The triple pillar1 of the world transformed
Into a strumpet's fool: behold and see.

Enter ANTONY and CLEOPATRA, with their Trains ;
Eunuchs fanning her.

Cleo. If it be love indeed, tell me how much.
Ant. There's beggary in the love that can be reckoned.
Cleo. I'll set a bourn 2 how far to be beloved.

Ant. Then must thou needs find out new heaven, new earth.

Enter an Attendant.

Att. News, my good lord, from Rome.

Ant.

Grates me:3-the sum.

Cleo. Nay, hear them, Antony :

Fulvia perchance is angry; or, who knows
If the scarce-bearded Cæsar 4 have not sent
His powerful mandate to you, Do this, or this;
Take in that kingdom,5 and enfranchise that;
Perform 't, or else we damn thee.

Ant.

How, my love!

Cleo. Perchance,―nay, and most like,—
You must not stay here longer, your dismission

1 Triple pillar.] One of the three pillars; referring to the triumvirate of Antony, Octavius Cæsar, and Lepidus. Triple in the sense of third occurs in All's Well that Ends Well, ii. 1, 'A triple eye safer than mine own two.'

2 Bourn.] Boundary; French borne, a limit or landmark. s Grates me.] Is grating or annoying to me.

Scarce-bearded Cæsar.] Young Octavius. In Julius Cæsar, v. 1, Cassius calls him' A peevish schoolboy.'

5 Take in that kingdom.] To take in is to capture, to reduce to dependence. The phrase occurs also in Act iii. sc. 7, And take in Toryne;' and in iii. 13, When he hath mused of taking kingdoms in.' So in Coriolanus, iii. 2, To take in a town with gentle words.'

Is come from Cæsar; therefore hear it, Antony.Where's Fulvia's process ?1 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-tongued Fulvia scolds.2-The messengers !
Ant. Let Rome in Tiber melt, and the wide arch
Of the ranged3 empire fall! Here is my space.*
Kingdoms are clay: our dungy earth alike

Feeds beast as man: the nobleness of life

Is to do thus; when such a mutual pair, [Embracing.
And such a twain can do 't, in which I bind

On pain of punishment, the world to weet,5
We stand up peerless.

Cleo.

Excellent falsehood!

Why did he marry Fulvia, and not love her ?-
I'll seem the fool I am not ;-Antony

Will be himself.

Ant.

6

But stirred by Cleopatra.

Now, for the love of Love and her soft hours,

Let's not confound7 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.

1 Process.] Summons. See Extracts from Plutarch, 5. 2 Fulvia scolds.] See Extracts from Plutarch, 17.

8 Ranged.] Wide; extensive.

My space.] My sphere.

5 To weet.] To know.

7

Stirred.] Actuated.

Confound.] Spend; consume.

So in Coriolanus, i. 6, 'How

couldst thou in a mile confound an hour?' and in 1 K. Henry IV

i. 3, He did confound the best part of an hour.'

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 admired!
No messenger; but thine;1 and all alone
To-night we'll wander through the streets, and note
The qualities of people.2 Come, my queen;
Last night you did desire it.—Speak not to us.

3

[Exeunt ANT. and CLEOP., with their Train.
Dem. Is Cæsar with Antonius prized 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.
I am full sorry
That he approves the common liar,5 who
Thus speaks of him at Rome: but I will hope
Of better deeds to-morrow. Rest you happy !6

SCENE II. The same.

[Exeunt.

Another Room in the Palace.

Enter CHARMIAN, IRAS, ALEXAS, and a Soothsayer.7 Char. Lord Alexas, sweet Alexas, most anything Alexas, almost most absolute Alexas, where's the soothsayer that

1 No messenger; but thine.] I will hear no messenger; I am thine only.

2 Note the qualities, &c.] See Extracts from Plutarch, 14.

3 Speak not to us.] This is said to the attendant.

5

Still.] Ever.

Approves the common liar.] Verifies common report, which is proverbially a common liar.

• Rest you happy!] Farewell. The phrases, Rest you happy! Rest you fair! Rest you merry! &c., are borrowed from the language used in wishing repose for a departed spirit.

"A soothsayer.] See Extracts from Plutarch, 23.

you praised so to the queen? O, that I knew this husband, which, you say, must change his horns with garlands ?1

Alex. Soothsayer,

Sooth. Your will?

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

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.

Char. Pray, then, foresee me one.

Sooth. You shall be yet far faircr than you are.

Char. He means in flesh.

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 beloved.
Char. I had rather heat my liver with drinking.2

Alex. Nay, hear him.

Char. Good now, some excellent fortune! Let me be

1 Change his horns, &c.] Change has been supposed to be a misprint for charge. But I apprehend that change his horns' means 'make reprisals for his horns.'

2 I had rather, &c.] That is, rather than heat my liver with love unrequited. The liver was supposed to be the seat of passion; hence the Duke in Twelfth Night, ii. 4, says, Their love may be

called appetite,--No motion of the liver but the palate.'

married to three kings in a forenoon, and widow them all: let me have a child at fifty, to whom Herod of Jewry 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. O excellent! I love long life better than figs.1 Sooth. You have seen and proved a fairer former fortune Than that which is to approach.

Char. Then, belike my children shall have no names: -prithee, how many boys and wenches must I have? Sooth. If every of your wishes had a womb,

And fertile3 every wish, a million.

Char. Out, fool! I forgive thee for a witch.

Alex. You think none but your sheets are privy to your wishes.

Char. 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.4

Iras. There's a palm presages chastity, if nothing else. Char. E'en as the o'erflowing Nilus presageth famine. Iras. Go, you wild bedfellow, you cannot soothsay. Char. Nay, if an oily palm be not a fruitful prognostication, I cannot scratch mine ear.-Prithee, tell her but a worky-day fortune.5

Sooth. Your fortunes are alike.

1 I love long life, &c.] To love a thing better than figs, was a proverbial expression.

2 Shall have no names.] Shall be illegitimate.

3 Fertile.] This is Warburton's correction of the original foretel. Drunk to bed.] The fortune of going drunk to bed.

5 A worky-day fortune.] A work-a-day fortune means an ordinary or poor one, as contrasted with a holiday or flush one.