Beft to preferve it: if I lofe mine honour,
I lofe myself: better I were not yours,

Than yours fo branchlefs. But, as you requested,
Yourself fhall go between us: 7 the mean time, lady,
I'll raife the preparation of a war

Shall ftain your brother: Make your sooner hafte; So, your defires are yours.

Оa. Thanks to my lord.

The Jove of power make me, moft weak, moft weak, Your reconciler! Wars 'twixt you 'twain would be As if the world fhould cleave, and that flain men Should folder up the rift.

Ant. When it appears to you where this begins, Turn your displeasure that way; for our faults Can never be fo equal, that your love

Can equally move with them. Provide your going;
Chufe your own company, and command what coft
Your heart has mind to.
[Exeunt.

the mean time, lady,

I'll raif the preparation of a war.

Shall lain your brother;--] Thus the printed copies. But, fore, Antony, whofe bufinefs here is to mollify Octavia, does it with a very ill grace: and 'tis a very odd way of fatisfying her, to tell her the war, he raifes, fhall fain, i. e. caft an odium upon her brother. I have no doubt, but we must read, with the addition only of a fingle letter,

Shall ftrain your brother;

i. e. fhall lay him under constraints; fhall put him to fuch shifts, that he shall neither be able to make a progress against, or to prejudice me. Plutarch fays, that Octavius, understanding the fudden and wonderful preparations of Antony, was astonish'd at it; for he himself was in many wants; and the people were forely oppreffed with grievous exactions.

THEOBALD.

I do not fee but fain may be allowed to remain unaltered, meaning no more than shame or digrace. JOHNSON. -wars 'twixt you twain would be, &c.] The fenfe is, that war between Cæfar and Antony would engage the world between them, and that the flaghter would be great in fo extensive a commotion.

JOHNSON.

SCENE

SCENE V.

Enter Enobarbus and Eros.

Eno. How now, friend Eros?

Eros. There's ftrange news come, fir.

Eno. What, man?

Eros. Cæfar and Lepidus have made wars upon Pompey.

Eno. This is old: what is the fuccefs?

Eros. Cæfar, having made use of him in the wars 'gainst Pompey, presently denied him 'rivality; would not let him partake in the glory of the action: and not refting here, accufes him of letters he had formerly wrote to Pompey. Upon his own appeal, feizes him: fo the poor third is up, till death enlarge his confine.

2

Eno. Then 'would thou had'ft a pair of chaps, no

more;

And throw between them all the food thou haft,
They'll grind the other. Where is Antony?

Eros. He's walking in the garden thus, and spurns The rush that lies before him: cries, "Fool Lepidus!" And threats the throat of that his officer,

That murder'd Pompey.

9 rivality,] Equal rank.

JOHNSON..

Upon his own appeal,] To appeal, in Shakespeare, is to accufe; Cæfar feized Lepidus without any other proof than Cæfar's ac

cufation.

JOHNSON.

2 Then 'would thou bad'ft a pair of chats, no more; and throw between them all the food thou baft, they'll grind the other. Where's Antony ] This is obfcure, I read it thus,

Then, world, thou hast a pair of chaps, no more,
And throw between them all the food thou haft,
They'll grind the one the other. Where's Antony?

Cæfar and Antony will make war on each other, though they have the world to prey upon between them.

N 4

Sir T. HANMER.

Enc.

Eno. Our great navy's rigg❜d.
Eros. For Italy and Cæfar.

More, Domitius

;

My lord defires you prefently: My news
I might have told hereafter.

Eno. 'Twill be naught:

But let it be. Bring me to Antony.

[Exeunt.

Caf. Contemning Rome, he has done all this: And

more,

In Alexandria,-here's the manner of it :-
I' the market-place, on a tribunal filver'd,
Cleopatra and himself in chairs of gold
Were publickly enthron'd: at the feet, fat
Cæfarion, whom they call my father's fon;
And all the unlawful iffue, that their luft
Since then hath made between them.

Unto her

He gave the 'stablishment of Egypt; made her
Of Lower Syria, Cyprus, Lydia,

3-More, Domitius ;] I have fomething more to tell you, which I might have told at first, and delayed my news. Antony requires your presence. JOHNSON. 4 For Lydia, Mr. Upton, from Plutarch, has reftored Lybia.

JOHNSON.

In the tranflation from the French of Amyot, by Tho. North, in folio, 1597*, you will at once fee the origin of this mistake."First of all he did eftablish Cleopatra queen of Egypt, of Cy-. prus, of Lydia, and the lower Syria."

I find the character of this work pretty early delineated;
"'Twas Greek at firft, that Greek was Latin made,
That Latin French, that French to English straid :
Thus 'twixt one Plutarch there's more difference,
Than i' th' fame Englishman return'd from France."

FARMER.

Abfo

Abfolute queen.

Mec. This in the public eye?

Caf. I' the common fhew-place, where they exercife; His fons he there proclaim'd, the kings of kings: Great Media, Parthia, and Armenia,

He gave to Alexander; to Ptolemy he affign'd
Syria, Cilicia, and Phoenicia :-She

In the habiliments of the Goddess Ifis

That day appear'd: and oft before gave audience, As 'tis reported, fo.

Mec. Let Rome be thus inform'd.

Agr. Who, queafy with his infolence already, Will their good thoughts call from him.

Caf. The people know it; and have now receiv'd His accufations.

Agr. Whom does he accufe?

Caf. Cæfar: and that, having in Sicily
Sextus Pompeius fpoil'd, we had not rated him
His part o' the ifle. Then does he fay, he lent me
Some shipping unreftor'd: Laftly, he frets,
That Lepidus of the triumvirate

Should be depos'd; and, being, that we detain
All his revenue.

Agr. Sir, this fhould be anfwer'd.

Caf. 'Tis done already, and his meffenger gone. I told him, Lepidus was grown too cruel; That he his high authority abus'd,

And did deserve his change. For what I have con

I

quer'd,

grant him

part; but then, in his Armenia, And other of his conquer'd kingdoms, I

Demand the like.

Mec. He'll never yield to that.

Caf. Nor must not then be yielded to in this.

Enter

Enter Olavia.

Ota. Hail, Cæfar, and my lord! hail, moft dear
Cæfar!

Caf. That ever I fhould call thee, caft-away!
Octa. You have not call'd me fo, nor have you
cause.

Caf. Why have you ftol'n upon us thus? you

come not

Like Cæfar's fifter: The wife of Antony
Should have an army for an usher, and
The neighs of horfe to tell of her approach,
Long ere fhe did appear. The trees by the way,
Should have borne men; and expectation fainted,
Longing for what it had not. Nay, the duft
Should have afcended to the roof of heaven,
Rais'd by your populous troops: but you are come
A market-maid to Rome; and have prevented
The oftentation of our love, which, left unfhewn,
Is often left unlov'd: we fhould have met you
By fea and land; fupplying every stage
With an augmented greeting.

Octa. Good my lord,

To come thus was I not conftrain'd, but did it
On my free will. My lord, Mark Antony,
Hearing that you prepar'd for war, acquainted
My grieving ear withal; whereon I begg'd
His pardon for return.

Caf. Which foon he granted,

Being an obftruct 'tween his luft and him.
Ota. Do not fay fo, my lord.

5 Which foon be granted,

Caf.

Being an abstract 'tween his luft and him.] Antony very foon comply'd to let Octavia go at her requeft, fays Cæfar; and why? Because he was an abftrat between his inordinate paffion and