Antick'd us all. What needs more words? Good night.

Good Antony, your hand.

POM.

I'll try you on the shore.

ANT. And shall, sir: give's your hand.

Pом. O, Antony, you have my father's house,But what? we are friends: Come down into the boat. ENO. Take heed you fall not.

[Exeunt POMPEY, CESAR, ANTONY, and Attendants.

MEN. No, to my cabin.—

Menas, I'll not on shore.

These drums!-these trumpets, flutes! what!—

Let Neptune hear we bid a loud farewell

To these great fellows: sound and be hang'd! sound out!

[A flourish of trumpets, with drums.

ENO. Ho! says 'a.-There's my cap.

MEN. Ho!-noble captain, come.

[Exeunt.

ACT III.

SCENE I.-A Plain in Syria.

Enter VENTIDIUS in triumph, with SILIUS, and other Romans, Officers and Soldiers: the dead body of PACORUS borne before him.

VEN. Now, darting Parthia, art thou struck; and now

Pleas'd fortune does of Marcus Crassus' death

Make me revenger.-Bear the king's son's body

Before our army.-Thy Pacorus, Orodes,b

Pays this for Marcus Crassus.

Noble Ventidius,

SIL.
Whilst yet with Parthian blood thy sword is warm,
The fugitive Parthians follow; spur through Media,
Mesopotamia, and the shelters whither

The routed fly; so thy grand captain, Antony,

Shall set thee on triumphant chariots, and

Put garlands on thy head.

VEN.

O, Silius, Silius!

I have done enough: a lower place, note well,

May make too great an act; for learn this, Silius,—

Better to leave undone, than by our deed

Acquire too high a fame when him we serve's away.

Cæsar and Antony have ever won

More in their officer than person: Sossius,

One of my place in Syria, his lieutenant,

For quick accumulation of renown,

MEN.] By the inadvertent omission of the prefix in the old copies, this speech is made to appear a part of what Enobarbus says.

b- Thy Pacorus, Orodes,-] Pacorus was the son of Orodes, the Parthian king.

Which he achiev'd by the minute, lost his favour.
Who does i' the wars more than his captain can,
Becomes his captain's captain; and ambition,
The soldier's virtue, rather makes choice of loss,
Than gain which darkens him.

I could do more to do Antonius good,

But 't would offend him; and in his offence
Should my performance perish.

SIL.

Thou hast, Ventidius, that

Without the which a soldier, and his sword,

Grants scarce distinction. Thou wilt write to Antony?
VEN. I'll humbly signify what in his name,
That magical word of war, we have effected;
How, with his banners, and his well-paid ranks,
The ne'er-yet-beaten horse of Parthia

We have jaded out o' the field.
SIL.

Where is he now?

VEN. He purposeth to Athens: whither with what haste The weight we must convey with's will permit,

We shall appear before him.-On there! pass along!

[Exeunt.

SCENE II.-Rome. An Ante-Chamber in Cæsar's House.

Enter AGRIPPA and ENOBARBUS, meeting.

AGR. What, are the brothers parted?

ENO. They have dispatch'd with Pompey, he is gone;

The other three are sealing. Octavia weeps

To part from Rome; Cæsar is sad; and Lepidus,
Since Pompey's feast, as Menas says, is troubled
With the green sickness.

AGR.
"Tis a noble Lepidus.
ENO. A very fine one: O, how he loves Cæsar!

AGR. Nay, but how dearly he adores Mark Antony!
ENO. Cæsar? Why, he's the Jupiter of men.
AGR. What's Antony? The god of Jupiter.
ENO. Spake you of Cæsar? Ho! the nonpareil!

AGR. O, Antony! O, thou Arabian bird!"

ENO. Would you praise Cæsar, say,-Cæsar;-go no further.
AGR. Indeed, he plied them both with excellent praises.
ENO. But he loves Cæsar best;-yet he loves Antony:
Ho! hearts, tongues, figures,* scribes, bards, poets, cannot
Think, speak, cast, write, sing, number,-ho!-

His love to Antony. But as for Cæsar,

Kneel down, kneel down, and wonder!

(*) Old text, figure.

Grants scarce distinction.] The meaning seems to be, as Warburton was the first to show,-Thou hast that, (wisdom, or prudence) wanting which a soldier shows himself hardly better than his senseless sword. Mr. Collier's annotator, it should be observed, would read,

VOL. VI.

"Gains scarce distinction."

Both he loves.

AGR.

ENO. They are his shards, and he their beetle. So,- [Trumpets. This is to horse.-Adieu, noble Agrippa.

AGR. Good fortune, worthy soldier; and farewell.

[AGRIP. and ENOB. retire.

Enter CESAR, ANTONY, LEPIDUS, and OCTAVIA.

ANT. No further, sir.

CES. You take from me a great part of myself;
Use me well in't.-Sister, prove such a wife
As my thoughts make thee, and as my farthest bandb
Shall pass on thy approof.-Most noble Antony,
Let not the piece of virtue which is set
Betwixt us as the cement of our love,
To keep it builded, be the ram to batter
The fortress of it: for better might we

Have lov'd without this mean, if on both parts
This be not cherish'd.

