084. What man is that?
Mef. My master's man. Strato, where is thy
Stra. Free from the bondage you are in, Messala;
The conquerors can but make a fire of him:
For Brutus only overcame himself,

[master?

?

Hold thou my sword's hilt, whilft I run on it.

Vd. That's not an office for a friend, my lord. 10 And no man elfe hath honour by his death.

[Alarum ftill.
Ch. Fly, fly, my lord; there is no tarrying here.
Bru. Farewel to you; and you; and you,
Volumnius.-

Strato, thou hast been all this while asleep;
Farewel to thee too, Strato. Countrymen,
My heart doth joy, that yet, in all my life,
I found no man, but he was true to me.
I shall have glory by this lofing day,
More than Octavius, and Mark Antony,
By this vile conquest shall attain unto.
So, fare you well at once; for Brutus' tongue
Hath almost ended his life's history:
Night hangs upon mine eyes; my bones would rest,
That have but labour'd to attain this hour.

[Alarum. Cry within, Fly, fly, fly. Cli. Fly, my lord, fly. [Exeunt Clitus, Dar. and Vol. Bru. Hence; I will follow.

Luc. So Brutus should be found. I thank thee,
Brutus,

That thou haft prov'd Lucilius' saying true.
Octa. All that serv'd Brutus, I will entertain them.

15 Fellow, wilt thou bestow thy time with me?
Stra. Ay, if Messala will prefer me to you.
Ota. Do fo, good Messala.
Mej. How died my master, Strato?
Stra. I held the sword, and he did run on it.
Mef. Octavius, then take him to follow thee,
That did the latest service to my master.

I pr'ythee, Strato, stay thou by thy ford:
Thou art a fellow of a good respect;
Thy life hath had fome smack of honour in it:
Hold then my fword, and turn away thy face,
While I do run upon it. Wilt thou, Strato?
Stra. Give me your hand first: Fare you well,
my lord.

Bru, Farewel, good Strato. Cæfar, now be still;

20

Ant. This was the nobleft Roman of them all:
All the confpirators, save only he,
Did that they did in envy of great Cæfar;

25 He, only, in a general honest thought,
And common good to all, made one of them.
His life was gentle; and the elements
So mix'd in him, that nature might stand up,
And fay to all the world, This was a man!

1

Ambassadors from Antony to Cæfar, Captains, Soldiers, Messengers, and other Attendants.
The SCENE is difperfed in feveral parts of the Roman Empire.

And is become the bellows and the fan,

5

I.

Ant. Then must thou needs find out new hea

ven, new earth.

Enter a Meffonger.

Mef. News, my good lord, from Rome.
Ant. Grates me: -The sum 5.

Clev. Nay, hear them, Antony:

Fulvia, perchance, is angry; or, who knows
If the scarce-bearded Cæfar have not fent

His powerful mandate to you, "Do this, or this;

10" Take in that kingdom, and enfranchise that; "Perform 't, or else we damn thee.

Ant. How, my love!

Cleo. Perchance, -nay, and most like,
You must not stay here longer, your dismission

To cool a gypsy's luft.-Look, where they come! 15 Is come from Cæfar; therefore hear it, Antony.

Flourish. Enter Antony and Cleopatra, with their

trains Eunuchs fanning her.
Take but good note, and you shall fee in him
The triple 3 pillar of the world transform'd
Into a strumpet's fool: behold and fee.

Cleo. If it be love indeed, tell me how much.
Ant. There's beggary in the love that can be

reckon'd.

Cleo. I'll fet a bourn 4 how far to be belov'd.

Where's Fulvia's process? Cæfar's, I would say?

Both?

of of three.

One of

1 i. e. renounces. 2 Gypsy is here used both in the original meaning for an Egyptian, and in its accidental sense for a bad woman. 3 Triple is here used improperly for third, or one the triumvirs, one of the three masters of the world. + i. e. bound or limit. 5 i. e, be brief, fum thy business in a few words.

Kingdoms.

There's not a minute of our lives should stretch 15 Sooth. You shall be more beloving, than belov'd. Without fome pleasure now: What sport to-night?

Cleo. Hear the embassadors.

Ant. Fye, wrangling queen!
Whom every thing becomes, to chide, to laugh,
To weep; whose every passion fully strives
To make itself, in thee, fair and admir'd!
No messenger, but thine; -And all alone,
To-night, we'll wander through the streets, and

note

The qualities of people. Come, my queen;
Last night you did defire it:-Speak not to us.
[Exeunt Ant. and Cleop. with their train.
Dem. Is Cæfar with Antonius priz'd so flight?
Phil. Sir, fometimes, when he is not Antony,
He comes too short of that great property
Which still should go with Antony.

Dem. I am full forry,
That he approves the common liar 3, who
Thus speaks of him at Rome: Eut I will hope
Of better deeds to-morrow. Rest you happy!

SCENE II.

Another Part of the Palace.

[Exeunt.

Char. I had rather heat my liver with drinking 5.
Alex. Nay, hear him.

Char. Good now, fome excellent fortune! Let me be married to three kings in a forenoon, and 20 widow them all! let me have a child at fifty, to whom Herod of Jewry may do homage ! find me to marry with Octavius Cæfar, and companion me with my mistress !

Socth. You shall out-live the lady whom you

25 ferve.

Char. O excellent! I love long life better than figs 7.

Sooth. You have seen and prov'd a fairer former Than that which is to approach. [fortune 30 Char. Then, belike, my children shall have no names: Pr'ythee, how many boys and wenches muft I have?

Susth. If every of your wishes had a womb, And foretel every with, a million 9.

35 Char. Out, fool! I forgive thee for a witch.
Alex. You think, none but your sheets are privy
to your wishes.

Char. Nay, come, tell Iras hers.
Alex. We'll know all our fortunes.

