MESS. Cæfar, I bring thee word, Menecrates and Menas, famous pirates, Make the fea ferve them; which they ear and wound With keels of every kind: Many hot inroads 8 Goes to, and back, lackeying the varying tide, To rot itfelf with motion.] [Old copy-lashing.] But how can a flag, or rush, floating upon a stream, and that has no motion but what the fluctuation of the water gives it, be faid to lafh the tide? This is making a scourge of a weak ineffective thing, and giving it an active violence in its own power. 'Tis true, there is no fenfe in the old reading; but the addition of a single letter will not only give us good sense, but the genuine word of our author into the bargain: lackeying the varying tide, i. e. floating backwards and forwards with the variation of the tide, like a page, or lackey, at his master's heels. THEOBALD. Theobald's conjecture may be fupported by a paffage in the fifth Book of Chapman's tranflation of Homer's Odyffey: who would willingly Lacky along fo vaft a lake of brine?" Again, in his verfion of the 24th Iliad: My guide to Argos either fhip'd or lackying by thy fide." Again, in the Prologue to the fecond part of Antonio and Melilda, 1602 : "O that our power "Could lacky or keep pace with our defires!" Again, in The whole magnificent Entertainment given to King James, Queen Anne his Wife, &c. March 15, 1603, by Thomas Decker, 4to. 1604: "The minutes (that lackey the heeles of time) run not fafter away than do our joyes." Perhaps another messenger fhould be noted here, as entering with fresh news. STEEVENS. 9 which they ear-] To ear, is to plough; a common metaphor. JoÁNSON. To ear, is not, however, at this time, a common word. I meet with it again in Turbervile's Falconry, 1575: because I have a larger field to ear.' See alfo Vol. VIII. p. 237, n. 9. 2 Lack blood to think on't,' and flush youth revolt: No veffel can peep forth, but 'tis as foon Taken as feen; for Pompey's name strikes more, Than could his war refifted. CES. Antony, Leave thy lafcivious waffals.3 When thou once The rougheft berry on the rudeft hedge; Yea, like the ftag, when snow the pasture sheets, The barks of trees thou browfed'ft; on the Alps It is reported, thou didst eat strange flesh, Which fome did die to look on: And all this 2 Lack blood to think on't,] Turn pale at the thought of it. and flush youth-] Flush youth is youth ripened to manhood; youth whose blood is at the flow. So, in Timon of Athens: "Now the time is flush,-.' STEEVENS. 3thy lafcivious waffels.] Waffel is here put for intemperance in general. For a more particular account of the word, fee Macbeth, Vol. X. p. 88, n. 4. The old copy, however, reads-vaifailes. STEEVENS. Vafals is, without question, the true reading. HENLEY. The ftale of horfes,] All thefe circumftances of Antony's distress, are taken literally from Plutarch. STEEVENS. -gilded puddle--] There is frequently obfervable on the furface of ftagnant pools that have remained long undif turbed, a reddifh gold coloured flime: to this appearance the poet here refers. HENLEY. (It wounds thine honour, that I speak it now,) LEP. It is pity of him. CES. Let his fhames quickly Drive him to Rome: "Tis time we twain 6 Drive him to Rome: 'Tis time we twain &c.] The defect of the metre induces me to believe that fome word has been inadvertently omitted. Perhaps our author wrote: Drive him to Rome difgrac'd: 'Tis time we twain &c. So, in A& III. fc. xi: "From Egypt drive her all-disgraced friend." MALONE. I had rather perfect this defective line, by the infertion of an adverb which is frequently used by our author, and only enforces what he apparently defigned to fay, than by the introduction of an epithet which he might not have chofen. I would therefore read: 'Tis time indeed we twain Did fhow ourfelves &c. STEEevens. 7 Affemble we immediate council:] [Old copy-affemble me.] Shakspeare frequently uses this kind of phraseology, but I do not recollect any inftance where he has introduced it in folemn dialogue, where one equal is speaking to another. Perhaps therefore the correction made by the editor of the second folio is right: Affemble we &c. So, afterwards: Hafte we for it: "Yet, ere we put ourselves in arms, despatch we," &c. Since this note was written, I have observed the fame phrafeology ufed by our poet in grave dialogue. See Troilus and Creffida, A&t III. fc. iii: A ftrange fellow here "Writes me, that man, however dearly parted," &c. MALONE. I adhere to the reading of the fecond folio. Thus, in King Henry IV. P. II. King Henry V. fays: "Now éall we our high court of parliament." STEEVENS. し Thrives in our idleness. LEP. To-morrow, Cæfar, CES. Till which encounter, It is my business too. Farewell. LEP. Farewell, my lord: What you shall know mean time Of ftirs abroad, I fhall befeech you, fir, To let me be partaker. CES. Doubt not, fir; [Exeunt. SCENE V. Alexandria. A Room in the Palace. Enter CLEOPATRA, CHARMIAN, IRAs, and CLEO. Charinian,— CHAR. Madam. CLEO. Ha, ha ! Give me to drink mandragora. 8 I knew it for my bond.] That is, to be my bounden duty. M. MASON. 9 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 syrups of the world, "Shall ever med'cine thee to that sweet sleep-." JOHNSON. CHAR. Why, madam? CLEO. That I might fleep out this great gap of CLEO. Not now to hear thee fing; I take no pleasure In aught an eunuch has: 'Tis well for thee, CLEO. Indeed? MAR. Not in deed, madam; for I can do nothing But what in deed is honeft to be done : So, in Webster's Dutchess of Malfy, 1623: "Come violent death, "Serve for mandragora, and make me sleep." STEEVENS. 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, save those 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. X: "I gave him no poyfon, but a doling drink of mandragoras, which is of fuch force, that it will caufe any man to fleepe, as though he were dead." PERCY. See alfo Pliny's Natural Hiftory, by Holland, 1601, and Plutarch's Morals, 1602, p. 19. RITSON. I O, treafon!] Old copy, coldly and unmetrically O, 'tis treason! STEEVENS. 1 |