Part IV, The Early Modern Literary Period, also known as the English Renaissance
41
Antony and Cleopatra
By William Shakespeare
Edited by Barbara A. Mowat and Paul Werstine
with Michael Poston and Rebecca Niles
Folger Shakespeare Library
https://shakespeare.folger.edu/shakespeares-works/antony-and-cleopatra/
Created on Apr 23, 2016, from FDT version 0.9.2.
This work is licensed under
Link to License: Folger Shakespeare Library Terms of Use
Characters in the Play
ANTONY, a triumvir of Rome
CLEOPATRA, Queen of Egypt
OCTAVIUS CAESAR, a triumvir of Rome
OCTAVIA, sister to Caesar, later wife to Antony
LEPIDUS, a triumvir of Rome
ENOBARBUS, also called DOMITIUS
Accompanying Antony in Egypt and elsewhere:
VENTIDIUS
SILIUS
EROS
CANIDIUS
SCARUS
DERCETUS
DEMETRIUS
PHILO
A SCHOOLMASTER, Antony’s AMBASSADOR to Caesar
Serving in Cleopatra’s court:
CHARMIAN
IRAS
ALEXAS
MARDIAN, a Eunuch
SELEUCUS, Cleopatra’s treasurer
DIOMEDES
Supporting and accompanying Caesar:
MAECENAS
AGRIPPA
TAURUS
THIDIAS
DOLABELLA
GALLUS
PROCULEIUS
SEXTUS POMPEIUS, also called POMPEY
MENAS
MENECRATES
VARRIUS
MESSENGERS
SOLDIERS
SENTRIES
GUARDSMEN
A SOOTHSAYER
SERVANTS
A BOY
A CAPTAIN
AN EGYPTIAN
A COUNTRYMAN
Ladies, Eunuchs, Captains, Officers, Soldiers, Attendants, Servants (Lamprius, Rannius, Lucillius: mute characters named in the opening stage direction to 1.2)
ACT 1
Scene 1
Enter Demetrius and Philo.
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 5
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 gypsy’s lust. 10
Flourish. Enter Antony, 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 transformed
Into a strumpet’s fool. Behold and see.
CLEOPATRA
If it be love indeed, tell me how much. 15
ANTONY
There’s beggary in the love that can be reckoned.
CLEOPATRA
I’ll set a bourn how far to be beloved.
ANTONY
Then must thou needs find out new heaven, new
Earth.
Enter a Messenger.
MESSENGER News, my good lord, from Rome. 20
ANTONY Grates me, the sum.
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; 25
Take in that kingdom, and enfranchise that.
Perform ’t, or else we damn thee.”
ANTONY How, my love?
CLEOPATRA Perchance? Nay, and most like.
You must not stay here longer; your dismission 30
Is come from Caesar. Therefore hear it, Antony.
Where’s Fulvia’s process? Caesar’s, I would say—
both?
Call in the messengers. As I am Egypt’s queen,
Thou blushest, Antony, and that blood of thine 35
Is Caesar’s homager; else so thy cheek pays shame
When shrill-tongued Fulvia scolds. The messengers!
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 40
Feeds beast as man. The nobleness of life
Is to do thus; when such a mutual pair
And such a twain can do ’t, in which I bind,
On pain of punishment, the world to weet
We stand up peerless. 45
CLEOPATRA Excellent falsehood!
Why did he marry Fulvia and not love her?
I’ll seem the fool I am not. Antony
Will be himself.
ANTONY But stirred by Cleopatra. 50
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 tonight?
CLEOPATRA
Hear the ambassadors. 55
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 60
Tonight we’ll wander through the streets and note
The qualities of people. Come, my queen,
Last night you did desire it. To the Messenger.
Speak not to us.
Antony and Cleopatra exit with the Train.
DEMETRIUS
Is Caesar with Antonius prized so slight? 65
PHILO
Sir, sometimes when he is not Antony
He comes too short of that great property
Which still should go with Antony.
DEMETRIUS I am full sorry
That he approves the common liar who 70
Thus speaks of him at Rome; but I will hope
Of better deeds tomorrow. Rest you happy!
They exit.
Scene 2
Enter Enobarbus, Lamprius, a Soothsayer, Rannius,
Lucillius, Charmian, Iras, Mardian the Eunuch, Alexas,
and Servants.
CHARMIAN Lord Alexas, sweet Alexas, most anything
Alexas, almost most absolute Alexas, where’s the
soothsayer that you praised so to th’ Queen? O, that
I knew this husband which you say must charge
his horns with garlands! 5
ALEXAS Soothsayer!
