ACT V SCENE I.-The Plains of Philippi. Enter OCTAVIUS, ANTONY, and their Army. Oct. Now, Antony, our hopes are answered: You said the enemy would not come down, But keep the hills and upper regions; It proves not so; their battles are at hand; They mean to warn us at Philippi here, Answering before we do demand of them. Ant. Tut! I am in their bosoms, and I know Wherefore they do it: they could be content To visit other places; and come down With fearful bravery, thinking by this face To fasten in our thoughts that they have courage; But 'tis not so. 5 ΙΟ Mess. Enter a Messenger. Prepare you, generals: Ant. Octavius, lead your battle softly on, Upon the left hand of the even field. Oct. Upon the right hand I; keep thou the left. Drum. Enter BRUTUS, CASSIUS, and their Army ; Bru. They stand, and would have parley. 17. even] F 1, 2, 3; evil F4. 66 14. bloody] A red flag was the sign of battle among the Romans. By break of day the signal of battle was set out in Brutus' and Cassius' camp, which was an arming scarlet cloak (Plutarch). 18. Upon the right hand I] In Plutarch Brutus insists upon commanding the right wing, though the post was thought more proper for Cassius on account of his experience, but there is no mention of a similar controversy between Antony and Octavius. The change may simply be an oversight or, if we accept the usual interpretation of line 20, it may be due to the desire to illustrate the inferiority of the genius of Antony when opposed to Octavius, which is derived from Plutarch and is referred to in Macbeth, III. i. 56, and Antony and Cleopatra, II. iii. 19-23. 19. exigent] critical time, emergency. "Instead of doing anything as the exigent required, he began to make circles" (Sidney's Arcadia). 20. I do not cross you] This is generally understood to mean that 15 20 Octavius insists on commanding the right wing, but not with any perverse intention of thwarting Antony's wishes. Rolfe, however, supposes that Octavius yields to Antony, and does it readily with a play upon 66 cross": "I do not cross you (in Antony's sense of the word), but I will cross you (in the sense of crossing over to the other side of the field)"; and with the word he does cross over. According to Plutarch, he commanded the left wing, so that this interpretation, as Rolfe points out, makes the play agree with the history. Another way to reconcile the play with history is to understand the whole or part of the line to be an "aside," as suggested in Notes and Queries, 25th July, 1891. The meaning then will be that Octavius forbears to cross Antony now, when union is necessary for victory, but with foresight of the coming struggle intends to do so at some future period. This seems better than attributing a gay play upon words to such a cold-blooded Cæsar." "dull Cas. Stand fast, Titinius; we must out and talk. words. Oct. Stir not until the signal. Bru. Words before blows: is it so, countrymen ? some 25 Oct. Not that we love words better, as you do. Cas. words: Witness the hole you made in Cæsar's heart, Antony, 24. answer on their charge] meet " 25. Make forth] let us advance. See note on II. i. 28. "Stir not in the next line is in the second person and is addressed to the soldiers. 33. The posture of your blows] your manner of dealing blows. Compare Henry V. IV. Prologue, 51, and Troi 30 lus and Cressida, IV. v. 116: "His blows are well disposed." As Antony's prowess was well known, we must understand "unknown" with reference to the speakers as meaning "unknown to us. It has been proposed to alter "posture" into "puncture" or "nature." 33. are] This is one of the several cases in Shakespeare in which verbs wrongly agree in number with the immediately preceding noun, although it is not the subject. Compare Winter's Tale, 1V. ii. 26: "Whose loss of his most precious queen and children are even now to be afresh lamented." 34. Hybla] a town of Sicily famous for its honey. 34. Hybla bees] See note on v. 19. 35. leave them honeyless] For the comparison of the sweetness of words to honey, compare "sweet and honey'd Ant. Not stingless too? 35 Bru. O yes, and soundless too; For you have stol'n their buzzing, Antony, And very wisely threat before you sting. Ant. Villains! you did not so when your vile daggers Hack'd one another in the sides of Cæsar : 40 You show'd your teeth like apes, and fawn'd like And bow'd like bondmen, kissing Cæsar's feet; 35. too?] too. Ff. sentences" (Henry V. 1. i. 50), "the bait of honey'd words" (Samson Agonistes, 1066), and Iliad, i. 249. Cassius is referring to the persuasive eloquence by which Antony had roused the populace of Rome against the conspirators. 35. Not stingless too?] Do not they also leave the bees stingless? A note of interrogation is certainly required. The question expects an affirmative answer. Antony means that his words, e.g., the taunt in 30-32, are stinging words-that, if they have sometimes the sweetness, they have also the stinging power of bees. 38. very wisely] This is an insinuation that Antony hopes that his threats will frighten the conspirators so that they will make terms instead of fighting, and that he is wise in doing so, as he cannot hope for victory in battle. Antony, however, has not uttered any threats. 38. sting] here expresses hostile action, not, as in 35, cutting words. 45 40. Hack'd one another] powerfully expresses the savage fury of the attack and the number of the assas sins. Plutarch says that "the conspirators thronging one upon another, because every man was desirous to have a cut at him, so many swords and daggers lighting upon one body, one of them hurt another." 41. show'd your teeth] which generally expresses the way in which dogs show their anger by raising their upper lips, here describes the hypocritical smiles of the conspirators. 41. fawn'd like hounds] Compare III. i. 45. 47. If Cassius might have rul'd] If the advice of Cassius had been followed, they would not have met the enemy until a later date, and Antony would have been in such a hopeless position, that his language would have been more humble. IV. iii. 197. Others suppose Cassius to refer to the overruling of his advice in II. i. 162. See also III. i. See Oct. Come, come, the cause: if arguing make us sweat, The proof of it will turn to redder drops. Look; I draw a sword against conspirators; When think you that the sword goes up again? Be well aveng'd; or till another Cæsar 50 Have added slaughter to the sword of traitors. 55 Bru. Cæsar, thou canst not die by traitors' hands, Unless thou bring'st them with thee. Oct. So I hope; I was not born to die on Brutus' sword. Bru. O if thou wert the noblest of thy strain, Young man, thou could'st not die more honour able. Cas. A peevish school-boy, worthless of such honour, 53. thirty] Ff, twenty Theobald. 232. If Cassius had had his way on any one of these three occasions, Antony's tongue would not have offended so on that day. 48. Come, come, the cause] Come, let us attend to the business we have in hand, namely, fighting as opposed to talking. For this use of "", cause, compare Lucrece, 1295, and Henry V. II. ii. 60: "Now to our French causes. Who are the late commissioners?" 49. will turn to redder drops] because it will be decided by a bloody battle. 52. goes up again] returns to its scabbard. Compare Othello, 1. ii. 59: "Keep up your bright swords, for the dew will rust them." 53. three-and-thirty] was altered by Theobald into "three-and-twenty," because that is mentioned as the бо number of Cæsar's wounds in Plutarch's Life of Cæsar. But exactness is not to be insisted on in such a matter. We are told that Cæsar's wounds were two-and-thirty in Beaumont and Fletcher's Noble Gentleman, v. i. 55. Have added slaughter] have added another death to the blood already shed by the swords of you traitors. 57. So I hope] He brings no traitors with him. Therefore, if what Brutus says is true, he will live for ever. 60. more honourable] more honourably. Compare Antony and Cleopatra, II. ii. 98, ""Tis noble spoken." This usage still survives as a vulgarism. Compare line 77. 61. school-boy] Augustus was in his twenty-first year at the battle of Philippi. |