To keep it builded, be the ram to batter
The fortress of it; for better might we
Have loved without this mean, if on both parts
This be not cherish’d.
Mark Antony
Make me not offended
In your distrust.
Octavius Caesar
I have said.
Mark Antony
You shall not find,
Though you be therein curious, the least cause
For what you seem to fear: so, the gods keep you,
And make the hearts of Romans serve your ends!
We will here part.
Octavius Caesar
Farewell, my dearest sister, fare thee well:
The elements be kind to thee, and make
Thy spirits all of comfort! fare thee well.
Octavia
My noble brother!
Mark Antony
The April ’s in her eyes: it is love’s spring,
And these the showers to bring it on. Be cheerful.
Octavia
Sir, look well to my husband’s house; and —
Octavius Caesar
What, Octavia?
Octavia
I’ll tell you in your ear.
Mark Antony
Her tongue will not obey her heart, nor can
Her heart inform her tongue,— the swan’s down-feather,
That stands upon the swell at full of tide,
And neither way inclines.
Domitius Enobarbus
[Aside to Agrippa] Will Caesar weep?
Agrippa
[Aside to Domitius Enobarbus] He has a cloud in ’s face.
Domitius Enobarbus
[Aside to Agrippa] He were the worse for that, were he a horse; So is he, being a man.
Agrippa
[Aside to Domitius Enobarbus] Why, Enobarbus,
When Antony found Julius Caesar dead,
He cried almost to roaring; and he wept
When at Philippi he found Brutus slain.
Domitius Enobarbus
[Aside to Agrippa] That year, indeed, he was troubled with a rheum;
What willingly he did confound he wail’d,
Believe’t, till I wept too.
Octavius Caesar
No, sweet Octavia,
You shall hear from me still; the time shall not
Out-go my thinking on you.
Mark Antony
Come, sir, come;
I’ll wrestle with you in my strength of love:
Look, here I have you; thus I let you go,
And give you to the gods.
Octavius Caesar
Adieu; be happy!
Lepidus
Let all the number of the stars give light
To thy fair way!
Octavius Caesar
Farewell, fa rewell!
Kisses Octavia
Mark Antony
Farewell!
Trumpets sound. Exeunt
SCENE III. ALEXANDRIA. CLEOPATRA’S PALACE.
Enter Cleopatra, Charmian, Iras, and Alexas
Cleopatra
Where is the fellow?
Alexas
Half afeard to come.
Cleopatra
Go to, go to.
Enter the Messenger as before
Come hither, sir.
Alexas
Good majesty,
Herod of Jewry dare not look upon you
But when you are well pleased.
Cleopatra
That Herod’s head
I’ll have: but how, when Antony is gone
Through whom I might command it? Come thou near.
Messenger
Most gracious majesty,—
Cleopatra
Didst thou behold Octavia?
Messenger
Ay, dread queen.
Cleopatra
Where?
Messenger
Madam, in Rome;
I look’d her in the face, and saw her led
Between her brother and Mark Antony.
Cleopatra
Is she as tall as me?
Messenger
She is not, madam.
Cleopatra
Didst hear her speak? is she shrill-tongued or low?
Messenger
Madam, I heard her speak; she is low-voiced.
Cleopatra
That’s not so good: he cannot like her long.
Charmian
Like her! O Isis! ’tis impossible.
Cleopatra
I think so, Charmian: dull of tongue, and dwarfish!
What majesty is in her gait? Remember,
If e’er thou look’dst on majesty.
Messenger
She creeps:
Her motion and her station are as one;
She shows a body rather than a life,
A statue than a breather.
Cleopatra
Is this certain?
Messenger
Or I have no observance.
Charmian
Three in Egypt
Cannot make better note.
Cleopatra
He’s very knowing;
I do perceive’t: there’s nothing in her yet:
The fellow has good judgment.
Charmian
Excellent.
Cleopatra
Guess at her years, I prithee.
Messenger
Madam,
She was a widow,—
Cleopatra
Widow! Charmian, hark.
Messenger
And I do think she’s thirty.
Cleopatra
Bear’st thou her face in mind? is’t long or round?
Messenger
Round even to faultiness.
Cleopatra
For the most part, too, they are foolish that are so.
Her hair, what colour?
Messenger
Brown, madam: and her forehead
As low as she would wish it.
Cleopatra
There’s gold for thee.
Thou must not take my former sharpness ill:
I will employ thee back again; I find thee
Most fit for business: go make thee ready;
Our letters are prepared.
Exit Messenger
Charmian
A proper man.
Cleopatra
Indeed, he is so: I repent me much
That so I harried him. Why, methinks, by him,
This creature’s no such thing.
Charmian
Nothing, madam.
Cleopatra
The man hath seen some majesty, and should know.
Charmian
Hath he seen majesty? Isis else defend,
And serving you so long!
