ACT I
SCENE I. Alexandria. A room in CLEOPATRA's palace.
Enter DEMETRIUS and PHILO
- PHILO
- 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, reneges all temper,
- And is become the bellows and the fan
- To cool a gipsy's lust.
- Flourish. Enter ANTONY, CLEOPATRA, her Ladies,
the Train, with Eunuchs fanning her
- Look, where they come:
- 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.
- CLEOPATRA
- If it be love indeed, tell me how much.
- MARK ANTONY
- There's beggary in the love that can be reckon'd.
- CLEOPATRA
- I'll set a bourn how far to be beloved.
- MARK ANTONY
- Then must thou needs find out new heaven, new earth.
Enter an Attendant
- Attendant
- News, my good lord, from Rome.
- MARK ANTONY
- Grates me: the sum.
- CLEOPATRA
- Nay, hear them, Antony:
- Fulvia perchance is angry; or, who knows
- If the scarce-bearded Caesar have not sent
- His powerful mandate to you, 'Do this, or this;
- Take in that kingdom, and enfranchise that;
- Perform 't, or else we damn thee.'
- MARK ANTONY
- How, my love!
- CLEOPATRA
- Perchance! nay, and most like:
- You must not stay here longer, your dismission
- Is come from Caesar; therefore hear it, Antony.
- Where's Fulvia's process? Caesar's I would say? both?
- Call in the messengers. As I am Egypt's queen,
- Thou blushest, Antony; and that blood of thine
- Is Caesar's homager: else so thy cheek pays shame
- When shrill-tongued Fulvia scolds. The messengers!
- MARK ANTONY
- Let Rome in Tiber melt, and the wide arch
- Of the ranged 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
- Embracing
- And such a twain can do't, in which I bind,
- On pain of punishment, the world to weet
- We stand up peerless.
- CLEOPATRA
- Excellent falsehood!
- Why did he marry Fulvia, and not love her?
- I'll seem the fool I am not; Antony
- Will be himself.
- MARK ANTONY
- 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 tonight?
- CLEOPATRA
- Hear the ambassadors.
- MARK ANTONY
- Fie, wrangling queen!
- Whom every thing becomes, to chide, to laugh,
- To weep; whose every passion fully strives
- To make itself, in thee, fair and admired!
- 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 MARK ANTONY and CLEOPATRA with
their train
- DEMETRIUS
- Is Caesar with Antonius prized so slight?
- PHILO
- Sir, sometimes, when he is not Antony,
- He comes too short of that great property
- Which still should go with Antony.
- DEMETRIUS
- 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
- CHARMIAN
- Lord Alexas, 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!
- ALEXAS
- Soothsayer!
- Soothsayer
- Your will?
- CHARMIAN
- Is this the man? Is't you, sir, that know things?
- Soothsayer
- In nature's infinite book of secrecy
- A little I can read.
- ALEXAS
- Show him your hand.
Enter DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS
- DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS
- Bring in the banquet quickly; wine enough
- Cleopatra's health to drink.
- CHARMIAN
- Good sir, give me good fortune.
- Soothsayer
- I make not, but foresee.
- CHARMIAN
- Pray, then, foresee me one.
- Soothsayer
- You shall be yet far fairer than you are.
- CHARMIAN
- He means in flesh.
- IRAS
- No, you shall paint when you are old.
- CHARMIAN
- Wrinkles forbid!
- ALEXAS
- Vex not his prescience; be attentive.
- CHARMIAN
- Hush!
- Soothsayer
- You shall be more beloving than beloved.
- CHARMIAN
- I had rather heat my liver with drinking.
- ALEXAS
- Nay, hear him.
- CHARMIAN
- 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
- Caesar, and companion me with my mistress.

- CHARMIAN
- O excellent! I love long life better than figs.
- Soothsayer
- You have seen and proved a fairer former fortune
- Than that which is to approach.
- CHARMIAN
- Then belike my children shall have no names:
- prithee, how many boys and wenches must I have?
- Soothsayer
- If every of your wishes had a womb.
- And fertile every wish, a million.
- CHARMIAN
- Out, fool! I forgive thee for a witch.
- ALEXAS
- You think none but your sheets are privy to your wishes.
- CHARMIAN
- Nay, come, tell Iras hers.
- ALEXAS
- We'll know all our fortunes.
- DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS
- Mine, and most of our fortunes, to-night, shall
- be — drunk to bed.
- IRAS
- There's a palm presages chastity, if nothing else.
- CHARMIAN
- E'en as the o'erflowing Nilus presageth famine.
- IRAS
- Go, you wild bedfellow, you cannot soothsay.
- CHARMIAN
- Nay, if an oily palm be not a fruitful
- prognostication, I cannot scratch mine ear. Prithee,
- tell her but a worky-day fortune.
- Soothsayer
- Your fortunes are alike.
- IRAS
- But how, but how? give me particulars.
- Soothsayer
- I have said.
- IRAS
- Am I not an inch of fortune better than she?
- CHARMIAN
- Well, if you were but an inch of fortune better than
- I, where would you choose it?
- IRAS
- Not in my husband's nose.
- CHARMIAN
- Our worser thoughts heavens mend! Alexas — come,
- his fortune, his fortune!  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 heartbreaking 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!
- CHARMIAN
- Amen.
- ALEXAS
- Lo, now, if it lay in their hands to make me a
- cuckold, they would make themselves whores, but
- they'ld do't!
- DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS
- Hush! here comes Antony.
- CHARMIAN
- Not he; the queen.
Enter CLEOPATRA
- CLEOPATRA
- Saw you my lord?
- DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS
- No, lady.
- CLEOPATRA
- Was he not here?
- CHARMIAN
- No, madam.
- CLEOPATRA
- He was disposed to mirth; but on the sudden
- A Roman thought hath struck him. Enobarbus!
- DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS
- Madam?
- CLEOPATRA
- Seek him, and bring him hither.
- Where's Alexas?
- ALEXAS
- Here, at your service. My lord approaches.
- CLEOPATRA
- We will not look upon him: go with us.
Exeunt
Enter MARK ANTONY with a Messenger and Attendants
- Messenger
- Fulvia thy wife first came into the field.
- MARK ANTONY
- Against my brother Lucius?
- Messenger
- Ay:
- But soon that war had end, and the time's state
- Made friends of them, joining their force 'gainst Caesar;
- Whose better issue in the war, from Italy,
- Upon the first encounter, drave them.
- MARK ANTONY
- Well, what worst?
- Messenger
- The nature of bad news infects the teller.
- MARK ANTONY
- When it concerns the fool or coward. On:
- Things that are past are done with me. 'Tis thus:
- Who tells me true, though in his tale lie death,
- I hear him as he flatter'd.
- Messenger
- 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 —
- MARK ANTONY
- Antony, thou wouldst say —
- Messenger
- O, my lord!
- MARK ANTONY
- Speak to me home, mince not the general tongue:
- Name Cleopatra as she is 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 minds lie still; and our ills told us
- Is as our earing. Fare thee well awhile.
- Messenger
- At your noble pleasure.
Exit
- MARK ANTONY
- From Sicyon, ho, the news! Speak there!
- First Attendant
- The man from Sicyon — is there such an one?
- Second Attendant
- He stays upon your will.
- MARK ANTONY
- Let him appear.
- These strong Egyptian fetters I must break,
- Or lose myself in dotage.
- Enter another Messenger
- What are you?
- Second Messenger
- Fulvia thy wife is dead.
- MARK ANTONY
- Where died she?
- Second Messenger
- In Sicyon:
- Her length of sickness, with what else more serious
- Importeth thee to know, this bears.
Gives a letter
- MARK ANTONY
- Forbear me.
- Exit Second Messenger
- There's a great spirit gone! Thus did I desire it:
- What our contempt doth 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 shoved 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!
Re-enter DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS
- DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS
- What's your pleasure, sir?
- MARK ANTONY
- I must with haste from hence.
- DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS
- 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.
- MARK ANTONY
- I must be gone.
- DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS
- 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.
- MARK ANTONY
- She is cunning past man's thought.
Exit ALEXAS
- DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS
- 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.
- MARK ANTONY
- Would I had never seen her.
- DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS
- O, sir, you had then left unseen a wonderful piece
- of work; which not to have been blest withal would
- have discredited your travel.
- MARK ANTONY
- Fulvia is dead.
- DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS
- Sir?
- MARK ANTONY
- Fulvia is dead.
- DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS
- Fulvia!
- MARK ANTONY
- Dead.
- DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS
- 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 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.
- MARK ANTONY
- The business she hath broached in the state
- Cannot endure my absence.
- DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS
- And the business you have broached here cannot be
- without you; especially that of Cleopatra's, which
- wholly depends on your abode.
- MARK ANTONY
- 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 Caesar, 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.
- DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS
- I shall do't.
Exeunt
SCENE III. The same. Another room.
Enter CLEOPATRA, CHARMIAN, IRAS, and ALEXAS
- CLEOPATRA
- Where is he?
- CHARMIAN
- I did not see him since.
- CLEOPATRA
- 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
- CHARMIAN
- Madam, methinks, if you did love him dearly,
- You do not hold the method to enforce
- The like from him.
- CLEOPATRA
- What should I do, I do not?
- CHARMIAN
- In each thing give him way, cross him nothing.
- CLEOPATRA
- Thou teachest like a fool; the way to lose him.
- CHARMIAN
- Tempt him not so too far; I wish, forbear:
- In time we hate that which we often fear.
- But here comes Antony.
Enter MARK ANTONY
- CLEOPATRA
- I am sick and sullen.
- MARK ANTONY
- I am sorry to give breathing to my purpose —
- CLEOPATRA
- Help me away, dear Charmian; I shall fall:
- It cannot be thus long, the sides of nature
- Will not sustain it.
- MARK ANTONY
- Now, my dearest queen —
- CLEOPATRA
- Pray you, stand further from me.
- MARK ANTONY
- What's the matter?
- CLEOPATRA
- 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 'tis I that keep you here:
- I have no power upon you; hers you are.
- MARK ANTONY
- The gods best know —
- CLEOPATRA
- O, never was there queen
- So mightily betray'd! yet at the first
- I saw the treasons planted.
- MARK ANTONY
- Cleopatra —
- CLEOPATRA
- 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!
- MARK ANTONY
- Most sweet queen —
- CLEOPATRA
- 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.
- MARK ANTONY
- How now, lady!
- CLEOPATRA
- I would I had thy inches; thou shouldst know
- There were a heart in Egypt.
- MARK ANTONY
- 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
- Breed scrupulous faction: the hated, grown to strength,
- Are newly grown to love: the condemn'd Pompey,
- Rich in his father's honour, creeps apace,
- Into the hearts of such as have not thrived
- 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.
- CLEOPATRA
- Though age from folly could not give me freedom,
- It does from childishness: can Fulvia die?
- MARK ANTONY
- She's dead, my queen:
- Look here, and at thy sovereign leisure read
- The garboils she awaked; at the last, best:
- See when and where she died.
- CLEOPATRA
- O most false love!
- Where be the sacred vials thou shouldst fill
- With sorrowful water? Now I see, I see,
- In Fulvia's death, how mine received shall be.
- MARK ANTONY
- Quarrel no more, but be prepared to know
- The purposes I bear; which are, or cease,
- As you shall give the advice. By the fire
- That quickens Nilus' slime, I go from hence
- Thy soldier, servant; making peace or war
- As thou affect'st.
- CLEOPATRA
- Cut my lace, Charmian, come;
- But let it be: I am quickly ill, and well,
- So Antony loves.
- MARK ANTONY
- My precious queen, forbear;
- And give true evidence to his love, which stands
- An honourable trial.
- CLEOPATRA
- 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
- Life perfect honour.
- MARK ANTONY
- You'll heat my blood: no more.
- CLEOPATRA
- You can do better yet; but this is meetly.
- MARK ANTONY
- Now, by my sword —
- CLEOPATRA
- And target. Still he mends;
- But this is not the best. Look, prithee, Charmian,
- How this Herculean Roman does become
- The carriage of his chafe.
- MARK ANTONY
- I'll leave you, lady.
- CLEOPATRA
- Courteous lord, one word.
- Sir, you and I must part, but that's not it:
- Sir, you and I have loved, but there's not it;
- That you know well: something it is I would,
- O, my oblivion is a very Antony,
- And I am all forgotten.
- MARK ANTONY
- But that your royalty
- Holds idleness your subject, I should take you
- For idleness itself.
- CLEOPATRA
- '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 victory! and smooth success
- Be strew'd before your feet!
- MARK ANTONY
- Let us go. Come;
- Our separation so abides, and flies,
- That thou, residing here, go'st yet with me,
- And I, hence fleeting, here remain with thee. Away!
Exeunt
SCENE IV. Rome. OCTAVIUS CAESAR's house.
Enter OCTAVIUS CAESAR, reading a letter, LEPIDUS,
and their Train
- OCTAVIUS CAESAR
- You may see, Lepidus, and henceforth know,
- It is not Caesar's natural vice to hate
- Our great competitor: from Alexandria
- This is the news: he fishes, drinks, and wastes
- The lamps of night in revel; is not more man-like
- Than Cleopatra; nor the queen of Ptolemy
- More womanly than he; hardly gave audience, or
- Vouchsafed to think he had partners: you shall find there
- A man who is the abstract of all faults
- That all men follow.
- LEPIDUS
- I must not think there are
- Evils enow to darken all his goodness:
- His faults in him seem as the spots of heaven,
- More fiery by night's blackness; hereditary,
- Rather than purchased; what he cannot change,
- Than what he chooses.
 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
- With knaves that smell of sweat: say this
- becomes him —
- As his composure must be rare indeed
- Whom these things cannot blemish — yet must Antony
- No way excuse his soils, when we do bear
- So great weight in his lightness. If he fill'd
- His vacancy with his voluptuousness,
- Full surfeits, and the dryness of his bones,
- Call on him for't: but to confound such time,
- That drums him from his sport, and speaks as loud
- 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
- LEPIDUS
- Here's more news.
- Messenger
- Thy biddings have been done; and every hour,
- Most noble Caesar, shalt thou have report
- How 'tis abroad. Pompey is strong at sea;
- And it appears he is beloved of those
- That only have fear'd Caesar: to the ports
- The discontents repair, and men's reports
- Give him much wrong'd.
- OCTAVIUS CAESAR
- I should have known no less.
- It hath been taught us from the primal state,
- That he which is was wish'd until he were;
- And the ebb'd man, ne'er loved till ne'er worth love,
- Comes dear'd by being lack'd. This common body,
- Like to a vagabond flag upon the stream,
- Goes to and back, lackeying the varying tide,
- To rot itself with motion.
- Messenger
- Caesar, I bring thee word,
- Menecrates and Menas, famous pirates,
- Make the sea serve them, which they ear and wound
- With keels of every kind: many hot inroads
- They make in Italy; the borders maritime
- Lack blood to think on't, and flush youth revolt:
- No vessel can peep forth, but 'tis as soon
- Taken as seen; for Pompey's name strikes more
- Than could his war resisted.
- OCTAVIUS CAESAR
- Antony,
- Leave thy lascivious wassails. When thou once
- Wast beaten from Modena, where thou slew'st
- Hirtius and Pansa, consuls, at thy heel
- Did famine follow; whom thou fought'st against,
- Though daintily brought up, with patience more
- Than savages could suffer: thou didst drink
- The stale of horses, and the gilded puddle
- Which beasts would cough at: thy palate then did deign
- The roughest berry on the rudest hedge;
- Yea, like the stag, when snow the pasture sheets,
- The barks of trees thou browsed'st; on the Alps
- It is reported thou didst eat strange flesh,
- Which some did die to look on: and all this —
- It wounds thine honour that I speak it now —
- Was borne so like a soldier, that thy cheek
- So much as lank'd not.
- LEPIDUS
- 'Tis pity of him.
- OCTAVIUS CAESAR
- Let his shames quickly
- Drive him to Rome: 'tis time we twain
- Did show ourselves i' the field; and to that end
- Assemble we immediate council: Pompey
- Thrives in our idleness.
