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CHAR.

IRAS. She is dead too, our sovereign.

O, quietness, lady!

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CHAR. Peace, peace, Iras.

CLEO. No more, but e'en a woman;2 and commanded

By such poor passion as the maid that milks,

• No more, but e'en a woman;] Cleopatra is discoursing with her women; but she naturally replies to Iras, who had addressed herself to her, and not to Charmian, who only interposed to prevent Iras from continuing to speak. Strike out the speech of Charmian, which is said aside to Iras, and the sense will be evident. Iras addresses Cleopatra by the titles of Royal Egypt and Empress! which Cleopatra rejects as ill suited to her present condition; and says, she is no more in that state of elevation, but on a level with the rest of her sex. M. MASON.

Iras has just said,-Royal Egypt, Empress! Cleopatra completes the sentence, (without taking notice of the intervening words spoken by Charmian,)-Empress "no more; but e'en a woman, now on a level with the meanest of my sex. Julius Caesar, p. 285, Cassius says

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"No, it is Casca; one incorporate

"To our attempts. Am I not staied for, Cinna?”

So, in

to which Cinna replies, without taking any notice of the latter words [Am I not stay'd for?]:..

"I am glad on't."

i. e. I am glad that Casca is incorporate to our attempts. See also Vol. XVI. p. 70, n. 7.

The old copy reads but in a woman. The emendation was made by Dr. Johnson. The same error has happened in many other places in these plays. See Vol. VIII. p. 236, n. 7.

MALONE. Peace, peace, Iras, is said by Charmian, when she sees the queen recovering, and thinks speech troublesome. JOHNSON.

And does the meanest chares.3-It were for me
To throw my scepter at the injurious gods;
To tell them, that this world did equal theirs,
Till they had stolen our jewel. All's but naught;
Patience is sottish; and impatience does
Become a dog that's mad: Then is it. sin,
To rush into the secret house of death,

Ere death dare come to us?-How do you, women? What, what? good cheer! Why, how now, Charmian?

My noble girls!-Ah, women, women! look, Our lamp is spent, it's out:-Good sirs, take heart:[To the Guard below. We'll bury him: and then, what's brave, what's noble,

Let's do it after the high Roman fashion,

And make death proud to take us. Come, away: This case of that huge spirit now is cold.

Ah, women, women! come; we have no friend But resolution, and the briefest end.

3

[Exeunt; those above bearing off ANTONY's Body.

-the meanest chares.] i. e. task-work. Hence our term chare-woman. So, in Heywood's Rape of Lucrece, 1630: “She, like a good wife, is teaching her servants sundry chares." Again, in Heywood's Brazen Age, 1613:

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"Cards, and does chare-work.",

Again, in Warner's Albion's England, ch. 91, Robin Goodfellow says.

"And at my crummed messe of milke, each night from maid or dame,

"To do their chares, as they suppos'd" &c. STEEVENS.

ACT V. SCENE I.

Cæsar's Camp before Alexandria.

Enter CESAR, AGRIPPA, DOLABELLA, MECENAS,*, GALLUS, PROCULEIUS, and Others.

CES. Go to him, Dolabella, bid him yield; Being so frustrate, tell him, he mocks us by The pauses that he makes.

5

Enter Cæsar, Agrippa, Dolabella, and [Old copy] Menas, &c.] But Menas and Menecrates, we may remember, were two famous pirates, linked with Sextus Pompeius, and who assisted him to infest the Italian coast. We no where learn, expressly, in the play, that Menas ever attached himself to Octavius's party. Notwithstanding the old folios concur in marking the entrance thus, yet in the two places in the scene, where this character is made to speak, they have marked in the margin, Mec. so that, as Dr. Thirlby sagaciously conjectured, we must cashier Menas, and substitute Mecænas in his room. Menas, indeed, deserted to Cæsar no less than twice, and was preferred by him. But then we are to consider, Alexandria was taken, and Antony killed himself, anno U. C. 723. Menas made the second revolt over to Augustus U. C. 717; and the next year was slain at the siege of Belgrade, in Pannonia, five years before the death of Antony. THEOBALD.

