Antony and Cleopatra

Forord og innledning ACT I Scene I. Alexandria. A Room in Cleopatra's palace. Scene II. Alexandria. Another Room in Cleopatra's palace. Scene III. Alexandria. A Room in Cleopatra's palace. Scene IV. Rome. An Apartment in Caesar's House Scene V. Alexandria. A Room in the Palace. ACT II Scene I. Messina. A Room in Pompey's house. Scene II. Rome. A Room in the House of Lepidus. Scene III. Rome. A Room in Caesar's House. Scene IV. Rome. A street. Scene V. Alexandria. A Room in the Palace. Scene VI. Near Misenum. Scene VII. On board Pompey's Galley, lying near Misenum. ACT III Scene I. A plain in Syria. Scene II. Rome. An Ante-chamber in Caesar's house. Scene III. Alexandria. A Room in the Palace. Scene IV. Athens. A Room in Antony's House. Scene V. Athens. Another Room in Antony's House. Scene VI. Rome. A Room in Caesar's House. Scene VII. Antony's Camp near the Promontory of Actium. Scene VIII. A plain near Actium. Scene IX.

Another part of the Plain. Scene X. Another part of the Plain. Scene XI. Alexandria. A Room in the Palace. Scene XII. Caesar's camp in Egypt. Scene XIII. Alexandria. A Room in the Palace. ACT IV Scene I. Caesar's Camp at Alexandria. Scene II. Alexandria. A Room in the Palace. Scene III. Alexandria. Before the Palace. Scene IV. Alexandria. A Room in the Palace. Scene V. Antony's camp near Alexandria. Scene VI. Alexandria. Caesar's camp. Scene VII. Field of battle between the Camps. Scene VIII. Under the Walls of Alexandria. Scene IX. Caesar's camp. Scene X. Ground between the two Camps. Scene XI. Another part of the Ground. Scene XII. Another part of the Ground. Scene XIII. Alexandria. A Room in the Palace. Scene XIV. Alexandria. Another Room. Scene XV. Alexandria. A monument. ACT V Scene I. Caesar's Camp before Alexandria. Scene II. Alexandria. A Room in the Monument.

Dramatis Personæ MARK ANTONY, Triumvir OCTAVIUS CAESAR, Triumvir LEPIDUS, Triumvir SEXTUS POMPEIUS, DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS, friend to Antony VENTIDIUS, friend to Antony EROS, friend to Antony SCARUS, friend to Antony DERCETUS, friend to Antony DEMETRIUS, friend to Antony PHILO, friend to Antony MAECENAS, friend to Caesar AGRIPPA, friend to Caesar DOLABELLA, friend to Caesar PROCULEIUS, friend to Caesar THIDIAS, friend to Caesar GALLUS, friend to Caesar MENAS, friend to Pompey MENECRATES, friend to Pompey VARRIUS, friend to Pompey TAURUS, Lieutenant-General to Caesar CANIDIUS, Lieutenant-General to Antony SILIUS, an Officer in Ventidius's army EUPHRONIUS, an Ambassador from Antony to Caesar ALEXAS, attendant on Cleopatra MARDIAN, attendant on Cleopatra SELEUCUS, attendant on Cleopatra DIOMEDES, attendant on Cleopatra **A SOOTHSAYER:** **A CLOWN:** CLEOPATRA, Queen of Egypt OCTAVIA, sister to Caesar and wife to Antony CHARMIAN, Attendant on Cleopatra IRAS, Attendant on Cleopatra Officers, Soldiers, Messengers, and other Attendants SCENE: Dispersed, in several parts of the Roman Empire.

ACT I SCENE I. Alexandria. A Room in Cleopatra's palace. **PHILO:** 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 glowed like plated Mars, now bend, now turn The office and devotion of their view On 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 lust. Flourish. Enter Antony and Cleopatra, her Ladies, the Train, with Eunuchs fanning her. Look where they come: Take but good note, and you shall see in him The triple pillar of the world transform'd Into a strumpet's fool. **ANTONY:** Then must thou needs find out new heaven, new earth. **CLEOPATRA:** Nay, hear them, Antony.

Fulvia perchance is angry; or who knows If the scarce-bearded Caesar have not sent His powerful mandate to you: "Do this or this; Take in that kingdom and enfranchise that. **CLEOPATRA:** Perchance! Nay, and most like. You must not stay here longer; your dismission Is come from Caesar; therefore hear it, Antony. —Caesar's I would say? Both? Call in the messengers. As I am Egypt's queen, Thou blushest, Antony, and that blood of thine Is Caesar's homager; else so thy cheek pays shame When shrill-tongued Fulvia scolds. **ANTONY:** Let Rome in Tiber melt, and the wide arch Of the ranged empire fall! Here is my space. Kingdoms are clay. Our dungy earth alike Feeds beast as man. **CLEOPATRA:** Excellent falsehood! Why did he marry Fulvia, and not love her? I'll seem the fool I am not. **ANTONY:** But stirred 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. **ANTONY:** Fie, wrangling queen! Whom everything becomes—to chide, to laugh, To weep; whose every passion fully strives To make itself, in thee fair and admired! No messenger but thine, and all alone Tonight we'll wander through the streets and note The qualities of people. Come, my queen, Last night you did desire it. **DEMETRIUS:** I am full sorry That he approves the common liar who Thus speaks of him at Rome, but I will hope Of better deeds tomorrow. _ SCENE II. Alexandria. Another Room in Cleopatra's palace. **CHARMIAN:** Lord Alexas, sweet Alexas, most anything Alexas, almost most absolute Alexas, where's the soothsayer that you praised so to th' queen? **CHARMIAN:** Is this the man? **ALEXAS:** Vex not his prescience. **CHARMIAN:** 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. **CHARMIAN:** O, excellent! **CHARMIAN:** Then belike my children shall have no names. **CHARMIAN:** Out, fool! **CHARMIAN:** Nay, if an oily palm be not a fruitful prognostication, I cannot scratch mine ear. **CHARMIAN:** Our worser thoughts heavens mend! 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 the worst of all follow him laughing to his grave, fiftyfold a cuckold! **IRAS:** Amen. Dear goddess, hear that prayer of the people! For, as it is a heartbreaking to see a handsome man loose-wived, so it is a deadly sorrow to behold a foul knave uncuckolded. **ALEXAS:** Lo now, if it lay in their hands to make me a cuckold, they would make themselves whores but they'd do't!

**CLEOPATRA:** He was disposed to mirth; but on the sudden A Roman thought hath struck him. **CLEOPATRA:** Seek him and bring him hither. **ALEXAS:** Here, at your service. My lord approaches. **CLEOPATRA:** We will not look on him. **MESSENGER:** Ay. **ANTONY:** When it concerns the fool or coward. On. **ANTONY:** Speak to me home; mince not the general tongue. Name Cleopatra as she is called in Rome; Rail thou in Fulvia's phrase, and taunt my faults With such full licence 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. **ANTONY:** From Sicyon, ho, the news? _ These strong Egyptian fetters I must break, Or lose myself in dotage. Enter another Messenger with a letter. _ There's a great spirit gone! Thus did I desire it. What our contempts doth often hurl from us, We wish it ours again.

The present pleasure, By revolution lowering, does become The opposite of itself. She's good, being gone. The hand could pluck her back that shoved her on. I must from this enchanting queen break off. Ten thousand harms, more than the ills I know, My idleness doth hatch. How now, Enobarbus! **ENOBARBUS:** Why then we kill all our women. We see how mortal an unkindness is to them. **ENOBARBUS:** 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 on far poorer moment. **ENOBARBUS:** 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.

**ENOBARBUS:** 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. **ANTONY:** No more light answers. Let our officers Have notice what we purpose. I shall break The cause of our expedience to the Queen, And get her leave to part. For not alone The death of Fulvia, with more urgent touches, Do strongly speak to us, but the letters too Of many our contriving friends in Rome Petition us at home. Sextus Pompeius Hath given the dare to Caesar, and commands The empire of the sea.

Our slippery people, Whose love is never linked to the deserver Till his deserts are past, begin to throw Pompey the Great and all his dignities On his son, who, high in name and power, Higher than both in blood and life, stands up For the main soldier; whose quality, going on, The sides o' th' world may danger. Much is breeding Which, like the courser's hair, hath yet but life And not a serpent's poison. _ SCENE III. Alexandria. A Room in Cleopatra's palace. **CLEOPATRA:** See where he is, who's with him, what he does. I did not send you. If you find him sad, Say I am dancing; if in mirth, report That I am sudden sick. **CHARMIAN:** Tempt him not so too far; I wish, forbear. In time we hate that which we often fear. But here comes Antony. **ANTONY:** I am sorry to give breathing to my purpose— **CLEOPATRA:** Help me away, dear Charmian! I shall fall. **CLEOPATRA:** I know by that same eye there's some good news.

What, says the married woman you may go? Would she had never given you leave to come! Let her not say 'tis I that keep you here. **ANTONY:** The gods best know— **CLEOPATRA:** O, never was there queen So mightily betrayed! **ANTONY:** Cleopatra— **CLEOPATRA:** Why should I think you can be mine and true, Though you in swearing shake the throned gods, Who have been false to Fulvia? **ANTONY:** Most sweet queen— **CLEOPATRA:** Nay, pray you seek no colour for your going, But bid farewell and go. When you sued staying, Then was the time for words. No going then, Eternity was in our lips and eyes, Bliss in our brows' bent; none our parts so poor But was a race of heaven. **ANTONY:** Hear me, queen: The strong necessity of time commands Our services awhile, but my full heart Remains in use with you.

