Enter DEMETRIUS and PHILO. Phi. Nay, but this dotage of our general's Have glow'd like plated Mars, now bend, now turn Take but good note, and you shall see in him Into a strumpet's fool: behold and see. Cleo. If it be love indeed, tell me how much. Fulvia, perchance, is angry; or, who knows His powerful mandate to you, "Do this, or this; Ant. How, my love! Both? Call in the messengers.-As I am Egypt's queen, Is to do thus; when such a mutual pair, [Embracing. Ant. There's beggary in the love that can be And such a twain can do't, in which I bind, reckon'd. Cleo. I'll set a bourn how far to be belov'd. Ant. Then must thou needs find out new heaven, On pain of punishment, the world to weet, Cleo. Excellent falsehood! 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: Fie, wrangling queen! [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. I am full sorry, That he approves the common liar, who Thus speaks of him at Rome; but I will hope Of better deeds to-morrow. Rest you happy. [Exeunt. SCENE II.-The Same. Another Room. Enter CHARMIAN, IRAS, ALEXAS, and a Soothsayer. Char. Lord Alexas, most sweet Alexas, most any thing Alexas, almost most absolute Alexas, where's the soothsayer that you praised so to the queen? O! that I knew this husband, which, you say, must charge his horns with garlands! Alex. Soothsayer! Sooth. Your will? Eno. Bring in the banquet quickly; wine enough, Cleopatra's health to drink. 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 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 me with my mistress. Sooth. You shall outlive the lady whom you serve. Char. O excellent! I love long life better than figs. Sooth. You have seen, and proved a fairer former fortune, Than that which is to approach. Char. Then, belike, my children shall have no names. Pr'ythee, how many boys and wenches must I have? Sooth. If every of your wishes had a womb, And fruitful every wish, a million. Char. Out, fool! I forgive thee for a witch. Alex. We'll know all our fortunes. Eno. Mine, and most of our fortunes, to-night, shall be, drunk to bed. Iras. There's a palm presages chastity, if nothing else. Char. Even as the o'erflowing 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. Well, if you were but an inch of fortune better than I, where would you choose it? Iras. Not in my husband's nose. 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 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 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. 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 Alex. Here, at your service.-My lord approaches. Mess. Ay: But soon that war had end, and the time's state Labienus (This is stiff news) hath with his Parthian force Alex. You think, none but your sheets are privy to Extended Asia from Euphrates; your wishes. Char. Nay, come; tell Iras hers. His conquering banner shook from Syria To Lydia, and to Ionia; whilst 1 Ant. Antony, thou would'st say, Mess. O, my lord! more women but Fulvia, then had you indeed a cut, and the case to be lamented: this grief is crowned with Ant. Speak to me home, mince not the general consolation; your old smock brings forth a new petti 2 Mess. In Sicyon: The opposite of itself: she's good, being gone; Eno. What's your pleasure, sir? coat; and, indeed, the tears live in an onion, that should water this sorrow. 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. 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 leave 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. 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. 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 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 I shall do it. [Exeunt. SCENE III. Enter CLEOPATRA, CHARMIAN, IRAs, and Alexas. Cleo. Where is he? Char. 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, Say, I am dancing; if in mirth, report That I am sudden sick: quick, and return. [Exit ALEX. 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. Cleo. I would, I had thy inches; thou should'st know, There were a heart in Egypt. Ant. Breeds scrupulous faction. The hated, grown to strength, 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. As thou affect'st. 'Tis sweating labour To bear such idleness so near the heart, As Cleopatra this. But, sir, forgive me ; Since my becomings kill me, when they do not Eye well to you your honour calls you hence; Therefore, be deaf to my unpitied folly, And all the gods go with you! upon your sword Sit laurel'd victory, and smooth success Be strew'd before your feet! Ant. Let us go. Come; Our separation so abides, and flies, [Exeunt. SCENE IV.-Rome. An Apartment in CESAR'S House. Enter OCTAVIUS CESAR, LEPIDUS, and Attendants. A man, who is the abstract of all faults Lep. Cæs. You are too indulgent. Let us grant, it is not Amiss to tumble on the bed of Ptolemy, To give a kingdom for a mirth; to sit And keep the turn of tippling with a slave; To reel the streets at noon, and stand the buffet His vacancy with his voluptuousness, Full surfeits, and the dryness of his bones, As his own state, and ours,-'tis to be chid As we rate boys; who, being mature in knowledge, Pawn their experience to their present pleasure, And so rebel to judgment. Enter a Messenger. Lep. Here's more news. Mess. Thy biddings have been done; and every hour, Most noble Cæsar, shalt thou have report How 'tis abroad. Pompey is strong at sea; And it appears, he is belov'd of those That only have fear'd Cæsar: to the fleets The discontents repair, and men's reports Cæs. In aught an eunuch has. 'Tis well for thee, I should have known no less. May not fly forth of Egypt. Hast thou affections? It hath been taught us from the primal state, And the ebb'd man ne'er lov'd, till ne'er worth love, Mess. Cæsar, I bring thee word, Cæs. Antony, Leave thy lascivious wassels. When thou once It is reported, thou didst eat strange flesh, Lep. 'Tis pity of him. Cas. Let his shames quickly Drive him to Rome. 'Tis time we twain Did show ourselves i' the field; and, to that end, Lep. To-morrow, Cæsar, I shall be furnish'd to inform you rightly Cæs. It is my business too. Till which encounter, Farewell. Mar. Yes, gracious madam. Cleo. Indeed? Mar. Not in deed, madam; for I can do nothing, Cleo. O, Charmian! And burgonet of men.-He's speaking now, Lep. Farewell, my lord. What you shall know mean Of hot and cold: he was nor sad, nor merry. Cleo. O well-divided disposition !-Note him, So does it no man else.-Met'st thou my posts? |