enobled it with much art, by so contriving that the principal term in the subject from whence the metaphor was taken should belong to, and suit the dignity of, the subject to which the metaphor is transferred: thereby providing at once for the integrity of the figure, and the nobleness of the thought. And this by the word triumph, which either signifies Octavius's conquest, or what we now call, contractedly, the trump at cards, then called the triumph or the triumphing sort. WARBURTON. This explanation is very just: the thought did not deserve so good an annotation. Line 542. JOHNSON. -pleach'd arms,] Arms folded in each other. JOHNSON. Line 546. His baseness that ensued?] The poor conquered wretch that followed. JOHNSON. Line 560. -the worship of the whole world-] The worship, is the dignity, the authority. JOHNSON. ACT IV. SCENE XIII. Line 654. 0 thou sun, Burn the great sphere thou mov'st in!-darkling stand The varying shore o' the world!] She desires the sun to burn his own orb, the vehicle of light, and then the earth will be dark. JOHNSON. The varying shore o' the world! i. e. of the earth, where light and darkness make an incessant variation. WARBURTON. Line 663. I here impórtune death &c.] I solicit death to delay; or, I trouble death by keeping him in waiting. JOHNSON. Line 670. Be brooch'd with me ;] Be brooch'd, i. e. adorn'd. A brooch was an ornament formerly worn on the head. STEEVENS. Line 674. still conclusion.] Sedate determination; silent coolness of resolution. JOHNSON. Line 679. Here's sport, indeed !] I suppose the meaning of these strange words is, here's trifling, you do not work in earnest. JOHNSON. Line 688. Quicken with kissing;] That is, Revive by my kiss. JOHNSON. Line 719. The soldier's pole-] He at whom the soldiers pointed, as at a pageant held high for observation. JOHNSON. ACT V. SCENE I. Line 20. - -The round world should have shook Lions into civil streets, &c.] 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. Line 37. -but it is a tidings JOHNSON. To wash the eyes of kings.] That is, May the gods rebuke me, if this be not tidings to make kings weep. But, again, for if not. Line 50. -But we do lance JOHNSON. Diseases in our bodies:] When we have any bodily complaint, that is curable by scarifying, we use the lancet; and if we neglect to do so, we are destroyed by it. Antony was to me a disease; and by his being cut off, I am made whole. We could not both have lived in the world together. MALONE. Line 63. Our equalness to this.] That is, should have made us, in our equality of fortune, disagree to a pitch like this, that one of us must die. JOHNSON. Line 67. A poor Egyptian yet. The queen my mistress, &c.] If this punctuation be right, the man means to say, that he is yet an Egyptian, that is, yet a servant of the Queen of Egypt, though soon to become a subject of Rome. JOHNSON. Would be eternal in our triumph:] The sense is, If she dies here, she will be forgotten; but if I send her in triumph to Rome, her memory and my glory will be eternal. ACT V. SCENE II. JOHNSON. CLEOPATRA, &c.] Our author here, as in King Henry VIII. has attempted to exhibit at once the outside and the inside of a building. It would be impossible to represent this scene in any way on the stage, but by making Cleopatra and her attendants speak all their speeches till the queen is seized, within the MALONE. monument. Line 100. 101. fortune's knave,] The servant of fortune JOHNS. -And it is great To do that thing that ends all other deeds; The beggar's nurse and Cæsar's.] The difficulty of the passage, if any difficulty there be, arises only 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 state, Which sleeps, and never palates more the dung, The beggar's nurse and Cæsar'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. . Line 154. Worth many babes and beggars !] Why, death, wilt thou not rather seize a queen, than employ thy force upon babes and beggars. Line 157. If idle talk will once be necessary, JOHNSON. I'll not sleep neither:] I will not eat, and if it will be necessary now for once to waste a moment in idle talk of my purpose, I will not sleep neither. In common conversation we often use will be, with as little relation to futurity. As, Now I am going, it will be fit for me to dine first. JOHNSON. Line 212. As plates-] Plates, mean, I believe, silver money. 221. - yet, to imagine STEEVENS. An Antony, were nature's piece 'gainst fancy, term appropriated to works of art. produce each their piece, and the piece done by Nature had the preference. Antony was in reality past the size of dreaming; he was more by Nature than Fancy could present in sleep. JOHNS. Line 284. 307. —seel my lips,] Sew up my mouth. JOHNSON. Parcel the sum of my disgraces by—] To parcel her disgraces, might be expressed in vulgar language, to bundle up her calamities. JOHNSON. Line 318. Through the ashes of my chance:] Or fortune. The meaning is, Begone, or I shall exert that royal spirit which I had in my prosperity, in spite of the imbecility of my present weak condition. WARBURTON. Line 322. Be it known, that we, the greatest, are misthought For things that others do; and, when we fall, We answer others' merits in our name, Are therefore to be pitied.] We suffer at our highest state of elevation in the thoughts of mankind for that which others do; and when we fall, those that contented themselves only to think ill before, call us to answer in our own names for the merits of others. We are therefore to be pitied. Merits is in this place taken in an ill sense, for actions meriting censure. JOHNSON. Line 333. Make not your thoughts your prisons :] i. e. Be not a prisoner in imagination, when in reality you are free. JOHNSON. Line 375. and scald rhymers Ballad us out o' tune:] Sculd was a word of contempt implying poverty, disease, and filth. JOHNSON. -the quick comedians-] The gay inventive JOHNSON. boy my greatness—] The parts of women were HANMER. acted on the stage by boys. Line 409.the pretty worm of Nilus-] Worm is the Teutonick word for serpent; we have the blind-worm and slow-worm still in our language, and the Norwegians call an enormous monster seen sometimes in the Northern ocean, the sea-worm. JOHNS. Line 422. But he that will believe all that they say, shall never be saved by half that they do:] Shakspeare's clowns are always jokers, and deal in sly satire. It is plain this must be read the contrary way, and all and half change places. WARBURTON. Probably Shakspeare designed that confusion which the critick would disentangle. STEEVENS. JOHNSON. Line 429. will do his kind.] The serpent will act according to his nature. Line 461. Have I the aspick in my lips?] Are my lips poison'd by the aspick, that my kiss has destroyed thee? Line 461. MALONE. -Dost fall?] Iras must be supposed to have applied an asp to her arm while her mistress was settling her dress, or I know not why she should fall so soon. STEEVENS. Line 472. He'll make demand of her;] He will enquire of her concerning me, and kiss her for giving him intelligence. |