The mountains begin to
dislimn, and float in the air" (447).
Abandoned by his friend Enobarbus and his partner Cleopatra, and believing that Cleopatra has betrayed him to Caesar, Antony says that his very body has become cloud-like-"the rack
dislimns"; he feels himself becoming as "indistinct as water is in water." He is at this moment not unlike an early-stage Alzheimer's patient.
That which is now a horse, even with a thought The rack
dislimns, and makes it indistinct As water is in water My good knave Eros, now thy captain is Even such a body.
These seemingly solid and visible shapes are as insubstantial as his political power and control of Egypt have become: "even with a thought / The rack
dislimns, and makes it indistinct / As water is in water....
"'The rack
dislimns': Schema and Metaphorical Pattern in Antony and Cleopatra." Poetics Today 20 (1999): 443-60.
They were dollar bills, but they limned and
dislimned and flowed and contorted, and they were suddenly chairs, flowerpots, roosters, beanpoles, ladders, snakes, pots and pans, even (and with the possibility of an entire drawing appearing only on a single frame--1/24th of a second--how could you be sure?) jerries or pots de chambre.