CES.

Adieu; be happy!

LEP. Let all the number of the stars give light

To thy fair way!

Enter CLEOPATRA, CHARMIAN, IRAS, and ALEXAS.

CLEO. Where is the fellow?

ALEX.

Half afeard to come.

CLEO. Go to, go to:-Come hither, fir.

ALEX.

Enter a Meffenger.

Good majesty,

That Herod's head

Herod of Jewry dare not look upon you,

But when you are well pleas'd.

CLEO.

I'll have: But how? when Antony is gone

Through whom I might command it.-Come thou

I look'd her in the face; and faw her led
Between her brother and Mark Antony.
CLEO. Is the as tall as me?"

MES.

She is not, madam. CLEO. Didft hear her speak? Is the fhrill-tongu'd, or low?

ME. Madam, I heard her speak; fhe is lowvoic'd.

CLEO. That's not fo good:-he cannot like her long."

Is fhe as tall as me? &c. &c. &c.] This fcene (fays Dr. Grey) is a manifeft allufion to the queftions put by queen Elizabeth to Sir James Melvil, concerning his mistress the queen of Scots. Whoever will give himself the trouble to confult his Memoirs, may probably suppose the refemblance to be more than accidental. STEEVENS.

I fee no probability that Shakspeare should here allude to a converfation that paffed between Queen Elizabeth and a Scottish ambaffador in 1564, the very year in which he was born, and does not appear to have been made publick for above threefcore years after his death; Melvil's Memoirs not being printed till 1683. Such enquiries, no doubt, are perfectly natural to rival females, whether queens or cinder-wenches. RITSON.

↑ That's not fo good:-he cannot like her long.] Cleopatra perhaps does not mean "That is not fo good a piece of intelligence as your laft;" but," That, i. e. a low voice, is not fo good as a fhrill tongue.

"

That a low voice (on which our author never omits to introduce an elogium when he has an opportunity,) was not esteemed by Cleopatra as a merit in a lady, appears from what the adds afterwards, "Dull of tongue, and dwarfish!"-If the words be understood in the fenfe first mentioned, the latter part of the line will be found inconfiftent with the foregoing.

Perhaps, however, the author intended no connexion between the two members of this line; and that Cleopatra, after a paufe, fhould exclaim-He cannot like her, whatever her merits be, for any length of time. My firft interpretation I believe to be the true

one.

It has been juftly obferved that the poet had probably Queen Elizabeth here in his thoughts. The defcription given of her by a contemporary about twelve years after her death, strongly con

1

CHAR. Like her? O Ifis! 'tis impoffible.

CLEO. I think fo, Charmian: Dull of tongue, and dwarfish!

What majefty is in her gait? Remember,

If e'er thou look'dft on majesty.

MES.

She creeps;

Her motion and her station are as one:
She shows a body rather than a life;

A ftatue, than a breather.

He's very knowing,

I do perceive't:-There's nothing in her yet:
The fellow has good judgement.

CHAR.

Excellent,

Madam,

CLEO, Guefs at her years, I pr'ythee.

MES.

She was a widow.

CLEO.

Widow?-Charmian, hark."

MES. And I do think, fhe's thirty.

firms this fuppofition." She was (fays the Continuator of Stowe's Chronicle,) tall of ftature, ftrong in every limb and joynt, her fingers fmall and long, her voyce loud and fhrill." MALONE.

-It may be remarked, however, that when Cleopatra applies the epithet" fhrill-tongued" to Fulvia, (fee p. 410.). it is not intro duced by way of compliment to the wife of Antony. STEEVENS, The quality of the voice is referred to, as a criterion fimilar to that, already noticed, of the hair. See p. 503, n. 7. HENLEY. her ftation -] Station, in this inftance, means the a of fanding. So, in Hamlet:

8

"A ftation like the herald Mercury." STEEVENS.

9 Widow ?-Charmian, bark.] Cleopatra rejoices in this circumftance, as it fets Octavia on a level with herself, who was no virgin, when he fell to the lot of Antony. STEEVENS.

CLEO. Bear'ft thou her face in mind? is it long,

or round?

MES. Round even to faultinefs.

CLEO.

For the most part too,

They are foolish that are so.-Her hair, what co

lour?

MES. Brown, madam: And her forehead is as low
As fhe would wish it.

CLEO.
There is gold for thee.
Thou must not take my former fharpnefs ill:-
I will employ thee back again; I find thee
Moft fit for bufinefs: Go, make thee ready;
Our letters are prepar'd.

CHAR.

[Exit Meffenger.

A proper man.

CLEO. Indeed, he is fo: I repent me much,
That so I harry'd him. Why, methinks, by him,

2 Round &c.

They are foolish that are fo.] This is from the old writers on Phyfiognomy. So, in Hill's Pleafant Hiftory &c. 1613." The head very round, to be forgetful and foolish." Again, "the head long to be prudent and wary."-" a low forehead, to be fad." &c. &c. p. 218. STEEVENS.

3 is as low &c.] For the infertion of is, to help the metre, I am anfwerable. STEEVENS.

As low as he would wish it.] Low foreheads were in Shakfpeare's age thought a blemish. So, in The Tempeft:

66 - with foreheads villainous low."

See alfo Vol. III. p. 274, n. 6.

You and She are not likely to have been confounded; otherwise we might fuppofe that our author wrote

As low as you would wish it. MALONE.

The phrafe employed by the Meffenger, is ftill a cant one. I once overheard a chambermaid fay of her rival," that her legs were as thick as she could wish them." STEEVENS.

4-fo harry'd him.] To barry, is to use roughly. I meet with the word in The Revenger's Tragedy, 1607:

"He harried her, and midft a throng," &c.

Again, in The Downfall of Robert Earl of Huntingdon, 1601: "Will barry me about inftead of her."

1

This creature's no fuch thing.

CHAR.

O, nothing,' madam. CLEO. The man hath feen fome majefty, and fhould know.

CHAR. Hath he feen majefty? Ifis elfe defend, And serving you fo long!

CLEO. I have one thing more to afk him yet,
good Charmian :-

But 'tis no matter; thou shalt bring him to me
Where I will write: All may be well enough.
CHAR. I warrant you, madam.

SCENE IV.

[Exeunt.

Athens. A Room in Antony's Houfe.

Enter ANTONY and OCTAVIA.

ANT. Nay, nay, Octavia, not only that,That were excufable, that, and thousands more

Holinfhed, p. 735, fpeaking of the body of Richard III. fays, it was "harried on horfeback, dead."

66

as if he were

The fame expreffion had been used by Harding in his Chronicle. Again, by Nath in his Lenten Stuff, 1599, barrying and chafing his enemies." STEEVENS.

To barry, is, literally, to hunt. Hence the word barrier.King James threatened the Puritans that " he would harry them out of the land." HENLEY.

Minfheu, in his DICT. 1617, explains the word thus: "To turmoile or vexe." Cole in his English DICT. 1676, interprets baried by the word pulled, and in the fenfe of pulled and lugged about, I believe the word was used by Shakspeare. See the marginal direction in p. 498. In a kindred fenfe it is used in the old tranflation of Plutarch; " Pyrrhus feeing his people thus troubled, and harried to and fro," &c.

See alfo Florio's Italian Dictionary, 1590: "Tartaflare. To rib-baste, to bang, to tugge, to hale, to harrie." MALONE.

SO, nothing,] The exclamation-0, was, for the fake of meafure, fupplied by Sir Thomas Hanmer, STEEVENS.