Ant. I am not married, Gafar, let me hear
Agrippa further speak.

Agr. To hold you in perpetual Amity,
To make you brothers, and to knit your hearts
With an unflipping knot, take Antony
Octavia to his Wife; whofe Beauty claims
No worse a Husband than the best of men;
Whofe Virtue, and whofe general Graces speak
That which none elfe can utter. By this marriage,
All little jealoufies, which now feem great,

And all great fears, which now import their dangers,
Would then be nothing. Truths would be but tales,
Where now half tales be truths: her love to both
Would each to other, and all loves to both
Draw after her. Pardon what I have spoke,
For 'tis a ftudied, not a prefent thought,
By duty ruminated.

Ant. Will Cafar speak?

Caf. Not 'till he hears, how Antony is touch'd With what is fpoke already.

Ant. What Power is in Agrippa

(If I would fay, "Agrippa, be it fo,") To make this good?

Caf. The Power of Cæfar, and

His Power unto Octavia.

Ant. May I never

To this good purpose, that fo fairly fhews,
Dream of impediment! let me have thy hand;
Further this act of grace: and from this hour,
The heart of brothers govern in our loves,
And sway our great defigns!

Caf. There is my hand:

A Silter I bequeath you, whom no Brother
Did ever love fo dearly. Let her live

To joyn our Kingdoms, and our Hearts, and never

Fly off our loves again!

Lep. Happily, amen.

Ant. I did not think to draw my fword 'gainst

Pompey,

For he hath laid ftrange courte fies and great.

Of

Of late upon me. I must thank him only,
Left my remembrance fuffer ill report;
At heel of that, defie him.

Lep. Time calls upon's:

Of us must Pompey presently be fought,
Or else he feeks out us.

Ant. Where lyes he?

Caf. About the Mount Mifenum.
Ant. What is his ftrength by Land?
Caf. Great, and increasing: but by Sea
He is an abfolute Mafter.

Ant. So is the fame.

Would, we had spoke together! hafte we for it;
Yet, ere we put our felves in arms, difpatch we
The bufinefs we have talk'd of.

Caf. With most gladness;

And do invite you to my Sifter's view,
Whither straight I'll lead you.

Ant. Let us, Lepidus, not lack your company. Lep. Noble Antony, not fickness fhould detain me. [Flourish. Exeunt.

Manent Enobarbus, Agrippa, Mecenas.

Mec. Welcome from Egypt, Sir.

Eno. Half the heart of Cafar, worthy Mecanas! my honourable friend Agrippa!

Agr. Good Enobarbus!

Mec. We have cause to be glad, that matters are so well digested: you ftay'd well by't in Egypt.

Eno. Ay, Sir, we did fleep day out of countenance, and made the night light with drinking.

Mec. Eight wild boars roafted whole at a breakfast, and but twelve perfons there; Is this true?

Eno. This was but as a flie by an eagle: we had much more monstrous matter of feaft, which worthily deserved noting.

Mec. She's a moft triumphant Lady, if report be fquare to her.

Eno. When the first met Mark Antony, the purs'd up his heart upon the river of Cydnus.

VOL. VI.

R

Agr.

Agr. There the appear'd, indeed: or my reporter devis'd well for her.

Eno. I will tell you;

The Barge the fat in, like a burnish'd Throne,
Burnt on the water; the poop was beaten gold,
Purple the fails, and fo perfumed, that

The Winds were love-fick with 'em; th' oars were filver,

Which to the tune of flutes kept ftroke, and made
The water, which they beat, to follow fafter,
As amorous of their ftrokes. For her own perfon,
It beggar'd all defcription; fhe did lye
In her pavilion, cloth of gold, of tiffue,
(22) O'er-picturing that Venus, where we fee
The Fancy out-work Nature. On each fide her,
Stood pretty dimpled Boys, like fmiling Cupids,
With divers-colour'd fans, whofe wind did feem
To glow the delicate cheeks which they did cool,
And what they undid, did.

Agr. Oh, rare for Antony !

Eno. Her Gentlewomen, like the Nereids,
So many Mermaids, tended her i'th' eyes,
And made their Bends adornings. At the helm,
A feeming Mermaid fteers; the filken tackles
Swell with the touches of thofe flower-foft hands,
That yarely frame the office. From the Barge

(22) O'erpi&uring that Venus, where we fee

The Fancy outwork Nature.] The Poet feems here to be alluding to that fine Picture of Venus done by Apelles; the Beauty and Limbs of which, 'tis faid, he copied from Campafpe, his beloved Mistress, whom he received at the hands of Alexander the Great. This celebrated Piece of his was call'd 'Apedin dvadvous, Venus rifing out of the Sea: to which Ovid has paid so fine a Compliment in his third Book on The Art of Love.

