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

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

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

15

20

Cleo. What have I kept back? [known. 25 Sel. Enough to purchase what you have made Ces. Nay, blush not, Cleopatra; I approve Your wisdom in the deed.

Cleo. See, Casar! O, behold,

How pomp is follow'd! mine will now be yours ;30
And, should we shift estates, yours will be mine.
The ingratitude of this Seleucus does

Even make me wild :-O slave, of no more trust
Than love that's hir'd!—What, goest thou back?

thou shalt

Go back, I warrant thee; but I'll catch thine eyes,
Though they had wings: Slave, soul-less villain,
O rarely base?!

Cas. Good queen, let us intreat you.

[dog!

35

Cas. Cleopatra,

Notwhatyouhave reserv'd,norwhatacknowledg'd,
Putwe i' the roll of conquest: still be it yours,
Bestow it at your pleasure; and believe,
Cæsar's no merchant, to make prize with you
Of thingsthatmerchantssold. Therefore becheer'd;
Make not your thoughts your prisons; no, dear

queen:

For we intend so to dispose you, as
Yourself shall give us counsel. Feed, and sleep:
Our care and pity is so much upon you,

That we remain your friend: And so, adieu.
Cleo. My master, and my lord.

Cas. Not so: Adieu.

[Exeunt Cæsar, and his train. Cleo. He words me, girls, he words me, that I should not

Be noble to myself: But hark thee, Charmian.
[Whispers Charmian.
Iras. Finish, good lady; the bright day is done,
And we are for the dark.

Cleo. Hie thee again:

I have spoke already, and it is provided:
Go put it to the haste.

Char. Madam, I will.

Re-enter Dolabella.
Dol. Where is the queen?

Char. Behold, sir.

Cleo. Dolabella?

[Exit Charmian. [mand, Dol. Madam, as thereto sworn by your comWhich my love makes religion to obey,

I tell you this: Casar through Syria
Intends his journey; and, within three days,
You with your children will he send before:

Cleo. O Casar, what a wounding shame is this; 40 Make your best use of this: I have perform'd

That thou, vouchsafing here to visit me,

Doing the honour of thy lordliness

To one so meek, that mine own servant should
Parcel the sum of my disgraces by
Addition of his envy! Say, good Cæsar,
That I some lady trifles had reserv'd,
Immoment toys, things of such dignity
As we greet modern friends withal: and say,
Some nobler token I have kept apart
For Livia, and Octavia, to induce
Their mediation; must I be unfolded [me
With one that I have bred? The gods! It smites
Beneath the fall I have. Pr'ythee, go hence;
[To Seleucus.

Your pleasure, and my promise.

Cleo. Dolabella,

I shall remain your debtor.

Dol. I your servant.

45 Adieu, good queen; I must attend on Cæsar.

2

1i. e. close up my lips as effectually as the eyes of a hawk are closed. i. e. base in an uncommon degree. Or fortune. The meaning is, Begone, or I shall exert that royal spirit which I had in my prosperity, in spight of the imbecility of my present weak condition. place taken in an ill sense, for actions meriting censure. Scald was a word of contempt, implying poverty, disease, and filth.

4 Merits is in this

. Ballad

Shew me, my women, like a queen;-Go fetch 15
My best attires;-I am again for Cydnus,
To meet Mark Antony:-Sirrah, Iras, go.-
Now, noble Charmian, we'll dispatch indeed:
And, when thou hast done this chare, I'll give

thee leave

20 Toplay 'till dooms-day. Bring our crown and all. Wherefore's this noise? [A noise within.

Enter one of the Guard.
Guard. Here is a rural fellow,
That will not be deny'd your highness' presence; 25
He brings you figs.

Cleo. Let him come in. What a poor instrument
[Exit Guard.
May do a noble deed! he brings me liberty.
My resolution's plac'd; and I have nothing
Of woman in me: Now from head to foot
I am marble-constant: now the fleeting 2 moon
No planet is of mine.

Re-enter Guard, with a Clown bringing a basket.
Guard. This is the man.

