By repetition souring, does become The opposite of itself': she's good, being gone; Eno. What's your pleasure, sir? Ant. I must with haste from hence. Eno. Why, then, we kill all our women. We see how mortal an unkindness is to them: if they suffer our departure, death's the word. Ant. I must be gone. Eno. Under a compelling occasion, let women die: it were pity to cast them away for nothing; though, between them and a great cause, they should be esteemed nothing. Cleopatra, catching but the least noise of this, dies instantly: I have seen her die twenty times upon far poorer moment. I do think, there is mettle in death, which commits some loving act upon her, she hath such a celerity in dying. Ant. She is cunning past man's thought. Eno. Alack, sir! no; her passions are made of nothing but the finest part of pure love. We cannot call her winds and waters, sighs and tears; they are greater storms and tempests than almanacs can report: this cannot be cunning The opposite of itself:] Our text has been furnished here by the corr. fo. 1632, and we cannot doubt that it is what the poet wrote, and not "By revolution lowering," &c. The meaning of course is, that pleasure, souring by repetition, becomes the reverse of itself. The old compositor misread "repetition" (the same word was mistaken in "The Winter's Tale," A. iii. sc. 2, Vol. iii. p. 57) revolution, and "sowering" (as the word was then often spelt) lowering, and thus made almost nonsense of the whole passage. The restoration by the old annotator can hardly have been a mere guess. I must from this ENCHANTING queen] It is a great error in the second folio to omit "enchanting;" and it was not corrected in the folios, 1664 or 1685, which were printed from each other. "Enchanting" is found inserted in the margin of the corr. fo. 1632, but Rowe printed "Egyptian queen." 7 Ho! Enobarbus!] Antony calls Enobarbus, who enters immediately in all the early copies it is "How now! Enobarbus!" certainly, as the Rev. Mr. Dyce says, ("Few Notes." p. 150,) an unusual form of summoning a person to the presence of another. The error arose from the old printing of "Ho!" How, and the careless insertion of now. For a similar reason we have suggested, on the previous page, that "From Sicyon, how the news?" ought, perhaps, to be "From Sicyon, ho! the news?" in her; if it be, she makes a shower of rain as well as Jove. Ant. Would I had never seen her! Eno. Oh, sir, you had then left unseen a wonderful piece of work, which not to have been blessed withal would have discredited your travel. Ant. Fulvia is dead. Ant. Fulvia is dead. Ant. Dead. Eno. Why, sir, give the gods a thankful sacrifice. When it pleaseth their deities to take the wife of a man from him, it shows to man the tailors of the earth: comforting therein, that when old robes are worn out, there are members to make new. If there were no more women but Fulvia, then had you indeed a cut, and the case to be lamented: this grief is crowned with consolation; your old smock brings forth a new petticoat; and, indeed, the tears live in an onion, that should water this sorrow. Ant. The business she hath broached in the state Cannot endure my absence. Eno. And the business you have broached here cannot be without you; especially that of Cleopatra's, which wholly depends on your abode. 8 Ant. No more light answers. Let our officers 8 The cause of our EXPEDIENCE] i. e. Of our expedition. See Vol. iii. p. 322, where "expedience" is used precisely in the same way: so "expedient," in Shakespeare, constantly means expeditious. See Vol. iii. pp. 136. 239, &c. And get her LEAVE to part:] This was Pope's emendation for "love to part" of the folios: it is entirely confirmed by the corr. fo. 1632, where love is altered to "leave." Monck Mason and Malone were both for "leave." Pompey the great, and all his dignities, Eno. I shall do it. [Exeunt. SCENE III. Enter CLEOPATRA, CHARMIAN, IRAS, and ALEXAS. Cleo. Where is he? Char. I did not see him since. Cleo. See where he is, who's with him, what he does: I did not send you.