Where's Fulvia's Process? Cæfar's? I'd fay, both?
Call in the Meffengers; as I'm Egypt's Queen,
Thou blushest, Antony, and that blood of thine
Is Cæfar's homager: elfe, fo thy cheeks pay shame,
When fhrill-tongu'd Fulvia fcolds. The Meffengers-
Ant. Let Rome in Tyber melt, and the wide arch
Of the rais'd 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 fuch a mutual pair, [Embracing.
And fuch a twain can do't; in which, I bind
(On pain of punishment) the world to weet,
We ftand up peerless.

Cleo. Excellent falfhood!

Why did he marry Fulvia, and not love her?
I'll feem the fool, I am not. Antony

Will be himself.

Ant. But ftirr'd by Cleopatra.

Now for the love of love, and his foft hours,
Let's not confound the time with conference harsh;
There's not a minute of our lives fhould stretch
Without fome pleafare now: what sport to-night?
Cleo. Hear the Ambaffadors.

Ant. Fie, wrangling Queen!

Whom every thing becomes, to chide, to laugh,
To weep: whofe every paffion fully ftrives
To make itfelf in thee fair and admir'd.
No Meffenger, 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 defire it.-Speak not to us.

[Exeunt with their Train

Dem. Is Cæfar with Antonius priz'd so slight? Phil. Sir, fometimes, when he is not Antony, He comes too fhort of that great property Which ftill fhould go with Antony.

Dem. I'm forry,

That he approves the common liar, Fame,
Who fpeaks him thus at Rome; but I will hope
Of better deeds to-morrow. Reft you happy!

[Exe.

Enter

Enter Enobarbus, Charmian, Iras, Alexas, and a
Soothsayer.

Char. Alexas, fweet Alexas, moft any thing Alexas, almost most abfolute Alexas, where's the Soothsayer that you prais'd fo to th' Queen? (3) Oh! that I knew this husband, which you fay, 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 Secrecy,

A little I can read.

Alex. Shew him your

hand.

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 fhall be yet far fairer than you are.
Char. He means, in flesh.

Iras. No, you fhall paint when you are old.
Char. Wrinkles forbid!

Alex. Vex not his prescience, be attentive.
Char. Hufh!

Sooth. You fhall be more beloving, than beloved.
Char. I had rather heat my liver with drinking.
Alex. Nay, hear him.

Char. Good now, fome 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

(3) Ob, that I knew this bufband, which, you say, muft change bir borns with garlands.] Changing horns with garlands, is furely, a fenfelefs unintelligible phrafe. We must reftore, in oppofition to all. the printed copies,

which you fay, muft charge bis borns with garlands. i. e. must be an honourable cuckold, must have his horns hung with garlands, Charge and change frequently ufurp each other's place in our author's old editions. I ought to take notice, that Mr. Warbuston likewife ftarted this emendation.

with Octavius Cafar, and companion me with my mistress.

Sooth. You fhall out- live the lady whom you serve. Char. Oh, excellent! I love long life better than figs. Sooth. You have feen and proved a fairer former for. tune, than that which is to approach. [names;

Char. (4) Then, belike, my children fhall have no Pr'ythee, how many boys and wenches must I have? Sooth. (5) If every of your wishes had a womb, And fertil every with, 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 hers.

Alex. We'll know all our fortunes.

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

Iras. There's a palm prefages chastity, if nothing else. Char. E'en as the o'erflowing Nilus prefageth famine. Iras. Go, you wild bedfellow, you cannot foothfay. Char. Nay, if an oily palm be not a fruitful prognoftication, I cannot scratch mine ear. Pry thee, tell her but a workyday fortune.

Sooth. Your fortunes are alike.

Iras. But how, but how ?-give me particulars.
Sooth. I have faid.

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

(4) Then, belike, my children fhall have no names ;] i.e. They fhall be illegitimate. This will be very clearly explain'd by quoting a paffage from The two Gentlemen of Verona.

Speed. Item, the hath many nameless virtues.

Launce. That's as much as to fay, baftard virtues; that, indeed, know not their fathers, and therefore have no names.