Cleo. Avoid, and leave him. [Exit Guard.
Hast thou the pretty worm of Nilus there,
That kills and pains not?

Cleo. Well, get thee gone; farewell.
Clown. Yes, forsooth; I wish you joy o' the
[Exit.

worm.

Cleo. Give me my robe, put on my crown; I
Immortal longings in me: Now no more [have
The juice of Egypt's grape shall moist this lip:-
Yare, yare', good Iras; quick.-Methinks, I hear
Antony call; I see him rouse himself

To praise my noble act; I hear him mock
The luck of Cæsar, which the gods give men
To excuse their after wrath; Husband, I come:
Now to that name my courage prove my title!
I am fire, and air; my other elements
I give to baser life.-So, have you done?
Come then, and take the last warmth of my lips.
Farewell, kind Charmian:-Iras, long farewell.
[Applying the asp.
Have I the aspick in my lips? Dost tall? [To Iras.
If thou and nature can so gently part,
The stroke of death is as a lover's pinch,
Which hurts, and is desir'd. Dost thou lye still?
35 If thus thou vanishest, thou tell'st the world
It is not worth leave-taking,

30

Clown. Truly I have him: but I would not be the party that should desire you to touch him, 40 for his biting is immortal; those, that do die of it, do seldom or never recover.

[on't?

Cleo. Remember'st thou any that have dy'd
Clown. Very many, men and women too. I
heard of one of them no longer than yesterday: 45
a very honest woman, but something given to lye:
as a woman should not do, but in the way of ho-|
nesty: how she dy'd of the biting of it, what pain
she felt,-Truly, she makes a very good report o'
the worm: But he that will believe all that they
say, shall never be saved by half that they do':
But this is most fallible, the worm's an odd worm.
Cleo. Get thee hence; farewell.

Clown. I wish you all joy of the worm,
Cleo. Farewell,

Clown. You must think this, look you, that the worm will do his kind.

Cleo. Ay, ay, farewell.

Clown. Look you, the worm is not to be trusted,

50

55

[Iras dies.

Char. Dissolve, thick cloud, and rain; that I
may say,

The gods themselves do weep!
Cleo. This proves me base:

If she first meet the curled Antony,

He'll make demand of her; and spend that kiss, Which is my heaven to have.-Come, thou mortal wretch,

With thy sharp teeth this knot intrinsicate
[To the asp.

Of life at once untie: poor venomous fool,
Be angry, and dispatch. O, couldst thou speak!
That I might hear thee call great Cæsar, ass
Unpolicy'd'!

Char. O eastern star!

Cleo. Peace, peace!

Dost thou not see my baby at my breast,
That sucks the nurse asleep?

Char. O, break! O, break!

Cleo. As sweet as balm, as soft as air, as gentle,— O Antony!-Nay, I will take thee too :[Applying another asp to her arm. [Dies.

What should I stay—

We have before observed, that the parts of women were acted on the stage by boys in our author's time. 2 i. e. inconstant. Worm is the Teutonick word for serpent; and in the Northern counties, the word worm is still given to the serpent species in general. i. e. will act according to his nature. i. e. make haste, be nimble, be ready. i. e. an ass without more policy than to leave the means of death within my reach, and thereby deprive his triumph of its noblest decoration.

3F

Char.

And golden Phoebus never be beheld

Of eyes again so royal! Your crown 's awry;
I'H mend it, and then play.

Enter the Guard, rushing in.

1 Guard. Where is the queen?
Char. Speak softly, wake her not.
1 Guard. Cæsar hath sent―
Char. Too slow a messenger.-

5

Cas. Poison'd then.

1 Guard. O Cæsar, This Charmian liv'd but now I found her trimming up the On her dead mistress; trem And on the sudden dropp'c 10

[Charmian applies the asp. O, come; apace, dispatch:-I partly feel thee. 1 Guard. Approach,ho! All's not well: Casar's beguil'd. [call him. 15 2 Guard. There's Dolabella sent from Cæsar;-1 Guard. What work is here?-Charmian, is this well done?

