1
Alexandria. A room in CLEOPATRA’s palace.
2
[Enter DEMETRIUS and PHILO]
4
Nay, but this dotage of our general's
5
O'erflows the measure: those his goodly eyes,
6
That o'er the files and musters of the war
7
Have glow'd like plated Mars, now bend, now turn,
8
The office and devotion of their view
9
Upon a tawny front: his captain's heart,
10
Which in the scuffles of great fights hath burst
11
The buckles on his breast, reneges all temper,
12
And is become the bellows and the fan
13
To cool a gipsy's lust.
14
[Flourish. Enter ANTONY, CLEOPATRA, her Ladies,]
15
the Train, with Eunuchs fanning her]
16
Look, where they come:
17
Take but good note, and you shall see in him.
18
The triple pillar of the world transform'd
19
Into a strumpet's fool: behold and see.
21
If it be love indeed, tell me how much.
23
There's beggary in the love that can be reckon'd.
25
I'll set a bourn how far to be beloved.
27
Then must thou needs find out new heaven, new earth.
30
News, my good lord, from Rome.
34
Nay, hear them, Antony:
35
Fulvia perchance is angry; or, who knows
36
If the scarce-bearded Caesar have not sent
37
His powerful mandate to you, 'Do this, or this;
38
Take in that kingdom, and enfranchise that;
39
Perform 't, or else we damn thee.'
43
Perchance! nay, and most like:
44
You must not stay here longer, your dismission
45
Is come from Caesar; therefore hear it, Antony.
46
Where's Fulvia's process? Caesar's I would say? both?
47
Call in the messengers. As I am Egypt's queen,
48
Thou blushest, Antony; and that blood of thine
49
Is Caesar's homager: else so thy cheek pays shame
50
When shrill-tongued Fulvia scolds. The messengers!
52
Let Rome in Tiber melt, and the wide arch
53
Of the ranged empire fall! Here is my space.
54
Kingdoms are clay: our dungy earth alike
55
Feeds beast as man: the nobleness of life
56
Is to do thus; when such a mutual pair
58
And such a twain can do't, in which I bind,
59
On pain of punishment, the world to weet
63
Why did he marry Fulvia, and not love her?
64
I'll seem the fool I am not; Antony
67
But stirr'd by Cleopatra.
68
Now, for the love of Love and her soft hours,
69
Let's not confound the time with conference harsh:
70
There's not a minute of our lives should stretch
71
Without some pleasure now. What sport tonight?
76
Whom every thing becomes, to chide, to laugh,
77
To weep; whose every passion fully strives
78
To make itself, in thee, fair and admired!
79
No messenger, but thine; and all alone
80
To-night we'll wander through the streets and note
81
The qualities of people. Come, my queen;
82
Last night you did desire it: speak not to us.
83
[Exeunt MARK ANTONY and CLEOPATRA with]
86
Is Caesar with Antonius prized so slight?
88
Sir, sometimes, when he is not Antony,
89
He comes too short of that great property
90
Which still should go with Antony.
93
That he approves the common liar, who
94
Thus speaks of him at Rome: but I will hope
95
Of better deeds to-morrow. Rest you happy!
1
The same. Another room.
2
[Enter CHARMIAN, IRAS, ALEXAS, and a Soothsayer]
4
Lord Alexas, sweet Alexas, most any thing Alexas,
5
almost most absolute Alexas, where's the soothsayer
6
that you praised so to the queen? O, that I knew
7
this husband, which, you say, must charge his horns
14
Is this the man? Is't you, sir, that know things?
16
In nature's infinite book of secrecy
20
[Enter DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS]
22
Bring in the banquet quickly; wine enough
23
Cleopatra's health to drink.
25
Good sir, give me good fortune.
27
I make not, but foresee.
29
Pray, then, foresee me one.
31
You shall be yet far fairer than you are.
35
No, you shall paint when you are old.
39
Vex not his prescience; be attentive.
43
You shall be more beloving than beloved.
45
I had rather heat my liver with drinking.
49
Good now, some excellent fortune! Let me be married
50
to three kings in a forenoon, and widow them all:
51
let me have a child at fifty, to whom Herod of Jewry
52
may do homage: find me to marry me with Octavius
53
Caesar, and companion me with my mistress.
55
You shall outlive the lady whom you serve.
57
O excellent! I love long life better than figs.
59
You have seen and proved a fairer former fortune
60
Than that which is to approach.
62
Then belike my children shall have no names:
63
prithee, how many boys and wenches must I have?
65
If every of your wishes had a womb.
66
And fertile every wish, a million.
68
Out, fool! I forgive thee for a witch.
