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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's2
O'erflows the measure: those his goodly eyes,
That o'er the files and musters of the war
Have glow'd like plated3 Mars, now bend, now
turn,

The office and devotion of their view
Upon a tawny front :5 his captain's heart,
Which in the scuffles of great fights hath burst
The buckles on his breast, reneges all temper,

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1. The first known printed copy of ANTONY AND Cleopatra is the one in the 1623 Folio. There exists an entry in the Stationers' Registers, made by Edward Blount, dated May 20th, 1608, of "A booke called Anthony and Cleopatra;" which entry in all probability refers to Shakespeare's play on this subject, as Blount was one of the publishers of the 1623 Folio. The inference, therefore, is that Shakespeare's "Antony and Cleopatra was very likely written, and possibly acted, somewhere about the close of 1607, or commencement of 1608; the intrinsic evidence of the style showing it to have been among the productions of his maturest period in composition. He has derived his materials from Sir Thomas North's translation of Plutarch;" following his authority with a closeness, a fidelity the most remarkable, while at the same time investing his historic details with a richly glowing beauty and harmony of poetic colouring that render his "Antony and Cleopatra" the most superb and consummate picture-drama of history ever put upon literary canvas. His Antony is an heroic figure that preserves its majesty and dignity amid sensual indulgence and spell-bound bewitchment that would sully and degrade a less magnificently limned character; and Cleopatra is a matchless heroine of voluptuous fascination and gorgeous charm. The author has had the singular art to preserve their splendour of portraiture, their grandeur of delineation, without rendering their example alluring or their vices attractive; he has nowise compromised the truth of virtue or morality, even while investing this brace of imperial voluptuaries with all the opulence of Oriental glow and imagery. He has set them forth as that which will evermore secure the gaze of the world; as that which enchains our attention, even our admiration; but amid all the glamour of colour, warmth, and beauty, he has left us undazzled in judg

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ment, and free to withhold esteem or sympathy. We admire, but we never love; we yield our imaginations, but not our hearts. Neither the hero nor the heroine excite one moment's attachment; but they exercise unfading sway upon our fancy, and reign supreme over our sensuous perceptions.

2. Nay, but this dotage, &c. One of Shakespeare's abrupt commencements, as with a conversation already begun, giving great ease and naturalness of effect. See Note 2, Act i., As. You Like It." 3. Plated.

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'Clad in plate armour.' See Note 94, Act iv.,

4. Office. Here used to express 'dedicated service,' 'duteous observance.' See Note 97, Act iii., "Othello."

5. A tawny front. A poetical indication of Cleopatra's Eastern complexion. All traditional records agree in stating that she was not handsome, lineally handsome; but all likewise agree in mentioning that she possessed an inexpressible charm of face and person, incomparable grace of manner and discourse, with irresistibly engaging and inexhaustibly varied demeanour.

6. Reneges. Pronounced dissyllabically, as if written 'reneagues,' or 'reneags;' and signifying 'renounces,' 'disclaims,' 'denies.' See Note 45, Act ii., “King Lear.”

7. Gipsy. An epithet here given to Cleopatra as a disparaging term applied to a woman, and as appropriate to her from being an Egyptian. See Note 4, Act v., "Midsummer Night's Dream;" and Note 47, Act ii., "Romeo and Juliet."

8. Triple. Here used for third,' one of three.' See Note 32, Act ii., "All's Well." Antony was one of Rome's triumvirs; sustaining strengths of the world.

9. Bourn. 'Bound,' 'limit.' See Note 78, Act iii., “King Lear."

Ant. Then must thou needs find out new

Att.

Ant.

heaven, new earth.10

Enter an Attendant.

News, my good lord, from Rome. 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 12 that kingdom, and enfranchise that; Perform 't, or else we damn 13 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?14 Cæsar's I would say ?-both?

Call in the messengers.-As I am 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 mes

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10. Then must thou needs, &c. Implying, ' Then you must discover a new universe wherein to appoint the boundary of my love, for the present space sufficeth not.'

11. Grates me :-the sum. Elliptically expressed; signifying 'news that grates upon me; tell me at once its amount.' "News" is here used as a collective noun and treated as a singular; while in Cleopatra's rejoinder, "Nay, hear them," the word is treated as a plural. See Note 86, Act iv., " Richard III." 12. Take in. 'Conquer,' 'subdue.' See Note 61, Act iii., "Coriolanus."

13. Damn. Used in the sense of doom' or 'condemn.' See Note 8, Act i., "Macbeth."

14. Process. Here employed for ' summons,' citation.' Minshew, in his "Dictionary" (1617), says, "Lawyers sometimes call that the processe, by which a man is called into the court

and no more."

