Volumnius refuses, while the shouts of the approaching victorious troops become louder. His attendants vainly urge him to fly for his life, but Brutus, to whom his country is the whole world, has no wish to survive all that is lost. Like Cassius, and in later years Cleopatra, he foresees that capture will inevitably cause his public disgrace, as a captive exposed to the insults of a Roman mob. Brutus, imaginative and kindly to the last, perhaps the most civilised and modern in his feelings of all existing Romans, except Octavius, now exclaims to his few friends:

"Countrymen,

My heart doth joy that yet in all my life
I found no man but he was true to me."

This fond idea shows how little he knew of Cassius. In the same deluded spirit he continues, as if in a dream, still fancying that he and his political views were popular at Rome, instead of the reverse:

"I shall have glory by this losing day,
More than Octavius and Mark Antony

By this vile conquest shall attain unto.

So fare you well at once; for Brutus' tongue

Hath almost ended his life's history:

Night hangs upon mine eyes; my bones would rest,

That have but labour'd to attain this hour."

The shouts of the coming army become louder as the victors approach. His attendants again urge Brutus to escape, and all leave him except his servant Strato, to whom he makes the last appeal :

"I prithee, Strato, stay thee by thy lord:

Then recollection of his illustrious victim again overcomes his ardent mind, and he exclaims with his last breath, while falling on his sword:

"Cæsar, now be still :

I kill'd not thee with half so good a will."

He dies, and Antony with Octavius now appear, and

the latter exclaims with the calm magnanimity which distinguished his future life, though now he acts as second to Antony:

"All that served Brutus, I will entertain them."

While Antony himself, beholding the dead Brutus, exclaims with a generosity of feeling which he sometimes, though by no means always, displayed:

"This was the noblest Roman of them all :

All the conspirators, save only he,

Did that they did in envy of great Cæsar ;

He only, in a general honest thought

And common good to all, made one of them."

This praise though well deserved, comes rather strangely from Antony who had said of Brutus stabbing Cæsar : "This was the most unkindest cut of all,"

and had charged Brutus especially with,

"Ingratitude more strong than traitors' arms."

But probably complete triumph, if it did not soften Antony's heart, yet put him in a sufficiently forgiving mood to do justice to a fallen foe no longer dangerous.

Thus ends this eventful play, Octavius and Antony being still associated in authority with "the ass" Lepidus and this strange Triumvirate reign in Rome with supreme power; which was fated, however, not to be of long duration. Its disruption, as stated in recorded history, is nobly described in the following magnificent play.

ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA

THIS play, with Julius Cæsar, presents a somewhat connected sketch of Roman history, and it may be regretted that Shakespeare did not continue it by recording the subsequent sole reign of Octavius, when known as the Emperor Augustus. The joint triumph of Octavius and Antony was followed by the invasion, or entrance of the latter into Egypt, whose celebrated Queen Cleopatra hap rather taken the part of Brutus. The beauty and talents of Cleopatra soon made a complete conquest of the gay and joyous Antony, and this play begins in Egypt with the surprise or disgust of two among Antony's military followers, Philo and Demetrius, at the thorough captivation of their leader by this artful princess.

In Cleopatra's palace at Alexandria, Philo says to Demetrius in regretful wonder:

"Nay, but this dotage of our general's

O'erflows 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,"

alluding apparently to Cleopatra's dark complexion. Antony, with Cleopatra, approaches while he is speaking, and he exclaims at sight of them to Demetrius :

"Take but good note, and you shall see in him
The triple pillar of the world transform'd
Into a strumpet's fool; behold and see."

This expression, "triple pillar," of course means Antony's position as triumvir; but his two colleagues, Octavius and

Lepidus, are now absent, and Antony is enjoying sole authority in Egypt. His first scene with Cleopatra proves more perhaps than any other the complete power she has acquired over him. Despite her "tawny" or gipsy-like complexion, the fascinating charms of this extraordinary queen have thoroughly enslaved her nominal Roman conqueror. Antony's enslavement, however, may not have been a very hard task for this artful woman to effect, after the experience she had derived in the art of captivation by her previous ascendancy over Pompey and Julius Cæsar in succession. After her conquest over such illustrious, strong-minded men as these, her captivating the voluptuous Antony, who, despite some great qualities, was an inferior man to both, is not much to be wondered at. She evidently wishes to stir up strife between Antony and his young colleague Octavius, now in Rome, where Antony's wife, Fulvia, resides also. Messengers from Rome are announced, whom Antony, thoroughly happy with Cleopatra, is in no hurry to hear, but she artfully exclaims:

"Nay, hear them, Antony :

Fulvia, perchance, is angry; or, who knows

If the scarce-bearded Cæsar have not sent

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

Antony is startled at these words, and seems hardly to understand their full meaning, and she, then pretending to be jealously fond of Antony, says, really afraid for her own future safety:

"Perchance! nay, and most like;

You must not stay here longer; your dismission
Is come from Cæsar; therefore hear it, Antony.

Where's Fulvia's process? Cæsar's I would say? both?
Call in the messengers. As I am Egypt's queen,

Thou blushest, Antony, and that blood of thine

Is Cæsar's homager; else so thy cheek pays shame

When shrill-tongued Fulvia scolds. The messengers!"

Still Antony will not summon them, but exclaims, completely yielding to Cleopatra's influence, and alienated from

ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA

THIS play, with Julius Cæsar, presents a somewhat connected sketch of Roman history, and it may be regretted that Shakespeare did not continue it by recording the subsequent sole reign of Octavius, when known as the Emperor Augustus. The joint triumph of Octavius and Antony was followed by the invasion, or entrance of the latter into Egypt, whose celebrated Queen Cleopatra hap rather taken the part of Brutus.1 The beauty and talents of Cleopatra soon made a complete conquest of the gay and joyous Antony, and this play begins in Egypt with the surprise or disgust of two among Antony's military followers, Philo and Demetrius, at the thorough captivation of their leader by this artful princess.

In Cleopatra's palace at Alexandria, Philo says to Demetrius in regretful wonder:

"Nay, but this dotage of our general's

O'erflows 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,"

alluding apparently to Cleopatra's dark complexion. Antony, with Cleopatra, approaches while he is speaking, and he exclaims at sight of them to Demetrius :

"Take but good note, and you shall see in him

The triple pillar of the world transform'd

Into a strumpet's fool; behold and see."

This expression, "triple pillar," of course means Antony's position as triumvir; but his two colleagues, Octavius and

1 Lempriere's "Dictionary."

95