Sooth. Cæsar's. Therefore, O Antony, stay not by his side: Where Cæsar's is not; but near him thy angel Notwithstanding the high eulogiums which have been lavished on this wonderful play, on making, as it were, an anatomical dissection thereof, we are forced to confess, the two last scenes in the second act bear all the appearance of an interpolation, as not being necessary to the action of the piece; but such is not really the case; Schlegel hits the mark, when he says, "under the apparent artlessness of adhering closely to history, as he (Sh.) found it, an uncommon degree of art is concealed;" certainly, a degree of art that Schlegel never dreamt of. Learned physiologists have supposed, that Nature inserted the spleen into our left side merely to fill up a vacuum; but, in reality, she put it there for a specific purpose of her own, and not merely to stop up a hole and give us poor mortals the ague and spleen; so in like manner these two scenes, with a dinner of jolly fellows and an Emperor drunk, Shakspere also inserted for a specific purpose of his own, and not merely to fill up a gap and give the ague and spleen to the critics of France. "William Earl of Pembroke was the most universally beloved and esteemed of any man of that age." "He was not only a great favourer of learned and ingenious men, but was himself learned, and endowed to admiration with a poetical genie, as by t.jose amorous and not inelegant aires and poems of his composition doth evidently appear; some of which had musical notes set to them by Henry Lawes." Heminge and Condell, in the dedication of Shakspere's Plays in 1623, to William Earl of Pembroke, and Philip Earl of Montgomery, his brother, thus testify to the friendly connection between the Earl and the Poet : "But since your Lordshippes have beene pleased to thinke these trifles some-thing heereto-fore, and have prosequuted both them, and their author living, with so much favour: we hope that (they out-living him, and he not having the fate, common with some, to be exequutor to his owne writings), you will use the like indulgence towards them, you have done unto their parent." Ant. Our slippery people begin to throw Pompey the Great, and all his dignities, and again,— Ant. I did not think to draw my sword 'gainst Pompey ; Of late upon me. Pompey twice remarks, replying to Antony, "At land, indeed thou dost o'ercount me of my father's house." "O, Antony, you have my father's house;" what is all this about my father's house? True, Antony had bought the house of Pompey the Great and forgot to pay for it; but it is in these apparent 2 trifles, that Shakspere shows his wonderful art, there being a concealed meaning attached to them; as if the nephew of Sir Philip Sydney had said, "You stand in my uncle's shoes, you are now the great poet of the day;" as Wm. Herbert himself was "endowed to admiration with a poetical genie," he thus stood to Shakspere in the same relative position that Pompey did to Antony. Again, to Menas' proposal to murder "these three world-sharers" now in his galley, Pompey replies : Thou must know, 'Tis not my profit that does lead mine honour; Mine honour, it. How comes it, that Shakspere did not use the very words of Pompey according to North's Plutarch, which are grander, more appropriate, and fall so naturally into verse (6 as for myself, I was never taught to break my faith, nor to be counted a traitor." Why does he change these words into modern phraseology about honour,—because Shakspere's opinion, derived from personal observation and acquaintance, coincided with what Clarendon says of the Earl of Pembroke (vide Boaden on the Sonnets, I like to give my authority), "after whose death he had likewise such offices of his as he most affected, of honour and command; none of profit, which he cared not for;" therefore, to speak with Boaden-like positiveness-" there can be no doubt about it—the fact is upon record” Pompey is William Herbert-"the quotation" from Clarendon proves it. It is also evident, that W. II. H. knew something about the love affair, Pom. Then so much have I heard : And I have heard, Apollodorus carried Eno. No more of that:-He did so. Pom. What, I pray you? Eno. A certain queen to Cæsar in a mattress. What does this mean, but the recognition of the Earls, Pembroke and Southampton, under these assumed names. In act ii. sc. 6, is the following discourse between Menas and Enobarbus: Eno. You have done well by water. Men. And you by land. Eno. I will praise any man that will praise me; Though it cannot be denied what I have done by land. Men. Nor what I have done by water. Eno. Yes, something you can deny for your own safety : Men. And you by land. Eno. There I deny my land service. How trifling and unmeaning is such a conversation between these two great officers; but when we know, that Menas, the pirate, is Thomas Thorpe, the piratical publisher, and Enobarbus, Lord Southampton, there comes a change over the scene; then is Southampton's repentant expression, "there I deny my land service," highly amusing and rich in the extreme. Marlowe was a learned man, but had no wit or humour in him; a worthless character, drunken and irreligious; vide his Life and Writings, by Rev. A. Dyce. Chapman was a man religious and temperate qualities Marlowe appears not to have possessed." r "Then weeneth he his base drink-drowned spright "A poet was he of repute, And wrote full many a playe, Then begging by the way." "It was not the production of Marlowe, to whom, we have good reason to believe, Nature had denied even a moderate talent for the humorous.” Julius Cæsar, act iv. scene 1 :— Ant. But, Lepidus, go you to Cæsar's house; [Exit Lepidus. A barren-spirited fellow; one that feeds On objects, arts, and imitations, Which, out of use, and stal'd by other men, How accurate is this description: a slight unmeritable man; barren-spirited, no wit or humour in him; feeds on objects and arts—a learned man; and imitations stal'd by other men, a direct reference to Sonnets 55, 56, and 57; this line, "feeds on objects, arts, and imitations," has much distressed and sorely puzzled the critical mind; but Marlowe is the pass-word; Octavius, however, says, "he is a tried and valiant. soldier; to be sure, he has done some service--written Tamburlaine and Faustus. وو In Antony and Cleopatra, act ii. scene 7, Antony "hoaxes Lepidus with the most admirable fooling," at Pompey's feast. |