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Char. Is this the man? Is't you, Sir, that know things!

Sooth. In Nature's infinite Book of Secrecy,

A little I can read.

Alex. Shew him your hand.

Eno. Bring in the banquet quickly: wine enough, Cleopatra's health to drink.

Char. Good Sir, give me good fortune.

Sooth. I make not, but forefee.

Char. Pray then, foresee me one.

far fairer than you are.

Sooth. You shall be yet
Char. He means, in flesh.

Iras. No, you fhall paint when you are old.
Char. Wrinkles forbid !

Alex. Vex not his prefcience, be attentive.

Char. Hufh !

Sooth. You fhall be more beloving, than beloved.
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 Hered of Jewry 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;

Pr'ythee, how many boys and wenches muft I have? Sooth. (2) If every of your wishes had a womb,

(2) If every of your Wishes had a Tomb,

And.

And foretold every Wifs, a Million.] What foretold ? If the les forte di

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Char. Out, fool! I 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 chafity, if nothing else. Char. Ev'n as the o'erflowing Nilus prefageth famine. Iras. Go, you wild bedfellow, you cannot foothfay. Char. Nay, if an oily palm he not a fruitful prognoftication, I cannot fcratch mine ear. Pr'ythee, tell her but a workyday fortune.

Sooth. Your fortunes are alike.

Iras. But how, but how?

Sooth. I have faid.

give me particulars.

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 Husband's nose.

Char. (3) Our worfer thoughts heav'ns mend! AleCome, his fortune; bis fortune.

xas,

O, let him

however it has pafs'd hitherto upon the Editors. It makes the Word Womb abfolutely fuperfluous, if only the telling her Wishes beforehand would help her to the Children. The Poet certainly wrote,

If ev'ry of your Wishes bad a Womb

And fertil ev'ry Wish,

(3) Char. Our worfer Thoughts Heav'ns mend.

Alex. Come, bis Fortune, his 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 Obfervation of all the Editors: efpecially, of the Sagacious Mr. Pope, who has made this Declaration, That if, throughout the Plays, bad all the Speeches been printed without the very Names

him marry a Woman that cannot go, fweet Ifis, I befeech thee; and let her die too, and give him a worse; and let worse follow worst, 'till the worst of all follow him laughing to his Grave, fifty-fold a Cuckold! good Ifis, hear me this prayer, though thou deny me a matter of more weight; good Ifis, I befeech thee!

Iras. Amen, dear Goddefs, hear that prayer of the people! for, as it is a heart-breaking to fee a handfome man loose-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!

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

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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,

of the Perfons, He believes, one might have applied them with Certainty to every Speaker. But in how many Instances has Mr. Pope's Want of Judgment falfified this Cpinion? 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 Soothfayer begins with the Women; and fome Jokes pafs upon the Subject of Hufbands and Chaftity: After which, the Women hoping for the Satisfaction of having fomething to laugh at in Alexas's Fortune, call to him to hold out his Hand, and with heartily he may have the Prognoftication of Cuckoldom upon him. The whole Speech, therefore, muft be plac'd to Charmian. 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.

Eno.

Eno. Madam.

Cleo. Seek him, and bring him hither; where's A

lexas?

Alex. Here at your fervice; my Lord approaches.

Enter Antony with a Mejenger, and Attendants.

Cleo. We will not look upon him; go with us.

[Exeunt.

Mf. 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 ftate

Made friends of them, jointing their force 'gainft Cæfar: Whose 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, as if he flatter'd.

Mef. Labienus (this is ftiff news)

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,
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? fpeak there.
Mel. The Man from Sicyon, is there fuch an one?

5

[Exit first Meffenger.

Attend

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Attend. He stays upon your will.

Ant. Let him appear;

Thefe ftrong Egyptian fetters I must break,
Or lofe myfelf in dotage. What are you?

Enter another Messenger, 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 ferious
Importeth thee to know, this bears.

Ant. Forbear me.

[Exit fecond Meffenger.
There's a great spirit gone! thus did I defire it.
What our contempts do often hurl from us,
We wish it ours again; the prefent pleasure,
By revolution lowring, does become

The oppofite of itfelf; fhe's good, being gone;
The hand could pluck her back, that fhov'd her on.
I muft from this enchanting Queen break off.
Ten thousand harms, more than the ills I know,
My idleness doth hatch. How now, Enobarbus?

Enter Enobarbus.

Eno. What's your pleasure, Sir?

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 caufe, 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; fhe hath fuch a celerity in dying.

Ant. She is cunning paft man's thought.

Eno. Alack, Sir, no; her paffions are made of no

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