Octavia blow the fire up in Cæsar; and, as I said before, that which is the strength of their amity, shall prove the immediate author of their variance. Antony will use his affection where it is he married but his occasion here. Men. And thus it may be. Come, sir, will you aboard? I have a health for you. Eno. I shall take it, sir: we have used our throats in Egypt. Men. Come; let's away. [Exeunt. SCENE VII. On Board POMPEY's Galley, lying near Misenum. Music. Enter two or three Servants, with a banquet3. 1 Serv. Here they'll be, man. Some o' their plants are ill-rooted already; the least wind i' the world will blow them down. 2 Serv. Lepidus is high-coloured. 1 Serv. They have made him drink alms-drink. 2 Serv. As they pinch one another by the disposition, he cries out, "no more;" reconciles them to his entreaty, and himself to the drink. 1 Serv. But it raises the greater war between him and his discretion. 2 Serv. Why, this it is to have a name in great men's fellowship: I had as lief have a reed that will do me no service, as a partizan I could not heave. 1 Serv. To be called into a huge sphere, and not to be seen to move in't, are the holes where eyes should be, which pitifully disaster the cheeks. 5 with a banquet.] i. e. Properly what we now call a dessert. See Vol. ii. p. 520. So in "Lord Cromwell," 1602, A. iii. sc. 3, 'Tis strange, how that we and the Spaniard differ; Their dinner is our banquet after dinner." They have made him drink alms-drink.] Meaning wine that did not properly belong to his share, but which each had contributed, in order to intoxicate Lepidus. Warburton, and others after him, say that the expression in the next line, " they pinch one another by the disposition," is equivalent to touching on a sore place; but it rather seems to refer to the sign they give each other regarding "the disposition" of Lepidus to drink. A Sennet sounded. Enter CESAR, ANTONY, POMPEY, LEPIDUS, AGRIPPA, MECENAS, ENOBARBUS, MENAS, with other Cap tains. Ant. Thus do they, sir. [To CÆSAR.] They take the flow o' the Nile By certain scales i' the pyramid: they know, By the height, the lowness, or the mean, if dearth Lep. You have strange serpents there. Ant. Ay, Lepidus. Lep. Your serpent of Egypt is bred, now, of your mud by the operation of your sun: so is your crocodile. Ant. They are so. Pom. Sit, and some wine!-A health to Lepidus. Lep. I am not so well as I should be, but I'll ne'er out. Eno. Not till you have slept: I fear me, you'll be in, till then. Lep. Nay, certainly, I have heard, the Ptolemies' pyramises are very goodly things; without contradiction, I have heard that. Men. [Aside.] Pompey, a word. Pom. [Aside.] Say in mine ear: what is't? Men. [Aside.] Forsake thy seat, I do beseech thee, captain, And hear me speak a word. Pom. 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 7 Or FOISON follow.] "Foison" is plenty. See Vol. v. p. 444. It also occurs in "The Tempest," A. ii. sc. 1, and in our poet's Sonnet, 53, "Speak of the spring, and foison of the year." 8 - the Ptolemies' PYRAMISES are very goodly things;] Usually, and properly, spelt pyramides in our old dramatists: so Cleopatra talks of "my country's high pyramides" in A. v. sc. 2, of this tragedy. In Beaumont and Fletcher's "False One," A. ii. sc. 1, it is misprinted "pyramides," in the old copies, when it must necessarily be pronounced pyramids. In "The London Prodigal" (imputed formerly to Shakespeare), A. iii. sc. 3, we read, "As I to scale the high pyramides," which is not verse, unless " pyramides" be a word of four syllables. We are aware of no other instance in which the plural of pyramis is made "pyramises," and perhaps Lepidus was not in a condition to be very articulate. 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? Ant. 'Tis so; and the tears of it are wet. Cæs. 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. [Aside.] If for the sake of merit thou wilt hear me, Rise from thy stool. Pom. [Aside.] I think, thou'rt mad. The matter? [Walks aside. What's else Men. I have ever held my cap off to thy fortunes. Be jolly, lords. Ant. These quick-sands, Lepidus, Keep off them, for you sink. Men. Wilt thou be lord of all the world? Pom. Men. Wilt thou be lord of the whole world? That's twice. Pom. How should that be? Men. And though thou think me poor, Pom. What say'st thou? But entertain it, I am the man Hast thou drunk well? Men. No, Pompey, I have kept me from the cup. Thou art, if thou dar'st be, the earthly Jove: Whate'er the ocean pales, or sky inclips", Is thine, if thou wilt have't. Pom. Show me which way. Men. These three world-sharers, these competitors, Are in thy vessel: let me cut the cable; 9 Whate'er the ocean PALES, or sky INCLIPS,] Whatever the ocean incloses, or the sky embraces. Respecting "pales," see " Henry V.," Chorus to A. v., Vol. iii. p. 627. Shakespeare no where else uses “inclips," nor does it occur, that we recollect, in any other known author, but clips is of frequent occurrence: see "The Winter's Tale," A. v. sc. 2, Vol. iii. p. 106, &c. VOL. VI. N And, when we are put off, fall to their throats: Pom. Ah! this thou shouldst have done, I'll never follow thy pall'd fortunes more'. Who seeks, and will not take, when once 'tis offer'd, Pom. This health to Lepidus. Ant. Bear him ashore.