** Oh my, in the provincial sense of it is only an imperfect exclamation of Oh my God! The decent exclamer always stops before the sacred name is pronounced. Could such an exclamation therefore have been uttered by the Pagan Cleopatrá?/33 TEEVENS.

this

The sense of the passage appears to me to he "O, my oblivion, as if it were another Antony, possesses me so entirely, that I quite forget myself." M. MASON.

I have not the smallest doubt that Mr. Steevens's explanation of this passage is just. Dr. Dr. Johnson says, that it was her memory, not her oblivion, that like Autony, was forgetting and deserting her.“ It certainly was; it was her oblivious memory, as Mr. Steevens has well interpreted it; and the licence is much in our author's manner. MALONE.97 10

P68, fast lines. But that your Royalty Do Holds idleness your subject, I should take

For idleness itself. i. e. But that your charms hold me, who am the greatest fool on earth, in chains, I should have adjudged you to be the greatest That this is the sense is shown by her answer;d zepia 26.87xia Ja69a! ere strop Tis sweating labour, it is rea To bear such idleness so near the heart, As Cleopatra this. WARBURTON. bisir of TS VEGG Mon W alimia and to freist Dr. Warburton's explanation is a very coarge one. The sense may be But that your Queenship chooses idleness for the subject of your conversation, I should take you for idleness itself mot ID 769DNS ro if

i

3

where an antithesis may be designed between roya alty and subject. But that I know you to be a Quaen, and that your royalty holds idleness in subjection to you exalting you far above its influence, I should suppose you to be the very genius of idleness itself. STEEVENSO Mr. Steevens's latter interpretation is, I think, nearer the truth. But perhaps your subject rather means, whom being in subjection to you, you can command at pleasure, "to do your bidding." assume the airs of &c. Were not coquet one one of your

to

attendants, I should sup

pose you yourself were this capricious being.

7100

MALONE.

- Paraog, l. 22. One great, competitor:] Perhaps, Our great competitor. JOHNSON of 'Johnson is certainly right in his conjecture that we ought to read, "Our great competitor, as this speech is addressed to Lepidus, his partuer in the empire. Competitor means here, as it does wherever the word occurs in Shakspeare, associate or partner. M. MASON azsaythe wo

59 PP 110} lav. 2. His faults, in him, seem as oi, mọc haybychu arad bio the spots of heaven, s awodMoree fiery by night's blackness;] If hy spots are meant stars, as night has no other fiery spots, the comparison is forced and harsh, stars having been always supposed to beautify the night; nor do I comprehend what there is in the counterpart of this simile, which answers to night's Blackness. Haniner reads que d'ael-adha W Toyol spots on ermineill 38048

Or fires, by night's blackness. JOHNSON. P. 196, 1. 5. Rather than purchas'd; } Procur'd by his own fault or endeavour. JOHNSON.1.

-P. 110,

་

1114 say, this becomes him, (As his composure must be rare indeed, Whom these things connot blemish,)]: This seems inconsequent ; I read:

And his composure, &c.

Grant that this becomes him, and if it can become him, he must have in him something very uncommon, yet, &c. JOHNSON.

P. 110, 1. 16, 17. No way exeuse his spils, aids to sense di gomise when we do bear

So great weight in his lightness. The word light is one of Shakspeare's favourite playthings. The sense is, His trifling levity throwB SO much burden upon us. JonNSON.

P. 110, 15 17 20 If he fill,

13

His vacancy with his voluptuousness,

Full surfeits, and the dryness of his hones, Call on him for't:] Call on him, 'is, visit: him. Says Caesar, If Antony followed his de- 3 baucheries at a time of leisure, I should leave him to be punished by their natural consequen_ ces, by surfeits and dry bones. JOHNSON TESon 2. 110, 1, 24. — boys, who, being mature ind

monass, ahiz booknowledge, For this! Hanmer, who thought the maturity of a boy am! inconsistent idea, has put ̧vol ɔd_ilada P* o who, immature in knowledge:

but the words experience and judgement require that t we read mature though Dr, Warburton has received the emendation, By boys mature in knowledge, are meant, boys old enough to know their duty. JOHNSON. 33 9 8 gun Cavol P110, last he is belov'd of those r That only have fear'd Caesar! Those i whom not love but fear made adherents to Caesar, now show their affection for Pompey. JOHNSON....

1

P. in, first 1. The discontents. ] That is, the malecontents. MALONE." ~P. 111, 1, 4-8. 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.] Dear'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 condi tion, 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: Bat.

Comes dear'd, by being lack'd.

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

巍

"I shall be lov'd, when I am lack diamon WARBURTON.

The correction was made in Theobald's edition, to whom it was communicated by Dr. Walburton. Something, however, is yet wanting. "What is the meanings of "ne'er lov'd till ne'er worth love?" I suppose that the second ne'er was in fuad vertently repeated at the press, and that we should read till not worth love. MALONE.

P. 111, 1, 42. Like to a vagabond flag upon the stream,

C

**~Goes to} and back, lackeying the varying tide, 1439 241102 To rot itself with motion. ww The sworditself, is, I believe, an interpolation, being wholly useless to the sense, and injurious to the measure. STEEVENS

Lackeying old copy lashing. But how can flag, or rush, floating upon a stream, and that has no motion but what the fluctuations of the water gives it be said to lash the tide? This is a scourge of a weak ineffective thing, and gorde fit Jual active violence in its own power. "Tis

But the there is no sense în the old readings

addition of a single letter will not only give us good sense, but the genuine words of our author into the bargain:diob asbrosandi

2117

shall Lackeying the varyingu tide,mos? yoSIN 1. e. floating backwards and forwards with the Variation of the tide, like page, or stackey, at his master's heels. THEOBALD.

102 pil, 15. rosear, is to plough; a common metaphor. JOHNSON.

To ear, is not, however, at this time, a common word. meet with it again in Turbervile's Fab. Thes09 hstnort conry, 15,75: 27 6296 because I have a larger field to car. 2 Y3J4H STEEVENS.

find arribam Lobcy indi BUBIAL, 1.19. Laak blood to think on't,] pale, at the thought of foa JOHNSON

26

Turn

11. 1951 Flush youth is youth ripened to manhood youth whose blood is, at the flow STEEVENS .skisibam & 6 €

xop.upfi, 1. 24. Leave thy lascivious wassels.] Wassel is here put for intemperance in general. For al more particular account of the word see