TAURUS, lieutenant-general to Cæsar. CANIDIUS, lieutenant-general to Antony. SILIUS, an officer in Ventidius's army. EUPHRONIUS, an ambassador from Antony to Cæsar. ALEXAS, MARDIAN, SELEUCUS, and DIOMEDES; at tendants on Cleopatra. A Soothsayer. A Clown. CLEOPATRA, queen of Egypt. OCTAVIA, sister to Cæsar, and wife to Antony. CHARMIAN, IRAS, } attendants on Cleopatra. Officers, Soldiers, Messengers, and other Attendants. SCENE, dispersed; in several Parts of the Roman Empire. ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA. ACT I. SCENE I.-Alexandria. A Room in Cleopatra's Palace. Philo. NAY, but this dotage of our general's Upon a tawny front; his captain's heart, Which in the scuffles of great fights hath burst To cool a gipsy's lust. Look, where they come! Flourish. Enter ANTONY and CLEOPATRA, with their Take but good note, and you shall see in him Cleo. If it be love indeed, tell me how much. Ant. There's beggary in the love that can be reckon❜d. Cleo. I'll set a bourn how far to be belov'd. Ant. Then must thou needs find out new heaven, new Enter an Attendant. Att. News, my good lord, from Rome. reneges-] i. e. Renounces.-POPE. [earth. -Gipsy-] Here used both in the original meaning for an Egyptian, and in its accidental sense for a bad woman.-JOHNSON. The triple pillar-] Triple is here used improperly for third or one of three. One of the triumvirs, one of the three masters of the world.-WARBURTON. d - bourn―] i. e. Bound or limit. e Then must you, &c.] You must set the bourn or limit of my love, at a greater distance than the present visible universe affords.-JoHNSON. Ant. Grates me: The sum." Cleo. Nay, hear them," Antony: Ant. How, my love! Cleo. Perchance,-nay, and most like, You must not stay here longer, your dismission Call in the messengers.-As I am Egypt's queen, Cleo. Excellent falsehood! [Embracing. Why did he marry Fulvia, and not love her? I'll seem the fool I am not; Antony Will be himself. Ant. But stirr❜d by Cleopatra. Now, for the love of Love," and her soft hours, 1 Grates me :-] i. e. Distresses me. 8 The sum.] Be brief, sum thy business in a few words.-JOHNSON. h Nay, hear them,] i. e. The news. This word, in Shakspeare's time, was considered as plural.-MALONE. " Take in, &c.] i. e. Subdue, conquer. process?] i. e. Summons.-It is a law-term. rang'd] i. e. Orderly disposed. "The term range," says Malone, in our author's time, to have been applied, in a peculiar sense, to mason's work." seems, 1 —to weet,] i. e. To know. m - for the love of Love,] i. e. For the sake of the queen of love. Let's not confound" the time with conference harsh : Ant. Fye, wrangling queen! Whom every thing becomes, to chide, to laugh, [Exeunt ANT. and CLEOP. with their Train. Dem. I'm full sorry, That he approves the common liar, who Thus speaks of him at Rome: But I will hope Of better deeds to-morrow. Rest you happy! [Exeunt. Enter CHARMIAN, IRAS, ALEXAS, and a Soothsayer. Char. Lord Alexas, sweet Alexas, most any thing Alexas, almost most absolute Alexas, where's the soothsayer that you praised so to the queen? O, that I knew this husband, which, you say, must change his horns with garlands !a confound-] i. e. Consume. • No messenger; but thine and all alone, &c.] Cleopatra has said, “Call in the messengers ;" and afterwards, "Hear the ambassadors." Talk not to me, says Antony, of messengers; I am now wholly thine, and you and I unattended will to-night wander through the streets.-MALONE. Papproves the common liar,] i. e. Proves the common liar, fame, in his case to be a true reporter.-MALONE. change his horns with garlands!] i. e. Must wear a variety of garlands in his horns. To change, is to wear changes or variety of any dress or ornaments. -NARES. Alex. Soothsayer. Sooth. Your will? Char. Is this the man ?-Is't you, sir, that know things? Sooth. In nature's infinite book of secrecy, A little I can read, Alex. Show him your hand. Enter ENOBARBUS. Eno. Bring in the banquet quickly; wine enough, Cleopatra's health to drink. Char. Good sir, give me good fortune. Sooth. I make not, but foresee. Char. Pray, then, foresee me one. Sooth. You shall be yet far fairer than you are. Char. He means in flesh. Iras. No, you shall paint when you are old. Char. Wrinkles forbid! Alex. Vex not his prescience; be attentive, Sooth. You shall be more beloving, than beloved. Char. Good now, some excellent fortune! Let me be married to three kings in a forenoon, and widow them all; let me have a child at fifty, to whom Herod of Jewry may do homage: find me to marry me with Octavius Cæsar, and companion me with my mistress. Sooth. You shall outlive the lady whom you serve, heat my liver with drinking.] A heated liver is supposed to make a pimpled face.-JOHNSON. to whom Herod of Jewry may do homage:] Herod paid homage to the Romans, to procure the grant of the kingdom of Judea: but I believe there is an allusion here to the theatrical character of this monarch, and to a proverbial expression founded on it. Herod was always one of the personages in the mysteries of our early stage, on which he was constantly represented as a fierce, haughty, blustering, tyrant, so that Herod of Jewry became a common proverb, expressive of turbulence and rage. Thus, Hamlet says of a ranting player, that he "out-herods Herod." And, in this tragedy, Alexas tells Cleopatra, that "not even Herod of Jewry dare look upon her when she is angry;" i. e. not even a man as fierce as Herod. According to this explanation, the sense of the present passage will be-Charmian wishes for a son who may arrive at such power and dominion that the proudest and fiercest monarchs of the earth may be brought under his yoke.-STEEVENS, I love long life better than figs.] This is a proverbial expression. |