Enter another MESSENGER. Or lose myself in dotage.-What are you? 2 Mes. Fulvia thy wife is dead. Ant. 2 Mes. In Sicyon : Where died she? Her length of sickness, with what else more serious Importeth thee to know, this bears. [gives a letter. Ant. Forbear me. There's a great spirit gone! Thus did I desire it. The opposite of itself: she's good, being gone; 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 die: it were pity to cast them away for nothing; though between them and a great cause they 17 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: 1 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! Eno. O, sir, you had then left unseen a wonderful piece of work; which not to have been blessed withal, would have discredited your travel. Ant. Fulvia is dead. Eno. Sir? 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 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. 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 breeding, Much is Which, like the courser's hair, hath yet but life,1 Eno. I shall do 't. [Exeunt. SCENE III. Enter CLEOPATRA, CHARMIAN, IRAS, and ALEXAS. Cle. Where is he? Char. I did not see him since. Cle. See where he is, who's with him, what he does : I did not send you : 2—if you find him sad, Say I am dancing; if in mirth, report That I am sudden sick: quick, and return. [Exit Alexas. Char. Madam, methinks, if you did love him dearly, You do not hold the method to enforce The like from him. Cle. What should I do, I do not? Char. In each thing give him way; cross him in nothing. Cle. Thou teachest like a fool: the way to lose him. 1 In allusion to an old idle notion, that the hair of a hors dropped into corrupted water, will turn to an animal. ? Appear as if I did not send you. Char. Tempt him not so too far: I wish, forbear: In time we hate that which we often fear. Enter ANTONY. I am sick and sullen. But here comes Antony. Cle. Ant. I am sorry to give breathing to my pur pose, Cle. Help me away, dear Charmian; I shall fall: It cannot be thus long; the sides of nature Will not sustain it. Ant. Now, my dearest queen, What's the matter? Cle. Pray you, stand farther from me. Ant. Cle. I know, by that same eye, there's some good news. What says the married woman ?—You may go: I have no power upon you; hers you are. Cle. O, never was there queen So mightily betray'd! Yet, at the first, I saw the treasons planted. Ant. Cleopatra ! Cle. 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, |