Than this pure soul shall be: all princely graces, Shall still be doubled on her: truth shall nurse her, She shall be lov'd and fear'd: her own shall bless her; Her foes shake like a field of beaten corn, And hang their heads with sorrow: good grows with her; Under his own vine, what he plants; and sing As great in admiration as herself, So shall she leave her blessedness to one, (When Heaven shall call her from this cloud of dark-. Who, from the sacred ashes of her honour, Shall star-like rise, as great in fame as she was, [ness) And so stand fix'd: peace, plenty, love, truth, terror, Shall be, and make new nations: he shall flourish, To all the plains about him;- -Our children's children THE BEAUTIES OF SHAKSPEARE. TRAGEDIES.-PART III. Antony and Cleopatra. ACT I. LOVE THE NOBLENESS OF LIFE. LET Rome in Tyber melt! and the wide arch [Embracing. And such a twain can do't, in which I bind, 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 VIRTUES AND VICES. I must not think, there are Evils enough to darken all his goodness: His faults, in him, seem as the spots of heaven, * Know. Than what he chooses. Cæs. You are too indulgent: let us grant, it is not Amiss to tumble on the bed of Ptolemy; To give a kingdom for a mirth; and sit And keep the turn of tippling with a slave; To reel the streets at noon, and stand the buffet With knaves that smell of sweat: say, this becomes him (As his composure must be rare indeed, Whom these things cannot blemish,) yet must Antony So great weight in his lightness.* If he fill'd 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 famine folly; whom thou fought'st against, Which beasts could cough at: thy palate then did deign Yea, like the stag, when snow the pasture sheets, It is reported thou didst eat strange flesh, † Visit him. Consume. * Levity. Which some did die to look on: and all this (It wounds thy honour that I speak it now) Was borne so like a soldier, that thy cheek So much as lank'd not. CLEOPATRA'S SOLICITUDE ON THE ABSENCE OF O Charmian, Where think'st 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 mov'st? And burgonet* of men.-He's speaking now, With looking on his life. ACT II. THE VANITY OF HUMAN WISHES. We, ignorant of ourselves, Beg 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; [silver; The winds were love sick with them: the oars were * A helmet. Which to the tune of flutes kept stroke, and made It beggar'd all description; she did lie Agr. O, rare for Antony Eno. Her gentlewomen, like the Nereides, 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 th' appetites they feed; but she makes hungry *Added to the warmth they were intended to diminish. † Readly perform. + Wanton. |