-If you find him sad, Say, I am dancing; if in mirth, report That I am sudden sick: quick, and return. [Exit ALEXAS. Char. Madam, methinks, if you did love him dearly, You do not hold the method to enforce Cleo. What should I do, I do not? Char. In each thing give him way; cross him in nothing. Cleo. Thou teachest, like a fool, the way to lose him. And not a serpent's poison.] There was an old superstition that horse-hair laid in water turned to serpents. Coleridge, in his "Literary Remains,” Vol. ii. p. 145, informs us that a notion of the kind still prevails in Cumberland and Westmoreland. "This," he says, "is so far true to appearance, that a horse-hair laid, as Holinshed says, in a pail of water, will become the supporter of, seemingly, one worm, though probably of an immense number of small, slimy water-lice. The hair will twirl round the finger, and sensibly compress it. It is a common experiment with school-boys in Cumberland and Westmoreland." 2 Thou teachest, like a fool, THE way to lose him.] Here we have an instance of decided improvement in punctuation by the old annotator on the fo. 1632. In all the folios, and indeed in all editions from 1623 to our own day, this line has been thus given : : "Thou teachest like a fool: the way to lose him." There can be no dispute that this mode of pointing the passage is wrong, and in the corr. fo. 1632 it stands as in our text. Without any knowledge that such an emendation had ever been made, we gave the line rightly in our first impression; and it has been very properly followed by Mr. Singer, although certainly a trifle Char. Tempt him not so too far; I wish, forbear: In time we hate that which we often fear. But here comes Antony. Cleo. Enter ANTONY. I am sick, and sullen. Ant. I am sorry to give breathing to my purpose,Cleo. Help me away, dear Charmian, I shall fall: It cannot be thus long; the sides of nature Will not sustain it. Ant. Now, my dearest queen, Cleo. Pray you, stand farther from me. What's the matter? Cleo. I know, by that same eye, there's some good news. What the married woman ?--You may go: says Would she had never given you leave to come! Let her not say, 'tis I that keep you here: I have no power upon you; her's you are. Oh! never was there queen So mightily betray'd; yet at the first I saw the treasons planted. Cleo. Why should I think, you can be mine, and true, To be entangled with those mouth-made vows, Ant. Most sweet queen,— Cleo. Nay, pray you, seek no colour for your going, But bid farewell, and go: when you sued staying, Then was the time for words; no going then: Eternity was in our lips, and eyes; Bliss in our brows' bent; none our parts so poor, But was a race of heaven: they are so still, Ant. How now, lady! hardly worth acknowledgment—as indeed he seems to have considered it. We only mention the matter, in order to show that in the corr. fo. 1632 the alteration had been made, and that the old annotator was on the watch even for such ordinary perversions of the meaning of the poet. The wonder is, how Rowe, Pope, Theobald, and so down to Steevens, Johnson, and Malone, could have reiterated the blundering punctuation. Cleo. I would, I had thy inches; thou shouldst know, There were a heart in Egypt. Ant. Hear me, queen. The strong necessity of time commands Our services a while, but my full heart Shines o'er with civil swords: Sextus Pompeius Breeds scrupulous faction. The hated, grown to strength, Into the hearts of such as have not thriv'd Cleo. Though age from folly could not give me freedom, It does from childishness.-Can Fulvia die? Ant. She's dead, my queen. Look here, and, at thy sovereign leisure, read Oh, most false love! Cleo. Cleo. Cut my lace, Charmian, come. 3 The GARBOILS she awak'd;] "Garboils" was a common word for commotions in the time of Shakespeare: it occurs again afterwards, p. 157; and it was used by Drayton and other good authors, although Stanyhurst fell for it under the ridicule of Hall, in his 6th Satire, of Book i. "Manhood and garboils shall he chant with changed feet." Stanyhurst employs the word in the opening of his English-hexameter translation of the Æneid, 1584, in the line, "Now, manhood and garboils I chaunt, and martial horror." Elsewhere he often shows his fondness for the same term. |