"Since my becomings kill me, when they do not
"Eye well to you :" Your honour calls you hence
Therefore be deaf to my unpity'd folly,

And all the gods go with you! Upon your fword
Sit laurel'd victory! and smooth fuccefs
Be ftrew'd before your feet!

Ant. Let us go. Come;

Our feparation fo abides, and flies;

That thou, refiding here, go'ft yet with me,
And I, hence fleeting, here remain with thee.
Away.

[Exeunt SCENE IV. Rome. A Room in Cæfar's Houfe. Enter Octavius Cæfar, Lepidus, and their Trains. Caf. You may fee, Lepidus, and henceforth know,, [giving him a letter to reads It is not Cafar's natural vice to hate

One great competitor: from Alexandria

This is the news, He fifhes, drinks, and waftes
The lamps of night in revel: is not more manlike
Than Cleopatra; nor the queen of Ptolemy

More womanly than he hardly gave audience, or
Vouchfaf'd to think he had partners: you fhall find there
A man, who is the abftract 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, feem as the spots of heaven,
More fiery by night's blackness; hereditary,

Rather than purchas'd; what he cannot change,
Then what he choofes.

Caf. You are too indulgent: let us grant, it is not Amifs to tumble on the bed of Ptolemy;

To give a kingdom for a mirth; to fit

And keep the turn of tipling with a flave;

To reel the streets at noon, and stand the buffet

With knaves that smell of fweat: fay, this becomes him,

(As his compofure must be rare indeed,

Whom these things cannot blemish) yet muft Antony
No way excufe his foils, when we do bear

So great weight in his lightness: if he fill'd
His vacancy with his voluptuousness,

-

Full furfeits, and the drynefs of his bones,
Call on him for't: but, to confound such time,-
That drums him from his fport, and speaks as loud
As his own state, and ours,-'tis to be chid
As we rate boys; who, being mature in knowledge,
Pawn their experience to their prefent pleasure,
And fo rebel to judgment †.

Enter a Meffenger.

Lep. Here's more news.

Mef. Thy biddings have been done; and every hour,
oft noble Cafar, fhalt thou have report
How 'tis abroad. Pompey is ftrong at fea;
And it appears, he is belov'd of those
That only have fear'd Cæfar: to the ports
The difcontents repair, and mens' reports
Give him much wrong'd.

Caf. I should have known no less :-
It hath been taught us from the primal ftate,

That he, which is, was wifh'd, until he were ;

And the ebb'd man, ne'er lov'd, 'till ne'er worth love,

1 Comes dear'd, by being lack'd. This common body, Like to a vagabond flag upon the stream,

Goes to, and back, lackying the varying tide,

To rot itself with motion.

Enter another Meffenger.

Mef. Cafar, I bring thee word,
Menecrates and Menas, famous pirates,

Make the fea ferve them; which they ear and wound
With keels of every kind: many hot inroads
They make in Italy; the borders maritime

Octavius, in this fhort fcene, difplays the contemptible fituation of Antony in a fpirited and conclufive manner; a man, on whom the public good depends, fhould be peculiarly attentive to the application of his time, and the fuppreffion of private paffions.

It is no fmall proof of Shakespeare's warm attachment to this juft and benevolent fentiment, that he has produced it, though in varied shapes, three times fince the first scene of the play.

Lack

Lack blood to think on't, and flush youth revolt:
No veffel can peep forth, but 'tis as foon
Taken as feen for Pompey's name strikes more,
Than could his war refifted.

Caf. Antony,

Leave thy lafcivious waffails: when thou once
Wert beaten from Modéna, where thou flew'ft
Hirtius and Panfa, confuls, at thy heel

Did famine follow; whom thou fought'ft against,.
Though daintily brought up, with patience more
Than favages could fuffer: thou didst drink
The ftale of horfes, and a gilded puddle +
Which beasts would cough at: thy palate then did deign
The rougheft berry on the rudeft hedge;

Yea, like the ftag, when fnow the pasture sheets,
The barks of trees thou browfed'ft: on the Alps,
It is reported, thou didft eat ftrange flesh,
Which fome did die to look on: and all this
(It wounds thine honour, that I fpeak it now)
Was born fo like a foldier, that thy cheek
So much as lank'd not .

Lep. 'Tis pity of him.

Caf. Let his fhames quickly

Drive him to Rome: time is it, that we twain
Did fhew ourselves i' the field; and, to that end,
Affemble we immediate council: Pompey

Thrives in our idleness.

Lep. To-morrow, Cafar,

I fhall be furnish'd to inform you rightly
Both what by fea and land I can be able,

To 'front this present time.

Caf. 'Till which encounter,

It is my business too.

Farewel.

Lep. Farewel, my lord: what you shall know mean

time

+ Shakespeare's minute knowledge is here manifefted; as horned cattle love muddled, which may well be called gilded, water.

This contraft of what Antony was, to the. ftate when Octavius defcribed him, is well contrived, and executed in a masterly manner; The foldier-like picture of past hardiness #trikes forcibly at present effeminacy.

Of

Of ftirs abroad, I fhall befeech you, fir,

To let me be partaker.

Caf. Doubt not, fir;

I knew it for my bond.

[Exeunt.

SCENE V. Alexandria. A Room in the Palace.

Enter Cleopatra, Jupporting herself on Iras; Charmian, and Mardian, following..

Cle. Charmian,‐

Cba. Madam.

Cle. Ha, ha,-Give me to drink mandragora.
Cha, Why, Madam ?

Cle. That I might fleep out this great gap of time,

My Antony is away.

Cha. You think of him

Cha. Madam, I truft, not fo.

"Cle. Thou, eunuch, Mardian,-+

"Mar. What's your highnefs' pleasure?

"Cle. Not now to hear thee fing; I take no pleafure "In ought an eunuch has: 'tis well for thee,

"That, being unfeminar'd, thy freer thoughts

"May not fly forth of Egypt. Haft thou affections ? "Mar. Yes, gracious madam.

"Cle. Indeed?

"Mar. Not in deed, madam; for I can-do-nothing. "But what indeed is honest to be done :

"Yet have I fierce affections, and think

"What Venus did with Mars.

"Cle. O Charmian,

"Where think'st thou he is now? Stands he, or fits he? Or does he walk? Or is he on his horse ?—

"O happy horfe, to bear the weight of Antony!

"Do bravely, horse; for wot'ft thou whom thou mov'st? The demy Atlas of this earth, the arm

And burgonet of man.-He's speaking now,

The fpeeches marked for omiffion have great indecency, and little matter relative to the piece,

"Or murmuring, Where's my ferpent of old Nile? "For fo he calls me ;-now I feed myself "With most delicious poifon :-think on me, "That am with Phebus' amorous pinches black, "And wrinkl'd deep in time? Broad-fronted Cafar,. "When thou waft here above the ground, I was "A morfel for a monarch: and great Pompey "Would ftand, and make his eyes grow in my brows "There would he anchor his afpéct, and die "With looking on his life.

Enter Alexas.

Ale. Sovereign of Egypt, hail!

Cle. How much unlike art thou Mark Antony!
Yet, coming from him, that great med'cine hath
With his tinct gilded thee.-

How goes it with my brave Mark Antony ?
Ale. Laft thing he did, dear queen,
He kifs'd, the laft of many doubled kiffes,
This orient pearl; his fpeech flicks in my heart.
Gle. Mine ear muft pluck it-thence.

Ale. Good friend, quoth he,

Say, The firm Raman to great Egypt.fends
This treasure of an oyster: at whose foot,
To mend the petty prefent, I will piece

Her opulent throne with kingdoms; all the eaft,
Say thou, fhall call her mistress. So he nodded,
And foberly did mount an arm-gaunt fteed;

Who neigh'd fo high, that what I would have spoke
Was beaftly dumb'd by him.

Cle. What, was he fad, or merry

Ale. Like to the time o'the year, between the extreams

Of hot and cold; he was nor fad, nor merry.

Cle. O well-divided difpofition !-Note him,

Note him, good Charmian, 'tis the man, but note him ; He was not fad; for he would fhine on those

That make their looks by his: he was not merry;
Which feem'd to tell them, his remembrance lay
In Egypt with his joy: but between both :
Q heavenly, mingle!-Be'ft thou fad, or merry,

The