MENECRATES, Friends of VARRIUS, TAURUS, Lieutenant-general to CANIDIUS, Lieutenant-general to SILIUS, an Officer in Ventidius' EUPHRONIUS, an Ambassador from Antony to Cæsar. ALEXAS, MARDIAN, SELEUCUS, and DIOMEDES, Attendants on Cleopatra. A SOOTHSAYER.-A CLOWN. CLEOPATRA, Queen of Egypt. CHARMIAN, Attendants on Cleo- patra. OFFICERS, SOLDIERS, MESSENGERS, and other ATTENDANTS. SCENE, dispersed; in several Parts of the Roman Empire. ACT I. SCENE I-Alexandria. A Room in CLEOPATRA'S Palace. Enter DEMETRIUS and PHILO. Phil. Nay, but this dotage of our general's, O'erflows the measure: those his goodly eyes, That o'er the files and musters of the war Have glow'd like plaited 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 burst The buckles on his breast, reneges* all temper; And is become the bellows, and the fan, To cool a gypsy's lust. Look where they come ! Flourish. Enter ANTONY and CLEOPATRA, with their Trains; Eunuchs fanning her. Take but good note, and you shall see in him *Renounces. The triple pillar of the world transform'd Into a strumpet's fool: behold and see. Cleo. If it be love indeed, tell me how much. Ani. There's beggary in the love that can be reckon'd. Ant. Then must thou needs find out new heaven, new earth. Enter an ATTENDANT. Att. News, my good lord, from Rome. Ant. Gratest me:- -The sum? Cleo. Nay, hear them, Antony: Fulvia, perchance is angry: Or, who knows Ant. How, my love! Cleo. Perchance,-nay, and most like, You must not stay here longer, your dismission 1s come from Cæsar; therefore hear it, Antony. Where's Fulvia's process!§ Cæsar's, I would say ?-Both ?— Cleo. Excellent Falsehood! Why did we marry Fulvia, and not love her?- Will be himself. Ant. But stirr'd by Cleopatra. Now, for the love of Love, and her soft hours, [Embracing. Let's not confound** the time with conference harsh: There's not a minute of our lives should stretch Without some pleasure now: What sport to-night? Cleo. Hear the ambassadors. Ant. Fie, wrangling queen! Whom everything becomes, to chide, to laugh, To weep; whose every passion fully strives To make itself, in thee, fair and admired! No messenger; but thine and all alone, To-night, we'll wander through the streets, and note Last night you did desire it :-Speak not to us. [Exeunt ANTONY and CLEOPATRA, with their train. *Bound, limit. § Summons. † Offends. Wide spread. To wit. Subdue, conquer. Dem. Is Caesar with Antonius prized so slight? Dem. I'm full sorry, That he approves the common liar, who SCENE II.-The same. Another Room. [Exeunt. Enter CHARMIAN, IRAS, ALEXAS, and a SOOTHSAYER. Char. Lord Alexas, sweet Alexas, most anything 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 charge his horns with garlands! Alex. Soothsayer. Sooth. Your will? Char. Is this the man ?-Is't you, Sir, that know things? A little I can read. Alex. Show him your hand. Enter ENOBarbus. 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 foresee. 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 prescience; be attentive. Char. Hush! Sooth. You shall be more beloving, than beloved. Alex. Nay, hear him. 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 Caesar, and companion me with my mistress. Sooth. You shall outlive the lady whom you serve. 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. * Confirms fame, rumour. † Shall be bastards. Eno. Mine, and most of our fortunes, to-night, shall bedrunk to bed. Iras. There's a palm presages chastity, if nothing else. 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. Sooth. I have said. 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! Alexas,-come, his fortune, his fortune.-Ö, 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! 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. Eno. Hush! here comes Antony. Char. Not he, the queen. Char. No, madam. Cleo. He was disposed to mirth; but on the sudden A Roman thought hath struck him.-Enobarbus, Eno. Madam. Cleo. Seek him, and bring him hither. Where's Alexas? Alex. Here, madam, at your service.-My lord approaches. Enter ANTONY, with a MESSENGER and Attendants. Cleo. We will not look upon him: Go with us. [Exeunt CLEOPATRA, ENOBARBUS, ALEXAS, IRAS, CHARMIAN, SOOTHSAYER, and Attendants. Mess. Fulvia thy wife first came into the field. Ant. Against my brother Lucius? Mess. Ay: But soon that war had end, and the time's state Made friends of them, joining their force 'gainst Cæsar; Upon the first encounter, drave them. Ant. Well, What worst? Mess. The nature of bad news infects the teller. Mess. Labienus (This is stiff news) hath with his Parthian force, Extended* Asia from Euphrates; His conquering banner shook, from Syria To Lydia, and to Ionia; Whilst Ant. Antony, thou would'st say,— Mess. O, my lord! Ant. Speak to me home, mince not the general tongue; Rail thou in Fulvia's phrase; and taunt my faults Mess. At your noble pleasure. Ant. From Sicyon how the news? Speak there. 1 Att. The man from Sicyon.-Is there such a one? 2 Att. He stays upon your will. Ant. Let him appear, These strong Egyptian fetters I must break, Enter another MESSENGER. Or lose myself in dotage.-What are you? 2 Mess. Fulvia thy wife is dead. Ant. Where died she? 2 Mess. In Sicyon : Her length of sickness, with what else more serious Ant. Forbear me. There's a great spirit gone! Thus did I desire The opposite of itself: she's good, being gone; 11 [Exit. [Gives a letter. [Exit MESSENGER. it: The hand could § pluck her back, that shoved her on. Ten thousand harms, more than the ills I know, My idleness doth hatch.-How now! Enobarbus! * Seized. † Tilling. I. e. withdraw. § Could here means would. |