SOOTHSAYER Your will?
CHARMIAN
Is this the man?—Is ’t you, sir, that know things?
SOOTHSAYER
In nature’s infinite book of secrecy
A little I can read. 10
ALEXAS, to Charmian Show him your hand.
ENOBARBUS, to Servants
Bring in the banquet quickly, wine enough
Cleopatra’s health to drink.
CHARMIAN, giving her hand to the Soothsayer Good sir,
give me good fortune. 15
SOOTHSAYER I make not, but foresee.
CHARMIAN Pray then, foresee me one.
SOOTHSAYER
You shall be yet far fairer than you are.
CHARMIAN He means in flesh.
IRAS No, you shall paint when you are old. 20
CHARMIAN Wrinkles forbid!
ALEXAS Vex not his prescience. Be attentive.
CHARMIAN Hush.
SOOTHSAYER
You shall be more beloving than beloved.
CHARMIAN I had rather heat my liver with drinking. 25
ALEXAS Nay, hear him.
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. Find me to marry me 30
with Octavius Caesar, and companion me with my
mistress.
SOOTHSAYER
You shall outlive the lady whom you serve.
CHARMIAN O, excellent! I love long life better than figs.
SOOTHSAYER
You have seen and proved a fairer former fortune 35
Than that which is to approach.
CHARMIAN Then belike my children shall have no
names. Prithee, how many boys and wenches must
I have?
SOOTHSAYER
If every of your wishes had a womb, 40
And fertile every wish, a million.
CHARMIAN Out, fool! I forgive thee for a witch.
ALEXAS You think none but your sheets are privy to
your wishes.
CHARMIAN, to Soothsayer Nay, come. Tell Iras hers. 45
ALEXAS We’ll know all our fortunes.
ENOBARBUS Mine, and most of our fortunes tonight,
shall be—drunk to bed.
IRAS, giving her hand to the Soothsayer There’s a palm
presages chastity, if nothing else. 50
CHARMIAN E’en as the o’erflowing Nilus presageth
famine.
IRAS Go, you wild bedfellow, you cannot soothsay.
CHARMIAN Nay, if an oily palm be not a fruitful prognostication,
I cannot scratch mine ear.—Prithee 55
tell her but a workaday fortune.
SOOTHSAYER Your fortunes are alike.
IRAS But how, but how? Give me particulars.
SOOTHSAYER I have said.
IRAS Am I not an inch of fortune better than she? 60
CHARMIAN Well, if you were but an inch of fortune
better than I, where would you choose it?
IRAS Not in my husband’s nose.
CHARMIAN Our worser thoughts heavens mend. Alexas—
come, his fortune, his fortune! O, let him marry a 65
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. Good Isis, hear me
this prayer, though thou deny me a matter of more 70
weight, good Isis, I beseech thee!
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. Therefore, dear 75
Isis, keep decorum and fortune him accordingly.
CHARMIAN Amen.
ALEXAS Lo now, if it lay in their hands to make me a
cuckold, they would make themselves whores but
they’d do ’t. 80
ENOBARBUS Hush, here comes Antony.
CHARMIAN Not he. The Queen.
Enter Cleopatra.
CLEOPATRA Saw you my lord?
ENOBARBUS No, lady.
CLEOPATRA Was he not here? 85
CHARMIAN No, madam.
CLEOPATRA
He was disposed to mirth, but on the sudden
A Roman thought hath struck him.—Enobarbus!
ENOBARBUS Madam?
CLEOPATRA
Seek him and bring him hither.—Where’s Alexas? 90
ALEXAS
Here at your service. My lord approaches.
Enter Antony with a Messenger.
CLEOPATRA
We will not look upon him. Go with us.
All but Antony and the Messenger exit.
MESSENGER
Fulvia thy wife first came into the field.
ANTONY Against my brother Lucius?
MESSENGER Ay. 95
But soon that war had end, and the time’s state
Made friends of them, jointing their force ’gainst
Caesar,
Whose better issue in the war from Italy
Upon the first encounter drave them. 100
ANTONY Well, what worst?
MESSENGER
The nature of bad news infects the teller.
ANTONY
When it concerns the fool or coward. On.
Things that are past are done, with me. ’Tis thus:
Who tells me true, though in his tale lie death, 105
I hear him as he flattered.
MESSENGER Labienus—
This is stiff news—hath with his Parthian force
Extended Asia: from Euphrates
His conquering banner shook, from Syria 110
To Lydia and to Ionia,
Whilst—
ANTONY “Antony,” thou wouldst say?
