Enter Enobarbus.

Eno. What's your pleasure, Sir?

Ant. I muft with hafte from hence.

Eno. Why then we kill all our Women. We fee how mortal an Unkindness is to them, if they fuffer our depar ture, Death's the word.

Ant. I must be gone.

Eno. Under a compelling occafion, let Women die. It were pity to caft them away for nothing, though between them and a great caufe, they fhould be efteem'd nothing. Cleopatra catching but the leaft noife of this dics inftantly; I have feen her die twenty times upon far poorer moment: I do think there is Mettle in Death, which commits fome loving act upon her, fhe hath fuch a Celerity in Dying.

Ant. She is cunning paft Man's Thought.

Eno. Alack, Sir, no, her Paffions are made of nothing but the finest part of pure Love. We cannot call her Winds and Waters, Sighs and Tears: And yet they are greater Storms and Tempests than Almanacks can report. This cannot be cunning in her: if it be, fhe makes a Show'r of Rain as well as Jove.

Ant. Would I had never seen her.

Eno. Oh Sir, you had then left unfeen a wonderful Piece of Work, which not to have been bleft withal, would have difcredited 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, it fhews to Man the Tailors of the Earth: Comforting him 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 cafe were to be lamented: This Grief is crown'd with Confolation, your old Smock brings forth a new Petticoat, and indeed the Tears live in an Onion, that fhould water this Sorrow.

Ant.

Cleopatra, Queen of Egypt.

Octavia, Sister to Cæfar, and Wife to Antony.

Charmian, Iras,

}

Ladies attending on Cleopatra.

Ambaffadors from Antony to Cæfar, Captains,
Soldiers, Meffengers, and other Attendants.
The SCENE lyes in feveral Parts of the
Roman Empire.

· Antony

Library F
E A. Bohines
9-10-41

Antony and Cleopatra.

ACTI. SCENE I.

SCENE Alexandria in Ægypt.

Enter Demetrius and Philo.

PHILO.

AY, but this Dotage of our General
O'er-flows the Measure; those his goodly

Eyes

That o'er the Files and Mufters 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 fcuffles of great fights hath burst
The Buckles on his Breaft, reneges all Temper,
And is become the Bellows and the Fan
To cool a Gypfies Luft. Look where they come !

VOL. VI.

A 4

Enter

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 dismission
Is come from Cafar, therefore hear it Antony.
Where's Fluvia's Procefs? Cafar's I would fay, both?
Call in the Meffengers; as I am Ægypt's Queen,
Thou blufheft 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 fhould ftretch
Without fome Pleasure now. What fport to night?
Cleo. Hear the Ambaffadors.

Ant. Fie wrangling Queen!

Whom every thing becomes, to chide, to laugh,
To weep; whofe every Paffion fully ftrives
To make it felf in thee fair and admir'd.
No Meffenger 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 so slight?
Phil. Sir, fometimes when he is not Antony,
He comes too fhort of that great Property
Which still should 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 Soothsayer that you prais'd to th' Queen? Oh! that I knew this Hufband, which you fay, muft change his Horns with Gar

lands.

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.

Char. Good Sir, give me good Fortune.

Sooth. I make not, but forefee.

Alex. Shew him your Hand.

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

Char. Pray then, foresee me one.

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

Iras.