Dido and her Æneas' shall want troops,
And all the haunt be ours.-Come, Eros, Eros!
Re-enter EROS.

Eros. What would my lord?
Ant.

Enter DERCETAS and Guard, 1 Guard. What's the noise? Ant. I have done my work ill, friends; O, make an end

The star is fallen.
1 Guard. And time is at his period.
All.

Alas, and woꞌ

Ant. Let him that loves me, strike me dead. 1 Guard.

Since Cleopatra died, Of what I have begun.
2 Guard.
I liv'd in such dishonour, that the gods
Detest my baseness. I, that with
my sword
Quarter'd the world, and o'er green Neptune's back
With ships made cities, condemn myself to lack
The courage of a woman; less noble mind2
Than she, which, by her death, our Cæsar tells,
I am conqueror of myself. Thou art sworn, Eros,
That, when the exigent should come, (which now
Is come, indeed,) when I should see behind me
The inevitable prosecution of

Disgrace and horror, that, on my command,
Thou then would'st kill me: do't; the time is come:
Thou strik'st not me, 'tis Cæsar thou defeat'st.
Put colour in thy cheek.

Eros.
The gods withhold me!
Shall I do that, which all the Parthian darts,
Though enemy, lost aim, and could not?
Ant.
Would'st thou be window'd in great Rome, and see
Thy master thus with pleach'd3 arms, bending down
His corrigible neck, his face subdued

Eros,

To penetrative shame; whilst the wheel'd seat
Of fortunate Cesar, drawn before him, branded
His baseness that ensu'd ?5

To do this when I bade thee? Do it at once;
Or thy precedent services are all

But accidents unpurpos'd. Draw, and come.
Eros. Turn from me then that noble countenance,
Wherein the worship of the whole world lies.
Ant. Lo thee.
[Turning from him.
Eros. My sword is drawn.
Ant.

Then let it do at once
The thing why thou hast drawn it.
Eros.
My dear master,
My captain and my emperor! let me say,
Before I strike this bloody stroke, farewell.
Ant. 'Tis said, man ;-and farewell.
Eros. Farewell, great chief. Shall I strike now?
Ant.
Now, Eros.
Eros. Why, there, then :-[Falls on his Sword.]
Thus do I escape the sorrow
Of Antony's death.
Ant.
Thrice nobler than myself!
Thou teachest me, O valiant Eros, what

[Dies.

I should, and thou could'st not. My queen and Eros
Have, by their brave instruction, got upon me
A nobleness in record: But I will be
A bridegroom in my death," and run into't
As to a lover's bed. Come, then; and, Eros,
Thy master dies thy scholar; to do thus
[Falling on his Sword.
I learn'd of thee. How! not dead? not dead?—
The guard!-ho!-O, despatch me.

1 Warburton remarks that Dido and Æneas were not ..kely to be found thus lovingly associated, 'where souls do couch on flowers. Either the poet forgot Virgil's celebrated description in the sixth book of the Eneid, or confounded neas with Sichæus inadvertently.

2 Less noble mind' must be accepted as if it was written less nobly minded. The termination bly is often written ble by old writers, and is frequently to be found 30 in Shakspeare. To mind or purpose is a verb extensively used in former times. We have it in the Third Part of King Henry VI. :

'Belike she minds to play the amazon.’

And in another place :

But if you mind to hold your true obedience,' 30 Baret:I am fully purposed, minded, or determined so to do.' The passage in North's Plutarch, which Shakspeare copied, runs thus 'I am sorrie

2 Guard. Nor I.

3 Guard. Nor any one.

Not I.

[Exeunt Guard

Der. Thy death and fortunes bid thy followers fly
This sword but shown to Cæsar, with this tidings,
Shall enter me with him.

Enter DIOMEDES.
Dio. Where's Antony?
Der.
Dio.

There, Diomed, there.
Lives he
Wilt thou not answer, man? [Exit DERCETAS

Ant. Art thou there, Diomed?" Draw thy sword,
and give me

Sufficing strokes for death.
Dio.

