A strange invisible perfume hits the sense
Of the adjacent wharfs. The city cast
Her people out upon her; and Antony,
Enthron'd i' th' market-place, did sit alone,
Whistling to th' air; which, but for vacancy,
Had gone to gaze on Cleopatra too,
And made a gap in nature.

The unsettled Humor of Lovers.
Enter Cleopatra, Charmian, Iras, and Alexas.
Cleo. Give me some music; music, moody!
Of us that trade in love.
Omnes. The music, ho!

Enter Mardian the Eunuch.

[food

Cleo. Let it alone: let's to billiards: come,
Charmian.

Char. My arm is sore, best play with Mar-
dian.

play,

In their best fortunes strong; but want will
The ne'er-touch'd vestal

Fortune forms our Judgment.

I see man's judgments are

A parcel of their fortunes; and things outward
To draw the inward quality after them,
To suffer all alike.

Wisdom superior to Fortune.
Wisdom and fortune combating together,
If that the former dare but what it can,
No chance may shake it.

A Master taking Leave of his Servants.
Tend me to-night;

Cleo. As well a woman with an eunuch May be, it is the period of your duty:
[me, Sir. Haply, you shall not see me more; or if,-
A mangled shadow. Perchance to-morrow
You'll serve another master. I look on you
As one that takes his leave. Mine honest
friends,

As with a woman; come-you'll play with
Mar. As well as I can, Madam.

Cleo. And when good will is show'd, tho'

it come too short,

The actor may plead pardon. I'll none now:-
Give me mine angle-we'll to the river: there,
My music playing far off, I will betray
Tawny-finn'd fishes; my bended hook shall
pierce

1

Their slimy jaws; and, as I draw them up,
I'll think them every one an Antony,
And say, Ah, ha! you are caught.

Char. 'Twas merry, when

You wager'd on your angling; when your
diver

Did hang a salt-fish on his hook, which he
With fervency drew up,

Cleo. That time!-O times!

I laugh'd him out of patience; and that night
I laugh'd him into patience and next morn,
Ere the ninth hour, I drunk him to his

bed;

I

turn you not away; but, like a master, Married to your good service, stay till death: Tend me to-night two hours, I ask no more, And the gods yield you for it.

Early Rising the Way to Eminence.
This morning, like the spirit of a youth
That means to be of note, begins betimes.
Antony's Despondency.

Oh 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

Their wishes, do discandy, melt their sweets
That spaniel'd me at heels, to whom I gave
On blossoming Cæsar; and this pine is bark'd,
That over-topp'd them all.

Departing Greatness.

The soul and body rive not more in parting Than greatness going off.

Antony on his faded Glory.
Ant. Sometime, we see a cloud that 's
dragonish;

A vapor, sometime, like a bear, or lion,
A tower'd citadel, a pendant rock,
A forked mountain, or blue promontory,
With trees upon 't, that nod unto the world,
And mock our eyes with air :-Thou hast seen
these signs;

They are black vesper's pageants.
Eros. Ay, my lord.
[a thought
Ant That which is now a horse, even with
The rack dislimns, and makes it indistinct
As water is in water.

Eros. It does, my lord.

[tain is

Ant. My good knave, Eros, now thy cap-
Even such a body: here I am Antony,
Yet cannot hold this visible shape, my knave.
I made these wars for Egypt; and the queen,

[hear

Yare, yare, good Iras; quick-methinks, I Antony call; I see him rouse himself To praise my noble act; I hear him mock The luck of Cæsar, which the gods give men [glory T excuse their after wrath. Husband, I come left us Now to that name, my courage, prove my title! I am fire, and air; my other elements

Whose heart I thought I had, for she had mine;
Which, whilst it was mine, had annex'd unto 't
A million more, now lost; she, Eros, has
Pack'd cards with Cæsar, and false play'd my
Unto an enemy's triumph.
Nay, weep not, gentle Eros; there is
Ourselves to end ourselves.

Cleopatra on the Death of Antony.

Cleo. I dream'd, there was an emperor
Antony;

O, such another sleep, that I might see
But such another man!

