31 Then, world, thou hast a pair of chaps, no more ; And throw between them all the food thou hast, They'll grind the one the other.] Cæsar and Antony will make war on each other, though they have the world to prey upon between them. 32 SIR T. HANMER. Lydia,] For Lydia, Mr. Upton, from Plutarch, has restored Lybia. JOHNSON. In the translation from the French of Amyot, by Tho. North, in folio, 1597, you will at once see the origin of this mistake.-"First of all he did “establish Cleopatra queen of Ægypt, of Cyprus, of "Lydia, and the lower Syria." 1 find the character of this work pretty early delineated; ""Twas Greek at first, that Greek was Latin made, That Latin French, that French to English straid: Thus 'twixt one Plutarch there's more difference, Than i' th' same Englishman return'd from France." FARMER. 33 The kings o' the earth for war:] Mr. Upton remarks, that there are some errors in this enumeration of the auxiliary kings; but it is probable that the author did not much wish to be accurate. 34 Sold. By Hercules, I think, I am i' the right. Can. Soldier, thou art: but his whole action grows Not in the power on't:-] That is, his whole conduct becomes, ungoverned by the right, or by reason. JOHNSON. 35 The greater cantle-] A piece or lump. POPE. Cantle is rather a corner. Cæsar in this play mentions the three-nooked world. Of this triangular world every triumvir had a corner. 36 JOHNSON. 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. ---Yon ribald nag of Egypt,] I believe we should read, lag. What follows seems to prove it: -She once being looft, 66 "The noble ruin of her magic, Antony, "Claps on his sea-wing" Observations and Conjectures, printed at The brieze, or strum, the fly that stings cattle, proves that nag is the right word. JOHNSON. 37 -so lated in the world,] Alluding to a benighted traveller. JOHNSON. 38 Dealt on lieutenantry,] I believe, means only,fought by proxy, made war by his lieutenants. STEEVENS. 39 To his grand sea.] Thus the old copy. To whose grand sea? I know not. Perhaps we should read, To this grand sea. We may suppose that the sea was within view of Cæsar's camp, and at no great distance. TYRWHITT. The modern editors arbitrarily read," the grand sea." STEEVENS. 40 The circle of the Ptolemies] The diadem of the Ptolemies. The crown which encircles their head. 41 Like boys unto a muss,] i. e. a scramble. POPE. So used by Ben Jonson in his Magnetic Lady: “To make a muss among the gamesome suitors." And again in his Bartholomew Fair: "God's so, a muss, a muss, a muss, a muss!” So in Middleton's comedy of A mad World my Masters, 1608: 42 "I would you could make such another muss. "Do'st call it a muss?" STEEVENS. -one that looks on feeders?] One that waits at the table while others are eating. JOHNSON. 43 The horned herd!] It is not without pity and indignation that the reader of this great poet meets so often with this low jest, which is too much a favourite to be left out of either mirth or fury. JOHNSON. 44 I have many other ways to die;] What a reply is this to Antony's challenge? 'tis acknowledging that he should die under the unequal combat. But if we read, He hath many other ways to die: : mean time, I laugh at his challenge in this reading we have poignancy, and the very repartee of Cæsar. Let's hear Plutarch. After this, Antony sent a challenge to Cæsar, to fight him hand to hand; and received for answer, that he might find several other ways to end his life. UPTON. 45 onion-ey'd;] I have my eyes as full of tears as if they had been fretted by onions. 46 Our will is, Antony be took alive;] It is observable with what judgment Shakspeare draws the character of Octavius. Antony was his hero; so the other was not to shine: yet being an historical character, there was a necessity to draw him like. But the antient historians, his flatterers, had delivered him down so fair, that he seems ready cut and dried for a hero. Amidst these difficulties Shakspeare has extricated himself with great address. He has admitted all those great strokes of his character as he found them, and yet has made him a very unamiable character, deceitful, mean-spirited, narrow-minded, proud, and revengeful. WARBURTON. 47 To this great fairy-] Mr. Upton has well observed, that fairy, which Dr. Warburton and sir T. Hanmer explain by inchantress, comprises the idea of power and beauty. 48 Get goal for goal of youth.] At all plays of barriers, the boundary is called a goal; to win a goal, is to be superior in a contest of activity. 49 -Throw my heart JOHNSON. Against the flint, &c.] The pathetick of Shakspeare too often ends in the ridiculous. It is painful to find the gloomy dignity of this noble scene de stroyed by the intrusion of a conceit so far-fetched and unaffecting. JOHNSON. 50-emboss'd.] A hunting term: when a deer is hard run and foams at the mouth, he is said to be imbost. 51 The rack dislimns ;] i. e. The fleeting away of the clouds destroys the picture. 52 Pack'd cards with Cæsar, and false play'd my glory STEEVENS. Unto an enemy's triumph.] Shakspeare has here, as usual, taken his metaphor from a low trivial subject; but has ennobled it with much art, by so contriving that the principal term in the subject from whence the metaphor was taken, should belong to, and suit the dignity of the subject to which the metaphor is transferred: thereby providing at once for the integrity of the figure, and the nobleness of the thought. And this by the word triumph, which either signifies Octavius's conquest, or what we now call, contractedly, the trump at cards, then called the triumph or the triumphing sort. WARBURTON. This explanation is very just, the thought did not deserve so good an annotation. JOHNSON. The 53 pleach'd arms,] Arms folded in each other. 54 Be brooch'd with me;] i. e. adorned. meaning is, I will never live to grace his triumph. 55 Here's sport, indeed!] I suppose the meaning of these strange words is, here's trifling, you do not work in earnest. 56 JOHNSON. -The round world should have shook Lions into civil streets, &c.] I think here is a line |