To cool a gipsey's lust. Look, where they come! Take but good note, and you shall see in him Cleo. If it be love indeed, tell me how much! Cleo. I'll set a bourn, how far to be belov'd. I knew this husband, which, you say, must change Cleo. Perchance, Call in the messengers! As I am Egypt's queen, Sooth. Your will? Char. Is this the man?-Is't you, sir, that know Sooth. In nature's infinite book of secrecy Ant. Let Rome in Tyber melt, and the wide arch Is, to do thus; when such a mutual pair, [Embracing. Cleo. Excellent falsehood! Why did he marry Fulvia, and not love her?- Ant. But stirr'd by Cleopatra. Alex. Show him your hand! Enter ENOBARBUS. Eno. Bring in the banquet quickly; wine enough, Now, for the love of Love, and her soft hours, Char. Good sir, give me good fortune! Sooth. You shall be yet far fairer, than you are. Iras. No, you shall paint, when you are old. Alex. Vex not his prescience; be attentive! Sooth. You shall be more beloving, than belov'd. Char. Good now, some excellent fortune! Let me Whom every thing becomes, to chide, to laugh, Dem. I'm full sorry, Sooth. You shall outlive the lady, whom you serve. Than that which is to approach. Char. Then, belike, my children shall have no names. Pr'ythee, how many boys and wenches must I have? Sooth. If every of your wishes had a womb, Char. Out, fool! I forgive thee for a witch. Alex. You think, none but your sheets are privy to your wishes. That he approves the common liar, who Char. Nay, come, tell Iras hers! Alex. We'll know all our fortunes. Eno. Mine, and most of our fortunes, to-night, shall be-drunk to bed. Iras. There's a palm presages chastity, if nothing else. Enter CHARMIAN, IRAS, ALEXAS, and a Soothsayer. Char. Even as the o'erflowing Nilus presageth Char. Our worser thoughts heavens mend! Alexas, -come, his fortune, his fortune! O, let him marry a woman, that caunot 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, fifty-fold a cuckold! Good Isis, hear me this prayer, though thou deny me a matter of more weight; good Isis, I beseech thee! Iras. Amen! Dear goddess, hear that prayer of the people! for, as it is a heart-breaking to see a handsome man loose-wiv'd, so it is a deadly sorrow to behold a foul knave uncuckolded; therefore, dear The opposite of itself: she's good, being gone; Isis, keep decorum, and fortune him accordingly! Char. Amen! Alex. Lo, now! if it lay in their hands to make me a cuckold, they would make themselves whores, but they'd do't. Eno. Hush! here comes Antony. Enter CLEOPATRA. Mess. The nature of bad news infects the teller. Mess. Labienus (This is stiff news) hath, with his Parthian force, His conquering banner shook, from Syria Whilst Ant. Antony, thou would'st say, Mess. O, my lord! The hand could pluck her back, that shov'd her on. Enter ENOBARBUS. Eno. What's your pleasure, sir? Ant. I must with haste from hence. Eno. 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. Ant. I must be gone. Eno. 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 upon far poorer moment; I do think, there is mettle in death, which commits some loving act upon her, she hath such celerity in dying. Ant. She is cunning past man's thought. Eno. 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: this cannot be cunning in her; if it be, she makes a shower of rain as well as Jove. Ant. 'Would I had never seen her! Eno. O, sir, you had then left unseen a wonderful piece of work; which not to have been blessed withal, would have discredited your travel. Ant. Fulvia is dead. Eno. Sir? Ant. Fulvia is dead. Ant. Dead. Eno. 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: this grief is crowned with consolation;your old smock brings forth a new petticoat-and, indeed, the tears live in an onion, that should water this sorrow. Ant. The business, she hath broached in the state, Ant. Speak to me home, mince not the general Cannot endure my absence. tongue; Name Cleopatra as she's call'd in Rome: Rail thou in Fulvia's phrase, and taunt my faults [Exit. Ant. From Sicyon how the news? Speak there! Ant. Let him appear!· Or lose myself in dotage.- What are you? 2 Mess. In Sicyon: Her length of sickness, with what else more serious Eno. And the business, you have broached here, cannot be without you; especially that of Cleopatra's, which wholly depends on your abode. Ant. No more light answers. Let our officers [Exeunt. SCENE III. Char. I did not see him since. Cleo. See, where he is, who's with him, what he does: - I did not send you; Cleo. What should I do, I do not? Char. In each thing give him way, cross him in no- Cleo. Thou teachest, like a fool, the way to lose him. But here comes Antony. Cleo. I am sick, and sullen. By any desperate change. My more particular, Ant. I am sorry to give breathing to my purpose.