Eno. Why, fir, give the gods a thankful facrifice. When it pleaseth their deities to take the wife of a man from him, it fhews to man the tailors of the earth; comforting therein, that when 15 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 to be lamented: this grief is crown'd with confolation; your old finock brings forth a new petticoat: 20 -and, indeed, the tears live in an onion, that fhould water this forrow. Ant. The business she hath broach'd in the state, Cannot endure my absence. Eno. And the business you have broach'd here 25 cannot be without you; efpecially that of Cleopatra's, which wholly depends on your abode. Ant. No more light anfwers. Let our officers 4 Hath given the dare to Cæfar, and commands Eno. I fhall do`t. SCENE [Say, I am dancing; if in mirth, report, That I am fudden fick: Quick, and return. 30 Cleo. Why should I think, you can be mine, and 35 Though you in swearing shake the throned gods, Who have been falfe to Fulvia? Riotous madness, To be entangled with those mouth-made vows, Which break themselves in fwearing! 40 Ant. Moft sweet queen, [going, Cles. Nay, pray you, feek no colour for your Blifs in our brows' bent 7; none our parts fo poor, Ant. How now, lady! [know, Ant. Hear me, queen: The ftrong neceffity of time commands 1 The meaning is this: "As the gods have been pleafed to take away your wife Fulvia; so they have provided you with a new one in Cleopatra; in like manner as the tailors of the earth, when your old garments are worn out, accommodate you with new ones.” 2 Expedience for expedition. 3 i.e. things that touch me more fenfibly. 4 i. e. with us at home. 5 Alluding to an old idle notion, that the hair of a horfe dropped into corrupted water, will turn to an animal. 6 You must go as if you came without my order or knowledge. 7 i. e. in the arch of our eye-brows. 8 i. e. had a mack or flavour of heaven. The race of wine is the taite of the foil. Equality Equality of two domestic powers strength, 5 Are newly grown to love: the condemn'd Pompey, Clea. Though age from folly could not give me Look here, and, at thy fovereign leisure, read Where be the facred vials thou shouldst fill Cleo. Cut my lace, Charmian, come ;- Ant. My precious queen, forbear; And give true evidence to his love, which stands Cleo. So Fulvia told me. I pr'ythee, turn afide, and weep for her; Ant. You'll heat my blood; no more. Cleo. You can do better yet; but this is meetly.] Cles. And target.-Still he mends; But this is not the best: Look, pr'ythee, Charmian,| Ant. I'll leave you, lady. Cleo. Courteous lord, one word. Sir, you and I muft part,-but that's not it: 15 20 JO, my oblivion is a very Antony, Ant. But that your royalty Holds idlenefs your fubject, I should take you Cles. 'Tis fweating labour, To bear fuch idleness so near the heart And all the gods go with you! Upon your sword Ant. Let us go. Come; Our feparation so abides, and flies, That thou, refiding here, go'ft yet with me, Enter Octavius Cæfar, Lepidus, and Attendants. Caf. You may fee, Lepidus, and henceforth know, 25 It is not Cæfar's natural vice to hate One great competitor: From Alexandria 30 More womanly than he hardly gave audience, or A man, who is the abstract of all faults 35 Lep. I must not think, there are Evils enough to darken all his goodness: Caf. You are too indulgent: Let us grant, it is 45 To reel the streets at noon, and ftand the buffet [tony (As his compofure must be rare indeed, Whom these things cannot blemish) yet muft An50 No way excufe his foils, when we do bear So great weight in his lightness 10; If he fill'd 3 So for as. : 4 i. e. to me, 6 The 1 i. e. the commotion fhe occafioned. The word is derived from the old French garbeuil, which Cotgrave explains by burlyburly, great fir. 2 Alluding to the lachrymatory vials, or bottles of tears, which the Romans fometimes put into the urn of a friend. the queen of Agypt. 5 Antony traced his defcent from Anton, a fon of Hercules. plain meaning is, My forgetfulness makes me forget myself. But the expreffes it by calling forgetfulnes Antony; becaufe forgetfulness had forgot her, as Antony had done. 7 i. e. according to Warburton, "But that your charms hold me, who am the greatest fool on earth, in chains, I should have adjudged you to be the greatest." Cleopatra may perhaps here allude to Antony having before called her, in the first scene, "wrangling queen, whom every thing becomes." 9 The meaning, according to Mr. Malone, is, "As the ftars or fpots of heaven are not obfcured, but rather rendered more bright, by the blackness of the night, fo neither is the goodness of Antony eclipfed by his evil qualities, but, on the contrary, his faults feem enlarged and aggravated by his virtues." levity. 3 D 2 1 i. e. trifling His His vacancy with his voluptuousness, Enter a Meflenger. Lep. Here's more news. [hour, 10 To let me be partaker. Mef. Thy biddings have been done; and every Moft noble Cæsar, shalt thou have report How 'tis abroad. Pompey is ftrong at sea; 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. Caf. I should have known no less : It hath been taught us from the primal state, 15 20 Caf. Doubt it not, fir; I knew it for my bond. [Exeunt. SCENE V. The Palace in Alexandria. Enter Cleopatra, Charmian, Iras, and Mardian. Cleo. Charmian, Cbar. Madam, Cleo. Ha, ha,-Give me to drink mandragora. Char. Why, madam? Cleo. That I might fleep out this great gap of time, My Antony is away. Char. You think of him too much. Cleo. O, 'tis treafon ! 