To weep; whose every passion fully strives [Exeunt Ant. and Cleo. with their train. Char. Even as the o'erflowing Nilus presageth famine. Iras. Go, you wild bedfellow, you cannot soothsay. Char. Nay, if an oily palm be not a fruitful prognostication, I cannot scratch mine ear.-Pr'ythee, tell her but a worky-day fortune. Sooth. Your fortunes are alike. Iras. But how, but how? give me particulars. Iras. Am I not an inch of fortune better than she? Char. Well, if you were but an inch of fortune better than I, where would you choose it? Iras. Not in my husband's nose. Char. Our worser thoughts heavens mend! A[Exeunt.||lexas,-come, his fortune, his fortune.-O, let him seech thee! And let her die too, and give him a marry a woman that cannot go, sweet Isis, I beworse! and let worse follow worse, till the worst of all follow him laughing to his grave, fifty-fold a cuckold! Good Isis,3 hear me this prayer, though thou deny me a matter of more weight; good Isis, I beseech thee! SCENE II-The same. Another room. Enter Charmian, Iras, Alexas, and a Soothsayer. Char. 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 change his horns with garlands! Alex. Soothsayer. Sooth. Your will? 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 sor Char. Is this the man?-Is't you, sir, that know row to behold a foul knave uncuckolded; There Char. No, madam. Iras. No, you shall paint when you are old. Alex. Vex not his prescience; be attentive. Sooth. You shall be more beloving, than beloved. Char. Good now, some excellent fortune! Let me be married to three kings in a forenoon, and widow them all: let me have a child at fifty, to whom Herod of Jewry may do homage: find me to marry me with Octavius Cæsar, and companion me with my mistress. Sooth. You shall outlive the lady whom you serve. Than that which is to approach. Char. Then, belike, my children shall have no names:2 Pr'ythee, 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. Cleo. He was dispos'd to mirth; but on the sud den A Roman thought hath struck him.-Enobarbus,— Cleo. Seek him, and bring him hither. Where's Alex. Here, madam, at your service.-My lord Enter Antony, with a Messenger and Attendants. Mess. Ay: Iras. There's a palm presages chastity, if noth-(This is stiff news) hath, with his Parthian force ing else. Extended Asia from Euphrates; (1) Fame. (2) Shall be bastards. (3) An Egyptian goddess. (4) Seized His conquering banner shook, from Syria To Lydia, and to Ionia; Whilst Ant. Mess. Antony, thou would'st say, O, my lord Ant. Speak to me home, mince not the general tongue; Name Cleopatra as she's 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 winds! lie still; and our ills told us, Is as our earing.2 Fare thee well a while. Mess. At your noble pleasure. [Exit. Ant. From Sicyon how the news? Speak there. 1 Att. The man from Sicyon.-Is there such a one? 2 Att. He stays upon your will. Ant. Let him appear. These strong Egyptian fetters I must break, Enter another Messenger. Or lose myself in dotage.-What are you? Where died she? 2 Mess. In Sicyon: Eno. What's your pleasure, sir? Eno. 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. Ant. I must be gone. Eno. Under a compelling occasion, let women die: It were pity to cast them away for nothing though, between them and a great cause, they should be esteemed nothing. Cleopatra, catching but the least noise of this, dies instantly; I have seen her die twenty times upon far poorer moment : I do think, there is mettle in death, which commits some loving act upon her, she hath such a celerity in dying. Ant. She is cunning past man's thought. Eno. Alack, sir, no; her passions are made of nothing but the finest part of pure love: We cannot call her winds and waters, sighs and tears; they are greater storms and tempests than almanacs can report: this cannot be cunning in her; if it be, she makes a shower of rain as well as Jove. Ant. 