- Cleo. Though age from folly could not give me free- It does from childishness. Can Fulvia die? Look here, and, at thy sovereign leisure, read Cleo. I know, by that same eye, there's some good news. What says the married woman? - You may go; I have no power upon you; hers you are. Cleo. O, never was there queen So mightily betray'd! Yet, at the first, I saw the treasons planted. Ant. Cleopatra, Where be the sacred vials, thou should'st fill Cleo. Why should I think, you can be mine, and true, Though you in swearing shake the throned gods, But this is not the best. Look, pr'ythee, Charmian, word! but that's not it: Who have been false to Fulvia? Riotous madness,That you know well. Something it is I would, O, my oblivion is a very Antony, Ant. But that your royalty Holds idleness your subject, I should take you Cleo. 'Tis sweating labour, To bear such idleness so near the heart, Cleo. I would, I had thy inches; thou should'st Sit laurel'd victory! and smooth success E R 1 More womanly, than he: hardly gave audience, or A man, who is the abstract of all faults Lep. I must not think, there are His faults, in him, seem as the spots of heaven, Caes. You are too indulgent. Let us grant, it is not To reel the streets at noon, and stand the buffet (As his composure must be rare indeed, Whom these things cannot blemish,) yet must Antony Enter a Messenger. Lep. Here's more news. Was borne so like a soldier, that thy cheek Caes. Let his shames quickly Drive him to Rome! 'tis time we twain Lep. To-morrow, Caesar, I shall be furnish'd to inform you rightly Cae. Till which encounter, It is my business too. Farewell! Lep. Farewell, my lord! What you shall know mean Of stirs abroad, I shall beseech you, sir, my bond. [Exeunt. My Antony is away. Char. You think of him Mess. Thy biddings have been done; and every Too much. hour, Most noble Caesar, shalt thou have report, That only have fear'd Caesar: to the ports Caes. I should have known no less: It hath been taught us from the primal state, Mess. Caesar, I bring thee word, Make the sea serve them; which they ear and wound Leave thy lascivious wassals! When thou once Did famine follow; whom thou fought'st against, 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! The demi-Atlas of this earth, the arm Which beasts would cough at: thy palate then did There would he anchor his aspect, and die deign The roughest berry on the rudest hedge; With looking on his life. Enter ALEXAS. Cleo. How much unlike art thou Mark Antony! How goes it with my brave Mark Antony? Alex. Last thing he did, dear queen, He kiss'd, the last of many doubled kisses, Say, the firm Roman to great Egypt sends Cleo. What, was he sad, or merry? Alex. Like to the time o'the year between the ex tremes Men. Caesar and Lepidus Are in the field; a mighty strength they carry. Pom. He dreams; I know, they are in Rome to gether, Shall die a beggar.-Ink and paper, Charmian!— Welcome, my good Alexas! Did I, Charmian, Ever love Caesar so? Char. O that brave Caesar! Cleo. Be chok'd with such another emphasis ! Say, the brave Antony. Char. The valiant Caesar! Cleo. By Isis, I will give thee bloody teeth, If thou with Caesar paragon again My man of men. Char. By your most gracious pardon, I sing but after you. Cleo. My sallad days, Var. This is most certain that I shall deliver: Mark Antony is every hour in Rome Expected; since he went from Egypt, 'tis A space for further travel. Pom. I could have given less matter A better ear. Menas, I did not think, Men. I cannot hope, Caesar and Antony shall well greet together: His wife, that's dead, did trespasses to Caesar; His brother warr'd upon him; although, I think, Not mov'd by Antony! When I was green in judgment, cold in blood, SCENE I. - Messina. A room in POMPEY's house. Pom. If the great gods be just, they shall assist Mene. Know, worthy Pompey, That what they do delay, they not deny. Pom. I know not, Menas, How lesser enmities may give way to greater. For they have entertained cause enough SCENE II. Rome. A room in the house of LEPIDUS, Enter ENOBARBUS and LEPidus. Lep. Good Enobarbus, 'tis a worthy deed, And shall become you well, to entreat your captain To soft and gentle speech. Eno. I shall entreat him To answer like himself. If Caesar move him, Pom. Whiles we are suitors to their throne, decays Eno. Every time Serves for the matter, that is then born in it. But, pray you, stir no embers up! Here comes Enter ANTONY and VENTIidius. Eno. And yonder, Caesar. Enter CAESAR, Mecaenas, and Agrippa. Ant. If we compose well here, to Parthia! Hark you, Ventidius! Caes. I do not know, Mecaenas; ask Agrippa. Lep. Noble friends, |