70
You think none but your sheets are privy to your wishes.
72
Nay, come, tell Iras hers.
74
We'll know all our fortunes.
76
Mine, and most of our fortunes, to-night, shall
79
There's a palm presages chastity, if nothing else.
81
E'en as the o'erflowing Nilus presageth famine.
83
Go, you wild bedfellow, you cannot soothsay.
85
Nay, if an oily palm be not a fruitful
86
prognostication, I cannot scratch mine ear. Prithee,
87
tell her but a worky-day fortune.
89
Your fortunes are alike.
91
But how, but how? give me particulars.
95
Am I not an inch of fortune better than she?
97
Well, if you were but an inch of fortune better than
98
I, where would you choose it?
100
Not in my husband's nose.
102
Our worser thoughts heavens mend! Alexas,—come,
103
his fortune, his fortune! O, let him marry a woman
104
that cannot go, sweet Isis, I beseech thee! and let
105
her die too, and give him a worse! and let worst
106
follow worse, till the worst of all follow him
107
laughing to his grave, fifty-fold a cuckold! Good
108
Isis, hear me this prayer, though thou deny me a
109
matter of more weight; good Isis, I beseech thee!
111
Amen. Dear goddess, hear that prayer of the people!
112
for, as it is a heartbreaking to see a handsome man
113
loose-wived, so it is a deadly sorrow to behold a
114
foul knave uncuckolded: therefore, dear Isis, keep
115
decorum, and fortune him accordingly!
119
Lo, now, if it lay in their hands to make me a
120
cuckold, they would make themselves whores, but
123
Hush! here comes Antony.
136
He was disposed to mirth; but on the sudden
137
A Roman thought hath struck him. Enobarbus!
141
Seek him, and bring him hither.
144
Here, at your service. My lord approaches.
146
We will not look upon him: go with us.
148
[Enter MARK ANTONY with a Messenger and Attendants]
150
Fulvia thy wife first came into the field.
152
Against my brother Lucius?
155
But soon that war had end, and the time's state
156
Made friends of them, joining their force 'gainst Caesar;
157
Whose better issue in the war, from Italy,
158
Upon the first encounter, drave them.
162
The nature of bad news infects the teller.
164
When it concerns the fool or coward. On:
165
Things that are past are done with me. 'Tis thus:
166
Who tells me true, though in his tale lie death,
167
I hear him as he flatter'd.
170
This is stiff news—hath, with his Parthian force,
171
Extended Asia from Euphrates;
172
His conquering banner shook from Syria
173
To Lydia and to Ionia; Whilst—
175
Antony, thou wouldst say,—
179
Speak to me home, mince not the general tongue:
180
Name Cleopatra as she is call'd in Rome;
181
Rail thou in Fulvia's phrase; and taunt my faults
182
With such full licence as both truth and malice
183
Have power to utter. O, then we bring forth weeds,
184
When our quick minds lie still; and our ills told us
185
Is as our earing. Fare thee well awhile.
187
At your noble pleasure.
190
From Sicyon, ho, the news! Speak there!
192
The man from Sicyon,—is there such an one?
194
He stays upon your will.
197
These strong Egyptian fetters I must break,
198
Or lose myself in dotage.
199
[Enter another Messenger]
202
Fulvia thy wife is dead.
207
Her length of sickness, with what else more serious
208
Importeth thee to know, this bears.
212
[Exit Second Messenger]
213
There's a great spirit gone! Thus did I desire it:
214
What our contempt doth often hurl from us,
215
We wish it ours again; the present pleasure,
216
By revolution lowering, does become
217
The opposite of itself: she's good, being gone;
218
The hand could pluck her back that shoved her on.
219
I must from this enchanting queen break off:
220
Ten thousand harms, more than the ills I know,
221
My idleness doth hatch. How now! Enobarbus!
222
[Re-enter DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS]
224
What's your pleasure, sir?
226
I must with haste from hence.
228
Why, then, we kill all our women:
229
we see how mortal an unkindness is to them;
230
if they suffer our departure, death's the word.
234
Under a compelling occasion, let women die; it were
235
pity to cast them away for nothing; though, between
236
them and a great cause, they should be esteemed
237
nothing. Cleopatra, catching but the least noise of
238
this, dies instantly; I have seen her die twenty
239
times upon far poorer moment: I do think there is
240
mettle in death, which commits some loving act upon
241
her, she hath such a celerity in dying.
243
She is cunning past man's thought.
246
Alack, sir, no; her passions are made of nothing but
247
the finest part of pure love: we cannot call her
248
winds and waters sighs and tears; they are greater
249
storms and tempests than almanacs can report: this
250
cannot be cunning in her; if it be, she makes a
251
shower of rain as well as Jove.
