Come then, and take the last warmth of my lips. Farewell, kind Charmian;-Iras, long farewell.

[Kisses them. IRAS falls and dies.

Have I the aspick in my lips?1 Dost fall?2
If thou and nature can so gently part,
The stroke of death is as a lover's pinch,
Which hurts, and is desir'd. Dost thou lie still?
If thus thou vanishest, thou tell'st the world
It is not worth leave-taking.

CHAR. Dissolve, thick cloud, and rain; that I

This proves me base :

If she first meet the curled Antony,
He'll make demand of her; and spend that kiss,
Which is my heaven to have. Come, mortal

wretch,5

[To the Asp, which she applies to her Breast.

With thy sharp teeth this knot intrinsicate
Of life at once untie: poor venomous fool,

Homer, Iliad VII. 99, speaks as contemptuously of the grosser elements we spring from:

“ ̓Αλλ ὑμεῖς μὲν πάνιες "υδωρ καὶ γαῖα γενοισθε.”

STEEVENS.

Have I the aspick in my lips?] Are my lips poison'd by the

aspick, that my kiss has destroyed thee? MALONE.

Dost fall?] Iras must be supposed to have applied an asp to her arm while her mistress was settling her dress, or I know not why she should fall so soon. STEEVENS.

3

a lover's pinch,] So before, p. 53:

"That am with Phœbus' amorous pinches black."

STEEVENS.

* He'll make demand of her;] He will enquire of her concern

ing me, and kiss her for giving him intelligence. JOHNSON.

5

-Come, mortal wretch,] Old copies, unmetrically:

- Come, thou mortal wretch,-. STEEVENS.