Beguil'd all spies. Can. Who's his lieutenant, hear you? Can. Well I know the man. Enter a Messenger. Mes. The emperor calls for Canidius. Can. With news the time's with labour, and throes forth, Each minute, some. [Exeunt. SCENE VIII. A Plain near Actium. Enter CESAR, TAURUS, Officers, and Cæs. Taurus, Taur. My lord. others. Cas. Strike not by land; keep whole : Provoke not battle, till we have done at sea. Do not exceed the prescript of this scroll: Our fortune lies upon this jump.* Enter ANTONY and ENOBARBUS. [Exeunt. Ant. Set we our squadrons on yon' side o'the hill, [Exeunt. Enter CANIDIUS, marching with his land army one way over the stage and TAURUS, the lieutenant of CESAR, the other way. After their going in, is heard the noise of a sea fight. Alarum. Re-enter ENOBARBUS. Eno. Naught, naught, all naught! I can behold no lon ger: The Antoniad, the Egyptian admiral,* With all their sixty, fly, and turn the rudder; To see't, mine eyes are blasted. Enter SCARUS. Scar. Gods, and goddesses, All the whole synod of them! Eno. What's thy passion? [4] Jump---hazard. So, in Macbeth: "We'd jump the life to come." STEEVENS. [5] The Antoniad--which Plutarch says, was the name of Cleopatra's ship POPE. Scar. The greater cantle of the world is lost With very ignorance; we have kiss'd away Kingdoms and provinces. Eno. How appears the fight? Scar. On our side like the token'd pestilence," Eno. That I beheld: mine eyes Did sicken at the sight on't, and could not Scar. She once being loof'd, The noble ruin of her magic, Antony, Claps on his sea-wing, and like a doating mallard, 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 it; and there I will attend What further comes. Can. To Cæsar will I render [6] Cantle---a piece or lump. POPE. [Aside Cantle is rather a corner. Cæsar, in this play, mentions the three-nook'd world. Of this triangular world every triumvir had a corner. JOHNSON. [7] Token'd, spotted. JOHNSON. The death of those visited by the plague was certain, when particular eruptions appeared on the skin; and these were called God's tokens. STEEVENS. [8] A Ribald---is a lewd fellow. Yon ribald-rid nag, means "yon strumpet who is common to every wanton fellow." STEEVENS. [9] Leprosy---an epidemical distemper of the Egyptians; to which Horace proba bly alludes in the controverted line. Contaminato cum grege turpium Morbo virorum. [1] The brize or cstrum, the fly that stings cattle. To loof is to bring a ship close to the wind. JOHNSON. STEEVENS. y legions, and my horse; six kings already how me the way of yielding. Eno. I'll yet follow *he wounded chance of Antony, though my reason its in the wind against me. [Exeunt. SCENE IX. lexandria. A room in the Palace. Enter ANTONY and Attendants. Ant. Hark, the land bids me tread no more upon't, t is asham'd to bear me !-Friends, come hither, am so lated in the world, that I Have lost my way for ever:-I have a ship Att. Fly! not we. Ant. I have fled myself; and have instructed cowards Which has no need of you; be gone : Reprove the brown for rashness, and they them [Sits down. Enter EROS, and CLEOPATRA led by CHARMIAN and IRAS. Eros. Nay, gentle madam, to him :-Comfort him.. [S] 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, tho' chased and wounded." 14] Alluding to a benighted traveller. JOHNSON. [5] I am not master of my own emotions. JOHNSON. JOHNSON. Iras. Do, most dear queen. Eros. See you here, sir? Char. Madam, O Juno ! Iras. Madam; O good empress !— Ant. Yes, my lord, yes ;-He, at Philippi, kept In the brave squares of war: Yet now-No matter. Eros. The queen, my lord, the queen. He is unqualitied 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; but9 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 [6] In the Morisco, and perhaps anciently in the Pyrrhick dance, the dancers held swords in their hands with the points upward. JOHNSON. 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. STEEVENS. Bertram, lamenting that he is kept from the wars, says--- "I shall stay here the forehorse to a smock, 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. [7] Nothing can be more in character, than for an infamous debauched tyrant to call the heroic love of one's country and public liberty, madness. WARBURTON. [8] I know not whether the meaning is, that Casar acted only as lieutenant at Philippi, or that he made his attempts only on lieutenants, and left the generals to Antony. JOHNSON. Dealt on lieutenancy, I believe, means only,---fought by proxy, made war by his lieutenants, or on the strength of his lieutenants. [9] But has here, the force of except, or unless. JOHNSON. By looking back on what I have left behind 'Stroy'd in dishonour Cleo. O my lord, my lord! Forgive my fearful sails! I little thought, Ant. Egypt, thou knew'st too well, My heart was to thy rudder tied by the strings,* Cleo. O, my pardon. Ant. Now I must To the young man send humble treaties, dodge With half the bulk o'the world play'd as I pleas'd, Cleo. O pardon, pardon. Ant. Fall not a tear, I say; one of them rates Even this repays me.-We sent our schoolmaster, knows, -: We scorn her most, when most she offers blows. SCENE X.. -Fortune [Exeunt. CESAR'S Camp, in Egypt. Enter CESAR, DOLABELLA, THYREUS, and others. Cas. Let him appear that's come from Antony. Know you him? Dol. Cæsar, 'tis his schoolmaster :3 An argument that he is pluck'd, when hither He sends so poor a pinion of his wing, Which had superfluous kings for messengers, That is, by the heart-string. JOHNSON. [3] He was schoolmaster to Antony's children by Cleopatra. MALONE. |