SCENE V. The Palace in Alexandria. Enter Cleopatra, Charmian, Iras, and Mardian. Cleo. Charmian, Char. Madam. 3 Cleo. Ha, ha,-Give me to drink 3 mandragora. Char. Why, madam? Cleo. That I might sleep out this great gap My Antony is away. great gap of time, Char. You think of him too much. Cleo. O, 'tis treafon ! Char. Madam, I truft, not fo. Cleo. Thou, eunuch! Mardian! Mar. What's your highnefs pleasure ? Cleo. Not now to hear thee fing; I take no pleasure In aught an eunuch has: 'Tis well for thee, That, being unfeminar'd, thy freer thoughts May not fly forth of Egypt. Haft thou affections? 3-mandragora.] A plant of which the infufion was supposed to procure fleep. Shakspeare mentions it in Othello: "Not poppy, nor mandragora, "Nor all the drowsy fyrups of the east, "Shall ever med'cine thee to that fweet fleep. JoHNSON. So, in Webster's Dutchess of Malfy, 1623: "Come violent death, "Serve for mandragora, and make me sleep." STEEVENS. -to drink mandragora.] Gerard, in his Herbal, fays of the mandragoras: "Diofcorides doth particularly fet downe many faculties hereof, of which notwithstanding there be none proper unto it, fave thofe that depend upon the drowfie and fleeping power thereof." In Adlington's Apuleius (of which the epiftle is dated 1566) reprinted 1639, 4to, bl. 1. p. 187, lib. 10: “I gave him no poyfon, but a doling drink of mandragoras, which is of such force, that it will caufe any man to fleepe, as though he were dead. PERCY." Mar. 163" Mar. Yes, gracious madam. Cleo. Indeed? Mar. Not in deed, madam; for I can do nothing But what indeed is honeft to be done : Yet have I fierce affections, and think Cleo. O Charmian! Where think'ft thou he is now? Stands he, or fits he? Or does he walk? or is he on his horfe? O happy horse, to bear the weight of Antony! Do bravely, horfe! for wot'st thou whom thou mov'ft? The demy Atlas of this earth, the arm 4 And burgonet of man.-He's speaking now, Or murmuring, Where's my ferpent of old Nile ? For fo he calls me ;-Now I feed myself 5 With most delicious poifon : Think on me, Enter Alexas. Alex. Sovereign of Ægypt, hail! Cleo. How much unlike art thou Mark Antony! And burgonet of man So, in Hen. VI : -] A burgonet is a kind of helmet. "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 fet i "In bloody lines upon thy burgonet." STEEVENS. 5 Broad-fronted Cæfar,] Mr. Seward is of opinion, that poet wrote-bald-fronted Cæfar. STEEVENS. the 6 Yet, coming from him, that great medicine hath How goes it with my brave Mark Antony? Say, the firm Roman to great Ægypt sends Who that great medicine hath with his tina gilded thee.] Alluding to the philofopher's ftone, which, by its touch, converts bafe metal into gold. The alchemifts call the matter, whatever it be, by which they perform tranfmutation, a medicine. JOHNSON. Thus Chapman, in his Shadow of Night, 1594: "O then, thou great elixir of all treasures." And on this paffage he has the following note: "The philofopher's ftone, or philofophica medicina, is called the great Elixir, to which he here alludes." Thus, in the Chanones Yemannes Tale of Chaucer, late edit. v. 16330: the philofophre's stone, "Elixir cleped, we feken faft eche on." See Vol. I. p. 127. STEEVENS. 7 -arm-gaunt fteed,] i.e. his steed worn lean and thin by much fervice in war. So, Fairfax: "His ftall worn steed the champion ftout beftrode.” WARBURTON. On this note Mr. Edwards has been very lavish of his pleafantry, and indeed has juftly cenfured the mifquotation of tallworn, for ftall-worth, which means ftrong, but makes no attempt to explain the word in the play. Mr. Seward, in his preface to Beaumont and Fletcher, has very elaborately endeavoured to prove, that an arm-gaunt fteed is a fteed with lean fhoulders. Arm is the Teutonic word for want, or poverty. Arm-gaunt may be therefore an old word, fignifying, lean for want, ill fed. Edwards's obfervation, that a worn-out horse is not-proper for Atlas to mount in battle, is impertinent; the horfe here mentioned feems to be a poft-horse, rather than a war-horfe. Yet as arm-gaunt seems not intended to imply any defect, Who neigh'd fo high, that what I would have spoke Was beaftly dumb'd by him. Cleo. What, was he fad, or merry? Alex. Like to the time o' the year between the extreams Of hot and cold; he was nor fad, nor merry. He was not fad; for he would fhine on thofe So does it no man else.-Met'st thou my posts? Cleo. Who's born that day defect, it perhaps means, a horfe fo flender that a man might clasp him, and therefore formed for expedition. Hanmer reads: -arm-girt feed. JOHNSON. The following compound word which I find in Chaucer's defcription of a king of Thrace in the Knight's Tale, may fupport Dr. Johnfon's explanation : "A wreth of gold arm-gret, of huge weight Armgrete is as big as the arm, and arm-gaunt may mean as flender as the arm. We ftill fay, in vulgar comparifon, as long as my arm as thick as my leg, &c. Again, in the Booke of Fybing, &c. bl. 1. no date: "cut between Michelmas and Candellmas a fayre ftaff of a fadome and a half longe and arm-great of hafyll, &c." Again, in Lidgate; "Line-right," i. e. as ftrait as a line. STEEVENS. * Was beaftly dumb by him.] Mr. Theobald reads dumb'd, put to filence. Alexas means, (fays he) the horse made fuch a neighing, that if he had fpoke he could not have been heard." JOHNSON. The verb which Theobald would introduce, is found in Pericles Prince of Tyre, 1609: "Deep clerks fhe dymbs &c." STEEVENS. When When I forget to fend to Antony, Shall die a beggar.-Ink and paper, Charmian.Welcome, my good Alexas.-Did I, Charmian, · Ever love Cæfar fo? Char. O that brave Cæfar! Cleo. Be choak'd with fuch another emphasis ! Say, the brave Antony. Char. The valiant Cæfar! Cleo. By Ifis, I will give thee bloody teeth, If thou with Cæfar paragon again My man of men. Char. By your moft gracious pardon, I fing but after you. Cleo. My fallad days! When I was green in judgment: Cold in blood, • My fallad days! When I was green in judgment, cold in blood! To fay, as I faid then!] [Exeunt. This puzzles the late editor, Mr. Theobald. He fays: "Cleopatra may speak very naturally here with contempt of her judgment at that period: but how truly with regard to the coldness of her blood may admit fome queftion:" and then employs his learning to prove, that at this cold feafon of her blood, he had feen twenty good years. But yet he thinks his author may be juftified, because Plutarch calls Cleopatra at thofe years, Kógn, which by ill luck proves just the contrary; for that state which the Greeks defigned by Kógn, was the very height of blood. But Shakspeare's beft juftification is reftoring his own fenfe, which is done merely by a different pointing: My fallad days; When I was green in judgment. Cold in blood! To fay as I faid then. Cold in blood, is an upbraiding expoftulation to her maid. Those, fays fhe, were my fallad days, when I was green in judgment; but your blood is as cold as my judgment, if you have the fame opinion of things now as I had then. WARBURTON. unpeople Egypt.] By fending out meffengers. JoHNSON. |