Char. It is well done, and fitting for a princess Descended of so many royal kings.

Ah, soldier!

Enter Dolabella.

Dal. How goes it here?

2 Guard. All dead.

Dol. Cæsar, thy thoughts

20 [Charmian dies.

Touch their effects in this: Thyself art coming
To see perform'd the dreaded act, which thou
So sought'st to hinder.

Enter Cæsar and Attendants.

[Within.] A way there, a way for Cæsar ! Dol. O, sir, you are too sure an augurer; That you did fear, is done.

Cas. Bravest at the last :

Cas. O noble weakness!If they had swallow'd poiso By external swelling: but s As she would catch another In her strong toil of grace.

Dol. Here, on her breast
There is a vent of blood, an
The like is on her arm.
Guard. This is an aspic
fig leaves

Have slime upon them, suc
Upon the caves of Nile.
Cas. Most probable,
That so she dy'd; for her pl
She hath pursu'd conclusion
25 Of easy ways to die.-Take
And bear her women from
She shall be buried by her
No grave upon the earth sha
A pair so famous. High ever
30 Strike those that make them
No less in pity, than his glo
Brought them to be lamente
In solemn shew, attend this f
And then to Rome.-Come,
High order in this great solem

She levell'd at our purposes, and, being royal,
Took her own way.--The manner of their deaths?--35

I do not see them bleed.

'Mr. Steevens conjectures, that our author may have written vild (i. e. vile a spelling) for worthless.

* i. e. swoln.

Thieves, Senators, Poet, Painter, Jeweller, and Merchant; with Servants and Attendants.
SCENE, Athens; and the Wood not far from it.

SCENE I.

Athens.

A Hall in Timon's House.

ACT I.

Jew. If he will touch the estimate 3: But, that

Poet. When we for recompencehave prais'dthe It stains the glory in that happy verse

Enter Poet, Painter, Jeweller, and Merchant, at 5 Which aptly sings the good.

several doors.

10

Mer. 'Tis a good form. [Looking on the je
Jew. And rich: here is a water, look you.
Pain. You are rapt, sir, in some work, s
To the great lord.
[dedica

Poet. A thing slipt idly from me.
Our poesy is as a gum, which oozes

From whence 'tis nourished: The fire i' the
Shews not, 'till it be struck; our gentle flam
Provokes itself, and, like the current, flies
15 Each bound it chases. What have you there
When comes your b

Mer. A most incomparable man; breath'd', as 20 To an untirable and continuate goodness:

He passes1.

Jew. I have a jewel here.

[sir?

Mer. O, pray, let's see't: For the lord Timon,

Pain. A picture, sir.

forth?

Poet. Upon the heels of my presentment, s Let's see your piece.

Pain. 'Tis a good piece.

Poet. So 'tis: this comes off' well and excell
Pain. Indifferent.

Poet. Admirable! How this grace

Speaks his own standing! what a mental po

3 i. e. co

'Breathed is inured by constant practice; so trained as not to be wearied. To breathe a hors to exercise him for the course. i. e. he exceeds, goes beyond common bounds. up to the price. * We must here suppose the poet busy in reading his own work; and that th three lines are the introduction of the poem addressed to Timon, which he afterwards gives the pa ¿ i. e. according to Dr. Johnson. The figure rises well from the canvas.

ter an account of.

This eye shoots forth! how big imagination
Moves in this lip! to the dumbness of the gesture
One might interpret.

Pain. It is a pretty mocking of the life.
Here is a touch; is't good?
Poet. I'll say of it,

It tutors nature: artificial strife1
Lives in these touches, livelier than life.
Enter certain Senators.

Pain. How this lord is follow'd!
Poet. The senators of Athens ;-Happy men!
Pain. Look, more!
[of visitors.
Poct. You see this confluence, this great flood
I have, in this rough work, shap'd out a man,
Whom this beneath world doth embrace and hug
With amplest entertainment: My free drift
Halts not particularly, but moves itself
In a wide sea of wax3: no levell'd malice
Infects one comma in the course I hold;
But flies an eagle flight, bold, and forth on,
Leaving no tract behind.

