Taurus, lieutenant-general to Cæsar. Canidius, lieutenant-general to Antony. Silius, an officer in Ventidius's army. Euphronius, an ambassador from Antony to Cæsar. Alexas, Mardian, Seleucus, and Diomedes; attendants on Cleopatra. A Soothsayer. A Clown. Cleopatra, queen of Egypt. Octavia, sister to Cæsar, and wife to Antony. Charmian, } attendants on Cleopatra. Officers, soldiers, messengers, and other attendants. SCENE, Dispersed; in several parts of the Roman empire. ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA.' ACT I..... SCENE I. Alexandria. A Room in Cleopatra's Palace. Enter DEMETRIUS and PHILO. Phi. Nay, but this dotage of our general's,2 Upon a tawny front: his captain's heart, Which in the scuffles of great fights hath burst To cool a gipsy's lust. Look, where they come! 1 Among the entries in the books of the Stationers' Company, October 19, 1593, I find "A Booke entituled the Tragedie of Cleopatra." It is entered by Symon Waterson, for whom some of Daniel's works were printed; and therefore it is probably by that author, of whose Cleopatra there are several editions; and, among others, one in 1594. In the same volumes, May 20, 1608, Edward Blount entered "A Booke called Anthony and Cleopatra." This is the first notice I have met with concerning any edition of this play more ancient than the folio, 1623. Steevens. Antony and Cleopatra was written, I imagine, in the year 1608. Malone. 2 of our general's,] It has already been observed that this phraseology (not, of our general,) was the common phraseology of Shakspeare's time. Malone. An erroneous reference in Mr. Malone's edition, prevents me from doing complete justice to his remark. Steevens. 3 reneges-] Renounces. Pope. So, in King Lear: "Renege, affirm," &c. This word is likewise used by Stanyhurst, in his version of the second Book of Virgil's Eneid: "To live now longer, Troy burnt, he flatly reneageth." Steevens. 4 And is become the bellows, and the fan, To cool a gipsy's lust.] In this passage something seems to be wanting. The bellows and fan being commonly used for con Flourish. Enter ANTONY and CLEOPATRA, with their Take but good note, and you shall see in him Cleo. If it be love indeed, tell me how much. Ant. There's beggary in the love that can be reckon❜d. trary purposes, were probably opposed by the author, who might perhaps have written: is become the bellows, and the fan, To kindle and to cool a gipsy's lust. Johnson. In Lyly's Midas, 1592, the bellows is used both to cool and to kindle: "Methinks Venus and Nature stand with each of them a pair of bellows, one cooling my low birth, the other kindling my lofty affections." Steevens. The text is undoubtedly right. The bellows, as well as the fan, cools the air by ventilation; and Shakspeare considered it here merely as an instrument of wind, without attending to the domestick use to which it is commonly applied. We meet with a similar phraseology in his Venus and Adonis: "Then, with her windy sighs, and golden hairs, "To fan and blow them dry again, she seeks." The following lines in Spenser's Fairy Queen, B. II, c. ix, at once support and explain the text: "But to delay the heat, lest by mischaunce "It might breake out, and set the whole on fyre, "A huge great payre of bellowes, which did styre Johnson's amendment is unnecessary, and his reasons for it ill founded. The bellows and the fan have the same effects. When applied to a fire, they increase it; but when applied to any other warm substance, they cool it. M. Mason. gipsy's lust.] Gipsy is here used both in the original meaning for an Egyptian, and in its accidental sense for a bad woman. Johnson. 5 The triple pillar-] Triple is here used improperly for third, or one of three. One of the triumvirs, one of the three masters of the world. Warburton. So, in All's Well that Ends Well: "Which, as the dearest issue of his practice, "He bade me store up as a triple eye." Malone. To sustain the pillars of the earth is a scriptural phrase. Thus, in Psalm 75: "The earth and all the inhabitants thereof are dissolved. I bear up the pillars of it.” Steevens. There's beggary in the love that can be reckon’d.] So, in Romeo and Juliet: 86 They are but beggars that can count their worth." "Basia pauca cupit, qui numerare potest." Mart. L. VI, Ep. 36 Cleo. I'll set a bourn how far to be belov❜d. Ant. Then must thou needs find out new heaven, new earth.8 Enter an Attendant. Att. News, my good lord, from Rome. Ant. Grates me: The sum.9 Cleo. Nay, hear them,1 Antony: Ant. How, my love! Cleo. Perchance,-nay, and most like, You must not stay here longer, your dismission Call in the messengers. As I am Egypt's queen, "No bourn 'twixt his and mine." Steevens. 3 Then must thou needs find out new heaven, &c.] Thou must set the boundary of my love at a greater distance than the present visible universe affords. Johnson. 9 The sum.] Be brief, sum thy business in a few words. Johnson. 1 Nay, hear them,] i. e. the news. This word, in Shakspeare's time, was considered as plural. So, in Plutarch's Life of Antony: "Antonius hearing these newes," &c. Malone. 9: 2 Take in &c.] i. e. subdue, conquer. See Vol. VI, p. 289, n. and Coriolanus, Act I, sc. ii. Reed. 3 Where's Fulvia's process?] Process here means summons. M. Mason, "The writings of our common lawyers sometimes call that the processe, by which a man is called into the court and no more." Minsheu's Dict. 1617, in v. Processe.-" To serve with processe. Vide to cite, to summon." Ibid. Malone. and the wide arch Of the rang'd empire fall!] Taken from the Roman custom |