Andromache. O! be persuaded: Do not count it holy To hurt by being just: it is as lawful,

For we would give much, to use violent thefts,

And rob in the behalf of charity.

Cassandra. It is the purpose that makes strong the

But vows to every purpose must not hold :

Unarm, sweet Hector.

Hector.

Hold you still, I say ;

Mine honour keeps the weather of my fate;
Life every man holds dear; but the dear man
Holds honour far more precious-dear than life.—

Enter TROILUS.

How now, young man? mean'st thou to fight to-day? Andromache. Cassandra, call my father to persuade. Hector. No, 'faith, young Troilus; doff thy harness, youth,

I am to-day i' the vein of chivalry:

Let grow thy sinews till their knots be strong,

And tempt not yet the brushes of the war.

Unarm thee, go; and doubt thou not, brave boy,

I'll stand to-day, for thee, and me, and Troy.

Troilus. Brother, you have a vice of mercy in you

Which better fits a lion, than a man.

Hector. What vice is that, good Troilus? chide me for it.

Troilus. When many times the captive Grecians fall Even in the fan and wind of your fair sword,

You bid them rise and live.

Hector. O! 'tis fair play.

Troilus.

Foul play, by heaven, Hector.

Hector. How now? How now?

Troilus.

For the love of all the gods,

Let's leave the hermit Pity with our mother;
And when we have our armours buckled on,
The venom'd vengeance ride upon our swords ;
Spur them to ruthful work, rein them from ruth.
Hector. Fye, savage, fye!

Troilus.

Hector, then 'tis wars.

Hector. Troilus, I would not have you fight to-day.
Troilus. Who should withhold me?

Not fate, obedience, nor the hand of Mars
Beckoning with fiery truncheon my retire ;
Not Priamus and Hecuba on knees,

Their eyes o'ergalled with recourse of tears;

Nor you, my brother, with your true sword drawn,
Oppos'd to hinder me, should stop my way,

But by my ruin.

ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA.2

MARCUS ANTONIUS, Triumvir.

CLEOPATRA, Queen of Egypt.

DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS, Friend of Antony.

AGRIPPA, Friend of Cæsar.

OCTAVIA, Sister to Cæsar and wife to Antony.

CHARMIAN and IRAS, Attendants on Cleopatra.

2nd Messenger. In Sicyon :

Her length of sickness, with what else more

serious

Importeth thee to know, this bears.

Antony.

[Gives a letter.

Forbear me.

There's a great spirit gone! Thus did I desire it :
What our contempts do often hurl from us,

We wish it ours again; the present pleasure,
By revolution lowering, does become

The opposite of itself: she's good, being gone;
The hand could pluck her back, that shov'd her on.
I must from this enchanting queen break off;
Ten thousand harms, more than the ills I know,
My idleness doth hatch.-How now! Enobarbus !

ACT II. SCENE II.

Enobarbus. When she first met Mark Antony, she pursed up his heart upon the river Cydnus.

Agrippa. There she appeared indeed; or my reporter

devised well for her.

Enobarbus. I will tell you :

The barge she sat in, like a burnish'd throne,
Burn'd on the water: the poop was beaten gold;

Purple the sails, and so perfumed, that

The winds were love-sick with them: the oars were silver;
Which to the tune of flutes kept stroke, and made

The water, which they beat, to follow faster,
As amorous of their strokes. For her own person,
It beggar'd all description: she did lie

In her pavilion (cloth of gold, of tissue),
O'er-picturing that Venus, where we see
The fancy out-work nature: on each side her
Stood pretty dimpled boys, like smiling Cupids,
With divers coloured fans, whose wind did seem
To glow the delicate cheeks which they did cool,
And what they undid, did.

Her gentlewomen, like the Nereides,
So many mermaids, tended her i' the eyes
And made their bends adoring: at the helm
A seeming mermaid steers: the silken tackle
Swell with the touches of those flower-soft hands
That yarely frame the office. From the barge
A strange invisible perfume hits the sense
Of the adjacent wharfs. The city cast
Her people out upon her; and Antony,

Enthron'd in the market-place, did sit alone,
Whistling to the air; which, but for vacancy,

Had gone to gaze on Cleopatra too,

And made a gap in nature.

Agrippa.

Rare Egyptian !

Enobarbus. Upon her landing, Antony sent to her, Invited her to supper; she replied,

It should be better, he became her guest;
Which she entreated: Our courteous Antony,
Whom ne'er the word of No woman heard speak,
Being barber'd ten times o'er, goes to the feast;
And, for his ordinary, pays his heart
For what his eyes eat only.

ACT III. SCENE II.

Antony. No further, sir.

Cæsar. You take from me a great part of myself. Use me well in it.-Sister, prove such a wife As my thoughts make thee, and as my furthest band Shall pass on thy approof.-Most noble Antony, Let not the piece of virtue, which is set

Betwixt us, as the cement of our love

To keep it builded, be the ram, to batter
The fortress of it; for better might we

Have loved without this mean, if on both parts
This be not cherish'd.

Though you be therein curious, the least cause

For what you seem to fear: so, the gods keep you,