But, if there be, or ever were one fuch",

It's paft the fize of dreaming: Nature wants stuff
To vie ftrange forms with fancy; yet, to imagine
An Antony, were nature's piece 'gainst fancy,
Condeming fhadows quite *.

Dol. Hear me, good madam:

Your lofs is as yourself, great; and you bear it
As anfwering to the weight: 'Would I might never
O'ertake purfu'd fuccefs, but I do feel,

By the rebound of yours, a grief that shoots
My very heart at root.

Cleo. I thank you, fir

2

Know you, what Cæfar means to do with me?
Dol. I am loth to tell you what I would you knew,
Cleo. Nay, pray you, fir,-

Dol. Though he be honourable,

Cleo. He'll lead me then in triumph?

Dol. Madam, he will; I know it.
Within. Make way there,-Cæfar.

Enter CESAR, GALLUS, PROCULEIUS, MECENAS,
SELEUCUS, and Attendants.

Caf. Which is the queen of Egypt?
Dol. It is the emperor, madam.
Caf. Arife, you shall not kneel:

I pray you, rife, rife, Egypt.
Cleo. Sir, the gods

[CLEO, kneels,

9- or ever were one fuch,] The old copy has-nor ever, &c. The emendation was made by Mr. Rowe. MALONE.

To vie ftrange forms-] To vie was a term at cards. See the Taming of the Shrew, p. 290, n. 8. STEEVENS.

yet to imagine

An Antony, were nature's piece gainst faney,

Condemning fhadows quite.] The word piece, is a term appropriated to works of art. Here Nature and Fancy produce each their piece, and the piece done by Nature had the preference. Antony was in reality paft the fize of dreaming; he was more by Nature than Fancy could prefent in fleep. JOHNSON.

2-boots-] The old copy reads-fuites. STEEVENS.

The correction was made by Mr. Pope. The error arofe from the two words, in the time of Queen Elizabeth, being pronounced alike. See Vol. II. p. 362, n. 8. MALONE,

Will

Will have it thus ; my master and my lord
I must obey.

Caf. Take to you no hard thoughts:
The record of what injuries you did us,
Though written in our flesh, we shall remember
As things but done by chance.

Cleo. Sole fir o' the world,

I cannot project mine own caufe fo well 3
To make it clear; but do confess, I have

Been laden with like frailties, which before
Have often sham'd our sex.

Caf. Cleopatra, know,

We will extenuate rather than enforce:
If you apply yourself to our intents,

(Which towards you are most gentle) you shall find
A benefit in this change; but if you feek

To lay on me a cruelty, by taking

Antony's course, you shall bereave yourself

Of my good purpofes, and put your children
To that deftruction which I'll guard them from,
If thereon you rely. I'll take my leave.

Cleo. And may, through all the world: 'tis yours; and we
Your 'fcutcheons, and your figns of conqueft, shall
Hang in what place you pleafe. Here, my good lord.
Caf. You fhall advife me in all for Cleopatra.
Cleo. This is the brief of money, plate, and jewels,
I am poffefs'd of: 'tis exactly valued;

3 I cannot project mine own cause so well-] To project a cause is to represent a cause; to project it well, is to plan or contrive a scheme of defence. JOHNSON.

In Much ado about Nothing, we find these lines:

"She cannot love,

"Nor take no fhape nor project of affection,

"She is fo felf-endear'd."

I cannot project, &c. means therefore, I cannot shape or form my caufe, &c. MALONE.

Sir John Harrington in his Metamorpofis of Ajax, 1596, p. 79, fays: "I have chofen Ajax for the project of this difcourfe."

4 You shall advise me in all for Cleopatra.] You shall yourself be my counsellor, and suggest whatever you wish to be done for your relief, So, afterwards:

"For we intend fo to difpofe you, as

"Yourself shall give us counfel." MALONE.

Not

Not petty things admitted 5.-Where's Seleucus?
Sel. Here, madam.

Cleo. This is my treasurer; let him speak, my lord,
Upon his peril, that I have referv'd

To myfelf nothing. Speak the truth, Seleucus.
Sel. Madam,

I had rather feel my lips, than, to my peril,
Speak that which is not.

Cleo. What have I kept back?

Sel. Enough to purchase what you have made known. Caf. Nay, blufh not, Cleopatra ; I approve Your wisdom in the deed.

Cleo. See, Cæfar! O, behold,

How pomp is follow'd! mine will now be yours;
And, fhould we fhift eftates, yours would be mine.
The ingratitude of this Seleucus does

Even make me wild:-O flave, of no more truft

Than love that's hir'd!-What, goeft thou back? thou fhalt

Go back, I warrant thee; but I'll catch thine eyes, Though they had wings: Slave, foul-lefs villain, dog! O rarely bafe 7!

Caj. Good queen, let us entreat you.

Cleo. O Cæfar, what a wounding fhame is this;

'tis exactly valued,

That

Net petty things admitted.] i. e. petty things not being included. Because Cleopatra in the next fpeech fays that he has referved nothing to herself, (ftiil tacitly excepting petty things,) Mr. Theobald very unneceffarily reads-omitted. "This declaration, (fays he,) lays open her falfhood, and makes her angry when her treasurer detects her in a direct lie." MALONE.