25 Char. Madam, I truft, not fo. Cleo. Thou, eunuch! Mardian ! Mar. What's your highness' pleasure ? Cleo. Not now to hear thee fing; I take no 30 In aught an eunuch has: 'Tis well for thee, 35 Did famine follow; whom thou fought'st against, 40 deign The roughest berry on the rudest hedge; Lep. It is pity of him. Caf. Let his fhames quickly Drive him to Rome: Time is it, that we twain Call on bim, is vifit bim for it. [thing Where think'st thou he is now? Stands he, or fits 45 The demy Atlas of this earth, the arm And burgonet 9 of man.-He's fpeaking now, Or murmuring, Where's my ferpent of old Nile!' For fo he calls me;-Now I feed myself With most delicious poifon : Think on me, 50 That am with Phoebus' amorous pinches black, And wrinkled deep in time? Broad-fronted Cæfar, When thou waft here above the ground, I was A morfel for a monarch: and great Pompey Would ftand, and make his eyes grow in my 4 i. e. turn pale at the thought of it. 5 Flush youth is youth ripened to manhood; youth whofe blood is at the flow. cumftances of Antony's diftrefs was fuppofed to procure fleep. Cleo. How much unlike art thou Mark Antony! How goes it with my brave Mark Antony? Say," the firm Roman to great Ægypt fends Cleo. What, was he fad, or merry? Alex. Like to the time o' the year between the extreams Of hot and cold; he was nor fad, nor merry. Cleo. O well-divided difpofition!-Note him, Note him, good Charmian, 'tis the man; but note him: He was not fad; for he would shine on those That make their looks by his: he was not merry; Pomp. SCENE I. Melfina. Pompey's House. ACT II. Enter Pompey, Menecrates, and Menas. He lofes hearts: Lepidus flatters both, Men. Cæfar and Lepidus are in the field; IF the great gods be juft, they fhall affift 40 A mighty ftrength they carry. The deeds of jufteft men. Men. Know, worthy Pompey, That what they do delay, they not deny. [cays Pomp. Whiles we are fuitors to their throne, deThe thing we fue for 6. Men. We, ignorant of ourselves, Beg often our own harms, which the wife powers Pomp. I fhall do well: The people love me, and the fea is mine; My power's a crefcent, and my auguring hope Pomp. Where have you this? 'tis falfe. Pomp. He dreams; I know, they are in Rome together, 45 Looking for Antony: But all the charms of love, Let witchcraft join with beauty, luft with both 50 Sharpen with cloylefs fauce his appetite; Var. This is most certain that I fhall deliver: No wars without doors: Cæfar gets money, where 55 Mark Antony is every hour in Rome 2 Arm Alluding to the philofopher's ftone, which, by its touch, converts bafe metal into gold. The alchemifts call the matter, whatever it be, by which they perform tranfmutation, a medicine. gaunt perhaps means, a horse fo flender that a man might clafp him, and therefore formed for expedition. In Chaucer's defcription of a King of Thrace in the Knight's Tale, armgrete is used to fignify as big as the arm; arm-gaunt therefore may mean as flender as the arm. We still say, in vulgar comparison, as long as my arm, as thick as my leg, &c. 3 i. e. put to filence by him. 4 The meaning is, Those were my fallad days, when I was green in judgement; but your blood is as cold as my judgement, if you have the fame opinion of things now as I had then. 5 By fending out meffengers. theaning is, While we are praying, the thing for which we pray is lofing its value. 3 D 3 6 The Expected; Expected; fince he went from Ægypt, 'tis A fpace for farther travel. Pomp. I could have given lefs matter A better ear.-Menas, I did not think, Lep. Noble friends, That which combin'd us was most great, and let not This amorous furfeiter would have don'd' his helm 5 Our trivial difference loud, we do commit For fuch a petty war: his foldiership Is twice the other twain: But let us rear Men. I cannot hope 2, Cæfar and Antony fhall well greet together: Pemp. I know not, Menas, How leffer enmities may give way to greater. For they have entertained caufe enough To draw their fwords: but how the fear of us Be it as our gods will have it! It only stands SCENE II. Enter Enobarbus, and Lepidus. [Exeunt. Lep. Good Enobarbus, 'tis a worthy deed, Eno. I fhall entreat him To answer like himfelf: if Cæfar move him, And speak as loud as Mars. By Jupiter, Were I the wearer of Antonius' beard, I would not fhave 't to-day 4. 1 To don is do on, to put on. 10 15 Murder in healing wounds: Then, noble partners, (The rather, for I earnestly befeech) Touch you the sourest points with sweetest terms, Nor curftnefs 5 grow to the matter. Ant. "Tis fpoken well: Were we before our armies, and to fight, Caf. Welcome to Rome. Ant. Thank you. Caf. Sit. Ant. Sit, fir! Caf. Nay, then 40 [45] Made wars upon me; and their contestation never Did urge me in his a& 9 : I did enquire it ; And make the wars alike against my stomach, 2 Hope for expect. 3 i. e. quarrel. 4 i. e. I would meet him undreifed, without fhew of refpect. si. e. Let not ill bumtur be added to the fubject of our differ ence. 6 To pratife means to employ unwarrantable arts or ftratagems. 7 i. e. my theme or fubje&t of converfation. 8 i. e. The pretence of the war was on your account; they took up arms in your name, and you were made the theme and fubject of their infurrection. make use of my name as a pretence for the war. 10 eaufe as you to be offended with me. |