ACT I. SCENE I.-Alexandria. A Room in Cleopatra's Palace. PHI. Nay, but this dotage of our general's Upon a tawny front: his captain's heart, Which in the scuffles of great fights hath burst To cool a gipsy's lust. Look, where they come! Into a strumpet's fool: behold and see. [Flourish without. Enter ANTONY and CLEOPATRA, with their Trains; Eunuchs CLEO. If it be love indeed, tell me how much. ANT. There's beggary in the love that can be reckon❜d. CLEO. I'll set a bourn how far to be belov'd. ANT. Then must thou needs find out new heaven, new earth. Enter an Attendant. ATT. News, my good lord, from Rome. Grates me:-the sum. CLEO. Nay, hear them, Antony: ANT. How, my love! CLEO. Perchance,-nay, and most like,— You must not stay here longer, your dismission Is come from Cæsar; therefore hear it, Antony. Where's Fulvia's process? Cæsar's, I would say.-Both ?— Thou blushest, Antony; and that blood of thine it was -reneges-] That is, denies or renounces. Though odd and obsolete now, probably the genuine word, as in "King Lear," Act II. Sc. 2, we have,-"Renege, affirm," &c. b damn thee.] Condemn thee. C process ?] Citation. Is Cæsar's homager; else so thy cheek pays shame ANT. Let Rome in Tiber melt, and the wide arch CLEO. Excellent falsehood! Why did he marry Fulvia, and not love her?— Now, for the love of Love, and her soft hours, Let's not confound the time with conference harsh: ANT. * Fie, wrangling queen! To-night we'll wander through the streets, and note [Embracing. [Exeunt ANT. and CLEOP., with their Trains. DEM. Is Cæsar with Antonius priz'd so slight? I am full sorry DEM. [Exeunt. SCENE II.-The same. Another Room in the Palace. Enter CHARMIAN, IRAS, ALEXAS, and a Soothsayer.b CHAR. Lord Alexas, sweet Alexas, most anything Alexas, almost most absolute Alexas, where's the soothsayer that you praised so to (*) First folio, who. That he approves the common liar,-] That he confirms the reports of Rumour. Enter CHARMIAN, IRAS, ALEXAS, and a Soothsayer.] The direction of the folio is, "Enter Enobarbus, Lamprius, a Soothsayer, Rannius, Lucillius, Charmian, Iras, Mardian the Eunuch, and Alexas." And Steevens thought it possible that "Lamprius, Rannius, Lucillius," &c. might have been speakers in the scene as it was originally written by the poet, who afterwards, when omitting the speeches, forgot to erase the names. the queen? O, that I knew this husband, which, you say, must change his horns with garlands' ALEX. Soothsayer,— SOOTH. Your will? CHAR. Is this the man?-Is 't you, sir, that know things? A little I can read. ENO. Bring in the banquet quickly; wine enough CHAR. Good sir, give me good fortune. CHAR. Pray, then, foresee me one. SOOTH. You shall be yet far fairer than you are. CHAR. He means in flesh. IRAS. No, you shall paint when you are old. CHAR. Wrinkles forbid! ALEX. Vex not his prescience; be attentive. CHAR. Hush! SOOTH. You shall be more beloving than belov'd. ALEX. Nay, hear him. CHAR. Good now, some excellent fortune! Let me be married to three kings in a forenoon, and widow them all: let me have a child at fifty, to whom Herod of Jewry may do homage: find me to marry me with Octavius Cæsar, and companion me with my mistress. SOOTH. You shall outlive the lady whom you serve. SOOTH. You have seen and prov'd a fairer former fortune 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, And fertile every wish, a million. CHAR. Out, fool! I forgive thee for a witch. ALEX. You think none but your sheets are privy to your wishes. CHAR. Nay, come, tell Iras hers. ALEX. We'll know all our fortunes. ENO. Mine, and most of our fortunes, to-night, shall be-drunk to bed. IRAS. There's a palm presages chastity, if nothing else. CHAR. E'en as the o'erflowing Nilus presageth famine. IRAS. Go, you wild bedfellow, you cannot soothsay. change his horns with garlands ! So the old text; to "change his horns," may mean to vary or garnish them. The modern reading, however, of charge, suggested by Southern and Warburton, is certainly very plausible. b I love long life better than figs.] This was a proverbial saying. - my children shall have no names:] That is, be illegitimate. And fertile every wish,-] A correction of Theobald or Warburton. The old copy has, "And foretel," &c. CHAR. Nay, if an oily palm be not a fruitful prognostication, I cannot scratch mine ear.-Pr'ythee, tell her but a worky-day fortune. SOOTH. Your fortunes are alike. IRAS. But how, but how? give me particulars. SOOTH. I have said. IRAS. Am I not an inch of fortune better than she? CHAR. Well, if you were but an inch of fortune better than I, where would you choose it? IRAS. Not in my husband's nose. 'CHAR. Our worser thoughts heaven mend!-Alexas,-come, his fortune, his fortune!a-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, fifty-fold a cuckold! Good Isis, hear me this prayer, though thou deny me a matter of more weight; good Isis, I beseech thee! IRAS. Amen. Dear goddess, hear that prayer of the people! for, as it is a heart-breaking to see a handsome man loose-wived, so it is a deadly sorrow to behold a foul knave uncuckolded: therefore, dear Isis, keep decorum, and 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. CHAR. Not he; the queen. CLEO. He was dispos'd to mirth; but on the sudden A Roman thought hath struck him.-Enobarbus, ENO. Madam? CLEO. Seek him, and bring him hither.-Where's Alexas? Enter ANTONY, with a Messenger and Attendants. MESS. Fulvia thy wife first came into the field. But soon that war had end, and the time's state Made friends of them, jointing their force 'gainst Cæsar; Upon the first encounter, drave them. ANT. Well, what worst? (*) First folio, Saue. [Exeunt. Alexas, come, his fortune, his fortune!-] The compositor of the folio, mistaking "Alexas" for the prefix to the speech, has attributed what follows to him. The error was pointed out by Theobald a century ago, and has been rectified in every edition since. MESS. The nature of bad news infects the teller. ANT. When it concerns the fool, or coward.-On :- (This is stiff news) hath, with his Parthian force His conquering banner shook from Syria Whilst ANT. Antony, thou wouldst say, MESS. O, my lord! ANT. Speak to me home, mince not the general tongue; Rail thou in Fulvia's phrase; and taunt my faults Have power to utter. O, then we bring forth weeds, MESS. At your noble pleasure. ANT. From Sicyon ho,* the news! Speak there! 1 ATT. The man from Sicyon,-is there such an one? Let him appear.— These strong Egyptian fetters I must break, 2 MESS. Fulvia thy wife is dead. (2), ANT. 2 MESS. In Sicyon: [Exit. Enter another Messenger. What are you? Where died she? [Gives a letter. [Exit Messenger. Her length of sickness, with what else more serious ANT. Old text, how. Extended-] Seized. (+) Old text, contempts. b When our quick winds-] Has been changed, by Warburton, to "When our quick minds," &c., perhaps without necessity. "Quick winds" may mean, quickening winds; and Johnson's explanation of the passage,-"that man, not agitated by censure, like soil not ventilated by quick winds, produces more evil than good,”—is possibly the true one. e-earing!] Ploughing. VOL. VI. G |