The Arden Shakespeare Complete Works
Page 55
Till we have done at sea. Do not exceed
The prescript of this scroll. [Gives him a scroll.]
Our fortune lies
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Upon this jump. Exeunt.
3.9 Enter ANTONY and ENOBARBUS.
ANTONY Set we our squadrons on yond side o’th’ hill
In eye of Caesar’s battle, from which place
We may the number of the ships behold
And so proceed accordingly. Exeunt.
3.10 CANIDIUS marcheth with his land army one way over the stage, and TAURUS, the lieutenant of Caesar, the other way. After their going in, is heard the noise of a sea fight.
Alarum. Enter ENOBARBUS.
ENOBARBUS
Naught, naught, all naught! I can behold no longer!
Th’Antoniad, the Egyptian admiral,
With all their sixty, fly and turn the rudder.
To see’t mine eyes are blasted.
Enter SCARUS.
SCARUS Gods and goddesses!
All the whole synod of them!
ENOBARBUS What’s thy passion?
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SCARUS The greater cantle of the world is lost
With very ignorance. We have kissed away
Kingdoms and provinces.
ENOBARBUS How appears the fight?
SCARUS On our side, like the tokened pestilence
Where death is sure. Yon ribaudred nag of Egypt –
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Whom leprosy o’ertake! – i’th’ midst o’th’ fight
When vantage like a pair of twins appeared
Both as the same – or, rather, ours the elder –
The breeze upon her, like a cow in June,
Hoists sails and flies.
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ENOBARBUS That I beheld.
Mine eyes did sicken at the sight and could not
Endure a further view.
SCARUS She once being loofed,
The noble ruin of her magic, Antony,
Claps on his sea-wing and, like a doting mallard,
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Leaving the fight in height, flies after her.
I never saw an action of such shame.
Experience, manhood, honour, ne’er before
Did violate so itself.
ENOBARBUS Alack, alack!
Enter CANIDIUS.
CANIDIUS Our fortune on the sea is out of breath
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And sinks most lamentably. Had our general
Been what he knew – himself – it had gone well.
Oh, he has given example for our flight
Most grossly by his own!
ENOBARBUS Ay, are you thereabouts?
Why then, good night indeed.
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CANIDIUS Toward Peloponnesus are they fled.
SCARUS ’Tis easy to’t, and there I will attend
What further comes.
CANIDIUS To Caesar will I render
My legions and my horse. Six kings already
Show me the way of yielding.
ENOBARBUS I’ll yet follow
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The wounded chance of Antony, though my reason
Sits in the wind against me.
Exit at one door Canidius,
at the other Scarus and Enobarbus.
3.11 Enter ANTONY with attendants.
ANTONY
Hark! The land bids me tread no more upon’t;
It is ashamed to bear me. Friends, come hither.
I am so lated in the world that I
Have lost my way for ever. I have a ship
Laden with gold. Take that, divide it. Fly
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And make your peace with Caesar.
ALL Fly? Not we.
ANTONY
I have fled myself and have instructed cowards
To run and show their shoulders. Friends, be gone.
I have myself resolved upon a course
Which has no need of you. Be gone.
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My treasure’s in the harbour. Take it. O,
I followed that I blush to look upon.
My very hairs do mutiny, for the white
Reprove the brown for rashness, and they them
For fear and doting. Friends, be gone. You shall
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Have letters from me to some friends that will
Sweep your way for you. Pray you, look not sad
Nor make replies of loathness; take the hint
Which my despair proclaims. Let that be left
Which leaves itself. To the sea-side straightway.
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I will possess you of that ship and treasure.
Leave me, I pray, a little – pray you, now;
Nay, do so; for indeed I have lost command;
Therefore, I pray you. I’ll see you by and by.
Exeunt attendants. Antony sits down.
Enter CLEOPATRA led by CHARMIAN, IRAS and EROS.
EROS Nay, gentle madam, to him! Comfort him.
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IRAS Do, most dear queen.
CHARMIAN Do? Why, what else?
CLEOPATRA Let me sit down. O, Juno!
ANTONY No, no, no, no, no!
EROS See you here, sir?
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ANTONY O fie, fie, fie!
CHARMIAN Madam!
IRAS Madam! O, good empress!
EROS Sir, sir!
ANTONY Yes, my lord, yes. He at Philippi kept
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His sword e’en like a dancer, while I struck
The lean and wrinkled Cassius, and ’twas I
That the mad Brutus ended. He alone
Dealt on lieutenantry, and no practice had
In the brave squares of war. Yet now – no matter.
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CLEOPATRA Ah, stand by.
EROS The Queen, my lord! The Queen!
IRAS Go to him, madam; speak to him.
He is unqualitied with very shame.
CLEOPATRA Well then, sustain me. O!
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EROS Most noble sir, arise. The Queen approaches.
Her head’s declined, and death will seize her but
Your comfort makes the rescue.
