Stand not to answer; Here, take thou the hilts; Re-enter TITINIUS, with MBSSALA. Mes. It is but change, Titinius; for Octavius Is overthrown by noble Brutus' power, As Cassius' legions are by Antony. Tit. These tidings will well comfort Cassius. All disconsolate, Tit. No, this was he, Messala, But Cassius is no more. O setting sun! As in thy red rays thou dost sink to-night, So in his red blood Cassius' day is set: The sun of Rome is set! Our day is gone; Clouds, dews, and dangers come; our deeds are done! Mistrust of my success hath done this deed. Mes. Mistrust of good success hath done this deed. O hateful error, melancholy's child! Why dost thou show to the apt thoughts of men Tit. What, Pindarus! Where art thou, Pindarus? Hie you, Messala, Tit. And I will seek for Pindarus the while. [Exit MESSALA. Why didst thou send me forth, brave Cassius? Did I not meet thy friends? and did not they Put on my brows this wreath of victory, And bid me giv't thee!") Didst thou not hear their shouts ? Alas, thou hast misconstrued every thing. Cato. He is slain. Bru. O Julius Cæsar, thou art mighty yet! Thy spirit walks abroad, and turns our swords In our own proper entrails. [Low Alarums. Brave Titinius! Cato. Should breed thy fellow. - Friends, I owe more tears SCENE IV. Another part of the Field. Alarum. Enter fighting, Soldiers of both Armies; A foe to tyrants, and my country's friend; -- I am the son of Marcus Cato, ho! [Charges the Enemy. Bru. And I am Brutus, Marcus Brutus I; Brutus, my country's friend; know me for Brutus. [Exit, charging the Enemy. CATO is overpowered, and falls. Luc. O young and noble Cato, art thou down? Why, now thou diest as bravely as Titinius; And may'st be honour'd being Cato's son. 9) 1 Sold. Yield, or thou diest. Luc. Only I yield to die. There is so much, that thou wilt kill me straight; [Offering Money. Kill Brutus, and be honour'd in his death. 1 Sold. We must not. A noble prisoner! 2 Sold. Room, ho! Tell Antony, Brutus is ta'en. 1 Sold. I'll tell the news. Here comes the ge neral: Brutus is ta'en, Brutus is ta'en, my lord. Luc. Safe, Antony; Brutus is safe enough; SCENE V. Another part of the Field. [Exeunt. Dar. To kill him, Clitus: Look, he meditates. Bru. Come hither, good Volumnius: list a word. Why, this, Volumnius: Vol. Not so, my lord. Bru. Nay, I am sure it is, Volumnius. Thou see'st the world, Volumnius, how it goes; Our enemies have beat us to the pit: It is more worthy, to leap in ourselves, Than tarry till they push us. Good Volumnius, Thou know'st, that we two went to school together; Even for that our love of old, I pray thee, Hold thou my sword-hilts, whilst I run on it. Vol. That's not an office for a friend, my lord. [Alarum still. Cli. Fly, fly, my lord; there is no tarrying here. Bru. Farewell to you and you; and you, Volumnius. Strato, thou hast been all this while asleep: I shall have glory by this losing day, So, fare you well at once; for Brutus' tongue Night hangs upon mine eyes; my bones would rest, Cli. Fly, my lord, fly. Bru. Hence; I will follow thee. '') [Exeunt CLITUS, DARDANIUS, and VOLUMNIUS. I pr'ythee, Strato, stay thou by thy lord: Thou art a fellow of a good respect; Thy life hath had some smatch of honour in it: Hold then my sword, and turn away thy face, Bru. Farewell, good Strato.- Cæsar, now be still: I kill'd not thee with half so good a will. [He runs on his Sword, and dies. Alarum. Retreat. Enter OCTAVIUS, ANTONY, MESSALA, LUCILIUS, and their Army. Oct. What man is that? Mes. My master's man. master? Strato, where is thy Stra. Free from the bondage you are in, Messala. And no man else hath honour by his death. That thou hast prov'd Lucilius' saying true. 12) Did that they did in envy of great Cæsar; [Exeunt. PHILO, MECENAS, AGRIPPA, DOLABELLA, Friends to Cæsar. PROCULEIUS, THYREUS, GALLUS, MENAS, MENECRATES, VARRIUS, Friends of Pompey. TAURUS, Lieutenant-General to Cæsar. CANIDIUS, Lieutenant-General to Antony, SILIUS, an Officer in Ventidius's Army. EUPHRONIUS, an Ambassador from Antony to Cæsar. ALEXAS, MARDIAN, SELBUCUS, and DIOMEDES; Attendants on Cleopatra. A Soothsayer. A Clown. CLEOPATRA, Queen of Egypt. OCTAVIA, Sister to Cæsar, and Wife to Antony. } Attendants on Cleopatra. Officers, Soldiers, Messengers, and other Attendants. dispersed; in several Parts of the Roman Empire. SCENE I. Alexandria. A Room in Cleopatra's Palace. Enter DEMETRIUS and PHILO. Philo. NAY, but this dotage of our general's, with Cleo. If it be love indeed, tell me how much. Enter an Attendant. As I am Egypt's queen, Cleo. Ant. Fye, wrangling queen! 