Name Cleopatra as fhe's call'd in Rome. Rail thou in Fulvia's phrafe, and taunt my faults Mef. At your noble pleasure. Ant. From Sicyon, how the news? fpeak there. Ant. Let him appear; Thefe ftrong Egyptian fetters I must break, Enter another Meffenger, with a Letter. 2 Mef. Fulvia thy wife is dead. Ant. Where died the ? 2 Mef. In Sicyon. Her length of fickness, with what else more serious Ant. Forbear me.[Exit fecond Messenger There's a great fspirit gone! thus did I defire it. (7) What our Contempts do often hurl from us, We wish it ours again; the prefent pleasure, By revolution lowring, does become The oppofite of it felf; fhe's good, being gone; Enter Enobarbus. Eno. What's your pleasure, Sir? (7) What our Contempts do often burl from us, We wish it ours again;] If this be not imitation, it is certainly fuch a resemblance of Horace, as would be determin'd imitation from a pen of known and acknowledg'd learning. Virtutem incolumem odimus, · Sublatam ex oculis quærimus invidi. Lib. III. Ode 24. Ant. Ant. I muft with hafte from hence. We fee, Eno. Why then, we kill all our Women. how mortal an unkindness is to them; if they fuffer our departure, Death's the word. Ant. I must be gone. Eno. Under a compelling occafion, let women die. It were pity to caft them away for nothing; though between them and a great cause, they should be esteem'd nothing. Cleopatra, catching but the leaft noife of this, dies inftantly; I have seen her die twenty times upon far poorer moment: I do think, there is mettle in death, which commits fome loving act upon her ; the hath fuch a celerity in dying. Ant. She is cunning paft man's thought. Eno Alack, Sir, no; her paffions are made of nothing but the finest part of pure love. We cannot call her winds and waters, fighs and tears: they are greater forms and tempefts than almanacks can report. This cannot be cunning in her: if it be, she makes a show'r of rain as well as five. Ant. Would I had never feen her! Ene. Oh, Sir, you had then left unfeen a wonderful piece of work, which, not to have been bleft withal, would have difcredited your travel. Ant. Fulvia is dead. Eno. Sir! Ant. Fulvia is dead. Aut. Dead. Eno. Why, Sir, give the Gods a thankful facrifice: when it pleafeth their Deities to take the wife of a man from him, it fhews to man the tailor of the earth: comforting therein, that when old robes are worn out, there are members to make new. If there were no more women but Fulvia, then had you indeed a cut, and the cafe were to be lamented: this grief is crowned with confolation; your old fmock brings forth a new petticoat, and, indeed, the tears live in an onion that fhould water this forrow. Ant. The bufinefs, fhe hath broached in the ftate, Cannot endure my abfence. Eno. And the business, you have broach'd here, cannot be without you; efpecially that of Cleopatra's, which wholly depends on your abode. Ant. No more light anfwers: let our officers Have notice what we purpose. I fhall break The caufe of our expedience to the Queen, And get her leave to part. For not alone The death of Fulvia, with more urgent touches, Do strongly speak t'us; but the letters too Of many our contriving friends in Rome Petition us at home. Sextus Pompeius Hath giv'n the dare to Cæfar, and commands The empire of the Sea. Our flipp'ry people, (Whose love is never link'd to the deserver, Till his deferts are paft) begin to throw Pompey the Great and all his dignities Upon his Son; who high in name and pow'r, Higher than both in blood and life, ftands up For the main foldier; whofe quality going on, The fides o'th' world may danger. Much is breeding; (8) Which, like the Courfer's hair, hath yet but life, And not a ferpent's poifon. Say our pleasure, To fuch whofe place is under us, requires (8) Which, like the Courfer's bair, &c.] This alludes to an old opinion, which obtain'd among the vulgar, but which was too abfurd to have the fanction either of philofophers or natural historians, that the hair of a horfe in corrupted water would take life, and become an animal. Perhaps, I may have met with cur author's oracle for this abfurd opinion. Holingshead, in his defcription of England, Vol. I. p. 224, has this remark. "I might finally tell you how that in fenny rivers fides if you cut a turf, and lay it with the grafs down"wards upon the earth, in fuch fort as the water may touch it as it paffeth by, you fhall have a brood of eels; it would feem a wonder, and yet it is believed with no lefs affurance of fome, than That "an borse hair, laid in a pail full of the like water, will in a fort "time fir and become a living creature. But fith the certainty of "these things is rather proved by few, than the certainty of them "known to many, I let it pafs at this time.". -Shakespeare, as a poet, had nothing to do with the truth of the experiment, fo he could fornith out a fine fimile from the received tradition. Our Our quick remove from hence. [Exeunt. Eno. I'll do't. Enter Cleopatra, Charmian, Alexas, and Iras. Cleo. Where is he? Char. I did not fee him fince. Cleo. See,where he is, who's with him, what he do's.→ I did not fend you :- -If you find him fad, Say, I am dancing: if in mirth, report, That I am fudden fick. Quick, and return. Char. Madam, methinks, if you did love him dearly, You do not hold the method to enforce The like from him. [thing. Cleo. What should I do, I do not? Char. In each thing give him way, cross him in noCleo. Thou teachest, like a fool: the way to lose him. Char. Tempt him not so, too far. I wish, forbear ; In time we hate that, which we often fear. Enter Antony. But here comes Antony. Cleo. I am fick, and fullen. Ant. I am forry to give breathing to my purpose. Cleo. Help me away, dear Charmian, I fhall fall; It cannot be thus long, the fides of nature Will not fuftain it. Ant. Now, my dearest Queen, [Seeming to faint. Cleo. Pray you, stand farther from me. Ant. What's the matter? Cleo. I know, by that fame eye,there's fome good news What fays the marry'd woman? you may go; Would, the had never given you leave to come! Let her not fay, 'tis I that keep you here, I have no pow'r upon you: hers you are. Cleo. Oh, never was there Queen So mightily betray'd; yet at the firft Ant. Cleopatra, Cleo. Why fhould I think, you can be mine, and true, Though you with fwearing thake the throned Gods, Who have been falfe to Fulvia? riotous madness, To be entangled with thefe mouth-made vows, Which break themselves in fwearing! Ant. Moft fweet Queen! Cleo. Nay, pray you, feek no colour for your going, But bid farewel, and go: when you fued staying, Then was the time for words; no going, then ; Eternity was in our lips and eyes, Blifs in our brows' bent, none our parts fo poor, Art turn'd the greatest liar. Ant. How now, lady? Cleo. I would I had thy inches, thou fhould't know, There were a heart in Ægypt. Ant. Hear me, Queen; The strong neceflity of time commands Our services awhile; but my full heart Breeds fcrupulous faction; the hated, grown to ftrength, Into the hearts of fuch as have not thriv'n Upon the present state, whofe numbers threaten ; And Quietnefs, grown fick of Reft, would purge By any desperate change. My more particular, (9) (9) -My more particular, And that which moft with you should save my going, And Thus all the more modern editions: the first and fecond folio's read, fafe: all corruptedly. Antony is giving several reasons to Cleopatra, which make his departure from Egypt abfolutely neceffary; most of them, reafons of ftate; but the death of Fulvia, his wife, was a particular and private call, which demanded his prefence in Italy. But the printed copies would rather make us believe, that Fulvia's death should |