Be brooch'd with me, if knife, drugs, serpents, have Edge, sting, or operation, I am safe: Your wife Octavia, with her modest eyes, And still conclusion, shall acquire no honour Ant. O, quick, or I am gone. Cleo. Here's sport, indeed 8-How heavy weighs my Our strength is all gone into heaviness, [lord! That makes the weight: Had I great Juno's power, The strong-wing'd Mercury should fetch thee up, And set thee by Jove's side. Yet come a little,Wishers were ever fools :-O, come, come, come; [They draw ANTONY ufi. And welcome, welcome! die, where thou hast liv'd : Quicken with kissing; had my lips that power, Thus would I wear them out. All. A heavy sight! Ant. I am dying, Egypt, dying: Give me some wine, and let me speak a little: Ant. One word, sweet queen : Of Cæsar seek your honour, with your safety.-O! Ant. Gentle, hear me : None about Cæsar trust, but Proculeius. Cleo. My resolution, and my hands, I'll trust ; Ant. The miserable change now at my end, Valiantly vanquish'd. Now, my spirit is going; [6] Brooch'd in the text, means adorn'd, as it has been properly explained by Mr. Steevens. A brooch is always an ornament; whether a buckle or pin for the breast, hat, or hair, or whatever other shape it may assume, A broach is a spit: the spires of churches are likewise so called in the northern counties, as Darnton broach. RITSON. [7] Sedate determination; silent coolness of resolution. JOHNS. [8] I suppose the meaning of these strange words is, here's trifling, you do not work in earnest. JOHNS. I can no more. Cleo. Noblest of men, woo't die ? Hast thou no care of me? shall I abide In this dull world, which in thy absence is No better than a stye ?-O, see, my women, [Dies. O, wither'd is the garland of the war, The soldier's pole is fallen; young boys, and girls, And there is nothing left remarkable Beneath the visiting moon. Iras. She is dead too, our sovereign. Char. Lady, Iras. Madam, Char. O madam, madam, madam! Empress ! Char. Peace, peace, Iras. Cleo. No more but e'en a woman; [She faints. and commanded By such poor passion as the maid that milks, Charmian? Ere death dare come to us ?-How do you, women ? Come, away: [Exeunt; those above bearing off ANTONY's body. [7] He at whom the soldiers pointed as at a pageant held high for observation. JOHNS. [8] I have no more of my wonted greatness, but am even a woman on the level with other women; were I what I once was, It were for me To throw my scepter, &c. JOHNS. [9] That is, task work. Hence our term chare-woman. STEEV. ACT V, SCENE I.-CESAR's Camp before Alexandria. Enter CÆSAR, AGRIPPA, DOLABELLA, MECENAS, GALLUS, PROCULEIUS, and others. Cas. GO to him, Dolabella, bid him yield; Being so frustrate, tell him, he mocks us by The pauses that he makes, Dol. Cæsar, I shall. [Exit DOLABELLA. Enter DERCETAS, with the sword of ANTONY. Cas. Wherefore is that? and what art thou, that dar❜st Appear thus to us? Der. I am call'd Dercetas ; Mark Antony I serv'd, who best was worthy Best to be serv'd: whilst he stood up, and spoke, He was my master; and I wore my life, To spend upon his haters: If thou please To take me to thee, as I was to him I'll be to Cæsar; if thou pleasest not, Cas. What is't thou say'st? Der. I say, O Cæsar, Antony is dead. Cas. The breaking of so great a thing should make A greater crack: The round world should have shook Lions into civil streets, And citizens to their dens :-The death of Antony A moiety of the world. Der. He is dead, Cæsar; Not by a public minister of justice, Nor by a hired knife; but that self hand, Hath, with the courage which the heart did lend it, I robb'd his wound of it; behold it stain'd Cas. Look you sad, friends? The gods rebuke me, but it is a tidings Agr. And strange it is, That nature must compel us to lament [] I think here is a line lost, after which it is in vain to go in quest. The sense seems to have been this: "The round world should have shook, and this great alteration of the system of things should send lions into streets, and citizens into dens." There is sense still, but it is harsh and violent. JOHNS. Our most persisted deeds. Mec. His taints and honours Waged equal with him.2 Agr. A rarer spirit never Did steer humanity: but you, gods, will give us Mec. When such a spacious mirror's set before him, He needs must see himself. Cas. O Antony ! I have follow'd thee to this ;-But we do lance Where mine his thoughts did kindle,—that our stars, Our equalness to this.-Hear me, good friends,- Enter a Messenger. The business of this man looks out of him, We'll hear him what he says.—Whence are you? The queen my mistress, Confin'd in all she has, her monument, Of thy intents desires instruction ; Cas. Bid her have good heart; She soon shall know of us, by some of ours, To be ungentle. Mes. So the gods preserve thee! [Exit. Ces. Come hither, Proculeius; Go, and say, We purpose her no shame : give her what comforts The quality of her passion shall require ; Lest, in her greatness, by some mortal stroke [2] Read weigh with the second folio, where it is misspelt way. RITSON. [3] If this punctuation be right, the man means to say, that he is yet a servant to the queen of Egypt, though soon to become a subject of Rome. JOH. And, with your speediest, bring us what she says, Pro. Cæsar, I shall. [Exit PROC. Cas. Gallus, go you along.-Where's Dolabella, To second Proculeius? Agr. Mec. Dolabella ! [Exit GALLUS. Cas. Let him alone, for I remember now SCENE 11. [Exeunt. Alexandria. A Room in the Monument. Enter CLEOPATRA, CHARMIAN, and IRAS. Cleo. My desolation does begin to make To do that thing that ends all other deeds; Enter, to the Gates of the Monument, PROCULEIUS, Gallus, and Soldiers. Pro. Cæsar sends greeting to the queen of Egypt; And bids thee study on what fair demands "Thou mean'st to have him grant thee. Cleo. [Within.] What's thy name? Cleo. [Within.] Antony Did tell me of you, bade me trust you; but I do not greatly care to be deceiv'd, That have no use for trusting. If your master Would have a queen his beggar, you must tell him, That majesty, to keep decorum, must No less beg than a kingdom: if he please [4] The difficulty of the passage, if any difficulty there be,arises from this, that the act of suicide,and the state which is the effect of suicide,are confounded. Voluntary death, says she, is an act which bolts up change; it produces a Which sleeps, and never palates more the dung, state, The beggar's nurse, and Cesar's. Which has no longer need of the gross and terrene sustenance, in the use of which Cæsar and the beggar are on a level. The speech is abrupt, but perturbation in such a state is surely natural. JOHNSON. |