- LEPIDUS
- To-morrow, Caesar,
- I shall be furnish'd to inform you rightly
- Both what by sea and land I can be able
- To front this present time.
- OCTAVIUS CAESAR
- Till which encounter,
- It is my business too. Farewell.
- LEPIDUS
- Farewell, my lord: what you shall know meantime
- Of stirs abroad, I shall beseech you, sir,
- To let me be partaker.
- OCTAVIUS CAESAR
- Doubt not, sir;
- I knew it for my bond.
Exeunt
SCENE V. Alexandria. CLEOPATRA's palace.
Enter CLEOPATRA, CHARMIAN, IRAS, and MARDIAN
- CLEOPATRA
- Charmian!
- CHARMIAN
- Madam?
- CLEOPATRA
- Ha, ha!
- Give me to drink mandragora.
- CHARMIAN
- Why, madam?
- CLEOPATRA
- That I might sleep out this great gap of time
- My Antony is away.
- CHARMIAN
- You think of him too much.
- CLEOPATRA
- O, 'tis treason!
- CHARMIAN
- Madam, I trust, not so.
- CLEOPATRA
- Thou, eunuch Mardian!
- MARDIAN
- What's your highness' pleasure?
- CLEOPATRA
- Not now to hear thee sing; I take no pleasure
- In aught an eunuch has: 'tis well for thee,
- That, being unseminar'd, thy freer thoughts
- May not fly forth of Egypt. Hast thou affections?
- MARDIAN
- Yes, gracious madam.
- CLEOPATRA
- Indeed!
- MARDIAN
- Not in deed, madam; for I can do nothing
- But what indeed is honest to be done:
- Yet have I fierce affections, and think
- What Venus did with Mars.
- CLEOPATRA
- O Charmian,
- Where think'st thou he is now? Stands he, or sits he?
- Or does he walk? or is he on his horse?
- O happy horse, to bear the weight of Antony!
- Do bravely, horse! for wot'st thou whom thou movest?
- The demi-Atlas of this earth, the arm
- And burgonet of men. He's speaking now,
- Or murmuring 'Where's my serpent of old Nile?'
- For so he calls me: now I feed myself
- With most delicious poison. Think on me,
- That am with Phoebus' amorous pinches black,
- And wrinkled deep in time? Broad-fronted Caesar,
- When thou wast here above the ground, I was
- A morsel for a monarch: and great Pompey
- Would stand and make his eyes grow in my brow;
- There would he anchor his aspect and die
- With looking on his life.
Enter ALEXAS, from OCTAVIUS CAESAR
- ALEXAS
- Sovereign of Egypt, hail!
- CLEOPATRA
- How much unlike art thou Mark Antony!
- Yet, coming from him, that great medicine hath
- With his tinct gilded thee.
- How goes it with my brave Mark Antony?
- ALEXAS
- Last thing he did, dear queen,
- He kiss'd — the last of many doubled kisses —
- This orient pearl. His speech sticks in my heart.
- CLEOPATRA
- Mine ear must pluck it thence.
- ALEXAS
- 'Good friend,' quoth he,
- 'Say, the firm Roman to great Egypt sends
- This treasure of an oyster; at whose foot,
- To mend the petty present, I will piece
- Her opulent throne with kingdoms; all the east,
- Say thou, shall call her mistress.' So he nodded,
- And soberly did mount an arm-gaunt steed,
- Who neigh'd so high, that what I would have spoke
- Was beastly dumb'd by him.
- CLEOPATRA
- What, was he sad or merry?
- ALEXAS
- Like to the time o' the year between the extremes
- Of hot and cold, he was nor sad nor merry.
- CLEOPATRA
- O well-divided disposition! Note him,
- Note him good Charmian, 'tis the man; but note him:
- He was not sad, for he would shine on those
- That make their looks by his; he was not merry,
- Which seem'd to tell them his remembrance lay
- In Egypt with his joy; but between both:
- O heavenly mingle! Be'st thou sad or merry,
- The violence of either thee becomes,
- So does it no man else. Met'st thou my posts?
- ALEXAS
- Ay, madam, twenty several messengers:
- Why do you send so thick?
- CLEOPATRA
- Who's born that day
- When I forget to send to Antony,
- Shall die a beggar. Ink and paper, Charmian.
- Welcome, my good Alexas. Did I, Charmian,
- Ever love Caesar so?
- CHARMIAN
- O that brave Caesar!
- CLEOPATRA
- Be choked with such another emphasis!
- Say, the brave Antony.
- CHARMIAN
- The valiant Caesar!
- CLEOPATRA
- By Isis, I will give thee bloody teeth,
- If thou with Caesar paragon again
- My man of men.
- CHARMIAN
- By your most gracious pardon,
- I sing but after you.
- CLEOPATRA
- My salad days,
- When I was green in judgment: cold in blood,
- To say as I said then! But, come, away;
- Get me ink and paper:
- He shall have every day a several greeting,
- Or I'll unpeople Egypt.
Exeunt
ACT II
SCENE I. Messina. POMPEY's house.
Enter POMPEY, MENECRATES, and MENAS, in
warlike manner
- POMPEY
- If the great gods be just, they shall assist
- The deeds of justest men.
- MENECRATES
- Know, worthy Pompey,
- That what they do delay, they not deny.
- POMPEY
- Whiles we are suitors to their throne, decays
- The thing we sue for.
- MENECRATES
- We, ignorant of ourselves,
- Beg often our own harms, which the wise powers
- Deny us for our good; so find we profit
- By losing of our prayers.
- POMPEY
- I shall do well:
- The people love me, and the sea is mine;
- My powers are crescent, and my auguring hope
- Says it will come to the full. Mark Antony
- In Egypt sits at dinner, and will make
- No wars without doors: Caesar gets money where
- He loses hearts: Lepidus flatters both,
- Of both is flatter'd; but he neither loves,
- Nor either cares for him.
- MENAS
- Caesar and Lepidus
- Are in the field: a mighty strength they carry.
- POMPEY
- Where have you this? 'tis false.
- MENAS
- From Silvius, sir.
- POMPEY
- He dreams: I know they are in Rome together,
- Looking for Antony. But all the charms of love,
- Salt Cleopatra, soften thy waned lip!
- Let witchcraft join with beauty, lust with both!
- Tie up the libertine in a field of feasts,
- Keep his brain fuming; Epicurean cooks
- Sharpen with cloyless sauce his appetite;
- That sleep and feeding may prorogue his honour
- Even till a Lethe'd dulness!
- Enter VARRIUS
- How now, Varrius!
- VARRIUS
- This is most certain that I shall deliver:
- Mark Antony is every hour in Rome
- Expected: since he went from Egypt 'tis
- A space for further travel.
- POMPEY
- I could have given less matter
- A better ear. Menas, I did not think
- This amorous surfeiter would have donn'd his helm
- For such a petty war: his soldiership
- Is twice the other twain: but let us rear
- The higher our opinion, that our stirring
- Can from the lap of Egypt's widow pluck
- The ne'er-lust-wearied Antony.
- MENAS
- I cannot hope
- Caesar and Antony shall well greet together:
- His wife that's dead did trespasses to Caesar;
- His brother warr'd upon him; although, I think,
- Not moved by Antony.
- POMPEY
- I know not, Menas,
- How lesser enmities may give way to greater.
- Were't not that we stand up against them all,
- 'Twere pregnant they should square between
- themselves;
- For they have entertained cause enough
- To draw their swords: but how the fear of us
- May cement their divisions and bind up
- The petty difference, we yet not know.
- Be't as our gods will have't! It only stands
- Our lives upon to use our strongest hands.
- Come, Menas.
Exeunt
SCENE II. Rome. The house of LEPIDUS.
Enter DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS and LEPIDUS
- LEPIDUS
- Good Enobarbus, 'tis a worthy deed,
- And shall become you well, to entreat your captain
- To soft and gentle speech.
- DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS
- I shall entreat him
- To answer like himself: if Caesar move him,
- Let Antony look over Caesar's head
- And speak as loud as Mars. By Jupiter,
- Were I the wearer of Antonius' beard,
- I would not shave't to-day.
- LEPIDUS
- 'Tis not a time
- For private stomaching.
- DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS
- Every time
- Serves for the matter that is then born in't.
- LEPIDUS
- But small to greater matters must give way.
- DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS
- Not if the small come first.
 Here comes
- The noble Antony.
Enter MARK ANTONY and VENTIDIUS
- DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS
- And yonder, Caesar.
Enter OCTAVIUS CAESAR, MECAENAS, and AGRIPPA
- MARK ANTONY
- If we compose well here, to Parthia:
- Hark, Ventidius.
- OCTAVIUS CAESAR
- I do not know,
- Mecaenas; ask Agrippa.
- LEPIDUS
- Noble friends,
- That which combined us was most great, and let not
- A leaner action rend us. What's amiss,
- May it be gently heard: when we debate
- Our trivial difference loud, we do commit
- Murder in healing wounds: then, noble partners,
- The rather, for I earnestly beseech,
- Touch you the sourest points with sweetest terms,
- Nor curstness grow to the matter.
- MARK ANTONY
- 'Tis spoken well.
- Were we before our armies, and to fight.
- I should do thus.
Flourish
- OCTAVIUS CAESAR
- Welcome to Rome.
- MARK ANTONY
- Thank you.
- OCTAVIUS CAESAR
- Sit.
- MARK ANTONY
- Sit, sir.
- OCTAVIUS CAESAR
- Nay, then.
- MARK ANTONY
- I learn, you take things ill which are not so,
- Or being, concern you not.
- OCTAVIUS CAESAR
- I must be laugh'd at,
- If, or for nothing or a little, I
- Should say myself offended, and with you
- Chiefly i' the world; more laugh'd at, that I should
- Once name you derogately, when to sound your name
- It not concern'd me.
- MARK ANTONY
- My being in Egypt, Caesar,
- What was't to you?
- OCTAVIUS CAESAR
- No more than my residing here at Rome
- Might be to you in Egypt: yet, if you there
- Did practise on my state, your being in Egypt
- Might be my question.
- MARK ANTONY
- How intend you, practised?
- OCTAVIUS CAESAR
- You may be pleased to catch at mine intent
- By what did here befal me.
- MARK ANTONY
- You do mistake your business; my brother never
- Did urge me in his act: I did inquire it;
- And have my learning from some true reports,
- That drew their swords with you. Did he not rather
- Discredit my authority with yours;
- And make the wars alike against my stomach,
- Having alike your cause? Of this my letters
- Before did satisfy you. If you'll patch a quarrel,
- As matter whole you have not to make it with,
- It must not be with this.
- OCTAVIUS CAESAR
- You praise yourself
- By laying defects of judgment to me; but
- You patch'd up your excuses.
- MARK ANTONY
- Not so, not so;
- I know you could not lack, I am certain on't,
- Very necessity of this thought, that I,
- Your partner in the cause 'gainst which he fought,
- Could not with graceful eyes attend those wars
- Which fronted mine own peace. As for my wife,
- I would you had her spirit in such another:
- The third o' the world is yours; which with a snaffle
- You may pace easy, but not such a wife.
- DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS
- Would we had all such wives, that the men might go
- to wars with the women!
- MARK ANTONY
- So much uncurbable, her garboils, Caesar
- Made out of her impatience, which not wanted
- Shrewdness of policy too, I grieving grant
- Did you too much disquiet: for that you must
- But say, I could not help it.
- OCTAVIUS CAESAR
- I wrote to you
- When rioting in Alexandria; you
- Did pocket up my letters, and with taunts
- Did gibe my missive out of audience.
- MARK ANTONY
- Sir,
- He fell upon me ere admitted: then
- Three kings I had newly feasted, and did want
- Of what I was i' the morning: but next day
- I told him of myself; which was as much
- As to have ask'd him pardon. Let this fellow
- Be nothing of our strife; if we contend,
- Out of our question wipe him.
- OCTAVIUS CAESAR
- You have broken
- The article of your oath; which you shall never
- Have tongue to charge me with.
- LEPIDUS
- Soft, Caesar!
- MARK ANTONY
- No,
- Lepidus, let him speak:
- The honour is sacred which he talks on now,
- Supposing that I lack'd it. But, on, Caesar;
- The article of my oath.
- OCTAVIUS CAESAR
- To lend me arms and aid when I required them;
- The which you both denied.
- MARK ANTONY
- Neglected, rather;
- And then when poison'd hours had bound me up
- From mine own knowledge. As nearly as I may,
- I'll play the penitent to you: but mine honesty
- Shall not make poor my greatness, nor my power
- Work without it. Truth is, that Fulvia,
- To have me out of Egypt, made wars here;
- For which myself, the ignorant motive, do
- So far ask pardon as befits mine honour
- To stoop in such a case.
- LEPIDUS
- 'Tis noble spoken.
- MECAENAS
- If it might please you, to enforce no further
- The griefs between ye: to forget them quite
- Were to remember that the present need
- Speaks to atone you.
- LEPIDUS
- Worthily spoken, Mecaenas.
- DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS
- Or, if you borrow one another's love for the
- instant, you may, when you hear no more words of
- Pompey, return it again: you shall have time to
- wrangle in when you have nothing else to do.
- MARK ANTONY
- Thou art a soldier only: speak no more.
- DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS
- That truth should be silent I had almost forgot.
- MARK ANTONY
- You wrong this presence; therefore speak no more.
- DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS
- Go to, then; your considerate stone.
- OCTAVIUS CAESAR
- I do not much dislike the matter, but
- The manner of his speech; for't cannot be
- We shall remain in friendship, our conditions
- So differing in their acts. Yet if I knew
- What hoop should hold us stanch, from edge to edge
- O' the world I would pursue it.
- AGRIPPA
- Give me leave, Caesar —
- OCTAVIUS CAESAR
- Speak, Agrippa.
- AGRIPPA
- Thou hast a sister by the mother's side,
- Admired Octavia: great Mark Antony
- Is now a widower.
- OCTAVIUS CAESAR
- Say not so, Agrippa:
- If Cleopatra heard you, your reproof
- Were well deserved of rashness.
- MARK ANTONY
- I am not married, Caesar: let me hear
- Agrippa further speak.
- AGRIPPA
- To hold you in perpetual amity,
- To make you brothers, and to knit your hearts
- With an unslipping knot, take Antony
- Octavia to his wife; whose beauty claims
- No worse a husband than the best of men;
- Whose virtue and whose general graces speak
- That which none else can utter. By this marriage,
- All little jealousies, which now seem great,
- And all great fears, which now import their dangers,
- Would then be nothing: truths would be tales,
- Where now half tales be truths: her love to both
- Would, each to other and all loves to both,
- Draw after her. Pardon what I have spoke;
- For 'tis a studied, not a present thought,
- By duty ruminated.
- MARK ANTONY
- Will Caesar speak?
- OCTAVIUS CAESAR
- Not till he hears how Antony is touch'd
- With what is spoke already.
- MARK ANTONY
- What power is in Agrippa,
- If I would say, 'Agrippa, be it so,'
- To make this good?
- OCTAVIUS CAESAR
- The power of Caesar, and
- His power unto Octavia.
- MARK ANTONY
- May I never
- To this good purpose, that so fairly shows,
- Dream of impediment! Let me have thy hand:
- Further this act of grace: and from this hour
- The heart of brothers govern in our loves
- And sway our great designs!
- OCTAVIUS CAESAR
- There is my hand.
- A sister I bequeath you, whom no brother
- Did ever love so dearly: let her live
- To join our kingdoms and our hearts; and never
- Fly off our loves again!
- LEPIDUS
- Happily, amen!
- MARK ANTONY
- I did not think to draw my sword 'gainst Pompey;
- For he hath laid strange courtesies and great
- Of late upon me: I must thank him only,
- Lest my remembrance suffer ill report;
- At heel of that, defy him.
- LEPIDUS
- Time calls upon's:
- Of us must Pompey presently be sought,
- Or else he seeks out us.
- MARK ANTONY
- Where lies he?
- OCTAVIUS CAESAR
- About the mount Misenum.
- MARK ANTONY
- What is his strength by land?
- OCTAVIUS CAESAR
- Great and increasing: but by sea
- He is an absolute master.
