NAY, but this dotage of our general's, Take but good note, and you shall see in him Cleo. If it be love indeed, tell me how much. Cleo. I'll set a bourn2 how far to be belov'd. Ant. Then must thou needs find out new heaven, new earth. If the scarce-bearded Cæsar have not sent How, my love! Both ? Call in the messengers.-As I am Egypt's queen, But stirr'd by Cleopatra.Now, for the love of Love, and her soft hours, Let's not confound the time with conference harsh : There's not a minute of our lives should stretch Without some pleasure now: What sport to-night ? Cleo. Hear the ambassadors. Ant. Fie, wrangling queen! Whom every thing becomes, to chide, to laugh, (5) Summons. (6) Know. (7) Consume. To weep; whose every passion fully strives [Exeunt Ant. and Cleo. with their train. [Exeunt. Char. Hush! Sooth. You shall be more beloving, than beloved. Char. I had rather heat my liver with drinking. Alex. Nay, hear him. Char. Good now, some excellent fortune! Let me be married to three kings in a forenoon, and widow them all let me have a child at fifty, to whom Herod of Jewry may do homage: find me to marry me with Octavius Cæsar, and companion me with my mistress. Sooth. You shall outlive the lady whom you serve. Char. O excellent! I love long life better than figs. Sooth. You have seen and proved a fairer former fortune Than that which is to approach. Char. Then, belike, my children shall have no names:2 Pr'ythee, how many boys and wenches must I have? Sooth. If every of your wishes had a womb, And fertile every wish, a million. Char. Out, fool! I forgive thee for a witch. Alex. You think, none but your sheets are privy to your wishes. Char. Nay, come, tell Iras hers. Alex. We'll know all our fortunes. Eno. Mine, and most of our fortunes, to-night, shall be-drunk to bed. Iras. There's a palm presages chastity, if nothing else. Char. Even as the o'erflowing Nilus presageth famine. Iras. Go, you wild bedfellow, you cannot soothsay. Char. Nay, if an oily palm be not a fruitful prognostication, I cannot scratch mine ear.-Pr'ythee, tell her but a worky-day fortune. Sooth. Your fortunes are alike. Iras. But how, but how? give me particulars. fras. Am J not an inch of fortune better than she? Char. Well, if you were but an inch of fortune better than I, where would you choose it? Iras. Not in my husband's nose. Char. Our worser thoughts heavens mend!-Alexas,-come, his fortune, his fortune.-O, let him marry a woman that cannot go, sweet Isis, I beseech thee! And let her die too, and give him a worse! and let worse follow worse, till the worst of all follow him laughing to his grave, fifty-fold a cuckold! Good Isis, hear me this prayer, though thou deny me a matter of more weight; good Isis, beseech thee! I Iras. Amen. Dear goddess, hear that prayer of the people! for, as it is a heart-breaking to see a handsome man loose-wived, so it is a deadly sorrow to behold a foul knave uncuckolded; Therefore, dear Isis, keep decorum, and fortuné 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. Hush! here comes Antony. Not he, the queen. A Roman thought hath struck him.-Enobarbus,Eno. Madam. Cleo. Seek him, and bring him hither. Where's Alexas? Alex. Here, madam, at your service. My lord approaches. Enter Antony, with a Messenger and Attendants." Cleo. We will not look upon him: Go with us. [Exeunt Cleopatra, Enobarbus, Alexas, Iras, Charmian, Soothsayer, and Attendants. Mess. Fulvia thy wife first came into the field. Ant. Against my brother Lucius? Mess. Ay: But soon that war had end, and the time's state Whose better issue in the war, from Italy, What worst? Well, His conquering banner shook, from Syria Ant. Antony, thou would'st say Ó, my lord! Ant. Speak to me home, mince not the general tongue; Name Cleopatra as she's call'd in Rome: Mess. At your noble pleasure. 2 Att. He stays upon your will. Let him appear. These strong Egyptian fetters I must break, Enter another Messenger. Or lose myself in dotage.-What are you? 2 Mess. In Sicyon: Where died she? Eno. Fulvia? Eno. Why, sir, give the gods a thankful sacrifice. When it pleaseth their deities to take the wife of a man from him, it shows to man the tailors of the earth; comforting therein, that when old robes are worn out, there are members to make new. If there were no more women but Fulvia, then had you indeed a cut, and the case to be lamented: this grief is crowned with consolation; your old smock brings forth a new petticoat:—and, indeed, the tears live in an onion, that should water this sorrow. Ant. The business she hath broached in the state, Cannot endure my absence. Eno. And the business you have broached here, cannot be without you; especially that of Cleopatra's, which wholly depends on your abode. Ant. No more light answers. Let our officers Have notice what we purpose. I shall break The cause of our expedience to the queen, And get her love to part. For not alone The death of Fulvia, with more urgent touches, Do strongly speak to us; but the letters too Of many our contriving friends in Rome Petition us at home: Sextus Pompeius Her length of sickness, with what else more serious Hath given the dare to Cæsar, and commands Importeth thee to know, this bears. [Gives a letter. The empire of the sea: our slippery people Forbear me.