-I'll pledge it for him, Pompey. Eno. Here's to thee, Menas. Men. Pom. Fill, till the cup be hid. Enobarbus, welcome. Eno. There's a strong fellow, Menas. Men. Eno. [Pointing to the Attendant who carries off LEPIDUS. Why? He bears The third part of the world, man: see'st not? Men. The third part, then, is drunk': would it were all, That it might go on wheels! Eno. Drink thou; increase the reels. Men. Come. Pom. This is not yet an Alexandrian feast. Ant. It ripens towards it.-Strike the vessels, ho"! 1 All THEN is thine.] So the corr. fo. 1632, for "there is thine" of all early and late editions, showing that Southern was well advised, when in his copy of the folio, 1685, he altered there to "then." 2 I'll never follow thy PALL'D fortunes more.] "Pall'd fortunes are waned or decayed fortunes, and not insipid fortunes, as some have stated. 3 The third part, then, is drunk :] In the old editions it is "The third part then, he is drunk," but he is merely surplusage, damages the verse, and is erased in the corr. fo. 1632. Mr. Singer rightly omits he, as if on his own authority, without mentioning that he was warranted in doing so by the same emendation in our corr. fo. 1632, or elsewhere. That it might go on wheels!] A proverbial expression: a pamphlet on the use of carriages, by Taylor, the Water-poet, printed in 1623, is entitled, "The World runs (not goes, as Malone gives it) on Wheels.” 5 STRIKE the vessels, ho!] To "strike a piece of wine" or "a piece of brandy" is still technical, and it hardly needs the explanation that to "strike the Here is to Cæsar. Cæs. I could well forbear it. It's monstrous labour, when I wash my brain, Ant. Be a child o' the time. Cæs. Profess it, I'll make answer; but I had rather fast From all four days, than drink so much in one. Eno. Ha, my brave emperor ! Pom. [To ANTONY. Let's ha't, good soldier. Ant. Come, let us all take hands, Till that the conquering wine hath steep'd our sense In soft and delicate Lethe. Eno. All take hands. Make battery to our ears with the loud music; The while I'll place you: then, the boy shall sing; As his strong sides can volley. [Music plays. ENOBARBUS places them hand in hand. SONG. Come, thou monarch of the vine, Plumpy Bacchus, with pink eyne: vessels is to tap them; yet the Rev. Mr. Dyce, finding the expression "strike me the oldest sack" in "Love's Pilgrimage," A. ii. sc. 4, quotes it in his "Few Notes," p. 152. We could also have referred him, were it necessary, to a more applicable passage in "Monsieur Thomas," A. v. sc. 10, which he must have forgotten, where Sebastian tells his servant "to strike a fresh piece of wine." Even Weber, whom Mr. Dyce often so severely censures, only indicated in a note that "strike" meant tap; and we (as in our first edition) should not have said a word on the point, if it had not been made a matter of so much comment. This is a specimen of the mode in which difficulties are sometimes made out of nothing, as if only for the sake of removing them. • PROFESS it, I'll make answer;] i. e. Profess to be a child of the time, and I'll do the same. The original word is Possess for "Profess;" but although the meaning of "Profess" here may not be very evident, Possess seems to offer no consistent sense. In "King Lear," A. i. sc. 1, Vol. v. p. 619, we have seen the opposite error, for there "possesses' was misprinted professes. The HOLDING every man shall BEAR,] The old reading is beat for "bear," a change which Theobald introduced, and the corr. fo. 1632 confirms: no misprint is perhaps more common than to substitute t for r: the "holding" is the burden, or, as it is sometimes called, the foot (see "Patient Grissell," reprinted by the Shakespeare Society, A. i. sc. 1) of a song; and to bear the holding is very intelligible, while to beat the holding is the reverse, unless the allusion be to beating time. The last two lines of the song, or rather the last line and the repetition of it, are expressly called "the burden" (i. e. bourdon) in the corr. fo. 1632, and they are included in a bracket. |