Most absolute lord,
My mistress Cleopatra sent me to thee.

Ant. When did she send thee?

Dio.

Ant.

Now, my lord.

Where is she?
Dio. Lock'd in her monument. She had a pro

Of what hath come to pass: for when she saw
phesying fear
she hath dispos'd with Cæsar, and that your rage
(Which never shall be found) you did suspect
Would not be purg'd, she sent you word she was
dead;

But, fearing, since, how it might work, hath sent
Me to proclaim the truth; and I am come,
I dread, too late.

[pr'ythee.
Ant. Too late, good Diomed:-Call my guard, I
Dio. What, ho! the emperor's guard! The guard
what, ho!
Come, your lord calls.

Enter some of the Guard. Ant. Bear me, good friends, where Cleopatra bides;

"Tis the last service that I shall command you.

1 Guard. Wo, wo are we, sir, you may not live

to wear

All your true followers out.
All.
Most heavy day!
Ant. Nay, good my fellows, do not please sharp
fate

To grace
it with your sorrows: bid that welcome
Which comes to punish us, and we punish it,
Seeming to bear it lightly. Take me up:

I have led you oft; carry me now, good friends,
And have my thanks for all.

[Exeunt bearing ANTONY SCENE XIII. The same. A Monument. Enter above, CLEOPATRA, CHARMIAN, and IRAS. Cleo. O, Charmian, I will never go from hence. Char. Be comforted, dear madam.

that having beene so great a captaine and emperour, 1 am indeed condemned to be judged of lesse corage ana noble minde than a woman.'

3 i. e. arms folded in each other.

4 Corrigible for corrected, and afterwards penetrø tire for penetrating. So Virgil has 'penetrabile frigus' for penetrans frigus,' in his Georgics.

5 Branded with baseness the poor wretch that fol lowed.'

6 i. e. the honour, the dignity.

7 This thought occurs in Measure for Measure : 'I will encounter darkness as a bride,

And hug it in my arms.'

8 i. e. arranged with him, agreed with him. The word is used in this sense in Troilus and Cressida, Act ii. Sc. 3:

'Agam. What's nis excuse?
Ulyss.
He doth rely ɔn nong
But carries on the stream of his dispose
Without observance or respect of any '

Your wife Octavia, with her modest eyes,
And still conclusion, shall acquire no honour
Demuring upon me.—But come, come, Antony,-
Help me, my women, we must draw thee up;
Assist, good friends.
Ant.

up ;

O, quick, or I am gone.
Cleo. Here's sport, indeed ?-how heavy weighs
my lord!

Our strength is all gone into heaviness,
That makes the weight: Had I great Juno's power,
The strong-wing'd Mercury should fetch thee up,
And set thee by Jove's side. Yet come a little,-
Wishers were ever fools ;-0, come, come, come;
[They draw ANTONY up.
And welcome, welcome! die, where thou hast liv’d:
Quicken with kissing; had my lips that power,
Thus would I wear them out,
All.
A heavy sight!
Ant. I am dying, Egypt, dying:
Give me some wine, and let me speak a little.

Cleo. No, let me speak; and let me rail so high,
That the false housewife Fortune break her wheel,"
Provok'd by my offence.

Ant.
One word, sweet queen :
Of Cæsar seek your honour with your safety.--0!
Cleo. They do not go together.

1 It should be remembered that, according to the old philosophy, the sun was accounted a planet, and thought to be whirled round the earth by the motion of a solid sphere in which it was fixed. Supposing this consumed, the sun must wander in endless space, and the earth be involved in endless night.

2 Cleopatra means that she dare not come down out of the monument to Antony. Ritson proposed to read :

(Dear my lord, pardon) I dare not come down.' 3 Brooch'd here must mean ornamented, adorned. Any ornamental jewel was called a brooch - Honour's a good brooch to wear in a man's hat at all times.'-Ben Jonson's Poetaster.

