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Antony and Cleopatra.

ACTI. SCENE I.

SCENE Alexandria in Ægypt.

N

Enter Demetrius and Philo

PHILO.

AY, but this Dotage of our General
O'er-flows the Measure; those his goodly

Eyes

That o'er the Files and Musters of the War,
Have glow'd like plated Mars, now bend,

now turn

The Office and Devotion of their view
Upon a Tawny Front. His Captain's Heart,
Which in the scuffles of great fights hath burft
The Buckles on his Breaft, reneges all Temper,
And is become the Bellows and the Fan

To cool a Gypfies Luft. Look where they come !

VOL. VI.

A 4

Enter

Enter Antony, and Cleopatra, her Ladies; the Train, with

Eunuchs fanning her.

Take but good Note, and you shall see him,
The tripple Pillar of the World, transform'd
Into a Strumpet's Fool. Behold and fee.

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 fet a bourn how far to be belov'd.

Ant. Then must thou needs find out new Heav'n, new Earth.

Enter a Messenger.

Mes. News, my good Lord, from Rome.
Ant. Rate me the Sum.

Cleo. Nay, hear them Antony.
Fulvia perchance is angry; or who knows.
If the scarce-bearded Cafar have not fent
His powerful Mandate to you. Do this, or this;
Take in that Kingdom, and infranchise that;

Perform't, or else we damn thee.

Ant. How, my Love ?

1

Cleo. Perchance, nay, and most like,
You must not stay here longer, your dismision
Is come from Cafar, therefore hear it Antony.
Where's Fulvia's Frocess ? Cafar's, I would say, both?
Call in the Meffengers; as I am Ægypt's Queen,
Thou blushest Antony, and that blood of thine
Is Cafar's Homager: else so thy Cheeks pay Shame,
When shrill tongu'd Fulvia scolds. The Mefsengers.

Ant. Let Romeand Tyber melt, and the wide Arch
Of the rais'd Empire fall; here is my space,
Kingdoms are Clay; Our dungy Earth alike
Feeds Beast as Man; the Nobleness of Life
Is to do thus; when such a mutual pair,
And fuch a twain can do't; in which I bind,
On pain of Punishment, the World to weet
We stand up Peerless.

Cleo. Excellent Falshood!

Why did he marry Fulvia, and not love her?
I'll feem the Fool I am not. Antony will be himsfelf.

Ant.

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Ant. But stirr'd by Cleopatra.
Now for the love of love, and his soft Hours,
Let's not confound the time with Conference harsh;
There's not a minute of our Lives should stretch

Without fome Pleasure now:

Cleo. Hear the Ambassadors.

Ant. Fie wrangling Queen!

What sport to night?

Whom every thing becomes, to chide, to laugh,

To weep? whose every Paffion fully strives

To make it felf 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 defire it. Speak not to us.

[Exeunt with their Train.

Dem. Is Cafar with Antonius priz'd so slight?

Phil. Sir, sometimes when he is not Antony,

He comes too short of that great Property

Which still should go with Antony.

Dem. I am full forry, that he approves the common Liar, who thus speaks of him at Rome; but I will hope of better

Deeds to morrow. Reft you happy.

[Exeunt.

Enter Enobardus, Charmian, Iras, Alexas, and a

Southsayer.

Char. L. Alexas, sweet Alexas, most any thing Alexas, almost most absolute Aexas, where's the Soothsayer that you prais'd to the Queen? Oh! that I knew this Huf band, which you say, must change his Horns with Garlands.

Alex. Soothsayer.
South. 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. Shew him your Hand.

Eno. Bring in the Banquet quickly: Wine enough,

Cleopatra's Health to drink.

Char. Good Sir, give me good Forture,

Sooth. I make not, but forefee.

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 Patience, be attentive.
Char. Hush!

Sooth. You shall be more beloving, then beloved.
Char. I had rather heat my Liver with Drinking.
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 me with Octavius Cafar, and Companion me with my Mistress.

Sooth. You shall out-live the Lady whom you serve. Char. Oh excellent, I love long Life better than Figs. Sooth. You have feen and proved a fairer former Fortune,

than that which is to approach.

Char. Then belike my Children shall have no Names;

Prithee how many Boys and Wenches must I have?
Sooth. If every of your Wishes had a Womb,

And foretel 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 to go drunk to Bed.

Iras. There's a Palm presages Chastity, if nothing else. Char. E'en as the o'erflowing Nylus presageth Famine. Iras. Go you wild Bedfellow, you cannot Soothsay. Char. Nay, if an oily Palm be not a fruitful Prognoftication, I cannot fcratch mine Ear. Prithee tell her but a Workyday Fortune.

Sooth. Your Fortunes are alike.

Iras. But how, but how-give me particulars.
Sooth. I have faid.

Iras. Am I not an inch of Fortune better than the?
Char. Well, if you were but an inch of Fortune better

than 1; where would you chuse it?

1

Iras. Not in my Husband's Nose. Char. Our worser thoughts Heav'ns mend. Alex. Come, his Fortune, his Fortune. Oh let him Marry a Woman that cannot go, sweet Ifis, 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 Ifis, I beseech thee.

Char. Amen, dear Goddess, hear that Prayer of the People. For, as it is a heart-breaking to fee a handfome Man loose-wiv'd, so it is a deadly Sorrow, 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 do't.

Enter Cleopatra.

Eno. Hush, here comes Antony.

Char. Not he, the Queen.

Cleo. Saw you my Lord ?

Eno. No, Lady.

Cleo. Was he not here ?

Char. No, Madam.

Cleo. He was dispos'd to Mirth, but on the fudden

A Roman thought had struck him. Enobarbus.

Ene. Madam.

Cleo. Seek him, and bring him hither; where's Alexas?
Alex. Here at your Service, my Lord approaches.

Enter Antony with a Messenger and Attendants.
Cleo. We will not look upon him; go with us. [Exeunt.
Mes. Fulvia thy Wife, first came into the Field.
Ant. Against my Brother Lucius ?

Mes. Ay, but foon that War had end, and the times state
Made Friends of them, jointing their force 'gainst Cefar,
Whose better Issue in the War of Italy,

Upon the first encounter drave them.

Ant. Well, what worst ?

Mef. The Nature of Bad News infects the Teller.

Ant

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