to marry me with Octavius Cæfar, and companion me with my mistress.

SOOTH. You shall outlive the lady whom you ferve.

CHAR. O excellent! I love long life better than figs.

I

SOOTH. You have feen and proved a fairer former fortune

Than that which is to approach.

CHAR. Then, belike, my children shall have no names: Pr'ythee, how many boys and wenches muft I have?

and rage. Thus, Hamlet fays of a ranting player, that he "out-herods Herod." And, in this tragedy, Alexas tells Cleopatra, that "not even Herod of Jewry dare look upon her when fhe is angry;" i. e. not even a man as fierce as Herod. According to this explanation, the fenfe of the prefent paffage will beCharmian withes for a fon who may arrive at fuch power and dominion that the proudeft and fierceft monarchs of the earth may be brought under his yoke. STEEVENS.

I-I love long life better than figs.] This is a proverbial expreffion. STEEVENS.

Then, belike, my children fhall have no names:] If I have already had the beft of my fortune, then I fuppofe I shall never name children, that is, I am never to be married. However, tell me the truth, tell me, how many boys and wenches?

JOHNSON.

A fairer fortune, I believe, means-a more reputable one. Her answer then implies, that belike all her children will be baftards, who have no right to the name of their father's family. Thus fays Launce, in the third Act of The Two Gentlemen of Verona: "That's as much as to say baftard virtues, that indeed know not their fathers, and therefore have no names."

STEEVENS.

A line in our author's Rape of Lucrece confirms Mr. Steevens's interpretation:

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Thy iffue blurr'd with nameless baftardy." MALONE, VOL. XVII.

C

SOOTH. If every of

your wishes had a womb, And fertile every wifh, a million.3

to

CHAR. Out, fool! I forgive thee for a witch.4

ALEX. You think, none but your sheets are privy your wishes.

CHAR. Nay, come, tell Iras hers.

ALEX. We'll know all our fortunes.

3 If every of your wishes had a womb,

had

And fertile every wish, a million.] For foretel, in ancient editions, the later copies have foretold. Foretel favours the emendation of Dr. Warburton, which is made with great acutenefs; yet the original reading may, I think, ftand. If you as many wombs as you will have wishes, and I fhould foretel all thofe wishes, I fhould foretel a million of children. It is an ellipfis very frequent in converfation; I Should Shame you, and tell all; that is, and if I should tell all. And is for and if, which was anciently, and is ftill provincially, used for if.

JOHNSON.

If every one of your wishes, fays the Soothfayer, had a womb, and each womb-invested with were likewife fertile, you then would have a million of children. The merely fuppofing each of her withes to have a womb, would not warrant the Soothfayer to pronounce that the fhould have any children, much less a million; for, like Calphurnia, each of these wombs might be fubject to the fterile curfe." The word fertile, therefore, is abfolutely requifite to the sense.

In the inftance given by Dr. Johnson, " I should fhame you and tell all," I occurs in the former part of the fentence, and therefore may be well omitted afterwards; but here no personal pronoun has been introduced. MALONE.

The epithet fertile is applied to womb, in Timon of Athens: "Enfear thy fertile and conceptious womb."

I have received Dr. Warburton's most happy emendation. The reader who wishes for more inftruction on this fubject, may confult Goulart's Admirable Hiftories, &c. 4to. 1507, p. 222, where we are told of a Sicilian woman who "was fo fertilt, as at thirty birthes fhee had feaventie three children."

STEEVENS.

I forgive thee for a witch.] From a common proverbial reproach to filly ignorant females: "You'll never be burnt for a witch." STEEVENS.

ENO. Mine, and moft of our fortunes, to-night, fhall be-drunk to bed.

IRAS. There's a palm prefages chastity, if nothing elfe.

CHAR. Even as the o'erflowing Nilus prefageth famine.

IRAS. GO, you wild bedfellow, you cannot foothfay.

