Hang in what place you please. Here, my good lord:: Cæs. You shall advise me in all for Cleopatra. Cleo. This is the brief of money, plate, and jewels, I am possessed of: 't is exactly valued; Cleo. This is my treasurer: let him speak, my lord, Upon his peril, that I have reserved To myself nothing.-Speak the truth, Seleucus. I had rather seel my lips than, to my peril, Cleo. What have I kept back? Sel. Enough to purchase what you have made known. Cæs. Nay, blush not, Cleopatra: I approve Your wisdom in the deed. Cæs. Good queen, let us entreat you. Cleo. O Cæsar, what a wounding shame is this, To one so meek, that mine own servant should As we greet modern friends withal; and say, With one that I have bred? The gods! it smites Put we i' the roll of conquest: still be it yours, Make not your thoughts your prisons; no, dear queen; For we intend so to dispose you as Cæs. Not so: adieu. [Exeunt CÆSAR and Train. Be noble to myself: but hark thee, Charmian. Adieu, good queen: I must attend on Cæsar. Cleo. Nay, 't is most certain, Iras: saucy lictors Will catch at us like strumpets, and scald rhymers Ballad us out o'tune: the quick comedians Enter one of the Guard. Guard. Here is a rural fellow That will not be denied your highness' presence: He brings you figs. Cleo. Let him come in. [Exit Guard].-How May do a noble deed! he brings me liberty. Re-enter Guard, with a Clown bringing a basket. Guard. This is the man. Cleo. Avoid, and leave him.- [Exit Guard. Hast thou the pretty worm of Nilus there, That kills and pains not? Clown. Truly I have him: but I would not be the party that should desire you to touch him, for his biting is immortal: those that do die of it, do seldom or never recover. Cleo. Remember'st thou any that have died on't? Clown. Very many, men and women too. I heard of one of them no longer than yesterday: a very honest woman, but something given to lie, as a woman should not do but in the way of honesty how she died of the biting of it, what pain she felt; truly she makes a very good report o' the worm: but he that will believe all that they say, shall never be saved by half that they do. But this is most fallible,-the worm's : an odd worm. Immortal longings in me: now no more To praise my noble act: I hear him mock I give to baser life.-So; have you done? Char. Dissolve, thick cloud, and rain: that I may say, The gods themselves do weep! This proves me base: [To the asp, which she applies to her breast. With thy sharp teeth this knot intrinsicate Of life at once untie: poor venomous fool, Cleo. As sweet as balm, as soft as air, as gentle,O Antony!-Nay, I will take thee too : [Applying another asp to her arm. What should I stay- [Falls on a bed, and dies. Char. In this wild world?-So, fare thee well.Now boast thee, death! in thy possession lies A lass unparalleled.-Downy windows, close; And golden Phoebus never be beheld Of eyes again so royal!-Your crown 's awry: I'll mend it, and then play. Enter the Guard, rushing in. 1st Guard. Where is the queen? Char. Speak softly; wake her not. 1st Guard. Cæsar hath sent That so she died; for her physician tells me Of easy ways to die.-Take up her bed, NOTES. "Take but good note, and you shall see in him Triple is here used for third, or one of three; meaning one of the triumvirs, or masters of the world. The word is used in the same sense in "ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL:" "Which, as the dearest issue of his practice, To-night we'll wander through the streets, and note Sometime also, when he would go up and down the city disguised like a slave in the night, and would peer into poor men's windows and their shops, and scold and brawl with them within the house, Cleopatra would be also in a chambermaid's array, and amble up and down the streets with him.-PLUTARCH (North's translation). "I'm full sorry That he approves the common liar, who Thus speaks of him at Rome."-Act I., Scene 1. Meaning, that he proves the common liar, Fame, to be a true reporter in his case. Look, pr'y thee, Charmian, How this Herculean Roman does become Antony professed to trace his descent from Anton, a son of Hercules. "When thou once Wast beaten from Modena (where thou slew'st Cicero, on the other side, being the chiefest man of authority and estimation in the city, he stirred up all men against Antonius; so that in the end he made the Senate pronounce him an enemy to his country, and appointed young Cæsar sergeants to carry axes before him, and such other signs as were incident to the dignity of a consul or prætor; and moreover sent Hirtius and Pansa, then consuls, to drive Antonius out of Italy. These two consuls, together with Cæsar, who also had an army, went against Antonius, that besieged the city of Modena, and there overthrew him in battle; but both the consuls were slain there. Antonius, flying upon this overthrow, fell into great misery all at once; but the chiefest want of all other, and that which pinched him most, was famine. Howbeit he was of such a strong nature, that by patience he would overcome any adversity; and the heavier fortune lay upon him, the more constant shewed he himself. Every man that feeleth want or adversity, knoweth by virtue and discretion what he should do: but when indeed they are overlaid with extremity, and be sore oppressed, few have the hearts to follow that which they praise and commend, and much less to avoid that they reprove and mislike; but rather to the contrary, they yield to their accustomed easy life, and through faint heart and lack of courage do change their first mind and purpose. And therefore it was a wonderful example to the soldiers to see Antonius, that was brought up in all fineness and superfluity, so easily to drink puddle-water, and to eat wild fruits and roots and moreover it is reported that even, as they passed the Alps, they did eat the barks of trees, and such beasts as never man tasted of their flesh before.PLUTARCH. "Let us rear The higher our opinion, that our stirring Can from the lap of Egypt's widow pluck The ne'er lust-wearied Antony."-Act II., Scene 1. Cleopatra is styled "Egypt's widow" because Julius Cæsar had married her to young Ptolemy, who was afterwards drowned. -"Near him, thy angel Becomes a Fear, as being o'erpowered."—Act II., Scene 3. A Fear was a personage in some of the old Moralities. Fletcher alludes to such an imaginary being in the "MAID'S TRAGEDY," where Aspasia is instructing her servants how, in needlework, to describe her situation : "And then a Fear: Do that Fear bravely, wench." "His cocks do win the battle still of mine When it is all to nought; and his quails ever Shakspere derived this from Plutarch. The ancients used to match quails as we match cocks. Julius Pollox relates that a circle was made in which the birds were placed, and he whose quail was first driven out of the circle lost the stake. We are told by Mr. Marsden that the Sumatrans practise these quail combats. The Chinese have always been extremely fond of quail fighting. Mr. Douce has given a print, from an elegant Chinese miniature painting, which represents some ladies engaged at this amusement, where the quails are actually inhooped.—SINGER. Inhooped, means inclosed or confined, that they may be compelled to fight. 16 They are his shards, and he their beetle."- This is spoken of Lepidus. The meaning is that Antony and Octavius are the wings that raise this heavy lumpish insect from the ground. In "MACBETH" we find mention of the "shard-borne beetle." "ENO. Will Cæsar weep? AGR. He has a cloud in's face. ENO. He were the worse for that were he a horse.”— A horse is said to have a cloud in his face when he has a black or dark-coloured spot in his forehead between his eyes. This gives him a sour look, and, being supposed to indicate an ill temper, is of course regarded as a great blemish.-STEEVENS. |