Petition us at home: Sextus Pompeius
Hath given the dare to Cæsar, and commands
The empire of the sea: our slippery people
(Whose love is never link'd to the deserver,
Till his deserts are past,) begin to throw
Pompey the great, and all his dignities,
Upon his son; who, high in name and power,
Higher than both in blood and life, stands up
For the main soldier: whose quality, going on,
The sides o'the world may danger: Much is breeding,
Which, like the courser's hair," hath yet but life,
And not a serpent's poison. Say our pleasure,
To such whose place is under us,' requires
Our quick remove from hence.

Eno. I shall do't.

[Exeunt.

SCENE III.

Enter CLEOPATRA, CHARMIAN, IRAS, and ALEXAS.

Cleo. Where is he?

Char.

I did not see him since.

Cleo. See where he is, who's with him, what he does:I did not send you;*-If you find him sad,

Say, I am dancing; if in mirth, report

That I am sudden sick: Quick, and return.

[Exit ALEX.

Char. Madam, methinks, if you did love him dearly, You do not hold the method to enforce

The like from him.

Cleo.

What should I do, I do not? Char. In each thing give him way, cross him in nothing. Cleo. Thou teachest like a fool: the way to lose him.

Petition us at home:] i. e. Call for us to reside at home.-JOHNSON.

the courser's hair, &c.] Alludes to an old idle notion that the hair of a horse dropt into corrupted water, will turn to an animal; but Dr. Lister, in the Philosophical Transactions, showed that what were vulgarly called animated horse-hairs, are real insects. It was also affirmed, that they moved like serpents, and were poisonous to swallow.-POPE and TOLLET.

To such whose place is under us,] i. e. To our attendants.---MALONE.

* I did not send you;] You must go as if you came without my order or knowledge.-JoHNSON.

Char. Tempt him not so too far: I wish, forbear; In time we hate that which we often fear.

Enter ANTONY.

But here comes Antony.

Cleo.

I am sick, and sullen.

Ant. I am sorry to give breathing to my purpose,-
Cleo. Help me away, dear Charmian, I shall fall;
It cannot be thus long, the sides of nature

Will not sustain it.

Ant.

Now, my dearest queen,

Cleo. Pray you, stand further from me.

Ant.

What's the matter?

Cleo. I know, by that same eye, there's some good news.
What says the married woman?-You may go;
'Would, she had never given you leave to come!
Let her not say, 'tis I that keep you here,

I have no power upon you; hers you are.
Ant. The gods best know,-

O, never was there

queen

Cleo.
So mightily betray'd! Yet, at the first,
I saw the treasons planted.

Ant.

Cleopatra,

Cleo. Why should I think, you can be mine, and true, Though you in swearing shake the throned gods, Who have been false to Fulvia? Riotous madness, To be entangled with those mouth-made vows, Which break themselves in swearing!

Most sweet queen,

Ant.
Cleo. Nay, pray you, seek no colour for your going,
But bid farewell, and go: when you sued staying,
Then was the time for words: No going then ;-
Eternity was in our lips, and eyes;

Bliss in our brows' bent;' none our parts so poor,
But was a race of heaven :" They are so still,
Or thou, the greatest soldier of the world,

Art turn'd the greatest liar.

1 in our brows' bent;] i. e. In the arch of our eye-brows.-STEEVENS. a race of heaven :]-i. e. Had a smack or flavour of heaven.-WAR

BURTON.

Ant.

How now, lady!

Cleo. I would, I had thy inches; thou should'st know, There were a heart in Egypt.

Ant.

Hear me, queen:

The strong necessity of time commands

Our services a while: but my full heart
Remains in use with you. Our Italy

Shines o'er with civil swords: Sextus Pompeius
Makes his approaches to the port of Rome :
Equality of two domestick powers

Breeds scrupulous faction: The hated, grown to strength,
Are newly grown to love: the condemn'd Pompey,
Rich in his father's honour, creeps apace

Into the hearts of such as have not thriv’d
Upon the present state, whose numbers threaten;
And quietness, grown sick of rest, would purge
By any desperate change: My more particular,
And that which most with you should safe my going,"
Is Fulvia's death.

Cleo. Though age from folly could not give me freedom, It does from childishness:-Can Fulvia die ?°

Ant. She's dead, my queen:

Look here, and, at thy sovereign leisure, read
The garboils she awak'd ; at the last, best :
See when, and where she died.

