Iras. There is a palm prefages chastity,

If nothing else.

Char. E'en as th' o'er-flowing 'Nile prefageth famine. Iras. Go, you wild bedfellow, you cannot foothfay.

Char. Nay, if an oily palm be not a fruitful prognoftication, I cannot fcratch mine ear. Pr'ythee, 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? 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.

Char. Our worfer thoughts heav'ns 'mend! -Alexas--Come, his fortune, his fortune. Oh let him marry a woman that cannot go, fweet Ifis, I befeech thee, and let her die too, and give him a worse, and let worfe follow worfe, 'till the worft 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 befeech thee!

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

4'Char. Amen.

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

S CE N E III.

Enter Cleopatra.

Eno. Hufh, here comes Antony.

1 Nilus

2 ... mend

Alex. Come, his fortune, &'c. .old edit. Theob. emend.

3 Char. ... old. edit. Theob, emend.

4 Iras.... old edit. Theob. emend.

Char:

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 had ftruck him. Enobarbus!

Eno. Madam

Cleo. Seek him, and bring him hither; where's Alexas? Alex. Here at your 5 'fervice; fee, my` Lord approaches.

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

Mef. Fulvia thy Wife firft came into the field.
Ant. Against my brother Lucius?
Mef. Ay, but foon

[Exeunt.

That war had end, and the time's ftate made friends
Of them, jointing their 'forces against Cafar,
Whofe better iffue in the war, from Italy

Upon the first encounter, drave them.

Ant. Well,

What worse?

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

Mef: 'Labienus`

Hath, with his Parthian force, thro' extended Afia, 'His conqu❜ring banner from Euphrates shook

And Syria, to Lydia and Ionia;

Whilft

Ant. Antony thou wouldst say.

Mef. Oh! my Lord!

5 fervice, my

8 force, extended

Ant.

6 force 'gainst 7 Labienus (this is fliff news)

9 From Euphrates his conquering banner shook, From Syria

Ant. Speak to me home, mince not the gen❜ral tongue, Name Cleopatra as fhe's call'd in Rome.

Rail thou in Fulvia's phrafe, and taunt my faults
With fuch full licence, as both truth and malice
Oh then we bring forth weeds,
When our quick 'minds lye ftill; and our ill, told us,
Is as our earing; fare thee well a while.

Have power to utter.

Mef. At your noble pleasure.

Ant. From Sicyon how the news? fpeak there.

Mef. The man from Sicyon, is there fuch an one? [Exit.
Attend. He stays upon your will.

Ant. Let him appear;

Thefe ftrong Ægyptian fetters I must break,
Or lose my self in dotage. What are you?
Enter another Meffenger with a Letter.

2 Mef. Fulvia thy wife is dead.

Ant. Where died fhe?

2 Mef. In Sicyon.

Her length of fick nefs, with what else more ferious
Importeth thee to know, this bears.

Ant. Forbear me.

[Exit Meflenger.

There's a great fpirit gone! thus I defir'd it.
What our contempts do often hurl from us,
We wish it ours again; the prefent pleasure,
By revolution lowring, does become

The oppofite of it felf; fhe's good, being gone;
The hand could pluck her back, that fhov'd her on.
I muft from this enchanting Queen break off.
Ten thousand harms, more than the ills I know,
My idlenefs doth hatch. How now, Enobarbus?

Enter Enobarbus.

Eno. What's your pleasure, Sir?

Ant. I muft with hafte from hence.

Eno. Why then we kill all our women. We see how mortal an unkindness is to them; if they fuffer our departure, death's the word.

Ant.

I winds

ald edit. Warb, emend.

Ant. I must be gone.

Eno. Under a compelling occafion, let women die. It were pity to caft them away for nothing, though between them and a great caufe, they fhould be esteem'd nothing. Cleopatra catching but the leaft noife of this dies inftantly; I have seen her die twenty times upon far poorer moment: I do think there is mettle in death, which commits fome loving act upon her, fhe hath fuch 'alacrity in dying. Ant. She is cunning paft man's thought.

Eno. Alack, Sir, no; her paffions are made of nothing but the finest part of pure love. We cannot call her winds and waters, fighs and tears: they are greater storms and tempefts than almanacks can report. This cannot be cunning in her: if it be, she makes a fhow'r of rain as well as Jove.

Ant. Would I had never feen her!

Eno. Oh Sir, you had then left unfeen a wonderful piece of work, which not to have been bleft withal, would have difcredited your travel.

Ant. Fulvia is dead.

Eno. Sir!

Ant. Fulvia is dead.
Eno. Fulvia?

Ant. Dead.

4

Eno. Why, Sir, give the Gods a thankful facrifice: when it pleaseth their deities to take the wife of a man from him, 'they fhew to man the tailors of the earth; comforting him therein, that when old robes are worn out, there are 'numbers to make new. If there were no more women but Fulvia, then had you indeed a cut, and the cafe were to be lamented: this grief is crowned with confolation, your old fmock brings forth a new petticoat, and indeed the tears live in an onion that fhould water this forrow.

Ant. The bufinefs fhe hath broached in the ftate, Cannot endure my absence.

Eno. And the business you have broach'd here cannot

a a celerity 3 it fhews 4 tailor 5 members

be

be without you, efpecially that of 'Cleopatra, which wholly depends on your aboad.

Ant. No more light anfwers: let our officers
Have notice what we purpofe. I fhall break
The cause of our expedience to the Queen,
And get her leave to part. For not alone
The death of Fulvia, with more urgent touches,
7'Doth ftrongly fpeak t'us; but the letters too
Of many our contriving friends in Rome
Petition us at home. Sextus Pompeius
Hath giv❜n the dare to Cæfar, and commands.
The empire of the fea. Our flipp❜ry people,
(Whofe love is never link'd to the deferver,
'Till his deferts are past,) begin to throw
Pompey the Great and all his dignities
Upon his fon; who high in name and pow'r,
Higher than both in blood and life, ftands up.
For the main foldier; whofe quality going on
The fides o' th' world may danger. Much is breeding
Which like the a courfer's hair, hath yet but life
And not a ferpent's poifon. Say, our pleasure,
To fuch whofe place is under us, requires

Our quick remove from hence.

Eno. I'll do't.

SCENE

[Exeunt.

IV.

Enter Cleopatra, Charmian, Alexas, and Iras.

Cleo. Where is he?

Char. I did not fee him fince.

Cleo. See where he is, who's with him, what he do's,

I did not fend you; if you find him sad,

Say I am dancing: if in mirth, report

That I am fudden fick. Quick, and return.

Char. Madam, methinks if you did love him dearly,

You

(a) Alludes to an old idle notion that the hair of a horfe dropt into corrupted water, will turn to an animal. 7 Do

6 Cleopatra's,

Pope.