Hath nodded him to her. He hath given his empire
Up to a whore; who now are levying4

The kings o' the earth for war:5 He hath assembled
Bocchus, the king of Lybia; Archelaus,

Of Cappadocia; Philadelphos, king

Of Paphlagonia; the Thracian king, Adallas:
King Malchus of Arabia; king of Pont;
Herod of Jewry; Mithridates, king

Of Comagene; Polemon and Amintas,
The kings of Mede, and Lycaonia, with a
More larger list of scepters.

Oct.

Ah me, most wretched,

That have my heart parted betwixt two friends,
That do afflict each other!

Cas.
Welcome hither:
Your letters did withhold our breaking forth;
Till we perceiv'd, both how you were wrong led,
And we in negligent danger. Cheer your heart:
Be you not troubled with the time, which drives
O'er your content these strong necessities;
But let determin'd things to destiny

Hold unbewail'd their way. Welcome to Rome:
Nothing more dear to me. You are abus'd
Beyond the mark of thought: and the high gods,
To do you justice, make them ministers

Of us, and those that love you. Best of comfort;"

4 who now are levying-] That is, which two persons now are levying, &c. Malone.

5 The kings o' the earth for war:] Mr. Upton remarks, that there are some errors in this enumeration of the auxiliary kings: but it is probable that the author did not much wish to be accu rate. Johnson.

Mr. Upton proposes to read:

Polemon and Amintas

Of Lycaonia; and the king of Mede.”

And this obviates all impropriety." Steevens.

6 them ministers -] Old copy-his ministers. Corrected by Mr. Capell. Malone.

71

Best of comfort;] Thus the original copy. The connecting particle, and, seems to favour the old reading.-According to the modern innovation, Be of comfort, (which was introduced by Mr. Rowe) it stands very aukwardly. "Best of comfort" may mean-Thou best of comforters! a phrase which we meet with again in The Tempest:

Welcome, lady.

And ever welcome to us.

Agr.

Mec. Welcome, dear madam.

Each heart in Rome does love and pity you:
Only the adulterous Antony, most large
In his abominations, turns you off;

And gives his potent regiments to a trull,
That noises it against us.9

Oct.

Is it so, sir?

Cas. Most certain. Sister, welcome: Pray you, Be ever known to patience: My dearest sister! [Exeunt.

SCENE VII.

Antony's Camp, near the Promontory of Actium.

Enter CLEOPATRA and ENOBARBUS.

Cleo. I will be even with thee, doubt it not.

Eno. But why, why, why?

Cleo. Thou hast forspoke my being1 in these wars;

"A solemn air, and the best comforter
"To an unsettled fancy's cure!"

Cæsar, however, may mean, that what he has just mentioned is the best kind of comfort that Octavia can receive.

Malone.

This elliptical phrase, I believe, only signifies—May the best of comfort be yours! Steevens.

8 potent regiment —] Regiment, is government, authority; he puts his power and his empire into the hands of a false woman. It may be observed, that trull was not, in our author's time, a term of mere infamy, but a word of slight contempt, as wench is now. Johnson.

Trull is used in The First Part of King Henry VI, as synonymous to harlot, and is rendered by the Latin word Scortum, in Cole's Dictionary, 1679. There can therefore be no doubt of the sense in which it is used here. Malone.

9 That noises it against us.] Milton has adopted this uncommon verb in his Paradise Regained, Book IV, 488:

66

though noising loud,

"And threatening nigh: -"

forspoke my being

Steevens.

] To forspeak, is to contradict, to

speak against, as forbid is to order negatively. Johnson.

Thus, in The Arraignment of Paris, 1584:

thy life forspoke by love."

To forspeak likewise signified to curse. So, in Drayton's Epis-tle from Elinor Cobham to Duke Humphrey:

"Or to forspeak whole flocks as they did feed."

Well, is it, is it?

And say'st, it is not fit.

Eno.

Cleo. Is 't not? Denounce against us,? why should not we

To forspeak, in the last instance, has the same power as to for bid, in Macbeth:

“He shall live a man forbid.”

So, to forthink, meant anciently to unthink, and consequently

to repent:

"Therefore of it be not to boolde,

"Lest thou forthink it when thou art too olde." Interlude of Youth, bl. 1. no date. And in Gower, De Confessione Amantis, B. I, to forshape is to mis-shape:

"Out of a man into a stone

"Forshape," &c.

To forspeak has generally reference to the mischiefs effected by enchantment. So, in Ben Jonson's Staple of News : “ - a witch, gossip, to forspeak the matter thus." In Shakspeare it is the opposite of bespeak. Steevens.

2 Is 't not? Denounce against us, &c.] The old copy reads: If not denounc'd against us, &c.

Corrected by Mr. Rowe.

I would read:

Steevens.

Is 't not? Denounce against us, why should not we
Be there in person? Tyrwhitt.

