Enter a Meffenger.

Mef. News, my good lord, from Rome.
Ant. Grates me. The fum.(7)

Cleo. Nay, hear them, Antony :

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

His powerful mandate to you, Do this, or this ;
Take in that kingdom, and enfranchise that ;
Perform't, or elfe we damn thee.

Ant. How, my love?

Cleo. Perchance, nay, and most like,

You must not ftay here longer, your difmiffion
Is come from Cæfar; therefore hear it, Antony.-
Where's Fulvia's procefs? Cæfar's, I would fay?-Both?-
Call in the meffengers. As I am Egypt's queen,
Thou blufheft, Antony; and that blood of thine
Is Cæfar's homager: else so thy cheek pays shame,
When fhrill-tongu'd Fulvia fcolds.The meffengers.
Ant. Let Rome in Tyber melt! and the wide arch
Of the rang'd empire fall! Here is my space;
Kingdoms are clay : our dungy earth alike
Feeds beaft as man: the noblenefs of life
Is, to do thus; when fuch a mutual pair,
And fuch a twain can do't; in which, I bind,
On pain of punishment, the world to weet,(8)
We stand up peerlefs.

Cleo. [Afide] Excellent falfehood!

[Embracing

Why did he marry Fulvia, and not love her ?-
I'll feem the fool I am not.

Will be himself.

Antony

Ant. But firr'd by Cleopatra.(9)—

Now, for the love of love, and his foft hours,

Let's not confound the time with conference harsh: There's not a minute of our lives fhould stretch

Without fome pleasure now: What sport to-night? Cleo. Hear the embaffadors.

Ant. Fye, wrangling queen!

Whom every thing becomes; to chide, to laugh,
To weep whose every paffion fully strives

(7) Be brief, fum thy business in a few words.

(8) To weet-to know. POPE.

JOHNS.

(9) 'But,' in this paflage, seems to have the old Saxon fignification of without, unlefs, except. Antony,' fays the queen, will recollect his thoughts. Unlefs kept,' he replies, "in commotion by Cleopatra.' JOHN."

To make itself, in thee, fair and admir'd!
No meffenger, 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 desire it :—Speak not to us.

[Exeunt, with their Train.

Dem. Is Cæfar with Antonius priz'd fo flight? Phil. Sir, fometimes, when he is not Antony, He comes too short of that great property Which still should go with Antony.

Dem. I am full forry,

That he approves the common liar, who
Thus fpeaks of him at Rome: But I will hope
Of better deeds to-morrow. Reft you happy! [Exeunt.

SCENE II.

Another Part of the Palace. Enter CHARMIAN, IRAS, ALEXAS, and a Soothsayer.

Char. Alexas, sweet Alexas, most any thing Alexas, almost most abfolute Alexas, where's the foothsayer, that you prais'd fo to the queen? Oh! that I knew this husband, which, you fay, muft change his horns with garlands.(1)

Alex. Soothfayer,

Sooth.

Your will?

Char. Is this the man?-Is't you, fir, that know things? Sooth. In Nature's infinite book of secrecy,

A little I can read.

Alex. Shew him your hand.

Enter ENOBARBUS.

Eno. Bring in the banquet quickly; wine enough, Cleopatra's health to drink.

Char. Good fir, give me good fortune.

Sooth. I make not, but forefee.

Char. Pray then, foresee me one.

Sooth. You fhall be yet fairer than you are.

Char. He means, in flesh.

Iras. No, you shall paint, when you are old.
Wrinkles forbid !

Char.

Alex. Vex not his prescience; be attentive.

(1) I am in doubt, whether To change is not merely To dress, or To drefs with changes of garlands. JOHNS.

Sooth. You fhall be more beloving, than beloved. Char. I had rather heat my liver with drinking,(2) Alex. Nay, hear him.

Char. 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 (3) find me, to marry with Octavius Cæfar, and companion me with my mistress! Sooth. You shall out-live the lady whom you serve. Char. O excellent! I love long life better than figs. Sooth. You have feen and prov'd a fairer former fortune Than that which is to approach.

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

And foretel every wish, a million.

Char. 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 her's.

Alex. We'll know all our fortunes.

Eno. Mine, and most of our fortunes to-night, fhall be,-drunk to bed.

Iras. There's a palm prefageth chastity, if nothing else. Char. Even as the o'erflowing Nile prefageth famine. Iras. Go, you wild bedfellow, you cannot foothfay. Char. Nay, if an oily palm, be not a fruitful prognosti. cation, I cannot scratch mine ear.-Pr'ythee, tell her but a worky-day fortune.

Sooth. Your fortunes are alike.

Iras. But how, but how? give me particulars.

Sooth. I have said.

