SCENE I.-ALEXANDRIA. A ROOM IN Enter Demetrius and Philo. Phi. Nay, but this dotage of our general's, O'erflows the measure: Those his goodly eyes, That o'er the files and musters of the war Have glow'd like plated Mars, now bend, now turn, The office and devotion of their view Which in the scuffles of great fights had burst their Trains; Eunuchs fanning her. Take but good note, and you shall see in him The triple pillar of the world transform'd Into a wanton's fool: behold and see. Cleo. If it be love indeed, tell me how much. Ant. There's beggary in the love that can be reckon'd. Cleo. I'll set a bourn 2 how far to be belov'd. Ant. Then must thou needs find out new heaven, new earth. Enter an Attendant. 1 Renounces. 2 Bound. 8 Offends. 4 The news in few words. Fulvia, perchance, is angry; Or, who knows How, my love! Ant. Cleo. Perchance,-nay, and most like, You must not stay here longer, your dismission Is come from Cæsar; therefore hear it, Antony.Where's Fulvia's process2? Cæsar's, I would say?-Both? Call in the messengers.-As I am Egypt's queen, Thou blushest, Antony; and that blood of thine When shrill-tongued Fulvia scolds.--The mesIs Cæsar's homager: else so thycheek pays shame, Without some pleasure now: What sport tonight? Cleo. Hear the ambassadors. Ant. Fie, wrangling queen! Whom every thing becomes, to chide, to laugh, To weep; whose every passion fully strives To make itself, in thee, fair and admir'd! No messenger; but thine and all alone, To-night, we'll wander through the streets, and The qualities of people. Come, my queen; [note Last night you did desire it:-Speak not to us. [Exeunt Ant. and Cleo. with their Train. SCENE II.-ANOTHER ROOM. Char. Lord Alexas, sweet Alexas, most any thing Alexas, almost most absolute Alexas, where's the soothsayer that you praised so to the queen? O, that I knew this husband, which, you say, must change his horns with garlands! Alex. Soothsayer. Sooth. Your will? Char. Is this the man?-Is't you, sir, that know things? Sooth. In nature's infinite book of secrecy, A little I can read. Eno. Bring in the banquet quickly: wine Cleopatra's health to drink. [enough, Char. Good sir, give me good fortune. Sooth. I make not, but foresee. Iras. No, you shall paint when you are old. Alex. Vex not his prescience; be attentive. Char. Hush! So. You shall be more beloving, than beloved. Cha. 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 ne to marry me with Octavius Cæsar, and companion me with my mistress. S. You shall outlive the lady whom you serve. C. O excellent! I love long life better than figs. So. You have seen and proved a fairer former Than that which is to approach. [fortune Char. Then, 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. 1 (Fame.) Char. Out, fool; I forgive thee for a witch. 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 fellow, 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. Sooth. I have said. Ir. Am I 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, sweet Isis, I beseech thee! And let her die, and give him a worse! and let worse follow worse, till the worst of all follow him laughing to his grave. Good Isis, hear me this weight; good Isis, I beseech thee! prayer, though thou deny me a matter of more Iras. Amen. Dear goddess, hear that prayer of the people! Dear Isis, keep decorum, and fortune him accordingly! Char. Amen. Cl. He was disposed to mirth; but on a sudden 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: 2 Att. He stays upon your will. Or lose myself in dotage.-What are you? 2 Mess. In Sicyon: [serious Her length of sickness, with what else more Importeth thee to know, this bears. Ant. [Gives a Letter. Forbear me.[Exit Messenger. There's a great spirit gone! Thus did I desire it: What our contempts do often hurl from us, We wish it ours again; the present pleasure, By revolution lowering, does become The opposite of itself: she's good, being gone; The hand could pluck her back, that shov'd her on. I must from this enchanting queen break off; 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. 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 others 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; and, indeed, the tears live in an onion, that should water this sorrow. A. 