The water which they beat, to follow fafter,
As amorous of their ftrokes. For her own person,
It beggar'd all defcription; fhe did lie

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 finiling 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. O rare for Antony.

Eno. Her gentlewomen, like the Nereids,
So many mermaids, tended her i'th' eyes,

And made their bends adorings (23). At the helm
A feeming mermaid fteers; the filken tackles
Swell with the touches of those flow'r-soft hands,
That yarely frame the office. From the barge
A ftrange invifible perfume hits the sense
Of the adjacent wharfs. The city cast
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.

Cleopatra's

(22) O'er-picturing, &c.]"The poet," fays Mr.Theobald, “ seems here to be alluding to that fine picture of Venus, done by Apelles; the beauty and limbs of which, it is faid, he copied from Campaspe, his beloved mistress, whom he received at the hands of Alexander the Great. This celebrated piece of his was called Appodern avaduoμern Venus rifing out of the fea: to which, Ovid has paid fo fine a compliment in his 3d book on the Art of Love.

Si Venerem Cous nunquam pofuiffet Apelles,
Merfa fub æquoreis illa laterci aquis.

If fam'd Apelles had not painted thee,
Venus, thou ne'er hadft rifen from the fea.

The reader, for a larger account of this matter, may confu
Pliny's Natural hiftory, L. 35. c. 10.

(23) Adorings. Warb. vulg. Adornings. VOL. II.

H

Cleopatra's infinite power in pleafing.

(24) Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale Her infinite variety: other women cloy

The appetites they feed, but she makes hungry,
Where moft fhe fatisfies. For vileft things
Become themselves in her, that the holy priests
Blefs her when she is riggish.

SCENE V. The unfettled Humour of Lovers. Enter Cleopatra, Charmian, Iras, and Alexas. Cleo. (25) Give me fome mufic: mufic, moody food Of us that trade in love.

Omnes.

(24) Age, &c.] So, in Dryden's play, Antony speaks to Chopatra of her uncloying charms;

How I lov'd,

Witnefs ye days and nights, and all ye hours,
That danc'd away with down upon your feet,
As all your business were to count my paffion:
One day pafs'd by, and nothing faw but love;
Another came, and ftill 'twas only love :
The funs were weary'd out with looking on,
And I untir'd with loving.

I faw you ev'ry day, and all the day;
And ev'ry day was ftill but as the first;
So eager was I ftill to fee you more.

A&.3.

(25) Give me, &c.] Nothing can be more natural than this neafy fluctuation of mind fo peculiar to people deprived of the object which alone can please them, and without whom nothing can please. I know not of a more beautiful instance than in the first act of that fine play of Euripides; Hippolitus, towards the lat ́ter end of the act, which Mr. Smith has well copied (I might rather have faid, tranflated) in his Phedra and Hippolitus, an excellent play, tho' greatly inferior in many material circumftances, and particularly the character of Phedra, to-the Greek, In our English play, Phædra, on her entrance, begins;

Stay, virgins, ftay, I'll reft my weary steps:
My ftrength forfakes me, &c.

Why

Omnes. The mufic, hoa!

Enter Mardian the Eunuch.

Cleo. Let it alone, let's to billiards: come Charmian. Char. My arm is fore, best play with Mardian. Cleo. As well a woman with an eunuch play'd, As with a woman. Come, you'll play with me, fir? Mar. As well as I can, madam.

Cleo. And when good will' is thew'd, tho't come to fhort,

The actor may plead pardon. I'll none now.
Give me mine angle, we'll to the river, there
My mufic playing, far off I will betray
Tawny-finn'd fifhes, my bended hook shall pierce
Their flimy jaws; and, as I draw them up,
I'll think them every one an Antony,

And fay, ah, ha! you're caught.

Why blaze these jewels round my wretched head?
Why all this labour'd elegance of drefs?

Why flow these wanton curls in artful rings?
Take, fnatch them hence,

Oh, my Lycon,

c.

Oh, how I long to lay my weary head

On tender flow'ry beds and fpringing grafs !

To ftretch my limbs beneath the spreading shades

Of venerable oaks! to flake my thurft

With the cool nectar of refreshing fprings!

Char.

Lycon. I'll footh her phrenzy; come, Phaedra, let's away,
Let's to the woods and lawns, and limpid ftreams.
Phed, Come, let's away, and thou most bright Diana,
Goddess of woods, immortal, chafte Diana,
Goddess prefiding o'er the rapid race,

Place me, oh, place me in the dufty ring,
Where youthful charioteers contend for glory:
See how they mount and shake the flowing reins !
See, from the goal the fiery courfers bound!
Now they strain panting up the fteepy hill,

Now fweep along its top, now neigh along its vale;
How the car rattles! how its kindling wheels
Smoke in the whirl! The circling fand afcends,
And in the noble duft the chariot's loft.

H &

Char. 'Twas merry; when

You wager'd on your angling, when your Diver
Did hang a falt-fish on his hook, which he
With fervency drew up.

Cleo. That time!

-Oh, times!

I laught him out of patience, and that night
I laught him into patience; and next morn,
E'er the ninth hour, I drank him to his bed:
Then put my tires and mantles on him, whilst
I wore his fword (26) Philippan.

ACT III. SCENE I.

Ambition, jealous of a too fuccessful Friend.

(27) Oh Silius, Silius,

I have done enough. A lower place, note well,
May make too great an act. For learn this, Silius,
Better to leave undone, than by our deed

Acquire too high a fame, when he we ferve's away.

SCENE V.

Octavia's Entrance, what it should have been.

Why has thou ftol'n upon us thus? You came not Like Cafar's fifter; the wife of Antony

Should

(26) Philippan.] This word, we are to fuppofe, was fo called from the great actions it atchieved in the hands of its heroic mafter at Philippi; the faireft field of his fame, and of which he seems to have been most proud. Antony too plumed himself on his defcent from Hercules; fo that this imitation of his ancestor was the more agreeable to him, who submitted to the like treatment from Omphale, whofe tires and mantles the great Alcides put on, and plied her diftaff, while fhe wielded his club, and decked herfelf in his trophies.

(27) Ob, &c.] This is fpoken by Ventidius, who bears a very confiderable fhare in Mr. Dryden's tragedy: but it seems to me, that great man has mifreprefented him, and instead of giving us the brave, old, honest, veteran Roman, hath given us a furly, rigid buffoon: unlike that Ventidius we so greatly admire in

his

Should have an army for an usher, and
The neighs of horse to tell of her approach,
Long ere fhe did appear. The trees by th' way
Should have borne men, and expectation fainted,
Longing for what it had not. Nay, the dust
Should have afcended to the roof of heav'n,
Rais'd by your populous troops: but you are come
A market-maid to Rome, and have prevented
The oftent of our love; which left unshewn,
Is often left unlov'd; we should have met you
By sea and land, supplying every stage
With an augmented greeting.

Women.

Women are not

In their best fortunes ftrong; but want will perjure
The ne'er touch'd vestal.

SCENE IX. Fortune forms our Judgment.
I fee, mens' judgments are

A parcel of their fortunes, and things outward
Do draw the inward quality after them,

To fuffer all alike.

Loyalty.

(28) Mine honefty, and I, begin to square;

The

his true character. Plutarch, as Mr. Theobald has obferved, particularly takes notice, that Ventidius was careful to act only on lieutenancy, and cautious of aiming at any glory in his own name and person.

(28) Mine, &c.] After Enobarbus has faid, that his honesty and he begin to quarrel, (i. e. that his reason fhews him to be miftaken in his firm adherence to Antony) he immediately falls into this generous reflection: "tho' loyalty ftubbornly preferved to a mafter in his declined fortunes, feems folly in the eyes of fools; (i. e. men who have not honour enough to think more wifely ;) yet he, who can be fo obftinately loyal, will make as great a figure on record, as the conqueror." Theobald.