Dol. If it might please you

I give to baser life. So,-have you done?
Come then, and take the last warmth of my
lips:

Farewell, kind Charmian; Iras, long farewell.
[Kisses them. Iras falls and dies.
Have I the aspic in my lips? Dost fall?
If thou and nature can so gently part,
The stroke of death is as a lover's pinch,
Which hurts, and is desired. Dost thou lie
still?

If thus thou vanishest, thou tell'st the world
It is not worth leave-taking.

Char. Dissolve, thick cloud, and rain; that
The gods themselves do weep. [I may say,

Cleo. This proves me base-
If she first meet the curled Antony,
He'll make demand of her; and spend that kiss
Which is my heaven to have. Come, thou
mortal wretch,

[To the Asp, which she applies to her breast.]
With thy sharp teeth this knot intrinsicate
Of life at once untie : poor venomous fool,
Be angry and despatch. O couldst thou speak,
That I might hear thee call great Cæsar ass,
Unpolicy'd!

Char. O, eastern star.

Cleo. Peace, peace!

Dost thou not see my baby at my breast,
That sucks the nurse asleep?

[gentle

Char. O, break, O, break!
Cleo. As sweet as balm, as soft as air, as
O Antony! Nay, I will take thee too :-
[Applying another Asp.

[Dies.

Char. In this wide world? so, fare thee
well.
[lies

Now, boast, thee, death! in thy possession
A lass unparallel'd.

Cleo. His face was as the heavens; and
therein stuck
[and lighted
A sun and moon; which kept their course,
The little O, the earth.
Dol. Most sovereign creature- [arm What should I stay-
Cleo. His legs bestrid the ocean: his rear'd
Crested the world his voice was propertied
As all the tuned spheres, and that to friends;
But when he meant to quail and shake the orb,
He was as rattling thunder. For his bounty,
There was no winter in 't; an autumn 'twas
That grew the more by reaping; his delights
Were dolphin-like; they show'd his back
The element they liv'd in; in his livery [above]
Walk'd crowns and crownets; realms and
As plates dropt from his pocket. [islands were

Firm Resolution.

How poor an instrument
May do a noble deed! he brings me liberty.
My resolution 's plac'd, and I have nothing
Of woman in me: now from head to foot
I am marble constant: now the fleeting moon
No planet is of mine.

Cleopatra's Speech on applying the Asp.
Give me my robe, put on my crown; I have
Immortal longings in me. Now no more [lip:
The juice of Egypt's grape shall moist this

§ 16. CORIOLANUS.

Mob.

SHAKSPEARE.

WHAT Would you have, you curs! That like nor peace nor war? The one affrights you, [you, The other makes you proud. He that trusts to Where he should find you lions, finds you

hares ;

Where foxes, geese; you are no surcr, no,
Than is the coal of fire upon the ice,
Or hailstone in the sun. Your virtue is,
To make him worthy, whose offence subdues
him,
[greatness,
And curse that justice did it. Who deserves
Deserves your hate: and your affections are
A sick man's appetite, who desires most that
Which would increase his evil. He that de-

pends

Upon your favors, swims with fins of lead,

And hews down oaks with rushes. Hang
ye, trust ye?

With every minute you do change a mind;
And call him noble, that was now your hate,
Him vile that was your garland.

Doing our Duty merits not Praise.

Pray now, no more: my mother,
Who has a charter to extol her blood,
When she does praise me, grieves me: I have
done,
[duc'd
As you have done; that's what I can! in-
As you have been; that 's for my country:
He that has but effected his good will,
Hath overta'en mine act.

Popularity.

I cannot speak him home: he stopp'd the
flyers;

And, by his rare example, made the coward
Turn terror into sport: As waves before
A vessel under sail, so men obey'd, [stamp)
And fell below his stem: his sword (death's
Where it did mark, it took; from face to foot
He was a thing of blood, whose every motion
Was tim'd with dying cries; alone he enter'd
The mortal gate o' the city, which he painted
With shunless destiny; aidless came off,
And with a sudden reinforcement struck
Corioli, like a planet. Now all 's his :
When by and by the din of war 'gan pierce
His ready sense, then straight his doubled
Requicken'd what in flesh was fatigate, [spirit
And to the battle came he; where he did
Run reeking o'er the lives of men, as if

All tongues speak of him; and the bleared 'Twere a perpetual spoil and till we call'd

sights

Are spectacled to see him.

