Eno. And the business you have broached here, cannot be without you; especially that of Cleopatra's, which wholly depends on your abode. Ant. No more light answers. Let our officers The cause of our expedience to the queen,' The death of Fulvia, with more urgent touches,* Eno. I shall do't. [Exeunt. SCENE III, Enter CLEOPATRA, CHARMIAN, IRAS, and ALEXAS. Cleo. Where is he? Char. I did not see him since. Cleo. See where he is, who's with him, what he does : -I did not send you ;—If you find him sad, Say, I am dancing; if in mirth, report [Exit ALEX. MALONE. JOHNSON. Expedience, for expedition. WARBURTON. I suspect the author wrote, And get her leave to part. Things that touch me more sensibly, more pressing motives. Wish us at home; call for us to reside at home. Alludes to an old idle notion that the hair of a horse dropt into corrupted water, will turn to an animal. POPE. Dr. Lister, in the Philosophical Transactions showed, that what were vulgarly called animated horse-hairs, are real insects. It was also affirmed that they moved like serpents, and were poisonous to swallow. TOLLET. [6] You must go as if you came without my order or knowledge. JOHNSON. Char. Madam, methinks, if you did love him dearly, You do not hold the method to enforce The like from him. Cleo. What should I do, I do not? Char. In each thing give him way, cross him in nothing. Cleo. Thou teachest like a fool: the way to lose him. Char. Tempt him not so too far: I wish, forbear; In time we hate that which we often fear. Enter ANTONY. But here comes Antony. Cleo..I am sick, and sullen. Ant. I am sorry to give breathing to my purpose, It cannot be thus long, the sides of nature Will not sustain it. Ant. Now, my dearest queen, Cleo. Pray you, stand further from me. Ant. What's the matter? Cleo. I know, by that same eye, there's some good news. What says the married woman ?-You may go ; Would, she had never given you leave to come! Let her not say, 'tis I that keep you here, I have no power upon you; hers you are. Cleo. O, never was there queen So mightily betray'd! Yet, at the first, Ant. Cleopatra, Cleo. Why should I think, you can be mine, and true, Though you in swearing shake the throned gods, Who have been false to Fulvia? Riotous madness, To be entangled with those mouth-made vows, Which break themselves in swearing! Ant. Most sweet queen,— Cleo. Nay, pray you, seek no colour for your going, But bid farewell, and go: when you sued staying, Then was the time for words: No going then ;Eternity was in our lips, and eyes; Bliss in our brows' bent; none our parts so poor, Art turn'd the greatest liar. [7] i. e. had a smack or flavour of heaven. WARB.-This word is well explained by Dr. Warburton; the race of wine is the taste of the soil. JOHNSON. Ant. How now, lady! Cleo. I would, I had thy inches; thou shouldst know, There were a heart in Egypt. Ant. Hear me, queen : The strong necessity of time commands Our services a while; but my full heart Remains in use with you. Our Italy Shines o'er with civil swords: Sextus Pompeius Equality of two domestic powers Breeds scrupulous faction: The hated, grown to strength, Into the hearts of such as have not thriv'd Upon the present state, whose numbers threaten ; Cleo. Though age from folly could not give me freedom, It does from childishness :-Can Fulvia die ? Ant. Sh's dead, my queen: Look here, and, at thy sovereign leisure, read Cleo. O most false love! Where be the sacred vials thou shouldst fill Cleo. Cut my lace, Charmian, come :—— So Antony loves. Ant. My precious queen, forbear; And give true evidence to his love, which stands An honourable trial. [8] The poet seems to allude to the legal distinction between the use and absolute possession. *JOHNSON. [9] i. e. The commotion she occasioned. STEEVENS. [1] Alluding to the lachrymatory vials, or bottles of tears, which the Romans sometimes put into the urn of a friend. JOHNSON. Cleo. So Fulvia told me. I pr'ythee, turn aside, and weep for her; Then bid adieu to me, and say, the tears Ant. You'll heat my blood; no more. · Cleo. You can do better yet; but this is meetly. Cleo. And target,-Still he mends; But this is not the best: Look, pr'ythee, Charmian, The carriage of his chafe. 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.* Ant. But that your royalty Holds idleness your subject, I should take you Cleo. 'Tis sweating labour, To bear such idleness so near the heart And all the gods go with you! upon your sword Ant. Let us go. Come; Our separation so abides, and flies, That thou, residing here, go'st yet with me, To me, the Queen of Egypt. JOHNSON, Antony traced his descent from Anton, a son of Hercules. [Exeunt. STEEVENS. [4] 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, I believe, is boldly used for a memory apt to be deceitful. STEEVENS. [5] 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. STEEVENS. SCENE IV. Rome. An Apartment in CESAR'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 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 follow. Lep. I must not think, there are Evils enough to darken all his goodness: His faults, in him, seem as the spots of heaven, Rather than purchas'd; what he cannot change, Cæs. You are too indulgent: Let us grant, it is not To give a kingdom for a mirth; to sit And keep the turn of tippling with a slave; To reel the streets at noon, and stand the buffet With knaves that smell of sweat: say, this becomes him, (As his composure must be rare indeed, Whom these things cannot blemish,) yet must Antony So great weight in his lightness. If he fill'd His vacancy with his voluptuousness, Full surfeits, and the dryness of his bones, Perhaps-Our great competitor. JOHNSON. If by spots are meant stars, as night has no other fiery spots, the comparison is forced and harsh, stars having been always supposed to beautify the night; nor do I comprehend what there is in the counterpart of this simile, which answers to night's blackness. Hanmer reads, -spots on ermine, JOHNSON. It is objected, that stars rather beautify than deform the night. But the poet considers them here only with respect to their prominence and splendor. It is sufficient for him that their scintillations appear stronger in consequence of darkness, as jewels are more resplendent on a black ground than on any other. MALONE. [8] Purchas'd--Procured by his own fault or endeavour. JOHNSON. [9] The word light is one of Shakespeare's favourite play-things. The sense is, His triding levity throws so much burden upon us. JOHNSON. |