ACT I.

SCENE I. 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
The buckles on his breast, reneges all temper,
And is become the bellows and the fan
To cool a gipsy's lust.

Flourish. Enter ANTONY, CLEOPATRA, her
Ladies, the Train, with Eunuchs fanning her ̧
Look, where they come 10
Take but good note, and you shall see in him.
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. Ant. There's beggary in the love that can be reckon'd.

Att. News, my good lord, from Rome. Ant. Grates me the sum. Cleo. Nay, hear them, Antony: Fulvia perchance is angry; or, who knows 20 If the scarce-bearded Cæsar have not sent His powerful mandate to you, 'Do this, or this;

Take in that kingdom, and enfranchise that; Perform 't, or else we damn thee.'

Ant. How, my love! Cleo. Perchance! nay, and most like : You must not stay here longer, your dismission Is come from Cæsar; therefore hear it, Antony. Where's Fulvia's process? Cæsar's I would

say? both?

Call in the messengers. As I am Egypt's queen, Thou blushest, Antony; and that blood of

Is Cæsar's homager: else so thy cheek pays shame

When shrill-tongued Fuivia scolds. The messengers!

Ant. Let Rome in Tiber melt, and the wide arch

Of the ranged 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

[Embracing. And such a twain can do't, in which I bind, On pain of punishment, the world to weet We stand up peerless.

Cleo. Excellent falsehood! 40 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 tonight?

Cleo. Hear the ambassadors. Ant. Fie, wrangling queen! Whom every thing becomes, to chide, to laugh, To weep; whose every passion fully strives 50 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

The qualities of people. Come, my queen; Last night you did desire it: speak not to us. [Exeunt Ant. and Cleo. with their train. Dem. Is Cæsar with Antonius prized so slight?

Phi. Sir, sometimes, when he is not Antony, He comes too short of that great property Which still should go with Antony. I am full sorry 60

Dem.

That he approves the common liar, who
Thus speaks of him at Rome: but I will hope
Of better deeds to-morrow. Rest you happy!
[Exeunt.
Another room.

SCENE II. The same.

Enter ENOBARBUS.

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! 0, 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 worst 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 heartbreaking 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.

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Was he not here?

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, at your service. My lord approaches. 90

us.

Cleo. We will not look upon him go with [Exeunt. Enter ANTONY with a Messenger 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;

Whose better issue in the war, from Italy,
Upon the first encounter, drave them.
Ant.

Well, what worst ? Mess. The nature of bad news infects the teller.

Ant. When it concerns the fool or coward. 100

On :

Things that are past are done with me. 'Tis thus:

Who tells me true, though in his tale lie death.

I hear him as he flatter'd.
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 wouldst say,-
Mess.

O, my lord! Ant. Speak to me home, mince not the general tongue :

Name Cleopatra as she is call'd in Rome, 110 Rail thou in Fulvia's phrase; and taunt my faults

With such full license as both truth and malice

Have power to utter. O, then we bring forth weeds,

When our quick minds lie still; and our ills

told us

[Exit,

Is as our earing. Fare thee well awhile.
Mess. At your noble pleasure.
Ant. From Sicyon, ho, the news! Speak

there!

Re-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 they suffer our departure, death's the word. Ant. I must be gone.

140

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 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: I do think there is mettle in death, which conmits some loving act upon her, she hat such a celerity in dying.

Ant. She is cunning past man's thought. 150 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 almanacs 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 blest withal would have áiscredited your travel.

Ant. Fulvia is dead.

Eno. Sir?

Ant. Fulvia is dead.

Eno. Fulvia !

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 then. 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. [state Ant. The business she hath broached in the Cannot endure my absence. 179

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 offi

cers

190

Have notice what we purpose. I shall break
The cause of our expedience to the queen,
And get her leave to part. For not alone
The death of Fulvia, with more urgent touches,
Do strongly speak to us; but the letters too
Of many our contriving friends in Rome
Petition us at home: Sextus Pompeius
Hath given the dare to Cæsar, and commands
The empire of the sea: our slippery people,
Whose love is never link'd to the deserver
Till his deserts are past, begin to throw
Pompey the Great and all his dignities
Upon his son; who, high in name and power,
Higher than both in blood and life, stands up
For the main soldier whose quality, going

Enter CLEOPATRA, CHARMIAN, IRAs, and
ALEXAS.

Cleo. Where is he?
Char.
I did not see him since.
Cleo. See where he is, who's with him,
what he does :

I did not send you: 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.
Cleo.
What should I do, I do not?
Char. In each thing give him way, cross
him in nothing.

