Alex. Soothsayer. arch Of the rang'd empire fall! Here is my space :" [Embracing. Cleo. Excellent falsehold! Why did he marry Fulvia, and not love her ?— Ant. But stirr'd by Cleopatra.- night? Cleo. Hear the ambassadors. Ant. Fie, wrangling queen! Whom every thing becomes, to chide, to laugh, To weep; whose every passion fully strives To make itself, in thee, fair and admir'd! No messenger; but thine, and all alone, To-night we'll wander through the streets, and note The qualities of people. Come, my queen; Last night you did desire it :-Speak not to us. [Exeunt. ANT. and CLEO. with their Train. Dem. Is Cesar with Antonius priz'd so slight? Phi. Sir, sometimes, when he is not Antony, He comes too short of that great property Which still should go with Antony. Dem. I'm full sorry, That he approves the common liar, ++ who SCENE II.-The Same.-Another Room. Char. Lord Alexas, sweet Alexas, most any thing Alexas, almost most absolute Alexas, where's the soothsayer that you praised so to the queen? Oh! that I knew this husband, which, you say, must charge his horns with gar lands ! Sooth. Your will? 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 Cleopatra's health to drink. 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 be loved. Char. I had rather heat my liver with drinking. 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 Cesar, and companion me with my mistress. Sooth. You shall outlive the lady whom you figs. t Sooth. You have seen and proved 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 her's. 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. Even as the overflowing 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 1, where would you choose it? Iras. Not in my husband's nose. Char. Our worser thoughts heavens mend! Alexas, come, his fortune, his fortune.-Oh! 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! News Vulgarly esteemed the fiercest and proudest monarch There's a great spirit gone! Thus did I desire it: on. I must from this enchanting queen break off; 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 though, between them and a great cause, they die: It were pity to cast them away for nothing: 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. 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 almanacks 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 ! Mess. The nature of bad news infects the derful piece of work; which not to have been teiler. blessed withal, would have discredited your Ant. When it concerns the fool or coward.-travel. On : (This is stiff news) hath, with his Parthian force, His conquering banner shook, from Syria Ant. Fulvia is dead. 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 ge-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. my [lice much full licence, as both truth and maHave youer to utter. Oh! then we bring forth weeds. When our quick winds + lie still; and our ills told [Exit, Ant. From Sicyon how the news? Speak there. 1 Att. The man from Sicyon.-Is there such a one ? 1 Aft. He stays upon your will. Ant. Let bin appear,— These strong Egyptian fetters I must break, Ant. The business she hath broached in the Caunot endure my absence. [state 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 love 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 Cesar, and commands The empire of the sea: our slippery people (Whose love is never link'd to the deserver, Till his deserts are past,) begin to throw Pompey the great, and all his dignities, Upon his son; who, high in name and power, Higher than both in blood and life, stands up For the main soldier: whose quality, going on, Beirngth of sickness, with what else more seri-The sides o'the world may danger: Much is Import.th thee to know, this bears. Enter another MESSENGER. Or lose myself in dotage.-What are you? Cleo. Where is he? Char. I did not see him since. Cleo. See where he is, who's with him, what he does : I did not send you ; •—If you find him sad, You do not hold the method to enforce Cleo. What should I do, I do not? Char. In each thing give him way, cross him in nothing. Cleo. Thou teachest like a fool: the way to lose him. Char. Tempt him not so too far: I wish for. bear: In time we hate that which we often fear. Cleo. Why should I think you can be mine, and true, Though you in swearing shake the thronged gods, Who have been false to Fulvia? Riotous madness, To be entangled with those mouth-made vows, Which break themselves in swearing! Ant. Most sweet queen,— Cleo. Nay, pray you, seck no colour for your going, [ing, But bid farewell, and go: when you sued stay. Then was the time for words: No going then ;Eternity was in our lips, and eyes; Bliss in our brows' bent; + none our parts so poor, Breeds scrupulous faction: The hated, grown to strength, [Pompey, Are newly grown to love : the condeшn'e Rich in his father's honour, creeps