mortal an unkindness is to them; if they fuffer our departure, death's the word. Ant. I must be gone. Eno. Under a compelling occafion, let women die: It were pity to caft them away for nothing; though, between them and a great caufe, they fhould be esteem'd nothing. Cleopatra, catching but the leaft noise of this, dies inftantly; I have feen her die twenty times upon far poorer moment': I do think, there is mettle in death, which commits fome loving act upon her, fhe hath such a celerity in dying. Ant. She is cunning paft man's thought. Eno. Alack, fir, no; her paffions are made of nothing but the finest part of pure love: We cannot call her winds and waters, fighs and tears; they are greater ftorms and tempefts than almanacks can report: this cannot be canning in her; if it be, she makes a fhower of rain as well as Jove. Ant. "Would I had never feen her! Eno. O, fir, you had then left unfeen a wonderful piece of work; which not to have been bleft withal, would have difcredited your travel. Ant. Fulvia is dead. 1 ·poorer moment:] For lefs reafon; upon meaner motives; JOHNSON. 2 We cannot call her winds and waters, fighs and tears;] I once idly fuppofed that Shakspeare wrote-"We cannot call her fighs and tears, winds and waters;"-which is certainly the phrafeology we should now ufe. I mention fuch idle conjectures, however plaufible, only to put all future commentators on their guard against fufpecting a paffage to be corrupt, because the diction is different from that of the prefent day. The arrangement of the text was the phrafeology of Shakspeare, and probably of his time. So, in King Henry VIII. You must be well contented, "To make your boufe our Tower." We should certainly now write-to make our Tower Again, in Coriolanus: "What good condition can a treaty find, "I' the part that is at mercy?" your houfe. i. e. how can the party that is at mercy or in the power of another, expect to obtain in a treaty terms favourable to them!-See alfo a fimilar inverfion in Vol. III. p. 46, n. 7. MALONE. Eno. Eno. Sir? Ant. Fulvia is dead. Eno. Fulvia? - Ant. Dead. Eno. Why, fir, give the gods a thankful facrifice. When it pleaseth their deities to take the wife of a man from him, it fhews to man the tailors of the earth; comforting therein3, that when old robes are worn out, there are members to make new. If there were no more women but Fulvia, then had you indeed a cut, and the cafe to be lamented: this grief is crown'd with confola, tion; your old fmock brings forth a new petticoat :and, indeed, the tears live in an onion, that should water this forrow. Ant. The business she hath broached in the state, Cannot endure my absence. Eno. And the bufinefs you have broach'd here cannot be without you; especially that of Cleopatra's, which wholly depends on your abode. Ant. No more light answers. Let our officers The ➡it fhews to man the tailors of the earth, comforting therein, &c.] When the deities are pleased to take a man's wife from him, this act of theirs makes them appear to man like the tailors of the earth: affording this comfortable reflection, that the deities have made other women to fupply the place of his former wife; as the tailor, when one robe is worn out, fupplies him with another. MALONE. The meaning is this. As the gods bave been pleased to take away your wife Fulvia, fo they have provided you with a new one in Cleopatra ; in like manner as the tailors of the earth, when your old garments are work out, accommodate you with new ones. ANONYMUS. 4 the tears live in an onion, &c.] So, in The noble Soldier, 1634: "So much water as you might squeeze out of an onion had been tears enough," &c. STEEVENS. 5 The cause of our expedience-] Expedience for expedition. Warb. See Vol. V. p. 112, n. 7; and p. 558, n. 3. MALONE. And get her love to part-] I fufpect the author wrote: And get her leave to part. So, afterwards: "Would, she had never given you leave to come!" The The death of Fulvia, with more urgent touches, The greater part of the fucceeding fcene is employed by Antony, in an endeavour to obtain Cleopatra's permiffion to depart, and in vows of everlasting conftancy, not in perfuading her to forget him, or love him no longer. 66 I go from hence, "Thy foldier, iervant; making peace, or war, I have lately obferved that this emendation had been made by Mr. Pope. If the old copy be right, the words must mean, I will get her love to permit and endure our feparation. But the word get connects much more naturally with the word leave than with love. MALONE. 7-more urgent touches,] Things that touch me more fenfibly, more preffing motives. JOHNSON. So, in Cymbeline : "a touch more rare "Subdues all pangs, all fears." MALONE. 3 Petition us at bome :-] With us at home; call for us to refide at home. JOHNSON. 9 the courfer's bair, &c.] Alludes to an old idle notion that the hair of a horfe, dropt into corrupted water, will turn to an animal. POPE, So, in Holinthed's Description of England, p. 224: "-A borfe baire laid in a pale full of the like water will in a fhort time stirre and become a living creature. But fith the certaintie of these things is rather proved by few," &c. STEEVENS. Dr. Lifter, in the Philofopbical Tranfa&tions, showed that what were vulgarly thought animated horfe-hairs, are real infects. It was alfo ' affirmed, that they moved like ferpents, and were poisonous to swallow. Ff4 TOLLET. Our Our quick remove from hence'. Eno. I fhall do't. SCENE III. [Exeunt. Enter CLEOPATRA, CHARMIAN, IRAS, and ALEXAS. 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 send you2; -If you find him fad, Say, I am dancing; if in mirth, report That I am fudden fick: Quick, and return. [Exit Alex. 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 no thing. Cleo. Thou teacheft like a fool: the way to lose him. Char. Tempt him not so 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, stand farther from me. Say, our pleasure, To fucb whofe place is under us, requires Our quick remove from bence.] Say to thofe whofe place is under us, i. e. to our attendants, that our pleasure requires us to remove in hafte from hence. The old copy has" whofe places under us," and "require." The correction, which is certainly right, was made by the editor of the fecond folio. MALONE. 2 I did not fend you ;-] You must go as if you came without my order or knowledge. JOHNSON. So, in Troilus and Creffida: "We met by chance; you did not find me here." MALONE. Ant. Ant. What's the matter? Cleo. I know, by that fame eye, there's fome good news. What fays the marry'd woman?-You may go; 'Would, she had never given you leave to come! Let her not say, 'tis I that keep you here, I have no power upon you; hers you are. 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 in fwearing fhake the throned gods, Who have been falfe to Fulvia? Riotous madness, To be entangled with thofe mouth-made vows, Which break themselves in fwearing! Ant. Moft fweet queen, Cleo. Nay, pray you, feek no colour for your going, Blifs in our brows' bent3; none our parts fo poor, Or thou, the greatest foldier of the world, Art turn'd the greatest liar. Ant. How now, lady! Cleo. I would, I had thy inches; thou fhould't know, There were a heart in Egypt. Ant. Hear me, queen: The ftrong neceffity of time commands Our fervices a while; but my full heart 3 in our brows' bent ;-] i. e. in the arch of our eye-brows. STEEVENS, 4 -a race of beaven :] i, e. had a smack or flavour of heaven. WARBURTON. This word is well explained by Dr. Warburton; the race of wine is the taste of the foil. Sir T. Hanmer, not understanding the word, reads, ray. JOHNSON. I am not sure that the poet did not mean, was of beavenly origin. MALONE. Remains |