Thus then, thou most renowned: Cæsar entreats,
Not to consider in what case thou standest,

Further than he is Cæsar.1

Cleo.

Go on right royal!

Thyr. He knows that you embrace not Antony did love, but as you feared him.

As 2

you

Cleo.

O!

Thyr. The scars upon your honour, therefore, he Does pity as constrained blemishes,

Not as deserved.

Cleo.

He is a god, and knows

What is most right: mine honour was not yielded,
But conquered merely.3

Eno. [Aside.]

To be sure of that,

I will ask Antony.—Sir, sir, thou art so leaky,
That we must leave thee to thy sinking, for

Thy dearest quit thee.

Thyr.

[Exit ENOBARBUS.

Shall I say to Cæsar

What you require of him? for he partly begs

To be desired to give. It much would please him,
That of his fortunes you should make a staff

To lean upon but it would warm his spirits,
To hear from me you had left Antony,
And put yourself under his shroud,

The universal landlord.

Cleo.

Thyr. My name is Thyreus.

Cleo.

What's your name?

Most kind messenger,

5

Say to great Cæsar this:-in disputation

1 Further than he is Cæsar.] Further than he is what he is.

2 As.] Because.

Merely.] Absolutely.

Sir, sir, &c.] This apostrophises Antony.

• In disputation.] In anything of which he disputes my possession.

I kiss his conquering hand: tell him, I am prompt
To lay my crown at 's feet, and there to kneel:
Tell him, from his all-obeying breath I hear
The doom of Egypt.

Thyr.
Wisdom and fortune combating together,

If that the former dare but what it can,

'Tis your noblest course.

Give me grace to lay

Your Cæsar's father oft,

No chance may shake it.
My duty on your hand.1

Cleo.

When he hath mused of taking kingdoms in,2
Bestowed his lips on that unworthy place,
As 3 it rained kisses.

The bidding of the fullest man,5 and worthiest

To have command obeyed.

Eno. [Aside to THYR.] You will be whipped.

Ant. Approach, there! 6-Ah, you kite!-Now, gods

and devils!

To lay my duty on your hand.] To kiss your hand.

2 Taking kingdoms in.] See p. 4, note 5.

As.] As though.

Favours.] This refers to Thyreus kissing Cleopatra's hand. See Extracts from Plutarch, 42.

• The fullest man.] The man of fullest fortune, Compare what is previously said in the present scene: 'That he should dream-the full Cæsar will answer his emptiness.' So, in iv. 15, 'The full-fortuned Cæsar;' and in Othello, i. 1, 'What a full fortune does the thick-lips owe.'

› Approach, there.] This is a summons to servants without.

Authority melts from me: Of late, when I cried ho!
Like boys unto a muss,2 kings would start forth,

And cry, Your will ?

Enter Attendants.

Have you no ears?

I am Antony yet. Take hence this Jack,3 and whip him. Eno. [Aside.] 'T is better playing with a lion's whelp Than with an old one dying.

Ant.

Moon and stars!

Whip him.-Were 't twenty of the greatest tributaries
That do acknowledge Cæsar, should I find them

So saucy with the hand of she here,-what's her name,
Since she was Cleopatra ?Whip him, fellows,

Till, like a boy, you see him cringe his face,
And whine aloud for mercy: take him hence.
Thyr. Mark Antony,-

Ant.

Tug him away: being whipped,

Bring him again :-this Jack of Cæsar's shall
Bear us an errand to him.—

[Exeunt Attendants, with THYREUS. You were half blasted 4 ere I knew you:-) -ha! Have I my pillow left unpressed in Rome, Forborne the getting of a lawful race, And by a gem of women,5 to be abused

By one that looks on feeders ? 6

1 Authority melts from me.] My authority is losing force. This

is spoken in impatience for the entrance of the attendants.

2 Like boys unto a muss.]

These words, in construction, come after

the remainder of the line. A muss is a scramble.

This Jack.] A Jack was a usual name for a low menial

fellow.

Half-blasted.] Half blighted.

5 And by a gem of women.] The getting of a lawful race by such a gem of women as Octavia.

• Feeders.] Servants.

Good my lord,

Cleo.

Ant. You have been a boggler ever :— But when we in our viciousness grow hard,

(O, misery on 't!) the wise gods seel our eyes; 1

In our own filth drop our clear judgments; make us
Adore our errors; laugh at 's, while we strut

To our confusion.

Cleo.

O, is 't come to this?

Ant. I found you as a morsel cold upon
Dead Cæsar's trencher: nay, you were a fragment
Of Cneius Pompey's; besides what hotter hours,
Unregistered in vulgar fame, you have

Luxuriously picked out: for, I am sure

Though you can guess what temperance should be,
You know not what it is.

Cleo.

Wherefore is this?

Ant. To let a fellow that will take rewards,
And say, God quit you! 2 be familiar with
My playfellow, your hand; this kingly seal,3
And plighter of high hearts!-O, that I were
Upon the hill of Basan,4 to outroar

The horned herd! for I have savage cause:
And to proclaim it civilly, were like

A haltered neck which does the hangman thank
For being yare about him.5—

1 Seel our eyes.] Blind our minds. The metaphor is taken from falconry. To seel the eyes of a hawk was to sew up the eyelids to make it tame.

2 Quit you.] Requite you.

This kingly seal.] The seal means a kiss.

• The hill of Basan.]

poet's mind.

The 'fat bulls of Basan' were here in the

5 Yare about him.] Active and speedy with him.

F

Re-enter Attendants, with THYREUS.

1 Att. Soundly, my lord.

Ant.

Is he whipped?

Cried he? and begged he pardon?

1 Att. He did ask favour.

Ant. If that thy father live, let him repent

Thou wast not made his daughter; and be thou sorry
To follow Cæsar in his triumph, since

Thou hast been whipped for following him: henceforth,
The white hand of a lady fever thee,

Shake thou to look on 't.-Get thee back to Cæsar,
Tell him thy entertainment: look thou say

He makes me angry with him, for he seems
Proud and disdainful, harping on what I am,
Not what he knew I was: he makes me angry;
And at this time most easy 't is to do 't,
When my good stars, that were my former guides,
Have empty left their orbs, and shot their fires
Into the abysm1 of hell. If he mislike
My speech and what is done, tell him he has
Hipparchus, my enfranched bondman, whom
He may at pleasure whip, or hang, or torture,
As he shall like, to quit me:2 urge it thou!
Hence with thy stripes, begone!

Cleo. Have you done yet?

Ant..

Is now eclipsed; and it portends alone

The fall of Antony !

Cleo.

[Exit THYREUS.

Alack, our terrene moon

I must stay his time.

1 Abysm.] Old French, Abisme. 'The dark backward and abysm of time.' Tempest, i. 2.

2 To quit me.] To requite me for whipping you. See Extracts from Plutarch, 42.