CLEO. 'Tis sweating labour, To bear such idleness so near the heart, As Cleopatra this. But, sir, forgive me; Since my becomings kill me, when they do not And all the gods go with you! upon your sword Be strew'd before your feet! ANT. Let us go. Come; Our separation so abides, and flies, That thou, residing here 2, go'st yet with me, And I, hence fleeting, here remain with thee. Away. [Exeunt. idleness in subjection to you, exalting you far above its influence, I should suppose you to be the very genius of idleness itself. STLEVENS. Mr. Steevens's latter interpretation is, I think, nearer the truth. But perhaps your subject rather means, whom being in subjection to you, you can command at pleasure, "to do your bidding," to assume the airs of coquetry, &c. Were not this coquet one of your attendants, I should suppose you yourself were this capricious being. MALONE. 9 Since my BECOMINGS kill me,] There is somewhat of obscurity in this expression. In the first scene of the play Antony had called her 66 wrangling queen, "Whom every thing becomes." It is to this, perhaps, that she alludes. Or she may meanThat conduct, which, in my own opinion, becomes me, as often as it appears ungraceful to you, is a shock to my sensibility. I STEEVENS. LAUREL'D victory!] Thus the second folio. The inaccurate predecessor of it-laurel victory. STEEVENS. This was the language of Shakspeare's time. I have adhered to the old reading. MALONE. 2 That thou, residing here, &c.] This conceit might have been suggested by the following passage in Sidney's Arcadia, book i.: "She went they staid; or, rightly for to say, "She staid with them, they went in thought with her." Thus also, in The Mercator of Plautus: " Si domi sum, foris est animus; sin foris sum, animus domi est." STEEVENS. SCENE IV. Rome. An Apartment in CÆSAR'S House. Enter OCTAVIUS CESAR, LEPIDUS, and Attendants. CES. You may see, Lepidus, and henceforth know, It is not Cæsar's natural vice to hate One great competitor 3: From Alexandria This is the news; He fishes, drinks, and wastes The lamps of night in revel: is not more manlike Than Cleopatra; nor the queen Ptolemy More womanly than he hardly gave audience, or Vouchsaf'd to think he had partners: You shall find there A man, who is the abstract of all faults That all men follow. LEP. Evils enough I must not think, there are to darken all his goodness: * First folio, Vouchsafe. † First folio, enow. 3 ONE great competitor:] Perhaps -Our great competitor. JOHNSON. Johnson is certainly right in his conjecture that we ought to read-" Our great competitor," as this speech is addressed to Lepidus, his partner in the empire. Competitor means here, as it does wherever the word occurs in Shakspeare, associate or partner. So Menas says: "These three world-sharers, these competitors And again, Cæsar, speaking of Antony, says That thou my brother, my competitor, "In top of all design, my mate in empire." M. MASON. One competitor is any one of his great competitors. BoswELL. Vouchsaf'd To think he had partners:] The irregularity of metre in the first of these lines induces me to suppose the second originally and elliptically stood thus: "Or vouchsaf'd think he had partners," &c. So, in Cymbeline, Act II. Sc. II. : "Will force him think I have pick'd the lock," &c. not to think. STEEVENS. His faults, in him, seem as the spots of heaven, More firy by night's blackness; hereditary, Rather than purchas'd; what he cannot change, Than what he chooses. CES. You are too indulgent: Let us grant, it is More firy by night's blackness;] 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, 66 66 Or fires, by night's blackness." JOHNSON. The meaning seems to be-" As the stars or spots of heaven are not obscured, but rather rendered more bright, by the blackness of the night, so neither is the goodness of Antony eclipsed by his evil qualities, but, on the contrary, his faults seem enlarged and aggravated by his virtues. That which answers to the blackness of the night, in the counterpart of the simile, is Antony's goodness. His goodness is a ground which gives a relief to his faults, and makes them stand out more prominent and conspicuous. It is objected, that stars rather beautify than deform the night. But the poet considers them here only with respect to their prominence and splendour. 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 any other.That the prominence and splendour of the stars were alone in Shakspeare's contemplation, appears from a passage in Hamlet, where a similar thought is less equivocally expressed: "Your skill shall, like a star i' the darkest night, 66 A kindred thought occurs in King Henry V.: 66 though the truth of it stands off as gross Again, in King Henry IV. Part I.: "And like bright metal on a sullen ground, "My reformation, glittering o'er my fault, "Shall show more goodly, and attract more eyes, "Than that which hath no foil to set it off." MALONE. - purchas'd;] Procured by his own fault or endeavour. JOHNSON. 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 7 say, this becomes him, (As his composure must be rare indeed, Whom these things cannot blemish,)] This seems inconsequent. I read : "And his composure," &c. Grant that this becomes him, and if it can become him, he must have in him something very uncommon, yet, &c. JOHNSON. Though the construction of this passage, as Dr. Johnson observes, appears harsh, there is, I believe, no corruption. In As You Like It we meet with the same kind of phraseology: 66 66 66 what though you have beauty, (As by my faith I see no more in you Than without candle may go dark to bed,) See vol. vi. p. 459, n. 6. MALONE. 8 No way excuse his SOILS,] The old copy has-foils. For the emendation now made I am answerable. In the MSS. of our author's time and fare often undistinguishable, and no two letters are so often confounded at the press. Shakspeare has so regularly used this word in the sense required here, that there cannot, I imagine, be the smallest doubt of the justness of this emendation. So, in Hamlet : 66 —and no soil, nor cautel, doth besmirch, "The virtue of his will." Again, in Love's Labour's Lost: "The only soil of his fair virtue's gloss." Again, in Measure for Measure: "Who is as free from touch or soil with her, Again, ibid. : 66 My unsoil'd name, the austereness of my "For all the soil of the achievement goes life." So great weight in his lightness". If he fill'd Full surfeits, and the dryness of his bones, Call on him for't': but, to confound such time 2, That drums him from his sport, and speaks as loud As his own state, and ours,-'tis to be chid As we rate boys; who, being mature in knowledge3, Pawn their experience to their present pleasure, And so rebel to judgment. LEP. Enter a Messenger. Here's more news. In the last Act of the play before us we find an expression nearly synonymous: 66 66 His taints and honours Wag'd equal in him.” Again, in Act II. Sc. III. : "Read not my blemishes in the world's reports." MALONE. If foils be inadmissible, (which I question,) we might readfails. In The Winter's Tale, we meet with this substantive, which signifies omission, or non-performance : 66 66 Mark, and perform it. See'st thou ? for the fail Yet, on the whole, I prefer Mr. Malone's conjecture. STEEVENS. 9 So great weight in his lightness.] The word light is one of Shakspeare's favourite play-things. The sense is-His trifling levity throws so much burden upon us. JOHNSON. 1 Call on him for't:] 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. JOHNSON. 2 - - to CONFOUND such time,] See p. 170, n. 7. MALONE. 3 boys; who, being mature in knowledge,] For this Hanmer, who thought the maturity of a boy an inconsistent idea, has put : "who, immature in knowledge:" but the words experience and judgment require that we read mature: though Dr. Warburton has received the emendation. By boys mature in knowledge, are meant, boys old enough to know their duty. JOHNSON. |