ATRA

Caf. Be it fo; Declare thine office.

Amb. Lord of his fortunes he falutes thee, and
Requires to live in Egypt: which not granted,
He leffens his requests; and to thee fues

To let him breathe between the heavens and earth,
A private man in Athens: This for him.

Next, Cleopatra does confefs thy greatness;
Submits her to thy might; and of thee craves
The circle of the Ptolemies for her heirs,
Now hazarded to thy grace.

Caf. For Antony,

8

I have no ears to his requeft. The queen
Of audience, nor defire, fhall fail; fo fhe
From Egypt drive her all-difgraced friend,
Or take his life there: This if the perform,
So to them both.
She fhall not fue unheard.

Amb. Fortune pursue thee!

Caf. Bring him through the bands. [Exit Ambaffador.
To try thy eloquence, now 'tis time: Dispatch;
From Antony win Cleopatra: promise,

[to Thyreus.
And in our name, what the requires; add more,
From thine invention, offers: women are not,
In their beft fortunes, ftrong; but want will perjure
The ne'er-touch'd veftal: Try thy cunning, Thyreus ;
Make thine own edict for thy pains, which we

Will answer as a law.

the Mediteranean which washes the coast of Palestine, “the grete fee." The paffage, however, is capable of yet another explanation. His grand fea may mean the fea from which the dew-drop is exhaled. Shakspeare might have confidered the fea as the fource of dews as well as rain. His is ufed inftead of its. STEEVENS.

8 The circle of the Ptolemies-] The diadem; the enfign of royalty.

So, in Macbeth:

"All that impedes me from the golden round,

Which fate and metaphyfical aid

"Would have me crown'd withall." MALONE.
will perjure

The ne'er-touch'd veftal:] So, in the Rape of Lucrece:

JOHNSON.

O Opportunity! thy guilt is great:--

Thou mak'ft the vestal violate ber oath." MALONE,

Thyr.

Thyr. Cæfar, I go.

Caf. Obferve how Antony becomes his flaw';
And what thou think'st his very action speaks
In every power that moves.

Thyr. Cæfar, I fhall.

SCENE XI.

Alexandria. A Room in the Palace.

[Exeunt.

Enter CLEOPATRA, ENOBARBUS, CHARMIAN, and

IRAS.

Cleo. What fhall we do, Enobarbus ?
Eno. Think, and die2.

Cleo. Is Antony, or we, in fault for this?
Eno. Antony only, that would make his will
Lord of his reafon. What though you fled
From that great face of war, whofe feveral ranges
Frighted each other? why fhould he follow?
The itch of his affection fhould not then
Have nick'd his captainfhip; at fuch a point,

bow Antony becomes bis flaw;] That is, how Antony conforma himfelf to this breach of his fortune. JOHNSON.

2 Think, and die.] So, in Julius Cæfar:

"all that he can do

"Is to himfelf; take thought, and die for Cæfar."

Mr. Tollett obferves that the expreffion of taking thought, in our old English writers is equivalent to the being anxious or folicitous, or laying a thing much to beart. So, fays he, it is ufed in our translations of the New Teftament. Matthew vi. 25, &c. So, in Holinihed, vol. III. P. 50, or anno 1140: "taking thought for the loffe of his houfes and money, he pined away and died." In the margin thus: "The bishop of Salisburie dieth of thought." Again, in p. 833. Again, in Stowe's Chronicle, anno 1508: Chriftopher Hawis fhortened his life by thoughttaking." Again, in Leland's Colle&anea, vol. I. p. 234: their mother died for thought." STEEVENS.

We must understand think and die to mean the fame as die of thought, or melancholy. In this fenfe is thought ufed below, Act IV. fc. vi. and by Holinfhed, Chron. of Ireland, p. 97. "His father lived in the torver where for thought of the young man bis fullie he died." There is a paffage almost exactly fimilar in the Beggars Bush of Beaumont and Fletcher, vol. II. p. 423:

"Can I not think away myself, and die?" TrawHITT. See Vol. IV. p. 49, n. 2. MALONE.

When

When half to half the world oppos'd, he being
The mered queftion 3: 'Twas a fhame no lefs
Than was his lofs, to course your flying flags,
And leave his navy gazing.

Cleo. Pr'ythee, peace.

Enter ANTONY, with the Ambafador.

Ant. Is this his answer?

Amb. Ay, my lord.

Ant. The queen shall then have courtesy, so fhe

Will yield us up.

Amb. He fays fo.

Ant. Let her know it.

To the boy Cæfar fend this grizled head,
And he will fill thy wishes to the brim

With principalities.

Cleo. That head, my lord?

Ant. To him again; Tell him, he wears the rofe
Of youth upon him; from which, the world fhould note
Something particular: his coin, fhips, legions,
May be a coward's; whofe minifters would prevail
Under the service of a child, as soon

As i' the command of Cæfar: I dare him therefore
To lay his gay comparifons apart,

And answer me declin'd*, fword against sword,

3 be being

Ourfelves

The mered queftion:-] Mere is a boundary, and the mered queftion, if it can mean any thing, may, with fome violence of language, mean, the difputed boundary. JOHNSON.