Our Italy Shines o'er with civil swords; Sextus Pompeius Makes his approaches to the port of Rome; Equality of two domestic powers Breed scrupulous faction; the hated, grown to strength, Are newly grown to love; the condemned Pompey, Rich in his father's honour, creeps apace Into the hearts of such as have not thrived On the present state, whose numbers threaten; And quietness, grown sick of rest, would purge By any desperate change. **CLEOPATRA:** Though age from folly could not give me freedom, It does from childishness. **ANTONY:** She's dead, my queen. **CLEOPATRA:** O most false love! Where be the sacred vials thou shouldst fill With sorrowful water? **ANTONY:** Quarrel no more, but be prepared to know The purposes I bear; which are, or cease, As you shall give th' advice. **CLEOPATRA:** Cut my lace, Charmian, come! **CLEOPATRA:** So Fulvia told me.

I prithee, turn aside and weep for her, Then bid adieu to me, and say the tears Belong to Egypt. **ANTONY:** You'll heat my blood. **ANTONY:** Now, by my sword— **CLEOPATRA:** And target. Still he mends. But this is not the best. **CLEOPATRA:** Courteous lord, one word. Sir, you and I must part, but that's not it; Sir, you and I have loved, but there's not it; That you know well. **CLEOPATRA:** 'Tis sweating labour To bear such idleness so near the heart As Cleopatra this. But, sir, forgive me, Since my becomings kill me when they do not Eye well to you. Your honour calls you hence; Therefore be deaf to my unpitied folly, And all the gods go with you! **ANTONY:** Let us go. Come. Our separation so abides and flies That thou, residing here, goes yet with me, And I, hence fleeting, here remain with thee. _ SCENE IV. Rome. An Apartment in Caesar's House.

**CAESAR:** You may see, Lepidus, and henceforth know, It is not Caesar's natural vice to hate Our great competitor. From Alexandria This is the news: he fishes, drinks, and wastes The lamps of night in revel: is not more manlike Than Cleopatra, nor the queen of Ptolemy More womanly than he; hardly gave audience, or Vouchsafed to think he had partners. **LEPIDUS:** I must not think there are Evils enough to darken all his goodness. **CAESAR:** You are too indulgent. Let's grant it is not Amiss to tumble on the bed of Ptolemy, To give a kingdom for a mirth, to sit And keep the turn of tippling with a slave, To reel the streets at noon, and stand the buffet With knaves that smell of sweat. Say this becomes him— As his composure must be rare indeed Whom these things cannot blemish—yet must Antony No way excuse his foils when we do bear So great weight in his lightness.

If he filled His vacancy with his voluptuousness, Full surfeits and the dryness of his bones Call on him for't. But to confound such time That drums him from his sport, and speaks as loud As his own state and ours, 'tis to be chid As we rate boys who, being mature in knowledge, Pawn their experience to their present pleasure And so rebel to judgment. **MESSENGER:** Thy biddings have been done, and every hour, Most noble Caesar, shalt thou have report How 'tis abroad. Pompey is strong at sea, And it appears he is beloved of those That only have feared Caesar. **CAESAR:** I should have known no less. It hath been taught us from the primal state That he which is was wished until he were, And the ebbed man, ne'er loved till ne'er worth love, Comes deared by being lacked. This common body, Like to a vagabond flag on the stream, Goes to and back, lackeying the varying tide, To rot itself with motion.

**SECOND MESSENGER:** Caesar, I bring thee word Menecrates and Menas, famous pirates, Make the sea serve them, which they ear and wound With keels of every kind. Many hot inroads They make in Italy—the borders maritime Lack blood to think on't—and flush youth revolt. **CAESAR:** Antony, Leave thy lascivious wassails. When thou once Was beaten from Modena, where thou slew'st Hirtius and Pansa, consuls, at thy heel Did famine follow, whom thou fought'st against, Though daintily brought up, with patience more Than savages could suffer. Thou didst drink The stale of horses and the gilded puddle Which beasts would cough at. Thy palate then did deign The roughest berry on the rudest hedge. Yea, like the stag when snow the pasture sheets, The barks of trees thou browsed. On the Alps It is reported thou didst eat strange flesh Which some did die to look on.

'Tis time we twain Did show ourselves i' th' field, and to that end Assemble we immediate council. **CAESAR:** Till which encounter It is my business too. **LEPIDUS:** Farewell, my lord. **CAESAR:** Doubt not, sir. _ SCENE V. Alexandria. A Room in the Palace. **CLEOPATRA:** Ha, ha! **CLEOPATRA:** Not now to hear thee sing. 'Tis well for thee That, being unseminared, thy freer thoughts May not fly forth of Egypt. **MARDIAN:** Not in deed, madam, for I can do nothing But what indeed is honest to be done. **CLEOPATRA:** 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! Do bravely, horse, for wot'st thou whom thou mov'st? The demi-Atlas of this earth, the arm And burgonet of men. He's speaking now, Or murmuring "Where's my serpent of old Nile?" For so he calls me. Now I feed myself With most delicious poison.

Think on me That am with Phœbus' amorous pinches black, And wrinkled deep in time? Broad-fronted Caesar, When thou wast here above the ground, I was A morsel for a monarch. And great Pompey Would stand and make his eyes grow in my brow; There would he anchor his aspect, and die With looking on his life. **CLEOPATRA:** How much unlike art thou Mark Antony! Yet, coming from him, that great medicine hath With his tinct gilded thee. **ALEXAS:** Last thing he did, dear queen, He kissed—the last of many doubled kisses— This orient pearl. **ALEXAS:** "Good friend," quoth he, "Say, the firm Roman to great Egypt sends This treasure of an oyster; at whose foot, To mend the petty present, I will piece Her opulent throne with kingdoms. All the east, Say thou, shall call her mistress."

—Note him, Note him, good Charmian, 'tis the man; but note him: He was not sad, for he would shine on those That make their looks by his; he was not merry, Which seemed to tell them his remembrance lay In Egypt with his joy; but between both. **ALEXAS:** Ay, madam, twenty several messengers. **CLEOPATRA:** Be choked with such another emphasis! **CLEOPATRA:** My salad days, When I was green in judgment, cold in blood, To say as I said then. But come, away, Get me ink and paper. _ ACT II SCENE I. Messina. A Room in Pompey's house. **POMPEY:** I shall do well. The people love me, and the sea is mine; My powers are crescent, and my auguring hope Says it will come to th' full. Mark Antony In Egypt sits at dinner, and will make No wars without doors. Caesar gets money where He loses hearts. **MENAS:** Caesar and Lepidus Are in the field. **POMPEY:** He dreams. I know they are in Rome together, Looking for Antony.

But all the charms of love, Salt Cleopatra, soften thy waned lip! Let witchcraft join with beauty, lust with both; Tie up the libertine in a field of feasts; Keep his brain fuming. Epicurean cooks Sharpen with cloyless sauce his appetite, That sleep and feeding may prorogue his honour Even till a Lethe'd dullness— Enter Varrius. **VARRIUS:** This is most certain that I shall deliver: Mark Antony is every hour in Rome Expected. —Menas, I did not think This amorous surfeiter would have donned his helm For such a petty war. His soldiership Is twice the other twain. **MENAS:** I cannot hope Caesar and Antony shall well greet together. **POMPEY:** 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 entertained cause enough To draw their swords.

But how the fear of us May cement their divisions, and bind up The petty difference, we yet not know. Be't as our gods will have't! It only stands Our lives on to use our strongest hands. _ SCENE II. Rome. A Room in the House of Lepidus. **ENOBARBUS:** I shall entreat him To answer like himself. If Caesar move him, Let Antony look over Caesar's head And speak as loud as Mars. **LEPIDUS:** Your speech is passion; But pray you stir no embers up. Here comes The noble Antony. **ENOBARBUS:** And yonder Caesar. **ANTONY:** If we compose well here, to Parthia. **CAESAR:** I do not know, Maecenas. **LEPIDUS:** Noble friends, That which combined us was most great, and let not A leaner action rend us. What's amiss, May it be gently heard. When we debate Our trivial difference loud, we do commit Murder in healing wounds. **ANTONY:** 'Tis spoken well. **CAESAR:** No more than my residing here at Rome Might be to you in Egypt.

**CAESAR:** You may be pleased to catch at mine intent By what did here befall me. **ANTONY:** You do mistake your business. My brother never Did urge me in his act. I did inquire it, And have my learning from some true reports That drew their swords with you. Did he not rather Discredit my authority with yours, And make the wars alike against my stomach, Having alike your cause? Of this my letters Before did satisfy you. **ANTONY:** Not so, not so. I know you could not lack—I am certain on't— Very necessity of this thought, that I, Your partner in the cause 'gainst which he fought, Could not with graceful eyes attend those wars Which fronted mine own peace. As for my wife, I would you had her spirit in such another. **ANTONY:** So much uncurbable, her garboils, Caesar, Made out of her impatience—which not wanted Shrewdness of policy too—I grieving grant Did you too much disquiet. **ANTONY:** Sir, He fell on me ere admitted, then.

Three kings I had newly feasted, and did want Of what I was i' th' morning. But next day I told him of myself, which was as much As to have asked him pardon. **ANTONY:** No, Lepidus, let him speak. The honour is sacred which he talks on now, Supposing that I lacked it. **ANTONY:** Neglected, rather; And then when poisoned hours had bound me up From mine own knowledge. As nearly as I may I'll play the penitent to you. But mine honesty Shall not make poor my greatness, nor my power Work without it. **ENOBARBUS:** Or, if you borrow one another's love for the instant, you may, when you hear no more words of Pompey, return it again. **ANTONY:** Thou art a soldier only. **ENOBARBUS:** Go to, then. **CAESAR:** I do not much dislike the matter, but The manner of his speech; for't cannot be We shall remain in friendship, our conditions So differing in their acts. **AGRIPPA:** Thou hast a sister by the mother's side, Admired Octavia.

