The Arden Shakespeare Complete Works
Page 56
A parcel of their fortunes, and things outward
Do draw the inward quality after them
To suffer all alike. That he should dream,
Knowing all measures, the full Caesar will
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Answer his emptiness! Caesar, thou hast subdued
His judgement too.
Enter a Servant.
SERVANT A messenger from Caesar.
CLEOPATRA
What, no more ceremony? See, my women,
Against the blown rose they may stop their nose
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That kneeled unto the buds. Admit him, sir.
Exit Servant.
ENOBARBUS [aside]
Mine honesty and I begin to square.
The loyalty well held to fools does make
Our faith mere folly. Yet he that can endure
To follow with allegiance a fallen lord
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Does conquer him that did his master conquer,
And earns a place i’th’ story.
Enter THIDIAS.
CLEOPATRA Caesar’s will?
THIDIAS Hear it apart.
CLEOPATRA None but friends. Say boldly.
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THIDIAS So haply are they friends to Antony.
ENOBARBUS He needs as many, sir, as Caesar has,
Or needs not us. If Caesar please, our master
Will leap to be his friend. For us, you know,
Whose he is we are, and that is Caesar’s.
THIDIAS So.
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Thus then, thou most renowned: Caesar entreats
Not to consider in what case thou stand’st
Further than he is Caesar.
CLEOPATRA Go on; right royal.
THIDIAS He knows that you embrace not Antony
As you did love, but as you feared him.
CLEOPATRA O!
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THIDIAS The scars upon your honour, therefore, he
Does pity as constrained blemishes,
Not as deserved.
CLEOPATRA He is a god and knows
What is most right. Mine honour was not yielded
But conquered merely.
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ENOBARBUS [aside]
To be sure of that, I will ask Antony.
Sir, sir, thou art so leaky
That we must leave thee to thy sinking, for
Thy dearest quit thee. Exit Enobarbus.
THIDIAS Shall I say to Caesar
What you require of him? For he partly begs
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To be desired to give. It much would please him
That of his fortunes you should make a staff
To lean upon. But it would warm his spirits
To hear from me you had left Antony
And put yourself under his shroud,
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The universal landlord.
CLEOPATRA What’s your name?
THIDIAS My name is Thidias.
CLEOPATRA Most kind messenger,
Say to great Caesar this in deputation:
I kiss his conqu’ring hand. Tell him I am prompt
To lay my crown at’s feet, and there to kneel
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Till from his all-obeying breath I hear
The doom of Egypt.
THIDIAS ’Tis your noblest course.
Wisdom and fortune combating together,
If that the former dare but what it can,
No chance may shake it. Give me grace to lay
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My duty on your hand.
CLEOPATRA [Offers him her hand.]
Your Caesar’s father oft,
When he hath mused of taking kingdoms in,
Bestowed his lips on that unworthy place
As it rained kisses.
Enter ANTONY and ENOBARBUS.
ANTONY Favours? By Jove that thunders!
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What art thou, fellow?
THIDIAS One that but performs
The bidding of the fullest man and worthiest
To have command obeyed.
ENOBARBUS [aside] You will be whipped.
ANTONY [Calls for servants.]
Approach there! – Ah, you kite! – Now, gods and
devils,
Authority melts from me. Of late when I cried ‘Ho!’,
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Like boys unto a muss, kings would start forth
And cry ‘Your will?’
Enter servants.
Have you no ears? I am
Antony yet. Take hence the jack and whip him!
ENOBARBUS [aside]
’Tis better playing with a lion’s whelp
Than with an old one dying.
ANTONY Moon and stars!
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Whip him! Were’t twenty of the greatest tributaries
That do acknowledge Caesar, should I find them
So saucy with the hand of she here – what’s her
name
Since she was Cleopatra? Whip him, fellows,
Till like a boy you see him cringe his face
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And whine aloud for mercy. Take him hence!
THIDIAS Mark Antony –
ANTONY Tug him away! Being whipped,
Bring him again. The jack of Caesar’s shall
Bear us an errand to him.
Exeunt servants with Thidias.
You were half blasted ere I knew you. Ha?
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Have I my pillow left unpressed in Rome,
Forborne the getting of a lawful race,
And by a gem of women, to be abused
By one that looks on feeders?
CLEOPATRA Good my lord –
ANTONY You have been a boggler ever.
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But when we in our viciousness grow hard –
O, misery on’t! – the wise gods seel our eyes,
In our own filth drop our clear judgements, make us
Adore our errors, laugh at’s while we strut
To our confusion.
CLEOPATRA O, is’t come to this?
