3 SOLD. What man is this? 2 SOLD. Stand close, and list him ". ENO. Be witness to me, O thou blessed moon, When men revolted shall upon record Bear hateful memory, poor Enobarbus did Before thy face repent! 1 SOLD. 3 SOLD. Hark further. Enobarbus! Peace; ENO. O sovereign mistress of true melancholy, The poisonous damp of night disponge upon me That life, a very rebel to my will, ; May hang no longer on me: Throw my heart And finish all foul thoughts. O Antony, Nobler than my revolt is infamous, Forgive me in thine own particular; 6 list To him.] I am answerable for the insertion of the preposition-to. Thus, in King Henry IV. Part I.: "Pr'ythee, let her alone, and list to me." STEEVENS. Yet see Hamlet, vol. vii. p. 216: "If with too credent ear you list his songs." BOSWELL. 7 DISPONGE upon me;] i. e. discharge, as a sponge, when squeezed, discharges the moisture it had imbibed. So, in Hamlet: " - it is but squeezing you, and, sponge, you shall be dry again." This word is not found in Dr. Johnson's Dictionary. STEEVENS. 8Throw my heart-] The pathetick of Shakspeare too often ends in the ridiculous. It is painful to find the gloomy dignity of this noble scene destroyed by the intrusion of a conceit so farfetched and unaffecting. JOHNSON. Shakspeare, in most of his conceits, is kept in countenance by his contemporaries. Thus, Daniel, in his 18th Sonnet, 1594, somewhat indeed less harshly, says 66 desires abated, Still must I whet my young A master-leaver, and a fugitive: O Antony! O Antony! 2 SOLD. To him. Let's speak [Dies. 1 SOLD. Let's hear him, for the things he speaks May concern Cæsar. 3 SOLD. Let's do so. But he sleeps. 1 SOLD. Swoons rather; for so bad a prayer as Enter ANTONY and SCARUS, with Forces, marching. ANT. Their preparation is to-day by sea; We please them not by land. SCAR. 9 for SLEEPING.] Old copy-sleep. For both, my lord. I am responsible for the substitution of the participle in the room of the substantive, for the sake of measure. STEEVENS. The hand of death hath RAUGHT him.] Raught is the ancient preterite of the verb to reach. STEEVENS. 2 Hark, the drums DEMURELY] Demurely, for solemnly. WARBURTON. ANT. I would, they'd fight i' the fire, or in the air; We'd fight there too. But this it is; Our foot Shall stay with us: order for sea is given; 3 They have put forth the haven 3: Let's seek a spot, 3 They have put forth the haven: FURTHER ON,] These words, Further on, though not necessary, have been inserted in the later editions, and are not in the first. JOHNSON. I think these words are absolutely necessary for the sense. As the passage stands, Antony appears to say, "that they could best discover the appointment of the enemy at the haven after they had left it." But if we add the words Further on, his speech will be consistent: "As they have put out of the haven, let us go further on where we may see them better." And accordingly in the next page but one he says 66 Where yonder pine does stand, "I shall discover all." M. MASON. Mr. Malone, instead of—Further on, reads-Let's seek a spot. STEEVENS. The defect of the metre in the old copy shows that some words were accidentally omitted. In that copy, as here, there is a colon at haven, which is an additional proof that something must have been said by Antony, connected with the next line, and relative to the place where the enemy might be reconnoitred. The haven itself was not such a place; but rather some hill from which the haven and the ships newly put forth could be viewed. What Antony says upon his re-entry, proves decisively that he had not gone to the haven, nor had any thoughts of going thither. "I see, (says he,) they have not yet joined; but I'll now choose a more convenient station near yonder pine, and I shall discover all." A preceding passage in Act III. Sc. VI. adds such support to the emendation now made, that I trust I shall be pardoned for giving it a place in my text: "Set we our battles on yon side of the hill, Mr. Rowe supplied the omission by the words-Further on; and the four subsequent editors have adopted his emendation. In Hamlet there is an omission similar to that which has here been supplied: And let them know both what we mean to do, Where their appointment we may best discover, [Exeunt. Enter CESAR, and his Forces, marching. CES. But being charg'd, we will be still by land, Which, as I take't, we shall5; for his best force Is forth to man his gallies. To the vales, And hold our best advantage. "Whose whisper o'er the world's diameter, "As level as the cannon to his blank," &c. [Exeunt. The words" So viperous slander," which are necessary both to the sense and metre, are not in the old copies. MALONE. 4 Where their APPOINTMENT We may best discover, And look on their ENDEAVOUR.] i. e. where we may best discover their numbers, and see their motions. WARBURTON. 5 BUT being charg'd, we will be still by land, Which, as I take't, we shall ;] i. e. unless we be charg'd we will remain quiet at land, which quiet I suppose we shall keep. But being charg'd was a phrase of that time, equivalent to unless we be. WARBURTON. 66 66 "But (says Mr. Lambe, in his notes on the ancient metrical history of The Battle of Floddon,) signifies without," in which sense it is often used in the North. Boots but spurs." Vulg. Again, in Kelly's Collection of Scots Proverbs: He could eat me but salt." Again: "He gave me whitings but bones." Again, in Chaucer's Persones Tale, Mr. Tyrwhitt's edit.: "Ful oft time I rede, that no man trust in his owen perfection, but he be stronger than Samson, or holier than David, or wiser than Solomon." But is from the Saxon Butan. Thus butan leas; absque falso, without a lie. Again, in The Vintner's Play, in the Chester Collection, British Museum, MS. Harl. 2013, p. 29: "Abraham. Oh comely creature, but I thee kill, 66 I greeve my God, and that full ill.” See also Ray's North Country Words; and the MS. version of an ancient French romance, entitled L'Histoire du noble, preux, et vaillant Chevalier Guillaume de Palerne, et de la belle Melior sa mye, lequel Guill. de Palerne fut filz du Roy de Cecille, &c. in the Library of King's College, Cambridge: "I sayle now in the see as schip boute mast, "Boute anker, or ore, or ani semlych sayle." P. 86. In ancient writings this preposition is commonly distinguished from the adversative conjunction-but; the latter being usually spelled-bot. STEEVENS. Re-enter ANTONY and SCARUS. ANT. Yet they're not join'd: Where yonder pine does stand, I shall discover all: I'll bring thee word Straight, how 'tis like to go. SCAR. [Exit. Swallows have built 6 In Cleopatra's sails their nests: the augurers Say, they know not,-they cannot tell ;-look grimly, And dare not speak their knowledge. Antony Is valiant, and dejected; and, by starts, His fretted fortunes give him hope, and fear, ANT. Alarum afar off, as at a Sea Fight. Re-enter ANTONY. All is lost; This foul Egyptian hath betrayed me: My fleet hath yielded to the foe; and yonder 6 the AUGURERS- -] The old copy has-auguries. This leads us to what seems most likely to be the true reading-augurers, which word is used in the last Act: "You are too sure an augurer." MALONE. ' — TRIPLE-TURN'D whore!] She was first for Antony, then was supposed by him to have turned to Cæsar, when he found his messenger kissing her hand; then she turned again to Antony; and now has turned to Cæsar. Shall I mention what has dropped into my imagination, that our author perhaps might have written triple-tongued? Double-tongued is a common term of reproach, which rage might improve to triple-tongued. But the present reading may stand. JOHNSON. Cleopatra was first the mistress of Julius Cæsar, then of Cneius Pompey, and afterwards of Antony. To this, I think, the epithet triple-turn'd alludes. So, in a former scene: |