3 Char. I had rather heat my liver with drinking. 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 fewry 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. Oh, excellent! I love long life better than figs. Sooth. You have feen and proved a fairer former fortune, than that which is to approach. Char. Then, belike, my children fhall have no names; 3 I had rather beat my liver-] To know why the lady is fo averfe from beating her liver, it must be remembred, that a heated liver is fuppofed to make a pimpled face. 4 Char. Oh, excellent! I love Ing life better than figs.] Here Shakespeare has copied ancient manners with as much beauty as propriety This being one of thofe ominous fpeeches, in which the ancients were fo fuperftitious: For the afpicks, by which Charmien died, and after her miftrefs, were conveyed in a basket of figs. Omens (a fuperftition which Pythagoras first taught the Greeks) were the undefigned confequence of words cafually fpoken. The words were fometimes taken from the speaker, and applied by the hearers to the speaker's own affairs, as in the cafe of Paulus Amilius, after his conquest of Macedon. Sometimes again the words of the speaker were trans ferred to the affairs of the hearer, as in the cafe of the fame Paulus before his conqueft of Macedon. Itaque rebus divinis que publicè fierent, ut faverent linguis, imperabatur. Cicero de Divin. l. 1. WARBURTON. 5 Then, belike, my children fhall have no names ;] i. e. be of no note, a Greek mode of expreffion; in which language, dúvos fignifies both double-named and famous, because anciently famous men had an agnomen taken from their exploits. WARB. I am not inclined to believe that there is fo much learning in either of the lady's fpeeches. She here only fays, If I have already had the best of my fortune, then I fuppofe hall never name children, that is, I am never to be married. However, tell me the truth, tell me, how many boys and wenches ? Pr'ythee, 6 Pr'ythee, how many boys and wenches muft I have? Sooth. If every of your wishes had a womb, and foretel every wish, 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 to go drunk to bed. Iras. There's a palm prefages chastity, if nothing else. Char. Ev'n as the o'erflowing Nilus prefageth famine. Iras. Go, you wild bedfellow, you cannot foothfay. Char. Nay, if any oily palm be not a fruitful pronoftication, I cannot fcratch mine ear. Pr'ythee, tell her but a workyday fortune. Sooth. Your fortunes are alike. Iras. But how, but how? Give me particulars. Iras. Am I not an inch of fortune better than Char. Well, if you were but an inch of fortune better than I, where would you chufe it? 6 Iras. Not in my Husband's nose. If every of your wishes had fhould be reformed thus, And fertil ev'ry wish, WARBURTON. For foretel, in ancient editions, the latter copies have foretold. Foretel favours the emendation, which is made with great acutenefs; yet the original reading may, I think, ftand. If you had as many wombs as you will have wifles, and I should foretel all thofe wishes, I should foretel a million of children. It is an ellipfis very frequent in converfation; I should fhame you, and tell all; that is, and if I fhould tell all. And is for and if, which was anciently, and is ftill provincially ufed for f Char. 7 Char. Our worfer thoughts heav'ns mend! Alexas, -Come, bis fortune; bis fortune.-O, let him marry a Woman that cannot go, fweet Ifis, I befeech thee; and let her die too, and give him a worse; and let worse follow worft, 'till the worst of all follow him laughing to the Grave, fifty-fold a Cuckold! Good Ifis, hear me this prayer, though thou deny me a matter of more weight; good Ifis, I beseech thee! Iras. Amen, dear Goddefs, hear that prayer of the people! for, as it is a heart-breaking to fee a handfome man loofe-wiv'd, fo it is a deadly forrow to behold a foul knave uncuckolded; therefore, dear Ifis, keep decorum, and fortune him accordingly. Char. Amen! Alex. Lo, now! if it lay in their hands to make me a cuckold, they would make themfelves whores, but they'd do't. 7 Char. Our worfer thoughts heav'ns mend. Alex. Come, his fortune, his ,fortune. O, let him marry a woman, &c.] Whofe fortune does Alexas call out to have told? But, in fhort, this I dare pronounce to be fo palpable and fignal a tranf. pofition, that I cannot but wonder it should have flipt the obfervation of all the editors; efpecially, of the fagacious Mr. Pope, who has made this declaration, That if, throughout the plays, had all the speeches been printed without the very names of the perfons, he believes one might have applied them with certainty to every Speaker. But in how many inftances has Mr. Pope's want of judgment falfified this opinion? The fact is evidently this; Alexas brings a fortune-teller to Ira and Charmian, and fays himself, We'll know all our fortunes. Well; the foothfayer begins with the women; and fome jokes pals upon the fubject of husbands and chastity: After which, the women hoping for the fatisfaction of having fomething to laugh at in Alexas's fortune, call him to hold out his hand, and with heartily he may have the prognoftication of cuckoldom upon him. The whole fpeech, therefore, must be plac'd to Charmian. There needs no ftronger proof of this being a true correction, than the obfervation which Alexas immediately fubjoins on their wishes and zeal to hear him abused. THEOBALD. SCENE SCENE III. Enter Cleopatra. Eno. Hush! here comes Antony. Char. Not he, the Queen. Cleo. Saw you my Lord? Cleo. Was he not here? Cleo. He was difpos'd to mirth, but on the fudden A Roman thought hath ftruck him. Enobarbus, Eno. Madam. Cleo. Seek him, and bring him hither. Where's Alexas? Alex. Here at your fervice. My Lord approaches. Enter Antony with a Messenger, and Attendants. Cleo. We will not look upon him. Go with us. [Exeunt. Mef. Fulvia thy Wife firft came into the field. Mef. Ay, But foon that war had end, and the time's ftate Cafar, Whofe better iffue in the war from Italy Upon the first encounter, drave them. Ant. Well, what worst? Mef. The nature of bad news infects the teller. Ant. When it concerns the fool or coward.-On.Things, that are paft, are done, with me. 'Tis thus ; Who tells me true, though in the tale lie death, I hear him, as he flatter'd. VOL. VII. I Mef. Mef. Labienus (this is stiff news) 8 Hath, with his Parthian force, extended Afia; Whilft Ant. Antony, thou wouldst fay. Mef. Oh, my Lord! Ant. Speak to me home, minte not the gen'ral tongue; Name Cleopatra as fhe's call'd in Rome. Rail thou in Fulvia's phrafe, and taunt my faults With fuch full licence, as both truth and malice Have power to utter. Ch, then we bring forth weeds, When our quick winds lie ftill; and our ill, told US, Is as our earing. Fare thee well a while. Mef. At your noble pleasure. Ant. From Sicyon, how the news? Speak there. Mef. The Man from Sicyon.-Is there fuch an one? [Exit firft Meffenger. Attend. He ftays upon your will. Ant. Let him appear.. Thefe ftrong Egyptian fetters I must break, • extended Afia;] i. e. widened or extended the bounds of the leffer Afia. WARB. To extend, is a term used for to feize; I know not whether that be not the fenfe here. 9 When our quick WINDS le fill;-] We fhould read MINDS. The m was accidentally turn'd the wrong way at the prefs. The fenfe is this, While the active principle avithin us lies immerged in floth and luxury, we bring forth vices inflead of virtues, weeds inftead of flowers and fruits: But the laying before us our ill condition plainly and honefly is, as it were, the firft culture of the mind, which gives hopes of a future barveft. This he fays to encou rage the meffenger to hide noWARB. thing from him. This emendation is ingenious, but doubtful. The fenfe may be, that man, not agitated by cenfure, like foil not ventilated by quick winds, produces more evil than good. Enter |