Ten thousand harms, more than the ills I know,
My idleness doth hatch.-How now, Enobarbus!
Re-enter ENOBARBUS.

ENO. What's your pleasure, sir?

ANT. I must with haste from hence.

ENO. Why, then, we kill all our women.

We see how mortal an

unkindness is to them; if they suffer our departure, death's the word.

ANT. I must be gone.

*

ENO. Under a compelling occasion, let women die: it were pity to cast them away for nothing; though, between them and a great cause, they should be esteemed nothing. Cleopatra, catching but the least noise of this, dies instantly; I have seen her die twenty times upon far poorer moment: I do think there is mettle in death, which commits some loving act upon her, she hath such a celerity in dying. ANT. She is cunning past man's thought.

ENO. Alack, sir, no; her passions are made of nothing but the finest part of pure love. We cannot call her winds and waters, sighs and tears; they are greater storms and tempests than almanacs can report: this cannot be cunning in her; if it be, she makes a shower of rain as well as Jove.

ANT. Would I had never seen her!

ENO. O, sir, you had then left unseen a wonderful piece of work; which not to have been blessed withal, would have discredited your travel.

ANT. Fulvia is dead.

ENO. Sir!

ANT. Fulvia is dead.

ENO. Fulvia!

ANT. Dead.

ENO. Why, sir, give the gods a thankful sacrifice. When it pleaseth their deities to take the wife of a man from him, it shows to man the tailors of the earth; comforting therein, that when old robes are worn out, there are members to make new. If there were no more women but Fulvia, then had you indeed a cut, and the case to be lamented: this grief is crowned with consolation; your old smock brings forth a new petticoat: and, indeed, the tears live in an onion that should water this sorrow.

ANT. The business she hath broached in the state

Cannot endure my absence.

ENO. And the business you have broached here cannot be without yon; especially that of Cleopatra's, which wholly depends on your abode.

ANT. No more light answers. Let our officers

Have notice what we purpose. I shall break

The cause of our expedience to the queen,

And get her leave † to part.

For not alone

(†) Old text, love; corrected by Pope.

- expedience-] Expedition.

The death of Fulvia, with more urgent touches,
Do strongly speak to us; but the letters too
Of many our contriving friends in Rome
Petition us at home. Sextus Pompeius
Hath given the dare to Cæsar, and commands
The empire of the sea: our slippery people
(Whose love is never link'd to the deserver
Till his deserts are past) begin to throw
Pompey the great, and all his dignities,
Upon his son; who, high in name and power,
Higher than both in blood and life, stands up
For the main soldier: whose quality, going on,
The sides o' the world may danger. Much is breeding,
Which, like the courser's hair,a hath yet but life,
And not a serpent's poison. Say, our pleasure,
To such whose place is under us, requires
Our quick remove from hence.

ENO. I shall do 't.

SCENE III.-The same.

Another Room in the same.

Enter CLEOPATRA, CHARMIAN, IRAS, and ALEXAS.

CLEO. Where is he?

CHAR.

I did not see him since.

[Exeunt.

CLEO. [TO ALEX.] See where he is, who's with him, what he does:

I did not send you :-if you find him sad,

Say I am dancing; if in mirth, report

That I am sudden sick: quick, and return.

CHAR. Madam, methinks, if you did love him dearly,

You do not hold the method to enforce

The like from him.

CLEO.

What should I do, I do not?

[Exit ALEXAS.

CHAR. In each thing give him way, cross him in nothing.
CLEO. Thou teachest like a fool,-the way to lose him.
CHAR. Tempt him not so too far: I wish, forbear;c
In time we hate that which we often fear.

But here comes Antony.

CLEO.

I am sick and sullen.

Enter ANTONY.

ANT. I am sorry to give breathing to my purpose,-
CLEO. Help me away, dear Charmian, I shall fall:

It cannot be thus long, the sides of nature

Will not sustain it.

Which, like the courser's hair, &c.] An allusion to the vulgar superstition that a horse hair left in water or dung became a living serpent.

b To such whose place is under us, requires, &c.] The lection of the second folio. In the first, we have,

"To such whose places under us require," &c.

I wial, forbear;] I commend forbearance.

ANT.

Now, my dearest queen,

CLEO. Pray you, stand farther from me.

ANT.

What's the matter?

CLEO. I know, by that same eye, there's some good news.
What says the married woman?-You may go:
Would she had never given you leave to come!
Let her not say 't is I that keep you here,—
I have no power upon you; hers you are.
ANT. The gods best know,—
CLEO.

O, never was there queen

So mightily betray'd! yet at the first
I saw the treasons planted.

ANT.

Cleopatra,

CLEO. Why should I think you can be mine and true,
Though you in swearing shake the throned gods,
Who have been false to Fulvia? Riotous madness,
To be entangled with those mouth-made vows,
Which break themselves in swearing!

Most sweet queen,~

ANT.
CLEO. Nay, pray you, seek no colour for your going,
But bid farewell, and go: when you su'd staying,
Then was the time for words: no going then;-
Eternity was in our lips and eyes,

Bliss in our brows' bent; none our parts so poor,
But was a race of heaven: they are so still,

Or thou, the greatest soldier of the world,

Art turn'd the greatest liar.

ANT.

How now, lady!

CLEO. I would I had thy inches; thou shouldst know There were a heart in Egypt.

