Say, I am dancing; if in mirth, report

That I am fudden fick. Quick, and return.

Char. Madam, methinks, if you did love him dearly,

You do not hold the method to enforce

The like from him.

Clee. What should I do, I do not?

Char. In each thing give him way, crofs him in nothing.

Cleo. Thou teacheft, like a fool, the way to lose him.

Char. Tempt him not fo, too far. I wish forIn time we hate that which we often fear. [bear; Enter Antony.

But here comes Antony.

Cleo. I'm fick, and fullen.

Ant. I am forry to give breathing to my purpose. Cleo. Help me away, dear Charmian, I fhall fall; It cannot be thus long, the fides of nature

Will not fuftain it.

Ant. Now, my dearest Queen,

[Seeming to faint.

Cleo. Pray you, stand further from me.
Ant. What's the matter?

Cleo. I know, by that fame eye, there's fome good news.

What lays the marry'd woman?—You may go; 'Would he had never given you leave to come! Let her not fay 'tis I that keep you here;

I have no pow'r upon you.
Ant. The gods best know,

Hers you are.

Cleo. O never was there Queen

So mightily betray'd; yet at the first

I faw the treafons planted.

Ant. Cleopatra,

Cleo. Why fhould I think you can be mine, and

true,

Though you with fwearing shake the throned gods, Who have been falfe to Fulvia? riotous madness, To be entangled with these mouth-made vows, Which break themselves in fwearing!

Ant. Molt fweet Queen,—

Cleo. Nay, pray you, feek no colour for you

going,

But bid farewell, and go: when you fued ftaying,
Then was the time for words; no going then ;-
Eternity was in our lips and eyes,

Blifs in our brows' bent, none our parts fo poor,
But was a race of heav'n*. They are fo ftill,
Or thou, the greatest foldier of the world,

Art turn'd the greatest liar.

Ant. How now, Lady?

Cleo. I would I had thy inches; thou fhould'n know

There were a heart in Ægypt.

Ant. Hear me, Queen:

The ftrong neceflity of time commands
Our fervices a-while; but my full heart
Remains in ufe with you. Our Italy
Shines o'er with civil fwords. Sextus Pompeius
Makes his approaches to the port of Rome.
Equality of two domeftic pow'rs

Breeds fcrupulous faction; the hated, grown to ftrength,

Are newly grown to love; the condemn'd Pompey,
Rich in his father's honour, creeps apace
Into the hearts of fuch as have not thriv'n
Upon the present ftate, whofe numbers threaten;
And quietnefs, grown fick of reft, would purge
By any defperate change. My more particular,
And that which moft with you fhould fafe + my
Is Fulvia's death.
[going,
Cleo. Though age from folly could not give me
freedom,

It does from childishnefs. Can Fulvia die?
Aut. She's dead, my Queen.

Look here, and at thy fovereign leisure read
The garboyls the awak'd: at the laft, beft.
See, when, and where fhe died.

Cleo. O moft falfe love!

Where be the facred vials thou fhouldft fill

i. e. had a fmack or flavour of heaven. Warb.
-fhould falve my going. Theobald.
VOL. IX.
B

His faults in him feem as the fpots of heav'n, More fiery by night's blackness; hereditary, Rather than purchas'd; what he cannot change, Than what he chufes.

Caf. You're too indulgent. Let us grant it is not Amits to tumble on the bed of Ptolemy,

To give a kingdom for a mirth, to sit

And keep the turn of tippling with a flave,

To reel the streets at noon, and ftand the buffet With knaves that smell of fweat; fay this becomeshim;

As his compofure must be rare, indeed,

Whom these things cannot blemish; yet muft An-
No way excufe his foils, when we do bear [tony
So great weight in his lightness *. If he fill'd
His vacancy with his voluptuoufnefs;
Full furfeits, and the drynefs of his bones,
Call on him for't; but to confound fuch time,
That drums him from his fport, and fpeaks 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 prefent pleasure,
And fo rebel to judgment.

Enter a Meffenger.

Lep. Here's more news.

Me Thy biddings have been done; and every hour,

Moft noble Cæfar, fhalt thou have report

How 'tis abroad. Pompey is ftrong at fea;.
And, it appears, he is belov'd of those
That only have fear'd Cæfar to the ports
The difcontents repair, and men's reports
'Give him much wrong'd.

Cæf. I fhould have known no less.

It hath been taught us from the primal ftate,
That he, which is, was with'd, until he were :
And the ebb'd mán, ne'er løv'd till ne'er worth love;

The word light is one of Shakespeare's favourite play-things. The, fenfe is, his trafling levity throws fo much burden upon us. Johnson.

This common

'Comes dear'd, by being lack'd.

body,

Like to a vagabond flag upon the ftream,

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

Meff. Cæfar, I bring thee word,

Menecrates and Menas, famous pirates,

Make the fea ferve them; which they ear and wound

With keels of every kind. Many hot inrodes
They make in Italy: the borders maritime
Lack blood to think on't, and flufh youth revolt
No veffel can peep forth, but 'tis as foon
Taken as feen; for Pompey's name strikes more,
Than could his war refifted.

Caf. Antony,

Leave thy lafcivious waffails. When thou once Wert beaten from Modena, where thou flew'st Hirtius and Panfa confuls, at thy heel

:

Did famine follow, whom thou fought'st against,
Though daintily brought up, with patience more
Than favages could fuffer. Thou didft drink
The ftale of horfes, and the gilded puddle
Which beafts would cough at. Thy palate then
did deign

The rougheft berry on the rudeft hedge:
Yea, like the ftag, when fnow the pafture sheets,
The barks of trees thou browfed'ft. On the Alps,
It is reported, thou didst eat strange flesh,
Which fome did die to look on: and all this,
It wounds thine honour that I fpeak it now,
Was bore fo like a foldier that thy cheek
So much as lank'd not.

Lep. It is pity of him.

Caf. Let his fhames quickly

Drive him to Rome; time is it that we twain
Did fhew ourselves i' th' field; and to that end
Affemble we immediate council. Pompey

i. e. Floating backwards and forwards with the variation of the tide, like a page, or lacquey, at his master's heels. Theobald.

Thrives in our idleness.

Lep. To-morrow, Cæfar,

I fhall be furnish'd to inform you rightly,
Both what by fea and land I can be able
To front this prefent time.

Caf. Till which encounter,
It is my bufinefs 100. Farewell..

Lep. Farewell, my Lord.

What you fhall know meantime of ftirs abroad,

I fhall befeech you let me be partaker.

Caf. Doubt

not, Sir; I knew it for my bond.

[Exeunt

SCENE VI.

Changes to the Palace in Alexandria.

Enter Cleopatra, Charmian, Iras, and Mardian.

Cleo. Charmian,

Char. Madam?

Cleo. Ha, ha-give me to drink Mandragora.
Char. Why, Madam?

Cleo. That I might fleep out this great gap of

My Antony is away.

Char. You think of him too much.

Cleo. O, 'tis treafon.

Char. Madam, I trust not fo.

Cleo. Thou eunuch, Mardian!

Mar. What's your Highnefs' pleasure ?

[time

Cleo. Not now to hear thee fing. I take no pleasure

In aught an eunuch has; 'tis well for thee,
That being unfeminar'd, thy freer thoughts
May not fly forth of Egypt. Haft thou affections?
Mar. Yes, gracious Madam.

Cleo. Indeed?

Mar. Not in deed, Madam; for I can do nothing But what in deed is honeft to be done :

Yet have I fierce affections, and think

What Venus did with Mars.

Cleo. Oh Charmian !