40 Eno. Mine, and most of our fortunes, to-night,
shall be drunk to bed.

Iras. There's a palm presages chastity, if nothing elfe. Char. Even as the o'erflowing Nilus prefageth

Enter Charmian, Iras, Alexas, and a Soothfayer.
Char. Lord Alexas, sweet Alexas, most any
thing Alexas, almost most abfolute Alexas, where's
the foothfayer that you prais'd so to the queen?
O! that I knew this husband, which, you fay, 45 famine.
must change 4 his horns with garlands.

Alex. Soothsayer.

Sooth. Your will?

Iras. Go, you wild bedfellow, you cannot foothfay.

[know things?

Char. Nay, if an oily palin be not a fruitful prognostication, I cannot scratch mine ear.

Char. Is this the man? - Is't you, fir, that
Sooth. In nature's infinite book of secrecy,

50 Pr'ythee, tell her but a worky-day fortune.

the time of 6 Herod

• To know. 2 But here fignifies unless. 3 Meaning, that he proves the common lyar, fame, in his cafe to be a true reporter. 4 Dr. Johnfon doubts, whether change in this place may not fignify merely to dress, or to dress with changes of garlands; certain it is, that change of clothes in Shakspeare fignified variety of them. 5 A heated liver is supposed to make a pimpled face. was always one of the perfonages in the mysteries of our early stage, on which he was conftantly represented as a fierce, haughty, bluftering tyrant, fo that Herod of Jewry became a common proverb, expreffive of turbulence and rage. Thus Hamlet says of a ranting player, that he " out-berods Herod." The meaning then is, Charmian wishes for a fon, who may arrive to fuch power and dominion, that the proudeft and fiercest monarchs of the earth may be brought under his yoke. expression. 8 A fairer fortune may mean, a more reputable one. belike all her children will be haftards, who have no right to the name of their father's family. meaning is, If you had as many wombs as you will have wishes, and I frould foretel all those wishes, I should foretel a million of children. It is an ellipfis very frequent in conversation ;-I should sharae you, and tell all; that is, and if I should tell all. And is for and if, which was anciently, and is ftud

provincially used for if.

7 A proverbial Her answer then implies, that

9 The

Sath

1

South. Your fortunes are alike.

Iras. But how, but how? give me particulars.
Sosth. 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 choose it?

Iras. Not in my husband's nose.

Ant. Speak to me home, mince not the general
Name Cleopatra as she's call'd in Rome :
Rail thou in Fulvia's phrase; and taunt my faults

Char. Our worfer thoughts heavens mend!-
Alexas, come, his fortune, his fortune. - O let rc With such full licence, as both truth and malice

him marry a woman that cannot go, sweet Ifis, I
befeech thee! And let her die too, and give him
a worfe! and let worse follow worse, 'till the
worst of all follow him laughing to his grave, fifty-
fold a cuckold! Good Isis, hear me this prayer, 15 Mcf. At your noble pleasure.

Have power to utter. O, then we bring forth
weeds,
When our quick winds lie still2; and our ills told us,
Is as our earing. Fare thee well a while.

though thou deny me a matter of more weight;

good Ifis, I beseech thee!

Iras. Amen. Dear goddess, hear that prayer of the people! for, as it is a heart-breaking to fee a handsome man loose-wiv'd, so it is a deadly for-20 row 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 25 me a cuckold, they would make themselves whores, but they'd do't.

Eno. Hush! here comes Antony.

Char. Not he, the queen.

Enter Cleopatra.

Cleo. Saw you my lord?

Eno. No, lady.

Cleo. Was he not here?

Char. No, madam.

[Exit.
Ant. From Sicyon how the news? Speak there.
1 Att. The man from Sicyon.-Is there such an
2 Att. He stays upon your will.
[one?
Ant. Let him appear.-

These strong Ægyptian fetters I must break,
Enter a second Meffenger.

Or lofe myself in dotage. - What are you?
2 Mes. Fulvia thy wife is dead.
Ant. Where died she?

2 Mef. In Sicyon:

Her length of fickness, with what else more ferious
Importeth thee to know, this bears. [Gives a letter.
Ant. Forbear me.-
[Exit Meffenger.
There's a great spirit gone! Thus did I defire it:

30 What our contempts do often hurl from us,
We wish it ours again; the present pleasure,
By revolution 3 lowering, does become
The opposite of itself: she's good, being gone; [on.
The hand could + pluck her back, that shov'd her
I must from this enchanting queen break off;
Ten thousand harms, more than the ills I know,
My idleness doth hatch. - How now! Enobarbus!
Enter Enobarbus.

Cleo. He was dispos'd to mirth; but on the sud-35

den

[bus,

A Roman thought hath ftruck him. Enobar-
Eno. Madam.
[Alexas?
Cles. Seek him, and bring him hither. Where's
Alex. Here, at your service. - My lord approaches. 40 Ant. I must with hafte from hence.

Enter Antony, with a Messenger, and Attendants.

Cleo. We will not look upon him: Go with us.

[Exeunt.

Mof. Fulvia thy wife first came into the field.
Ant. Againft my brother Lucius?

Mef. Ay:

But foon that war had end, and the time's state

Made friends of them, jointing their force 'gainft

Cæfar;

Whose better issue 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.-
[thus; 55

On;
Things that are past, are done, with me.-'Tis
Who tells me true, though in his tale lie death,
I hear him as he flatter'd.

Mef. Labienus (this is stiff news)

Ant. She is cunning past 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 storms and tempests than almaInacks can report: this cannot be cunning in her;

2 The sense is, that man, not agitated by censure, like foil not ventilated by quick winds, produces more evil than good. 3 i. e. by regular repetition. would, and should, are very often indiscriminately used in the old plays.