That sleep and feeding may prorogue his honour
Even till a Lethe'd dulness-a

Enter VARRIUS.

How now, Varrius

VAR. This is most certain that I shall deliver:Mark Antony is every hour in Rome

Expected; since he went from Egypt, 't is

A space for farther travel.

POM.

I could have given less matter

A better ear.-Menas, I did not think

This amorous surfeiter would have donn'd his helm
For such a petty war: his soldiership

Is twice the other twain: but let us rear
The higher our opinion, that our stirring
Can from the lap of Egypt's widow pluck
The ne'er-lust-wearied Antony.

MEN.

I cannot hopeb

Cæsar and Antony shall well greet together:
His wife that's dead did trespasses to Cæsar;
His brother warr'd* upon him; although, I think,
Not mov'd by Antony.

Ром.

I know not, Menas,

How lesser enmities may give way to greater.

Were't not that we stand up against them all,

c

'T were pregnant they should square between themselves;
For they have entertained cause enough

To draw their swords: but how the fear of us
May cement their divisions, and bind up
The petty difference, we yet not know.

Be 't as our gods will have 't! It only stands
Our lives upon to use our strongest hands.
Come, Menas.

[Exeunt.

(*) First folio, wan'd.

may prorogue his honour

Even till a Lethe'd dulness-]

Malone would have "honour" to be a misprint for hour; but, however unauthorised, Shakespeare certainly uses "prorogue" here, as he employs it in "Pericles,” Act V. Sc. 1,

"nor taken sustenance,

But to prorogue his grief,”—

in the sense of deaden or benumb.

b I cannot hope, &c.] As in our early language, to expect most commonly meant to stay or wait, so to hope on some occasions was used where we should now adopt to expect.

square-] Quarrel.

Our existence solely depends, &c., or it is incumbent on us for our lives' sake, &c.

SCENE II.-Rome. A Room in the House of Lepidus.

Enter ENOBARBUS and LEPIDUS.

LEP. Good Enobarbus, 't is a worthy deed,

And shall become you well, to entreat your captain
To soft and gentle speech.

ENO.

I shall entreat him

Serves for the matter that is then born in 't.'

LEP. But small to greater matters must give way.

ENO. Not if the small come first.

LEP.

Your speech is passion:

But, pray you, stir no embers up. Here comes

The noble Antony.

ENO.

Enter ANTONY and VENTIDIUS.

And yonder Cæsar.

Enter CESAR, MECENAS, and AGRIPPA.

ANT. If we compose well here, to Parthia!

Hark, Ventidius.

. Cæs. I do not know, Mecænas; ask Agrippa.
LEP. Noble friends,

That which combin'd us was most great, and let not
A leaner action rend us. What 's amiss,

May it be gently heard: when we debate

Our trivial difference loud, we do commit

Murder in healing wounds: then, noble partners,—
The rather, for I earnestly beseech,-

Touch you the sourest points with sweetest terms,
Nor curstness grow to the matter.

ANT.

'Tis spoken well.

Were we before our armies, and to fight,

I should do thus.

CES. Welcome to Rome.

ANT. Thank you.

CAS. Sit.

ANT. Sit, sir.

CES. Nay, then.

ANT. I learn, you take things ill, which are not so,

Or being, concern you not.

CAS.

I must be laugh'd at,

If, or for nothing or a little, I

Should say myself offended; and with you,

Chiefly i' the world, more laugh'd at, that I should
Once name you derogately, when to sound your name
It not concern'd me.

ANT.

What was 't to you?

My being in Egypt, Cæsar,

CES. No more than my residing here at Rome
Might be to you in Egypt: yet, if you there
Did practise on my state, your being in Egypt
Might be my question.

ANT.

How intend you, practis'd? CES. You may be pleas'd to catch at mine intent By what did here befall me. Your wife and brother Made wars upon me; and their contestation

Was theme for you, you were the word of war.b

ANT. You do mistake your business; my brother never

Did urge me in his act: I did inquire it;

And have my learning from some true reports,

That drew their swords with you. Did he not rather
Discredit my authority with yours;

And make the wars alike against my stomach,
Having alike your cause? Of this, my letters
Before did satisfy you. If you'll patch a quarrel,
As matter whole you have not to make it with,
It must not be with this.

CES.
You praise yourself
By laying defects of judgment to me; but
You patch'd up your excuses.

ANT.
Not so, not so;
I know you could not lack, I am certain on 't,
Very necessity of this thought, that I,

Your partner in the cause 'gainst which he fought,
Could not with graceful eyes attend those wars
Which fronted mine own peace. As for my wife,
I would you had her spirit in such another:

The third o' the world is yours; which with a snaffle
You may pace easy, but not such a wife.

