CES. What would you more?-Pompey, good night. Good brother, Let me request you off: our graver business Is weaker than the wine; and mine own tongue POM. ANT. And shall, sir: give's your hand. Ром. O, Antony, You have my father's house,'-But what? we are friends: Come, down into the boat. ENO. I'll try you o'the shore. Take heed you fall not.[Exeunt POMPEY, CESAR, ANTONY, and Attendants. Menas, I'll not on shore. It should be observed, however, that from the following passage in P. Holland's translation of the 11th Book of Pliny's Natural History, it appears that pink-eyed signified the smallness of eyes: "also them that were pinke-eyed and had verie small eies, they termed ocella." STEEvens. 9O, Antony, 9 86 You have my father's house,] The historian Paterculus says: -cum Pompeio quoque circa Misenum pax inita: Qui haud absurdè, cum in navi Cæsaremque et Antonium cœna exciperet, dixit: In carinis suis se cœnam dare; referens hoc dictum ad loci nomen, in quo paterna domus ab Antonio possidebatur." Our author, though he lost the joke, yet seems willing to commemorate the story. WARBurton. The joke of which the learned editor seems to lament the loss, could not be found in the old translation of Plutarch, and Shakspeare looked no further. See p. 111, n. 7. STEEVENS. VOL. XVII. K MEN. No, to my cabin.These drums!-these trumpets, flutes! what!Let Neptune hear we bid a loud farewell To these great fellows: Sound, and be hang'd, sound out. [A Flourish of Trumpets, with Drums. ENO. Ho, says 'a!-There's my cap. MEN. Come. Ho!-noble captain! [Exeunt. ACT III. SCENE I. A Plain in Syria. Enter VENTIDIUS, as after Conquest, with SILIUS, and other Romans, Officers, and Soldiers; the dead Body of PACORUS borne before him. VEN. Now, darting Parthia, art thou struck;' and now Pleas'd fortune does of Marcus Crassus' death SIL. Noble Ventidius, Whilst yet with Parthian blood thy sword is warm, The fugitive Parthians follow; spur through Media, struck;] alludes to darting. Thou whose darts have so often struck others, art struck now thyself. JOHNSON. 1 Thy Pacorus, Orodes,] Pacorus was the son of Orodes, King of Parthia. STEEVENS. Mesopotamia, and the shelters whither VEN. O Silius, Silius, Which he achiev'd by the minute, lost his favour. SIL. Thou hast, Ventidius, That without which5 a soldier, and his sword, * Better leave undone, &c.] Old copies, unmetrically (because the players were unacquainted with the most common ellipsis): Better to leave undone, &c. STEEVENS. when him we serve's away.] Thus the old copy, and such certainly was our author's phraseology. So, in The Winter's Tale: "I am appointed him to murder you." See also Coriolanus, Vol. XVI. p. 241, n. 1. The modern editors, however, all read, more grammatically, when he we serve, &c. MALONE. That without which-] Here again, regardless of metre, the old copies read: That without the which—. STEEVENS. Grants scarce distinction. Thou wilt write to Antony? VEN. I'll humbly signify what in his name, That magical word of war, we have effected; How, with his banners, and his well-paid ranks, The ne'er-yet-beaten horse of Parthia We have jaded out o'the field. 6 SIL. Where is he now? VEN. He purposeth to Athens: whither with what haste The weight we must convey with us will permit, We shall appear before him.-On, there; pass along. [Exeunt. SCENE II. Rome. An Ante-Chamber in Cæsar's House. Enter AGRIPPA, and ENOBARBUS, meeting. AGR. What, are the brothers parted? ENO. They have despatch'd with Pompey, he is gone; The other three are sealing. Octavia weeps • That without which a soldier, and his sword, 6 Grants scarce distinction.] Grant for afford. It is badly and obscurely expressed; but the sense is this: Thou hast that, Ventidius, which if thou didst want, there would be no distinction between thee and thy sword. You would be both equally cutting and senseless. This was wisdom or knowledge of the world. Ventidius had told him the reasons why he did not pursue his advantages; and his friend, by this compliment, acknowledges them to be of weight. WARBURTON. We have somewhat of the same idea in Coriolanus: "Who, sensible, outdares his senseless sword." STEEVENS. To part from Rome: Cæsar is sad; and Lepidus, Since Pompey's feast, as Menas says, is troubled With the green sickness. AGR. ENO. Cæsar? Why, he's the Jupiter of men. AGR. O Antony! O thou Arabian bird! ENO. Would you praise Cæsar, say,-Cæsar ;go no further." AGR. Indeed, he ply'd them both with excellent praises. 7 How?] I believe, was here, as in another place in this play, printed by mistake, for ho. See also Vol. VII. p. 379, n. 1. MALOne. I perceive no need of alteration. STEEVENS. Spake you of Cæsar? How? the nonpareil! Speak you of Cæsar, he is the nonpareil; speak you of Antony, he is the Arabian bird. M. MASON. -Arabian bird!] The phoenix. JOHNSON. So, again, in Cymbeline: "She is alone the Arabian bird, and I Cæsar;-go no further.] I suspect that this line was designed to be metrical, and that (omitting the impertinent go) we should read: Would you praise Cæsar, say-Cæsar;-no further. STEEVENS. |