Come then, and take the last warmth of my lips.
Farewell, kind Charmian ;-Iras, long farewell.
[Kisses them. IRAS falls and dies.
Have I the aspick in my lips? Dost fall?2
If thou and nature can so gently part,
The stroke of death is as a lover's pinch,3
Which hurts, and is desir'd. Dost thou lie still?
If thus thou vanishest, thou tell'st the world
It is not worth leave-taking.

CHAR. Dissolve, thick cloud, and rain; that I

may say,

The gods themselves do weep!

CLEO.

This proves me base:

If she first meet the curled Antony,

He'll make demand of her; and spend that kiss, Which is my heaven to have. heaven to have. Come, mortal

wretch,5

[To the Asp, which she applies to her Breast.

With thy sharp teeth this knot intrinsicate
Of life at once untie: poor venomous fool,

Homer, Iliad VII. 99, speaks as contemptuously of the grosser elements we spring from:

σε ̓Αλλ ὑμεῖς μὲν πάντες υδωρ καὶ γαῖα γενοισθε.”

STEEVENS.

Have I the aspick in my lips?] Are my lips poison'd by the aspick, that my kiss has destroyed thee? MALONE.

Dost fall?] Iras must be supposed to have applied an asp to her arm while her mistress was settling her dress, or I know not why she should fall so soon. STEEVENS.

3

-a lover's pinch,] So before, p. 53:

"That am with Phoebus' amorous pinches black."

STEEVENS.

He'll make demand of her;] He will enquire of her concern

ing me, and kiss her for giving him intelligence. JOHNSON.

5

Come, mortal wretch,] Old copies, unmetrically:
Come, thou mortal wretch,-. STEEVENS.