- MARK ANTONY
- So is the fame.
- Would we had spoke together! Haste we for it:
- Yet, ere we put ourselves in arms, dispatch we
- The business we have talk'd of.
- OCTAVIUS CAESAR
- With most gladness:
- And do invite you to my sister's view,
- Whither straight I'll lead you.
- MARK ANTONY
- Let us, Lepidus,
- Not lack your company.
- LEPIDUS
- Noble Antony,
- Not sickness should detain me.
Flourish. Exeunt OCTAVIUS CAESAR, MARK ANTONY,
and LEPIDUS
- MECAENAS
- Welcome from Egypt, sir.
- DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS
- Half the heart of Caesar, worthy Mecaenas! My
- honourable friend, Agrippa!
- AGRIPPA
- Good Enobarbus!
- MECAENAS
- We have cause to be glad that matters are so well
- digested. You stayed well by 't in Egypt.
- DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS
- Ay, sir; we did sleep day out of countenance, and
- made the night light with drinking.
- MECAENAS
- Eight wild-boars roasted whole at a breakfast, and
- but twelve persons there; is this true?
- DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS
- This was but as a fly by an eagle: we had much more
- monstrous matter of feast, which worthily deserved noting.
- MECAENAS
- She's a most triumphant lady, if report be square to
- her.
- DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS
- When she first met Mark Antony, she pursed up
- his heart, upon the river of Cydnus.
- AGRIPPA
- There she appeared indeed; or my reporter devised
- well for her.
- DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS
- I will tell you.
- The barge she sat in, like a burnish'd throne,
- Burn'd on the water: the poop was beaten gold;
- Purple the sails, and so perfumed that
- The winds were love-sick with them; the oars were silver,
- Which to the tune of flutes kept stroke, and made
- The water which they beat to follow faster,
- As amorous of their strokes. For her own person,
- It beggar'd all description: she did lie
- In her pavilion — cloth-of-gold of tissue —
- O'er-picturing that Venus where we see
- The fancy outwork nature: on each side her
- Stood pretty dimpled boys, like smiling Cupids,
- With divers-colour'd fans, whose wind did seem
- To glow the delicate cheeks which they did cool,
- And what they undid did.
- AGRIPPA
- O, rare for Antony!
- DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS
- Her gentlewomen, like the Nereides,
- So many mermaids, tended her i' the eyes,
- And made their bends adornings: at the helm
- A seeming mermaid steers: the silken tackle
- Swell with the touches of those flower-soft hands,
- That yarely frame the office. From the barge
- A strange invisible perfume hits the sense
- Of the adjacent wharfs. The city cast
- Her people out upon her; and Antony,
- Enthroned i' the market-place, did sit alone,
- Whistling to the air; which, but for vacancy,
- Had gone to gaze on Cleopatra too,
- And made a gap in nature.
- AGRIPPA
- Rare Egyptian!
- DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS
- Upon her landing, Antony sent to her,
- Invited her to supper: she replied,
- It should be better he became her guest;
- Which she entreated: our courteous Antony,
- Whom ne'er the word of 'No' woman heard speak,
- Being barber'd ten times o'er, goes to the feast,
- And for his ordinary pays his heart
- For what his eyes eat only.
- AGRIPPA
- Royal wench!
- She made great Caesar lay his sword to bed:
- He plough'd her, and she cropp'd.
- DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS
- I saw her once
- Hop forty paces through the public street;
- And having lost her breath, she spoke, and panted,
- That she did make defect perfection,
- And, breathless, power breathe forth.
- MECAENAS
- Now Antony must leave her utterly.
- DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS
- Never; he will not:
- Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale
- Her infinite variety: other women cloy
- The appetites they feed: but she makes hungry
- Where most she satisfies; for vilest things
- Become themselves in her: that the holy priests
- Bless her when she is riggish.
- MECAENAS
- If beauty, wisdom, modesty, can settle
- The heart of Antony, Octavia is
- A blessed lottery to him.
- AGRIPPA
- Let us go.
- Good Enobarbus, make yourself my guest
- Whilst you abide here.
- DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS
- Humbly, sir, I thank you.
Exeunt
SCENE III. The same. OCTAVIUS CAESAR's house.
Enter MARK ANTONY, OCTAVIUS CAESAR, OCTAVIA between
them, and Attendants
- MARK ANTONY
- The world and my great office will sometimes
- Divide me from your bosom.
- OCTAVIA
- All which time
- Before the gods my knee shall bow my prayers
- To them for you.
- MARK ANTONY
- Good night, sir. My Octavia,
- Read not my blemishes in the world's report:
- I have not kept my square; but that to come
- Shall all be done by the rule. Good night, dear lady.
- Good night, sir.
- OCTAVIUS CAESAR
- Good night.
Exeunt OCTAVIUS CAESAR and OCTAVIA
Enter Soothsayer
- MARK ANTONY
- Now, sirrah; you do wish yourself in Egypt?
- Soothsayer
- Would I had never come from thence, nor you Thither!
- MARK ANTONY
- If you can, your reason?
- Soothsayer
- I see it in
- My motion, have it not in my tongue: but yet
- Hie you to Egypt again.
- MARK ANTONY
- Say to me,
- Whose fortunes shall rise higher, Caesar's or mine?
- Soothsayer
- Caesar's.
- Therefore, O Antony, stay not by his side:
- Thy demon, that's thy spirit which keeps thee, is
- Noble, courageous high, unmatchable,
- Where Caesar's is not; but, near him, thy angel
- Becomes a fear, as being o'erpower'd: therefore
- Make space enough between you.
- MARK ANTONY
- Speak this no more.
- Soothsayer
- To none but thee; no more, but when to thee.
- If thou dost play with him at any game,
- Thou art sure to lose; and, of that natural luck,
- He beats thee 'gainst the odds: thy lustre thickens,
- When he shines by: I say again, thy spirit
- Is all afraid to govern thee near him;
- But, he away, 'tis noble.
- MARK ANTONY
- Get thee gone:
- Say to Ventidius I would speak with him:
- Exit Soothsayer
- He shall to Parthia. Be it art or hap,
- He hath spoken true: the very dice obey him;
- And in our sports my better cunning faints
- Under his chance: if we draw lots, he speeds;
- His cocks do win the battle still of mine,
- When it is all to nought; and his quails ever
- Beat mine, inhoop'd, at odds. I will to Egypt:
- And though I make this marriage for my peace,
- I' the east my pleasure lies.
- Enter VENTIDIUS
- O, come, Ventidius,
- You must to Parthia: your commission's ready;
- Follow me, and receive't.
Exeunt
SCENE IV. The same. A street.
Enter LEPIDUS, MECAENAS, and AGRIPPA
- LEPIDUS
- Trouble yourselves no further: pray you, hasten
- Your generals after.
- AGRIPPA
- Sir, Mark Antony
- Will e'en but kiss Octavia, and we'll follow.
- LEPIDUS
- Till I shall see you in your soldier's dress,
- Which will become you both, farewell.
- MECAENAS
- We shall,
- As I conceive the journey, be at the Mount
- Before you, Lepidus.
- LEPIDUS
- Your way is shorter;
- My purposes do draw me much about:
- You'll win two days upon me.
- MECAENAS
- AGRIPPA
- Sir, good success!
- LEPIDUS
- Farewell.
Exeunt
SCENE V. Alexandria. CLEOPATRA's palace.
Enter CLEOPATRA, CHARMIAN, IRAS, and ALEXAS
- CLEOPATRA
- Give me some music; music, moody food
- Of us that trade in love.
- Attendants
- The music, ho!
Enter MARDIAN
- CLEOPATRA
- Let it alone; let's to billiards: come, Charmian.
- CHARMIAN
- My arm is sore; best play with Mardian.
- CLEOPATRA
- As well a woman with an eunuch play'd
- As with a woman. Come, you'll play with me, sir?
- MARDIAN
- As well as I can, madam.
- CLEOPATRA
- And when good will is show'd, though't come
- too short,
- The actor may plead pardon. I'll none now:
- Give me mine angle; we'll to the river: there,
- My music playing far off, I will betray
- Tawny-finn'd fishes; my bended hook shall pierce
- Their slimy jaws; and, as I draw them up,
- I'll think them every one an Antony,
- And say 'Ah, ha! you're caught.'
- CHARMIAN
- 'Twas merry when
- You wager'd on your angling; when your diver
- Did hang a salt-fish on his hook, which he
- With fervency drew up.
- CLEOPATRA
- That time — O times! —
- I laugh'd him out of patience; and that night
- I laugh'd him into patience; and next morn,
- Ere the ninth hour, I drunk him to his bed;
- Then put my tires and mantles on him, whilst
- I wore his sword Philippan.
- Enter a Messenger
- O, from Italy
- Ram thou thy fruitful tidings in mine ears,
- That long time have been barren.
- Messenger
- Madam, madam —
- CLEOPATRA
- Antonius dead! — If thou say so, villain,
- Thou kill'st thy mistress: but well and free,
- If thou so yield him, there is gold, and here
- My bluest veins to kiss; a hand that kings
- Have lipp'd, and trembled kissing.
- Messenger
- First, madam, he is well.
- CLEOPATRA
- Why, there's more gold.
- But, sirrah, mark, we use
- To say the dead are well: bring it to that,
- The gold I give thee will I melt and pour
- Down thy ill-uttering throat.
- Messenger
- Good madam, hear me.
- CLEOPATRA
- Well, go to, I will;
- But there's no goodness in thy face: if Antony
- Be free and healthful — so tart a favour
- To trumpet such good tidings! If not well,
- Thou shouldst come like a Fury crown'd with snakes,
- Not like a formal man.
- Messenger
- Will't please you hear me?
- CLEOPATRA
- I have a mind to strike thee ere thou speak'st:
- Yet if thou say Antony lives, is well,
- Or friends with Caesar, or not captive to him,
- I'll set thee in a shower of gold, and hail
- Rich pearls upon thee.
- Messenger
- Madam, he's well.
- CLEOPATRA
- Well said.
- Messenger
- And friends with Caesar.
- CLEOPATRA
- Thou'rt an honest man.
- Messenger
- Caesar and he are greater friends than ever.
- CLEOPATRA
- Make thee a fortune from me.
- Messenger
- But yet, madam —
- CLEOPATRA
- I do not like 'But yet,' it does allay
- The good precedence; fie upon 'But yet'!
- 'But yet' is as a gaoler to bring forth
- Some monstrous malefactor. Prithee, friend,
- Pour out the pack of matter to mine ear,
- The good and bad together: he's friends with Caesar:
- In state of health thou say'st; and thou say'st free.
- Messenger
- Free, madam! no; I made no such report:
- He's bound unto Octavia.
- CLEOPATRA
- For what good turn?
- Messenger
- For the best turn i' the bed.
- CLEOPATRA
- I am pale, Charmian.
- Messenger
- Madam, he's married to Octavia.
- CLEOPATRA
- The most infectious pestilence upon thee!
Strikes him down
- Messenger
- Good madam, patience.
- CLEOPATRA
- What say you?
- Messenger
- Gracious madam,
- I that do bring the news made not the match.
- CLEOPATRA
- Say 'tis not so, a province I will give thee,
- And make thy fortunes proud: the blow thou hadst
- Shall make thy peace for moving me to rage;
- And I will boot thee with what gift beside
- Thy modesty can beg.
- Messenger
- He's married, madam.
- CLEOPATRA
- Rogue, thou hast lived too long.
Draws a knife
- Messenger
- Nay, then I'll run.
- What mean you, madam? I have made no fault.
Exit
- CHARMIAN
- Good madam, keep yourself within yourself:
- The man is innocent.
- CLEOPATRA
- Some innocents 'scape not the thunderbolt.
- Melt Egypt into Nile! and kindly creatures
- Turn all to serpents! Call the slave again:
- Though I am mad, I will not bite him: call.
- CHARMIAN
- He is afeard to come.
- CLEOPATRA
- I will not hurt him.
- Exit CHARMIAN
- These hands do lack nobility, that they strike
- A meaner than myself; since I myself
- Have given myself the cause.
- Re-enter CHARMIAN and Messenger
- Come hither, sir.
- Though it be honest, it is never good
- To bring bad news: give to a gracious message.
- An host of tongues; but let ill tidings tell
- Themselves when they be felt.
- Messenger
- I have done my duty.
- CLEOPATRA
- Is he married?
- I cannot hate thee worser than I do,
- If thou again say 'Yes.'
- Messenger
- He's married, madam.
- CLEOPATRA
- The gods confound thee! dost thou hold there still?
- Messenger
- Should I lie, madam?
- CLEOPATRA
- O, I would thou didst,
- So half my Egypt were submerged and made
- A cistern for scaled snakes! Go, get thee hence:
- Hadst thou Narcissus in thy face, to me
- Thou wouldst appear most ugly. He is married?
- Messenger
- I crave your highness' pardon.
- CLEOPATRA
- He is married?

- Seems much unequal: he's married to Octavia.
- CLEOPATRA
- O, that his fault should make a knave of thee,
- That art not what thou'rt sure of!
Exit Messenger
- CHARMIAN
- Good your highness, patience.
- CLEOPATRA
- In praising Antony, I have dispraised Caesar.
- CHARMIAN
- Many times, madam.
- CLEOPATRA
- I am paid for't now.
- Lead me from hence:
- I faint: O Iras, Charmian! 'tis no matter.
- Go to the fellow, good Alexas; bid him
- Report the feature of Octavia, her years,
- Her inclination, let him not leave out
- The colour of her hair: bring me word quickly.
- Exit ALEXAS
- Let him for ever go: — let him not — Charmian,
- Though he be painted one way like a Gorgon,
- The other way's a Mars. Bid you Alexas
- To MARDIAN
- Bring me word how tall she is. Pity me, Charmian,
- But do not speak to me. Lead me to my chamber.
Exeunt
SCENE VI. Near Misenum.
Flourish. Enter POMPEY and MENAS at one door,
with drum and trumpet: at another, OCTAVIUS CAESAR,
MARK ANTONY, LEPIDUS, DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS, MECAENAS,
with Soldiers marching
- POMPEY
- Your hostages I have, so have you mine;
- And we shall talk before we fight.
- OCTAVIUS CAESAR
- Most meet
- That first we come to words; and therefore have we
- Our written purposes before us sent;
- Which, if thou hast consider'd, let us know
- If 'twill tie up thy discontented sword,
- And carry back to Sicily much tall youth
- That else must perish here.
- POMPEY
- To you all three,
- The senators alone of this great world,
- Chief factors for the gods, I do not know
- Wherefore my father should revengers want,
- Having a son and friends; since Julius Caesar,
- Who at Philippi the good Brutus ghosted,
- There saw you labouring for him. What was't
- That moved pale Cassius to conspire; and what
- Made the all-honour'd, honest Roman, Brutus,
- With the arm'd rest, courtiers and beauteous freedom,
- To drench the Capitol; but that they would
- Have one man but a man? And that is it
- Hath made me rig my navy; at whose burthen
- The anger'd ocean foams; with which I meant
- To scourge the ingratitude that despiteful Rome
- Cast on my noble father.
- OCTAVIUS CAESAR
- Take your time.
- MARK ANTONY
- Thou canst not fear us, Pompey, with thy sails;
- We'll speak with thee at sea: at land, thou know'st
- How much we do o'er-count thee.
- POMPEY
- At land, indeed,
- Thou dost o'er-count me of my father's house:
- But, since the cuckoo builds not for himself,
- Remain in't as thou mayst.
- LEPIDUS
- Be pleased to tell us —
- For this is from the present — how you take
- The offers we have sent you.
- OCTAVIUS CAESAR
- There's the point.
- MARK ANTONY
- Which do not be entreated to, but weigh
- What it is worth embraced.
- OCTAVIUS CAESAR
- And what may follow,
- To try a larger fortune.
- POMPEY
- You have made me offer
- Of Sicily, Sardinia; and I must
- Rid all the sea of pirates; then, to send
- Measures of wheat to Rome; this 'greed upon
- To part with unhack'd edges, and bear back
- Our targes undinted.
