Shall strain your brother; make your fooneft haftes
So, your defires are yours.

Oct. Thanks to my lord.

The Jove of Power make me, moft weak, moft weak,
Your reconciler! wars 'twixt you 'twain would be
As if the world fhould cleave, and that flain men'
Should folder up the rift.

Ant. When it appears to you where this begins,
Turn your displeasure that way; for our faults
Can never be fo equal, that your love

Can equally move with them. Provide your Going; Chufe your own company, and command what coft Your heart has mind to.

Enter Enobarbus and Eros.

Eno. How now, friend Eros ?

Eros. There's ftrange news, come, Sir.

Eno. What, man?

[Exeunt.

Eros. Cafar and Lepidus have made war upon Pom

pey.

Eno. This is old; what is the fuccefs?

Eros. Cæfar, having made ufe of him in the wars 'gainst Pompey, prefently denied him rivalty, would not let him partake in the glory of the action; and not refting here, accufes him of letters he had formerly wrote to Pompey. Upon his own appeal, feizes him; fo the poor Third is up, 'till death enlarge his confine.

Eno. Then would thou had'ft a pair of chaps, no more, and throw between them all the food thou haft, they'll grind the other. Where's Antony?

Eros. He's walking in the garden thus; and fpurns The rush that lies before him. Crys, "fool Lepidus! And threats the throat of that his officer,

That murder'd Pompey.

Eno. Our great Navy's rigg'd.

Eros. For Italy and Cafar; more, Domitius,

Condition was oblig'd to furnish the fourth part of his Goods and Revenues; and the very Libertines (i, e. thofe, whofe Fathers had once been Bondmen, and were enfranchised) were taxed an eighth part of all their Goods to be raised at one Payment.

My

My lord defires you prefently; my news

I might have told hereafter.

Eno. Twill be naught; but let it be; bring me to

Antony.

Eros. Come, Sir.

[Exeunt.

SCENE changes to the Palace in Rome.

Enter Cæfar, Agrippa, and Mecænas.

Caf. Contemning Rome, he has done all this, and

In Alexandria; here's the manner of it:
I'th' market-place on a Tribunal filver'd,
Cleopatra and himself in chairs of gold
Were publickly enthron'd; at the feet, fat
Cafario, whom they call my father's fon;
And all the unlawful iffue, that their luft
Since then hath made between them. Unto her

He gave the 'ftablishment of Egypt, made her
Of lower Syria, Cyprus, Lydia,

Abfolute Queen.

Mec. This in the publick eye?

Caf. I'th' common fhew-place, where they exercise. His fons were there proclaim'd the Kings of Kings; Great Media, Parthia, and Armenia

He gave to Alexander; to Ptolemy he affign'd

Syria, Cilicia, and Phenicia: fhe

In the habiliments of the Goddess Ifis

That day appear'd, and oft before gave audience,
As 'tis reported, fo.

Mec. Let Rome be thus inform'd.

Agr. Who, queafie with his infolence already, Will their good thoughts call from him.

Caf. The people know it, and have now receiv'd His accufations.

Agr. Whom does he accufe?

Caf. Cæfar; and that having in Sicily

Sextus Pompeius fpoil'd, we had not rated him
His part o'th' Ifle. Then does he say, he lent me

Some

Some Shipping unreftor'd. Laftly, he frets,
That Lepidus of the Triumvirate

Should be depos'd; and, being, that we detain
All his revenue.

Agr. Sir, this fhould be anfwer'd.

Caf. 'Tis done already, and his meffenger gone: I told him, Lepidus was grown too cruel;

That he his high authority abus'd,

And did deserve his Change. For what I've conquer'd,
I grant him part; but then in his Armenia,
And other of his conquer'd Kingdoms, I

Demandthe like.

Mec. He'll never yield to that.

Caf. Nor muft he then be yielded to in this..
Enter Octavia, with attendants.

Octa. Hail, Cefar, and my lord! hail, most dear
Cafar!

Cafe That ever I should call thee Cast-away!