And love to Richard

Ant. Gentle, hear me .

None about Cæsar trust, but Proculeius
Cleo. My resolution, and my hands, I'll trust;
None about Cæsar.

Ant. The miserable change now at my end,
In feeding them with those my former fortunes
Lament nor sorrow at: but please your thoughts,
Wherein I liv'd, the greatest prince o' the world,
The noblest and do now not basely die,
Nor cowardly; put off my helmet to
My countryman, a Roman, by a Roman
Valiantly vanquish'd. Now, my spirit is going;
I can no more.
[Dies

Is a strange brooch in this all-hating world.' King Richard II. Act ii. Sc. 5. 4 Sedate determination; silent coolness of resolution.'

Cleo.

Noblest of men, woo't die?
Hast thou no care of me? shall I abide
In this dull world, which in thy absence is
No better than a sty ?--O, see, my women,
The crown o' the earth doth melt:-My lord!
O, wither'd is the garland of the war,

5 Cleopatra by these words seems to contrast the melancholy task in which they are now engaged with their former sports.

6 i c. revive by my kiss. To quicken, according to Baret, is to make livelie and lūstie; to make strong and sound, to refresh'

The soldier's pole is fallen; young boys and gir's,
Are level now with men: the odds is gone,
And there is nothing left remarkable
Beneath the visiting moon.9

[She faints
Char.
O, quietness, lady!
Iras. She is dead, too, our sovereign.

Char.

Iras.

Lady,

Madam,

Royal Egypt!

Char. O madam, madam, madam !
Iras.

Empress!

Char. Peace, peace, Iras.

Cleo. No more, but e'en a woman;1o and com

manded

By such poor passion as the maid that milks
And does the meanest chares.11-It were for me
To throw my sceptre at the injurious gods;
To tell them that this world did equal theirs,
Till they had stolen our jewel. All's but naught;
Patience is sottish; and impatience does
Become a dog that's mad: Then is it sin,
To rush into the secret house of death,
Ere death dare come to us ?-How do you, women?
What, what? good cheer! Why, how now, Char-
mian?

My noble girls!--Ah, women, women! look,
Our lamp is spent, it's out :-Good sirs, take heart:
We'll bury him: and then, what's brave, what's
[To the Guard below.
noble,

10 Iras has just said, 'Royal Egypt, Empress !' Clev patra completes the sentence, (without taking notice o the intervening words of Charmian,) Empress 'no more; but e'en a woman,' now on a level with the meanest of my sex. The old copy reads 'but in a woman.' Dr. Johnson made the correction.

11 i. e. task-work. She, like a good wife, is teaching her servants sundry chares.'—Heywood's Brazen Age, 1613.

'And at my crummed messe of milke, each night from
maid or dame

To do their chares as they supposed,' &c.
Warner's Albion's England.
Thus in Act v. Sc. 2, Cleopatra says:---
'When thou hast done this chare, I'll give thee leave
To play till doomsday'

SCENE I.

ACT V.

Diseases in our bodies: I must perforce
Have shown to thee such a declining day,
Cesar's Camp before Alexandria.
Or look on thine; we could not stall together
Enter CESAR, AGRIPPA, DOLABELLA, MECE-In the whole worid: But yet let me lament,
NAS, GALLUS, PROCULEIUS, and others.
Cœs. Go to him, Dolabella, bid him yield;
Being so frustrate,' tell him, he mocks us by
The pauses that he makes.

Dol. Cæsar, I shall. [Exit DOLABELLA.
Enter DERCETAS, with the Sword of ANTONY.
Cæs. Wherefore is that? and what art thou that

dar'st

Appear thus to us ?2

Der.
I am call'd Dercetas ;
Mark Antony I serv'd, who best was worthy
Best to be serv'd: whilst he stood up and spoke,
He was my master; and I wore my life,
To spend upon his haters: If thou please
To take me to thee, as I was to him
I'll be to Cæsar; if thou pleasest not,

I yield thee up my life.
Cas.
What is't thou say'st?
Der. I say, 0, Cæsar, Antony is dead.
Caes. The breaking of so great a thing should
make

A greater crack: The round world should have shook
Lions into civil streets,3

And citizens to their dens :-The death of Antony
Is not a single doom; in the name lay
A moiety of the world.
Der.

