Sold. They say, one Taurus. Can. Well I know the man. Enter a Messenger. Mess. The Emperor calls Canidius. Can. With news the time's with labour, and throes forth Enter CESAR, TAURUS, Officers, and others. Cæs. Strike not by land; keep whole: provoke not battle, Till we have done at sea. Do not exceed The prescript of this scroll: our fortune lies Upon this jump.1 [Exeunt. SCENE IX. Another Part of the Plain. Enter ANTONY and ENOBARBUS. Ant. Set we our squadrons on yond side o' the hill, [Exeunt. 1 Jump is risk or hazard. So the verb, in Macbeth: "We'd jump the life to come."-"The prescript of this scroll" is the course prescribed by this paper of written directions. 2 Here, as often, battle is army, or rather is put for an army ordered in readiness for battle. See Julius Cæsar, page 154, note I. Enter CANIDIUS, marching with his land Army one way; and TAURUS, the Lieutenant of CAESAR, with his Army, the other way. After their going in, is heard the noise of a sea-fight. Alarum. Enter ENOBARBUS. Eno. Naught, naught, all naught! I can behold no longer : Th' Antoniad, the Egyptian admiral,3 With all their sixty, fly and turn the rudder : To see't mine eyes are blasted. Scar. The greater cantle 5 of the world is lost With very ignorance; we have kiss'd away Kingdoms and provinces. Eno. How appears the fight? Scar. On our side like the token'd pestilence," Where death is sure. Yon ribald nag of Egypt, 7 8 Antoniad was the name of Cleopatra's ship. Admiral is, properly, the leading ship in a fleet or naval squadron. Hence transferred as a title to the officer in command. See 1 King Henry IV., page 141, note 4. 4" To see it" for at seeing it. Another gerundial infinitive. See page 118, note 4. 5 Cantle is portion, fragment, or corner. See I Henry IV., page 125, note 7. 6 In cases of the plague, the symptoms that betokened death were called God's tokens. 7 Of course the epithet ribald is applied to Cleopatra to express her notorious profligacy. It seems to me, also, that the Poet meant nag in reference to her speedy flight from the battle, carrying Antony off, as it were, on her Whom leprosy o'ertake !—i' the midst o' the fight, Both as the same, or rather ours the elder, The breese upon her, like a cow in June,8 Mine eyes did sicken at the sight, and could not Scar. She once being loof'd,9 The noble ruin of her magic, Antony, Claps on his sea-wing, and, like a doting mallard, I never saw an action of such shame : Experience, manhood, honour, ne'er before Can. Our fortune on the sea is out of breath, And sinks most lamentably. Had our general Been what he knew himself, it had gone well: O, he has given example for our flight back. And the words, "the breese upon her," and "like a cow in June," naturally infer that such was the image intended. The breese is the gad-fly, the summer torment of "the mute creation." 8 In this line, her refers to cow, not to ribald nag; the logical order being thus: "Like a cow in June, the breese upon her." The two parts of the line were transposed for the sake of the metre. 9 To loof, commonly pronounced and spelt luff, is a sea term, meaning to ply to windward, or to sail before the wind. Shakespeare met with the word in Plutarch's description of this fight: "Now, Publicola, seeing Agrippa put forth his left wing of Cæsars army, to compass in Antonius ships, was driven also to loofe off to have more roome, and to go a litle at one side to put those further off that were afraid." Most grossly by his own! Ay, are you thereabouts? Why, then good night indeed.10 Can. Toward Peloponnesus are they fled. Scar. 'Tis easy to't;11 and there I will attend What further comes. Can. To Cæsar will I render My legions and my horse: six kings already Eno. I'll yet follow The wounded chance of Antony, though my reason [Exeunt. SCENE XI. Alexandria. A Room in CLEOPATRA's Palace. Enter ANTONY and Attendants. Ant. Hark! the land bids me tread no more upon't; Have lost my way for ever: I've a ship Laden with gold; take that, divide it; fly, All. Fly! not we. Ant. I've fled myself; and have instructed cowards To run and show their shoulders. Friends, be gone; 10 "If that is what you are thinking about, then our cause is lost, or our game is up, sure enough." Enobarbus rightly construes what Canidius has just said as an intimation that he is meditating desertion from Antony, since Antony has deserted himself. 11 The passage or march to Peloponnesus is easy. 1 So belated or benighted. So in Macbeth, iii. 3: "Now spurs the lated traveller apace to gain the timely inn." I have myself resolved upon a course My treasure's in the harbour, take it. —O, My very hairs do mutiny; for the white Reprove the brown for rashness, and they them For fear and doting. - Friends, be gone: you shall Sweep your way for you. Pray you, look not sad, [Sits down. Enter CLEOPATRA led by CHARMIAN and IRAS; EROS following. Eros. Nay, gentle madam, to him, comfort him. Iras. Do, most dear Queen. Char. Do! why, what else? Cleo. Let me sit down. -O Juno ! Ant. No, no, no, no, no. Eros. See you here, sir? Ant. O fie, fie, fie! Ant. Yes, my lord, yes.3 — He at Philippi kept 2 "I entreat you to leave me, because I have lost all power to command your absence." 3 Here and in his two preceding speeches Antony is muttering to himself |