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I'll wrestle with you in my strength of love:
Look, here I have you; thus I let you go,

And give you to the gods.

Cæs.

Adieu; be happy!

Lep. Let all the number of the stars give light

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Enter CLEOPATRA, CHARMIAN, IRAS, and ALexas.

Cleo. Where is the fellow?

Alex.

Half afeard to come.

Cleo. Go to, go to.-Come hither, sir.

Alex.

Enter a Messenger.

Good majesty,

Herod of Jewry dare not look upon you,

But when you are well pleas'd.

Cleo.

That Herod's head

I'll have: but how, when Antony is gone

Through whom I might command it?-Come thou near.

Mess. Most gracious majesty,

Cleo.

Octavia?

Mess. Ay, dread queen.

Cleo.

Mess.

Didst thou behold

Where?

Madam, in Rome

I look'd her in the face; and saw her led
Between her brother and Mark Antony.
Cleo. Is she as tall as me?

Mess.

She is not, madam.

Cleo. Didst hear her speak? Is she shrill-tongu'd, or

low?

Mess. Madam, I heard her speak: she is low-voic'd. Cleo. That's not so good: he cannot like her long. Char. Like her? O Isis! 'tis impossible.

Cleo. I think so, Charmian: dull of tongue, and dwarfish!

What majesty is in her gait? Remember,

If e'er thou look'dst on majesty.

Mess.

She creeps;

Her motion and her station are as one:

She shows a body rather than a life;

A statue, than a breather.

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I do perceive't.-There's nothing in her yet.
The fellow has good judgment.

Char.

Cleo. Guess at her years, I pr'ythee.
Mess.

She was a widow.

Cleo.

Excellent.

Madam,

Widow?-Charmian, hark.

Mess. And I do think, she's thirty.

Cleo. Bear'st thou her face in mind? is't long, or

round?

Mess. Round, even to faultiness.

Cleo. For the most part, too, they are foolish that are

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Her hair, what colour?

Mess. Brown, madam; and her forehead

As low as she would wish it.

Cleo.

There's gold for thee:

Thou must not take my former sharpness ill.

I will employ thee back again: I find thee
Most fit for business. Go, make thee ready;
Our letters are prepar❜d.

Char.

[Exit Messenger.

A proper man.

Cleo. Indeed, he is so: I repent me much,

That so I harry'd him. Why, methinks, by him,
This creature's no such thing.

Char. Nothing, madam.

Cleo. The man hath seen some majesty, and should know.

Char. Hath he seen majesty? Isis else defend,

And serving you so long!

Cleo. I have one thing more to ask him yet, good

Charmian:

But 'tis no matter; thou shalt bring him to me

Where I will write. All may be well enough.
Char. I warrant you, madam.

[Exeunt.

SCENE IV.

Athens. A Room in ANTONY'S House.

Enter ANTONY and OCTAVIA.

Ant. Nay, nay, Octavia, not only that,―

That were excusable, that, and thousands more
Of semblable import,-but he hath wag'd

New wars 'gainst Pompey; made his will, and read it
To public ear:

Spoke scantly of me: when perforce he could not
But pay me terms of honour, cold and sickly

He vented them; most narrow measure lent me.

6 That so I HARRY'D him.] We have had to "harrow" in "Hamlet," Vol. vii. p. 197, and it would seem to be either the same word as, or nearly akin to, harry, which Minsheu explains "to turmoil or vex." Malone says that Florio, in his Ital. Dict., translates tartassare, "to rib-baste, to tug, to hale, to harry;" but it is, in fact, printed hurrie in both editions, of 1598 and 1611.

When the best hint was given him, he not took't,
Or did it from his teeth".

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Believe not all; or, if you must believe,

Stomach not all. A more unhappy lady,

If this division chance, ne'er stood between,
Praying for both parts:

The good gods will mock me presently,

When I shall pray, “O, bless my lord and husband!" Undo that prayer, by crying out as loud,

"O, bless my brother!" Husband win, win brother, Prays, and destroys the prayer; no midway "Twixt these extremes at all.

Gentle Octavia,

Ant.
Let your best love draw to that point, which seeks
Best to preserve it. If I lose mine honour,

I lose myself: better I were not yours,

Than yours so branchless. But, as you requested,
Yourself shall go between us: the mean time, lady,
I'll raise the preparation of a war

Shall stain your brother. Make your soonest haste:
So, your desires are yours.

Octa. Thanks to my lord. The Jove of power make me most weak, most weak, Your reconciler! Wars 'twixt you twain would be, As if the world should cleave, and that slain men

7 Or did it from his teeth.] The passage ending with these words is evidently corrupt two lines earlier, the folio, 1623, has then for " them ;" and in the next line, he not look't, for "he not took't," which was Thirlby's emendation: had look't been merely meant for looked, it would probably not have had an apostrophe. The editor of the folio, 1632, not perceiving the misprint of look't for “took't,” printed “he had look't." The punctuation of the folio, 1623, is as erroneous as the wording. The phrase, “Or did it from his teeth," seems hardly to require explanation: it does not mean, as Steevens suggested, in spite of his teeth, but that what Cæsar said in praise of Antony, came from no nearer his heart than his teeth.

8 YOUR reconciler !] The folio, 1623, has " You reconciler," and above, "Than your so branchless." The folio, 1632, corrects both these literal errors, as well as "Your heart has mind to" below, which the folio, 1623, prints "Your heart he's mind to." It does not alter "shall stain your brother," which we might otherwise suppose a misprint for stay.

Should solder up the rift.

Ant. When it appears to you where this begins,
Turn your displeasure that way; for our faults
Can never be so equal, that your love

Can equally move with them.

Provide your going;

Choose your own company, and command what cost
Your heart has mind to.

[Exeunt.

SCENE V.

The Same. Another Room in the Same.

Enter ENOBARBUS and EROS, meeting.

Eno. How now, friend Eros?

Eros. There's strange news come, sir.

Eno. What, man?

Eros. Cæsar and Lepidus have made wars upon Pompey.

Eno. This is old: what is the success?

Eros. Cæsar, having made use of him in the wars 'gainst Pompey, presently denied him rivality, would not let him partake in the glory of the action; and not resting here, accuses him of letters he had formerly wrote to Pompey; upon his own appeal, seizes him: so the poor third is up, till death enlarge his confine.

Eno. Then, world, thou hast a pair of chaps, no

more;

And throw between them all the food thou hast,
They'll grind each other. Where is Antony"?

• Where is Antony?] This speech is also decidedly corrupt in all the folios : they read would for "world," had'st for "hast," and "grind the other" for "grind each other." Johnson substituted "world," and "grind the one the other," which does not suit the measure as well as "each other," which we prefer. Modern editors, not perhaps having here examined the folio, 1623, adopt Johnson's emendation, as if it were the ancient text. Southern, who made many corrections of "Antony and Cleopatra," in his folio, 1685, does not seem to have detected this error.

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