The Arden Shakespeare Complete Works
Page 53
ENOBARBUS
They have dispatched with Pompey; he is gone.
The other three are sealing. Octavia weeps
To part from Rome; Caesar is sad, and Lepidus
Since Pompey’s feast, as Menas says, is troubled
5
With the green-sickness.
AGRIPPA ’Tis a noble Lepidus.
ENOBARBUS A very fine one. O, how he loves Caesar!
AGRIPPA Nay, but how dearly he adores Mark Antony!
ENOBARBUS Caesar? Why he’s the Jupiter of men!
AGRIPPA What’s Antony? The god of Jupiter!
10
ENOBARBUS Spake you of Caesar? Hoo! The nonpareil!
AGRIPPA O Antony! O thou Arabian bird!
ENOBARBUS
Would you praise Caesar, say ‘Caesar’. Go no further.
AGRIPPA
Indeed, he plied them both with excellent praises.
ENOBARBUS
But he loves Caesar best. Yet he loves Antony.
15
Hoo! Hearts, tongues, figures, scribes, bards, poets,
cannot
Think, speak, cast, write, sing, number – hoo! –
His love to Antony! But as for Caesar,
Kneel down, kneel down, and wonder!
AGRIPPA Both he loves.
ENOBARBUS
They are his shards and he their beetle.
[Trumpet within.]
So,
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This is to horse. Adieu, noble Agrippa.
AGRIPPA Good fortune, worthy soldier, and farewell.
Enter CAESAR, ANTONY, LEPIDUS and OCTAVIA.
ANTONY No further, sir.
CAESAR You take from me a great part of myself.
Use me well in’t. Sister, prove such a wife
25
As my thoughts make thee, and as my farthest bond
Shall pass on thy approof. Most noble Antony,
Let not the piece of virtue which is set
Betwixt us, as the cement of our love
To keep it builded, be the ram to batter
30
The fortress of it. For better might we
Have loved without this mean, if on both parts
This be not cherished.
ANTONY Make me not offended
In your distrust.
CAESAR I have said.
ANTONY You shall not find,
Though you be therein curious, the least cause
35
For what you seem to fear. So the gods keep you,
And make the hearts of Romans serve your ends.
We will here part.
CAESAR Farewell, my dearest sister, fare thee well.
The elements be kind to thee, and make
40
Thy spirits all of comfort! Fare thee well.
OCTAVIA My noble brother! [She weeps.]
ANTONY The April’s in her eyes; it is love’s spring
And these the showers to bring it on. Be cheerful.
OCTAVIA Sir, look well to my husband’s house, and –
45
CAESAR What, Octavia?
OCTAVIA I’ll tell you in your ear.
[She whispers to Caesar.]
ANTONY Her tongue will not obey her heart, nor can
Her heart inform her tongue – the swan’s-down
feather
That stands upon the swell at full of tide,
And neither way inclines.
50
ENOBARBUS [aside to Agrippa]
Will Caesar weep?
AGRIPPA [aside to Enobarbus] He has a cloud in’s face.
ENOBARBUS [aside to Agrippa]
He were the worse for that were he a horse;
So is he, being a man.
AGRIPPA [aside to Enobarbus] Why, Enobarbus,
When Antony found Julius Caesar dead,
He cried almost to roaring, and he wept
55
When at Philippi he found Brutus slain.
ENOBARBUS [aside to Agrippa]
That year, indeed, he was troubled with a rheum.
What willingly he did confound he wailed,
Believe’t, till I wept too.
CAESAR No, sweet Octavia,
You shall hear from me still. The time shall not
60
Outgo my thinking on you.
ANTONY Come, sir, come,
I’ll wrestle with you in my strength of love.
Look, here I have you [embracing him];
thus I let you go,
And give you to the gods.
CAESAR Adieu. Be happy!
LEPIDUS Let all the number of the stars give light
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To thy fair way!
CAESAR Farewell, farewell! [Kisses Octavia.]
ANTONY Farewell!
Trumpets sound. Exeunt.
3.3 Enter CLEOPATRA, CHARMIAN, IRAS and ALEXAS.
CLEOPATRA Where is the fellow?
ALEXAS Half afeard to come.
CLEOPATRA
Go to, go to.
Enter the Messenger as before.
Come hither, sir.
ALEXAS Good majesty,
Herod of Jewry dare not look upon you
But when you are well pleased.
CLEOPATRA That Herod’s head
I’ll have! But how, when Antony is gone,
5
Through whom I might command it? – Come thou
near.
MESSENGER Most gracious majesty!
CLEOPATRA Didst thou behold
Octavia?
MESSENGER Ay, dread queen.
CLEOPATRA Where?
MESSENGER Madam, in Rome.
I looked her in the face, and saw her led
Between her brother and Mark Antony.
10
CLEOPATRA Is she as tall as me?
MESSENGER She is not, madam.
