With clouts about their heads.

Ant. Thou bleed'st apace.

Scar. I had a wound here that was like a T,

But now 'tis made an H.

Ant. They do retire.

Scar. We'll beat 'em into bench-holes: I have yet

Room for six scotches more.

Enter EROS.

Eros. They are beaten, sir; and our advantage serves

For a fair victory.

Scar. Let us score their backs,

And snatch 'em up, as we take hares, behind ;

'Tis sport to maul a runner.

Ant. I will reward thee

Once for thy spritely comfort, and ten-fold
For thy good valour. Come thee on.

Scar. I'll halt after.

SCENE VIII,

[Exeunt

Under the Walls of Alexandria. Alarum. Enter ANTONY, marching; SCARUS, and Forces.

Ant. We have beat him to his camp; Run one before, And let the queen know of our guests. -To-morrow, Before the sun shall see us, we'll spill the blood 'That has to-day escap'd. I thank you all; For doughty-handed are you; and have fought Not as you serv'd the cause, but as it had been Each man's like mine; you have shown all Hectors. Enter the city, clip your wives, your friends, Tell them your feats; whilst they with joyful tears Wash the congealment from your wounds, and kiss The honour'd gashes whole. - Give me thy hand ;

Enter CLEOPATRA attended.

[TO SCARUS.

To this great fairy I'll commend thy acts,
Make her thanks bless thee. - O thou day o'the world,
Chain mine arm'd neck; leap thou, attire and all,

Through proof of harness' to my heart, and there
Ride on the pants triúmphing.

Cleo. Lord of lords!

O infinite virtue! com'st thou smiling from

The world's great snare uncaught ?

Ant. My nightingale,

We have beat them to their beds. What, girl? though

grey

Do something mingle with our brown; yet have we
A brain that nourishes our nerves, and can
Get goal for goal of youth." Behold this man;
Commend unto his lips thy favouring hand ;-
Kiss it, my warrior :- He hath fought to-day,
As if a god, in hate of mankind, had
Destroy'd in such a shape.

Cleo. I'll give thee, friend,

An armour all of gold; it was a king's.

Ant. He has deserv'd it, were it carbuncled
Like holy Phœbus' car. Give me thy hand;
Through Alexandria make a jolly march;
Bear our hack'd targets like the men that owe them :"
Had our great palace the capacity

To camp this host, we would all sup together;
And drink carouses to the next day's fate,
Which promises royal peril. -Trumpeters,
With brazen din blast you the city's ear;
Make mingle with our rattling tabourines;
That heaven and earth may strike their sounds together,
Applauding our approach.

SCENE IX.

[Exeunt.

CÆSAR'S Camp. Sentinels on their post. Enter ENOBARBUS.

1 Sold. If we be not reliev'd within this hour,
We must return to the court of guard: The night
Is shiny; and, they say, we shall embattle
By the second hour i'the morn.

2 Sold. This last day was

:

Eno. O, bear me witness, night,3 Sold. What man is this?

2 Sold. Stand close, and list to him.

Eno. Be witness to me, O thou blessed moon,

When men revolted shall upon record
Bear hateful memory, poor Enobarbus did
Before thy face repent !
1 Sold. Enobarbus!

3 Sold. Peace;

Hark further.

Eno. O sovereign mistress of true melancholy,
The poisonous damp of night disponge upon me;
That life, a very rebel to my will,

May hang no longer on me: Throw my heart
Against the flint and hardness of my fault;
Which, being dried with grief, will break to powder,
And finish all foul thoughts. O Antony,

Nobler than my revolt is infamous,
Forgive me in thine own particular;
But let the world rank me in register

A master-leaver, and a fugitive:

Ο Antony! Ο Antony!

2 Sold. Let's speak

To him.

1 Sold. Let's hear him, for the things he speaks

May concern Cæsar.

3 Sold. Let's do so. But he sleeps.

1 Sold. Swoons rather; for so bad a prayer as his

Was never yet for sleeping.

2 Sold. Go we to him.

3 Sold. Awake, awake, sir; speak to us.

2 Sold. Hear you, sir?

[Dies

1 Sold. The hand of death has raught him.' Hark, the

drums

[Drums afar off.

Demurely wake the sleepers : Let's bear him
To the court of guard; he is of note: our hour
Is fully out.

3 Sold. Come on then;

He may recover yet.

[Exeunt with the body.

SCENE X.

Between the two Camps. Enter ANTONY and SCARUS, with

Forces, marching.

Ant. Their preparation is to-day by sea;

We please them not by land.