MESSENGER O, my lord!
ANTONY
Speak to me home; mince not the general tongue. 115
Name Cleopatra as she is called in Rome;
Rail thou in Fulvia’s phrase, and taunt my faults
With such full license as both truth and malice
Have power to utter. O, then we bring forth weeds
When our quick winds lie still, and our ills told us 120
Is as our earing. Fare thee well awhile.
MESSENGER At your noble pleasure. Messenger exits.
Enter another Messenger.
ANTONY
From Sicyon how the news? Speak there.
SECOND MESSENGER
The man from Sicyon—
ANTONY Is there such an one? 125
SECOND MESSENGER
He stays upon your will.
ANTONY Let him appear.
Second Messenger exits.
These strong Egyptian fetters I must break,
Or lose myself in dotage.
Enter another Messenger with a letter.
What are you? 130
THIRD MESSENGER
Fulvia thy wife is dead.
ANTONY Where died she?
THIRD MESSENGER In Sicyon.
Her length of sickness, with what else more serious
Importeth thee to know, this bears. 135
He hands Antony the letter.
ANTONY Forbear me.
Third Messenger exits.
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 140
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! 145
Enter Enobarbus.
ENOBARBUS What’s your pleasure, sir?
ANTONY I must with haste from hence.
ENOBARBUS Why then we kill all our women. We see
how mortal an unkindness is to them. If they suffer
our departure, death’s the word. 150
ANTONY I must be gone.
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 155
but the least noise of this, dies instantly. I have seen
her die twenty times upon far poorer moment. I do
think there is mettle in death which commits some
loving act upon her, she hath such a celerity in
dying. 160
ANTONY She is cunning past man’s thought.
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 165
report. This cannot be cunning in her; if it be, she
makes a shower of rain as well as Jove.
ANTONY Would I had never seen her!
ENOBARBUS O, sir, you had then left unseen a wonderful
piece of work, which not to have been blest 170
withal would have discredited your travel.
ANTONY Fulvia is dead.
ENOBARBUS Sir?
ANTONY Fulvia is dead.
ENOBARBUS Fulvia? 175
ANTONY Dead.
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 180
worn out, there are members to make new. If there
were no more women but Fulvia, then had you
indeed a cut, and the case to be lamented. This grief
is crowned with consolation; your old smock brings
forth a new petticoat, and indeed the tears live in an 185
onion that should water this sorrow.
ANTONY
The business she hath broachèd in the state
Cannot endure my absence.
ENOBARBUS And the business you have broached here
cannot be without you, especially that of Cleopatra’s, 190
which wholly depends on your abode.
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 195
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 200
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
Upon his son, who—high in name and power, 205
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 210
And not a serpent’s poison. Say our pleasure,
To such whose place is under us, requires
Our quick remove from hence.
ENOBARBUS I shall do ’t.
They exit.
Scene 3
Enter Cleopatra, Charmian, Alexas, and Iras.
CLEOPATRA
Where is he?
CHARMIAN I did not see him since.
CLEOPATRA, to Alexas
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 5
That I am sudden sick. Quick, and return.
Alexas exits.
CHARMIAN
Madam, methinks, if you did love him dearly,
You do not hold the method to enforce
The like from him.
CLEOPATRA What should I do I do not? 10
CHARMIAN
In each thing give him way; cross him in nothing.
CLEOPATRA
Thou teachest like a fool: the way to lose him.
CHARMIAN
Tempt him not so too far. I wish, forbear.
In time we hate that which we often fear.
Enter Antony.
But here comes Antony. 15
CLEOPATRA I am sick and sullen.
ANTONY
I am sorry to give breathing to my purpose—
CLEOPATRA
Help me away, dear Charmian! I shall fall.
It cannot be thus long; the sides of nature
Will not sustain it. 20
ANTONY Now, my dearest queen—
CLEOPATRA
Pray you stand farther from me.
ANTONY What’s the matter?
CLEOPATRA
I know by that same eye there’s some good news.
What, says the married woman you may go? 25
Would she had never given you leave to come.
Let her not say ’tis I that keep you here.
I have no power upon you. Hers you are.
ANTONY
The gods best know—
CLEOPATRA O, never was there queen 30
So mightily betrayed! Yet at the first
I saw the treasons planted.
ANTONY Cleopatra—
CLEOPATRA
Why should I think you can be mine, and true—
Though you in swearing shake the thronèd gods— 35
Who have been false to Fulvia? Riotous madness,
To be entangled with those mouth-made vows
Which break themselves in swearing!
