hesitation. Miseries is seen at a glance to be altogether unendurable.
In the same scene, somewhat further on, we think that the word deputation ought to take the place of "disputation." This was Warburton's amendment; and the MS. correction coincides with it.
Act IV. Scene 4.—"Antony," says Mr Collier, "enters calling for his armour; 'Mine armour, Eros;' and when the man brings it, Antony is made to say in the old copies, 'Put thine iron on;' but surely it ought to be as a manuscript note gives it, 'Put mine iron on."' Not at all; either word will do; but "thine" is more consonant with ordinary usage. A gentleman asks his butler, not "have you cleaned my plate?" but "have you cleaned your plate?" meaning, my plate of which you have the charge. Eros had the charge of Antony's armour. We agree with the corrector, that the words, "What is this for?" should be given to Cleopatra, who is assisting to buckle on Antony's armour, and not to Antony, to whom they are assigned in the variorum edition 1785. "Bear a storm" (or "hear a storm," the common reading, is a very unnecessary change.
Scene 8.—Gests (gesta, exploits) for "guests" is highly to be commended in the lines where Antony says,
"We have beat him to his camp. Run one before
And let the queen know of our gests."
This emendation by the old corrector ought to take its place in the text: and he should get the credit of it, although, as a proposed reading, it may be, as Mr Singer says, already well known.
Scene 9.—Fore sleep instead of "for sleep," is also entitled to very favourable consideration.
Scene 12.— Composed for "disposed," is the text modernised, not restored.
Scene 13.—Cleopatra declares that she will never be led in triumph by Cæsar, as an object of scorn to the proud patrician dames.
"Your wife, Octavia, with her modest eyes,
And still conclusion, shall acquire no honour
Demuring upon me."
How good is that expression "still conclusion"! That lady of yours, looking demurely upon me with her modest eyes, and drawing her quiet inferences, shall acquire more honour from the contrast between my fate with her own. And yet we are called upon by the MS. corrector to give up these pregnant words for the vapid substitution of "still condition!" This, we say, is no fair exchange, but down-right robbery.
When Cleopatra and her women are endeavouring to raise the dying Antony into the monument, the Egyptian queen exclaims,
"Here's sport indeed! How heavy weighs my lord."
Johnson's note on this place is remarkable, as an instance of want of judgment in a man whose sagacity was very rarely at fault. He says, "I suppose the meaning of these strange words is, here's trifling; you do not work in earnest." No interpretation could well go wider of the mark than this. Steevens says that she speaks with an "affected levity." It would be truer to say that she speaks from that bitterness of heart which frequently finds a vent for itself in irony. The MS. corrector reads, "Here's port indeed," which Mr Collier explains by saying, "Here Shakespeare appears to have employed port as a substantive to indicate weight." But "it would astonish me, and many more," says Mr Singer, "if Mr Collier should succeed in finding port used for a load or weight in the whole range of English literature." We might add, that even although authority could be found for it, the proposed reading would still be utterly indefensible—
"Here's port (i.e. weight) indeed! How heavy weighs my lord!"
This is as bad as "old Goody Blake was old and poor." Mr Singer proposes, "Here's support indeed," which we can by no means approve of, as it seems to have no sense.
Act V. Scene 2.—Although the text of the following lines is not very satisfactory, we greatly prefer it to the old corrector's amendment. Cleopatra, contemplating suicide, says,
"It is great
To do that thing that ends all other deeds,
Which shackle accidents, and bolts up change;
Which sleeps, and never palates more the dung,
The beggar's nurse and Cæsar's."
