Iras. Go, you wild bedfellow, you cannot footh fay. Char. Nay, if an oily palm be not a fruitful prognoftication, I cannot fcratch imine ear. Pr'ythee tell her but a workyday fortune. Sooth. Your fortunes are alike. Iras. But how, but how? Give me particulars. Sooth. I have faid. Iras. Am I not an inch of fortune better than fhe? Char. Well, if you were but an inch of fortune better than I, where would you chuse it? as, Iras. Not in my husband's nofe. -0, Char. Our worfer thoughts heav'ns mend! Alex-Come, his fortune; his fortune. let him marry a woman that cannot go, fweet Ifis, I beseech thee; and let her die too, and give him a worfe; and let worfe follow worst, till the worst of all follow him laughing to his grave, fifty-fold a cuckold! Good Ifis, hear me this prayer, though thou deny me a matter of more weight; good Ifis, I beseech thee! Iras. Amen, dear goddess, hear the prayer of the people! for as it is a heart-breaking to see a handfome man loofe-wiv'd, fo it is a deadly forrow to behold a foul knave uncuckolded; therefore, dear Ifis, 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 themselves whores, but they'd do't. SCENE Enter Cleopatra. Eno. Hufh! here comes Antony. Char. Not he, the Queen. Cleo. Saw you my Lord? Eno. No, Lady. Cleo. Was he not here? Char. No, Madam. III. Cleo. He was difpos'd to mirth, but on the fudden A Roman thought hath ftruck him. EnobarbusEno. Madam. Cleo. Seek him, and bring him hither. Where's Alexas? Alex. Here at your fervice. My Lord approaches. Enter Antony, with a Meffenger, and Attendants. Cleo. We will not look upon him. Go with us. [Exeunt. Mef. Fulvia thy wife first came into the field. Ant. Against my brother Lucius? Me. Ay. But foon that war had end, and the time's ftate Whofe better iffue in the war, from Italy Ant. Well, what worst? Me. The nature of bad news infects the teller. Ant. When it concerns the fool or coward. On Things that are past are done with me. 'Tisthus; Who tells me true, though in the tale ly death, Meff. Labienus (this is ftiff news) Hath, with his Parthian force, extended* Afia; Whilft Ant. Anteny, thou wouldst say- Ant. Speak to me home, mince not the gen'ral tongue; Name Cleopatra as fhe's call'd in Rome. Rail thou in Fulvia's phrase, and taunt my faults With fuch full licence, as both truth and malice Have power to utter. Oh, then we bring forth weeds, Extended, is a law term, which fignifies feized upon When our quick winds ly ftill *; and our ill, told us, Is as our earing. Fare thee well a while. Ant. From Sicyon, how the news?-Speak there. one? Ant. Let him appear. Thefe ftrong Egyptian fetters I must break, Or lofe myself in dotage. What are you? 2 Meff. In Sicyon. Her length of fickness, with what elfe more serious The oppofite of itfelf; fhe's good, being gene; Eno. What's your pleasure, Sir? Ant. I muft with hafte from hence. Eno. Why then we kill all our women; we fee We fhould read minds. The fenfe is this, While the active principle within us yes immerged in floth and luxury, we bring forth vices inftead of virtues, weeds inftead of flowers and fruits: but the laying before us our ill condition plainly and honeftly is, as it were, the first culture of the mind, which gives hopes of a future harvest. This he fays to encourage the meffenger to hide nothing from him." Warburton. 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 caufe, they fhould be esteem'd nothing. Cleopatra, catching but the leaft moife 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 celerity in dying. Ant. She is cunning paft man's thought. Eno. Alack, Sir, 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 storms and tempefts than almanacks can report. This cannot be cunning in her; if it be, fhe makes a fhow'r of rain as well as Jove. Ant. 'Would I had never feen her! Eno. Oh, Sir, you had then left unfeen a wonderful piece of work, which not to have been blefs'd withal, would have difcredited your travel. Ant. Fulvia is dead. Eno. Sir! Ant. Fulvia is dead. · Eno. Fulvia? Ant. Dead. Eno. Why, Sir, give the gods a thankful facrifice. When it pleafeth 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 were to be lamented: this grief is crowned with confolation, your old fmock brings forth a new petticoat. And, indeed, the tears live in an onion that fhould water this forrow. Ant. The bufinefs fhe hath broached in the state, Cannot endure my abfence. Eno. And the business you have broach'd here, cannot be without you; efpecially that of Cleopatra's, which wholly depends on your abode. Ant. No more light anfwers. Let our officers Whofe love is never link'd to the deferver Eno. I'll do't. [Exeunt. Enter Cleopatra, Charmian, Alexas, and Iras. 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, Alludes to an old idle notion, that the hair of a horfe, dropt into corrupted water, will turn to an ani'mal. Pope. I believe we should read, Their quick remove from hence. i. e. Tell our defign of going away to those who being by their places obliged to attend us, must remove in halte. Johnfon. |