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Ant. The April's in her eyes: it is love's spring, And these the showers to bring it on.-Be cheerful. Octa. Sir, look well to my husband's house; and

Cæs.

Octavia?

Octa.

I'll tell you in your ear.

What,

Ant. Her tongue will not obey her heart, nor can Her heart inform her tongue : the swan's down feather,

That stands upon the swell at full of tide,

And neither way inclines.

Eno: Will Cæsar weep?

Agr.

[Aside to AGRIPPA.

He has a cloud in's face 9.

Eno. He were the worse for that, were he a horse; So is he, being a man.

Agr.
Why, Enobarbus?.
When Antony found Julius Cæsar dead,
He cried almost to roaring: and he wept
When at Philippi he found Brutus slain.

Eno. That year, indeed, he was troubled with a
rheum;

What willingly he did confound 1o, he wail'd:
Believe it, till I weep11 too.

11

9 A horse is said to have a cloud in his face, when he has a dark coloured spot in his forehead between his eyes. This gives him a sour look, and being supposed to indicate an ill temper, is of course looked upon as a great blemish. Burton has applied the phrase to the look of a female:- Every lover admires his mistress, though she be very deformed of herselfe-thin, leane, chitty-face, have clouds in her face, be crooked,' &c.-Anatomy of Melancholy, p. 524, ed. 1632.

10 To confound is to consume, to destroy. See Minsheu's Dic-' tionary, 1617, in voce. See vol. v. p. 139, note 11, vol. viii. p. 143. "Theobald reads, 'till I wept too.' Mr. Steevens endeavours to give a meaning to the passage as it now stands:- - Believe (says Enobarbus) that he wept over such an event, till you see me weeping on the same occasion, when I shall be obliged to you for putting such a construction on my tears, which, in reality (like his), will be tears of joy.' I must confess I prefer the emendation of Theobald to the explanation of Steevens.

Cæs.

No, sweet Octavia,

You shall hear from me still; the time shall not

Outgo my thinking on you.

Ant.

Come, sir, come;

I'll wrestle with you in my strength of love:
Look, here I have you; thus I let you go,
And give you to the gods.

Cæs.

Adieu; be happy!

Lep. Let all the number of the stars give light

To thy fair way!

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Cleo. Go to, go to:-Come hither, sir.

Alex.

Enter a Messenger.

Good majesty,

That Herod's head

Herod of Jewry dare not look upon you,
But when you are well pleas'd.

Cleo.

I'll have: But how? when Antony is gone

Through whom I might command it.-Come thou

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Mess.

Madam, in Rome

I look'd her in the face; and saw her led
Between her brother and Mark Antony.

Cleo. Is she as tall as me?
Mess.

She is not, madam.

Cleo. Didst hear her speak? Is she shrill-tongu'd,

or low?

Mess. Madam, I heard her speak; she is low-
voic'd.

Cleo. That's not so good:-he cannot like her long.
Char. Like her? O Isis! 'tis impossible.
Cleo. I think so, Charmian: Dull of tongue, and
dwarfish!-

What majesty is in her gait? Remember,

If e'er thou look'dst on majesty.

1

She creeps;

Mess.
Her motion and her station 1 are as one:
She shows a body rather than a life;

A statue, than a breather.

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He's very knowing,

I do perceive't:-There's nothing in her yet:-
The fellow has good judgment.

Char.

Cleo. Guess at her years, I pr'ythee.

Mess.

She was a widow.

Cleo.

Excellent.

Madam,

Widow?-Charmian, hark 2.

Mess. And I do think, she's thirty.

1 Station here means the act of standing. So in Hamlet :— A station like the herald Mercury.'

2 Cleopatra rejoices in this circumstance, as it sets Octavia on a level with herself, who was no virgin, when she fell to the lot of Antony.

Cleo. Bear'st thou her face in mind? is't long, or

round?

Mess. Round even to faultiness.

Cleo. For the most part too, they are foolish that are so 3.

Her hair, what colour?

Mess. Brown, madam: And her forehead

As low as she would wish it.

Cleo.

There is gold for thee.

Thou must not take my former sharpness ill:-
I will employ thee back again; I find thee
Most fit for business: Go, make thee ready;
Our letters are prepar'd.

Char.

4

[Exit Messenger. A proper man.

I repent me much, Why, methinks, by him,

Cleo. Indeed, he is so:
That I so harry'd him.
This creature's no such thing.

Char.

Nothing, madam.

Cleo. The man hath seen some majesty, and should know.

Char. Hath he seen majesty? Isis else defend, And serving you so long!

Cleo. I have one thing more to ask him yet, good
Charmian:-

But 'tis no matter; thou shalt bring him to me
Where I will write: All may be well enough.
Char. I warrant you, madam.

[Exeunt.

3 This is from the old writers on physiognomy. Thus in Hill's Pleasant History, &c. 1613: The head very round, to be forgetful and foolish.' Again :-' The head long, to be prudent and wary.' A low forehead,' &c. p. 218.

4 To harry is to harass, to worry, to use roughly, to vex, or molest, from the old Norman-French harier of the same meaning. The word occurs frequently in our old writers. Thus in The Revengers' Tragedy, 1607 :—

'He harry'd her amidst a nest of pandars.'

So Nash, in his Lenten Stuff: As if he were harrying and chasing his enemies.'

SCENE IV. Athens. A Room in Antony's House.

Enter ANTONY and OCTAVIA.

Ant. Nay, nay, Octavia, not only that,
That were excusable, that, and thousands more
Of semblable import, but he hath wag'd

New wars 'gainst Pompey: made his will, and read it
To publick ear :

Spoke scantly of me; when perforce he could not
But pay me terms of honour, cold and sickly
He vented them; most narrow measure lent me:
When the best hint was given him, he not took't,
Or did it from his teeth 1.

Oct.
O my good lord,
Believe not all: or, if you must believe,
Stomach not all. A more unhappy lady,
If this division chance, ne'er stood between,
Praying for both parts: the good gods will mock
me presently,

When I shall pray2, O bless my lord and husband!
Undo that prayer, by crying out as loud,

O, bless my brother! Husband win, win brother,
Prays, and destroys the prayer; no midway
"Twixt these extremes at all.

Ant.
Gentle Octavia,
Let your best love draw to that point, which seeks
Best to preserve it: If I lose mine honour,

1 i. e. to appearance only, not seriously. Thus Dryden in his Wild Gallant:- I am confident she is only angry from the teeth outward.' So Chapman, in his version of the fifteenth Iliad:'She laught, but meerly from her lips.'

And Fuller, in his Holie Warre, b. iv. c. 17: This bad breath, though it came but from the teeth of some, yet proceeded from the corrupt lungs of others.'

2 The situation and sentiments of Octavia resemble those of Lady Blanch in King John, Act iii, Sc. 1.

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