Iras. Am I not an inch of fortune better than the ? Char. Well, if you were but an inch of fortune better than I, where would you choose it.

Iras. Not in my husband's nofe.

Char. Our worser thoughts heavens mend! Alexas,—

(2) To know why the lady is fo averfe from heating her liver, it muft be remembered, that a heated liver is fuppofed to make a pimpled face.

JOHNS.

(3) Herod paid homage to the Romans, to procure the grant of the kingdom of Judea. STEEV.

(4) A fairer fortune, I believe, means a more reputable one. Her anfwer then implies, that belike all her children will be baftards, and have no right to the name of their father's family. ib.

come, his fortune; his fortune.-O, let him marry a woman that cannot go, sweet Ifis, I beseech thee! And let her die too, and give him a worfe! and let worse follow worse, till the worst of all follow him laughing to his grave, fifty-fold a cuckold! Good Ifis, hear me this prayer, though thou deny me a matter of more weight; good Ifis, I beseech thee!

Iras. Amen, dear goddess, hear that prayer of the people! for, as it is a heart-breaking to see a handfome man loose-wiv'd, fo it is a deadly forrow to behold a foul knave uncuckolded; therefore, dear Ifis, keep decorum, and fortune him accordingly !

Char. Amen!

Alex. Lo, now! if it lay in their hands to make me a cuckold, they would make themselves whores, but they'd do't.

Enter CLEOPATRA.

Eno. Hush here comes Antony.

Char. Not he, the queen.

Cleo. Saw you my lord?

Eno. No, lady.

Cleo. Was he not here?

Char. No, madam.

Cleo. He was dispos'd to mirth; but on the fudden A Roman thought hath ftruck him.-Enobarbus, Eno. Madam.

Cleo. Seek him, and bring him hither. Where's Alexas? Alex. Here, at your service.-My lord approaches. Enter ANTONY, with a Messenger, and Attendants. Cleo. We will not look upon him: Go with us. [Exeunt. Mef. Fulvia thy wife firft came into the field. Ant. Againft my brother Lucius ?

Mef. Ay:

But foon that war had end, and the time's state Made friends of them, jointing their force 'gainst Cæfar; Whofe better iffue in the war, from Italy,

Upon the first encounter, drave them.

Ant. Well, what worft?

Mef. The nature of bad news infects the teller. Ant. When it concerns the fool, or coward.—On : Things, that are paft, are done, with me.-'Tis thus ; Who tells me true, though in the tale lic death, I hear him, as he flatter'd.

Mef. Labienus (this is ftiff news)

Hath, with his Parthian force, extended Asia ;(5)
From Euphrates his conquering banner shook,
From Syria, to Lydia, and to Ionia ;

Whilft

Ant. Antony, thou wouldst fay,

Mef. Oh, my lord.

Ant. Speak to me home; mince not the general tongue; Name Cleopatra as fhe's call'd in Rome :

Rail thou in Fulvia's phrase; and taunt my faults
With fuch full licence, as both truth and malice
Have power to utter. Oh, then we bring forth weeds,
When our quick winds lie ftill ;(6) and our ill, told us,
Is as our earing. Fare thee well a while.

Mef. At your noble pleasure.

Ant. From Sicyon, how the news? Speak there. Mef. The man from Sicyon.-Is there fuch an one? Attend. He ftays upon your will.

Ant. Let him appear.

Thefe ftrong Egyptian fetters I must break,

Enter another Messenger.

Or lofe myself in dotage.-What are you? 2 Mef. Fulvia thy wife is dead.

Ant. Where died fhe?

2 Mef. In Sicyon :

[Exit Mef.

Her length of fickness, with what else more serious
Importeth thee to know, this bears. [Gives a Letter.
Ant. Forbear me.-
[Exit Meffenger.
There's a great spirit gone! Thus did I defire it:
What our contempts do often hurl from us,
We wish it our's again; the prefent pleasure,
By revolution lowering, does become

The oppofite of itself (7) fhe's good, being gone;
The hand could pluck her back, that shov'd her on.(8)
I muft from this enchanting queen break off;

(5) To extend-is a term used for To seize; I know not whether that be not the fenfe here. JOHNS.

(6) The fenfe is, that man, not agitated by cenfure, like foil not ventilated by quick winds, produces more evil than good. ib.

(7) The allufion is to the fun's diurnal courfe; which rifing in the eaft, and by revolution lowering, or fetting in the weft, becomes the oppofite of itfelf. WARB.-Perhaps Shakespeare meant only, that our pleasures, as they are revolved in the mind, turn to pain. JOHNS.

(8) The verb 'could' has a peculiar fignification in this place; it does not denote power but inclination. The fenfe is, 'the hand that drove her off would now willingly pluck her back again." REVISAL.