5

Being so frustrate, tell him, he mocks [us by]

The pauses that he makes.] Frustrate, for frustrated, was the language of Shakspeare's time. So, in The Tempest: and the sea mocks

66

"Our frustrate search by land.”

So consummate for consummated contaminate, for contaminated, &c.

Again, in Holland's translation of Suetonius, 1606: "But the designment both of the one and the other were defeated and frustrate by reason of Piso his death.”

The last two words of the first of these lines are not found in the old copy. The defect of the metre shows that somewhat was omitted, and the passage, by the omission, was rendered unintelligible.

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DOL.

6

Cæsar, I shall. [Exit DOLABELla.

When, in the lines just quoted, the sea is said to mock the search of those who were seeking on the land for a body that had been drowned in the ocean, this is easily understood. But in that before us the case is very different. When Antony himself made these pauses, would he mock, or laugh at them? and what is the meaning of mocking a pause?

In Measure for Measure, the concluding word of a line was omitted, and in like manner has been supplied:

"How I may formally in person bear [me]
"Like a true friar."

Again, in Romeo and Juliet, 1599, and 1623:
"And hide me with a dead man in his."

shroud or tomb being omitted.

Again, in Hamlet, 4to. 1604:

"Thus conscience doth make cowards."

the words of us all being omitted.

Again, ibidem:

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See also note on the words-" mock the meat it feeds on," in Othello, Act III. sc. iii.

Ard similar omissions have happened in many other plays. See Vol. XIV. p. 351, n. 8.

In further support of the emendation now made, it may be observed, that the word mock, of which our author makes frequent use, is almost always employed as I suppose it to have been used here. Thus, in King Lear: "Pray do not mock me." Again, in Measure for Measure:

"You do blaspheme the good in mocking me."

Again, in All's well that ends well:

"You barely leave our thorns to prick ourselves,
"And mock us with our bareness."

Again, in the play before us:

66 that nod unto the world,

"And mock our eyes with air."

The second interpretation given by Mr. Steevens, in the following note, is a just interpretation of the text as now regu lated; but extracts from the words in the old copy a meaning, which, without those that I have supplied, they certainly do not afford. MALONE.

Enter DERCETAS, with the Sword of ANTONY.

CES. Wherefore is that? and what art thou, that dar'st

Appear thus to us?7

DER.

I am call'd Dercetas ;

Mark Antony I serv'd, who best was worthy
Best to be serv'd: whilst he stood up, and spoke,
He was my master; and I wore my life,

To spend upon his haters: If thou please
To take me to thee, as I was to him
I'll be to Cæsar; if thou pleasest not,
I yield thee up my life.

I have left Mr. Malone's emendation in the text; though, to complete the measure, we might read-frustrated, or—

Being so frustrate, tell him, that he mocks &c.

as I am well convinced we are not yet acquainted with the full and exact meaning of the verb mock, as sometimes employed by Shakspeare. In Othello it is used again with equal departure from its common acceptation.

My explanation of the words-He mocks the pauses that he makes, is as follows: He plays wantonly with the intervals of time which he should improve to his own preservation. Or the meaning may be-Being thus defeated in all his efforts, and left without resource, tell him that these affected pauses and delays of his in yielding himself up to me, are mere idle mockery. He mocks the pauses, may be a licentious mode of expression for-he makes a mockery of us by these pauses; i. e. he trifles with us. STEEVENS.

6 Cæsar, I shall.] I make no doubt but it should be marked here, that Dolabella goes out. 'Tis reasonable to imagine he should presently depart upon Cæsar's command; so that the speeches placed to him in the sequel of this scene, must be transferred to Agrippa, or he is introduced as a mute. Besides, that Dolabella should be gone out, appears from this, that when Cæsar asks for him, he recollects that he had sent him on business. THEOBALD.

7

thus to us?] i. e. with a drawn and bloody sword in thy hand. STEEVENS.

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