Ambassadors from Antony to Cajar, Captains, Soldiers, Meffengers, and other Attendants. That o'er the files and mufters of the war [turn, The office and devotion of their view To cool a 2 gypfy's luft.-Look, where they come Flourish. Enter Antony and Cleopatra, with their trains; Eunuchs fanning her. Take but good note, and you shall fee in him Clo. If it be love indeed, tell me how much. Cleo. I'll fet a bourn 4 how far to be belov'd. Ant. Then must thou needs find out new hea ven, new earth. Enter a Melinger. Mef. News, my good lord, from Rome. Ant. Grates me :-The fum 5. Cleo. Nay, hear them, Antony: If the fearce-bearded Cxfar have not fent Fulvia, perchance, is angry; or, who knows His powerful mandate to you," Do this, or this; "Take in that kingdom, and enfranchise that; "Perform 't, or elfe we damn thee. Ant. How, my love! Cleo. Perchance,-nay, and most like, You must not stay here longer, your difmiffion Call in the meffengers.-As I am Ægypt's queen, Ant. Let Rome in Tyber melt! and the wide Of the rang'd empire fall! Here is my space; I i. e. renounces. 2 Gyffy is here ufed both in the original meaning for an Egyptian, and in its accidental fenfe for a bad woman. 3 Triple is here ufed improperly for third, or one of three. One of the triumvirs, one of the three mafters of the world. 4 i. c bound or limit. 51. e. be brief, fur thy bufinets in a few words. Kingdoms Kingdoms are clay: our dungy earth alike [Embracing. And fuch a twain can do 't; in which, I bind, Cleo. Excellent falfhood! Why did he marry Fulvia, and not love her?- Ant. But 2 ftirr'd by Cleopatra.-- Now, for the love of love, and his foft hours, Ant. Fye, wrangling queen! A little I can read. Alex. Shew him your hand. Enter Enobarbus. Eno. Bring in the banquet quickly; wine enough, Char. Good fir, give me good fortune. Char. Pray then, forefee me one. Scoth. You fhall be yet far fairer than you are. Iras. No, you fhall paint when you are old. Alex. Vex not his prefcience; be attentive. Sooth. You fhall be more beloving, than belov'd Char. Good now, fome excellent fortune! Le me be married to three kings in a forenoon, and widow them all! let me have a child at fifty, to whom Herod of Jewry may do homage! find me to marry with Octavius Cæfar, and companies Whom every thing becomes, to chide, to laugh, Sooth. You fhall out-live the lady whom you ferve. Char. O excellent! I love long life better than figs 7. Sooth. You have feen and prov'd a fairer former Than that which is to approach. [fortune Char. Then, belike, my children shall have no names: Pr'ythee, how many boys and wenbes muft I have? Sooth. If every of your wishes had a womb, And foretel every with, a million 9. Char. Out, fool! I forgive thee for a witch. Alex. You think, none but your sheets are proy to your wishes. Char. Nay, come, tell Iras hers. Enter Charmian, Iras, Alexas, and a Soothsayer.fhall be-drunk to bed. Char. Is this the man ?- -Is't you, fir, that prognoftication, I cannot fcratch mine ear. Sooth. In nature's infinite book of fecrecy, 1 To know. Pr'ythee, tell her but a worky-day fortune. 2 But here fignifies unless. 3 Meaning, that he proves the common lyar, fame, in his cafe to be a true reporter. 4 Dr. Johnfon doubts, whether change in this place may not ig nity merely to dress, or to dress with changes of garlands; certain it is, that change of clothes in the time of Shakspeare fignified variety of them. 5 A heated liver is fuppofed to make a pimpled face. 6 Herod was always one of the perfonages in the myfteries of our early stage, on which t was conftantly reprefented as a fierce, haughty, bluftering tyrant, fo that Herod of Jewry became a common proverb, expreffive of turbulence and rage. Thus Hamlet fays of a ranting player, that be « out-herods Herod." The meaning then is, Charmian wishes for a fon, who may arrive to fuch power and dominion, that the proudeft and fiercelt monarchs of the earth may be brought under his yoke. 7 A proverbial expreflion. 