P. 167, 1. 17. 'tis his schoolmaster: ] The name of this person was Euphronius. STEEVENS. He was schoolmaster to Antony's children by Cleopatra. MALONE. citr 1 P. 167, 1. 26. 27. As is the morn-dew on the Rasvet myrtle leaf To his grand sea. Thus the old copy. To (whose grand sea? I know not. Perhaps we should read: * To vongg sinha da To this grand sea. We may suppose that the sea was within view of Caesar's camp, and at no great distance. l fit TYRWHITT. - the grand The modern editors arbitrarily read:— sea. (* १ T His I believe the old reading is the true one. grand sea may mean his full tide of prosperity. So, in The Two Noble Kinsmen, by Fletcher: *blend-——- though I know i an His ocean needs not my poor drops, yet Jt they 590AL S "Must yield their tribute here." Y This is a playhouse tradition that the first act of this play was written by Shakspeare. Mr. Tollet offers a further explanation of the change proposed by Mr. Tyrwhitt: “Alexandria, towards which Caesar was marching, is situated on the coast of the Mediterranean sea, which is sometimes called mare magnum. Pliny terms it, frimmensa aequorum vastitas."I may add that Sir John Mandeville, , p. 89, calls, that part of the Mediderraneandwhich washes the coast of Palestine, "the grete see. The passages capable of yet another explanationlad grand sea may mean the sea from which the dew-drop is exhaled. Shakspeare night huse considered the His is sea as the source of dews as well as rain. used instead of its. STREVENS. mut to me. Tyrwhitt's amendment is more likely to be right, than Steevens's explanation. M. MASON.goot 2 I believes the last is the right explanations HENLEY. The last of Mr. Steevens's explanations certainly Lgives the sense of Shakspeare. If his be not used for its, he has made a person of the Morn-drop. AM RITSON. The circle of the Ptolemies] ensign of royalty. JOHNSON - friend, i. e. paramour. WP. 168, 16 5. The diadem; the 11 P.168, 1. 10. freight STEEVENS. P. 168, 1. 26. Observe how Antony becomes são omni sdi ar pathechist flaw, That is, how Antony conforms himself to this breach of his fortune. JOHNSON. A AT ST mi 36 P. 169, first 1. Think, and die. ] Consider what quode of ending your life is most preferable, and immediately adopt it. HENLEY. P. 169, 1.83mick'd his captainship;] i. e. set the marks of follylonsitassSREEVENS: QUI F. 169,oks 9810d2d the being yalq aid in szoq The mered question:} The mered question Jis a term ledo, not understand know not what } to offer, exceptbatentia atquinosaka PAW TECK"] The mooted questions artibs adi - That is the disputed point, the subject of deLbate.m¿Mere is indeed aboundary, and the meered -question, if it can be anything, sihaylynwith some violences of languages mean the disputed boundary. JOHNSON T 33 Possibly Shakspeares might have coined the word meered, and derived it from the adjective mere or meeruthat case,athenmeered squestion might mean, the only cause of the dispute subject of the quarrel.M. MASON. the only Mered is, I suspect, a word of our author's formation, from mere: he being the sole, the entire subject or occasion of the war. MALONE. P. 169, last lines. I dare him therefore To lay his gay y comparisons upart, And answer me, declin'd, sword against sword, १६ Ourselves alone ] Į require of Caesar not to depend on that superiority which the comparison of our different fortunes may exhibit to him, but o answer me man to man, in this decline of my age or power. JOHNSON. to I have sometimes thought that Shakspeare wrote, his ༧.37, gay caparisons. Let him unstate his happiness,” let him divest himself of t the spendid trappings of This power coin, ships, legions, &c. and meet me in single combat. Caparison is frequently used by our author and his contemporaries, for His en ornamental dress; comparisons may mean, those circumstances of splendour and power in which he, when compared with me; so much exceeds me. Dr. Johnson's explanation of declin'd is certainly right. MALONE. word gay seems rather to favour Malone's conjecture, that we should read caparisons. On the other hand, the following passage in the next speech, appears to countenance the present reading : that he should dream, "Knowing all measures, the full Caesar will Answer his emptiness!" M.MASON. P. 170 14. Be stag'd to the show,] that is, exhibited, like conflicting gladiators, to the publick gaze. HENLEY.. P. 170, 1. 5. 6. men's judgements are A parcel of their fortunes; i. e. as we should say at present, are of a piece with them, P. 170, l. 18. ས་གདུག་ན་གླུ P. 170, 1. 20. 21. STEEVENS. to square] i. e. to quarrel. STEEVENS. The loyalty, well held to fools, does make Our faith mere folly:] After Enobarbus has said, that his bonesty and he begin to quarrel, he immediately falls into this generous reflection: "Though loyalty, stubbornly preserv'd to a master in his declin'd fortunes, seems folly in the eyes of fools; yet he, who can be so obstinately loyal, will make as great a figure on record, as the conI therefore read: queror. I Though loyalty, well held to fools, does make have preservesertion, and finding it is more upon prudent to forsake a and more reputable to be faithful to him, makes no positive conclusion. Sir T. Haumer follows Theobald; Dr. Warburton retains the old reading. JOHNSON. P. 171, 1. 2-4. Caesar entreats, Jeg vi Not to consider in what case thou stand'st, Further than A he is Caesar. ] i. e. Caésar intreats, that at the same time you consider your desperate fortunes, you and you would consider he is Caesar: That is, generous and forgiving, able and willing to restore them. WARBURTON. 2117 P. 174, 1.30.51. Say to great Caesar this, In disputationi I kiss his conqu’ring hand:] certainly wrote: The poet Say to great Caesar this; In deputation i. e. by proxy, I depute you to pay him that duty in my name. WARBURTON. I am not certain that this change is necessary. I kiss his hand tation in the controversy. I own he has the - may mean, confess my inability to dispute or contend with him. To dispute may have no immediate reference to words or language by which controversics are agitated. So, in Macbeth, “ Dispute it like a man;" and Macduff, to whom this short speech is is addressed, is disputing or contending with himself only. Again, in Twelfth Night,For though my sonl disputes well with my sense. If Dr. Warburton's change be adopted, we should read by deputation. STEEVENS. have no doubt but deputation is the right reading. Steevens having proved, with much la bour and ingenuity, that it is but by a forced and unnatural construction that any sense can be ektorted from the words as they stand. It is not necessary to read by deputation, instead of in. That amendment indeed, would render the passage more strictly grammatical, but Shakspeare is, frequently, at least as licentious in the use of his particles. TEM. MASON, T I think Dr. Warburton's conjecture extremely probable The objection founded on the particle 27 being used, is in my capprehension, of little weight. Though by deputation is the phraseology of the present day the other might have been common in the time of Shakspeare, MALONE. |