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Cleo. 'Tis fweating labour,

To bear fuch idlenefs fo near the heart,
As Cleopatra, this. But, fir, forgive me;
Since my becomings kill me, when they do not
Eye well to you. Your honour calls you hence;
Therefore be deaf to my unpitied folly,

And all the Gods go with you! Upon your sword
Sit laurell'd victory! and smooth success
Be ftrew'd before your feet!

Ant. Let us go. Come;

Our feparation fo abides, and flies,

That thou, refiding here, go'st yet with me,
And I, hence fleeting, here remain with thee.

Away.

[Exeunt.

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Cafar's palace in Rome.

Enter Octavius Cæfar, Lepidus, and Attendants.

Caf. You may fee, Lepidus, and henceforth know, It is not Cæfar's natural vice to hate

One great competitor. From Alexandria

This is the news; he fifhes, drinks, and wastes
The lamps of night in revel: is not more manly
Than Cleopatra; nor the queen of Ptolemy
More womanly than he.

Hardly gave audience, or

Vouchfaf'd to think he had partners. You shall find there

A man, who is the abftract of all faults

That all men follow.

'Tis fweating labour,

To bear fuch idleness fo near the heart,

As Cleopatra, this.

WARBURTON.

› One great competitor.-] Perhaps, Our great competitor.

JOHNSON.

Lep.

Lep. I must not think there are

Evils enough to darken all his goodness;
His faults in him feem' as the spots of heaven,
More fiery by night's blacknefs; hereditary,
Rather than purchas'd; what he cannot change,
Than what he chufes.

Caf. You are too indulgent. Let us grant, it is not Amifs to tumble on the bed of Ptolemy;

To give a kingdom for a mirth; to fit

And keep the turn of tipling with a slave;

To reel the streets at noon, and stand the buffet With knaves that smell of fweat: 3 fay, this becomes him,

(As his composure must be rare, indeed,

Whom these things cannot blemish) yet muft Antony No way excufe his foils, when we do bear

+ So great weight in his lightness. If he fill'd His vacancy with his voluptuoufnefs,

Full furfeits, and the drynefs of his bones,

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as the spots of heav'n,

More fiery by night's blackness ;] If by fpots are meant ftars, as night has no other fiery fpots, the comparifon is forced and harsh, ftars having been always fuppofed to beautify the night; nor do I comprehend what there is in the counter-part of this fimile, which answers to night's blackness. Hanmer reads,

2

3

Spots on ermine,

Or fires, by night's blackness.

JOHNSON.

JOHNSON.

-purchas'd;-] Procured by his own fault or endeavour.

fay, this becomes him;

As his compofure must be rare, indeed,

Whom these things cannot blemish ;-] This feems inconfequent.

I read

And his comfofure, &c.

JOHNSON.

Grant that this becomes him, and if it can become him, he must have in him fomething very uncommon; yet, &c. 4 So great weight in his lightness. of Shakespeare's favourite play-things. levity throws fo much burden upon us.

-] The word light is one
The fenfe is, His trifling
JOHNSON.
Call

'Call on him for't: but to confound fuch time,-
That drums him from his fport, and fpeaks as loud
As his own state and our's,-'tis to be chid,

As we rate boys; who being mature in knowledge,
Pawn their experience to their prefent pleasure,
And fo rebel to judgment.

Enter a Meffenger.

Lep. Here's more news?

Mf. Thy biddings have been done; and every hour,

Most noble Cæfar, fhalt thou have report

How 'tis abroad. Pompey is ftrong at fea;
And, it appears, he is belov'd of thofe
"That only have fear'd Cæfar: to the ports
The difcontents repair, and mens reports
Give him much wrong'd.

Caf. I thould have known no less:

It hath been taught us from the primal state,
That he, which is, was wifh'd, until he were;
And the ebb'd man, ne'er lov'd 'till ne'er worth love,
'Comes dear'd, by being lack'd. This common body,

Like

"Call on him for't.] Call on him, is, vifit bim. Says Cæfar, If Antony followed his debaucheries at a time of leifure, I bould leave him to be punished by their natural confequences, by furJOHNSON. feits and dry bones. 6 -boys; who, being mature in knowledge,] For this Hanmer, who thought the maturity of a boy an inconfiftent idea, has put, who, immature in knowledge,

but the words experience and judgment require that we read mature: though Dr. Warburton has received the emendation. By boys mature in knowledge, are meant, boys old enough to know their duty.

