O Antony!-Nay, I will take thee too:

[Applying another Asp to her Arm. What should I stay [Falls on a Bed, and dies. Char. In this wild world?”—So, fare thee well.Now boast thee, death! in thy possession lies A lass unparallel'd.-Downy windows, close; And golden Phoebus never be beheld

Of eyes again so royal! Your crown 's awry;9
I'll mend it, and then play.1

Enter the Guard, rushing in.
1 Guard. Where is the queen?
Char.

1 Guard. Cæsar hath sent Char.

Speak softly, wake her not.

Too slow a messenger. [Applies the Asp.

O, come; apace, despatch: I partly feel thee.

7 In this wild world?] Thus the old copy. I suppose she means by this wild world, this world which by the death of Antony is become a desert to her. A wild is a desert. Our author, however, might have written vild (i. e. vile according to ancient spelling) for worthless. Steevens.

8 Downy windows, close;] So, in Venus and Adonis :

"Her two blue windows faintly she upheaveth." Malone. Charmian, in saying this, must be conceived to close Cleopatra's eyes; one of the first ceremonies performed toward a dead body. Ritson.

9

Your crown's awry;] This is well amended by the edi tors. The old editions had

Your crown's away. Johnson.

So, in Daniel's Tragedy of Cleopatra, 1594:

"And senseless, in her sinking down, she wryes
"The diadem which on her head she wore;

"Which Charmian (poor weak feeble maid) espyes,
"And hastes to right it as it was before;

"For Eras now was dead." Steevens.

The correction was made by Mr. Pope. The author has here as usual followed the old translation of Plutarch: ". They found Cleopatra starke dead layed upon a bed of gold, attired and arrayed in her royal robes, and one of her two women, which was called Iras, dead at her feete; and her other woman called Charmian half dead, and trembling, trimming the diadem which Cleopatra wore upon her head." Malone.

1

and then play.] i. e. play her part in this tragick scene by destroying herself: or she may mean, that having performed her last office for her mistress, she will accept the permission given her in p. 398, to “play till dooms-day." `Steevens.

1 Guard. Approach, ho! All 's not well: Cæsar 's be

guil'd.

2 Guard. There 's Dolabella sent from Cæsar;-call

him.

1 Guard. What work is here?-Charmian, is this well

done?

Char. It is well done, and fitting for a princess Descended of so many royal kings.2

Ah, soldier!

Dol. How goes it here?

2 Guard.

Dol.

[Dies.

Enter DOLABELLA.

All dead.

Cæsar, thy thoughts

Touch their effects in this: Thyself art coming
To see performed the dreaded act, which thou
So sought'st to hinder.

Within.

A way there, way for Cæsari

Enter CESAR, and Attendants.

Dol. O, sir, you are too sure an augurer; That you did fear, is done.

Bravest at the last:

Cas.
She levell❜d at our purposes, and, being royal,
Took her own way.—The manner of their deaths?
I do not see them bleed.

Dol.

1 Guard. A simple countryman, that brought her figs; This was his basket.

Cas.

1 Guard.

Who was last with them?

Poison'd then.

O Cæsar,

This Charmian lived but now; she stood, and spake:
I found her trimming up the diadem
On her dead mistress; tremblingly she stood,
And on the sudden dropp'd.

If they had swallow'd poison, 'twould appear
By external swelling: but she looks like sleep,

2 Descended of so many royal kings.] Almost these very words are found in Sir T. North's translation of Plutarch; and in Daniel's play on the same subject. The former book is not uncommon, and therefore it would be impertinent to crowd the page with every circumstance which Shakspeare has borrowed from the same original. Steevens.

As she would catch another Antony

In her strong toil of grace.

Dol.
Here, on her breast,
There is a vent of blood, and something blown :3
The like is on her arm.

1 Guard. This is an aspick's trail: and these fig-leaves Have slime upon them, such as the aspick leaves Upon the caves of Nile.

Cas.

Most probable,

That so she died; for her physician tells me,
She hath pursu'd conclusions infinite4
Of easy ways to die.5-Take up her bed;
And bear her women from the monument :-
She shall be buried by her Antony:
No grave upon the earth shall clip in it

A pair so famous. High events as these
Strike those that make them: and their story is
No less in pity, than his glory, which

3 · something blown:] The flesh is somewhat puffed or swoln. Johnson.

So, in the ancient metrical romance of Syr Bewys of Hampton, bl. 1. no date :

"That with venim upon him throwen,

"The knight lay then to-blowen."

Again, in the romance of Syr Isenbras, bl. 1. no date: "With adders all your bestes ben slaine,

"With venyme are they blowe."

Again, in Ben Jonson's Magnetick Lady:

66

What is blown, puft? speak English.

"Tainted an' please you, some do call it,
"She swells and so swells," &c.

Steevens.

4 She hath pursu'd conclusions infinite-] To pursue conclusions, is to try experiments. So, in Hamlet:

66 like the famous ape,

"To try conclusions," &c.

Again, in Cymbeline:

"I did amplify my judgment in

"Other conclusions." Steevens.

5 Of easy ways to die.] Such was the death brought on by the aspick's venom. Thus Lucan, Lib. IX:

"At tibi Leve miser fixus præcordia pressit
"Niliaca serpente cruor; nulloque dolore
"Testatus morsus subita caligine mortem

66

Accipis, & Stygias somno descendis ad umbras."

6

Steevens.

shall clip -] i. e. enfold. See p. 345, n. 3. Steevens.

Brought them to be lamented. Our army shall,
In solemn show, attend this funeral;
And then to Rome.-Come, Dolabella, see
High order in this great solemnity.

7 their story is

[Exeunt.8

No less in pity, than his glory, &c.] i. e. the narrative of such events demands not less compassion for the sufferers, than glory on the part of him who brought on their sufferings. Steevens.

This play keeps curiosity always busy, and the passions always interested. The continual hurry of the action, the variety of incidents, and the quick succession of one personage to another, call the mind forward without intermission from the first Act to the last. But the power of delighting is derived principally from the frequent changes of the scene; for, except the feminine arts, some of which are too low, which distinguish Cleopatra, no character is very strongly discriminated. Upton, who did not easily miss what he desired to find, has discovered that the language of Antony is, with great skill and learning, made pompous and superb, according to his real practice. But

think his diction not distinguishable from that of others: the most tumid speech in the play is that which Cæsar makes to Octavia.

The events, of which the principal are described according to history, are produced without any art of connection or care of disposition. Johnson.