SCENE III.1 The Same. A Street. Enter CINNA, the Poet. CIN. I dreamt to-night, that I did feast with And things unluckily charge my fantasy 3: Enter Citizens. 1 CIT. What is your name? 4 CIT. Are you a married man, or a bachelor? 2 CIT. Answer every man directly. 1 CIT. Ay, and briefly. 4 CIT. Ay, and wisely. 3 CIT. Ay, and truly, you were best. CIN. What is my name? Whither am I going? Where do I dwell? Am I a married man, or a bachelor? Then to answer every man directly, and briefly, wisely, and truly. Wisely I say, I am a bachelor. 2 CIT. That's as much as to say, they are fools 1 Scene III.] The subject of this scene is taken from Plutarch. STEEVENS. 2 I dreamt to-night, that I did feast, &c.] I learn from an old black letter treatise on Fortune-telling, &c. that to dream" of being at banquets, betokeneth misfortune," &c. 3 things unluckily charge my fantasy :] i. e. circumstances oppress my fancy with an ill-omened weight. STEEVENS. 4 I have no will to wander forth of doors, &c.] Thus, Shylock : "I have no mind of feasting forth to-night : that marry:-You'll bear me a bang for that, I fear. Proceed; directly. CIN. Directly, I am going to Cæsar's funeral. 1 CIT. As a friend, or an enemy? CIN. As a friend. 2 CIT. That matter is answered directly. CIN. Truly, my name is Cinna. 1 Cır. Tear him to pieces, he's a conspirator. CIN. I am Cinna the poet, I am Cinna the poet. 4 CIT. Tear him for his bad verses, tear him for his bad verses. 2 CIT. It is no matter, his name's Cinna; pluck but his name out of his heart, and turn him going. 3 CIT. Tear him, tear him. Come, brands, ho! fire-brands. To Brutus', to Cassius'; burn all. Some to Decius' house, and some to Casca's; some to Ligarius': away; go. [Exeunt. ACT IV. SCENE I. The Same. A Room in ANTONY'S House 5. ANTONY, OCTAVIUS, and LEPIDUS, seated at a Table. ANT. These many then shall die; their names are prick'd. ANTONY'S House.] Mr. Rowe, and Mr. Pope after him, have mark'd the scene here to be at Rome. The old copies say nothing of the place. Shakspeare, I dare say, knew from Plutarch, that these triumvirs met, upon the proscription, in a little Ocz. Your brother too must die; Consent you, Lepidus ? LEP. I do consent. Ост. Prick him down, Antony. LEP. Upon condition Publius shall not live, Who is your sister's son, Mark Antony. island which Appian, who is more particular, says, lay near Mutina, upon the river Lavinius. THEOBALD. A small island in the little river Rhenus near Bononia. HANMER. But So, in the old translation of Plutarch: "Thereuppon all three met together (to wete, Cæsar, Antonius, & Lepidus,) in an island enuyroned round about with a little river, & there remayned three dayes together. Now as touching all other matters, they were easily agreed, & did deuide all the empire of Rome betwene them, as if it had bene their owne inheritance. yet they could hardly agree whom they would put to death: for euery one of them would kill their enemies, and saue their kinsmen and friends. Yet at length, giving place to their greedy desire to be reuenged of their enemies, they spurned all reuerence of blood and holines of friendship at their feete. For Cæsar left Cicero to Antonius' will, Antonius also forsooke Lucius Cæsar, who was his vncle by his mother: and both of them together suffred Lepidus to kill his own brother Paulus." That Shakspeare, however, meant the scene to be at Rome, may be inferred [as Mr. Jennens has observed,] from what almost immediately follows: 66 Lep. What, shall I find you here? "Oct. Or here, or at the Capitol." STEEVENS. The passage quoted by Steevens, clearly proves that the scene should be leid in Rome. M. MASON. It is manifest that Shakspeare intended the scene to be at Rome, and therefore I have placed it in Antony's house. MALONE. 6 Upon condition Publius shall not live,] Mr. Upton has sufficiently proved that the poet made a mistake as to this character mentioned by Lepidus; Lucius, not Publius, was the person meant, who was uncle by the mother's side to Mark Antony: and in consequence of this, he concludes that Shakspeare wrote: "You are his sister's son, Mark Antony." The mistake, however, is more like the mistake of the author than of his transcriber or printer. STEEVENS. ANT. He shall not live; look, with a spot I damn him '. But, Lepidus, go you to Cæsar's house; [Exit LEPIDUS. ANT. This is a slight unmeritable man, Meet to be sent on errands: Is it fit, The three-fold world divided, he should stand Ост. ANT. Octavius, I have seen more days than you: And having brought our treasure where we will, And graze in commons. Ост. You may do your will; 7 -DAMN him.] i. e. condemn him. So, in Promos and Cassandra, 1578: "Vouchsafe to give my damned husband life." Again, in Chaucer's Knightes Tale, v. 1747, Mr. Tyrwhitt's edit.: 8 66 by your confession "Hath damned you, and I wol it recorde." STEEVENS. as the ass bears gold,] This image had occurred before in Measure for Measure, Act III. Sc. I. vol. ix. 66 p. 97: like an ass whose back with ingots bows, But he's a tried and valiant soldier. ANT. So is my horse, Octavius; and, for that, It is a creature that I teach to fight, 9 -one that feeds go forth: On OBJECTS, ARTS, and imitations; &c.] 'Tis hard to conceive why he should be called a barren-spirited fellow that could feed either on objects or arts: that is, as I presume, form his ideas and judgment upon them: stale and obsolete imitation, indeed, fixes such a character. I am persuaded, to make the poet consonant to himself, we must read, as I have restored the text: “On abject orts—.” i. e. on the scraps and fragments of things rejected and despised by others. THEOBALD. Sure, it is easy enough to find a reason why that devotee to pleasure and ambition, Antony, should call him barren-spirited who could be content to feed his mind with objects, i. e. speculative knowledge, or arts, i. e. mechanick operations. I have therefore brought back the old reading, though Mr. Theobald's emendation is still left before the reader. Lepidus, in the tragedy of Antony and Cleopatra, is represented as inquisitive about the structures of Egypt, and that too when he is almost in a state of intoxication. Antony, as at present, makes a jest of him, and returns him unintelligible answers to very reasonable questions. Objects, however, may mean things objected or thrown out to him. In this sense Shakspeare uses the verb to object, in King Henry V. Part II. where I have given an instance of its being employed by Chapman on the same occasion. It is also used by him, in his version of the seventh Iliad : "At Jove's broad beech these godheads met; and first Jove's son objects 66 Why, burning in contention thus," &c. A man who can avail himself of neglected hints thrown out by others, though without original ideas of his own, is no uncommon character. STEEVENS. Objects means, in Shakspeare's language, whatever is presented to the eye. So, in Timon of Athens-" Swear against objects,” |
