Enthron'd in the market-place, did sit alone,
Whistling to the air; which, but for vacancy,
Had gone to gaze on Cleopatra too,

And made a gap in nature.

AGR.

Rare Egyptian!

ENO. Upon her landing, Antony sent to her, Invited her to supper: she replied,

It should be better, he became her guest;
Which she entreated: Our courteous Antony,
Whom ne'er the word of No woman heard speak,
Being barber'd ten times o'er, goes to the feast;
And, for his ordinary, pays his heart,

For what his eyes eat only.

AGR.

Royal wench!

She made great Cæsar lay his sword to bed;
He plough'd her, and she cropp'd.

ENO.

I saw her once

Hop forty paces through the publick street:
And having lost her breath, she spoke, and panted,

extremity of her tail, but on one of the bends of it, sufficiently broad to conceal the feet.

Notwithstanding the arguments of Malone and Steevens, and the deference I have for their opinions, I can find no sense in the passage as they have printed it. M. MASON.

4

* That yarely frame the office.] i. e. readily and dexterously perform the task they undertake. See Vol. IV. p. 5, n. 2. STEEVENS.

which, but for vacancy,

Had gone-] Alluding to an axiom in the peripatetic philosophy then in vogue, that Nature abhors, a vacuum.

But for vacancy, means, for fear of a vacuum.

WARBURTON.

MALONE.

For what his eyes eat only.] Thus Martial:
"Inspexit molles pueros, oculisque comedit."

STEEVENS.

1

That she did make defect, perfection,
And, breathless, power breathe forth.

MEC. Now Antony must leave her utterly.
ENO. Never; he will not;

Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale
Her infinite variety: Other women

Cloy th' appetites they feed; but she makes hungry,
Where most she satisfies. For vilest things
Become themselves in her; that the holy priests'

7 Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale

Her infinite variety:] Such is the praise bestowed by Shakspeare on his heroine; a praise that well deserves the consideration of our female readers. Cleopatra, as appears from the tetradrachms of Antony, was no Venus; and indeed the majority of ladies who most successfully enslaved the hearts of princes, are known to have been less remarkable for personal than mental attractions. The reign of insipid beauty is seldom lasting; but permanent must be the rule of a woman who can diversify the sameness of life by an inexhausted variety of accomplishments.

To stale is a verb employed by Heywood, in The Iron Age,

1632:

"One that hath stal'd his courtly tricks at home." STEEVENS.

Other women

Cloy th' appetites they feed; but she makes hungry, Where most she satisfies.] Almost the same thought, clothed nearly in the same expressions, is found in the old play of Pericles:

"Who starves the ears she feeds, and makes them

hungry,

"The more she gives them speech."

Again, in our author's Venus and Adonis:

"And yet not cloy thy lips with loath'd satiety,

"But rather famish them amid their plenty." MALONE.

9 For vilest things

Become themselves in her;] So, in our author's 150th Sonnet:

"Whence hast thou this becoming of things ill?"

MALONE.

Bless her, when she is riggish.2

MEC. If beauty, wisdom, modesty, can settle The heart of Antony, Octavia is

A blessed lottery to him.3

1

-the holy priests &c.] In this, and the foregoing description of Cleopatra's passage down the Cydnus, Dryden seems to have emulated Shakspeare, and not without success: 66 she's dangerous:

"Her eyes have power beyond Thessalian charms,
"To draw the moon from heaven. For eloquence,
"The sea-green sirens taught her voice their flattery;
"And, while she speaks, night steals upon the day,
"Unmark'd of those that hear: Then, she's so charming,
"Age buds at sight of her, and swells to youth:
"The holy priests gaze on her when she smiles;
"And with heav'd hands, forgetting gravity,

"They bless her wanton eyes. Even I who hate her,
"With a malignant joy behold such beauty,

"And while I curse desire it."

Be it remembered, however, that, in both instances, without a spark from Shakspeare, the blaze of Dryden might not have been enkindled.

REED.

when she is riggish.] Rigg is an ancient word mean ing a strumpet. So, in Whetstone's Castle of Delight, 1576: "Then loath they will both lust and wanton love, "Or else be sure such ryggs my care shall prove." Again:

"Immodest rigg, I Ovid's counsel usde." Again, in Churchyard's Dolorous Gentlewoman, 1593: "About the streets was gadding, gentle rigge, "With clothes tuckt up to set bad ware to sale, "For youth good stuffe, and for olde age a stale.” STEEVENS. Again, in J. Davies's Scourge of Folly, printed about the year 1611:

"When wanton rig, or lecher dissolute,

"Do stand at Paules Cross in a-suite." MALONE.

- Octavia is

A blessed lottery to him.] Dr. Warburton says, the poet wrote allottery, but there is no reason for this assertion. The ghost of Andrea, in The Spanish Tragedy, says:

"Minos in graven leaves of lottery

"Drew forth the manner of my life and death."

FARMER.

AGR.

Let us go.

Good Enobarbus, make yourself my guest,
Whilst you abide here.

ENO.

Humbly, sir, I thank you.

[Exeunt.

SCENE III.

The same. A Room in Cæsar's House.

Enter CESAR, ANTONY, OCTAVIA between them;
Attendants and a Soothsayer.

ANT. The world, and my great office, will

sometimes

Divide me from your bosom.

OCTA.

All which time

Before the gods my knee shall bow my prayers
To them for you.

ANT.
Good night, sir.-My Octavia,
Read not my blemishes in the world's report:
I have not kept my square; but that to come

So, in Stanyhurst's translation of Virgil, 1582:

"By this hap escaping the filth of lottarye carnal." Again, in The Honest Man's Fortune, by Beaumont and Fletcher:

66

fainting under

"Fortune's false lottery." STEevens.

Lottery for allotment. HENLEY.

shall bow my prayers-] The same construction is

found in Coriolanus, Act I. sc. i:

"Shouting their emulation.”

Again, in King Lear, Act II. sc. ii:

"Smile

you my speeches ?"

Modern editors have licentiously read:

bow in prayers.

STEEVENS.

Shall all be done by the rule. Good night, dear

lady.

OCTA. Good night, sir.".

CES. Good night.

[Exeunt CESAR and OCTAVIA.

ANT. Now, sirrah! you do wish yourself in

Egypt?

SOOTH. 'Would I had never come from thence, nor you

Thither!"

ANT. If you can, your reason?

SOOTH.

I see't in My motion, have it not in my tongue: But yet

Ant. Good night, dear lady

Octa. Good night, sir.] These last words, which in the only authentick copy of this play are given to Antony, the modern editors have assigned to Octavia. I see no need of change. He addresses himself to Cæsar, who immediately replies, Good night. MALONE.

I have followed the second folio, which puts these words (with sufficient propriety) into the mouth of Octavia.

STEEVENS. Antony has already said "Good night, sir," to Cæsar, in the three first words of his speech. The repetition would be absurd.

The editor of the second folio appears, from this and numberless other instances, to have had a copy of the first folio corrected by the players, or some other well-informed person.

"'Would I had never come from thence, nor you

RITSON.

Thither!] Both the sense and grammar require that we should read hither, instead of thither. To come hither is English, but to come thither is not. The Soothsayer advises Antony to hie back to Egypt, and for the same reason wishes he had never come to Rome; because when they were together, Cæsar's genius had the ascendant over his. M. MASON.

7 I see't in

My motion, have it not in my tongue :] i. e. the divinitory agitation. WARBURTON.