Ant. To let a fellow that will take rewards,
And say God quit 13 you! be familiar with
My playfellow, your hand; this kingly seal
And plighter of high hearts! O, that I were
Upon the hill of Basan,14 to outroar

The horned herd! for I have savage cause;
And to proclaim it civilly, were like

A halter'd neck which does the hangman thank
For being yare about him.

Re-enter Attendants with THYREUS.

I Att. Soundly, my lord.

Ant.

Is he whipp'd?

Cried he? and begg'd he pardon?

I Att. He did ask favour.

Ant. If that thy father live, let him repent

Thou wast not made his daughter; and be thou sorry
To follow Cæsar in his triumph, since

Thou hast been whipp'd for following him: henceforth

The white hand of a lady fever thee,

Shake thou to look on't. Get thee back to Cæsar,

Tell him thy entertainment: look thou say
He makes me angry with him; for he seems
Proud and disdainful, harping on what I am,
Not what he knew I was: he makes me angry;

13 Shakespeare very often uses quit for requite.

14 The Psalter, xxii. 12: "Many oxen are come about me; fat bulls of Basan close me in on every side." It seems rather odd to hear Antony drawing allusions out of the Psalms; but Shakespeare has many such anachronisms. And, after all, why not? To be sure, the old Romans might not have understood the allusion very well; but then Shakespeare did not write for them.

And at this time most easy 'tis to do't,

When my good stars, that were my former guides,
Have empty left their orbs,15 and shot their fires

Into th' abysm of Hell. If he mislike

My speech and what is done, tell him he has
Hipparchus, my enfranchèd bondman, whom
He may at pleasure whip, or hang, or torture,
As he shall like, to quit me: urge it thou:
Hence with thy stripes, be gone!

Cleo. Have you done yet?

Ant.

[Exit THYREUS.

Alack, our terrene Moon

Is now eclipsed; and it portends alone

The fall of Antony !

Cleo.

I must stay his time.

Ant. To flatter Cæsar, would you mingle eyes With one that ties his points ? 16

Cleo.

Ant. Cold-hearted toward me!
Cleo.

Not know me yet?

Ah, dear, if I be so,

From my cold heart let Heaven engender hail,
And poison it in the source; and the first stone
Drop in my neck: as it determines,17 so
Dissolve my life! The next Cæsarion 18 smite !
Till, by degrees, the memory of my womb,
Together with my brave Egyptians all,

By the discandying 19 of this pelleted storm,

15 Orbs for orbits. Shakespeare has the word repeatedly so.

16 Points means the laces formerly used for fastening the dress.

17 As the hailstone dissolves or wastes away.

18 Cæsarion was Cleopatra's son by Julius Cæsar.

19 Discandying signifies melting out of a candied, that is, crystallized, state. The word occurs again later in the play. — A pellet is a little ball; so that a "pelleted storm " is a storm of bullets.

Lie graveless, till the flies and gnats of Nile
Have buried them for prey !20

Ant.

I'm satisfied.

Cæsar sits down in Alexandria; where

I will oppose his fate. Our force by land
Hath nobly held; our sever'd navy too

Have knit again, and fleet,21 threatening most sea-like. Where hast thou been, my heart? - Dost thou hear, lady?

If from the field I shall return once more

To kiss these lips, I will appear in blood;
I and my sword will earn our chronicle :
There's hope in't yet.

Cleo.

That's my brave lord!

Ant. I will be treble-sinew'd, hearted, breathed,22
And fight maliciously: for, when mine hours
Were nice 23 and lucky, men did ransom lives
Of me for jests; but now I'll set my teeth,
And send to darkness all that stop me. - Come,
Let's have one other gaudy night: 24 call to me
All my sad captains, fill our bowls; once more
Let's mock the midnight bell.

Cleo.

It is my birth-day:

I had thought t' have held it poor; but, since my lord

20 We have a like expression in Macbeth, iii. 4: "Our monuments shall be the maws of kites."

21 To fleet and to float were anciently synonymous.

22 Breathed is exercised. Repeatedly so. See Hamlet, page 222, note 39. 23 Shakespeare uses nice in various senses. Here it means delicate, easy,

smooth, or wanton.

24 Feast days in the colleges of either University are called gaudy days, as they were formerly in the Inns-of-Court. "From gaudium," says Blount, "because, to say truth, they are days of joy, as bringing good cheer to the hungry students."

Is Antony again, I will be Cleopatra.

Ant. We will yet do well.

Cleo. Call all his noble captains to my lord.

Ant. Do so, we'll speak to them; and to-night I'll force

The wine peep through their scars.

- Come on, my Queen;

There's sap in't yet.25 The next time I do fight,

I'll make death love me; for I will contend 26

Even with his pestilent scythe. [Exeunt all but ENOBARBUS. Eno. Now he'll outstare the lightning.

To be furious,

Is to be frighted out of fear; and in that mood
The dove will peck the estridge. I see still,

A diminution in our captain's brain
Restores his heart.27

When valour preys on reason,

25"There's sap in't yet" means the same as the phrase used a little before, "There's hope in't yet." Elsewhere the Poet has, "There's life in it" in the same sense.

26 Contend, here, is emulate, rival, or compete. — Shakespeare repays, more than a hundredfold, what he borrowed in this scene. The Plutarchian basis of it is as follows: "Therewithal he sent Thyreus, one of his men, unto her, a very wise and discreet man. He was longer in talk with her than any man else was, and the Queen herself also did him great honour; insomuch as he made Antonius jealous of him. Whereupon Antonius caused him to be taken and soundly whipped, and so sent him unto Cæsar; and bade him tell him, that he made him angry with him, because he showed himself proud and disdainful towards him; and now specially, when he was easy to be angered by reason of his present misery. To be short, if this mislike thee,' said he,' thou hast Hipparchus, one of my enfranchised bondmen with thee: hang him, if thou wilt, or whip him at thy pleasure, that we may cry quittance.' From henceforth Cleopatra, to clear herself of the suspicion he had of her, made more of him than ever she did. For, first of all, whereas she did solemnize the day of her birth very meanly and sparingly, fit for her present misfortune, she now in contrary manner did keep it with such solemnity that she exceeded all measure of sumptuousness and magnificence; so that the guests that were bidden to the feasts came poor, and went away rich."

27 Heart for courage. A similar thought, though put conversely, occurs in Cymbeline, iv. 2: "For the act of judgment is oft the cause of fear."

It eats the sword it fights with. I will seek

Some way to leave him.

[Exit.

ACT IV.

SCENE I.. · CESAR'S Camp at Alexandria.

Enter CESAR, reading a letter; AGRIPPA, MECENAS, and others.

Cas. He calls me boy, and chides, as he had power

To beat me out of Egypt; my messenger

He hath whipp'd with rods; dares me to personal combat,
Cæsar to Antony. Let the old ruffian know

I've many other ways to die; meantime
Laugh at his challenge.

Mec.

Cæsar, we must think,

When one so great begins to rage, he's hunted
Even to falling. Give him no breath, but now
Make boot of his distraction: never anger
Made good guard for itself.

Let our best heads

Cæs.
Know, that to-morrow the last of many battles
We mean to fight. Within our files there are,
Of those that served Mark Antony but late,
Enough to fetch him in. See it be done :

1 The passage of North's Plutarch on which this is founded is equivocally expressed. See page 131, note 4. But Plutarch's true meaning is, that "Antony has many other ways to die."

2 Boot is advantage or profit. "Make capital," we should say.