15. Rang'd Like the French word rangé, this word here bears the sense of well-ordered,' 'well-arranged.' Ranges," in the speech referred to in Note 29, Act iii., "Coriolanus," is used with similar signification.

16. Dungy earth. Shakespeare has used this strong expression both here and elsewhere (see the speech subsequent to the one referred to in Note 26, Act ii., "Winter's Tale") to express the material and elemental globe on which we exist.

17. To weet. "To know,'' to be aware.'

18. But stirr'd by Cleopatra. This is in rejoinder to what she has said; and signifies, Ay, he will be himself; but he will be so if inspired thereto by Cleopatra.'

I'll seem the fool I am not; Antony Will be himself.

Ant.

But stirr'd by Cleopatra.1a—

Now, for the love of Love 19 and her soft hours, Let's not confound 20 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 everything becomes,-to chide, to laugh,
To weep; whose 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.
That he approves the common liar,21 who
Thus speaks of him at Rome: but I will hope
Of better deeds to-morrow. Rest you happy!
[Exeunt.

I am full sorry

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19. For the love of Love. 'For the sake of Venus, queen of love.' See Note 25, Act iii., "Comedy of Errors."

20. Confound. Here used for 'lose,' 'spend,' 'consume.' See Note 74, Act i., "Coriolanus."

21. That he approves the common liar. "Approves" is used in the sense of proves true,' 'confirms' (see Note 35, Act i., 'King Lear"); and "the common liar" means report,' 'rumour.'

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22. Enter Charmian, &c. The stage direction here in the Folio gives the names of three additional personages, "Lamprius, Rannius, Lucilius;" but as they take no part in the dialogue, they were probably intended to be omitted, though by chance retained in the copy from which the Folio was printed. A similar circumstance is pointed out in Note 2, Act i., "Much Ado." An interest attaches to the first of the above three names; as it may be an indication that Shakespeare originally meant to have introduced into this play a character and direct authority for certain of its details, thus mentioned by Plutarch: "I have heard my Grandfather Lampryas report, that one Philotas, a Physitian, borne in the city of Amphion, told him, that he was at that present time in Alexandria, and studied Phisicke and that having acquaintance with one of Antonius cookes, he tooke him with him to Antonius house being a yong man desirous to see things) to shew him the wonderfull sumptuous charge and preparation of one only supper. When he was in the kitchin, and saw a world of diuersities of meets, and amongst others, eight wild bores rosted whole, he began to wonder at it," &c.

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Char. Is this the man?-Is 't you, sir, that know things ? 24

23. Must charge his horns with garlands. We have always adopted the substitution proposed by Southern and Warburton, and made by Theobald, of "charge" for 'change' here, as being probably Shakespeare's word; nevertheless, we think it just possible that the reading of the Folio may be right, signifying this husband, who, you say, is to bring his future horns in exchange for our present garlands.' It is certain that Shakespeare elsewhere uses "change" for 'exchange' (see Note 20, Act ii., "Othello"); still, as the typographical error of 'change' for "charge" is an easy misprint, and is to be found in the Folio

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.

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Sooth. You shall be yet far fairer than you are. | hear me this prayer, though thou deny me a matter
Char. He means in flesh.
of more weight; good Isis, I beseech thee!
Iras.

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 belov'd. Char. I had rather heat my liver with drinking.25 Alex. Nay, hear him.

Char. Good now, some excellent fortune! Let me be married to three kings in a forenoon, an¦ widow them all: let me have a child at fifty, to whom Herod of Jewry 26 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. Oh, excellent! I love long life better than figs.27

Sooth. You have seen and prov'd a fairer former fortune

Than that which is to approach.

Char. Then belike my children shall have no names. 29-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. Pr'ythee, tell her but a worky-day for

tune.

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. Our worser thoughts heavens mend !— Alexas, come, his fortune, his fortune!-Oh, 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! Good Isis,

25. I had rather heat my liver with drinking. The liver was anciently supposed to be the seat of the passions. See Note 7, Act iv., "Tempest."

26. Herod of Jewry. Four times alluded to in the present play, besides the reference in this passage. Being a contemporary monarch of the period, there is great propriety in his introduction; and, moreover, he was a personage well known to Shakespeare's audiences, through the old mysteries, as a famous tyrant of the most haughty and domineering character. See Note 44, Act iii., "Hamlet ;" and Note 42, Act v., "Othello." The under-lying stroke of humour in Charmian's desiring that she should have a child to whom the future Massacrer of the Innocents shall "do homage," is in keeping with the headlong oddity of this imperial lady's-maid, as drawn throughout by the dramatist's most characteristic pencil.

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 ungulled: therefore, dear Isis, keep decorum, and fortune him accordingly! Char. Amen.

