SCENE X. Ground between the two Camps. Enter ANTONY and SCARUS, with Forces, marching. Ant. Their preparation is to-day by sea; We please them not by land. Scar. For both, my lord. Ant. I would they'd fight i' the fire or in the air; Shall stay with us: order for sea is given; SCENE XI. - Another Part of the Same. Enter CESAR, with his Forces, marching. Cæs. But being charged,1 we will be still by land, And hold our best advantage. SCENE XII.-Another Part of the Same. Enter ANTONY and SCARUS. [Exeunt. [Exeunt. Ant. Yet they are not join'd: where yond pine does stand, I shall discover all: I'll bring thee word Straight, how 'tis like to go. [Exit. 1 "But being charged " is unless we be charged. See page 94, note 6. 2 Which refers to the preceding clause, " we will be still by land." Swallows have built Scar. In Cleopatra's sails their nests: 3 the augurers Say they know not, they cannot tell; - look grimly, And dare not speak their knowledge. Antony Is valiant, and dejected; and, by starts, His fretted fortunes give him hope, and fear, [Alarums afar off, as at a sea-fight. Re-enter ANTONY. Ant. All's lost; this foul Egyptian hath betrayèd me: My fleet hath yielded to the foe; and yonder They cast their caps up, and carouse together Like friends long lost. — Triple-turn'd whore! 'tis thou Makes only wars on theè. — Bid them all fly; -- For, when I am revenged upon my charm, I have done all bid them all fly; be gone. -[Exit SCARUS. O Sun, thy uprise shall I see no more: Fortune and Antony part here; even here Do we shake hands. All come to this? The hearts 8 Plutarch mentions divers ominous events as occurring just before the earlier battle of Actium; among others, this: The admiral galley of Cleopatra was called Antoniad, in the which there chanced a marvellous ill sign: swallows had bred under the poop of her ship, and there came others after them, and drave the first away, and plucked down their nests." 4" This grave charm" probably means this deadly or destructive piece of witchcraft. In this sense the epithet grave is often used by Chapman in his translation of Homer. Thus in the nineteenth book: "But not far hence the fatal minutes are of thy grave ruin." It seems to be used in the sense of the Latin word gravis. Whose eye beck'd forth my wars, and call'd them home; Enter CLEOPATRA. Ah, thou spell! Avaunt! Cleo. Why is my lord enraged against his love? Of all thy sex; most monster-like, be shown [Exit CLEOPATRA. 'Tis well thou'rt gone, If it be well to live; but better 'twere Thou fell'st into my fury, for one death 5" That which I looked to as the reward or crown of my endeavours." The allusion is to finis coronat opus. 6 The allusion is to the game of fast and loose, or pricking at the belt or girdle, which was practised by the gipsies in Shakespeare's time, as appears by an Epigram of Thomas Freeman's, in his collection, called Run and a Great Cast, 1614: Charles the Egyptian, who by jugling could Doits is the same as "poor'st diminutives," and means the smallest pieces of money. Shakespeare uses the word repeatedly. 8 I have already noted that Antony derived the lineage of the Antonian gens from Hercules, who is here designated by his patronymic Alcides. The allusion is to the circumstances of Hercules' death. Lichas was the Let me lodge Lichas on the horns o' the Moon ; [Exit. SCENE XIII. Alexandria. A Room in CLEOPATRA'S Palace. Enter CLEOPATRA, CHARMIAN, IRAS, and MARDIAN. Cleo. Help me, my women! O, he is more mad Than Telamon 10 for his shield; the boar of Thessaly Was never so emboss'd.11 Char. To th' monument ! There lock yourself, and send him word you're dead. Than greatness going off. Cleo. To th' monument! servant of Hercules who brought to him the poisoned garment from his wife Dejanira; and when Hercules was in the extreme of agony from the effects of the poison, and quite beside himself with rage, he seized Lichas, and hurled him an enormous distance into the sea. Though Antony here uses the word self, his thoughts are really upon Hercules, with whom for the moment he identifies himself. So that Heath's explanation is doubtless right: "The most exceptionable expression perhaps is the bestowing the epithet worthiest on himself; but even this exaggeration will appear excusable at least, if not justifiable, when it is considered that it is not seriously intended as a vainglorious vaunt, but proceeds wholly from a transport of the fancy, which represents him to himself for that moment as the very Hercules in person. 10 Than Ajax Telamon for the armour of Achilles, the most valuable part of which was the shield. The boar of Thessaly was the boar killed by Meleager. 11 When a hunted animal was so hard run as to foam at the mouth, it was said to be emboss'd. 12 Cleopatra had long before made many sumptuous tombs and monuments, as well for excellency of workmanship as for height and greatness of building, joining hard to the temple of Isis. Thither she caused to be Mardian, go tell him I have slain myself; Say, that the last I spoke was Antony, And word it, pr'ythee, piteously: hence, Mardian, And bring me how he takes my death. — To th' monument! Ant. Sometime we see a cloud that's dragonish ; A vapour sometime like a bear or lion, A tower'd citadel, a pendent rock, A forked mountain, or blue promontory With trees upon't, that nod unto the world, And mock our eyes with air: thou hast seen these signs; Eros. Ay, my lord. Ant. That which is now a horse, even with a thought brought all the treasure and precious things she had of the ancient kings her predecessors; as gold, silver, emeralds, pearls, ebony, ivory, and cinnamon, and besides all that, a marvellous number of torches, faggots, and flax. So Octavius Cæsar, being afraid to lose such a treasure and mass of riches, and that this woman for spite would set it on fire and burn it every whit, always sent some one or other unto her from him, to put her in good comfort, whilst he in the meantime drew near the city with his army. PLUTARCH. 1 The beauty both of the expression and the allusion is lost, unless we recollect the frequency and the nature of these shows in Shakespeare's age. The following apposite passage from a sermon, by Bishop Hall, is cited by Boswell: "I feare some of you are like the pageants of your great solemnities, wherein there is a show of a solid body, whether of a lyon or elephant, or unicorne; but if they be look'd into, there is nothing but cloth, and sticks, and ayre." |