Varrius,

Taurus, Lieutenant-General to Cæfar.
Canidius, Lieutenant-General to Antony.
Silius, an Officer in Ventidius's army.
An Ambaffador from Antony to Cæfar.

Alexas, Mardian, Seleucus, and Diomedes; Attendants on
Cleopatra.

A Soothsayer. A Clown.

Cleopatra, Queen of Egypt.

Octavia, Sifter to Cæfar, and Wife to Antony.

Charmian, Attendants on Cleopatra. 2

Iras,

Officers, Soldiers, Messengers, and other Attendants.

SCENE, difperfed; in feveral parts of the Roman Empire.

ACT I. SCENE I.

Alexandria. A Room in Cleopatra's Palace.

Enter DEMETRIUS and PHILO.

Phi. Nay, but this dotage of our general's,
O'er flows the measure: thofe his goodly eyes,
That o'er the files and mufters of the war
Have glow'd like plated Mars, now bend, now turn,
The office and devotion of their view

Upon a tawny front: his captain's heart,

Which in the fcuffles of great fights hath burst
The buckles on his breaft, reneges all temper;
And is become the bellows, and the fan,

To cool a 3 gipfy's luft. Look, where they come!

Flourish. Enter ANTONY and CLEOPATRA, with their trains; Eunuchs fanning her.

Take but good note, and you shall fee in him

2. -reneges-] Renounces. POPE.

The

3 Giply is here ufed both in the original meaning for an Ægyptian, and in its accidental fenfe for a bad woman. JOHNSON.

4 In this paffage something seems to be wanting. The bellows and fun being commonly used for contrary purpoíes, were probably oppofed by the author, who might perhaps have written:

is become the bellows, and the fan,

To kindle and to cool a gyply's luft. JOHNSON.

In Lyly's Midas, 1592, the bellows is used both to cool and to kindle.
STEEVENS.

The text is undoubtedly right. The bellows, as well as the fan, cools the air by ventilation; and Shakspeare confidered it here merely as an inftrument of wind, without attending to the domestick ufe to which it is commonly applied. MALONE.

Johnfon's amendment is unneceffary, and his reafons for it ill fourded. The bellows and the fan have the fame effects. When applied to a fire, they increase it; but when applied to any other warm fubitance, they cool it. M. MASON.

The triple pillars of the world transform'd
Into a ftrumpet's fool: behold and fee.

Cleo. If it be love indeed, tell me how much.

Ant. There's beggary in the love that can be reckon❜d, Cleo. I'll fet a bourn" how far to be belov'd.

Ant. Then muft thou needs find out new heaven, new earth.7

Enter an Attendant.

Att. News, my good lord, from Rome.

Ant.

'Grates me :-The fum.

Cleo. Nay, hear them,9 Antony:
Fulvia, perchance, is angry; Or, who knows
If the fcarce-bearded Cæfar have not fent
His powerful mandate to you, Do this, or this;
Take in t kingdom, and enfranchise that ;
Perform't, or elje we damn thee.

Ant.

How, my love! Cleo. Perchance,-nay, and moft like,

You must not stay here longer, your difmiffion

Is come from Cæfar; therefore hear it, Antony.

Where's Fulvia's procefs Cæfar's, I would say i-Both ?—
Call in the meffengers.-As I am Egypt's queen,
Thou blufheft, Antony; and that blood of thine
Is Cæfar's homager: elfe fo thy cheek pays fhame,
When fhrill-tongu'd Fulvia fcolds.-The meffengers.
Ant. Let Rome in Tiber melt! and the wide arch

Of

5 Triple is here ufed improperly for third, or one of three. One of the triumvirs, one of the three mafters of the world. WARBURTON.

6 Bound or limit. PoPE.

7 Thou must fet the boundary of my love at a greater diftance than the prefent visible univerfe affords. JOHNSON.

8 Be brief, fum thy bufinefs in a few words.

9 i. e. the news.

plural. MALONE.

JOHNSON."

This word in Shakspeare's time was confidered as

2 i. e. fubdue, conquer. REED.

