ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA.

ON May 20th, 1608, "A booke called Anthony and Cleopatra" was entered in the Stationers' Registers by Edward Blount; and the entry, no doubt, refers to our author's play, which, we may presume, had been produced only a short time before that date. It did not, however, make its appearance in print till the publication of the folio of 1623.—In Antony and Cleopatra Shakespeare has adhered with remarkable closeness to the Life of Antonius in North's Plutarch (translated from the French of Amiot). He owes nothing, either to Daniel's Cleopatra, 1594, or to the Countess of Pembroke's Tragedie of Antonie (a translation from the French of Garnier),

1595.

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,

IRAS,

} attendants on Cleopatra.

Officers, Soldiers, Messengers, and other Attendants.

SCENE-In several parts of the Roman empire.

"Scarus' in Antony and Cleopatra, fol. Scarrus,' is 'Scaurus'." Walker's Crit. Exam. &c. vol. ii. p. 323.

t Varrius. This is perhaps L. Varius Cotyla, an officer and companion of Antony's. (Plut. Anton. xviii. Cic. Philippic. v. 2; viii. 10, 11; xiii. 12.) Shakespeare found him in North's Plutarch (p. 919, eds. 1603 and 1612), and perhaps by a slip of memory took him for a friend of Pompey's. The possibility, however, is so slight that it is only just worth mentioning." Id. ibid.

ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA.

ACT I.

SCENE I. Alexandria. A room in CLEOPATRA's palace.

Enter DEMETRIUS and PHILO.

Phi. 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(1) all temper,

And is become the bellows and the fan

To cool a gipsy's lust. [Flourish within.] Look where they

come:

Take but good note, and you shall see in him

The triple pillar of the world transform'd

Into a strumpet's fool: behold and see.

Enter ANTONY and CLEOPATRA, with their Train; Eunuchs fanning

her.

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;
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 Is come from Cæsar; therefore hear it, Antony.Where's Fulvia's process? Cæsar's I would say?—both ?— Call in the messengers.—As I'm 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 Tiber 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!
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.—

[Embracing.

Now, for the love of Love and her soft hours, (2)
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.

Fie, wrangling queen!
Whom every thing becomes,-to chide, to laugh,
To weep; whose(3) 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? Phi. Sir, sometimes, when he is not Antony, He comes too short of that great property Which still should go with Antony.

Dem.

I'm full sorry

That he approves the common liar, who
Thus speaks of him at Rome: but I will hope
Of better deeds to-morrow.

Rest you happy!

[Exeunt.

SCENE II. The same. Another room in the same.

Enter CHARMIAN, IRAS, ALEXAS, and a Soothsayer.(4)

Char. Lord Alexas, sweet Alexas, most any thing Alexas, almost most absolute Alexas, where's the soothsayer that you praised so to the queen? O, that I knew this husband, which, you say, must charge(5) his horns with garlands!

Alex. Soothsayer,—

Sooth. Your will?

Char. Is this the man?-Is't you, sir, that know things?
Sooth. In nature's infinite book of secrecy

Eno. Bring in the banquet quickly; wine enough

Cleopatra's health to drink.

Char. Good sir, give me good fortune.

Sooth. I make not, but foresee.

Char. Pray, then, foresee me one.

Sooth. You shall be yet far fairer than you are.

Char. He means in flesh.

Iras. No, you shall paint when you are old.