ANTONY I have offended reputation,
A most unnoble swerving.
EROS Sir, the Queen!
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ANTONY O, whither hast thou led me, Egypt? See
How I convey my shame out of thine eyes
By looking back what I have left behind
’Stroyed in dishonour.
CLEOPATRA O, my lord, my lord,
Forgive my fearful sails! I little thought
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You would have followed.
ANTONY Egypt, thou knewst too well
My heart was to thy rudder tied by th’ strings
And thou shouldst tow me after. O’er my spirit
Thy full supremacy thou knewst, and that
Thy beck might from the bidding of the gods
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Command me.
CLEOPATRA O, my pardon!
ANTONY Now I must
To the young man send humble treaties; dodge
And palter in the shifts of lowness, who
With half the bulk o’th’ world played as I pleased,
Making and marring fortunes. You did know
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How much you were my conqueror, and that
My sword, made weak by my affection, would
Obey it on all cause.
CLEOPATRA Pardon, pardon!
ANTONY Fall not a tear, I say; one of them rates
All that is won and lost. Give me a kiss. [They kiss.]
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Even this repays me.
We sent our schoolmaster. Is a come back?
Love, I am full of lead. Some wine
Within there and our viands! Fortune knows
We scorn her most when most she offers blows.
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Exeunt.
3.12 Enter CAESAR, AGRIPPA, DOLA
BELLA and THIDIAS with others.
CAESAR Let him appear that’s come from Antony.
Know you him?
DOLABELLA Caesar, ’tis his schoolmaster;
An argument that he is plucked, when hither
He sends so poor a pinion of his wing,
Which had superfluous kings for messengers
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Not many moons gone by.
Enter Ambassador from Antony.
CAESAR Approach, and speak.
AMBASSADOR Such as I am, I come from Antony.
I was of late as petty to his ends
As is the morn-dew on the myrtle leaf
To his grand sea.
CAESAR Be’t so. Declare thine office.
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AMBASSADOR Lord of his fortunes he salutes thee, and
Requires to live in Egypt; which not granted,
He lessens his requests and to thee sues
To let him breathe between the heavens and earth,
A private man in Athens. This for him.
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Next, Cleopatra does confess thy greatness,
Submits her to thy might, and of thee craves
The circle of the Ptolemies for her heirs,
Now hazarded to thy grace.
CAESAR For Antony,
I have no ears to his request. The Queen
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Of audience nor desire shall fail, so she
From Egypt drive her all-disgraced friend
Or take his life there. This if she perform,
She shall not sue unheard. So to them both.
AMBASSADOR Fortune pursue thee!
CAESAR Bring him through the bands.
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Exit Ambassador, attended.
[to Thidias]
To try thy eloquence now ’tis time. Dispatch.
From Antony win Cleopatra; promise,
And in our name, what she requires; add more,
From thine invention, offers. Women are not
In their best fortunes strong, but want will perjure
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The ne’er-touch’d vestal. Try thy cunning, Thidias;
Make thine own edict for thy pains, which we
Will answer as a law.
THIDIAS Caesar, I go.
CAESAR Observe how Antony becomes his flaw,
And what thou think’st his very action speaks
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In every power that moves.
THIDIAS Caesar, I shall. Exeunt.
3.13 Enter CLEOPATRA, ENOBARBUS, CHARMIAN and IRAS.
CLEOPATRA What shall we do, Enobarbus?
ENOBARBUS Think, and die.
CLEOPATRA Is Antony or we in fault for this?
ENOBARBUS Antony only, that would make his will
Lord of his reason. What though you fled
From that great face of war, whose several ranges
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Frighted each other? Why should he follow?
The itch of his affection should not then
Have nicked his captainship, at such a point,
When half to half the world opposed, he being
The mered question. ’Twas a shame no less
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Than was his loss, to course your flying flags
And leave his navy gazing.
CLEOPATRA Prithee, peace.
Enter the Ambassador with ANTONY.
ANTONY Is that his answer?
AMBASSADOR Ay, my lord.
ANTONY The Queen shall then have courtesy, so she
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Will yield us up.
AMBASSADOR He says so.
ANTONY Let her know’t.
To the boy Caesar send this grizzled head,
And he will fill thy wishes to the brim
With principalities.
CLEOPATRA That head, my lord?
ANTONY To him again! Tell him he wears the rose
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Of youth upon him, from which the world should
note
Something particular. His coin, ships, legions,
May be a coward’s, whose ministers would prevail
Under the service of a child as soon
As i’th’ command of Caesar. I dare him therefore
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To lay his gay caparisons apart
And answer me declined, sword against sword,
Ourselves alone. I’ll write it. Follow me.
Exeunt Antony and Ambassador.
ENOBARBUS [aside]
Yes, like enough high-battled Caesar will
Unstate his happiness, and be staged to th’ show
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Against a sworder! I see men’s judgements are