Scar. For both, my lord.

Ant. I would, they'd fight i'the fire, or in the air;

We'd fight there too. But this it is; Our foot
Upon the hills adjoining to the city
Shall stay with us: order for sea is given;
They have put forth the haven: Further on,
Where their appointment we may best discover,
And look on their endeavour.

[Exeunt.

Enter CÆSAR, and his Forces, marching.
Cæs. But being charg'd, we will be still by land,
Which, as I take't, we shall ;* for his best force
Is forth to man his gallies. To the vales,
And hold our best advantage.

Re-enter ANTONY and SCARUS.

[Exeunt.

Ant. Yet they're not join'd: Where yonder pine does

stand,

I shall discover all: I'll bring thee word

Straight, how 'tis like to go.

Scar. Swallows have built

In Cleopatra's sails their nests: the augurers

[Exit.

Say, they know not, they cannot tell ;-look grimly,

And dare not speak their knowledge. Antony

Is valiant, and dejected; and, by starts,

His fretted fortunes give him hope, and fear,

Of what he has, and has not.

Ant. All is lost;

[Alarum afar off, as at a sea-fight.

Re-enter ANTONY.

This foul Egyptian hath betray'd me :

My fleet hath yielded to the foe; and yonder

They cast their caps up, and carouse together

[4] That is, unless we be charg'd we will remain quiet at land, which quiet I sup-pose we shall keep. But being charg'd was a phrase of that time, equivalent to unless we be.

WARBURTON.

"But (says Mr. Lambe, in his notes on the ancient metrical history of The Battle of Flodden,) signifies without," in which sense it is often used in the North. "Boots but spurs." Vulg. Again, in Kelly's Collection of Scot's Proverbs: "---He could eat ne but salt." Again: "He gave me whitings but bones." But is from the Saxon Butan. STEEVENS.

Like friends long lost. -Triple-turn'd whore !" 'tis thou
Hast sold me to this novice; and my heart
Makes only wars on thee. Bid them all fly;
For when I am reveng'd upon my charm,

I have done all :-Bid them all fly, begone. [Exe. SCAR.
O sun, thy uprise shall I see no more :

Fortune and Antony part here; even here
Do we shake hands. All come to this? - The hearts
That spaniel'd me at heels, to whom I gave
Their wishes, do discandy, disc melt their sweets
On blossoming Cæsar; and this pine is bark'd,
That over-topp'd them all. Betray'd I am :
O this false soul of Egypt! this grave charm, ---
Whose eye beck'd forth my wars, and call'd them home;
Whose bosom was my crownet, my chief end,
Like a right gipsy, hath, at fast and loose,
Beguil'd me to the very heart of loss.-
What, Eros, Eros!

Enter CLEOPATRA,

Ah, thou spell! Avaunt.

Cleo. Why is my lord enrag'd against his love?
Ant. Vanish; or I shall give thee thy deserving,
And blemish Cæsar's triumph. Let him take thee,
And hoist thee up to the shouting Plebeians :
Follow his chariot, like the greatest spot
Of all thy sex ; most monster-like, be shown
For poor'st diminutives, to dolts; and let
Patient Octavia plough thy visage up

[5] Cleopatra was first the mistress of Julius Cæsar, then of Cneius Pompey, and afterwards of Antony. To this, I think, the epithet triple-turn'd alludes. So, in a former scene:

" I found you as a morsel, cold upon
Dead Cæsar's trencher; nay, you are a fragment

Of Cneius Pompey."

Mr. Tollet supposed that Cleopatra had been mistress to Pompey the Great; but her lover was his eldest son, Cneius Pompey.

MALONE.

[6] I believe grave charm means deadly, or destructive piece of witchcraft. In this sense the epithet grave is often used by Chapman in his translation of Homer. STEEVENS.

[7] There is a kind of pun in this passage, arising from the corruption of the word Egyptian into gipsy. The old law-books term such persons as ramble about the country, and pretend skill in palmistry and fortune-telling, Egyptians. Fast and loose is a term to signify a cheating game, of which the following is a description. A leathern belt is made up into a number of intricate folds, and placed edgewise upon a table. One of the folds is made to resemble the middle of the girdle, so that whoever should thrust a skewer into it would think he held it fast to the table; where as, when he has so done, the person with whom he plays may take hold of both ends and draw it away. This trick is now known to the common people, by the name of pricking at the belt or girdle, and perhaps was practised by the Gypsies in the time of Shakespeare.

SIR J. HAWKINS.

[8] To the utmost loss possible. JOHNSON.