Rome. SCENE IV. An Apartment in CASAR's House. Enter OCTAVIUS Cas. You may see, Lepidus, and henceforth know, It is not Cæsar's natural vice to hate One great competitor.6 From Alexandria This is the news; He fishes, drinks, and wastes More womanly than he hardly gave audience, or That all men follow. Lep. I must not think, there are Evils enough to darken all his goodness: His faults, in him, seem as the spots of heaven, Cas. You are too indulgent: Let us grant, it is not Amiss to tumble on the bed of Ptolemy; To give a kingdom for a mirth; to sit And keep the turn of tippling with a slave; To reel the streets at noon, and stand the buffet With knaves that smell of sweat: say, this becomes him, (As his composure must be rare indeed, Whom these things cannot blemish,) yet must Antony No way excuse his soils, when we do bear So great weight in his lightness. If he fill'd His vacancy with his voluptuousness, Full surfeits, and the dryness of his bones, [6] Perhaps-Our great competitor. JOHNS. [7] If by spots are meant stars, as night has no other fiery spots, the comparison is forced and harsh, stars having been always supposed to beautify the night; nor do I comprehend what there is in the counterpart of this simile, which answers to night's blackness. Hanmer reads, -spots on ermine, Or fires by night's blackness. JOHNS. It is objected, that stars rather beautify than deform the night. But the poet considers them here only with respect to their prominence and splendor. It is sufficient for him that their scintillations appear stronger in consequence of darkness, as jewels are more resplendent on a black ground than on ay other. MAL. [8] Purchas'd-Procured by his own fault or endeavour. JOHNS. [9] The word light is one of Shakspeare's favourite play-things. The sense is, His trifing levity throws so much burden upon us. JOHNS. Call on him for't: but, to confound such time, Enter a Messenger. Lep. Here's more news. 2 Mes. Thy biddings have been done; and every hour, Most noble Cæsar, shalt thou have report How 'tis abroad. Pompey is strong at sea; And it appears, he is belov'd of those That only have fear'd Cæsar :3 to the ports Cas. I should have known no less : It hath been taught us from the primal state, And the ebb'd man, ne'er lov'd, till ne'er worth love, Goes to, and back, lackeying the varying tide, Mes. Cæsar, I bring thee word, Menecrates and Menas, famous pirates, Make the sea serve them; which they ear and wound With keels of every kind :5 Many hot inroads They make in Italy; the borders maritime 6 Lack blood to think on't, and flush youth revolt :7 No vessel can peep forth, but 'tis as soon Taken as seen; for Pompey's name strikes more, Cas. Antony, Leave thy lascivious wassals. When thou once [1] Call on him, is, visit him. Says Cæsar-If Antony followed his debaucheries at a time of leisure, I should leave him to be punished by their natural consequences, by surfeits and dry bones. JOHNS JOHNS. adherents to Cæsar, now show [4] i.e. the malcontents. MAL. [2] Boys old enough to know their [3] Those whom not love but fear made their affection for Pompey. JOHNS. [5] To ear, is to plough. JOH. [6] Turn pale at the thought of it. JOH. [7] Youth ripened to manhood; youth whose blood is at the flow. STEE. [8] Wassel is here put for intemperance in general. See Macbeth, p. 25. The old copy, however, reads vaissailes.. STEEV. Vassals is, without question, the true reading. HENLEY. Hirtius and Pansa, consuls, at thy heel Did famine follow; whom thou fought'st against, Yea, like the stag, when snow the pasture sheets, Lep. It is pity of him. Cas. Let his shames quickly Drive him to Rome: 'Tis time we twain Lep. To-morrow, Cæsar, I shall be furnish'd to inform you rightly To 'front this present time. Cas. 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. Cas. Doubt not, sir ; I knew it for my bond.4 [Exeunt. [3] There is frequently observable on the surface of stagnant pools that have remained long undisturbed, a reddish gold coloured slime; to this appearance the poet here refers. HENLEY. 143 That is, to be my boundem duty. MASON. Give me to drink mandragora.9 Char. Why, madam ? Cleo. That I might sleep out this great gap of time, My Antony is away. Char. You think of him Too much. Cleo. O, treason! Char. Madam, I trust, not so. Cleo. Thou, eunuch, Mardian ! Mar. What's your highness' pleasure? Cleo. Not now to hear thee sing; I take no pleasure In aught an eunuch has: 'Tis well for thee, That, being unseminar'd, thy freer thoughts May not fly forth of Egypt. Hast thou affections? Cleo. Indeed? Mar. Not in deed, madam; for I can do nothing 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.'-He's speaking now, Or murmuring, Where's my serpent of old Nile? For so he calls me ; Now 1 feed myself With most delicious poison :-Think on me, And wrinkled deep in time? Broad-fronted Cæsar,2 Enter ALEXAS. Alex. Sovereign of Egypt, hail ! [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-." JOHN'S. [] A burgonet-is a kind of helmet. [2] In allusion to Cæsar's baldness. STEEV. Cleo. How much unlike art thou Mark Antony ! How goes it with my brave Mark Antony? He kiss'd, the last of many doubled kisses,- Alex. Good friend, quoth he, Say, the firm Roman to great Egypt sends Her opulent throne with kingdoms: All the east, Who neigh'd so high, that what I would have spoke Cleo. What, was he sad, or merry? Alex.Like to the time o'the year between the extremes Of hot and cold; he was nor sad, nor merry. Cleo. O well-divided disposition !-Note him, O heavenly mingle-Be'st thou sad, or merry, So does it no man else.-Met'st thou my posts? Cleo. Who's born that day When I forget to send to Antony, Shall die a beggar.-Ink and paper, Charmian.- Char. O that brave Cæsar ! Cleo. Be chok'd with such another emphasis ! Say, the brave Antony. Char. The valiant Cæsar ! Cleo. By Isis, I will give thee bloody teeth, If thou with Cæsar paragon again [3] 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. JOHNS. |