ANTONY Most sweet
queen— 40
CLEOPATRA
Nay, pray you seek no color 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 45
But was a race of heaven. They are so still,
Or thou, the greatest soldier of the world,
Art turned the greatest liar.
ANTONY How now, lady?
CLEOPATRA
I would I had thy inches. Thou shouldst know 50
There were a heart in Egypt.
ANTONY Hear me, queen:
The strong necessity of time commands
Our services awhile, but my full heart
Remains in use with you. Our Italy 55
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 60
Are newly grown to love; the condemned Pompey,
Rich in his father’s honor, creeps apace
Into the hearts of such as have not thrived
Upon the present state, whose numbers threaten;
And quietness, grown sick of rest, would purge 65
By any desperate change. My more particular,
And that which most with you should safe my going,
Is Fulvia’s death.
CLEOPATRA
Though age from folly could not give me freedom,
It does from childishness. Can Fulvia die? 70
ANTONY She’s dead, my queen. He shows her papers.
Look here, and at thy sovereign leisure read
The garboils she awaked; at the last, best,
See when and where she died.
CLEOPATRA O, most false love! 75
Where be the sacred vials thou shouldst fill
With sorrowful water? Now I see, I see,
In Fulvia’s death, how mine received shall be.
ANTONY
Quarrel no more, but be prepared to know
The purposes I bear, which are or cease 80
As you shall give th’ advice. By the fire
That quickens Nilus’ slime, I go from hence
Thy soldier, servant, making peace or war
As thou affects.
CLEOPATRA Cut my lace, Charmian, come! 85
But let it be; I am quickly ill and well;
So Antony loves.
ANTONY My precious queen, forbear,
And give true evidence to his love, which stands
An honorable trial. 90
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. Good now, play one scene
Of excellent dissembling, and let it look 95
Like perfect honor.
ANTONY You’ll heat my blood. No more!
CLEOPATRA
You can do better yet, but this is meetly.
ANTONY
Now by my sword—
CLEOPATRA And target. Still he mends. 100
But this is not the best. Look, prithee, Charmian,
How this Herculean Roman does become
The carriage of his chafe.
ANTONY I’ll leave you, lady.
CLEOPATRA Courteous lord, one word. 105
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. Something it is I would—
O, my oblivion is a very Antony,
And I am all forgotten. 110
ANTONY But that your Royalty
Holds idleness your subject, I should take you
For idleness itself.
CLEOPATRA ’Tis sweating labor
To bear such idleness so near the heart 115
As Cleopatra this. But, sir, forgive me,
Since my becomings kill me when they do not
Eye well to you. Your honor calls you hence;
Therefore be deaf to my unpitied folly,
And all the gods go with you. Upon your sword 120
Sit laurel victory, and smooth success
Be strewed before your feet.
ANTONY Let us go. Come.
Our separation so abides and flies
That thou, residing here, goes yet with me, 125
And I, hence fleeting, here remain with thee.
Away!
They exit.
Scene 4
Enter Octavius Caesar, reading a letter,
Lepidus, and their Train.
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 5
Than Cleopatra, nor the queen of Ptolemy
More womanly than he; hardly gave audience, or
Vouchsafed to think he had partners. You shall
find there
A man who is th’ abstract of all faults 10
That all men follow.
LEPIDUS I must not think there are
Evils enough to darken all his goodness.
His faults in him seem as the spots of heaven,
More fiery by night’s blackness, hereditary 15
Rather than purchased, what he cannot change
Than what he chooses.
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 20
And keep the turn of tippling with a slave,
To reel the streets at noon and stand the buffet
With knaves that smells of sweat. Say this becomes
him—
As his composure must be rare indeed 25
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, 30
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, 35
Pawn their experience to their present pleasure
And so rebel to judgment.
Enter a Messenger.
LEPIDUS Here’s more news.
MESSENGER
Thy biddings have been done, and every hour,
Most noble Caesar, shalt thou have report 40
How ’tis abroad. Pompey is strong at sea,
And it appears he is beloved of those
That only have feared Caesar. To the ports
The discontents repair, and men’s reports
Give him much wronged. 45
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 feared by being lacked. This common body, 50
Like to a vagabond flag upon the stream,
Goes to and back, lackeying the varying tide
To rot itself with motion.
Enter a Second Messenger.
SECOND MESSENGER Caesar, I bring thee word
Menecrates and Menas, famous pirates, 55
Makes 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. 60
No vessel can peep forth but ’tis as soon
Taken as seen, for Pompey’s name strikes more
Than could his war resisted.