- OCTAVIUS CAESAR
- MARK ANTONY
- LEPIDUS
- That's our offer.
- POMPEY
- Know, then,
- I came before you here a man prepared
- To take this offer: but Mark Antony
- Put me to some impatience: though I lose
- The praise of it by telling, you must know,
- When Caesar and your brother were at blows,
- Your mother came to Sicily and did find
- Her welcome friendly.
- MARK ANTONY
- I have heard it, Pompey;
- And am well studied for a liberal thanks
- Which I do owe you.
- POMPEY
- Let me have your hand:
- I did not think, sir, to have met you here.
- MARK ANTONY
- The beds i' the east are soft; and thanks to you,
- That call'd me timelier than my purpose hither;
- For I have gain'd by 't.
- OCTAVIUS CAESAR
- Since I saw you last,
- There is a change upon you.
- POMPEY
- Well, I know not
- What counts harsh fortune casts upon my face;
- But in my bosom shall she never come,
- To make my heart her vassal.
- LEPIDUS
- Well met here.
- POMPEY
- I hope so, Lepidus. Thus we are agreed:
- I crave our composition may be written,
- And seal'd between us.
- OCTAVIUS CAESAR
- That's the next to do.
- POMPEY
- We'll feast each other ere we part; and let's
- Draw lots who shall begin.
- MARK ANTONY
- That will I, Pompey.
- POMPEY
- No, Antony, take the lot: but, first
- Or last, your fine Egyptian cookery
- Shall have the fame. I have heard that Julius Caesar
- Grew fat with feasting there.
- MARK ANTONY
- You have heard much.
- POMPEY
- I have fair meanings, sir.
- MARK ANTONY
- And fair words to them.
- POMPEY
- Then so much have I heard:
- And I have heard, Apollodorus carried —
- DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS
- No more of that: he did so.
- POMPEY
- What, I pray you?
- DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS
- A certain queen to Caesar in a mattress.
- POMPEY
- I know thee now: how farest thou, soldier?
- DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS
- Well;
- And well am like to do; for, I perceive,
- Four feasts are toward.
- POMPEY
- Let me shake thy hand;
- I never hated thee: I have seen thee fight,
- When I have envied thy behavior.
- DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS
- Sir,
- I never loved you much; but I ha' praised ye,
- When you have well deserved ten times as much
- As I have said you did.
- POMPEY
- Enjoy thy plainness,
- It nothing ill becomes thee.
- Aboard my galley I invite you all:
- Will you lead, lords?
- OCTAVIUS CAESAR
- MARK ANTONY
- LEPIDUS
- Show us the way, sir.
- POMPEY
- Come.
Exeunt all but MENAS and ENOBARBUS
- MENAS
- Aside Thy father, Pompey, would ne'er have
- made this treaty. — You and I have known, sir.
- DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS
- At sea, I think.
- MENAS
- We have, sir.
- DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS
- You have done well by water.
- MENAS
- And you by land.
- DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS
- I will praise any man that will praise me; though it
- cannot be denied what I have done by land.
- MENAS
- Nor what I have done by water.
- DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS
- Yes, something you can deny for your own
- safety: you have been a great thief by sea.
- MENAS
- And you by land.
- DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS
- There I deny my land service. But give me your
- hand, Menas: if our eyes had authority, here they
- might take two thieves kissing.
- MENAS
- All men's faces are true, whatsome'er their hands are.
- DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS
- But there is never a fair woman has a true face.
- MENAS
- No slander; they steal hearts.
- DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS
- We came hither to fight with you.
- MENAS
- For my part, I am sorry it is turned to a drinking.
- Pompey doth this day laugh away his fortune.
- DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS
- If he do, sure, he cannot weep't back again.
- MENAS
- You've said, sir. We looked not for Mark Antony
- here: pray you, is he married to Cleopatra?
- DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS
- Caesar's sister is called Octavia.
- MENAS
- True, sir; she was the wife of Caius Marcellus.
- DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS
- But she is now the wife of Marcus Antonius.
- MENAS
- Pray ye, sir?
- DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS
- 'Tis true.
- MENAS
- Then is Caesar and he for ever knit together.
- DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS
- If I were bound to divine of this unity, I would
- not prophesy so.
- MENAS
- I think the policy of that purpose made more in the
- marriage than the love of the parties.
- DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS
- I think so too. But you shall find, the band that
- seems to tie their friendship together will be the
- very strangler of their amity: Octavia is of a
- holy, cold, and still conversation.
- MENAS
- Who would not have his wife so?
- DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS
- Not he that himself is not so; which is Mark Antony.
- He will to his Egyptian dish again: then shall the
- sighs of Octavia blow the fire up in Caesar; and, as
- I said before, that which is the strength of their
- amity shall prove the immediate author of their
- variance. Antony will use his affection where it is:
- he married but his occasion here.
- MENAS
- And thus it may be. Come, sir, will you aboard?
- I have a health for you.
- DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS
- I shall take it, sir: we have used our throats in Egypt.
- MENAS
- Come, let's away.
Exeunt
SCENE VII. On board POMPEY's galley, off Misenum.
Music plays. Enter two or three Servants with
a banquet
- First Servant
- Here they'll be, man. Some o' their plants are
- ill-rooted already: the least wind i' the world
- will blow them down.
- Second Servant
- Lepidus is high-coloured.
- First Servant
- They have made him drink alms-drink.
- Second Servant
- As they pinch one another by the disposition, he
- cries out 'No more;' reconciles them to his
- entreaty, and himself to the drink.
- First Servant
- But it raises the greater war between him and
- his discretion.
- Second Servant
- Why, this is to have a name in great men's
- fellowship: I had as lief have a reed that will do
- me no service as a partisan I could not heave.
- First Servant
- To be called into a huge sphere, and not to be seen
- to move in't, are the holes where eyes should be,
- which pitifully disaster the cheeks.
A sennet sounded. Enter OCTAVIUS CAESAR, MARK
ANTONY, LEPIDUS, POMPEY, AGRIPPA, MECAENAS,
DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS, MENAS, with other captains
- MARK ANTONY
- To OCTAVIUS CAESAR Thus do they, sir: they take
- the flow o' the Nile
- By certain scales i' the pyramid; they know,
- By the height, the lowness, or the mean, if dearth
- Or foison follow: the higher Nilus swells,
- The more it promises: as it ebbs, the seedsman
- Upon the slime and ooze scatters his grain,
- And shortly comes to harvest.
- LEPIDUS
- You've strange serpents there.
- MARK ANTONY
- Ay, Lepidus.
- LEPIDUS
- Your serpent of Egypt is bred now of your mud by the
- operation of your sun: so is your crocodile.
- MARK ANTONY
- They are so.
- POMPEY
- Sit — and some wine! A health to Lepidus!
- LEPIDUS
- I am not so well as I should be, but I'll ne'er out.
- DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS
- Not till you have slept; I fear me you'll be in till then.
- LEPIDUS
- Nay, certainly, I have heard the Ptolemies'
- pyramises are very goodly things; without
- contradiction, I have heard that.
- MENAS
- Aside to POMPEY Pompey, a word.
- POMPEY
- Aside to MENAS Say in mine ear:
- what is't?
- MENAS
- Aside to POMPEY Forsake thy seat, I do beseech
- thee, captain,
- And hear me speak a word.
- POMPEY
- Aside to MENAS Forbear me till anon.
- This wine for Lepidus!
- LEPIDUS
- What manner o' thing is your crocodile?
- MARK ANTONY
- It is shaped, sir, like itself; and it is as broad
- as it hath breadth: it is just so high as it is,
- and moves with its own organs: it lives by that
- which nourisheth it; and the elements once out of
- it, it transmigrates.
- LEPIDUS
- What colour is it of?
- MARK ANTONY
- Of it own colour too.
- LEPIDUS
- 'Tis a strange serpent.
- MARK ANTONY
- 'Tis so. And the tears of it are wet.
- OCTAVIUS CAESAR
- Will this description satisfy him?
- MARK ANTONY
- With the health that Pompey gives him, else he is a
- very epicure.
- POMPEY
- Aside to MENAS Go hang, sir, hang! Tell me of
- that? away!
- Do as I bid you. Where's this cup I call'd for?
- MENAS
- Aside to POMPEY If for the sake of merit thou
- wilt hear me,
- Rise from thy stool.
- POMPEY
- Aside to MENAS I think thou'rt mad.
- The matter?
Rises, and walks aside
- MENAS
- I have ever held my cap off to thy fortunes.
- POMPEY
- Thou hast served me with much faith. What's else to say?
- Be jolly, lords.
- MARK ANTONY
- These quick-sands, Lepidus,
- Keep off them, for you sink.
- MENAS
- Wilt thou be lord of all the world?
- POMPEY
- What say'st thou?
- MENAS
- Wilt thou be lord of the whole world? That's twice.
- POMPEY
- How should that be?
- MENAS
- But entertain it,
- And, though thou think me poor, I am the man
- Will give thee all the world.
- POMPEY
- Hast thou drunk well?
- MENAS
- Now, Pompey, I have kept me from the cup.
- Thou art, if thou darest be, the earthly Jove:
- Whate'er the ocean pales, or sky inclips,
- Is thine, if thou wilt ha't.
- POMPEY
- Show me which way.
- MENAS
- These three world-sharers, these competitors,
- Are in thy vessel: let me cut the cable;
- And, when we are put off, fall to their throats:
- All there is thine.
- POMPEY
- Ah, this thou shouldst have done,
- And not have spoke on't! In me 'tis villany;
- In thee't had been good service. Thou must know,
- 'Tis not my profit that does lead mine honour;
- Mine honour, it. Repent that e'er thy tongue
- Hath so betray'd thine act: being done unknown,
- I should have found it afterwards well done;
- But must condemn it now. Desist, and drink.
- MENAS
- Aside For this,
- I'll never follow thy pall'd fortunes more.
- Who seeks, and will not take when once 'tis offer'd,
- Shall never find it more.
- POMPEY
- This health to Lepidus!
- MARK ANTONY
- Bear him ashore. I'll pledge it for him, Pompey.
- DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS
- Here's to thee, Menas!
- MENAS
- Enobarbus, welcome!
- POMPEY
- Fill till the cup be hid.
- DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS
- There's a strong fellow, Menas.
Pointing to the Attendant who carries off LEPIDUS
- MENAS
- Why?
- DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS
- A' bears the third part of the world, man; see'st
- not?
- MENAS
- The third part, then, is drunk: would it were all,
- That it might go on wheels!
- DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS
- Drink thou; increase the reels.
- MENAS
- Come.
- POMPEY
- This is not yet an Alexandrian feast.
- MARK ANTONY
- It ripens towards it. Strike the vessels, ho?
- Here is to Caesar!
- OCTAVIUS CAESAR
- I could well forbear't.
- It's monstrous labour, when I wash my brain,
- And it grows fouler.
- MARK ANTONY
- Be a child o' the time.
- OCTAVIUS CAESAR
- Possess it, I'll make answer:
- But I had rather fast from all four days
- Than drink so much in one.
- DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS
- Ha, my brave emperor!
- To MARK ANTONY
- Shall we dance now the Egyptian Bacchanals,
- And celebrate our drink?
- POMPEY
- Let's ha't, good soldier.
- MARK ANTONY
- Come, let's all take hands,
- Till that the conquering wine hath steep'd our sense
- In soft and delicate Lethe.
- DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS
- All take hands.
- Make battery to our ears with the loud music:
- The while I'll place you: then the boy shall sing;
- The holding every man shall bear as loud
- As his strong sides can volley.
- Music plays. DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS places them
hand in hand
- THE SONG.
- Come, thou monarch of the vine,
- Plumpy Bacchus with pink eyne!

- OCTAVIUS CAESAR
- What would you more? Pompey, good night. Good brother,
- Let me request you off: our graver business
- Frowns at this levity. Gentle lords, let's part;
- You see we have burnt our cheeks: strong Enobarb
- Is weaker than the wine; and mine own tongue
- Splits what it speaks: the wild disguise hath almost
- Antick'd us all. What needs more words? Good night.
- Good Antony, your hand.
- POMPEY
- I'll try you on the shore.

- POMPEY
- O Antony,
- You have my father's house — But, what? we are friends.
- Come, down into the boat.
- DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS
- Take heed you fall not.
- Exeunt all but DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS and MENAS
- Menas, I'll not on shore.
- MENAS
- No, to my cabin.
- These drums! these trumpets, flutes! what!
- Let Neptune hear we bid a loud farewell
- To these great fellows: sound and be hang'd, sound out!
Sound a flourish, with drums
- DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS
- Ho! says a' There's my cap.
- MENAS
- Ho! Noble captain, come.
Exeunt
ACT III
SCENE I. A plain in Syria.
Enter VENTIDIUS as it were in triumph, with SILIUS,
and other Romans, Officers, and Soldiers; the dead
body of PACORUS borne before him
- VENTIDIUS
- Now, darting Parthia, art thou struck; and now
- Pleased fortune does of Marcus Crassus' death
- Make me revenger. Bear the king's son's body
- Before our army. Thy Pacorus, Orodes,
- Pays this for Marcus Crassus.
- SILIUS
- Noble Ventidius,
- Whilst yet with Parthian blood thy sword is warm,
- The fugitive Parthians follow; spur through Media,
- Mesopotamia, and the shelters whither
- The routed fly: so thy grand captain Antony
- Shall set thee on triumphant chariots and
- Put garlands on thy head.
- VENTIDIUS
- O Silius, Silius,
- I have done enough; a lower place, note well,
- May make too great an act: for learn this, Silius;
- Better to leave undone, than by our deed
- Acquire too high a fame when him we serve's away.
- Caesar and Antony have ever won
- More in their officer than person: Sossius,
- One of my place in Syria, his lieutenant,
- For quick accumulation of renown,
- Which he achieved by the minute, lost his favour.
- Who does i' the wars more than his captain can
- Becomes his captain's captain: and ambition,
- The soldier's virtue, rather makes choice of loss,
- Than gain which darkens him.
- I could do more to do Antonius good,
- But 'twould offend him; and in his offence
- Should my performance perish.
- SILIUS
- Thou hast, Ventidius,
- that
- Without the which a soldier, and his sword,
- Grants scarce distinction. Thou wilt write to Antony!
- VENTIDIUS
- I'll humbly signify what in his name,
- That magical word of war, we have effected;
- How, with his banners and his well-paid ranks,
- The ne'er-yet-beaten horse of Parthia
- We have jaded out o' the field.
- SILIUS
- Where is he now?
- VENTIDIUS
- He purposeth to Athens: whither, with what haste
- The weight we must convey with's will permit,
- We shall appear before him. On there; pass along!
Exeunt
SCENE II. Rome. An ante-chamber in OCTAVIUS CAESAR's house.
Enter AGRIPPA at one door, DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS
at another
- AGRIPPA
- What, are the brothers parted?
- DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS
- They have dispatch'd with Pompey, he is gone;
- The other three are sealing. Octavia weeps
- To part from Rome; Caesar is sad; and Lepidus,
- Since Pompey's feast, as Menas says, is troubled
- With the green sickness.
- AGRIPPA
- 'Tis a noble Lepidus.
- DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS
- A very fine one: O, how he loves Caesar!
- AGRIPPA
- Nay, but how dearly he adores Mark Antony!
- DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS
- Caesar? Why, he's the Jupiter of men.
- AGRIPPA
- What's Antony? The god of Jupiter.
- DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS
- Spake you of Caesar? How! the non-pareil!
- AGRIPPA
- O Antony! O thou Arabian bird!
- DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS
- Would you praise Caesar, say 'Caesar:' go no further.
- AGRIPPA
- Indeed, he plied them both with excellent praises.
- DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS
- But he loves Caesar best; yet he loves Antony:
- Ho! hearts, tongues, figures, scribes, bards,
- poets, cannot
- Think, speak, cast, write, sing, number, ho!
- His love to Antony. But as for Caesar,
- Kneel down, kneel down, and wonder.
- AGRIPPA
- Both he loves.
- DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS
- They are his shards, and he their beetle.
- Trumpets within
- So;
- This is to horse. Adieu, noble Agrippa.
