Agr. There fhe appear'd, indeed; or my reporter Devis'd well for her.

Eno. I will tell you:

The barge fhe fat in, like a burnish'd throne,
Burnt on the water: the poop was beaten gold;
Purple the fails, and fo perfumed, that

The winds were love-fick with them: the oars were filver;

Which to the tune of flutes kept stroke, and made
The water, which they beat, to follow fafter,
As amorous of their ftrokes. For her own person,
It beggar'd all defcription: fhe did lie
In her pavilion, (cloth of gold, of tiffue)
O'er-picturing that Venus, where we fee

The fancy out-work nature: on each fide her,
Stood pretty dimpled boys, like smiling Cupids,
With divers-colour'd fans, whofe wind did feem
To glow the delicate cheeks which they did cool,
7 And what they undid, did.

Agr. Q, rare for Antony !

Eno. Her gentlewomen, like the Nereides, So many mermaids, tended her i' the eyes, ? And made their bends adornings: at the helm

A feeming O'er-piaturing that Venus, where rye fee &c.] Meaning the Venus of Protogenes mentioned by Pliny, 4. 35. c. 10. WARBURTON.

we

7 And what they undid, did.] It might be read lefs harshly: And what they did, undid. JOHNSON.

The reading of the old copy is, I believe, right. The wind of the fans feemed to give a new colour to Cleopatra's cheeks, which they were employed to cool; and what they undid, i; e that warmth which they were intended to diminish or allay, they did, i. e. they in fact produced. MALONE.

8

-tended ber th' eyes,] Perhaps tended her by th' eyes, difcovered her will by her eyes. JOHNSON.

And made their bends adornings:] This is fenfe indeed, and may be understood thus; her maids bowed with fo good an air, that it added new graces to them. But this is not what Shakspeare would fay: Cleopatra, in this famous fcene, perfonated Venus juft rifing from the waves: at which time the Mynologists tell us, the Sea-deities furrounded the goddefs to

5

adore,

A feeming mermaid fteers; the filken tackles
Swell with the touches of those flower-foft hands,
That

adore, and pay her homage. Agreeably to this fable, Cleopatra had dreffed her maids, the poet tells us, like Nereids. To make the whole therefore conformable to the ftory reprefented, we may be affured, Shakspeare wrote:

And made their bends adorings.

They did her obfervance in the posture of adoration, as if she had been Venus, WARBURTON.

That Cleopatra perfonated Venus, we know; but that Shakfpeare was acquainted with the circumftance of homage being paid her by the Deities of the fea, is by no means as certain. The old term will probably appear the more elegant of the two to modern readers, who have heard fo much about the line of beauty. The whole paffage is taken from the following in fir Thomas North's tranflation of Plutarch: "She difdained to fet forward otherwife, but to take her barge in the riuer of Cydnus, the poope whereof was of golde, the failes of purple, and the owers of filuer, whiche kept ftroke in rowing after the founde of the muficke of flutes, howboyes, citherns, violls, and fuch other inftruments as they played vpon in the barge. And now for the perfon of her felfe: fhe was layed vnder a pauillion of cloth of gold of tiffue, apparelled and attired like the Goddeffe Venus, commonly drawn in picture; and hard by her, on ei ther hand of her, pretie faire boyes apparelled as painters do fet forth God Cupide, with little fannes in their hands, with the which they fanned wind vpon her. Her ladies and gentlewomen alfo, the fairest of them were apparelled like the nymphes Nereides (which are the mermaides of the waters) and like the Graces, fome tearing the helme, others tending the tackle and ropes of the barge, out of the which there came a wonderfull paffing fweete fauor of perfumes, that perfumed the wharfes fide, peftered with innumerable multitudes of people. them followed the barge all alongst the riuer's fide: others alfo ranne out of the citie to fee her coming in. So that in thend, there ranne fuch multitudes of people one after another to fee her, that Antonius was left poft alone in the market place, in his imperiall feate to geve audience :" &c.

Some of

Had Shakspeare written adore inflead of adorn, it has been obferved that were once fynonymously ufed. So, in Spenfer's Faery Queen, b. iv. c. 11:

Congealed little drops which do the morn adore." Again, in the Elder Brother of Beaumont and Fletcher: "And thofe true tears, falling on your pure chrystals, Should turn to armlets for great queens to adore."

N4

STERVENS.

I think

That yarely frame the office. From the barge
A ftrange invifible perfume hits the fenfe
Of the adjacent wharfs. The city caft

I think bends or bands is the fame word, and means in this place the several companies of Nereids, that waited on Cleopatra. It is faid in Spenfer's Shepherd's Calender for May; "A fresh bend of lovely nymphs did attend on lady Flora." It is eafy to conceive how thefe attendants being happily difpofed in groups, might add new graces to the appearance of their miftrefs. So, in Titus Andronicus, act II. fc. iii: "Whom have we here? Rome's royal emperefs? Unfurnish'd of her well-befeeming troop?" TOLLET,

Mr. Tollet may be right. So, in Tho. Drant's translation of the third epifle of Horace, 1567:

Quid ftudiofa cobors operum ftruit?"

