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Scar.

Enter SCARUS.

All the whole synod of them!

Eno.

Gods and goddesses,

What's thy passion ?

Scar. The greater cantle1 of the world is lost With very ignorance; we have kissed away Kingdoms and provinces.

Eno.

How appears the fight?

Scar. On our side like the tokened pestilence, Where death is sure. Yon ribaudred hag3 of Egypt, Whom leprosy o'ertake! i'the midst o'the fight,When vantage like a pair of twins appeared,

Both as the same, or rather ours the elder,

4

The brize upon her, like a cow in June,
Hoists sails, and flies.

Eno. That I beheld;

Mine eyes did sicken at the sight, and could not

Endure a further view.

Scar.

She once being loofed,5

The noble ruin of her magic, Antony,

Claps on his sea-wing, and like a doting mallard,
Leaving the fight in height, flies after her.

I never saw an action of such shame ;

Experience, manhood, honor, ne'er before
Did violate so itself.

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1 A cantle is a portion, a scantling, a fragment; it also signified a corner, and a quarter-piece of any thing. It is from the old French chantel or eschantille.

2 The death of those visited by the plague was certain, when particular eruptions appeared on the skin; and these were called God's tokens.

3 The old copy reads, "ribaudred nag, which was altered by Steevens and Malone into "ribald-rid nag," but quite unnecessarily. Ribaudred is obscene, indecent in words or acts. Thus Baret:-" A ribaudrous and filthie tongue; os obscænum et impudicum. Ribaudrie, villanie in actes or wordes, filthiness, uncleanness." And in Horman's Vulgaria:-"Refrayne fro suche foule and rebandry wordes." Mr. Tyrwhitt saw that the context required we should read hag instead of nag, which was an easy typographical error.

4 The brize is the œstrum, or gadfly, so troublesome to cattle in the summer months.

5 To loof is to bring a ship close to the wind. This expression is in the old translation of Plutarch.

Enter CANIDIUS.

Can. Our fortune on the sea is out of breath,
And sinks most lamentably. Had our general
Been what he knew himself, it had gone well.
O, he has given example for our flight,

Most grossly, by his own.

Eno. Ay, are you thereabouts? Why then, good

Indeed.

night

Can. Towards Peloponnesus are they fled.
Scar. 'Tis easy to't; and there I will attend

What further comes.

Can.

To Cæsar will I render

My legions, and my horse; six kings already
Show me the way of yielding.

Eno.

I'll yet follow

[Aside.

The wounded chance1 of Antony, though my reason Sits in the wind against me.

[Exeunt.

SCENE IX. Alexandria.
Alexandria. A Room in the Palace.

Enter ANTONY and Attendants.

Ant. Hark, the land bids me tread no more upon't; It is ashamed to bear me !-Friends, come hither.

I am so lated in the world, that I

Have lost my way forever. I have a ship

Laden with gold; take that, divide it; fly,
And make your peace with Cæsar.

Att.

Fly! not we.

Ant. I have fled myself; and have instructed cowards To run, and show their shoulders.-Friends, be gone; I have myself resolved upon a course,

Which has no need of you; be gone.

My treasure's in the harbor; take it.—O,

1 "Wounded chance." This phrase is nearly of the same import as "broken fortunes."

2 Belated, benighted.

I followed that I blush to look upon.
My very hairs do mutiny; for the white

Reprove the brown for rashness, and they them
For fear and doting.-Friends, be gone; you shall
Have letters from me to some friends, that will
Sweep your way for you. Pray you, look not sad,
Nor make replies of loathness. Take the hint
Which my despair proclaims; let that be left
Which leaves itself. To the seaside straightway;
I will possess you of that ship and treasure.
Leave me, I pray, a little; 'pray you now;
Nay, do so; for, indeed, I have lost command,1
Therefore I pray you;-I'll see you by-and-by.

[Sits down.

Enter EROS, and CLEOPATRA, led by CHARMIAN and IRAS.

Eros. Nay, gentle madam, to him;-comfort him.

