of

ACT I.

SCENE, the Palace at Alexandria in Ægypt.

Enter Demetrius and Philo.

PHILO.

*AY, but this dotage of our General

NO'er-flows the measure; those his goodly

eyes,

That o'er the files and musters of the war
Have glow'd like plated Mars, now bend,

now turn,

The office and devotion of their view
Upon a tawny front. His captain's heart,
Which in the scuffles of great fights hath burst
The buckles on his breast, reneges all temper;
And is become the bellows and the fan

To cool a Gypsy's luft. Look, where they come!
Flourish. Enter Antony, and Cleopatra, her Ladies in
the train, Eunuchs fanning her.

(1) Take but good note, and you shall fee in him
The triple pillar of the world transform'd

Into a Strumpet's fool. Behold, and fee.

(1) Take but good note, and you shall fee in him
The triple pillar of the world transform'd

Cloo.

Into a Strumpet's fool.] I have not disturb'd the text, because

of the concurrence of the copies; because it is sense, as the passage

may

Cleo. I'll fet a bourn how far to be belov'd. (earth. Ant. Then must thou needs find out new heav'n, new

Enter a Messenger.

Mes. News, my good Lord, from Rome.
Ant. It grates me. Tell the fum.
Cleo. Nay, hear it, Antony.

Fulvia, perchance, is angry; or who knows,
If the scarce-bearded Cafar have not fent

His powerful mandate to you, "Do this, or this,
"Take in that Kingdom, and infranchise that;
"Perform't, or else we damn thee.

Ant. How, my love?

Cleo. Perchance, (nay, and most like)
You must not stay here longer, your dismission
Is come from Cafar; therefore hear it, Antony.

may be commented; and because our author is so licentious in his metaphors. I must not, however, Rifle my ingenious friend Mr. Warburton's note and emendation on it. "A pillar turn'd into a "fool? This is as odd a transformation as any in all Ovid. But I am "much inclin'd to think that Shakespeare wrote,

The triple pillar of the world transform'd
Into a Strumpet's tool.

"Alluding to the common custom of strumpets fitting on the laps of " their lovers. By this correction the metaphor is admirably well " preserved, (for both ftool and pillar are things for fupport) and the "contrast in this image is beautiful. The supporter of the world " turned to the supporter of a strumpet. And if we may suppose, " Shakespeare had regard, in the use of this word, to the etymology, " it will add a quaintness to the thought not unlike his way, nor "that of the time he liv'd in; for Stool is deriv'd from Στύλο, Co"lumna; the base or pedestal of a pillar having always been used for a " feat, where it was broad enough for that purpose."

(2) There's beggary in the love that can be reckon'd.] So Juliet says, much to the same effect, to Romeo ;

They are but beggars, that can count their worth.

I will not venture to affirm these an imitation from the Claffics; but I'll quote two hemistichs that might very probably have given rise to

our author's reflexion on this topick.

Pauperis eft numerare pecus

Ovid.

-Populus numerabilis utpote parvus.

Horat.

Where's

d. [ eav',

is;

Is Cafar's homager: else, so thy cheeks pay shame,
When shrill-tongu'd Fulvia scolds. The Messengers-
Ant. Let Rome in Tyber melt, and the wide arch
Of the rais'd Empire fall! here is my space;
Kingdoms are clay; our dungy earth alike
Feeds beast as man; the nobleness of life

Is to do thus; when such a mutual pair, Embracing.
And such a twain can do't; in which, I bind
(On pain of punishment) the world to weet,
We stand up peerless.

Cleo. Excellent falshood!

Why did he marry Fulvia, and not love her?
I'll feem the fool, I am not. Aniony
Will be himself.

Ant. But stirr'd by Cleopatra.
Now for the love of love, and his soft hours,
Let's not confound the time with conference harsh;
There's not a minute of our lives should stretch
Without some pleasure now: what sport to-night?
Cles. Hear the Ambassadors.
Ant. Fie, wrangling Queen!
Whom every thing becomes, to chide, to laugh,
To weep: whose every palion fully strives
To make it self in thee fair and admir'd.
No Messenger, but thine; -and all alone,
To-night we'll wander through the streets, and note
The qualities of People. Come, my Queen,
Last night you did defire it. --Speak not to us.

[Exeunt, with their Train.

Dem. Is Cæfar with Antonius priz'd so slight?
Phil. Sir, sometimes, when he is not Antony,

He comes too fshort of that great property
Which still should go with Antony.

Dem. I'm sorry,

That he approves the common liar, Fame,
Who speaks him thus at Rome; but I will hope

Of better deeds to-morrow. Rest you happy! [Exe.

Enter

Char. Alexas, sweet Alexas, most any thing Alexas, almost most absolute Alexas, where's the Soothfayer that you prais'd so to th' Queen? (3) Oh! that I knew this husband, which you say, must charge his horns with garlands.

Alex. Soothsayer,

Sosth. 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. Shew him your hand.

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.
Char. Hush!

Sooth. You shall be more beloving, than beloved.
Char. I had rather heat my liver with drinking.
Alex. Nay, hear him.

Cha. Good now, fome 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

(3) Oh, that I knew this busband, which, you say, must change his borns with garlands.] Changing horns with garlands, is surely, a fenfeless unintelligible phrase. We must restore, in opposition to all the printed copies,

کستا یانان

at

his

Suoth, You shall out-live the Lady whom you serve. Char. Oh, excellent! I love long life better than figs. Sooth. You have seen and proved a fairer former fortune, than that which is to approach.

[names; Char. (4) Then, belike, my children shall have no Pr'ythee, how many boys and wenches must I have? Sooth. (5) If every of your wishes had a womb,

And fertil every wish, a million.

Cher. Out, fool! I forgive thee for a witch.

Alex. You think, none but your sheets are privy to

your wishes.

Char, Nay, come, tell Iras hers.

Alex. We'll know all our fortunes.

Eno. Mine, and most of our fortunes to-night, shall

be to go drunk to bed.

Ira. There's a palm presages chastity, if nothing else. Cha. E'en as the o'erflowing Nilus presageth famine. Iras. Go, you wild bedfellow, you cannot foothsay. Char. Nay, if an oily palm be not a fruitful prognostication, I cannot scratch mine ear. Pr'ythee, tell her but a workyday fortune.

Sooth. Your fortunes are alike.

Iras. But how, but how?-give me particulars.
Sooth. I have faid.

Iras. Am I not an inch of fortune better than she?

(4) Then, belike, my children spall have no names;] i. e. They shall be illegitimate. This will be very clearly explain'd by quoting a paffage from The Two Gentlemen of Verona.

Speed. Item, she hath many nameless virtues.

Launce. That's as much as to say, bastard virtues; that, indeed, know not their fathers, and therefore have no names.

(5) If every of your wishes had a womb,

And foretold ev'ry wish, a million.] What foretold? If the wishes foretold themselves? This can never be genuine, however it has pass'd hitherto upon the editors. It makes the word womb abfolutely superfluous, if only the telling her wishes beforehand would help her to the children. The poet certainly wrote,

If every of your wishes bad a womb,
And fertil ev'ry wish,

Char