SCENE IX.

CESAR'S Camp.

Sentinels on their Post. Enter ENOBARBUS.

1 Sold. If we be not reliev'd within this hour, We must return to the court of guard'. The night Is shiny, and, they say, we shall embattle

By the second hour i' the morn.

2 Sold.

A shrewd one to us.

Eno.

This last day was

O! bear me witness, night,

3 Sold. What man is this?

2 Sold.

Stand close, and list him.

Eno. Be witness to me, O thou blessed moon!

When men revolted shall upon record

Bear hateful memory, poor Enobarbus did

Eno. O sovereign mistress of true melancholy!
The poisonous damp of night disponge upon me,
That life, a very rebel to my will,

May hang no longer on me: throw my heart
Against the flint and hardness of my fault,

Which, being dried with grief, will break to powder,
And finish all foul thoughts. O Antony!

Nobler than my revolt is infamous,

Forgive me in thine own particular;
But let the world rank me in register

A master-leaver, and a fugitive.

O Antony! O Antony!

2 Sold. Let's speak to him.

[Dies.

1

the court of guard.] For this expression see Vol. vii.

1 Sold. Let's hear him; for the things he speaks May concern Cæsar.

3 Sold.

Let's do so.

But he sleeps.

1 Sold. Swoons rather; for so bad a prayer as his

Was never yet for sleep.

2 Sold.

Go we to him.

3 Sold. Awake, sir, awake! speak to us.

2 Sold.

1 Sold. The hand of death hath raught him. Hark!

the drums

[Drums afar off.

Demurely wake the sleepers. Let us bear him
To the court of guard; he is of note: our hour
Is fully out.

Enter ANTONY and SCARUS, with Forces, marching.

Ant. Their preparation is to-day by sea:

We please them not by land.

Scar.

For both, my lord.

Ant. I would, they'd fight i' the fire, or i̇' the air; We'd fight there too. But this it is our foot

Upon the hills adjoining to the city

Shall stay with us (order for sea is given,

2 The hand of death hath RAUGHT him.] "Raught" was most frequently used as the past tense of to reach. See Vol. ii. p. 326 ; Vol. iv. p. 548; Vol. v. p. 246. But it is also sometimes made the past tense of to reare, as in Vol. v. p. 144, and in Nash's "Pierce Penniless,” 1592, “I raught his head from his shoulders, and sheathed my sword in his body." See the reprint of this tract by the Shakespeare Society, p. 82. In this place in our text either sense will answer the purpose, for the "1 Soldier" may mean either that death has reached, or has reft Enobarbus.

They have put forth the haven3)

Where their appointment we may best discover,
And look on their endeavour.

Enter CESAR, and his Forces, marching.

[Exeunt.

Cæs. But being charg'd', we will be still by land,
Which, as I take't, we shall; for his best force
Is forth to man his galleys. To the vales,
And hold our best advantage!

Re-enter ANTONY and SCARUS.

[Exeunt.

Ant. Yet they are not join'd. Where yond' pine

does stand,

I shall discover all: I'll bring thee word

Straight, how 'tis like to go.

Scar.

[Exit.

Swallows have built

5

In Cleopatra's sails their nests: the auguries
Say, they know not,-they cannot tell;-look grimly,
And dare not speak their knowledge. Antony

Is valiant, and dejected; and by starts

His fretted fortunes give him hope, and fear,
Of what he has, and has not.

3

[Alarum afar off, as at a Sea Fight.

(order for sea is given,

They have put forth the haven)] These words, as Mr. Knight suggests, are parenthetical, and we have printed them accordingly without them, the sense runs on quite clearly, and any addition to the text, such as "Let's seek a spot," proposed by Malone; or "Farther on," recommended by Monck Mason, is unnecessary. Antony says, 'our foot shall stay with us upon the hills adjoining to the city-where we may best discover the appointment and look upon the endeavour of the enemy."

