where he found such passing sumptuous fare, that no tongue can express it." Step the second; his invitation set aside, hers accepted, and the delinquent, instead of being the entertained of the judge, becoming his entertainer. "The next night, Antonius feasting her, contended to pass her in magnificence and fineness; but she overcame him in both. So that he himself began to scorn the gross service of his house, in respect of Cleopatra's sumptuousness and fineness. And when Cleopatra found Antonius' feasts to be but gross and soldier-like, in plain manner, she gave it him finely, and without fear taunted him thoroughly." Here was she already installed as rater of his conduct, instead of rendering him an account of hers; and established upon easy terms of playful intimacy, rallying, jesting, giving rival repasts,-in short, drawing him completely within the spell of her witchery.

All the historical traditions of Cleopatra agree in stating that she was not surpassingly handsome; not remarkable for beauty,-linear beauty; and this is borne out by the medals extant of her. But every recorded circumstance tends to confirm the fact, that she possessed a matchless and inexpressible charm of face and person; with incomparable grace in manner and discourse. We are told that she was not so strikingly beautiful as at first view to enamour men; but so sweet was her company and conversation, that a man could not possibly but be taken." Her demeanour is described as irresistibly engaging; courteous, sweet, sportive, and varied. "Furthermore," says Plutarch, "her voice and words were marvellous pleasant; for her tongue was an instrument of music, the which she easily tuned into any language that pleased her." She is said to have spoken with few people by interpreter ; having a knowledge of several dialects, besides being perfect mistress of her own,-which latter was not uniformly the case with her royal Egyptian progenitors. This command of language

was one main instrument, in the power she exercised over men's minds. Her oriental taste for magnificence, too, combined with the refinement and cultivation she acquired in her relations with Greece, concurred to render her all-potent in seductive accomplishment. It was upon occasion of one of the rival repasts above alluded to between herself and Antony, on the banks of the Cydnus, that Cleopatra committed the well-known piece of lavish wilfulness,-dissolving the pearl in the goblet at a banquet. Pliny recounts the anecdote; and says that Cleopatra, being desirous of proving to her lover that she could surpass him in magnificence, layed a wager with him that she would expend as much as ten millions of sesterces at a single feast. Antony thought the thing impossible, and defied her to do it. She unfastened from her ears two pearls of enormous size, caused a cup filled with vinegar to be brought, dissolved therein one of these pearls, and swallowed the draught. She was about to sacrifice the other pearl; when Plaucus,-the umpire of the wager, took possession of it, declaring that Antony had lost. This second pearl was preserved with care, and brought to Rome after the death of Cleopatra; it was then divided in two, and placed in the ears of the statue of Venus, at the Pantheon. The latter circumstance proves both the size and worth of the gem; which probably Dryden had in his mind when,—alluding to Cleopatra's jewels,—he wrote the line:

"Each pendant in her ear shall be a province."

Antony, wholly given up to his passion for Cleopatra, forsook his warlike enterprise with the Parthians, neglected his affairs with Cæsar at home, left his wife Fulvia to promote as she best might their interests abroad, and accompanied the Queen of Egypt to Alexandria. Again the story is best told in Plutarch's words; which not only depict vividly the facts, but supply curious

anecdotical particulars, known to him by direct family narration. It imparts a singularly real and emphatic effect, to have the historian quoting his own relation's description of the occurrence; and the familiar style in which the thing is told heightens the pleasant air of eye-witness truth we are made to feel in viewing Antony and Cleopatra's mode of life together at this period. He says:"Antonius yielded himself to go with Cleopatra unto Alexandria, where he spent and lost in childish sports and idle pastimes, the most precious thing a man can spend (as Antiphon says), and that is, Time. For they made an order between them, which they called Amimetobion (as much as to say, no life comparable and matchable with it), one feasting each other by turns, and in cost exceeding all measure and reason. And for proof hereof, I have heard my grandfather, Lampryas, report, that one Philotas, a physician, born in the city of Amphissa, told him, that he was at that present time in Alexandria, and studied physic; and that having acquaintance with one of Antonius' cooks, he took him with him to Antonius' house (being a young man desirous to see things), to show him the wonderful sumptuous charge and preparation of one only supper. When he was in the kitchen, and saw a world of diversities of meats, and amongst others, eight wild boars roasted whole, he began to wonder at it, and said :'Sure you have a great number of guests to supper.' The cook fell a-laughing, and answered him:-'No,' (quoth he) 'not many guests, nor above twelve in all; but yet all that is boiled or roasted must be served in whole, or else it would be marred straight; for Antonius peradventure will sup presently, or it may be a pretty while hence, or likely enough he will defer it longer, for that he hath drunk well to-day, or else hath had some great matters in hand; and therefore we do not dress one supper only, but many suppers, because we are uncertain of the hour he will sup in.”