'Would I had never seen her! Eno. Fulvia? Ant. Dead. Eno. Why, sir, give the gods a thankful sacrifice. When it pleaseth their deities to take the wife of a man from him, it shows to man the tailors of the earth; comforting therein, that when old robes are worn out, there are members to make new. If there were no 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. Ant. The business she hath broached in the state, Cannot endure my absence. Eno. And the business you have broached here, cannot be without you; especially that of Cleopatra's, which wholly depends on your abode. Ant. No more light answers. Let our officers Which, like the courser's hair, hath yet but life, Eno. I shall do't. [Exeunt. SCENE III-Enter Cleopatra, Charmian, Iras, and Alexas. Cleo. Where is he? Char. I did not see him since. Cleo. See where he is, who's with him, what he does :: I did not send you ;7-If you find him sad, [Exit Alex. Char. Madam, methinks, if you did love him dearly, You do not hold the method to enforce Cleo. Thou teachest like a fool: the way to lose him. Char. Tempt him not so too far: I wish, forbear; In time we hate that which we often fear. Enter Antony. Eno. O, sir, you had then left unseen a wonderful piece of work; which not to have been bless-But here comes Antony. ed withal, would have discredited your travel. Ant. Fulvia is dead. Cleo. It cannot be thus long, the sides of nature What says the married woman?—You may go; I pr'ythee, turn aside, and weep for her; O, never was there queen Of excellent dissembling; and let it look So mightily betray'd! Yet, at the first, Cleopatra, Cleo. Why should I think, you can be mine, and Though you in swearing shake the throned gods, Ant. Bliss in our brows' bent; none our parts so poor, How now, lady! Ant. There were a heart in Egypt. Ant. Are newly grown to love: the condemn'd Pompey, Is Fulvia's death. Ant. Ant. And target,-Still he mends; Ant. Cleo. 'Tis sweating labour, Let us go. Come; [Exeunt. SCENE IV.-Rome. An apartment in Cæsar's Cas. You may see, Lepidus, and henceforth know, Cleo. Though age from folly could not give me The lamps of night in revel: is not more manlike freedom, It does from childishness:-Can Fulvia die ?5 Ant. She's dead, my queen: Look here, and, at thy sovereign leisure, read Cleo. With sorrowful water? Now I see, I see, (1) The arch of our eye-brows. (2) Smack or flavour. (4) Render my going not dangerous. (5) Can Fulvia be dead? (6) The commotion she occasioned. Than Cleopatra; nor the queen Ptolemy find there A man, who is the abstract of all faults || Rather than purchas'd;12 what he cannot change, Cas. You are too indulgent: Let us grant, it is not (7) Mud of the river Nile. (8) To me, the queen of Egypt. (9) Heat. (10) Oblivious memory. (11) Associate or partner. (12) Procured by his own fault. Amiss to tumble on the bed of Ptolemy; (As his composure must be rare indeed, Lep. To-morrow, Cæsar, Whom these things cannot blemish,) yet must An- I shall be furnish'd to inform you rightly Most noble Cæsar, shalt thou have report Cæs. body, Like a vagabond flag upon the stream, Goes to, and back, lackeying the varying tide, Mess. With keels of every kind: Many hot inroads Leave thy lascivious wassals.9 When thou once The roughest berry on the rudest hedge; (1) Levity. (2) Visit him. (3) Consume. (4) Discontented. (5) Endeared by being missed. (6) Plough. (7) Turn pale. (8) Ruddy. (9) Feastings: in the old copy it is vaissailes, e. vassals. Both what by sea and land I can be able, Till which encounter, It is my business too. Farewell. Lep. Farewell, my lord: What you shall know mean time SCENE V.-Alexandria. A room in the palace. Enter Cleopatra, Charmian, Iras, and Mardian. Mar. Not in deed, madam; for I can do nothing But what in deed is honest to be done : Yet have I fierce affections, and think, What Venus did with Mars. Cleo. 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! The demi-Atlas of this earth, the arm Cleo. 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? Good friend, quoth he, Cleo. What, was he sad, or merry extremes He was not sad; for he would shine on those Who's born that day I shall do well: Pom. The people love me, and the sea is mine; My power's a 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: Cæsar gets money, where He loses hearts: Lepidus flatters both, Of both is flatter'd ; but he neither loves, Nor either cares for him. Men. Cæsar and Lepidus Are in the field; a mighty strength they carry. Pom. Where have you this? 'tis false. Men. From Silvius, sir. Pom. He dreams; I know, they are in Rome to gether, Looking for Antony: But all charms of love, Enter Varrius. Var. 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. Pom. I could have given less matter A better ear.-Menas, I did not think, This amorous surfeiter would have don'd his helm3 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. Men. I cannot hope, Cæsar and Antony shall well greet together: His wife, that's dead, did trespasses to Cæsar; His brother warr'd upon him; although, I think, Not mov'd by Antony. Pom. 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 entertain'd cause enough [Exeunt. |