CES. Not till he hears how Antony is touch'd With what is spoke already.

ANT.

If I would say, Agrippa, be it so,

To make this good?

CES.

What power is in Agrippa,

The power of Cæsar,

May I never

And his power unto Octavia.

ANT.

To this good purpose, that so fairly shows,
Dream of impediment!-Let me have thy hand:
Further this act of grace; and from this hour,
The heart of brothers govern in our loves,

And sway our great designs!

CES.

There is my hand.

A sister I bequeath you, whom no brother

Did ever love so dearly: let her live

To join our kingdoms and our hearts: and never
Fly off our loves again!

LEP.

Happily, amen!

ANT. I did not think to draw my sword 'gainst Pompey; For he hath laid strange courtesies and great

Of late upon me: I must thank him only,

Lest my remembrance suffer ill report;

At heel of that, defy him.

Time calls upon 's:

Of us must Pompey presently be sought,

Or else he seeks out us.

Would we had spoke together! Haste we for it:
Yet, ere we put ourselves in arms, despatch we
The business we have talk'd of.

[Flourish. Exeunt CESAR, ANTONY, and LEPIDUS.

Not lack your company.

LEP.

Not sickness should detain me.

MEC. Welcome from Egypt, sir.

ENO. Half the heart of Cæsar, worthy Mecænas!-My honourable

friend, Agrippa!

AGR. Good Enobarbus!

MEC. We have cause to be glad that matters are so well digested. You stayed well by it in Egypt.

VOL. VI.

(*) Old text, Mount-Mesena.

H

Exo. Ay, sir; we did sleep day out of countenance, and made the night light with drinking.

MEC. Eight wild boars roasted whole at a breakfast, and but twelve persons there! is this true?

ENO. This was but as a fly by an eagle: we had much more monstrous matter of feast, which worthily deserved noting.

MEC. She's a most triumphant lady, if report be square to her. ENO. When she first met Mark Antony, she pursed up his heart, upon the river of Cydnus.

AGR. There she appeared indeed; or my reporter devised well for her.

ENO. I will tell you.

The barge she sat in, like a burnish'd throne,

Burnt on the water: the poop was beaten gold;

Purple the sails, and so perfumed that

The winds were love-sick with them; the oars were silver,

Which to the tune of flutes kept stroke, and made

The water which they beat to follow faster,

As amorous of their strokes. For her own person,
It beggar'd all description: she did lie
In her pavilion, (cloth-of-gold of tissue) a
O'er-picturing that Venus where we see
The fancy outwork nature: on each side her
Stood pretty dimpled boys, like smiling Cupids,
With divers-colour'd fans, whose wind did seem
To glow* the delicate cheeks which they did cool,
And what they undid, did.b

AGR.
O, rare for Antony!
ENO. Her gentlewomen, like the Nereides,
So many mermaids, tended her i' the eyes,

And made their bends adornings: at the helm

(*) Old text, glove.

(cloth-of-gold of tissue)-] That is, cloth-of-gold on a ground of tissue. The expression so repeatedly occurs in early English books that we cannot imagine how any one familiar with such reading can have missed it. And yet Mr. Collier, adopting the modernization of his annotator,-"cloth of gold and tissue," observes with incredible simplicity that "cloth of gold of tissue,' as it stands in the old copies, is nonsense; it could not be cloth of gold if it were of tissue."!

b

To glow the delicate cheeks which they did cool,
And what they undid, did.]

Johnson makes exception, to the last phrase, and would read,—

we should prefer,

"And what they did, undid;"

"And what they undy'd, dy'd,"

that is, while diminishing the colour of Cleopatra's cheeks, by cooling them, they reflected a new glow from the warmth of their own tints.

The disputation on this crux in the Variorum extends over six closely printed pages, and though amusing, is not very instructive. For "tended her i' the eyes,"-which, if it have any sense, must signify waited upon her in her sight,-Mason proposed "tended her ' the guise," that is, the guise of mermaids, understanding "their bends which they made adornings" to mean the caudal appendages which common opinion has always assigned to the descendants of Nereus! This is sufficiently absurd, and has

A seeming mermaid steers; the silken tackle
Swell with the touches of those flower-soft hands,
That yarely frame the office. From the barge
A strange invisible pérfume hits the sense
Of the adjacent wharfs. The city cast
Her people out upon her; and Antony,
Enthron'd i' the market-place, did sit alone,
Whistling to the air; which, but for vacancy,
Had gone to gaze on Cleopatra too,

And made a gap in nature. (2)

AGR.

Rare Egyptian!

ENO. Upon her landing, Antony sent to her,
Invited her to supper: she replied,

It should be better he became her guest;
Which she entreated: our courteous Antony,
Whom ne'er the word of No woman heard speak,
Being barber'd ten times o'er, goes to the feast,
And, for his ordinary, pays his heart

For what his eyes eat only.

