Walker proposes "If thou do say so, villain." This would indeed make good the metre, but would take the stress off from so, where the sense seems to require it.

P. 83. But there's no goodness in thy face: if Antony

Be free and healthful, why so tart a favour

To trumpet such good tidings?·

So Rowe and Collier's second

folio. The original lacks why, which is clearly needful to the sense, let alone the metre.

P. 84. Yet, if thou say Antony lives, is well, &c. — The original has "tis well." The context evidently requires is; and so Capell reads. P. 86. O, that his fault should make a knave of thee,

That art in what thou'rt sure of! - One of the most troublesome passages in this play. The original reads "That art not what th' art sure of." Here the last clause is surely too tame and truismatic a thing for either Shakespeare or Cleopatra to say on such an occasion. Various changes have been made or proposed. Of these perhaps the best is Mason's: "That art not! What! thou'rt of't?" Hanmer reads "That say'st but what thou'rt sure of!" and Mr. Grant White, "That art but what thou'rt sure of!" But I cannot see that any of these changes really helps the matter at all; and all of them, it seems to me, quite miss the right sense. Perhaps that sense would come best by reading "That sharest in what thou'rt sure of!" But this would probably be too bold a change, though not bolder than Hanmer's. Shakespeare repeatedly expresses the thought, that the bearing of ill news has a blighting effect upon the bearer. So in 2 King Henry IV., i. I: "Yet the first bringer of unwelcome news hath but a losing office; and his tongue sounds ever after as a sullen bell," &c. And Cleopatra's meaning evidently is, that the messenger is a sort of particeps criminis, that the contagion of his knavish message taints him into a knave; or, in other words, that he is so far in the guilt of what he reports, that the resentment may fitly light upon him. See foot-note 5.

ACT II., SCENE 6.

P. 88. Made the all-honour'd, honest Roman, Brutus, &c. - So the second folio. The first omits the.

P. 89. To part with unhack'd edges, and bear back

Our targs undinted. Instead of targs, the original has targes, which cannot be pronounced as one syllable, and surely there ought not to be two here. Walker says, "the plural targes seems to have been formerly a monosyllable, as in French, where its oldest form is targues." Perhaps it should be targe', as the Poet has corpse' for corpses, horse' for horses, &c.

P. 90. I have fair meanings, Sir.

Ant.

And fair words to them.-The

original has meaning instead of meanings.

P. 91. No more of that: he did so. So the third folio. The earlier editions omit of.

P. 96.

ACT II., SCENE 7.

These quicksands, Lepidus,

Keep off them, or you sink. — So Walker. The original has "for you sink." See note on "And in my conduct shall your ladies

come"; &c., I Henry IV., page 195.

P. 97. And, when we are put off, fall to their throats:

All then is thine. -The original reads "All there is thine."

Corrected by Pope.

P. 98. The third part, then, is drunk. — The original has "then he is drunk."

P. 98. It's monstrous labour, when I wash my brain,

And it grows fouler.— The original has grow instead of grows.

P. 99. The holding every man shall bear as loud

As his strong sides can volley.—The original reads “every man shall beat." Corrected by Theobald.

P. 99. Let me request you off: our graver business

Frowns at this levity.—The old editions read "Let me request you of our graver businesse,"&c. Corrected by Rowe.

P. 100. Men.

No, to my cabin.—

These drums! these trumpets, &c. — The original omits the prefix here, and runs the speech of Menas in with the preceding one of Enobarbus.

P. 101.

ACT III., SCENE 1.

So thy grand captain Antony

Shall set thee on triumphant chariot, &c. -So Walker. The original has chariots. But what business has the plural here?

P. 102. Without the which a soldier and his sword

Grants scarce distinction. Collier's second folio substitutes Gains for Grants. I suspect we ought to read “a soldier, from his sword, Gains," &c. The meaning evidently is, "a soldier scarce dif fers, or is distinguished, from his sword"; but the language is harsh and obscure.

ACT III., SCENE 2.

P. 103. Of Antony? O thou Arabian bird! —The original has “Oh Antony." Corrected by Hanmer.

P. 103. Hoo! hearts, tongues, figures, scribes, &c.—The original has figure. Hanmer's correction.

P. 104. The fortress of it; for far better might we

Have loved without this mean, &c.—So Capell and Walker. The original omits far. Hanmer inserted much. The words far and for are so much alike, that one of them might well drop out.

P. 105. Her tongue will not obey her heart, nor can

Her heart inform her tongue: the swan's down-feather

Thus stands upon the swell at full of tide, &c.— The original has That instead of Thus, and "at the full of Tide." The latter was corrected in the second folio. The other is Walker's conjecture; and I the rather adopt it, because the original has a period after tongue.

P. 106. What willingly he did confound he wail'd,

Believe't, till I wept too.

- So Theobald. The original has

weepe instead of wept.

P. 109.

ACT III., SCENE 4.

When perforce he could not

But pay me terms of honour, cold and sickly

He vented them; most narrow measure lent me :

When the best hint was given him, he not took't,

Or did it from his teeth. - In the third of these lines, the original has then instead of them, and in the fourth look't instead of took't. The former correction is Rowe's, the latter Thirlby's.

P. 110. Sure, the good gods will mock me presently,
When I shall pray, &c.

Steevens inserted And.

P. 110.

So Dyce. The original lacks Sure.

Better I were not yours

Than yours so branchless. So the second folio. The first has "Than your."

P. III. The fove of power make me, most weak, most weak,

Your reconciler! So the second folio. The first has You instead of Your.

ACT III., SCENE 5.

"Then

P. 112. Then, world, thou hast a pair of chops, no more; And, throw between them all the food thou hast, They'll grind the one the other.—The original reads would thou hadst a paire," and "They'le grinde the other." The former correction is Hanmer's, the latter Johnson's.

ACT III., SCENE 6.

P. 113. His sons he there proclaim'd the kings of kings. — The original reads "His Sonnes hither proclaimed the King of Kings." Corrected by Johnson and Rowe.

P. 114. The ostentation of our love, which left unshown

Is often felt unloved. — The original reads "Is often left unlov'd." Collier's second folio substitutes held for left. Singer proposed felt, as it consists of the same letters as left, and gives substantially the same sense as held. The passage is commonly so pointed as to make which, referring to love, the subject of is felt; whereas it should be the clause itself, ‚—" which being left unshown," or "the leaving of which unshown."

P. 115. Being an obstruct 'tween his lust and him. — The original has abstract. Warburton's correction.

P. 115. Till we perceived both how you were wrong'd,

And we in negligent danger. - So Capell. The original reads "Till we perceiv'd both how you were wrong led."

P. 116.

And the high gods,

To do you justice, make them ministers

Of us and those that love you.—The original has "makes his Ministers." The correction is Capell's. Theobald reads “make their ministers."

ACT III., SCENE 7.

P. 117. Is't not denounced 'gainst us? why should not we

Be there in person? — So Rowe and Capell. The original has "If not, denounc'd against us, why should not we," &c.The correction is approved by the corresponding passage in North's Plutarch: "Now, after that Cæsar had made sufficient preparation, he proclaimed open warre against Cleopatra, and made the people to abolish the power and empire of Antonius, because he had before given it up unto a woman."