I'll seem the fool I am not; Antony

Will be himself.

Ant.

But stirr'd by Cleopatra.

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

Let's not confound the time with conference harsh:
There's not a minute of our lives should stretch
What sport to-night?

Without some pleasure now.
Cleo. Hear the ambassadors.

Ant.

Fie, wrangling queen!

Whom every thing becomes, to chide, to laugh,

To weep; whose every passion fully strives'
To make itself, in thee, fair and admir'd.
No messenger; but thine, and all alone,

To-night we'll wander through the streets, and note
The qualities of people. Come, my queen ;

Last night you did desire it.-Speak not to us.

[Exeunt ANT. and CLEOP. with their Train. Dem. Is Cæsar with Antonius priz'd 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, who
Thus speaks of him at Rome; but I will hope
Of better deeds to-morrow.

Rest you happy.

[Exeunt.

SCENE II.

The Same. Another Room.

Enter CHARMIAN, IRAS, ALEXAS, and a Soothsayer.

Char. Lord Alexas, most sweet Alexas, most any thing Alexas, almost most absolute Alexas, where's the soothsayer

5

-WHOSE every passion FULLY strives] The folio, 1623, has who for "whose," the change having been made in the folio, 1632, and not left until Rowe's time, as Malone asserts: Steevens, who was so warm an advocate for the accuracy of the second folio, never detected Malone's mistake. For " 'fully strives" the corr. fo. 1632 has "fitly strives," without such decided improvement as to render the change imperative. "Fully strives" may be understood as entirely, and successfully strives.

Lord Alexas, MOST Sweet Alexas, most any thing Alexas,] The word

that you praised so to the queen? Oh! that I knew this husband, which, you say, must charge his horns with garlands'! Alex. Soothsayer!

Sooth. Your will?

Char. Is this the man ?-Is't you, sir, that know things? Sooth. In nature's infinite book of secresy

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 fairer 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 belov'd.
Char. I had rather heat my liver with drinking.

Alex. Nay, hear him.

Char. Good now, some excellent fortune. Let me be 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. Oh excellent! I love long life better than figs. 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. Pr'ythee, how many boys and wenches must I have?

7

"most," before "sweet" is from the corr. fo. 1632: by what follows it is clearly required, and we may be sure that it had, in some way, escaped in the press. must CHARGE his horns with garlands!] The folio, 1623, reads “change bis horns," &c., and the other editions in the same form repeat what Southern considered a misprint, having altered change to "charge" in his copy of the folio, 1685. We agree with Southern; and in more than one place in the first folio, we have had "charge" misprinted change, and change "charge." Warburton also introduced "charge," and Malone followed his example.

Sooth. If every of your wishes had a womb, And fruitful 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 her's.

Alex. We'll know all our fortunes.

Eno. Mine, and most of our fortunes, to-night, shall be, drunk to bed.

Iras. There's a palm presages chastity, if nothing else.
Char. Even 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.-Pr'ythee, tell her but a worky-day fortune.

Sooth. Your fortunes are alike.

Iras. But how? but how? give me particulars.

Sooth. I have said.

Iras. Am I not an inch of fortune better than she?

Char. Well, if you were but an inch of fortune better than I, where would you choose it?

Iras. Not in my husband's nose.

Char. Our worser thoughts heavens mend!

Alexas,

come, his fortune, his fortune.-Oh! let him marry a woman that cannot go, sweet Isis, I beseech thee: and let her die too, and give him a worse; and let worse follow worse, till the worst of all follow him laughing to his grave, fifty-fold a cuckold. Good Isis, hear me this prayer, though thou deny me a matter of more weight, good Isis, I beseech thee!

Iras. Amen. Dear goddess, hear that prayer of the people; for, as it is a heart-breaking to see a handsome man loose

8 And FRUITFUL every wish,] So the corr. fo. 1632, instead of foretell of the old copies. Warburton's emendation was fertile; but we speak of a fruitful womb, rather than of a fertile one. Besides, just below Charmian repeats the very word, and in nearly the same connexion, when she speaks of the "fruitful prognostication" of "an oily palm." The following lines from " Othello," A. iii. sc. 4,

are in point:

"Oth. Give me your hand. This hand is moist, my lady.

Des. It yet has felt no age, nor known no sorrow.
Oth. This argues fruitfulness and liberal heart."

In "Timon of Athens," Vol. v. p. 267, fertile is most properly applied to the "earth's womb," but here the case is entirely different.

