Beyond the mark of thought: and the high gods,
To do you justice, make them ministers

Of us, and those that love you. Best of comfort;
And ever welcome to us.

Agr. Welcome, lady.

Mec. Welcome, dear madam.

Each heart in Rome does love and pity you :

Only the adulterous Antony, most large

In his abominations, turns you off;

And gives his potent regiment to a trull,
That noises it against us.

Oct. Is it so, sir?

Cas. Most certain. Sister, welcome : Pray you, Be ever known to patience: My dearest sister! [Exeunt.

SCENE VII.

ANTONY'S Camp, near the Promontory of Actium. Enter CLEOPATRA and ENOBARBUS.

Cleo. I will be even with thee, doubt it not.

Eno. But why, why, why?

Cleo. Thou hast forspoke my being in these wars ;7

And say'st, it is not fit.

Eno. Well, is it? is it?

Cleo. Is't not? Denounce against us, why should not we Be there in person?

Eno. [Aside.] Well, I could reply:

If we should serve with horse and mares together,
The horse were merely lost; the mares would bear
A soldier, and his horse.

Cleo. What is't you say?

[6] Regiment--is government, authority; he puts his power and his empire into the hands of a false woman.

It may be observed, trull was not, in our author's time, a term of mere infamy, but a word of slight contempt, as wench is now. JOHNSON.

[7] To forspeak, is to contradict, to speak against, as forbid is to order negatively, JOHNSON.

[8] Cleopatra means to say, "Is not the war denounced against us? Why should we not then attend in person?" She says, a little lower,

"A charge we bear i' the war,

And, as the president of my kingdom, will
Appear there for a man."

She speaks of herself in the plural number, according to the usual style of sovereigns. M. MASON. I read with the old copy, introducing only the change of a single letter,---denounc't instead of denounc'd. There is, however, in the folio, a comma after the word not, and no point of interrogation at the end of the sentence. MALONE. Surely no valid inference can be drawn from such uncertain premises as the punctuation of the old copy, which (to use the words of Rosalind and Touchstone in As you like it) is "as fortune will, or as the destinies decree." STEEVENS.

Eno. Your presence needs must puzzle Antony;

Take from his heart, take from his brain, from his time, What should not then be spar'd. He is already

Traduc'd for levity; and 'tis said in Rome,

That Photinus an eunuch, and your maids,
Manage this war.

Cleo. Sink Rome; and their tongues rot,

That speak against us! A charge we bear i'the war,
And, as the president of my kingdom, will

Appear there for a man.

I will not stay behind.

Eno. Nay, I have done :

Here comes the emperor.

Speak not against it;

Enter ANTONY and CANIDIUS.

Ant. Is't not strange, Canidius,

That from Tarentum, and Brundusium,

He could so quickly cut the Ionian sea,

And take in Toryne ?-You have heard on't, sweet?
Cleo. Celerity is never more admir'd,

Than by the negligent.

Ant. A good rebuke,

Which might have well become the best of men,

To taunt at slackness.-Canidius, we

Will fight with him by sea.

Cleo. By sea! what else?

Can. Why will my lord do so?

Ant. For he dares us to't.

Eno. So hath my lord dar'd him to single fight. Can. Ay, and to wage this battle at Pharsalia, Where Cæsar fought with Pompey: But these offers, Which serve not for his vantage, he shakes off; And so should you.

Eno. Your ships are not well-mann'd :

Your mariners are muleteers, reapers, people
Ingross'd by swift impress: In Cæsar's fleet

Are those, that often have 'gainst Pompey fought :
Their ships are yare; yours, heavy. No disgrace
Shall fall you for refusing him at sea,

Being prepar'd for land.

Ant. By sea, by sea.

Eno. Most worthy sir, you therein throw away The absolute soldiership you have by land; Distract your army, which doth most consist

[9] Yare--generally signifies dextrous, manageable.

STEEVENS.

Of war-mark'd footmen; leave unexecuted
Your own renowned knowledge; quite forego
The way which promises assurance; and
Give up yourself merely to chance and hazard,
From firm security.

Ant. I'll fight at sea.

Cleo. I have sixty sails, Cæsar none better.› Ant. Our overplus of shipping will we burn; And, with the rest full-mann'd, from the head of Actium Beat the approaching Cæsar. But if we fail, Enter a Messenger.

We then can do't at land.-Thy business?

Mes. The news is true, my lord; he is descried ;
Cæsar has taken Toryne.

Ant. Can he be there in person? 'tis impossible;
Strange, that his power should be.-Canidius,
Our nineteen legions thou shalt hold by land,
And our twelve thousand horse :-We'll to our ship;
Enter a Soldier.

