Cleo. That I might fleep out this great gap of time, My Antony is away.

Char. You think of him too much.

Cleo. O, 'tis treafon !

Char. Madam, I trust, not so.

Cleo. Thou, eunuch! Mardian!

Mar. What's your highness' pleasure?

Cleo. Not now to hear thee fing; I take no pleasure In aught an eunuch has: 'Tis well for thee, That, being unfeminar'd, thy freer thoughts May not fly forth of Egypt. Haft thou affections? Mar. Yes, gracious madam.

Cleo. Indeed?

Mar. Not in deed, madam; for I can do nothing
But what in deed is honeft to be done:

Yet have I fierce affections, and think,
What Venus did with Mars.

Cleo. O Charmian,

Where think'st thou he is now? Stands he, or fits he?
Or does he walk? or is he on his horse?

O happy horfe, to bear the weight of Antony!

Do bravely, horfe! for wot'ft thou whom thou mov’st ?
The demy Atlas of this earth, the arm

And burgonet of men'.-He's fpeaking now,
Or murmuring, Where's my ferpent of old Nile?
For fo he calls me; Now I feed myself
With most delicious poifon :-Think on me
That am with Phoebus' amorous pinches black,
And wrinkled deep in time? Broad-fronted Cæfar”,
When thou waft here above the ground, I was

In Adlington's Apuleius (of which the epiftle is dated 1566) reprinted 1639, 4to, bl. 1. p. 187. lib. 10: "I gave him no poyson, but a doling drink of mandragoras, which is of fuch force that it will cause any man to fleepe, as though he were dead." PERCY.

1 And burgonet of men.-] A burgonet is a kind of belmet. So, in King Henry VI:

"This day I'll wear aloft my burgonet."

So, in Heywood's Iron Age, 1632:

"I'll hammer on thy proof steel'd burgonet." STEEVEN S. 2- Broad fronted Cæfar,] Mr. Seward is of opinion, that the poet wrote-bald fronted Cæfar. STEVENS.

A morfel

A morfel for a monarch: and great Pompey
Would stand, and make his eyes grow in
There would he anchor his aspéct, and die
With looking on his life.

Enter ALEXAS.

Alex. Sovereign of Egypt, hail!

my brow;

Cleo. How much unlike art thou Mark Antony! Yet, coming from him, that great medicine hath With his tinct gilded thee 3.

How it with goes

my

brave Mark Antony? Alex. Laft thing he did, dear queen,

He kifs'd, the last of many doubled kiffes,-
This orient pearl ;-His fpeech fticks in my heart.
Cleo. Mine ear muft pluck it thence.

Alex. Good friend, quoth he,

Say, the firm Roman to great Egypt fends
This treasure of an oyfter; at whofe foot,
To mend the petty prefent, I will piece
Her opulent throne with kingdoms; All the eaft,
Say thou, fhall call her mistress. So he nodded,
And foberly did mount an arm-gaunt steed*,

3

that great medicine bath

Who

With bis tint gilded thee.] Alluding to the philofopher's stone, which, by its touch, converts bafe metal into gold. The alchemists call the matter, whatever it be, by which they perform tranfmutation medicine. JOHNSON.

Thus Chapman, in his Shadow of Night, 1594:

"O then, thou great elixir of all treafures."

And on this paffage he has the following note: "The philofopher's ftone, or philofopbica medicina is called the great Elixir, to which he here alludes." Thus, in the Chanones Yemannes Tale of Chaucer, late edit. v. 16330:

the philofophres stone,

"Elixir cleped, we feken faft eche on." STEEVENS. 4-arm-gaunt freed,] i. e. his steed worn lean and thin by much fervice in war. So, Fairfax:

"His ftall worn feed the champion ftout beftrode". WARB. On this note Mr. Edwards has been very lavish of his pleafantry, and indeed has justly cenfured the mifquotation of fall-worn, for fallquortb, which means frong, but makes no attempt to explain the word in the play. Mr. Seward, in his preface to Beaumont, has very elaborately

Gg3

Who neigh'd fo high, that what I would have fpoke
Was beatly dumb'd by him.

Cleo. What, was he fad, or merry?

Alex. Like to the time o'the year between the extremes Of hot and cold; he was nor fad, nor merry.

Cleo. O well divided difpofition !-Note him,
Note him, good Charmian, 'tis the man; but note him:
He was not fad; for he would shine on those

That make their looks by his: he was not merry;
Which feem'd to tell them, his remembrance lay
In Egypt with his joy: but between both:

O heavenly mingle!-Be'ft thou fad, or merry,

borately endeavoured to prove, that an arm-gaunt fteed is a steed with lean-fhoulders. Arm is the Teutonic word for want, or poverty. Armgaunt may be therefore an old word, fignifying, lean for want, ill fed. Edwards's obfervation, that a worn-out horse is not proper for Atlas to mount in battle, is impertinent; the horse here mentioned feems to be a post-horse, rather than a war-horfe. Yet as arm-gaunt feems not intended to imply any defect, it perhaps means, a horse fo flender that a man might clafp him, and therefore formed for expedition. Hanmer reads: arm-girt feed. JOHNSON.