(5) If every of your wishes had a womb,

And foretold ev'ry wish, a million.] What foretold? If the wishes foretold themselves? This can never be genuine, however it has pafs'd hitherto upon the editors. It makes the word womb abfolutely fuperfluous, if only the telling her wishes beforehand would help her to the children. The poet certainly wrote,

If every of your wishes bad a womb,
And fertil ev'ry wifb,

Char.

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

Iras. Not in my husband's nose.

(6) Char. Our worfer thoughts heav'ns mend! Alexas,- Come, his fortune; his fortune.

-O, let him marry a woman that cannot go, fweet Ifis, I befeech thee; and let her die too, and give him a worfe; and let worse follow worse, 'till the worst of all follow him laughing to his grave, fifty-fold a Cuckold! good Ifis, hear me this prayer, though thou deny me a matter of more weight; good Ifis, I beseech thee!

Iras. Amen, dear Goddefs, hear that prayer of the people! for, as it is a heart-breaking to see a handfome man loofe-wiv'd, so it is a deadly forrow to behold a foul knave uncuckolded; therefore, dear Isis, keep decorum, and fortune him accordingly.

Char. Amen!

(6) Char. Our worfer thoughts beav'ns mend.

Alex, Come, bis fortune, bis fortune. O, let him marry a woman, &c.] Whofe fortune does Alexas call out to have told? But, in short, this I dare pronounce to be fo palpable and fignal a tranfpofition, that I cannot but wonder it fhould have fipt the observation of all the editors: especially, of the fagacious Mr. Pope, who has made this declaration, That if, throughout the plays, had all the speeches been printed without the very names of the perfons, he believes, one might have applied them with certainty to every fpeaker. But in how many inftances has Mr. Pope's want of judgment falfified this opinion? The fact is evidently this. Alexas brings a fortune-teller to Tras and Charmian, and fays himself, We'll know all our fortunes. Well; the foothfayer begins with the women; and fome jokes pafs upon the fubject of husbands and chastity: after which, the women, hoping for the fatisfaction of having fomething to laugh at in Alexas's fortune, call to him to hold out his hand, and with heartily he may have the prognoftication of cuckoldom upon him. fpeech, therefore, must be placed to Charmian, thus:

Char. Our worfer thoughts heav'ns mend! Alexas,

fortune; bis fortune: &c.

3

The whole

come, bis

There needs no ftronger proof of this being a true correction, than the obfervation which Alexas immediately fubjoins on their wishes and zeal to hear him abused.

Alex. Lo, now! if it lay in their bands to make me a cuckold, they would make themselves whores but they'd do it.

I propos'd this tranfpofition in the Appendix to my SHAKESPEARE Reftor'd, and Mr. Pope, notwithstanding his first infallible opinion, has acceded to it in his laft edition of our poet.

Akx.

इ

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

Enter Cleopatra.

Eno. Huh! here comes Antony.

Char. Not he, the Queen.

Cleo. Saw you my Lord?

Eno. No, Lady.

Cleo. Was he not here?

Char. No, Madam.

Cleo. He was difpos'd to mirth, but on the fudden A Roman thought hath ftruck him. Enobarbus,

Eno. Madam.
Alexas?
Cleo. Seek him, and bring him hither; where's
Alex. Here at your fervice; my Lord approaches.

Enter Antony, with a Messenger, and Attendants.
Cleo. We will not look upon him; go with us.

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

[Exeunt

[state

Mef. Ay, but foon that war had end, and the time's

Made friends of them, jointing their force 'gainst Cæfar: Whofe better iffue in the war from Italy,

Upon the first encounter, drave them,

Ant. Well, what worst?

Mef. The nature of bad news infects the teller. Ant. When it concerns the fool or coward; on.. Things, that are paft, are done, with me. 'Tis thus ; Who tells me true, though in the tale lie death, ́ I hear, as if he flatter'd.

Mef. Labienus (this is ftiff news)

Hath, with his Parthian force, extended Afia;
From Euphrates his conquering banner shook,
From Syria to Lydia, and Ionia;

Whilft

Ant Antony, thou wouldst fay

Mef. Oh, my Lord!

Aut. Speak to me home, mince not the genʼral tongue;

Name