A little I can read. ALEX. Show him your hand. Enter ENOBARBUS. Eno. Bring in the banquet quickly; wine enough, Cleopatra's health to drink. CHAR. Good fir, give me good fortune. SOOTH. I make not, but foresee. 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. ALEX. Vex not his prefcience; be attentive. SOOTH. You fhall be more beloving, than beloved. ALEX. Nay, hear him. CHAR. Good now, fome 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 with Octavius Cæfar, and companion me with my mistress. SOOTH. You fhall outlive the lady whom you ferve. CHAR. O excellent! I love long life better than figs. SOOTH. You have feen 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? SоOTH. 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 fheets are privy to your wishes. CHAR. Nay, come, tell Iras hers. ALEX. We'll know all our fortunes. ENO. Mine, and moft of our fortunes, to-night, shall be-drunk to bed. IRAS. There's a palm prefages chastity, if nothing elfe. CHAR. Even as the o'erflowing Nilus prefages famine. IRAS. Go, you wild bedfellow, you cannot foothfay. CHAR. Nay, if an oily palm be not a fruitful prognof-. tication, I cannot scratch mine ear. Pr'ythee, tell her SOOTH. Your fortunes are alike. IRAS. But how, but how? give me particulars. 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 hufband's nose. CHAR. Our worfer thoughts heavens mend! Alexas,— come, his fortune, his fortune.-O, let him marry a woman that cannot go, fweet Ifis, I beseech thee! And let her die too, and give him a worfe! and let worse follow worse, till the worst of all follow him laughing to his grave, fifty-fold a cuckold! Good Hfis, hear me this prayer, though thou deny me a matter of more weight; good Ifis, I befeech thee! IRAS. Amen. Dear goddess, hear that prayer of the people! for, as it is heart-breaking to see a handfome man loose-wiv'd, so 'tis a deadly forrow to behold a foul knave uncuckolded; Therefore, dear Ifis, 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 CLEO. He was difpos'd to mirth; but on the fudden A Roman thought hath ftruck him.-Enobarbus,— ENO. Madam. CLEO. Seek him, and bring him hither. Where's Alexas? ALEX. Here, madam, at your fervice.-My lord approaches. Enter ANTONY, with a MESSENGER, and ATTENDANTS, CLEO. We will not look upon him: Go with us. [Exeunt CLEOPATRA, ENOBARBUS, ALEXAS, IRAS, CHARMIAN, SOOTHSAYER, and ATTENDANTS. MES. Fulvia thy wife first came into the field. ANT. Against my brother Lucius? MES. Ay: But foon that war had end, and the time's fstate Made friends of them, jointing their force 'gainft Cæfar; Whose better iffue in the war, from Italy, Upon the first encounter, drave them. ANT. Well, What worst? MES. The nature of bad news infects the teller. ANT. When it concerns the fool, or coward.—On : Things, that are paft, are done, with me.-'Tis thus; Who tells me true, though in his tale lie death, I hear him as he flatter'd. MES. Labienus (This is ftiff news) hath, with his Parthian force, His conquering banner fhook, from Syria Whilft. ANT. Antony, thou would'st say,— MES. O, my lord! ANT. Speak to me home, mince not the general tongue; Name Cleopatra as fhe's call'd in Rome : Rail thou in Fulvia's phrase; and taunt my faults MES. At your noble pleasure. ANT. From Sicyon how the news? Speak there. [Exit. 1 АTT. The man from Sicyon.-Is there fuch an one? 2 ATT. He stays upon your will. ANT. Let him appear. These strong Ægyptian fetters I must break, Enter another MESSENGER. Or lofe myself in dotage.-What are you? 2 MES. Fulvia thy wife is dead. ANT. Where died fhe? 2 MES. In Sicyon: Her length of fickness, with what else more serious Importeth thee to know, this bears. [gives a letter. ANT. Forbear me. [Exit MESSENger. There's a great spirit gone! Thus did I defire it: We wish it ours again; the present pleasure, By revolution lowering, does become The opposite of itself: fhe's good, being gone; ENO. What's your pleasure, fir? ANT. I muft with hafte from hence. ENO. Why, then, we kill all our women: We fee 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 occafion, let women die: It were pity to caft them away for nothing; though, between them and a great cause, they should be esteem'd nothing. Cleopatra, catching but the leaft noise of this, dies inftantly; I have feen her die twenty times upon far poorer moment: I do think, there is mettle in death, which commits fome loving act upon her, she hath fuch a celerity in dying. ANT. She is cunning paft man's thought. Eno. Alack, fir, no; her paffions are made of nothing but the finest part of pure love: We cannot call her winds and waters, fighs and tears; they are greater ftorms and tempefts than almanacks can report: this cannot be cunning in her; if it be, fhe makes a shower of rain as well as Jove. ANT. 'Would I had never seen her! ENO. O, fir, you had then left unfeen a wonderful piece of work; which not to have been blefs'd withal, would have difcredited your travel. |