CLEOPATRA
Didst hear her speak? Is she shrill-tongued or low?
MESSENGER
Madam, I heard her speak; she is low-voiced.
CLEOPATRA
That’s not so good. He cannot like her long.
CHARMIAN Like her? O Isis! ’Tis impossible.
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CLEOPATRA
I think so, Charmian. Dull of tongue and dwarfish.
What majesty is in her gait? Remember,
If e’er thou look’dst on majesty.
MESSENGER She creeps.
Her motion and her station are as one.
She shows a body rather than a life,
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A statue than a breather.
CLEOPATRA Is this certain?
MESSENGER
Or I have no observance.
CHARMIAN Three in Egypt
Cannot make better note.
CLEOPATRA He’s very knowing;
I do perceiv’t. There’s nothing in her yet.
The fellow has good judgement.
CHARMIAN Excellent.
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CLEOPATRA Guess at her years, I prithee.
MESSENGER Madam,
She was a widow –
CLEOPATRA Widow? Charmian, hark!
MESSENGER And I do think she’s thirty.
CLEOPATRA
Bear’st thou her face in mind? Is’t long or round?
MESSENGER Round, even to faultiness.
30
CLEOPATRA
For the most part, too, they are foolish that are so.
Her hair, what colour?
MESSENGER Brown, madam, and her forehead
As low as she would wish it.
CLEOPATRA There’s gold for thee.
Thou must not take my former sharpness ill.
I will employ thee back again; I find thee
35
Most fit for business. Go, make thee ready;
Our letters are prepared. Exit Messenger.
CHARMIAN A proper man.
CLEOPATRA Indeed, he is so. I repent me much
<
br /> That so I harried him. Why methinks, by him,
This creature’s no such thing.
CHARMIAN Nothing, madam.
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CLEOPATRA
The man hath seen some majesty, and should know.
CHARMIAN Hath he seen majesty? Isis else defend,
And serving you so long!
CLEOPATRA
I have one thing more to ask him yet, good
Charmian.
But ’tis no matter; thou shalt bring him to me
45
Where I will write. All may be well enough.
CHARMIAN I warrant you, madam. Exeunt.
3.4 Enter ANTONY and OCTAVIA.
ANTONY Nay, nay, Octavia, not only that.
That were excusable – that, and thousands more
Of semblable import – but he hath waged
New wars ’gainst Pompey; made his will, and read it
To public ear;
5
Spoke scantly of me; when perforce he could not
But pay me terms of honour, cold and sickly
He vented them; most narrow measure lent me;
When the best hint was given him, he not took’t,
Or did it from his teeth.
OCTAVIA O, my good lord,
10
Believe not all, or if you must believe,
Stomach not all. A more unhappy lady,
If this division chance, ne’er stood between,
Praying for both parts.
The good gods will mock me presently
15
When I shall pray ‘O, bless my lord and husband!’;
Undo that prayer by crying out as loud
‘O, bless my brother!’ Husband win, win brother,
Prays and destroys the prayer; no midway
’Twixt these extremes at all.
ANTONY Gentle Octavia,
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Let your best love draw to that point which seeks
Best to preserve it. If I lose mine honour,
I lose myself; better I were not yours
Than yours so branchless. But, as you requested,
Yourself shall go between’s. The meantime, lady,
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I’ll raise the preparation of a war
Shall stain your brother. Make your soonest haste,
So your desires are yours.
OCTAVIA Thanks to my lord.
The Jove of power make me, most weak, most weak,
Your reconciler! Wars ’twixt you twain would be
30
As if the world should cleave, and that slain men
Should solder up the rift.
ANTONY When it appears to you where this begins,
Turn your displeasure that way, for our faults
Can never be so equal that your love
35
Can equally move with them. Provide your going;
Choose your own company, and command what cost
Your heart has mind to. Exeunt.
3.5 Enter ENOBARBUS and EROS, meeting.
ENOBARBUS How now, friend Eros?
EROS There’s strange news come, sir.
ENOBARBUS What, man?
EROS Caesar and Lepidus have made wars upon
Pompey.
5
ENOBARBUS This is old. What is the success?
EROS Caesar, having made use of him in the wars ’gainst
Pompey, presently denied him rivality; would not let
him partake in the glory of the action, and, not resting
here, accuses him of letters he had formerly wrote to
10
Pompey; upon his own appeal, seizes him. So the poor
third is up, till death enlarge his confine.
ENOBARBUS
Then, world, thou hast a pair of chaps, no more,
And throw between them all the food thou hast,
They’ll grind the one the other. Where’s Antony?
15
EROS He’s walking in the garden, thus, and spurns
The rush that lies before him; cries, ‘Fool Lepidus!’,
And threats the throat of that his officer
That murdered Pompey.
ENOBARBUS Our great navy’s rigged.
EROS For Italy and Caesar. More, Domitius:
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My lord desires you presently. My news
I might have told hereafter.