Antony and Cleopatra
Act I Sc. 1
“To weep; whose every passion fully strives.”
The 1st folio reads ‘who’; the correction was made in the 2nd.
Sc. 2
“Must change his horns with garlands.”
Both Southern and Warburton read charge.
“And, fertile every wish, a million.”
Warburton’s correction of ‘foretel’ of the folio.
“Saw you my lord?—No, lady.”
So 2nd folio; the 1st has Save.
“Extended Asia from Euphrates, and
His conquering banners shook from Syria.”
“Antony thou would’st say.—Oh, no, my lord.”
“Oh! then we bring forth weeds
When our quick minds lie still, and our ills told us
Is as our earing.”
‘Minds’ is Warburton’s correction of ‘winds.’ This confusion of m and w is not unusual. In King John (v. 7) we have, “And the siege is now against the wind;” and in Cymb. (ii. 4) “Now wingled with their courages.”
“And get her love to part.”
The usual correction, leave, is right. Two Gent. i. 1.
Sc. 3
“Tempt him not so too far. I wish forbear.”
‘Wish’ here signifies recommend, advise. I think we should read ‘wish you,’ as it is always followed by its object when used in this sense.
Sc. 4
“One great competitor.”
The proper word is Our. See on Cor. iii. 1.
“Full surfeits and the dryness of his bones
Call on him for it.”
Collier’s folio reads Fall. I agree with it.
“As we rate boys; who being mature in knowledge.”
I read ‘immature,’ for the negative is required.
“And the ebb’d man, ne’er lov’d till ne’er worth love,
Comes fear’d by being lack’d.”
Warburton, who has been generally followed, made the correction dear’d. But there is no such verb. I read dear. “I shall be lov’d when I am lack’d” (Cor. iv. 1). Come for became occurs also in “so came I a widow” (2 Hen. IV. ii. 3).
“Goes to and back lacking the varying tide.”
Theobald read justly lackeying. I read fro for ‘back.’
“Both what by sea and land I shall be able
To ’front the present time.”
I read ‘With what both.’
“To let me be partaker of.”
Sc. 5
“For so he calls me—Now I feed myself
With most delicious poison—thinks on me,” etc.
It is thus I would give force to the passage. The appeal to those present is feeble.
“And soberly did mount an arm-gaunt steed.”
There can be no doubt that ‘arm-gaunt’ is a printer’s blunder. The best correction seems to be that of Boaden and myself, arrogant; we might also read ardent, as we have “a hot and fiery steed” (Rich. II. v. 2); or angry, as in F. Q. i. 1, 1. I had, like M. Mason, conjectured termagant; but that term is never applied to an animal. In favour of arrogant, Singer quoted from the Arauco Domado of Lope de Vega
“Y el cavallo arrogante, en que subido
El hombre parecia
Monstruosa fiera que seis pies tenia.”
In Spanish, I may observe, caballo arrogante is simply a gallant, spirited horse. See Calderon, La Niña de Gomez Arias. II. There is not, as far as I know, any instance of the use of arrogant in this sense in English; and it would be a curious circumstance if Shakespeare had learned the Spanish sense of it.