**CAESAR:** Say not so, Agrippa. **ANTONY:** I am not married, Caesar. **AGRIPPA:** To hold you in perpetual amity, To make you brothers, and to knit your hearts With an unslipping knot, take Antony Octavia to his wife; whose beauty claims No worse a husband than the best of men; Whose virtue and whose general graces speak That which none else can utter. By this marriage All little jealousies, which now seem great, And all great fears, which now import their dangers, Would then be nothing. Truths would be tales, Where now half-tales be truths. Her love to both Would each to other, and all loves to both, Draw after her. **ANTONY:** May I never To this good purpose, that so fairly shows, Dream of impediment! Let me have thy hand. **CAESAR:** There's my hand. A sister I bequeath you, whom no brother Did ever love so dearly.

**ANTONY:** I did not think to draw my sword 'gainst Pompey, For he hath laid strange courtesies and great Of late on me. **LEPIDUS:** Time calls on 's. **ANTONY:** So is the fame. Would we had spoke together! Haste we for it. _Flourish. **ENOBARBUS:** Half the heart of Caesar, worthy Maecenas! **MAECENAS:** We have cause to be glad that matters are so well digested. **MAECENAS:** Eight wild boars roasted whole at a breakfast, and but twelve persons there. **ENOBARBUS:** This was but as a fly by an eagle. **ENOBARBUS:** I will tell you. The barge she sat in, like a burnished throne, Burned on the water. The poop was beaten gold; Purple the sails, and so perfumed that The winds were love-sick with them; the oars were silver, Which to the tune of flutes kept stroke, and made The water which they beat to follow faster, As amorous of their strokes.

For her own person, It beggared all description: she did lie In her pavilion, cloth-of-gold of tissue, O'erpicturing that Venus where we see The fancy outwork nature. **ENOBARBUS:** Her gentlewomen, like the Nereides, So many mermaids, tended her i' th' eyes, And made their bends adornings. At the helm A seeming mermaid steers. The silken tackle Swell with the touches of those flower-soft hands That yarely frame the office. From the barge A strange invisible perfume hits the sense Of the adjacent wharfs. **ENOBARBUS:** On her landing, Antony sent to her, Invited her to supper. She replied It should be better he became her guest, Which she entreated. **AGRIPPA:** Royal wench! She made great Caesar lay his sword to bed. **ENOBARBUS:** Never. He will not. Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale Her infinite variety. Other women cloy The appetites they feed, but she makes hungry Where most she satisfies. **AGRIPPA:** Let us go. _ SCENE III.

Rome. A Room in Caesar's House. —My Octavia, Read not my blemishes in the world's report. I have not kept my square, but that to come Shall all be done by th' rule. **SOOTHSAYER:** I see it in my motion, have it not in my tongue. **SOOTHSAYER:** Caesar's. Therefore, O Antony, stay not by his side. Thy dæmon—that thy spirit which keeps thee—is Noble, courageous, high, unmatchable, Where Caesar's is not. But near him, thy angel Becomes afeard, as being o'erpowered. **SOOTHSAYER:** To none but thee; no more but when to thee. If thou dost play with him at any game, Thou art sure to lose; and of that natural luck He beats thee 'gainst the odds. Thy lustre thickens When he shines by. **ANTONY:** Get thee gone. _ He shall to Parthia. Be it art or hap, He hath spoken true. The very dice obey him, And in our sports my better cunning faints Under his chance.

If we draw lots, he speeds; His cocks do win the battle still of mine When it is all to naught, and his quails ever Beat mine, inhooped, at odds. I will to Egypt: And though I make this marriage for my peace, I' th' East my pleasure lies. Enter Ventidius. O, come, Ventidius, You must to Parthia. Your commission's ready. _ SCENE IV. Rome. A street. **LEPIDUS:** Trouble yourselves no further. **LEPIDUS:** Your way is shorter; My purposes do draw me much about. _

**ALL:** The music, ho! **CLEOPATRA:** Let it alone. Let's to billiards. **CHARMIAN:** My arm is sore. **CLEOPATRA:** As well a woman with an eunuch played As with a woman. **CLEOPATRA:** And when good will is showed, though't come too short, The actor may plead pardon. I'll none now. Give me mine angle; we'll to the river. There, My music playing far off, I will betray Tawny-finned fishes. My bended hook shall pierce Their slimy jaws, and as I draw them up I'll think them every one an Antony, And say "Ah, ha! — I laughed him out of patience; and that night I laughed him into patience, and next morn, Ere the ninth hour, I drunk him to his bed, Then put my tires and mantles on him, while I wore his sword Philippan. Enter Messenger. from Italy! **MESSENGER:** Madam, madam— **CLEOPATRA:** Antony's dead! If thou say so, villain, Thou kill'st thy mistress. **CLEOPATRA:** Why, there's more gold.

But sirrah, mark, we use To say the dead are well. **CLEOPATRA:** Well, go to, I will. But there's no goodness in thy face if Antony Be free and healthful. So tart a favour To trumpet such good tidings! **CLEOPATRA:** I have a mind to strike thee ere thou speak'st. **MESSENGER:** But yet, madam— **CLEOPATRA:** I do not like "But yet", it does allay The good precedence. Fie on "But yet"! "But yet" is as a gaoler to bring forth Some monstrous malefactor. **MESSENGER:** Free, madam? No. I made no such report. _ Hence, horrible villain, or I'll spurn thine eyes Like balls before me! **CLEOPATRA:** Say 'tis not so, a province I will give thee, And make thy fortunes proud. _ **MESSENGER:** Nay then I'll run. What mean you, madam? _ **CHARMIAN:** Good madam, keep yourself within yourself. **CLEOPATRA:** Some innocents 'scape not the thunderbolt. Melt Egypt into Nile, and kindly creatures Turn all to serpents! Call the slave again.

Though I am mad, I will not bite him. _ These hands do lack nobility that they strike A meaner than myself, since I myself Have given myself the cause. Enter the Messenger again with Charmian. Come hither, sir. Though it be honest, it is never good To bring bad news. **CLEOPATRA:** Is he married? **CLEOPATRA:** The gods confound thee! **CLEOPATRA:** O, I would thou didst, So half my Egypt were submerged and made A cistern for scaled snakes! Go, get thee hence. Hadst thou Narcissus in thy face, to me Thou wouldst appear most ugly. **MESSENGER:** Take no offence that I would not offend you. To punish me for what you make me do Seems much unequal. **CLEOPATRA:** O, that his fault should make a knave of thee That art not what thou'rt sure of! Get thee hence! The merchandise which thou hast brought from Rome Are all too dear for me. **CLEOPATRA:** I am paid for't now. Lead me from hence; I faint. 'Tis no matter.

Go to the fellow, good Alexas, bid him Report the feature of Octavia, her years, Her inclination; let him not leave out The colour of her hair. _ Let him for ever go—let him not, Charmian. [_To Mardian_] Bid you Alexas Bring me word how tall she is. Pity me, Charmian, But do not speak to me. _

Flourish. **POMPEY:** To you all three, The senators alone of this great world, Chief factors for the gods: I do not know Wherefore my father should revengers want, Having a son and friends, since Julius Caesar, Who at Philippi the good Brutus ghosted, There saw you labouring for him. What was't That moved pale Cassius to conspire? And what Made the all-honoured, honest Roman, Brutus, With the armed rest, courtiers of beauteous freedom, To drench the Capitol, but that they would Have one man but a man? **ANTONY:** Thou canst not fear us, Pompey, with thy sails. We'll speak with thee at sea. **POMPEY:** You have made me offer Of Sicily, Sardinia; and I must Rid all the sea of pirates; then to send Measures of wheat to Rome. This 'greed on, To part with unhacked edges and bear back Our targes undinted. CAESAR, ANTONY, and LEPIDUS. **POMPEY:** Know, then, I came before you here a man prepared To take this offer.

But Mark Antony Put me to some impatience. **POMPEY:** Let me have your hand. **POMPEY:** I hope so, Lepidus. Thus we are agreed. **POMPEY:** No, Antony, take the lot. But, first or last, your fine Egyptian cookery Shall have the fame. **POMPEY:** Then so much have I heard. And I have heard Apollodorus carried— **ENOBARBUS:** No more of that. **POMPEY:** I know thee now. **POMPEY:** Let me shake thy hand. I never hated thee. **POMPEY:** Enjoy thy plainness; It nothing ill becomes thee. Aboard my galley I invite you all. Will you lead, lords? CAESAR, ANTONY, and LEPIDUS. **ENOBARBUS:** There I deny my land service. But give me your hand, Menas. **MENAS:** No slander. **MENAS:** For my part, I am sorry it is turned to a drinking. **MENAS:** You have said, sir. We looked not for Mark Antony here. **MENAS:** True, sir. **ENOBARBUS:** I think so too.