JOHNSON. 7 That only have fear'd Cafar:] Thofe whom not love but fear made adherents to Cæfar, now fhew their affection for Pompey. JOHNSON.

-ke, which is, was wish'd, until he were:

And the ebb'd man, ne'er lov'd, till ne'er worth love,
Comes fear'd, by being lack'd.] Let us examine the fenfe of this
VOL. VIII.

K

in

Like to a vagabond flag, upon the stream,
Goes to and back, lackying the varying tide,
To rot itfelf with motion.'

Mef. Cæfar, I bring thee word,
Menecrates and Menas, famous pirates,

2

Make the fea ferve them; which they ear and wound
With keels of every kind. Many hot inroads
They make in Italy; the borders maritime

3 Lack blood to think on't, and flufh youth revolt: No veffel can peep forth, but 'tis as foon

in plain profe. The earliest hiftories inform us, that the man in fupreme command was always wifh'd to gain that command, till he had obtain'd it. And he, whom the multitude has contentedly seen in a low condition, when he begins to be wanted by them, becomes to be fear'd by them. But do the multitude fear a man, because they want him? Certainly, we must read,

Comes dear'd, by being lack'd.

i. e. endear'd, a favourite to them. Befides, the context requires this reading; for it was not fear, but love, that made the people flock to young Pompey, and what occafion'd this reflection. So in Coriolanus,

I fhall be lov'd, when I am lack'd.

Goes to, and back, lashing the varying tide,

WARE.

To rot itself with motion. ] How can a flag, or rufh, floating upon a ftream, and that has no motion but what the fluctuation of the water gives it, be faid to lafh the tide ? This is making a scourge of a weak ineffective thing, and giving it an active violence in its own power. All the old editions read lacking. 'Tis true, there is no fenfe in that reading; but the addition of a fingle letter will not only give us good fenfe, but the genuine word of our author into the bargain.

-Lacquing the varying tide,

i.e. floating backwards and forwards with the variation of the tide, like a page, or lacquey, at his mafter's heels.

THEOB.

Perhaps another messenger should be noted here, as entering with fresh news. STEEVENS.

2 — which they ear- -] To ear, is to plow; a common metaphor. 3 Lack blood to think on't,-] Turn pale at the thought of it.

JOHNSON.

JOHNSON.

4-and flush youth-] Flufh youth is youth ripened to manhood; youth whofe blood is at the flow.

STEEVENS.

Taken

Taken as feen; for Pompey's name ftrikes more, Than could his war refifted.

Cef. Antony,

Leave thy lafcivious waffails. When thou once
Wert beaten from Modena, where thou flew'ft
Hirtius and Panfa confuls, at thy heel

Did famine follow; whom thou fought'ft againft,
Though daintily brought up, with patience more
Than favages could fuffer. Thou didst drink
The ftale of horses, and the gilded puddle
Which beafts would cough at. Thy palate then did
deign

The rougheft berry on the rudeft hedge;

Yea, like the ftag, when fnow the pafture fheets,
The barks of trees thou browfed'ft:-On the Alps,
It is reported, thou did't eat ftrange flesh,

Which fome did die to look on: And all this
(It wounds thine honour, that I speak it now)
Was bore fo like a foldier, that thy cheek
So much as lank'd not.

Lep. It is pity of him.

Caf. Let his fhames quickly

Drive him to Rome: Time is it, that we twain
Did fhew ourselves i' the field; and, to that end,
Affemble we immediate council: Pompey
Thrives in our idleness.

Lep. To-morrow, Cæfar,

I fhall be furnish'd to inform you rightly,
Both what by fea and land I can be able,

To 'front this present time.

Caf. Till which encounter,

It is my bufinefs too. Farewell.

Lep. Farewell, my lord.

What you fhall know mean time of stirs abroad,

Ifhall befeech you, let me be partaker.

Caf. Doubt it not, fir; I knew it for

K 2

my

bond.

[Exeunt.

SCENE

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