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. 'Grates me:-The sum. Cleo. Nay, hear them, Antony: Fulvia, perchance, is angry; Or, who knows Ant. How, my Cleo. Perchance,-nay, and most like, love! You must not stay here longer, your dismission Call in the messengers.-As I am Egypt's queen, Ant. Let Rome in Tiber melt! and the wide arch [embracing. And such a twain can do't, in which, I bind On pain of punishment, the world to weet3, We stand up peerless. Cleo. Excellent falshood! Why did he 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, Ant. Fye, wrangling queen! Whom every thing becomes, to chide, to laugh, Το weep; whose every passion fully strives To-night, we'll wander through the streets, and note [Exeunt Ant. and Cleop. with their train. Dem. That he approves the common liar, who I'm full Thus speaks of him at Rome: But I will hope Of better deeds to-morrow. Rest you happy! sorry, VOL. XII. C [Exeunt. SCENE II. The Same. Another Room. Enter CHARMIAN, IRAS, ALEXAS, and a 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 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. Sooth. You shall be more beloving, than belov'd. 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 mis tress. 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. 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? 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-wiv'd, 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. |