- AGRIPPA
- Good fortune, worthy soldier; and farewell.
Enter OCTAVIUS CAESAR, MARK ANTONY, LEPIDUS, and OCTAVIA
- MARK ANTONY
- No further, sir.
- OCTAVIUS CAESAR
- You take from me a great part of myself;
- Use me well in 't. Sister, prove such a wife
- As my thoughts make thee, and as my farthest band
- Shall pass on thy approof. Most noble Antony,
- Let not the piece of virtue, which is set
- Betwixt us as the cement of our love,
- To keep it builded, be the ram to batter
- The fortress of it; for better might we
- Have loved without this mean, if on both parts
- This be not cherish'd.
- MARK ANTONY
- Make me not offended
- In your distrust.
- OCTAVIUS CAESAR
- I have said.
- MARK ANTONY
- You shall not find,
- Though you be therein curious, the least cause
- For what you seem to fear: so, the gods keep you,
- And make the hearts of Romans serve your ends!
- We will here part.
- OCTAVIUS CAESAR
- Farewell, my dearest sister, fare thee well:
- The elements be kind to thee, and make
- Thy spirits all of comfort! fare thee well.
- OCTAVIA
- My noble brother!
- MARK ANTONY
- The April 's in her eyes: it is love's spring,
- And these the showers to bring it on. Be cheerful.
- OCTAVIA
- Sir, look well to my husband's house; and —
- OCTAVIUS CAESAR
- What, Octavia?
- OCTAVIA
- I'll tell you in your ear.
- MARK ANTONY
- Her tongue will not obey her heart, nor can
- Her heart inform her tongue — the swan's
- down-feather,
- That stands upon the swell at full of tide,
- And neither way inclines.
- DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS
- Aside to AGRIPPA Will Caesar weep?
- AGRIPPA
- Aside to DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS He has a cloud in 's face.
- DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS
- Aside to AGRIPPA He were the worse for that,
- were he a horse;
- So is he, being a man.
- AGRIPPA
- Aside to DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS Why, Enobarbus,
- When Antony found Julius Caesar dead,
- He cried almost to roaring; and he wept
- When at Philippi he found Brutus slain.
- DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS
- Aside to AGRIPPA That year, indeed, he was
- troubled with a rheum;
- What willingly he did confound he wail'd,
- Believe't, till I wept too.
- OCTAVIUS CAESAR
- No, sweet Octavia,
- You shall hear from me still; the time shall not
- Out-go my thinking on you.
- MARK ANTONY
- Come, sir, come;
- I'll wrestle with you in my strength of love:
- Look, here I have you; thus I let you go,
- And give you to the gods.
- OCTAVIUS CAESAR
- Adieu; be happy!
- LEPIDUS
- Let all the number of the stars give light
- To thy fair way!
- OCTAVIUS CAESAR
- Farewell, farewell!
Kisses OCTAVIA
- MARK ANTONY
- Farewell!
Trumpets sound. Exeunt
SCENE III. Alexandria. CLEOPATRA's palace.
Enter CLEOPATRA, CHARMIAN, IRAS, and ALEXAS
- CLEOPATRA
- Where is the fellow?
- ALEXAS
- Half afeard to come.
- CLEOPATRA
- Go to, go to.
- Enter the Messenger as before
- Come hither, sir.
- ALEXAS
- Good majesty,
- Herod of Jewry dare not look upon you
- But when you are well pleased.
- CLEOPATRA
- That Herod's head
- I'll have: but how, when Antony is gone
- Through whom I might command it? Come thou near.
- Messenger
- Most gracious majesty —
- CLEOPATRA
- Didst thou behold Octavia?
- Messenger
- Ay, dread queen.
- CLEOPATRA
- Where?
- Messenger
- Madam, in Rome;
- I look'd her in the face, and saw her led
- Between her brother and Mark Antony.
- CLEOPATRA
- Is she as tall as me?
- Messenger
- She is not, madam.
- CLEOPATRA
- Didst hear her speak? is she shrill-tongued or low?
- Messenger
- Madam, I heard her speak; she is low-voiced.
- CLEOPATRA
- That's not so good: he cannot like her long.
- CHARMIAN
- Like her! O Isis! 'tis impossible.
- CLEOPATRA
- I think so, Charmian: dull of tongue, and dwarfish!
- What majesty is in her gait? Remember,
- If e'er thou look'dst on majesty.
- Messenger
- She creeps:
- Her motion and her station are as one;
- She shows a body rather than a life,
- A statue than a breather.
- CLEOPATRA
- Is this certain?
- Messenger
- Or I have no observance.
- CHARMIAN
- Three in Egypt
- Cannot make better note.
- CLEOPATRA
- He's very knowing;
- I do perceive't: there's nothing in her yet:
- The fellow has good judgment.
- CHARMIAN
- Excellent.
- CLEOPATRA
- Guess at her years, I prithee.
- Messenger
- Madam,
- She was a widow —
- CLEOPATRA
- Widow! Charmian, hark.
- Messenger
- And I do think she's thirty.
- CLEOPATRA
- Bear'st thou her face in mind? is't long or round?
- Messenger
- Round even to faultiness.
- CLEOPATRA
- For the most part, too, they are foolish that are so.
- Her hair, what colour?
- Messenger
- Brown, madam: and her forehead
- As low as she would wish it.
- CLEOPATRA
- There's gold for thee.
- Thou must not take my former sharpness ill:
- I will employ thee back again; I find thee
- Most fit for business: go make thee ready;
- Our letters are prepared.
Exit Messenger
- CHARMIAN
- A proper man.
- CLEOPATRA
- Indeed, he is so: I repent me much
- That so I harried him. Why, methinks, by him,
- This creature's no such thing.
- CHARMIAN
- Nothing, madam.
- CLEOPATRA
- The man hath seen some majesty, and should know.
- CHARMIAN
- Hath he seen majesty?
- CLEOPATRA
- I have one thing more to ask him yet, good Charmian:
- But 'tis no matter; thou shalt bring him to me
- Where I will write. All may be well enough.
- CHARMIAN
- I warrant you, madam.
Exeunt
SCENE IV. Athens. A room in MARK ANTONY's house.
Enter MARK ANTONY and OCTAVIA
- MARK ANTONY
- Nay, nay, Octavia, not only that —
- That were excusable, that, and thousands more
- Of semblable import — but he hath waged
- New wars 'gainst Pompey; made his will, and read it
- To public ear:
- Spoke scantly of me: when perforce he could not
- But pay me terms of honour, cold and sickly
- He vented them; most narrow measure lent me:
- When the best hint was given him, he not took't,
- Or did it from his teeth.
- OCTAVIA
- O my good lord,
- Believe not all; or, if you must believe,
- Stomach not all. A more unhappy lady,
- If this division chance, ne'er stood between,
- Praying for both parts:
- The good gods me presently,
- When I shall pray, 'O bless my lord and husband!'
- Undo that prayer, by crying out as loud,
- 'O, bless my brother!' Husband win, win brother,
- Prays, and destroys the prayer; no midway
- 'Twixt these extremes at all.
- MARK ANTONY
- Gentle Octavia,
- Let your best love draw to that point, which seeks
- Best to preserve it: if I lose mine honour,
- I lose myself: better I were not yours
- Than yours so branchless. But, as you requested,
- Yourself shall go between 's: the mean time, lady,
- I'll raise the preparation of a war
- Shall stain your brother: make your soonest haste;
- So your desires are yours.
- OCTAVIA
- Thanks to my lord.
- The Jove of power make me most weak, most weak,
- Your reconciler! Wars 'twixt you twain would be
- As if the world should cleave, and that slain men
- Should solder up the rift.
- MARK ANTONY
- When it appears to you where this begins,
- Turn your displeasure that way: for our faults
- Can never be so equal, that your love
- Can equally move with them. Provide your going;
- Choose your own company, and command what cost
- Your heart has mind to.
Exeunt
SCENE V. The same. Another room.
Enter DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS and EROS, meeting
- DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS
- How now, friend Eros!
- EROS
- There's strange news come, sir.
- DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS
- What, man?
- EROS
- Caesar and Lepidus have made wars upon Pompey.
- DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS
- This is old: what is the success?
- EROS
- Caesar, having made use of him in the wars 'gainst
- Pompey, presently denied him rivality; would not let
- him partake in the glory of the action: and not
- resting here, accuses him of letters he had formerly
- wrote to Pompey; upon his own appeal, seizes him: so
- the poor third is up, till death enlarge his confine.
- DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS
- Then, world, thou hast a pair of chaps, no more;
- And throw between them all the food thou hast,
- They'll grind the one the other. Where's Antony?
- EROS
- He's walking in the garden — thus; and spurns
- The rush that lies before him; cries, 'Fool Lepidus!'
- And threats the throat of that his officer
- That murder'd Pompey.
- DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS
- Our great navy's rigg'd.
- EROS
- For Italy and Caesar. More, Domitius;
- My lord desires you presently: my news
- I might have told hereafter.
- DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS
- 'Twill be naught:
- But let it be. Bring me to Antony.
- EROS
- Come, sir.
Exeunt
SCENE VI. Rome. OCTAVIUS CAESAR's house.
Enter OCTAVIUS CAESAR, AGRIPPA, and MECAENAS
- OCTAVIUS CAESAR
- Contemning Rome, he has done all this, and more,
- In Alexandria: here's the manner of 't:
- I' the market-place, on a tribunal silver'd,
- Cleopatra and himself in chairs of gold
- Were publicly enthroned: at the feet sat
- Caesarion, whom they call my father's son,
- And all the unlawful issue that their lust
- Since then hath made between them. Unto her
- He gave the stablishment of Egypt; made her
- Of lower Syria, Cyprus, Lydia,
- Absolute queen.
- MECAENAS
- This in the public eye?
- OCTAVIUS CAESAR
- I' the common show-place, where they exercise.
- His sons he there proclaim'd the kings of kings:
- Great Media, Parthia, and Armenia.
- He gave to Alexander; to Ptolemy he assign'd
- Syria, Cilicia, and Phoenicia: she
- In the habiliments of the goddess Isis
- That day appear'd; and oft before gave audience,
- As 'tis reported, so.
- MECAENAS
- Let Rome be thus Inform'd.
- AGRIPPA
- Who, queasy with his insolence
- Already, will their good thoughts call from him.
- OCTAVIUS CAESAR
- The people know it; and have now received
- His accusations.
- AGRIPPA
- Who does he accuse?
- OCTAVIUS CAESAR
- Caesar: and that, having in Sicily
- Sextus Pompeius spoil'd, we had not rated him
- His part o' the isle: then does he say, he lent me
- Some shipping unrestored: lastly, he frets
- That Lepidus of the triumvirate
- Should be deposed; and, being, that we detain
- All his revenue.
- AGRIPPA
- Sir, this should be answer'd.
- OCTAVIUS CAESAR
- 'Tis done already, and the messenger gone.
- I have told him, Lepidus was grown too cruel;
- That he his high authority abused,
- And did deserve his change: for what I have conquer'd,
- I grant him part; but then, in his Armenia,
- And other of his conquer'd kingdoms, I
- Demand the like.
- MECAENAS
- He'll never yield to that.
- OCTAVIUS CAESAR
- Nor must not then be yielded to in this.
Enter OCTAVIA with her train
- OCTAVIA
- Hail, Caesar, and my lord! hail, most dear Caesar!
- OCTAVIUS CAESAR
- That ever I should call thee castaway!
- OCTAVIA
- You have not call'd me so, nor have you cause.
- OCTAVIUS CAESAR
- Why have you stol'n upon us thus! You come not
- Like Caesar's sister: the wife of Antony
- Should have an army for an usher, and
- The neighs of horse to tell of her approach
- Long ere she did appear; the trees by the way
- Should have borne men; and expectation fainted,
- Longing for what it had not; nay, the dust
- Should have ascended to the roof of heaven,
- Raised by your populous troops: but you are come
- A market-maid to Rome; and have prevented
- The ostentation of our love, which, left unshown,
- Is often left unloved; we should have met you
- By sea and land; supplying every stage
- With an augmented greeting.
- OCTAVIA
- Good my lord,
- To come thus was I not constrain'd, but did
- On my free will. My lord, Mark Antony,
- Hearing that you prepared for war, acquainted
- My grieved ear withal; whereon, I begg'd
- His pardon for return.
- OCTAVIUS CAESAR
- Which soon he granted,
- Being an obstruct 'tween his lust and him.
- OCTAVIA
- Do not say so, my lord.
- OCTAVIUS CAESAR
- I have eyes upon him,
- And his affairs come to me on the wind.
- Where is he now?
- OCTAVIA
- My lord, in Athens.
- OCTAVIUS CAESAR
- No, my most wronged sister; Cleopatra
- Hath nodded him to her. He hath given his empire
- Up to a whore; who now are levying
- The kings o' the earth for war; he hath assembled
- Bocchus, the king of Libya; Archelaus,
- Of Cappadocia; Philadelphos, king
- Of Paphlagonia; the Thracian king, Adallas;
- King Malchus of Arabia; King of Pont;
- Herod of Jewry; Mithridates, king
- Of Comagene; Polemon and Amyntas,
- The kings of Mede and Lycaonia,
- With a more larger list of sceptres.
- OCTAVIA
- Ay me, most wretched,
- That have my heart parted betwixt two friends
- That do afflict each other!
- OCTAVIUS CAESAR
- Welcome hither:
- Your letters did withhold our breaking forth;
- Till we perceived, both how you were wrong led,
- And we in negligent danger. Cheer your heart;
- Be you not troubled with the time, which drives
- O'er your content these strong necessities;
- But let determined things to destiny
- Hold unbewail'd their way. Welcome to Rome;
- Nothing more dear to me. You are abused
- Beyond the mark of thought: and the high gods,
- To do you justice, make them ministers
- Of us and those that love you. Best of comfort;
- And ever welcome to us.
- AGRIPPA
- Welcome, lady.
- MECAENAS
- Welcome, dear madam.
- Each heart in Rome does love and pity you:
- Only the adulterous Antony, most large
- In his abominations, turns you off;
- And gives his potent regiment to a trull,
- That noises it against us.
- OCTAVIA
- Is it so, sir?
- OCTAVIUS CAESAR
- Most certain. Sister, welcome: pray you,
- Be ever known to patience: my dear'st sister!
Exeunt
SCENE VII. Near Actium. MARK ANTONY's camp.
Enter CLEOPATRA and DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS
- CLEOPATRA
- I will be even with thee, doubt it not.
- DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS
- But why, why, why?
- CLEOPATRA
- Thou hast forspoke my being in these wars,
- And say'st it is not fit.
- DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS
- Well, is it, is it?
- CLEOPATRA
- If not denounced against us, why should not we
- Be there in person?
- DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS
- Aside Well, I could reply:
- If we should serve with horse and mares together,
- The horse were merely lost; the mares would bear
- A soldier and his horse.
- CLEOPATRA
- What is't you say?
- DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS
- Your presence needs must puzzle Antony;
- Take from his heart, take from his brain,
- from's time,
- What should not then be spared. He is already
- Traduced for levity; and 'tis said in Rome
- That Photinus an eunuch and your maids
- Manage this war.
- CLEOPATRA
- Sink Rome, and their tongues rot
- That speak against us! A charge we bear i' the war,
- And, as the president of my kingdom, will
- Appear there for a man. Speak not against it:
- I will not stay behind.
- DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS
- Nay, I have done.
- Here comes the emperor.
Enter MARK ANTONY and CANIDIUS
- MARK ANTONY
- Is it not strange, Canidius,
- That from Tarentum and Brundusium
- He could so quickly cut the Ionian sea,
- And take in Toryne? You have heard on't, sweet?
- CLEOPATRA
- Celerity is never more admired
- Than by the negligent.
- MARK ANTONY
- A good rebuke,
- Which might have well becomed the best of men,
- To taunt at slackness. Canidius, we
- Will fight with him by sea.
- CLEOPATRA
- By sea! what else?
- CANIDIUS
- Why will my lord do so?
- MARK ANTONY
- For that he dares us to't.
- DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS
- So hath my lord dared him to single fight.
