Eno. I shall entreat him To answer like himself: if Cæsar move him, I would not shave't to-day. Lep. Eno. For private stomaching. 'Tis not a time Every time Serves for the matter that is then born in't. Lep. But small to greater matters must give way. Lep. But, pray you, stir no embers up. The noble Antony. Eno. Your speech is passion: Here comes Enter ANTONY and VENTIDIUS. And yonder, Cæsar. Enter CESAR, MECENAS, and AGRIPPA. Ant. If we compose well here, to Parthia: Hark you, Ventidius. Cæs. Mecænas; ask Agrippa. Lep. I do not know, Noble friends, That which combin'd us was most great, and let not A leaner action rend us. What's amiss, May it be gently heard: when we debate Our trivial difference loud, we do commit. Murder in healing wounds. Then, noble partners, (The rather, for I earnestly beseech) Touch you the sourest points with sweetest terms, Ant. 'Tis spoken well. Were we before our armies, and to fight, I should do thus. Cæs. Welcome to Rome. [They shake hands'. Thank you. 2 They shake hands.] This stage-direction is from the corr. fo. 1632. It is not in any ancient or modern impression, and Mr. Singer has properly availed himself of it. Afterwards, when Cæsar offers his hand, on the conclusion of their engagement, we are told that Antony takes it. Cæs. Sit. Ant. Sit, sir. Cæs. Nay, then— Ant. I learn, you take things ill, which are not so; Or, being, concern you not. Cæs. If, or for nothing, or a little, I I must be laugh'd at, Should say myself offended; and with you Chiefly i' the world: more laugh'd at, that I should It not concern'd me. Ant. What was❜t to you? your name My being in Egypt, Cæsar, Cas. No more than my residing here at Rome Ant. Your wife, and brother, * Made wars upon me, and their contestation For theme was you'; you were the word of war. Ant. You do mistake your business: my brother never Did urge me in his act: I did enquire it; And have my learning from some true reports, That drew their swords with you. Did he not rather And make the wars alike against my stomach, 3 FOR theme WAS you;] Their contestation was not theme for Antony, but Antony was their theme for contestation. changed places: therefore we read, "Was" and "for" accidentally "and their contestation For theme was you; you were the word of war." This is all that is necessary, and it is strange that the commentators, in their "contestation," should not have discovered what was required. As matter whole you have to MAKE it with,] The meaning seems to be, "Do not find out a cause of quarrel where none exists: do not patch a quarrel when no patching is required, because the matter is whole." Rowe put a negative into the line, "You have not to make it with ;" but Southern seems to have found no deficiency, and therefore made no correction, in his folio, 1685. All the folios, subsequent to the first, corruptly read, "to take it with;" but it is altered to "make it with" in the corr. fo. 1632, and there too the line begins with a It must not be with this. Cæs. You praise yourself By laying defects of judgment to me; but Ant. Not so, not so; I know you could not lack, I am certain on't, Your partner in the cause 'gainst which he fought, The third o' the world is your's, which with a snaffle Eno. Would we all had such wives, that the men might go to wars with the women! Ant. So much uncurbable, her garboils, Cæsar, Cæs. I wrote to you, Ant. He fell upon me, ere admitted: then Sir, Three kings I had newly feasted, and did want negative, "No matter whole," &c. The passage may be corrupt; but it is, at all events, very doubtful how it should be set right. Did gibe my MISSIVE out of audience.] The word "missive" is used by Shakespeare, and sometimes by other authors, either for a letter, or for the bearer of a letter, just as in the previous page he makes "reports" stand for reporters : "some true reports, That drew their swords with you." Ant. No, Lepidus, let him speak: The honour's sacred which he talks on now, Cæs. To lend me arms and aid when I requir'd them, Neglected, rather; Ant. Lep. 'Tis nobly spoken. Mec. If it might please you, to enforce no farther The griefs between ye: to forget them quite, Were to remember that the present need Speaks to atone you. Lep. Worthily spoken, Mecenas. Eno. Or, if you borrow one another's love for the instant, you may, when you hear no more words of Pompey, return it again: you shall have time to wrangle in, when you have nothing else to do. Ant. Thou art a soldier only: speak no more. Eno. That truth should be silent, I had almost forgot. Ant. You wrong this presence; therefore, speak no more. Eno. Go to then; your considerate stone'. Cæs. I do not much dislike the matter, but The manner of his speech; for it cannot be, 6 - to ATONE you.] i. e. To at one you, reconcile you. See Vol. iv. p. 694, and Vol. v. p. 289. Above, the corr. fo. 1632 reads "nobly spoken." 7 - your considerate stone.] i. e. I will be as considerate as a stone. Johnson's notion that Enobarbus meant to call Antony a "considerate stone," does not seem to us, recollecting that the words were those of a rough free-spoken soldier, such "an absurdity" as it appeared to the Rev. Mr. Dyce (" Remarks," p. 246). In speaking of the note in our first edition, he ought to have remembered two things, which he has entirely overlooked, viz. that we gave the very text he supports, and that we ourselves said that no change was needed. If Mr. Dyce had been more of a "considerate stone," he would have saved himself from the appearance of endeavouring to make a fault where he could not find one. We do not at all say that the suspicion would be just, but that he has laid himself open to it. We shall remain in friendship, our conditions. What hoop should hold us staunch, from edge to edge Agr. Cæs. Speak, Agrippa. Give me leave, Cæsar. Agr. Thou hast a sister by the mother's side, Admir'd Octavia: great Mark Antony Is now a widower. If Cleopatra heard you, your reproof Were well deserv'd of rashness. Ant. I am not married, Cæsar: let me hear Agr. To hold you in perpetual amity, Draw after her. Pardon what I have spoke, By duty ruminated. Cæs. Not till he hears how Antony is touch'd With what is spoke already. Ant. What power is in Agrippa, If I would say, "Agrippa, be it so," * Were well deserv'd of rashness.] There are several misprints in this short speech, as it stands in prose in the folio, 1623, viz. "Say not, say Agrippa; if Cleopater heard you, your proof were well deserved of rashness." Of these modern editors take no notice, but silently change say to "so," and proof to "reproof," as if such were the ancient text. Theobald recommended approof instead of proof; but Hanmer's correction of "reproof" seems much preferable : the meaning then is, "your reproof were well deserved on account of rashness." In the corr. fo. 1632 proof is made "reproof," and "of," in the next line, changed to for: we do not hold the last to be at all necessary, since "of" is so to be understood, and was so understood in the time of Shakespeare. |