Dar. Cli. O, Dardanius! Dar. O, Clitus! I do such a deed? Cli. What ill request did Brutus make to thee? Bru. Come hither, good Volumnius: list a word. Why, this, Volumnius : Not so, my lord. Good Volumnius, Thou know'st, that we two went to school together; Vol. That's not an office for a friend, my lord. Strato, thou hast been all this while asleep; Cli. Fly, my lord, fly. Bru. Hence; I will follow thee. [Exeunt Clitus, Dardanius, and Volumnius. I pr'ythee, Strato, stay thou by thy lord: Thou art a fellow of a good respect; Thy life hath had some smatch of honour in it: Hold then my sword, and turn away thy face, While I do run upon it. Wilt thou, Strato? Stra. Give me your hand first: Fare you well, my lord. (1) Receive into my service. (2) Recommend. Bru. Farewell, good Strato.-Cæsar, now be still: I kill'd not thee with half so good a will. [He runs on his sword, and dies. Alarum. Retreat. Enter Octavius, Antony, Messala, Lucilius, and their Army. Oct. What man is that? Mes. My master's man.master? n.-Strato, where is thy Stra. Free from the bondage you are in, Messala; And no man else hath honour by his death. That thou hast prov'd Lucilius' saying true. Mes. Ant. This was the noblest Roman of them all: All the conspirators, save only he, Did that they did in envy of great Cæsar; He, only, in a general honest thought, And common good to all, made one of them. His life was gentle; and the elements So mix'd in him, that Nature might stand up, And say to all the world, This was a man! Oct. According to his virtue let us use him, With all respect and rites of burial. Within my tent his bones to-night shall lie, Most like a soldier, order'd honourably.So, call the field to rest: and let's away, To part the glories of this happy day. [Exeunt. NAY, but this dotage of our general's, Have glow'd like plated Mars, now bend, now turn, The office and devotion of their view Cleo. If it be love indeed, tell me how much. Cleo. I'll set a bourn2 how far to be belov'd. Ant. Then must thou needs find out new heaven, new earth. Enter an Attendant. If the scarce-bearded Cæsar have not sent Ant. Both? Call in the messengers.-As I am Egypt's queen, [Embracing, And such a twain can do't, in which, I bind Cleo. Ant. Att. News, my good lord, from Rome. To weep; whose every passion fully strives [Exeunt Ant. and Cleo. with their train. Char. Even as the o'erflowing Nilus presageth famine. Iras. Go, you wild bedfellow, you cannot soothsay. 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. 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 heavens mend! A[Exeunt.lexas,-come, his fortune, his fortune.-O, let him seech thee! And let her die too, and give him a marry a woman that cannot go, sweet Isis, I beworse! and let worse follow worse, till the worst of all follow him laughing to his grave, fifty-fold a cuckold! Good Isis,3 hear me this prayer, though thou deny me a matter of more weight; good Isis, I beseech thee! SCENE II-The same. Another room. Enter Charmian, Iras, Alexas, and a Soothsayer. Char. Lord Alexas, sweet Alexas, most any thing Alexas, almost most absolute Alexas, where's the soothsayer that you praised so to the queen? O, that I knew this husband, which, you say, must change his horns with garlands! Alex. Soothsayer. Char. Is this the man?--Is't you, sir, that know things? Sooth. In nature's infinite book of secrecy, A little I can read. Alex. Show him your hand. Enter Enobarbus. Eno. Bring in the banquet quickly; wine enough, 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 beloved. 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. Than that which is to approach. Char. Then, belike, my children shall have no names:2 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. (1) Fame. (2) Shall be bastards. 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. A Roman thought hath struck him.-Enobarbus,- Cleo. Seek him, and bring him hither. Where's Alex. Here, madam, at your service.-My lord Enter Antony, with a Messenger and Attendants, Mess. Ay: But soon that war had end, and the time's state Whose better issue in the war, from Italy, Well, Mess. The nature of bad news infects the teller. Mess. (3) An Egyptian goddess. (4) Seized His conquering banner shook, from Syria Whilst Ant. Mess. Antony, thou would'st say, O, my lord Ant. Speak to me home, mince not the general tongue; Name Cleopatra as she's call'd in Rome : 2 Att. He stays upon your will. Enter another Messenger. Or lose myself in dotage.