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No better than a ftye? O fee, my women!
The crown o'th' earth doth melt
my Lord!
Oh, wither'd is the garland of the war,
The foldier's pole is fall'n: young boys and girls
Are level now with men; the odds is gone;

And there is nothing left remarkable,

Beneath the vifiting moon.

Char. Oh, quietness, Lady!

Iras. She's dead too, our fovereign.

Char. Lady!

Iras. Madam!

Char. Oh Madam, Madam, Madam

Iras. Royal Egypt! Emprefs!

Char. Peace, peace, Iras.

[She faints.

Cleo. No more but a meer woman, and commanded

By fuch poor paffion as the maid that milks,

And does the meanest chares!

It were for me

To throw my fcepter at th' injurious Gods;

To tell them, that this world did equal theirs,
'Till they had ftol'n our jewel. All's but naught:
Patience is fottish, and impatience does
Become a dog that's mad: Then is it fin,
To rush into the secret house of death,

Ere death dare come to us? how do you, women?
What, what, good cheer! why, how now, Charmian?
My noble girls? -ah, women, women! look,
Our lamp is spent, it's out-good Sirs, take heart,
We'll bury him: and then what's brave, what's noble,
Let's do it after the high Roman fashion,
And make death proud to take us.
This cafe of that huge spirit now is cold.
Ah, women, women! come, we have no friend
But refolution, and the briefeft end.

Come away,

[Exeunt, bearing off Antony's body.

ACT

ACT V.

SCENE, Cæfar's Camp.

(32) Enter Cæfar, Agrippa, Dolabella, Mecænas, Gallus, and Train.

CESAR.

NO to him, Dolabella, bid him yield;

G Being fo frustrate, tell him,

He mocks the pauses that he makes.

Dol. Cæfar, I fhali. (33)

[Exit Dolabella.

(32) Enter Cæfar, Agrippa, Dolabella, and MenAS.] But Menas and Menecrates, we may remember, were the two famous Pirates link'd with Sextus Pompeins, and who assisted him to infeft the Italian Coast. We no where learn, exprefly in the Play, that Menas ever attach'd himself to Octavius's Party. Notwithstanding the old Folio's concur in marking the Entrance thus, yet in the two places in the Scene, where this Character is made to speak, they have mark'd in the Margin, MEC. fo that, as Dr Thirlby fagaciously conje&ur'd, we must cashier Menas, and substitute Mecanas in his Room. Menas, indeed, deferted to Cafar no less than twice, and was preferr'd by him. But then we are to confider, Alexandria was taken, and Antony kill'd himself, Anno U. C. 723. Menas made the fecond Revolt over to Augustus, U. C. 717: and the next Year was flain at the Siege of Belgrade in Pannonia, five Years before the Death of Antony.

(33) Dol. Cæfar, I shall.] I make no Doubt, but it should be mark'd here, that Dolabella goes out. "Tis reasonable to imagine, he should presently depart, upon Cafar's Command; fo that the Speeches, placed to him in the Sequel of this Scene, must be transferr'd to Agrippa, or he is introduced as a Mute. Befides, that Dolabella fhould be gone out, appears from This, that when Cafar asks for him. he recollects that he had fent him on Bufinefs,

Enter

Enter Dercetas, with the fword of Antony.

Caf. Wherefore is that? and what art thou, that

dar'ft

Appear thus to us?

Der. I am call'd Dercetas ;

Mark Antony I ferv'd, who beft was worthy
Best to be ferv'd; whilft he stood up, and spoke,
He was my mafter, and I wore my life

To spend upon his haters. If thou please
To take me to thee, as I was to him
I'll be to Cæfar: If thou pleasest not,
I yield thee up my life.

Caf. What is't thou fay'ft?

Der. I fay, oh, Cæfar, Antony is dead.

Cef. The breaking of fo great a thing should make A greater crack. The round world should have shook Lions into civil ftreets, and citizens

Into their dens

-The death of Antony

Is not a fingle doom, in that name lay
A moiety of the world.

