1 Guard. Cæsar hath sentChar.

Too slow a messenger. [applies the asp.

O, come; apace, despatch: I partly feel thee. 1 Guard. Approach, ho! all's not well: Cæsar's

beguiled.

2 Guard. There 's Dolabella sent from Cæsar :

call him.

1 Guard. What work is here ?-Charmian, is this well done?

Char. It is well done, and fitting for a princess Descended of so many royal kings.

Touch their effects in this: thyself art coming
To see perform'd the dreaded act, which thou
So sought'st to hinder.

[within.]

A way there, a way for Cæsar!

Enter CESAR and Attendants.

Dol. O, sir, you are too sure an augurer: That you did fear is done.

Ca.

Bravest at the last:

She levell❜d at our purposes; and, being royal, Took her own way.—The manner of their deaths? I do not see them bleed.

Dol.

Who was last with them?

1 Guard. A simple countryman, that brought her

This Charmian lived but now; she stood, and spake.

I found her trimming up the diadem

On her dead mistress: tremblingly she stood,

And on the sudden dropp'd.

Cœ.

O noble weakness!

If they had swallow'd poison, 'twould appear
By external swelling but she looks like sleep,
As she would catch another Antony

In her strong toil of grace.

Dol.

Here, on her breast,

There is a vent of blood, and something blown : 1
The like is on her arm.

1 Guard. This is an aspic's trail; and these fig

leaves

Have slime upon them, such as the aspic leaves
Upon the caves of Nile.

Ca.

Most probable,

That so she died; for her physician tells me,

She hath pursued conclusions 2 infinite
Of easy ways to die. Take up her bed;
And bear her women from the monument.
She shall be buried by her Antony:

No grave upon the earth shall clip1 in it
A pair so famous. High events as these
Strike those that make them; and their story is
No less in pity, than his glory, which
Brought them to be lamented.

Our

army shall,

In solemn show, attend this funeral,
And then to Rome.-Come, Dolabella, see
High order in this great solemnity.

[Exeunt.

Enfold.

CYMBELINE.

SHAK.

XII.

L