LEP. Nay, certainly, I have heard, the Ptolemies' pyramises are very goodly things; without contradiction, I have heard that.

MEN. Pompey, a word.

Ром.

[Aside.

Say in mine ear: What is't?

MEN. Forsake thy seat, I do beseech thee, captain.

And hear me speak a word.1

Ром.

This wine for Lepidus.

[Aside.

Forbear me till anon.

LEP. What manner o'thing is your crocodile? ANT. It is shaped, sir, like itself; and it is as broad as it hath breadth: it is just so high as it is, and moves with its own organs: it lives by that which nourisheth it; and the elements once out of it, it transmigrates.

LEP. What colour is it of?

"I have heard, the Ptolemies' pyramises are very goodly things;] Pyramis for pyramid was in common use in our author's time. So, in Bishop Corbet's Poems, 1647:

"Nor need the chancellor boast, whose pyramis

"Above the host and altar reared is."

From this word Shakspeare formed the English plural, pyramises, to mark the indistinct pronunciation of a man nearly intoxicated, whose tongue is now beginning to "split what it speaks.". In other places he has introduced the Latin plural pyramides, which was constantly used by our ancient writers. So, in this play:

"My country's high pyramides-."

Again, in Sir Aston Cockain's Poems, 1658:

"Neither advise I thee to pass the seas,

"To take a view of the pyramides."

Again, in Braithwaite's Survey of Histories, 1614: "Thou art now for building a second pyramides in the air." MALONE.

And hear me speak a word.] The two last words of this hemistich are, I believe, an interpolation. They add not to the sense, but disturb the measure. STEEVENS.

ANT. Of its own colour too.

LEP. 'Tis a strange serpent.

ANT. 'Tis so.

And the tears of it are wet.2

CES. Will this description satisfy him?

ANT. With the health that Pompey gives him, else he is a very epicure.

POM. [TO MENAS aside.] Go, hang, sir, hang! Tell me of that? away!

Do as I bid you.-Where's this cup I call'd for? MEN. If for the sake of merit thou wilt hear me, Rise from thy stool.

Ром.

[Aside. I think, thou'rt mad. The matter? [Rises, and walks aside. MEN. I have ever held my cap off to thy fortunes, POм. Thou hast serv'd me with much faith: What's else to say?

Be jolly, lords.

ANT.

These quick-sands, Lepidus,

Keep off them, for you sink.

MEN. Wilt thou be lord of all the world?

Ром.

What say'st thou ?

MEN. Wilt thou be lord of the whole world?

Although thou think me poor, I am the man

But entertain it, and,

Hast thou drunk well?

Will give thee all the world.

2

Ром.

MEN. No, Pompey, I have kept me from the cup.

-the tears of it are wet.] Lear to Cordelia, Act IV. sc. vii.

Thou art, if thou dar'st be, the earthly Jove:
Whate'er the ocean pales, or sky inclips,3
Is thine, if thou wilt have't.

Ром.

Show me which way.

MEN. These three world-sharers, these compe

titors,*

Are in thy vessel: Let me cut the cable; 5
And, when we are put off, fall to their throats:
All there is thine.

Ром.
Ah, this thou should'st have done,
And not have spoke on't! In me, 'tis villainy;
In thee, it had been good service. Thou must know,
'Tis not my profit that does lead mine honour;
Mine honour, it. Repent, that e'er thy tongue
Hath so betray'd thine act: Being done unknown,
I should have found it afterwards well done;
But must condemn it now. Desist, and drink.
MEN. For this,

[Aside.

or sky inclips,] i. e. embraces. STEEVENS. -competitors,] i. e. confederates, partners. See Vol. IV. p. 233, n. 6. STEEVENS.

5

Let me cut the cable;] So, in the old translation of Plutarch: "Now in the middest of the feast, when they fell to be merie with Antonius loue vnto Cleopatra, Menas the pirate came to Pompey, and whispering in his eare, said unto him: shall I cut the gables of the ankers, and make thee Lord not only of Sicile and Sardinia, but of the whole empire of Rome besides? Pompey hauing pawsed a while vpon it, at length aunswered him: thou shouldest haue done it, and neuer have told it me, but now we must content vs with that we haue. As for my selfe, I was neuer taught to breake my faith, nor to be counted a traitor.” STEEVENS.

All there is thine.] Thus the old copy. Modern editors read:

All then is thine.

If alteration be necessary, we might as well give: All theirs is thine. All there, however, may mean, all in the vessel.

STEEVENS.

I'll never follow thy pall'd fortunes' more.-
Who seeks, and will not take, when once 'tis offer'd,
Shall never find it more.

Ром.

8

This health to Lepidus.

ANT. Bear him ashore.-I'll pledge it for him,

Pompey.

ENO. Here's to thee, Menas.

MEN.

Enobarbus, welcome.

POм. Fill, till the cup be hid.
Ром.

ENO. There's a strong fellow, Menas.

[Pointing to the Attendant who carries off

ΜΕΝ.

ENO.

Why?

He bears

The third part of the world, man; See'st not? MEN. The third part then is drunk: 'Would it were all,9

7thy pall'd fortunes-] Palled, is vapid, past its time of excellence; palled wine, is wine that has lost its original sprightliness. JOHNSON.

Palled is a word of which the etymology is unknown. PerHaps, says Dr. Johnson, in his Dictionary, it is only a corruption of paled, and was originally applied to colours. Thus, in Chaucer's Manciple's Prologue, v. 17,004:

"So unweldy was this sely palled ghost." STEEVens.

* Who seeks, and will not take, when once 'tis offer'd, Shall never find it more.] This is from the ancient proverbial rhyme:

"He who will not, when he may,

"When he will, he shall have nay." STEEVENS.

9 The third part then is drunk: 'Would it were all, &c.] The old copy reads The third part then he is drunk, &c. The context clearly shows that the transcriber's ear deceived him, and that we should read as I have printed it,―The third part then is drunk. Malone.

That it might go on wheels!1

ENO. Drink thou; increase the reels.2

MEN. Come.

POм. This is not yet an Alexandrian feast. ANT. It ripens towards it.-Strike the vessels," ho!

Here is to Cæsar.

CES.

I could well forbear it.

It's monstrous labour, when I wash my brain,
And it grows fouler.

1 That it might go on wheels!] The World goes upon Wheels, is the title of a pamphlet written by Taylor the water-poet.

2

MALONE.

-increase the reels.] As the word-reel, was not, in our author's time, employed to signify a dance or revel, and is used in no other part of his works as a substantive, it is not impossible that the passage before us, which seems designed as a continuation of the imagery suggested by Menas, originally

stood thus:

3

Drink thou, and grease the wheels.

A phrase, somewhat similar, occurs in Timon of Athens :
with liquorish draughts &c.
-greases his pure mind,

"That from it all consideration slips." STEEVENS.

Strike the vessels,] Try whether the casks sound as empty. JOHNSON.

I believe, strike the vessels means no more than chink the vessels one against the other, as a mark of our unanimity in drinking; as we now say, chink glasses. STEEVENS.

Mr. Steevens is surely right. So, in one of Iago's songs:

"And let me the cannikin clink."

RITSON.

Vessels probably mean kettle-drums, which were beaten when the health of a person of eminence was drank; immediately after we have, "make battery to our ears with the loud musick.” They are called kettles in Hamlet :

"Give me the cups;

"And let the kettle to the trumpet speak."

Dr. Johnson's explanation degrades this feast of the lords of the whole world into a rustick revel. HOLT WHITE.