Cæsar would say, Antony was already, in effect separated from you his affections were estranged, while his lust was entwisted, ingraffed in him, as it were &c. Tweyne (intwine) is so spelled in Chaucer. B.

Cleo. Is't not denounc'd against us? Why should not we Be there in person?

Is't not denounc'd against us? &c.] I would read:

"Is't not? Denounce against us, why should not we
"Be there in person?" TYRWH.

The old copy reads

If not denounc'd against us, why, &c.

which may be right. MAL.

'Is't not denounc'd against us?' This passage has hitherto been misunderstood. 'Is't not denounc'd against us?' Means-Does

not the enemy threaten us with war? The substantive, war, being omitted, the editors have mistaken the sense. B.

Eno. Your ships are not well mann'd:

Your mariners are muleteers, reapers, people
Ingrost by swift impress;

--muleteers,-] The old copy reads militers. MAL.

Muleteers.' The old copy is right, Militers,' (Militaires fr.) "You convert your soldiers into seamen, and in so doing you do wrong," says Enobarbus. This is far more forcible than meleteers: while it gives consistency to the whole of his argument. 'You therein throw away the absolute soldiership you have.' B.

Sold. His power went out in such distractions, as
Beguil'd all spies.

-distractions-] Detachments; separate bodies. JOHN.

The word is thus used by Sir Paul Rycaut in his Maxims of Turkish Polity:-" and not suffer his affections to wander on other wives, slaves, or distractions of his love." STEEV.

'Distractions.' Johnson has rightly explained distractions. "But what have Mr. Steevens's love distractions to do with military detachments? Such synonymies are curious indeed! B.

Cas.

Do not exceed

The prescript of this scrowl: Our fortune lies
Upon this jump.

Our fortune lies

Upon this jump.'

I do not approve the ludicrous expression 'jump' in a scene like this, and which is otherwise properly worded. The word may have been junct' contracted of juncture, probably mistaken from the sound. B.

Scar. The greater cantle of the world is lost

With very ignorance;

The greater cantle] A piece or lump. POPE.

Cantle is rather a corner. Cæsar in this play mentions the three-nook'd world. Of this triangular world every triumvir had a corner. JOHN. The word is used by Chaucer in the Knight's Tale, late edit. v. 3010: "Of no partie ne cantel of a thing." STEEV.

The greater cantle.' Pope's explication is inelegant; and Johnson's is much the same. Cantle is parcel (law term), and this may properly be employed here. As to what is meant by a three-nook'd world, it is not very easy to say. I think we should read, threenuk'd world. Nuke is the head. Now, Rome being styled mistress of the world, will, by a synecdoche, stand for the world in general, the whole terrestrial globe. Cæsar's expression will therefore signify, Rome, which had been under the rule, the sway of himself and his two colleagues; and when he adds, that this three-nuk'd world "shall bear the olive freely," and further says, that the "time of universal peace is near," he means that commotions will not again arise from the triumvirate: it is no more. B.

Scar.

Yon' ribald nag of Egypt,

Whom leprosy o'ertake! i'the midst o'the fight,-
When vantage like a pair of twins appear'd
Both as the same, or rather ours the elder,-
The brize upon her, like a cow in June,
Hoists sails, and flies.

-ribald- -] A luxurious squanderer. POPE.

The word is in the old edition ribaudred, which I do not understand, but mention it, in hopes others may raise some happy conjecture. JOHN.

A ribald is a lewd fellow. So, in Arden of Feversham, 1592;

Again:

-that injurious riball that attempts

"To vyolate my dear wyve's chastity."

"Injurious strumpet and thou ribald knave."

Ribaudred, the old reading, is, I believe, no more than a corruption. Shakspeare, who is not always very nice about his versification, might have written :

"Yon ribald-rid nag of Egypt,

i. e. Yon strumpet, who is common to every wanton fellow. It appears however from Barrett's Alvearie, 1580, that the word was sometimes written ribaudrous. STEEV.

Ribaudred is, I am persuaded, the true reading. Ribaude, in the French language, is a whore, a strumpet. I would likewise read hag. Ribaudred hag, i. e. a woman who has been the property of several men; as was the case with Cleopatra. Had our author written strumpeted hag, he would, I presume, have been generally understood: ribaudred hag is exactly the same. affectation of employing French words was extremely common in Shakspeare's time. He uses strumpeted, Com. Err. A. 2, S. 2. It were improper to read nag of Egypt, as Mr. S. is inclined to do,

The

and for no other reason than that the 'brize' is spoken of. Brize is to be understood as sting simply, and not that Cleopatra had, as a nag, the brize, or like a nag hoists sail, or that she flies like a cow in June. These readings, indeed, were equally absurd. The construction is-Cleopatra having the sting upon her-a cow in June might have-hoists, &c. B.

Scar. She once being looft,

The noble ruin of her magic, Antony,

Claps on his sea-wing, and, like a doating mallard,
Leaving the fight in height, flies after her;

-being looft,] To loof is to bring a ship close to the wind. STEEV. Mr. Steevens observes, that to loof is to bring a ship close to the wind-very true; but that is not the poet's particular meaning here. Cleopatra might loof, or luff her vessel, as well for the purpose of meeting the enemy, as for flying from him. To say, therefore, that she looft, is saying nothing. Looft, in this place, is aloof, or at a distance. Cleopatra having run away, says Scarus, Antony quickly followed her. B.

Eno. I'll yet follow

The wounded chance of Antony, though my reason,
Sits in the wind against me.