He is dead, Cæsar;
Not by a public minister of justice,

Nor by a hired knife; but that self hand,
Which writ his honour in the acts it did,

With tears as sovereign as the blood of hearts,
That thou, my brother, my competitor
In top of all design, my mate in empire,
Friend and companion in the front of war,
The arm of mine own body, and the heart.
Where mine his' thoughts did kindle—that our stars
Unreconcileable, should divide

Our equalness to this.8-Hear me, good friends,—
But I will tell you at some meeter season;
Enter a Messenger.

The business of this man looks out of him,
We'll hear him what he says.-Whence are you?
Mess. A poor Egyptian yet. The queen, my
mistress,

9

Confin'd in all she has, her monument,
Of thy intcuts desires instruction ;
That she preparedly may frame herself
To the way she's forced to.

Cas.
Bid her have good heart,
She soon shall know of us, by some of ours,
How honourable1o and how kindly we
Determine for her: for Caesar cannot live
To be ungentle.

Mess. So the gods preserve thee! [ Exr!.
Cas. Come hither, Procaleius; Go, and say,
We purpose her no shame: give her what comforts
The quality of her passion shall require ;
Lest in her greatness, by some mortal stroke
She do defeat us: for her life in Rome
Would be eternal in our triumph : Go,

Hath, with the courage which the heart did lend it, And, with your specdiest, bring us what she says,
Splitted the heart.--This is his sword,

I robb'd his wound of it; behold it stain'd
With his most noble blood.

And how you find of her.

Pro.

Dolabella!

Cæsar, I shall. [Exit PROCULEIUS. Cas. Gallus, you go along.-Where's Dolabella, Cæs. Look you sad, friends? To second Proculeius? [Exit GALLUS. The gods rebuke me, but it is tidings Agr. Mec. To wash the eyes of kings.4 Cæs. Let him alone, for I remember now Agr. How he's employed; he shall in time be ready. Go with me to my tent; where you shall see How hardly I was drawn into this war; How calm and gentle I proceeded still In all my writings: Go with me, and see What I can show in this.

And strange it is,
That nature must compel us to lament
Our most persisted deeds.
Mec.

Waged' equal with him.
Agr.

His taints and honours

A rarer spirit never

Did steer humanity: but you, gods, will give us
Some faults to make us men. Cæsar is touch'd.
Mec. When such a spacious mirror's set before
him,

He needs must see himself.

Our frustrate search by land.' The two last words in this line, us by, are not in the old copy, in which something seems omitted, and these words, which suit the context well, were supplied by Malone, who has justified his selection of them by instances of similar phraseology in other passages of these plays.

2 i. e. with a drawn and bloody sword in thy hand.
3 The passage is thus arranged in the old copy :-
The breaking of so great a thing should make
A greater crack: the round world

Should have shook lions into civil streets,
And citizens to their dens.'

The second line is cvidently defective, some word or
words being omitted at the end, as in a former instance.
What is lost may be supplied by conjecture, thus:-
• The round world contúisive.

[Exeunt.

Alexandria. A Room in the Monu-
SCENE II.
ment. Enter CLEOPATRA, 12 CHARMIAN, and
IRAS.

Cleo. My desolation does begin to make
A better life: 'Tis paltry to be Cæsar;

4 May the gods rebuke me if this be not tidings to
make kings weep. But again in its exceptive sense.
5 Waged here must mean to be opposed, as equal
stakes in a wager; unless we suppose that weighed is
meant. The second folio reads way.

