OF SHAKSPEARE. PART III. TRAGEDIES. ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA. ACT I. LOVE THE NOBLENESS OF LIFE. LET Rome in Tiber melt! and the wide arch Of the rang'd empire fall! Here is my space; Kingdoms are clay; our dungy earth alike Feeds beast as man: the nobleness of life, Is, to do thus; when such a mutual pair, [Embracing Why did he marry Fulvia, and not love her?- Will be himself. Ant. But stirr'd by Cleopatra,Now, for the love of Love, and her soft hours. ANTONY'S VICES AND VIRTUES, I must not think, there are Evils enough to darken all his goodness: Know. † Procured by his own fault. Cæs. You are toc indulgent: Let us grant it is not Amiss to tumble on the bed of Ptolemy; To give a kingdom for a mirth; to sit And keep the turn of tippling with a slave; (As his composure must be rare indeed, Whom these things cannot blemish,) yet mus No way excuse his soils, when we do bear Full surfeits, and the dryness of his bones, As we rate boys; who, being mature in knowledge, Antony, Leave thy lascivious wassals.§ When thou once Did fame follow; whom thou fought'st against, The roughest berry on the rudest hedge; Yea, like the stag, when snow the pasture sheets, * Levity. + Visit him. + Consume. § Feastings: in the old copy it is vaissailes, i. e. vassala T Stagnant, slimy water. Urine. CLEOPATRA'S O Charmian, SOLICITUDE ON THE ABSENCE ОР ANTONY. Where thinkst thou he is now? Stands he, or sits he? Or does he walk? or is he on his horse? O happy horse, to bear the weight of Antony! Do bravely, horse! for wot'st thou whom thou moy'st? The demi-Atlas of this earth, the arm And burgonet* of men.-He's speaking now, ACT II. THE VANITY OF HUMAN WISHES. We, ignorant of ourselves, Begin often our own harms, which the wise powers Deny us for our good; so find we profit, By losing of our prayers. DESCRIPTION OF CLEOPATRA SAILING DOWN THE CYDNUS. The barge she sat in, like a burnish'd throne, Burn'd on the water: the poop was beaten gold; Purple the sails, and so perfumed, that The winds were love-sick with them: the oars were silver; Which to the tune of flutes kept stroke, and made As amorous of their strokes. For her own person, * A Helmet. In her pavilion, (cloth of gold, of tissue,) Agr. O, rare for Antony. Eno. Her gentlewoman, like the Nereides, So many mermaids, tended her i' the eyes, And made their bends adornings: at the helm A seeming mermaid steers; the silken tackle Swell with the touches of those flower-soft hands, That yearly framet the office. From the barge A strange invisible perfume hits the sense Of the adjacent wharfs. The city cast Her people out upon her; and Antony, Enthron'd in the market-place, did sit alone, Whistling to the air; which, but for vacancy, Had gone to gaze on Cleopatra too, And made a gap in nature. CLEOPATRA'S INFINITE POWER IN PLEASING. Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale Her infinite variety: Other women Cloy the appetites they feed; but she makes hungry Where most she satisfies. For vilest things Become themselves in her; that the holy priests Bless her, when she's riggish.‡ THE UNSETTLED HUMOURS OF LOVERS. Enter CLEOPATRA, CHARMIAN, IRAS, and ALEXAS. Cleo. Give me some music; music, moody§ food Of us that trade in love. Attend. The music, ho! Enter MARDIAN. Cleo. Let it alone; let us to billiards: Come, Charmian. Char. My arm is sore, best play with Mardian. Cleo. As well a woman with an eunuch play'd As with a woman:-Come you'll play with me, sir? * Added to the warmth they were intended to diminish. + Readily perform. Wanton. § Melancholy. Mar. As well as I can, madam. Cleo. And when good will is show'd, though it come too short, The actor may plead pardon. I'll none now: Give me mine angle,-We'll to the river: there, Tawny finn'd fishes; my bended hook shall pierce I'll think them every one an Antony, And say, Ah! ah! you're caught. Char. 'Twas merry, when You wager'd on your angling; when your diver Cleo. That time!-0 times! I laugh'd him out of patience; and that night ACT III. AMBITION JEALOUS OF A TOO SUCCESSFUL FRIEND. O Silius, Silius, I have done enough: A lower place, note well, May make too great an act: For learn this, Silius; Better leave undone, than by our deed acquire Too high a fame, when him we serve's away. WHAT OCTAVIA'S ENTRANCE SHOULD HAVE BEEN. Why have you stol'n upon us thus? You come not Like Česar's sister: The wife of Antony Should have an army for an usher, and The neighs of horse to tell of her approach, Long ere she did appear; the trees by the way, Should have borne men; and expectation fainted, Longing for what it had not: nay the dust Should have ascended to the roof of heaven, Rais'd by your populous troops: But you are come A market-maid to Rome: and have prevented Head-dress. |