(It wounds thine honour, that I speak it now,) LEP. It is pity of him. CES. Let his shames quickly Drive him to Rome: 'Tis time we twain Did show ourselves i' the field; and, to that end, Assemble we immediate council: Pompey 6 Drive him to Rome: 'Tis time we twain &c.] The defect of the metre induces me to believe that some word has been inadvertently omitted. Perhaps our author wrote: Drive him to Rome disgrac'd: 'Tis time we twain &c. So, in Act III. sc. xi: "From Egypt drive her all-disgraced friend." MALONE. I had rather perfect this defective line, by the insertion of an adverb which is frequently used by our author, and only enforces what he apparently designed to say, than by the introduction of an epithet which he might not have chosen. I would therefore read: 'Tis time indeed we twain Did show ourselves &c. STEEVENS. 7 Assemble we immediate council:] [Old copy-assemble me.] Shakspeare frequently uses this kind of phraseology, but I do not recollect any instance where he has introduced it in solemn dialogue, where one equal is speaking to another. Perhaps therefore the correction made by the editor of the second folio is right: Assemble we &c. So, afterwards: 66 Haste we for it: "Yet, ere we put ourselves in arms, despatch we," &c. Since this note was written, I have observed the same phraseology used by our poet in grave dialogue. See Troilus and Cressida, Act III. sc. iii: A strange fellow here "Writes me, that man, however dearly parted," &c. MALONE. I adhere to the reading of the second folio. Thus, in King Henry IV. P. II. King Henry V. says: "Now call we our high court of parliament." STEEVENS. Thrives in our idleness. LEP. To-morrow, Cæsar, CES. Till which encounter, It is my business too. Farewell. LEP. Farewell, my lord: What you shall know mean time Of stirs abroad, I shall beseech you, sir, To let me be partaker. Enter CLEOPATRA, CHARMIAN, IRAS, and CLEO. Charmian, CHAR. Madam. CLEO. Ha, ha!— Give me to drink mandragora." 8 I knew it for my bond.] That is, to be my bounden duty. M. MASON. 9 mandragora.] A plant of which the infusion was supposed to procure sleep. Shakspeare mentions it in Othello: "Not poppy, nor mandragora, "Nor all the drowsy syrups of the world, "Shall ever med'cine thee to that sweet sleep-.' JOHNSON. CHAR. Why, madam? CLEO. That I might sleep out this great gap of time, CLEO. Not now to hear thee sing; I take no pleasure In aught an eunuch has: 'Tis well for thee, CLEO. Indeed? MAR. Not in deed, madam; for I can do nothing But what in deed is honest to be done: So, in Webster's Dutchess of Malfy, 1623: "Come violent death, "Serve for mandragora, and make me sleep." STEEVENS. Gerard, in his Herbal, says of the mandragoras: "Dioscorides doth particularly set downe many faculties hereof, of which notwithstanding there be none proper unto it, save those that depend upon the drowsie and sleeping power thereof." In Adlington's Apuleius (of which the epistle is dated 1566) reprinted 1639, 4to. bl. 1. p. 187, Lib. X: "I gave him no poyson, but a doling drink of mandragoras, which is of such force, that it will cause any man to sleepe, as though he were dead." PERCY. See also Pliny's Natural History, by Holland, 1601, and Plutarch's Morals, 1602, p. 19. RITSON. 10, treason!] Old copy, coldly and unmetrically O, 'tis treason! STEEVENS. Yet have I fierce affections, and think, CLEO. O Charmian, Where think'st thou he is now? Stands he, or sits he? Or does he walk? or is he on his horse? O happy horse, to bear the weight of Antony! Do bravely, horse! for wot'st thou whom thou mov'st? The demi-Atlas of this earth, the arm And burgonet of men.2-He's speaking now, And burgonet of men.] A burgonet is a kind of helmet. So, in King Henry VI: "This day I'll wear aloft my burgonet." Again, in The Birth of Merlin, 1662: "This, by the gods and my good sword, I'll set delicious poison:] Hence, perhaps, Pope's Eloisa: STEEVENS. Broad-fronted Cæsar,] Mr. Seward is of opinion, that the poet wrote-bald-fronted Cæsar. The compound epithet-broad-fronted, occurs, however, in the tenth Book of Chapman's version of the Iliad: a heifer most select, "That never yet was tam'd with yoke, broad-fronted, one year old." STEEVENS. Broad-fronted, in allusion to Cæsar's baldness. HENLEY. There would he anchor his aspéct," and die ALEX. Enter ALEXAS. Sovereign of Egypt, hail! CLEO. How much unlike art thou Mark Antony! Yet, coming from him, that great medicine hath With his tinct gilded thee."— How goes it with my brave Mark Antony? ALEX. Her opulent throne with kingdoms; All the east, anchor his aspect,] So, in Measure for Measure: "Whilst my invention, hearing not my tongue, "Anchors on Isabel." STEEVENS. that great medicine hath With his tinct gilded thee.] Alluding to the philosopher's stone, which, by its touch, converts base metal into gold. The alchemists call the matter, whatever it be, by which they perform transmutation, a medicine. JOHNSON. Thus Chapman, in his Shadow of Night, 1594: "O then, thou great elixir of all treasures." And on this passage he has the following note: "The philosopher's stone, or philosophica medicina, is called the great Elixir, to which he here alludes." Thus, in The Chanones Yemannes Tale of Chaucer, Mr. Tyrwhitt's edit. v. 16,330: 66 the philosophre's stone, "Elixir cleped, we seken fast eche on." See Vol. IV. p. 169, n. 2. STEEVENS. |