And make death proud to take us. Come, away:
This case of that huge spirit now is cold.

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 1. Cæsar's Camp before Alexandria.

Enter CESAR, AGRIPPA, DOLABELLA, MECENAS, GALLUS, PROCULEIUS, and Others.

Cæs. Go to him, Dolabella, bid him yield; Being so frustrate,' tell him, he mocks us by The pauses that he makes.

Dol.

Cæsar, I shall. [Exit DOLABElla.

Enter DERCETAS, with the Sword of ANTONY.

Ces. Wherefore is that? and what art thou, that dar'st

Appear thus to us?

Der.

I am call'd Dercetas;

Mark Antony I serv'd, who best was worthy

Best to be serv'd: whilst he stood up, and spoke,
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.

Cæs.

What is't thou say'st?

7 Being so frustrate,-] Frustrate, for frustrated, was the language of Shakspeare's time.

8

hand.

thus to us?] i. e. with a drawn and bloody sword in thy

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,

And citizens to their dens:-The death of Antony Is not a single doom; in the name lay

A moiety of the world.

Der.

He is dead, Cæsar;

Not by a publick minister of justice,

Nor by a hired knife; but that self hand,

Which writ his honour in the acts it did,

Hath, with the courage which the heart did lend it, Splitted the heart.-This is his sword,

I robb'd his wound of it; behold it stain'd

With his most noble blood.

Cæs.

The gods rebuke me, but it is a tidings

To wash the eyes of kings."

Agr.

That nature must compel us to lament

Our most persisted deeds.

Mec.

Waged equal with him.
Agr.

Look you sad, friends?

And strange it is,

His taints and honours

A rarer spirit never

gods, will give us

Did steer humanity: but you,

Some faults to make us men.

Cæsar is touch'd.

Mec. When such a spacious mirror's set before him,

He needs must see himself.

Cæs.

O Antony!

I have follow'd thee to this;-But we do lance

Diseases in our bodies:1 I must perforce

9 — but it is a tidings

To wash the eyes of kings.] That is, May the gods rebuke me, if this be not tidings to make kings weep.

But we do lance

Diseases in our bodies:] When we have any bodily complaint,

Have shown to thee such a declining day,
Or look on thine; we could not stall together
In the whole world: But yet let me lament,
With tears as sovereign as the blood of hearts,
That thou, my brother, my competitor
In top of all design, my mate in empire,
Friend and companion in the front of war,
The arm of mine own body, and the heart
Where mine his thoughts did kindle,-that our

stars,

2

Unreconciliable, should divide

Our equalness to this.3-Hear me, good friends,— But I will tell you at some meeter season;

Enter a Messenger.

The business of this man looks out of him, We'll hear him what he says.-Whence are you? Mess. A poor Egyptian yet.

mistress,

The queen my

Confin'd in all she has, her monument,
Of thy intents desires instruction;
That she preparedly may frame herself
To the way she's forced to.

Cæs.

Bid her have good heart;

She soon shall know of us, by some of ours,

How honourable and how kindly we

Determine for her: for Cæsar cannot live
To be ungentle.

Mess.

So the gods preserve thee! [Exit.

that is curable by scarifying, we use the lancet; and if we neglect to do so, we are destroyed by it. Antony was to me a disease; and by his being cut off, I am made whole. We could not both have lived in the world together. MALONE.

his thoughts-] His is here used for its.

9 Our equalness to this.] That is, should have made us, in our equality of fortune, disagree to a pitch like this, that one of us must die.

Cæs. Come hither, Proculeius; Go, and say, We purpose her no shame: give her what comforts The quality of her passion shall require;

Lest, in her greatness, by some mortal stroke
She do defeat us: for her life in Rome
Would be eternal in our triumph: Go,

And, with your speediest, bring us what she says,
And how you find of her.

Pro.

Cæsar, I shall. [Exit PROCULEius. Cæs. Gallus, go you along.-Where's Dolabella, To second Proculeius? [Exit GALLUS.

Agr. Mec.

Dolabella!

Cæs. Let him alone, for I remember now
How he's employed; he shall in time be ready.
Go with me to my tent; where you shall see
How hardly I was drawn into this war;
How calm and gentle I proceeded still
In all my writings: Go with me, and see
What I can show in this.

SCENE II.

[Exeunt.

Alexandria. A Room in the Monument.

Enter CLEOPATRA, CHARMIAN, and IRAS.

Cleo. My desolation does begin to make
A better life: 'Tis paltry to be Cæsar;
Not being fortune, he's but fortune's knave,*
A minister of her will; And it is great
To do that thing that ends all other deeds;
Which shackles accidents, and bolts up change
Which sleeps, and never palates more the dung,
The beggar's nurse and Caesar's."

5

- fortune's knave,] The servant of fortune.

And it is great, &c.] The difficulty of the passage, if any difficulty there be, arises only from this, that the act of suicide,

Enter, to the Gates of the Monument, PROCULEIUS, GALLUS, and Soldiers.

Pro. Cæsar sends greeting to the queen of Egypt; And bids thee study on what fair demands

Thou mean'st to have him grant thee.

Cleo. [Within.]

Pro. My name is Proculeius.

Cleo. [Within.]

What's thy name?

Antony

Did tell me of you, bade me trust you; but

I do not greatly care to be deceiv'd,

That have no use for trusting. If your master
Would have a queen his beggar, you must tell him,
That majesty, to keep decorum, must

No less beg than a kingdom: if he please
To give me conquer'd Egypt for my son,
He gives me so much of mine own, as I
Will kneel to him with thanks.

Pro.

Be of good cheer; You are fallen into a princely hand, fear nothing: Make your full reference freely to my lord, Who is so full of grace, that it flows over On all that need: Let me report to him Your sweet dependancy; and you shall find A conqueror, that will pray in aid for kindness, Where he for grace is kneel'd to.

Cleo. [Within.]

Pray you, tell him

Vo

and the state which is the effect of suicide, are confounded. luntary death, says she, is an act which bolts up change; it produces a state,

Which sleeps, and never palates more the dung,
The beggar's nurse and Cæsar's.

Which has no longer need of the gross and terrene sustenance, in the use of which Cæsar and the beggar are on a level.

The speech is abrupt, but perturbation in such a state is surely natural. JOHNSON.

6

that will pray in aid for kindness,] Praying in aid is a term used for a petition made in a court of justice for the calling in of help from another that hath an interest in the cause in question.