Complete Plays, The

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Complete Plays, The Page 125

by William Shakespeare


  ACT III

  SCENE I. A PLAIN IN SYRIA.

  SCENE II. ROME. AN ANTE-CHAMBER IN OCTAVIUS CAESAR’S HOUSE.

  SCENE III. ALEXANDRIA. CLEOPATRA’S PALACE.

  SCENE IV. ATHENS. A ROOM IN MARK ANTONY’S HOUSE.

  SCENE V. THE SAME. ANOTHER ROOM.

  SCENE VI. ROME. OCTAVIUS CAESAR’S HOUSE.

  SCENE VII. NEAR ACTIUM. MARK ANTONY’S CAMP.

  SCENE VIII. A PLAIN NEAR ACTIUM.

  SCENE IX. ANOTHER PART OF THE PLAIN.

  SCENE X. ANOTHER PART OF THE PLAIN.

  SCENE XI. ALEXANDRIA. CLEOPATRA’S PALACE.

  SCENE XII. EGYPT. OCTAVIUS CAESAR’S CAMP.

  SCENE XIII. ALEXANDRIA. CLEOPATRA’S PALACE.

  ACT IV

  SCENE I. BEFORE ALEXANDRIA. OCTAVIUS CAESAR’S CAMP.

  SCENE II. ALEXANDRIA. CLEOPATRA’S PALACE.

  SCENE III. THE SAME. BEFORE THE PALACE.

  SCENE IV. THE SAME. A ROOM IN THE PALACE.

  SCENE V. ALEXANDRIA. MARK ANTONY’S CAMP.

  SCENE VI. ALEXANDRIA. OCTAVIUS CAESAR’S CAMP.

  SCENE VII. FIELD OF BATTLE BETWEEN THE CAMPS.

  SCENE VIII. UNDER THE WALLS OF ALEXANDRIA.

  SCENE IX. OCTAVIUS CAESAR’S CAMP.

  SCENE X. BETWEEN THE TWO CAMPS.

  SCENE XI. ANOTHER PART OF THE SAME.

  SCENE XII. ANOTHER PART OF THE SAME.

  SCENE XIII. ALEXANDRIA. CLEOPATRA’S PALACE.

  SCENE XIV. THE SAME. ANOTHER ROOM.

  SCENE XV. THE SAME. A MONUMENT.

  ACT V

  SCENE I. ALEXANDRIA. OCTAVIUS CAESAR’S CAMP.

  SCENE II. ALEXANDRIA. A ROOM IN THE MONUMENT.

  CHARACTERS OF THE PLAY

  MARK ANTONY, OCTAVIUS CAESAR and LEPIDUS, triumvirs.

  SEXTUS POMPEIUS (POMPEY)

  DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS, VENTIDIUS, EROS, SCARUS, DERCETAS, DEMETRIUS, PHILO, friends to Antony.

  MECAENAS, AGRIPPA, DOLABELLA, PROCULEIUS, THYREUS, GALLUS, MENAS, friends to Caesar.

  MENECRATES, VARRIUS, friends to Pompey.

  TAURUS, lieutenant-general to Caesar.

  CANIDIUS, lieutenant-general to Antony.

  SILIUS, an officer in Ventidius's army.

  EUPHRONIUS, an ambassador from Antony to Caesar.

  ALEXAS, SELEUCUS, DIOMEDES, attendants on Cleopatra.

  MARDIAN, a Eunuch.

  A SOOTHSAYER.

  A CLOWN.

  CLEOPATRA, Queen of Egypt.

  OCTAVIA, sister to Caesar and wife to Antony.

  CHARMIAN and IRAS, attendants on Cleopatra.

  Officers, Soldiers, Messengers, and other Attendants.

  Scene: In several parts of the Roman empire.

  ACT I

  SCENE I. ALEXANDRIA. A ROOM IN CLEOPATRA’S PALACE.

  Enter Demetrius and Philo

  Philo

  Nay, but this dotage of our general’s

  O’erflows the measure: those his goodly eyes,

  That o’er the files and musters of the war

  Have glow’d like plated Mars, now bend, now turn,

  The office and devotion of their view

  Upon a tawny front: his captain’s heart,

  Which in the scuffles of great fights hath burst

  The buckles on his breast, reneges all temper,

  And is become the bellows and the fan

  To cool a gipsy’s lust.