Iras. Do, most dear queen.

Char. Do! why, what else?

Cleo. Let me sit down. O Juno!

Ant. No, no, no, no, no.

Eros. See you here, sir?
Ant. O, fie, fie, fie.

Char. Madam,—

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Ant. Yes, my lord, yes ;-he, at Philippi, kept His sword e'en like a dancer; 2 while I struck The lean and wrinkled Cassius; and 'twas I, That the mad Brutus ended: he alone

1 "I have lost all power to command your absence."

2 The meaning appears to be, that Cæsar never offered to draw his sword, but kept it in the scabbard, like one who dances with a sword on, which was formerly the custom in England. It is alluded to in All's Well that Ends Well: Bertram, lamenting that he is kept from the wars, says:

“I shall stay here the forehorse to a smock,
Creaking my shoes on the plain masonry,
Till honor be bought up, and no sword worn,
But one to dance with."

Yet now-no matter.

Dealt on lieutenantry,' and no practice had
In the brave squares of war.
Cleo. Ah, stand by.

Eros. The queen, my lord, the queen.

Iras. Go to him, madam, speak to him; He is unqualitied with very shame.

2

Cleo. Well then,-Sustain me ;-Oh!

Eros. Most noble sir, arise; the queen approaches; Her head's declined, and death will seize her; but3 Your comfort makes the rescue.

Ant. I have offended reputation;

A most unnoble swerving.

Eros.

Sir, the queen.

Ant. O, whither hast thou led me, Egypt? See, How I convey my shame out of thine eyes,* By looking back on what I have left behind

'Stroyed in dishonor.

Cleo.

O my lord, my lord!

Forgive my fearful sails! I little thought,
You would have followed.

Ant.
My heart was to thy rudder tied by the strings,
And thou shouldst tow me after. O'er my spirit
Thy full supremacy thou knew'st; and that
Thy beck might from the bidding of the gods
Command me.

Egypt, thou knew'st too well,

Cleo.

Ant.

O, my pardon.

Now I must

To the young man send humble treaties, dodge
And palter in the shifts of lowness; who
With half the bulk o' the world played as I pleased,
Making and marring fortunes. You did know
How much you were my conqueror; and that

1 "Dealt on lieutenantry "probably means only “fought by proxy,” made war by his lieutenants, or on the strength of his lieutenants.

2 Unqualitied seems to mean here unsoldiered; quality being used for profession.

3 But is here used in its exceptive sense.

4 "How, by looking another way, I withdraw my ignominy from your sight."

My sword, made weak by my affection, would
Obey it on all cause.

Cleo.

O, pardon, pardon.

Ant. Fall not a tear, I say; one of them rates 1
All that is won and lost. Give me a kiss;

Even this repays me.-We sent our schoolmaster;
Is he come back?-Love, I am full of lead ;-

Some wine, within there, and our viands.-Fortune

knows

We scorn her most, when most she offers blows.

[Exeunt.

SCENE X. Cæsar's Camp in Egypt.

2

Enter CESAR, DOLABELLA, THYREUS, and others. Cæs. Let him appear that's come from Antony. Know you him? Dol. Cæsar, 'tis his schoolmaster; An argument that he is plucked, when hither He sends so poor a pinion of his wing, Which had superfluous kings for messengers, Not many moons gone by.

Cæs.

Enter EUPHRONIUS.

Approach, and speak.

Eup. Such as I am, I come from Antony.
I was of late as petty to his ends,

As is the morn-dew on the myrtle leaf
To his grand sea.3

Cæs.

Be it so; declare thine office.
Eup. Lord of his fortunes he salutes thee, and
Requires to live in Egypt; which not granted,
He lessens his requests; and to thee sues

To let him breathe between the heavens and earth,
A private man in Athens. This for him.

1 Values.

2 Euphronius, schoolmaster to Antony's children by Cleopatra.

3 "His grand sea

is exhaled.

VOL. VI.

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appears to mean the sea from which the dew-drop

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