Caesar himself has work, and our oppression
Exceeds what we expected. Exeunt.
Alarums. Enter ANTONY, and SCARUS wounded.
SCARUS O, my brave emperor, this is fought indeed!
Had we done so at first, we had droven them home
5
With clouts about their heads.
ANTONY Thou bleed’st apace.
SCARUS I had a wound here that was like a T
But now ’tis made an H. [Sound retreat far off.]
ANTONY They do retire.
SCARUS We’ll beat ’em into bench-holes. I have yet
Room for six scotches more.
10
Enter EROS.
EROS They’re beaten, sir, and our advantage serves
For a fair victory.
SCARUS Let us score their backs
And snatch ’em up as we take hares – behind!
’Tis sport to maul a runner.
ANTONY I will reward thee
Once for thy sprightly comfort, and tenfold
15
For thy good valour. Come thee on!
SCARUS I’ll halt after. Exeunt.
4.8 Alarum. Enter ANTONY again in a march; SCARUS with others.
ANTONY
We have beat him to his camp. Run one before
And let the Queen know of our gests. Exit a Soldier.
Tomorrow,
Before the sun shall see’s, we’ll spill the blood
That has today escaped. I thank you all,
For doughty-handed are you, and have fought
5
Not as you served the cause, but as’t had been
Each man’s like mine. You have shown all Hectors.
Enter the city; clip your wives, your friends;
Tell them your feats, whilst they with joyful tears
Wash the congealment from your wounds, and kiss
10
The honoured gashes whole.
Enter CLEOPATRA.
[to Scarus] Give me thy hand.
To this great fairy I’ll commend thy acts,
Make her thanks bless thee.
[to Cleopatra] O thou day o’th’ world,
Chain mine armed neck! Leap thou, attire and all,
Through proof of harness to my heart, and there
15
Ride on the pants triumphing! [They embrace.]
CLEOPATRA Lord of lords!
O infinite virtue! Com’st thou smiling from
The world’s great snare uncaught?
ANTONY My nightingale,
We have beat them to their beds. What, girl! Though
grey
Do something mingle with our younger brown, yet
have we
20
A brain that nourishes our nerves and can
Get goal for goal of youth. Behold this man.
Commend unto his lips thy favouring hand.
[She offers Scarus her hand.]
Kiss it, my warrior. He hath fought today
As if a god in hate of mankind had
25
Destroyed in such a shape.
CLEOPATRA I’ll give thee, friend,
An armour all of gold. It was a king’s.
ANTONY He has deserved it, were it carbuncled
Like holy Phoebus’ car. Give me thy hand.
Through Alexandria make a jolly march;
30
Bear our hacked targets like the men that owe them.
Had our great palace the capacity
To camp this host, we all would sup together
And drink carouses to the next day’s fate
Which promises royal peril. Trumpeters,
35
With brazen din blast you the city’s ear;
Make mingle with our rattling taborins
That heaven and earth may strike their sounds
together,
Applauding our approach. Trumpets sound. Exeunt.
4.9 Enter a Sentry and his Company of Watch. ENOBARBUS follows.
SENTRY If we be not relieved within this hour,
We must return to th’ court of guard. The night
Is shiny, and they say we shall embattle
By th’ second hour i’th’ morn.
1 WATCH This last day was a shrewd one to’s.
5
ENOBARBUS O bear me witness, night –
2 WATCH What man is this?
1 WATCH Stand close and list him. [They stand aside.]
ENOBARBUS Be witness to me, O thou blessed moon,
When men revolted shall upon record
10
Bear hateful memory, poor Enobarbus did
Before thy face repent.
SENTRY Enobarbus?
2 WATCH Peace! Hark further.
ENOBARBUS O sovereign mistress of true melancholy,
15
The poisonous damp of night disponge upon me,
That life, a very rebel to my will,
May hang no longer on me. Throw my heart
Against the flint and hardness of my fault,
Which, being dried with grief, will break to powder
20
And finish all foul thoughts. O Antony,
Nobler than my revolt is infamous,
Forgive me in thine own particular,
But let the world rank me in register
A master-leaver and a fugitive.
25
O Antony! O Antony! [He sinks down.]
1 WATCH Let’s speak to him.
SENTRY Let’s hear him, for the things he speaks may
concern Caesar.
2 WATCH Let’s do so. But he sleeps.
30
SENTRY Swoons rather, for so bad a prayer as his was
never yet for sleep.
1 WATCH Go we to him.
2 WATCH Awake sir! Awake! Speak to us!
1 WATCH Hear you, sir?
35
SENTRY The hand of death hath raught him. Hark!
[Drums afar off.] The drums
Demurely wake the sleepers. Let us bear him
To th’ court of guard. He is of note. Our hour
Is fully out.
2 WATCH Come on, then. He may recover yet.
40
Exeunt with the body.