On this paffage, which I believe to be corrupt, I have nothing fatisfactory to propofe. It is clear, that whatever epithet was ufed, it was intended as defcriptive of a beautiful horfe, fuch (we may prefume) as our authour has defcribed in his Venus and Adonis.

Dr. Johnson must have look'd into fome early edition of Mr. Edwards's book, for in his feventh edition he has this note: "I have fometimes thought, that the meaning may poffibly be, thin fhoulder'd, by a strange compofition of Latin and English :-gaunt quoad armos.' Mr. Mafon juftly remarks on the preceding notes, that he "cannot conceive why the joint-fovereign of the world should be mounted on a little worn-out ftarved poft-horse, or why fuch a poft horfe fhould be called by the pompous appellation of a freed, (which, he obferves, is appropriated to horfes for ftate or war,) and neigh fo loudly as to dumb-found the Spectators." Mr. Steevens obferves, that "in Chaucer (Tyrwhitt's edit. v. 1247,) arm-gret is ufed in the fenfe of as big as the arm:" but the difficulty ftill remains; for arm-gaunt muft in this way be interpreted as thin as the arm, no very favourable defcription of a horfe. MALONE.

5 Was beaftly dumb'd by bim.] The old copy has dumb. The correction was made by Mr. Theobald. "Alexas means (fays he,) the horfe made fuch a neighing, that if he had fpoke, he could not have been heard." MALUNE.

The verb which Theobald would introduce, is found in Pericla Prince of Tyre, 1609:

*Deep clerks the dumbs," &c. STEVENS,

So

The violence of either thee becomes;

So does it no man else.- Met'st thou my posts?
Alex. Ay, madam, twenty several messengers:
Why do you fend fo thick?

Cleo. Who's born that day

When I forget to fend to Antony,

Shall die a beggar.-Ink and paper, Charmian.-
Welcome, my good Alexas.-Did I, Charmian,
Ever love Cæfar fo?

Char. O that brave Cæfar!

Cleo. Be chok'd with fuch another emphasis ! Say, the brave Antony.

Char. The valiant Cæfar!

Cleo. By Ifis, I will give thee bloody teeth, If thou with Cæfar paragon again

My man of men.

Char. By your most gracious pardon,

I fing but after you.

Cleo. My fallad days";

When I was green in judgment:-Cold in blood,
To fay, as I faid then!-But, come, away;
Get me ink and paper: he fhall have every day
A feveral greeting, or I'll unpeople Egypt.

ACT II. SCENE I.
Meffina. A Room in Pompey's House.
Enter POMPEY, MENECRATES, and MENAS.
Pom. If the great gods be juft, they shall affist
The deeds of justest men.

6 My fallad days;

When I was green in judgment :-Cold in blood,

Mene.

To fay, as I faid then!] Cold in blood, is an upbraiding expoftulation to her maid. Thofe, fays the, were my fallad days, when I was green in judgment; but your blood is as cold as my judgment, if you have be fame opinion of things now as I had then.

WARBURTON.

7. unpeople Egypt.] By fending out meffengers. JOHNSON. 8 All the fpeeches in this fcene that are not fpoken by Pompey and Varrius, are marked in the old copy, Mene, which muft ftand for MeneThe course of the dialogue fhews that fome of them at least belong to Menas; and accordingly they are to him attributed in the

crates.

modern

Mene. Know, worthy Pompey,

That what they do delay, they not deny.

Pom. Whiles we are fuitors to their throne, decays The thing we sue for 9.

Mene. We, ignorant of ourselves,

Beg often our own harms, which the wife powers
Deny us for our good; fo find we profit,
By lofing of our prayers.

Pom. I fhall do well:

The people love me, and the fea is mine;

My power's a crefcent, and my auguring hope
Says, it will come to the full. Mark Antony
In Egypt fits at dinner, and will make

No wars without doors: Cæfar gets money, where
He lofes hearts: Lepidus flatters both,

Of both is flatter'd; but he neither loves,
Nor either cares for him.

Men. Cæfar and Lepidus are in the field;
A mighty ftrength they carry.

Pom. Where have you this? 'tis falfe.

Men. From Silvius, fir.

Pom. He dreams; I know, they are in Rome together, Looking for Antony: But all the charms of love, Salt Cleopatra, soften thy wan lip 2!

Let

modern editions; or rather, a fyllable [Men.] has been prefixed, that will ferve equally to denote the one or the other of these perfonages. I have given the first two speeches to Menecrates, and the reft to Menas. It is a matter of little confequence. MALONE.

9 Whiles we are fuitors to their throne, decays

The thing we fue for.] The meaning is, While we are praying, the thing for which we pray is lofing its value. JOHNSON.

My power's a crefcent, &c.] In the old editions:

My powers are crefcent, and my auguring bope,
Says it will come to the full.

What does the relative it belong to? It cannot in fenfe relate to bepe, nor in concord to powers. The poet's allufion is to the moon, or crefcent; but his hopes tell him, that clefcent will come to a full orb.

2

THEOBALD.

thy wan lip!] In the old edition it is-tby wand lip! Perhaps, for fond lip, or warm lip, fays Dr. Johnfon. Wand, if it ftano, is