And that she has discharg'd: What thou would'st 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.

Ant.

Dead then?

Mar.
Dead.
Ant. Eros, unarm; 50) the long day's task is done,
And we must sleep:- That thou depart'st hence safe,
Does pay thy labour richly; Go.-Off, pluck off;
[Exit MARDIAN.

The seven-fold shield of Ajax cannot keep
The battery from my heart. O, cleave, my sides!
Heart, once be stronger than thy continent. 51)
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 further: Now all labour
Mars what it does; yea, very force entangles
Itself with strength: Seal then, and all is done.—52)
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 Eneas shall want troops,
And all the haunt be ours. Come, Eros, Eros!

-

Re-enter EROS.

Eros. What would my lord?
Ant.
Since Cleopatra died,
I have liv'd 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 Cæsar 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 would'st kill me: do't; the time is come:
Thou strik'st not me, 'tis Cæsar thou defeat'st.
Put colour in thy cheeks.
Eros.
The gods withhold me!
Shall I do that, which all the Parthian darts,
Though enemy, lost aim, and could not?

Ant.
Eros,
Would'st thou be window'd in great Rome, and see
Thy master thus with pleach'd arms, 53) bending down
His corrigible neck, 54) his face subdued
To penetrative shame; whilst the wheel'd seat
Of fortunate Cæsar, drawn before him, branded
His baseness that ensued? 55)
Eros.
I would not see't.
Ant. Come then; for with a wound I must be cur'd.
Draw that thy honest sword, which thou hast worn
Most useful for thy country.

Eros.
O, sir, pardon me.
Ant. When I did make thee free, swor'st thou
not then

To do this when I bade thee? Do it at once;
Or thy precedent services are all

But accidents unpurpos'd. Draw, and come.

Eros. Turn from me then that noble countenance, Wherein the worship of the whole world 56) lies. Ant. Lo thee! [Turning from him.

Eros. My sword is drawn.

Of Antony's death. Ant.

[Dies.

Thrice nobler than myself! Thou teachest me, O valiant Eros, what I should, and thou could'st 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 yet dead? 57) not dead?

The guard!-ho! - O, despatch me.

Enter DERCETAS and Guard.

1 Guard. What's the noise? Ant. I have done my work ill, friends; O make

an end

Ant.

One word, sweet queen:

Of Cæsar seek your honour, with your safety.—O!
Cleo. They do not go together.
Ant.

Gentle, hear me:
None about Cæsar trust, but Proculeius.
Cleo. My resolution, and my hands, I'll trust;
None about Cæsar.

Ant. The miserable change now at my end, Lament nor sorrow at: but please your thoughts, In feeding them with those my former fortunes Wherein I liv'd, the greatest prince o'the world, The noblest and do now not basely die, Nor cowardly; put off my helmet to My countryman, a Roman, by a Roman Valiantly vanquish'd. Now, my spirit is going;

I can no more. Cleo.

[Dies.

Noblest of men, woo't die? Hast thou no care of me? shall I abide In this dull world, which in thy absence is No better than a stye? - O, see, my women, The crown o'the earth doth melt: My lord! O, wither'd is the garland of the war,

The soldier's pole 68) is fallen; young boys, and girls,
Are level now with men: the odds is gone,
And there is nothing left remarkable
Beneath the visiting moon.

Char.

O, quietness, lady! Iras. She is dead too, our sovereign.

Char. Iras.

Char. O madam, madam, madam!

Iras. Empress!

Char. Peace, peace, Iras.

[She faints.

Cleo. No more, but e'en a woman; and commanded By such poor passion as the maid that milks, And does the meanest chares. "") It were for me To throw my scepter at the injurious gods; To tell them, that this world did equal theirs, Till they had stolen our jewel. All's but naught; Patience is sottish; and impatience does Become a dog that's mad: Then is it sin, To rush into the secret house of death, Ere death dare come to us? How do you, women? What, what? good cheer! Why, how now, Charmian? My noble girls! Ah, women, women! look, Our lamp is spent, it's out:- Good sirs, take heart:— [To the Guard below.

Your wife Octavia, with her modest eyes,

And still conclusion, 64) shall acquire no honour

Demuring upon me. Help me, my women, Assist, good friends. Ant.

But come, come, Antony,

we must draw thee up;

O, quick, or I am gone. Cleo. Here's sport, indeed!-65) How heavy weighs

my lord!