AGR.

Royal wench!

She made great Cæsar lay his sword to bed;
He plough'd her, and she cropp'd.

ENO.

I saw her once

Hop forty paces through the public street;

And having lost her breath, she spoke, and panted,
That she did make defect perfection,

And, breathless, power breathe forth.

MEC. Now Antony must leave her utterly,

ENO. Never; he will not;

Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale
Her infinite variety: other women cloy

The appetites they feed; but she makes hungry
Where inost she satisfies: for vilest things

Become themselves in her, that the holy priests

Bless her when she is riggish.

MEC. If beauty, wisdom, modesty, can settle The heart of Antony, Octavia is

A blessed lottery to him.

been mercilessly ridiculed by Steevens. Warburton's suggestion to read adorings for "adornings" is of a very different character. By adopting this likely substitution, and supposing the not improbable transposition of "eyes" and "bends," we may at least obtain a meaning:

tended her i' the bends,

And made their eyes adorings."

It may count for something, though not much, in favour of the transposition we assume, that in "Pericles," Act II. Sc. 4, we find,

"That all those eyes ador'd them."

SCENE III.-The same. A Room in Cæsar's House.

Enter CESAR, ANTONY, OCTAVIA between them, and Attendants. ANT. The world and my great office will sometimes

Divide me from your bosom.

OCTA.

All which time

Before the gods my knee shall bow my prayers

To them for you.

ANT.
Good night, sir.-My Octavia,
Read not my blemishes in the world's report:

I have not kept my square; but that to come

Shall all be done by the rule. Good night, dear lady.

OCTA. Good night, sir.a

CES. Good night.

[Exeunt CESAR and OCTAVIA.

Enter Soothsayer.

ANT. Now, sirrah,-you do wish yourself in Egypt?

SOOTH. Would I had never come from thence, nor you thither! ANT. If you can, your reason?

SOOTH. I see it in my motion, have it not in my tongue: but yet hie you to Egypt again.

ANT. Say to me,

Whose fortunes shall rise higher, Cæsar's or mine?

SOOTH. Cæsar's.

Therefore, O Antony, stay not by his side:

Thy demon (that thy spirit which keeps thee) is

Noble, courageous, high, unmatchable,

Where Cæsar's is not; but, near him, thy angel
Becomes a Fear, as being o'erpower'd; therefore
Make space enough between you.

ANT.

Speak this no more.

SOOTH. To none but thee; no more, but when to thee.

If thou dost play with him at any game,

Thou art sure to lose; and, of that natural luck,

He beats thee 'gainst the odds: thy lustre thickens
When he shines by: I say again, thy spirit

Is all afraid to govern thee near him;

But, he away,* 't is noble.

Get thee gone:

ANT.
Say to Ventidius I would speak with him :-
He shall to Parthia.-Be it art or hap,
He hath spoken true: the very dice obey him;
And, in our sports, my better cunning faints

(*) Old text, alway.

[Exit Soothsayer.

a Good night, sir.] So the second folio; in the first, these words form a portion of Antony's speech.

b Becomes a Fear,-] The personification of fear renders the passage more poetical; but it may be questioned, considering the old text has, "Becomes a feare," whether Upton's conjectural emendation, "Becomes afeard," is not the true reading.

Under his chance: if we draw lots, he speeds;
His cocks do win the battle still of mine,
When it is all to nought; and his quails ever
Beat mine, inhoop'd, at odds. (3) I will to Egypt:
And though I make this marriage for my peace,
I' the east my pleasure lies.-

Enter VENTIDIUS.

O, come, Ventidius,

You must to Parthia: your commission 's ready;

Follow me, and receive it.

SCENE IV.-The same. A Street.

Enter LEPIDUS, MECENAS, and AGRIPPA.

LEP. Trouble yourselves no further: pray you, hasten Your generals after.

AGR.

Sir, Mark Antony

Will e'en but kiss Octavia, and we'll follow.

LEP. Till I shall see you in your soldier's dress, Which will become you both, farewell.

MEC.

We shall,

Your way is shorter;

Sir, good success!

You'll win two days upon me.

MEC., AGR.

LEP. Farewell.

SCENE V.-Alexandria.

[Exeunt.

[Exeunt.

A Room in the Palace.

Enter CLEOPATRA, CHARMIAN, IRAS, and ALEXAS.

CLEO. Give me some music;-music, moody food

CHAR. My arm is sore; best play with Mardian.
CLEO. As well a woman with an eunuch play'd
As with a woman.-Come, you'll play with me, sir?
MAR. As well as I can, madam.

CLEO. And when good will is show'd, though 't come too short, The actor may plead pardon. I'll none now:

Give me mine angle, we'll to the river: there,

- be at Mount-] Mount Misenum. The second folio reads,-" at the Mount.