Page:Antony and Cleopatra (1921) Yale.djvu/148

136 easily as you can pace a good horse with a snaffle bit, but not such a wife.

your considerate stone. I shall be thoughtful, but as dumb as a stone.

truths would be tales Where now half tales be truths. True reports of differences between you would be regarded as tales, where now mere rumors are regarded as truth.

II. ii. 144, 145. For 'tis a studied, not a present thought, By duty ruminated. For it is an idea suggested by duty and carefully considered, not a casual thought.

and never Fly off our loves again. And may our loves never fly apart again.

And what they undid did. While cooling her cheeks they made them glow with apparent warmth.

Her gentlewomen, like the Nereides, So many mermaids, tended her i' the eyes, And made their bends adornings. Deighton paraphrases as follows:—'the mermaids (sic) waited upon her, ever observant of her wishes as shown by her looks, and lent fresh beauty to the picture by the grace with which they paid their homage.' It is possible, however, that by the phrase tended her i' the eyes Shakespeare had reference to the bow, where are the eyes, or hawse holes, for the tackle. North writes in the translation of Plutarch which Shakespeare used, 'some steering the helm, others tending the tackle and ropes of the barge.' the silken tackle Swell with the touches of those flower-soft hands. At the touch of their hands the ropes swell with delight.

his quails ever Beat mine, inhoop'd, at odds. His quails, fighting within a hoop, or ring, beat mine, even when the odds are against them.

let's to billiards. An anachronism.