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

Will be himself.

Ant.

But stirred 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. Fie, wrangling queen! Vhom every thing becomes; to chide, to laugh, To weep; whose every passion fully strives

Го

3

To make itself, in thee, fair and admired!

No messenger; but thine and all alone,

4

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 prized 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.

1 "But stirred by Cleopatra," i. e. "Add, if moved to it by Cleopatra." This is a compliment to her.

2 That is, "for the sake of the queen of love."

3 The folio reads, who, every, &c.; corrected by Rowe.

4 "Sometime also when he would goe up and down the city disguised like a slave in the night, and would peere into poor mens windows and their shops, and scold and brawl with them within the house; Cleopatra would be also in a chambermaid's array, and amble up and down the streets with him."-Life of Antonius in North's Plutarch.

5 "That he proves the common liar, Fame, in his case, to be a true reporter."

SCENE II. The same. Another Room.

Enter CHARMIAN, IRAS, ALEXAS, and a Soothsayer.

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 his horns with garlands ! 1

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,

A little I can read.

Alex.

Show him your hand.

Enter ENOBARBUS.

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.

Char. Wrinkles forbid !

Alex. Vex not his prescience; be attentive.
Char. Hush!

Sooth. You shall be more beloving, than beloved.
Char. I had rather heat my liver with drinking.
Alex. Nay, hear him.

Char. Good now, some excellent fortune! Let me be married to three kings in a forenoon, and widow them all; let me have a child at fifty, to whom

1 The old copy reads, "change his horns," &c. A similar error of change for charge is also found in Coriolanus.

1

Herod of Jewry may do homage: find me to marry me with Octavius Cæsar, and companion me with my mistress.

Sooth. You shall outlive the lady whom you serve. Char. O excellent! I love long life better than figs. Sooth. You have seen and proved a fairer former fortune

Than that which is to approach.

2

Char. Then, belike, my children shall have no names. Pr'ythee, how many boys and wenches must I have ?

Sooth. If every of your wishes had a womb, And fertile3 every wish, a million.

Char. Out, fool; I forgive thee for a witch.1 Alex. You think none but your sheets are privy to your wishes.

Char. Nay, come, tell Iras hers.

Alex. We'll know all our fortunes.

Eno. Mine, and most of our fortunes, to-night, shall be drunk to bed.

Iras. There's a palm presages chastity, if nothing

else.

Char. Even as the o'erflowing Nilus presageth famine.

Iras. Go, you wild bedfellow, you cannot soothsay. Char. Nay, if an oily palm be not a fruitful prognostication, I cannot scratch mine ear.-Pr'ythee, tell her but a worky-day fortune.

Sooth. Your fortunes are alike.

Iras. But how, but how? give me particulars.
Sooth. I have said.

Iras. Am I not an inch of fortune better than she? Char. Well, if you were but an inch of fortune better than I, where would you choose it?

1 Herod of Jewry was a favorite character in the mysteries of the old stage, and there he was always represented a fierce, haughty, blustering tyrant.

2 That is, prove bastards.

3 The old copy reads foretell. Warburton made the emendation.

4 This has allusion to the common proverbial saying, “You'll never be burnt for a witch."

Tras. Not in my husband's nose.

Char. Our worser thoughts Heavens mend!-Alexas, -come, his fortune, his fortune.-O, let him marry a woman that cannot go, sweet Isis, I beseech thee! And let her die, too, and give him a worse! and let worse follow worse, till the worst of all follow him laughing to his grave, fifty-fold a cuckold! Good Isis, hear me this prayer, though thou deny me a matter of more weight; good Isis, I beseech thee!

Iras. Amen. Dear goddess, hear that prayer of the people! for, as it is a heart-breaking to see a handsome man loose-wived, so it is a deadly sorrow to behold a foul knave uncuckolded. Therefore, dear Isis, keep decorum, and fortune him accordingly! Char. Amen.

Alex. Lo, now! if it lay in their hands. to make me a cuckold, they would make themselves whores, but they'd do't.

Eno. Hush! here comes Antony.
Char.

Not he, the queen.

Cleo. He was disposed to mirth; but on the sudden A Roman thought hath struck him.-Enobarbus,

Eno. Madam.

Cleo. Seek him, and bring him hither.

him hither. Where's

Alexas?

Alex. Here, madam, at your service.-My lord ap

proaches.

Enter ANTONY, with a Messenger and Attendants.
Cleo. We will not look upon him. Go with us.
[Exeunt CLEOPATRA, ENOBARBUS, ALEXAS.
IRAS, CHARMIAN, Soothsayer, and Attend-

ants.

Mess. Fulvia, thy wife, first came into the field.

Ant. Against my brother Lucius?

Mess. Ay:

But soon that war had end, and the time's state
Made friends of them, jointing their force 'gainst Cæsar
Whose better issue in the war, from Italy,

Upon the first encounter, drave them.

Ant.

What worst?

Well,

Mess. The nature of bad news infects the teller. Ant. When it concerns the fool or coward.-On ; Things that are past, are done, with me.-'Tis thus ; Who tells me true, though in his tale lie death, I hear him as he flattered.

This is stiff1 news) hath, with his Parthian force, Extended Asia from Euphrates;

2

His conquering banner shook, from Syria

To Lydia, and to Ionia;

Whilst

Ant. Antony, thou wouldst say,

Mess.

O my lord!

Ant. Speak to me home; mince not the general

tongue;

Name Cleopatra as she's called in Rome:

Rail thou in Fulvia's phrase; and taunt my faults
With such full license, as both truth and malice

Have power to utter. O, then we bring forth weeds,
When our quick minds3 lie still; and our ills told us,
Is as our earing. Fare thee well a while.

Mess. At your noble pleasure.

[Exit.

Ant. From Sicyon how the news? Speak there. 1 Att. The man from Sicyon.-Is there such a one? 2 Att. He stays upon your will.

Ant.

Let him appear,—

These strong Egyptian fetters I must break,

1 "Stiff news

is hard news.

2

"Extended Asia from Euphrates."

3 The old copy ret ds, "quick winds; an error which has occurred elsewhere. Warburton made the correction.