Mered is, I fufpect, a word of our authour's formation, from mere : he being the fole, the entire fubject or occafion of the war.

MALONE.

Question is certainly the true reading. So, in Hamlet, A&t I. fc. i;

4.

"That was and is the queftion of these wars." STEEVENS. bis gay comparisons apart,

And answer me declin'd,-] I require Cæfar not to depend on that fuperiority which the comparison of our different fortunes may exhibit to him, but to answer me man to man, in this decline of my age or power. JOHNSON.

I have fometimes thought that Shakspeare wrote,

his gay caparifons.

VOL. VII.

Ourselves alone: I'll write it; follow me.

[Exeunt ANTONY and AME. Eno. Yes, like enough, high-battled Cæfar will Unftate his happiness, and be ftag'd to the fhew 5 Against a fworder.-I fee, men's judgments are A parcel of their fortunes; and things outward Do draw the inward quality after them, To fuffer all alike. That he should dream, Knowing all meafures, the full Cæfar will Anfwer his emptinefs!-Cæfar, thou haft fubdu'd His judgment too.

Enter an Attendant.

Att. A meffenger from Cæfar.

Cleo. What, no more ceremony?-See, my women!Against the blown rofe may they ftop their nofe,

That kneel'd unto the buds.-Admit him, fir.j

Let him "unftate his happiness," let him diveft himself of the fplendid trappings of power, bis coin, ships, legions, &c. and meet me in fingle combat.

Caparifon is frequently used by our authour and his contemporaries, for an ornamental drefs. So, in As you Like it, A&t III. sc. ii :` though I am caparifon'd like a man,"-.

66

Again, in The Winter's Tale, A& IV. fc. ii.

"With die and drab I purchas'd this caparifon."

The old reading however is fupported by a paffage in Macbeth:
Till that Bellona's bridegroom, lapp'd in proof,
"Confronted him with felf-comparisons,

"Point against point, rebellious."

His gay comparisons may mean, thofe circumstances of splendour and power in which he, when compared with me, fo much exceeds me. Dr. Johnson's explanation of declin'd is certainly right. So, in Timen of Athens:

"Not one accompanying his declining foot.”

Again, in Troilus and Creffida:

- What the declin'd is,

"He fhall as foon read in the eyes of others,

"As feel in his own fall."

Again, in Daniel's Cleopatra, 1594:

"Before the had declining fortune prov'd." MALONE.
be stag'd to the shew-] So Goff, in his Raging Turk, 1631:
66 -as if he flag'd

"The wounded Priam." STEEVENS.

Eno.

Eno. Mine honefty, and I, begin to fquare . [Afide.

The loyalty, well held to fools', does make

Our faith mere folly :-Yet, he, that can endure
To follow with allegiance a fallen lord,

Does conquer him that did his master conquer,
And earns a place i' the story.

Enter THYREUS.

Cleo. Cæfar's will?

Thyr. Hear it apart.

Cleo. None but friends; fay boldly.
Thyr. So, haply, are they friends to Antony.
Eno. He needs as many, fir, as Cæfar has;
Or needs not us. If Cæfar pleafe, our master
Will leap to be his friend: For us, you know,
Whofe he is, we are; and that is, Cæfar's.
Thyr. So.-

Thus then, thou most renown'd; Cæfar entreats,
Not to confider in what cafe thou ftand'ft,
Further than he is Cæfar's ".

6 -to fquare.] i. e. to quarrel. See Vol. II. p. 459, n. 2.

Cleo.

MALONE.

7 The loyalty, well held to fools, &c.] After Enobarbus has faid, that his honefty and he begin to quarrel, he immediately falls into this generous reflection: "Though loyalty, ftubbornly preferv'd to a master in his declin'd fortunes, feems folly in the eyes of fools; yet he, who can be fo obftinately loyal, will make as great a figure on record, as the conqueror." I therefore read,

Though loyalty, well beld to fools, does make

Our Faith meer folly. THEOBALD.

I have preferved the old reading: Enobarbus is deliberating upon defertion, and finding it is more prudent to forfake a fool, and more reputable to be faithful to him, makes no pofitive conclufion. Sir T. Hanmer follows Theobald; Dr. Warburton retains the old reading.

8 Cæfar entreats,

Not to confider in what cafe thou ftand'ft,

JOHNSON.

Further than he is Cæfar's.] It has been juft said, that whatever Antony is, all his followers are; "that is, Cafar's." Thyreus now informs Cleopatra that Cæfar entreats her not to confider berfelf in a ftate of fubjection, further than as the is connected with Antony, who is Cafar's: intimating to her, (according to the inftructions he had received from Cæfar, to detach Cleopatra from Antony, Lee