AGR. Royal wench! She made great Cæsar lay his sword to bed; He plough'd her, and she cropp'd. ENO. I saw her once Hop forty paces through the publick street: And having lost her breath, she spoke, and panted, That she did make defect, perfection, And, breathless, power breathe forth. MEC. Now Antony must leave her utterly. Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale 7 Age cannot wither her, nor custom STALE Her infinite variety:] Such is the praise bestowed by Shakspeare on his heroine; a praise that well deserves the consideration of our female readers. Cleopatra, as appears from the tetradrachms of Antony, was no Venus; and indeed the majority of ladies who most successfully enslaved the hearts of princes, are known to have been less remarkable for personal than mental attractions. The reign of insipid beauty is seldom lasting; but permanent must be the rule of a woman who can diversify the sameness of life by an inexhausted variety of accomplishments. To stale is a verb employed by Heywood, in The Iron Age, 1632: "One that hath stal'd his courtly tricks at home.” STEEVENS. 8 Other women Cloy th' appetites they feed; but she makes hungry, Where most she satisfies.] Almost the same thought, clothed nearly in the same expressions, is found in the old play of Pericles : 66 Who starves the ears she feeds, and makes them hungry, The more she gives them speech." Again, in our author's Venus and Adonis : 9 "And yet not cloy thy lips with loath'd satiety, "But rather famish them amid their plenty." MALONE. For VILEST THINGS BECOME themselves in her ;] So, in our author's 150th Sonnet : MEĆ. If beauty, wisdom, modesty, can settle The heart of Antony, Octavia is A blessed lottery to him3. I "Whence hast thou this becoming of things ill?" MALONE. the holy priests, &c.] In this, and the foregoing description of Cleopatra's passage down the Cydnus, Dryden seems to have emulated Shakspeare, and not without success: 66 she's dangerous: "Her eyes have power beyond Thessalian charms, "The holy priests gaze on her when she smiles; "They bless her wanton eyes. Even I who hate her, "And while I curse desire it." Be it remembered, however, that, in both instances, without a spark from Shakspeare, the blaze of Dryden might not have been enkindled. REED. when she is RIGGISH.] Rigg is an ancient word meaning a strumpet. So, in Whetstone's Castle of Delight, 1576: Then loath they will both lust and wanton love, "Or else be sure such ryggs my care shall prove." Again: "Immodest rigg, I Ovid's counsel usde." Again, in Churchyard's Dolorous Gentlewoman, 1593: "About the streets was gadding, gentle rigge, "With clothes tuckt up to set bad ware to sale, "For youth good stuffe, and for olde age a stale." STEEVENS. Again, in J. Davies's Scourge of Folly, printed about the year 1611: "When wanton rig, or lecher dissolute, "Do stand at Paules Cross in a-suite." MALONE. - Octavia is A BLESSED LOTTERY to him.] Dr. Warburton says, the poet wrote allottery, but there is no reason for this assertion. The ghost of Andrea, in The Spanish Tragedy, says: "Minos in graven leaves of lottery "Drew forth the manner of my life and death." FARMER. So, in Stanyhurst's translation of Virgil, 1582: 66 By this hap escaping the filth of lottarye carnal.” AGR. Let us go. Good Enobarbus, make yourself my guest, ENO. Humbly, sir, I thank you. [Exeunt. SCENE III. The Same. A Room in CÆSAR'S House. Enter CESAR, ANTONY, OCTAVIA between them; Attendants and a Soothsayer. ANT. The world, and my great office, will some times Divide me from your bosom. Оста. All which time Before the gods my knee shall bow my prayers ANT. Good night, sir.-My Octavia, Read not my blemishes in the world's report: I have not kept my square; but that to come Shall all be done by the rule. Good night, dear lady. Good night, sir". Again, in The Honest Man's Fortune, by Beaumont and Fletcher: fainting under "Fortune's false lottery." STEEvens. Lottery for allotment. HENLEY. 