That, being unseminared,2 thy freer thoughts

May not fly forth of Egypt. Hast thou affections?
Mar. Yes, gracious madam.

Cleo. Indeed!

Mar. Not in deed, madam; for I can do nothing

But what indeed is honest to be done :

Yet have I fierce affections, and think
What Venus did with Mars.

Where think'st thou he is now? Stands he, or sits he?

Or does he walk? or is he on his horse?

O happy horse, to bear the weight of Antony!

Do bravely, horse! for wott'st thou whom thou movest?
The demi-Atlas of this Earth, the arm

And burgonet3 of men. He's speaking now,
Or murmuring, Where's my serpent of old Nile?
For so he calls me. Now I feed myself
With most delicious poison: Think on me,
That am with Phoebus' amorous pinches black,
And wrinkled deep in time? Broad-fronted Cæsar,
When thou wast here above the ground, I was
A morsel for a monarch; and great Pompey
Would stand, and make his eyes grow in my brow;
There would he anchor his aspéct, and die

With looking on his life.

Alex.

Enter ALEXAS.

Sovereign of Egypt, hail!

Cleo. How much unlike art thou Mark Antony ! Yet, coming from him, that great medicine hath With his tinct gilded thee.1

2 Unseminared is emasculated, or deprived of virility.

8 A burgonet is a helmet, a head-piece.

4 Alluding to the philosopher's stone, which by its touch converts base

How goes it with my brave Mark Antony?

Alex. Last thing he did, dear Queen,

He kiss'd the last of many doubled kisses —
This orient pearl: his speech sticks in my heart.
Cleo. Mine ear must pluck it thence.
Alex.

5

Good friend, quoth he,

Say, the firm Roman to great Egypt sends
This treasure of an oyster; at whose foot,
To mend the petty present, I will piece

6

Her opulent throne with kingdoms; all the East,
Say thou, shall call her mistress. So he nodded,
And soberly did mount an arm-girt steed,
Who neigh'd so high, that what I would have spoke
Was beastly dumb'd by him.

Cleo.

What, was he sad or merry? Alex. Like to the time o' the year between th' extremes Of hot and cold, he was nor sad nor merry.

Cleo. O well-divided disposition ! — Note him,

Note him, good Charmian, 'tis the man; but note him:
He was not sad, for he would shine on those
That make their looks by his; he was not merry,
Which seem'd to tell them his remembrance lay
In Egypt with his joy; but between both :
O heavenly mingle! Be'st thou sad or merry,
The violence of either thee becomes,

metal into gold. The alchemists call the matter, whatever it be, by which they perform transmutation, a medicine. Medicine was sometimes used, also, for physician or mediciner; and Walker thinks it is so used here.

5 Firm in a relative sense; Antony meaning that his heart remains constant and true to Cleopatra.

6 In the days of chivalry, war-horses were sometimes girded with armour as well as the men who rode them. In the second line below," beastly dumb'd" means in the manner of a beast, that is, by inarticulate noise. The eager steed roared so loud in his proper note, that Alexas could not hear himself speak.

So does it no man else. - Mett'st thou my posts?

Alex. Ay, madam, twenty several messengers : Why do you send so thick??

Cleo.

Who's born that day

When I forget to send to Antony

Shall die a beggar. - Ink and paper, Charmian.
Welcome, my good Alexas. - Did I, Charmian,
Ever love Cæsar so?

Char.

O that brave Cæsar !

Cleo. Be choked with such another emphasis ! Say, the brave Antony.

Char.

The valiant Cæsar!

Cleo. By Isis, I will give thee bloody teeth,

If thou with Cæsar paragon again

When I was green in judgment: cold in blood,

To say as I said then! But, come, away;

Get me ink and paper:

He shall have every day a several greeting,
Or I'll unpeople Egypt.

[Exeunt.

7 That is, so fast, or in such rapid succession. This use of thick occurs repeatedly. See vol. xi. page 190, note 1.

8 Paragon, substantive, is, properly, a model, or a standard of comparison, and is of course supposed to excel all that are compared to it. This is what Antony now is to Cleopatra. So to paragon is to compare; and here it is to do this in such a way as to imply inferiority in the object compared.

ACT II.

SCENE I. Messina. A Room in POMPEY'S House.

Enter POMPEY, MENECRATES, and MENAS.

Pom. If the great gods be just, they shall assist The deeds of justest men.

Mene.

Know, worthy Pompey,

That what they do delay, they not deny.

Pom. Whiles we are suitors to their throne, decays

The thing we sue for.

Mene.

We, ignorant of ourselves,

Beg often our own harms, which the wise powers
Deny us for our good; so find we profit

By losing of our prayers.

The people love me, and the sea is mine;

My power's a crescent,2 and my auguring hope
Says it will come to th' full. Mark Antony
In Egypt sits at dinner, and will make

No wars without doors: Cæsar gets money where
He loses hearts: Lepidus flatters both,

Of both is flatter'd ; but he neither loves,
Nor either cares for him.

Men.

Cæsar and Lepidus

Are in the field; a mighty strength they carry.
Pom. Where have you this? 'tis false.

Men.

From Silvius, sir.

1 Shall for will; the two being often used indiscriminately.

2 Pompey here speaks under the image of the Moon when crescent. "My moon of power is new and growing," &c.

Pom. He dreams: I know they are in Rome together, Looking for Antony. But all the charms of love,

Salt Cleopatra, soften thy waned lip ! 3

Let witchcraft join with beauty, lust with both!
Tie up the libertine in a field of feasts,
Keep his brain fuming; Epicurean cooks
Sharpen with cloyless sauce his appetite;
That sleep and feeding may prorogue
Even till a Lethe'd dulness!

Enter VARRIUS.

4 his honour

How now, Varrius !

Var. This is most certain that I shall deliver:

Mark Antony is every hour in Rome

Expected since he went from Egypt 'tis

A space for further travel.5

This amorous surfeiter would have donn'd his helm

For such a petty war: his soldiership

Is twice the other twain. But let us rear

The higher our opinion, that our stirring

Can from the lap of Egypt's widow & pluck
The ne'er-lust-wearied Antony.

Men.

I cannot hope'

3 "Waned lip" is pale or faint-coloured lip; a lip that shows age or sickness; waned being a participle of the verb wane. Salt here means lustful. So in Othello, ii. 1: “His salt and most hidden-loose affection."

4 To prorogue is to put off, to postpone. Here the meaning seems to be, "keep his sense of honour from being roused, till it sinks into a death-like lethargy." Till, in the next line, has the force of to; an old usage.

5 Since he left Egypt, there has been time enough for a longer journey. 6 To compose the tearing factions in the Egyptian Court, Cleopatra, at the instance of Julius Cæsar, had been married to her brother Ptolemy, who, not long after, was drowned.

7 Hope was sometimes used in the sense of expect.