But you shall find the band that seems to tie their friendship together will be the very strangler of their amity. **ENOBARBUS:** Not he that himself is not so; which is Mark Antony. He will to his Egyptian dish again. Then shall the sighs of Octavia blow the fire up in Caesar, and, as I said before, that which is the strength of their amity shall prove the immediate author of their variance. Antony will use his affection where it is. **MENAS:** And thus it may be. Come, sir, will you aboard? **ENOBARBUS:** I shall take it, sir. _

Music. **FIRST SERVANT:** Here they'll be, man. **SECOND SERVANT:** Why, this it is to have a name in great men's fellowship. **FIRST SERVANT:** To be called into a huge sphere, and not to be seen to move in 't, are the holes where eyes should be, which pitifully disaster the cheeks. A sennet sounded. ] Thus do they, sir: they take the flow o' th' Nile By certain scales i' th' pyramid; they know By th' height, the lowness, or the mean, if dearth Or foison follow. The higher Nilus swells, The more it promises. **POMPEY:** Sit, and some wine! **ENOBARBUS:** Not till you have slept. **LEPIDUS:** Nay, certainly, I have heard the Ptolemies' pyramises are very goodly things. **ANTONY:** It is shaped, sir, like itself, and it is as broad as it hath breadth. It is just so high as it is, and moves with it own organs. _] Go hang, sir, hang! Tell me of that? Away! **POMPEY:** Thou hast served me with much faith.

**MENAS:** Wilt thou be lord of the whole world? **MENAS:** No, Pompey, I have kept me from the cup. Thou art, if thou dar'st be, the earthly Jove. **MENAS:** These three world-sharers, these competitors, Are in thy vessel. Let me cut the cable, And when we are put off, fall to their throats. **POMPEY:** Ah, this thou shouldst have done And not have spoke on 't! In me 'tis villainy; In thee 't had been good service. Thou must know 'Tis not my profit that does lead mine honour; Mine honour it. Repent that e'er thy tongue Hath so betray'd thine act. Being done unknown, I should have found it afterwards well done, But must condemn it now. ] For this, I'll never follow thy palled fortunes more. **ANTONY:** Bear him ashore. **ENOBARBUS:** 'A bears the third part of the world, man. **MENAS:** The third part, then, is drunk. **ENOBARBUS:** Drink thou. **ANTONY:** It ripens towards it. Strike the vessels, ho! **CAESAR:** I could well forbear't.

**CAESAR:** Possess it, I'll make answer. **ENOBARBUS:** All take hands. Make battery to our ears with the loud music, The while I'll place you; then the boy shall sing. The holding every man shall beat as loud As his strong sides can volley. Music plays. **THE SONG:** Come, thou monarch of the vine, Plumpy Bacchus with pink eyne! In thy vats our cares be drowned, With thy grapes our hairs be crowned. **CAESAR:** What would you more? Pompey, good night. Good brother, Let me request you off. —Gentle lords, let's part. You see we have burnt our cheeks. Strong Enobarb Is weaker than the wine, and mine own tongue Splits what it speaks. The wild disguise hath almost Anticked us all. What needs more words. Good night. **ANTONY:** And shall, sir. **POMPEY:** O Antony, You have my father's house. But, what? We are friends. **MENAS:** No, to my cabin. These drums, these trumpets, flutes! What!

Let Neptune hear we bid a loud farewell To these great fellows. _ **ENOBARBUS:** Hoo, says 'a! **MENAS:** Hoo! _

**VENTIDIUS:** Now, darting Parthia, art thou struck, and now Pleased Fortune does of Marcus Crassus' death Make me revenger. Bear the king's son's body Before our army. **SILIUS:** Noble Ventidius, While yet with Parthian blood thy sword is warm, The fugitive Parthians follow. Spur through Media, Mesopotamia, and the shelters whither The routed fly. **VENTIDIUS:** O Silius, Silius, I have done enough. A lower place, note well, May make too great an act. For learn this, Silius: Better to leave undone than by our deed Acquire too high a fame when him we serve's away. Caesar and Antony have ever won More in their officer, than person. Sossius, One of my place in Syria, his lieutenant, For quick accumulation of renown, Which he achieved by th' minute, lost his favour. Who does i' th' wars more than his captain can Becomes his captain's captain; and ambition, The soldier's virtue, rather makes choice of loss Than gain which darkens him.

**SILIUS:** Thou hast, Ventidius, that Without the which a soldier and his sword Grants scarce distinction. _

**ENOBARBUS:** They have dispatched with Pompey; he is gone. The other three are sealing. Octavia weeps To part from Rome. **ENOBARBUS:** A very fine one. **ENOBARBUS:** Caesar? **AGRIPPA:** What's Antony? **ENOBARBUS:** Spake you of Caesar? **AGRIPPA:** O, Antony! **ENOBARBUS:** Would you praise Caesar, say "Caesar". **ENOBARBUS:** But he loves Caesar best, yet he loves Antony. Hoo! — His love to Antony. _ So, This is to horse. **AGRIPPA:** Good fortune, worthy soldier, and farewell. **CAESAR:** You take from me a great part of myself. Use me well in't. Sister, prove such a wife As my thoughts make thee, and as my farthest bond Shall pass on thy approof. Most noble Antony, Let not the piece of virtue which is set Betwixt us, as the cement of our love To keep it builded, be the ram to batter The fortress of it. **ANTONY:** You shall not find, Though you be therein curious, the least cause For what you seem to fear.

So the gods keep you, And make the hearts of Romans serve your ends. **CAESAR:** Farewell, my dearest sister, fare thee well. The elements be kind to thee, and make Thy spirits all of comfort! **ANTONY:** The April's in her eyes. **CAESAR:** No, sweet Octavia, You shall hear from me still. **ANTONY:** Come, sir, come, I'll wrestle with you in my strength of love. _Trumpets sound. _

**CLEOPATRA:** Go to, go to. Enter a Messenger as before. **CLEOPATRA:** That Herod's head I'll have! **CLEOPATRA:** Didst hear her speak? **MESSENGER:** Madam, I heard her speak. **CLEOPATRA:** That's not so good. **CHARMIAN:** Like her? **CLEOPATRA:** I think so, Charmian: dull of tongue and dwarfish! What majesty is in her gait? **MESSENGER:** She creeps. Her motion and her station are as one. **CLEOPATRA:** He's very knowing; I do perceive't. There's nothing in her yet. **CLEOPATRA:** Widow! **CLEOPATRA:** Bear'st thou her face in mind? **CLEOPATRA:** For the most part, too, they are foolish that are so. **CLEOPATRA:** There's gold for thee. Thou must not take my former sharpness ill. I will employ thee back again; I find thee Most fit for business. **CLEOPATRA:** Indeed, he is so. I repent me much That so I harried him. **CHARMIAN:** Hath he seen majesty? **CLEOPATRA:** I have one thing more to ask him yet, good Charmian.

But 'tis no matter; thou shalt bring him to me Where I will write. _

**OCTAVIA:** O, my good lord, Believe not all, or if you must believe, Stomach not all. A more unhappy lady, If this division chance, ne'er stood between, Praying for both parts. The good gods will mock me presently When I shall pray "O, bless my lord and husband!" Undo that prayer by crying out as loud "O, bless my brother!" **ANTONY:** Gentle Octavia, Let your best love draw to that point which seeks Best to preserve it. If I lose mine honour, I lose myself; better I were not yours Than yours so branchless. But, as you requested, Yourself shall go between's. The meantime, lady, I'll raise the preparation of a war Shall stain your brother. **OCTAVIA:** Thanks to my lord. The Jove of power make me, most weak, most weak, Your reconciler! **ANTONY:** When it appears to you where this begins, Turn your displeasure that way, for our faults Can never be so equal that your love Can equally move with them. _

**ENOBARBUS:** This is old. **EROS:** Caesar, having made use of him in the wars 'gainst Pompey, presently denied him rivality; would not let him partake in the glory of the action, and, not resting here, accuses him of letters he had formerly wrote to Pompey; on his own appeal, seizes him. **ENOBARBUS:** Then, world, thou hast a pair of chaps, no more, And throw between them all the food thou hast, They'll grind the one the other. **EROS:** He's walking in the garden, thus, and spurns The rush that lies before him; cries "Fool Lepidus!" **EROS:** For Italy and Caesar. More, Domitius: My lord desires you presently. **ENOBARBUS:** 'Twill be naught, But let it be. _

**CAESAR:** Contemning Rome, he has done all this, and more In Alexandria. Here's the manner of 't: I' th' market-place, on a tribunal silvered, Cleopatra and himself in chairs of gold Were publicly enthroned. At the feet sat Caesarion, whom they call my father's son, And all the unlawful issue that their lust Since then hath made between them. **CAESAR:** I' th' common showplace where they exercise. His sons he there proclaimed the kings of kings: Great Media, Parthia, and Armenia He gave to Alexander; to Ptolemy he assigned Syria, Cilicia, and Phoenicia. **CAESAR:** Caesar, and that, having in Sicily Sextus Pompeius spoiled, we had not rated him His part o' th' isle. Then does he say he lent me Some shipping, unrestored. **CAESAR:** 'Tis done already, and messenger gone. I have told him Lepidus was grown too cruel, That he his high authority abused, And did deserve his change. **CAESAR:** Nor must not then be yielded to in this.

**OCTAVIA:** Hail, Caesar, and my lord! **CAESAR:** Why have you stolen on us thus? You come not Like Caesar's sister. The wife of Antony Should have an army for an usher, and The neighs of horse to tell of her approach Long ere she did appear. The trees by th' way Should have borne men, and expectation fainted, Longing for what it had not. Nay, the dust Should have ascended to the roof of heaven, Raised by your populous troops. But you are come A market-maid to Rome, and have prevented The ostentation of our love, which, left unshown, Is often left unloved. **OCTAVIA:** Good my lord, To come thus was I not constrained, but did it On my free will. **CAESAR:** I have eyes on him, And his affairs come to me on the wind. **CAESAR:** No, my most wronged sister. Cleopatra Hath nodded him to her. He hath given his empire Up to a whore, who now are levying The kings o' th' earth for war. **CAESAR:** Welcome hither.

