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A heavy sight!

All.

Ant. I am dying,-Egypt,-dying ;

Give me some wine, and let me speak a little.

Cleo. No, let me speak; and let me rail so high, That the false housewife, Fortune,1 break her wheel, Provoked by my offence.

Ant.

One word, sweet queen:

Of Cæsar seek your honour, with your safety.-O!
Cleo. They do not go together.

Ant.

Gentle, hear me;

None about Cæsar trust but Proculeius.2

Cleo. My resolution and my hands I'll trust; None about Cæsar.

Ant. The miserable change now at my end, Lament nor sorrow at; but please your thoughts, In feeding them with those my former fortunes Wherein I lived, the greatest prince o' the world, The noblest; and do now not basely die,

Nor cowardly put off my

helmet to

My countryman,—a Roman by a Roman

Valiantly vanquish'd. Now, my spirit is going :-
I can no more.-

Cleo.

Noblest of men, woot die?3

Hast thou no care of me? shall I abide

In this dull world, which in thy absence is
No better than a sty?-O, see, my women,

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[ANTONY dies.

1 That the false housewife, &c.] The word housewife here means harlot. Fortune 's a strumpet' was a proverbial expression, (Hamlet, ii. 2.) Compare what Celia says in As you Like it, i. 2, 'Let us sit and mock the good housewife Fortune from her wheel,' &c.; and what Pistol asks in K. Henry V., v. 1, 'Doth Fortune play the housewife with me now?'

2 But Proculeius.] Extracts from Plutarch, 50,

3 Woot die.] Woot is provincial for wilt. See p. 103, note 2.

The crown o' the earth doth melt !-My lord!--
O, withered is the garland of the war !!

The soldier's pole 2 is fallen: young boys and girls
Are level now with men; the odds is gone,

And there is nothing left remarkable

Beneath the visiting moon.

Char.

Iras. She is dead too, our sovereign!

Char.

Iras.

[Faints.

O, quietness, lady!

Lady!

Madam!

Royal Egypt!

Char. O madam, madam, madam !—

Iras.

Empress !-

Char. Peace, peace, Iras!

3

Cleo. No more, out e'en a woman, and commanded
By such poor passion as the maid that milks,

And does the meanest chares.4-It were for me
To throw my sceptre at the injurious gods;
To tell them that this world did equal theirs,
Till they had stolen our jewel.-All's but nought;
Patience is sottish, and impatience does

you, women?

Become a dog that 's mad: then is it sin
To rush into the secret house of death,
Ere death dare come to us?-How do
What, what! good cheer! Why, how now, Charmian !
My noble girls!—Ah, women, women! look,
Our lamp is spent, it's out!-Good sirs,5 take heart ;—

The garland of the war.] Shakspeare often uses the word garland to denote a pre-eminent or chief thing.

2 The soldier's pole.] The soldier's pride.

No more.] No more an empress.

▲ Chares.] Menial services.

Good sirs.] It was not unusual to address a company of men and women, and even of women only, with the word sirs. Indeed

We'll bury him; and then, what 's brave,' what 's noble, Let's do it after the high Roman fashion,

And make Death proud to take us.

Come, away

This case of that huge spirit now is cold.—
Ah, women, women !-come; we have no friend
But resolution, and the briefest end.

[Exeunt; those above bearing off ANTONY's body.

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the word is still so used in impassioned discourse in the north. Dyce has pointed out instances of females being called Sirs, in two of Beaumont & Fletcher's plays: in the Coxcomb, iv. 3, a mother, addressing girls, says Sirs, to your tasks;' and in A King and No King, iii. 1, the words 'Sirs, leave me all' are addressed to waitingwomen. In the concluding scene of the present play Cleopatra calls Iras sirrah. (p. 146.)

1 What's brave.] Cleopatra here refers to suicide.

ACT V.

SCENE I. Cæsar's Camp before Alexandria.

Enter CESAR, Agrippa, Dolabella, Mecenas, Gallus, PROCULEIUS, and others.

Cas. Go to him, Dolabella, bid him yield;

Being so frustrate, tell him, he mocks

The pauses that he makes.1

Dol.

Cæsar, I shall.

[Exit.

Enter DERCETAS, with the sword of ANTONY.

Cas. Wherefore is that? and what art thou that dar'st Appear thus to us?

Der.

I am called Dercetas ;

Mark Antony I served, who best was worthy
Best to be served: whilst he stood up and spoke,

He was my master; and I wore my life

To spend upon his haters. If thou please
To take me to thee, as I was to him
I'll be to Cæsar; if thou pleasest not,

I yield thee up my life.

Cæs.

1 Being so frustrate, &c.]

What is 't thou say'st?

Tell him that he being so utterly de

feated only mocks his own delays of surrender by regarding them as

of any use.

Der. I say, O Cæsar, Antony is dead!

Cas. The breaking of so great a thing should make A greater crack: the round world

Should have shook lions into civil streets,

And citizens to their dens :-the death of Antony

Is not a single doom; in the name lay

A moiety of the world.

Der.

He is dead, Cæsar,

Not by a public minister of justice,

Nor by a hired knife; but that self hand,1
Which writ his honour in the acts it did,

Hath, with the courage which the heart did lend it,
Splitted the heart. This is his sword;

I robbed his wound of it; 2 behold it, stained
With his most noble blood.

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That nature must compel us to lament

Our most persisted deeds.3

Mec.

Waged equal with him."

His taints and honours

A rarer spirit never

Agr.
Did steer humanity: but you, gods, will give us
Some faults to make us men.- -Cæsar is touched.

Mec. When such a spacious mirror 's set before him,
He needs must see himself.

1 That self hand.] Self here means self-same or identical. The word was often thus used by the old writers. 'I am made of that self metal as my sister.' K. Lear, i. 1. 2 This is his sword, &c.] Most persisted deeds.] Waged equal with him.] terised him in equal degrees.

Extracts from Plutarch, 51.
Deeds most persisted in.

Contended equally with him; charac

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