Hear me, queen:

ANT.
The strong necessity of time commands

Our services a while; but my full heart
Remains in use with you. Our Italy

Shines o'er with civil swords: Sextus Pompeius
Makes his approaches to the port of Rome:

Equality of two domestic powers

C

Breeds scrupulous faction: the hated, grown to strength,
Are newly-grown to love: the condemn'd Pompey,

Rich in his father's honour, creeps apace

Into the hearts of such as have not thriv'd
Upon the present state, whose numbers threaten;
And quietness, grown sick of rest, would purge
By any desperate change. My more particular,
And that which most with you should safe my going,
Is Fulvia's death.

CLEO. Though age from folly could not give me freedom,
It does from childishness :-can Fulvia die?

R

b

- a race of heaven:] The meaning is probably-of divine mould, or origin. in use-] In possession.

the port of Rome:] The gate of Rome.

ANT. She's dead, my queen:

Look here, and, at thy sovereign leisure, read
The garboils she awak'd; at the last, best,
See when and where she died.

CLEO.
O, most false love!
Where be the sacred vials thou shouldst fill
With sorrowful water? Now I see, I see,
In Fulvia's death how mine receiv'd shall be.
ANT. Quarrel no more, but be prepar'd to know
The purposes I bear; which are, or cease,
As you shall give the advice. By the fire
That quickens Nilus' slime, I go from hence
Thy soldier-servant; making peace or war
As thou affect'st!

CLEO.

Cut my lace, Charmian, come!

But let it be:-I am quickly ill, and well,
So Antony loves.c

ANT.

My precious queen, forbear;

And give true evidence to his love, which stands
An honourable trial.

CLEO.

So Fulvia told me.
I pr'ythee, turn aside and weep for her;
Then bid adieu to me, and say the tears
Belong to Egypt. Good now, play one scene
Of excellent dissembling; and let it look
Like perfect honour.

ANT.

CLEO. You can do
ANT. Now, by my

CLEO.

You'll heat my blood: no more! better yet; but this is meetly.

sword,

But this is not the best:-look, pr'ythee, Charmian,

And target!-Still he mends;

The commentators will have the word best to relate to the "good end" made by Fulvia. But it is no more than an epithet of endearment which Antony applies to Cleopatra;read at your leisure the troubles she awakened; and at the last, my best one, see when and where she died.

This has been misconceived: "So Antony loves" is "As Antony loves," and the sense therefore, My health is as fickle as the love of Antony.

And give true evidence to his love, &c.] Mr. Collier's annotator, in his eagerness to confound all traces of our early language, would poorly read, "true credence," which, like many of his suggestions, is very specious and quite wrong. The meaning of Antony is this," Forbear these taunts, and demonstrate to the world your confidence in my love by submitting it freely to the trial of absence." In adopting his mythical corrector's "excellent emendation," Mr. Collier had, of course, forgotten that the very phrase **jected may be found in another of these plays,

"Proceed no straiter 'gainst our uncle Gloster,
Than from true evidence, of good esteem,

He be approv'd, "&c.-Henry VI. Pt. II. Act III. Sc. ↑

How this Herculean Roman does become

The carriage of his chief.a

ANT. I'll leave you, lady.
CLEO.

Courteous lord, one word.

Sir, you and I must part,-but that's not it:
Sir, you
and I have lov'd,-but there's not it;
That you know well: something it is I would,-
O, my oblivion is a very Antony,

And I am all forgotten!

ANT.

But that your royalty

Holds idleness your subject, I should take you
For idleness itself.

CLEO.

'Tis sweating labour

To bear such idleness so near the heart

As Cleopatra this. But, sir, forgive me;
Since my becomings kill me, when they do not
Eye well to you: your honour calls you hence,
Therefore be deaf to my unpitied folly,

And all the gods go with you! upon your sword
Sit laurel Victory! and smooth success

Be strew'd before your feet!

ANT.

Let us go.

Come:

Our separation so abides, and flies,

That thou, residing here, go'st yet with me,

And I, hence fleeting, here remain with thee.

Away!

[Exeunt.

SCENE IV.-Rome. An Apartment in Cæsar's House

Enter OCTAVIUS CÆSAR, reading a letter, LEPIDUS, and Attendants.

CES. You may see, Lepidus, and henceforth know,

It is not Cæsar's natural vice to hate

Our great competitor: from Alexandria

This is the news:-he fishes, drinks, and wastes

The lamps of night in revel: is not more man-like

Than Cleopatra; nor the queen of Ptolemy

More womanly than he: hardly gave audience,

Or vouchsaf'd* to think he had partners. You shall find there

(*) First folio, vouchsafe.

How this Herculean Roman does become
The carriage of his chief.]

The old and every modern edition read, "The carriage of his chafe." But can any one who considers the epithet "Herculean," which Cleopatra applies to Antony, and reads the following extract from Shakespeare's authority, hesitate for an instant to pronounce chafe a silly blunder of the transcriber or compositor for "chief," meaning Hercules, the head or principal of the house of the Antonii ? "Now it had bene a speech of old time, that the family of the Antonij were descended from one Anton the son of Hercules whereof the family took the name. This opinion did Antonius secke to confirme in ali his doings: not only resembling him in the likenesse of his body, as we have said before, but also in the wearing of his garments."-Life of Antonius. NORTH'S Plutarch. b Our great competitor:] So Heath; the old text having, "One great competitor."