Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 12.djvu/565

 10 s. xii. DEC. 11, 1909.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

46.5-

Men. I thinke the policy of that purpose, made more in the Marriage, then the loue of the parties.

Enob. I thinke so too. But you shall finde the band that seemes to tye their friendship together, will bee the very strangler of their Amity : Octavia is of a holy, cold, and still conuersation.

Men. Who would not haue his wife so ?

Enob. Not he that himself e is not so : which is Marke Anthony.

Menas, in his second speech commenting on the marriage of Antony and Octavia, was supposed by Collier (2nd ed.) to contradict himself and thus to confirm Enobarbus's opinion. I believe that Menas should be understood as saying, " That was the very reason, rather than for love, that they made the match," which supports his first assertion. While Enobarbus agrees as to the motive of policy in the marriage, he begins his further remarks with the adversative " But,' 1 show- ing that he is opposing Menas in the deduc- tions to be drawn therefrom. Later, when Enobarbus says that " Octavia is of a holy, cold, and still conversation," Menas still supports his first position by replying, " Who would not have his wife so ? " Enobarbus again opposes him with " Not he that himself is not so," &c. Collier's note (2nd ed.) on 1. 137 suggested that it should be pointed with a note of interrogation, which Furness states was not repeated in his third edition. The question raised as to the meaning of Menas's second speech, how- ever, does not appear to have been waived. In any event, it may be deemed worthy of comment.

III. xiii. 52-62. In the dialogue between Cleopatra and Thyreus, Caesar's messenger, the latter says :

So.

Thus then, thou most renoun'd : Caesar entreats, Not to consider in what case thou stand 'st Further than he is Caesar,

to which Cleopatra, adroitly following the cue, replies, "Go on : right royal J> " right royal '* being her complimentary apparent estimate of Caesar. When her character has received the remarkable vindication which Thyreus then offers, the evident meaning of her further reply seems to be that she advances her estimate of Caesar's qualities : " He is a god, and knows What is most right," &c.

We do know that Cleopatra is now being favoured with what are accepted as evi- dences of Caesar's godlike knowledge, but we do not know from the text that the evi- dence in question is in confirmation of any such previous estimate of his sagacity. In the absence of an antecedent reference, the

new idea, I think, indicates that " god ' ? is the emphatic word, rather than, as suggested by Furness, " He is a god."

V. i. 64 (Globe 52) :

A poore Egyptian yet.

The messenger would" be apt to deliver what he had to say to Caesar in a respectful, straightforward manner, devoid of the attempt at smartness which seems to be imported into his speech by the explana- tions in the books. The stage direction is, " Enter an Aegyptian," and the messenger's- first words, in beginning his reply to Caesar's " Whence are you ? " are "A poor Egyptian, " as referring to himself, the reason for Cleo- patra's having employed a messenger of such low degree being given in the state- ment of her reduced circumstances : "A poor Egyptian, yet notwithstanding my humble station I come from the queen, my mistress, confined in all she has, her monu- ment, who desires instruction of thy intents,'* &c. The words which the messenger utters are his own, as shown by " the queen, my mistress." It seems unlikely that this- " Egyptian," who is not accorded even the dignity of a name, would speak of Cleo- patra as a " poor Egyptian " (Hunter's suggestion), to say nothing of the rather saucy " but not less the queen, my mistress, '* the significance attached to " yet. n

E. MEBTON DEY,

St. Louis.

[These notes are the last that we have of our deceased contributor. The comments on ' Antony and Cleopatra ' are those referred to in our notice of the death of MB. MEBTON DEY (10 S. xi. 520).]

SHAKESPEARE ALLUSIONS. If it is desir- able to bring together the allusions to Shakespeare, the following should be added to the collection, though some of them, no doubt, have been separately noticed : Now we have taught our Love to know That it must creep where 't cannot go.

Suckling, ' Fragmenta Aurea,' 1646, p. 46. Then 'twas the Water's Love that made it flow,. For Love will creep where well it cannot go.

' Last Remains of Sir J. Suckling,' 1659, p. 26. When flowing cups run swiftly round With no allaying Thames.

Lovelace, ' Lucasta,' 1649, p. 97,

Suggested by " one that loves a cup of hot wine with not a drop of -allaying Tiber in 't," ' Coriolanus,' II. i. Now empty shows must want of sense supply, Angels shall dance, and Macbeth's witches fly.

Epilogue to ' The Ordinary : a Collection of Poems written upon Several Occa- sions,' 1673, p. 167.