"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 burft

VOL. VII.

H

"The

I

"The buckles on his breaft, reneges all temper "And is become the bellows, and the fan,

"To cool a Gypfy's luft. Look, where they come! Flourish. Enter Antony and Cleopatra, ber Ladies in the train, Eunuchs fanning her.

Take but good note, and you shall see in him "The triple pillar of the world transform'd "Into a Strumpet's Stool. 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 3 bourn how far to be belov'd.
Ant. Then muft thou needs find out new heav'n,
new earth.

Enter a Mellenger.

Mell. News, my good Lord, from Rome.
Ant. It grates me. Tell the fum.
Cleo. Nay, hear it, Antony.

Fulvia, perchance, is angry; or who knows,
If the fcarce-bearded Cæfar have not sent
His powerful Mandate to you, Do this, or this;
Take in that Kingdom, and infranchise that;
Perform't, or else we damn thee.

Ant. How, my love?

Cleo. Perchance, (nay, and most like,)

1 reneges] Renounces.

2 The triple pillar of the world transform'd

Mr. Pope.

Into a Strumpet's FOOL.-] The metaphor is here miserably mangled. We should read,

Into a Strumpet's STOOL.

The pillar of the world, fays he, is transformed into a ftrumpet's Stool. Alluding to the custom of ftrumpets fitting in the lap of their lovers. So Ajax in Troilus and Creffida, calls Therfites, Thou STOOL for a witch. Shakespear too, in the use of pillar and fool, had regard perhaps to the etymology of the latter word, which comes from Erúa, columna.

3 bourn] Bound or limit.

Mr. Pope.
You

You must not stay here longer, your difmiffion
Is come from Cæfar; therefore hear it, Antony.
Where's Fulvia's Procefs? Cæfar's? I'd fay, both?
Call in the Meffengers; as I'm Egypt's Queen,
Thou blufheft, Antony, and that blood of thine
Is Cæfar's homager: elfe, fo thy cheeks pay fhame,
When fhrill-tongu'd Fulvia fcolds. The Meffengers-
Ant. "Let Rome in Tyber melt, and the wide arch
"Of the rais'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 fuch a mutual Pair, [Embracing.
And fuch a twain can do't; in which, I bind
(On pain of punishment) the world to weet,
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.

Now for the love of love, and his foft hours,
Let's not confound the time with conference harfh;
There's not a minute of our lives fhould ftretch
'Without fome pleasure new: what fport to night?
Cleo. Hear the Ambaffadors.

Ant. "Fie, wrangling Queen!

"Whom every thing becomes, to chide, to laugh, "To weep: whofe every paffion fully trives "To make it felf in thee fair and admired.

No Meffenger, but thine;-and all alone,

4

and the wide arch] Taken from the Roman cuftom of raifing triumphal arches to perpetuate their victories. Extremely Roble.

5 to weet,] To know.

Mr. Pope.

6 Without fome pleafure Now: ] We fhould read NEW: A fentiment much in character of the luxurious and debauched Antony. It is the antithefis to conference harsh.

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, with their Train.

Dem. Is Cæfar with Antonius priz'd fo flight? Phil. Sir, fometimes, when he is not Antony, He comes too fhort of that great property Which still should go with Antony.

Dem. I'm forry,

That he approves the common liar, Fame,
Who fpeaks him thus at Rome; but I will hope
Of better deeds to morrow. Reft you happy!
[Exeunt.

Enter Enobarbus, Charmian, Iras, Alexas, and a Sooth-fayer.

Char. Alexas, fweet Alexas, moft any thing Alexas, almost most abfolute Alexas, where's the Sooth-fayer that you prais'd fo to th' Queen? 7 Oh! that I knew this husband, which you fay, muft charge his horns with garlands.

Alex. Soothsayer,

Sooth. Your will?

Char. Is this the man? Is't you, Sir, that know things?

Sooth. In Nature's infinite Book of Secrecy, A little I can read.

Alex. Shew him your hand.

Eno. Bring in the banquet quickly: wine enough, Cleopatra's health to drink.

Char. Good Sir, give me good fortune.

Sooth. I make not, but foresee.

7 Oh! that I knew this husband, which you say, muft CHANGE bis horns with garlands.] This is corrupt; the true reading evidently is, muft CHARGE his horns with garlands, i. e. make him a rich and honourable cuckold, having his horns hung about with garlands.

Char.

Char. Pray then, foresee me one.

Sooth. You fhall be yet far fairer than you are.
Char. He means, in flesh.

Iras. No, you fhall paint when you are old.
Char. Wrinkles forbid!

Alex. Vex not his prescience, be attentive.
Char. Hufh!

Sooth. You shall be more beloving, than beloved.
Char. I had rather heat my liver with drinking.
Alex. Nay, hear him.

Char. Good now, fome excellent fortune! let me be married to three Kings in a forenoon, and widow them all; let me have a child at fifty, to whom Herod of Jewry may do homage! find me, to marry me with Octavius Cafar, and companion me with my mistress.

Sooth. You fhall out-live the Lady whom you ferve. Char. Oh, excellent! I love long life better than figs. Sooth. You have feen, and proved, a fairer former fortune, than that which is to approach.

Char. Then, belike, my children shall have no

names;

8 Char. Oh, excellent! I love long life better than figs.] Here Shakespear has copied ancient manners with as much beauty as propriety: This being one of thofe ominous fpeeches, in which the ancients were fo fuperftitious: For the afpicks, by which Charmian died, and after her mistress, were conveyed in a basket of figs. Omens (a fuperftition which Pythagoras first taught the Greeks) were the undefigned confequence of words cafually spoken.. The words were fometimes taken from the fpeaker, and applied by the hearers to the speaker's own affairs, as in the cafe of Paulus Emilius, after his conqueft of Macedon. Sometimes again the words of the speaker were transferred to the affairs of the hearer, as in the cafe of the fame Paulus before his conqueft of Macedon. Itaque rebus divinis quæ publicè fierent, ut faverent linguis, imperabatur. Cicero de Divin. 1. 1.

9 Then, belike, my children shall have no names.] i. e. be of no note, a Greek mode of expreffion; in which language, Sivuμos fignifies both double-named and famous, becaufe anciently famous men had an agnomen taken from their exploits.