DOL. Who was last with them? 1 GUARD. A simple countryman, that brought her figs. This was his basket. CAS. 1 GUARD. Poison'd then. O Cæsar, This Charmian liv'd but now; she stood, and spake: I found her trimming up the diadem On her dead mistress; tremblingly she stood, CES. O noble weakness! If they had swallow'd poison 't would appear In her strong toil of grace. DOL. Here, on her breast, There is a vent of blood, and something blown: The like is on her arm. 1 GUARD. This is an aspic's trail: and these fig-leaves Have slime upon them, such as the aspic leaves Upon the caves of Nile. CAS. Most probable That so she died; for her physician tells me Of easy ways to die.-Take up her bed; A pair so famous. High events as these Strike those that make them; and their story is Brought them to be lamented. Our army shall, [Exeunt VARIOUS READINGS. "The present pleasure, By repetition souring, does become The above is the reading of the folio Corrector. The original has, "by revolution lowering." Taking ACT I., Sc. 2, "revolution" as a change of circumstances or feelings, the pleasure of to-day becomes lowered, and is the opposite of itself—it is pain. We hold to the original. "The silken tackle Smell with the touches of those flower-soft hands." The original has swell. The folio Corrector will have no poetical hyperbole. The tackle must smell of the scented fingers. ACT II., Sc. 2. Even the literality of Mr. Collier and the Corrector is a mistake. Cordage does swell when handled. But it swelled with sympathetic pleasure at the touches of the flower-soft hands. How easy it is to destroy a poetical image by a ruthless change of a letter; although such changes are sometimes happy. "Run one before, And let the queen know of our gests." ACT IV., Sc. 8. The original has guests. The Corrector of the folio strikes out the u. The We have no doubt of the propriety of the emendation. gests are the deeds of Antony. "A grief that smites My very heart at root." The Corrector gives smites. The original has suites. We ACT V., Sc. 2. Suites is clearly wrong. The common reading is shoots. prefer smites, which has only changed a letter. GLOSSARY. ARM-GAUNT. Act I., Sc. 5. "And soberly did mount an arm-gaunt steed." Arm-gaunt, of which we have no other example, may convey the notion of a steed fierce and terrible in armour. BLOWS. Act IV., Sc. 6. This blows my heart." Blows in the sense of swells, expands. BRIZE. Act III., Sc. 8. "The brize upon her, like a cow in June." The brize, from the Anglo-Saxon briose, is the ox-fly, or gad-fly. BROOCH'D. Act IV., Sc. 13. "Brooch'd with me." Brooch'd is adorned, as with a brooch. BURGONET. Act I., Sc. 5. "And burgonet of men." The burgonet was a species of helmet. In 'Henry VI., Part II.' (Act V., Sc. 2), the word occurs several times, and Clifford says to Warwick, alluding to the crest on his helmet "And from thy burgonet I'll rend thy bear." The burgonet bore the distinctive sign of chieftainship, and so Antony is the "burgonet of men." CANTLE. Act III., Sc. 8. "The greater cantle of the world is lost." See Henry IV., Part I.' "Must change his horns with garlands." Change is to vary, give a different appearance to. Warburton and others proposed to read charge. CHARES. Act IV., Sc. 13. "And does the meanest chares." Chares are single pieces of work, a turn or bout, from the COMPOSE. Act II., Sc. 2. "If we compose well here, to Parthia." Compose is to agree, come to a composition or an agreement. CONFOUND. Act III., Sc. 2. "What willingly he did confound he wail'd." Confound is used in the sense of destroyed. DISCANDERING. Act III., Sc. 11. "By the discandering of this pelleted storm." Discandering is, we have no doubt, disquandering, though the word is usually printed discandying, contrary to the original. For squandering, used in the sense of the passage before us, see The Merchant of Venice.' DISPOS'D. Act IV., Sc. 12. "She had dispos'd with Cæsar." Dispos'd with is complied with, made terms with. DISTRACTIONS. Act III., Sc. 7. "His power went out in such distractions." Distractions is used for detachments; his power was sent out dispersedly. EGYPT. Act I., Sc. 3. "And say the tears Belong to Egypt." Egypt is here used for the queen of Egypt. EXTENDED. Act I., Sc. 2. "Extended Asia from Euphrates." Extended is used in its legal sense, seized upon; we now use the noun extent. FLEET. Act III., Sc. 11. “Have knit again, and fleet, threat'ning most sealike." Flect, from the Anglo-Saxon fleat, is the old word for float. FOLLOW'D. Act V., Sc. 1. "I have follow'd thee to this." That is, I have pursued thee, driven thee, to this. FORSPOKE. Act III., Sc. 7. "Thou hast forspoke my being in these wars." For is the Anglo-Saxon privative, of which we have an example in forbid. Forspoke is spoken-decided—against. GARBOILS. Act I., Sc. 3. "The garboils she awak'd." Garboils, says Phillips, World of Words,' are "tumults, uproar, disorders, troubles." Drayton has used it in his 'England's Parnassus : "Such is the garboile of this conflict." GAUDY NIGHT. Act III., Sc. 11. "Let's have one other gaudy night." A gaudy night is a night of rejoicing. In the Universities and Inns of Court a gaudy day was a feast day. Gaudies, says Phillips, are "double commons, such as are allowed or gaudy-days." GRATES. Act I., Sc. 1. "Grates me:-The sum." Grates me is offends me, is displeasing, grating, harsh to me. HARRIED. Act III., Sc. 3. "That so I harried him." To harry is from the Anglo-Saxon hergian, to ravage, to devastate, as by an army. To harass is from the same root, and harried here means vexed, annoyed. Ho! Act IV, Sc. 2. "Ho, ho, ho!" These interjections have the sense of stop. HOLDING. Act II., Sc. 7. "The holding every man shall bear." The holding is the burthen of the song. HOPE. Act II., Sc. 1. "I cannot hope Cæsar and Antony shall well greet together." In this passage hope is used in the sense of expect. Chaucer has used it with the same meaning, but the inaccuraey was shown by Puttenham, in Shakspere's time, by a droll instance from the speech of the Tanner of Tamworth to Edward IV. :-"I hope I shall be hanged to-morrow." LATED. Act III., Sc. 9. "I am so lated in the world." The Anglo-Saxon læt has the meaning of slow or tardy, of permission, and of obstruction or hindrance, and we have thence both let and late. Lated is here obstructed, and therefore unsuccessful. In 'Macbeth,' "Now spurs the lated traveller apace," we have a similar sense. LAUREL. Act I., Sc. 3. "Sit laurel victory, and smooth success.' The practice of using the substantive as an adjective was a peculiarity of the poets of Shakspere's day, and it has been adopted with advantage in the present age. |