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ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA.

B

VOL. VIII.

h

"The Tragedie of Anthonie and Cleopatra" occupies twenty-nine pages in the folio of 1623; viz. from p. 340 to p. 368 inclusive, in the division of "Tragedies." Although at the beginning it has Actus Primus. Scana Prima, it is not divided into acts and scenes, nor is the defect cured in any of the subsequent folio impressions of 1632, 1664, and 1685. They are all without any list of characters.

INTRODUCTION.

We are without any record that "Antony and Cleopatra" was ever performed, and when in Act v. sc. 2, the heroine anticipates that "some squeaking Cleopatra" will "boy her greatness" on the stage, Shakespeare seems to hint that no young male performer would be able to sustain the part without exciting ridicule. However, the same remark will, more or less, apply to many of his other female characters; and the wonder, of course, is how so much delicacy, tenderness, and beauty could be infused into parts which the poet knew must be represented by beardless and cracked-voiced boys.

The period of the year at which "Antony and Cleopatra" was entered on the Stationers' Registers might lead to the inference, that, having been written late in 1607, it was brought out at the Globe in the spring of 1608, and that Edward Blunt (one of the publishers of the folio of 1623) thus put in his claim to the publication of the tragedy, if he could procure a manuscript of it. dum bears date on the 20th May, 1608, and the piece is stated to be "a book" called "Anthony and Cleopatra." Perhaps Blunt was unable to obtain a copy of it, and, as far as we now know, it was printed for the first time in the folio of 1623.

The memoran

It does not appear that there was any preceding drama on the story, with the exception of the "Cleopatra" of Samuel Daniel, originally published in 1594, to which Shakespeare was clearly under no obligation. Any slight resemblance between the two is to be accounted for by the fact, that both poets resorted to the same authority for their materials-Plutarch-whose "Lives" had been translated by Sir T. North in 1579. The minuteness with which Shakespeare adhered to history is more remarkable in this drama are artfully, but still most naturally, interwoven. Shakespeare's use than in any other; and sometimes the most trifling circumstances of history in "Antony and Cleopatra" may be contrasted with Ben Jonson's subjection to it in "Sejanus."

"Of all Shakespeare's historical plays (says Coleridge) 'Antony and Cleopatra' is by far the most wonderful. There is not one in which he has followed history so minutely, and yet there are few in which he impresses the notion of angelic strength so much-perhaps none in which he impresses it more strongly. This is greatly owing to the manner in which the fiery force is sustained throughout, and to the numerous momentary flashes of nature, counteracting the historic abstraction." (Lit. Rem. vol. ii. p. 143.)

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TAURUS, Lieutenant-General to Cæsar.

CANIDIUS, Lieutenant-General to Antony.

SILIUS, an Officer under Ventidius.

EUPHRONIUS, Ambassador from Antony to Cæsar.

ALEXAS, MARDIAN, SELEUCUS, and DIOMEDES, Attendants on Cleopatra. A Soothsayer. A Clown.

CLEOPATRA, Queen of Egypt.

OCTAVIA, Sister to Cæsar, and Wife to Antony.

CHARMIAN,

IRAS,

}

Attendants on Cleopatra.

Officers, Soldiers, Messengers, and other Attendants.
SCENE, 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.

Phi. 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 glow'd 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, reneges all temper',
And is become the bellows, and the fan,

To cool a gipsy'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
The triple pillar of the world transform'd
Into a strumpet's fool: behold and see.

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

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

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

1 RENEGES all temper ;] i. e. Denies or refuses all temper. See Vol. vii. p. 399. Coleridge would spell it reneagues. (Lit. Rem. vol. ii. p. 144.)

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