  Flourish. Enter Antony, Cleopatra, her Ladies, the Train, with Eunuchs fanning her

  Look, where they come:

  Take but good note, and you shall see in him.

  The triple pillar of the world transform’d

  Into a strumpet’s fool: behold and see.

  Cleopatra

  If it be love indeed, tell me how much.

  Mark Antony

  There’s beggary in the love that can be reckon’d.

  Cleopatra

  I’ll set a bourn how far to be beloved.

  Mark Antony

  Then must thou needs find out new heaven, new earth.

  Enter an Attendant

  Attendant

  News, my good lord, from Rome.

  Mark Antony

  Grates me: the sum.

  Cleopatra

  Nay, hear them, Antony:

  Fulvia perchance is angry; or, who knows

  If the scarce-bearded Caesar have not sent

  His powerful mandate to you, ‘Do this, or this;

  Take in that kingdom, and enfranchise that;

  Perform ’t, or else we damn thee.’

  Mark Antony

  How, my love!

  Cleopatra

  Perchance! nay, and most like:

  You must not stay here longer, your dismission

  Is come from Caesar; therefore hear it, Antony.

  Where’s Fulvia’s process? Caesar’s I would say? both?

  Call in the messengers. As I am Egypt’s queen,

  Thou blushest, Antony; and that blood of thine

  Is Caesar’s homager: else so thy cheek pays shame

  When shrill-tongued Fulvia scolds. The messengers!

  Mark Antony

  Let Rome in Tiber melt, and the wide arch

  Of the ranged empire fall! Here is my space.

  Kingdoms are clay: our dungy earth alike

  Feeds beast as man: the nobleness of life

  Is to do thus; when such a mutual pair

  Embracing

  And such a twain can do’t, in which I bind,

  On pain of punishment, the world to weet

  We stand up peerless.

  Cleopatra

  Excellent falsehood!

  Why did he marry Fulvia, and not love her?

  I’ll seem the fool I am not; Antony

  Will be himself.

  Mark Antony

  But stirr’d by Cleopatra.

  Now, for the love of Love and her soft hours,

  Let’s not confound the time with conference harsh:

  There’s not a minute of our lives should stretch

  Without some pleasure now. What sport tonight?

  Cleopatra

  Hear the ambassadors.

  Mark Antony

  Fie, wrangling queen!

  Whom every thing becomes, to chide, to laugh,

  To weep; whose every passion fully strives

  To make itself, in thee, fair and admired!

  No messenger, but thine; and all alone

  To-night we’ll wander through the streets and note

  The qualities of people. Come, my queen;

  Last night you did desire it: speak not to us.

  Exeunt Mark Antony and Cleopatra with their train

  Demetrius

  Is Caesar with Antonius prized so slight?

  Philo

  Sir, sometimes, when he is not Antony,

  He comes too short of that great property

  Which still should go with Antony.

  Demetrius

  I am full sorry

  That he approves the common liar, who

  Thus speaks of him at Rome: but I will hope

  Of better deeds to-morrow. Rest you happy!

  Exeunt

  SCENE II. THE SAME. ANOTHER ROOM.

  Enter Charmian, Iras, Alexas, and a Soothsayer

  Charmian

  Lord Alexas, sweet Alexas, most any thing Alexas, almost most absolute Alexas, where’s the soothsayer that you praised so to the queen? O, that I knew this husband, which, you say, must charge his horns with garlands!

  Alexas

  Soothsayer!

  Soothsayer

  Your will?

  Charmian

  Is this the man? Is’t you, sir, that know things?

  Soothsayer

  In nature’s infinite book of secrecy

  A little I can read.

  Alexas

  Show him your hand.

  Enter Domitius Enobarbus

  Domitius Enobarbus

  Bring in the banquet
quickly; wine enough

  Cleopatra’s health to drink.

  Charmian

  Good sir, give me good fortune.

  Soothsayer

  I make not, but foresee.

  Charmian

  Pray, then, foresee me one.

  Soothsayer

  You shall be yet far fairer than you are.

  Charmian

  He means in flesh.

  Iras

  No, you shall paint when you are old.

