Eno. No, lady. Cleo. Was he not here? Char. No, madam. Cleo. He was dispos'd to mirth; but on the fudden Cleo. Seek him, and bring him hither. Where's Alexas? Mef. Ay: But foon that war had end, and the time's state Made friends of them, jointing their force 'gainst Cæfar; Whose better iffue in the war, from Italy, Upon the first encounter, drave them. Ant. Well, what worst? Mef. The nature of bad news infects the teller. Ant. When it concerns the fool, or coward. - On: Mef. Labienus (this is ftiff news) Hath, with his Parthian force, extended Afia 4, From Syria, to Lydia, and to Ionia ; Whilft Ant. Antony, thou wouldst fay,- ; Ant. Speak to me home, mince not the general tongue; Name Cleopatra as fhe's call'd in Rome: Rail thou in Fulvia's phrafe; and taunt my faults Have power to utter. O, then we bring forth weeds, 4 To extend, is a term used for to feize. When When our quick minds lie ftills; and our ills told us, Mef. At your noble pleasure. Ant. From Sicyon how the news? Speak there. [Exit. 1. Att. The man from Sicyon.-Is there fuch an one? 2. Att. He stays upon your will. Ant. Let him appear. These ftrong Egyptian fetters I must break, Enter another Messenger. Or lofe myself in dotage.-What are you? 2. Mes. Fulvia thy wife is dead. Ant. Where died the ? 2. Mef. In Sicyon : Her length of fickness, with what else more serious Importeth thee to know, this bears. [gives a Letter. Ant. Forbear 1 me. [Exit Meffenger,, There's a great spirit gone! Thus did I defire it : What our contempts do often hurl from us, We wish it ours again; the prefent pleasure, By revolution lowering, dees become T'he opposite of itself: fhe's good, being gone; The 5 I fufpect that quick winds is, or is a corruption of, fome provincial word fignifying either arable lands, or the inftruments of bufbandry ufed in tilling them. Earing fignifies plowing both here and in fc. iv. So, in Genefis, c. 45. "Yet there are five years, in the which there fhall neither be caring nor harveft." BLACKSTONE. This conjecture is well founded. The ridges left in lands turned up by the plough, that they may fweeten during their fallow ftate, are ftill called wind-rows. Quick winds, I fuppofe to be the fame as teeming fallows; for fuch fallows are always fruitful in weeds. Wind-rows likewife fignify heaps of manure, confifting of dung or lime mixed up with virgin earth, and diftributed in long rows under hedges. If thefe wind rows are fuffered to lie ftill, in two fenfes, the farmer must fare the worfe for his want of activity. First, if this compoft be not frequently turned over, it will bring forth weeds fpontaneoufly; fecondly, if it be fuffered to continue where it is made, the fields receive no benefit from it, being fit only in their turn to produce a crop of useless and obnoxious herbage. STEEVENS. 6 The allufion is to the fun's diurnal courfe; which rifing in the eaft, and by revolution lowering, or setting in the west, becomes the opposite of itfelf. WARBURTON. The hand could pluck her back, that fhov'd her on. Eno. What's your pleasure, fir? Ant. I muft with hafte from hence. Eno. Why, then, we kill all our women: We fee how mortal an unkindness is to them; if they fuffer our departure, death's the word. Ant. I must be gone. Eno. Under a compelling occafion, let women die: It were pity to caft them away for nothing; though, between them and a great cause, they fhould be esteem'd nothing. Cleopatra, catching but the leafinoise of this, dies inftantly; I have feen her die twenty times upon far poorer moment: I do think, there is mettle in death, which commits fome loving act upon her, fhe 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 almanacks can report: this cannot be cunning in her; if it be, fhe makes a fhower of rain as well as Jove. Ant. "Would I had never seen 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. Eno. Sir? Ant. Fulvia is dead. Eno. 7 The verb could has a peculiar fignification in this place; it does not denote power but inclination. The fenfe is, the band that drove ber off would now willingly pluck ber back again. Could, would, and should, are a thousand times indiscriminately used in the old plays, and yet appear to have been fo employed rather by choice than by chance. Eno. Fulvia? Eno. Why, fir, give the gods a thankful facrifice. When it pleaseth their deities to take the wife of a man from him, it fhews to man the tailors of the earth; comforting therein, that when old robes are worn out, there are members to make new. If there were no more women but Fulvia, then had you indeed a cut, and the cafe to be lamented: this grief is crown'd with consolation; your old fmock brings forth a new petticoat :and, indeed, the tears live in an onion, that should water this forrow. Ant. The bufinefs fhe hath broached in the state, Cannot endure my absence. Eno. And the business you have broach'd here cannot be without you; especially that of Cleopatra's, which wholly depends on your abode. Ant. No more light anfweis. Let our officers For When the deities are pleafed to take a man's wife from him, this act of theirs makes them appear to man like the tailors of the earth: affording this comfortable reflection, that the deities have made other women to fupply the place of his former wife; as the tailor, when one robe is worn out, fupplies him with another. MALONE. 9 Expedience for expedition. Things that touch me more fenfibly, more preffing motives. For the main foldier; whofe quality, going on, Eno. I fhall do't. SCENE III. [Exeunt, Enter CLEOPATRA, CHARMIAN, IRAS, and ALEXAS. Cleo. Where is he? Char. I did not fee him fince. Cleo. See where he is, who's with him, what he does :I did not fend you+; - If you find him fad, Say, I am dancing; if in mirth, report That I am fudden fick : Quick, and return. [Exit Alex. Char. Madam, methinks, if you did love him dearly, You do not hold the method to enforce The like from him. Cleo. What fhould I do, I do not? Char. In each thing give him way, crofs him in no thing. Cleo. Thou teachest like a fool: the way to lose him. Char. Tempt him not fo too far: I wish, forbear; In time we hate that which we often fear. Enter ANTONY. But here comes Antony. Cleo. I am fick, and fullen. Ant. I am forry to give breathing to my purpofe.- It cannot be thus long, the fides of nature Will not fuftain it. Ant. Now my deareft queen, Cleo Pray you, stand farther from me. Cleo. I know, by that fame eye, there's fome good news. What 3 Alludes to an old idle notion that the hair of a horse, dropt into cor rupted water, will turn to an animal. 4 You must go as if you came without my order or knowledge. |