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I have follow'd thee to this;-But we do lance
Diseases in our bodies: I muft perforce
Have shown to thee fuch a declining day,
Or look on thine; we could not stall together
In the whole world: But yet let me lament,
With tears as fovereign as the blood of hearts,
That thou, my brother, my competitor
In top of all defign, my mate in empire,
Friend and companion in the front of war,
The arm of mine own body, and the heart
Where mine his thoughts did kindle, that our

ftars,

2

Unreconciliable, fhould divide

But we do lance

Difcafes in our bodies :] [Old copy-launch.-] Launch was the ancient, and is ftill the vulgar pronunciation of lance. Nurfes always talk of launching the gums of children, when they have difficulty in cutting teeth.

I have followed thee, fays Cæfar, to this; i. e. I have pursued thee, till I compelled thee to felf-deftruction. But, adds the fpeaker, (at once extenuating his own conduct, and confidering the deceased as one with whom he had been united by the ties of relationship as well as policy, as one who had been a part of himself) the violence, with which I proceeded, was not my choice; I have done but by him as we do by our own natural bodies. I have employed force, where force only could be effectual. I have fhed the blood of the irreclaimable Antony, on the fame principle that we lance a disease incurable by gentler means. STEEVENS.

When we have any bodily complaint, that is curable by scarifying, we ufe the lancet: and if we neglect to do fo, we are deftroyed by it. Antony was to me a disease; and by his being cut off, I am made whole. We could not both have lived in the world together.

Launch, the word in the old copy, is only the old fpelling of launce. See Minshew's DICT, in v.

So alfo Daniel, in one of his Sonnets:

2

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forrow's tooth ne'er rankles more,

"Than when it bites, but launcheth not the fore."

MALONE.

his thoughts] His is here ufed for its. M. MASON.

Our equalness to this."-Hear me, good friends,But I will tell you at fome meeter season;

Enter a Meffenger.

The business of this man looks out of him,
We'll hear him what he says.-Whence are you?
MES. A poor Egyptian yet. The queen my
mistress,'

Confin'd in all fhe has, her monument,
Of thy intents defires inftruction;

That the preparedly may frame herself
To the way fhe's forc'd to.

CAS.

Bid her have good heart;

She foon fhall know of us, by fome of ours,
How honourable and how kindly we'
Determine for her: for Cæfar cannot live
To be ungentle."

3 Our equalness to this.] That is, hould have made us, in our equality of fortune, difagree to a pitch like this, that one of us muft die. JOHNSON.

4-Whence are you?] The defective metre of this line, and the irregular reply to it, may authorize a fuppofition that it originally ftood thus:

We'll hear him what he fays.-Whence, and who are you?
STEEVENS.

A poor Ægyptian yet. The queen my miftrefs, &c.] If this punctuation be right, the man means to fay, that he is yet an Egyptian, that is, yet a fervant of the queen of Egypt, though foon to become a fubject of Rome. JOHNSON.

6 How honourable and how kindly we -] Our author often ufes adjectives adverbially. So, in Julius Cæfar:

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Young man, thou could'ft not die more honourable." See alfo Vol. VIII. p. 552, n. 5. The modern editors, however, all read-honourably. MALONE.

7

-for Cæfar cannot live

To be ungentle.] The old copy has leave. Mr. Pope made the emendation. MALONE.

MES.

So the gods preferve thee! [Exit.

CAS. Come hither, Proculeius; Go, and fay, We purpose her no fhame: give her what comforts The quality of her paffion fhall require;

Left, in her greatnefs, by fome mortal stroke

She do defeat us: for her life in Rome
Would be eternal in our triumph: Go,

And, with your speedieft, bring us what she says,
And how you find of her.

PRO.

Cæfar, I fhall. [Exit PROCULEIUS. CAS. Gallus, go you along.-Where's Dolabella, To fecond Proculeius? [Exit GALLUS.

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CES. Let him alone, for I remember now
How he's employ'd; he shall in time be ready.
Go with me to my tent; where you shall fee
How hardly I was drawn into this war;
How calm and gentle I proceeded ftill
In all my writings: Go with me, and fee
What I can fhow in this.

7

her life in Rome

[Exeunt.

Would be eternal in our triumph:] Hanmer reads judiciously enough, but without neceffity:

Would be eternalling our triumph:

The fenfe is, If he dies here, he will be forgotten, but if I find her in triumph to Rome, her memory and my glory will be eternal. JOHNSON.

The following paffage in The Scourge of Venus, &c. a poem, 1614, will fufficiently fupport the old reading:

"If fome foule-fwelling ebon cloud would fall,
"For her to hide herself eternal in." STEEVENS.

SCENE

II.

Alexandria. A Room in the Monument.

Enter CLEOPATRA, CHARMIAN, and IRAS.

7

CLEO. My defolation does begin to make
A better life: 'Tis paltry to be Cæfar;
Not being fortune, he's but fortune's knave,
A minifter of her will; And it is great

To do that thing that ends all other deeds;
Which fhackles accidents, and bolts up change;
Which fleeps, and never palates more the dung,
The beggar's nurfe and Cæfar's.*

Enter Cleopatra, &c.] Our author here (as in K. Henry VIII. Vol. XI. p. 177, n. 8.) has attempted to exhibit at once the outfide and the infide of a building. It would be impoffible to reprefent this fcene in any way on the ftage, but by making Cleopatra and her attendants fpeak all their fpeeches till the queen is feized, within the monument. MALONE.

9 — fortune's knave,] The fervant of fortune. JOHNSON. 2 - And it is great

To do that thing that ends all other deeds;

Which Shackles accidents, and bolts up change;

Which fleeps, and never palates more the dung,

The beggar's nurfe and Cæfar's.] The difficulty of the paffage, if any difficulty there be, arifes only from this, that the act of fuicide, and the ftate which is the effect of fuicide are confounded. Voluntary death, fays fhe, is an act which bolts up change; it produces a state,

Which fleeps, and never palates more the dung,

The beggar's nurfe, and Cæfar's.

Which has no longer need of the grofs and terrene fuftenance, in the ufe of which Cæfar and the beggar are on a level.

The fpeech is abrupt, but perturbation in fuch a state is furely natural. JOHNSON.

It has been already faid in this play, that

Enter, to the gates of the Monument, PROCULEIUS, GALLUS, and Soldiers.

PRO. Cæfar fends greeting to the queen of Egypt; And bids thee ftudy on what fair demands

Thou mean'ft to have him grant thee.

CLEO. [Within.]

PRO. My name is Proculeius.

CLEO. [Within.]

What's thy name?

Antony

Did tell me of you, bade me truft you; but

I do not greatly care to be deceiv'd,

That have no ufe for trufting. If your master
Would have a queen his beggar, you must tell him,
That majefty, to keep decorum, must
No lefs beg than a kingdom: if he please
To give me conquer'd Egypt for my fon,
He gives me fo much of mine own, as I
Will kneel to him with thanks.

PRO.
Be of good cheer;
You are fallen into a princely hand, fear nothing:
Make your full reference freely to my lord,
Who is fo full of grace, that it flows over
On all that need: Let me report to him

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and Mr. Tollet obferves," that in Herodotus, B. III. the Æthiopian king, upon hearing a description of the nature of wheat, replied, that he was not at all furprized, if men, who eat nothing but dung, did not attain a longer life." Shakspeare has the fame epithet in The Winter's Tale:

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the face to fweeten
"Of the whole dungy earth."

Again, in Timon :

66 - the earth's a thief

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"That feeds and breeds by a composture ftolen
"From general excrement." STEEVENS.

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