The other three are sealing. Octavia weeps AGR. "Tis a noble Lepidus. ENO. A very fine one: O, how he loves Cæsar! AGR. Nay, but how dearly he adores Mark Antony ! ENO. Cæsar? Why, he's the Jupiter of men. AGR. What's Antony? The god of Jupiter. ENO. Spake you of Cæsar? How? the nonpa reil ! AGR. O Antony! O thou Arabian bird"! ENO. Would you praise Cæsar, say,-Cæsar ;— go no further 8. AGR. Indeed, he ply'd them both with excellent praises. ENO. But he loves Cæsar best;-Yet he loves Antony: Ho! hearts, tongues, figures, scribes, bards, poets, cannot 66 Spake you of Cæsar? How? the nonpareil! 66 Agr. O Antony!" &c. We should read— 66 Speak you of Cæsar, he is the nonpareil; speak you of Antony, he is the Arabian bird. M. MASON. 7 - Arabian bird!] The phoenix. JOHNSON. So, again, in Cymbeline : "She is alone the Arabian bird, and I "Have lost my wager." STEEVENS. 8 Cæsar; -Go no further.] I suspect that this line was designed to be metrical, and that (omitting the impertinent go) we should read: 66 Would you praise Cæsar, say- -Cæsar -no further." STEEVENS. 9-bards, poets,] Not only the tautology of bards and poets, but the want of a correspondent action for the poet, whose business in the next line is only to number, makes me suspect some fault in this passage, which I know not how to mend. JOHNSON. I suspect no fault. The ancient bard sung his compositions to Think, speak, cast, write, sing, number, ho, his love AGR. Both he loves. ENO. They are his shards, and he their beetle 2. So,[Trumpets. This is to horse.-Adieu, noble Agrippa. the harp; the poet only commits them to paper. called numbers, and to number, a verb (in this speare's coining, is to make verses. This puerile arrangement of words was much studied in the age of Shakspeare, even by the first writers. So, in An Excellent Sonnet of a Nimph, by Sir P. Sidney; printed in England's Helicon, 1600: "Vertue, beauty, and speach, did strike, wound, charme, "His works, showes, sutes, with wit, grace, and vowes-might: 66 "Thus honour, liking, trust, much, farre, and deepe, Held, pearst, possest, my judgement, sence, and will; "Till wrongs, contempt, deceite, did grow, steale, creepe, Bands, fauour, faith, to breake, defile, and kill. "Then greefe, unkindnes, proofe, tooke, kindled, taught, "Well grounded, noble, due, spite, rage, disdaine : "But ah, alas (in vaine) my minde, sight, thought, "Dooth him, his face, his words, leaue, shunne, refraine. "For nothing, time, nor place, can loose, quench, ease, "Mine owne, embraced, sought, knot, fire, disease." STEEVENS. 66 Verses are often sense) of Shak 66 Again, in Daniel's 11th Sonnet, 1594: "Yet I will weep, vow, pray to cruell shee; 66 Flint, frost, disdaine, weares, melts, and yields, we see.” 2 They are his SHARDS, and he their BEETLE.] i. e. They are the wings that raise this heavy lumpish insect from the ground. So, in Macbeth : 66 the shard-borne beetle." See vol. xi. p. 155, n. 8. CES. You take from me a great part of myself3; Use me well in't.-Sister, prove such a wife As my thoughts make thee, and as my furthest band 1 4 Shall pass on thy approof.-Most noble Antony, To keep it builded, be the ram, to batter Make me not offended ANT. In your distrust. CES. I have said. ANT. You shall not find, Though you be therein curious', the least cause For what you seem to fear: So, the gods keep you, And make the hearts of Romans serve your ends! We will here part. CES. Farewell, my dearest sister, fare thee well; 3 You take from me a great part of myself;] So, in The Tempest: "I have given you here a third of my own life. STEEVENS. Again, in Troilus and Cressida : "I have a kind of self resides in you." MALONE. as my furthest BAND-] As I will venture the greatest pledge of security, on the trial of thy conduct. JOHNSON. Band and bond, in our author's time, were synonymous. See Comedy of Errors, vol. iv. p. 228. MALONE. 5 - the PIECE OF VIRTUE,] So, in The Tempest: Thy mother was a piece of virtue —.” Again, in Pericles : 66 6 "Thou art a piece of virtue," &c. STEEVENS. To keep it BUILDED,] So, in our author's 119th Sonnet : MALONE. "Grows fairer than at first." 7-therein CURIOUS,] i. e. scrupulous. So, in The Taming of the Shrew: For curious I cannot be with you.” See vol. v. p. 493, n. 8. STEEVens. 66 The elements be kind to thee, and make 66 8 The ELEMENTS be kind, &c.] This is obscure. It seems to mean, May the different elements of the body, or principles of life, maintain such proportion and harmony as may keep you cheerful." JOHNSON. "The elements be kind," &c. I believe means only, 'May the four elements of which this world is composed, unite their influences to make thee cheerful.' There is, however, a thought, which seems to favour Dr. Johnson's explanation, in The Two Noble Kinsmen, by Fletcher and Shakspeare: 66 My precious maid, "Those best affections that the heavens infuse Again, in Twelfth-Night: "Does not our life consist of the four elements?-Faith, so they say." And another, which may serve in support of mine : the elements, "That know not what or why, yet do effect, These parting words of Cæsar to his sister, may indeed mean no more than the common compliment which the occasion of her voyage very naturally required. He wishes "that serene weather and prosperous winds may keep her spirits free from every apprehension that might disturb or alarm them." STEEVENS. 66 "The elements be kind to thee," (i. e. the elements of air and water.) Surely this expression means no more than, I wish you a good voyage;❞ Octavia was going to sail with Antony from Rome to Athens. HOLT WHITE. Dr. Johnson's explanation of this passage is too profound to be just. Octavia was about to make a long journey both by land and by water. Her brother wishes that both these elements may prove kind to her; and this is all. So, Cassio says, in Othello : 66 -Ö, let the heavens "Give him defence against the elements, M. MASON. In the passage just quoted, the elements must mean, not earth and water, (which Mr. M. Mason supposes to be the meaning here,) but air and water; and such, I think, (as an anonymous commentator has also suggested,) is the meaning here. The following lines in Troilus and Cressida likewise favour this interpretation : CES. Octavia ? OCTA. My noble brother! ANT. The April's in her eyes: It is love's spring, And these the showers to bring it on.-Be cheerful. OCTA. Sir, look well to my husband's house; and What, OCTA. I'll tell you in your ear. ANT. Her tongue will not obey her heart, nor can Her heart inform her tongue: the swan's down feather, That stands upon the swell at full of tide, ENO. Will Cæsar weep? He has a cloud in's face. ENO. He were the worse for that, were he a horse1; So is he, being a man. AGR. Why, Enobarbus? When Antony found Julius Cæsar dead, [Aside to AGRIppa. anon behold "The strong-ribb'd bark through liquid mountains cut, 66 Bounding between the two moist elements, "Like Perseus' horse." MALONE. stands upon the swell at full of tide, And neither way inclines.] This image has already occurred in The Second Part of King Henry IV.: "As with the tide swell'd up unto its height, STEEVENS. I -were he a horse ;] A horse is said to have a cloud in his face, when he has a black or dark-coloured spot in his forehead between his eyes. This gives him a sour look, and being supposed to indicate an ill-temper, is of course regarded as a great blemish. The same phrase occurs in Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy, edit. 1632, 524: “ 'Every lover admires his mistress, though she be very deformed of her selfe-thin leane, chitty face, have clouds in her face, be crooked," &c. STEEVENS. |