- CANIDIUS
- Ay, and to wage this battle at Pharsalia.
- Where Caesar fought with Pompey: but these offers,
- Which serve not for his vantage, be shakes off;
- And so should you.
- DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS
- Your ships are not well mann'd;
- Your mariners are muleters, reapers, people
- Ingross'd by swift impress; in Caesar's fleet
- Are those that often have 'gainst Pompey fought:
- Their ships are yare; yours, heavy: no disgrace
- Shall fall you for refusing him at sea,
- Being prepared for land.
- MARK ANTONY
- By sea, by sea.
- DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS
- Most worthy sir, you therein throw away
- The absolute soldiership you have by land;
- Distract your army, which doth most consist
- Of war-mark'd footmen; leave unexecuted
- Your own renowned knowledge; quite forego
- The way which promises assurance; and
- Give up yourself merely to chance and hazard,
- From firm security.
- MARK ANTONY
- I'll fight at sea.
- CLEOPATRA
- I have sixty sails, Caesar none better.
- MARK ANTONY
- Our overplus of shipping will we burn;
- And, with the rest full-mann'd, from the head of Actium
- Beat the approaching Caesar. But if we fail,
- We then can do't at land.
- Enter a Messenger
- Thy business?
- Messenger
- The news is true, my lord; he is descried;
- Caesar has taken Toryne.
- MARK ANTONY
- Can he be there in person? 'tis impossible;
- Strange that power should be. Canidius,
- Our nineteen legions thou shalt hold by land,
- And our twelve thousand horse. We'll to our ship:
- Away, my Thetis!
- Enter a Soldier
- How now, worthy soldier?
- Soldier
- O noble emperor, do not fight by sea;
- Trust not to rotten planks: do you misdoubt
- This sword and these my wounds?
- MARK ANTONY
- Well, well: away!
Exeunt MARK ANTONY, QUEEN CLEOPATRA, and DOMITIUS
ENOBARBUS
- Soldier
- By Hercules, I think I am i' the right.
- CANIDIUS
- Soldier, thou art: but his whole action grows
- Not in the power on't: so our leader's led,
- And we are women's men.
- Soldier
- You keep by land
- The legions and the horse whole, do you not?
- CANIDIUS
- Marcus Octavius, Marcus Justeius,
- Publicola, and Caelius, are for sea:
- But we keep whole by land. This speed of Caesar's
- Carries beyond belief.
- Soldier
- While he was yet in Rome,
- His power went out in such distractions as
- Beguiled all spies.
- CANIDIUS
- Who's his lieutenant, hear you?
- Soldier
- They say, one Taurus.
- CANIDIUS
- Well I know the man.
Enter a Messenger
- Messenger
- The emperor calls Canidius.
- CANIDIUS
- With news the time's with labour, and throes forth,
- Each minute, some.
Exeunt
SCENE VIII. A plain near Actium.
Enter OCTAVIUS CAESAR, and TAURUS, with his army, marching
- OCTAVIUS CAESAR
- Taurus!
- TAURUS
- My lord?
- OCTAVIUS CAESAR
- Strike not by land; keep whole: provoke not battle,
- Till we have done at sea. Do not exceed
- The prescript of this scroll: our fortune lies
- Upon this jump.
Exeunt
SCENE IX. Another part of the plain.
Enter MARK ANTONY and DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS
- MARK ANTONY
- Set we our squadrons on yond side o' the hill,
- In eye of Caesar's battle; from which place
- We may the number of the ships behold,
- And so proceed accordingly.
Exeunt
SCENE X. Another part of the plain.
CANIDIUS marcheth with his land army one way over
the stage; and TAURUS, the lieutenant of OCTAVIUS
CAESAR, the other way. After their going in, is
heard the noise of a sea-fight
Alarum. Enter DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS
- DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS
- Naught, naught all, naught! I can behold no longer:
- The Antoniad, the Egyptian admiral,
- With all their sixty, fly and turn the rudder:
- To see't mine eyes are blasted.
Enter SCARUS
- SCARUS
- Gods and goddesses,
- All the whole synod of them!
- DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS
- What's thy passion!
- SCARUS
- The greater cantle of the world is lost
- With very ignorance; we have kiss'd away
- Kingdoms and provinces.
- DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS
- How appears the fight?
- SCARUS
- On our side like the token'd pestilence,
- Where death is sure. Yon ribaudred nag of Egypt —
- Whom leprosy o'ertake! — i' the midst o' the fight,
- When vantage like a pair of twins appear'd,
- Both as the same, or rather ours the elder,
- The breese upon her, like a cow in June,
- Hoists sails and flies.
- DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS
- That I beheld:
- Mine eyes did sicken at the sight, and could not
- Endure a further view.
- SCARUS
- She once being loof'd,
- The noble ruin of her magic, Antony,
- Claps on his sea-wing, and, like a doting mallard,
- Leaving the fight in height, flies after her:
- I never saw an action of such shame;
- Experience, manhood, honour, ne'er before
- Did violate so itself.
- DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS
- Alack, alack!
Enter CANIDIUS
- CANIDIUS
- Our fortune on the sea is out of breath,
- And sinks most lamentably. Had our general
- Been what he knew himself, it had gone well:
- O, he has given example for our flight,
- Most grossly, by his own!
- DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS
- Ay, are you thereabouts?
- Why, then, good night indeed.
- CANIDIUS
- Toward Peloponnesus are they fled.
- SCARUS
- 'Tis easy to't; and there I will attend
- What further comes.
- CANIDIUS
- To Caesar will I render
- My legions and my horse: six kings already
- Show me the way of yielding.
- DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS
- I'll yet follow
- The wounded chance of Antony, though my reason
- Sits in the wind against me.
Exeunt
SCENE XI. Alexandria. CLEOPATRA's palace.
Enter MARK ANTONY with Attendants
- MARK ANTONY
- Hark! the land bids me tread no more upon't;
- It is ashamed to bear me! Friends, come hither:
- I am so lated in the world, that I
- Have lost my way for ever: I have a ship
- Laden with gold; take that, divide it; fly,
- And make your peace with Caesar.
- All
- Fly! not we.
- MARK ANTONY
- I have fled myself; and have instructed cowards
- To run and show their shoulders. Friends, be gone;
- I have myself resolved upon a course
- Which has no need of you; be gone:
- My treasure's in the harbour, take it. O,
- I follow'd that I blush to look upon:
- My very hairs do mutiny; for the white
- Reprove the brown for rashness, and they them
- For fear and doting. Friends, be gone: you shall
- Have letters from me to some friends that will
- Sweep your way for you. Pray you, look not sad,
- Nor make replies of loathness: take the hint
- Which my despair proclaims; let that be left
- Which leaves itself: to the sea-side straightway:
- I will possess you of that ship and treasure.
- Leave me, I pray, a little: pray you now:
- Nay, do so; for, indeed, I have lost command,
- Therefore I pray you: I'll see you by and by.
Sits down
Enter CLEOPATRA led by CHARMIAN and IRAS; EROS
following
- EROS
- Nay, gentle madam, to him, comfort him.
- IRAS
- Do, most dear queen.
- CHARMIAN
- Do! why: what else?
- CLEOPATRA
- Let me sit down. O Juno!
- MARK ANTONY
- No, no, no, no, no.
- EROS
- See you here, sir?
- MARK ANTONY
- O fie, fie, fie!
- CHARMIAN
- Madam!
- IRAS
- Madam, O good empress!
- EROS
- Sir, sir —
- MARK ANTONY
- Yes, my lord, yes; he at Philippi kept
- His sword e'en like a dancer; while I struck
- The lean and wrinkled Cassius; and 'twas I
- That the mad Brutus ended: he alone
- Dealt on lieutenantry, and no practise had
- In the brave squares of war: yet now — No matter.
- CLEOPATRA
- Ah, stand by.
- EROS
- The queen, my lord, the queen.
- IRAS
- Go to him, madam, speak to him:
- He is unqualitied with very shame.
- CLEOPATRA
- Well then, sustain him: O!
- EROS
- Most noble sir, arise; the queen approaches:
- Her head's declined, and death will seize her, but
- Your comfort makes the rescue.
- MARK ANTONY
- I have offended reputation,
- A most unnoble swerving.
- EROS
- Sir, the queen.
- MARK ANTONY
- O, whither hast thou led me, Egypt? See,
- How I convey my shame out of thine eyes
- By looking back what I have left behind
- 'Stroy'd in dishonour.
- CLEOPATRA
- O my lord, my lord,
- Forgive my fearful sails! I little thought
- You would have follow'd.
- MARK ANTONY
- Egypt, thou knew'st too well
- My heart was to thy rudder tied by the strings,
- And thou shouldst tow me after: o'er my spirit
- Thy full supremacy thou knew'st, and that
- Thy beck might from the bidding of the gods
- Command me.
- CLEOPATRA
- O, my pardon!
- MARK ANTONY
- Now I must
- To the young man send humble treaties, dodge
- And palter in the shifts of lowness; who
- With half the bulk o' the world play'd as I pleased,
- Making and marring fortunes. You did know
- How much you were my conqueror; and that
- My sword, made weak by my affection, would
- Obey it on all cause.
- CLEOPATRA
- Pardon, pardon!
- MARK ANTONY
- Fall not a tear, I say; one of them rates
- All that is won and lost: give me a kiss;
- Even this repays me. We sent our schoolmaster;
- Is he come back? Love, I am full of lead.
- Some wine, within there, and our viands! Fortune knows
- We scorn her most when most she offers blows.
Exeunt
SCENE XII. Egypt. OCTAVIUS CAESAR's camp.
Enter OCTAVIUS CAESAR, DOLABELLA, THYREUS, with others
- OCTAVIUS CAESAR
- Let him appear that's come from Antony.
- Know you him?
- DOLABELLA
- Caesar, 'tis his schoolmaster:
- An argument that he is pluck'd, when hither
- He sends so poor a pinion off his wing,
- Which had superfluous kings for messengers
- Not many moons gone by.
Enter EUPHRONIUS, ambassador from MARK ANTONY
- OCTAVIUS CAESAR
- Approach, and speak.
- EUPHRONIUS
- Such as I am, I come from Antony:
- I was of late as petty to his ends
- As is the morn-dew on the myrtle-leaf
- To his grand sea.
- OCTAVIUS CAESAR
- Be't so: declare thine office.
- EUPHRONIUS
- Lord of his fortunes he salutes thee, and
- Requires to live in Egypt: which not granted,
- He lessens his requests; and to thee sues
- To let him breathe between the heavens and earth,
- A private man in Athens: this for him.
- Next, Cleopatra does confess thy greatness;
- Submits her to thy might; and of thee craves
- The circle of the Ptolemies for her heirs,
- Now hazarded to thy grace.
- OCTAVIUS CAESAR
- For Antony,
- I have no ears to his request. The queen
- Of audience nor desire shall fail, so she
- From Egypt drive her all-disgraced friend,
- Or take his life there: this if she perform,
- She shall not sue unheard. So to them both.
- EUPHRONIUS
- Fortune pursue thee!
- OCTAVIUS CAESAR
- Bring him through the bands.
- Exit EUPHRONIUS
- To THYREUS To try eloquence, now 'tis time: dispatch;
- From Antony win Cleopatra: promise,
- And in our name, what she requires; add more,
- From thine invention, offers: women are not
- In their best fortunes strong; but want will perjure
- The ne'er touch'd vestal: try thy cunning, Thyreus;
- Make thine own edict for thy pains, which we
- Will answer as a law.
- THYREUS
- Caesar, I go.
- OCTAVIUS CAESAR
- Observe how Antony becomes his flaw,
- And what thou think'st his very action speaks
- In every power that moves.
- THYREUS
- Caesar, I shall.
Exeunt
SCENE XIII. Alexandria. CLEOPATRA's palace.
Enter CLEOPATRA, DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS, CHARMIAN, and IRAS
- CLEOPATRA
- What shall we do, Enobarbus?
- DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS
- Think, and die.
- CLEOPATRA
- Is Antony or we in fault for this?
- DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS
- Antony only, that would make his will
- Lord of his reason. What though you fled
- From that great face of war, whose several ranges
- Frighted each other? why should he follow?
- The itch of his affection should not then
- Have nick'd his captainship; at such a point,
- When half to half the world opposed, he being
- The meered question: 'twas a shame no less
- Than was his loss, to course your flying flags,
- And leave his navy gazing.
- CLEOPATRA
- Prithee, peace.
Enter MARK ANTONY with EUPHRONIUS, the Ambassador
- MARK ANTONY
- Is that his answer?
- EUPHRONIUS
- Ay, my lord.
- MARK ANTONY
- The queen shall then have courtesy, so she
- Will yield us up.
- EUPHRONIUS
- He says so.
- MARK ANTONY
- Let her know't.
- To the boy Caesar send this grizzled head,
- And he will fill thy wishes to the brim
- With principalities.
- CLEOPATRA
- That head, my lord?
- MARK ANTONY
- To him again: tell him he wears the rose
- Of youth upon him; from which the world should note
- Something particular: his coin, ships, legions,
- May be a coward's; whose ministers would prevail
- Under the service of a child as soon
- As i' the command of Caesar: I dare him therefore
- To lay his gay comparisons apart,
- And answer me declined, sword against sword,
- Ourselves alone. I'll write it: follow me.
Exeunt MARK ANTONY and EUPHRONIUS
- DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS
- Aside Yes, like enough, high-battled Caesar will
- Unstate his happiness, and be staged to the show,
- Against a sworder! I see men's judgments are
- A parcel of their fortunes; and things outward
- Do draw the inward quality after them,
- To suffer all alike. That he should dream,
- Knowing all measures, the full Caesar will
- Answer his emptiness! Caesar, thou hast subdued
- His judgment too.
Enter an Attendant
- Attendant
- A messenger from CAESAR.
- CLEOPATRA
- What, no more ceremony? See, my women!
- Against the blown rose may they stop their nose
- That kneel'd unto the buds. Admit him, sir.
Exit Attendant
- DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS
- Aside Mine honesty and I begin to square.
- The loyalty well held to fools does make
- Our faith mere folly: yet he that can endure
- To follow with allegiance a fall'n lord
- Does conquer him that did his master conquer
- And earns a place i' the story.
Enter THYREUS
- CLEOPATRA
- Caesar's will?
- THYREUS
- Hear it apart.
- CLEOPATRA
- None but friends: say boldly.
- THYREUS
- So, haply, are they friends to Antony.
- DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS
- He needs as many, sir, as Caesar has;
- Or needs not us. If Caesar please, our master
- Will leap to be his friend: for us, you know,
- Whose he is we are, and that is, Caesar's.
- THYREUS
- So.
- Thus then, thou most renown'd: Caesar entreats,
- Not to consider in what case thou stand'st,
- Further than he is Caesar.
- CLEOPATRA
- Go on: right royal.
- THYREUS
- He knows that you embrace not Antony
- As you did love, but as you fear'd him.
- CLEOPATRA
- O!
- THYREUS
- The scars upon your honour, therefore, he
- Does pity, as constrained blemishes,
- Not as deserved.
- CLEOPATRA
- He is a god, and knows
- What is most right: mine honour was not yielded,
- But conquer'd merely.
- DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS
- Aside To be sure of that,
- I will ask Antony. Sir, sir, thou art so leaky,
- That we must leave thee to thy sinking, for
- Thy dearest quit thee.
Exit
- THYREUS
- Shall I say to Caesar
- What you require of him? for he partly begs
- To be desired to give. It much would please him,
- That of his fortunes you should make a staff
- To lean upon: but it would warm his spirits,
- To hear from me you had left Antony,
- And put yourself under his shrowd,
- The universal landlord.
- CLEOPATRA
- What's your name?
- THYREUS
- My name is Thyreus.
- CLEOPATRA
- Most kind messenger,
- Say to great Caesar this: in deputation
- I kiss his conquering hand: tell him, I am prompt
- To lay my crown at 's feet, and there to kneel:
- Tell him from his all-obeying breath I hear
- The doom of Egypt.
- THYREUS
- 'Tis your noblest course.
- Wisdom and fortune combating together,
- If that the former dare but what it can,
- No chance may shake it. Give me grace to lay
- My duty on your hand.