Your letters did withhold our breaking forth Till we perceived both how you were wrong led And we in negligent danger. Cheer your heart. Be you not troubled with the time, which drives O'er your content these strong necessities, But let determined things to destiny Hold unbewailed their way. Welcome to Rome, Nothing more dear to me. You are abused Beyond the mark of thought, and the high gods, To do you justice, make their ministers Of us and those that love you. **MAECENAS:** Welcome, dear madam. Each heart in Rome does love and pity you. **CAESAR:** Most certain. Sister, welcome. Pray you Be ever known to patience. _

**CLEOPATRA:** Is 't not denounced against us? **ENOBARBUS:** Well, I could reply: If we should serve with horse and mares together, The horse were merely lost. **ENOBARBUS:** Your presence needs must puzzle Antony, Take from his heart, take from his brain, from 's time, What should not then be spared. **CLEOPATRA:** Sink Rome, and their tongues rot That speak against us! A charge we bear i' th' war, And, as the president of my kingdom, will Appear there for a man. Speak not against it. I will not stay behind. **ENOBARBUS:** Nay, I have done. **CANIDIUS:** Ay, and to wage this battle at Pharsalia, Where Caesar fought with Pompey. **ENOBARBUS:** Your ships are not well manned, Your mariners are muleteers, reapers, people Engrossed by swift impress. In Caesar's fleet Are those that often have 'gainst Pompey fought. Their ships are yare, yours heavy.

**ANTONY:** Our overplus of shipping will we burn, And with the rest full-manned, from th' head of Actium Beat th' approaching Caesar. But if we fail, We then can do 't at land. Enter a Messenger. **MESSENGER:** The news is true, my lord; he is descried. 'Tis impossible; Strange that his power should be. Canidius, Our nineteen legions thou shalt hold by land, And our twelve thousand horse. We'll to our ship. Away, my Thetis! Enter a Soldier. **SOLDIER:** O noble emperor, do not fight by sea. Trust not to rotten planks. Do you misdoubt This sword and these my wounds? Let th' Egyptians And the Phoenicians go a-ducking. **CANIDIUS:** Soldier, thou art. But his whole action grows Not in the power on 't. **CANIDIUS:** Marcus Octavius, Marcus Justeius, Publicola, and Caelius are for sea, But we keep whole by land. **CANIDIUS:** Well I know the man. _

Enter Caesar with his army and Taurus marching. **CAESAR:** Taurus! **TAURUS:** My lord? **CAESAR:** Strike not by land; keep whole; provoke not battle Till we have done at sea. Do not exceed The prescript of this scroll. Our fortune lies On this jump. _Exeunt._

Enter Antony and Enobarbus. **ANTONY:** Set we our squadrons on yon side o' th' hill In eye of Caesar's battle, from which place We may the number of the ships behold And so proceed accordingly. _Exeunt._

Canidius marching with his land army one way over the stage, and Taurus, the Lieutenant of Caesar, with his Army, the other way. After their going in, is heard the noise of a sea fight. Alarum. **ENOBARBUS:** Naught, naught, all naught! I can behold no longer. Th' Antoniad, the Egyptian admiral, With all their sixty, fly and turn the rudder. To see 't mine eyes are blasted. **SCARUS:** The greater cantle of the world is lost With very ignorance. **SCARUS:** On our side, like the tokened pestilence, Where death is sure. **ENOBARBUS:** That I beheld. **SCARUS:** She once being loofed, The noble ruin of her magic, Antony, Claps on his sea-wing and, like a doting mallard, Leaving the fight in height, flies after her. I never saw an action of such shame. **ENOBARBUS:** Alack, alack! **CANIDIUS:** Our fortune on the sea is out of breath And sinks most lamentably. Had our general Been what he knew himself, it had gone well.

**ENOBARBUS:** Ay, are you thereabouts? **CANIDIUS:** To Caesar will I render My legions and my horse. _

**ANTONY:** Hark, the land bids me tread no more on't. It is ashamed to bear me. Friends, come hither. I am so lated in the world that I Have lost my way for ever. I have a ship Laden with gold. Take that, divide it. **ALL:** Fly? **ANTONY:** I have fled myself, and have instructed cowards To run and show their shoulders. Friends, be gone. I have myself resolved on a course Which has no need of you. Be gone. My treasure's in the harbour. Take it. O, I followed that I blush to look on. My very hairs do mutiny, for the white Reprove the brown for rashness, and they them For fear and doting. Friends, be gone. You shall Have letters from me to some friends that will Sweep your way for you. Pray you, look not sad, Nor make replies of loathness. Take the hint Which my despair proclaims. Let that be left Which leaves itself. To the sea-side straightway. I will possess you of that ship and treasure.

Leave me, I pray, a little—pray you, now, Nay, do so; for indeed I have lost command. Therefore I pray you. **EROS:** Nay, gentle madam, to him! **CHARMIAN:** Do! **CLEOPATRA:** Let me sit down. **ANTONY:** Yes, my lord, yes. He at Philippi kept His sword e'en like a dancer, while I struck The lean and wrinkled Cassius, and 'twas I That the mad Brutus ended. He alone Dealt on lieutenantry, and no practice had In the brave squares of war. **IRAS:** Go to him, madam; speak to him. **CLEOPATRA:** Well then, sustain me. **EROS:** Most noble sir, arise. The Queen approaches. **ANTONY:** O, whither hast thou led me, Egypt? **CLEOPATRA:** O my lord, my lord, Forgive my fearful sails! **ANTONY:** Egypt, thou knew'st too well My heart was to thy rudder tied by th' strings, And thou shouldst tow me after.

**ANTONY:** Now I must To the young man send humble treaties, dodge And palter in the shifts of lowness, who With half the bulk o' th' world played as I pleased, Making and marring fortunes. **ANTONY:** Fall not a tear, I say; one of them rates All that is won and lost. Give me a kiss. Even this repays me. We sent our schoolmaster. Is he come back? Love, I am full of lead. Some wine Within there, and our viands! _

**CAESAR:** Let him appear that's come from Antony. **DOLABELLA:** Caesar, 'tis his schoolmaster— An argument that he is plucked, when hither He sends so poor a pinion of his wing, Which had superfluous kings for messengers Not many moons gone by. **AMBASSADOR:** Such as I am, I come from Antony. **CAESAR:** Be't so. **AMBASSADOR:** Lord of his fortunes he salutes thee, and Requires to live in Egypt, which not granted, He lessens his requests, and to thee sues To let him breathe between the heavens and earth, A private man in Athens. This for him. **CAESAR:** For Antony, I have no ears to his request. The queen Of audience nor desire shall fail, so she From Egypt drive her all-disgraced friend, Or take his life there. This if she perform, She shall not sue unheard. ] To try thy eloquence now 'tis time. Dispatch. From Antony win Cleopatra. Promise, And in our name, what she requires; add more, From thine invention, offers.

Women are not In their best fortunes strong, but want will perjure The ne'er-touch'd vestal. _

**ENOBARBUS:** Antony only, that would make his will Lord of his reason. What though you fled From that great face of war, whose several ranges Frighted each other? Why should he follow? **CLEOPATRA:** Prithee, peace. **ANTONY:** To him again. Tell him he wears the rose Of youth on him, from which the world should note Something particular: his coin, ships, legions, May be a coward's; whose ministers would prevail Under the service of a child as soon As i' th' command of Caesar. I dare him therefore To lay his gay comparisons apart, And answer me declined, sword against sword, Ourselves alone. I'll write it. _ **ENOBARBUS:** Yes, like enough high-battled Caesar will Unstate his happiness, and be staged to th' show Against a sworder! I see men's judgments are A parcel of their fortunes, and things outward Do draw the inward quality after them To suffer all alike.

That he should dream, Knowing all measures, the full Caesar will Answer his emptiness! Caesar, thou hast subdued His judgment too. **CLEOPATRA:** What, no more ceremony? See, my women, Against the blown rose may they stop their nose That kneeled unto the buds. ] Mine honesty and I begin to square. The loyalty well held to fools does make Our faith mere folly. Yet he that can endure To follow with allegiance a fallen lord Does conquer him that did his master conquer, And earns a place i' th' story. **CLEOPATRA:** None but friends. **ENOBARBUS:** He needs as many, sir, as Caesar has, Or needs not us. If Caesar please, our master Will leap to be his friend. **CLEOPATRA:** He is a god and knows What is most right. ] To be sure of that, I will ask Antony. _ **THIDIAS:** Shall I say to Caesar What you require of him? For he partly begs To be desired to give. It much would please him That of his fortunes you should make a staff To lean on.

**CLEOPATRA:** Most kind messenger, Say to great Caesar this in deputation: I kiss his conqu'ring hand. Tell him I am prompt To lay my crown at's feet, and there to kneel. **THIDIAS:** 'Tis your noblest course. Wisdom and fortune combating together, If that the former dare but what it can, No chance may shake it. **CLEOPATRA:** Your Caesar's father oft, When he hath mused of taking kingdoms in, Bestowed his lips on that unworthy place As it rained kisses. **ANTONY:** Favours, by Jove that thunders! —Now, gods and devils, Authority melts from me. Of late when I cried "Ho!" Like boys unto a muss, kings would start forth And cry "Your will?" Have you no ears? I am Antony yet. Enter Servants. **ANTONY:** Moon and stars! Whip him. Were't twenty of the greatest tributaries That do acknowledge Caesar, should I find them So saucy with the hand of she here—what's her name Since she was Cleopatra?