CAESAR Antony,
Leave thy lascivious wassails. When thou once 65
Was beaten from Modena, where thou slew’st
Hirsius 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 70
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, 75
The barks of trees thou browsèd. On the Alps
It is reported thou didst eat strange flesh
Which some did die to look on. And all this—
It wounds thine honor that I speak it now—
Was borne so like a soldier that thy cheek 80
So much as lanked not.
LEPIDUS ’Tis pity of him.
CAESAR Let his shames quickly
Drive him to Rome. ’Tis time we twain
Did show ourselves i’ th’ field, and to that end 85
Assemble we immediate council. Pompey
Thrives in our idleness.
LEPIDUS Tomorrow, Caesar,
I shall be furnished to inform you rightly
Both what by sea and land I can be able 90
To front this present time.
CAESAR Till which encounter,
It is my business too. Farewell.
LEPIDUS
Farewell, my lord. What you shall know meantime
Of stirs abroad, I shall beseech you, sir, 95
To let me be partaker.
CAESAR
Doubt not, sir. I knew it for my bond.
They exit.
Scene 5
Enter Cleopatra, Charmian, Iras, and Mardian.
CLEOPATRA Charmian!
CHARMIAN Madam?
CLEOPATRA Ha, ha! Give me to drink mandragora.
CHARMIAN Why, madam?
CLEOPATRA
That I might sleep out this great gap of time 5
My Antony is away.
CHARMIAN You think of him too much.
CLEOPATRA
O, ’tis treason!
CHARMIAN Madam, I trust not so.
CLEOPATRA
Thou, eunuch Mardian! 10
MARDIAN What’s your Highness’ pleasure?
CLEOPATRA
Not now to hear thee sing. I take no pleasure
In aught an eunuch has. ’Tis well for thee
That, being unseminared, thy freer thoughts
May not fly forth of Egypt. Hast thou affections? 15
MARDIAN Yes, gracious madam.
CLEOPATRA Indeed?
MARDIAN
Not in deed, madam, for I can do nothing
But what indeed is honest to be done.
Yet have I fierce affections, and think 20
What Venus did with Mars.
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! 25
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?” 30
For so he calls me. Now I feed myself
With most delicious poison. Think on me
That am with Phoebus’ amorous pinches black,
And wrinkled deep in time? Broad-fronted Caesar,
When thou wast here above the ground, I was 35
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.
Enter Alexas from Antony.
ALEXAS Sovereign of Egypt, hail! 40
CLEOPATRA
How much unlike art thou Mark Antony!
Yet coming from him, that great med’cine hath
With his tinct gilded thee.
How goes it with my brave Mark Antony?
ALEXAS Last thing he did, dear queen, 45
He kissed—the last of many doubled kisses—
This orient pearl. His speech sticks in my heart.
CLEOPATRA
Mine ear must pluck it thence.
ALEXAS “Good friend,” quoth
he, 50
“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.” So he nodded 55
And soberly did mount an arm-gaunt steed,
Who neighed so high that what I would have spoke
Was beastly dumbed by him.
CLEOPATRA What, was he sad, or merry?
ALEXAS
Like to the time o’ th’ year between th’ extremes 60
Of hot and cold, he was nor sad nor merry.
CLEOPATRA
O, well-divided disposition!—Note him,
Note him, good Charmian, ’tis the man! But note
him:
He was not sad, for he would shine on those 65
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.
O, heavenly mingle!—Be’st thou sad or merry,
The violence of either thee becomes, 70
So does it no man’s else.—Met’st thou my posts?
ALEXAS
Ay, madam, twenty several messengers.
Why do you send so thick?
CLEOPATRA Who’s born that day
When I forget to send to Antony 75
Shall die a beggar.—Ink and paper, Charmian.—
Welcome, my good Alexas.—Did I, Charmian,
Ever love Caesar so?
CHARMIAN O, that brave Caesar!
CLEOPATRA
Be choked with such another emphasis! 80
Say “the brave Antony.”
CHARMIAN The valiant Caesar!
CLEOPATRA
By Isis, I will give thee bloody teeth
If thou with Caesar paragon again
My man of men. 85
CHARMIAN By your most gracious pardon,
I sing but after you.
CLEOPATRA My salad days,
When I was green in judgment, cold in blood,
To say as I said then. But come, away, 90
Get me ink and paper.
He shall have every day a several greeting,
Or I’ll unpeople Egypt.
They exit.