CHAR. O, nothing, madam. CLEO. The man hath seen some majesty, and should know. CHAR. Hath he seen majesty? Isis else defend, And serving you so long! CLEO. I have one thing more to ask him yet, good Charmian : But 'tis no matter; thou shalt bring him to me Where I will write: All may be well enough. CHAR. I warrant you, madam. SCENE IV. [Exeunt. Athens. A Room in Antony's House. Enter ANTONY and OCTAVIA. ANT. Nay, nay, Octavia, not only that,That were excusable, that, and thousands more Of semblable import,-but he hath wag'd New wars 'gainst Pompey; made his will, and read it To publick ear: Spoke scantly of me: when perforce he could not But pay me terms of honour, cold and sickly Minsheu, in his Dictionary, 1617, explains the word thus: "To turmoile or vexe." Cole, in his English Dictionary, 1676, interprets haried by the word pulled, and in the sense of pulled and lugged about, I believe the word was used by Shakspeare. See the marginal direction in p. 498. In a kindred sense it is used in the old translation of Plutarch: " Pyrrhus seeing his people thus troubled, and harried to and fro," &c. See also Florio's Italian Dictionary, 1590: "Tartassare. To rib-baste, to bang, to tugge, to hale, to harrie." MALONE. 2 O, nothing,] The exclamation-0, was, for the sake of measure, supplied by Sir Thomas Hanmer. STEEvens. 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. Ост. O my good lord, 6 And the good gods will mock me presently, When I shall pray, 0, bless my lord and husband! Undo that prayer, by crying out as loud, O, bless my brother! Husband win, win brother, Prays, and destroys the prayer; no midway 'Twixt these extremes at all. When the best hint was given him, he not took't,] The first folio reads, not look'd. Dr. Thirlby advised the emendation, which I have inserted in the text. THEOBALD. Or did it from his teeth.] Whether this means, as we now say, in spite of his teeth, or that he spoke through his teeth, so as to be purposely indistinct, I am unable to determine. A similar passage, however, occurs in a very scarce book entitled A Courtlie Controversie of Cupid's Cautels: conteyning five Tragicall Histories, &c. Translated out of French, &c. by H. W. [Henry Wotton] 4to. 1578: "The whyche the factor considering, incontinently made his reckning that it behoued him to speake clearely, and not betweene his teeth, if he would practise surely," &c. Again, in Chapman's version of the fifteenth Iliad: "She laught, but meerly from her lips:-' Again, in Fuller's Historie of the Holy Warre, B. IV. ch. 17: "This bad breath, though it came but from the teeth of some, yet proceeded from the corrupt lungs of others." Again, in P. Holland's translation of the eleventh Book of Pliny's Natural History: "the noise which they make commeth but from their teeth and mouth outward." STEEVENS. 5. And-] I have supplied this conjunction, for the sake of metre. STEEVENS. • When I shall pray, &c.] The situation and sentiments of Octavia resemble those of Lady Blanch in King John. See Vol. X. p. 437. STEEVENS. ANT. Gentle Octavia, Let your best love draw to that point, which seeks Than yours so branchless." But, as you requested, 8 Shall stain your brother; Make your soonest haste; your desires are yours. So Than yours so branchless.] Old copy-your. Corrected in the second folio. This is one of the many mistakes that have arisen from the transcriber's ear deceiving him, your so and yours so, being scarcely distinguishable in pronunciation. MALONE. The mean time, lady, 8 I'll raise the preparation of a war Shall stain your brother;] Thus the printed copies. But, sure, Antony, whose business here is to mollify Octavia, does it with a very ill grace: and 'tis a very odd way of satisfying her, to tell her the war, he raises, shall stain, i. e. cast an odium upon her brother. I have no doubt, but we must read, with the addition only of a single letter Shall strain your brother; i. e. shall lay him under constraints; shall put him to such shifts, that he shall neither be able to make a progress against, or to prejudice me. Plutarch says, that Octavius, understanding the sudden and wonderful preparations of Antony, was astonished at it; for he himself was in many wants, and the people were sorely oppressed with grievous exactions. THEOBALD. I do not see but stain may be allowed to remain unaltered, meaning no more than shame or disgrace. JOHNSON. So, in some anonymous stanzas among the poems and Wyatt: 66 here at hand approacheth one "Whose face will stain you all." Again, in Shore's Wife, by Churchyard, 1593: of Surrey "So Shore's wife's face made foule Browneta blush, "As pearle staynes pitch, or gold surmounts a rush.” Again, in Churchyard's Charitie, 1595: "Whose beautie staines the faire Helen of Greece." STEEVENS. I believe a line betwixt these two has been lost, the purport Ост. Thanks to my lord. The Jove of power make me most weak, most weak, Your reconciler!? Wars 'twixt you twain would be1 As if the world should cleave, and that slain men Should solder up the rift. ANT. When it appears to you where this begins, Turn your displeasure that way; for our faults Can never be so equal, that your love Can equally move with them. Provide your going; Choose your own company, and command what cost Your heart has mind to. SCENE V. [Exeunt. The same. Another Room in the same. Enter ENOBARBUS and EROS, meeting. ENO. How now, friend Eros? EROS. There's strange news come, sir. of which probably was, unless I am compelled in my own defence, I will do no act that shall stain, &c. After Antony has told Octavia that she shall be a mediatrix between him and his adversary, it is surely strange to add that he will do an act that shall disgrace her brother. MALONE. 9 Your reconciler!] The old copy has you. This manifest error of the press, which appears to have arisen from the same cause as that noticed above, was corrected in the second folio. MALONE. 1 -Wars 'twixt you twain would be &c.] The sense is, that war between Cæsar and Antony would engage the world between them, and that the slaughter would be great in so extensive a commotion. JOHNSON. EROS. Cæsar and Lepidus have made wars upon Pompey. ENO. This is old; What is the success? EROS. Cæsar, having made use of him in the wars 'gainst Pompey, presently denied him rivality;2 would not let him partake in the glory of the action: and not resting here, accuses him of letters he had formerly wrote to Pompey; upon his own appeal,3 seizes him: So the poor third is up, till death enlarge his confine. ENO. Then, world, thou hast a pair of chaps, no more; And throw between them all the food thou hast, They'll grind the one the other. Where's Antony? rivality;] Equal rank. JOHNSON. So, in Hamlet, Horatio and Marcellus are styled by Bernardo "the rivals" of his watch. STEEVENS. 3 upon his own appeal,] To appeal, in Shakspeare, is to accuse; Cæsar seized Lepidus without any other proof than Cæsar's accusation. JOHNSON. 4 Then, world, &c.] Old copy-Then 'would thou had'st a pair of chaps, no more; and throw between them all the food thou hast, they'll grind the other. Where's Antony? This is obscure, I read it thus: Then, world, thou hast a pair of chaps, no more; And throw between them all the food thou hast, They'll grind the one the other. Where's Antony? Cæsar and Antony will make war on each other, though they have the world to prey upon between them. JOHNSON. Though in general very reluctant to depart from the old copy, I have not, in the present instance, any scruples on that head. The passage, as it stands in the folio, is nonsense, there being nothing to which thou can be referred. World and would were easily confounded, and the omission in the last line which Dr. Johnson has supplied, is one of those errors that happen in almost every sheet that passes through the press, when the same words are repeated near to each other in the same sentence. Thus, in a note on Timon of Athens, Vol. XIX. Act III. sc. ii. now before |
