Ant. How now, lady!

Cleo. I would, I had thy inches; thou shouldst know, There were a heart in Egypt.

Ant, Hear me, queen :

The strong necessity of time commands

Our services a while ; but my full heart

Remains in use with you. Our Italy

Shines o'er with civil swords: Sextus Pompeius
Makes his approaches to the port of Rome :
Equality of two domestic powers

Breeds scrupulous faction: The hated, grown to strength,
Are newly grown to love: the condemn'e Pompey,
Rich in his father's honour, creeps apace

Into the hearts of such as have not thriv'd
Upon the present state, whose numbers threaten ;
And quietness, grown sick of rest, would purge
By any desperate change: My more particular,
And that which most with you should safe my going,
Is Fulvia's death.

Cleo. Though age from folly could not give me freedom, It does from childishness :-Can Fulvia die?

Ant. Sh's dead, my queen :

Look here, and, at thy sovereign leisure, read
The garboils she awak'd ; at the last, best:
See, when, and where she died.

Cleo. O most false love!

Where be the sacred vials thou shouldst fill
With sorrowful water? Now I see, I see,
In Fulvia's death, how mine receiv'd shall be.
Ant. Quarrel no more, but be prepar'd to know..
The purposes I bear; which are, or cease,
As you shall give the advice: Now, by the fire,
That quickens Nilus' slime, I go from hence,
Thy soldier, servant; making peace, or war,
As thou affect'st.

Cleo. Cut my lace, Charmian, come :-
But let it be.I am quickly ill, and well:

So Antony loves.

Ant. My precious queen, forbear;

And give true evidence to his love, which stands

An honourable trial.

[8] The poet seems to allude to the legal distinction between the use and absolute possession.

JOHNSON.

[9] i. e. The commotion she occasioned.

STEEVENS.

[1] Alluding to the lachrymatory vials, or bottles of tears, which the Romans sometimes put into the urn of a friend. JOHNSON.

Cleo. So Fulvia told me.

I pr'ythee, turn aside, and weep for her;
Then bid adieu to me, and say, the tears
Belong to Egypt: Good now, play one scene
Of excellent dissembling; and let it look
Like perfect honour.

Ant. You'll heat my blood; no more.

Cleo. You can do better yet; but this is meetly.
Ant. Now, by my sword,

--

Cleo. And target,-Still he mends;

But this is not the best: Look, pr'ythee, Charmian,
How this Herculean Roman does become

The carriage of his chafe.

Ant. I'll leave you, lady.

Cleo. Courteous lord, one word.

Sir, you and I must part,-but that's not it :
Sir, you and I have loy'd, but there's not it;
That you know well: Something it is I would,-
O, my oblivion is a very Antony,

And I am all forgotten.*

Ant. But that your royalty

Holds idleness your subject, I should take you
For idleness itself."

Cleo. "'Tis sweating labour,

hence ;

To bear such idleness so near the heart
As Cleopatra this. But, sir, forgive me;
Since my becomings kill me, when they do not
Eye well to you: Your honour calls you
Therefore be deaf to my unpitied folly,
And all the gods go with you! upon your sword
Sit laurell'd victory! and smooth success
Be strew'd before your feet!

Ant. Let us go. Come;

Our separation so abides, and flies,

That thou, residing here, go'st yet with me,
And I, hence fleeting, here remain with thee:
Away.

[2] To me, the Queen of Egypt.

JOHNSON.

fExeunt.

STEEVENS.

[S] Antony traced his descent from Anton, a son of Hercules. [4] Cleopatra has something to say, which seems to be suppressed by sorrow ; and after many attempts to produce her meaning she cries out: 0, this oblivious memory of mine is as false and treacherous to me as Antony is, and I forget every thing." Oblivion, I believe, is boldly used for a memory apt to be deceitful. STEEVENS.

[5] But that I know you to be a queen, and that your royalty holds idleness in subjection to you, exalting you far above its influence, I should suppose you to be STEEVENS. the very genius of idleness itself.

SCENE IV.

Rome. An Apartment in CESAR's House. Enter OCTAVIUS CESAR, LEPIDUs, and Attendants.

Caes. You may see, Lepidus, and henceforth know, It is not Cæsar's natural vice to hate

One great competitor. From Alexandria

This is the news; He fishes, drinks, and wastes

The lamps of night in revel; is not more manlike
Than Cleopatra; nor the queen Ptolemy

More womanly than he hardly gave audience, or

Vouchsaf'd to think he had partners: you shall find there A man, who is the abstract of all faults

That all men follow.

Lep. I must not think, there are

Evils enough to darken all his goodness:

His faults, in him, seem as the spots of heaven,
More fiery by night's blackness ;7 hereditary,
Rather than purchas'd; what he cannot change,
Than what he chooses.

