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.

Char.

Not he; the queen.

Enter CLEOPATRA.

Cleo. Saw you my lord?

Eno. No, lady.

Cleo. Was he not here?

Char. No, madam.

Cleo. He was dispos'd to mirth; but on the sudden A Roman thought hath struck him.-Enobarbus, -Eno. Madam.

Cleo. Seek him, and bring him hither. Where's Alexas?

Alex. Here, 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 Atten-
dants.

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 Made friends of them, jointing their force 'gainst

Cæsar;

Whose better issue in the war, from Italy,
Upon the first encounter, drave them.

Ant.

Well, what worst?

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.-'T is 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, Extended Asia from Euphrates;

His conquering banner shook from Syria

To Lydia and to Ionia;

Whilst

Ant. Antony, thou would'st say,-
Mess.

O, my lord! Ant. Speak to me home, mince not the general tongue;

Name Cleopatra as she 's call'd in Rome :
Rail thou in Fulvia's phrase; and taunt my faults
With such full licence as both truth and malice
Have power to utter. O, then we bring forth weeds
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. I Att. The man from Sicyon.--Is there such an one?

Let him appear.

2 Att. He stays upon your will. Ant. 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. Where died she?

2 Mess. In Sicyon :

Ant.

Her length of sickness, with what else more serious
Importeth thee to know, this bears. [Gives a letter.
Forbear me.-- [Exit Mess.
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;
Ten thousand harms, more than the ills I know,
My idleness doth hatch.-How now! Enobarbus!

Enter ENOBARBUS.

Eno. What's your pleasure, sir?

Ant. I must with haste from hence.

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 almanacks 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.

Eno. Sir?

Ant. Fulvia is dead.

Eno. Fulvia?

Ant. Dead.

Eno. Why, sir, give the gods a thankful sacrifice. When it pleaseth their deities to take the wife of a man from him, 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
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, 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. [Exeunt.

Cleo. See where he is, who's with him, what he

does :

I did not send you :-If you find him sad,

Say I am dancing; if in mirth, report

That I am sudden sick: Quick, and return.

[Exit ALEXAS.

Char. Madam, methinks, if you did love him

dearly,

You do not hold the method to enforce

The like from him.

Cleo.
What should I do I do not?
Char. In each thing give him way, cross him in
nothing.

Cleo. Thou teachest like a fool: the way to lose him. Char. Tempt him not so too far: I wish, forbear; In time we hate that which we often fear.

Enter ANTONY.

I am sick and sullen.

But here comes Antony.

Cleo.
Ant. I am sorry to give breathing to my pur-

pose.

Cleo. Help me away, dear Charmian, I shall fall;

It cannot be thus long, the sides of nature

Will not sustain it.

Ant.

Now, my dearest queen,

What's the matter?

Cleo. Pray you, stand farther from me.
Ant.
Cleo. I know, by that same eye, there's some
good news.

What says the married woman?--You may go;
'Would she had never given you leave to come!
Let her not say 't is I that keep you here,

I have no power upon you; hers you are.
Ant. The gods best know,-
Cleo.

So mightily betray'd!

O, never was there queen Yet, at the first,

I saw the treasons planted.

Ant. Cleopatra,—

Cleo. Why should I think you can be mine, and true,

Though you in swearing shake the throned gods,
Who have been false to Fulvia? Riotous madness,
To be entangled with those mouth-made vows,
Which break themselves in swearing!
Most sweet queen,-

Ant.
Cleo. Nay, pray you, seek no colour for your
going,

But bid farewell, and go: when you sued staying, Then was the time for words: No going then ;Eternity was in our lips and eyes;

Bliss in our brows' bent; none our parts so poor, But was a race of heaven: They are so still,

Or thou, the greatest soldier of the world,

Art turn'd the greatest liar.

Ant.

How now, lady!

Cleo. I would I had thy inches; thou should'st

know

There were a heart in Egypt.

Hear me, queen :

Ant.
The strong necessity of time commands

Our services a while; but my full heart
Remains in use with you. Óur 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 condemned 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
going,

Is Fulvia's death.

Cleo. Though age from folly could not give me freedom,