Oct. You have not call'd me fo, nor have you cause. Caf. Why haft thou ftol'n upon us thus? you come

not

Like Cafar's fifter; the wife of Antony
Should have an army for an usher, and
The neighs of horse to tell of her approach,
Long ere fhe did appear. The trees by th' way
Should have borne men, and expectation fainted,
Longing for what it had not. Nay, the duft
Should have afcended to the roof of heav'n,
Rais'd by your populous troops; but you are come (37)

(37)

but you are come

A Market-maid to Rome; and have prevented

The Oftentation of our Love, which left unshewn,]

A

This dragging, inharmonious Alexandrine, I am perfwaded, is the Manufacture of our Player-Editors. They lov'd a founding Word; and feeing One that did not fo fully anfwer that End, and one that they, perhaps, were not immediately acquainted with, they, doubtless, took it for an Abbreviation. I dare fay, the Poet wrote;

The Oftent of our Love, which, left unshewn,

i. e. the fhewing, Token, Demonftration of our Love': and he ufes it

Both

A market-maid to Rome, and have prevented
The oftent of our love; which, left unshewn,
Is often left unlov'd; we fhould have met you
By fea and land, fupplying every stage
With an augmented greeting.

Oft. Good my lord,

To come thus was I not conftrain'd, but did it
On my free will. My lord, Mark Antony,
Hearing that you prepar'd for war, acquainted
My grieving ear withal; whereon I begg'd
His pardon for return.

Caf. Which foon he granted, (38)

Being an Obftruct 'tween his luft and him.
Oft. Do not fay fo, my lord.

Both in thefe Acceptations, and likewife to fignify Oftentation. The Alexandrine therefore is wholly unnecessary.

Merchant of Venice:

Ufe all th' Obfervance of Civility,
Like one well ftudied in a fad Oftent
To please his Grandam.

And again;

Be merry, and employ your chiefeft Thoughts
To Courtship, and fuch fair Oftents of Love,
As fhall conveniently become you there.

And in K. Henry V.

(38)

Giving full Trophy, Signal, and Oftent,
Quite from himself to God.

Which foon be granted,

Being an Abftract 'tween his Luft and him.]

Antony very foon comply'd to let Octavia go, at her Requeft, fays Cafar and why? Because he was an abstract between his inordinate Paffion and him. If Mr. Pope, or any other of the Editors understand this, I'll willingly submit to be taught the Meaning: but till then, I must believe, the Poet wrote;

Being an Obftru&t 'tween his Luft and him.

i. e. His Wife being an Obstruction, a Bar, to the Prosecution of his wanton Pleafures with Cleopatra. And I am the rather convinc'd that this is the true Reading, becaufe Mr. Warburton ftarted the Emendation too, unknowing that I had meddled with the Paffage. And the judicious Readers of Shakespeare must have obferv'd, that he is fond of coining Subftantives out of Verbs without giving them the Deflections of Nouns: So He ufes Affects for Affections, Impreffe for Impreffion, Impofe for Impofition, Sollicits for Sollicitations, Compare for Comparison, Proteft for Proteftation, Depart for Departure, Effufe for Effufion, Prepare for Preparation, Accufe for Accufation, &c. &c. VOL. VI.

T

Caf. I have eyes upon him,

And his affairs come to me on the wind:
Where is he now ?

Oa. My lord, in Athens.

Caf. No, my moft wronged fifter; Cleopatra

Hath nodded him to her. He hath given his empire
Up to a whore, who now are levying

The Kings o'th' earth for war. He hath affembled
Bocchus the King of Libya, Archelaus
Of Cappadocia, Philadelphos King

Of Paphlagonia; the Thracian King Adullas,
King Malchus of Arabia, King of Pont,
Herod of Jewry, Mithridates King
Of Comagene, Polemon and Amintas,
The King of Mede, and Lycaonia,
With a more larger lift of fcepters.
Oct. Ay me, moft wretched,

That have my heart parted betwixt two friends,
That do afflict each other!

Caf. Welcome hither;

Your letters did with-hold our breaking forth,
'Till we perceiv'd, both how you were wrong led,
And we in negligent danger; cheer your heart.
Be you not troubled with the time, which drives
O'er your content thefe ftrong neceffities;
But let determin'd things to Destiny

Hold unbewail'd their way. Welcome to Rome z
Nothing more dear to me. You are abus'd

Beyond the mark of thought; and the high Gods, (39)
To do you justice, make their minifters

Of us, and thofe that love you. Be of comfort,
And ever welcome to us.

To do you justice, make his Minifters

Of Us, and thofe that love you.]

Why muft Shakespeare be guilty of fuch an obvious falfe Concord?
the high Gods make his Minifters? He has not writ thus in a Parallel
Pallage; and therefore the Abfurdity ought to be laid to the Editors.
Macbeth

Is ripe for fhaking, and the Pow'rs abov
Put on their Inftruments.

Macbeth.

Agr.