast thou no care of me? shall I abide
In this dull world, which in thy absence is
No better than a sty? O, see, my women,

60

[Antony dies.
The crown o' the earth doth melt. My lord!
O, wither'd is the garland of the war,
The soldier's pole is fall'n: young boys and girls
Are level now with men; the odds is gone,

And there is nothing left remarkable
Beneath the visiting moon.

Char.

[Faints.

O, quietness, lady!

Lady!

Madam!

Iras. She's dead too, our sovereign.

Char.

Iras.

65. "soldier's pole"; that is, their standard or rallying point is

thrown down.-H. N. H.

Cleo. No more, but e'en a woman, and commanded
By such poor passion as the maid that milks
And does the meanest chares. It were for me
To throw my scepter at the injurious gods,
To tell them that this world did equal theirs
Till they had stol'n our jewel. All's but
naught;

80

Patience is sottish, and impatience does
Become a dog that's mad: then is it sin
To rush into the secret house of death,
Ere death dare come to us? How do you,
women?

What, what! good cheer! Why, how now,
Charmian!

My noble girls! Ah women, women, look,
Our lamp is spent, it's out! Good sirs, take
heart:

We'll bury him; and then, what 's brave, what's
noble,

Let's do it after the high Roman fashion,

73. "No more, but e'en a woman"; Capell's version; Ff. read "No more but in a Woman"; Rowe, "No more but a meer woman”; Johnson conj., adopted by Steevens, 1773, 1778, “No more—but e'en a woman."-I. G.

75. "chares" is an old word for diverse little items and patches of work, such as commonly fall to boys and servant-girls. In New England chores is still used in the same way for such matters as feeding the pigs, watering the horses, milking the cows, &c.— H. N. H.

And make death proud to take us.

away:

This case of that huge spirit now is cold:

Come,

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Ah, women, women! Come; we have no friend But resolution and the briefest end. [Exeunt: those above bearing off Antony's body.

1

ACT FIFTH

SCENE I

Alexandria. Cæsar's camp.

Enter Caesar, Agrippa, Dolabella, Maecenas, Gallus, Proculeius, and others, his council of war.

Cæs. Go to him, Dollabella, bid him yield;
Being so frustrate, tell him he mocks
The pauses that he makes.

Dol.

Cæsar, I shall.

[Exit.

Enter Dercetas, with the sword of Antony.

Cæs. Wherefore is that? and what art thou that

darest

Appear thus to us?

Der.

I am call'd Dercetas;
Mark Antony I served, who best was worthy
Best to be served: whilst he stood up and spoke,
He was my master, and I wore my life
To spend upon his haters. If thou please
To take me to thee, as I was to him
I'll be to Cæsar; if thou pleasest not,

10

2. "frustrate"; in such verbs as frustrate, contaminate, and consummate, the participle was often so formed. In the Psalter we have a similar usage: "Be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors."H. N. H.

5. "appear thus"; that is, with a drawn and bloody sword in thy hand.-H. N. H.

I yield thee up my life.

Cæs.

What is 't thou say'st?

Der. I say, O Cæsar, Antony is dead.

Cæs. The breaking of so great a thing should make

A greater crack: the round world

Should have shook lions into civil streets,
And citizens to their dens.

tony

The death of Aṇ

Is not a single doom; in the name lay
A moiety of the world.

Der.

He is dead, Cæsar;
Not by a publi minister of justice,
Nor by a hired knife; but that self hand,
Which writ his honor in the acts it did,

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Hath, with the courage which the heart did lend it,

Splitted the heart. This is his sword;

I robb'd his wound of it; behold it stain'd
With his most noble blood.

Cæs.

Look you sad, friends? The gods rebuke me, but it is tidings.

15. "crack: the round world"; Steevens conj. "crack than this: the riun'd world"; Singer conj. "crack: the round world convulsive"; Nicholson conj. "crack: the round world in rending"; Daniel conj. "crack in the round world," &c., &c.-I. G.

16-17. "Should have shook," etc.; commentators have puzzled a good deal over this passage, and most of them have concluded that some words had been lost in the printing. From the defectiveness of the measure it seems not unlikely that such may be the case. Still the sense is complete enough. Of course the idea is of a shaking, such as to confound cities and deserts together, throwing lions into the streets of men, and men into the dens of lions. We follow the arrangement of the original.-H. N. H.

24. "Splitted the heart"; Collier MS., "Split that self noble heart”; Elze conj. "Splitted that very heart.”—I. G.