6 Launch, the word in the old copy, is only the ob solete spelling of lance.

7 His for its.

8 That is, should have made us, in our equality of fortune, disagree to a pitch like this, that one of us must die.

9 i. e. yet an Egyptian, or subject of the queen of Egypt, though soon to become a subject of Ronie.' 10 I have before observed that the termination lle was anciently often used for bly. This Malone calls using adjectives adverbially, or using substantives adjectively, as the case may be. I doubt whether it be any thing more than the laxity of old orthography. We have honourable for honourably again in Julius Cæsar :

'Young man, thou could'st not die more honourable. 11 If I send her in triumph, to Rome, her memory and my glory will be eternal. Thus in The Scourge Venus, 1614 :-

Johnson thought that there was a line lost: and Stee-of vens proposed to read :

A greater crack than this: The ruin'd world,' &c. I know not with whom the present aangeinent of the text originated, but I do not think it judicious. Malone thought that the passage might have stood originally

'If some foule-swelling ebon cloud would fall For her to hide herself eternal in.'

12 The poet here has attempted to exhibit at once the outside and the inside of a building. It would be diffi cult to represent this scene on the stage in any other way than making Cleopatra and her attendants speak al their speeches. till the queen is seized within the mo

nument

Not being fortune, he's but fortune's knave,'
A minister of her will; And it is great
To do that thing that ends all other deeds ;
Which shackles accidents, and bolts up change;
Which sleeps, and never palates more the dung;
The beggar's nurse and Cæsar's.2

Enter, to the Gates of the Monument, PROCULEIUS,
GALLUS, and Soldiers.

Pro. Cæsar sends greeting to the queen of Egypt;
And bids thee study on what fair demands
'Thou mean'st to have him grant thee.
Cleo. [Within.]

Pro. My name is Proculeius.

Cleo. [Within.]

What's thy name?

Antony

Did tell me of you, bade me trust you; but

I do not greatly care to be deceiv'd,

That have no use for trusting. If your master
Would have a queen his beggar, you must tell him,
That majesty, to keep decorum, must

No less beg than a kingdom: if he please
To give me conquer'd Egypt for my son,
He gives me so much of mine own, as [3
Will kneel to him with thanks.

Pro.
Be of good cheer;
You are fallen into a princely hand, fear nothing:
Make your full reference freely to my lord,
Who is so full of grace, that it flows over
On all that need: Let me report to him
Your sweet dependency; and you shall find
A conqueror, that will pray in aid4 for kindness,
Where he for grace is kneel'd to.

Cleo. [Within.]

Do not abuse my master's bounty, by
His nobleness well acted, which
The undoing of yourself: let the world see
your death
Will never let come forth.
Cleo.
Where art thou, death!
Come hither, come! come, come, and take a queen
Worth many babes and beggars!

Pro.

O, temperance, lady!
Cleo. Sir, I will eat no meat, I'll not drink, sir,
(If idle talk will once be necessary ;")

I'll not sleep neither: This mortal house I'll ruin,
Do Cæsar what he can. Know, sir, that I
Will not wait pinion'd at your master's court;
Nor once be chastis'd with the sober
Of dull Octavia. Shall they hoist me up,
eye
And show me to the shouting varletry
Of censuring Rome? Rather a ditch in Egypt
Be gentle grave to me! rather on Nilus' mud
Lay me stark naked, and let the water-flies
Blow me into abhorring! rather make
My country's high pyramides my gibbet,

And hang me up in chains!
Pray you, tell him

I am his fortune's vassal, and I send him
The greatness he has got.5 I hourly learn
A doctrine of obedience; and would gladly
Look him i' the face.

2 Voluntary death (says Cleopatra) is an act which bolls up change; it produces a state-

Which sleeps, and never palates more the dung,
The beggar's nurse and Caesar's.'

Which has no longer need of the gross and terrene sus-
tenance, in the use of which Cæsar and the beggar are
on a level. It has been already said in this play, that-
'➖➖➖➖ our dungy earth
Feeds man as beast.'
'The Ethiopian king (in Herodotus, b. iii.) upon hear-
ing a description of the nature of wheat, replied, that
he was not at all surprised if men, who eat nothing but
dung, did not attain a longer life.'