1 The qualities of people. Come, my queen; Dem. SCENE II. [Exeunt. Eno. Bring in the banquet quickly; wine enough, Char. Good sir, give me good fortune. Char. Pray then, foresee me one. Sooth. You shall be yet far fairer than you are. Iras. No, you shall paint, when you are old. Alex. Vex not his prescience; be attentive. Sooth. You shall be more beloving, than beloved. 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: 14) 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. 15) Sooth. You have seen and proved a fairer former Char. Nay, come, tell Iras hers. Alex. We'll know all our fortunes. Char. Even as the overflowing 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. Iras. Am I not an inch of fortune better than she? 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 cuckold! Good Isis, hear me this prayer, though of all follow him laughing to his grave, fifty-fold a thou deny me a matter of more weight; good Isis, I beseech thee! 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 fortune 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. But soon that war had end, and the time's state Whose better issue in the war, from Italy, Well, Mess. The nature of bad news infects the teller. Ant. When it concerns the fool, or coward. — On : Things, that are past, are done, with me.- "Tis thus; Who tells me true, though in his tale lie death, I hear him as he flatter'd. Mess. Labienus (This is stiff news) hath, with his Parthian force, Eno. Mine, and most of our fortunes, to-night,|| Extended Asia from Euphrates; 19) shall be drunk to bed. His conquering banner shook, from Syria Iras. There's a palm presages chastity, if nothing To Lydia, and to Ionia; else. Whilst Ant. Mess. Antony, thou would'st say, O, my lord! Ant. Speak to me home, mince not the general tongue; Name Cleopatra as she's call'd in Rome: [Exit. Ant. From Sicyon how the news? Speak there. 1 Att. The man from Sicyon. Is there such an one? 2 Att. He stays upon your will. Ant. Let him appear, These strong Egyptian fetters I must break, Enter another Messenger. Or lose myself in dotage. What are you? 2 Mess. Fulvia thy wife is dead. Ant. Ant. Where died she? 2 Mess. In Sicyon: The opposite of itself: 21) she's good, being gone; - 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. Eno. Under a compelling occasion, let women die : It were pity to cast them away for nothing; 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: 23) 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! Eno. O, sir, you had then left unseen a wonderful piece of work; which not to have been blessed withal, would have discredited your travel. Ant. Fulvia is dead. 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 24) to the queen, And get her love to part. 25) For not alone The death of Fulvia, with more urgent touches, 26) Do strongly speak to us; but the letters too Of many our contriving friends in Rome Petition us at home: Sextus Pompeius Hath given the dare to Cæsar, and commands The empire of the sea: our slippery people (Whose love is never link'd to the deserver, Till his deserts are past,) begin to throw Pompey the great, and all his dignities, Upon his son; who, high in name and power, Higher than both in blood and life, stands up For the main soldier: whose quality, going on, The sides o'the world may danger: Much is breeding, Which, like the courser's hair, 27) hath yet but life, And not a serpent's poison. Say, our pleasure, To such whose place is under us, requires Our quick remove from hence. Eno. I shall do't. SCENE III. [Exeunt. What says the married woman? You may go; O, never was there queen |