ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA. ACT THE FIRST. SCENE I. Alexandria. The Interior of CLEOPATRA's Palace. Enter CANIDIUS and PHILO. Can. Nay, but this dotage of our general 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 of his breast, disowns all temper, And is become the bellows and the fan, To cool a gipsy's passions. Look, they come. [Flourish. Enter ANTONY, CLEOPATRA, and their Train. Eunuchs fanning her. Take but good note, and you shall see in him Into a wanton's fool. Behold! Cle. If it be love indeed, tell me how much. Ant. There's beggary in the love that can be reckon❜d. Cle. I'll set a bourn how far to be beloved. Ant. Then must thou needs find out new Heaven, new earth. Attend. News, my good lord, from Rome. Cle. Nay, hear them, Antony. Fulvia, perchance, is angry; or, who knows Ant. How, my love! Cle. Perchance,-nay, and most like, You must not stay here longer; your dismission Call in the messengers. As I am Egypt's queen, Is, to do thus. Cle. Excellent falsehood! [Kisses her hand. Why did he marry Fulvia, and not love her? I seem the fool I am not; Antony Will be himself. Ant. Now, for the love of Love, and his 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. Ant. Fie, wrangling queen! What sport to-night? Whom every thing becomes, to chide, to laugh, No messenger but thine. Come, come, my queen !. Must leave her utterly. Can. Never; he will not. Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale Philo. I am full sorry that he so approves SCENE II, Alexandria. A Room in CLEOPATRA'S Palace. Enter ANTONY; PROCULEIUS following. Pro. Fulvia, thy wife, first came into the field. Pro. Ay: But soon that war had end; and the time's state Made friends of them, joining their force 'gainst Cæsar; Whose better issue in the war from Italy, Upon the first encounter, drave them. *Ant. Well, What worst? Pro. 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. Pro. Labienus Hath, with his Parthian force, extended Asia. Whilst Ant. Antony, thou would'st say Pro. 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, From Sicyon how the news? Speak there. Pro. The man from Sicyon. Is there such a one? [Exit. Ant. These strong Egyptian fetters I must break, Or lose myself in dotage. What are you? Enter a MESsenger. Mes. Fulvia, thy wife, is dead. Ant. Where died she? Mes. In Sicyon : |