3 Mason would change as I, to and I; but I have shown in another place that as was used by Shakspeare and his contemporaries for that.

4 Praying in aid is a term used for a petition made in a court of justice for the calling in of help from another that hath an interest in the cause in question.

Pro.

You do extend
These thoughts of horror further than
you shall
Find cause in Cæsar.

reported her auns were unto Cæsar: who immediately sent Gallus to speak once againe with her, and bad him purposely hold her with talk, whilst Proculeius did seɩ up a ladder against that high windowe, by the which Antonius was tressed up, and came down into the monument with two of his men, hard by the gate, where Cleopatra stood to hear what Gallus said unto her. One of her women shrieked out, O poore Cleopatra, thou art taken. Then when she sawe Proculeius behind her, as she came from the gate, she thought to have stabbed herself with a short dagger she wore of purpose by her side. But Proculeius came sodainly upon her, and taking her by both the hands, sayd unto her, Cleopatra, first thou shalt doe thyselfe greate wrong, and secondly unto Cæsar, to deprive him of the occasion and opportunitie openlię to shew his vauntage and mercie, and to give his enemies cause to accuse the most courteous and noble prince that ever was, and to appeach him as though he were a cruel and mercilesse man that were not to be trusted. So even as he spake the word he tooke her dagger from her, and shooke her clothes for fear of any poison hid aboute her.' The speech given Gallus here is given by mistake to Proculeius in the old copy.

5 By these words Cleopatra means-'In yielding to him I only give him that honour which he himself achieved. A kindred idea seems to occur in The Tem-to pest:

'Then as my gift, and thy own acquisition, Worthily purchased, take thou my daughter.' 6 There is no stage direction in the old copy, that which is now inserted is formed on the old translation of Plutarch Proculeius came to the gates, that were very thicke and strong, and surely barred; but yet there were some cranews through the which her voyce might he heard, and so they without understood that Cleopatra demaunded the kingdome of Egypt for her sonnes; and that Proculeius aunswered her, that she should be of good cheere, and not be affrayed to refer all unto Cæsar. After he had viewed the place very well, he came and

7 It should be remembered that once is used as once for all by Shakspeare. I take the meaning of this line, which is evidently parenthetical, to be, 'Once for all, it idle talk be necessary about my purposes.' Johnson has shown that will be is often used in conversation without relation to the future. I have placed this line in a parenthesis, by which the sense of the passage is now rendered sufficiently clear, without having te course to supplementary words, as Malone and Ritson proposed.

8 Pyramides is so written and used as a quadrisvliable by Sandys and by Drayton.

The little Ŏ, the earth.1
Doi.

Most sovereign creature,-
Cleo. His legs bestrid the ocean:2 his rear'd arm
Crested the world :3 his voice was propertied
As all the tuned spheres, and that to friends ;
But when he meant to quail and shake the orb,
He was as rattling thunder. For his bounty,
There was no winter in't; an autumn 'twas,
That grew the more by reaping: His delights
Were dolphin-like: they show'd his back above
The element they liv'd in: In his livery
Walk'd crowns, and crownets; realms and islands

Cleo. You lie, up to the hearing of the gods.
But, if there be, or ever were one such,

It's past the size of dreaming: Nature wants stuff
To vie3 strange forms with fancy; yet, to imagine
An Antony, were nature's piece 'gainst fancy,
Condemning shadows quite.

Dol.
Hear me, good madam :
Your loss is as yourself, great; and you bear it
As answering to the weight: 'Would, I might never
O'ertake pursu'd success, but I do feel,
By the rebound of yours, a grief that shoots
My very heart at root.

Cleo.

I thank you, sir.
Know you, what Cæsar means to do with me?
Dol. I am loath to tell you what I would you
knew.