5

Poet. Nay, sir, but hear me on:
All those which were his fellows but of late,
(Some better than his value) on the moment
Follow his strides, his lobbies fill with tendance,
5 Rain sacrificial whisp'rings in his ear",
Make sacred even his stirrop, and through him
Drink the free air 12.

Pain. Ay, marry, what of these? [mood,
Poet. When Fortune, in her shift and change of
10 Spurns down her late belov'd, all his dependants,
Which labour'd after him to the mountain's top,
Even on their knees and hands, let him slip down,
Not one accompanying his declining foot.
Pain. 'Tis common:

15

A thousand moral paintings I can shew, [tune That shall demonstrate these quick blows of forMore pregantly than words. Yet you do well, To shew lord Timon, that mean eyes 13 have seen The foot above the head. 20 Trumpets sound. Enter Timon, addressing himself courteously to every suitor.

Tim. Imprison'd is he, say you? [Toa Messenger. Mes. Ay, my good lord: five talents is his debt; His means most short, his creditors most strait: 25 Your honourable letter he desires

Pain. How shall I understand you?
· Port. I'll unbolt 4 to you.
You see, how all conditions, how all minds,
(As well of glib and slippery creatures, as
Of grave and austere quality) tender down
Their services to lord Timon: his large fortune,
Upon his good and gracious nature hanging,
Subdues and properties to his love and tendance
All sorts of hearts; yea, from the glass-fac'd flat-30
terer"

To Apemantus, that few things loves better
Than to abhor himself; even he drops down
The knee before him, and returns in peace
Most rich in Timon's nod.

Parn. I saw them speak together.

To those have shut him up; which failing him,
Periods his comfort.

Tim. Noble Ventidius! Well;

[him

I am not of that feather, to shake off
My friend when he must need me. I do know
A gentleman, that well deserves a help, [him.
Which he shall have: I'll pay the debt, and free
Mes. Your lordship ever binds him. [som;
Tim. Cominend me to him: I will send his ran-
35 And, being enfranchis'd, bid him come to me:-
Tis not enough to help the feeble up,
But to support him atter.-Fare you well.
Mes. All happiness to your honour"! [Exit.
Enter an old Athenian,

40

Poet. Sir, I have upon a high and pleasant hill
Feign'd Fortune to be thron'd: Thebaseo'themount
Is rank'd with all deserts, all kind of natures,
That labour on the bosom of this sphere
To propagate their states: amongst them all,
Whose eyes are on this sovereign lady fix'd,
One do I personate of Timon's frame,
Whom Fortune with her ivory hand wafts to her;
Whose present grace to present slaves and servants 45
Translates his rivals.

Pain. 'Tis conceiv'd to scope.

This throne, this Fortune, and this hill, methinks,
With one man beckon❜d from the rest below,
Bowing his head against the steepy mount
To climb his happiness, would be well express'd
In our condition.

5

6

50 By night frequents my house. I am a man That irom my first have been inclin'd to thrift; And my estate deserves an heir more rais'd,

9

4

1 Strife is either the contest or act with nature. 2 i. e. My design does not stop at any single character. 3 Anciently they wrote upon waxen tables with an iron style. i. e, I'll open, I'll explain, Slippery is smooth, unresisting. Meaning, the flatterer who shows in his own look, as by reflection, the looks of his patron. i. e. cover'd with ranks of all kinds of men. i. e. to advance or improve their various conditions of life. i. e. 'Tis properly imagin'd. 10 Condition for art. 11 That is, calumniate those whom Timon hated or envied, or whose vices were opposite to his own. This offering up, to the person flattered, the murdered reputation of others, Shakspeare, with the utmost beauty of thought and expression, calls sacrificial whisp'rings; alluding to the victims offered up to idols. 12 That is, catch his breath in affected fondness. 13 i. e. inferior spectators. 14 The common address to a lord in our author's time, was your honour, which was indifferently used with your lordship.

Than