ΑΝΤΟΝΥ

AND

CLEOPATRA.

INTRODUCTION.

WHETHER this play, tho' excellently wrote, bas any chance for long existence on the ftage, is very doubtful. Twenty years fince, that very able and successful Dramatic Modeller, Mr. Garrick, produced it unde, the most probable state of reformation; yet, tho' elegantly decorated, and finely performed, it too foon languished. Antony and Cleopatra are the chief marked characters in it: he is a flighty infatuated slave to an excess of love and luxury; be a tinfel pattern of vanity and female cunning, which work the downfal of both. A double moral may be inferred, namely, That indolence and diffipation may undo the greatest of men; and that beauty, under the direction of vanity, will not only ruin the poffeffor, but admirer alfo.

SEXTUS POMPEIUS.

MECENAS, AGRIPPA, TAURUS,

Cafarians!

THYREUS, DOLABELLA, [GALLUS,] and Cæfarians:

PROCULEIUS,

Meffengers, three; Soldiers, fix; the fame.

DEMETRIUS, PHILO, ENOBARBUS,

VENTIDIUS, SILIUS, CANIDIUS,

Antonians:

SCARUS, EUPHRONIUS, EROS, and

DERCETAS,

Attendants, five; Messengers, fix; Soldiers,
(or Guards) nine; the fame.

VARRIUS, MENAS, and } Friends to Pompey

MENECRATES,

A Soothsayer.

Servants of the fame, two.

ALEXAS, MARDIAN an Eunuch,
SELEUCUS, DIOMEDES, and
Clown,

CLEOPATRA, Queen of Egypt.
OCTAVIA, Wife to Antony.
CHARMIAN,

IRAS, } Attendants on Cleopatra.

Other Attendants, Officers, Soldiers, &c.

SCENE, difpers'd; in feveral Parts of the
Roman Empire.

ΑΝΤΟΝΥ

AND

CLEOPATRA.

ACT I.

SCENE I. Alexandria. A Room in Cleopatra's

Palace.

Enter Demetrias, and Philo.

PHILO.

AY, but this dotage of our general's

O'er-flows the measure: thofe his goodly eyes,

That o'er the files and mufters of the war

Have glow'd like plated Mars, now bend, now turn, The office and devotion of their view

Upon a tawny front: his captain's heart,

Which in the fcuffles of great fights hath burst
The buckles on his breaft, reneges all temper;
And is become the bellows, and the fan,

When we meet two fuch celebrated names, and confider our author's great abilities, we are naturally led to expect a very capital piece. Thofe characters are accordingly very greatly fupported; but the whole piece, as it ftands here, feems rather too incorrect and confused for action.

To cool a gipfy's luft.-Look, where they come :
Flourish. Enter Antony, Cleopatra, and their Trains;
Eunuchs fanning her.

Take but good note, and you fhall fee in him
The triple pillar of the world transform'd
Into a ftrumpet's fool: behold and fee.

Cle. If it be love indeed, tell me how much.

Ant. There's beggary in the love that can be reckon'd. Cle. I'll fet a bourn how far to be belov'd.

*Ant. Then must thou needs find out new heaven, new earth.

Enter an Attendant.

Att. News, my good lord, from Rome.
Ant. 'T grates me :-The fum.

Cle. Nay, hear them Antony:

Fulvia, perchance, is angry; or, who knows
If the scarce-bearded Cafar have not sent
His powerful mandate to you, Do this, or this;
Take in that kingdom, and enfranchise that;
Perform't, or else we damn thee.

Ant. How, my love!

Cle. Perchance? Nay, and moft like:-
You must not ftay here longer, your difmiffion
Is come from Cæfar; therefore hear it, Antony.
Where's Fulvia's procefs -Cafar's, I would fay ?-
Both?

Call in the messengers.-As I am Egypt's queen,
Thou blufheft, Antony; and that blood of thine
Is Cæfar's homager: fo thy cheek pays fhame,
When fhrill-tongu'd Fulvia fcolds.-The meffengers.
Ant. Let Rome in Tyber melt! and the wide arch
Of the rang'd empire fall! Here is my space;
Kingdoms are clay : our dungy earth alike
Feeds beaft as man: the nobleness of life

Is, to do thus; when fuch a mutual pair,

Antony and Cleopatra fhould both poffefs a compleat elegance of figure, and an emphatic, yet eafy flow of expreffion: the former fhould appear all openness; the latter ought to show great art, covered with much infinuative plaufibility.

And