The water which they beat, to follow fafter, In her pavilion, cloth of gold, of tiffue, Agr. O rare for Antony. Eno. Her gentlewomen, like the Nereids, And made their bends adorings (23). At the helm Cleopatra's (22) O'er-picturing, &c.]"The poet," fays Mr.Theobald, “ seems here to be alluding to that fine picture of Venus, done by Apelles; the beauty and limbs of which, it is faid, he copied from Campaspe, his beloved mistress, whom he received at the hands of Alexander the Great. This celebrated piece of his was called Appodern avaduoμern Venus rifing out of the fea: to which, Ovid has paid fo fine a compliment in his 3d book on the Art of Love. Si Venerem Cous nunquam pofuiffet Apelles, If fam'd Apelles had not painted thee, The reader, for a larger account of this matter, may confu (23) Adorings. Warb. vulg. Adornings. VOL. II. H Cleopatra's infinite power in pleafing. (24) Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale Her infinite variety: other women cloy The appetites they feed, but she makes hungry, SCENE V. The unfettled Humour of Lovers. Enter Cleopatra, Charmian, Iras, and Alexas. Cleo. (25) Give me fome mufic: mufic, moody food Of us that trade in love. Omnes. (24) Age, &c.] So, in Dryden's play, Antony speaks to Chopatra of her uncloying charms; How I lov'd, Witnefs ye days and nights, and all ye hours, I faw you ev'ry day, and all the day; A&.3. (25) Give me, &c.] Nothing can be more natural than this neafy fluctuation of mind fo peculiar to people deprived of the object which alone can please them, and without whom nothing can please. I know not of a more beautiful instance than in the first act of that fine play of Euripides; Hippolitus, towards the lat ́ter end of the act, which Mr. Smith has well copied (I might rather have faid, tranflated) in his Phedra and Hippolitus, an excellent play, tho' greatly inferior in many material circumftances, and particularly the character of Phedra, to-the Greek, In our English play, Phædra, on her entrance, begins; Stay, virgins, ftay, I'll reft my weary steps: Why Omnes. The mufic, hoa! Enter Mardian the Eunuch. Cleo. Let it alone, let's to billiards: come Charmian. Char. My arm is fore, best play with Mardian. Cleo. As well a woman with an eunuch play'd, As with a woman. Come, you'll play with me, fir? Mar. As well as I can, madam. Cleo. And when good will' is thew'd, tho't come to fhort, The actor may plead pardon. I'll none now. And fay, ah, ha! you're caught. Why blaze these jewels round my wretched head? Why flow these wanton curls in artful rings? Oh, my Lycon, c. Oh, how I long to lay my weary head On tender flow'ry beds and fpringing grafs ! To ftretch my limbs beneath the spreading shades Of venerable oaks! to flake my thurft With the cool nectar of refreshing fprings! Char. Lycon. I'll footh her phrenzy; come, Phaedra, let's away, Place me, oh, place me in the dufty ring, Now fweep along its top, now neigh along its vale; H & Char. 'Twas merry; when You wager'd on your angling, when your Diver Cleo. That time! -Oh, times! I laught him out of patience, and that night ACT III. SCENE I. Ambition, jealous of a too fuccessful Friend. (27) Oh Silius, Silius, I have done enough. A lower place, note well, Acquire too high a fame, when he we ferve's away. SCENE V. Octavia's Entrance, what it should have been. Why has thou ftol'n upon us thus? You came not Like Cafar's fifter; the wife of Antony Should (26) Philippan.] This word, we are to fuppofe, was fo called from the great actions it atchieved in the hands of its heroic mafter at Philippi; the faireft field of his fame, and of which he seems to have been most proud. Antony too plumed himself on his defcent from Hercules; fo that this imitation of his ancestor was the more agreeable to him, who submitted to the like treatment from Omphale, whofe tires and mantles the great Alcides put on, and plied her diftaff, while fhe wielded his club, and decked herfelf in his trophies. (27) Ob, &c.] This is fpoken by Ventidius, who bears a very confiderable fhare in Mr. Dryden's tragedy: but it seems to me, that great man has mifreprefented him, and instead of giving us the brave, old, honest, veteran Roman, hath given us a furly, rigid buffoon: unlike that Ventidius we so greatly admire in his Should have an army for an usher, and Women. Women are not In their best fortunes ftrong; but want will perjure SCENE IX. Fortune forms our Judgment. A parcel of their fortunes, and things outward To fuffer all alike. Loyalty. (28) Mine honefty, and I, begin to square; The his true character. Plutarch, as Mr. Theobald has obferved, particularly takes notice, that Ventidius was careful to act only on lieutenancy, and cautious of aiming at any glory in his own name and person. (28) Mine, &c.] After Enobarbus has faid, that his honesty and he begin to quarrel, (i. e. that his reason fhews him to be miftaken in his firm adherence to Antony) he immediately falls into this generous reflection: "tho' loyalty ftubbornly preferved to a mafter in his declined fortunes, feems folly in the eyes of fools; (i. e. men who have not honour enough to think more wifely ;) yet he, who can be fo obftinately loyal, will make as great a figure on record, as the conqueror." Theobald. |