Comes dear'd, by being lack'd. This common body,
Like to a vagabond flag upon the stream,

Goes to, and back, lacquying the varying tide,
To rot itself with motion.

Mef. Cæfar, I bring thee word,
Menecrates and Menas, famous pirates,

Make the fea ferve them; which they ear and wound With keels of every kind. Many hot inrodes

They make in Italy, the borders maritime

Lack blood to think on't, and flush youth revolt:
No veffel can peep forth, but 'tis as foon
Taken as feen for Pompey's name ftrikes more,
Than could his war refifted.
Caf. Antony,

Leave thy lafcivious waffails;-When thou once
Wert beaten from Mutina, where thou flew❜ft
Hirtius and Panfa Confuls, at thy heel

Did famine follow, whom thou fought'ft against
(Though daintily brought up) with patience more
Than Savages could fuffer. Thou didft drink
The ftale of horses, and the gilded puddle

Which beafts would cough at. Thy Palate then did deign

The roughest berry on the rudeft hedge:

Yea, like the ftag, when fnow the pafture fheets,
The barks of trees thou browsed'ft. On the Alps,
It is reported, thou didst eat strange flesh,
Which fome did die to look on; and all this,
(It wounds thine honour, that I fpeak it now)
Was bore fo like a foldier, that thy cheek
So much as lank'd not.

Lep. 'Tis pity of him.

Caf. Let his fhames quickly

Drive him to Rome; time is it, that we twain
Did fhew ourselves i'th' field; and to that end
Affemble we immediate council; Pompey
Thrives in our idleness.

Lep.

Lep. To morrow, Cafar.

I shall be furnish'd to inform you rightly,
Both what by fea and land I can be able,
To front this present time.

Caf. 'Till which encounter,

It is my business too. Farewel.
Lep. Farewel, my lord:

What you fhall know mean time of ftirs abroad,
I shall beseech you, let me be partaker.

Caf. Doubt it not, Sir; I knew it for my bond.

Farewel.

SCENE

[Exeunt.

VI.

Changes to the Palace in Alexandria.

Enter Cleopatra, Charmian, Iras, and Mardian.

Harmian,

Cleo. Char. Madam?
CH

Cleo. Ha, ha-give me to drink Mandragoras.
Char. Why, Madam ?

Cleo. That I might fleep out this great gap of time,

My Antony is away.

Char. You think of him too much.

Cleo. O, 'tis treafon.

Char. Madam, I trust not fo.

Cleo. Thou, eunuch, Mardian,

Mar. What's your Highnefs' pleasure?

Cleo. Not now to hear thee fing. I take no pleasure In aught an eunuch has ; 'tis well for thee,

That, being unfeminar'd, thy freer thoughts
May not fly forth of Egypt. Haft thou affections?
Mar. Yes, gracious Madam.

Cleo. Indeed?

Mar. Not in deed, Madam; for I can do nothing But what indeed is honest to be done:

Yet have I fierce affections, and think,

.I 2

What

What Venus did with Mars.

Cleo. Oh Charmian!

Where think'ft thou he is now? ftands he, or fits he? Or does he walk? or is he on his horfe?

Oh happy horse, to bear the weight of Antony! Do bravely, horfe; for, wot'ft thou, whom thou mov'ft?

The demy Atlas of this earth, the arm

And burgonet of man. "He's fpeaking now, "Or murmuring, where's my ferpent of old Nile?. "(For fo he calls me;) Now I feed myself "With moft delicious poifon. Think on me, "That am with Phabus' amorous pinches black, "And wrinkled deep in time. Broad-fronted Cæfar, When thou waft here above the ground, I was A morfel for a monarch; and great Pompey Would stand and make his eyes grow in my brow; There would he anchor his afpect, and die With looking on his life.

Enter Alexas.

Alex. Sovereign of Egypt, hail!

Cleo. How much art thou unlike Mark Antony? Yet coming from him, that great med'cine hath With his tinct gilded thee.

How goes it with my brave. Mark Antony?

