264 ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA. ALTHOUGH every body has a general acquaintance with the story of this play, we are less familiar with the play itself (which is never acted), than with the other plays of Shakspeare ; nor is there much reason of any sort for dwelling long upon it. Like the others, it is taken from Plutarch,* who is followed with remarkable exactness. It opens at that point of history in which Antony was first at Alexandria with Cleopatra, by whose beauty and artifice he had been captivated, when he summoned her to meet him in Cilicia, while he was on his way to make war upon the Parthians. The passage in which her voyage is described is almost verbatim from Antony's biographer; * North's Antony, p. 762. Enobarbus. The barge she sat in, like a burnish'd throne, Burnt on the water; the poop was beaten gold, Purple the sails, and so perfum'd, that The winds were love-sick with 'em; the oars were silver; Which to the tune of flutes kept stroke, and made In her pavilion (cloth of gold, of tissue), Her gentlewomen, like the Nereides, So many mermaids, tended her i' the eyes And made their bends adornings: at the helm Had gone to gaze on Cleopatra too, I imitate former commentators, in placing near to this celebrated passage the equally noted description of the same voyage by Dryden, who puts it in the mouth of Antony himself: "Her galley down the silver Cydnus row'd, The tackling silk, the streamers waved with gold; The gentle winds were lodged in purple sails : Her nymphs, like Nereids, round her couch were plac'd; Where she, another sea-born Venus, lay. As if, secure of all beholders' hearts, Neglecting, she could take them: boys, like Cupids, A darting glory seem'd to blaze abroad, The hearing gave new pleasure to the sight, And both to thought. 'Twas heav'n or somewhat more: For she so charm'd all hearts, that gazing crowds * Act ii. Sc. 2. See North, 763. Stood panting on the shore, and wanted breath In the first act of Shakspeare's play, the infatuated Antony has just heard of the proceedings of his wife, Fulvia, who had quarrelled and made war with Lepidus, and afterwards with Octavius Cæsar; and he is told that Labienus (a Roman and follower of Brutus) had been victorious in Asia, at the head of a Parthian army. Immediately afterwards, Antony hears of Fulvia's death; whereon he makes this re "There's a great spirit gone! Thus did I desire it: The opposite of itself; she's good, being gone; Plutarch describes the Queen of Egypt (now about twenty-nine years of age), as a woman more celebrated for her powers of conversation than even for her beauty ;— "Her beauty (as it is reported) was not so pass * All for Love, Act iii. Sc. 1. Works, v. 361. ing as unmatchable with other women, nor yet such as, upon present view, did enamour men with her; but so sweet was her company and conversation, that a man could not possibly but be taken. And besides her beauty, the good grace she had to talk and discourse, her courteous nature that composed her words and deeds, was a spur that pricked to the quick. Furthermore, besides all these, her voice and words were marvellous pleasant, for her tongue was an instrument of music to divers sports and pastimes, the which she easily turned into any language that pleased her." Shakspeare has made good use of Plutarch's hint; and has well painted the fascinating queen, playing with the captivated conqueror, when the news from Rome summons him into Italy. He has just told her, very coldly, of his wife's death ; "Cleo. O most false love! Where be the sacred vials thou shouldst fill In Fulvia's death, how mine shall be received. |