Enter Antony, and Cleopatra, her Ladies; the Train, with
Eunuchs fanning her.

Take but good Note, and you shall fee him,
The tripple Pillar of the World, transform'd
Into a Strumpet's Fool. Behold and fee.

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 fet a bourn how far to be belov'd.

Ant. Then muft thou needs find out new Heav'n, new Earth.

Enter a Messenger.

Mef. News, my good Lord, from Rome.
Ant. Rate me the Sum.

Cleo. Nay, hear them Antony.

Fulvia perchance is angry; or who knows,
If the fcarce-bearded Cafar have not sent
His powerful Mandate to you. Do this, or this;
Take in that Kingdom, and infranchise that ;
Perform't, or elfe we damn thee.

Ant. How, my Love?

Cleo. Perchance, nay, and moft like,
You muft not ftay here longer, your difmiffion
Is come from Cafar, therefore hear it Antony.
Where's Fluvia's Process? Cafar's I would fay, both?
Call in the Meffengers; as I am Agypt's Queen,
Thou blusheft Antony, and that blood of thine
Is Cafar's Homager: elfe fo thy Cheeks pay Shame,
When fhrill-tongu'd Fulvia fcolds. The Meffengers.

Ant. Let Rome in Tyber melt, and the wide Arch
Of the rais'd Empire fall; here is my space,
Kingdoms are Clay; Our dungy Earth alike
Feeds Beaft as Man; the Nobleness of Life
Is to do thus; when fuch a mutual pair,
And fuch a twain can do't; in which I bind,
On pain of Punishment, the World to weet
We ftand up Peerless.

Cleo. Excellent Falfhood!

Why did he marry Fulvia, and not love her?
I'll feem the Fool I am not. Antony will be himself.

Ant.

Ant. But ftirr'd by Cleopatra.

Now for the love of love, and his foft Hours,
Let's not confound the time with Conference harsh;
There's not a minute of our Lives should stretch
Without fome Pleafure now. What sport to night?
Cleo. Hear the Ambaffadors.

Ant. Fie wrangling Queen!

Whom every thing becomes, to chide, to laugh,
To weep; whofe every Paffion fully strives
To make it felf 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 defire it. Speak not to us.

[Exeunt with their Train.
Dem. Is Cafar with Antonius priz'd fo flight?
Phil. Sir, fometimes when he is not Antony,
He comes too fhort of that great Property
Which ftill fhould go with Antony.

Dem. I am full forry, that he approves the common Liar, who thus fpeaks of him at Rome; but I will hope of better Deeds to morrow. Reft you happy.

[Exeunt.

Enter Enobarbus, Charmian, Iras, Alexas, and a
Soothsayer.

Char. L. Alexas, fweet Alexas, most any thing Alexas, almost most abfolute Alexas, where's the Soothfayer that you prais'd to th' Queen? Oh! that I knew this Hufband, which you fay, muft 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.

Alex. Shew him your Hand.

Eno. Bring in the Banquet quickly: Wine enough, Cleopatra's Health to drink.

Char. Good Sir, give me good Fortune.

Sooth. I make not, but forefee.

Char. Pray then, foresee me one.

Sooth. You fhall be yet far fairer than you are.
Char. He means in Flesh.

Iras.

Iras. No, you fhall paint when you are old.
Char. Wrinkles forbid.

Alex. Vex not his Patience, be attentive.
Char. Huh!

Sooth. You shall be more beloving, than beloved.
Char. I had rather heat my Liver with Drinking.
Alex. Nay, hear him.

80% od

Char. Good now, fome 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 Cafar, and Companion me with my Mistress.

M

Sooth. You fhall out-live the Lady whom you ferve. Char. Oh excellent, I love long Life better than Figs. Sooth. You have feen and proved a fairer former Fortune, than that which is to approach.

Char. Then belike my Children fhall have no Names ; Prithee how many Boys and Wenches muft I have? Sooth. If every of your Wifhes had a Womb, And foretel 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 to go drunk to Bed.

Iras. There's a Palm prefages Chastity, if nothing elfe, Char. E'en as the o'erflowing Nylus prefageth Famine. Iras. Go you wild Bedfellow, you cannot Soothsay. Char. Nay, if an oily Palm be not a fruitful Prognoftication, I cannot fcratch mine Ear. Prithee tell her but a Workyday Fortune.

Sooth. Your Fortunes are alike.

Iras. But how, but how

Sooth. I have faid.

give me particulars.

Iras. Am I not an inch of Fortune better than the ? Char. Well, if you were but an inch of Fortune better than I; where would you chufe it?

Iras. Not in my Husband's Nofe.
Char. Our worfer thoughts Heav'ns mend.

Alex. Come, his Fortune, his Fortune. Oh let him Marry a Woman that cannot go, fweet Ifis, I beseech thee, and let her die too, and give him a worfe, and let worfe follow worse, 'till the worst of all follow him laughing to his Grave, Fifty-fold a Cuckold. Good Ifis, hear me this Prayer, though thou deny me a matter of more Weight; good Ifis, I befeech thee.

Char. Amen, dear Goddess, hear that Prayer of the People. For, as it is a heart-breaking to fee a handsome Man loose-wiv'd, fo it is a deadly Sorrow, to behold a foul Knave Uncuckolded; therefore, dear Ifis, 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.

Enter Cleopatra.

Eno. Hufh, here comes Antony.
Char. Not he, the Queen.
Cleo. Saw you my Lord ?
Eno. No, Lady.

Cleo. Was he not here ?

Char. No, Madam.

Cleo. He was difpos'd to Mirth, but on the fudden A Roman thought had ftruck 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.
Mef. Fulvia thy Wife, firft came into the Field.
Ant. Against my Brother Lucius?

Mef. Ay, but foon that War had end, and the times ftate Made Friends of them, jointing their force 'gainft Cafar, Whose better Iffe in the War of Italy,

Upon the first encounter drave them.

Ant. Well, what worft?

Mef. The Nature of bad News infects the Teller.

Ant.

Ant. The Bufinefs fhe hath broached in the State, Cannot endure my Abfence.

Eno. And the Bufinefs you have broach'd here cannot be without you, especially that of Cleopatra's, which wholly depends on your Aboad.

Ant. No more like Anfwers: 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 ftrongly speak to us, but the Letters too
Of many our contriving Friends in Rome,
Petition us at Home. Sextus Pompeius
Hath giv'n the Dare to Cafar, and commands
The Empire of the Sea. Our flipp'ry People,
Whofe Love is never link'd to the Deferver,
'Till his Deferts are past, begin to throw
Pompey the Great, and all his Dignities
Upon his Son; who high in Name and Pow'r,
Higher than both in Blood and Life, ftands up
For the main Soldier: Whofe Quality going on,
The fides o'th' World may danger. Much is breeding,
Which like the Courfer's Hair, hath yet but Life,
And not a Serpent's Poison. Say our Pleasure,
To fuch whofe place is under us, requires
Our quick remove from hence.

Eno. I fhall do't.

[Exeunt.

Enter Cleopatra, Charmian, Alexas, and Iras.. Cleo. Where is he?

Char. I did not fee him fince.

Cleo. See where he is, who's with him, what he do's:
I did not fend you. If you find him fad,
Say I am Dancing: if in Mirth, report
That I am fudden fick. Quickly, and return.

Char. Madam, methinks if you did love him dearly,
You do not hold the method, to enforce
The like from him.

Cleo. What fhould I do, I do not?

Char. In each thing give him way, crofs him in nothing. Cleo. Thou teacheft like a Fool: the way to lofe him.

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Char.