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To make itself, in thee, fair and admir'd!
No meffenger; but thine and all alone',
To-night, we'll wander through the ftreets, and note
The qualities of people. Come, my queen;
Laft 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 still should go with Antony.

Dem. I am full forry,

That he approves the common liar3, who

Thus fpeaks of him at Rome: But I will hope

Of better deeds to-morrow. Reft you happy! [Exeunt. SCENE II.

The fame. Another Room.

Enter CHARMIAN, IRAS, ALEXAS, and a Soothsayer*. Char. Lord Alexas, fweet Alexas, moft any thing Alexas, almost most abfolute Alexas, where's the foothfayer

No meffenger; but thine and all alone,] Cleopatra has faid, "Call in the meffengers," and afterwards, "Hear the ambassadors." Talk not to me, fays Antony, of meflengers; I am now wholly thine, and you and I unattended will to-night wander through the streets. The fubfequent words which he utters as he goes out, "Speak not to us," confirm this interpretation. MALONE.

2 To-night, we'll wander through the Atreets, &c.] So, in fir Thomas North's Tranflation of the Life of Antonius: "Sometime alfo when he would goe up and downe the citie difguifed like a flave in the night, and would peere into poore men's windowes and their fhops, and fcold and brawl with them within the houfe; Cleopatra would be alfo in chamber-maides array, and amble up and down the streets with him,” &c. STEEVENS.

3 That be approves the common liar,-] That he proves the common liar, fame, in his cafe to be a true reporter. MALONE.

4 Enter Charmian, Iras, Alexas, and a Soothsayer.] The old copy reads: "Enter Enobarbus, Lamprius, a Southsayer, Řannius, Lucilius, Charmian, Iras, Mardian the Eunuch, and Alexas.”

Plutarch mentions his grandfather Lamprias, as his author for fome of the stories he relates of the profufenefs and luxury of Antony's en tertainments

Layer that you praised fo to the queen? O, that I knew this hufband, which, you fay, muft charge his horns with garlands!

Alex.

tertainments at Alexandria. Shakspeare appears to have been very anxious in this play to introduce every incident and every perfonage he met with in his hiftorian. In the multitude of his characters, however, Lamprias is entirely overlook'd, together with the others whofe names we find in this stage-direction. STEEVENS.

5-charge bis horns with garlands !] Change his horns is corrupt; the true reading evidently is :-muft 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.

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So, Taylor the water-poet, defcribing the habit of a coachman: with a cloak of fome py'd colour, with two or three change of laces about." Change of clothes in the time of Shakspeare fignified variety of them. Coriolanus fays that he has received “change of honours" from the Patricians. A& II. fc. i. STEEVENS.

I once thought that these two words might have been often confounded, by their being both abbreviated, and written chage. But an n, as the Bishop of Dromore obferves to me, was fometimes omitted both in Mf. and print, and the omiffion thus marked, but an never. This therefore might account for a compofitor inadvertently printing charge instead of change, but not change instead of charge; which word was never abbreviated. I alfo doubted the phrafeology-cbange with, and do not at present recollect any example of it in Shakspeare's plays or in his time; whilft in The Taming of the Shrew, we have the modern phrafeology-change for :

To change true rules for odd inventions.

But a careful revifion of thefe plays has taught me to place no confidence in fuch obfervations; for from fome book or other of that age, I have no doubt almost every combination of words that may be found in our authour, however uncouth it may appear to our ears, or however different from modern phrafeology, will at some time or other be juftified. In the prefent edition, many which were confidered as undoubtedly corrupt, have been incontrovertibly fupported.

Still, however, I think that the reading originally introduced by Mr. Theobald, and adopted by Dr. Warburton, is the true one, because it affords a clear fenfe: whilft on the other hand, the reading of the old copy affords none; for fuppofing change with to mean exchange for, what idea is conveyed by this paffage ? and what other sense can thefe words bear? The fubitantive change being formerly used to fignify variety, (as change of cloaths, of honours, &c.) proves nothing: change of cloaths or linen neceffarily imports more than one; but the thing fought

for

Alex. Soothsayer.

Sooth. 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.

Alex. Shew him your hand.

Enter ENOBARBUS.

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

Char. Good fir, give me good fortune.

Sooth. I make not, but foresee.

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 prefcience; be attentive.
Char. Hush!

Sooth. You fhall be more beloving, than belov'd.
Char. I had rather heat my liver with drinking".

Alex.

for is the meaning of the verb to change, and no proof is produced to fhew that it fignified to drefs; or that it had any other meaning than to exchange.

Charmian is talking of her future husband, who certainly could not change his horns, at prefent, for garlands or any thing elfe, having not yet obtained them; nor could fhe mean, that when he did get them, he fhould change or part with them, for garlands: but he might charge his horns, when he should marry Charmian, with garlands: for having once got them the intended, we may fuppofe, that he should wear thema contentedly for life. Horns charg'd with garlands is an expreffion of a fimilar import with one which is found in Characterifmi, or Lenton's Leafures, 8vo, 1631. In the description of a contented cuckold, he is faid to hold his velvet borns as high as the best of them."

