Mess:

Enter a Messenger.

Is come into the field.

Cas.

Antony

Go, charge Agrippa

Plant those that have revolted in the van,
That Antony may seem to spend his fury
Upon himself.

[Exeunt CESAR and his Train.
Eno. Alexas did revolt; and went to Jewry,
On affairs of Antony; there did persuade
Great Herod to incline himself to Cæsar,
And leave his master Antony: for this pains,
Cæsar hath hang'd him. Canidius, and the rest
That fell away, have entertainment, but
No honourable trust. I have done ill;
Of which I do accuse myself so sorely,
That I will joy no more.

Sold.

Enter a Soldier of Cæsar's.

Enobarbus, Antony

Hath after thee sent all thy treasure, with
His bounty overplus: The messenger
Came on my guard; and at thy tent is now,
Unloading of his mules.

Eno. I give it you.

Sold.
I tell you true: Best that you saf'd the bringer
Out of the host; I must attend mine office,
Or would have done't myself. Your emperor
Continues still a Jove.

Mock me not, Enobarbus.

Eno. I am alone the villain of the earth, And feel I am so most. O Antony,

[Exit Soldier.

Thou mine of bounty, how would'st thou have paid
My better service, when my turpitude

Thou dost so crown with gold! This blows my heart :'

I am alone the villain of the earth,

And feel I am so most.] i. e. I am pre-eminently the greatest villain of the earth; and feel I am so most, i. e. I know it myself, more than any other person can or does feel it.-REED.

i This blows my heart:] i. e. This generosity swells my heart. To blow, is to puff or swell.-JOHNSON and STEEVENS.

If swift thought break it not, a swifter mean
Shall outstrike thought: but thought will do't, I feel.
I fight against thee!-No: I will go seek

Some ditch, wherein to die; the foul'st best fits
My latter part of life.

SCENE VII.

Field of Battle between the Camps.

[Exit.

Alarum. Drums and Trumpets. Enter AGRIPPA, and others.

Agr. Retire, we have engag'd ourselves too far: Cæsar himself has work, and our oppression j Exceeds what we expected.

Alarum.

[Exeunt.

Enter ANTONY and SCARUS, wounded.

Scar. O my brave emperor, this is fought indeed! Had we done so at first, we had driven them home With clouts about their heads.

Ant.

Thou bleed'st apace.

Scar. I had a wound here that was like a T,

But now 'tis made an H.

Ant.

They do retire.

Scar. We'll beat 'em into bench-holes; I have yet Room for six scotches more.

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 spritely comfort, and ten-fold
For thy good valour. Come thee on.

Scar.

I'll halt after. [Exeunt.

oppression-] i. 'e. Opposition, the force by which we are oppressed or overpowered.—MALONE.

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,

[To SCARUS.

Make her thanks bless thee.-O thou day o' the world, Chain mine arm'd neck: leap thou, attire and all,

ם

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

k let the queen know of our guests.] Surely we should read gests, i. e. actions, from the Latin gestum. Johnson's interpretation of the words as they stand, is that "Antony intends to bring his officers to sup with Cleopatra, and orders notice to be given of their guests."

clip-] i. e. Embrace.

- fairy] did not only signify a diminutive imaginary being, but an inchanter, in which last sense it is here used. The word also comprises the idea of power and beauty.-MALONE and UPTON.

STEEVENS.

proof of harness-] i. e. Armour of proof. Harnois, Fr. Arnese, Ital.—

great snare-] i. e. The war.

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.

SCENE IX.

Cæsar'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

P younger brown ;] So the old copy. Steevens without authority omits

younger.

4 Get goal for goal of youth.] At all plays of barriers, the boundary is called a goal; to win a goal, is to be a superior in a contest of activity.-JOHNSON.

Bear our hack'd targets like the men that owe them:] i. e. Bear our hack'd targets with spirit and exultation, such as becomes the brave warriors that own them.-JOHNSON. Owe for possess or own.

* — tabourines ;] i. e. Small drums. They are often mentioned in our ancient romances.-STEEVENS.

the court of guard :] i. e. The guard room, the place where the guard musters.-STEEVENS.

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 to him.

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

When men revolted shall upon record

Bear hateful memory, poor Enobarbus did

Before thy face repent!

1 Sold.

3 Sold.

Hark further.

Enobarbus!

Peace;

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.

To him.

Let's speak

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

3 Sold.

Let's do so.

But he sleeps.

[Dies.

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

Was never yet for sleeping.

2 Sold.

Go we to him.

3 Sold. Awake, awake, sir; speak to us. 2 Sold.

Hear you, sir;

disponge upon me :] i. e. Discharge, as a sponge, when squeezed, discharges the moisture it had imbibed.-STEEVENS.

Throw my heart-] The pathetick of Shakspeare too often ends in the ridiculous. It is painful to find the gloomy dignity of this noble scene destroyed by the intrusion of a conceit so far-fetched and unaffecting.-JOHNSON.