woman.

Cleopatra gave Marc Antony's voluptuous inclinations their full bent. She was naturally constituted to share them; and her will seconding her temperament, she ministered to them in their utmost extent. Dedicating herself to the task of coiling him securely within the folds she had flung around him, the "Serpent of Old Nile" ceased not to fascinate his senses and drowse his thoughts by every device within her power, now that she had him to herself in Alexandria. Whether in matters of sport, or in affairs of earnest, she still maintained her influence over his ideas; ever planning fresh delights to have him at her command, never leaving him night nor day, and scarce letting him go out of her sight. She watched to prevent reflection from gaining hold of him; and the better to ensure this, she promoted his pleasures and partook in all his pursuits with the freedom of a man, and the vivacity of a She made herself at once male associate and female companion to him,—both comrade and mistress, she became his fellowreveller. She would play at dice with him, drink with him, hunt with him, and accompany him in whatever exercise or bodily activity he practised. Sometimes, when he chose to go about the city at night, disguised like a slave, peering into people's windows and shops, brawling with them in their houses, taking and giving both abuse and blows, Cleopatra would be with him in chambermaid's array, rambling along the streets at his side. Among the mirthful idlenesses she devised for him, was the one of the angling alluded to in Shakespeare with such admirable dramatic art, in making it conduce to develope appropriate touches of character in the Egyptian queen-coquette, while told with curious fidelity to the original account in Plutarch. "On a time, he went to angle for fish; and when he could take none, he was as angry as could be, because Cleopatra stood by. Wherefore he secretly commanded the fishermen, that when he cast in his line, they should straight

dive under the water, and put a fish on his hook which they had taken before; and so snatched up his angling-rod, and brought up a fish twice or thrice. Cleopatra found it straight, yet she seemed not to see it, but wondered at his excellent fishing; but when she was alone by herself among her own people, she told them how it was, and bade them the next morning to be on the water to see the fishing. Antonius threw in his line, and Cleopatra straight commanded one of her men to dive under water before Antonius' men, and to put some old salt-fish upon his bait. When he had hung the fish on his hook, Antonius, thinking he had taken a fish indeed, snatched up his line presently. Then they all fell a-laughing. Cleopatra laughing also, said unto him;-'Leave us Egyptians your angling-rod, my lord. This is not thy profession; thou must hunt after conquering of realms and countries.'" The very woman herself is in that little speech! Winning him to her by playfully bidding him go from her; and smiling a scoff at conquest of kingdoms as inferior to skill in fishing. The touch, too, of finding out the trick at once, yet feigning not to see it, and praising his angling, is precisely the wily Cleopatra.

But at length ill news from Rome stirred Antony from his trance, and he tore himself from the enchantress's "strong toil of grace," to return to Italy. He is described as "rousing himself with much ado, as if he had been wakened out of a deep sleep, and as coming out of a great drunkenness."

For some time, Marc Antony withstood the temptation to trust himself again within the circle of the "great fairy's" magic attractions; but after Fulvia's death, having adjusted the differences that existed between Octavius Cæsar and himself, by an alliance with the sister, Octavia, he went to Asia. Arriving in Syria, it seemed as if, once more near to the spell of her sorceries, he could no longer resist its influence; for he sent messengers to bring Cleo