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Enter Antony, and Cleopatra, her Ladies; the Train, with
Eunuchs fanning her.

Take but good Note, and you fhall fee 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 muft thou needs find out new Heav'n, new Earth.

Enter a Meffenger.

Mef. 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 fcarce-bearded Cafar have not sent
His powerful Mandate to you. Do this, or this;
Take in that Kingdom, and infranchise that ;
Perform❜t, or elfe we damn thee.

Ant. How, my Love?

Cleo. Perchance, nay, and most like,
You must not ftay here longer, your difmiffion
Is come from Cafar, therefore hear it Antony.
Where's Fluvia's Process? Cafar's I would fay, both?
Call in the Meffengers; as I am Agypt's Queen,
Thou blufheft Antony, and that blood of thine
Is Cafar's Homager: elfe fo thy Cheeks
pay Shame,
When fhrill-tongu'd Fulvia fcolds. The Meffengers.
Ant. Let Rome in Tyber melt, and the wide Arch
Of the rais'd Empire fall; here is my space,
Kingdoms are Clay; Our dungy Earth alike
Feeds Beaft as Man; the Nobleness of Life
Is to do thus; when fuch 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 Falfhood!

Why did he marry Fulvia, and not love her?

I'll feem the Fool I am not. Antony will be himself.

Ant.

R

Ant. But ftirr'd by Cleopatra.

Now for the love of love, and his foft Hours,

Let's not confound the time with Conference harsh;
There's not a minute of our Lives fhould ftretch
Without fome Pleasure now. What sport to night?
Cleo. Hear the Ambassadors.

Ant. Fie wrangling Queen!

Whom every thing becomes, to chide, to laugh,
To weep; whofe every Paffion fully strives
To make it felf in thee fair and admir'd.
No Meffenger but thine, and all alone,

To Night we'll wander through the Streets, and note
The Qualities of People. Come, my Queen,
Laft night you did defire it. Speak not to us.

[Exeunt with their Train.

Dem. Is Cafar with Antonius priz'd fo flight?
Phil Sir, fometimes when he is not Antony,
He comes too fhort of that great Property
Which ftill should go with Antony.

Dem. I am full forry, that he approves the common Liar, who thus fpeaks of him at Rome; but I will hope of better Deeds to morrow. Reft you happy.

[Exeunt. Enter Enobarbus, Charmian, Iras, Alexas, and a

Soothsayer.

Char. L. Alexas, fweet Alexas, most any thing Alexas, almost most abfolute Alexas, where's the Soothfayer that you prais'd to th' Queen? Oh! that I knew this Hufband, which you fay, muft change his Horns with Gar

lands.

Alex. Soothfayer.

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. Shew him your

Hand.

Eno. Bring in the Banquet quickly: Wine enough, Cleopatra's Health to drink.

Char. Good Sir, give me good Fortune.

Sooth. I make not, but forefee.

Char. Pray then, forefee me one.

Sooth. You fhall be yet far fairer than you are.
Char. He means in Flesh.

Iras.

Iras. No, you fhall paint when

Char. Wrinkles forbid.

you are old.

Alex. Vex not his Patience, be attentive.

Char. Huh!

Sooth. You fhall be more beloving, than beloved. i.
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 theme 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 Miftrefs.

M

Sooth. You fhall out-live the Lady whom you ferve. K 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 fhall have no Names; Prithee how many Boys and Wenches muft I have? Sooth. If every of your Wishes had a Womb,

And foretel every With, 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, fhall be to go drunk to Bed.

Iras. There's a Palm prefages Chastity, if nothing elfe. Char. E'en as the o'erflowing Nylus prefageth Famine. Iras. Go you wild Bedfellow, you cannot Soothfay. 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

Sooth. I have faid.

give me particulars.

Iras. Am I not an inch of Fortune better than the ?

Char. Well, if you were but an inch of Fortune better than I; where would you chufe it?

Iras. Not in my Husband's Nofe.

Char. Our worfer thoughts Heav'ns mend.

Alex. Come, his Fortune, his Fortune. Oh 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 worfe follow worse, 'till the worst of all follow him laughing to his Grave, Fifty-fold a Cuckold. Good is, hear me this Prayer, though thou deny me a matter of more Weight; good Ifis, I befeech thee.

Char. Amen, dear Goddefs, hear that Prayer of the People. For, as it is a heart-breaking to fee a handfome Man loofe-wiv'd, fo 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. Hufh, here comes Antony.

Char. Not he, the Queen.

Cleo. Saw you my Lord ?

Eno. No, Lady.

Cleo. Was he not here ?
Char. No, Madam.

1

Cleo. He was difpos'd to Mirth, but on the fudden A Roman thought had ftruck him. Enobarbus.

Eno. Madam.

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

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

Mef. Ay, but foon that War had end, and the times ftate Made Friends of them, jointing their force 'gainst Cafar, Whose better Iffe in the War of Italy,

Upon the first encounter drave them.

Ant. Well, what worft?

Mef. The Nature of bad News infects the Teller.

Ant.

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 lye Death, I hear him as he flatter'd.

Mef. Labienus, this is ftiff News,

Hath, with his Parthian Force, extended Afia;
From Euphrates his conquering

Banner fhook, from Syria to Lydia,

And to Ionia, whilst

Ant. Antony thou would'ft fay.

Mef. Oh, my Lord.

Ant. Speak to me home, mince not the general Tongue, Name Cleopatra as fhe is call'd in Rome :

Rail thou in Fulvia's Phrafe, and taunt my Faults
With fuch full Licenfe, as both Truth and Malice
Have Power to utter. Oh then we bring forth Weeds,
When our quick Winds lye ftill, and our ills told us
Is as our Earing; fare thee well a while.

Mef. At your Noble Pleasure.

Ant. From Scicion how the News ? fpeak there.
Mef. The Man from Scicion, is there fuch an one?
Attend. He ftays upon your will.

Ant. Let him appear ;

Thefe ftrong Egyptian Fetters I must break,
Or lofe my felf in Dotage. What are you?
Enter another Meffenger with a Letter.

2 Mef. Fulvia thy Wife is dead.

Ant. Where died the ?

2 Mef. In Scicion, her length of Sickness With what else more ferious,

Importeth thee to know, this bears.

Ant. Forbear me.

There's a great Spirit gone, thus did I defire it,
What our Contempts do often hurl from us.
We wish it Hours again, the present Pleasure,
By revolution lowring, does become

The oppofite of it felf; fhe's good being gone,
The Hand could pluck her back, that fhov'd her on.
I muft from this Ægyptian Queen break off.
Ten thou and harms, more than the ills I know
My idleness doth hatch. How now Enobarbus ?

Enter

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