  Charmian

  Wrinkles forbid!

  Alexas

  Vex not his prescience; be attentive.

  Charmian

  Hush!

  Soothsayer

  You shall be more beloving than beloved.

  Charmian

  I had rather heat my liver with drinking.

  Alexas

  Nay, hear him.

  Charmian

  Good now, some excellent fortune! Let me be married to three kings in a forenoon, and widow them all: let me have a child at fifty, to whom Herod of Jewry may do homage: find me to marry me with Octavius Caesar, and companion me with my mistress.

  Soothsayer

  You shall outlive the lady whom you serve.

  Charmian

  O excellent! I love long life better than figs.

  Soothsayer

  You have seen and proved a fairer former fortune

  Than that which is to approach.

  Charmian

  Then belike my children shall have no names: prithee, how many boys and wenches must I have?

  Soothsayer

  If every of your wishes had a womb.

  And fertile every wish, a million.

  Charmian

  Out, fool! I forgive thee for a witch.

  Alexas

  You think none but your sheets are privy to your wishes.

  Charmian

  Nay, come, tell Iras hers.

  Alexas

  We’ll know all our fortunes.

  Domitius Enobarbus

  Mine, and most of our fortunes, to-night, shall be — drunk to bed.

  Iras

  There’s a palm presages chastity, if nothing else.

  Charmian

  E’en as the o’erflowing Nilus presageth famine.

  Iras

  Go, you wild bedfellow, you cannot soothsay.

  Charmian

  Nay, if an oily palm be not a fruitful prognostication, I cannot scratch mine ear. Prithee, tell her but a worky-day fortune.

  Soothsayer

  Your fortunes are alike.

  Iras

  But how, but how? give me particulars.

  Soothsayer

  I have said.

  Iras

  Am I not an inch of fortune better than she?

  Charmian

  Well, if you were but an inch of fortune better than

  I, where would you choose it?

  Iras

  Not in my husband’s nose.

  Charmian

  Our worser thoughts heavens mend! Alexas,— come, his fortune, his fortune! O, let him marry a woman that cannot go, sweet Isis, I beseech thee! and let her die too, and give him a worse! and let worst follow worse, till the worst of all follow him laughing to his grave, fifty-fold a cuckold! Good Isis, hear me this prayer, though thou deny me a matter of more weight; good Isis, I beseech thee!

  Iras

  Amen. Dear goddess, hear that prayer of the people! for, as it is a heartbreaking to see a handsome man loose-wived, so it is a deadly sorrow to behold a foul knave uncuckolded: therefore, dear Isis, keep decorum, and fortune him accordingly!

  Charmian

  Amen.

  Alexas

  Lo, now, if it lay in their hands to make me a cuckold, they would make themselves whores, but they’ld do’t!

  Domitius Enobarbus

  Hush! here comes Antony.

  Charmian

  Not he; the queen.

  Enter Cleopatra

  Cleopatra

  Saw you my lord?

  Domitius Enobarbus

  No, lady.

  Cleopatra

  Was he not here?

  Charmian

  No, madam.

  Cleopatra

  He was disposed to mirth; but on the sudden

  A Roman thought hath struck him. Enobarbus!

  Domitius Enobarbus

  Madam?

  Cleopatra

  Seek him, and bring him hither.

  Where’s Alexas?

  Alexas

  Here, at your service. My lord approaches.

  Cleopatra

  We will not look upon him: go with us.

  Exeunt

  Enter Mark Antony with a Messenger and Attendants

  Messenger

  Fulvia thy wife first came into the field.

  Mark Antony

  Against my brother Lucius?

  Messenger

  Ay:

  But soon that war had end, and the time’s state

  Made friends of them, joining their force ’gainst Caesar;

  Whose better issue in the war, from Italy,

  Upon the first encounter, drave them.

  Mark Antony

  Well, what worst?

  Messenger

  The nature of bad news infects the teller.

  Mark Antony

  When it concerns the fool or coward. On:

  Things that are past are done with me. ’Tis thus:

  Who tells me true, though in his tale lie death,

  I hear him as he flatter’d.

  Messenger

  Labienus —

  This is stiff news — hath, with his Parthian force,

  Extended Asia from Euphrates;

  His conquering banner shook from Syria

  To Lydia and to Ionia; Whilst —

  Mark Antony

  Antony, thou wouldst say,—

  Messenger

  O, my lord!

  Mark Antony

  Speak to me home, mince not the general tongue:

  Name Cleopatra as she is call’d in Rome;

  Rail thou in Fulvia’s phrase; and taunt my faults

  With such full licence as both truth and malice

  Have power to utter. O, then we bring forth weeds,

  When our quick minds lie still; and our ills told us

  Is as our earing. Fare thee well awhile.

  Messenger

  At your noble pleasure.

  Exit

  Mark Antony

  From Sicyon, ho, the news! Speak there!

  First Attendant

  The man from Sicyon,— is there such an one?

  Second Attendant

  He stays upon your will.

  Mark Antony

  Let him appear.

  These strong Egyptian fetters I must break,

  Or lose myself in dotage.

  Enter another Messenger

  What are you?

  Second Messenger

  Fulvia thy wife is dead.

  Mark Antony

  Where died she?

  Second Messenger

  In Sicyon:

  Her length of sickness, with what else more serious

  Importeth thee to know, this bears.

  Gives a letter

  Mark Antony

  Forbear me.

  Exit Second Messenger

  There’s a great spirit gone! Thus did I desire it:

  What our contempt doth often hurl from us,

  We wish it ours again; the present pleasure,

  By revolution lowering, does become

  The opposite of itself: she’s good, being gone;

  The hand could pluck her back that shoved her on.

  I must from this enchanting queen break off:

  Ten thousand harms, more than the ills I know,

  My idleness doth hatch. How now! Enobarbus!

  Re-enter Domitius Enobarbus

  Domitius Enobarbus

  What’s your pleasure, sir?

&nb
sp; Mark Antony

  I must with haste from hence.

  Domitius Enobarbus

  Why, then, we kill all our women: we see how mortal an unkindness is to them; if they suffer our departure, death’s the word.

  Mark Antony

  I must be gone.

  Domitius Enobarbus

  Under a compelling occasion, let women die; it were pity to cast them away for nothing; though, between them and a great cause, they should be esteemed nothing. Cleopatra, catching but the least noise of this, dies instantly; I have seen her die twenty times upon far poorer moment: I do think there is mettle in death, which commits some loving act upon her, she hath such a celerity in dying.

  Mark Antony

  She is cunning past man’s thought.

  Exit Alexas

  Domitius Enobarbus

  Alack, sir, no; her passions are made of nothing but the finest part of pure love: we cannot call her winds and waters sighs and tears; they are greater storms and tempests than almanacs can report: this cannot be cunning in her; if it be, she makes a shower of rain as well as Jove.

  Mark Antony

  Would I had never seen her.

  Domitius Enobarbus

  O, sir, you had then left unseen a wonderful piece of work; which not to have been blest withal would have discredited your travel.

  Mark Antony

  Fulvia is dead.

  Domitius Enobarbus

  Sir?

  Mark Antony

  Fulvia is dead.

  Domitius Enobarbus

  Fulvia!

  Mark Antony

  Dead.

  Domitius Enobarbus

  Why, sir, give the gods a thankful sacrifice. When it pleaseth their deities to take the wife of a man from him, it shows to man the tailors of the earth; comforting therein, that when old robes are worn out, there are members to make new. If there were no more women but Fulvia, then had you indeed a cut, and the case to be lamented: this grief is crowned with consolation; your old smock brings forth a new petticoat: and indeed the tears live in an onion that should water this sorrow.

  Mark Antony

  The business she hath broached in the state

  Cannot endure my absence.

  Domitius Enobarbus

  And the business you have broached here cannot be without you; especially that of Cleopatra’s, which wholly depends on your abode.

  Mark Antony

  No more light answers. Let our officers

  Have notice what we purpose. I shall break

  The cause of our expedience to the queen,

  And get her leave to part. For not alone

  The death of Fulvia, with more urgent touches,

  Do strongly speak to us; but the letters too

  Of many our contriving friends in Rome

  Petition us at home: Sextus Pompeius

  Hath given the dare to Caesar, and commands

  The empire of the sea: our slippery people,

  Whose love is never link’d to the deserver

  Till his deserts are past, begin to throw

 

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