Char. Is this the man? Is't you, sir, that know things?
Sooth. In nature's infinite book of secrecy

A little I can read.

5

Eno. Bring in the banquet quickly; wine enough Cleopatra's health to drink.

Char. Good sir, give me good fortune.

Sooth. I make not, but foresee.

Char. Pray then, foresee me one.

10

Sooth.

You shall be yet far fairer than you are.
Char. He means in flesh.

15

Iras. No, you shall paint when you are old.

Char. Wrinkles forbid!

Alex. Vex not his prescience; be attentive.
Char.

Hush!

Sooth. You shall be more beloving than beloved.
Char. I had rather heat my liver with drinking.

Alex. Nay, hear him.

Char. Good now, some excellent fortune! Let me be

20

married to three kings in a forenoon, and widow them all: 25
let me have a child at fifty, to whom Herod of Jewry may
do homage: find me to marry me with Octavius Cæsar, and
companion me with my mistress.

Sooth. You shall outlive the lady whom you serve.
Char. O excellent! I love long life better than figs.

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Sooth. You have seen and proved a fairer former fortune Than that which is to approach.

Char. Then belike my children shall have no names: prithee, how many boys and wenches must I have?

Sooth. If every of your wishes had a womb,

And fertile every wish, a million.

Char. Out, fool! I forgive thee for a witch.

Alex. You think none but your sheets are privy to your wishes.

Char. Nay, come, tell Iras hers.

Alex. We'll know all our fortunes.

Eno. Mine and most of our fortunes to-night shall be-drunk to bed.

Iras. There's a palm presages chastity, if nothing else. Char. E'en as the o'erflowing Nilus presageth famine. Iras. Go, you wild bedfellow, you cannot soothsay. Char. Nay, if an oily palm be not a fruitful prognostication, I cannot scratch mine ear. Prithee, tell her but a worky-day fortune.

Sooth. Your fortunes are alike.

Iras. But how, but how? give me particulars.

Sooth. I have said.

Iras. Am I not an inch of fortune better than she?
Char. Well, if you were but an inch of fortune better

than I, where would you choose it?

Iras. Not in my husband's nose.

Char. Our worser thoughts heavens mend! Alexas,

31, 32.

You...approach.] As verse first by Capell. Prose in Ff.

33, 34. Then......have?] As prose first by Capell. Two lines, the first ending names, in Ff.

35, 36. If......million.] As verse first in Rowe. Prose in Ff.

36. fertile] fertil Theobald (Warburton). foretell F,F2F3. foretel F4. foretold Pope. fruitful Collier (Collier MS.).

37. Out] Out, out Hanmer. 39, 40. You...hers.] Two lines of verse, the first ending to, in Hanmer.

35

40

45

50

55

come, his fortune, his fortune! O, let him marry a woman that cannot go, sweet Isis, I beseech thee! and let her die too, and give him a worse! and let worse follow worse, till 60 the worst of all follow him laughing to his grave, fifty-fold a cuckold! Good Isis, hear me this prayer, though thou deny me a matter of more weight; good Isis, I beseech thee!

Iras. Amen. Dear goddess, hear that prayer of the people! for, as it is a heart-breaking to see a handsome man loose-wived, so it is a deadly sorrow to behold a foul knave uncuckolded: therefore, dear Isis, keep decorum, and fortune him accordingly!

Char. Amen.

Alex. Lo, now, if it lay in their hands to make me a cuckold, they would make themselves whores, but they'ld do't!

Eno. Hush! here comes Antony.
Char.

Not he; the queen.

65

70

Cleo. Seek him, and bring him hither. Where's

75

80

Alex. Here, at your service. My lord approaches.
Cleo. We will not look upon him: go with us. [Exeunt.

Enter ANTONY with a Messenger and Attendants.

Mess. Fulvia thy wife first came into the field.
Ant. Against my brother Lucius?

Mess. Ay:

But soon that war had end, and the time's state

Made friends of them, jointing their force 'gainst Cæsar,
Whose better issue in the war from Italy
Upon the first encounter drave them.

Ant.

83

Mess. The nature of bad news infects the teller.
Ant. 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.

This is stiff news-hath with his Parthian force
Extended Asia from Euphrates,

95

Whilst

Ant. Antony, thou wouldst say,

Mess.

O, my lord!

100

Ant. 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 license 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.

Mess. At your noble pleasure.

Ant. From Sicyon, ho, the news! Speak there!

[Exit.

105

First Att. The man from Sicyon, is there such an one? 110
Sec. Att. He stays upon your will.
Ant.

Let him appear.

These strong Egyptian fetters I must break,

Or lose myself in dotage.