Alex. Laft thing he did, dear Queen,
He kift, the laft of many doubled kiffes,
This orient pearl.-His fpeech fticks in my heart.
Cleo. Mine ear must pluck it thence.
Alex. Good friend, quoth he,

Say, the firm Roman to great Ægypt sends
This treasure of an oyfter; at whose foot,
To mend the petty prefent, I will pace

I will PIECE

Her

Her opulent throne with kingdoms.-] This expreffion of piecing her throne, is indeed tolerable; but barely fo. No

bungling

Her opulent throne with kingdoms. All the eaft, Say thou, fhall call her miftrefs. So, he nodded; + Ánd foberly did mount an arm-gaunt fteed,

4

5 Who neigh'd fo high, that what I would have fpoke, Was beaftly done by him.

bungling carpenter could have expreffed his labour worse. I lufpect that Shakespear wrote,

I will PACE

Her opulent throne with kingdoms.

i. e. I will erect an imperial throne for her, and every fep up to it fhall be a kingdom. The expreffion is noble, and the idea vaitly magnificent.

4 And foberly did mount an arm-gaunt feed,] i. e. his steed worn lean and thin by much service in war. So Farefax,

His ftall-worn feed the champion fout befirode.

5 Who neigh'd fo loud, that what I would have spoke,

A

Was beafly DUMв by dim.]. Mr. Theobald reads dumb'd, put to filence. Alexas means (fays he) the horse made fuch a weighing that if he had spoke he could not have been heard. very pretty speech, and agreeable to the politeness of one of Cleopatra's courtiers. Shakespear wrote,

Who neigh'd fo loud, that what I would have spoke
Was beaftly DONE by him.

i. e. the fenfe of what I would have spoke the horse declared, tho' in inarticulate founds. The cafe was this, Alexas came to take leave of Antony, who recommended a message to him to his mistres Alexas then had no more to do but make his compliments: But in that inftant Antony mounted his war-horfe, long accustomed to bear him, who no fooner felt his mafter's weight, but, as is ufual for horses of service, neighed in a very sprightly manner. This circumftance, (fuch a one as poets and romancers when they fpeak of their heros' adventures, never fail to improve) Alexas is made to turn to a compliment on Antony, which could not but please Cleopatra. I was going, fays he, to pay my farewel compliments to Antony, to predict his future fucceffes, and to falute bim with the ufual appellations of victory, when the horse got the fart of me; and by his neighing fo high and fprightly, fhewed him to be fenfible that he had a hero on his back whom he was bearing to conqueft. But we are not to suppose that Alexas after this did not make his fpeech, but let the hero's horfe do it for him. This was only a small interruption to his compliments, which, as a flattering circumftance, he mentions to please his miftrefs. The error of dumb for done, feems to have been occafioned by the editor's mistaking the word bigb for loud, whereas it here fignifies Sprightly.

1 31

Cleo.

Cleo. What, was he fad or merry y?

Alex. Like to the time o'th' year, between th

extreams

Of hot and cold, he was nor fad, nor merry.

Cleo. Oh well-divided difpofition!

Note him, good Charmian, 'tis the man; but note him;

He was not fad, for he would shine on those

That make their looks by his: He was not merry,
Which feem'd to tell them, his remembrance lay
In Egypt with his joy; but between both.
Oh heav'nly mingle! be'ft thou fad, or merry,
The violence of either thee becomes,

So does it no man elfe. Met'ft thou my posts?
Alex. Ay, Madam, twenty feveral meffengers.
Why do you send so thick?

Cleo. Who's born that day,
When I forget to fend to Antony,

Shall die a beggar. Ink and paper, Charmian.
Welcome, my good Alexas. Did I, Charmian,
Ever love Cæfar fo?

Char. Oh, that brave Cafar!

Cleo. Be choak'd with fuch another emphasis ! Say, the brave Antony.

Cleo. The valiant Cæfar.

Cleo. By Ifis, I will give thee bloody teeth, If thou with Cafar paragon again

My man of men.

Char. By your moft gracious pardon,

I fing but after you...

6

Cleo. My fallad days;

6 My fallad days:

When I was green in judgment, cald in blood!

When

To fay, as I faid then,- This puzzles the late editor Mr. Theobald. He fays, Cleopatra may speak very naturally here with contempt of her judgment at that period: But how truly with regard to the coldness of her blood may admit fome queftion: And then employs his learning to prove, that at this cold leafon of her blood.

the