ALEXANDRIA. A Room in CLEOPATRA's Palace. Enter DEMETRIUS and PHILO. Phi. 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 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 burst To cool a gipsy's lust. Look, where they come! Take but good note, and you shall see in him Cleo. If it be love indeed, tell me how much. Ant. There's beggary in the love that can be reckon❜d. Att. News, my good lord, from Rome. Ant. Cleo. Nay, hear them, Antony: Ant. How, my love! You must not stay here longer, your dismission Both?― Call in the messengers.-As I am Egypt's queen, Is, to do thus; when such a mutual pair, [Embracing. On pain of punishment, the world to weet, We stand up peerless. Cleo. Excellent falsehood! Why did he marry Fulvia, and not love her?I'll seem the fool I am not; Antony Will be himself. Ant. But stirr'd by Cleopatra. Now, for the love of Love, and her soft hours, 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! To-night, we'll wander through the streets, and note [Exeunt Ant. and Cleo. with their Train. I'm full sorry, [Exeunt. SCENE 11. The same. Another Room. Enter CHARMIAN, IRAS, ALEXAS, and a Soothsayer. Char. Lord Alexas, sweet Alexas, most any thing 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 change his horns with garlands! Alex. Soothsayer. Sooth. Your will? Char. Is this the man?-Is't you, sir, that know things? Sooth. In nature's infinite book of secresy, 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. Alex. Vex not his prescience; be attentive. Sooth. You shall be more beloving, than beloved. Char. I had rather heat my liver with drinking. 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 Cæsar, and companion me with my mistress. Sooth. You shall out-live the lady whom you serve. Char. O excellent! I love long life better than figs. Sooth. You have seen and proved a fairer former forThan that which is to approach. [tune, 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 hers. Alex. We'll know all our fortunes. 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 o'erflowing 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 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.-O, 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. Not he, the queen. Char. No, madam. Cleo. He was dispos'd to mirth; but on the sudden A Roman thought hath struck him.-Enobarbus,— Eno. Madam. [Alexas? Cleo. Seek him, and bring him hither. Where's Alex. Here madam, at your service.-My lord ap. proaches. Enter ANTONY, with a Messenger and Attendants. Mess. Ay: But soon that war had end, and the time's state Made friends of them, joining their force 'gainst Cæsar; |