Luc. So Brutus should be found.-I thank thee

Brutus,

That thou hast proved Lucilius' saying true.

Oct. All that served Brutus, I will entertain them Fellow, wilt thou bestow thy time with me? Stra. Ay, if Messala will prefer1 me to you. Oct. Do so, good Messala.

Mes.

How died my master, Strato? Strat. I held the sword, and he did run on it. Mes. Octavius, then take him to follow thee, That did the latest service to my master.

Ant. This was the noblest Roman of them all
All the conspirators, save only he,

Did that they did in envy of great Cæsar;
He, only, in a general, honest thought,
And common good to all, made one of them.
His life was gentle; and the elements
So mixed in him, that nature might stand up,
And say to all the world, This was a man!

Oct. According to his virtue let us use him,
With all respect and rites of burial.
Within my tent his bones to-night shall lie,
Most like a soldier, ordered honorably.—
So, call the field to rest; and let's away,
To part the glories of this happy day.

[Exeunt

1 To prefer seems to have been the general term for recommending a

servant.

Or this tragedy many particular passages deserve regard, and the contention and reconcilement of Brutus and Cassius is universally celebrated; but I have never been strongly agitated in perusing it; and I think it somewhat cold and unaffecting, compared with some other of Shakspeare's plays: his adherence to the real story, and to Roman manners, seems to have impeded the natural vigor of his genius. JOHNSON.

ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA.

PRELIMINARY REMARKS.

AFTER a perusal of this play, the reader will, I doubt not, be surprised when he sees what Johnson has asserted-that "its power of delighting is derived principally from the frequent changes of the scene;"—and that "no character is very strongly discriminated." If our great Poet has one supereminent dramatic quality in perfection, it is that of being able "to go out of himself at pleasure, to inform and animate other existences." It is true, that, in the number of characters, many persons of historical importance are merely introduced as passing shadows in the scene; but the principal personages are most emphatically distinguished by lineament and coloring, and powerfully arrest the imagination." The character of Cleopatra is indeed a masterpiece; though Johnson pronounces that she is "only distinguished by feminine arts, some of which are too low." It is true that her seductive arts are in no respect veiled over; but she is still the gorgeous Eastern queen, remarkable for the fascination of her manner, if not for the beauty of her person; and though she is vain, ostentatious, fickle, and luxurious, there is that heroic, regal dignity about her, which makes us, like Antony, forget her defects :"Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale

Her infinite variety. Other women cloy

Th' appetites they feed; but she makes hungry
Where most she satisfies."

The mutual passion of herself and Antony is without moral dignity yet it excites our sympathy:-they seem formed for each other. Cleopatra is no less remarkable for her seductive charms, than Antony for the splendor of his martial achievements. Her death, too, redeems one part of her character, and obliterates all faults.

Warburton has observed that Antony was Shakspeare's hero; and the defects of his character, a lavish and luxurious spirit, seem almost virtues when opposed to the heartless and narrow-minded littleness of Octavius Cæsar. But the ancient historians, his flatterers, had delivered the latter down ready cut and dried for a hero; and Shakspeare has extricated himself with great address from the dilemma. He has admitted all those great strokes of his character as he found them, and yet has made him a very unamiable character, deceitful, mean-spirited, proud, and revengeful.

Schlegel attributes this to the penetration of Shakspeare, who was not to be led astray by the false glitter of historic fame, but saw through the disguise thrown around him by his successful fortunes, and distinguished in Augustus a man of little mind.

Malone places the composition of this play in 1608. No previous edition to that of the folio of 1623 has been hitherto discovered; but there is an entry of "A Booke called Antony and Cleopatra," to Edward Blount, in 1608, on the Stationers' books.

Shakspeare followed Plutarch, and appears to have been anxious to introduce every incident and every personage he met with in his historian. Plutarch mentions Lamprias, his grandfather, as authority for some of the stories he relates of the profuseness and luxury of Antony's entertainments at Alexandria. In the stage direction of Scene 2, Act i., in the old copy, Lamprias, Ramnus, and Lucilius, are made to enter with the rest; but they have no part in the dialogue, nor do their names appear in the list of Dramatis Persona

VARRIUS,

TAURUS, Lieutenant-General to Cæsar.

CANIDIUS, Lieutenant-General to Antony.

SILIUS, an Officer in Ventidius's Army.

EUPHRONIUS, an Ambassador from Antony to Cæsar.
ALEXAS, MARDIAN, SELEUCUS, and DIOMEDES, Attend
ants on Cleopatra.

A Soothsayer. A Clown.

CLEOPATRA, Queen of Egypt.

OCTAVIA, Sister to Cæsar, and Wife to Antony.
CHARMIAN and IRAS, Attendants on Cleopatra.

Officers, Soldiers, Messengers, and other Attendants.

SCENE, dispersed in several Parts of the Roman Empire.

ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA.

ACT I.

SCENE I. Alexandria. A Room in Cleopatra's Palace.

Enter DEMETRIUS and PHILO.

Philo. NAY, but this dotage of our general's
O'erflows the measure. Those his goodly eyes,
That o'er the files and musters of the war
Have glowed like plated Mars, now bend, now turn,
The office and devotion of their view

Upon a tawny front. His captain's heart,
Which in the scuffles of great fights hath burst
The buckles on his breast, reneges1 all temper;
And is become the bellows, and the fan,

To cool a gypsy's lust. Look, where they come !

Flourish. Enter ANTONY and CLEOPATRA, with their Trains; Eunuchs fanning her.

Take but good note, and you shall see in him

2

The triple pillar of the world transformed

Into a strumpet's fool: behold and see.

Cleo. If it be love indeed, tell me how much.

1 i. e. renounces. The metre would be improved by reading reneyes, or reneies, a word used by Chaucer and other of our elder writers: but we have in King Lear, renege, affirm, &c.

2 Triple is here used for third, or one of three; one of the triumvirs.

Ant. There's beggary in the love that can be

reckoned.

Cleo. I'll set a bourn how far to be beloved.

Ant. Then must thou needs find out new heaven, new earth.

Enter an Attendant.

Att. News, my good lord, from Rome.

Ant.

2

Grates me :-The sum.1

Cleo. Nay, hear them, Antony.

Fulvia, perchance, is angry; or, who knows
If the scarce-bearded Cæsar have not sent
His powerful mandate to you, Do this, or this;
Take in that kingdom, and enfranchise that;
Perform't, or else we damn thee.

Ant. How, my love!

Cleo. Perchance,-nay, and most like,
You must not stay here longer, your dismission
Is come from Cæsar; therefore hear it, Antony.—
Where's Fulvia's process? Cæsar's, I would say
Both ?-

--

y?—

Call in the messengers. As I am Egypt's queen,
Thou blushest, Antony; and that blood of thine
Is Cæsar's homager; else so thy cheek pays shame,
When shrill-tongued Fulvia scolds.-The messengers.
Ant. Let Rome in Tyber melt! and the wide arch
Of the ranged empire fall! Here is my space;
Kingdoms are clay; our dungy earth alike

Feeds beast as man; the nobleness of life

Is, to do thus; when such a mutual pair, [Embracing
And such a twain can do't, in which, I bind,
On pain of punishment, the world to weet,
We stand up peerless.

Cleo.

6

Excellent falsehood!

1 "Be brief; sum thy business in a few words."

2 i. e. news was considered plural.

3 Take in, it has before been observed, signifies subdue, conquer.

4 Process here means summons.

5 The ranged empire is the well-arranged, well-ordered empire. 6 To weet is to know.