VARRIUS,

TAURUS, lieutenant-general to Cæsar.

CANIDIUS, lieutenant-general to Antony.

SILIUS, an officer in Ventidius's army.

EUPHRONIUS, an ambassador from Antony to Cæsar.
ALEXAS, MARDIAN, SELEUCUS, and DIOMEDES; attendants

on Cleopatra.

A Soothsayer. A Clown.

CLEOPATRA, queen of Egypt.

OCTAVIA, sister to Cæsar, and wife to Antony.

CHARMIAN, attendants on Cleopatra.

IRAS,

}

Officers, Soldiers, Messengers, and other Attendants.

SCENE, dispersed; in several parts of the Roman Empire.

ACT I.

SCENE I.-Alexandria. A Room in CLEOPATRA's Palace. Enter DEMETRIUS and PHILO.

Philo.

NAY, but this dotage of our general's

O'erflows the measure: those his goodly eyes,
That o'er the files and musters of the war

Have glow'd like plated Mars, now bend, now turn,
The office and devotion of their view

Upon a tawny front: his captain's heart,

Which in the scuffles of great fights hath burst
The buckles on his breast, reneges all temper ;'
And is become the bellows, and the fan,

To cool a gipsy's lust. Look, where they come !
Flourish. Enter ANTONY and CLEOPATRA, with their
Trains; Eunuchs fanning her.

Take but good note, and you shall see in him
The triple pillar of the world3 transform'd

Into a strumpet's fool: behold and see.

Cleo. If it be love indeed, tell me how much.

Ant. There's beggary in the love that can be reckon❜d. Cleo. I'll set a bourn how far to be belov'd.

Ant. Then must thou needs find out new heaven, new earth."

Enter an Attendant.

Att. News, my good lord, from Rome.

Ant. Grates me :-The sum."

Cleo. Nay, hear them, Antony :

Fulvia, perchance, is angry; Or, who knows

If the scarce-bearded Cæsar have not sent

His powerful mandate to you, Do this, or this;

Reneges renounces.

POPE.

2 Gipsy is here used both in the original meaning for an Egyptian, and in its accidental sense for a bad woman.

JOHNSON.

[3] Triple--is here used improperly for third, or one of three. One of the Triumvirs, one of the three masters of the world. WARBURTON.

[5] Thou must set the boundary of my love at a greater distance than the present visible universe affords. JOHNSON.

[6] Be brief, sum thy business in a few words.

JOHNSON.

Take in that kingdom, and enfranchise that;
Perform't, or else we damn thee.

Ant. How, my love!

Cleo. Perchance,-nay, and most like, You must not stay here longer, your

dismission

Both?

Is come from Cæsar; therefore hear it, Antony.—
I would say
Where's Fulvia's process? Cæsar's,
-Call in the messengers. As I am Egypt's queen,
Thou blushest, Antony; and that blood of thine
Is Cæsar's homager: else so thy cheek pays shame,
When shrill-tongu'd Fulvia scolds.-The messengers.
Ant. Let Rome in Tyber melt! and the wide arch
Of the rang'd empire fall! Here is my space;
Kingdoms are clay our dungy earth alike
Feeds beast as man: the nobleness of life
Is, to do thus; when such a mutual pair,
And such a twain can do't, in which, I bind
On pain of punishment, the world to weet,"
We stand up peerless.

Cleo. Excellent falsehood!

[Embracing.

Why did he marry Fulvia, and not love her ?-
I'll seem the fool I am not; Antony

Will be himself.

Ant. But stirr'd by Cleopatra.

Now, for the love of Love, and her soft hours,

Let's not confound the time with conference harsh :
There's not a minute of our lives should stretch
Without some pleasure now: What sport to-night?
Cleo. Hear the ambassadors.

Ant. Fye, wrangling queen!

Whom every thing becomes, to chide, to laugh,
To weep; whose every passion fully strives
To make itself, in thee, fair and admir'd!

No messenger; but thine and all alone,

To-night, we'll wander through the streets, and note
The qualities of people. Come, my queen;

Last night you did desire it :-Speak not to us.

[Exeunt ANT. and CLEO. with their train. Dem. Is Cæsar with Antonius priz'd so slight?

M To weet---to know.

POPE.

4

[8] But in this passage, seems to have the old Saxon signification of without, unLess, except. Antony,' says the queen, will recollect his thoughts.' Unless kept,' JOHNSON. 'he replies, in commotion, by Cleopatra.'

By Antony will be himself, she means to say, that 'Antony will act like the joint sovereign of the world, and follow his own inclinations, without regard to the mandates of Cæsar, or the anger of Fulvia. To which he replies, If but stirr'd by Cleopatra," that is, if moved to it in the slightest degree by her,

MASON.