Char. Madam, methinks, if you did love him dearly, You do not hold the method to enforce The like from him. What should I do, I do not? Cleo. But here comes Antony. Cleo. Enter ANTONY. I am sick, and sullen. Ant. I am sorry to give breathing to my purpose, Ant. Now, my dearest queen, Cleo. Pray you, stand farther from me. Ant. What's the matter? Cleo. 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, 't is I that keep you here, I have no power upon you; hers you are. Cleo. So mightily betray'd; yet at the first I saw the treasons planted. Ant. O! never was there queen Cleopatra, Cleo. Why should I think, you can be mine, and true, Ant. Most sweet queen, - Cleo. 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 : Bliss in our brows' bent; none our parts so poor. Ant. How now, lady! Cleo. I would, I had thy inches; thou should'st know, There were a heart in Egypt. Hear me, queen. Ant. Our services a while, but my full heart Shines o'er with civil swords: Sextus Pompeius Equality of two domestic powers Breeds scrupulous faction. The hated, grown to strength, Are newly grown to love: the condemn'd Pompey, Into the hearts of such as have not thriv'd Upon the present state, whose numbers threaten, Cleo. Though age from folly could not give me freedom, It does from childishness. Can Fulvia die? Ant. She's dead, my queen. Look here, and, at thy sovereign leisure, read The garboils she awak'd; at the last, best, See, when, and where she died. O most false love! Cleo. In Fulvia's death, how mine receiv'd shall be. As you shall give the advice: by the fire So Antony loves. Ant. Cut my lace, Charmian, come. I am quickly ill, and well, My precious queen, forbear; And give true evidence to his love, which stands An honourable trial. Belong to Egypt: good now, play one scene Ant. You'll heat my blood: no more. And target. Still he mends; But this is not the best. Look, pr'ythee, Charmian, The carriage of his chafe. Ant. I'll leave you, lady. Cleo. Courteous lord, one word. Sir, you and I must part, Sir, you and I have lov'd, 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. Ant. But that your royalty Holds idleness your subject, I should take you To bear such idleness so near the heart, Eye well to you: your honour calls you hence; Be strew'd before your feet! Ant. Our separation so abides, That thou, residing here, Let us go. Come; and flies, go'st yet with me, And I, hence fleeting, here remain with thee. Away! SCENE IV. Rome. An Apartment in CÆSAR's House. [Exeunt. Enter OCTAVIUS CÆSAR, LEPIDUS, and Attendants. One great competitor. From Alexandria This is the news:.he fishes, drinks, and wastes More womanly than he: hardly gave audience, or That all men follow. Lep. I must not think, there are His faults, in him, seem as the spots of heaven, Cæs. You are too indulgent. Let us grant, it is not 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 Full surfeits, and the dryness of his bones, Call on him for 't; but, to confound such time, As we rate boys; who, being mature in knowledge, Lep. Enter a Messenger. Here's more news. Mess. Thy biddings have been done; and every hour, Most noble Cæsar, shalt thou have report How 't is abroad. Pompey is strong at sea; Cæs. I should have known no less. It hath been taught us from the primal state, That he, which is, was wish'd, until he were ; And the ebb'd man ne'er lov'd, till ne'er worth love, Goes to, and back, lackeying the varying tide, To rot itself with motion. Mess. Menecrates and Menas, famous pirates, Cæsar, I bring thee word, Make the sea serve them; which they ear and wound With keels of every kind: many hot inroads |