With very ignorance; we have kiss'd away Eno. How appears the fight? Scar. On our side like the token'd3 pestilencé, Where death is sure. Yon' ribald-rid1 nag of Egypt, The death of those visited by the plague was certain, when particular eruptions appeared on the skin; and these were called God's tokens. So, in the comedy of Two Wise Men and all the rest Fools, in seven Acts, 1619: "A will and a tolling bell are as present death as God's tokens." Again, in Herod and Antipater, 1622: "His sickness, madam, rageth like a plague, Again, in Love's Labour's Lost: "For the Lord's tokens on you both I see." See Vol. IV, p. 129, n. 9. Steevens. 4 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. Johnson. A ribald is a lewd fellow. So, in Arden of Feversham, 1592 : that injurious riball that attempts Again: "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. We find, however, in The Golden Legend, Wynkyn de Worde's edit. fol. 186, b. that " Antony was wylde, ioly, and rybauldous, and had ye syster of Octauyan to his wyfe." Steevens. I have adopted the happy emendation proposed by Mr. Steevens. Ribaud was only the old spelling of ribald; and the misprint of red for rid is easily accounted for. Whenever, by any negligence in writing, a dot is omitted over an i, compositors at the press invariably print an e. Of this I have had experience in many sheets of my edition of Shakspeare, being very often guilty of that negligence which probably produced the error in the passage before us. In our author's own edition of his Rape of Lucrece, 1594, I have lately observed the same error: "Afflict him in his bed with bed-red groans." Again, in Hamlet, 1604, sign. B 3, Act I, sc. ii: "Who impotent, and bed-red, scarcely hears Whom leprosy o'ertake! i' the midst o' the fight,—— Hoists sails, and flies. Eno. That I beheld: mine eyes Did sicken at the sight on 't, and could not By ribald, Scarus, I think, means the lewd Antony in particu lar, not " every lewd fellow," as Mr. Steevens has explained it. Malone. Yon ribald nag of Egypt,] I believe we should read-hag. What follows seems to prove it: She once being loof'd, "The noble ruin of her magick, Antony, Claps on his sea-wing." Tyrwhitt. Odd as this use of nag might appear to Mr. Tyrwhitt, jade is daily used in the same manner. Henley. The brieze, or astrum, the fly that stings cattle, proves that nag is the right word. Johnson. 5 Whom leprosy o'ertake!] Leprosy, an epidemical distemper of the Egyptians; to which Horace probably alludes in the controverted line: "Contaminato cum grege turpium Leprosy was one of the various names by which the Lues venerea was distinguished. So, in Greene's Disputation between a He Coneycatcher and a She Coneycacther, 1592: “ Into what jeopardy a man will thrust himself for her that he loves, although for his sweet villanie he be brought to loathsome leprosie." Steevens. Pliny, who says, the white leprosy, or elephantiasis, was not seen in Italy before the time of Pompey the Great, adds, it is "a peculiar maladie, and naturall to the Egyptians, but looke when any of their kings fell into it, woe worth the subjects and poore people for then were the tubs and bathing vessels wherein they sate in the baine, filled with men's bloud for their cure." Phile mon Holland's Translation, B. XXVI, c. i. Reed. 6 Both as the same, or rather ours the elder,] So, in Julius Cæsar: "We were two lions, litter'd in one day, Steevens. * The brize upon her,] The brize is the gad-fly. So, in Spenser: a brize, a scorned little creature, 66 Through his fair hide his angry sting did threaten." 3 Did sicken at the sight on 't,] For the insertion of-on 't, to complete the measure, I am answerable, being backed, however, by the authority of the following passage in Cymbeline : 66 the sweet view on 't 66 Might well have warm'd eld Saturn,-" Steevens, Endure a further view. Scar. She once being loof'd, Claps on his sea-wing, and like a doting mallard, I never saw an action of such shame; Eno. Alack, alack! Enter CANIDIUS. Can. Our fortune on the sea is out of breath, Eno. Ay, are you thereabouts? Why then, good night Indeed. Can. Towards Peloponnesus are they fled. Scar. 'Tis easy to 't; and there I will attend Can. Eno. I'll yet follow Aside. The wounded chance of Antony, though my reason 9 [Exeunt. being loof'd,] To loof is to bring a ship close to the wind. This expression is in the old translation of Plutarch. It also occurs frequently in Hackluyt's Voyages. See Vol. III, 589. Steevens. 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. Johnson. The wounded chance of Antony, is a phrase nearly of the same import as the broken fortunes of Antony. The old reading is indisputably the true one. So, in the fifth Act: "Or I shall show the cinders of my spirit, Through the ashes of my chance." Malone. Mr. Malone has judiciously defended the old reading. In Othello we have a phrase somewhat similar to wounded chance; viz." mangled matter." Steevens. SCENE IX. Alexandria. A Room in the Palace. Enter ANTONY, and Attendants. Ant. Hark, the land bids me tread no more upon 't, Have lost my way for ever:-I have a ship And make your peace with Cæsar. Att. Fly! not we. Ant. I have fled myself; and have instructed cowards To run, and show their shoulders.-Friends, be gone; I have myself resolv'd upon a course, Which has no need of you; be gone:3 My treasure 's in the harbour, take it.—O, Reprove the brown for rashness, and they them 2 so lated in the world,] Alluding to a benighted traveller. So, in Macbeth, Act III: 3 Johnson. "Now spurs the lated traveller apace." Steevens. be gone:] We might, I think, safely complete the measure by reading: 5 be gone, I say. Steevens. Sweep your way for you.] So, in Hamlet: they must sweep my way, "And marshall me to knavery." Steevens. let that be left Which leaves itself:] Old copy-let them &c. Corrected by Mr. Capell. Malone. 6 I have lost command,] I am not maker of my own emotions. Johnson. Therefore I pray you:-I'll see you by and by. [Sits down. Enter EROS, and CLEOPATRA, led by CHARMIAN and IRAS. Eros. Nay, gentle madam, to him:-Comfort him. Iras. Do, most dear queen. Char. Do! Why, what else?" Eleo. Let me sit down. O Juno! Ant. No, no, no, no, no. Eros. See you here, sir? Char. Madam, Iras. Madam; O good empress! Eros. Sir, sir, Ant. Yes, my lord, yes;-He, at Philippi, kept His sword even like a dancer; while I struck Surely, he rather means,-I entreat you to leave me, because I have lost all power to command your absence. Steevens. Mr. Steevens is certainly right. So, in King Richard III: "Tell her, the king, that may command, entreats." Malone. Do! Why, what else? &c.] Being uncertain whether these, and other short and interrupted speeches in the scene before us, were originally designed to form regular verses; and suspecting that in some degree they have been mutilated, I have made no attempt at their arrangement. Steevens. 8 He, at Philippi, kept 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. I am told that the peasants in Northumberland have a sworddance which they always practise at Christmas. Steevens. The Goths, in one of their dances, held swords in their hands with the points upwards, sheathed and unsheathed. Might not the Moors in Spain borrow this custom of the Goths who intermixed with them? Tollet. I believe it means that Cæsar never offered to draw his sword, but kept it in the scabbard, like one who dances with a sword on, which was formerly the custom in England. There is a similar allusion in Titus Andronicus, Act II, sc. i: 66 our mother, unadvis'd, "Gave you a dancing rapier by your side." It may also be observed, that the dancers represented in one of the compartments of the shield of Achilles, had weapons by their sides: 66 - οι δὲ μαχαίρας * Εἶχον χρυσείας ἐξ ἀργυρέων τελαμώνων.” Iliad, E, 597. Steevens. |