253
Would I had never seen her.
255
O, sir, you had then left unseen a wonderful piece
256
of work; which not to have been blest withal would
257
have discredited your travel.
269
Why, sir, give the gods a thankful sacrifice. When
270
it pleaseth their deities to take the wife of a man
271
from him, it shows to man the tailors of the earth;
272
comforting therein, that when old robes are worn
273
out, there are members to make new. If there were
274
no more women but Fulvia, then had you indeed a cut,
275
and the case to be lamented: this grief is crowned
276
with consolation; your old smock brings forth a new
277
petticoat: and indeed the tears live in an onion
278
that should water this sorrow.
280
The business she hath broached in the state
281
Cannot endure my absence.
283
And the business you have broached here cannot be
284
without you; especially that of Cleopatra's, which
285
wholly depends on your abode.
287
No more light answers. Let our officers
288
Have notice what we purpose. I shall break
289
The cause of our expedience to the queen,
290
And get her leave to part. For not alone
291
The death of Fulvia, with more urgent touches,
292
Do strongly speak to us; but the letters too
293
Of many our contriving friends in Rome
294
Petition us at home: Sextus Pompeius
295
Hath given the dare to Caesar, and commands
296
The empire of the sea: our slippery people,
297
Whose love is never link'd to the deserver
298
Till his deserts are past, begin to throw
299
Pompey the Great and all his dignities
300
Upon his son; who, high in name and power,
301
Higher than both in blood and life, stands up
302
For the main soldier: whose quality, going on,
303
The sides o' the world may danger: much is breeding,
304
Which, like the courser's hair, hath yet but life,
305
And not a serpent's poison. Say, our pleasure,
306
To such whose place is under us, requires
307
Our quick remove from hence.
1
The same. Another room.
2
[Enter CLEOPATRA, CHARMIAN, IRAS, and ALEXAS]
6
I did not see him since.
8
See where he is, who's with him, what he does:
9
I did not send you: if you find him sad,
10
Say I am dancing; if in mirth, report
11
That I am sudden sick: quick, and return.
14
Madam, methinks, if you did love him dearly,
15
You do not hold the method to enforce
18
What should I do, I do not?
20
In each thing give him way, cross him nothing.
22
Thou teachest like a fool; the way to lose him.
24
Tempt him not so too far; I wish, forbear:
25
In time we hate that which we often fear.
26
But here comes Antony.
31
I am sorry to give breathing to my purpose,—
33
Help me away, dear Charmian; I shall fall:
34
It cannot be thus long, the sides of nature
37
Now, my dearest queen,—
39
Pray you, stand further from me.
43
I know, by that same eye, there's some good news.
44
What says the married woman? You may go:
45
Would she had never given you leave to come!
46
Let her not say 'tis I that keep you here:
47
I have no power upon you; hers you are.
51
O, never was there queen
52
So mightily betray'd! yet at the first
53
I saw the treasons planted.
57
Why should I think you can be mine and true,
58
Though you in swearing shake the throned gods,
59
Who have been false to Fulvia? Riotous madness,
60
To be entangled with those mouth-made vows,
61
Which break themselves in swearing!
65
Nay, pray you, seek no colour for your going,
66
But bid farewell, and go: when you sued staying,
67
Then was the time for words: no going then;
68
Eternity was in our lips and eyes,
69
Bliss in our brows' bent; none our parts so poor,
70
But was a race of heaven: they are so still,
71
Or thou, the greatest soldier of the world,
72
Art turn'd the greatest liar.
76
I would I had thy inches; thou shouldst know
77
There were a heart in Egypt.
80
The strong necessity of time commands
81
Our services awhile; but my full heart
82
Remains in use with you. Our Italy
83
Shines o'er with civil swords: Sextus Pompeius
84
Makes his approaches to the port of Rome:
85
Equality of two domestic powers
86
Breed scrupulous faction: the hated, grown to strength,
87
Are newly grown to love: the condemn'd Pompey,
88
Rich in his father's honour, creeps apace,
89
Into the hearts of such as have not thrived
90
Upon the present state, whose numbers threaten;
91
And quietness, grown sick of rest, would purge
92
By any desperate change: my more particular,
93
And that which most with you should safe my going,
96
Though age from folly could not give me freedom,
97
It does from childishness: can Fulvia die?
100
Look here, and at thy sovereign leisure read
101
The garboils she awaked; at the last, best:
102
See when and where she died.
105
Where be the sacred vials thou shouldst fill
106
With sorrowful water? Now I see, I see,
107
In Fulvia's death, how mine received shall be.