9 ALEXAS,-come, his fortune,] The printer of the folio, 1623, mistaking "Alexas" for a prefix, gave what followed as if spoken by him. The blunder was preserved in the later folios, as well as by Rowe; but it is corrected in MS. by the old annotator on our folio, 1632.

wived, so it is a deadly sorrow to behold a foul knave uncuckolded: therefore, dear Isis, keep decorum, and fortune him accordingly!

Char. Amen.

Alex. Lo, now! if it lay in their hands to make me a cuckold, they would make themselves whores, but they'd do't.

Eno. Hush! here comes Antony.

Char.

Not he; the queen.

Enter CLEOPATRA.

Cleo. Saw you my lord '?

Eno. No, lady.

Cleo. Was he not here?

Char. No, madam.

Cleo. He was dispos'd to mirth; but on the sudden, A Roman thought hath struck him.-Enobarbus,— Eno. Madam.

Cleo. Seek him, and bring him hither. Where's Alexas? Alex. Here, at your service.-My lord approaches.

Enter ANTONY, with a Messenger and Attendants.

Cleo. We will not look upon him: go with us.

[Exeunt CLEOPATRA, ENOBARBUS, Alexas, Iras,
CHARMIAN, Soothsayer, and Attendants.

Mess. Fulvia, thy wife, first came into the field.
Ant. Against my brother Lucius ?

Mess. Ay:

But soon that war had end, and the time's state

Made friends of them, jointing their force 'gainst Cæsar;
Whose better issue in the war, from Italy

Upon the first encounter drave them.

Well, what worst?

Ant.
Mess. The nature of bad news infects the teller.
Ant. When it concerns the fool, or coward.-On :
Things that are past are done, with me.-'Tis thus;
Who tells me true, though in his tale lie death,
I hear him as he flatter'd.

(This is stiff news) hath with his Parthian force Extended Asia from Euphrates';

1 SAW you my lord?] "Save you my lord" in the folio, 1623; but corrected by the editor of the second folio.

2 EXTENDED Asia from Euphrates;] To "extend was anciently to seize; and it is still used in this sense in law proceedings.

His conquering banner shook from Syria
To Lydia, and to Ionia; whilst

Ant. Antony, thou wouldst say,

Mess. Oh, my lord!

Ant. Speak to me home, mince not the general tongue;
Name Cleopatra as she is call'd in Rome;

Rail thou in Fulvia's phrase, and taunt my faults
With such full licence, as both truth and malice

Have power to utter. Oh! then we bring forth weeds,
When our quick winds lie still'; and our ills told us,
Is as our earing. Fare thee well awhile.

Mess. At your noble pleasure.

Ant. From Sicyon, how the news'? Speak there. 1 Att. The man from Sicyon.---Is there such a one? 2 Att. He stays upon your will. Ant. These strong Egyptian fetters I must break,

Let him appear.

[Exit.

Enter another Messenger.

Or lose myself in dotage.-What are you?

2 Mess. Fulvia thy wife is dead.

Ant.

Where died she?

2 Mess. In Sicyon:

Her length of sickness, with what else more serious
Importeth thee to know, this bears.

[Giving a letter.

Forbear me.—

Ant.

[Exit Messenger.

There's a great spirit gone. Thus did I desire it:
What our contempts do often hurl from us,
We wish it our's again; the present pleasure,

3 When our quick WINDS lie still;] So printed in all the old copies, and Warburton altered "winds" to minds with more plausibility than necessity. Perhaps "winds" ought to be spelt wints, which in Kent and Sussex is an agricultural term (in other parts of the country called a bout), meaning, "two furrows ploughed by the horses going to one end of the field and back again." See Cooper's "Glossary of Provincialisms in use in the County of Sussex," 8vo, 1836; also Holloway's "General Provincial Dictionary," 8vo, 1838. “Our quick winds," therefore, is to be understood as our productive soil. "Earing" in the next line is ploughing; a sense in which we have had it often used (see Vol. ii. p. 543; Vol. iii. p. 269; Vol. iv. p. 716), and in which it occurs again in this drama, p. 148. The use of "earing" shows that Antony had agriculture in his thoughts, with reference to "winds or wints.

From Sicyon, How the news?] The corr. fo. 1632 has now for "how :" either may be right, and we are not warranted in deviating from the old editions. It is very possible that the true text is, “From Sicyon, ho! the news?"