it is great
To do that thing, that ends all other deeds;
Which shackles accidents, and bolts up change;
Which sleeps, and never palates more the dung,
The beggar's nurse, and Caesar's]
[Warburton added a whole line and emended "dung" to "dugg"] I cannot
perceive the loss of a line, or the need of an emendation. The
commentator seems to have entangled his own ideas; his supposition that
_suicide_ is called _the beggar's nurse and Caesar's_, and his
concession that the position is _intelligible_, show, I think, a mind
not intent upon the business before it. The difficulty of the passage,
if any difficulty there be, arises only from this, that the act of
suicide, and the state which is the effect of suicide are confounded.
Voluntary death, says she, is an act _which bolts up change_; it
produces a state,
_Which sleeps, and never palates more the dung,
The beggar's nurse, and Caesar's_.
Which has no longer need of the gross and terrene sustenance, in the use
of which Caesar and the beggar are on a level.
The speech is abrupt, but perturbation in such a state is surely
natural.
V.ii.29 (249,4) I am his fortune's vassal, and I send him/The greatness
he has got] I allow him to be my conqueror; I own his superiority with
complete submission.
V.ii.34 (249,5) You see how easily she may be surpriz'd] This line in
the first edition is given not to Charuian, but to Proculeius; and to
him it certainly belongs, though perhaps misplaced. I would put it at
the end of his foregoing speech,
_Where he for grace is kneel'd to._
[Aside to Gallus.] _You see, how easily she may be surpriz'd._
Then while Cleopatra makes a formal answer, Gallus, upon the hint given,
seizes her, and Proculeius, interrupting the civility of his answer,
_--your plight is pity'd
Of him that caus'd it._
Cries out,
_Guard her till, Caesar come._
V.ii.40 (250,6) who are in this/Reliev'd, but not betray'd] [W:
Bereav'd, but] I do not think the emendation necessary, since the sense
is not made better by it, and the abruptness in Cleopatra's answer is
more forcible in the old reading.
V.ii.42 (250,7) rids our dogs of languish] For _languish_, I think we
may read, _anguish_.
V.ii.48 (251,8) Worth many babes and beggars] Why, death, wilt thou not
rather seize a queen, than employ thy force upon _babes_ and _beggars_.
(see 1765, VII, 238, 9)
V.ii.50 (251,9) If idle talk will once be necessary] [This nonsense
should be reformed thus,
_If idle_ TIME _whill once be necessary._
i.e. if _repose_ be necessary to cherish life, I will not sleep.
WARBURTON.] I do not see that the nonsense is made sense by the change.
Sir T. Hanmer reads,
_If idle talk will once be_ accessary;
Neither is this better. I know not what to offer better than an easy
explanation. That is, _I will not eat_, and _if it will be necessary now
for once_ to waste a moment in _idle talk_ of my purpose, _I will not
sleep neither_. In common conversation we often use _will be_, with as
little relation to futurity. As, Now I am going, it _will be_ fit for me
to dine first.