109
Quarrel no more, but be prepared to know
110
The purposes I bear; which are, or cease,
111
As you shall give the advice. By the fire
112
That quickens Nilus' slime, I go from hence
113
Thy soldier, servant; making peace or war
116
Cut my lace, Charmian, come;
117
But let it be: I am quickly ill, and well,
120
My precious queen, forbear;
121
And give true evidence to his love, which stands
125
I prithee, turn aside and weep for her,
126
Then bid adieu to me, and say the tears
127
Belong to Egypt: good now, play one scene
128
Of excellent dissembling; and let it look
131
You'll heat my blood: no more.
133
You can do better yet; but this is meetly.
137
And target. Still he mends;
138
But this is not the best. Look, prithee, Charmian,
139
How this Herculean Roman does become
140
The carriage of his chafe.
142
I'll leave you, lady.
144
Courteous lord, one word.
145
Sir, you and I must part, but that's not it:
146
Sir, you and I have loved, but there's not it;
147
That you know well: something it is I would,
148
O, my oblivion is a very Antony,
149
And I am all forgotten.
151
But that your royalty
152
Holds idleness your subject, I should take you
156
To bear such idleness so near the heart
157
As Cleopatra this. But, sir, forgive me;
158
Since my becomings kill me, when they do not
159
Eye well to you: your honour calls you hence;
160
Therefore be deaf to my unpitied folly.
161
And all the gods go with you! upon your sword
162
Sit laurel victory! and smooth success
163
Be strew'd before your feet!
166
Our separation so abides, and flies,
167
That thou, residing here, go'st yet with me,
168
And I, hence fleeting, here remain with thee. Away!
1
Rome. OCTAVIUS CAESAR’s house.
2
[Enter OCTAVIUS CAESAR, reading a letter, LEPIDUS,] [p]and their Train]
4
You may see, Lepidus, and henceforth know,
5
It is not Caesar's natural vice to hate
6
Our great competitor: from Alexandria
7
This is the news: he fishes, drinks, and wastes
8
The lamps of night in revel; is not more man-like
9
Than Cleopatra; nor the queen of Ptolemy
10
More womanly than he; hardly gave audience, or
11
Vouchsafed to think he had partners: you shall find there
12
A man who is the abstract of all faults
15
I must not think there are
16
Evils enow to darken all his goodness:
17
His faults in him seem as the spots of heaven,
18
More fiery by night's blackness; hereditary,
19
Rather than purchased; what he cannot change,
22
You are too indulgent. Let us grant, it is not
23
Amiss to tumble on the bed of Ptolemy;
24
To give a kingdom for a mirth; to sit
25
And keep the turn of tippling with a slave;
26
To reel the streets at noon, and stand the buffet
27
With knaves that smell of sweat: say this
29
As his composure must be rare indeed
30
Whom these things cannot blemish,—yet must Antony
31
No way excuse his soils, when we do bear
32
So great weight in his lightness. If he fill'd
33
His vacancy with his voluptuousness,
34
Full surfeits, and the dryness of his bones,
35
Call on him for't: but to confound such time,
36
That drums him from his sport, and speaks as loud
37
As his own state and ours,—'tis to be chid
38
As we rate boys, who, being mature in knowledge,
39
Pawn their experience to their present pleasure,
40
And so rebel to judgment.
45
Thy biddings have been done; and every hour,
46
Most noble Caesar, shalt thou have report
47
How 'tis abroad. Pompey is strong at sea;
48
And it appears he is beloved of those
49
That only have fear'd Caesar: to the ports
50
The discontents repair, and men's reports
51
Give him much wrong'd.
53
I should have known no less.
54
It hath been taught us from the primal state,
55
That he which is was wish'd until he were;
56
And the ebb'd man, ne'er loved till ne'er worth love,
57
Comes dear'd by being lack'd. This common body,
58
Like to a vagabond flag upon the stream,
59
Goes to and back, lackeying the varying tide,
60
To rot itself with motion.
62
Caesar, I bring thee word,
63
Menecrates and Menas, famous pirates,
64
Make the sea serve them, which they ear and wound
65
With keels of every kind: many hot inroads
66
They make in Italy; the borders maritime
67
Lack blood to think on't, and flush youth revolt:
68
No vessel can peep forth, but 'tis as soon
69
Taken as seen; for Pompey's name strikes more
70
Than could his war resisted.
