Imagini ale paginilor
PDF
ePub

"A cistern for scal'd snakes!”

A similar expression occurs in Othello:

[ocr errors]

A cistern for foul toads

"To knot and gender in."

107. "O, that his fault should make a knave of thee,

"That art not !-What? thou'rt sure

of 't?"

None of the commentators, I believe, has explained this passage with sufficient clearness.Mr. Malone proposes sore-of," instead of "sure-of;" but the messenger could only be "sore-of" the blows he had received; and to say he was not, "" THE BLOWS" would have but little meaning. This appears to me to be the sense :"O strange! that this perfidy of Antony should so infect thee, who relatest it, as to exhibit thee, to my apprehension, not only ugly, but dishonest, and yet thou art not to blame-thou art not the ill tidings that are so hateful-thou only dost report what thou knowest, or art assured of.

[blocks in formation]

113.

[ocr errors]

Well studied for a liberal thanks."

He had long meditated on a free acknowledgment of Pompey's favours. It is a theatrical phrase; as, in Macbeth, Macdonald is said to have died like one that had been studied in his death.

114.

That will I, Pompey.".

We might read, metrically,

"Draw lots who shall begin."

[merged small][ocr errors]

I, Pompey, will."

Pomp. "No, Antony, let's take the lot: but, first," &c.

115. "It nothing ill becomes thee.

We might restore the measure thus :

"It nothing ill becomes thee: aboard my galley "I do invite you all. Will ye lead, lords?"

116. "

If our eyes had authority, here they might take two thieves kissing."

Enobarbus alludes to Pompey and Cæsar; he and Menas had good-humouredly reproached each other with being a thief, and then immediately reflecting that the depredations they had mutually committed were not of their own choice, or for their own ends, but by the command of their masters, Enobarbus cries, give me your hand, and then, glancing at the grand spoilers, who were now embracing one another, remarks, here, if our eyes could exercise authority, they might apprehend two thieves, indeed.

Men. "All men's faces are true, whatsoe'er their hands are."

Eno. "But there is never a fair woman has a true face."

Men. "No slander; they steal hearts.”

Enobarbus had pointed at the circumstance of Pompey and Cæsars embracing, while he was shaking hands with Menas; on which Menas re

marks, "those exterior ceremonies are of little value or effect, for though, by their shaking hands, they would appear to be at amity, their countenance betrays the deception;" the face, says he, is always a true index of the mind. Yet, says Enobarbus, a fair woman never has a true face. You are right, adds Menas, and speak no slander, for a fair woman is always a thief-she steals hearts.

SCENE VII.

125. "Who seeks, and will not take, when once 'tis offer'd,

"Shall never find it more."

This is a maxim that the poet seems fond of impressing thus, in Julius Cæsar:

"There is a tide in the affairs of men,

Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune; "But, once omitted, all their future life. "Is bound in shallows and in miseries."

127. "Till that the conquering wine hath steep'd

our sense

"In soft and delicate Lethe."

"Lethe" may be merely "oblivion," but I rather think a metaphoric "death" is meant: in other places Lethe is used for death directly, as in Julius Cæsar:

"Crimson'd in thy Lethe."

Delicate Lethe,"

I believe, is merely sweet oblivion.

"Lethe,"

in Julius Cæsar, is a monosyllable, from Lethum.

CAPEL LOFFT.

[merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors]

A person in a subordinate station may do himself injury by performing too splendid an

action.

[ocr errors]

When him we serve's away."

"Him" should be changed, in the text, to he. Mr. Malone's assertion that this was Shakspeare's phraseology is unfounded. The blunder is, with much more fitness, ascribable to the ignorance, or rather carelessness of the early transcribers or editors.

"Than gain, which darkens him.”

This hemistic might, with a slight alteration, find place in the measure:

Ambition,

"The soldier's virtue, rather makes a choice "Of loss, than of that gain which darkens him."

132. "We shall appear before him.-On there; pass along."

"On there," I suppose, is interpolation.

SCENE II.

134. "To Antony. But as for Cæsar."

Perhaps :

"Unto Antonius; but as for Cæsar."

[ocr errors]

135. -The piece of virtue."

i. e. The pattern of virtue."

136.

Farewell, my dearest sister, fare thee well.

The repetition of the farewell, here, I take to be interpolated, as it uselessly occasions a hemistic: "We will part here-farewell, my dearest sister." He has a cloud in's face."

138. Some words, I believe, have been lost; perhaps:

139.

"He has, indeed, a watry cloud in's face." The time shall not

[ocr errors]

66

Outgo my thinking on you."

His thoughts of her would keep pace with time, i. e. he would be continually thinking of her.

SCENE III.

140. "Is she as tall as me ?"

"Me" should be corrected in the text, to "I." Low voic'd.

141.

[ocr errors]

"That's not so good."

Verily I do opine that Mr. Henley's voice in this place, as before, doth loudly call upon friend Amner to signify unto that gentleman's erratic imagination the plain road of the poet's meaning. -It was of little consequence whether Octavia's voice was said to be high or low, Cleopatra would be sure to find fault with it either way.

« ÎnapoiContinuă »