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 Which, like the courser's hair, hath yet but life, SCENE III. [Exeunt. Eno. Under compelling occasion, let women die: It were pity to cast them away for no- Enter Cleopatra, Charmian, Iras, and Alexas. thing; though, between them and a great cause, they should be esteemed nothing. Cleopatra, catching but the least noise of this, dies instantly; I have seen her die twenty times upon far poorer moment. 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 almanacks can report: this cannot be cun 1 Over-rnn. 2 When we are untroubled. 3 Faults. 4 is what earing (ploughing) is to the soil. Cleo. Where is he? Char. I did not see him since. Cleo. See where he is, who's with him, what he does: I did not send you2:-If you find him sad, You do not hold the method to enforce 1 Expedition. 2 Look as if I did not send you. Ant. Now, my dearest queen,- What says the married woman?—You may go; O, never was there queen and true, Though you in swearing shake the throned gods, Bliss in our brows bent1; none our parts so poor, Ant. How now, lady! Cleo. I would, I had thy inches; thou shouldst There were a heart in Egypt. [know, Ant. Hear me, queen: The strong necessity of time commands Our services awhile; but my full heart Remains in use with you. Our Italy Shines o'er with civil swords: Sextus Pompeius Makes his approaches to the ports of Rome: Equality of two domestick powers [strength, Breeds scrupulous faction: The hated, grown to Are newlygrown to love: the condemn'd Pompey, Rich in his father's honour, creeps apace Into the hearts of such as have not thriv'd Upon the present state, whose numbers threaten; And quietness, grown sick of rest, would purge By any desperate change: My more particular, And that which most with you should safe my Is Fulvia's death. [going, Cleo. Though age from folly could not give me freedom, It does from childishness:-Can Fulvia die? I Eyebrows. 2 Flavour. 3 Gate. Ant. She's dead, my queen: Look here, and, at thy sovereign leisure, read Cleo. Cut my lace, Charmian, come;- My precious queen, forbear; And give true evidence to his love, which stands An honourable trial. So Fulvia told me. Cleo. But that your royalty Holds idleness your subject, I should take you For idleness itself. Cleo. 'Tis sweating labour, To bear such idleness so near the heart As Cleopatra this. But, sir, forgive me; Since my becomings kill me, when they do not Eye well to you: Your honour calls you hence; Therefore be deaf to my unpitied folly, And all the gods go with you! upon your sword Sit laurel'd victory! and smooth success Be strew'd before your feet! Ant. Let us go. Come; Our separation so abides, and flies, That thou, residing here, go'st yet with me, And I, hence fleeting, here remain with thee. Away. [Exeunt. SCENE IV. ROME. AN APARTMENT IN CÆSAR'S HOUSE, Enter Octavius Cæsar, Lepidus, and Attendants. C. You may see, Lepidus, and henceforth know It is not Cæsar's natural vice to hate One great competitor: From Alexandria This is the news; He fishes, drinks, and wastes The lamps of night in revel: is not more manlike 1 Commotion. 2 To nie, the queen. 3 Rage. Than Cleopatra; nor the queen Ptolemy A man, who is the abstract of all faults [not C. You are too indulgent: Let us grant, it is No way excuse his soils, when we do bear As his own state, and ours,-'tis to be chid Most noble Cæsar, shalt thou have report Cæs. [body, Comes dear'd by being lack'd. This common Like a vagabond flag upon the stream, Goes to, and back, lackeying the varying tide, To rot itself with motion. Mess. Cæsar, I bring thee word, Menecrates and Menas, famous pirates, Make the sea serve them; which they ear1 and wound With keels of every kind: Many hot inroads They make in Italy; the borders maritime Lack bloods to think on't, and flush youth revolt: No vessel can peep forth, but 'tis as soon Taken as seen; for Pompey's name strikes more, Than could his war resisted. Did famine follow: whom thou fought'st against The roughest berry on the rudest hedge; Drive him to Rome: "Tis time we twain Lep. To-morrow, Cæsar, Of stirs abroad, I shall beseech you, sir, I knew it for my bond.1 Doubt not, sir; SCENE V. [Exeunt. ALEXANDRIA. A ROOM IN THE PALACE. Enter Cleopatra, Charmian, Iras,and Mardian. Cleo. Charmian, Madam, I trust, not so. O Charmian, Where think'st thou he is now? Stands he, or sits he? Or does he walk? or is he on his horse? The demi-Atlas of this earth, the arm3 8 Weapon. 4 Helmet. |