73
Leave thy lascivious wassails. When thou once
74
Wast beaten from Modena, where thou slew'st
75
Hirtius and Pansa, consuls, at thy heel
76
Did famine follow; whom thou fought'st against,
77
Though daintily brought up, with patience more
78
Than savages could suffer: thou didst drink
79
The stale of horses, and the gilded puddle
80
Which beasts would cough at: thy palate then did deign
81
The roughest berry on the rudest hedge;
82
Yea, like the stag, when snow the pasture sheets,
83
The barks of trees thou browsed'st; on the Alps
84
It is reported thou didst eat strange flesh,
85
Which some did die to look on: and all this—
86
It wounds thine honour that I speak it now—
87
Was borne so like a soldier, that thy cheek
88
So much as lank'd not.
92
Let his shames quickly
93
Drive him to Rome: 'tis time we twain
94
Did show ourselves i' the field; and to that end
95
Assemble we immediate council: Pompey
96
Thrives in our idleness.
99
I shall be furnish'd to inform you rightly
100
Both what by sea and land I can be able
101
To front this present time.
103
Till which encounter,
104
It is my business too. Farewell.
106
Farewell, my lord: what you shall know meantime
107
Of stirs abroad, I shall beseech you, sir,
108
To let me be partaker.
111
I knew it for my bond.
1
Alexandria. CLEOPATRA’s palace.
2
[Enter CLEOPATRA, CHARMIAN, IRAS, and MARDIAN]
9
Give me to drink mandragora.
13
That I might sleep out this great gap of time
16
You think of him too much.
20
Madam, I trust, not so.
24
What's your highness' pleasure?
26
Not now to hear thee sing; I take no pleasure
27
In aught an eunuch has: 'tis well for thee,
28
That, being unseminar'd, thy freer thoughts
29
May not fly forth of Egypt. Hast thou affections?
35
Not in deed, madam; for I can do nothing
36
But what indeed is honest to be done:
37
Yet have I fierce affections, and think
38
What Venus did with Mars.
41
Where think'st thou he is now? Stands he, or sits he?
42
Or does he walk? or is he on his horse?
43
O happy horse, to bear the weight of Antony!
44
Do bravely, horse! for wot'st thou whom thou movest?
45
The demi-Atlas of this earth, the arm
46
And burgonet of men. He's speaking now,
47
Or murmuring 'Where's my serpent of old Nile?'
48
For so he calls me: now I feed myself
49
With most delicious poison. Think on me,
50
That am with Phoebus' amorous pinches black,
51
And wrinkled deep in time? Broad-fronted Caesar,
52
When thou wast here above the ground, I was
53
A morsel for a monarch: and great Pompey
54
Would stand and make his eyes grow in my brow;
55
There would he anchor his aspect and die
56
With looking on his life.
57
[Enter ALEXAS, from OCTAVIUS CAESAR]
59
Sovereign of Egypt, hail!
61
How much unlike art thou Mark Antony!
62
Yet, coming from him, that great medicine hath
63
With his tinct gilded thee.
64
How goes it with my brave Mark Antony?
66
Last thing he did, dear queen,
67
He kiss'd,—the last of many doubled kisses,—
68
This orient pearl. His speech sticks in my heart.
70
Mine ear must pluck it thence.
72
'Good friend,' quoth he,
73
'Say, the firm Roman to great Egypt sends
74
This treasure of an oyster; at whose foot,
75
To mend the petty present, I will piece
76
Her opulent throne with kingdoms; all the east,
77
Say thou, shall call her mistress.' So he nodded,
78
And soberly did mount an arm-gaunt steed,
79
Who neigh'd so high, that what I would have spoke
80
Was beastly dumb'd by him.
82
What, was he sad or merry?
84
Like to the time o' the year between the extremes
85
Of hot and cold, he was nor sad nor merry.
87
O well-divided disposition! Note him,
88
Note him good Charmian, 'tis the man; but note him:
89
He was not sad, for he would shine on those
90
That make their looks by his; he was not merry,
91
Which seem'd to tell them his remembrance lay
92
In Egypt with his joy; but between both:
93
O heavenly mingle! Be'st thou sad or merry,
94
The violence of either thee becomes,
95
So does it no man else. Met'st thou my posts?
97
Ay, madam, twenty several messengers:
98
Why do you send so thick?
101
When I forget to send to Antony,
102
Shall die a beggar. Ink and paper, Charmian.
103
Welcome, my good Alexas. Did I, Charmian,
108
Be choked with such another emphasis!
109
Say, the brave Antony.
113
By Isis, I will give thee bloody teeth,
114
If thou with Caesar paragon again
117
By your most gracious pardon,
118
I sing but after you.
121
When I was green in judgment: cold in blood,
122
To say as I said then! But, come, away;
123
Get me ink and paper:
124
He shall have every day a several greeting,
125
Or I'll unpeople Egypt.
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