3 Procefs here means fummons. M. MASON.

"The writings of our common lawyers fometimes call that the proceffe, by which a man is called into the court and no more." Mintheu's DICT. 1617, in v. Proceffe. MALONE.

Of the rang'd empire fall!+ Here is my space;
Kingdoms are clay: our dungy earth alike
Feeds beaft as man: the nobleness of life
Is, to do thus ; when fuch a mutual pair,
And fuch a twain can do't, in which, I bind
On pain of punishment, the world to weet,5
We ftand up peerless.

Cleo.

Excellent falfhood! Why did he marry Fulvia, and not love her?I'll feem the fool I am not; Antony

Will be himself.
Ant.

But ftirr'd by Cleopatra."

[embracing.

Now, for the love of Love, and her foft hours,"
Let's not confound the time with conference harsh :
There's not a minute of our lives should stretch
Without fome pleafure now: What sport to-night?
Cleo. Hear the ambaffadors.

Ant.

Fye, wrangling queen!

Whom

4 Taken from the Roman cuftom of raifing triumphal arches to per-. petuate their victories. Extremely noble. WARBURTON.

I am in doubt whether Shakspeare had any idea but of a fabrick ftanding on pillars. The later editions have all printed the raised empire, for the ranged empire, as it was firft given. JOHNSON.

The rang'd empire is certainly right. Shakspeare ufes the fame expreffion in Coriolanus, and in Much ado about Nothing. STEEVENS, The term range feems to have been applied in a peculiar fenfe to mafonwork in our author's time. MALONE.

5 To know. POPE.

6 But, in this paffage, feems to have the old Saxon fignification of without, unless, except. Antony, fays the queen, will recollect bis thoughts. Unless kept, he replies, in commotion by Cleopatra. JOHNSON.

What could Cleopatra mean by faying Antony will recollect his thoughts? What thoughts were they, for the recollection of which he was to applaud him? It was not for her purpofe that he should think, or roufe himself from the lethargy in which the wished to keep him. By Antony will be Bimfelf, the means to fay, that Antony will act like the joint fovereign of the world, and follow his own inclinations, without regard to the mandates of Cæfar, or the anger of Fulvia," To which he replies, If but firr'd by Cleopatra; that is, if moved to it in the flightest degree by her.

M. MASON.

7 For the love of Love, means, for the fake of the queen of love.

8. e. let us not confume the time.

MALONE,

MALONE.

Whom every thing becomes, to chide, to laugh,
To weep; whofe every paffion fully ftrives
To make itself, in thee, fair and admir'd!
No meffenger; but thine and all alone,

To-night, we'll wander through the streets, and note
The qualities of people. Come, my queen ;
Last night you did defire it:-Speak not to us.

[Exeunt ANT. and CLEOP. with their train.
Dem. Is Cæfar with Antonius priz'd fo flight?
Phi. Sir, fometimes, when he is not Antony,
He comes too short of that great property
Which ftill fhould go with Antony.

Dem.
I'm full forry,
That he approves the common liar," who
Thus fpeaks of him at Rome: But I will hope
Of better deeds to-morrow. Reft you happy!

SCENE II.

The fame. Another Room.

[Exeunt

Enter CHARMIAN, IRAS, ALEXAS, and a Soothfayer.

Char. Lord Alexas, fweet Alexas, moft any thing Alexas, almost most abfolute Alexas, where's the foothfayer that you praised fo to the queen? O, that I knew this husband, which, you fay, muft change his horns with garlands !2

Alex. Soothfayer.

Sonth. Your will?

Char. Is this the man ?-Is't you, fir, that know things? Sooth. In nature's infinite book of secrecy,

A little I can read.

9 Fame. That he proves the common liar, fame, in his cafe to be a true reporter. MALONE.

2 This is corrupt; the true reading evidently is: -must charge bis borns with garlands, i. e. make him a rich and honourable cuckold, having his horns hung about with garlands. WARBURTON.

Sir Thomas Hanmer reads, not improbably, change for borns his garlands. I am in doubt, whether to change is not merely to dress, or to drefs with changes of garlands, JoHNSON.

Enter