ACT III. SCENE VIII. Line 518. this jump.] To jump signifies to hazard; thus in Macbeth: STEEVENS. "We'd jump the life to come." Line 526. The Antoniad, &c.] Which Plutarch says, was the name of Cleopatra's ship. Line 532. The greater cantle-] A piece or lump. РОРЕ. РОРЕ. Cantle is rather a corner. Cæsar, in this play, mentions the three-nook'd world. Of this triangular world every triumvir had a corner. Line 536. 537. -token'd-] Spotted. JOHNSON. JOHNSON. -ribald-] A luxurious squanderer. POPE. By ribald, Scarus, I think, means the lewd Antony in parti cular, not "every lewd fellow." MALONE. Line 539. Whom leprosy o'ertake !] Leprosy, an epidemical distemper of the Ægyptians; to which Horace probably alludes in the controverted line: "Contaminato cum grege turpium "Morbo virorum." JOHNSON. Line 542. The brize upon her,] The brize is the astrum, or the fly that stings cattle. STEEVENS. Line 547. being loof'd,] To loof is to bring a ship close to the wind. Line 575. traveller. Line 598. own emotions. ACT III. SCENE IX. STEEVENS. so lated in the world,] Alluding to a benighted JOHNSON. -I have lost command,] I am not maker of my JOHNSON. His sword even like a dancer ;] In the Morisco, and perhaps anciently in the Pyrrhick dance, the dancers held swords in their hands with the points upward. JOHNSON. Line 615. Dealt on lieutenantry,] I believe, means only,-fought by proxy. STEEVENS. Line 624. -death will seize her; but Your comfort &c.] But has here, as once before, in this play, the force of except, or unless. JOHNSON. Line 630. How I convey my shame-] How, by looking another way, I withdraw my ignominy from your sight. JOHNS. Line 637. string. tied by the strings,] That is, by the heart JOHNSON. ACT III. SCENE X. Line 679. The circle of the Ptolemies-] The diadem; the ensign of royalty. JOHNSON. Line 700. how Antony becomes his flaw ;] That is, how 'Antony conforms himself to this breach of his fortune. JOHNSON. Line 714. ACT III. SCENE XI. -he being The mered question:] 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. Line 736. his gay comparisons apart, MALONE. And answer me declin'd,] I require of Cæsar not to depend on that superiority which the comparison of our different fortunes may exhibit to him, but to answer me man to man, in this decline of my age or power. JOHNSON. Line 754. The loyalty, well held to fools, &c.] Enobarbas is deliberating upon desertion, and finding it is more prudent to forsake a fool, and more reputable to be faithful to him, makes no positive conclusion. JOHNSON. Not to consider in what case thou stand'st, Further than he is Cæsar.] i. e. Cæsar entreats, that at the same time you consider your desperate fortunes, you would consider he is Cæsar: That is, generous and forgiving, able and willing to restore them. WARBURTON. Line 800. Tell him, from his all-obeying breath &c.] Allobeying breath is, in Shakspeare's language, breath which all obey. Obeying for obeyed. So, inexpressive for inexpressible, delighted for delighting, &c. MALONE. Line 805. Give me grace-] Grant me the favour. JOHNS. table while others are eating. Line 821. Like boys unto a muss,] i. e. a scramble. РОРЕ. 843. By one that looks on feeders?] One that waits at the JOHNSON. Line 866. The horned herd!] It is not without pity and indignation that the reader of this great poet meets so often with this low jest, which is too much a favourite to be left out of either mirth or fury. JOHNSON. Line 892. -to quit me:] i. e. to requite me. -900. JOHNSON. With one that ties his points?] i. e. with a menial attendant. Points were laces with metal tags, with which the old trunkhose were fastened. MALONE. Line 31. -Take all.] Let the survivor take all. No com position, victory or death. Line 58. -or if, JOHNSON. A mangled shadow:] Or, if you see me more, you will see me a mangled shadow, only the external form of what I was. Line 68. JOHNSON. onion-ey'd ;] I have my eyes as full of tears JOHNSON. as if they had been fretted by onions. ACT IV. SCENE III. Line 104. It signs well, &c.] i. e. it bodes well, &c. ACT IV, SCENE IV. STEEVENS. Line 127. -thine iron-] Thine iron is the iron which thou hast in thy hand, i. e. Antony's armour. MALONE. ACT IV. SCENE VI. Line 203. Cur will is, Antony be took alive;] It is observable with what judgment Shakspeare draws the character of Octavius. Antony was his hero; so the other was not to shine: yet being an historical character, there was a necessity to draw him like. But the ancient historians, his flatterers, had delivered him down so fair, that he seems ready cut and dried for a hero. Amidst these difficulties Shakspeare has extricated himself with great address. He has admitted all those great strokes of his character as he found them, and yet has made him a very unamiable character, deceitful, mean-spirited, narrow-minded, proud, and reWARBURTON. vengeful. Line 239. This blows my heart :] All the latter editions have: This bows my heart: I have given the original word again the place from which I think it unjustly excluded. This generosity (says Enobarbus), swells my heart, so that it will quickly break, if thought break it not, a swifter mean. JOHNSON. Line 242. but thought will do't, I feel.] Thought, in this passage, as in many others, signifies melancholy. MALONE. Line 271. ACT IV. SCENE VIII. -Run one before, And let the queen know of our guests.] Antony, after his success, intends to bring his officers to sup with Cleopatra, and orders notice to be given of their guests. JOHNSON. Line 284. 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. JOHNSON. Line 298. Get goal for goal of youth.] At all plays of barriers, the boundary is called a goal; to win a goal, is to be superior in a contest of activity. JOHNSON. Line 308. Bear our hack'd targets like the men that owe them :] i. e. Bear our hack'd targets with spirit and exultation, such as becomes the brave warriors that own them? JOHNSON. ACT IV. SCENE IX. Line 338. -Throw my heart—] The pathetick of Shak speare too often ends in the ridiculous. It is painful to find the gloomy dignity of this noble scene destroyed by the intrusion of a conceit so far-fetched and unaffecting. JOHNSON. Line 359. The hand of death hath raught him.] raught, i. e. reached. Line 397. ACT IV. SCENE X. Triple-turn'd whore!] She was first for Antony, then was supposed by him to have turned to Cæsar, when he found his messenger kissing her hand; then she turned again to Antony; and now has turned to Cæsar. Shall I mention what has dropped into my imagination, that our author might perhaps have written triple-tongued? Double-tongued is a common term of reproach, which rage might improve to triple-tongued. But the present reading may stand. JOHNSON. Line 411. this grave charm,] By this grave charm is meant, this sublime, this majestic beauty. Line 416. possible. JOHNSON. -to the very heart of loss.] To the utmost loss JOHNSON. Line 427. With her prepared nails.] i. e. with nails which she suffered to grow for this purpose. WARBURTON. Line 434. Let me lodge Lichas on the horns o' the moon;] This image our poet seems to have taken from Seneca's Hercules, who says Lichas being launched into the air, sprinkled the clouds with his blood. Sophocles, on the same occasion, talks at a much soberer rate. WARBURTON. ACT IV. SCENE XI. Line 442. Was never so emboss'd.] A hunting term: when a deer is hard run, and foams at the mouth, he is said to be imbost. HANMER. ACT IV. SCENE XII. Line 467. The rack dislimns ;] i. e. The fleeting away of the clouds destroys the picture. STEEVENS. Line 477. Pack'd cards with Cæsar, and false play'd my glory Unto an enemy's triumph.] Shakspeare has here, as usual, taken his metaphor from a low trivial subject; but has |