Enter EROS.

Eros. They are beaten, sir; and our advantage serves

For a fair victory.

Scar.

Let us score their backs,

And snatch 'em up, as we take hares, behind:

"Tis sport to maul a runner.

I will reward thee

Ant.
Once for thy sprightly comfort, and ten-fold
For thy good valour. Come thee on.

Scar.

I'll halt after. [Exeunt.

SCENE VIII.

Under the walls of Alexandria.

Alarum. Enter ANTONY, marching; SCARUS, and Forces.

Ant. We have beat him to his camp. Run one before,

And let the queen know of our guests.-To-morrow,
Before the sun shall see us, we'll spill the blood
That has to-day escap'd. I thank you all,
For doughty-handed are you; and have fought
Not as you serv'd the cause, but as it had been
Each man's like mine: you have shown all Hectors.
Enter the city, clip your wives, your friends,
Tell them your feats; whilst they with joyful tears
Wash the congealment from your wounds, and kiss
The honour'd gashes whole.-Give me thy hand:

Enter CLEOPATRA, attended.

To this great fairy I'll commend thy acts,

8 CLIP your wives,] i. e. embrace your wives. See Vol. vi. p. 233, &c.

Make her thanks bless thee.—O thou day o' the world!
Chain mine arm'd neck; leap thou, attire and all,
Through proof of harness to my heart, and there
Ride on the pants triumphing.

Cleo.

Lord of lords!

O infinite virtue! com'st thou smiling from
The world's great snare uncaught?

Ant.

My nightingale, We have beat them to their beds. What, girl! though

grey

Do something mingle with our younger brown; yet

have we

A brain that nourishes our nerves, and can

Get goal for goal of youth. Behold this man;
Commend unto his lips thy favouring hand :—
Kiss it, my warrior :-he hath fought to-day,
As if a god, in hate of mankind, had
Destroy'd in such a shape.

Cleo.

I'll give thee, friend, An armour all of gold; it was a king's.

Ant. He has deserv'd it, were it carbuncled Like holy Phoebus' car.-Give me thy hand: Through Alexandria make a jolly march;

Bear our hack'd targets like the men that owe them.
Had our great palace the capacity

To camp this host, we all would sup together,
And drink carouses to the next day's fate,
Which promises royal peril.-Trumpeters,
With brazen din blast you the city's ear;
Make mingle with our rattling tabourines";

That heaven and earth may strike their sounds together,

Applauding our approach.

[Exeunt.

9 our rattling TABOURINES ;] We have had this word used for drums in "Troilus and Cressida," Vol. vi. p. 108.

SCENE IX.

CESAR'S Camp.

Sentinels on their Post. Enter ENOBARBUS.

1 Sold. If we be not reliev'd within this hour, We must return to the court of guard'. The night Is shiny, and, they say, we shall embattle

By the second hour i' the morn.

2 Sold.

A shrewd one to us.

Eno.

This last day was

O! bear me witness, night,—

3 Sold. What man is this?

2 Sold.

Stand close, and list him.

Eno. Be witness to me, O thou blessed moon!

When men revolted shall upon record

Bear hateful memory, poor Enobarbus did

Eno. O sovereign mistress of true melancholy!
The poisonous damp of night disponge upon me,
That life, a very rebel to my will,

May hang no longer on me: throw my heart
Against the flint and hardness of my fault,

Which, being dried with grief, will break to powder,
And finish all foul thoughts. O Antony!

Nobler than my revolt is infamous,

Forgive me in thine own particular;
But let the world rank me in register
A master-leaver, and a fugitive.

O Antony! O Antony!

2 Sold. Let's speak to him.

[Dies.

1

-

-the court of guard.] For this expression see Vol. vii. p. 535.

1 Sold. Let's hear him; for the things he speaks May concern Cæsar.

But he sleeps.

1 Sold. Swoons rather; for so bad a prayer as his

Was never yet for sleep.

2 Sold.

Go we to him.

3 Sold. Awake, sir, awake! speak to us.

2 Sold.

Hear you, sir?

[Drums afar off

1 Sold. The hand of death hath raught him2. Hark!

the drums

Demurely wake the sleepers. Let us bear him
To the court of guard; he is of note: our hour
Is fully out.
3 Sold.

Come on, then;

He may recover yet.

[Exeunt with the body.

SCENE X.

Between the two Camps.

Enter ANTONY and SCARUS, with Forces, marching.

Ant. Their preparation is to-day by sea:

We please them not by land.

Scar.

For both, my lord.

Ant. I would, they'd fight i' the fire, or i̇' the air; We'd fight there too. But this it is: our foot Upon the hills adjoining to the city

Shall stay with us (order for sea is given,

2 The hand of death hath RAUGHT him.] 66 Raught was most frequently used as the past tense of to reach. See Vol. ii. p. 326; Vol. iv. p. 548; Vol. v. p. 246. But it is also sometimes made the past tense of to reave, as in Vol. v. p. 144, and in Nash's "Pierce Penniless," 1592, "I raught his head from his shoulders, and sheathed my sword in his body." See the reprint of this tract by the Shakespeare Society, p. 82. In this place in our text either sense will answer the purpose, for the "1 Soldier" may mean either that death has reached, or has reft Enobarbus.

They have put forth the haven3)

Where their appointment we may best discover,
And look on their endeavour.

Enter CESAR, and his Forces, marching.

[Exeunt.

Cæs. But being charg'd1, we will be still by land,
Which, as I take't, we shall; for his best force
Is forth to man his galleys. To the vales,
And hold our best advantage!

Re-enter ANTONY and SCARUS.

[Exeunt.

Ant. Yet they are not join'd.

Where yond' pine

does stand,

[Exit.

Swallows have built

I shall discover all: I'll bring thee word
Straight, how 'tis like to go.

Scar.

5

In Cleopatra's sails their nests: the auguries
Say, they know not,-they cannot tell;-look grimly,
And dare not speak their knowledge. Antony

Is valiant, and dejected; and by starts

His fretted fortunes give him hope, and fear,
Of what he has, and has not.

3

[Alarum afar off, as at a Sea Fight.

(order for sea is given,

They have put forth the haven)] These words, as Mr. Knight suggests, are parenthetical, and we have printed them accordingly without them, the sense runs on quite clearly, and any addition to the text, such as "Let's seek a spot," proposed by Malone; or "Farther on," recommended by Monck Mason, is unnecessary. Antony says, "our foot shall stay with us upon the hills adjoining to the city-where we may best discover the appointment and look upon the endeavour of the enemy."

4 BUT being charg'd,] i. e. Unless we be charged. “But" is still frequently employed in the north of England as a preposition, equivalent to without. Several ancient instances may be found in the "Coventry Mysteries," printed by the Shakespeare Society, and edited by Mr. Halliwell. Steevens collects various authorities on the point, but they are not necessary: he derives "but," in this sense, from the Sax. butan.

the AUGURIES] i. e. the declarations of the augurs: it is unnecessary, with all modern editors, to change the word, found in all the old copies, to

augurers.