Cleo. I would I had thy inches; thou shouldst know There were a heart in Egypt.

Ant.

Hear me, queen :

The strong necessity of time commands

Our services awhile; 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 domestic powers

Breed 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 thrived

Upon the present state, whose numbers threaten;
And quietness grown sick of rest would purge

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45

5°

By any desperate change. My more particular,
And that which most with you should safe my going,
Is Fulvia's death.

55

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 awaked: at the last, best;
See when and where she died.

Cleo.

O most false love!

Where be the sacred vials thou shouldst fill
With sorrowful water? Now I see, I see,

In Fulvia's death, how mine received shall be.

Ant. Quarrel no more, but be prepared to know

The purposes I bear, which are, or cease,
As you shall give the advice. By the fire

That quickens Nilus' slime, I go from hence

43. services] servicles F. 48. Breed] Breeds Pope. 51. thrived] thriv'n Rowe. 53. rest] rust Seymour conj. 55. safe] FFF3. save F4. salve Theobald. 'safe (i. e. vouchsafe) Becket conj.

63. vials] Pope. violles F. VOL. IX.

viels

F2F3F4

65. received shall be] shall be receiv'd Rowe.

68. the advice] th' advices Pope. them aidance Anon. conj.

By] Now, by Steevens (1793). 69. slime] smile Rowe (ed. 2).

C

60

65

And give true evidence to his love, which stands

I prithee, 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.

But this is not the best. Look, prithee, Charmian,

How this Herculean Roman does become

The carriage of his chafe.

70

75

80

And target. Still he mends;

85

Courteous lord, one word.

Ant. I'll leave you, lady.
Cleo.

Sir, you and I must part, but that's not it:

Sir, you and I have loved, 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.

71. affect'st] F3F4 affectst F2. sword. Ff.

85. chafe chief Staunton.

90. O, my] Oh me! Edwards conj. MS. O my! Henley conj.

oblivion is] oblivion! —'Tis Johnson conj.

91. forgotten] forgetting Theobald conj. (withdrawn). forgone Johnson conj.

90

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 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!

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100

[Exeunt. 105

SCENE IV. Rome. Cæsar's house.

Enter OCTAVIUS CÆSAR, reading a letter, LEPIDUS, and their Train.

Cæs. You may see, Lepidus, and henceforth know,

It is not Cæsar's natural vice to hate

Our 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

99. Upon] On Pope.

I'

hardly gave audience, or

100. laurel] Lawrell F. Lawrell'd F2F3F4

5

Vouchsafed 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 enow to darken all his goodness:

His faults in him seem as the spots of heaven,
More fiery by night's blackness, hereditary

Rather than purchased, what he cannot change
Than what he chooses.

Cæs. You are too indulgent. Let us grant it is not

Amiss to tumble on the bed of Ptolemy,

To give a kingdom for a mirth, to sit

And keep the turn of tippling with a slave,

To reel the streets at noon and stand the buffet

With knaves that smell of sweat: say this becomes him,-
As his composure must be rare indeed

Whom these things cannot blemish,—yet must Antony
No way excuse his soils, when we do bear

So great weight in his lightness. If he fill'd

His vacancy with his voluptuousness,

Full surfeits and the dryness of his bones

Call on him for 't: but to confound such time

That drums him from his sport and speaks as loud

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25

As his own state and ours, 'tis to be chid
As we rate boys, who, being mature in knowledge,
Pawn their experience to their present pleasure,
And so rebel to judgement.

Lep.

Enter a Messenger.

Here's more news.

30

Mess. Thy biddings have been done; and every hour, Most noble Cæsar, shalt thou have report

How 'tis abroad. Pompey is strong at sea;

And it appears he is beloved of those

That only have fear'd Cæsar: to the ports
The discontents repair, and men's reports
Give him much wrong'd.

Cæs.

I should have known no less:

It hath been taught us from the primal state,
That he which is was wish'd until he were;

And the ebb'd man, ne'er loved till ne'er worth love,
dear

Comes

by being lack'd. This common body,

Like to a vagabond flag upon the stream,

Goes to and back, lackeying the varying tide,
To rot itself with motion.

Mess.

Cæsar, I bring thee word,

Menecrates and Menas, famous pirates,

Make the sea serve them, which they ear and wound
With keels of every kind: many hot inroads

They make in Italy; the borders maritime

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50