Though you be therein curious, the least cause
For what you seem to fear: so, the gods keep you,
And make the hearts of Romans serve your ends!
We will here part.

CES. Farewell, my dearest sister, fare thee well.
The elements be kind to thee,d and make
Thy spirits all of comfort! fare thee well.

OCTA. My noble brother!—

ANT. The April's in her eyes: it is love's spring, And these the showers to bring it on.-Be cheerful. OCTA. Sir, look well to my husband's house; and-CES.

Octavia?

What,

ОСТА.
I'll tell you in your ear.
ANT. Her tongue will not obey her heart, nor can
Her heart inform her tongue,-the swan's down-feather,

his shards,-] His scaly wings. So in "Macbeth," Act. III. Sc. 3,-
"The shard-borne beetle," &c.

b - baud.] That is, bond.

c

curious,-] Over punctilious, or scrupulous.

The elements be kind, &c.] Johnson's explanation of this wish,-"May the elements of the body, or principles of life, maintain such proportion and harmony as may keep you cheerful," has been decried as too profound, and the expression said to mean no more than," May the elements of air and water be kind to you." In other words, "May you have a prosperous voyage." But there is a passage, altogether forgotten by the commentators, in Julius Cæsar," Act V. Sc. 5, which is entirely confirmatory of Dr. Johnson's interpretation,

"His life was gentle; and the elements

So mix'd in him, that Nature might stand up,
And say to all the world, This was a man !”*

That stands upon the swell at full of tide,a

And neither way inclines.

ENO. [Aside to AGR.] Will Cæsar weep?

AGR. [Aside to ENO.] He has a cloud in 's face.

ENO. [Aside to AGR.] He were the worse for that, were he a horse; So is he, being a man.

AGR. [Aside to ENO.] Why, Enobarbus?
When Antony found Julius Cæsar dead,
He cried almost to roaring; and he wept,
When at Philippi he found Brutus slain.

ENO. [Aside to AGR.] That year, indeed, he was troubled with a

rheum;

What willingly he did confound he wail'd,

Believe 't, till I wept* too.

CES.

You shall hear from me still;

Out-go my thinking on you.

No, sweet Octavia,

the time shall not

Come, sir, come;

ANT.
I'll wrestle with you in my strength of love:
Look, here I have you ;-thus I let you go,
And give you to the gods.

CES.
Adieu; be happy!
LEP. Let all the number of the stars give light
To thy fair way!

CES.

ANT.

[Kisses OCTAVIA.

Farewell, farewell!

Farewell!

[Trumpets sound. Exeunt.

SCENE III.-Alexandria.

Enter CLEOPATRA, CHARMIAN, IRAS, and ALEXAS.

A Room in the Palace.

I'll have: but how, when Antony is gone

Through whom I might command it ?-Come thou near.

MESS. Most gracious majesty,

CLEO. Didst thou behold Octavia?

(*) Old text, weepe; corrected by Theobald.

- at full of tide,—] So the second folio; the first reads, less harmoniously,—

at the full of Tide."

b- a cloud in's face.] This is said of a horse which has a black or dark spot on his forehead between the eyes.

MESS. Ay, dread queen.

CLEO. Where?

MESS. Madam, in Rome;

I look'd her in the face, and saw her led
Between her brother and Mark Antony.
CLEO. Is she as tall as me?
MESS.

She is not, madam.

CLEO. Didst hear her speak? Is she shrill-tongu'd or low?
MESS. Madam, I heard her speak; she is low-voic'd.

CLEO. That's not so good:-he cannot like her long.
CHAR. Like her? O, Isis! 't is impossible.

CLEO. I think so, Charmian: dull of tongue, and dwarfish!—
What majesty is in her gait?

If e'er thou look'dst on majesty.

MESS.

Remember,

She creeps,

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

A statue than a breather.

CLEO.

MESS. Or I have no observance.
CHAR.

Cannot make better note.

CLEO.

Is this certain?

Three in Egypt

He's very knowing;

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

CHAR.

CLEO. Guess at her years, I pr'ythee.
MESS.

She was a widow,—

CLEO.

Excellent.

Madam,

Widow!-Charmian, hark.

MESS. And I do think she's thirty.

CLEO. Bear'st thou her face in mind? is 't long or round?

MESS. Round even to faultiness.

CLEO. For the most part, too, they are foolish that are so.— Her hair, what colour?

MESS. Brown, madam: and her forehead

As low as she would wish it.a

There's gold for thee.

CLEO.
Thou must not take my former sharpness ill :-
I will employ thee back again; I find thee
Most fit for business: go, make thee ready;
Our letters are prepar❜d.

CHAR.

A proper man.
CLEO. Indeed, he is so: I repent me much
That so I harried him. Why, methinks, by him,

This creature's no such thing.

CHAR.

Nothing, madam.

[Exit Messenger.

CLEO. The man hath seen some majesty, and should know.

As low as she would wish it.] "The phrase is still a cant one. I once overheard a chambermaid say of her rival-' that her legs were as thick as she could wish them.'"'. STEEVENS.