Cleo.
O most false love!
Where be the sacred vials thou should'st fill
With sorrowful water ? Now I see, I see,
In Fulvia's death, how mine receiv'd shall be.
Ant. Quarrel no more, but be prepar'd to know
The purposes I bear; which are, or cease,

n

should safe my going,] i. e. Should render my going not dangerous, not likely to produce any mischief to you.-MALONE.

• It does from childishness:-Can Fulvia die?] i. e. Though age has not exempted me from folly, I am not so childish, as to have apprehensions from a rival that is no more. And is Fulvia dead indeed?-MALONE.

P The garboils she awak'd ;] i. e. The commotion she occasioned. The word is derived from the old French garbouil, which Cotgreave explains by hurlyburly, great stir.-STEEVENS.

4 O most false love!

Where be the sacred vials thou should'st fill

With sorrowful water?] Alluding to the lachrymatory vials, or bottles of tears, which the Romans sometimes put into the urn of a friend.-JOHNSON.

As you shall give the advice: Now, by the fire,
That quickens Nilus' slime, I go from hence,
Thy soldier, servant; making peace, or war,

As thou affect'st.

Cleo.

Cut my lace, Charmian, come;

But let it be. I am quickly ill, and well :
So Antony loves.

Ant.

My precious queen, forbear; And give true evidence to his love, which stands An honourable trial.

Cleo.

So Fulvia told me.

I pr'ythee, turn aside, and weep for her;
Then bid adieu to me, and say, the tears
Belong to Egypt: Good now, play one scene
Of excellent dissembling; and let it look
Like perfect honour.

Ant.

You'll heat my blood; no more.

Cleo. You can do better yet; but this is meetly.
Ant. Now, by my sword,-

Cleo.

And target,-Still he mends;

But this is not the best: Look, pr'ythee, Charmian,
How this Herculean Roman' does become

The carriage of his chafe.

Ant.

I'll leave you, lady.

Cleo. Courteous lord, one word.

Sir, you and I must part,-but that's not it:
Sir, you and I have lov'd, but there's not it;
That you know well: Something it is I would,—
O, my oblivion' is a very Antony,

And I am all forgotten.

Ant.

But that your royalty

Holds idleness" your subject, I should take you

For idleness itself.

Cleo.

'Tis sweating labour,

To bear such idleness so near the heart

T to Egypt :] To me, the queen of Egypt.-JOHNSON.

S

Herculean Roman-] Antony traced his descent from Anton, a son of Hercules.-STEEVENS.

- oblivion—] i. e. A memory apt to be deceitful.-STEEVENS.

- idleness]-is here used reproachfully by Antony in the sense of folly,

or childishness.

VOL. VII.

H

As Cleopatra this. But, sir, forgive me;
Since my becomings kill me," when they do not
Eye well to you: Your honour calls you hence;
Therefore be deaf to my unpitied folly,

And all the gods go with you! upon your sword
Sit laurel'd victory! and smooth success

Be strew'd before your feet!

Ant.

Let us go. Come;
Our separation so abides, and flies,
That thou, residing here, go'st yet with me,
And I, hence fleeting, here remain with thee,

Away.

SCENE IV.

[Exeunt.

Rome. An Apartment in Cæsar's House.
Enter OCTAVIUS CESAR, LEPIDUS, and Attendants.
Cas. You may see, Lepidus, and henceforth know,
It is not Cæsar's natural vice to hate

One great competitor:" from Alexandria

This is the news; He fishes, drinks, and wastes
The lamps of night in revel: is not more manlike
Than Cleopatra; nor the queen of Ptolemy

More womanly than he hardly gave audience, or
Vouchsaf'd to think he had partners: You shall find there
A man, who is the abstract of all faults

That all men follow.

Lep.

I must not think, there are

Evils enough to darken all his goodness:
His faults in him, seem as the spots of heaven,
More fiery by night's blackness; hereditary,
Rather than purchas'd; what he cannot change,
Than what he chooses.

▾ Since my becomings kill me,] There is somewhat of obscurity in this expression she may mean-That conduct which, in my own opinion, becomes me, as often as it appears ungraceful to you, is a shock to my insensibility.-STEEVENS. One great competitor:] i. e. Associate or partner. Johnson conjectures that we should read our instead of one.

His fuults in him, seem as the spots of heaven,

More fiery, &c.] The spots of heaven are the stars, as they are rendered more conspicuous by the blackness of night; so the goodness of Antony makes his faults stand out more prominent.-Purchased is procured by his own fault, or endeavour.-MALONE and JOHNSON.