SCENE VII. On Board Pompey's Galley, lying near Misenum, Mufick. Enter Two or Three Servants, with a Banquet.? 1 SERV. Here they'll be, man: Some o' their plants are ill-rooted already, the leaft wind i' the world will blow them down. 2 SERV. Lepidus is high-coloured. 1 SERV. They have made him drink alms-drink.? 2 SERV. As they pinch one another by the difpo 9 with a Banquet.] A banquet, in our author's time, frequently fignified what we now call a defert; and from the following dialogue the word muft here be understood in that fenfe. So, in Lord Cromwell, 1602: 66 Their dinner is our banquet after dinner.” Again, in Heath's Chronicle of the Civil Wars, 1661: "After dinner, he was ferved with a banquet, in the conclufion whereof he knighted Alderman Viner." MALONE. Some o' their plants-] Plants, befides its common meaning, is here used for the foot, from the Latin. JOHNSON. So, in Thomas Lupton's Thyrd Booke of notable Things, 4to. bl. 1: "Grinde mustarde with vineger, and rubbe it well on the plants or foles of the feete" &c. Again, in Chapman's verfion of the fixteenth Iliad: 2 "Even to the low plants of his feete, his forme was altered." STEEVENS. They have made him drink alms-drink.] A phrafe, amongst good fellows, to fignify that liquor of another's fhare which his companion drinks to cafe him. But it fatirically alludes to Cæfar and Antony's admitting him into the triumvirate, in order to take off from themselves the load of envy. WARBURTON. fition,3 he cries out, no more; reconciles them to his entreaty, and himself to the drink. 1 SERV. But it raises the greater war between him and his difcretion. 2 SERV. Why, this it is to have a name in great men's fellowship: I had as lief have a reed that will do me no fervice, as a partizan4 I could not heave. 1 SERV. To be called into a huge sphere, and not to be feen to move in't, are the holes where eyes should be, which pitifully disfaster the cheeks.5 3 As they pinch one another by the difpofition,] A phrase equivalent to that now in use, of Touching one in a fore place. WARBURTON. a partizan -] A pike. JoHNSON, So, in Hamlet: "Shall I strike at it with my partizan ?" STEEVens. 5 To be called into a huge Sphere, and not to be feen to move in't, are the holes where eyes fhould be, which pitifully difafter the cheeks.] This fpeech feems to be mutilated; to fupply the deficiencies is impoffible, but perhaps the fense was originally approaching to this: To be called into a huge sphere, and not to be seen to move in it, is a very ignominious ftate; great offices are the holes where eyes fhould be, which, if eyes be wanting, pitifully dif after the cheeks. JOHNSON. In the eighth Book of The Civil Wars, by Daniel, ft. 103, is a paffage which resembles this, though it will hardly ferve to explain it. The Earl of Warwick fays to his confeffor: "I know that I am fix'd unto a sphere STEEVENS. The thought, though miferably expreffed, appears to be this: That a man called into a high sphere, without being feen to A Sennet founded. Enter CESAR, ANTONY, POMPEY, LEPIDUS, AGRIPPA, MECENAS, ENOBARBUS, MENAS, with other Captains. ANT. Thus do they, fir: [To CÆSAR.] They take the flow o'the Nile move in it, is a fight as unfeemly as the holes where the eyes fhould be, without the eyes to fill them. M. MASON. I do not believe a fingle word has been omitted. The being called into a huge sphere, and not being feen to move in it, these two circumftances, fays the fpeaker, refemble fockets in a face where eyes fhould be, [but are not,] which empty sockets, or holes without eyes, pitifully disfigure the countenance. The sphere in which the eye moves is an expreffion which Shakspeare has often used. Thus, in his 119th Sonnet : "How have mine eyes out of their Spheres been fitted,” &c. Again, in Hamlet: 6 "Make thy two eyes, like ftars, ftart from their Spheres." MALONE. They take the flow o'the Nile-] Pliny, fpeaking of the Nile, fays: "How high it rifeth, is knowne by markes and measures taken of certain pits. The