SCENE III. Cleopatra's Dream and Defcription of Antony. Cleo. I dreamt, there was an emperor Antony; Oh, fuch another fleep, that I might fee But fuch another man! Dol. If it might please ye— Cleo. His face was as the heav'ns, and therein stuck A fun and moon, which kept their course, and lighted The little O o'th'earth. Dol. Moft fovereign creature Cleo. His legs bestrid the ocean, his rear❜d arm Were rally refolve it into its first principles: thus, man is dust and afhes, and the food we eat, the dung, by which first our vegetable, and from thence our animal food is nourish'd. This fentiment has in Shakespear's Antony and Cleopatra, efcaped the obfervation of two that defervedly bear the first names in criticism, Sir Thomas Hanmer and Mr. Warburton. Cleopatra finding the can no longer riot in the pleasures of life, with the ufual workings of a difappointed pride, pretends difguft to them, and thus fpeaks in praife of fuicide-And it is great, c. (as in the text.) : From the obfervation above, nothing can be clearer than this paffage Both the beggar and Cefar are fed and nurfed by the dung of the earth: and in this fenfe it always appeared to me before the following demonstration of it occur'd. In the first scene of the fame play, Antonio says, Kingdoms are clay, our dungy earth alike Though I am perfuaded, with Mr. Seward, this is the true fenfe of the paffage; yet we muft nicely obferve the fenfe of fleeps and palates, which are quite peculiar, and may be reckoned amongit the anomalies of Shakespear. "Suicide," fays he' "hackles accidents and boits up change, fleeps, [i. e, caules us to fleep] and never palates," [never more to palate, &c.] Were dolphin-like; they fhew'd his back above Walk'd crowns and coronets; realms and island's were How poor an inftrument May do a noble deed! He brings me liberty. SCENE VI. Cleopatra's Speech on applying the Afp. -Give me my robe, put on my crown; I have Immortal longings in me. Now no more To praise my noble act. (33) I hear him mock Farewel, (33) I hear, &c.] It has been obferved, this poffibly might have been fhadowed out from Claudian; Jam non ad culmina rerum Injuftos creviffe queror: tolluntur in altum Ut lapfu graviore cadant.. In Rufinum L To fairest heights that wicked men attain, Farewel, kind Charmian; Iras, long farewel. [Applying the Afp. [To Iras Have I the afpic in my lips? Do'st fall? It is not worth leave-taking. [Iras dies. Char. Diffolve, thick cloud and rain, that I may fay, The gods themselves do weep. Cleo. This proves me base If the first meet the curled Antony, He'll make demand of her, and spend that kifs Which is my heaven to have. Come, mortal wretch, Char. Oh, eastern star! Cleo. Peace, peace! Doft thou not fee my baby at my breaft, That fucks the nurse asleep? Char. O, break! O, break! Cleo. As fweet as balm, as foft as air, as gentle, O Antony! Nay, I will take thee too, [Applying another Afp. (35) What should I stay. [Dies. Char. (34) Intrinficate] . e. Intricate, intangled, or tied in hard knots; fo, in King Lear, Like rats, oft bite the holy cords in twain, Edwards. (35) What Should I flay, &c.] Shakespear excels prodigiously in these breaks; fo, Percy, in Henry IV. first part, just departing; fays, -No Char. In this wild world? fo, fare thee well; Now, boaft thee, death; in thy poffeffion lies A lafs unparallel'd. And food for -No, Percy, thou art dust, P.Hen. Worms; brave Percy, fare thee well, &.. General Obfervation. [Dies THIS play (fays Johnson) keeps curiofity always bufy, and the paffions always interested. The continual hurry of the action, the variety of incidents, and the quick fucceffion of one perfonage to another, call the mind forward without intermiffion from the first act to the laft. But the power of delighting is derived principally from the frequent changes of the fcene; for, except the feminine arts, fome of which are too low, which diftinguish Cleopatra, no character is very strongly difcriminated. Upton, who did not eafily mifs what he defired to find, has difcovered that the language of Antony is, with great fkill and learning, made pompous and fuperb, according to his real practice. But I think his diction not diftinguishable from that of others: the moft tumid fpeech in the play is that which Cæfar makes to Oclavia. The events, of which the principal are defcribed according to hiftory, are produced without any art of connexion or care of difpofition. Coriolanus. W Coriolanus. ACT I. SCENE III. Mob. HAT (1) would you have, ye curs, The other makes you proud. He that trufts to you, Where (1) What, &c.] Shakespear has many paffages on the uncertainty of popular favour, and the fickleness of the vulgar: the reader will find one in the 2d part of Henry IV. v. 2. p. 17. where I have referred to this: Milton, in his 3d book of Paradife Regained, has a passage remarkably fimilar to this. Satan fays to Chrift, Thefe god-like virtues wherefore doft thou hide, The fame and glory: glory, the reward To whom our Saviour calmly thus reply'd: -What is glory but the blaze of fame, The people's praife, if always praise unmixt? A miscellaneous rabble, who extol Things vulgar, and well-weigh'd scarce worth the praise ? And know not whom, but as one leads the other. To live upon their tongues, and be their talk, of |