"What dothe our bufye bende of clarkes ?"

Again, in Hall's Chronicle, K. Henry VIII. p. 75: "fhould be fet in the brefte of the battaill or bend of footmen." Again, -moft goodly battaill or bend of footmen.

..

STEEVENS.

And made their bends adornings :--] Their bends, I apprehend, refers to Cleopatra's eyes, and not to her gentlewomen. Her attendants in order to learn their mistress's will, watched the motion of her eyes, the bends or movements, of which added new luftre to her beauty.

In our author we frequently find the word bend applied to the eye. Thus, in the first act of this play:

Again:

"Thofe his goodly eyes

now bend, now turn, &c."

"Eternity was in our lips and eyes,,
"Blifs in our brows-bent."

Again, in Cymbeline:

66

Although they wear their faces to the bent "Of the king's looks."

Again, in Troilus and Creffida:

"All gaze and bent of amorous view:"

And lastly, in Julius Cæfar, which affords an infance exactly

appofite:

"And that fame eye whofe bend doth awe the world." MALONE.

"The

I cannot but prefer the conjecture of Dr. Warburton, which fubftitutes adorings for adornings. Thus, in Timon: lords rife from table with much adoring of Timon." There is in Mr. Gray's Defcent of Venus, a paffage which illustrates both Shakspeare and the bishop's emendation:

Slow folemn ftrains their queen's approach declare,
Where'er the turns, the graces homage pay. HENLEY.

Her

Her people out upon her: and Antony,
Enthron'd i' the market-place, did fit alone,
Whistling to the air; which, but for vacancy,
Had gone to gaze on Cleopatra too,
And made a gap in nature.

Agr. Rare Egyptian !

Eno. Upon her landing, Antony sent to her,
Invited her to fupper: fhe reply'd,

It should be better, he became her guest;
Which the intreated: Our courteous Antony,
Whom ne'er the word of no woman heard speak,
Being barber'd ten times o'er, goes to the feaft;
And, for his ordinary, pays his heart,

For what his eyes eat only.

Agr. Royal wench!

She made great Cæfar lay his fword to bed
He plough'd her, and the cropt.

Eno. I faw her once

Hop forty paces through the publick street:

And having loft her breath, fhe spoke, and panted,
That she did make defect, perfection,

And, breathlefs, power breathe forth.

Mec. Now Antony must leave her utterly.
Eno. Never; he will not:

Age cannot wither her, nor custom ftale"
Her infinite variety: Other women cloy❜

The

which, but for vacancy,

Had gone]

Alluding to an axiom in the peripatetic philofophy then in vogue,

that Nature abhors a vacuит.

2

WARBURTON.

-nor custom ftale] This verb is ufed by Heywood in the Iron Age, 1632: "One that hath fal'd his courtly tricks at home." STEEVENS.

The appetites they feed; but she makes hungry,
Where most fhe fatisfies.- -]

Almoft the fame thought, cloathed nearly in the fame expreffions,
is found in the old play of Pericles: "Who ftarves the ears fhe
feeds, and makes them hungry the more fhe gives them fpeech."

The appetites they feed; but the makes hungry,
Where most she fatisfies. For vileft things
Become themselves in her; that the holy priests
Blefs her, when she is riggish '.

Mec. If beauty, wisdom, modefty, can settle
The heart of Antony, Octavia is

A bleffed lottery to him.

Agr. Let us go.

6

Good Enobarbus, make yourfelf my gueft,

Whilft you abide here.

Eno. Humbly, fir, I thank you.

Again, in our author:

[Exeunt,

And yet not cloy thy lips with loath'd fatiety,
But rather famish them amid their plenty."

for vileft things

Become themselves in her ;]

So, in our author's 150th fonnet:

5

MALONE,

Whence haft thou this becoming of things ill ?"

MALONE. when she is riggifh.] Rigg is an ancient word meaning a ftrumpet. So, in Whetstone's Caftle of Delight, 1576: Then loath they will both luft and wanton love, Or elfe be fure fuch ryggs my care shall prove.”

Again:

6

"Immodeft rigg, I Ovid's counsel ufde." STEEVENS. Octavia is

A bleffed lottery to him.]

Dr. Warburton fays, the poet wrote allottery: but there is no reafon for this affertion. The ghost of Andrea in the Spanish Tragedy, fays:

"Minos, in graven leaves of lottery

Drew forth the manner of my life and death,"

FARMER.

So, in Stanyhurft's tranflation of Virgil, 1582: "By this hap efcaping the filth of lottarye carnal." Again, in the Honeft Man's Fortune, by Beaumont and Fletcher:

-fainting under

"Fortune's falte lottery." STEEVENS.

SCENE