SCENE X.

Between the two Camps. Enter ANTONY and SCARUS, with Forces, marching.

Ant. Their preparation is to-day by sea;

We please them not by land.

Scar. For both, my lord.

Ant. I would, they'd fight i'the fire, or in the air;
We'd fight there too. But this it is; Our foot
Upon the hills adjoining to the city

Shall stay with us: order for sea is given;
They have put forth the haven Further on,
Where their appointment we may best discover,
And look on their endeavour.

[Exeunt.

Enter CESAR, and his Forces, marching.
Cas. But being charg'd, we will be still by land,
Which, as I take't, we shall ; for his best force
Is forth to man his gallies. To the vales,

And hold our best advantage.

Re-enter ANTONY and SCARUS.

[Exeunt.

Ant. Yet they're not join'd: Where yonder pine does

stand,

I shall discover all I'll bring thee word

:

Straight, how 'tis like to go.

Scar. Swallows have built

In Cleopatra's sails their nests: the augurers

[Exit

Say, they know not, they cannot tell ;-look grimly,
And dare not speak their knowledge. Antony

Is valiant, and dejected; and, by starts,

His fretted fortunes give him hope, and fear,
Of what he has, and has not.

Ant. All is lost;

[Alarum afar off, as at a sea-fight. Re-enter ANTONY.

This foul Egyptian hath betray'd me:

My fleet hath yielded to the foe; and yonder
They cast their caps up, and carouse together

[4] That is, unless we be charg'd we will remain quiet at land, which quiet I suppose we shall keep. But being charg'd was a phrase of that time, equivalent to unless we be.

WARBURTON.

"But (says Mr. Lambe, in his notes on the ancient metrical history of The Battle of Flodden,) signifies without," in which sense it is often used in the North. "Boots but spurs." Vulg. Again, in Kelly's Collection of Scot's Proverbs: "He could eat me but salt." Again: "He gave me whitings but bones." But is from the Saxon Butan. STEEVENS.

Like friends long lost.-Triple-turn'd whore ! 'tis thou Hast sold me to this novice;

and my

heart

Makes only wars on thee.-Bid them all fly;

For when I am reveng'd upon my charm,

I have done all :-Bid them all fly, begone. [Exe. SCAR. O sun, thy uprise shall I see no more :

Fortune and Antony part here; even here

Do we shake hands. All come to this ?-The hearts
That spaniel'd me at heels, to whom I gave
Their wishes, do discandy, melt their sweets
On blossoming Cæsar; and this pine is bark'd,
That over-topp'd them all. Betray'd I am :
O this false soul of Egypt! this grave charm,-
Whose eye beck'd forth my wars, and call'd them home;
Whose bosom was my crownet, my chief end,
Like a right gipsy, hath, at fast and loose,'
Beguil'd me to the very heart of loss."-
What, Eros, Eros!

Enter CLEOPATRA.

Ah, thou spell! Avaunt.

Cleo. Why is my lord enrag'd against his love?
Ant. Vanish; or I shall give thee thy deserving,
And blemish Cæsar's triumph. Let him take thee,
And hoist thee up to the shouting Plebeians :
Follow his chariot, like the greatest spot
Of all thy sex; most monster-like, be shown
For poor'st diminutives, to dolts; and let
Patient Octavia plough thy visage up

[5] Cleopatra was first the mistress of Julius Cæsar, then of Cneius Pompey, and afterwards of Antony. To this, I think, the epithet triple-turn'd alludes. So, in a former scene:

"I found you as a morsel, cold upon

Dead Cæsar's trencher; nay, you are a fragment
Of Cneius Pompey."

Mr. Tollet supposed that Cleopatra had been mistress to Pompey the Great; but her lover was his eldest son, Cneius Pompey. MALONE.

[6] I believe grave charm means deadly, or destructive piece of witchcraft. In this sense the epithet grave is often used by Chapman in his translation of Homer. STEEVENS.

[7] There is a kind of pun in this passage, arising from the corruption of the word Egyptian into gipsy. The old law-books term such persons as ramble about the country, and pretend skill in palmistry and fortune-telling, Egyptians. Fast and loose is a term to signify a cheating game, of which the following is a description. A leathern belt is made up into a number of intricate folds, and placed edgewise upon a table. One of the folds is made to resemble the middle of the girdle, so that whoever should thrust a skewer into it would think he held it fast to the table; whereas, when he has so done, the person with whom he plays may take hold of both ends, and draw it away. This trick is now known to the common people, by the name of pricking at the belt or girdle, and perhaps was practised by the Gypsies in the time of Shakespeare. SIR J. HAWKINS. JOHNSON.

[8] To the utmost loss possible.

With her prepared nails.' [Exit CLEOPATRA.] 'Tis well

thou'rt gone;

If it be well to live: But better 'twere

Thou fell'st into my fury, for one death
Might have prevented many.-Eros, ho!-
The shirt of Nessus is upon me: Teach me,
Alcides, thou mine ancestor, thy rage;

Let me lodge, Lichas, on the horns o'the moon ;
And with those hands, that grasp'd the heaviest club,
Subdue my worthiest self. The witch shall die
To the Roman boy she hath sold me, and I fall
Under this plot she dies for't.-Eros, ho!

SCENE XI.

[Exit.

Alexandria. A Room in the Palace. Enter Cleopatra, CHARMIAN, IR AS, and MARDIAN.

