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A market-maid to Rome; and have prevented
The ostent of our love, which, left unshown
Is often left unlov'd: we should have met you
By sea, and land; supplying every stage
With an augmented greeting.

Oct. Good my lord,

To come thus was I not constrain'd, but did it
On my free-will. My lord, Mark Antony,
Hearing that you prepar'd for war, acquainted
My grieved ear withal; whereon, I begg'd
His pardon for return.

Cas. Which soon he granted,

Being an obstruct 'tween his lust and him.6
Oct. Do not say so, my lord.

Cas. I have eyes upon him,

And his affairs come to me on the wind.
Where is he now ?

Oct. My lord, in Athens.

Cas. No, my most wronged sister; Cleopatra Hath nodded him to her. He hath given his empire Up to a whore; who now are levying

The kings o'the earth for war: He hath assembled
Bocchus, the king of Lybia; Archelaus,

Of Cappadocia ; Philadelphos, king

Of Paphlagonia; the Tracian king, Adallas;
King Malchus of Arabia ; king of Pont;
Herod of Jewry; Mithridates, king

Of Comagene; Polemon and Amintas,
The kings of Mede, and Lycaonia, with a
More larger list of scepters.

Oct. Ah me, most wretched,

That have my heart parted betwixt two friends,
That do afflict each other!

Cas. Welcome hither:

Your letters did withhold our breaking forth;
Till we perceiv'd, both how you were wrong led,
And we in negligent danger. Cheer your heart:
Be you not troubled with the time, which drives
O'er your content these strong necessities;
But let determin'd things to destiny

Hold unbewail'd their way. Welcome to Rome :
Nothing more dear to me. You are abus'd

Beyond the mark of thought: and the high gods,

[6] That is, his wife being an obstruction, a bar to the prosecution of his wanton pleasures with Cleopatra.

WARB.

To do you justice, make them ministers

Of us, and those that love you.
And ever welcome to us.
Agr. Welcome, lady.

Mec. Welcome, dear madam.

Best of comfort;

Each heart in Rome does love and pity you:
Only the adulterous Antony, most large
In his abominations, turns you off;

And gives his potent regiment to a trull,
That noises it against us.

Oct. Is it so, sir?

6

Cas. Most certain. Sister, welcome: Pray you, Be ever known to patience: My dearest sister! [Exeunt.

SCENE VII.

ANTONY'S Camp, near the Promontory of Actium. Enter CLE-
OPATRA and ENOBARBUS.

Cleo. I will be even with thee, doubt it not.
Eno. But why, why, why?

Cleo. Thou hast forspoke my being in these wars ;7 And say'st, it is not fit.

Eno. Well, is it? is it?

Cleo. Is't not? Denounce against us, why should not we Be there in person? 8

Eno. [Aside.] Well, I could reply :

If we should serve with horse and mares together,
The horse were merely lost; the mares would bear
A soldier, and his horse.

Cleo. What is't you say?

[6] Regiment-is government, authority; he puts his power and his empire into the hands of a false woman.

It may be observed, trull was not, in our author's time, a term of mere infamy, but a word of slight contempt, as wench is now. JOHNS.

[7] To forspeak, is to contradict, to speak against, as forbid is to order negatively. JOHNSON.

[8] Cleopatra means to say, "Is not the war denounced against us? Why should we not then attend in person?" She says, a little lower,

"A charge we bear i' the war,

And, as the president of my kingdom, will

Appear there for a man.

"

She speaks of herself in the plural number, according to the usual style of sovereigns. M. MASON.-—I read with the old copy, introducing only the change of a single letter,-denounc't instead of denounc'd. There is, however, in the folio, a comma after the word not, and no point of interrogation at the end of the sentence. MAL.--Surely no valid inference can be drawn from such uncertain premises as the punctuation of the old copy, which (to use the words of Rosalind and Touchstone in As you like it) is "as fortune will, or as the destines decree." STEEV.

Eno. Your presence needs must puzzle Antony; Take from his heart, take from his brain, from his time, What should not then be spar'd. He is already Traduc'd for levity; and 'tis said in Rome,

That Photinus an eunuch, and your maids,

Manage this war.

Cleo. Sink Rome; and their tongues rot,

That speak against us! A charge we hear i'the war,
And, as the president of my kingdom, will

Appear there for a man. Speak not against it ;
I will not stay behind.

Eno. Nay, I have done :

Here comes the emperor.

Enter ANTONY and CANIDIUS.

Ant. Is't not strange, Canidius,

That from Tarentum, and Brundusium,
He could so quickly cut the Ionian sea,

And take in Toryne ?-You have heard on't, sweet?
Cleo. Celerity is never more admir'd,

Than by the negligent.

