Char. Well, if you were but an inch of fortune better than I; where would you chuse it? Iras. Not in my hufband's nose. (6) Char. Our worfer thoughts heav'ns mend! Alexus, Come, his fortune; his fortune. -O, let him marry a Woman that cannot go, fweet fis, I befeech thee; and let her die too, and give him a worse; and let worfe follow worse, 'till the worst of all follow him laughing to his grave, fifty-fold a Cuckold! good fis, hear me this prayer, though thou deny me a matter of more weight; good Ifis, I beseech thee! Iras. Amen, dear Goddefs, hear that prayer of the people! for, as it is a heart-breaking to fee a handfome man loofe-wiv'd, fo it is a deadly forrow to behold a foul knave uncuckolded; therefore, dear Ifis, keep decorum, and fortune him accordingly. Char. Amen! (6) Char. Our worfer thoughts heav'ns mend. Alex. Come, bis fortune, bis fortune. O, let bim marry a woman, &c.] Whofe fortune does Alexas call out to have told? But, in fhort, this I dare pronounce to be fo palpable and fignal a tranfpofition, that I cannot but wonder it should have flipt the observation of all the editors: efpecially, of the fagacious Mr. Pope, who has made this declaration, That if, throughout the plays, had all the speeches been printed without the very names of the perfons, he believes, one might bave applied them with certainty to every fpeaker. But in how many inftances has Mr. Pope's want of judgment falfified this opinion? The fact is evidently this. Alexas brings a fortune-teller to Iras and Charmian, and says himself, We'll know all our fortunes. Well; the foothfayer begins with the women; and fome jokes pass upon the fubject of husbands and chastity: after which, the women, hoping for the fatisfaction of having something to laugh at in Alexas's fortune, call to him to hold out his hand, and wish heartily he may have the prognostication of ruckoldom upon him. The whole speech, therefore, must be placed to Charmian, thus: Char. Our worfer thoughts heav'ns mend! Alexas, fortune; his fortune: &c. -come, bis There needs no ftronger proof of this being a true correction, than the obfervation which Alexas immediately fubjoins on their wishes and zeal to hear him abused. Alex. Lo, now! if it lay in their bands to make me a cuckold, they would make themfelves whores but they'd do it. I propos'd this tranfpofition in the Appendix to my SHAKESPEARE Reflor'd, and Mr. Pope, notwithstanding his first infallible opinion, has acceded to it in his laft edition of our poet, Alex. Lo, now! if it lay in their hands to make me a cuckold, they would make themselves whores, but they'd do't. Enter Cleopatra. Eno. Huh! here comes Antony. Char. Not he, the Queen. Cleo. Saw you my Lord? Eno. No, Lady. Cleo. Was he not here? Char. No, Madam. Cleo. He was difpos'd to mirth, but on the fudden A Roman thought hath ftruck him. Enobarbus,— Eno. Madam. [Alexas? Cleo. Seek him, and bring him hither; where's Alex. Here at your fervice; my Lord approaches. Enter Antony with a Messenger, and Attendants. Mef. Fulvia thy wife first came into the field. [Exeunt. [ftate Mef. Ay, but foon that war had end, and the time's Made friends of them, jointing their force 'gainft Cæfar: Whofe better iffue in the war from Italy, Upon the first encounter, drave them. Art. Well, what worst? Mef. The nature of bad news infects the teller. Ant. When it concerns the fool or coward; on.Things, that are paft, are done, with me. 'Tis thus ; Who tells me true, though in the tale lie death, I hear, as if he flatter'd. Mef. Labienus (this is ftiff news) Hath, with his Parthian force, extended Afia-; From Syria to Lydia, and Ionia ; Whilft Ant. Antony, thou wouldst fay Mef. Oh, my Lord! Ant. Speak to me home, mince not the gen'ral tongue; Name Name Cleopatra as the'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 Messenger, with a Letter. 2 Mef. Fulvia thy wife is dead. Ant. Where died fhe? 2 Mef. In Sicyon. Her length of fickness, with what else more serious Ant. Forbear me.- The oppofite of it felf; fhe's good, being gone; 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, 8 Lib. III. Ode 24. Ant. Ant. I muft with hafte from hence. Eno. Why, then we kill all our Women. We fee, how mortal an unkindness is to them; if they suffer 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 caufe, they should be efteem'd nothing. Cleopatra, catching but the leaft noife of this, dies inftantly; I have feen 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 past man's thought.. Eno. Alack, Sir, no; her paffions are made of nơthing but the finest part of pure love. We cannot call her winds and waters, fighs and tears: they are greater ftorms and tempefts than almanacks can report. This cannot be cunning in her: if it be, fhe makes a show'r of rain as well as Jove. Ant. Would I had never feen her! Eno. 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. Eno. Fulvia? Ant. Dead. Eno. Why, Sir, give the Gods a thankful facrifice: when it pleaseth 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. VOL. VII. E Ant. Ant. The bufinefs, fhe hath broached in the state, 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 Petition us at home. Hath giv'n the dare to Cafar, and commands (8) Which, like the Courfer's hair, &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 horse in corrupted water would take life, and become an animal. Perhaps, I may have met with our author's oracle for this abfurd opinion. Holingfhead, 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 "pafleth by, you fhall have a brood of eels; it would feem a won"der, and yet it is believed with no lefs affurance of fome, than That 66 an borfe-bair, laid in a pail full of the like water, will in a short 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 furnish out a fine fimile from the received tradition. Ou |