Cæs. You are too indulgent: Let us grant it is not Amiss to tumble on the bed of Ptolemy;

To give a kingdom for a mirth; to sit

And keep the turn of tippling with a slave;
To reel the streets at noon, and stand the buffet
With knaves that smell of sweat: say, this becomes
him,

(As his composure must be rare indeed,

Whom these things cannot blemish,) yet must
Antony

No way excuse his soils, when we do bear
So great weight in his lightness.* If he fill'd
His vacancy with his voluptuousness,

Full surfeits, and the dryness of his bones,

Call on himt for't: but, to confound‡ such time, That drums him from his sport, and speaks as loud As his own state, and ours,-'tis to be chid

As we rate boys; who, being mature in knowledge, Pawn their experience to their present pleasure, And so rebel to judgment.

Antony,

Leave thy lascivious wassals.§ When thou once
Wast beaten from Modena, where thou slew'st
Hirtius and Pansa, consuls, at thy heel

Did fame follow; whom thou fought'st against,
Though daintily brought up, with patience more
Than savages could suffer: Thou didst drink
The stale of horses, and the gilded puddle¶
Which beasts would cough at: thy palate then did
deign

The roughest berry on the rudest hedge;

Yea, like the stag, when snow the pasture sheets,
The barks of trees thou browsed'st; on the Alps
It is reported, thou did'st eat strange flesh,
Which some did die to look on: and all this
(It wounds thine honour, that I speak it now,)
Was borne so like a soldier, that thy cheek
So much as lank'd not.

* Levity.

Il Urine.

§ Feastings: in the old copy it is vaissailes, i. e. vassals.

T Stagnant, slimy water.

CLEOPATRA'S

O Charmian,

SOLICITUDE ON THE ABSENCE Or

ANTONY.

Where thinkst 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 wot'st thou whom thou mor'st?

The demi-Atlas of this earth, the arm

And burgonet* 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 Cesar,
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 aspect, and die
With his looking on his life.

ACT II.

THE VANITY OF HUMAN WISHES.

We, ignorant of ourselves,

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

By losing of our prayers.

DESCRIPTION OF CLEOPATRA SAILING DOWN THE

CYDNUS.

The barge she sat in, like a burnish'd throne, Burn'd on the water: the poop was beaten gold; Purple the sails, and so perfumed, that

The winds were love-sick with them: the oars were silver;

Which to the tune of flutes kept stroke, and made
The water which they beat, to follow faster,
As amorous of their strokes. For her own person,
It beggar'd all description: she did lie

* A Helmet.

In her pavilion, (cloth of gold, of tissue,)
O'er picturing that Venus, where we see,
The fancy out-work nature: on each side her
Stood pretty dimpled boys, like smiling Cupids,
With diverse-coloured fans, whose wind did seem
To glow the delicate cheeks which they did cool,
And what they undid, did.*

Agr. O, rare for Antony. Eno. lier gentlewoman, like the Nereides, So many mermaids, tended her i' the eyes, And made their bends adornings. at the helm A seeming mermaid steers; the silken tackle Swell with the touches of those flower-soft hands, That yearly frame† the office. From the barge A strange invisible perfume hits the sense Of the adjacent wharfs. The city cast Her people out upon her; and Antony, 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.

CLEOPATRA'S INFINITE POWER IN PLEASING.

Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale

Her infinite variety: Other women

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

THE UNSETTLED HUMOURS OF LOVERS.

Enter CLEOPATRA, CHARMIAN, IRAS, and ALEXAS Cleo. Give me some music; music, moody§ food Of us that trade in love.

Attend.

The music, ho!

Enter MARDIAN.

Cleo. Let it alone; let us to billiards: Come, Charmian.

Char. My arm is sore, best play with Mardian. Cleo. As well a woman with an eunucn play'd As with a woman:--Come you'll play with me, sir? * Added to the warmth they were intended to diminish. + Readily perform. Wanton. § Melancholy.

Mar. As well as I can, madam.

Cleo. And when good will is show'd, though it

come too short,

The actor may plead pardon.

I'll none now:

Give me mine angle,-We'll to the river: there,
My music playing far off, I will betray

Tawny finn'd fishes; my bended hook shall pierce
Their slimy jaws; and, as I draw them up,

I'll think them every one an Antony,

And say, Ah! ah! you're caught.

Char.

'Twas merry, when
You wager'd on your angling; when your diver
Did hang a salt fish on his hook, which he
With fervency drew up.

Cleo.

That time!-0 times!

I laugh'd him out of patience; and that night
I laugh'd him into patience; and next morn,
Ere the ninth hour, I drunk him to his bed;
Then put my tires* and mantles on him, whilst
I wore his sword Philippan.

ACT III.

AMBITION JEALOUS OF A TOO SUCCESSFUL FRIEND.

O Silius, Silius,

I have done enough: A lower place, note well, May make too great an act: For learn this, Silius; Better leave undone, than by our deed acquire Too high a fame, when him we serve's away.

WHAT OCTAVIA'S ENTRANCE SHOULD HAVE BEEN.

Why have you stol'n upon us thus? You come not
Like Cesar's sister: The wife of Antony
Should have an army for an usher, and

The neighs of horse to tell of her approach,
Long ere she did appear; the trees by the way,
Should have borne men; and expectation fainted,
Longing for what it had not: nay the dust
Should have ascended to the roof of heaven,
Rais'd by your populous troops: But you are come
A market-maid to Rome: and have prevented

* Head-dress.

The ostent* of our love, which, left unshown
Is often left unlov'd: we should have met you
By sea, and land; supplying every stage
With an augmented greeting.

Women are not,

WOMEN.

In their best fortunes, strong; but want will perjure The ne'er touch'd vestal.

FORTUNE FORMS OUR JUDGMENTS.

I see men's judgments are

A parcelf of their fortunes: and things outward
Do draw the inward quality after them,

To suffer all alike.

LOYALTY.

Mine honesty, and I, begin to square.‡
The loyalty, well held to fools, does make
Our faith mere folly:-Yet he that can endure
To follow with allegiance a fallen lord,

Does conquer him that did his master conquer,
And earns a place i' the story.

WISDOM SUPERIOR TO FORTUNE.

Wisdom and fortune combating together,
If that the former dare but what it can,
No chance may shake it.

VICIOUS PERSONS INFATUATED BY HEAVEN

Good, my lord,—

But when we in our viciousness grow hard,

(0 misery on't!) the wise gods seal§ our eyes;
In our own filth, drop our clear judgments, make us
Adore our errors; laugh at us, while we strut
To our confusion.

FURY EXPELS FEAR.

Now he'll out-stare the lightning. To be furious,
Is to be frighted out of fear: and in that mood,
The dove will peck the estridge;|| and I see still,
A diminution in our captain's brain

Restore his heart: When valour preys on reason,
It eats the sword it fights with.

* Show, token. + Quarrel

† Are of a piece with them.
§ Close up.
Il Ostrich.