apace Into the hearts of such as have not thriv'd Upon the present state, whose numbers threaten; And quietness, grown sick of rest, would purge By any desperate change: My more particular, And that which most with you should safe⚫ my going, Is Fulvia's death. Cleo. Though age from folly could not give It does from childishness :-Can Fulvia die ? t Look here, and, at thy sovereign leisure, read Cleo. O most false love! Where be the sacred vials thou should'st fill Cleo. Cut my lace, Charmian, come ;- Ant. My precious queen, forbear; And give true evidence to his love, which stands An honourable trial. Cleo, So Fulvia told me. I pr'ythee turn aside, and weep for her; Ant. You'll heat my blood; no more. Cleo. And target,-Still he mends; But this is not the best: Look, pr'ythee, Charmian, How this Herculean Roman does become Ant. I'll leave, you, lady. Cleo. Courteous lord, one word. Sir, you and I must part,-but that's not it: Ant. But that your royalty Cleo. 'Tis sweating labour, To bear such idleness so near the heart Ant. Let us go. Come: Our separation so abides, and flies, SCENE IV.-Rome.-An apartment in Enter OCTAVIUS CESAR, LEPIDUS, and Atten dants. Ces. You may see, Lepidus, and henceforth know, It is not Cesar's natural vice to hate One great competitor :|| from Alexandria Render my going agreeable. Can Fulvia be dead? + Our eye brows. The commotion she occasioned. § Oblivious memory. Gate. Associate or partner. This is the news-He fishes, drinks, and wastes | Yea, like the stag, when snow the pasture sheets, The lamps of night in revel: is not more man-The barks of trees thou browsed'st; on the Alps like Than Cleopatra; nor the queen Ptolemy A man, who is the abstract of all faults Lep. I must not think there are His faults, in bim, seem as the spots of heaven, Ces. You are too indulgent: let us grant, it is Most noble Cesar, shalt thou have report Cer. I should have known no less :- [body, Comes dear'd, by being lack'd. ¶ This common Lar a vagabond flag upon the stream, esta, and back, lackeying the varying tide, To not itself with motion. Mess. Cesar, I bring thee word, Marcrates and Menas, famous pirates, Make the sea serve them: which they ear ** and woond keels of every kind: Many hot inroads They make in Italy; the borders maritime Les blood + to think on't, and flush ‡‡ youth revolt : So easel can peep forth, but 'tis as soon It is reported, thou did'st eat strange flesh, Lep. It is pity of him. Ces. Let his shames quickly Drive him to Rome: "Tis time we twain Lep. To-morrow, Cesar, I shall be furnish'd to inform you rightly Ces. Till which encounter, It is my business too. Farewell. Lep. Farewell, my lord: What you shall know mean time Of stirs abroad, I shall beseech you, Sir, Ces. Doubt not, Sir; [Exeunt. Where think'st thou he is now? Stands he, or sits be? Or does he walk for is he on his horse? The demi-Atlas of this earth, the arm For so he calls me: Now I feed myself Cesar, When thou wast here above the ground, I was brow; There would he anchor his aspéct, and dle With looking on his life. Enter ALEXAS. Alex. Sovereign of Egypt, bail ! My bounden duty, : Unmanned. Cleo. How much unlike art thou Mark An- Yet, coming from him, that great medicine hath How goes it with my brave Mark Antony He kiss'd, the last of many doubled kisses,— Say, the firm Roman to great Egypt sends Say thou, shall call her mistress. So he nodded, Cleo. What, was he sad, or merry? Alex. Like to the ume o'the year between the extremes Of hot and cold; he was nor sad, nor merry. He was not sad; for he would shine on those O heavenly mingle; Be'st thou sad, or merry, So does it no man else.-Met'st thou my posts? Cleo. Who's born that day When I forget to send to Antony, Var. This is most certain that I shall deliver: Pom. I could have given less matter Men. I cannot hope, Cesar and Antony shall well greet together: Pom. I know not, Menas, How lesser enmities may give way to greater. Shall die a beggar.-Ink and paper, Charmian.-'Twere pregnant they should square between Welcome, my good Alexas.-Did I, Charmian, Ever love Cesar so? Char. O that brave Cesar! themselves; For they have entertained cause enough Cleo. Be chok'd with such another emphasis! May cement their divisions, and bind up Say, the brave Antony. Char. The valiant Cesar! Cleo. By Isis, I will give thee bloody teeth, If thou with Cesar paragon again My man of men. Char. By your most gracious pardon, I sing but after you. Cleo. My sallad days, When I was green in judgment :-cold in blood, ACT II. house. [Exeunt. The petty difference, we yet not know. [Exeunt. SCENE II-Rome.-A Room in the house of Enter ENOBARBUS and LEpidus. Lep. Good Enobarbus, 'tis a worthy deed, Eno. I shall entreat himn To answer like himself: if Cesar move him, SCENE I.-Messina.-A Room in POMPEY's would not shave to-day. Lep. 'Tis not a time Eno. Every time [tatu |