-What are you? Where died she? 2 Mess. In Sicyon: Eno. Fulvia? 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 Ant. The business she hath broached in the state, Cannot endure my absence. 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 Have notice what we purpose. I shall break The cause of our expedience to the queen, And get her loves to part. For not alone 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 Cæsar, and commands The empire of the sea: our slippery people Forbear me.-(Whose love is never link'd to the deserver, [Exit Messenger. Till his deserts are past,) begin to throw There's a great spirit gone! Thus did I desire it: Pompey the great, and all his dignities, What our contempts do often hurl from us, Upon his son who, high in name and power, We wish it ours again; the present pleasure, Higher than both in blood and life, stands up By revolution lowering, does become For the main soldier: whose quality, going on, The opposite of itself: she's good, being gone; The sides o'the world may danger: Much is breedThe hand could pluck her back, that shov'd her on. ing, I must from this enchanting queen break off; Ten thousand harms, more than the ills I know, My idleness doth hatch.-How now! Enobarbus! Enter Enobarbus. 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 a celerity in dying. Ant. She is cunning past man's thought. Which, like the courser's hair, hath yet but life, Eno. I shall do't. [Exeunt. I did not send you ;7-If you find him sad, [Exit Alex. Char. Madam, methinks, if you did love him dearly, You do not hold the method to enforce Cleo. Thou teachest like a fool: the way to lose him. 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 bless-But here comes Antony. ed withal, would have discredited your travel. Ant. Fulvia is dead. Char. Tempt him not so too far: I wish, forbear; In time we hate that which we often fear. Cleo. Enter Antony. • I am sick, and sullen. Ant. I am sorry to give breathing to my pur It cannot be thus long, the sides of nature What says the married woman?—You may go; Cut my lace, Charmian, come ;But let it be.-I am quickly ill, and well: So Antony loves. Ant. My precious queen, forbear; And give true evidence to his love, which standa An honourable trial. Cleo. So Fulvia told me. I pr'ythee, turn aside, and weep for her; O, neyer was there queen Of excellent dissembling; and let it look So mightily betray'd! Yet, at the first, I saw the treasons planted. Ant. Cleopatra, Cleo. Why should I think, you can be mine, and true, Though you in swearing shake the throned gods, Who have been false to Fulvia? Riotous madness, To be entangled with those mouth-made vows, Which break themselves in swearing! Ant. 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. Ant. Shines o'er with civil swords: Sextus Pompeius Are newly grown to love: the condemn'd Pompey, Is Fulvia's death. Cleo. Though age from folly could not give freedom, It does from childishness:-Can Fulvia die ?5 Ant. She's dead, my queen: iny me Look here, and, at thy sovereign leisure, read (1) The arch of our eye-brows. (2) Smack or flavour. (4) Render my going not dangerous. (5) Can Fulvia be dead? (6) The commotion she occasioned. Like perfect honour. And target,-Still he mends; Ant. I'll leave you, lady. Cleo. Courteous lord, one word. Sir, you and I must part,-but that's not it: Sir, you and I have lov'd,—but there's not it; That you know well: Something it is I would,O, my oblivion10 is a very Antony, And I am all forgotten. Ant. But that your royalty Holds idleness your subject, I should take you For idleness itself. Cleo. To bear such idleness so near the heart Let us go. Come ; [Exeunt. SCENE IV.-Rome. An apartment in Cæsar's house. Enter Octavius Cæsar, Lepidus, and Attendants. It is not Cæsar's natural vice to hate One great competitor: From Alexandria More womanly than he hardly gave audience, or find there A man, who is the abstract of all faults Cæs. You are too indulgent: Let us grant, it |