8 And feel I am so most. O Antony, Thou mine of bounty, how would'st thou have paid Thou dost so crown with gold! This blows my heart: Some ditch, wherein to die; the foul'st best fits [Exit. SCENE VII. Field of Battle between the Camps. Alarum. Drums and Trumpets. and Others. Enter AGRIPPA, Agr. Retire, we have engag'd ourselves too far: Cæsar himself has work, and our oppression" Exceeds what we expected. [Exeunt. Alarum. Enter ANTONY and SCARUS, wounded. Scar. O my brave emperor, this is fought indeed! Had we done so at first, we had driven them homeWith clouts about their heads. Ant. Thou bleed'st apace. And feel I am so most.] i. e. I am pre-eminently the first, the greatest villain of the earth. To stand alone, is still used in that sense, where any one towers above his competitors. And feel I am so most, must signify, I feel or know it myself, more than any other person can or does feel it. REED. 9 This blows my heart:] This generosity, (says Enobarbus,) swells my heart, so that it will quickly break, if thought break it not, a swifter mean. but thought will do't, I feel.] Thought, in this passage, as in many others, signifies melancholy. 2 and our oppression-] i. e. the force by which we are oppressed or overpowered. Scar. I had a wound here that was like a T, But now 'tis made an H. Ant. They do retire. Scar. We'll beat 'em into bench-holes; I have yet Room for six scotches more. Enter EROS. Eros. They are beaten, sir; and our advantage serves For a fair victory. Scar. Let us score their backs, And snatch 'em up, as we take hares, behind; "Tis sport to maul a runner. Ant. Scar. I will reward thee I'll halt after. [Exeunt. SCENE VIII. Under the Walls of Alexandria. Alarum. Enter ANTONY, marching; SCARUS, and Forces. Ant. We have beat him to his camp; Run one before, And let the queen know of our guests.-To-morrow, clip your wives,] To clip is to embrace. Tell them your feats; whilst they with joyful tears Enter CLEOPATRA, attended. To this great fairy' I'll commend thy acts, Make her thanks bless thee.-O thou day o' the world, Chain mine arm'd neck; leap thou, attire and all, Through proof of harness' to my heart, and there Ride on the pants triumphing. Cleo. Lord of lords! O infinite virtue! com'st thou smiling from Ant. My nightingale, We have beat them to their beds. What, girl? though grey Do something mingle with our brown; yet have we Cleo. Ant. He has deserv'd it, were it carbuncled Like holy Phoebus' car.-Give me thy hand ; To this great fairy-] Mr. Upton has well observed, that fairy, which Dr. Warburton and Sir T. Hanmer explain by Inchantress, comprises the idea of power and beauty. JOHNSON. proof of harness-] i. e. armour of proof. Harnois, Fr. Arnese, Ital. The world's great snare-] i. e. the war. Get goal for goal of youth.] At all plays of barriers, the boundary is called a goal; to win a goal, is to be a superior in a contest of activity. Through Alexandria make a jolly march ; To camp this host, we all would sup together; That heaven and earth may strike their sounds to gether, Applauding our approach. [Exeunt. SCENE IX. Cæsar's Camp. Sentinels on their Post. Enter ENOBARBus. 1 Sold. If we be not reliev'd within this hour, We must return to the court of guard:' The night Is shiny; and, they say, we shall embattle By the second hour i' the morn. 2 Sold. A shrewd one to us. Eno. This last day was O, bear me witness, night, 3 Sold. What man is this? 2 Sold. Stand close, and list to him. Eno. Be witness to me, O thou blessed moon, When men revolted shall upon record Bear our hack'd targets like the men that owe them:] i. e. hack'd as much as the men to whom they belong; or perhaps, Bear our hack'd targets with spirit and exultation, such as becomes the brave warriors that own them. 9 tabourines;] A tabourin was a small drum. It is often mentioned in our ancient romances. 1 the court of guard:] i. e. the guard-room, the place where the guard musters. The same expression occurs again in Othello. Bear hateful memory, poor Enobarbus did 1 Sold. 3 Sold. Hark further. Enobarbus! Peace; Eno. O sovereign mistress of true melancholy, The poisonous damp of night disponge upon me;2 That life, a very rebel to my will, May hang no longer on me: Throw my heart3 O Antony! O Antony! 2 Sold To him. 1 Sold. Let's hear him, for the things he speaks May concern Cæsar. 3 Sold. Let's do so. But he sleeps. 1 Sold. Swoons rather; for so bad a prayer as his Was never yet for sleeping. 2 Sold. 3 Sold. Awake, awake, sir; 2 Sold. Go we to him. 1 Sold. The hand of death Hark, the drums speak to us. Hear you, sir? hath raught him.* [Drums afar off. 2 disponge upon me;] i. e. discharge, as a sponge, when squeezed, discharges the moisture it had imbibed. STEEVENS. 3 Throw my heart-] The pathetick of Shakspeare too often ends in the ridiculous. It is painful to find the gloomy dignity of this noble scene destroyed by the intrusion of a conceit so farfetched and unaffecting. JOHNSON. 4 The hand of death hath raught him.] Raught is the ancient preterite of the verb to reach. |