parently this means that even as the dolphin shows his back above water, so Antony's superiority was always shown in the pleasures in which he indulged.
V. ii. 97–99. nature wants stuff To vie strange forms with fancy; yet to imagine An Antony were nature's piece 'gainst fancy. Nature cannot compete with fancy in devising strange forms; yet when she imagined an Antony she presented a piece worth entering against the best that fancy could do.
V. ii. 168. Livia. Livia was wife of Octavius Cæsar. He married her in 38 B. C. Charmian's wish (I. ii. 31), that she might marry Octavius and be companioned with her mistress, came three years earlier.
V. ii. 176–178. and, when we fall, We answer others' merits, in our name, Are therefore to be pitied. If 'merits' be taken, as Dr. Johnson suggested, 'in an ill sense,' to mean 'demerits,' this passage becomes comprehensible.
V. ii. 190. he words me. The narrative in Plutarch makes it clear that Cleopatra in this scene intended to deceive Cæsar by her seeming desire to keep much of her wealth. She hoped to delude him into thinking that her purpose was no longer suicide. Plutarch says of Cæsar, 'So he tooke his leave of her, supposing he had deceived her, but indeede he was deceived himself.' There is at least an intimation that Seleucus was playing a part in collusion with Cleopatra.
V. ii. 218, 219. and I shall see Some squeaking Cleopatra boy my greatness. The reference is to the boys who took women's parts in the Elizabethan theatre. Their voices sometimes cracked.