-(Whose love is never link'd to the deserver, [Exit Messenger. Till his deserts are past,) begin to throw There's a great spirit gone! Thus did I desire it: Pompey the great, and all his dignities, What our contempts do often hurl from us, Upon his son; who high in name and power, We wish it ours again; the present pleasure, Higher than both in blood and life, stands up By revolution lowering, does become For the main soldier: whose quality going on, The opposite of itself: she's good, being gone; The sides o'the world may danger: Much is breedThe hand could pluck her back, that shov'd her on. ing, I must from this enchanting queen break off; Ten thousand harms, more than the ills I know, My idleness doth hatch.-How now! Enobarbus! Ant. Enter Enobarbus. Eno. What's your pleasure, sir? Eno. Why, then, we kill all our women: We see how mortal an unkindness is to them; if they suffer our departure, death's the word. Ant. I must be gone. Which, like the courser's hair, hath yet but life, [Exeunt. SCENE III.-Enter Cleopatra, Charmian, Iras, and Alexas. Cleo. Where is he? I did not see him since. Cleo. See where he is, who's with him, what he does: Eno. Under a compelling occasion, let women die: It were pity to cast them away for nothing; I did not send you ;-If you find him sad, though, between them and a great cause, they Say, I am dancing; if in mirth, report should be esteemed nothing. Cleopatra, catching That I am sudden sick: Quick, and return. but the least noise of this, dies instantly; I have seen her die twenty times upon far poorer moment: I do think, there is mettle in death, which commits some loving act upon her, she hath such a celerity in dying. Ant. She is cunning past man's thought. Eno. Alack, sir, no; her passions are made of nothing but the finest part of pure love; We cannot call her winds and waters, sighs and tears; they are greater storms and tempests than almanacs can report: this cannot be cunning in her; if it be, she makes a shower of rain as well as Jove. Ant. 'Would I had never seen her! Enter Antony. Eno. O, sir, you had then left unseen a wonderful piece of work; which not to have been bless-But here comes Antony. ed withal, would have discredited your travel. It cannot be thus long, the sides of nature Ant. Now, my dearest queen,- What says the married woman?-You may go; So mightily betray'd! Yet, at the first, I pr'ythee, turn aside, and weep for her; O, never was there queen Of excellent dissembling; and let it look Cleopatra, Cleo. Why should I think, you can be mine, and Though you in swearing shake the throned gods, Ant. Most sweet queen,- Bliss in our brows bent; none our parts so poor, How now, lady! Ant. There were a heart in Egypt. Ant. Hear me, queen : Breeds scrupulous faction; The hated, grown to Are newly grown to love: the condemn'd Pompey, Is Fulvia's death. Cleo. Though age from folly could not give It does from childishness :-Can Fulvia die ?" my And target,-Still he mends; Ant. I'll leave you, lady. Cleo. Courteous lord, one word. Ant. But that your royalty Holds idleness your subject, I should take you For idleness itself. Cleo. 'Tis sweating labour, And all the gods go with you! upon your sword Ant. Let's go. Come ; Our separation so abides, and flies, Cas. You may see, Lepidus, and henceforth know, One great competitor: From Alexandria Look here, and, at thy sovereign leisure, read (1) The arch of our eye-brows. (4) Render my going not dangerous. (6) The commotion she occasioned. Amiss to tumble on the bed of Ptolemy; (As his composure must be rare indeed, Lep. Whom these things cannot blemish,) yet must An- I shall be furnish'd to inform you rightly tony No way excuse his soils, when we do bear Full surfeits, and the dryness of his bones, Lep. Enter a Messenger. and every Here's more news. Most noble Cæsar, shalt thou have report Cæs. body, 5 Like a vagabond flag upon the stream, Goes to, and back, lackeying the varying tide, Mess. With keels of every kind: Many hot inroads Taken as seen for Pompey's name strikes more, Cæs. Antony, Leave thy lascivious wassals. When thou once, Did famine follow; whom thou fought'st against, To-morrow, Cæsar, Till which encounter, Both what by sea and land I can be able, Cæs. It is my business too. Farewell. Lep. Farewell, my lord: What you shall know Of stirs abroad, I shall beseech you, sir, Cas. I knew it for my bond, 12 Doubt, not sir; [Exeunt. Mar. Not in deed, madam; for I can do nothing Cleo. Or does he walk? or is he on his horse? The demi-Atlas of this earth, the arm And burgonet' of men.-He's speaking now, Which beasts would cough at: thy palate then did For so he calls me; Now I feed myself |