Iras. Do, most dear queen.
Char. Do! why, what else?
Cleo. Let me sit down.

Ant. No, no, no, no, no.

Eros. See you here, sir?
Ant. O fye, fye, fye.

Char. Madam,

O Juno !

Iras. Madam; O good empress !—
Eros. Sir, sir,-

Ant. Yes, my lord, yes ;-He, at Philippi, kept,
His sword even like a dancer; while I struck
The lean and wrinkled Cassius; and 'twas I,
That the mad Brutus ended:" he alone
Dealt on lieutenantry, and no practice had
In the brave squares
of war: Yet now-

Cleo. Ah, stand by.

8

-No matter.

Eros. The queen, my lord, the queen.
Iras. Go to him, madam, speak to him;

He is unqualitied with very shame.

Cleo. Well then,-Sustain me:-O!

Eros. Most noble sir, arise; the queen approaches; Her head's declin'd, and death will seize her; but

Your comfort makes the rescue.

Ant. I have offended reputation ;

A most unnoble swerving.

Eros. Sir, the queen.

Ant. O, whither hast thou led me, Egypt? See, How I convey my shame out of thine eyes

[6] In the Morisco, and perhaps anciently in the Pyrrhick dance, the dancers held swords in their hands with the points upward. JOHNSON.

I believe it means that Cæsar never offered to draw his sword, but kept it in the scabbard, like one who dances with a sword on, which was formerly the custom in England. STEEVENS. Bertram, lamenting that he is kept from the wars,

says....

"I shall stay here the forehorse to a smock,
Creaking my shoes on the plain masonry,
Till honour be bought up, and no sword worn,
But one to dance with."

The word worn shows that in both passages our author was thinking of the English, and not of the Pyrrhick, or the Morisco, dance, (as Dr. Johnson supposed,) in which the sword was not worn at the side, but held in the hand with the point up

ward.

MALONE.

[7] Nothing can be more in character, than for an infamous debauched tyrant to call the heroic love of one's country and public liberty, madness. WARBURTON. [8] I know not whether the meaning is, that Cæsar acted only as lieutenant at Philippi, or that he made his attempts only on lieutenants, and left the generals to Antony. JOHNSON. Dealt on lieutenancy, I believe, means only,-fought by proxy, made war by his lieutenants, or on the strength of his lieutenauts. [9] But has here, the force of except, or unless. JOHNSON.

By looking back on what I have left behind 'Stroy'd in dishonour.

Cleo. O my lord, my lord!

Forgive my fearful sails! I little thought,
You would have follow'd.

Ant. Egypt, thou knew'st too well,

My heart was to thy rudder tied by the strings,
And thou shouldst tow me after: O'er my spirit
Thy full supremacy thou knew'st; and that'
Thy beck might from the bidding of the gods
Command me.

Cleo. O, my pardon.

Ant. Now I must

To the young man send humble treaties, dodge
And palter in the shifts of lowness; who
With half the bulk o'the world play'd as I pleas'd,
Making, and marring fortunes. You did know,
How much you were my conqueror; and that
My sword, made weak by my affection, would
Obey it on all cause.

Cleo. O pardon, pardon.

Ant. Fall not a tear, I say; one of them rates
All that is won and lost: Give me a kiss ;
Even this repays me.-We sent our schoolmaster,
Is he come back?-Love, I am full of lead :-
Some wine, within there, and our viands:

knows,

We scorn her most, when most she offers blows.

-Fortune

SCENE X.

[Exeunt.

CESAR'S Camp, in Egypt. Enter CESAR, DOLABELLA,

THYREUS, and others.

Cæs. Let him appear that's come from Antony.

Know you him?

Dol. Cæsar, 'tis his schoolmaster :3

An argument that he is pluck'd, when hither

He sends so poor a pinion of his wing,

Which had superfluous kings for messengers,
Not many moons gone by.

That is, by the heart-string. JOHNSON.
He was schoolmaster to Antony's children by Cleopatra.

MALONE.

Enter EUPHRONIUS.

Cæs. Approach, and speak.

Eup. Such as I am, I come from Antony : I was of late as petty to his ends,

As is the morn-dew on the myrtle leaf

To his grand sea.

Cæs. Be it so ; Declare thine office.

Eup. Lord of his fortunes he salutes thee, and
Requires to live in Egypt: which not granted,
He lessens his requests; and to thee sues

To let him breathe between the heavens and earth,
A private man in Athens: This for him.
Next, Cleopatra does confess thy greatness;
Submits her to thy might; and of thee craves
The circle of the Ptolemies for her heirs,*
Now hazarded to thy grace.

Caes. For Antony,

I have no ears to his request. The queen
Of audience, nor desire, shall fail; so she
From Egypt drive her all-disgraced friend,
Or take his life there: This if she perform,
She shall not sue unheard. So to them both.
Eup. Fortune pursue thee!

