"Their wishes, do difcandy, melt their sweets "On bloffoming Cafar: and this pine is bark'd, That over-topt them all. Betray'd I am.

Oh, this falfe foul of Egypt! this gay Charm, Whofe eye beck'd forth my wars, and call'd them home,

Whose bosom was my Crownet, my chief end,

Like a right Gipfie, hath at faft and loofe

Beguil'd me to the very heart of lofs.

What Eros! Eros!

Enter Cleopatra.

Ah! thou spell! avant.

Cleo. Why is my Lord enrag'd against his Love?
Ant. Vanish, or I fhall give thee thy deferving,
And blemish Cafar's Triumph. Let him take thee,
And hoift thee up to the fhouting Plebeians;
Follow his chariot, like the greatest spot

Of all thy fex. Möft monfter-like, be fhewn
For poor'ft diminutives, for doits; and let
Patient Octavia plough thy vifage up

fignified the fervants who have the care of the bread, but is used by our poet for a menial fervant in general, as well as in its native acceptation.

Thus in Cymbeline,

A bilding for a liv'ry, a Squire's cloth,

A PANTLER;·

And Timon,

page thy heels,

And skip when thou point'ft out.

8to the very heart of lofs.] . . to the very centre > alluding to the term of the heart of wood.

9 most monfer-like, be fhewn

For poor diminutives, for DOLTS;-] As the allufion here is to monsters carried about in fhews, it is plain, that the words, for pooreft diminutives, muft mean for the leaft piece of money; we muft therefore read the next word,

for DOITS, i. e. farthings.

which fhews what he means by pooreft diminutives,

• With her prepared nails. 'Tis well, thour't gone; [Exit Cleopatra.

If it be well to live. But better 'twere,
Thou fell'ft into my fury; for one death
Might have prevented many. Eros, hoa!
The thirt of Neffus is upon me; teach me,
Alcides, thou mine anceftor; thy rage

*(a) Led thee lodge Lichas on the horns o' th' Moon,
And with thofe hands that grafpt the heaviest club,
Subdue (b) thy worthieft felf. The Witch shall die;
To the young Roman boy fhe hath fold me, and I fall
Under his plot: fhe dies for't. Eros, hoa! [Exit.

Re-enter Cleopatra, Charmian, Iras, and Mardian. Cleo. Help me, my women! oh, he is more mad Than Telamon for his fhield; the boar of Theffaly Was never fo imboft.

Char. To th' Monument,

There lock your self, and send him word you're dead: "The foul and body rive not more in parting, "Than Greatnefs going off.

Cleo. To th' Monument:

Mardian, go tell him I have flain myself;
Say, that the last I spoke was Antony;

And word it, pr'ythee, piteously. Hence, Mardian, And bring me how he takes my death. To th' [Exeunt.

Monument.

1 With her prepared nails. i. e. with nails which the fuffered to grow for this purpose.

2 Led thee lodge Lichas on the horns o' th' moon,] This image our poet feems to have taken from Seneca's Hercules, who fays Lichas being lanched into the air, sprinkled the clouds with his blood. Sophocles, on the fame occafion, talks at a much foberer

rate.

[(a) Led thee lodge Lichas,-Oxford Editor-Vulg. Let me ledge Lichas.]

[(b) thy worthieft felf.Oxford Editor--Vulg. my worthieft felf]

O2

SCENE

Re-enter Antony, and Eros.

Ant. Eros, thou yet behold'ft me.
Eros. Ay, noble Lord.

Ant. Sometime, we fee a cloud that's dragonifh s

A vapour, fometime, like a bear, or lion,

A tower'd citadel, a pendant rock,

• A forked mountain, or blue promontory With trees upon't, that nod unto the world, And mock our eyes with air. Thou'ft feen these figns,

They are black Vefper's pageants.
Eros. Ay, my Lord.

Ant. That, which is now a horse, even with a

.

thought

The Rack diflimns, and makes it indistinct

As water is in water.

Eros. It do's, my Lord.

