Enter a Guard. Ant. Bear me, good friends, where Cleopatra 'bides, 'Tis the last service that I fhall command you. Guard. Woe, woe are we, Sir! you may not live to wear All your true follow'rs out. All. Moft heavy day! Ant. Nay, good my fellows, do not please sharp To grace Fate it with your forrows. Bid that welcome Which comes to punish us, and we punish it Seeming to bear it likely. Take me up. I have led you oft, carry me now, good friends; [Exeunt, bearing Antony. Changes to a magnificent Monument. Enter Cleopatra, Charmion, and Iras above. Cleo. H Charmion, I will never go from hence. Ο Cleo. No, I will not: All ftrange and terrible events are welcome, Enter Diomedes. How now? is he dead? Dio. His death's upon him, but not dead. Look out o' th' other fide your Monument, His guard have brought him thither. VOL. VII. Enter Cleo. Enter Antony, borne by the Guard. O thou Sun, Burn the great Sphene thou mov'ft in !———darkling ftand The varying fhore o' th' world! O Antony! Help, Charmion; help, Iras, help; help, friends Ant. Peace. Not Cefar's valour hath o'erthrown Antony, Cleo. So it fhould be, that none but Antony Cleo. I dare not, dear, Dear, my Lord, pardon, I dare not, 4 O thou Sun, BURN the great Sphere thou moft in!-darkling land The varying bore o' th' world!] -The varying shore o' th' world! i. e. of the Earth, where light and darkness make an inceffant variation. But then, if the Sun fhould fet on fire the whole Sphere, in which he was fuppofed to move, how could the Earth ftand darkling? On the contrary it would be in perpetual light. Therefore, if we will allow Clea patra not to be quite mad, we must be ieve the faid, TURN FROM th' great Sphere i. e. forfake it, fly off from it: and then indeed the confequence would be, that the varying shore Left I be taken. Not th' imperious fhew Be brooch'd with me; if knife, drugs, ferpents, have Your Wife Octavia, with her modeft eyes Ant. Oh, quick, or I am gone. Cleo. 7 Here's fport, indeed!-how heavy weighs my Lord! Our strength is all gone into heaviness, That makes the weight. Had I great Juno's power, And welcome, welcome. encounter here in the laft line but one? Befides, how inconfiftently is the lady made to reply? Antony fays, he only holds life, till he can give her one laft kifs: and he cries, the dares not: What dares the not do? kis Antony? But how should the? fhe was above lock'd in her monument; and he below, on the outfide of it. With a very flight addition, I think, I can cure the whole; and have a warrant from Plutarch for it into the bargain. Now Plutarch fays, that “ Antony was carried in his men's "arms into the entry of the mo"nument: Notwithstanding Cle"opatra would not open the gates, "but came to the high windows, "and caft out certain chains and Q Die, where thou haft liv'd. Mr. Theobald's emendation is received by the fucceeding editors; but it feems not neceflary that a dialogue fo diftrefsful fhould be nicely regular. I have therefore preferved the original reading in the text, and the emendation below. 6-fill conclufion,-] Sedate determination; filent coolnefs of refolution. 7 Here's port, inded! I fuppofe the meaning of thele strange words is, here's trifling, you do not work in earn st. 2 Quicken 8 * Quicken with kiffing. Had my lips that power, Thus would I wear them out. All. O heavy fight! Ant. I am dying, Egypt, dying. Give me fome wine, and let me speak a little. Ant. One word, fweet Queen. Of Cafar seek your honour with your safety—oh— Cleo. They do not go together. An'. Gentle, hear me. None about Cafar truft, but Proculeius. Cleo. My refolution and my hands I'll truft; None about Cæfar. Ant. The miferable change, now at my end, Lament nor forrow at; but please your thoughts In feeding them with thofe my former fortunes, Wherein I liv'd the greatest prince o' th' world, The nobleft; and do now not bafely die, Nor cowardly put off my helmet to My countryman, a Roman, by a Roman Valiantly vanquifh'd. Now, my fpirit is going; I can no more[Antony dies. Cleo. Noblet of men, woo't die? In this dull world, which in thy absence is 1 The foldier's pole is fall'n; young boys and girls Are level now with men; the odds is gone; 8 Quicken with killing.] That is, Revive by my kiss. 9-bufife Fortune-] This defpicable line has occurred before. The foldier's fole] He at whom the foldiers pointed, as at a pageant held high for ob fervation. And And there is nothing left remarkable, Char. Oh, quietness, Lady! Iras. She's dead too; our fovereign. Char. Lady! Iras. Madam! Char. Oh Madam, Madam, Madam Iras. Royal Egypt! Empress! Char. Peace, Peace, Iras. 2 The common copies, Peace, peace, Iras. on Cleo. No more but a meer woman.] Cleopatra is fallen into a fwoon; her maids endeavour to recover her by invoking her by her feveral titles. At length, Charmion fays to the other, Peace, peace, Iras; which Cleopatra comes to herself, and replies to thefe laft words, No, you are mifiaken, I am a mere woman like your felf. Thus ftands this fenfelefs dialogue. But Shakespear never wrote it fo: We must obferve then, that the two women call her by her feveral titles, to fee which best pleafed her; and this was highly in character: the Ancients thought, that not only men, but Gods too, had fome names which, above others, they much delighted in, and would fooneft answer to; as we may fee by the hymns of Orpheus, Homer, and Callimachu. The Poet, conforming to this notion, makes the maids fay, Sovereign Lady, Madam, Royal Egypt, Empress. And now we come to the place in question: Charmion, when the faw none of thefe titles had their effea, invokes her by a ftill more flatter ing one! [She faints. Cleo. Peace, peare, Isis; for fo it should be read and pointed: i. e. peace, we can never move her by thefe titles: Let us give her her favourite name of the Goddess Isis. And now Cleopatra's answer becomes pertinent and fine; No more but a mee woman; and commanded By fuch poor paffion as the maid that milks. . e. I now fee the folly of affu ming to myfelf thofe flattering titles of divinity. My misfor tunes, and my impotence in bearing them, convince me I am a mere woman, and subject to all the paffions of the meaneft of my fpecies. Here the Poet has followed Hiftory exactly, and what is more, his author Plutarch in Antonio; who fays, that Cleopatra affumed the habit and attributes of that Goddess, and gave judgments or rather oracles to her people under the quality of the NEW ISIS. Kowaрa μir yap xa role nai tòv änhov Xpóvor is πλήθος ἐξιέσα, στολὴν ἑτέραν ἱεραν ΙΣΙΔΟΣ ἐλάμβανε, καὶ ΝΕΑ ΙΣΙΣ έχρημάτιζει WARBURTON. Of this note it may be truly 83 faid, |