Cas. You are too indulgent: Let us grant, it is not
Amiss to tumble on the bed of Ptolemy;

To give a kingdom for a mirth; to sit

And keep the turn of tippling with a slave;

To reel the streets at noon, and stand the buffet

With knaves that smell of sweat: say, this becomes him,

(As his composure must be rare indeed,

Whom these things cannot blemish,) yet must Antony
No way excuse his soils, when we do bear

So great weight in his lightness. If he fill'd

His vacancy with his voluptuousness,

Full surfeits, and the dryness of his bones,

Perhaps-Our great competitor.

JOHNSON.

[7] If by spots are meant stars, as night has no other fiery spots, the comparison is forced and harsh, stars having been always supposed to beautify the night; nor do I comprehend what there is in the counterpart of this simile, which answers to night's blackness. Hanmer reads,

-spots on ermine,

Or fires by night's blackness.

JOHNSON.

It is objected, that stars rather beautify than deform the night. But the poet considers them here only with respect to their prominence and splendor. It is sufficient for him that their scintillations appear stronger in consequence of darkness, as jewels are more resplendent on a black ground than on any other. MALONE.

[8] Purchas'd---Procured by his own fault or endeavour. JOHNSON.

[9] The word light is one of Shakespeare's favourite play-things. The sense is, His trifling levity throws so much burden upon us. JOHNSON.

Call on him for't :' but, to confound such time,
That drums him from his sport, and speaks as loud
As his own state, and ours,-'tis to be chid

As we rate boys; who, being mature in knowledge,*
Pawn their experience to their present pleasure,
And so rebel to judgment.

Enter a Messenger.

Lep. Here's more news.

Mes. Thy biddings have been done; and every hour, Most noble Cæsar, shalt thou have report

How 'tis abroad. Pompey is strong at sea;
And it appears, he is belov'd of those
That only have fear'd Cæsar : to the ports
The discontents repair, and men's reports
Give him much wrong'd.

Cæs. I should have known no less :

It hath been taught us from the primal state,
That he, which is, was wish'd, until he were;

And the ebb'd man, ne'er lov'd, till ne'er worth love,

Comes dear'd, by being lack'd. This common body,
Like a vagabond flag upon the stream,

Goes to, and back, lackeying the varying tide,
To rot itself with motion.

Mes. Cæsar, I bring thee word,

Menecrates and Menas, famous pirates,

Make the sea serve them; which they ear and wound

With keels of every kind : Many hot inroads

They make in Italy; the borders maritime

Lack blood to think on't," and flush youth revolt :"

No vessel can peep forth, but 'tis as soon

Taken as seen; for Pompey's name strikes more,
Than could his war resisted.

Cæs. Antony,

Leave thy lascivious wassals. When thou once
Wast beaten from Modena, where thou slew'st

[1] Call on him, is, visit him. Says Cæsar---If Antony followed his debaucheries at a time of leisure, I should leave him to be punished by their natural consequences, by surfeits and dry bones.

JOHNSON.

[2] Boys old enough to know their duty. JOHNSON.

[3] Those whom pot love but fear made adherents to Cæsar, now show their affection for Pompey. JOHNSON. [4] i. e. the malcontents. MALONE.

[5] To ear, is to plough. JOHNSON.

[6] Turn pale at the thought of it.

JOHNSON.

17] Youth ripened to manhood; youth whose blood is at the flow. STEEVENS. [8] Wassel is here put for intemperance in general. See Macbeth, p. 287 The old copy, however, reads vaissailes.

STEEVENS.

Vassals is, without question, the true reading.

HENLEY.

Hirtius and Pansa, consuls, at thy heel

Did famine follow; whom thou fought'st against,
Though daintily brought up, with patience more
Than savages could suffer: Thou didst drink
The stale of horses, and the gilded puddles

Which beasts would cough at: Thy palate then did deign
The roughest berry on the rudest hedge;

Yea, like the stag, when snow the pasture sheets,
The barks of trees thou browsed'st; on the Alps,
It is reported, thou didst eat strange flesh,
Which some did die to look on: And all this
(It wounds thine honour, that I speak it now,)
Was borne so like a soldier, that thy cheek
So much as lank'd not.

Lep. It is pity of him.

Cas. Let his shames quickly

Drive hime to Rome: "Tis time we twain
Did show ourselves i'the field; and, to that end,
Assemble we immediate council: Pompey
Thrives in our idleness,

Lep. To-morrow, Cæsar,

I shall be furnish'd to inform you rightly
Both what by sea and land I can be able,
To 'front this present time.

Cas. Till which encounter,

It is my business too. Farewell.

Lep. Farewell, my lord: What you shall know mean time

Of stirs abroad, I shall beseech you, sir,

To let me be partaker.

Cas. Doubt not, sir

I knew it for my bond.

[Exeunt.

[8] There is frequently observable on the surface of stagnant pools that have remained long undisturbed, a reddish gold coloured slime; to this appearance the poet here refers.

HENLEY.

[4] That is, to be my bounden duty. » MASON.