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A morfel for a monarch; and great Pompey
Would ftand and make his eyes grow in my brow;
There would he anchor his afpect, and die
With looking on his life.

Enter Alexas.

Alex. Soveraign of Ægypt, hail!

Cleo. How much art thou unlike Mark Antony?
Yet coming from him, That great med'cine hath
With his tinct gilded thee.

How goes it with my brave Mark Antony?
Alex. Laft thing he did, dear Queen,
He kift, the last of many doubled kiffes,
This orient pearl. -His fpeech fticks in my heart.
Cleo. Mine ear muft pluck it thence.

Alex. Good friend, quoth he,

Say, the firm Roman to great Ægypt fends
This treasure of an oyster; at whole foot, (13)
To mend the petty Prefent, I will piece

Her opulent Throne with Kingdoms. All the east,
Say thou, fhall call her miftrefs. So, he nodded;
And foberly did mount an arm-gaunt fteed,

Who neigh'd fo high, that what I would have spoke, (14)

(13)

At whofe Foot,

To mend the petty Prefent, I will piece
Her opulent Throne with Kingdoms.]

At whofe Foot has relation neither to Cleopatra, nor her Throne: but means, that in fequel of the Prefent fent, he would fecond it with a richer. We have a fimilar Expreffion in the next A&t.

I must thank him only,

Leaf my Remembrance fuffer ill Report;

At heel of That defy him.

(14) Who neigh'd fo high, that what I would have spoke

Was beastly dumb by him.]

Alexas means, the Horfe made fuch a neighing, that if he had spoke, he cou'd not have been heard. I fufpect, the Poet wrote;

Was beaftly dumb'd by him.

i. e. put to Silence. It is very ufual, as I have obferv'd, with Shake Speare, to coin Verbs out of Adjectives. So in Pericles, a Play attributed to our Author,

Deep Clerks he dumbs.

In like manner, in K. Richard II.

My Death's fad Tale may yet undeaf his Ear.

Was

Was beaftly dumb'd by him.

Cleo. What, was he fad or merry y?

Alex. Like to the time o'th' year, between th' ex

treams

Of hot and cold, he was nor fad, nor merry.

Cleo. Oh well-divided difpofition!

Note him, good Charmian, 'tis the man; but note him

He was not fad, for he would shine on those

That make their looks by his : He was not merry,
Which feem'd to tell them, his remembrance lay
In Egypt with his joy; but between both.
Oh heav'nly mingle! be'ft thou fad, or merry,
The violence of either thee becomes,

So do's it no man elle. Met'ft thou my Pofts?
Alex. Ay, madam, twenty feveral meffengers.
Why do you fend fo thick?

Cleo. Who's born that day,

When I forget to fend to Antony,

Shall die a beggar. Ink and paper, Charmian.
Welcome, my good Alexas. Did I, Charmian,
Ever love Cæfar fo?

Char. Oh that brave Cæfar!

Cleo. Be choak'd with fuch another emphafis! Say, the brave Antony.

Char. The valiant Cæfar.

Cleo. By Ifis, I will give thee bloody teeth, If thou with Cafar paragon again

My man of men.

Char. By your most gracious pardon,

I fing but after you.

Cleo. My fallad days! (15)

(15)

My fallad Days!

When

When I was green in Judgment, cold in blood!] Cleopatra may fpeak very naturally here with Contempt of her Judgment at that Period, but how truly with Regard to the Coldness of her Blood, may admit fome Queition. Cefar went into Egypt in purfuit of Pompey, and had his Affair with Cleopatra in the Year U. C. 705. Antony and Cleopatra kill themselves in the Year 723, and he was then enter'd into her 39th Year: fo that deducting 18 Q 4

Years

1

When I was green in judgment, cold in blood!
To fay, as I faid then, But come away,
Get me ink and paper;

He shall have every day feveral greetings, or I'll un

people Ægypt.

[Exeunt.

I'

ACT II.

SCENE, SICILY.

Enter Pompey, Menecrates and Menas,

POMPEY.

F the great Gods be juft, they fhall affift
The deeds of jufteft men.

Mene. Know, worthy Pompey,

That what they do delay, they not deny.

Pom. While we are fuitors to their Throne, decays The thing we fue for.