- CLEOPATRA
- Your Caesar's father oft,
- When he hath mused of taking kingdoms in,
- Bestow'd his lips on that unworthy place,
- As it rain'd kisses.
Re-enter MARK ANTONY and DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS
- MARK ANTONY
- Favours, by Jove that thunders!
- What art thou, fellow?
- THYREUS
- One that but performs
- The bidding of the fullest man, and worthiest
- To have command obey'd.
- DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS
- Aside You will be whipp'd.
- MARK ANTONY
- Approach, there! Ah, you kite! Now, gods
- and devils!
- Authority melts from me: of late, when I cried 'Ho!'
- Like boys unto a muss, kings would start forth,
- And cry 'Your will?' Have you no ears? I am
- Antony yet.
- Enter Attendants
- Take hence this Jack, and whip him.
- DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS
- Aside 'Tis better playing with a lion's whelp
- Than with an old one dying.
- MARK ANTONY
- Moon and stars!
- Whip him. Were't twenty of the greatest tributaries
- That do acknowledge Caesar, should I find them
- So saucy with the hand of she here — what's her name,
- Since she was Cleopatra?
- THYREUS
- Mark Antony!
- MARK ANTONY
- Tug him away: being whipp'd,
- Bring him again: this Jack of Caesar's shall
- Bear us an errand to him.
- Exeunt Attendants with THYREUS
- You were half blasted ere I knew you: ha!
- Have I my pillow left unpress'd in Rome,
- Forborne the getting of a lawful race,
- And by a gem of women, to be abused
- By one that looks on feeders?
- CLEOPATRA
- Good my lord —
- MARK ANTONY
- You have been a boggler ever:
- But when we in our viciousness grow hard —
- O misery on't! — the wise gods seel our eyes;
- In our own filth drop our clear judgments; make us
- Adore our errors; laugh at's, while we strut
- To our confusion.
- CLEOPATRA
- O, is't come to this?
- MARK ANTONY
- I found you as a morsel cold upon
- Dead Caesar's trencher; nay, you were a fragment
- Of Cneius Pompey's; besides what hotter hours,
- Unregister'd in vulgar fame, you have
- Luxuriously pick'd out: for, I am sure,
- Though you can guess what temperance should be,
- You know not what it is.
- CLEOPATRA
- Wherefore is this?
- MARK ANTONY
- To let a fellow that will take rewards
- And say 'God quit you!' be familiar with
- My playfellow, your hand; this kingly seal
- And plighter of high hearts! O, that I were
- Upon the hill of Basan, to outroar
- The horned herd! for I have savage cause;
- And to proclaim it civilly, were like
- A halter'd neck which does the hangman thank
- For being yare about him.
- Re-enter Attendants with THYREUS
- Is he whipp'd?
- First Attendant
- Soundly, my lord.
- MARK ANTONY
- Cried he? and begg'd a' pardon?
- First Attendant
- He did ask favour.
- MARK ANTONY
- If that thy father live, let him repent
- Thou wast not made his daughter; and be thou sorry
- To follow Caesar in his triumph, since
- Thou hast been whipp'd for following him: henceforth
- The white hand of a lady fever thee,
- Shake thou to look on 't. Get thee back to Caesar,
- Tell him thy entertainment: look, thou say
- He makes me angry with him; for he seems
- Proud and disdainful, harping on what I am,
- Not what he knew I was: he makes me angry;
- And at this time most easy 'tis to do't,
- When my good stars, that were my former guides,
- Have empty left their orbs, and shot their fires
- Into the abysm of hell. If he mislike
- My speech and what is done, tell him he has
- Hipparchus, my enfranched bondman, whom
- He may at pleasure whip, or hang, or torture,
- As he shall like, to quit me: urge it thou:
- Hence with thy stripes, begone!
Exit THYREUS
- CLEOPATRA
- Have you done yet?
- MARK ANTONY
- Alack, our terrene moon
- Is now eclipsed; and it portends alone
- The fall of Antony!
- CLEOPATRA
- I must stay his time.
- MARK ANTONY
- To flatter Caesar, would you mingle eyes
- With one that ties his points?
- CLEOPATRA
- Not know me yet?
- MARK ANTONY
- Cold-hearted toward me?
- CLEOPATRA
- Ah, dear, if I be so,
- From my cold heart let heaven engender hail,
- And poison it in the source; and the first stone
- Drop in my neck: as it determines, so
- Dissolve my life! The next Caesarion smite!
- Till by degrees the memory of my womb,
- Together with my brave Egyptians all,
- By the discandying of this pelleted storm,
- Lie graveless, till the flies and gnats of Nile
- Have buried them for prey!
- MARK ANTONY
- I am satisfied.
- Caesar sits down in Alexandria; where
- I will oppose his fate. Our force by land
- Hath nobly held; our sever'd navy too
- Have knit again, and fleet, threatening most sea-like.
- Where hast thou been, my heart? Dost thou hear, lady?
- If from the field I shall return once more
- To kiss these lips, I will appear in blood;
- I and my sword will earn our chronicle:
- There's hope in't yet.
- CLEOPATRA
- That's my brave lord!
- MARK ANTONY
- I will be treble-sinew'd, hearted, breathed,
- And fight maliciously: for when mine hours
- Were nice and lucky, men did ransom lives
- Of me for jests; but now I'll set my teeth,
- And send to darkness all that stop me. Come,
- Let's have one other gaudy night: call to me
- All my sad captains; fill our bowls once more;
- Let's mock the midnight bell.
- CLEOPATRA
- It is my birth-day:
- I had thought to have held it poor: but, since my lord
- Is Antony again, I will be Cleopatra.
- MARK ANTONY
- We will yet do well.
- CLEOPATRA
- Call all his noble captains to my lord.
- MARK ANTONY
- Do so, we'll speak to them; and to-night I'll force
- The wine peep through their scars. Come on, my queen;
- There's sap in't yet. The next time I do fight,
- I'll make death love me; for I will contend
- Even with his pestilent scythe.
Exeunt all but DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS
- DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS
- Now he'll outstare the lightning. To be furious,
- Is to be frighted out of fear; and in that mood
- The dove will peck the estridge; and I see still,
- A diminution in our captain's brain
- Restores his heart: when valour preys on reason,
- It eats the sword it fights with. I will seek
- Some way to leave him.
Exit
ACT IV
SCENE I. Before Alexandria. OCTAVIUS CAESAR's camp.
Enter OCTAVIUS CAESAR, AGRIPPA, and MECAENAS, with
his Army; OCTAVIUS CAESAR reading a letter
- OCTAVIUS CAESAR
- He calls me boy; and chides, as he had power
- To beat me out of Egypt; my messenger
- He hath whipp'd with rods; dares me to personal combat,
- Caesar to Antony: let the old ruffian know
- I have many other ways to die; meantime
- Laugh at his challenge.
- MECAENAS
- Caesar must think,
- When one so great begins to rage, he's hunted
- Even to falling. Give him no breath, but now
- Make boot of his distraction: never anger
- Made good guard for itself.
- OCTAVIUS CAESAR
- Let our best heads
- Know, that to-morrow the last of many battles
- We mean to fight: within our files there are,
- Of those that served Mark Antony but late,
- Enough to fetch him in. See it done:
- And feast the army; we have store to do't,
- And they have earn'd the waste. Poor Antony!
Exeunt
SCENE II. Alexandria. CLEOPATRA's palace.
Enter MARK ANTONY, CLEOPATRA, DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS,
CHARMIAN, IRAS, ALEXAS, with others
- MARK ANTONY
- He will not fight with me, Domitius.
- DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS
- No.
- MARK ANTONY
- Why should he not?
- DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS
- He thinks, being twenty times of better fortune,
- He is twenty men to one.
- MARK ANTONY
- To-morrow, soldier,
- By sea and land I'll fight: or I will live,
- Or bathe my dying honour in the blood
- Shall make it live again. Woo't thou fight well?
- DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS
- I'll strike, and cry 'Take all.'
- MARK ANTONY
- Well said; come on.
- Call forth my household servants: let's to-night
- Be bounteous at our meal.
- Enter three or four Servitors
- Give me thy hand,
- Thou hast been rightly honest; — so hast thou; —
- Thou — and thou — and thou: — you have served me well,
- And kings have been your fellows.
- CLEOPATRA
- Aside to DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS What means this?
- DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS
- Aside to CLEOPATRA 'Tis one of those odd
- tricks which sorrow shoots
- Out of the mind.
- MARK ANTONY
- And thou art honest too.
- I wish I could be made so many men,
- And all of you clapp'd up together in
- An Antony, that I might do you service
- So good as you have done.
- All
- The gods forbid!
- MARK ANTONY
- Well, my good fellows, wait on me to-night:
- Scant not my cups; and make as much of me
- As when mine empire was your fellow too,
- And suffer'd my command.
- CLEOPATRA
- Aside to DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS What does he mean?
- DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS
- Aside to CLEOPATRA To make his followers weep.
- MARK ANTONY
- Tend me to-night;
- May be it is the period of your duty:
- Haply you shall not see me more; or if,
- A mangled shadow: perchance to-morrow
- You'll serve another master. I look on you
- As one that takes his leave. Mine honest friends,
- I turn you not away; but, like a master
- Married to your good service, stay till death:
- Tend me to-night two hours, I ask no more,
- And the gods yield you for't!
- DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS
- What mean you, sir,
- To give them this discomfort?
- MARK ANTONY
- Ho, ho, ho!
- Now the witch take me, if I meant it thus!
- Grace grow where those drops fall!
- My hearty friends,
- You take me in too dolorous a sense;
- For I spake to you for your comfort; did desire you
- To burn this night with torches: know, my hearts,
- I hope well of to-morrow; and will lead you
- Where rather I'll expect victorious life
- Than death and honour. Let's to supper, come,
- And drown consideration.
Exeunt
SCENE III. The same. Before the palace.
Enter two Soldiers to their guard
- First Soldier
- Brother, good night: to-morrow is the day.
- Second Soldier
- It will determine one way: fare you well.
- Heard you of nothing strange about the streets?
- First Soldier
- Nothing. What news?
- Second Soldier
- Belike 'tis but a rumour. Good night to you.
- First Soldier
- Well, sir, good night.
Enter two other Soldiers
- Second Soldier
- Soldiers, have careful watch.
- Third Soldier
- And you. Good night, good night.
They place themselves in every corner of the stage
- Fourth Soldier
- Here we: and if to-morrow
- Our navy thrive, I have an absolute hope
- Our landmen will stand up.
- Third Soldier
- 'Tis a brave army,
- And full of purpose.
Music of the hautboys as under the stage
- Fourth Soldier
- Peace! what noise?
- First Soldier
- List, list!
- Second Soldier
- Hark!
- First Soldier
- Music i' the air.
- Third Soldier
- Under the earth.
- Fourth Soldier
- It signs well, does it not?
- Third Soldier
- No.
- First Soldier
- Peace, I say!
- What should this mean?
- Second Soldier
- 'Tis the god Hercules, whom Antony loved,
- Now leaves him.
- First Soldier
- Walk; let's see if other watchmen
- Do hear what we do?
They advance to another post
- Second Soldier
- How now, masters!
- All
- Speaking together How now!
- How now! do you hear this?
- First Soldier
- Ay; is't not strange?
- Third Soldier
- Do you hear, masters? do you hear?
- First Soldier
- Follow the noise so far as we have quarter;
- Let's see how it will give off.
- All
- Content. 'Tis strange.
Exeunt
SCENE IV. The same. A room in the palace.
Enter MARK ANTONY and CLEOPATRA, CHARMIAN, and
others attending
- MARK ANTONY
- Eros! mine armour, Eros!
- CLEOPATRA
- Sleep a little.
- MARK ANTONY
- No, my chuck. Eros, come; mine armour, Eros!
- Enter EROS with armour
- Come good fellow, put mine iron on:
- If fortune be not ours to-day, it is
- Because we brave her: come.
- CLEOPATRA
- Nay, I'll help too.
- What's this for?
- MARK ANTONY
- Ah, let be, let be! thou art
- The armourer of my heart: false, false; this, this.
- CLEOPATRA
- Sooth, la, I'll help: thus it must be.
- MARK ANTONY
- Well, well;
- We shall thrive now. Seest thou, my good fellow?
- Go put on thy defences.
- EROS
- Briefly, sir.
- CLEOPATRA
- Is not this buckled well?
- MARK ANTONY
- Rarely, rarely:
- He that unbuckles this, till we do please
- To daff't for our repose, shall hear a storm.
- Thou fumblest, Eros; and my queen's a squire
- More tight at this than thou: dispatch. O love,
- That thou couldst see my wars to-day, and knew'st
- The royal occupation! thou shouldst see
- A workman in't.
- Enter an armed Soldier
- Good morrow to thee; welcome:
- Thou look'st like him that knows a warlike charge:
- To business that we love we rise betime,
- And go to't with delight.
- Soldier
- A thousand, sir,
- Early though't be, have on their riveted trim,
- And at the port expect you.
Shout. Trumpets flourish
Enter Captains and Soldiers
- Captain
- The morn is fair. Good morrow, general.
- All
- Good morrow, general.
- MARK ANTONY
- 'Tis well blown, lads:
- This morning, like the spirit of a youth
- That means to be of note, begins betimes.
- So, so; come, give me that: this way; well said.
 You that will fight,
- Follow me close; I'll bring you to't. Adieu.
Exeunt MARK ANTONY, EROS, Captains, and Soldiers
- CHARMIAN
- Please you, retire to your chamber.
- CLEOPATRA
- Lead me.
- He goes forth gallantly. That he and Caesar might
- Determine this great war in single fight!
- Then Antony — but now — Well, on.
Exeunt
SCENE V. Alexandria. MARK ANTONY's camp.
Trumpets sound. Enter MARK ANTONY and EROS; a
Soldier meeting them
- Soldier
- The gods make this a happy day to Antony!
- MARK ANTONY
- Would thou and those thy scars had once prevail'd
- To make me fight at land!
- Soldier
- Hadst thou done so,
- The kings that have revolted, and the soldier
- That has this morning left thee, would have still
- Follow'd thy heels.
- MARK ANTONY
- Who's gone this morning?
- Soldier
- Who!
- One ever near thee: call for Enobarbus,
- He shall not hear thee; or from Caesar's camp
- Say 'I am none of thine.'
- MARK ANTONY
- What say'st thou?
- Soldier
- Sir,
- He is with Caesar.
- EROS
- Sir, his chests and treasure
- He has not with him.
- MARK ANTONY
- Is he gone?
- Soldier
- Most certain.
- MARK ANTONY
- Go, Eros, send his treasure after; do it;
- Detain no jot, I charge thee: write to him —
- I will subscribe — gentle adieus and greetings;
- Say that I wish he never find more cause
- To change a master. O, my fortunes have
- Corrupted honest men! Dispatch. — Enobarbus!
Exeunt
SCENE VI. Alexandria. OCTAVIUS CAESAR's camp.
Flourish. Enter OCTAVIUS CAESAR, AGRIPPA, with
DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS, and others
- OCTAVIUS CAESAR
- Go forth, Agrippa, and begin the fight:
- Our will is Antony be took alive;
- Make it so known.
- AGRIPPA
- Caesar, I shall.
Exit
- OCTAVIUS CAESAR
- The time of universal peace is near:
- Prove this a prosperous day, the three-nook'd world
- Shall bear the olive freely.
Enter a Messenger
- Messenger
- Antony
- Is come into the field.
- OCTAVIUS CAESAR
- Go charge Agrippa
- Plant those that have revolted in the van,
- That Antony may seem to spend his fury
- Upon himself.
Exeunt all but DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS
- DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS
- Alexas did revolt; and went to Jewry on
- Affairs of Antony; there did persuade
- Great Herod to incline himself to Caesar,
- And leave his master Antony: for this pains
- Caesar hath hang'd him. Canidius and the rest
- That fell away have entertainment, but
- No honourable trust. I have done ill;
- Of which I do accuse myself so sorely,
- That I will joy no more.