Whip him, fellows, Till like a boy you see him cringe his face And whine aloud for mercy. **THIDIAS:** Mark Antony— **ANTONY:** Tug him away. Being whipp'd, Bring him again. _ You were half blasted ere I knew you. Ha! **CLEOPATRA:** Good my lord— **ANTONY:** You have been a boggler ever. **ANTONY:** I found you as a morsel cold on Dead Caesar's trencher; nay, you were a fragment Of Gneius Pompey's, besides what hotter hours, Unregistered in vulgar fame, you have Luxuriously pick'd out. " be familiar with My playfellow, your hand, this kingly seal And plighter of high hearts! O that I were On the hill of Basan, to outroar The horned herd! For I have savage cause, And to proclaim it civilly were like A haltered neck which does the hangman thank For being yare about him. Enter a Servant with Thidias. **ANTONY:** Cried he?

**ANTONY:** If that thy father live, let him repent Thou wast not made his daughter; and be thou sorry To follow Caesar in his triumph, since Thou hast been whipped for following him. Henceforth The white hand of a lady fever thee; Shake thou to look on't. Get thee back to Caesar; Tell him thy entertainment. Look thou say He makes me angry with him; for he seems Proud and disdainful, harping on what I am, Not what he knew I was. He makes me angry, And at this time most easy 'tis to do't, When my good stars that were my former guides Have empty left their orbs and shot their fires Into th' abysm of hell. If he mislike My speech and what is done, tell him he has Hipparchus, my enfranched bondman, whom He may at pleasure whip, or hang, or torture, As he shall like, to quit me. Urge it thou.

**CLEOPATRA:** Ah, dear, if I be so, From my cold heart let heaven engender hail And poison it in the source, and the first stone Drop in my neck; as it determines, so Dissolve my life! **ANTONY:** I am satisfied. Caesar sits down in Alexandria, where I will oppose his fate. Our force by land Hath nobly held; our severed navy too Have knit again, and fleet, threat'ning most sea-like. Where hast thou been, my heart? Dost thou hear, lady? If from the field I shall return once more To kiss these lips, I will appear in blood. I and my sword will earn our chronicle. **ANTONY:** I will be treble-sinewed, hearted, breathed, And fight maliciously. For when mine hours Were nice and lucky, men did ransom lives Of me for jests. But now I'll set my teeth And send to darkness all that stop me. Come, Let's have one other gaudy night. Call to me All my sad captains. **CLEOPATRA:** It is my birthday.

**ANTONY:** Do so; we'll speak to them; and tonight I'll force The wine peep through their scars. Come on, my queen, There's sap in't yet. _ **ENOBARBUS:** Now he'll outstare the lightning. To be furious Is to be frighted out of fear, and in that mood The dove will peck the estridge; and I see still A diminution in our captain's brain Restores his heart. When valour preys on reason, It eats the sword it fights with. _

Enter Caesar, Agrippa, and Maecenas, with his army. Caesar reading a letter. **CAESAR:** He calls me boy, and chides as he had power To beat me out of Egypt. My messenger He hath whipped with rods; dares me to personal combat, Caesar to Antony. Let the old ruffian know I have many other ways to die; meantime Laugh at his challenge. **MAECENAS:** Caesar must think, When one so great begins to rage, he's hunted Even to falling. Give him no breath, but now Make boot of his distraction. Never anger Made good guard for itself. **CAESAR:** Let our best heads Know that tomorrow the last of many battles We mean to fight. Within our files there are, Of those that served Mark Antony but late, Enough to fetch him in. See it done, And feast the army; we have store to do't, And they have earned the waste. Poor Antony! _Exeunt._

**ANTONY:** Tomorrow, soldier, By sea and land I'll fight. Or I will live, Or bathe my dying honour in the blood Shall make it live again. " **ANTONY:** Well said. Come on. Call forth my household servants. — Enter Servants. Give me thy hand. Thou has been rightly honest; so hast thou, Thou, and thou, and thou. **ANTONY:** And thou art honest too. **ANTONY:** Well, my good fellows, wait on me tonight. **ANTONY:** Tend me tonight; May be it is the period of your duty. Haply you shall not see me more, or if, A mangled shadow. Perchance tomorrow You'll serve another master. I look on you As one that takes his leave. Mine honest friends, I turn you not away, but, like a master Married to your good service, stay till death. **ENOBARBUS:** What mean you, sir, To give them this discomfort? Look, they weep, And I, an ass, am onion-eyed. **ANTONY:** Ho, ho, ho! Now the witch take me if I meant it thus! Grace grow where those drops fall!

My hearty friends, You take me in too dolorous a sense, For I spake to you for your comfort, did desire you To burn this night with torches. Know, my hearts, I hope well of tomorrow, and will lead you Where rather I'll expect victorious life Than death and honour. _

**FIRST SOLDIER:** Brother, good night. **SECOND SOLDIER:** It will determine one way. Fare you well. **FIRST SOLDIER:** Nothing. **SECOND SOLDIER:** Belike 'tis but a rumour. **FIRST SOLDIER:** Well, sir, good night. **THIRD SOLDIER:** And you. _ **SECOND SOLDIER:** Here we. **FIRST SOLDIER:** Peace, I say! **FIRST SOLDIER:** Walk. **ALL:** How now! How now! **FIRST SOLDIER:** Ay. **THIRD SOLDIER:** Do you hear, masters? **FIRST SOLDIER:** Follow the noise so far as we have quarter. _

**ANTONY:** Eros! —Eros! Come, mine armour, Eros! Enter Eros with armour. Come, good fellow, put thine iron on. If fortune be not ours today, it is Because we brave her. **CLEOPATRA:** Nay, I'll help too. **ANTONY:** Ah, let be, let be! Thou art The armourer of my heart. False, false. **CLEOPATRA:** Sooth, la, I'll help. **ANTONY:** Well, well, We shall thrive now. Seest thou, my good fellow? **ANTONY:** Rarely, rarely. He that unbuckles this, till we do please To daff't for our repose, shall hear a storm. Thou fumblest, Eros, and my queen's a squire More tight at this than thou. Dispatch. O love, That thou couldst see my wars today, and knew'st The royal occupation, thou shouldst see A workman in't. Enter an Officer, armed. Good morrow to thee. Welcome. Thou look'st like him that knows a warlike charge. _Shout. **CAPTAIN:** The morn is fair. **ANTONY:** 'Tis well blown, lads.

This morning, like the spirit of a youth That means to be of note, begins betimes. So, so. Come, give me that. This way. Well said. Fare thee well, dame. _] Rebukeable And worthy shameful check it were, to stand On more mechanic compliment. —You that will fight, Follow me close, I'll bring you to't. **CLEOPATRA:** Lead me. He goes forth gallantly. That he and Caesar might Determine this great war in single fight! Then Antony—but now—. _

Trumpets sound. **SOLDIER:** Who? One ever near thee. **ANTONY:** Go, Eros, send his treasure after. Do it. Detain no jot, I charge thee. Write to him— I will subscribe—gentle adieus and greetings. Say that I wish he never find more cause To change a master. O, my fortunes have Corrupted honest men! _

Flourish. **CAESAR:** Go forth, Agrippa, and begin the fight. _ **CAESAR:** The time of universal peace is near. Prove this a prosp'rous day, the three-nooked world Shall bear the olive freely. _ **ENOBARBUS:** Alexas did revolt and went to Jewry on Affairs of Antony; there did dissuade Great Herod to incline himself to Caesar And leave his master Antony. For this pains Caesar hath hanged him. Canidius and the rest That fell away have entertainment but No honourable trust. I have done ill, Of which I do accuse myself so sorely That I will joy no more. **SOLDIER:** Enobarbus, Antony Hath after thee sent all thy treasure, with His bounty overplus. **SOLDIER:** Mock not, Enobarbus. I tell you true. Best you safed the bringer Out of the host. I must attend mine office, Or would have done't myself. _ **ENOBARBUS:** I am alone the villain of the earth, And feel I am so most.

O Antony, Thou mine of bounty, how wouldst thou have paid My better service, when my turpitude Thou dost so crown with gold! This blows my heart. If swift thought break it not, a swifter mean Shall outstrike thought, but thought will do't, I feel. I fight against thee! _

Alarum. Drums and Trumpets. **AGRIPPA:** Retire! We have engaged ourselves too far. _ Alarums. **SCARUS:** O my brave emperor, this is fought indeed! **SCARUS:** We'll beat 'em into bench-holes. I have yet Room for six scotches more. **ANTONY:** I will reward thee Once for thy sprightly comfort, and tenfold For thy good valour. _

Alarum. **ANTONY:** We have beat him to his camp. Run one before And let the Queen know of our gests. Tomorrow, Before the sun shall see's, we'll spill the blood That has today escaped. I thank you all, For doughty-handed are you, and have fought Not as you served the cause, but as't had been Each man's like mine. You have shown all Hectors. Enter the city, clip your wives, your friends, Tell them your feats; while they with joyful tears Wash the congealment from your wounds and kiss The honoured gashes whole. ] Give me thy hand. To this great fairy I'll commend thy acts, Make her thanks bless thee. O thou day o' th' world, Chain mine armed neck. **CLEOPATRA:** Lord of lords! **ANTONY:** Mine nightingale, We have beat them to their beds. What, girl! Though grey Do something mingle with our younger brown, yet ha' we A brain that nourishes our nerves and can Get goal for goal of youth. Behold this man. — Kiss it, my warrior.

