VARRIUS, TAURUS, Lieutenant-General to CÆSAR. CANIDIUS, Lieutenant-General to ANTONY. SILIUS, an Officer in VENTIDIUS's Army. EUPHRONIUS, an Ambassador from ANTONY to CÆSAR. ALEXAS, MARDIAN, SELEUCUS, and DIOMEDES, Attendants on CLEOPATRA. A Soothsayer. A Clown. CLEOPATRA, Queen of Egypt. OCTAVIA, Sister to CESAR and Wife to ANTONY. CHARMIAN and IRAs, Attendants on CLEOPATRA. Officers, Soldiers, Messengers, and other Attendants. SCENE-Dispersed; in several parts of the Roman Empire. ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA. АСТ I. SCENE I.-ALEXANDRIA. A Room in CLEOPATRA'S Palace. Enter DEMETRIUS and PHILO. Phi. Nay, but this dotage of our general's 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 within.] Look where they come: Take but good note, and you shall see in him Into a strumpet's fool: behold and see! Enter ANTONY and CLEOPATRA, with their Trains; Eunuchs fanning her. 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 set a bourn how far to be belov'd. Ant. Then must thou needs find out new heaven, new earth. Enter an Attendant. Att. News, my good lord, from Rome. Ant. Cleo. Nay, hear them, Antony: Grates me :-the sum. Fulvia perchance is angry; or, who knows 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! You must not stay here longer,—your dismission Cleo. 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: 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 admir'd! 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 ANT. and CLEO., with their Trains. Dem. Is Cæsar with Antonius priz'd 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 Dem. [Exeunt. SCENE II.-ALEXANDRIA. Another Room in CLEOPATRA'S Palace. 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? Sooth. In nature's infinite book of secrecy 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. 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 outlive the lady whom you serve. Char. O excellent! I love long life better than figs. Sooth. You have seen and prov'd 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. 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. 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!-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 worse follow worse, till the worst of all follow him laughing to his grave, fiftyfold 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 Iris, 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. Cleo. He was dispos'd to mirth; but on the sudden A Roman thought hath struck him.—Enobarbus, |