We have a similar expression in The tempest, Act V. Scene 1, where Prospero says,
"Holy Gonzalo, honourable man,
Mine eyes even sociable to the shew of thine,
Fall fellowly drops."
[ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA.]
ACT I.
Scene 1. Page 410.
Ant. Let Rome in Tiber melt! and the wide arch
Of the rang'd empire fall! Here is my space.
As range signifies compass, extent, so the verb seems to be used, rather licentiously, in the present instance, in the sense of spread, extended. It may be doubted, at least, whether there be any allusion to a triumphal arch, as Dr. Warburton supposed, or even of a fabric standing on pillars, according to Dr. Johnson. The wide arch may refer to the vast concave of the Roman world, its wide domains covered by the arch of heaven, which has been beautifully styled by some oriental writer "the star-built arch of heaven." See The tales of Inatulla by Dow, vol. i. p. 78.
Scene 3. Page 440.