Read Antony and Cleopatra Online
Authors: William Shakespeare
Antony and Cleopatra (43 page)
14
Chain … neck
put your arms round my armor-clad neck
15
proof of harness
invulnerable armor
16
pants triumphing
in triumph on my panting breast
18
virtue
courage
22
something
somewhat
23
nerves
muscles
24
Get … youth
score as many victories as a young man (the image may be of running or of football)
25
Commend
entrust
28
such a shape
the shape of a man
31
carbuncled
studded with gems
32
holy Phoebus’ car
the chariot of the Greek and Roman sun god
34
targets
shields
owe
own
like … them
i.e. honorably (or possibly “hacked at like the soldiers they belong to”)
36
camp
accommodate
sup
eat
37
carouses
toasts
38
royal peril
great danger, fit for a king
39
brazen
brass/bold
40
Make mingle
combine your sounds with those of
taborins
drums
41
That … together
so that their sounds reverberate back and forth from earth to heaven
2
th’court of guard
the guardroom
3
shiny
bright
embattle
prepare for battle
5
shrewd
bad, difficult/damaging
8
close
concealed
list
listen to
10
When … memory
when deserters are remembered with hatred in written accounts
15
sovereign … melancholy
i.e. the moon, associated with melancholy and madness
16
damp of night
the damp night air was considered noxious
disponge
pour down as from a squeezed sponge
17
rebel … will
i.e. because Enobarbus wishes to die
19
flint
stony hardness
20
dried with grief
each sigh was thought to drain the heart of a drop of blood
23
thine own particular
personally
24
rank … register
publicly record me to be
25
fugitive
deserter
31
Swoons
faints
bad
desperate
36
raught
seized
37
demurely
quietly
39
of note
an important man
hour … out
time on duty is over
3
both
i.e. sea and land
4
i’th’fire or i’th’air
the remaining two of the four elements (air, earth, fire, water)
5
foot
infantry
8
put … haven
left the harbor
9
appointment
purpose/equipment
1
But being charged
unless we’re attacked
still
inactive
2
we shall
we will be able to do
3
vales
flat lands between hills
4
hold … advantage
stay in the most advantageous position
1
Yet … joined
battle has still not begun
5
augurers
Roman religious officials who predicted the future by interpreting, among other things, the behavior of birds
8
by starts
in turn
9
fretted
worn, decayed/checkered
15
Triple-turned whore!
i.e. Cleopatra, whose affections shifted three times: she had affairs with Julius Caesar, Gneius Pompey, and Antony
18
charm
enchantress
20
uprise
rising
23
spanieled
followed like fawning spaniels
24
discandy
dissolve
melt their sweets
the image is of dogs slobbering from the treats which have dissolved in their mouths
25
this pine
i.e. Antony himself
barked
stripped of its bark
27
grave
serious/deadly, dangerous
28
becked
gestured
29
Whose … end
i.e. whose love was the aim and achievement of my life
crownet
coronet
30
gipsy
believed to come from Egypt, proverbially deceitful
fast and loose
cheating game much practiced by Gypsies in which the victim bets on the apparent security of (or bets that he can secure) a cunningly coiled belt that is then readily unrolled; plays on the sense of “sexual cheating”
31
Beguiled
deceived
32
spell
enchantment
Avaunt!
Be gone!
35
blemish Caesar’s triumph
spoil Caesar’s triumphal procession (in which he intends to display you as a captive)
36
plebeians
commoners
37
spot
stain, blemish
38
monster-like, be shown
be exhibited like a freak at a fair
39
For
for the benefit of, to (an audience of)
poor’st diminutives
undergrown weaklings/dwarves
dolts
idiots
40
Patient
long-suffering
41
preparèd
ready and waiting
43
fell’st into
had fallen victim to
45
shirt of Nessus
the poisoned shirt that Hercules’ wife Deianira unwittingly gave him; it was soaked with the blood of the centaur Nessus, whom Hercules had shot with a poisoned arrow after the attempted rape of Deianira, and who had revenged himself by telling Deianira that his blood could be used as a love charm
46
Alcides
Hercules
47
Lichas
the servant who brought Hercules the poisoned shirt and who was thrown into the sea by his enraged and pain-crazed master
48
club
famous emblem of Hercules’ strength
49
worthiest
most heroic, noblest/most deserving of death
2
Telamon … shield
Telamonian Ajax went mad and killed himself when the shield and armor of the dead Achilles were awarded to Ulysses rather than himself
boar of Thessaly
sent by Diana to ravage the kingdom of Calydon in Thessaly, central Greece
3
embossed
driven to extremity, foaming at the mouth (used of a hunted animal)
4
th’monument
the tomb, burial chamber
6
rive
split
7
going off
departing, being lost
1
thou … me
can you still see me (Antony feels himself to have become insubstantial)
3
dragonish
dragon-shaped
5
pendent
jutting, overhanging
6
promontory
headland
8
mock
deceive
signs
images/omens/pretenses
9
vespers’s
evening
pageants
theatrical shows/empty illusions/tricks
11
with a thought
as quick as thought
12
rack
cloud (plays on the sense of “torture instrument that dislocates the limbs”)
dislimns
paints out, obliterates (puns on “dislimbs,” i.e. removes the limbs from their sockets)
15
knave
boy, lad
18
Egypt
the Queen of Egypt
22
Packed
stacked, shuffled
false-played
falsely played away
23
triumph
victory/trump card
26
robbed … sword
destroyed my soldiership/emasculated me
28
mingled … entirely
were completely bound up with yours
30
saucy
impudent
33
discharged
paid in full
34
unto thy hand
for you
37
divided … lips
she spoke half of your name before she died, the rest was still in her heart
38
rendered
surrendered, gave up
43
That … richly
you may consider yourself amply rewarded by the fact that I haven’t harmed you
43
That … richly
you may consider yourself amply rewarded by the fact that I haven’t harmed you
46
seven-fold … Ajax
Ajax’s bronze shield was backed by seven layers of oxhide
47
battery
assault with heavy blows, bombardment
cleave
split
48
continent
container
49
Apace
quickly
50
bruisèd pieces
dented armor
51
From
leave
54
length
delay
torch
i.e. the life of Cleopatra (aural play on
torture
)
56
very … strength
as an animal caught in a net is entangled by its efforts to escape
57
Seal
conclude
58
Stay
wait
59
souls … flowers
i.e. the paradisiacal Elysian Fields, where, in Greek mythology, the blessed went after death
couch
lie
60
sprightly port
lively bearing
61
Dido … Aeneas
emblematic tragic lovers in Virgil’s
Aeneid
; the Trojan hero, Aeneas, survived the sack of Troy, landed at Carthage in north Africa, and became the lover of Queen Dido, whom he eventually abandoned to found Rome; she committed suicide in despair
want troops
lack followers
62
all … ours
all will follow us (
haunt
plays on its ghostly sense)
63
would
wishes
67
green Neptune’s back
the sea, of which Neptune was the Roman god
68
With … cities
commanded fleets of ships so large that they were like cities
to lack
for lacking
72
exigent
emergency/urgent legal summons
74
prosecution
pursuit/persecution/carrying out of legal proceedings
79
withhold
restrain/preserve
80
Parthian darts
arrows of the Parthians, famous for shooting backward on horseback