Ant. A good rebuke,

Which might have well becom'd the best of men,
To taunt at slackness.-Canidius, we

Will fight with him by sea.

Cleo. By sea! what else?

Can. Why will my lord do so?

Ant. For he dares us to't.

Eno. So hath my lord dar'd him to single fight. Can. Ay, and to wage this battle at Pharsalia, Where Cæsar fought with Pompey But these offers, Which serve not for his vantage, he shakes off; And so should you.

Eno. Your ships are not well-mann'd :

Your mariners are muleteers, reapers, people
Ingross'd by swift impress: In Cæsar's fleet

Are those, that often have 'gainst Pompey fought :
Their ships are yare; yours, heavy. No disgrace
Shall fall you for refusing him at sea,

Being prepar'd for land.

Ant. By sea, by sea.

Eno. Most worthy sir, you therein throw away The absolute soldiership you have by land;

Distract your army, which doth most consist

[9] rare generally signifies dextrous, manageable.

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STEEV.

Of war-mark'd footmen; leave unexecuted
Your own renowned knowledge; quite forego
The way which promises assurance; and
Give up yourself merely to chance and hazard,
From firm security.

Ant. I'll fight at sea.

Cleo. I have sixty sails, Cæsar none better.

Ant. Our overplus of shipping will we burn ;

And, with the rest full-mann'd, from the head of Actium
Beat the approaching Cæsar. But if we fail,
Enter a Messenger.

We then can do't at land.-Thy business?

Mes. The news is true, my lord; he is descried; Cæsar has taken Toryne.

Ant. Can he be there in person ? 'tis impossible;
Strange, that his power should be.-Canidius,
Our nineteen legions thou shalt hold by land,
And our twelve thousand horse :-We'll to our ship;
Enter a Soldier.

Away, my Thetis !-How now, worthy soldier ?
Sold. O noble emperor, do not fight by sea;
Trust not to rotten planks: Do you misdoubt
This sword, and these my wounds? Let the Egyptians,
And the Phoenicians, go a ducking; we

Have used to conquer, standing on the earth,

And fighting foot to foot.

Ant. Well, well, away. [Exe. ANT. CLEO. and ENO. Sold. By Hercules, I think, I am i'the right.

Can. Soldier, thou art: but his whole action grows Not in the power on't: So our leader's led,

And we are women's men.

Sold. You keep by land

The legions and the horse whole, do you not ?

Can. Marcus Octavius, Marcus Justeius,

Publicola, and Cælius, are for sea :

But we keep whole by land. This speed of Cæsar's
Carries beyond belief.2

Sold. While he was yet in Rome,

His power went out in such distractions, 3 as

[1] That is, his whole conduct becomes ungoverned by the right or by reason. JOHNS.-Canidius means to say, His whole conduct in the war is not founded upon that which is his greatest strength, (namely, his land force,) but on the caprice of a woman, who wishes that he should fight by sea. MAL. [2] Perhaps this phrase is from archery. TEEV [3] Distractions-detachments, separate bodies.

JOHNS.

Beguil'd all spies.

Can. Who's his lieutenant, hear you?
Sold. They say, one Taurus.

Can. Well I know the man.

Enter a Messenger.

Mes. The emperor calls for Canidius.

Can.With news the time's with labour,and throes forth, Each minute, some.

[Exeunt.

SCENE VIII.

`A Plain near Actium. Enter CESAR, TAURUS, Officers, and

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Cas. Strike not by land; keep whole : Provoke not battle, till we have done at sea. Do not exceed the prescript of this scroll: Our fortune lies upon this jump.4

Enter ANTONY and ENOBARBUS.

[Exeunt.

Ant. Set we our squadrons on yon' side o'the hill,
In eye of Cæsar's battle; from which place
We may the number of the ships behold,
And so proceed accordingly.

[Exeunt.

Enter CANIDIUS, marching with his land army one way over the stage and TAURUS, the lieutenant of CESAR, the other way. After their going in, is heard the noise of a sea-fight. Alarum. Re-enter ENOBARBUS.

Eno. Naught, naught, all naught! I can behold no longer:

The Antoniad, the Egyptian admiral,5

With all their sixty, fly, and turn the rudder;
To see't, mine eyes are blasted.

Enter SCARUS.

Scar. Gods, and goddesses, All the whole synod of them! Eno. What's thy passion?

[4] Jump-hazard. So, in Macbeth:

"

We'd jump the life to come."

STEEV.

[5] The Antoniad-which Plutarch says, was the name of Cleopatra's ship. POPE.

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