ordinary height of it is fixteen cubites. Under that gage, the waters overflow not all. Above that stint, there are a let and hindrance, by reason that the later it is ere they bee fallen and downe againe. By thefe the feed-time is much of it spent, for that the earth is too wet. By the other there is none at all, by reafon that the ground is drie and thirstie. The province taketh good keepe and reckoning of both, the one as well as the other. For when it is no higher than 12 cubites, it findeth extreame famine: yea, and at 13 it feeleth hunger ftill; 14 cubites comforts their hearts, 15 bids them take no care, but 16 affordeth them plentie and delicious dainties. So foone as any part of the land is freed from the water, ftreight waies it is fowed." Philemon Holland's tranflation, 1601, B. V. c. ix. REED. Shakspeare seems rather to have derived his knowledge of this fact from Leo's Hiftory of Africa, tranflated by John Pory, folio, 1600: Upon another fide of the island standeth an house alone by itselfe, in the midst whereof there is a foure By certain fcales i' the pyramid; they know, LEP. You have ftrange ferpents there. ANT. Ay, Lepidus. LEP. Your ferpent of Egypt is bred now of your mud by the operation of your fun: fo is your cro codile. ANT. They are fo. Poм. Sit, and fome wine.-A health to Lepidus. LEP. I am not fo well as I fhould be, but I'll ne'er out. ENO. Not till you have flept; I fear me, you'll be in, till then. fquare cefterne or channel of eighteen cubits deep, whereinto the water of Nilus is conveyed by a certaine fluice under ground. And in the midst of the cifterne there is erected a certaine piller, which is marked and divided into fo many cubits as the cifterne containeth in depth. And upon the seventeenth of June, when Nilus beginning to overflow, the water thereof conveied by the faid fluce into the channel, increaseth daily. If the water reacheth only to the fifteenth cubit of the faid piller, they hope for a fruitful yeere following; but if stayeth between the twelfth cubit and the fifteenth, then the increase of the yeere will prove but mean; if it refteth between the tenth and twelfth cubits, then it is a fign that corne will be folde ten ducates the bufhel." MALONE. 7 the mean,] i. e. the middle. STEEVENS. 8 Or foizon, follow:] Foixon is a French word fignifying plenty, abundance. I am told that it is ftill in common use in the North. LEP. Nay, certainly, I have heard, the Ptolemies pyramifes are very goodly things; without contradiction, I have heard that. MEN. Pompey, a word. Ром. [Afide. Say in mine ear: What is't? MEN. Forfake thy feat, I do beseech thee, captain, And hear me speak a word.' Ром. This wine for Lepidus. [Afide. Forbear me till anon. LEP. What manner o' thing is your crocodile? ANT. It is fhaped, fir, like itself; and it is as broad as it hath breadth: it is juft fo high as it is, and moves with its own organs: it lives by that which nourisheth it; and the elements once out of it, it tranfmigrates. LEP. What colour is it of? 9 I have heard the Ptolemies' pyramifes are very goodly things;] Pyramis for pyramid was in common use in our author's time. So, in Bifhop Corbet's Poems, 1647 : "Nor need the chancellor boaft, whofe pyramis "Above the host and altar reared is." From this word Shakspeare formed the English plural, pyramifes, to mark the indiftinct pronunciation of a man nearly intoxicated, whofe tongue is now beginning to "fplit what it fpeaks." In other places he has introduced the Latin plural pyramides, which was conftantly ufed by our ancient writers. So, in this play: 66 My country's high pyramides." Again, in Sir Afton Cockain's Poems, 1658: "Neither advise I thee to pafs the feas, "To take a view of the pyramides.” Again, in Braithwaite's Survey of Hiftories, 1614: "Thou art now for building a fecond pyramides in the air." MALONE. 1 And hear me fpeak a word.] The two laft words of this hemiftich are, I believe, an interpolation. They add not to the fenfe, but difturb the measure. STEEVENS. |