Enter a Soldier of CAESAR's
- Soldier
- Enobarbus, Antony
- Hath after thee sent all thy treasure, with
- His bounty overplus: the messenger
- Came on my guard; and at thy tent is now
- Unloading of his mules.
- DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS
- I give it you.
- Soldier
- Mock not, Enobarbus.
- I tell you true: best you safed the bringer
- Out of the host; I must attend mine office,
- Or would have done't myself. Your emperor
- Continues still a Jove.
Exit
- DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS
- I am alone the villain of the earth,
- And feel I am so most. O Antony,
- Thou mine of bounty, how wouldst thou have paid
- My better service, when my turpitude
- Thou dost so crown with gold! This blows my heart:
- If swift thought break it not, a swifter mean
- Shall outstrike thought: but thought will do't, I feel.
- I fight against thee! No: I will go seek
- Some ditch wherein to die; the foul'st best fits
- My latter part of life.
Exit
SCENE VII. Field of battle between the camps.
Alarum. Drums and trumpets. Enter AGRIPPA
and others
- AGRIPPA
- Retire, we have engaged ourselves too far:
- Caesar himself has work, and our oppression
- Exceeds what we expected.
Exeunt
Alarums. Enter MARK ANTONY and SCARUS wounded
- SCARUS
- O my brave emperor, this is fought indeed!
- Had we done so at first, we had droven them home
- With clouts about their heads.
- MARK ANTONY
- Thou bleed'st apace.
- SCARUS
- I had a wound here that was like a T,
- But now 'tis made an H.
- MARK ANTONY
- They do retire.
- SCARUS
- We'll beat 'em into bench-holes: I have yet
- Room for six scotches more.
Enter EROS
- EROS
- They are beaten, sir, and our advantage serves
- For a fair victory.
- SCARUS
- Let us score their backs,
- And snatch 'em up, as we take hares, behind:
- 'Tis sport to maul a runner.
- MARK ANTONY
- I will reward thee
- Once for thy spritely comfort, and ten-fold
- For thy good valour. Come thee on.
- SCARUS
- I'll halt after.
Exeunt
SCENE VIII. Under the walls of Alexandria.
Alarum. Enter MARK ANTONY, in a march; SCARUS,
with others
- MARK ANTONY
- We have beat him to his camp: run one before,
- And let the queen know of our gests. To-morrow,
- Before the sun shall see 's, we'll spill the blood
- That has to-day escaped. I thank you all;
- For doughty-handed are you, and have fought
- Not as you served the cause, but as 't had been
- Each man's like mine; you have shown all Hectors.
- Enter the city, clip your wives, your friends,
- Tell them your feats; whilst they with joyful tears
- Wash the congealment from your wounds, and kiss
- The honour'd gashes whole.
- To SCARUS
- Give me thy hand
- Enter CLEOPATRA, attended
- To this great fairy I'll commend thy acts,
- Make her thanks bless thee.
- To CLEOPATRA
- O thou day o' the world,
- Chain mine arm'd neck; leap thou, attire and all,
- Through proof of harness to my heart, and there
- Ride on the pants triumphing!
- CLEOPATRA
- Lord of lords!
- O infinite virtue, comest thou smiling from
- The world's great snare uncaught?
- MARK ANTONY
- My nightingale,
- We have beat them to their beds. What, girl!
- though grey
- Do something mingle with our younger brown, yet ha' we
- A brain that nourishes our nerves, and can
- Get goal for goal of youth. Behold this man;
- Commend unto his lips thy favouring hand:
- Kiss it, my warrior: he hath fought to-day
- As if a god, in hate of mankind, had
- Destroy'd in such a shape.
- CLEOPATRA
- I'll give thee, friend,
- An armour all of gold; it was a king's.
- MARK ANTONY
- He has deserved it, were it carbuncled
- Like holy Phoebus' car. Give me thy hand:
- Through Alexandria make a jolly march;
- Bear our hack'd targets like the men that owe them:
- Had our great palace the capacity
- To camp this host, we all would sup together,
- And drink carouses to the next day's fate,
- Which promises royal peril. Trumpeters,
- With brazen din blast you the city's ear;
- Make mingle with rattling tabourines;
- That heaven and earth may strike their sounds together,
- Applauding our approach.
Exeunt
SCENE IX. OCTAVIUS CAESAR's camp.
Sentinels at their post
- First Soldier
- If we be not relieved within this hour,
- We must return to the court of guard: the night
- Is shiny; and they say we shall embattle
- By the second hour i' the morn.
- Second Soldier
- This last day was
- A shrewd one to's.
Enter DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS
- DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS
- O, bear me witness, night —
- Third Soldier
- What man is this?
- Second Soldier
- Stand close, and list him.
- DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS
- Be witness to me, O thou blessed moon,
- When men revolted shall upon record
- Bear hateful memory, poor Enobarbus did
- Before thy face repent!
- First Soldier
- Enobarbus!
- Third Soldier
- Peace!
- Hark further.
- DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS
- O sovereign mistress of true melancholy,
- The poisonous damp of night disponge upon me,
- That life, a very rebel to my will,
- May hang no longer on me: throw my heart
- Against the flint and hardness of my fault:
- Which, being dried with grief, will break to powder,
- And finish all foul thoughts. O Antony,
- Nobler than my revolt is infamous,
- Forgive me in thine own particular;
- But let the world rank me in register
- A master-leaver and a fugitive:
- O Antony! O Antony!
Dies
- Second Soldier
- Let's speak To him.
- First Soldier
- Let's hear him, for the things he speaks
- May concern Caesar.
- Third Soldier
- Let's do so. But he sleeps.
- First Soldier
- Swoons rather; for so bad a prayer as his
- Was never yet for sleep.
- Second Soldier
- Go we to him.
- Third Soldier
- Awake, sir, awake; speak to us.
- Second Soldier
- Hear you, sir?
- First Soldier
- The hand of death hath raught him.
- Drums afar off
- Hark! the drums
- Demurely wake the sleepers. Let us bear him
- To the court of guard; he is of note: our hour
- Is fully out.
- Third Soldier
- Come on, then;
- He may recover yet.
Exeunt with the body
SCENE X. Between the two camps.
Enter MARK ANTONY and SCARUS, with their Army
- MARK ANTONY
- Their preparation is to-day by sea;
- We please them not by land.
- SCARUS
- For both, my lord.
- MARK ANTONY
- I would they'ld fight i' the fire or i' the air;
- We'ld fight there too. But this it is; our foot
- Upon the hills adjoining to the city
- Shall stay with us: order for sea is given;
- They have put forth the haven
- Where their appointment we may best discover,
- And look on their endeavour.
Exeunt
SCENE XI. Another part of the same.
Enter OCTAVIUS CAESAR, and his Army
- OCTAVIUS CAESAR
- But being charged, we will be still by land,
- Which, as I take't, we shall; for his best force
- Is forth to man his galleys. To the vales,
- And hold our best advantage.
Exeunt
SCENE XII. Another part of the same.
Enter MARK ANTONY and SCARUS
- MARK ANTONY
- Yet they are not join'd: where yond pine
- does stand,
- I shall discover all: I'll bring thee word
- Straight, how 'tis like to go.
Exit
- SCARUS
- Swallows have built
- In Cleopatra's sails their nests: the augurers
- Say they know not, they cannot tell; look grimly,
- And dare not speak their knowledge. Antony
- Is valiant, and dejected; and, by starts,
- His fretted fortunes give him hope, and fear,
- Of what he has, and has not.
Alarum afar off, as at a sea-fight
Re-enter MARK ANTONY
- MARK ANTONY
- All is lost;
- This foul Egyptian hath betrayed me:
- My fleet hath yielded to the foe; and yonder
- They cast their caps up and carouse together
- Like friends long lost. Triple-turn'd whore!
- 'tis thou
- Hast sold me to this novice; and my heart
- Makes only wars on thee. Bid them all fly;
- For when I am revenged upon my charm,
- I have done all. Bid them all fly; begone.
- Exit SCARUS
- O sun, thy uprise shall I see no more:
- Fortune and Antony part here; even here
- Do we shake hands. All come to this? The hearts
- That spaniel'd me at heels, to whom I gave
- Their wishes, do discandy, melt their sweets
- On blossoming Caesar; and this pine is bark'd,
- That overtopp'd them all. Betray'd I am:
- O this false soul of Egypt! this grave charm —
- Whose eye beck'd forth my wars, and call'd them home;
- Whose bosom was my crownet, my chief end —
- Like a right gipsy, hath, at fast and loose,
- Beguiled me to the very heart of loss.
- What, Eros, Eros!
- Enter CLEOPATRA
- Ah, thou spell! Avaunt!
- CLEOPATRA
- Why is my lord enraged against his love?
- MARK ANTONY
- Vanish, or I shall give thee thy deserving,
- And blemish Caesar's triumph. Let him take thee,
- And hoist thee up to the shouting plebeians:
- Follow his chariot, like the greatest spot
- Of all thy sex; most monster-like, be shown
- For poor'st diminutives, for doits; and let
- Patient Octavia plough thy visage up
- With her prepared nails.
- Exit CLEOPATRA
- 'Tis well thou'rt gone,
- If it be well to live; but better 'twere
- Thou fell'st into my fury, for one death
- Might have prevented many. Eros, ho!
- The shirt of Nessus is upon me: teach me,
- Alcides, thou mine ancestor, thy rage:
- Let me lodge Lichas on the horns o' the moon;
- And with those hands, that grasp'd the heaviest club,
- Subdue my worthiest self. The witch shall die:
- To the young Roman boy she hath sold me, and I fall
- Under this plot; she dies for't. Eros, ho!
Exit
SCENE XIII. Alexandria. Cleopatra's palace.
Enter CLEOPATRA, CHARMIAN, IRAS, and MARDIAN
- CLEOPATRA
- Help me, my women! O, he is more mad
- Than Telamon for his shield; the boar of Thessaly
- Was never so emboss'd.
- CHARMIAN
- To the monument!
- There lock yourself, and send him word you are dead.
- The soul and body rive not more in parting
- Than greatness going off.
- CLEOPATRA
- To the monument!
- Mardian, go tell him I have slain myself;
- Say, that the last I spoke was 'Antony,'
- And word it, prithee, piteously: hence, Mardian,
- And bring me how he takes my death.
- To the monument!
Exeunt
SCENE XIV. The same. Another room.
Enter MARK ANTONY and EROS
- MARK ANTONY
- Eros, thou yet behold'st me?
- EROS
- Ay, noble lord.
- MARK ANTONY
- Sometimes we see a cloud that's dragonish;
- A vapour sometime like a bear or lion,
- A tower'd citadel, a pendent rock,
- A forked mountain, or blue promontory
- With trees upon't, that nod unto the world,
- And mock our eyes with air: thou hast seen
- these signs;
- They are black vesper's pageants.
- EROS
- Ay, my lord,
- MARK ANTONY
- That which is now a horse, even with a thought
- The rack dislimns, and makes it indistinct,
- As water is in water.
- EROS
- It does, my lord.
- MARK ANTONY
- My good knave Eros, now thy captain is
- Even such a body: here I am Antony:
- Yet cannot hold this visible shape, my knave.
- I made these wars for Egypt: and the queen —
- Whose heart I thought I had, for she had mine;
- Which whilst it was mine had annex'd unto't
- A million more, now lost — she, Eros, has
- Pack'd cards with Caesar, and false-play'd my glory
- Unto an enemy's triumph.
- Nay, weep not, gentle Eros; there is left us
- Ourselves to end ourselves.
- Enter MARDIAN
- O! thy vile lady!
- She has robb'd me of my sword.
- MARDIAN
- No, Antony;
- My mistress loved thee, and her fortunes mingled
- With thine entirely.
- MARK ANTONY
- Hence, saucy eunuch; peace!

- MARDIAN
- Death of one person can be paid but once,
- And that she has discharged: what thou wouldst do
- Is done unto thy hand: the last she spake
- Was 'Antony! most noble Antony!'
- Then in the midst a tearing groan did break
- The name of Antony; it was divided
- Between her heart and lips: she render'd life,
- Thy name so buried in her.
- MARK ANTONY
- Dead, then?
- MARDIAN
- Dead.
- MARK ANTONY
- Unarm, Eros; the long day's task is done,
- And we must sleep.
- To MARDIAN
- That thou depart'st hence safe,
- Does pay thy labour richly; go.
- Exit MARDIAN
- Off, pluck off:
- The seven-fold shield of Ajax cannot keep
- The battery from my heart. O, cleave, my sides!
- Heart, once be stronger than thy continent,
- Crack thy frail case! Apace, Eros, apace.
- No more a soldier: bruised pieces, go;
- You have been nobly borne. From me awhile.
- Exit EROS
- I will o'ertake thee, Cleopatra, and
- Weep for my pardon. So it must be, for now
- All length is torture: since the torch is out,
- Lie down, and stray no farther: now all labour
- Mars what it does; yea, very force entangles
- Itself with strength: seal then, and all is done.
- Eros! — I come, my queen: — Eros! — Stay for me:
- Where souls do couch on flowers, we'll hand in hand,
- And with our sprightly port make the ghosts gaze:
- Dido and her AEneas shall want troops,
- And all the haunt be ours. Come, Eros, Eros!
Re-enter EROS
- EROS
- What would my lord?
- MARK ANTONY
- Since Cleopatra died,
- I have lived in such dishonour, that the gods
- Detest my baseness. I, that with my sword
- Quarter'd the world, and o'er green Neptune's back
- With ships made cities, condemn myself to lack
- The courage of a woman; less noble mind
- Than she which by her death our Caesar tells
- 'I am conqueror of myself.' Thou art sworn, Eros,
- That, when the exigent should come, which now
- Is come indeed, when I should see behind me
- The inevitable prosecution of
- Disgrace and horror, that, on my command,
- Thou then wouldst kill me: do't; the time is come:
- Thou strikest not me, 'tis Caesar thou defeat'st.
- Put colour in thy cheek.
- EROS
- The gods withhold me!
- Shall I do that which all the Parthian darts,
- Though enemy, lost aim, and could not?
- MARK ANTONY
- Eros,
- Wouldst thou be window'd in great Rome and see
- Thy master thus with pleach'd arms, bending down
- His corrigible neck, his face subdued
- To penetrative shame, whilst the wheel'd seat
- Of fortunate Caesar, drawn before him, branded
- His baseness that ensued?
- EROS
- I would not see't.
- MARK ANTONY
- Come, then; for with a wound I must be cured.
- Draw that thy honest sword, which thou hast worn
- Most useful for thy country.
- EROS
- O, sir, pardon me!
- MARK ANTONY
- When I did make thee free, sworest thou not then
- To do this when I bade thee? Do it at once;
- Or thy precedent services are all
- But accidents unpurposed. Draw, and come.
- EROS
- Turn from me, then, that noble countenance,
- Wherein the worship of the whole world lies.
- MARK ANTONY
- Lo thee!
Turning from him
- EROS
- My sword is drawn.
- MARK ANTONY
- Then let it do at once
- The thing why thou hast drawn it.

- MARK ANTONY
- 'Tis said, man; and farewell.
- EROS
- Farewell, great chief. Shall I strike now?
- MARK ANTONY
- Now, Eros.
- EROS
- Why, there then: thus I do escape the sorrow
- Of Antony's death.
Kills himself
- MARK ANTONY
- Thrice-nobler than myself!
- Thou teachest me, O valiant Eros, what
- I should, and thou couldst not. My queen and Eros
- Have by their brave instruction got upon me
- A nobleness in record: but I will be
- A bridegroom in my death, and run into't
- As to a lover's bed. Come, then; and, Eros,
- Thy master dies thy scholar: to do thus
- Falling on his sword
- I learn'd of thee. How! not dead? not dead?
- The guard, ho! O, dispatch me!
Enter DERCETAS and Guard
- First Guard
- What's the noise?
- MARK ANTONY
- I have done my work in, friends: O, make an end
- Of what I have begun.
- Second Guard
- The star is fall'n.
- First Guard
- And time is at his period.
- All
- Alas, and woe!
- MARK ANTONY
- Let him that loves me strike me dead.
- First Guard