5

The discontents repair, and men's reports
Give him much wrong'd.

CES.

I should have known no less:It hath been taught us from the primal state, That he, which is, was wish'd, until he were; And the ebb'd man, ne'er lov'd, till ne'er worth love, Comes dear'd, by being lack'd. This common body, Like a vagabond flag upon the stream,

Goes to, and back, lackeying the varying tide,
To rot itself" with motion.8

The discontents repair,] That is, the malecontents. So, in King Henry IV. P. I:

that may please the eye

"Of fickle changelings and poor discontents."

See Vol. XI. p. 403, n. 4. MALONE.

6 he, which is, was wish'd, until he were;

And the ebb'd man, ne'er lov'd, till ne'er worth love, Comes dear'd, by being lack'd.] [Old copy-fear'd.] Let us examine the sense of this [as it stood] in plain prose. The earliest histories inform us, that the man in supreme command was always wish'd to gain that command, till he had obtain'd it. And he, whom the multitude has contentedly seen in a low condition, when he begins to be wanted by them, becomes to be fear'd by them. But do the multitude fear a man because they want him? Certainly, we must read:

Comes dear'd, by being lack'd.

i. e. endear'd, a favourite to them. Besides, the context requires this reading; for it was not fear, but love, that made the people flock to young Pompey, and what occasioned this reflection. So, in Coriolanus:

"I shall be lov'd, when I am lack'd." WARBUrton. The correction was made in Theobald's edition, to whom it was communicated by Dr. Warburton. Something, however, is yet wanting. What is the meaning of " ne'er lov'd till ne'er worth love?" I suppose that the second ne'er was inadvertently repeated at the press, and that we should read-till not worth love. MALone.

7- rot itself] The word-itself, is, I believe, an interpolation, being wholly useless to the sense, and injurious to the measure. STEEVENS.

MESS.

Cæsar, I bring thee word,

Menecrates and Menas, famous pirates,

Make the sea serve them; which they ear and wound

With keels of every kind: Many hot inroads
They make in Italy; the borders maritime

Goes to, and back, lackeying the varying tide,

To rot itself with motion.] [Old copy-lashing.] But how can a flag, or rush, floating upon a stream, and that has no motion but what the fluctuation of the water gives it, be said to lash the tide? This is making a scourge of a weak ineffective thing, and giving it an active violence in its own power. 'Tis true, there is no sense in the old reading; but the addition of a single letter will not only give us good sense, but the genuine word of our author into the bargain:

lackeying the varying tide,

i. e. floating backwards and forwards with the variation of the tide, like a page, or lackey, at his master's heels. THEOBALD. Theobald's conjecture may be supported by a passage in the fifth Book of Chapman's translation of Homer's Odyssey: who would willingly

66

"Lacky along so vast a lake of brine?"

Again, in his version of the 24th Iliad:

66

My guide to Argos either ship'd or lackying by thy side."

Again, in the Prologue to the second part of Antonio and Melilda, 1602:

"O that our power

"Could lacky or keep pace with our desires!"

Again, in The whole magnificent Entertainment given to King James, Queen Anne his Wife, &c. March 15, 1603, by Thomas Decker, 4to. 1604: "The minutes (that lackey the heeles of time) run not faster away than do our joyes."

Perhaps another messenger should be noted here, as entering with fresh news. STEEVENS.

9 which they ear-] To ear, is to plough; a common metaphor. JOHNSON.

To ear, is not, however, at this time, a common word. I meet with it again in Turbervile's Falconry, 1575:

66

because I have a larger field to ear." See also Vol. VIII. p. 237, n. 9. STEEVENS.

Lack blood to think on't,' and flush youth2 revolt:
No vessel can peep forth, but 'tis as soon
Taken as seen; for Pompey's name strikes more,
Than could his war resisted.

CES.

Leave thy lascivious wassels.

