Eno.

I shall entreat him

To answer like himself: if Cæsar move him,
Let Antony look over Cæsar's head,
And speak as loud as Mars. By Jupiter,
Were I the wearer of Antonius' beard,

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.
Eno. Not if the small come first.

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,
Nor curstness grow to the matter.

Ant.

'Tis spoken well.

Were we before our armies, and to fight,

I should do thus.

Cæs. Welcome to Rome.
Ant.

[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
Once name you derogately, when to sound

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
Might be to you in Egypt: yet, if you there
Did practise on my state, your being in Egypt
Might be my question.

Ant.
How intend you, practis'd?
Caes. You may be pleas'd to catch at mine intent,
By what did here befal me.

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
Discredit my authority with your's;

And make the wars alike against my stomach,
Having alike your cause? Of this my letters
Before did satisfy you. If you'll patch a quarrel,
As matter whole you have to make it with,

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
You patch'd up your excuses.

Ant.

Not so, not so;

I know you could not lack, I am certain on't,
Very necessity of this thought, that I,

Your partner in the cause 'gainst which he fought,
Could not with graceful eyes attend those wars
Which fronted mine own peace. As for my wife,
I would you had her spirit in such another:

The third o' the world is your's, which with a snaffle
You may pace easy, but not such a wife.

Eno. Would we all had such wives, that the men might go to wars with the women!

Ant. So much uncurbable, her garboils, Cæsar,
Made out of her impatience, (which not wanted
Shrewdness of policy too) I grieving grant,
Did you too much disquiet: for that, you must
But say, I could not help it.

Cæs.

I wrote to you,
When rioting in Alexandria; you
Did pocket up my letters, and with taunts
Did gibe my missive out of audience'.

Ant.

He fell upon me, ere admitted: then

Sir,

Three kings I had newly feasted, and did want
Of what I was i' the morning; but, next day,
I told him of myself, which was as much
As to have ask'd him pardon. Let this fellow
Be nothing of our strife; if we contend,
Out of our question wipe him.

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,
Supposing that I lack'd it.-But on, Cæsar;
The article of my oath.

Cæs. To lend me arms and aid when I requir'd them,
The which you both denied.

Neglected, rather;

Ant.
And then, when poison'd hours had bound me up
From mine own knowledge. As nearly as I may,
I'll play the penitent to you; but mine honesty
Shall not make poor my greatness, nor my power
Work without it. Truth is, that Fulvia,
To have me out of Egypt, made wars here;
For which myself, the ignorant motive, do
So far ask pardon, as befits mine honour
To stoop in such a case.

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.
So differing in their acts. Yet, if I knew

What hoop should hold us staunch, from edge to edge
O' the world I would pursue it.

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
Agrippa farther speak.

Agr. To hold you in perpetual amity,
To make you brothers, and to knit your hearts
With an unslipping knot, take Antony
Octavia to his wife; whose beauty claims
No worse a husband than the best of men,
Whose virtue and whose general graces speak
That which none else can utter. By this marriage,
All little jealousies, which now seem great,
And all great fears, which now import their dangers,
Would then be nothing: truths would be tales,
Where now half tales be truths: her love to both
Would each to other, and all loves to both,

Draw after her. Pardon what I have spoke,
For 'tis a studied, not a present thought,

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.