By certain scales i' the pyramid; they know, LEP. You have strange serpents there. LEP. Your serpent of Egypt is bred now of your mud by the operation of your sun: so is your cro codile. ANT. They are so. Ром. Sit, and some wine. A health to Lepidus. LEP. I am not so well as I should be, but I'll ne'er out. ENO. Not till you have slept; I fear me, you'll be in, till then. LEP. Nay, certainly, I have heard, the Ptolemies' pyramises are very goodly things; without contradiction, I have heard that. And upon the seventeenth of June, when Nilus beginning to overflow, the water thereof conveied by the said sluce into the channel, increaseth daily. If the water reacheth only to the fifteenth cubit of the said 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 resteth between the tenth and twelfth cubits, then it is a sign that corne will be solde ten ducates the bushel." MALONE. 7- the mean,] i. e. the middle. STEEVENS. 8 Or FOIZON, follow :) Foizon is a French word signifying plenty, abundance. I am told that it is still in common use in the North. STEEVENS. 9 I have heard the Ptolemies' PYRAMISES are very goodly things;] Pyramis for pyramid was in common use in our author's time. So, in Bishop Corbet's Poems, 1647: "Nor need the chancellor boast, whose pyramis From this word Shakspeare formed the English plural, py MEN. Pompey, a word. [Aside. Say in mine ear: What is't? MEN. Forsake thy seat, I do beseech thee, captain, And hear me speak a word 1. Ром. This wine for Lepidus. [Aside. Forbear me till anon. LEP. What manner o' thing is your crocodile ? ANT. It is shaped, sir, like itself; and it is as broad as it hath breadth: it is just so 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 transmigrates. LEP. What colour is it of? ANT. Of its own colour too. LEP. 'Tis a strange serpent. ANT. 'Tis so. And the tears of it are wet. ANT. With the health that Pompey gives him, else he is a very epicure. POM. [TO MENAS aside.] Go, hang, sir, hang! Do as I bid you. - Where's this cup I call'd for? MEN. If for the sake of merit thou wilt hear me, Rise from thy stool. [Aside. ramises, to mark the indistinct pronunciation of a man nearly intoxicated, whose tongue is now beginning to split what it speaks." In other places he has introduced the Latin plural pyramides, which was constantly used by our ancient writers. So, in this play : "My country's high pyramides-." Again, in Braithwaite's Survey of Histories, 1614: "Thou art now for building a second pyramides in the air." MALONE. And hear me speak A WORD.] The two last words of this hemistich are, I believe, an interpolation. They add not to the sense, but disturb the measure. STEEVENS. Ром. I think, thou'rt mad. The matter? [Rises, and walks aside. MEN. I have ever held my cap off to thy fortunes. Ром. Thou hast serv'd me with much faith: What's else to say? Be jolly, lords. These quick-sands, Lepidus, Keep off them, for you sink. MEN. Wilt thou be lord of all the world ? What say'st thou ? MEN. Wilt thou be lord of the whole world? That's twice. Ром. How should that be? But entertain it, and, Although thou think me poor, I am the man Will give thee all the world. Ром. Hast thou drunk well? MEN. NO, Pompey, I have kept me from the cup. Thou art, if thou dar'st be, the earthly Jove : Whate'er the ocean pales, or sky inclips3, Is thine, if thou wilt have't. Ром. Show me which way. MEN. These three world-sharers, these competitors 4, Are in thy vessel: Let me cut the cable 5; 3 4 - or sky INCLIPS,] i. e. embraces. STEEVENS. competitors,] i. e. confederates, partners. See vol. iv. p. 61. STEEVENS. 5 - Let me cut the cable ;) So, in the old translation of Plutarch: "Now in the middest of the feast, when they fell to be merie with Antonius loue vnto Cleopatra, Menas the pirate came to Pompey, and whispering in his eare, said unto him: shall I cut the gables of the ankers, and make thee Lord not only of Sicile and Sardinia, but of the whole empire of Rome besides ? Pompey hauing pawsed a while vpon it, at length aunswered him : thou shouldest haue done it, and neuer have told it me, but now we must content vs with that we haue. As for my selfe, I was neuer taught to breake my faith, nor to be counted a traitor." STEEVENS. And, when we are put off, fall to their throats: All there is thine 6. Ah, this thou should'st have done, And not have spoke on't! In me, 'tis villainy; MEN. For this, Desist, and drink. [Aside. I'll never follow thy pall'd fortunes' more.- Shall never find it more 8. Ром. This health to Lepidus. ANT. Bear him ashore. I'll pledge it for him, Pompey. ENO. Here's to thee, Menas. Enobarbus, welcome. Ром. Fill, till the cup be hid. 6 All THERE is thine.) Thus the old copy. Modern editors read: "All then is thine." If alteration be necessary, we might as well give: "All theirs is thine." All there, however, may mean, all in the vessel. STEEVENS. 7 - thy PALL'D fortunes ] Palled, is vapid, past its time of excellence; palled wine, is wine that has lost its original sprightliness. JOHNSON. Palled is a word of which the etymology is unknown. Perhaps, says Dr. Johnson, in his Dictionary, it is only a corruption of paled, and was originally applied to colours. Thus, in Chaucer's Manciple's Prologue, v. 17,004: "So unweldy was this sely palled ghost." STEEVENS. 8 Who seeks, and will not take, when once 'tis offer'd, Shall never find it more.) This is from the ancient proverbial rhyme: "He who will not, when he may, " When he will, he shall have nay." STEEVENS. The third part of the world, man; Sees't not? MEN. The third part then is drunk: 'Would it were allo, That it might go on wheels1! ENO. Drink thou; increase the reels 2. MEN. Come. Ром. This is not yet an Alexandrian feast. ANT. It ripens towards it. -Strike the vessels3, ho! Here is to Cæsar. 9 The third part THEN IS drunk: 'Would it were all, &c.] The old copy reads-The third part then he is drunk, &c. The context clearly shows that the transcriber's ear deceived him, and that we should read as I have printed it, -The third part then is drunk. MALONE. That it might go on wheels!] The World goes upon Wheels, is the title of a pamphlet written by Taylor the water-poet. MALONE. 2 - INCREASE the REELS.] As the word-reel was not, in our author's time, employed to signify a dance or revel, and is used in no other part of his works as a substantive, it is not impossible that the passage before us, which seems designed as a continuation of the imagery suggested by Menas, originally stood thus: "Drink thou, and grease the wheels." A phrase, somewhat similar, occurs in Timon of Athens: "with liquorish draughts, &c. Mr. Steevens (as Mr. Douce has observed) is mistaken in supposing that reel did not signify a dance in our author's time. BOSWELL. 3 Strike the vessels,] Try whether the casks sound as empty. JOHNSON. I believe, "strike the vessels " means no more than "chink the |