Notes to Shakespeare, Volume III: The Tragedies

Close thine eyes for ever, and be quiet.

IV.xiv.73 (233,5) pleach'd arms] Arms folded in each other.

IV.xiv.77 (233,6) His baseness that ensued?] The poor conquered wretch that followed.

IV.xiv.86 (233,7) the worship of the whole world] The worship, is the dignity, the authority.

IV.xv.9 (237,9)

O sun,
Burn the great sphere thou mov'st in!—darkling stand
The varying shore o' the world]

She desires the sun, to burn his own orb, the vehicle of light, and then the earth will be dark.

IV.xv.19-23 (237,1) I here importune death] [Theobald had regularized the versification and had added two words] Mr. Theobald's emendation is received by the succeeding editors; but it seems not necessary that a dialogue so distressful should be nicely regular. I have therefore preserved the original reading in the text, and the emendation below.

IV.xv.28 (238,2) still conclusion] Sedate determination; silent coolness of resolution.

IV.xv.32 (236,3) Here's sport, indeed!] I suppose the meaning of these strange words is, here's trifling, you do not work in earnest.

IV.xv.39 (239,4) Quicken with kissing] That is, Revive by my kiss.

IV.xv.44 (239,6) That the false huswife Fortune break her wheel] This despicable line has occurred before.

IV.xv.65 (240,8) The soldier's pole] He at whom the soldiers pointed, as at a pageant held high for observation.

IV.xv.72 (240,9)

Char. Peace, peace, Iras.
Cleo. No more—but e'en a woman]

[W: peace, Isis] Of this note it may be truly said, that it at least deserves to be right, nor can he, that shall question the justness of the emendation, refuse his esteem to the ingenuity and learning with which it is proposed.

Hanmer had proposed another emendation, not injudiciously. He reads thus,

Iras. Royal Aegypt! empress!
Cleo. Peace, peace, Iras.
No more but a mere woman, &c.

That is, no more an empress, but a mere woman.

It is somewhat unfortunate that the words, mere woman, which so much strengthen the opposition to either empress or Isis, are not in the original edition, which stands thus,

No more but in a woman.

Mere woman was probably the arbitrary reading of Rowe. I suppose, however, that we muy justly change the ancient copy thus,

No more, but e'en a woman.

which will enough accommodate either of the editors.

I am inclined to think that she speaks abruptly, not answering her woman, but discoursing with her own thoughts,

No more—but e'en a woman.

I have no more of my wonted greatness, but am even a woman, on the level with other women; were I what I once was.

—It were for me
To throw my scepter, &c.

If this simple explanation be admitted, how much labour has been thrown away. Peace, peace, Iras, is said by Charmian, when she sees the queen recovering, and thinks speech troublesome.

V.i.15 (244,4) The round world/Should have shook lions into civil streets] I think here is a line lost, after which it is in vain to go in quest. The sense seems to have been this: The round world should have shook, and this great alteration of the system of things should send lions into streets, and citizens into dens. There is sense still, but it is harsh and violent.

V.i.27 (244,5) but it is tidings/To wash the eyes of kings!] That is, May the Gods rebuke me, if this be not tidings to make kings weep.

But, again, for if not.

V.i.46 (245,7) that our stars,/Unreconciliable, should divide/Our equalness to this] That is, should have made us, in our equality of fortune, disagree to a pitch like this, that one of us must die.

V.i.52 (246,8) A poor Aegyptian yet; the queen my mistress] If this punctuation be right, the man means to say, that he is yet an Aegyptian, that is, yet a servant of the queen of Aegypt, though soon to become, a subject of Rome.

V.i.65 (246,9) her life in Rome/Would be eternal in our triumph] Hanmer reads judiciously enough, but without necessity,

Would be eternalling our triumph.

The sense is, If she dies here, she will be forgotten, but if I send her in triumph at Rome, her memory and my glory will be eternal.

V.ii.3 (247,1) fortune's knave] The servant of fortune.

V.ii.4 (247,2)

it is great
To do that thing, that ends all other deeds;
Which shackles accidents, and bolts up change;
Which sleeps, and never palates more the dung,
The beggar's nurse, and Caesar's]

[Warburton added a whole line and emended "dung" to "dugg"] I cannot perceive the loss of a line, or the need of an emendation. The commentator seems to have entangled his own ideas; his supposition that suicide is called the beggar's nurse and Caesar's, and his concession that the position is intelligible, show, I think, a mind not intent upon the business before it. The difficulty of the passage, if any difficulty there be, arises only from this, that the act of suicide, and the state which is the effect of suicide are confounded. Voluntary death, says she, is an act which bolts up change; it produces a state,

Which sleeps, and never palates more the dung,
The beggar's nurse, and Caesar's.

Which has no longer need of the gross and terrene sustenance, in the use of which Caesar and the beggar are on a level.

The speech is abrupt, but perturbation in such a state is surely natural.