Not Cæsar's valor hath o'erthrown Antony, Cleo. So it should be, that none but Antony Cleo. I dare not, dear, (Dear my lord, pardon,) I dare not, Lest I be taken;1 not the imperious show Of the full-fortuned Cæsar ever shall Be brooched 2 with me; if knife, drugs, serpents, have Edge, sting, or operation, I am safe. Your wife Octavia, with her modest eyes, And still conclusion, shall acquire no honor Demuring upon me. --But come, come, Antony,- O quick, or I am gone. Cleo. Here's sport, indeed! How heavy weighs my lord! Our strength is all gone into heaviness, [They draw ANTONY up. And welcome, welcome! die, where thou hast lived. A heavy sight! Ant. I am dying, Egypt, dying. Give me some wine, and let me speak a little. 1 Cleopatra means that she dare not come down out of the monument to Antony. 2 Brooched here must mean ornamented, adorned. 3 "Sedate determination; silent coolness of resolution." 4 Cleopatra, by these words, seems to contrast the melancholy task in which they are now engaged with their former sports. 5 i. e revive by my kiss. Cleo. No, let me speak; and let me rail so high, That the false housewife Fortune break her wheel, One word, sweet queen. Of Cæsar seek your honor with your safety. -О! Cleo. They do not go together. Gentle, hear me. None about Cæsar trust, but Proculeius. Cleo. My resolution, and my hands, I'll trust; Ant. The miserable change now at my end, Cleo. Noblest of men, woo't die? Hast thou no care of me? shall I abide In this dull world, which in thy absence is The crown o' the earth doth melt. -My lord! O, withered is the garland of the war, [Dies. The soldier's pole is fallen; 1 young boys and girls Are level now with men; the odds is gone, And there is nothing left remarkable Beneath the visiting moon. Char. Iras. She is dead, too, our sovereign. Char. Iras. [She faints O, quietness, lady! Lady, Madam, Royal Egypt! Char. O madam, madam, madam! Iras. Empress! Char. Peace, peace, Iras. 1 That is, their standard or rallying point is thrown down. VOL. VI. 25 Cleo. No more, but e'en a woman; 1 and commanded By such poor passion as the maid that milks, Our lamp is spent, it's out. -Good sirs, take heart. [To the Guard below. We'll bury him; and then, what's brave, what's noble, Let's do it after the high Roman fashion, And make death proud to take us. Come away; Ah women, women! come; we have no friend But resolution and the briefest end. [Exeunt; those above bearing off ANTONY'S body. ACT V. SCENE I. Cæsar's Camp before Alexandria. Enter CÆSAR, AGRIPPA, DOLABELLA, MECÆNAS, GALLUS, PROCULEIUS, and others. Cæs. Go to him, Dolabella, bid him yield; 1 Iras has just said, "Royal Egypt, empress!" Cleopatra completes the sentence (without taking notice of the intervening words of Charmian), empress "No more; but e'en a woman," now on a level with the meanest of my sex. The old copy reads "but in a woman." Dr. Johnson made the correction. 2 i. e. task-work. The word is in vulgar use pronounced as if it were chore. Being so frustrate,1 tell him, he mocks us by Cæsar, I shall. [Exit DOLABELLA. Enter DERCETAS, with the sword of ANTONY. Cas. Wherefore is that? and what art thou that dar'st Appear thus to us? He was my master; and I wore my life, To spend upon his haters. If thou please To take me to thee, as I was to him I'll be to Cæsar; if thou pleasest not, I yield thee up my life. Cas. What is't thou say'st? Der. I say, O Cæsar, Antony is dead. Cas. The breaking of so great a thing should make A greater crack. The round world should have shook Lions into civil streets,2 And citizens to their dens. -The death of Antony A moiety of the world. 1 Frustrate, for frustrated, was the language of Shakspeare's time. The two last words in this line, us by, are not in the old copy, in which something seems omitted, and these words were supplied by Malone. 2 The passage is thus arranged in the old copy : "The breaking of so great a thing should make A greater crack: the round world Should have shook lions into civil streets, And citizens to their dens." The second line is evidently defective. What is lost may be supplied by conjecture, thus : Johnson thought that there was a line lost; and Steevens proposed to read: "A greater crack than this: The ruined world," &c. Malone thought that the passage might have stood originally thus: Der. He is dead, Cæsar ; Not by a public minister of justice, Nor by a hired knife; but that self hand, Which writ his honor in the acts it did, Hath, with the courage which the heart did lend it, Splitted the heart. - This is his sword ; I robbed his wound of it; behold it stained With his most noble blood. His taints and honors That nature must compel us to lament Our most persisted deeds. Waged equal with him. A rarer spirit never Did steer humanity: but you, gods, will give us Some faults to make us men. Cæsar is touched. Mec. When such a spacious mirror's set before him, He needs must see himself. Cas. 1 Ο Antony! I have followed thee to this;-but we do lance 1 "May the gods rebuke me if this be not tidings to make kings weep." But again in its exceptive sense. 2 Waged here must mean to be opposed, as equal stakes in a wager; unless we suppose that weighed is meant. The second folio reads way. 3 Launch, the word in the old copy, is only the obsolete spelling of Lance. 4 His for its. |