SCENE IX.
Cæsar's camp.
Enter a Centinel, and his company. Enobarbus follows.
Cent.
If we be not reliev'd within this hour,
We must return to the court of guard1 note: The night
Is shiny; and, they say, we shall embattle
By the second hour i' the morn.
1 Sold.
This last day was a shrewd one to us.
Eno.
O, bear me witness, night!—
2 Sold.
What man is this?
1 Sold.
Stand close, and list him.
Eno.
Be witness to me, O thou blessed moon,
When men revolted shall upon record
Bear hateful memory, poor Enobarbus did
Before thy face repent!
Cent.
Enobarbus!
3 Sold.
Peace; hark further.
Eno.
O sovereign mistress of true melancholy,
The poisonous damp of night dispunge upon me;
-- 260 --
That life, a very rebel to my will,
May hang no longer on me: 2 noteThrow my heart
Against the flint and hardness of my fault;
Which, being dried with grief, will break to powder,
And finish all foul thoughts. O Antony,
Nobler than my revolt is infamous,
Forgive me in thine own particular;
But let the world rank me in register
A master-leaver, and a fugitive:
O Antony! O Antony!
[Dies.
1 Sold.
Let's speak to him.
Cent.
Let's hear him, for the things he speaks
My concern Cæsar.
2 Sold.
Let's do so. But he sleeps.
Cent.
Swoons rather; for so bad a prayer as his
Was never yet for sleep.
1 Sold.
Go we to him.
2 Sold.
Awake, sir, awake; speak to us.
1 Sold.
Hear you, sir?
Cent.
The hand of death hath raught him3 note
.
[Drums afar off.
4 noteHark, how the drums demurely wake the sleepers:
Let's bear him to the court of guard; he is
Of note: our hour is fully out.
-- 261 --
2 Sold.
Come on then;
He may recover yet.
[Exeunt, with the body.
Samuel Johnson [1778], The plays of William Shakspeare. In ten volumes. With the corrections and illustrations of various commentators; to which are added notes by Samuel Johnson and George Steevens. The second edition, Revised and Augmented (Printed for C. Bathurst [and] W. Strahan [etc.], London) [word count] [S10901].
