3 SOLD. Do you hear, masters? do you hear? 1 SOLD. Follow the noise so far as we have quarter; Let's see how't will give off. SOLD. [Several speaking.] Content: 'Tis strange. [Exeunt. SCENE IV. The Same. A Room in the Palace. Enter ANTONY, and CLEOPATRA; CHARMIAN, and Others, attending. ANT. Eros! mine armour, Eros! Sleep a little. ANT. No, my chuck.-Eros, come; mine ar mour, Eros! Enter Eros, with Armour. Come, good fellow, put thine iron1 on:- Because we brave her.-Come. CLEO. What's this for? Nay, I'll help too. Ah, let be, let be! thou art The armourer of my heart:-False, false; this, 8 9 this. my CHUCK.] i. e. chicken. See vol. xi. p. 157, n. 9. STEEVENS. - MY good fellow, The necessary pronoun possessive-my, was introduced, in aid of metre, by Mr. Rowe. STEEVENS. 1 - THINE iron-) I think it should be rather mine iron-." JOHNSON. Thine iron is the iron which thou hast in thy hand, i. e. Antony's armour. MALONE. 2 Nay, I'll help too.] These three little speeches, which in CLEO. Sooth, la, I'll help : Thus it must be. ANT. Well, well; We shall thrive now. - Seest thou, my good fellow? Go, put on thy defences. EROS. Briefly, sir3. CLEO. Is not this buckled well? Rarely, rarely: He that unbuckles this, till we do please love, That thou could'st see my wars to-day, and knew'st The royal occupation! thou should'st see Enter an Officer, armed. A workman in't.-Good morrow to thee; welcome: Thou look'st like him that knows a warlike charge : To business that we love, we rise betime, And go to it with delight. 1 OFF. A thousand, sir, the other editions are only one, and given to Cleopatra, were happily disentangled by Sir T. Hanmer. JOHNSON. In the old copy the words stand thus: "Cleo. Nay I'll help too, Antony. What's this for? Ah let be, let be; &c. Sooth, la, I'll help: Thus it must be." Sir Thomas Hanmer gave the words " What's this for?" to Antony: but that they belong to Cleopatra, appears clearly, I think, from the subsequent words, which have been rightly attributed to Antony. What's this piece of your armour for? says the queen. Let it alone, replies Antony: "false, false; this, this." This is the piece that you ought to have given me, and not that of which you asked the use. MALONE. 3 BRIEFLY, sir.] That is, quickly, sir. JOHNSON. 4 TO DOFF'T-] To doff is to do off, to put off. See vol. xi. р. 232, п. 1. STEEVENS. 5 More TIGHT at this, than thou :) Tight is handy, adroit. So, in The Merry Wives of Windsor: "bear you these letters tightly." In the country, a tight lass still signifies a handy one. STEEVENS. Early though't be, have on their riveted trim, And at the port expect you. [Shout. Trumpets. Flourish. Enter other Officers, and Soldiers. 2 OFF. The morn is fair. Good morrow, general'. ALL. Good morrow, general. 'Tis well blown, lads. This morning, like the spirit of a youth [Exeunt ANTONY, EROS, Officers, and Sol diers. CHAR. Please you, retire to your chamber? Lead me. 6 [Exeunt. - have on their RIVETED trim,] So, in King Henry V.: "The armourers accomplishing the knights, "With busy hammers closing rivets up." MALONE. 7 The morn is fair. Good morrow, general.] This speech, in the old copy, is erroneously given to Alexas. STEEVENS. Alexas had now revolted, and therefore could not be the speaker. See p. 350. MALONE. SCENE V. ANTONY'S Camp near Alexandria. Trumpets sound. Enter ANTONY and Eros ; a Soldier meeting them. SOLD. The gods make this a happy day to An tony ! ANT. 'Would, thou and those thy scars had once prevail'd To make me fight at land! SOLD. Had'st thou done so, The kings that have revolted, and the soldier That has this morning left thee, would have still Follow'd thy heels. ANT. SOLD. Who's gone this morning? One ever near thee: Call for Enobarbus, Who? He shall not hear thee; or from Cæsar's camp Say, I am none of thine. ANT. SOLD. He is with Cæsar. What say'st thou ? Sir, 8 Sold. The gods make this a happy day to Antony!] 'Tis evident, as Dr. Thirlby likewise conjectured, by what Antony immediately replies, that this line should not be placed to Eros, but to the Soldier, who, before the battle of Actium, advised Antony to try his fate at land. THEOBALD. The same mistake has, I think, happened in the next two speeches addressed to Antony, which are also given in the old copy to Eros. I have given them to the Soldier, who would naturally reply to what Antony said. Antony's words, "What sayst thou?" compared with what follows, show that the speech beginning, "Who? One ever near thee:" &c. belongs to the Soldier. This regulation was made by Mr. Capell. MALONE. ANT. Go, Eros, send his treasure after; do it; Detain no jot, I charge thee: write to him (I will subscribe) gentle adieus, and greetings: Say, that I wish he never find more cause To change a master. O, my fortunes have Corrupted honest men :-Despatch: -Enobarbus ?! [Exeunt. SCENE VI. CÆSAR'S Camp before Alexandria. Flourish. Enter CÆSAR, with AGRIPPA, ENOBARBus, and Others. CAS. Go forth, Agrippa, and begin the fight: 9 - Eros, despatch.] Thus the second folio; except that these two words are here, for the sake of metre, transposed. The first folio has "Dispatch Enobarbus." Dr. Johnson would read "Despatch! To Enobarbus;" And Mr. Holt White supposes that "Antony, being astonished at the news of the desertion of Enobarbus, merely repeats his name in a tone of surprize." In my opinion, Antony was designed only to enforce the order he had already given to Eros. I have therefore followed the second folio. STEEVENS. It will be evident to any person who consults the second folio with attention and candour, that many of the alterations must have been furnished by some corrected copy of the first folio, or an authority of equal weight, being such as no person, much less one so ignorant and capricious as the editor has been represented, could have possibly hit upon, without that sort of information. Among these valuable emendations is the present, which affords a striking improvement both of the sense and of the metre, and should of course be inserted in the text, thus : Corrupted honest men. Eros, despatch." The same transposition, which is a mere, though frequent, inadvertence of the press, has happened in a subsequent scene: Unarm, Eros; the long days task is done: " Where the measure plainly requires, as the author must have written," Eros, unarm." RITSON. |