As to have aşk'd him pardon: Let this fellow CES. You have broken The article of your oath; which you shall never Have tongue to charge me with. LEP. Soft, Cæsar. ANT. No, Lepidus, let him speak; 6 The honour's sacred which he talks on now, 6 The honour's SACRED -] Sacred, for unbroken, unviolated. WARBURTON. Dr. Warburton seems to understand this passage thus: "The honour which he talks of me as lacking, is unviolated. I never lacked it. This, perhaps, may be the true meaning; but, before I read the note, I understood it thus: Lepidus interrupts Cæsar, on the supposition that what he is about to say will be too harsh to be endured by Antony; to which Antony replies-" No, Lepidus, let him speak; the security of honour on which he now speaks, on which this conference is held now, is sacred, even supposing that I lacked honour before." JOHNSON. Antony, in my opinion, means to say-The theme of honour which he now speaks of, namely, the religion of an oath, for which he supposes me not to have a due regard, is sacred; it is a tender point, and touches my character nearly. Let him therefore urge his charge, that I may vindicate myself. MALONE. I do not think that either Johnson's or Malone's explanation of this passage is satisfactory. The true meaning of it appears to be this:"Čæsar accuses Antony of a breach of honour in denying to send him aid when he required it, which was contrary to his oath. Antony says, in his defence, that he did not deny his aid, but, in the midst of dissipation, neglected to send it: that having now brought his forces to join him against Pompey, he had redeemed that error; and that therefore the honour which Cæsar talked of, was now sacred and inviolate, supposing that he had been somewhat deficient before, in the performance of that engagement."-The adverb now refers to is, not to talks on; and the line should be pointed thus: CES. To lend me arms, and aid, when I requir'd them; The which you both denied. ANT. Work without it': Truth is, that Fulvia, LEP. "Tis noble spoken R. MEC. If it might please you, to enforce no fur ther The griefs between ye: to forget them quite, LEP. Worthily spoken, Mecænas. ENO. Or, if you borrow one another's love for the instant, you may, when you hear no more words of Pompey, return it again: you shall have time to wrangle in, when you have nothing else to do. ANT. Thou art a soldier only; speak no more. 7 nor my power Work without it:] Nor my greatness work without mine honesty. MALONE. 8 'Tis NOBLY spoken.] Thus the second folio. The firstnoble. STEEVENS. Substantives were frequently used adjectively by Shakspeare. See vol. x. p. 438. I have adhered to the old reading. MALONE. -] i. e. grievances. See vol. xi. p. 506. 9 The GRIEFS I MALONE. to ATONE you.] i, e. reconcile you. See Cymbeline, Act I. Sc. V. STEEVENS. ENO. That truth should be silent 2, I had almost forgot. ANT. You wrong this presence, therefore speak no more. 3 ENO. Go to then; your considerate stone 3, 2 That truth should be silent,] We find a similar sentiment in King Lear: "Truth's a dog that must to kennel—.” STEEVENS. 3your considerate stone.] This line is passed by all the editors, as if they understood it, and believed it universally intelligible. I cannot find in it any very obvious, and hardly any possible meaning. I would therefore read: "Go to then, you considerate ones." You who dislike my frankness and temerity of speech, and are so considerate and discreet, go to, do your own business. JOHNSON. I believe, "Go to then; your considerate stone," means only this: If I must be chidden, henceforward I will be mute as a marble statue, which seems to think, though it can say nothing. "As silent as a stone," however, might have been once a common phrase. So, in the interlude of Jacob and Esau, 1598 : Bring thou in thine, Mido, and see thou be a stone. 66 "Rebecca.] I meant thou should'st nothing say." Again, in the old metrical romance of Syr Guy of Warwick, bl. 1. no date : Guy let it passe as still as stone, "And to the steward word spake none." Again, in Titus Andronicus, Act III. Sc. I. : "A stone is silent and offendeth not." Again, Chaucer : "To riden by the way, dombe as a stone.” In Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy, Part I. Sect. 2, Memb. 3, Subs. 15, is the following quotation from Horace : statua taciturnior exit, Plurumque et risum populi quatit. The same idea, perhaps, in a more dilated form, will be found in our author's King Henry VIII. : 66 If we shall stand still, "In fear our motion should be mock'd or carp'd at, "We should take root here where we sit, or sit "State statues only.” Mr. Tollet explains the passage in question thus: "I will henceforth seem senseless as a stone, however I may observe and consider your words and actions." STEEVENS. CES. I do not much dislike the matter, but The manner of his speech: for it cannot be, We shall remain in friendship, our conditions So differing in their acts. Yet, if I knew What hoop should hold us staunch, from edge to edge O' the world I would pursue it. AGR. CES. Speak, Agrippa. Give me leave, Cæsar, AGR. Thou hast a sister by the mother's side, Admir'd Octavia: great Mark Antony Is now a widower. CES. Say not so, Agrippa"; If Cleopatra heard you, your reproof The metre of this line is deficient. It will be perfect, and the sense rather clearer, if we read (without altering a letter): your consideratest one." I doubt, indeed, whether this adjective is ever used in the superlative degree; but in the mouth of Enobarbus it might be pardoned. BLACKSTONE. As Enobarbus, to whom this line belongs, generally speaks in plain prose, there is no occasion for any further attempt to harmonize it. RITSON. 4 I do not much dislike the MATTER, but The manner of his speech :] I do not, (says Cæsar,) think the man wrong, but too free of his interposition; for it cannot be, we shall remain in friendship: yet if it were possible, I would endeavour it.' JOHNSON. 5 What HOOP should hold us staunch,] So, in King Henry IV. Part II. : "A hoop of gold, to bind thy brothers in-." STEevens. Say not so, Agrippa;] The old copy has-" Say not say." Mr. Rowe made this necessary correction. MALone. which Mr. Theobald, with his usual triumph, changes to approof, which he explains allowance. Dr. Warburton inserted reproof very properly into Hanmer's edition, but forgot it in his own. JOHNSON. ANT. I am not married, Cæsar: let me hear Agrippa further speak. AGR. To hold you in perpetual amity, To make you brothers, and to knit your hearts ANT. Will Cæsar speak? 8 CES. Not till he hears how Antony is touch'd With what is spoke already". - "Your reproof," &c. That is, you might be reproved for your rashness, and would well deserve it. Your reproof, means, the reproof you would undergo. The expression is rather licentious: but one of a similar nature occurs in The Custom of the Country, where Arnoldo, speaking to the Physician, says: 66 And by your success "In all your undertakings, propagate Here, your opinion means, the opinion conceived of you. M. MASON. Dr. Warburton's emendation is certainly right. The error was one of many which are found in the old copy, in consequence of the transcriber's ear deceiving him. So, in another scene of this play, we find in the first copy-mine nightingale, instead of my nightingale; in Coriolanus, news is coming, for news is come in; in the same play, higher for hire, &c. &c. MALOne. 8-BUT tales,] The conjunction-but, was supplied by Sir Thomas Hanmer, to perfect the metre. We might read, I think, with less alliteration-as tales. STEEVENS. 9 already.] This adverb may be fairly considered as an interpolation. Without enforcing the sense, it violates the measure. STEEVENS. |