Antony,

When thou once Wast beaten from Modena, where thou slew'st Hirtius and Pansa, consuls, at thy heel

Did famine follow; whom thou fought'st against,
Though daintily brought up, with patience more
Than savages could suffer: Thou didst drink
The stale of horses, and the gilded puddle5
Which beasts would cough at: thy palate then did
deign

The roughest berry on the rudest hedge;
Yea, like the stag, when snow the pasture sheets,
The barks of trees thou browsed'st; on the Alps
It is reported, thou didst eat strange flesh,
Which some did die to look on: And all this

'Lack blood to think on't,] Turn pale at the thought of it. JOHNSON.

and flush youth-] Flush youth is youth ripened to manhood; youth whose blood is at the flow. So, in Timon of Athens:

"Now the time is flush,-." STEEVENS.

- thy lascivious wassels.] Wassel is here put for intemperance in general. For a more particular account of the word, see Macbeth, Vol. X. p. 88, n. 4. The old copy, however, reads-vaissailes. STEEVens.

4

Vassals is, without question, the true reading. Henley.

Thou didst drink

The stale of horses,] All these circumstances of Antony's distress, are taken literally from Plutarch. STEEVENs.

- gilded puddle-] There is frequently observable on the surface of stagnant pools that have remained long undisturbed, a reddish gold-coloured slime: to this appearance the poet here refers. HENLEY.

It wounds thine honour, that I speak it now,) Was borne so like a soldier, that thy cheek So much as lank'd not.

LEP.

It is pity of him.

CES. Let his shames quickly

Drive him to Rome: 'Tis time we twain

Did show ourselves i' the field; and, to that end, Assemble we immediate council:

Pompey

• Drive him to Rome: 'Tis time we twain &c.] The defect of the metre induces me to believe that some word has been inadvertently omitted. Perhaps our author wrote:

Drive him to Rome disgrac'd: 'Tis time we twain &c. So, in Act III. sc. xi:

So she

"From Egypt drive her all-disgraced friend."

MALONE.

I had rather perfect this defective line, by the insertion of an adverb which is frequently used by our author, and only enforces what he apparently designed to say, than by the introduction of an epithet which he might not have chosen. I would therefore read:

'Tis time indeed we twain

Did show ourselves &c. STEEVENS.

7 Assemble we immediate council:] [Old copy-assemble me.] Shakspeare frequently uses this kind of phraseology, but I do not recollect any instance where he has introduced it in solemn dialogue, where one equal is speaking to another. Perhaps therefore the correction made by the editor of the second folio is right: Assemble we &c. So, afterwards:

Haste we for it:

"Yet, ere we put ourselves in arms, despatch we," &c. Since this note was written, I have observed the same phraseology used by our poet in grave dialogue. See Troilus and Cressida, Act III. sc. iii:

66 A strange fellow here

"Writes me, that man, however dearly parted," &c.

MALONE.

I adhere to the reading of the second folio. Thus, in King Henry IV. P. II. King Henry V. says:

"Now call we our high court of parliament.”

STEEVENS.

Thrives in our idleness.

LEP.

To-morrow, Cæsar,
I shall be furnish'd to inform you rightly
Both what by sea and land I can be able,
To 'front this present time.

CES.

It is my business too.

Till which encounter,

Farewell.

LEP. Farewell, my lord: What you shall know

mean time

Of stirs abroad, I shall beseech you, sir,

To let me be partaker.

CES.

Doubt not, sir;

I knew it for my bond.8

[Exeunt.

SCENE V.

Alexandria. A Room in the Palace.

Enter CLEOPATRA, CHARMIAN, IRAs, and
MARDIAN.

CLEO. Charmian,—

CHAR. Madam.

CLEO. Ha, ha!

Give me to drink mandragora."

I knew it for my bond. That is, to be my bounden

duty. M. MASON.

9

mandragora.] A plant of which the infusion was supposed to procure sleep. Shakspeare mentions it in Othello: "Not poppy, nor mandragora,

"Nor all the drowsy syrups of the world,

"Shall ever med'cine thee to that sweet sleep-.”

JOHNSON.