Der. He is dead, Cæfar,

Not by a publick minifter of juftice,

Nor by a hired knife; but that self-hand,

Which writ his honour in the acts it did,

Hath with the courage, which the heart did lend it,.
Splitted the heart. This is his fword,

I robb'd his wound of it: behold it ftain'd

With his moft noble blood.

Caf. Look you fad, friends:

The Gods rebuke me, but it is a tiding
To wash the eyes of Kings!

Agr. And frange it is,

That nature muft compel us to lament

Our moft perfified deeds.

Mec. His taints and honours

Weigh'd equal in him.

Agr. A rarer fpirit never

Did fteer humanity; but you Gods will give us
Some faults to make us men. Cæfar is touch'd.

Mec

Mec. When fuch a fpacious mirror's fet before him, He needs muft fee himself.

Caf. O Antony !

I've follow'd thee to this

Diseases in our bodies.

-but we do lance I must perforce

Have fhewn to thee fuch a declining day,
Or look on thine; we could not stall together
In the whole world. But yet let me lament
With tears as fovereign as the blood of hearts,
That thou my brother, my competitor
In top of all defign, my mate in Empire,
Friend and companion in the front of war,
The arm of mine own body, and the heart
Where mine its thoughts did kindle; that our ftars,
Unreconcileable, fhould have divided

Our equalnefs to this. Hear me, good friends,
But I will tell you at fome meeter feafon.-
The bufinefs of this man looks out of him,
We'll hear him what he fays. Whence are you?
Enter an Egyptian.

Egypt. A poor Egyptian yet; the Queen my miftrefs, Confin'd in all she has, (her monument)

Of thy intents desires instruction;

That the preparedly may frame herself
To th' way she's forc'd to.

Caf. Bid her have good heart;

She foon shall know of us, by fome of ours,

How honourably and how kindly we

Determine for her. For Cefar cannot live,

To be ungentle.

Egypt. May the Gods preferve thee!

Caf. Come hither, Proculeius; go, and fay,

We purpose her no fhame; give her what comforts
The quality of her paffion fhall require ;

Left in her greatnefs by fome mortal stroke
She do defeat us: for her life in Rome
Would be eternal in our triumph. Go,
And with your fpeedieft bring us what the fays,
And how you find of her.

[Exit.

Pro

Pro. Cafar, I fhall.

[Exit Proculeius.

Caf. Gallus, go you along;-where's Dolabella, To fecond Proculeius?

All. Dolabella!

[Exit Gallus.

Caf. Let him alone; for I remember now,
How he's employ'd: he shall in time be ready.
Go with me to my Tent, where you fhall fee
How hardly I was drawn into this war;
How calm and gentle I proceeded still
In all my writings. Go with me, and fee
What I can fhew in this.

[Exeunt

SCENE changes to the Monument.

Enter Cleopatra, Charmian, Iras, Mardian, and Se

Cleo.

M

leucus, above.

Y defolation does begin to make
A better life; 'tis paltry to be Cafar:
Not being fortune, he's but fortune's knave,
A minifter of her Will, and it is great
To do that thing, that ends all other deeds;
Which fhackles accidents, and bolts up change;
Which fleeps, and never palates more the Dung:
The beggar's nurse, and Cæfar's.

Enter Proculeius.

Pro. Cafar fends Greeting to the Queen of Egypt, And bids thee study on what fair demands

Thou mean'it to have him grant thee.

Cleo. What's thy name?

Pro. My name is Proculeius.

Cleo. Antony

Did tell me of you, bade me truft you, but

I do not greatly care to be deceiv'd,

That have no use for trufting. If your mafter

Would have a Queen his beggar, you must tell him,
That Majefty, to keep decorum, muft

No lefs beg than a Kingdom; if he please
To give me conquer'd Egypt for my Son,
He gives me fo much of mine own, as I

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