[nurse Both field and city ours, he never stood Your prattling To ease his breast with panting.

[pins

Into a rapture lets her baby cry,
While she chats him; the kitchen malkin
Her richest lockram 'bout her reechy neck,
Clamb'ring the walls to eye him: stalls, bulks,
windows,

Are smother'd up, leads fill'd, and ridges hors'd
With variable complexions; all agreeing
In earnestness to see him seld-shown flamens
Do press among the popular throngs, and puff
To win a vulgar station; our veil'd dames
Commit the war of white and damask, in
Their nicely-gawded cheeks, to the wanton
spoil

Of Phoebus' burning kisses; such a pother,
As if that whatsoever god, who leads him,
Were slily crept into his human powers,
And gave him graceful posture.

Cominius' Speech in the Senate.

I shall lack voice: the deeds of Coriolanus
Should not be utter'd feebly. It is held
That valor is the chiefest virtue, and
Most dignifies the haver: if it be,
The man I speak of cannot in the world
Be singly counterpois'd. At sixteen years,
When Tarquin made a head for Rome, he
fought

What his breast forges, that his tongue must
And, being angry, does forget that ever
He heard the name of death.

Coriolanus: his Abhorrence of Flattery.
Well, I must do 't:
Away, my disposition, and possess me [turn'd,
Some harlot's spirit! my throat of war be
Which quir'd with my drum, into a pipe,
Small as an eunuch, or the virgin voice
That babies lulls asleep! the smiles of knaves
Tent in my cheeks; and school-boy's tears
take up

The glasses of my sight! a beggar's tongue
Make motion through my lips; and my arm'd
knees,

Who bow'd but in my stirrup, bend like his
That hath receiv'd an alms !-I will not do't-
Lest I surcease to honor mine own truth,
And, by my body's action, teach my mind
A most inherent baseness.

Beyond the mark of others; our then dictator,
Whom with all praise I point at, saw him His Mother's Resolution on his stubborn

fight,

When with his Amazonian chin he drove
The bristled lips before him: he bestrid
An o'er-prest Roman, and i' the consul's view
Slew three opposers: Tarquin's self he met,
And struck him on his knee; in that day's
feats,

When he might act the woman in the scene,
He prov'd best man i' the field, and for his
meed

Pride.

His Detestation of the Vulgar. You common cry of curs. whose breath I hate,

Was brow-bound with the oak. His pupil-age
Man-entered thus, he waxed like a sea;
And in the brunt of seventeen battles since,
He lurch'd all swords o' the garland. For this As reek o' the rotten fens; whose loves I prize
Before, and in Corioli, let me say, [last, As the dead carcasses of unburied men,

The Season of Solicitation."

He was not taken well; he had not din'd: The veins unfill'd, our blood is cold, and then We pout upon the morning, are unapt To give or to forgive; but when we have stuff'd These pipes and these conveyances of our blood,

With wine and feeding, we have suppler souls Than in our priest-like fasts: therefore I'll Till he be dieted to my request. [watch him

Wherein this trunk was fram'd, and in her
hand
[fection!
The grand-child to her blood-But, out, af-
All bond and privilege of nature, break!
Let it be virtuous to be obstinate :- [eyes,
What is that curt'sy worth? or those dove's
Which can make gods forsworn! I melt, and
[bows
Of stronger earth than others!-my mother
As if Olympus to a mole-hill should
In supplication nod; and my young boy
Hath an aspect of intercession, which
Great nature cries, deny not.-Let the Volsces
Plough Rome, and harrow Italy; I'll never
Be such a gosling to obey instinct; but stand
As if a man were author of himself,
And knew no other kin.

Are we come hither: since that thy sight,| Imogen's Bed-chamber: in one part of it a