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ANTONY I found you as a morsel, cold upon
Dead Caesar’s trencher – nay, you were a fragment
Of Gnaeus Pompey’s, besides what hotter hours,
Unregistered in vulgar fame, you have
Luxuriously picked out. For I am sure,
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Though you can guess what temperance should be,
You know not what it is.
CLEOPATRA Wherefore is this?
ANTONY To let a fellow that will take rewards
And say ‘God quit you!’ be familiar with
My playfellow, your hand, this kingly seal
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And plighter of high hearts! O that I were
Upon the hill of Basan, to outroar
The horned herd! For I have savage cause,
And to proclaim it civilly were like
A haltered neck which does the hangman thank
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For being yare about him.
Enter a Servant with THIDIAS.
Is he whipped?
SERVANT Soundly, my lord.
ANTONY Cried he? And begged ’a pardon?
SERVANT He did ask favour.
ANTONY [to Thidias]
If that thy father live, let him repent
Thou wast not made his daughter; and be thou sorry
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To follow Caesar in his triumph, since
Thou hast been whipped for following him. Hence-
forth
The white hand of a lady fever thee;
Shake thou to look on’t. Get thee back to Caesar;
Tell him thy entertainment. Look thou say
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He makes me angry with him. For he seems
Proud and disdainful, harping on what I am,
Not what he knew I was. He makes me angry,
And at this time most easy ’tis to do’t,
When my good stars that were my former guides
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Have empty left their orbs and shot their fires
Into th’abysm of hell. If he mislike
My speech and what is done, tell him he has
Hipparchus, my enfranched bondman, whom
He may at pleasure whip or hang or torture,
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As he shall like to quit me. Urge it thou.
Hence with thy stripes! Be gone!
Exit Thidias with Servant.
CLEOPATRA Have you done yet?
ANTONY Alack, our terrene moon is now eclipsed
And it portends alone the fall of Antony.
CLEOPATRA I must stay his time.
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ANTONY To flatter Caesar would you mingle eyes
With one that ties his points?
CLEOPATRA Not know me yet?
ANTONY Cold-hearted toward me?
CLEOPATRA Ah, dear, if I be so,
From my cold heart let heaven engender hail
And poison it in the source, and the first stone
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Drop in my neck; as it determines, so
Dissolve my life! The next Caesarion smite,
Till by degrees the memory of my womb,
Together with my brave Egyptians all,
By the discandying of this pelleted storm
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Lie graveless, till the flies and gnats of Nile
Have buried them for prey!
ANTONY I am satisfied.
Caesar sets down in Alexandria, where
I will oppose his fate. Our force by land
Hath nobly held; our severed navy too
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Have knit again, and fleet, threat’ning most sea-like.
Where hast thou been, my heart? Dost thou hear,
lady?
If from the field I shall return once more
To kiss these lips, I will appear in blood.
I and my sword will earn our chronicle.
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There’s hope in’t yet.
CLEOPATRA That’s my brave lord!
ANTONY I will be treble-sinewed, hearted, breathed,
And fight maliciously. For when mine hours
Were nice and lucky, men did ransom lives
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Of me for jests. But now, I’ll set my teeth
And send to darkness all that stop me. Come,
Let’s have one other gaudy night. Call to me
All my sad captains. Fill our bowls once more.
Let’s mock the midnight bell.
CLEOPATRA It is my birthday.
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I had thought t’have held it poor, but since my lord
Is Antony again, I will be Cleopatra.
ANTONY We will yet do well.
CLEOPATRA [to Charmian and Iras]
Call all his noble captains to my lord!
ANTONY
Do so, we’ll speak to them; and tonight I’ll force
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The wine peep through their scars. Come on, my
queen,
There’s sap in’t yet! The next time I do fight
I’ll make Death love me, for I will contend
Even with his pestilent scythe.
Exeunt all but Enobarbus.
ENOBARBUS
Now he’ll outstare the lightning. To be furious
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Is to be frighted out of fear, and in that mood
The dove will peck the estridge; and I see still
A diminution in our captain’s brain
Restores his heart. When valour preys on reason,
It eats the sword it fights with. I will seek
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Some way to leave him. Exit.
4.1 Enter CAESAR, AGRIPPA and MAECENAS, with his army, Caesar reading a letter.
CAESAR He calls me boy, and chides as he had power
To beat me out of Egypt. My messenger
He hath whipped with rods; dares me to personal
combat,
Caesar to Antony. Let the old ruffian know
I have many other ways to die; meantime
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Laugh at his challenge.
MAECENAS Caesar must think,
When one so great begins to rage, he’s hunted
Even to falling. Give him no breath, but now
Make boot of his distraction. Never anger
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Made good guard for itself.
CAESAR Let our best heads