Let it alfo be remembered that garlands are ufually wreathed round the bead; a circumftance which adds great fupport to the emendation now made. So Sidney:

"A garland made, on temples for to wear."

It is obfervable that the fame mistake has happened in Coriolanus, where the fame correction was made by Dr. Warburton, and adopted by all the fubfequent editors:

"And yet to charge thy fulphur with a bolt,
"That should but rive an oak."

The old copy there, as here, has change. MALONE.

• I had rather beat my liver-] To know why the lady is fo averfe

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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 Cæfar, and companion me with my mistress!

Sooth. You fhall out-live the lady whom you ferve. Char. O excellent! I love long life better than figs. Sooth. You have feen and prov'd a fairer former for

tune

Than that which is to approach.

Char. Then, belike, my children shall have no names": Pr'ythee,

from beating her liver, it must be remembered, that a heated liver is fuppofed to make a pimpled face. JOHNSON.

The following paffage in an ancient fatirical poem, entitled Notes from Black fryars, 1617, confirms Dr. Johnson's obfervation:

"He'll not approach a taverne, no, nor drink ye,
"To fave his life, hot water; wherefore think ye?
"For heating's liver; which some may suppose

Scalding hot, by the bubbles on bis nose." MALONE.

7- to whom Herod of Jewry may do bomage!] Herod paid homage to the Romans, to procure the grant of the kingdom of Judea; but I believe there is an allufion here to the theatrical character of this momarch, and to a proverbial expreffion founded on it. Herod was always one of the perfonages in the mysteries of our early stage, on which he was conftantly reprefented as a fierce, haughty, blustering tyrant, fo that Herod of Jewry became a common proverb, expreffive of turbulence and rage. Thus, Hamlet fays of a ranting player, that, he "outberods Herod." And in this tragedy Alexas tells Cleopatra that "not even Herod of Jewry dare look upon her when the is angry;" i. e. not even a man as fierce as Herod. According to this explanation, the sense of the prefent pattage will be-Charmian wishes for a son who may arrive to fuch power and dominion that the proudest and fiercest monarchs of the earth may be brought under his yoke. STEEVENS.

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I love long life better than figs.] This is a proverbial expreffion.

STEEVENS.

9 Then, belike, my children fhall have no names:] If I have already had the best of my fortune, then I fuppofe I fhall never name children, that is, I am never to be married. However, tell me the truth, tell me, how many boys and wenches? JOHNSON.

A fairer fortune, I believe, means-a more reputable one. Her anfwer then implies, that belike all her children will be bastards, who have no right to the name of their father's family. Thus fays Launce in the third act of the Two Gentlemen of Verona: “That's as much as

to

Pr'ythee, how many boys and wenches muft I have?
Sooth. If every of your wishes had a womb,
And fertile every with, a million'.

Char. Out, fool! I forgive thee for a witch.

Alex. You think, none but your fheets are privy to your wishes.

Char. Nay, come, tell Iras hers.

Alex. We'll know all our fortunes.

Eno. Mine, and most of our fortunes, to night, fhall be -drunk to bed.

Iras. There's a palm prefages chastity, if nothing else.
Char. Even as the o'erflowing Nilus prefageth famine.
Iras. Go, you wild bedfellow, you cannot foothfay.
Char. Nay, if an oily palm be not a fruitful prognofti-

to fay, baftard virtues, that indeed know not their fathers, and therefore bave no names.' STEEVENS.

A line in our authour's Rape of Lucrece confirms Mr. Steevens's interpretation:

"Thy iffue blurr'd with nameless baftardy." MALONE.

If every of your wishes bad a womb,

And fertile every wish, a million.] The old copy reads-And foretell. The emendation was made by Dr. Warburton. I have not hefitated to receive it, the change being fo flight, and being fo ftrongly upported by the context. If every one of your wishes, fays the foothfayer, had a womb, and each womb-invefted with were likewife fertile, you then would have a million of children.-The merely fuppofing each of her wishes to have a womb, would not warrant the foothfayer to pronounce that she should have any children, much lefs a million; for, like Calphurnia, each of these wombs might be fubject to "the fterile curfe." The word fertile therefore is abfolutely requifite to the fenfe. MALONE.

For foretel, in ancient editions, the later copies have foretold. Foretel favours the emendation, which is made with great acuteness; yet the original reading may, I think, ftand. If you bad as many wombs as you will have wishes, and I should foretel all those wishes, I should foretel a million of children. It is an ellipfis very frequent in conversation; I fhould fhame you, and tell all; that is, and if I should tell all. And is for and if, which was anciently, and is still provincially used for if. JOHNSON

In the inftance given by Dr. Johnson, "I should shame you and tell all," I occurs in the former part of the fentence, and therefore may be well omitted afterwards; but here no personal pronoun has been introduced. MALONE.

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