Cas. Bring him through the bands.

[Exit Eur.

To try thy eloquence, now 'tis time: Despatch;

From Antony win Cleopatra: promise,

[To THYREUS.

And in our name, what she requires; add more,
From thine invention, offers: women are not,

In their best fortunes, strong; but want will perjure

The ne'er-touch'd vestal. Try thy cunning, Thyreus ;
Make thine own edict for thy pains, which we
Will answer as a law.

Thyr. Cæsar, I go.

Cas. Observe how Antony becomes his flaw ;*
And what thou think'st his very action speaks
In every power that moves.

Thyr. Cæsar, I shall.

[4] The circle---the diadem; the ensign of royalty.

[Exeunt.

JOHNSON.

[5] i. e. how Antony conforms himself to this breach of his fortune. JOHNSON.

SCENE XI.

Enter CLEOPATRA,

Alexandria. A Room in the Palace.
ENOBARBUS, CHARMIAN, and IRAS.

Cleo. What shall we do, Enobarbus ?
Eno. Think, and die."

Cleo. Is Antony, or we, in fault for this?
Eno. Antony only, that would make his will
Lord of his reason. What although you fled
From that great face of war, whose several ranges
Frighted each other? why should he follow ?
The itch of his affection should not then

Have nick'd his captainship; at such a point,
When half to half the world oppos'd, he being
The meered question : 'Twas a shame no less
Than was his loss, to course your flying flags,
And leave his navy gazing.

Cleo. Pr'ythee, peace.

Enter ANTONY, with EUPHRONIUS.

Ant. Is this his answer?

Eup. Ay, my lord.

Ant. The queen

Shall then have courtesy, so she will yield

Us up.

Eup. He says so.

Ant. Let her know it.

To the boy Cæsar send this grizzled head,

And he will fill thy wishes to the brim

With principalities.

Cleo. That head, my lord?

Ant. To him again; Tell him, he wears the rose

[6] Sir T. Hanmer reads---Drink and die. I adhere to the old reading, which may be supported by the following passage in Julius Cæsar :

6---------all that he can do

Is to himself; take thought, and die for Cæsar."

Mr. Tollet observes, that the expression of taking thought, in our old English writers, is equivalent to the being anxious or solicitous, or laying a thing much to heart. So, says he, it is used in our translations of The New Testament, Matthew vi. 25. &c. STEĚVENS. Think and die :---Consider what mode of ending your life is most preferable, and immediately adopt it. HENLEY.

[7] Mere--is a boundary, and the meered question, if it can mean any thing, may, with some violence of language, mean, the disputed boundary. JOHNSON.

Of youth upon him; from which, the world should note
Something particular: his coin, ships, legions,
May be a coward's; whose ministers would prevail
Under the service of a child, as soon

As i'the command of Cæsar: I dare him therefore
To lay his gay comparisons apart,

And answer me declin'd, sword against sword,
Ourselves alone: I'll write it; follow me.

8

[Exeunt ANTONY and EUPHRONIUS. Eno. Yes, like enough, high-battled Cæsar will Unstate his happiness, and be stag'd to the show' Against a sworder.-I see, men's judgments are A parcel of their fortunes; and things outward Do draw the inward quality after them, To suffer all alike. That he should dream, Knowing all measures, the full Cæsar will Answer his emptiness! Cæsar, thou hast subdu'd His judgment too.

Enter an Attendant.

Att. A messenger from Cæsar.

Cleo. What, no more ceremony ?-See, my women !—

Against the blown rose may they stop their nose,

That kneel'd unto the buds.-Admit him, sir.

Eno. Mine honesty, and I, begin to square.

The loyalty, well held to fools, does make

Our faith mere folly :-Yet, he, that can endure
To follow with allegiance a fallen lord,

Does conquer him that did his master conquer,
And earns a place i'the story.

Cleo. Cæsar's will?

Enter THYREUS.

Thyr. Hear it apart.

Cleo. None but friends; say boldly.

Thyr. So, haply, are they friends to Antony. Eno. He needs as many, sir, as Cæsar has; Or needs not us. If Cæsar please, our master Will leap to be his friend: For us, you know, Whose he is, we are; and that's, Cæsar's.

[Aside.

[8] I require of Cesar not to depend on that superiority which the comparison of our different fortunes may exhibit to him, but to answer me man to man, in this decline of my age or power.

JOHNSON.

[9] Exhibited, like gladiators, to the public gaze.

HENLEY.

[1] Enobarbus is deliberating upon desertion, and finding it is more prudent to forsake a fool, and more reputable to be faithful to him, makes no positive conclusion. JOHNSON.