Si Venerem Cous nunquàm pofuiffet Apelles,

Merfa fub aquoreis Illa lateret aquis.

Our Poet, fpeaking of a Sculpture of Diana and her Nymphs bathing, expreffes himself with the fame kind of Hyperbole as he does here concerning the Picture of Venus :

never faw I Figures
So likely to report themselves; the Cutter
Was as another Nature dumb, outwent her,
Motion and Breath left out.

Cymbeline.

A

A ftrange invisible perfume hits the fenfe
Of the adjacent wharfs. The City caft
Her People out upon her; and Antony,
Enthron'd i'th' Market-place, did fit alone,
Whistling to th' air; which, but for vacancy,
Had gone to gaze on Cleopatra too,
And made a gap in Nature.

Agr. Rare Egyptian!

Eno. Upon her landing, Antony fent to her,
Invited her to fupper: fhe reply'd,

It should be better, he became her gueft;
Which the entreated. Our courteous Antony,
Whom ne'er the word of No Woman heard fpeak,
Being barber'd ten times o'er, goes to the feast;
And for his ordinary, pays his heart,

For what his eyes eat only.

Agr. Royal Wench!

She made great Cæfar lay his fword to bed;
He plough'd her, and the cropt.

Eno. I faw her once

Hop forty paces through the publick street:
And having loft her breath, the spoke, and panted,
That he did make defect, perfection,

And breathless power breathe forth.

Mec. Now Antony must leave her utterly.

Eno. Never, he will not.

Age cannot wither her, nor custom ftale

Her infinite variety other women cloy

The appetites they feed; but the makes hungry,
Where moft fhe fatisfies. For vileft things
Become themselves in her, that the holy Priests
Bless her, when the is riggifh."

Mec. (23) If beauty, wisdom, modefty, can settle The heart of Antony, Octavia is

A bleft allott'ry to him.

(23) If Beauty, Wisdom, Modefty, can settle The Heart of Antony, Octavia is

Agr.

A bleffed Lottery to him.] Methinks, it is a very indifferent Compliment in Mecanas to call Octavia a Lottery, as if She might turn up blank, as well as prove a Prize to Antony. Mr. Warburton inge

R 2

niously

Agr. Let us go.

Good Enobarbus, make your self my guest,
Whilft you abide here.

Eno. Humbly, Sir, I thank you.

[Exeunt.

Enter Antony, Cæfar, Octavia between them.

Ant. The world, and my great office, will fome

times

Divide me from your bofom.

Octa. All which time,

Before the Gods my knee fhall bow in prayers
To them for you.

Ant. Good night, Sir. My Ottavia,

Read not my blemishes in the world's report:
I have not kept my fquare, but That to come
Shall all be done by th' rule; good night, dear Lady.
Octa. Good night, Sir.

Caf. Good night.

[Exeunt Cæfar and Octavia.

Enter Soothsayer.

Ant. Now, firrah! do you wifh your felf in Egypt? Sooth. Would I had never come from thence, nor you thither!

Ant. If you can, your reason?

Sooth. (24) I fee it in my Notion, have it not in my Tongue; but yet hie you to Egypt again.

Ant.

nioufly conjectur'd, that the Poet wrote as I have reform'd the Text: there being as much Difference between Lottery and Allottery, as between a prefent Defignation and a future Chance. Our Poet has ufed the Word, again, in his As You like it.

therefore allow me fuch Exercises as may become a Gentleman, or give me the poor Allottery my Father left me by Teftament: with That

I will

go

buy my

Fortunes.

(24) I fee it in my Motion, have it not in my Tongue.] What Motion? I can trace no Senfe in this Word here, unless the Author were alluding to that Agitation of the Divinity, which Diviners pretend to when the Fit of Foretelling is upon them; but then, I think verily, he would have wrote, Emotion. I am perfuaded, Shakespeare meant that the Soothfayer fhould fay, he faw a Reafon in his Thought or Opinion, tho' he gave that Thought or Opinion no Utterance. So Hamlet lays to Horatio and the Watch, when he enjoyns them to Secrecy about his Father's Apparition;