Eno. Hush! here comes Antony.
Char.

Cleo. Eno.

Cleo.

Not he; the queen.

Enter CLEOPATRA.

Saw you my lord?

No, lady.

Was he not here?

Char. No, madam.

Cleo. He was dispos'd to mirth; but on the sudden

A Roman thought hath struck him.-Enobarbus,— Eno. Madam ?

Cleo. Seek him, and bring him hither.—Where's Alexas?

Alex. Here, at your service. My lord approaches.

Cleo. We will not look upon him: go with us. [Exeunt CLEOPATRA, ENOBARBUS, CHARMIAN, IRAS, ALEXAS, and Soothsayer.

Enter ANTONY with a Messenger and Attendants. 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 30 them.

Ant.
Well, what worst?
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 flatter'd.

27. I love long life better than figs. A proverbial saying, but its special effect here is from its being said in reply to the soothsayer's prognostic that Charmian shall "outlive" Cleopatra; a prognostic verified by her outliving her mistress for a few minutes only.

28. Have no names. Be illegitimate.' In "Two Gentlemen of Verona," Act iii., sc. 1, Launce's comment upon the item in the catalogue of his mistress's qualities, "She hath many nameless virtues," affords illustration of this.

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Ant. Speak to me home, mince not the general tongue:

Name Cleopatra as she is call'd in Rome;
Rail thou in Fulvia's phrase; and taunt my faults
With such full licence as both truth and malice
Have power to utter. Oh, then we bring forth weeds,
When our quick winds lie still; 32 and our ills told us
Is as our earing.33 Fare thee well awhile.
Mess. At your noble pleasure.

[Exit. Ant. From Sicyon, ho, the news! Speak there! First Att. The man from Sicyon,-is there such a one?

Sec. Att. He stays upon your will.

Ant.

Let him appear.These strong Egyptian fetters I must break,

Or lose myself in dotage.

Enter another Messenger.

What are you?

Sec. Mess. Fulvia thy wife is dead.

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Eno. Under a compelling occasion, let women die it were pity to cast them away for nothing; though, between them and a great cause, they should be esteemed nothing. Cleopatra, catching but the least noise of this, dies instantly; I have seen her die twenty times upon far poorer moment:36 I do think there is mettle in death, which commits some loving act upon her, she hath such a celerity in dying.

Ant. She is cunning past man's thought. Eno. Alack, sir, no; her passions are made of nothing but the finest part of pure love: we cannot call her winds and waters sighs and tears; they are greater storms and tempests than almanacs can report this cannot be cunning in her; if it be, she makes a shower of rain as well as Jove.

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31. Extended. A law term for 'seized.' See Note 9, Activ., "Twelfth Night.

32. When our quick winds lie still. Warburton changed "winds" to 'minds' here; an alteration which has been adopted by many editors since. It appears to us that Antony is metaphorising himself and men in general as land or soil; and he employs "winds" as a figurative image for the brisk wholesomely searching winds that make the earth duly fruitful instead of letting it lie stagnant and overgrown with idle weeds; as well as for the wholesomely rough breath of public censure and private candour which prevent the growth of moral weeds, and allow good fruits to spring up into existence. "Our quick winds," for 'the quick winds that stir and vivify us,' is a form of phrase which Shakespeare often uses when employing the possessive case. See Note 2, Act iii., "Hamlet."

33. And our ills told us is as our earing. The metaphor is still maintained here; Antony going on to say, 'And the errors

Eno. Why, sir, give the gods a thankful sacrifice. When it pleaseth their deities to take the wife of a man from him, it shows to man the tailors of the earth; comforting therein, that when old robes are worn out, there are members to make new. If there were no more women but Fulvia, then had you indeed a cut, and the case to be lamented this grief is crowned with consolation; your old smock brings forth a new petticoat :

we commit being told us is as ploughing to our inert soil' [or moral self. That "earing" was an old word for 'ploughing' has been shown in Note 30, Act iii., “Richard II."

34. The present pleasure, by revolution, &c. That which is to us at the time being a pleasure becomes, by the depreciating effect of revolution in events, a positive pain.'

35. The hand could pluck her back. Here "could" is used with optative, not potential, force, signifying inclination not power. The phrase implies, 'That hand which repulsed her would now willingly rescue her,' 'I could find it in my heart to wish her back, I who wished her away.' The mode in which "could," "should," "would," "shall," and "will" were formerly used is matter of interesting philological study. See Note 77, Act iv., "Timon of Athens;" and Note 128, Act iii., "Hamlet."

36. Upon far poorer moment. 'Upon occasion of far less importance,' 'from a cause of much less consequence.'

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