Cleo. Nay, pray you, sir,

Dol.

Though he be honourable,

Cleo. He'll lead me then in triumph?
Dol.

I know it.

Madam, he will;

Within. Make way there!-Cæsar!
Enter CESAR, GALLUS, PROCULEIUS, MECENAS,
SELEUCUS, and Attendants.

Cæs.

Of Egypt?

Which is the queen

[CLEOPATRA kneels.
Arise,

Dol. 'Tis the emperor, madam.

Cas.

You shall not kneel:

I pray you, rise; rise, Egypt.

Cleo. Sir, the gods

Will have it thus; my master and my lo.d
I must obey.
Cæs. Take to you no hard thoughts
The record of what injuries you did us,
Though written in our flesh, we shall remember
As things but done by chance.
Cleo.
Sole sir o' the worla

I cannot project mine own cause so well
To make it clear; but do confess, I have
Been laden with like frailties, which before
Have often sham'd our sex.
Cæs.

Cleopatra, know,
We will extenuate rather than enforce:
If you apply yourself to our intents,

| (Which towards you are most gentle,) you shall

Your 'scutcheons, and your signs of conquest, shall
Hang in what place you please. Here, my good

lord.

Cæs. You shall advise me in all for Cleopatra."
Cleo. This is the brief of money, plate, and

jewels,

I am possess'd of: 'tis exactly valued;
Not petty things admitted.-Where's Seleucus ?
Sel. Here, madam.

Cleo. This is my treasurer; let him speak, my
lord,

Upon his peril, that I have reserv'd

To myself nothing. Speak the truth, Seleucus.
Sel. Madam,

I had rather seel my lips, than, to my peril,
Speak that which is not.

Cleo.
What have I kept back?
Sel. Enough to purchase what you have made

known.

Cæs. Nay, blush not, Cleopatra! I approve
Your wisdom in the deed.

Cleɔ.
See, Cæsar! O, behold
How pomp is follow'd! mine will now be yours;
And, should we shift estates, yours would be mine
The ingratitude of this Seleucus does
Even make me wild :-0, slave, of no more trust
Than love that's hir'd!--What, goest thou back;
thou shalt

Go back, I warrant thee; but I'll catch thine eyes,
Though they had wings: Slave, soulless villain, dog
O, rarely base !9

Cæs.
Good queen, let us entreat you.
Cleo. O, Caesar, what a wounding shame is this
That thou, vouchsafing here to visit me,
Doing the honour of thy lordliness

To one so meek, that mine own servant should
Parcel the sum of my disgraces by

Steevens should have expunged a note that appeared in
his edition of 1778, in which he cites the following

1 Shakspeare uses O for an orb or circle. Thus in beautiful passage from Ben Jonson's New Inn, on the

3 Dr. Percy thinks that 'this is an allusion to some of the old crests in heraldry, where a raised arm on a wreath vas mounted on the helmet.' To crest is to surmouni.

4 Plates means silver money :-

'What's the price of this slave, 200 crowns? Belike he has some new trick for a purse, And if he has, he's worth 300 plates.

In heraldry, the roundlets in an escutcheon, if or, or yellow, are called besants; if argent, or white, plates, which are round flat pieces of silver money, perhaps without any stamp or impress. It is remarkable after all that the commentators have said against Ben Jonson,

subject of liberality

'He gave me first my breeding, I acknowledge: Then shower'd his bounties on me, like the hours That open-handed sit upon the clouds,

And press the liberality of heaven

Down to the laps of thankful men.'

5 To vie here has its metaphorical sense of to contend in rivalry.

6 To project is to delineate, to shape, to form. Soin Look About You, a Comedy, 1600:

'But quite dislike the project of y:ur sute '

7 Cæsar afterwards says:—

"For we intend so to dispose you, as
Yourself shall give us counsel.'

8 Close up my lips as effectually as the eyes of a baws are closed. To seel hawks was the technical term for sewing up their eyes.

9 i. e. base in an uncommon degree