The Arden Shakespeare Complete Works

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The Arden Shakespeare Complete Works Page 58

by William Shakespeare


  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

 

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