Ant. I'll leave you, lady. Cleo. Courteous lord, one word. Sir, you and I must part,-but that's not it: And I am all forgotten.1 Ant. But that your royalty Holds idleness your subject, I should take you For idleness itself." Cleo. 'Tis sweating labour, To bear such idleness so near the heart 3 As Cleopatra this. Eut, sir, forgive me; And all the gods go with you! upon your sword Ant. your feet! Let us go. Come; Our separation so abides, and flies, That thou, residing here, go'st yet with me, O, my oblivion is a very Antony, [Exeunt. And I am all forgotten,] Cleopatra has something to say, which seems to be suppressed by sorrow; and, after many attempts to produce her meaning, she cries out: O, this oblivious memory of mine is as false and treacherous to me as Antony is, and I forget every thing. Oblivion, is boldly used for a memory apt to be deceitful. 2 But that your royalty, Holds idleness your subject, I should take you For idleness itself.] i. e. But that I know you to be a queen, and that your royalty holds idleness in subjection to you, exalting you far above its influence, I should suppose you to be the very genius of idleness itself. 3 Since my becomings kill me,] There is somewhat of obscurity in this expression; perhaps she may mean- -That conduct which, in my own opinion, becomes me, as often as it appears ungraceful to you, is a shock to my insensibility. SCENE IV. Rome. An Apartment in Cæsar's House. Enter OCTAVIUS CESAR, LEPIDUS, and Attendants. Cæs. You may see, Lepidus, and henceforth know, It is not Cæsar's natural vice to hate One great competitor: From Alexandria This is the news; He fishes, drinks, and wastes The lamps of night in revel: is not more manlike Than Cleopatra; nor the queen Ptolemy More womanly than he: hardly gave audience, or Vouchsaf'd to think he had partners: You shall find there A man, who is the abstract of all faults That all men fellow. Lep. I must not think, there are His faults, in him, seem as the spots of heaven, Cæs. You are too indulgent: Let us grant, it is not Amiss to tumble on the bed of Ptolemy; And keep the turn of tippling with a slave; (As his composure must be rare indeed, One great competitor:] Competitor means here, as it does wherever the word occurs in Shakspeare, associate or partner. purchas'd;] Procured by his own fault or endeavour. Whom these things cannot blemish,) yet must An tony No way excuse his soils, when we do bear Full surfeits, and the dryness of his bones, As we rate boys; who, being mature in knowledge, Lep. Enter a Messenger. Here's more news. Mess. Thy biddings have been done; and every hour, Most noble Cæsar, shalt thou have report 8 Cæs. I should have known no less :It hath been taught us from the primal state, That he, which is, was wish'd, until he were ; And the ebb'd man, ne'er lov'd, till ne'er worth love, Comes dear'd, by being lack'd. This common body, Like a vagabond flag upon the stream, 6 So great weight in his lightness.] The word light is one of Shakspeare's favourite play-things. The sense is-His trifling levity throws so much burden upon us. 7 Call on him for't:] Call on him, is, visit him. Says CæsarIf Antony followed his debaucheries at a time of leisure, I should leave him to be punished by their natural consequences, by surfeits and dry bones. JOHNSON. The discontents repair,] That is, the malecontents. Goes to, and back, lackeying the varying tide,9. Mess. Cæsar, I bring thee word, Menecrates and Menas, famous pirates, Make the sea serve them; which they ear' and wound Taken as seen; for Pompey's name strikes more, Cæs. 4 Antony, Leave thy lascivious wassels. When thou once Did famine follow; whom thou fought'st against, The roughest berry on the rudest hedge; Yea, like the stag, when snow the pasture sheets, 9 lackeying the varying tide,] i. e. floating backwards and forwards with the variation of the tide, like a page, or lackey, at his master's heels. 1 which they ear-] To ear, is to plough. 2 Lack blood to think on't,] Turn pale at the thought of it. 3 and flush youth ] Flush youth is youth ripened to manhood; youth whose blood is at the flow. thy lascivious wassels.] Wassel is here put for intemperance in general. gilded puddle-] There is frequently observable on the surface of stagnant pools that have remained long undisturbed, a reddish gold coloured slime; to this appearance the poet here refers. (It wounds thine honour, that I speak it now,) Was borne so like a soidier, that thy cheek So much as lank'd not. Lep. It is pity of him. Cas. Let his shames quickly Drive him to Rome: 'Tis time we twain Did show ourselves i'the field; and, to that end, Lep. To-morrow, Cæsar, I shall be furnish'd to inform you rightly Cæs. Till which encounter, It is my business too. Farewell. Lep. Farewell, my lord: What you shall know mean time Of stirs abroad, I shall beseech you, sir, To let me be partaker. Cæs. Doubt not, sir; I knew it for my bond." [Exeunt. SCENE V. Alexandria. A Room in the Palace. Enter CLEOPATRA, CHARMIAN, IRAS, and MARDIAN. Cleo. Charmian, Char. Madam. Cleo. Ha, ha!— Give me to drink mandragora.7 Char. Why, madam? "I knew it for my bond.] That is, to be my bounden duty. 7 mandragora.] A plant of which the infusion was supposed to procure sleep. |