Bru. Nay, I am sure it is, Volumnius. Strato, thou hast been all this while asleep; Night hangs upon mine eyes; my bones would rest, That have but labour'd to attain this hour. [Alarum. Cry within; Fly, fly, fly! Cli Fly, my lord, fly! Bru. Hence; I will follow. [Exeunt CLI., DAB., and VOL. I prithee, Strato, stay thou by thy lord 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. Fellow, wilt thou bestow thy time with me? Mes. Ant. This was the noblest Roman of them all: All the conspirators, save only he, Did that they did in envy of great Cæsar; Exer M. ANTONY, a triumvir. OCTAVIUS CAESAR, a triumvir. DOLABELLA, a friend of Caesar. THYREUS, a friend of Caesar GALLUS, a friend of Caesar. MENAS, a friend of Pompey. MENECRATES, a friend of Pompey. VARRIUS, a friend of Pompey. TAURUS, Heutenant-general to Caesar. EUPHRONIUS, an ambassador from Antony to Caesar. OCTAVIA, sister of Caesar, and wife to Antony. IRAS, an attendant on Cleopatra. Officers, Soldiers, Messengers, and other Attendants. ACT I. SCENE I.-Alexandria. A Room in Cleopatra's | Is come from Cæsar; therefore hear it, Antony. Palace. 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 Upon a tawny front: his captain's heart, Which in the scuffles of great fights hath burst The buckles on his breast, reneagues all temper; And is become the bellows, and the fan, To cool a gipsy's lust. Look, where they come! Flourish. Enter ANTONY and CLEOPATRA, with 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 strumpet's fool: behold and see. Cleo. It 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 bourne how far to be belov'd. Ant. Then must thou needs find out new heaven, new earth. Where's Fulvia's process? Cæsar's, I would say. Both. Call in the messengers.-As I am Egypt's queen Thou blushest, Antony; and that blood of thine Is Cæsar's homager: else so thy cheek pays shame When shrill-tongued Fulvia scolds. The mes sengers. Ant. Let Rome in Tiber melt! and the wide arch Of the rang'd empire fall! Here is my space. Kingdoms are clay: our dungy earth alike Feeds beast as man: the nobleness of life Is, to do thus; when such a mutual pair, And such a twain can do't, in which I bind, On pain of punishment, the world to weet We stand up peerless. Cleo. Excellent falsehood! Why did he marry Fulvia, and not love her ?I'll seem the fool I am not; Antony Will be himself Ant. 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 everything 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 note The qualities of people. Come, my queen; Last night you did desire it:-Speak not to us. [Exeunt ANT. and CLEOP., with their Train. Dem. Is Cæsar with Antonius priz'd so slight? Phi. Sir, sometimes, when he is not Antony He comes too short of that great property Which still should go with Antony. Dem. Sooth. I have said. I'm full sorry That he approves the common liar, who SCENE II.-The same. Another Room. Enter CHARMIAN, IRAS, ALEXAS, and a Soothsayer. Char. Lord Alexas, sweet Alexas, most anything Alexas, almost most absolute Alexas, where's the Soothsayer that you praised so to the queen? 0, that I knew this husband, which, you say, mist change his horns with garlands! Alex. Soothsayer. Sooth. Your will? Iras. Am Inot an inch of fortune better than she? Char. Well, if you were but an inch of fortune better than 1, where would you choose it? Iras. Not in my husband's nose. Char. Our worser thoughts heaven mend! Alexas,-come, his fortune, Lis 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, I beseech thee! Iras. Amen. Dear goddess, hear that prayer of the people! for, as it is heart-breaking to see a Char. Is this the man ?-Is't you, sir, that handsome man loose-wived, so it is a deadly sorrow know things? Sooth. In nature's infinite book of secrecy A little I can read. Eno. Bring in the banquet quickly; wine enough Char. Good sir, give me good fortune. 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 belov'd. 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 ine with my mistress. Sooth. You shall outlive the lady whom you serve. Char. O excellent! I love long life better than figs. to behold a foul knave uncuckolded: Therefore dear Isis, keep decorum, and fortune him accor dingly! Char. Amen. Alex. Here, at your service. My lord approaches. Sooth. You have seen and prov ́} a fairer former But soon that war had end, and the time's state fortune Than that which is to approach. Char. Then, belike my children shall have no names. Prithee, how many boys and wenches must I have? 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. Eno. Mine, and most of our fortunes, to-night, shall be-drunk to bed. Iras. There's a palm presages chastity, if nothing elae. Char. Even as the overflowing Nilus presageth amine. Iras. Go, you wild bedfellow, you cannot Joothsay. Char. Nay, if an oily palm be not a fruitful prognostication, I cannot scratch mine ear. Prithee, tell her but a worky-day fortune. Sooth. Your fortunes are alike. Iras. But how, but how? give me particulars? When our quick winds lie still; and our ills told us, Is as our earing. Fare thee well a while. Mess. At your noble pleasure. [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? Where died she? 2 Mess. In Sicyon : Her length of sickness, with what else more serious Importeth thee to know, this bears. [Gives a letter. Ant. Forbear me. [Exit Messenger. 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: 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. 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 Which, like the courser's hair, hath yet but life, SCENE III. [Exeunt Enter CLEOPATRA, CHARMIAN, IRAS, and ALEXAS I did not see him since. Cleo. See where he is, who's with him, what he does : I did not send you :-If you find him sad, [Exit ALEX Char. Madam, methinks, if you did love him dearly, You do not hold the method to enforce Cleo. Thou teachest like a fool: the way to What says the married woman?—You may go, O, never was there queen So mightily betray'd! Yet, at the first, Ant. Cleopatra, But bid farewell, and go: when you sued staying, Bliss in our brows' bent; none our parts so poor, How now, lady! Ant. Cleo. I would I had thy inches; thou should'st know There were a heart in Egypt. 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 port of Rome: Equality of two domestic powers Breeds scrupulous faction: The hated, grown to strength, Are newly grown to love: the condemn'd Pompey, Is Fulvia's death. Cleo. Though age from folly could not give me freedom, It does from childishness :-Can Fulvia die? Look here, and at thy sovereign leisure read Cleo. Cleo. Cut my lace, Charmian, come;But let it be. I am quickly ill, and well, So Antony loves. Ant. My precious queen, forbear; And give true evidence to his love, which stands An honourable trial. Cleo. So Fulvia told me. I prithee, turn aside, and weep for her; Then bid adieu to me, and say the tears Belong to Egypt: Good now, play one scene Of excellent dissembling; and let it look Like perfect honour. Ant. You'll heat my blood: no more. Cleo. You can do better yet; but this is meetly. Ant. Now, by my sword,- 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 [Exeunt. SCENE IV.-Rome. An Apartment in Cæsar's House. Enter OCTAVIUS CÆSAR, LEPIDUS, and Attendants Caes. You may see, Lepidus, and henceforth know, It is not Cæsar's natural vice to hate A man who is the abstract of all faults |