Cleo. Help me, my women! O, he is more mad Than Telamon for his shield; the boar of Thessaly Was never so emboss'd.*

Char. To the monument;

There lock yourself, and send him word you are dead. The soul and body rive not more in parting,

Than greatness going off.

Cleo. To the monument :

Mardian, go tell him I have slain myself;
Say, that the last I spoke was, Antony,
And word it, pr'ythee, piteously: Hence,

Mardian; and bring me how he takes my death.-
To the monument.

The same.

[Exeunt.

SCENE XII.

Another Room.

Enter ANTONY and EROS.

Ant. Eros, thou yet behold'st me?

Eros. Ay, noble lord.

Ant. Sometime, we see a cloud that's dragonish;

A vapour, sometime, like a bear, or lion,

A tower'd citadel, a pendant rock,

A forked mountain, or blue promontory

問

i. e. with nails which she suffered to grow for this purpose.

WARBURTON.

This image our poet seems to have taken from Seneca's Hercules, who says, Lichas being launched into the air, sprinkled the clouds with his blood. Sophocles, on the same occasion, talks at a much soberer rate. WARBURTON.

[3] That is, than Ajax Telamon for the armour of Achilles, the most valuable part of which was the shield. The boar of Thessaly was the boar killed by Meleager. STEEVENS.

[4] Emboss'd---a bunting term: when a deer is hard run, and foams at the mouth, he is said to be imbost. HANMER.

With trees updn't, that nod unto the world,

And mock our eyes with air: Thou hast seen these signs; They are black vesper's pageants."

Eros: Ay, my lord.

Art. That, which is now a horse, even with a thought, The rack dislimns ; and makes it indistinct,

As water is in water.

Eros. It does, my lord.

Ant. My good knave, Eros, now thy captain is
Even such a body: here I am Antony;
Yet cannot hold this visible shape, my knave.
I made these wars for Egypt; and the queen,-
Whose heart, I thought, I had, for she had mine
Which, whilst it was mine, had annex'd unto't
A million more, now lost,-she, Eros, has
Pack'd cards with Cæsar, and false play'd my glory
Unto an enemy's triumph.-

Nay, weep not, gentle Eros; there is left us

Enter MARDIAN.

Ourselves to end ourselves.-O, thy vile lady!
She has robb'd me of my sword.

Mar. No, Antony;

My mistress lov'd thee, and her fortunes mingled
With thine entirely.

Ant. Hence, saucy eunuch; peace;

She hath betray'd me, and shall die the death.

;

Mar. Death of one person can be paid but once;

And that she has discharg'd: What thou wouldst do,
Is done unto thy band; the last she spake

Was, Antony! most noble Antony!

Then in the midst a tearing groan did break
The name of Antony; it was divided

Between her heart and lips: she render'd life,

Thy name so buried in her.

Ant. Dead then?

Mar. Dead.

Ant. Eros, unarm; the long day's task is done, And we must sleep :-That thou depart'st hence safe, Does pay thy labour richly; Go.-Off, pluck off;The seven-fold shield of Ajax cannot keep [Exit MARDIAN. The battery from my heart. O, cleave, my sides!

[5] The beauty both of the expression and the allusion is lost, unless we recollect the frequency and the nature of these shows in Shakespeare's age. T. WARTON. [6] i. e. the fleeting away of the clouds destroys the picture. STEEVENS.

11

VOL. VIII.

Heart, once be stronger than thy continent,
Crack thy frail case !-Apace, Eros, apace.-
No more a soldier :-Bruised pieces, go;
You have been nobly borne.-From me a while.—
I will o'ertake thee, Cleopatra, and

[Exit EROL

Weep for my pardon. So it must be, for now
All length is torture :-Since the torch is out,
Lie down, and stray no further: Now all labour
Mars what it does; yea, very force entangles
Itself with strength: Seal then, and all is done.
Eros !-I come, my queen :-Eros !-Stay for me:
Where souls do couch on flowers, we'll hand in hand,
And with our sprightly port make the ghosts gaze :
Dido and her Æneas shall want troops,

And all the haunt be ours.-Come, Eros, Eros!
Re-enter EROS.

Eros. What would my lord?
Ant. Since Cleopatra died,

I have liv'd in such dishonour, that the gods
Detest my baseness. I, that with my sword

Quarter'd the world, and o'er green Neptune's back
With ships made cities, condemn myself, to lack
The courage of a woman; less noble mind
Than she, which, by her death, our Cæsar tells,
I am conqueror of myself. Thou art sworn, Eros,
That, when the exigent should come, (which now
Is come, indeed,) when I should see behind me
The inevitable prosecution of

Disgrace and horror, that, on my command,

Thou then wouldst kill me : Do't; the time is come:

Thou strik'st not me, 'tis Cæsar thou defeat'st.

Put colour in thy cheek.

Eros. The gods withhold me!

Shall I do that, which all the Parthian darts,

Though enemy, lost aim, and could not?

Ant. Eros,

Wouldst thou be window'd in great Rome, and see

Thy master thus with pleach'd arms, bending down

His corrigible neck,' his face subdu'd

[8] Metaphor taken from civil contracts, where, when all is agreed on, the sealing Completes the contract; so he hath determined to die, and nothing remained but to give the stroke. WARBURTON.

I believe the reading is: Seel then, and all is done.---

To seel hawks is to close their eyes.

JOHNSON.

B

Pleach'd arms---arms folded in each other.

JOHNSON.

Corrigible for corrected, as afterwards penetrative for penetrating. STEEVENS.