Char.

Madam, I trust, not so.
Cleo. Thou, eunuch, Mardian-
Mar.

What's your highness' pleasure ?
Cleo. Not now to hear thee sing: I take no pleasure
In aught an eunuch has. 'Tis well for thee,
That, being unseminar'd, thy freer thoughts
May not fly forth of Egypt. Hast thou affections ?

Mar. Yes, gracious madam.
Cleo. Indeed ?

Mar. Not in deed, madam ; for I can do nothing,
But what in deed is honest to be done;
Yet have I fierce affections, and think
What Venus did with Mars,
Cleo.

Oh, Charmian!
Where think'st thou he is now ? Stands he, or sits he?
Or does he walk? or is he on his horse?
Oh happy horse, to bear the weight of Antony !
Do bravely, horse, for wot’st thou whom thou mov'st ?
The demi-Atlas of this earth, the arm
And burgonet of men'.—He's speaking now,
Or murmuring, “Where's my serpent of old Nile ?”
For so he calls me. Now I feed myself
With most delicious poison :—think on me,
That am with Phæbus' amorous pinches black,
And wrinkled deep in time? Broad-fronted Cæsar”,
When thou wast here above the ground, I was
A morsel for a monarch; and great Pompey
Would stand, and make his eyes grow in my brow:
There would he anchor his aspect, and die
With looking on his life.

Enter ALEXAS.
Alex.

Sovereign of Egypt, hail !
Cleo. How much unlike art thou Mark Antony;
Yet, coming from him, that great medicine hath
With his tinct gilded thee.-
How goes it with my brave Mark Antony?

Alex. Last thing he did, dear queen,

He kiss'd,—the last of many doubled kisses,-
This orient pearl his speech sticks in my heart.

Cleo. Mine ear must pluck it thence.
Alex.

Good friend, quoth he,
Say, “the firm Roman to great Egypt sends
This treasure of an oyster; at whose foot,
To mend the petty present, I will piece
Her opulent throne with kingdoms : all the east,”
Say thou, “shall call her mistress." So he nodded,
And soberly did mount an arm-girt steed',
Who neigh'd so high, that what I would have spoke
Was beastly dumb’d by him.
Cleo.

What! was he sad, or merry ? Alex. Like to the time o' the year between the extremes Of hot and cold: he was nor sad, nor merry.

Cleo. Oh well-divided disposition !-Note him,
Note him, good Charmian, 'tis the man; but note him :
He was not sad, for he would shine on those
That make their looks by his : he was not merry,
Which seem'd to tell them, his remembrance lay
In Egypt with his joy ; but between both :
Oh heavenly mingle !—Be'st thou sad, or merry,
The violence of either thee becomes,
So does it no man else :-Met’st thou my posts ?

Alex. Ay, madam, twenty several messengers.
Why do you send so thick?
Cleo.

Who's born that day,
When I forget to send to Antony,
Shall die a beggar.-Ink and paper, Charmian.-

3 And soberly did mount an arm-Girt steed,] “ Arm-gaunt" is the epithet applied to Antony's steed in the old copies; but it is amended to “arm-girt" in

" the corr. fo. 1632, which accords with Sir T. Hanmer's suggestion : “arm-girt” is, of course, girded with armour. The change proposed in the next line but one, viz. boastfully for “beastly,” is not to be admitted so readily, inasmuch as “ beastly" is perfectly intelligible, although boastfully (which may easily be pronounced in the time of a dissyllable) seems to afford a much superior sense in reference to the “ high and boastful neighs " of a war-horse. Still we make no alteration, though we do not for a moment admit the applicability of the Rev. Mr. Dyce's quotations, merely because they happen to contain the word “ beastly." He generally appears to fancy that a passage must be apposite, if he can but find in it the word in dispute, however differently employed. · Dumb’d” is printed dumbe in the folios, but Theobald properly amended it to "dumb’d," and in “ Pericles,” A. v. to dumb, is used by Gower as a verb.

.

66

Welcome, my good Alexas.—Did I, Charmian,
Ever love Cæsar so ?
Char.

Oh, that brave Cæsar!
Cleo. Be chok'd with such another emphasis !
Say, the brave Antony.
Char.