Ant. My good knave, Eros, now thy Captain is Even fuch a body; here I'm Antony,

Yet cannot hold this vifible fhape, my knave.
I made these wars for Egypt; and the Queen,
Whofe heart, I thought, I had, (for fhe had mine;
Which, whilft it was mine, had annext unto't
A million more, now loft!) fhe, Eros, has
Packt cards with Cafar, and falfe play'd my Glory
Unto an enemy's triumph-

Packt cards with Cæfar, and falfe play'd my Glory

Nay,

Unto an enemy's triumph- -1 Shakespear has here, as ufual, taken his metaphor from a low trivial fubject; but has enobled it with much art, by fo contriving that the principal term in the fubject from whence the metaphor was taken, fhould belong to, and fuit the dignity of the subject to which the metaphor is transferred: thereby providing at once for the integrity of the figure, and the nobleness of the thought. And this by the word TRIUMPH, which either fignifies Octavius's conqueits, or what

we

Nay, weep not, gentle Eros, there is left us
Our felves to end our felves.

Oh, thy vile Lady!

Enter Mardian.

Sh' has robb'd me of my fword.
Mar. No, Antony!

My mistress lov'd thee, and her fortunes mingled
With thine entirely.

Ant. Hence, faucy Eunuch, peace, fhe hath betray'd me,

And the fhall die the death.

Mar. Death of one perfon can be paid but once,
And that she has difcharg'd. What thou would'st do,
Is done unto thy hand; the last she spake
Was, Antony! moft noble Antony!

Then in the midft a tearing Groan did break 'The name of Antony; it was divided.

• Between her heart and lips; the render'd life, Thy name fo buried in her.

Ant. Dead then;

Mar. Dead.

Ant. Unarm me, Eros, the long day's task is done, And we must sleep; that thou depart'ft hence fafe, Does pay thy labour richly; go. [Exit Mardian." Off, pluck off;

The feven-fold fhield of Ajax cannot keep

The battery from my heart. O cleave, my fides!
Heart, once be stronger than thy continent,
Crack thy frail cafe! apace, Eros, apace.

we now call, contractedly, the trump at cards, then called the triumph or the triumphing fort. This ufe of the word fitted the venerable Latimer with a quibbling text to a fermon, preached to the fcholars at Cambridge against card-playing, from Proverbs, as it is in the old tranflation, My fon be wife, and make the heart triumph; which fignified either, Make the heart glad, or make bearts trumps.

No more a Soldier-bruised pieces, go;

[Unarming bimfelf. You have been nobly borne;-from me a while

[Exit Eros.

I will o'ertake thee, Cleopatra, and
Weep for my pardon. So't must be, for now
All length is torture; fince the torch is out,
Lye down and stray no further. Now all labour
Marrs what it does, yea, very force entangles
Itself with ftrength; feal then, and all is done.
Eros!-I come, my Queen-Eros !-ftay for me,
Where fouls do couch on flowers, we'll hand in hand,
And with our fprightly port make the Ghosts gaze;
5. Dido and her Sichæus fhall want troops,

And all the haunt be ours.-Come, Eros, Eros!
Enter Eros.

Eros. What would my Lord?
Ant. Since Cleopatra died,

I've liv'd in fuch dishonour, that the Gods
Deteft my baseness. I, that with my fword

4-feal then, and all is done.] Metaphor taken from civil contracts, where, when all is agreed on, the fealing compleats the contract; fo he had determined to die, and nothing remain'd but to give the ftroke. The Oxford Editor not apprehending this, alters it to fleep then,

5 Dido and her ÆNEAS fhall want troops,] But Dido's fondnefs did not reach to the other world: She then defpised Æneas, and return'd to her old affection for SICH AUS.

Tandem corripuit fefe, atque inimica refugit
In Nemus umbriferum: Conjunx ubi priftinus illi
Refpondet curis, aquatque Sichæus amorem.
I should think, therefore, that the poet wrote,
Dido and her SICH AUS

And the rather, because the comparison of Antony to Sichæus is remarkably appofite. Sichaus was murder'd by his brother Pygmalion for his wealth, on which his wife Dido fled into Africa: So Antony was fought with and defeated at Actium by his brother Octavius, for his fhare of the dominion of the world, whereon Cleopatra fied from the victor's rage into Ægypt.

Quarter'd