Cleopatra means to say,

"Is not the war denounced against

us? Why should we not then attend in person?" She says, a little lower,

A charge we bear i' the war,

And, as the president of my kingdom, will

Appear there for a man."

She speaks of herself in the plural number, according to the usual style of sovereigns. M. Mason.

Mr. Malone reads with the old copy, introducing only the change of a single letter-denounc't instead of denounc'd. I have followed Mr. Tyrwhitt.

So, in Turberville's translation of Ovid's Epistle from Phyllis to Demophoon:

"Denounce to me what I have doone

"But loud thee all to well?" Steevens.

Mr. Tyrwhitt proposed to read-denounce, but the slight alteration for which I am answerable, is nearer to the original copy. I am not however sure that the old reading is not right." If not denounc'd," If there be no particular denunciation against me, why should we not be there in person? There is, however, in the folio, a comma after the word not, and no point of interrogation at the end of the sentence; which favours the emendation now made. Malone.

Surely, no valid inference can be drawn from such uncertain

Be there in person?

Eno. [Aside.]

Well, I could reply:

If we should serve with horse and mares together,
The horse were merely lost;3 the mares would bear
A soldier, and his horse.

Cleo.

What is 't you say?

Eno. Your presence needs must puzzle Antony;
Take from his heart, take from his brain, from his time,
What should not then be spar'd. He is already
Traduc'd for levity; and 'tis said in Rome,

That Photinus an eunuch, and your maids,
Manage this war.

Cleo.

Sink Rome; and their tongues rot,

That speak against us! A charge we bear i' the war,
And, as the president of my kingdom, will

Appear there for a man. Speak not against it;
I will not stay behind.

Eno.

Here comes the emperor.

Ant.

Nay, I have done :

Enter ANTONY and CANIDIUS.

Is 't not strange, Canidius,

That from Tarentum, and Brundusium,

He could so quickly cut the Ionian sea,

And take in Toryne?4-You have heard on 't sweet?
Cleo. Celerity is never more admir'd,

Than by the negligent.

Ant.

A good rebuke,

Which might have well becom❜d the best of men,
To taunt at slackness.-Canidius, we

Will fight with him by sea.

Cleo.

By sea! What else?

Can. Why will my lord do so?

premises as the punctuation of the old copy, which (to use the words of Rosalind and Touchstone in As you Like it) is “as fortune will or as the destinies decree." Steevens.

3 merely lost;] i. e. entirely, absolutely lost. So, in Hamlet: things rank, and gross in nature

66

"Possess it merely." Steevens.

4 And take in Toryne ?] To take in is to gain by conquest. So, in Chapman's version of the second Iliad:

for now Troy's broad-way'd towne "He shall take in."

See Vol. VI, p. 289, n. 1. Steevens.

Ant.

For he dares us to 't.

Eno. So hath my lord dar'd him to single fight.

Can. Ay, and to wage this battle at Pharsalia, Where Cæsar fought with Pompey: But these offers, Which serve not for his vantage, he shakes off;

And so should you.

Eno.
Your ships are not well mann'd:
Your mariners are muleteers, reapers, people
Ingross'd by swift impress; in Cæsar's fleet
Are those, that often have 'gainst Pompey fought:
Their ships are yare; yours, heavy. No disgrace
Shall fall you for refusing him at sea,

Being prepar'd for land.

Ant.

By sea, by sea.
Eno. Most worthy sir, you therein throw away
The absolute soldiership you have by land;
Distract your army, which doth most consist
Of war-mark'd footmen; leave unexecuted
Your own renowned knowledge; quite forego
The way which promises assurance; and
Give up yourself merely to chance and hazard,
From firm security.

Cleo. I have sixty sails, Cæsar none better.

Ant. Our overplus of shipping will we burn;

And, with the rest full-mann'd, from the head of Actium

5 For he dares us] i. e. because he dares us. So, in Othello: Haply, for I am black

وو

The old copy redundantly reads-For that he. See Vol. XVI, note on Cymbeline, Act IV, sc. i.

Steevens.

for

6 Your mariners are muleteers, reapers, &c.] The old copy has militers. The correction was made by the editor of the second folio. It is confirmed by the old translation of Plutarch: " lacke of watermen his captains did presse by force all sortes of men out of Græce, that they could rake up in the field, as travellers, muliters, reapers, harvest men, &c. Muliter was the old spelling of muleteer. Steevens.

7 Their ships are yare; yours, heavy.] So, in Sir Thomas North's Plutarch: "Caesar's ships were not built for pomp, high and great, &c. but they were light of yarage." Yare generally signifies, dextrous, manageable. See Vol. II, p. 9, n. 2. Steevens.

8 -Cæsar none better.] I must suppose this mutiliated line to have originally run thus:

I have sixty sails, Cæsar himself none better. Steevens.
VOL. XIII.

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