SCENE 1. ALEXANDRIA. A Room in CLEOPATRA's Palace.

Enter DEMETRIUS and Philo. Phi. Nay, but this dotage of our general's 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 on his breast, reneges all temper; And is become the bellows, and the fan, To cool a gipsy's Just. Look, where they come! Flourish. Enter Antony and CLEOPATRA, with their

Trains; Eunuchs fanning her. Take but good note, and yoa shall see in him The triple pillar of the world transform’d Into a strumpet's fool: behold and see.

Cleo. If it be love indeed, tell me how much.

Ant. There's beggary in the love that can be reckon'd.
Cleo. I'll set a bourn how far to be belov'd. [earth.
Ant. Then must thou needs find out new heaven, new

Enter an Attendant.
Att. News, my good lord, from Rome.
Ant.

Grates me :-The sum.
Cleo. Nay, hear them, Antony:
Fulvia, perchance, is angry; Or, who knows
If the scarce-bearded Cæsar have not sent
His powerful mandate to you, Do this, or this;
Take in that kingdom, and enfranchise that ;
Perform't, or else we damn thee.
Ant.

How, my love! Cleo. Perchance,-nay, and most like, You must not stay here longer, your dismission Is come from Cæsar; therefore hear it, Antony.Where's Fulvia's process? Cæsar's, I would say?

Both?Call in the messengers.—As I am Egypt's queen, Thou blushest, Antony; and that blood of thine Is Cæsar's homager : else so thy cheek pays shame, When shrill-tongu'd Fulvia scolds.—The messengers.

Ant. Let Rome in Tyber melt! and the wide arch Of the rang'd empire fall! Here is my space;

ingdoms are clay: our dungy earth alike
Feeds beast as man: the nobleness of life
Is, to do thus; when such a mutual pair, [Embracing.
And such a twain can do't, in which, i bind
On pain of punishment, the world to weet,
We stand up peerless.
Cleo.

Excellent falsehood!
Why did he marry Fulvia, and not love her?-
I'll seem the fool I am not; Antony
Will be himself.
Ant.

But stirr'd by Cleopatra.-
Now, for the love of Love, and her 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: What sport to-niglit?

I'm full sorry,

Cleo. Hear the ambassadors.
Ant.

Fie, wrangling queen!
Whom every thing becomes, to chide, to laugh,
To weep; whose every passion fully strives
To make itself, in thee, fair and admir'd!
No messenger; but thine and all alone,
To-night, we'll wander through the streets, and note
The qualities of people. Come, my queen;
Last night you did desire it:-Speak not to us.

[Exeunt Ant. and Cleo. with their Train. Dem. Is Cæsar with Antonius priz'd so slight?

Phi. Sir, sometimes, when he is not Antony,
He comes too short of that great property
Which still should go with Antony.

Dem.
That he approves the common liar, who
Thus speaks of him at Rome : But I will hope
Of better deeds to-morrow. Rest you happy!

[Exeunt. SCENE 11. The same. Another Room. Enter CHARMIAN, IRAS, ALEXAS, and a Soothsayer.

Char. Lord Alexas, sweet Alexas, most any thing Alexas, almost inost 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 ?
Char. Is this the man?-Is't you, sir, that know things?

Sooth. In nature's infinite book of secresy,
A little I can read.
Aler.

Show him your hand.

Enter ENOBARBUS.
Eno. Bring in the banquet quickly; wine enoughi,
Cleopatra's health to drink.

Char. Good sir, give me good fortune.
Sooth. I make not, but foresee.
Char. Pray then, foresee me one.
Sooth, You shall be yet far fairer than you are.

Char. He means, in flesh.
Iras. No, you shall paint when you are old.
Char. Wrinkles forbid !
Aler. Vex not his prescience; be attentive.
Char. Hush!
Sooth. You shall be more beloving, than beloved.
Char. I bad rather heat my liver with drinking.
Alex. Nay, hear him.

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 out-live the lady whom you serve. Char. O excellent! I love long life better than figs. Sooth. You have seen and proved a fairer former forThan that which is to approach.

(tune, Char. Then, belike, my children shall have no names: Prythee, 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. 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 prog: nostication, 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.
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 belter than I, where would you choose it?

Tras. Not in my husband's nose.

follow worse,

Char. Our worser thoughts heavens mend! Alexas,come,

his fortune, his fortune.-0, let him marry a woman that cannol go, sweet Isis, I beseech thee! And let her die too, and give him a worse! and let worse

till 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 forlune him accordingly!

Char. Amen.

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

Eno. Hush! here comes Antony.
Char.

Not he, the queen.
Enter CLEOPATRA.
Cleo. Saw you my lord ?
Eno.

No, my lady. Cleo.

Was he not here? Char. No, madam.

Cleo. He was dispos'd to mirth ; but on the sudden A Roman thought hath struck him.--Enobarbus,Eno. Madam.

[Alexas? Cleo. Seek him, and bring him hither. Where's Aler. Here madam, at your service.—My lord ap

proaches. Enter Antony, with a Messenger and Attendants. Cleo. We will not look upon him: Go with us.

[Exeunt Cleopatra, Enobarbus, Aleras, Iras,

Charmian, Soothsayer, and Attendants. Mess. Fulvia thy wife first came into the field.

Ant. Against my brother Lucius? But soon that war had end, and the time's state Made frien of them, joining their force'gainst Cæsar;

Mess. Ay: