The Oxford Shakespeare: The Complete Works

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The Oxford Shakespeare: The Complete Works Page 330

by William Shakespeare

Enter Decretas with the sword of Antony

  CAESAR

  Wherefore is that? And what art thou that dar’st

  Appear thus to us?

  DECRETAS

  I am called Decretas.

  Mark Antony I served, who best was worthy

  Best to be served. Whilst he stood up and spoke

  He was my master, and I wore my life

  To spend upon his haters. If thou please

  To take me to thee, as I was to him

  I’ll be to Caesar; if thou pleasest not,

  I yield thee up my life.

  CAESAR

  What is’t thou sayst?

  DECRETAS

  I say, O Caesar, Antony is dead.

  CAESAR

  The breaking of so great a thing should make

  A greater crack. The rived world

  Should have shook lions into civil streets,

  And citizens to their dens. The death of Antony

  Is not a single doom; in that name lay

  A moiety of the world.

  DECRETAS

  He is dead, Caesar,

  Not by a public minister of justice,

  Nor by a hired knife; but that self hand

  Which writ his honour in the acts it did

  Hath, with the courage which the heart did lend it,

  Splitted the heart. This is his sword;

  I robbed his wound of it. Behold it stained

  With his most noble blood.

  CAESAR (weeping)

  Look you, sad friends, The gods rebuke me; but it is a tidings

  To wash the eyes of kings.

  ⌈AGRIPPA⌉

  And strange it is

  That nature must compel us to lament

  Our most persisted deeds.

  MAECENAS

  His taints and honours

  Waged equal with him.

  ⌈AGRIPPA⌉

  A rarer spirit never

  Did steer humanity; but you gods will give us

  Some faults to make us men. Caesar is touched.

  MAECENAS

  When such a spacious mirror’s set before him

  He needs must see himself.

  CAESAR

  O Antony, I have followed thee to this. But we do lance

  Diseases in our bodies. I must perforce

  Have shown to thee such a declining day,

  Or look on thine. We could not stall together

  In the whole world. But yet let me lament,

  With tears as sovereign as the blood of hearts,

  That thou, my brother, my competitor

  In top of all design, my mate in empire,

  Friend and companion in the front of war,

  The arm of mine own body, and the heart

  Where mine his thoughts did kindle—that our stars,

  Unreconciliable, should divide

  Our equalness to this. Hear me, good friends—

  Enter an Egyptian

  But I will tell you at some meeter season.

  The business of this man looks out of him;

  We’ll hear him what he says.—Whence are you?

  EGYPTIAN

  A poor Egyptian, yet the Queen my mistress,

  Confined in all she has, her monument,

  Of thy intents desires instruction,

  That she preparèdly may frame herself

  To th’ way she’s forced to.

  CAESAR

  Bid her have good heart.

  She soon shall know of us, by some of ours,

  How honourable and how kindly we

  Determine for her. For Caesar cannot live

  To be ungentle.

  EGYPTIAN

  So; the gods preserve thee! Exit

  CAESAR

  Come hither, Proculeius. Go, and say

  We purpose her no shame. Give her what comforts

  The quality of her passion shall require,

  Lest in her greatness, by some mortal stroke,

  She do defeat us; for her life in Rome

  Would be eternal in our triumph. Go,

  And with your speediest bring us what she says

  And how you find of her.

  PROCULEIUS

  Caesar, I shall. Exit

  CAESAR

  Gallus, go you along.

  Exit Gallus

  Where’s Dolabella,

  To second Proculeius?

  ALL BUT CAESAR

  Dolabella!

  CAESAR

  Let him alone; for I remember now

  How he’s employed. He shall in time be ready.

  Go with me to my tent, where you shall see

  How hardly I was drawn into this war,

  How calm and gentle I proceeded still

  In all my writings. Go with me, and see

  What I can show in this.

  Exeunt

  5.2 Enter Cleopatra, Charmian, Iras, and Mardian

  CLEOPATRA

  My desolation does begin to make

  A better life. ’Tis paltry to be Caesar.

  Not being Fortune, he’s but Fortune’s knave,

  A minister of her will. And it is great

  To do that thing that ends all other deeds,

  Which shackles accidents and bolts up change,

  Which sleeps and never palates more the dung,

  The beggar’s nurse, and Caesar’s.

  Enter Proculeius

  PROCULEIUS

  Caesar sends greeting to the Queen of Egypt,

  And bids thee study on what fair demands

  Thou mean’st to have him grant thee.

  CLEOPATRA What’s thy name?

  PROCULEIUS

  My name is Proculeius.

  CLEOPATRA

  Antony

  Did tell me of you, bade me trust you; but

  I do not greatly care to be deceived,

  That have no use for trusting. If your master

  Would have a queen his beggar, you must tell him

  That majesty, to keep decorum, must

  No less beg than a kingdom. If he please

  To give me conquered Egypt for my son,

  He gives me so much of mine own as I

  Will kneel to him with thanks.

  PROCULEIUS

  Be of good cheer.

  You’re fall’n into a princely hand; fear nothing.

  Make your full reference freely to my lord,

  Who is so full of grace that it flows over

  On all that need. Let me report to him

  Your sweet dependency, and you shall find

  A conqueror that will pray in aid for kindness,

  Where he for grace is kneeled to.

  CLEOPATRA

  Pray you, tell him

  I am his fortune’s vassal, and I send him

  The greatness he has got. I hourly learn

  A doctrine of obedience, and would gladly

  Look him i’th’ face.

  PROCULEIUS

  This I’ll report, dear lady;

  Have comfort, for I know your plight is pitied

  Of him that caused it.

  ⌈Enter Roman soldiers from behind⌉

  PROCULEIUS (to the soldiers)

  You see how easily she may be surprised.

  Guard her till Caesar come.

  IRAS

  Royal Queen-

  CHARMIAN

  O Cleopatra, thou art taken, Queen!

  CLEOPATRA (drawing a dagger)

  Quick, quick, good hands!

  PROCULEIUS (disarming Cleopatra)

  Hold, worthy lady, hold!

  Do not yourself such wrong, who are in this

  Relieved but not betrayed.

  CLEOPATRA

  What, of death too,

  That rids our dogs of languish?

  PROCULEIUS

  Cleopatra,

  Do not abuse my master’s bounty by

  Th’undoing of yourself. Let the world see

  His nobleness well acted, which your death

&nb
sp; Will never let come forth.

  CLEOPATRA

  Where art thou, death?

  Come hither, come. Come, come, and take a queen

  Worth many babes and beggars.

  PROCULEIUS

  O temperance, lady!

  CLEOPATRA

  Sir, I will eat no meat. I’ll not drink, sir.

  If idle talk will once be necessary,

  I’ll not sleep, neither. This mortal house I’ll ruin,

  Do Caesar what he can. Know, sir, that I

  Will not wait pinioned at your master’s court,

  Nor once be chastised with the sober eye

  Of dull Octavia. Shall they hoist me up

  And show me to the shouting varletry

  Of censuring Rome? Rather a ditch in Egypt

  Be gentle grave unto me; rather on Nilus’ mud

  Lay me stark naked, and let the waterflies

  Blow me into abhorring; rather make

  My country’s high pyramides my gibbet,

  And hang me up in chains.

  PROCULEIUS

  You do extend

  These thoughts of horror further than you shall

  Find cause in Caesar.

  Enter Dolabella

  DOLABELLA

  Proculeius,

  What thou hast done thy master Caesar knows,

  And he hath sent for thee. For the Queen,

  I’ll take her to my guard.

  PROCULEIUS

  So, Dolabella,

  It shall content me best. Be gentle to her.

  (To Cleopatra) To Caesar I will speak what you shall

  please,

  If you’ll employ me to him.

  CLEOPATRA

  Say I would die.

  Exit Proculeius

  DOLABELLA

  Most noble Empress, you have heard of me.

  CLEOPATRA

  I cannot tell.

  DOLABELLA

  Assuredly you know me.

  CLEOPATRA

  No matter, sir, what I have heard or known.

  You laugh when boys or women tell their dreams;

  Is’t not your trick?

  DOLABELLA

  I understand not, madam.

  CLEOPATRA

  I dreamt there was an Emperor Antony.

  O, such another sleep, that I might see

  But such another man!

  DOLABELLA

  If it might please ye—

  CLEOPATRA

  His face was as the heav‘ns, and therein stuck

  A sun and moon, which kept their course and lighted

  The little O o’th’ earth.

  DOLABELLA

  Most sovereign creature—

  CLEOPATRA

  His legs bestrid the ocean; his reared arm

  Crested the world. His voice was propertied

  As all the tuned spheres, and that to friends;

  But when he meant to quail and shake the orb,

  He was as rattling thunder. For his bounty,

  There was no winter in’t; an autumn ’twas,

  That grew the more by reaping. His delights

  Were dolphin-like; they showed his back above

  The element they lived in. In his livery

  Walked crowns and crownets. Realms and islands were

  As plates dropped from his pocket.

  DOLABELLA

  Cleopatra—

  CLEOPATRA

  Think you there was, or might be, such a man

  As this I dreamt of?

  DOLABELLA

  Gentle madam, no.

  CLEOPATRA

  You lie, up to the hearing of the gods.

  But if there be, or ever were one such,

  It’s past the size of dreaming. Nature wants stuff

  To vie strange forms with fancy; yet t‘imagine

  An Antony were nature’s piece ’gainst fancy,

  Condemning shadows quite.

  DOLABELLA

  Hear me, good madam: Your loss is as yourself, great, and you bear it

  As answering to the weight. Would I might never

  O’ertake pursued success but I do feel,

  By the rebound of yours, a grief that smites

  My very heart at root.

  CLEOPATRA

  I thank you, sir.

  Know you what Caesar means to do with me?

  DOLABELLA

  I am loath to tell you what I would you knew.

  CLEOPATRA

  Nay, pray you, sir.

  DOLABELLA

  Though he be honourable—

  CLEOPATRA

  He’ll lead me then in triumph.

  DOLABELLA

  Madam, he will, I know’t.

  Flourish. Enter Caesar, with Proculeius, Gallus, Maecenas, and others of his train

  ALL

  Make way, there! Caesar!

  CAESAR

  Which is the Queen of Egypt?

  DOLABELLA (to Cleopatra)

  It is the Emperor, madam.

  Cleopatra kneels

  CAESAR

  Arise! You shall not kneel.

  I pray you rise, rise, Egypt.

  CLEOPATRA (rising)

  Sir, the gods

  Will have it thus. My master and my lord

  I must obey.

  CAESAR

  Take to you no hard thoughts.

  The record of what injuries you did us,

  Though written in our flesh, we shall remember

  As things but done by chance.

  CLEOPATRA

  Sole sir o’th’ world, I cannot project mine own cause so well

  To make it clear, but do confess I have

  Been laden with like frailties which before

  Have often shamed our sex.

  CAESAR

  Cleopatra, know

  We will extenuate rather than enforce.

  If you apply yourself to our intents,

  Which towards you are most gentle, you shall find

  A benefit in this change; but if you seek

  To lay on me a cruelty by taking

  Antony’s course, you shall bereave yourself

  Of my good purposes and put your children

  To that destruction which I’ll guard them from,

  If thereon you rely. I’ll take my leave.

  CLEOPATRA

  And may through all the world! ’Tis yours, and we,

  Your scutcheons and your signs of conquest, shall

  Hang in what place you please. (Giving a paper) Here,

  my good lord.

  CAESAR

  You shall advise me in all for Cleopatra.

  CLEOPATRA

  This is the brief of money, plate, and jewels

  I am possessed of. ’Tis exactly valued,

  Not petty things admitted. Where’s Seleucus?

  ⌈Enter Seleucus⌉

  SELEUCUS Here, madam.

  CLEOPATRA (to Caesar)

  This is my treasurer. Let him speak, my lord,

  Upon his peril, that I have reserved

  To myself nothing. Speak the truth, Seleucus.

  SELEUCUS

  Madam, I had rather seal my lips

  Than to my peril speak that which is not.

  CLEOPATRA What have I kept back?

  SELEUCUS

  Enough to purchase what you have made known.

  CAESAR

  Nay, blush not, Cleopatra. I approve

  Your wisdom in the deed.

  CLEOPATRA

  See, Caesar! O, behold

  How pomp is followed! Mine will now be yours,

  And should we shift estates, yours would be mine.

  The ingratitude of this Seleucus does

  Even make me wild.—O slave, of no more trust

  Than love that’s hired! What, goest thou back? Thou

  shalt

  Go back, I warrant thee; but I’ll catch thine eyes

  Though they had wings. Slave, soulless villain, dog!

  O rarely base!r />
  CAESAR

  Good Queen, let us entreat you.

  CLEOPATRA

  O Caesar, what a wounding shame is this,

  That thou vouchsafing here to visit me,

  Doing the honour of thy lordliness

  To one so meek—that mine own servant should

  Parcel the sum of my disgraces by

  Addition of his envy. Say, good Caesar,

  That I some lady trifles have reserved,

  Immoment toys, things of such dignity

  As we greet modern friends withal; and say

  Some nobler token I have kept apart

  For Livia and Octavia, to induce

  Their mediation—must I be unfolded

  With one that I have bred? The gods! It smites me

  Beneath the fall I have. (To Seleucus) Prithee, go hence,

  Or I shall show the cinders of my spirits

  Through th’ashes of my chance. Wert thou a man

  Thou wouldst have mercy on me.

  CAESAR

  Forbear, Seleucus.

  Exit Seleucus

  CLEOPATRA

  Be it known that we, the greatest, are misthought

  For things that others do; and when we fall

  We answer others’ merits in our name,

  Are therefore to be pitied.

  CAESAR

  Cleopatra,

  Not what you have reserved nor what acknowledged

  Put we i’th’ roll of conquest. Still be’t yours.

  Bestow it at your pleasure, and believe

  Caesar’s no merchant, to make prize with you

  Of things that merchants sold. Therefore be cheered.

  Make not your thoughts your prisons. No, dear

  Queen;

  For we intend so to dispose you as

  Yourself shall give us counsel. Feed and sleep.

  Our care and pity is so much upon you

  That we remain your friend; and so adieu.

  CLEOPATRA

  My master and my lord!

  CAESAR

  Not so. Adieu.

  Flourish. Exeunt Caesar and his train

  CLEOPATRA

  He words me, girls, he words me, that I should not

  Be noble to myself. But hark thee, Charmian.

  She whispers to Charmian

  IRAS

  Finish, good lady. The bright day is done,

  And we are for the dark.

  CLEOPATRA (to Charmian) Hie thee again.

  I have spoke already, and it is provided.

  Go put it to the haste.

  CHARMIAN

  Madam, I will.

  Enter Dolabella

  DOLABELLA

  Where’s the Queen?

  CHARMIAN

  Behold, sir.

  Exit

 

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