4.10 Enter ANTONY and SCARUS with their army.
ANTONY Their preparation is today by sea;
We please them not by land.
SCARUS For both, my lord.
ANTONY
I would they’d fight i’th’ fire or i’th’ air;
We’d fight there too. But this it is: our foot
Upon the hills adjoining to the city
5
Shall stay with us – order for sea is given;
They have put forth the haven –
Where their appointment we may best discover
And look on their endeavour. Exeunt.
4.11 Enter CAESAR and his army.
CAESAR But being charged we will be still by land,
Which, as I take’t, we shall, for his best force
Is forth to man his galleys. To the vales,
And hold our best advantage. Exeunt.
4.12 Alarum afar off, as at a sea fight. Enter ANTONY and SCARUS.
ANTONY
Yet they are not joined. Where yond pine does stand
I shall discover all. I’ll bring thee word
Straight how ’tis like to go. Exit.
SCARUS Swallows have built
In Cleopatra’s sails their nests. The augurs
Say they know not, they cannot tell; look grimly,
5
And dare not speak their knowledge. Antony
Is valiant and dejected, and by starts
His fretted fortunes give him hope and fear
Of what he has and has not.
Enter ANTONY.
ANTONY All is lost!
This foul Egyptian hath betrayed me.
10
My fleet hath yielded to the foe, and yonder
They cast their caps up and carouse together
Like friends long lost. Triple-turned whore! ’Tis
thou
Hast sold me to this novice, and my heart
Makes only wars on thee. Bid them all fly!
15
For when I am revenged upon my charm,
I have done all. Bid them all fly! Be gone!
Exit Scarus.
O sun, thy uprise shall I see no more.
Fortune and Antony part here; even here
Do we shake hands. All come to this! The hearts
20
That spanieled me at heels, to whom I gave
Their wishes, do discandy, melt their sweets
On blossoming Caesar, and this pine is barked
That overtopped them all. Betrayed I am.
O this false soul of Egypt! This grave charm
25
Whose eye becked forth my wars and called them
home,
Whose bosom was my crownet, my chief end,
Like a right gipsy hath at fast and loose
Beguiled me to the very heart of loss.
What, Eros, Eros!
Enter CLEOPATRA.
Ah, thou spell! Avaunt!
30
CLEOPATRA Why is my lord enraged against his love?
ANTONY Vanish, or I shall give thee thy deserving
And blemish Caesar’s triumph. Let him take thee
And hoist thee up to the shouting plebeians!
Follow his chariot like the greatest spot
35
Of all thy sex; most monster-like be shown
For poor’st diminutives, for dolts, and let
Patient Octavia plough thy visage up
With her prepared nails! Exit Cleopatra.
’Tis well thou’rt gone
If it be well to live. But better ’twere
40
Thou fell’st into my fury, for one death
Might have prevented many. Eros, ho!
The shirt of Nessus is upon me. Teach me
Alcides, thou mine ancestor, thy rage;
Let me lodge Lichas on the horns o’th’ moon,
45
And with those hands that grasped the heaviest club
Subdue my worthiest self. The witch shall die.
To the young Roman boy she hath sold me, and I fall
Under this plot. She dies for’t. Eros, ho! Exit.
4.13 Enter CLEOPATRA, CHARMIAN, IRAS, MARDIAN.
CLEOPATRA Help me, my women! O, he’s more mad
Than Telamon for his shield; the boar of Thessaly
Was never so embossed.
CHARMIAN To th’ monument!
There lock yourself and send him word you are dead.
The soul and body rive not more in parting
5
Than greatness going off.
CLEOPATRA To th’ monument!
Mardian, go tell him I have slain myself.
Say that the last I spoke was ‘Antony’,
And word it, prithee, piteously. Hence, Mardian,
And bring me how he takes my death. To th’
monument! Exeunt.
10
4.14 Enter ANTONY and EROS.
ANTONY Eros, thou yet behold’st me?
EROS Ay, noble lord.
ANTONY Sometime we see a cloud that’s dragonish,
A vapour sometime like a bear or lion,
A towered citadel, a pendent rock,
A forked mountain, or blue promontory
5
With trees upon’t that nod unto the world
And mock our eyes with air. Thou hast seen these
signs?
They are black vesper’s pageants.
EROS Ay, my lord.
ANTONY
That which is now a horse, even with a thought
The rack dislimns and makes it indistinct
10
As water is in water.
EROS It does, my lord.
ANTONY My good knave Eros, now thy captain is
Even such a body. Here I am Antony,
Yet cannot hold this visible shape, my knave.
I made these wars for Egypt, and the Queen –
15
Whose heart I thought I had, for she had mine,
Which, whilst it was mine, had annexed unto’t
A million more, now lost – she, Eros, has
Packed cards with Caesar, and false-played my glory
Unto an enemy’s triumph.
20
Nay, weep not, gentle Eros. There is left us
The Arden Shakespeare Complete Works Page 58