8 A fairer fortune may mean, a more reputable one. Her aufwer then im plies, that belike all her children will be baftards, who have no right to the name of their father's fami ly. 9 The meaning is, If you had as many wombs as you will have withes, and fhould foretel all those wifhes, I fhould foretel a million of children. It is an ellipfis very frequent in converfation;-I fhould fhame you, and tell all; that is, and if I fhould tell all. And is for and if, which was anciently, and is itill provincially ufed for if. Seeth Sonth. Your fortunes are alike. Hath, with his Parthian force, extended Afia, Iras. But how, but how? give me particulars. From Euphrates his conquering banner shook, Iras. Am I not an inch of fortune better than Whilft The? Char. Well, if you were but an inch of fortune better than I, where would you choose it? Iras. Not in my husband's nose. Char. Our worfer thoughts heavens mend !Alexas, come, his fortune, his fortune.-O let him marry a woman that cannot go, fweet Ifis, I befeech thee! And let her die too, and give him a worfe! and let worfe follow worfe, 'till the worst of all follow him laughing to his grave, fiftyfold a cuckold! Good Ifis, hear me this prayer, though thou deny me a matter of more weight; good Ifis, I befeech thee! Iras. Amen. Dear goddefs, hear that prayer of the people! for, as it is a heart-breaking to fee a handsome man loofe-wiv'd, fo it is a deadly forrow to behold a foul knave uncuckolded; Therefore, dear Isis, keep decorum, and fortune him accordingly. Char. Amen. Alex. Lo, now! if it lay in their hands to make me a cuckold, they would make themfelves whores, but they'd do't. Eno. Huth! here comes Antony. Char. Not he, the queen. Enter Cleopatra. Cleo. Saw you my lord? Eno. No, lady. Cleo. Was he not here? Char. No, madam. Ant. Antony, thou wouldst say,— [tongue; Ant. Speak to me home, mince not the general When our quick winds lie ftill2; and our ills told us, Thefe ftrong Ægyptian fetters I must break, Or lofe myself in dotage.-What are you? [one? Her length of fickness, with what elfe more ferious The oppofite of itfelf: the's good, being gone; [on. Cleo. He was difpos'd to mirth; but on the fud-1 muft from this enchanting queen break off; Ten thousand harms, more than the ills I know, -Enobar- My idleness doth hatch.-How now! Enobarbus ! Enter Enobarbus. [bus, [Alexas? Where's Eno. What's your pleasure, fir? Cleo. Seek him, and bring him hither. Eno. Why, then we kill all our women: We Cleo. We will not look upon him: Go with us.fee how mortal an unkindness is to them; if they fuffer our departure, death's the word. Eno. Under a compelling occafion, let women die: It were pity to caft them away for nothing; though, between them and a great caufe, they should be esteem'd nothing. Cleopatra, catching but the leaft noife of this, dies inftantly; I have feen her die twenty times upon far poorer moment 5: I do think, there is mettle in death, which cominits fome loving act upon her, the hath fuch a celerity in dying. Ant. She is cunning paft man's thought. Eno. Alack, fir, no; her paffions are made of nothing but the finest part of pure love: We cannot call her winds and waters, fighs and tears; they are greater ftorms and tempefts than alinanacks can report: this cannot be cunning in her; 4 Could for would. 5 i. e. for lefs 1 i. e. feized. 2 The fenfe is, that man, not agitated by cenfure, like foil not ventilated by 31. e. by change of circun flances. quick winds, produces more evil than good. the old plays. Could, would, and should, are very often indifcriminately uled reafon; upon meaner motives, if it be, he makes a fhower of rain as well as Say, I am dancing; if in mirth, report Ant. 'Would I had never feen her! Eno. O, fir, you had then left unfeen a wonderful piece of work; which not to have been bleft withal, would have difcredited your travel. Ant. Fulvia is dead. En. Sir? Ant. Fulvia is dead. Eno. Fulvia? Ant. Dead. Eno. Why, fir, give the gods a thankful facri [Exit You do not hold the method to enforce fice. When it pleafeth their deities to take the In time we hate that which we often fear. Enter Antony. But here comes Antony. wife of a man from him, it fhews to man the tai- Thould water this forrow. Ant. The bufinefs the hath broach'd in the state, Cannot endure my absence. int. Now, my deareft queen,➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖ Cleo. Pray you, stand farther from me. [ new, Cleo. I know, by that fame eye, there's fome good Eno. And the bufinefs you have broach'd here What fays the marry'd woman ?