Away, my Thetis !-How now, worthy soldier?
Sold. Ŏ noble emperor, do not fight by sea;
Trust not to rotten planks : Do you misdoubt

This sword, and these my wounds? Let the Egyptians,
And the Phoenicians, go a ducking; we

Have used to conquer, standing on the earth,

And fighting foot to foot.

Ant. Well, well, away.

[Exe. ANT. CLEO. and ENO.

Sold. By Hercules, I think, I am i'the right.

Can. Soldier, thou art but his whole action grows

Not in the power on't: So our leader's led,

And we are women's men.

Sold. You keep by land

The legions and the horse whole, do you not?
Can. Marcus Octavius, Marcus Justeius,

Publicola, and Cælius, are for sea :

But we keep whole by land. This speed of Cæsar's
Carries beyond belief.

Sold. While he was yet in Rome,

His power went out in such distractions, as

[1] That is, his whole conduct becomes ungoverned by the right or by reason JOHNSON. Canidius means to say, His whole conduct in the war is not founded upon that which is his greatest strength, (namely, his land force,) but on the caprice of a woman, who wishes that he should fight by sea. MALONE.

STEEVENS.

Perhaps this phrase is from archery.
S Distractions-detachments, separate bodies. JOHNSON.

Beguil'd all spies.

Can. Who's his lieutenant, hear you?
Sold. They say, one Taurus.

Can. Well I know the man.

Enter a Messenger.

Mes. The emperor calls for Canidius.

Can. With news the time's with labour, and throes forth,

Each minute, some.

[Exeunt.

SCENE VIII.

A Plain near Actium.

Enter CESAR, TAURUS, Officers, and others.

Cas. Taurus,—

Taur. My lord.

Cas. Strike not by land; keep whole : Provoke not battle, till we have done at sea.

Do not exceed the prescript of this scroll:

Our fortune lies upon this jump.*

In

Enter ANTONY and ENOBArbus.

[Exeunt.

Ant. Set we our squadrons on yon' side o'the hill,
eye of Cæsar's battle; from which place
We may the number of the ships behold,
And so proceed accordingly.

[Exeunt.

Enter CANIDIUS, marching with his land army one way over the stage and TAURUS, the lieutenant of CESAR, the other way. After their going in, is heard the noise of a seafight. Alarum. Re-enter ENOBarbus.

Eno. Naught, naught, all naught! I can behold no longer:

The Antoniad, the Egyptian admiral,'

With all their sixty, fly, and turn the rudder;

To see't, mine eyes are blasted.

Enter SCARUS.

Scar. Gods, and goddesses, All the whole synod of them! Eno. What's thy passion?

[4] Jump-hazard. So, in Macbeth:

"We'd jump the life to come."

STEEVENS.

[5] The Antoniad--which Plutarch says, was the name of Cleopatra's ship.

POPE.

Scar. The greater cantle of the world" is lost With very ignorance; we have kiss'd away Kingdoms and provinces.

Eno. How appears the fight?

Scar. On our side like the token'd pestilence,"
Where death is sure. Yon' ribald-rid nag of Egypt,
Whom leprosy o'ertake! i'the midst of the fight,-
When vantage like a pair of twins appear'd,

Both as the same, or rather ours the elder,-
The brize upon her,' like a cow in June,
Hoists sails, and flies.

Eno. That I beheld: mine eyes

Did sicken at the sight on't, and could not
Endure a further view.

Scar. She once being loof'd,

The noble ruin of her magic, Antony,

Claps on his sea-wing, and like a doating mallard,
Leaving the fight in height, flies after her:
I never saw an action of such shame ;
Experience, manhood, honour, ne'er before
Did violate so itself.

Eno, Alack, alack!

Enter CANIDIUS,

Can. Our fortune on the sea is out of breath, And sinks most lamentably. Had our general Been what he knew himself, it had gone well: O, he has given example for our flight,

Most grossly, by his own.

Eno. Ay, are you thereabouts? Why then, good night Indeed.

Can. Towards Peloponnesus are they fled.

Scar. 'Tis easy to it; and there I will attend

What further comes.

Can. To Cæsar will I render

[Aside.

[6] Cantle--a piece or lump. POPE. Cantle is rather a corner. Cæsar, in this play, mentions the three-nook'd world. Of this triangular world every triumvir had

a corner.

JOHNSON.

[7] Token'd, spotted.

JOHNSON.

The death of those visited by the plague was certain, when particular eruptions STEEVENS. appeared on the skin; and these were called God's tokens.

[8] A Ribald is a lewd fellow. Yon ribald-rid nag, means "yon strumpet who is common to every wanton fellow." STEEVENS.

[9] Leprosyan epidemical distemper of the Egyptians; to which Horace probably alludes in the controverted line.

Contaminato cum grege turpium
JOHNSON.

Morbo virorum.

[1] The brize or oestrum, the fly that stings cattle. To loof is to bring a ship close to the wind.

JOHNSON.
STEEVENS.