**CLEOPATRA:** I'll give thee, friend, An armour all of gold. **ANTONY:** He has deserved it, were it carbuncled Like holy Phœbus' car. Give me thy hand. Through Alexandria make a jolly march; Bear our hacked targets like the men that owe them. _

Enter a Sentry and his company. **SENTRY:** If we be not relieved within this hour, We must return to th' court of guard. **SECOND WATCH:** Peace! **ENOBARBUS:** O sovereign mistress of true melancholy, The poisonous damp of night disponge on me, That life, a very rebel to my will, May hang no longer on me. Throw my heart Against the flint and hardness of my fault, Which, being dried with grief, will break to powder And finish all foul thoughts. O Antony, Nobler than my revolt is infamous, Forgive me in thine own particular, But let the world rank me in register A master-leaver and a fugitive. O Antony! **SECOND WATCH:** Let's do so. **SECOND WATCH:** Awake, sir, awake! _ Hark! The drums Demurely wake the sleepers. Let us bear him To th' court of guard; he is of note. **SECOND WATCH:** Come on, then. _

Enter Antony and Scarus with their army. **ANTONY:** Their preparation is today by sea; We please them not by land. **SCARUS:** For both, my lord. **ANTONY:** I would they'd fight i' th' fire or i' th' air; We'd fight there too. But this it is: our foot On the hills adjoining to the city Shall stay with us—order for sea is given; They have put forth the haven— Where their appointment we may best discover And look on their endeavour. _Exeunt._

Enter Caesar and his army. **CAESAR:** But being charged, we will be still by land, Which, as I take't, we shall, for his best force Is forth to man his galleys. To the vales, And hold our best advantage. _Exeunt._

Alarum afar off, as at a sea fight. **ANTONY:** Yet they are not joined. Where yond pine does stand I shall discover all. _ **SCARUS:** Swallows have built In Cleopatra's sails their nests. The augurs Say they know not, they cannot tell; look grimly, And dare not speak their knowledge. Antony Is valiant and dejected, and by starts His fretted fortunes give him hope and fear Of what he has and has not. **ANTONY:** All is lost! This foul Egyptian hath betrayed me. My fleet hath yielded to the foe, and yonder They cast their caps up and carouse together Like friends long lost. 'Tis thou Hast sold me to this novice, and my heart Makes only wars on thee. Bid them all fly; For when I am revenged on my charm, I have done all. Bid them all fly! _ O sun, thy uprise shall I see no more. Fortune and Antony part here; even here Do we shake hands. All come to this!

The hearts That spanieled me at heels, to whom I gave Their wishes, do discandy, melt their sweets On blossoming Caesar, and this pine is barked That overtopped them all. Betray'd I am: O this false soul of Egypt! This grave charm, Whose eye becked forth my wars and called them home, Whose bosom was my crownet, my chief end, Like a right gypsy hath at fast and loose Beguiled me to the very heart of loss. What, Eros, Eros! Enter Cleopatra. Ah, thou spell! **ANTONY:** Vanish, or I shall give thee thy deserving And blemish Caesar's triumph. Let him take thee And hoist thee up to the shouting plebeians! — The shirt of Nessus is on me. Teach me, Alcides, thou mine ancestor, thy rage. Let me lodge Lichas on the horns o' th' moon, And with those hands that grasped the heaviest club Subdue my worthiest self. The witch shall die. To the young Roman boy she hath sold me, and I fall Under this plot. _

Enter Cleopatra, Charmian, Iras and Mardian. **CLEOPATRA:** Help me, my women! O, he is more mad Than Telamon for his shield; the boar of Thessaly Was never so embossed. **CHARMIAN:** To th' monument! There lock yourself and send him word you are dead. The soul and body rive not more in parting Than greatness going off. **CLEOPATRA:** To th' monument! Mardian, go tell him I have slain myself. Say that the last I spoke was "Antony", And word it, prithee, piteously. Hence, Mardian, And bring me how he takes my death.—To th' monument! _Exeunt._

**ANTONY:** Sometime we see a cloud that's dragonish, A vapour sometime like a bear or lion, A towered citadel, a pendant rock, A forked mountain, or blue promontory With trees on't, that nod unto the world And mock our eyes with air. Thou hast seen these signs. **ANTONY:** My good knave Eros, now thy captain is Even such a body. Here I am Antony, Yet cannot hold this visible shape, my knave. I made these wars for Egypt, and the Queen, Whose heart I thought I had, for she had mine, Which, while it was mine, had annexed unto't A million more, now lost—she, Eros, has Packed cards with Caesar, and false-played my glory Unto an enemy's triumph. Nay, weep not, gentle Eros. There is left us Ourselves to end ourselves. Enter Mardian. O, thy vile lady! **ANTONY:** Hence, saucy eunuch! Peace! **MARDIAN:** Death of one person can be paid but once, And that she has discharged. What thou wouldst 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. **ANTONY:** Unarm, Eros. —That thou depart'st hence safe Does pay thy labour richly. _ Off, pluck off! The sevenfold shield of Ajax cannot keep The battery from my heart. O, cleave, my sides! Heart, once be stronger than thy continent; Crack thy frail case! Apace, Eros, apace! No more a soldier. Bruised pieces, go; You have been nobly borne. _ 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 farther. Now all labour Mars what it does; yea, very force entangles Itself with strength. Seal then, and all is done. —Stay for me. Where souls do couch on flowers, we'll hand in hand, And with our sprightly port make the ghosts gaze. —Come, Eros, Eros!

**ANTONY:** Since Cleopatra died, I have lived in such dishonour that the gods Detest my baseness. I, that with my sword Quartered 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 Caesar 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 Th' inevitable prosecution of Disgrace and horror, that on my command Thou then wouldst kill me. Do't. The time is come. Thou strik'st not me; 'tis Caesar thou defeat'st. **EROS:** The gods withhold me! **ANTONY:** Come, then, for with a wound I must be cured. **ANTONY:** 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 unpurposed. **EROS:** Farewell, great chief. _ **ANTONY:** Thrice nobler than myself!

Thou teachest me, O valiant Eros, what I should and thou couldst not. My queen and Eros Have by their brave instruction got on 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. _ I learned of thee. How? Not dead? Not dead? The guard, ho! O, dispatch me! **ANTONY:** I have done my work ill, friends. _ **DERCETUS:** Thy death and fortunes bid thy followers fly. This sword but shown to Caesar with this tidings, Shall enter me with him. **DIOMEDES:** Lives he? _ **ANTONY:** Art thou there, Diomed? **DIOMEDES:** Locked in her monument. She had a prophesying fear Of what hath come to pass. **ANTONY:** Too late, good Diomed. **DIOMEDES:** What, ho! The emperor's guard! The guard, what ho! Come, your lord calls! **ANTONY:** Nay, good my fellows, do not please sharp fate To grace it with your sorrows.

Bid that welcome Which comes to punish us, and we punish it, Seeming to bear it lightly. Take me up. _

**CLEOPATRA:** No, I will not. All strange and terrible events are welcome, But comforts we despise. Our size of sorrow, Proportioned to our cause, must be as great As that which makes it. Enter, below Diomedes. How now! **DIOMEDES:** His death's on him, but not dead. Look out o' th' other side your monument; His guard have brought him thither. **CLEOPATRA:** O sun, Burn the great sphere thou mov'st in! Darkling stand The varying shore o' th' world. O Antony, Antony, Antony! Help, Charmian! Help, Iras, help! Help, friends below! **ANTONY:** Peace! **ANTONY:** I am dying, Egypt, dying. **CLEOPATRA:** I dare not, dear Dear my lord, pardon. I dare not, Lest I be taken. Not th' imperious show Of the full-fortuned Caesar ever shall Be brooched with me; if knife, drugs, serpents, have Edge, sting, or operation, I am safe. Your wife Octavia, with her modest eyes And still conclusion, shall acquire no honour Demuring on me.

But come, come, Antony— Help me, my women—we must draw thee up. **CLEOPATRA:** Here's sport indeed! How heavy weighs my lord! Our strength is all gone into heaviness; That makes the weight. Had I great Juno's power, The strong-winged Mercury should fetch thee up And set thee by Jove's side. Yet come a little; Wishers were ever fools. _ And welcome, welcome! Die where thou hast lived; Quicken with kissing. **ANTONY:** I am dying, Egypt, dying. **ANTONY:** One word, sweet queen: Of Caesar seek your honour, with your safety. **ANTONY:** Gentle, hear me. **ANTONY:** 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 lived the greatest prince o' th' world, The noblest; and do now not basely die, Not cowardly put off my helmet to My countryman; a Roman by a Roman Valiantly vanquished. **CLEOPATRA:** 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 sty? —My lord! O, withered is the garland of the war, The soldier's pole is fallen; young boys and girls Are level now with men. **CLEOPATRA:** 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 sceptre 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? good cheer! Why, how now, Charmian? My noble girls! Ah, women, women! Look, Our lamp is spent, it's out! Good sirs, take heart. We'll bury him; and then, what's brave, what's noble, 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! _

**CAESAR:** Go to him, Dolabella, bid him yield. **CAESAR:** Wherefore is that? **DERCETUS:** I am called Dercetus. Mark Antony I served, who best was worthy Best to be served. While he stood up and spoke, He was my master, and I wore my life To spend on his haters. **CAESAR:** The breaking of so great a thing should make A greater crack. The round world Should have shook lions into civil streets, And citizens to their dens. **DERCETUS:** He is dead, Caesar, 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 robbed his wound of it. **CAESAR:** Look you sad, friends? **AGRIPPA:** A rarer spirit never Did steer humanity, but you gods will give us Some faults to make us men. **CAESAR:** O Antony, I have followed thee to this, but we do lance Diseases in our bodies.

