SOOTH. If every of your wifhes had a womb, And fertile every wish, a million."

CHAR. Out, fool! I forgive thee for a witch.

ALEX. You think, none but your sheets are privy to your wishes.

CHAR. Nay, come, tell Iras hers.

ALEX. We'll know all our fortunes.

A line in our author's Rape of Lucrece confirms Mr. Steevens's interpretation:

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Thy iffue blurr'd with nameless baftardy." MALONE.

7 If every of your wishes had a womb,

And fertile every wish, a million.] For foretel, in ancient editions, the later copies have foretold. Foretel favours the emendation of Dr. Warburton, which is made with great acuteness; yet the original reading may, I think, ftand. If you had as many wombs as you will have wishes, and I fhould 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 should tell all. And is for and if, which was anciently, and is ftill provincially used for if. JOHNSON.

If every one of your wifhes, fays the foothfayer, had a womb, and each womb-invefted with were likewife fertile, you then would have a million of children.-The merely fuppofing each of her wishes to have a womb, would not warrant the foothfayer to pronounce that she should have any children, much lefs a million; for, like Calphurnia, each of thefe wombs might be fubject to "the fterile curfe." The word fertile therefore is abfolutely requifite to the fenfe.

In the inftance given by Dr. Johnson, "I should shame you and tell all," I occurs in the former part of the fentence, and therefore may be well omitted afterwards; but here no personal pronoun has been introduccd. MALONE.

The epithet fertile is applied to womb, in Timon of Athens : "Enfear thy fertile and conceptious womb."

I have received Dr. Warburton's most happy emendation.

STEEVENS.

8 I forgive thee for a witch.] From a common proverbial reproach to filly ignorant females: You'll never be burnt for a witch." STEEVENS.

ENO. Mine, and most of our fortunes, to night, fhall be drunk to bed.

IRAS. There's a palm prefages chastity, if nothing else.

CHAR. Even as the o'erflowing Nilus prefageth famine.

IRAS. Go, you wild bedfellow, you cannot foothfay.

CHAR. Nay, if an oily palm be not a fruitful prognoftication, I cannot scratch mine ear.-Pr'ythee, tell her but a worky-day fortune.

SOOTH. Your fortunes are alike.

IRAS. But how, but how? give me particulars. SOOTH. I have said.

IRAS. Am I not an inch of fortune better than fhe?

CHAR. Well, if you were but an inch of fortune better than I, where would you choose it?

IRAS. Not in my husband's nose.

CHAR. Our worfer thoughts heavens mend! Alexas,-come, his fortune, his fortune.-O, let

8 Nay, if an oily palm be not a fruitful prognoftication, &c.] So, in Othello:

-This hand is moift, my lady:

"This argues fruitfulness and liberal heart." MALONE. Antonio, in Dryden's Don Sebaftian, has the fame remark: “I have a moist, fweaty palm; the more's my fin.”

STEEVENS,

9 Alexas,come, his fortune,] [In the old copy, the name of Alexas is prefixed to this fpeech.]

Whofe fortune does Alexas call out to have told? But, in fhort, this I dare pronounce to be fo palpable and fignal a tranfpofition, that I cannot but wonder it fhould have flipt the obfervation of all the editors; especially of the fagacious Mr. Pope, who has made this declaration, That if, throughout the plays, bad all the speeches

him marry a woman that cannot go, fweet Ifis, I befeech thee! And let her die too, and give him a worfe! and let worfe follow worse, till the worst of all follow him laughing to his grave, fifty-fold a cuckold! Good Ifis, hear me this prayer, though thou deny me a matter of more weight; good Isis, I beseech thee!

IRAS. Amen. Dear goddefs, hear that prayer of the people! for, as it is a heart-breaking to fee a handsome man loose-wiv'd, so 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.

ENO. Hufh! here comes Antony.

CHAR.

Not he, the

queen.

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 Iras and Charmian, and fays himself, We'll know all our fortunes. Well; the foothfayer begins with the women; and fome jokes pafs upon the fubject of hufbands 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 hear. tily that he may have the prognoftication of cuckoldom upon him. The whole fpeech, therefore, muft be placed to Charmian. There needs no ftronger proof of this being a true correction, than the obfervation which Alexas immediately fubjoins on their withes and zeal to hear him abufed. THEOBALD.

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, madam, at your fervice.-My lord approaches.

Enter ANTONY, with a Meffenger, and Attendants.

CLEO. We will not look upon him: Go with us. [Exeunt CLEOPATRA, ENOBARBUS, ALEXAS, IRAS, CHARMIAN, Soothfayer, and Attendants. MES. Fulvia thy wife first came into the field. ANT. Against my brother Lucius?

MES. Ay:

But foon that war had end, and the time's state Made friends of them, jointing their force 'gainst Cæfar;

Whofe better iffue in the war, from Italy,

9 Saw you my lord?] Old copy-Save you. Corrected by the editor of the fecond folio. Saw was formerly written farve.

MALONE.

2 Here, madam,] The refpect due from Alexas to his mistress, in my opinion points out the title-Madam, (which is wanting in the old copy) as a proper cure for the prefent defect in metre.

STEEVENS.

Upon the first encounter, drave them.'

ANT. What worft?

Well,

MES. 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 his tale lie death,
I hear him as he flatter'd.

(This is ftiff news 4) hath, with his Parthian force, Extended Afia from Euphrates; '

3-drave them.] Drave is the ancient preterite of the verb, to drive, and frequently occurs in the Bible. Thus in Joshua, xxiv. 12: -and drave them out from before you." STEEVENS.

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4 (This is ftiff news)] So, in The Rape of Lucrece: Fearing fome hard news from the warlike band."

MALONE.

5 Extended Afia from Euphrates;] i. e. widened or extended the bounds of the Leffer Afia. WARBURTON.

To extend, is a term used for to feize; I know not whether that be not the fenfe here. JOHNSON.

I believe Dr. Johnfon's explanation right. So, in Selimus, Emperor of the Turks, 1594:

Ay, though on all the world we make extent, "From the fouth pole unto the northern bear."

Again, in Twelfth Night:

this uncivil and unjust extent

Against thy peace."

Again, in Maflinger's New Way to pay old Debts, the Extortioner fays:

"This manor is extended to my use."

Mr. Tollet has likewife no doubt but that Dr. Johnson's explanation is just; for (fays he) Plutarch informs us that Labienus was by the Parthian king made general of his troops, and had over-run Afia from Euphrates and Syria to Lydia and Ionia." To extend is a law term ufed for to feize lands and tenements. In fupport of his affertion he adds the following inttance: "Those wafteful companions had neither lands to extend nor goods to be