3l6 STUDIES OF NATURE. 



thus addrcffes, There you are ! all thefe oppofitionSy 

 one after another, make you fhudder. 



But, in order to render the perfon itfelf of Cleo- 

 -patra interefting, there is no occafion to reprefent 

 her to yourfelf, as our Painters and Sculptors exhi- 

 bit her, an academic figure deftitute of expreffion ; 

 a ftrapping virago, robuft, and replete with health» 

 with large eyes, turned toward Heaven, and wearing 

 round her large and brawny arm a ferpent twifted, 

 like a bracelet. This is by no means a reprefenta- 

 tion of the little, voluptuous, Queen of Egypt, 

 who had herfelf carried, as 1 before mentioned, 

 packed up in a bundle of goods, on the fhoulders 

 of ApollodoruSj to keep a ftolen afîîgnation with 

 Julius Cefar ; at another time walking the ftreets 

 of Alexandria by night, with Anthony, difguifed as 

 a fempftrefs, rallying him, and infifting that his 

 jefts, and ftyle of humour, fmelt (Irongly of the 

 foldier. Still lefs is it a reprefentation of the un- 

 fortunate Cleopatra, reduced to the extreme of ca-- 

 Jamity, dragging up, by means of cords and 

 chains, with the affiftance of two of her women, 

 through the window of the monument in which 

 fhe had taken refuge, with her head downward, 

 without ever letting go her hold, fays Plutarch^ 

 that very Anthony, covered over with blood, who 

 had run himfelf through with his own fword, and 



who 