She is angry afterwards that he is accused of having reserved more than petty things. JOHNSON.

6

feel my lips-] Sew up my mouth. JOHNSON.

It means, clofe up my lips as effectually as the eyes of a hawk are clofed. To feel hawks was the technical term. STEEVENS.

7 O rarely bafe!] i. e. bafe in an uncommon degree. STEEVENS. 80 Cajar, This fpeech of Cleopatra is taken from fir Thomas North's tranflation of Plutarch, where it ftands as follows. «O Cæfar, is not this great shame and reproach, that thou having vouch. fafed to take the pains to come unto me, and haft done me this ho

nour,

That thou, vouchfafing here to vifit me,
Doing the honour of thy lordliness

To one fo meek, that mine own fervant should
Parcel the fum of my difgraces by
Addition of his envy! Say, good Cæfar,
That I fome lady trifles have referv'd,
Immoment toys, things of fuch dignity
As we greet modern friends 3 withal; and say,
Some nobler token I have kept apart
For Livia, and Octavia, to induce

Their mediation; muft I be unfolded

With one that I have bred? The gods! It fmites me Beneath the fall I have. Pr'ythee, go hence; [To Sel. Or I shall fhew the cinders of my spirits

Through the ashes of my chance+:-Wert thou a man, Thou

nour, poor wretch and caitiff creature, brought into this pitiful and miferable eftate, and that mine own fervants should come now to accufe me. Though it may be that I have reserved fome jewels and trifles meet for women, but not for me (poor foul) to set out myself withal; but meaning to give fome pretty prefents unto Octavia and Livia, that they making means and interceffion for me to thee, thou mightest yet extend thy favour and mercy upon me," &c. STEEVENS.

9 To one fo meek,-] Meek, I fuppofe, means here, tame, fubdued by adverfity. So, in the parallel paffage in Plutarch :-" poor wretch. and caitiff creature, brought into this pitiful and miferable eftate—” Cleopatra in any other fenfe was not eminent for meekness. MALONE.

Parcel the sum of my disgraces—] To parcel ber disgraces, might be expreffed in vulgar language, to bundle up her calamities. JOHNSON. 2of bis envy.] Envy is here, as almost always in these plays, malice. -See p. 47, n. 2, and p. 70, n. 5. MALONE.

3-modern friends- Common, ordinary acquaintance. See Vol. III. p. 163, n. 5; p. 396, n. 2; and p. 472, n. 9. MALONE.

4 Through the afbes of my chance:-] Or fortune. The meaning is, Begone, or I fhall exert that royal spirit which I had in my profperity, in fpite of the imbecillity of my prefent weak condition. This taught the Oxford editor to alter it to mifcbance. WARBURTON. We have had already in this play—“the wounded chance of Antony.” MALONE.

Or I shall shew the cinders of my spirits

Through the afhes of my chance:] Thus Chaucer in his Canterbury Tales, late edit. v. 3180:

"Yet in our afben cold is fire yreken."

And thus (as the learned editor of the Cant. Tales has obferved) Mr. Gray in his Church-yard Elegy:

« Even

Thou would't have mercy on me.

Caf. Forbear, Seleucus.

[Exit SELEUCUS.

Cleo. Be it known, that we, the greatest, are misthought

For things that others do; and, when we fall,

We anfwer others' merits in our name,

Are therefore to be pitied".

Cal. Cleopatra,

Not what you have referv'd, nor what acknowledg'd,
Put we i' the roll of conqueft: fill be it yours,
Bestow it at your pleafure; and believe,

Cæfar's no merchant, to make prize with you

Of things that merchants fold. Therefore be cheer'd; Make not your thoughts your prisons: no, dear queen ; For we intend fo to difpofe you, as

Yourself shall give us counfel. Feed, and fleep:

"Even in our ashes live their wonted fires."

Mr. Gray refers to the following paffage in the 169 (171) fonnet of Petrarch, as his original:

Ch'i veggio nel penfier, dolce mio foco,

"Fredda una lingua, e due begli occhi chiufi
Rimaner dopo noi pien di faville."

Again, in our authour's 73d Sonnet:

Edit. 1564. p. 271.

"In me thou fee'ft the glowing of such fire,

STEEVENS

"That on the afhes of his youth doth lie." MALONE.

5 Be it known, that we, the greateft, are mis-tbought

For things that others do; and when we fall,

We anfwer others' merits in our name,

Are therefore to be pitied.] We fuffer at our highest state of eleva. tion in the thoughts of mankind for that which others do; and when we fall, thofe that contented themselves only to think ill before, call us to answer in our own names for the merits of others. We are therefore to be pitied. Merits is in this place taken in an ill sense, for actions meriting cenfure. JOHNSON.

As demerits was often used in Shakspeare's time as fynonymous to merit, fo merit might have been used in the fense which we now affix to demerit; or the meaning may be only, we are called to account, and to answer in our own names for as, with which others rather than we, deferve to be charged. MALONE.

6 Make not your thoughts your prifons:] I once wished to read,

Make not your thoughts your poifon :

Do not destroy yourfelf by muling on your misfortune. Yet I would change nothing, as the old reading prefents a very proper fenfe. Be not a prifoner in imagination, when in reality you are free. JOHNSON.