↑ BUT being charg'd,] i. e. Unless we be charged. "But" is still frequently employed in the north of England as a preposition, equivalent to without. Several ancient instances may be found in the "Coventry Mysteries,” printed by the Shakespeare Society, and edited by Mr. Halliwell. Steevens collects various authorities on the point, but they are not necessary: he derives "but," in this sense, from the Sax. butan.

5

the AUGURIES] i, e. the declarations of the augurs: it is unnecessary, with all modern editors, to change the word, found in all the old copies, to augurers.

Ant.

Re-enter ANTONY.

All is lost!

This foul Egyptian hath betrayed me:

My fleet hath yielded to the foe; and yonder
They cast their caps up, and carouse together
Like friends long lost.-Triple-turn'd whore! 'tis thou
Hast sold me to this novice, and my heart
Makes only wars on thee.-Bid them all fly;
For when I am reveng'd upon my charm,
I have done all.-Bid them all fly; be gone.

[Exit SCARUS.

O sun! thy uprise shall I see no more:
Fortune and Antony part here; even here

Do we shake hands.-All come to this?-The hearts
That spaniel'd me at heels, to whom I gave
Their wishes, do discandy, melt their sweets
On blossoming Cæsar; and this pine is bark'd,
That overtopp'd them all. Betray'd I am.

O this false soul of Egypt! this grave charm,-
Whose eye beck'd forth my wars, and call'd them home,
Whose bosom was my crownet, my chief end,

Like a right gipsy, hath, at fast and loose',
Beguil❜d me to the very heart of loss.-

What, Eros! Eros!

Enter CLEOPatra.

Ah, thou spell! Avaunt!

Cleo. Why is my lord enrag'd against his love?

6 That SPANIEL'D me at heels,] The credit of this happy emendation is due to Sir T. Hanmer: the folios all read, no doubt corruptly, "that pannelled me at heels."

7 Like a right GIPSY, hath, at Fast and loose,] "Fast and loose" was the same game as that now commonly called "pricking in the garter," and it was commonly (Sir J. Hawkins observes) employed by gipsies, as a mode of defrauding the unwary. Steevens quoted T. Freeman's Epigrams, 1614, at length, but the two first lines are all that really illustrate the text :

"Charles the Ægyptian, who by jugling could

Make fast or loose, or whatsoere he would," &c.

Ant. Vanish, or I shall give thee thy deserving,
And blemish Cæsar's triumph. Let him take thee,
And hoist thee up to the shouting plebeians:
Follow his chariot, like the greatest spot
Of all thy sex; most monster-like, be shown
For poor'st diminutives, for doits; and let
Patient Octavia plough thy visage up
With her prepared nails.

[Exit CLEO.

"Tis well thou'rt gone,

If it be well to live; but better 'twere
Thou fell'st into my fury, for one death
Might have prevented many.-Eros, ho!—
The shirt of Nessus is upon me: teach me,
Alcides, thou mine ancestor, thy rage:

Let me lodge Lichas on the horns o' the moon;
And with those hands, that grasp'd the heaviest club,
Subdue my worthiest self. The witch shall die:
To the young Roman boy she hath sold me, and I fall
Under this plot; she dies for't.-Eros, ho!

[Exit.

SCENE XI.

Alexandria. A Room in the Palace.

Enter CLEOPATRA, CHARMIAN, IRAS, and MARDIAN. Cleo. Help me, my women! O! he is more mad Than Telamon for his shield; the boar of Thessaly

8 For poor'st diminutives, for DOITS ;] The old copy has dolts, which was most likely a misprint for "doits:" the error would be a very easy one for a compositor to make, and the change much smaller than to suppose, with Tyrwhitt, that "for" was a printer's blunder for to; or with Malone, that "for," in both places, ought to be fore. Of course Shakespeare never paused to consider whether doit was an ancient Roman coin; and Warburton substituted "doits" for dolts, which makes the sense of the passage evident: Mr. Amyot truly observes, that "doits" is a word of frequent occurrence in Shakespeare. We therefore, without hesitation, adopt Warburton's amendment.