Our strength is all gone into heaviness, 66)
That makes the weight: Had I great Juno's power,
The strong-wing'd Mercury should fetch thee up,
And set thee by Jove's side. Yet come a little,
Wishers were ever fools; O, come, come, come;
[They draw ANTONY up.
And welcome, welcome! die, where thou hast liv'd;
Quicken with kissing; 67) had my lips that power,
Thus would I wear them out.
All.

A heavy sight!
Ant. I am dying, Egypt, dying:

Give me some wine, and let me speak a little.
Cleo. No, let me speak; and let me rail so high,
That the false housewife Fortune break her wheel,
Provok'd by my offence.

Let's do it after the high Roman fashion,
And make death proud to take us. Come, away:
This case of that huge spirit now is cold.
Ah, women, women! come; we have no friend
But resolution, and the briefest end.

[Exeunt; those above bearing off ANTONY's Body.

ACT V.

SCENE I. Cæsar's Camp before Alexandria.
Enter CESAR, AGRIPPA, DOLABELLA, MECENAS,
GALLUS, PROCULEIUS, and others.

Cas. Go to him, Dolabella, bid him yield;
Being so frustrate, 1) tell him, he mocks us by
The pauses that he makes.
Dol.

Cæsar, I shall. [Exit DOLABELLA.

Enter DERCETAS, with the Sword of ANTONY. Cas. Wherefore is that? and what art thou, that dar'st Appear thus to us? 2)

And citizens to their dens: The death of Antony
Is not a single doom; in the name lay
A moiety of the world.
Der.

He is dead, Cæsar;
Not by a public minister of justice,

Nor by a hired knife; but that self hand,
Which writ his honour in the acts it did,

Hath, with the courage which the heart did lend it,
Splitted the heart. This is his sword,

I robb'd his wound of it; behold it stain'd With his most noble blood.

Cas.

O Antony!

Cas. I have follow'd thee to this; But we do lance Diseases in our bodies: 4) I must perforce Have shown to thee such a declining day, Or look on thine; we could not stall together In the whole world: But yet let me lament, With tears as sovereign as the blood of hearts, That thou, my brother, my competitor In top of all design, my mate in empire, Friend and companion in the front of war, The arm of mine own body, and the heart Where mine his thoughts 5) did kindle, that our

stars

Unreconciliable, should divide

Our equalness to this. 6) Hear me, good friends, – But I will tell you at some meeter season;

Which shackles accidents, and bolts up change; Which sleeps, and never palates more the dung, The beggar's nurse and Cæsar's. *)

Enter, to the Gates of the Monument, PROCU-
LEIUS, GALLUS, and Soldiers.
Pro. Cæsar sends greeting to the queen of Egypt;
And bids thee study on what fair demands
Thou mean'st to have him grant thee.
Cleo. [Within.]

Pro. My name is Proculeius.
Cleo. [Within.]

What's thy name?

Antony

Did tell me of you, bade me trust you; but
I do not greatly care to be deceiv'd,
That have no use for trusting. If your master
Would have a queen his beggar, you must tell him,
That majesty, to keep decorum, must

No less beg than a kingdom: if he please
To give me conquer'd Egypt for my son,
He gives me so much of mine own, as I
Will kneel to him with thanks.
Pro.
Be of good cheer;
You are fallen into a princely hand, fear nothing:
Make your full reference freely to my lord,
Who is so full of grace, that it flows over
On all that need: Let me report to him
Your sweet dependancy: and you shall find
A conqueror, that will pray in aid for kindness, ") ||
Where he for grace is kneel'd to.
Cleo. [Within.]

Pray you, tell him
I am his fortune's vassal, and I send him
The greatness he has got. 10) I hourly learn
A doctrine of obedience; and would gladly
Look him i'the face.
Pro.
This I'll report, dear lady.
Have comfort; for, I know, your plight is pitied
Of him that caus'd it.

Gal. You see how easily she may be surpriz'd; [Here PROCULEIUS, and two of the Guard, ascend the Monument by a Ladder placed against a Window, and having descended, come behind CLEOPATRA, Some of the Guard unbar and open the Gates. Guard her till Cæsar come.

[TO PROCULEIUS and the Guard. Exit GALLUS. Iras. Royal queen! Char. O Cleopatra! thou art taken, queen! Cleo. Quick, quick, good hands.