Years from her Demise to the Time of her Amour with Cafar, we fhall find her then full 20 Years old. If an Egyptian could at those Years have reason to complain of Coldness of Blood, fhe muft have a very particular Constitution. I muft obferve, however, in behalf of our Poet, that he has the Authority of Plutarch to bear him out, who speaking, in the Life of Mark Antony, of her Amour with Cæfar and young Pompey, ufes this Expreffion; Ἐκεῖνοι μεν γδ αυτί ἔτι ΚΟΡΗΝ καὶ πραγμάτων άπαν ἔγνωσαν. I know very well the Latitude, and various fignifications, in which the Greeks us'd the Word on and therefore because our Author poffibly might not have dealt with Plutarch in the Original, I'll fubjoin the Vertion of this Paffage from the old English Edition publifh'd in Shakespeare's Time. For Cæfar and Pompey knew her when she was but a Young Thing, and knew not then what the World meant but now she went to Antonius at the Age when a Woman's Beauty is at the Prime, and she alfo of beft Judgment.

Men.

Men. We, ignorant of our felves, (16)
Beg often our own harms, which the wife Powers
Deny us for our good; fo find we profit
By lofing of our prayers.

Pom. I fhall do well:

The people love me, and the fea is mine;

My Pow'r's a Crefcent, and my auguring hope (17) Says, it will come to th' full. Mark Antony

In Egypt fits at dinner, and will make

No wars without doors. Cæfar gets mony, where
He loses hearts; Lepidus flatters both,
Of both is flatter'd ; but he neither loves,
Nor either cares for him.

Mene. Cafar and Lepidus are in the field,

A mighty ftrength they carry.

Pom Where have you this? 'tis falfe.

(16)

We, ign'rant of our felves,

Beg often our own Harms, which the wife Pow'rs

Deny us for our Good.]

If this be not an Imitation of the following incomparable Lines of Juvenal, they breathe so much of the fame Spirit and Energy, as if the Soul of the Roman Satyrift had been transfus'd into our Poet.

Quid enim Ratione timemus,

Aut cupimus? Quid tàm dextro pede concipis, ut te
Conatus non pæniteat, votique peracti?

Evertére domus totas optantibus ipfis

Dii faciles

Nam pro jucundis aptiffima queque dabunt Dî. Carior eft illis homo, quàm fibi. Nos animorum Impulfu, & cæca magnâque Cupidine duĉti, &c. (17) My Powers are crefcent, and my auguring Hope

Says it will come to th' full]

- Sat. X.

Thus the Editors implicitly one after another, with very peculiar Indolence. If one might ask them a Queîion in Grammar, what does the Relative it belong to? It cannot in Senfe relate to Hope, nor in Concord to Powers. It is evident beyond a Doubt, that the Poet's Allufion is to the Moon: and that Pompey would fay, He is yet but a half-Moon, or Crefcent; but his Hopes tell him, that Crefcent will come to a full Orb. To this Effect, therefore, I have ventur'd to reform the Text. The Poet ufes the Word again in Midfummer Night's Dream.

Moon. This Lanthorn doth the horned Moon prefent.

Dem. He should have worn the horns on his head.

Thef. He is no Crescent, and his horns are invifible within the Circumference.

Mene,

Mene. From Silvius, Sir.

Pom. He dreams; I know, they are in Rome toge

ther,

Looking for Antony: but all the charms of love,
Salt Cleopatra, foften thy wan lip! ·

Let withcraft join with beauty; luft with both!
Tie up
the libertine in a field of feasts,

Keep his brain fuming; Epicurean cooks,
Sharpen with cloylefs fawce his appetite;

That fleep and feeding may prorogue his honour,
Even 'till a Lethe'd dulnefs

How now, Varrius?

Enter Varrius.

Var. This is most certain, that I shall deliver :
Mark Antony is every hour in Rome

Expected. Since he went from Ægypt, 'tis
A fpace for farther travel.

Pom. I could have given less matter

A better ear. Menas, I did not think,

This am'rous Surfeiter would have donn'd his helm
For fuch a petty war; his foldierfhip

Is twice the other twain; but let us rear (18)
The higher our opinion, that our stirring

(18)

·But let us rear

The higher our Opinion, that our firring
Can from the Lap of Egypt's Widow pluck
The near luft-wearied Antony.]

Sextus Pompeius, upon hearing that Antony is every hour expected in Rome, does not much relish the News. He is twice the Soldier, (fays He,) that Octavius and Lepidus are; and I did not think, the petty War, which I am raifing, would rouze him from his Amours in Egypt. But why fhould Pompey hold a higher Opinion of his own Expedition, because it awak'd Antany to Arms, who was near weary, almost furfeited, of lafcivious Pleasures? Indolent and ftupid Editors, that can difpenfe with Words without ever_weighing the Reason of them! How eafie is the Change to the true Reading!

The ne'er luft-wearied Antony.

If Anteny, tho' never tired of Luxury, yet mov'd from that Charm, upon Pompey's Stirring, it was a Reafon for Pompey to pride himself upon being of fuch Confequence. I made this Emendation in the Appendix to my SHAKESPEARE reftor'd, and Mr. Pope has thought fit to correct his laft Edition accordingly.

Can

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