—You may gʊ; cannot be without you; especially that of Cleo-'Would, the had never given you leave to come! patra's, which wholly depends on your abode. Let her not fay, 'tis I that keep you here, Ant. No more light anfwers. Let our officers I have no power upon you; hers you are. So mightily betray'd! Yet, at the first, The death of Fulvia, with more urgent touches 3, I faw the treafons planted. Do strongly fpeak to us; but the letters too Eno. I fhall do't. [Exeunt. Enter Cleopatra, Charmian, Iras, and Alexas. Cleo. Where is he? Char. I did not fee him fince. The strong necellity of time commands Our fervices a while; but my full heart [does-Remains in ufe with you. Our Italy Cla. See where he is, who's with him, what he Shines o'er with civil fwords: Sextus Pompeius I did not fend you ;—If you find him fad, Makes his approaches to the port of Rome : 6 The meaning is this: "As the gods have been pleafed to take away your wife Fulvia, fo they have provided you with a new one in Cleopatra; in like manner as the tailors of the earth, when your old garments are worn out, accommodate you with new ones." 2 Expedience for expedition. 3 i. e. things that touch me more fenfibly. 4 i. e. with us at home. Alluding to an old ick notion, that the hair of a horfe dropped into corrupted water, will turn to an an mal. 6 Yea mufl go as if you came without my order or knowledge. 7 i. e. in the arch of our eye-brows. i. e. had a mack or favour of heaven. The race of wine is the tails of the foil. Equality quality of two domeftic powers reeds fcrupulous faction: The hated, grown to -re newly grown to love: the condemn'd Pompey, pon the present state, whofe numbers threaten; Look here, and, at thy fovereign leifure, read Cleo. O moft falfe love! Where be the facred vials thou fhouldft fill Cleo. Cut my lace, Charmian, come ;- Ant. My precious queen, forbear; And give true evidence to his love, which stands Cleo. So Fulvia told me. I prythee, turn afide, and weep for her; Ant. You'll heat my blood; no more. Cleo. You can do better yet; but this is meetly. Clo. And target.-Still he mends; But this is not the beft: Look, pr'ythee, Charmian, Ant. I'll leave you, lady. Cleo. Courteous lord, one word. O, my oblivion is a very Antony, Ant. But that your royalty Holds idleness your fubject, I should take you Cleo. 'Tis fweating labour, To bear fuch idlenefs fo near the heart Ant. Let us go. Come; SCENE IV. [Exeunt Enter Octavius Cæfar, Lepidus, and Attendants. Caef. You may fee, Lepidus, and henceforth know, It is not Cæfar's natural vice to hate One great competitor: From Alexandria This is the news; He fithes, drinks, and wastes A man, who is the abstract of all faults Lep. I must not think, there are Cf. You are too indulgent: Let us grant, it is [tony (As his compofure must be rare indeed, 4 i. e. to me, 6 The 1 i. e. the commotion fhe occafioned. The word is derived from the old French garbouil, which 2 Alluding to the lachrymatory vials, or bottles of Cotgrave explains by hurlyburly, great flir. 3 So for as. tears, which the Romans fometimes put into the urn of a friend. the queen of Ægypt. 5 Antony traced his defcent from Anton, a fon of Hercules. plain meaning is, My forgetfulness makes me forget myfelf. But the expreffes it by calling forgetfulness 7 i. e. according to Warburton, Antony; becaule forgetfulness had torgot her, as Antony had done. But that your charms hold me, who am the greatelt fool on earth, in chains, I fhould have adjudged you to be the greateft." 8 Cleopatra may perhaps here allude to Antony having before called her, in the firit fcene, "wrangling queen, whom every thing becomes." 9 The meaning, according to Mr. Malone, is, "As the itars or fpots of heaven are not obfcured, but rather rendered more bright, by the blackness of the night, fo neither is the goodnefs of Antony eclipfed by his evil quali tics, but, on the contrary, his faults feem enlarged and aggravated by his virtues." levity. Dddz 19 i, e. trifling |