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 did kindle, that our stars, Unreconciliable, should divide Our equalness to this. Hear me, good friends— Enter an Egyptian. But I will tell you at some meeter season. The business of this man looks out of him; We'll hear him what he says. **EGYPTIAN:** A poor Egyptian yet. **CAESAR:** Bid her have good heart. She soon shall know of us, by some of ours, How honourable and how kindly we Determine for her. _ **CAESAR:** Come hither, Proculeius. Go and say We purpose her no shame.

Give her what comforts The quality of her passion shall require, Lest, in her greatness, by some mortal stroke She do defeat us, for her life in Rome Would be eternal in our triumph. **CAESAR:** Let him alone, for I remember now How he's employed. He shall in time be ready. Go with me to my tent, where you shall see How hardly I was drawn into this war, How calm and gentle I proceeded still In all my writings. _

'Tis paltry to be Caesar; Not being Fortune, he's but Fortune's knave, A minister of her will. And it is great To do that thing that ends all other deeds, Which shackles accidents and bolts up change, Which sleeps and never palates more the dung, The beggar's nurse and Caesar's. **CLEOPATRA:** Antony Did tell me of you, bade me trust you, but I do not greatly care to be deceived 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. **PROCULEIUS:** 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. **CLEOPATRA:** Pray you tell him I am his fortune's vassal and I send him The greatness he has got. **PROCULEIUS:** This I'll report, dear lady. Have comfort, for I know your plight is pitied Of him that caused it.

Enter Gallus and Roman Soldiers. You see how easily she may be surprised. **PROCULEIUS:** Cleopatra, Do not abuse my master's bounty by Th' undoing of yourself. **CLEOPATRA:** Where art thou, Death? Come hither, come! **CLEOPATRA:** Sir, I will eat no meat; I'll not drink, sir; If idle talk will once be necessary, I'll not sleep neither. This mortal house I'll ruin, Do Caesar what he can. Know, sir, that I Will not wait pinioned at your master's court, Nor once be chastised 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 unto me! Rather on Nilus' mud Lay me stark-naked, and let the water-flies Blow me into abhorring! **PROCULEIUS:** You do extend These thoughts of horror further than you shall Find cause in Caesar. **DOLABELLA:** Proculeius, What thou hast done thy master Caesar knows, And he hath sent for thee.

**PROCULEIUS:** So, Dolabella, It shall content me best. **CLEOPATRA:** No matter, sir, what I have heard or known. **CLEOPATRA:** I dreamt there was an Emperor Antony. **DOLABELLA:** Most sovereign creature— **CLEOPATRA:** His legs bestrid the ocean; his reared arm Crested the world; 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 as 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 showed his back above The element they lived in. **CLEOPATRA:** You lie up to the hearing of the gods! But if there be nor ever were one such, It's past the size of dreaming. **DOLABELLA:** Hear me, good madam. Your loss is, as yourself, great; and you bear it As answering to the weight. **CLEOPATRA:** I thank you, sir. **DOLABELLA:** Madam, he will. I know it. Flourish.

**ALL:** Make way there! _ **CAESAR:** Arise, you shall not kneel. I pray you, rise. **CLEOPATRA:** Sir, the gods Will have it thus. **CAESAR:** Take to you no hard thoughts. **CAESAR:** Cleopatra, know We will extenuate rather than enforce. If you apply yourself to our intents, Which towards you are most gentle, you shall find A 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. 'Tis yours, and we, Your scutcheons and your signs of conquest, shall Hang in what place you please. 'Tis exactly valued, Not petty things admitted. Where's Seleucus? **CLEOPATRA:** This is my treasurer. Let him speak, my lord, On his peril, that I have reserved To myself nothing. **CAESAR:** Nay, blush not, Cleopatra. **CLEOPATRA:** See, Caesar! O, behold, How pomp is followed!

Mine will now be yours And should we shift estates, yours would be mine. The ingratitude of this Seleucus does Even make me wild. O slave, of no more trust Than love that's hired! What, goest thou back? Thou shalt Go back, I warrant thee! But I'll catch thine eyes Though they had wings. Slave, soulless villain, dog! **CLEOPATRA:** O Caesar, 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 Addition of his envy! Say, good Caesar, That I some lady trifles have reserved, Immoment toys, things of such dignity As we greet modern friends withal; and say Some nobler token I have kept apart For Livia and Octavia, to induce Their mediation, must I be unfolded With one that I have bred? The gods! ] Prithee go hence, Or I shall show the cinders of my spirits Through th' ashes of my chance.

**CAESAR:** Cleopatra, Not what you have reserved nor what acknowledged Put we i' th' roll of conquest. Still be't yours; Bestow it at your pleasure, and believe Caesar's no merchant to make prize with you Of things that merchants sold. Therefore be cheered; 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. **CAESAR:** Not so. _Flourish. _ **CLEOPATRA:** He words me, girls, he words me, that I should not Be noble to myself. _ **IRAS:** Finish, good lady. **CLEOPATRA:** Hie thee again. I have spoke already, and it is provided. **CHARMIAN:** Madam, I will. **DOLABELLA:** Madam, as thereto sworn by your command, Which my love makes religion to obey, I tell you this: Caesar through Syria Intends his journey, and within three days You with your children will he send before. Make your best use of this. **DOLABELLA:** I your servant. Adieu, good queen.

_ Now, Iras, what think'st thou? Thou an Egyptian puppet shall be shown In Rome as well as I. Mechanic slaves With greasy aprons, rules, and hammers shall Uplift us to the view. **CLEOPATRA:** Nay, 'tis most certain, Iras. Saucy lictors Will catch at us like strumpets, and scald rhymers Ballad us out o' tune. **CLEOPATRA:** Why, that's the way To fool their preparation and to conquer Their most absurd intents. Enter Charmian. Now, Charmian! Show me, my women, like a queen. Go fetch My best attires. I am again for Cydnus To meet Mark Antony. Sirrah, Iras, go. Now, noble Charmian, we'll dispatch indeed, And when thou hast done this chare, I'll give thee leave To play till doomsday. _Exit Iras. _ Wherefore's this noise? **GUARDSMAN:** Here is a rural fellow That will not be denied your highness' presence. _ What poor an instrument May do a noble deed! He brings me liberty. My resolution's placed, and I have nothing Of woman in me.

Now from head to foot I am marble-constant. Now the fleeting moon No planet is of mine. **CLOWN:** Truly, I have him, but I would not be the party that should desire you to touch him, for his biting is immortal. **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' th' worm; but he that will believe all that they say shall never be saved by half that they do. **CLEOPATRA:** Get thee hence. **CLOWN:** Very good. **CLOWN:** You must not think I am so simple but I know the devil himself will not eat a woman. I know that a woman is a dish for the gods if the devil dress her not. **CLEOPATRA:** Well, get thee gone. **CLOWN:** Yes, forsooth. **CLEOPATRA:** Give me my robe. Put on my crown.

I have Immortal longings in me. Now no more The juice of Egypt's grape shall moist this lip. Yare, yare, good Iras; quick. Methinks I hear Antony call. I see him rouse himself To praise my noble act. I hear him mock The luck of Caesar, which the gods give men To excuse their after wrath. Husband, I come! Now to that name my courage prove my title! —So, have you done? Come then, and take the last warmth of my lips. Farewell, kind Charmian. _Kisses them. _ Have I the aspic in my lips? Dost fall? If thou and nature can so gently part, The stroke of death is as a lover's pinch, Which hurts and is desired. Dost thou lie still? **CLEOPATRA:** This proves me base. _ With thy sharp teeth this knot intrinsicate Of life at once untie. Poor venomous fool, Be angry and dispatch. **CLEOPATRA:** Peace, peace! **CHARMIAN:** O, break! _ **CHARMIAN:** In this vile world? So, fare thee well.

Now boast thee, Death, in thy possession lies A lass unparalleled. Downy windows, close, And golden Phœbus never be beheld Of eyes again so royal! Your crown's awry; I'll mend it and then play. **CHARMIAN:** Speak softly. _ O, come apace, dispatch! **FIRST GUARD:** Approach, ho! All's not well. **SECOND GUARD:** There's Dolabella sent from Caesar. **FIRST GUARD:** What work is here, Charmian? **CHARMIAN:** It is well done, and fitting for a princess Descended of so many royal kings. **DOLABELLA:** Caesar, thy thoughts Touch their effects in this. Thyself art coming To see performed the dreaded act which thou So sought'st to hinder. **CAESAR:** Bravest at the last, She levelled at our purposes and, being royal, Took her own way. The manner of their deaths? **FIRST GUARD:** A simple countryman that brought her figs. **FIRST GUARD:** O Caesar, This Charmian lived but now; she stood and spake. **CAESAR:** O noble weakness!

**DOLABELLA:** Here on her breast There is a vent of blood, and something blown. **CAESAR:** Most probable That so she died, for her physician tells me She hath pursued conclusions infinite Of easy ways to die. Take up her bed, And bear her women from the monument. She shall be buried by her Antony. No grave on the earth shall clip in it A pair so famous. High events as these Strike those that make them; and their story is No less in pity than his glory which Brought them to be lamented. Our army shall In solemn show attend this funeral, And then to Rome. _