SCENE III. Enter Cleopatra, Charmian, Alexas, and Iras. Cleo. Where is he? Char. I did not fee him fince. Cleo. See, where he is, who's with him, what he does.. 'I did not fend you. If you find him fad, Say, I am dancing; if in mirth, report, Char. Madam, methinks, if you did love him dearly, You do not hold the method to enforce The like from him. Cleo. What should I do, I do not? Char. In each thing give him way, crofs him in nothing. Cleo. Thou teacheft, like a fool, the way to lofe him. Char. Tempt him not fo too far. I wish forbear; In time we hate that which we often fear. Enter Antony. But here comes Antony. Cleo. I am fick, and fullen. Ant. I am forry to give breathing to my purpose. Cleo. Help me away, dear Charmian, I shall fall; It cannot be thus long, the fides of nature Will not fuftain it. Ant. Now, my deareft queen, Cleo. Pray you, ftand farther from me. Ant. What's the matter? Cleo. I know, by that fame eye, there's fome good news. I did not fend you.-] You muft go as if you came without my order or knowledge. JOHNSON. What says the marry'd woman?-You may go; Cleo. O never was there queen So mightily betray'd! yet at the first Ant. Cleopatra, Cleo. Why fhould I think, you can be mine, and true, Though you with fwearing 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! Ant. Moft sweet queen, Cleo. Nay, pray you, feek no colour for your going, But bid farewell, and go: when you fued staying, Blifs in our brows' bent; none our parts fo poor, Art turn'd the greatest liar. Ant. How now, lady? Cleo. I would I had thy inches; thou should'st know There were a heart in Ægypt. Ant. Hear me, queen: The strong neceffity of time commands Our fervices a-while; but my full heart -a race of heaven.- -] i, e. had a fmack or flavour WARB. of heaven. This word is well explained by Dr. Warburton; the race of wine is the tafte of the foil. Sir T. Hanmer, not understanding the word, reads, ray. JOHNSON. Remains Remains in ufe with you. Our Italy Breeds fcrupulous faction: The hated, grown to ftrength, Are newly grown to love: the condemn'd Pompey, Upon the prefent ftate, whofe numbers threaten; Cleo. Though age from folly could not give me It does from childifhnefs.-Can Fulvia die? Look here, and at thy fovereign leisure read 3 Remains in use―] The poet seems to allude to the legal diftinction between the use and abfolute poffeffion. JOHNSON. 4 -My more particular, And that which most with you should fave my going, Is Fulvia's death.] Thus all the more modern editions; the firft and fecond folio's read fafe: All corruptedly. Antony is giving feveral reasons to Cleopatra, which make his departure from Egypt neceffary; moft of them, reasons of ftate; but the death of Fulvia, his wife, was a particular and private call. Cleopatra is jealous of Antony, and fufpicious that he is feeking colours for his going. Antony replies to her doubts, with the reasons that obliged him to be abfent for a time; and tells her, that, as his wife Fulvia is dead, and so she has no rival to be jealous of, that circumftance should be his best plea and excufe, and have the greatest weight with her for his going. Who does not fee now, that it ought to be read, -Should falve my go`ng. THEOBALD. Mr. Upton reads, I think rightly, -jafe my going. JOHNSON. Cleo. O moft falfe love! Where be the facred vials thou shouldft 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; 6 Belong to Egypt. Good now, play one scene Like perfect honour. Ant. You'll heat my blood: No more. Cleo. You can do better yet; but this is meetly. Ant. Now by my fword, Cleo. And target, -Still he mends; But this is not the beft. Look, pr'ythee, Charmian, How this Herculean Roman does become The carriage of his chafe. Ant. I'll leave you, lady. Cleo. Courteous lord, one word. 50 moft falfe love! Where be the facred vials thou shouldft fill With forrowful water?] Alluding to the lachrymatory vials, or bottles of tears, which the Romans fometimes put into the urn of a friend. JOHNSON. to Egypt.] To me, the queen of Egypt. JOHNSON. Sir, you and I must part,—but that's not it; And I am all forgotten. 8 Ant. But that your royalty Holds idleness your fubject, I fhould take you 7 Oh, my oblivion is a very Antony, Cleo. And I am all forgotten.] The plain meaning is, My forgetfulness makes me forget myself. But the expreffes it by calling forgetfulness, Antony; becaufe forgetfulness had forgot her, as Antony had done.. For want of apprehending this quaintnefs of expreffion, the Oxford editor is forced to tell us news, That all forgotten is an old way of Speaking, for apt to forget every thing. WARBURTON. I cannot understand the learned critic's explanation. It appears to me, that she should rather have said, O my remembrance is a very Antony, It was her memory, not her oblivion, that, like Antony, was forgetting and deferting her. I think a flight change will restore the paffage. The queen, having fomething to fay, which she is not able, or would not seem able to recollect, cries out, O my oblivion!-'Tis a very Antony. The thought of which I was in queft is a very Antony, is treacherous and fugitive, and has irrevocably left me, And I am all forgotten. If this reading ftand, I think the explanation of Hanmer must be received. JOHNSON. Dr. Warburton's explanation is certainly juft, and I cannot fee any occafion for alteration. Cleopatra has fomething to fay, which feems to be fupprefs'd by forrow, and after many attempts to produce her meaning, fhe cries out, This quality I have of forgetting what concerns me nearly, too much resembles Antony, or is an Antony, and my welfare is alike forgoten by him and by myself. STEEVENS. But that y Holds idleness your fubject, I should take you For idleness itself.] i. e. But that your charms hold me, who am the greatest fool on earth, in chains, I should have adjudged you to be the greateft. That this is the fenfe is fhewn by her answer, |