[Drawing a Dagger.

Cleopatra,

Do not abuse my master's bounty, by
The undoing of yourself: let the world see
His nobleness well acted, which your death
Will never let come forth.
Cleo.
Where art thou, death?
Come hither, come! come, comne, and take a queen
Worth many babes and beggars! 11)
Pro.

O, temperance, lady! Cleo. Sir, I will eat no meat, I'll not drink, sir; If idle talk will once be necessary, 12)

I'll not sleep neither: This mortal house I'll ruin,
Do Cæsar what he can. Know, sir, that I
Will not wait pinion'd at your master's court;
Nor once be chástis'd with the sober eye
Of dull Octavia. Shall they hoist me up,
And show me to the shouting varletry

Of censuring Rome? Rather a ditch in Egypt
Be gentle grave to me! rather on Nilus' mud
Lay me stark naked, and let the water-flies
Blow me into abhorring! rather make
My country's high pyramides my gibbet,
And hang me up in chains!

Pro.

You do extend

Dol.

Assuredly, you know me. Cleo. No matter, sir, what I have heard, or known. You laugh, when boys, or women, tell their dreams; Is't not your trick?

Dol. I understand not, madam. Cleo. I dream'd, there was an emperor Antony; O, such another sleep, that I might see But such another man!

Dol. If it might please you, Cleo. His face was as the heavens; and therein stuck A sun and moon; which kept their course, and lighted The little O, the earth.

Dol. Most sovereign creature, Cleo. His legs bestrid the ocean: his rear'd arm Crested the world: 14) his voice was propertied As all the tuned spheres, and that to friends; But when he meant to quail and shake the orb, He was a rattling thunder. For his bounty, There was no winter in't; an autumn 'twas, That grew the more by reaping: His delights Were dolphin-like; they show'd his back above The element they liv'd in: In his livery Walk'd crowns, and crownets; realms and islands

were

Cleo. Think you, there was, or might be, such a man As this I dream'd of? Dol.

Gentle madam, no.

Cleo. You lie, up to the hearing of the gods. But, if there be, or ever were one such, It's past the size of dreaming: Nature wants stuff To vie strange forms 16) with fancy; yet, to imagine An Antony, were nature's piece 'gainst fancy, Condemning shadows quite. 17)

Dol. Hear me, good madam: Your loss is as yourself, great; and you bear it As answering to the weight: 'Would I might never O'ertake pursu'd success, but I do feel, By the rebound of yours, a grief that shoots My very heart at root. Cleo. I thank you, sir. Know you, what Cæsar means to do with me? Dol. I am loath to tell you what I would you knew. Cleo. Nay, pray you, sir,

Dol.

Though he be honourable, Cleo. He'll lead me then in triumph? Dol.

I know it.

Madam, he will;

Cas. Of Egypt? Dol.

Which is the queen

'Tis the emperor, madam.

Cas.

[CLEOPATRA kneels. Arise,

I pray you rise; rise, Egypt. Cleo.

Sir, the gods

You shall not kneel:

Will have it thus; my master and my lord
I must obey.
Cas.

Take to you no hard thoughts:
The record of what injuries you did us,
Though written in our flesh, we shall remember
As things but done by chance.

Cleo.

Sole sir o'the world, I cannot project 18) mine own cause so well To make it clear; but do confess, I have Been laden with like frailties, which before Have often sham'd our sex. Cas. Cleopatra, know, We will extenuate rather than enforce: If you apply yourself to our intents, (Which towards you are most gentle,) you shall find À benefit in this change; but if you seek To lay on me a cruelty, by taking Antony's course, you shall bereave yourself Of my good purposes, and put your children To that destruction which I'll guard them from, If thereon you rely. I'll take my leave. Cleo. And may, through all the world: 'tis yours;

Cleo. This is my treasurer; let him speak, my lord, Upon his peril, that I have reserv'd'

To myself nothing. Speak the truth, Seleucus.
Sel. Madam,

I had rather seel 19) my lips, than, to my peril,
Speak that which is not.
Cleo.
What have I kept back?
Sel. Enough to purchase what you have made known.

Go back, I warrant thee; but I'll catch thine eyes,
Though they had wings: Slave, soul-less villain, dog!
O rarely base! 20)
Cas.