The wounded chance of Antony. - ] I know not whether the author, who loves to draw his images from the sports of the field, might not have written :

The wounded chase of Antony,

The allusion is to a deer wounded and chased, whom all other deer avoid. I will, says Enobarbus, follow Antony, though chased and wounded.

The common reading, however, may very well stand. JOHN. "Wounded chance," i. e. fallen fortunes. B.

Cleo. What shall we do, Enobarbus ?

Eno. Think, and die.

Think, and die.] Read:

Drink, and die.

This reply of Enobarbus seems grounded upon a peculiarity in the conduct of Antony and Cleopatra, which is related by Plutarch: that, after their defeat at Actium, they instituted a society of friends, who entered into engagement to die with them, not abating, in the mean time, any part of their luxury, excess, and riot, in which they had lived before. HAN. Sir T. Hanmer reads:

Drink, and die.

And his emendation has been approved, it seems, by Dr. Warburton and Mr. Upton. Dr. Johnson, however, "has not advanced it into the page, not being convinced that it is necessary. Think, and die;" says he, "that is, Reflect on your own folly, and leave the world, is a natural answer." I grant it would be, according to this explanation, a very proper answer from a moralist or a divine; but Enobarbus, I doubt, was neither

the one nor the other. He is drawn as a plain, blunt soldier; not likely, however, to offend so grossly in point of delicacy as Sir T. Hanmer's alteration would make him. I believe the true reading is:

Wink, and die. TYRWH.

'Think and die,' is a poor and bald expression. Swink and die' would surely be proper from the lips of Enobarbus, who is represented as a hardy warrior throughout the play. The meaning will be, "Let us once more labor in the field of war and die fighting"-thereby intimating, that they ought not to yield, although there was no kind of chance for success. This is in character, and agrees with the expression made use of by him in a subsequent scene; for when Antony says to him, 'wo'ot thou fight well?' he replies, I'll strike and cry, 'take all.' See note on think and drink, Hen. IV. p. 1. B.

Eno.

He being

The meered question; "Twas a shame no less
Than was his loss, to course your flying flags,
And leave his navy gazing.

-he being

The meered question :—

The meered question is a term I do not understand. I know not what to offer, except:

The mooted question

That is, the disputed point, the subject of debate. Mere is indeed a boundary, and the meered question, if it can mean any thing, may, with some violence of language, mean, the disputed boundary. JOHN.

Meered question.' Shakspeare, most probably, wrote meetest. He being the meetest question' i. e. He being the properest to answer the attack of Cæsar, not you.' B.

Cleo. Most kind messenger,

Say to great Cæsar this, In disputation
I kiss his conquering hand :

Most kind messenger

Say to great Casar this in disputation,
I kiss his conqu'ring hand :-- ]

The poet certainly wrote:

Most kind messenger,

Say to great Casar this; in deputation

I kiss his conqu'ring hand :

i. e. by proxy; I depute you to pay him that duty in my name. WARB. I am not certain that this change is necessary. I kiss his hand in disputation, may mean, I own he has the better in the controversy. I confess my inability to dispute or contend with him. To dispute may have no immediate reference to words or language by which controver sies are agitated. STEEV.

I would read thus:

Say to great Cæsar,-in disreputation

I kiss his conquering hand.

i. e. I am disgraced; and I submit to him. B.

Ant.

I will appear in blood

I and iny sword will earn my chronicle;

I and my sword will earn my chronicle ;] The old copy reads, our chronicle; which is right. I and my sword will do such acts as shall deserve to be recorded. Autony's boast has proved true. His sword is chronicled. MAL.

I and my sword will earn my chronicle.' Mr. Malone's interpretation is wrong. I' is ay. Anthouy says, I will appear in blooday, and my sword shall yet procure, shall yet gain me

renown. B.

Agr. Retire, we have engag'd ourselves too far:
Cæsar himself has work, and our oppression
Exceeds what we expected..

4

-and our oppression] Oppression for opposition. WARB. Sir T. Hanmer has received opposition. Perhaps rightly. JOHN. And our oppression.' 'Oppression seems to be the right word— oppressed by numbers-driven to extremity.

And our oppression

Exceeds what we expected.'

They are,' as we should now say, 'too hard for us.' B.

Ant. To this great fairy Ill commend thy acts,
Make her thanks bless thee.

To this great fairy--] Mr. Upton has well observed, that fairy, which Dr. Warburton and Sir T. Hanmer explain by Inchantress, 'comprises the idea of power and beauty. JoHN.

To this great fairy.' It must be by a very forced construction indeed that fairy' (the fabled being so called) can be put for enchantress, since the former has none of the attributes or powers so generally supposed to belong to the latter. Faire, in old language, is happiness, good fortune, and I think that Shakspeare has here used fairy,' written, perhaps, faerie, in the sense of one who occasions, who brings good fortune. The Bona fortuna of the Romans.

B.

Cent. Hark, how the drums demurely wake the sleepers: Hark, how the drums demurely--] Demurely for solemnly. WARB.

Hark, how the drums demurely.' Were the construction, Drums which demurely wake the drowsy,' Warburton's interpretation might be right. Still, however, with exception in the present case; for that the drum or any warlike instrument whatever should be beaten solemnly for the purpose of calling soldiers to arms, were contrary to the practice both of ancient and modern times. The matter is, that' demurely' belongs not to drums but `to sleepers. We must read,

Hark, how the drums wake the demurely sleepers.' The word demurely is not here used according to the English signi

SHAK.

II,

N