Cleo. Thou teachest like a fool; the way

Cleo. Though age from folly could no give me freedom,

59

It does from childishness: can Fulvia die?
Ant. She's dead, my queen:
Look here, and at thy sovereign leisure read
The garboils she awaked; at the last, best :
See when and where she died.
Cleo.
O most false love!
Where be the sacred vials thou shouldst fill
With sorrowful water? Now I see, I see,
In Fulvia's death, how mine received shall be.
Ant. Quarrel no more, but be prepared to
know

The purposes I bear; which are, or cease,
As you shall give the advice. By the fire
That quickens Nilus' slime, I go from hence
Thy soldier, servant; making peace or war 70
As thou affect'st.

Sit laurel victory! and smooth success
Be strew'd before your feet!
Ant.

100

Let us go. Come; Our separation so abides, and flies, That thou, residing here, go'st yet with me, And I, hence fleeting, here remain with thee. Away! [Exeunt.

SCENE IV. Rome. Cæsar's house. Enter OCTAVIUS CAESAR, reading a letter, LEPIDUS, and their Train.

Cæs. You may see, Lepidus, and henceforth know,

It is not Cæsar's natural vice to hate

Our great competitor: from Alexandria
This is the news: he fishes, drinks, and wastes
The lamps of night in revel; is not more man-
like

Than Cleopatra; nor the queen of Ptolemy. More womanly than he; hardly gave audience, or

Vouchsafed to think he had partners: you shall find there

A man who is the abstract of all faults
That all men follow.

Lep.
I must not think there are 10
Evils enow to darken all his goodness:
His faults in him seem as the spots of heaven,
More fiery by night's blackness; hereditary,
Rather than purchased; what he cannot
change,

Than what he chooses.

Cæs. You are too indulgent. Let us grant, it is not

Amiss to tumble on the bed of Ptolemy;
To give a kingdom for a mirth; to sit
And keep the turn of tippling with a slave;
To reel the streets at noon, and stand the
buffet

20

With knaves that smell of sweat: say this becomes him,

As his composure must be rare indeed
Whom these things cannot blemish,-yet
must Antony

No way excuse his soils, when we do bear
So great weight in his lightness. If he fill'd
His vacancy with his voluptuousness,
Full surfeits, and the dryness of his bones,
Call on him for't: but to confound such time,
That drums him from his sport, and speaks as
loud

As his own state and ours,-'tis to be chid 30
As we rate boys, who, being mature in knowl-

edge,

Pawn their experience to their present pleas

That only have fear'd Cæsar to the ports The discontents repair, and men's reports Give him much wrong'd.

Cæs.

I should have known no less. 40 It hath been taught us from the primal state, That he which is was wish'd until he were ; And the ebb'd man, ne'er loved till ne'er worth love,

Comes dear'd by being lack'd. This common body,

Like to a vagabond flag upon the stream,
Goes to and back, lackeying the varying tide,
To rot itself with motion.

Mess. Cæsar, I bring thee word, Menecrates and Menas, famous pirates, Make the sea serve them, which they ear and wound 49

With keels of every kind: many hot inroads They make in Italy; the borders maritime Lack blood to think on 't, and flush youth revolt :

No vessel can peep forth, but 'tis as soon Taken as seen; for Pompey's name strikes

Than savages could suffer: thou didst drink The stale of horses, and the gilded puddle Which beasts would cough at thy palate then did deign

The roughest berry on the rudest hedge; Yea, like the stag, when snow the pasture sheets, [Alps

The barks of trees thou browsed'st; où the
It is reported thou didst eat strange flesh,
Which some did die to look on: and all this-
It wounds thine honor that I speak it now—
Was borne so like a soldier, that thy cheek 70
So much as lank'd not.

Lep.
'Tis pity of him.
Caes. Let his shames quickly
Drive him to Rome: 'tis time we twain

Did show ourselves i' the field; and to that

end

Assemble we immediate council: Pompey Thrives in our idleness.

Lep.

To-morrow, Cæsar, I shall be furnish'd to inform you rightly Both what by sea and land I can be able To front this present time. Cæs.

Till which encounter, It is my business too. Farewell.

Lep. Farewell, my

know meantime

80

lord: what you shall

Of stirs abroad, I shall beseech you, sir,
To let me be partaker.

Cæs.

I knew it for my bond.

Doubt not, sir;

[Exeunt.