4 shall bow мy prayers -] The same construction is found in Coriolanus, Act I. Sc. I. : "Shouting their emulation." Again, in King Lear, Act II. Sc. II. : "Smile you my speeches?" Modern editors [Mr. Malone excepted] have licentiously read: bow in prayers." STEEVENS. s Ant. Good night, dear lady. Oct. Good night, sir.] These last words, which in the only authentick copy of this play are given to Antony, the modern edí 7 CES. Good night. [Exeunt CESAR and OCTAVIA. ANT. Now, sirrah! you do wish yourself in Egypt ? SOOTH. 'Would I had never come from thence, ANT. If you can, your reason? I see it in My motion, have it not in my tongue'; But yet Hie you again to Egypt. ANT. Say to me, Whose fortunes shall rise higher, Cæsar's, or mine? SOOTH. Cæsar's. Therefore, O Antony, stay not by his side: Thy dæmon, that's thy spirit which keeps thee, is Noble, courageous, high, unmatchable, tors have assigned to Octavia. I see no need of change. He addresses himself to Cæsar, who immediately replies, "Good night." MALONE. I have followed the second folio, which puts these words (with sufficient propriety) into the mouth of Octavia. STEEVENS. Antony has already said "Good night, sir," to Cæsar, in the three first words of his speech. The repetition would be absurd. The editor of the second folio appears, from this and numberless other instances, to have had a copy of the first folio corrected by the players, or some other well-informed person. RITSON. 6 'Would I had never come from thence, nor you THITHER!] Both the sense and grammar require that we should read hither, instead of thither. To come hither is English, but to come thither is not. The Soothsayer advises Antony to hie back to Egypt, and for the same reason wishes he had never come to Rome; because when they were together, Cæsar's genius had the ascendant over his. M. MASON. 7 I see't in My MOTION, have it not in my tongue :] i. e. the divinitory agitation. WARBURTON. Mr. Theobald reads, with some probability, "I see it in my MALONE. notion." 8 Hie you again to Egypt.] Old copy, unmetrically: "Hie you to Egypt again." STEEvens. Where Cæsar's is not; but, near him, thy angel Becomes a Fear, as being o'erpower'd; therefore Make space enough between you. ANT. Speak this no more. SOOTH. To none but thee; no more, but when to thee. If thou dost play with him at any game, 9 Becomes a FEAR,] Mr. Upton reads: "Becomes afear'd- -." The common reading is more poetical. JOHNSON. A Fear was a personage in some of the old moralities. Beaumont and Fletcher allude to it in The Maid's Tragedy, where Aspasia is instructing her servants how to describe her situation in needle-work: "Do that Fear bravely, wench-—.” Spenser had likewise personified Fear, in the 12th canto of the third book of his Fairy Queen. In the sacred writings Fear is also a person: σε I will put a Fear in the land of Egypt." Exodus. The whole thought is borrowed from Sir T. North's translation of Plutarch: "With Antonius there was a soothsayer or astronomer of Egypt, that coulde cast a figure, and iudge of men's natiuities, to tell them what should happen to them. He, either to please Cleopatra, or else for that he founde it so by his art, told Antonius plainly, that his fortune (which of it selfe was excellent good, and very great) was altogether blemished, and obscured by Cæsars fortune: and therefore he counselled him vtterly to leaue his company, and to get him as farre from him as he could. For thy Demon said he, (that is to say, the good angell and spirit that keepeth thee) is affraied of his and being coragious and high when he is alone, becometh fearfull and timerous when he commeth neere vnto the other." STEEVENS. Our author has a little lower expressed his meaning more plainly: I say again, thy spirit "Is all afraid to govern thee near him." We have this sentiment again in Macbeth : 66 66 near him, My genius is rebuk'd; as, it is said, "Mark Antony's was by Cæsar's." The old copy reads-" that thy spirit." The correction, which was made in the second folio, is supported by the foregoing passage in Plutarch, but I doubt whether it is necessary. MALONE. |