Good queen, let us entreat you.
Cleo. O Cæsar, what a wounding shame is this;
That thou, vouchsafing here to visit me,
Doing the honour of thy lordliness

To one so meek, that mine own servant should
Parcel the sum of my disgraces by 21)
Addition of his envy! Say, good Cæsar,
That I some lady trifles have reserv'd,
Immoment toys, things of such dignity

As we greet modern friends 22) withal; and say,
Some nobler token I have kept apart
For Livia, and Octavia, to induce
Their inediation; must I be unfolded
With one 23) that I have bred? The gods! It smites me
Beneath the fall I have. 'Pr'ythee, go hence;

[TO SELEUCUS. Or I shall show the cinders of my spirits Through the ashes of my chance: -4) Wert thou

Cleopatra,

Not what you have reserv'd, nor what acknowledg'd,
Put we i'the roll of conquest: still be it yours,
Bestow it at your pleasure; and believe,
Cæsar's no merchant, to make prize with you
Of things that merchants sold. Therefore be cheer'd;
Make not your thoughts your prisons: no, dear
queen;
For we intend so to dispose you, as
Yourself shall give us counsel. Feed, and sleep:
Our care and pity is so much upon you,
That we remain your friend; And so adieu.
Cleo. My master, and my lord!
Cas.

Not so: Adieu. [Exeunt CESAR, and his Train. Cleo. He words me, girls, he words me, that I

should not

Be noble to myself: but hark thee, Charmian.
[Whispers CHARMIAN.
Iras. Finish, good lady; the bright day is done,
And we are for the dark.

Cleo.
Hie thee again:
I have spoke already, and it is provided;
Go, put it to the haste.
Char.

Madam, I will.
Re-enter DOLABELLA.
Dol. Where is the queen?
Char.
Behold, sir. [Exit CHARMIAN.
Cleo.
Dolabella?
Dol. Madam, as thereto sworn by your command,
Which my love makes religion to obey,
I tell you this: Cæsar through Syria
Intends his journey; and, within three days,
You with your children will he send before:

Make your best use of this: I have perform'd
Your pleasure, and my promise.
Cleo.

I shall remain your debtor.
Dol.

Dolabella,

I your servant.
Adieu, good queen; I must attend on Cæsar.
Cleo. Farewell, and thanks. [Exit DoL.] Now, Iras,
what think'st thou?

Thou, an Egyptian puppet, shalt be shown
In Rome as well as I: mechanic slaves
With greasy aprons, rules, and hammers, shall
Uplift us to the view; in their thick breaths,
Rank of gross diet, shall we be enclouded,
And forc'd to drink their vapour.
Iras.
Cleo. Nay, 'tis most certain, Iras: Saucy lictors
Will catch at us, like strumpets; and scald rhymers 26)
Ballad us out o'tune: the quick comedians 27)
Extemporally will stage us, and present
Our Alexandrian revels; Antony

The gods forbid!

Shall be brought drunken forth, and I shall see
Some squeaking Cleopatra boy my greatness 28)
I' the posture of a whore.
Iras.

O the good gods!

Cleo. Nay, that is certain. Iras. I'll never see it; for, I am sure, my nails Are stronger than mine eyes. Cleo.

Why, that's the way To fool their preparation, and to conquer Their most absurd intents. Now, Charmian? Enter CHARMIAN.

Go fetch

Show me, my women, like a queen;
My best attires: - I am again for Cydnus,
To meet Mark Antony: Sirrah, Iras, go.
Now, noble Charmian, we'll despatch indeed:
And, when thou hast done this chare, I'll give
thee leave

To play till dooms-day. - Bring our crown and all.
Wherefore's this noise? [Exit IRAS. A noise within.

Enter one of the Guard.,

Guard.
Here is a rural fellow,
That will not be denied your highness presence;
He brings you figs.
Cleo. Let him come in. How poor 29) an instrument
[Exit Guard.

May do a noble deed! he brings me liberty.
My resolution's plac'd, and I have nothing
Of woman in me: Now from head to foot
I am marble-constant: now the fleeting moon 30)
No planet is of mine.

Cleo. Remember'st thou any that have died on't? Clown. Very many, men and women too. I heard of one of them no longer than yesterday: a very honest woman, but something given to lie; as a woman should not do, but in the way of honesty: how she died of the biting of it, what pain she felt, Truly, she makes a very good report o'the worm: But he that will believe all that they say, shall never be saved by half that they do; But this is most fallible, the worm's an odd worm.