- practise on-] Plot or intrigue against.

and their contestation

Was theme for you, you were the word of war.]

The meaning is apparent, though the construction is obscure and perhaps corrupt. We ought possibly to read,

66

and their contestation

Had you for theme," &c.

As matter whole you have not to make it with,-] The negative was inserted by Rowe, and is clearly indispensable; but, to satisfy the metre, Shakespeare may have adopted the old form n'have instead of have not,

"As matter whole you n'have to make it with."

for they

So likewise in "Henry the Fifth," Act V. Sc. 2, where the original has, " are all girdled with maiden walls, that war hath entered," we ought probably to read, n'hath entered."

ENO. Would we had all such wives, that the men might go to wars with the women!

ANT. So much uncurbable, her garboils, Cæsar,
Made out of her impatience,-which not wanted
Shrewdness of policy too,-I grieving grant
Did you too much disquiet: for that, you must
But say, I could not help it.

CES.

I wrote to you
When rioting in Alexandria; you

Did pocket up my letters, and with taunts
Did gibe my missive out of audience.
ANT.

Sir,

He fell upon me ere admitted; then
Three kings I had newly feasted, and did want
Of what I was i' the morning: but, next day,
I told him of myself; which was as much
As to have ask'd him pardon. Let this fellow
Be nothing of our strife; if we contend,

Out of our question wipe him.

You have broken

CES.
The article of your oath; which you shall never
Have tongue to charge me with.

LEP. Soft, Cæsar!

ANT.

No, Lepidus, let him speak;

The honour's sacred which he talks on now,

Supposing that I lack'd it.-But, on, Cæsar;

The article of my oath,

CAS. To lend me arms and aid when I requir'd them;
The which you both denied.

ANT.
Neglected, rather;
And then when poison'd hours had bound me up
From mine own knowledge. As nearly as I may,
I'll play the penitent to you; but mine honesty
Shall not make poor my greatness, nor my power
Work without it. Truth is, that Fulvia,
To have me out of Egypt, made wars here;
For which myself, the ignorant motive, do
So far ask pardon as befits mine honour
To stoop in such a case.

LEP.

"Tis noble spoken.

MEC. If it might please you, to enforce no further The griefs between ye: to forget them quite

Were to remember that the present need

Speaks to atone you.

LEP.

Worthily spoken, Mecænas.

ENO. Or, if you borrow one another's love for the instant, you may, when you hear no more words of Pompey, return it again: you shall have time to wrangle in when you have nothing else to do.

ANT. Thou art a soldier only; speak no more.

ENO. That truth should be silent, I had almost forgot.
ANT. You wrong this presence; therefore speak no more.

ENO. Go to then; your considerate stone."
CES. I do not much dislike the matter, but
The manner of his speech: for 't cannot be
We shall remain in friendship, our conditions
So differing in their acts. Yet, if I knew
What hoop should hold us stanch, from edge to edge
O' the world I would pursue it.

AGR.

CES. Speak, Agrippa.

Give me leave, Cæsar,-

AGR. Thou hast a sister by the mother's side, Admir'd Octavia: great Mark Antony

Is now a widower.

CES.

Say not so,* Agrippa;

If Cleopatra heard you, your reproofe
Were well deserv'd of rashness.

ANT. I am not married, Cæsar; let me hear
Agrippa further speak.

AGR. To hold you in perpetual amity,

To make you brothers, and to knit your hearts
With an unslipping knot, take Antony
Octavia to his wife; whose beauty claims
No worse a husband than the best of men;
Whose virtue and whose general graces speak
That which none else can utter. By this marriage,
All little jealousies, which now seem great,

And all great fears, which now import their dangers,
Would then be nothing: truths would be tales, d
Where now half tales be truths: her love to both
Would, each to other, and all loves to both,
Draw after her. Pardon what I have spoke;
For 't is a studied, not a present thought,
By duty ruminated. (1)

ANT.

Will Cæsar speak?

(*) Old text, say.

your considerate stone.] As silent as a stone was an expression not unusual formerly, and the words in the text may hereafter be found to be proverbial; at present they are inexplicable.

b conditions-] Dispositions, natures; thus, in "Othello," Act II. Sc. 1,-"She's full of most blessed condition," and again, Act IV. Sc. 1,-"and then, of so gentle a

condition."

c

your reproof Were well deserv'd of rashness.]

Warburton's emendation of the old reading,-" your proofe," &c. The meaning apparently is, The reproof you would receive were well deserved for the rashness of your speech.

d

truths would be tales,

Where now half tales be truths:]

Theobald, to perfect the metre, inserted but,

would be but tales," &c.;

and Steevens, for the same purpose, proposed,—" as tales." Yet the remedy most accordant with the poet's manner is to read,

"" truths would be half tales, Where now half tales be truths."

1