3 Char. I had rather heat my liver with drinking. Alex. Nay, hear him.

Char. Good now, fome excellent fortune! Let me be married to three Kings in a forenoon, and widow them all; Let me have a child at fifty, to whom Herod of fewry may do homage! Find me, to marry me with Octavius Cæfar, and companion me with my miftrefs.

Sooth. You fhall out-live the Lady whom you ferve. Char. Oh, excellent! I love long life better than figs.

Sooth. You have feen and proved a fairer former fortune, than that which is to approach.

Char. Then, belike, my children fhall have no

names;

3 I had rather beat my liver-] To know why the lady is fo averfe from heating her liver, it must be remembred, that a heated liver is fuppofed to make a pimpled face.

words of the fpeaker were tranfferred to the affairs of the hearer, as in the cafe of the fame Paulus before his conqueft of Macedon. Itaque rebus divinis que publicè fierent, ut faverent linguis, imperabatur. Cicero de Divin. l. 1.

WARBURTON.

5 Then, belike, my children shall

have no names;] i. e. be of no note, a Greek mode of expreffion; in which language, dvos fignifies both double-named and famous, because anciently famous men had an agnomen taken from their exploits. WARB.

4 Char. Oh, excellent! I love long life better than figs.] Here. Shakespeare has copied ancient manners with as much beauty as propriety: This being one of thofe ominous fpeeches, in which the ancients were fo fuperftitious: For the afpicks, by which Charmin died, and after her mistress, were conveyed in a basket of figs. Omens (a fuperftition which Pythagoras first taught the Greeks) were the undefigned confequence of words cafually spoken. The words were fometimes taken from the speaker, and applied by the hearers to the fpeaker's own affairs, as in the cafe of Paulus Emilius, after his conqueft of Macedon. Sometimes again the

I am not inclined to believe that there is fo much learning in either of the lady's fpeeches. She here only fays, If I have already had the best of my fortune, then I fuppofe I shall never name children, that is, I am never to be married. However, tell me the truth, tell me, how many boys and wenches?

Pr'ythee,

6

Pr'ythee, how many boys and wenches muft I have? Sooth. If every of your wishes had a womb, and foretel every wish, a million.

Char. Out, fool! 1 forgive thee for a witch.

Alex. You think, none but your fheets are privy to your wishes.

Char. Nay, come: Tell Iras hers.

Alex. We'll know all our fortunes.

Eno. Mine, and most of our fortunes to-night, fhall be to go drunk to bed.

Iras. There's a palm prefages chastity, if nothing elfe.

Char. Ev'n as the o'erflowing Nilus prefageth famine.

Iras. Go, you wild bedfellow, you cannot foothfay. Char. Nay, if any oily palm be not a fruitful pronoftication, I cannot fcratch mine ear. Pr'ythee, tell her but a workyday fortune.

Sooth. Your fortunes are alike.

Iras. But how, but how? Give me particulars.
Sooth. I have said.

Iras. Am I not an inch of fortune better than fhe?

Char. Well, if you were but an inch of fortune better than I, where would you chufe it? Iras. Not in my Hufband's nofe.

• If every of your wishes had a womb, And foretold every wish, a million. This nonfenfe fhould be reformed thus,

which is made with great acute-
nefs; yet the original reading
may, I think, ftand. If you had
wombs as you
will have
wishes, and I should foretel all thofe

as many

If ev'ry of your wishes had a wilkes, I should foretel a million of

womb, And fertil ev'ry wish,

WARBURTON. For foretel, in ancient editions, the latter copies have foretold. Foretel favours the emendation,

children. It is an ellipfis very frequent in converfation; I should fhame you, and tell all; that is, and if I should tell all. And is for and if, which was anciently, and is ftill provincially used for if.

Char.

7 Char. Our worfer thoughts heav'ns mend! Alexas,

-Come, his fortune; his fortune.—O, let him marry a Woman that cannot go, fweet Ifis, I befeech thee; and let her die too, and give him a worfe; and let worse follow worst, 'till the worst of all follow him laughing to the Grave, fifty-fold a Cuckold! Good Ifis, 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 is, keep decorum, and fortune him accordingly.

Char. Amen!

Alex. Lo, now! if it lay in their hands to make me a cuckold, they would make themselves whores, but they'd do't.

7 Char. Our orfer thoughts heav'ns mend.

Alex. Come, his fortune, his fortune. O, let him marry a woman, &c.] Whose 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 obfervation of all the editors; efpecially, of the fagacious Mr. Pope, who has made this declaration, That if, throughout the plays, had all the fpeeches been printed without the very names of the perfons, he believes one might have applied them with certainty to every Speaker. 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 fays himself, We'll know all our fortunes. Well; the foothfayer begins with the women; and fome jokes pafs upon the fubject of husbands and chastity: After which, the women hoping for the fatisfaction of having fomething to laugh at in Alexas's fortune, call him to hold out his hand, and wish heartily he may have the prognoftication of cuckoldom upon him. The whole fpeech, therefore, must be plac'd to Charmian. There needs no ftronger proof of this being a true correction, than the observation which Alexas immediately fubjoins on their wishes and zeal to hear him abused.

THEOBALD.

SCENE

SCENE III.

Enter Cleopatra.

Eno. Hufh! 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.

Cleo. Seek him, and bring him hither. Where's Alexas?

Alex. Here at your fervice. My Lord approaches.

Enter Antony with a Messenger, and Attendants. Cleo. We will not look upon him. Go with us.

[Exeunt Mef. Fulvia thy Wife firft came into the field. Ant. Against my brother Lucius ?

Mef. Ay,

But foon that war had end, and the time's state
Made friends of them, jointing their force 'gainft

Cafar,

Whofe better iffue in the war from Italy

Upon the first encounter, drave them.

Ant. 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 him, as he flatter'd.

Mef. Labienus (this is ftiff news)

8

Hath, with his Parthian force, extended Afia;
From Euphrates his conquering banner shook,
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 Cleopatra as fhe's call'd in Rome.

Rail thou in Fulvia's phrafe, and taunt my faults
With fuch full licence, as both truth and malice
Have power to utter. Oh, then we bring forth
weeds,

9 When our quick winds lie ftill; and our ill, told

Us,

Is as our earing. Fare thee well a while.

Mef. At your noble pleasure.

Ant. From Sicyon, how the news? Speak there.
Mef. The Man from Sicyon.-Is there fuch an one?

[Exit first Messenger.