CHAR. Nay, if an oily palm be not a fruitful prognoftication,5 I cannot fcratch mine ear.Pr'ythee, tell her but a worky-day fortune.

SOOTH. Your fortunes are alike.

IRAS. But how, but how? give me particulars.
SOOTH. I have said.

IRAS. Am I not an inch of fortune better than The?

CHAR. Well, if you were but an inch of fortune better than I, where would you choose it?

IRAS. Not in my hufband's nofe.

CHAR. Our worfer thoughts heavens mend! Alexas,-come, his fortune, his fortune.-O, let

5 Nay, if an oily palm be not a fruitful prognofiication, &c.] So, in Othello:

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This hand is moist, my lady :

"This argues fruitfulness and liberal heart." MALONE. Antonio, in Dryden's Don Sebastian, has the fame remark: "I have a moist, Sweaty palm; the more's my fin." STEEVENS.

• Alexas,—come, his fortune,] [In the old copy, the name of Alexas is prefixed to this fpeech.]

Whofe fortune does Alexas call out to have told? But, in fhort, this I dare pronounce to be fo palpable and fignal a tranfpofition, that I cannot but wonder it fhould have flipt the obfervation of all the editors; especially of the fagacious Mr. Pope,

him marry a woman that cannot go, fweet Ifis, I beseech thee! And let her die too, and give him a worfe! and let worse follow worse, till the worst of all follow him laughing to his grave, fifty-fold a cuckold! Good Ifis, hear me this prayer, though thou deny me a matter of more weight; good Ifis, I beseech thee!

IRAS. Amen. Dear goddess, hear that prayer of the people! for, as it is a heart-breaking to fee a handfome man loofe-wived, fo it is a deadly forrow to behold a foul knave uncuckolded; Therefore, dear Ifis, keep decorum, and fortune him accordingly!

CHAR. Amen.

ALEX. Lo, now! if it lay in their hands to make me a cuckold, they would make themselves whores, but they'd do't.

ENO. Hufh! here comes Antony.
CHAR

Not he, the queen.

who has made this declaration, That if, throughout the plays, had all the fpeeches been printed without the very names of the perfons, he believes one might have applied them with certainty to every Speaker. But in how many inftances has Mr. Pope's want of judgment falfified this opinion? The fact is evidently this: Alexas brings a fortune-teller to Iras and Charmian, and fays himself, We'll know all our fortunes. Well; the Soothfayer begins with the women; and fome jokes pafs upon the fubject of hufbands and chastity: after which, the women hoping for the fatisfaction of having fomething to laugh at in Alexas's fortune, call him to hold out his hand, and with heartily that he may have the prognoftication of cuckoldom upon him. The whole fpeech, therefore, must be placed to Charmian. There needs no ftronger proof of this being a true correction, than the obfervation which Alexas immediately fubjoins on their withes and zeal to hear him abused. THEOBALD.

CLEO. He was difpos'd to mirth; but on the fudden

A Roman thought hath ftruck him.-Enobarbus,ENO. Madam.

CLEO. Seek him, and bring him hither. Where's Alexas?

ALEX. Here, madam,8 at your fervice.-My lord approaches.

Enter ANTONY, with a Meffenger and Attendants.

CLEO. We will not look upon him: Go with us. [Exeunt CLEOPATRA, ENOBARBUS, ALEXAS, IRAS, CHARMIAN, Soothfayer, and Attendants.

MESS. Fulvia thy wife first came into the field. ANT. Against my brother Lucius?

MESS. Ay:

But foon that war had end, and the time's ftate

7 Saw you my lord?] Old copy-Save you. Corrected by the editor of the fecond folio. Saw was formerly written fawe. MALONE.

8 Here, madam,] The refpect due from Alexas to his mistress, in my opinion, points out the title-Madam, (which is wanting in the old copy,) as a proper cure for the prefent defect in metre. STEEVENS.