Menecrates, Friends of Pompey.
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.

Iras,

Officers, Soldiers, Messengers, and other Attendants.

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

Alexandria. A Room in Cleopatra's Palace.
Enter DEMETRIUS, and PHILO.

Phi. Nay, but this dotage of our general's *
O'erflows 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 3 all temper;
And is become the bellows, and the fan,

To cool a gypfey's luft+. Look, where they come !
Flourish.

Antony and Cleopatra was written, I imagine, in the year 1608. See An Attempt to ascertain the order of Sbakspeare's plays, Vol. I.

MALONI. 2- of our general's-] It has already been obferved that this phrafeology (not, of our general,) was the common phrafeology of Shakfpeare's time. See Vol. IV. p. 467, n. 7. MALONE.

3-reneges-] Renounces. POPE.

So, in K. Lear: "Renege, affirm," &c. This word is likewife ufed by Stanyhurst in his version of the second book of Virgil's Æneid: "To live now longer, Troy burnt, he flatly reneageth."

4 And is become the bellows, and the fan,

STEEVINS.

To cool a gypfey's luft.] In this paffage fomething feems to be wanting. The bellows and fan being commonly used for contrary purpofes, were probably oppofed by the authour, who might perhaps have

written :

is become the bellows and the fan,

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

In Lylly's Midas, 1592, the bellows is ufed both to cool and to kindle: "Methinks Venus and Nature and with each of them a pair of bellows, one cooling my low birth, the other kindling my lofty affec tions." 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 intrument

E 4

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

Take good note, and you fhall fee in him
The tripple pillar 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. Gleo. I'll fet a bourn how far to be belov❜d.

Ant. Then muft thou needs find out new heaven, new earth 8.

Enter an Attendant.

Att. News, my good lord, from Rome.

Ant. Grates me: -The fum 9.

inftrument of wind, without attending to the domeftick ufe to which it is commonly applied. We meet with a fimilar phraseology in his Venus and Adonis:

"Then, with her windy fighs, and golden hairs, !" Tofan and blow them dry again, she seeks."

The following lines in Spenfer's Faery Queen, B. II. c. ix. at once fupport and explain the text:

"But to delay the heat, left by mischaunce

"It might breake out, and fet the whole on fyre,
"There added was, by goodly ordinaunce,

A huge great payre of bellowes, which did ftyre
"Continually, and cooling breath infpyre." MALONE.

・gypfey's luft, -1 Gypfey is here ufed both in the original meaning for an Egyptian, and in its accidental fenfe for a bad woman. JOHNSON. 5 The triple pillar Triple is here ufed improperly for third, or one of three. One of the triumvirs, one of the three maiters of the world. WARBURTON.

So, in All's Well that Ends Well:

"Which, as the deareft iffue of his practice,
He bade me ftore up as a triple eye."

MALONE.

There's beggary in the love that can be reckon'd.] So, in Romeo and

Juliet:

"They are but beggars that can count their worth."
"Bafia pauca cupit, qui numerare poteft."

Mart. I. vi. ep. 36. STEEVENS.

bourn Bound or limit. POPE.

Then must thou needs find out new beaven, &c] Thou must set the boundary of my love at a greater distance than the prefent vifible uni verfe affords. JoHNSON.

9 The fum.] Be brief, fum thy business in a few words. JOHNSON. Clee.

Cleo. Nay, hear them, 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 that kingdom, and enfranchise that;
Perform't, or else we damn thee.

Ant. How, my love!

Cleo. Perchance,-nay, and most 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?—
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 Tyber melt! and the wide arch
Of the rang'd empire fall! Here is my space;

9

Nay, bear them,] i. e. the news. This word in Shakspeare's time was confidered as plural. So, in Plutarch's Life of Antony: "Antonius hearing these newes," &c. MALONE.

1 Take in that kingdom,]i. e. Subdue that kingdom. See p. 160, n. 8. MALONE.

2 Where's Fulvia's procefs?] Procefs here means fummons. 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. To ferve with procefie. Vide to cite, to fummon." Ibid. MALONE.

and the wide arch

Of the rang'd empire fall!] Taken from the Roman custom of raifing triumphal arches to perpetuate their victories. Extremely noble. WARBURTON.

I am in doubt whether Shakspeare had any idea but of a fabrick standing 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:

bury all which yet diftinctly ranges,

"In heaps and piles of ruin."

Again, in Much ado about Nothing, A& II. fc. ii: "Whatsoever comes athwart his affection, ranges evenly with mine." STEEVENS.

The term range feems to have been applied in a peculiar fenfe to mafon-work in our authour's time. So, in Spenfer's F. 2. B. II. c. ix. "It was a vaulty-built for great difpence,

"With many raunges rear'd along the wall." MALONE. Kingdoms

Kingdoms are clay: our dungy earth alike
Feeds beast as man: the nobleness of life
Is, to do thus; when such a mutual pair,
And fuch a twain can do't, in which, I bind
On pain of punishment, the world to weet*,
We stand up peerless.

Cleo. Excellent falfhood!

[embracing.

Why did he marry Fulvia, and not love her —
I'll feem the fool I am not; Antony

Will be himfelf.

Ant. But ftirr'd by Cleopatra 5.

Now, for the love of Love, and her soft hours 6,
Let's not confound the time with conference harsh :
There's not a minute of our lives fhould stretch
Without fome pleasure now: What fport to-night?
Cleo. Hear the ambassadors.

Ant. Fye, wrangling queen!

Whom every thing becomes, to chide, to laugh,
To weep; whofe every paffion fully ftrives 9

to weet,] To know. POPE.

5 But firr'd by Cleopatra.] 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.

"Now, for the love of Love, and her foft bours,] For the love of Love, means, for the fake of the queen of love. So, in the Comedy of Errors : "Let Love, being light, be drowned if he fink."

Mr. Rowe fubftituted bis for ber, and this unjustifiable alteration was adopted by all the fubfequent editors. MALONE.

"Let's not confound the time-] i. e. let us not confume the time. So, in Coriolanus:

"How could't thou in a mile confound an hour, "And bring thy news fo late?" MALONE, 8 Whom every thing becomes, to chide, to laugh, To weep-] So, in our authour's 150th Sonnet: "Whence haft thou this becoming of things ill, "That in the very refuse of thy deeds

"There is fuch ftrength and warrantife of fkill,

"That in my mind thy worst all beft exceeds ?" MALONE. - whofe every paffion fully frives] The folio reads-wbe. It was corrected by Mr. Rowe; but whofe every paffion" was not, I fufpect, the phrafeology of Shakspeare's time. The text however is undoubtedly corrupt, MALONE.

To