The valiant Cæsar !
Cleo. By Isis, I will give thee bloody teeth,
If thou with Cæsar paragon again
My man of men.
Char.

By your most gracious pardon,
I sing but after you. .
Cleo.

My sallad days,
When I was green in judgment :-cold in blood",
To say as I said then !—But come, away;
Get me ink and

paper :
He shall have every day a several greeting,
Or I'll unpeople Egypt.

܀

[E.reunt.

ACT II.' SCENE I.

Messina. A Room in POMPEY's House.

Enter POMPEY, MENECRATES, and MENAS.
Pom. If the great gods be just, they shall assist
The deeds of justest men.
Mene.

Know, worthy Pompey,
That what they do delay, they not deny.

Pom. Whiles we are suitors to their throne, decays
The thing we sue for.
Mene.

We, ignorant of ourselves,
Beg often our own harms, which the wise powers
Deny us for our good; so find we profit
By losing of our prayers.
Pom.

I shall do well :

cold in blood,] Boswell would make these words apply to Cleopatra, as if she had been “cold in blood” when she was young, and was hot in blood now she had grown older : "cold in blood” is clearly addressed to Charmian, by way of reproof, and so Warburton considered, varying judiciously from the old punctuation, which affords, not only a tame and spiritless, but an inconsistent meaning.

The people love me, and the sea is mine;
My powers are crescent, and my auguring hope
Says, it will come to the full. Mark Antony
In Egypt sits at dinner, and will make
No wars without doors : Cæsar gets money, where
He loses hearts : Lepidus flatters both,
Of both is flatter'd; but he neither loves,
Nor either cares for him.
Men.

Cæsar and Lepidus
Are in the field : a mighty strength they carry.

Pom. Where have you this ? 'tis false.
Men.

From Silvius, sir.
Pom. He dreams: I know, they are in Rome together,
Looking for Antony. But all the charms of love,
Salt Cleopatra, soften thy wan'd lip?!
Let witchcraft join with beauty, lust with both:
Tie up the libertine in a field of feasts,
Keep his brain fuming; Epicurean cooks,
Sharpen with cloyless sauce his appetite,
That sleep and feeding may prorogue his honour,
Even till a Lethe'd dulness.—How now, Varrius!

a

Enter VARRIUS.

Var. This is most certain that I shall deliver.
Mark Antony is every hour in Rome
Expected; since he went from Egypt, 'tis
A space for farther travel.
Pom.

I could have given less matter

A better ear.-Menas, I did not think,
This amorous surfeiter would have don'd his helm
For such a petty war: his soldiership
Is twice the other twain. But let us rear
The higher our opinion, that our stirring
Can from the lap of Egypt's widow pluck
The ne'er lust-wearied Antony.
Men.

I cannot hope,
Cæsar and Antony shall well greet together :
His wife that's dead did trespasses to Cæsar;
His brother warr’d upon him ®, although, I think,
Not mov'd by Antony.
Pom.

I know not, Menas,
How lesser enmities may give way to greater.
Were't not that we stand up against them all,
'Twere pregnant they should square' between themselves;
For they have entertained cause enough
To draw their swords : but how the fear of us
May cement their divisions, and bind up
The petty difference, we yet not know.
Be it as our gods will have't! It only stands
Our lives upon ', to use our strongest hands.
Come, Menas.

[Excunt.

SCENE II.

Rome. A Room in the House of LEPIDUS.

Enter ENOBARBUS and LEPIDUS.

Lep. Good Enobarbus, 'tis a worthy deed,
And shall become you well, to entreat your captain
To soft and gentle speech.

9

8 His brother WARR'd upon him,] Misprinted “wan'd upon him " in the folio, 1623; but “warr'd upon him” in the folio, 1632.

they should SQUARE] i. e. Quarrel : see "Midsummer-Night's Dream,” A. ii. sc. I, Vol. i.

p.

199. In one of the Earl of Leicester's Letters, Harl. MS. No. 285, fo. 66, we read, " How thinges haue bredde this lytle square between these two so well affected princes, I cannott tell.”

It only stands Our lives upon,] Meaning, “it concerns our lives." In “ Richard II." (Vol. iii. p. 259), the expression, “ It stands your grace upon," means it depends upon your grace; and elsewhere the same idiom occurs with the same import.

1