Cleopatra
I have one thing more to ask him yet, good Charmian:
But ’tis no matter; thou shalt bring him to me
Where I will write. All may be well enough.
Charmian
I warrant you, madam.
Exeunt
SCENE IV. ATHENS. A ROOM IN MARK ANTONY’S HOUSE.
Enter Mark Antony and Octavia
Mark Antony
Nay, nay, Octavia, not only that,—
That were excusable, that, and thousands more
Of semblable import,— but he hath waged
New wars ’gainst Pompey; made his will, and read it
To public ear:
Spoke scantly of me: when perforce he could not
But pay me terms of honour, cold and sickly
He vented them; most narrow measure lent me:
When the best hint was given him, he not took’t,
Or did it from his teeth.
Octavia
O my good lord,
Believe not all; or, if you must believe,
Stomach not all. A more unhappy lady,
If this division chance, ne’er stood b
etween,
Praying for both parts:
The good gods me presently,
When I shall pray, ‘O bless my lord and husband!’
Undo that prayer, by crying out as loud,
‘O, bless my brother!’ Husband win, win brother,
Prays, and destroys the prayer; no midway
’Twixt these extremes at all.
Mark Antony
Gentle Octavia,
Let your best love draw to that point, which seeks
Best to preserve it: if I lose mine honour,
I lose myself: better I were not yours
Than yours so branchless. But, as you requested,
Yourself shall go between ’s: the mean time, lady,
I’ll raise the preparation of a war
Shall stain your brother: make your soonest haste;
So your desires are yours.
Octavia
Thanks to my lord.
The Jove of power make me most weak, most weak,
Your reconciler! Wars ’twixt you twain would be
As if the world should cleave, and that slain men
Should solder up the rift.
Mark Antony
When it appears to you where this begins,
Turn your displeasure that way: for our faults
Can never be so equal, that your love
Can equally move with them. Provide your going;
Choose your own company, and command what cost
Your heart has mind to.
Exeunt
SCENE V. THE SAME. ANOTHER ROOM.
Enter Domitius Enobarbus and Eros, meeting
Domitius Enobarbus
How now, friend Eros!
Eros
There’s strange news come, sir.
Domitius Enobarbus
What, man?
Eros
Caesar and Lepidus have made wars upon Pompey.
Domitius Enobarbus
This is old: what is the success?
Eros
Caesar, having made use of him in the wars ’gainst Pompey, presently denied him rivality; would not let him partake in the glory of the action: and not resting here, accuses him of letters he had formerly wrote to Pompey; upon his own appeal, seizes him: so the poor third is up, till death enlarge his confine.
Domitius Enobarbus
Then, world, thou hast a pair of chaps, no more;
And throw between them all the food thou hast,
They’ll grind the one the other. Where’s Antony?
Eros
He’s walking in the garden — thus; and spurns
The rush that lies before him; cries, ‘Fool Lepidus!’
And threats the throat of that his officer
That murder’d Pompey.
Domitius Enobarbus
Our great navy’s rigg’d.
Eros
For Italy and Caesar. More, Domitius;
My lord desires you presently: my news
I might have told hereafter.
Domitius Enobarbus
’Twill be naught:
But let it be. Bring me to Antony.
Eros
Come, sir.
Exeunt
SCENE VI. ROME. OCTAVIUS CAESAR’S HOUSE.
Enter Octavius Caesar, Agrippa, and Mecaenas
Octavius Caesar
Contemning Rome, he has done all this, and more,
In Alexandria: here’s the manner of ’t:
I’ the market-place, on a tribunal silver’d,
Cleopatra and himself in chairs of gold
Were publicly enthroned: at the feet sat
Caesarion, whom they call my father’s son,
And all the unlawful issue that their lust
Since then hath made between them. Unto her
He gave the stablishment of Egypt; made her
Of lower Syria, Cyprus, Lydia,
Absolute queen.
Mecaenas
This in the public eye?
Octavius Caesar
I’ the common show-place, where they exercise.
His sons he there proclaim’d the kings of kings:
Great Media, Parthia, and Armenia.
He gave to Alexander; to Ptolemy he assign’d
Syria, Cilicia, and Phoenicia: she
In the habiliments of the goddess Isis
That day appear’d; and oft before gave audience,
As ’tis reported, so.
Mecaenas
Let Rome be thus Inform’d.
Agrippa
Who, queasy with his insolence
Already, will their good thoughts call from him.
Octavius Caesar
The people know it; and have now received
His accusations.
Agrippa
Who does he accuse?
Octavius Caesar
Caesar: and that, having in Sicily
Sextus Pompeius spoil’d, we had not rated him
His part o’ the isle: then does he say, he lent me
Some shipping unrestored: lastly, he frets
That Lepidus of the triumvirate
Should be deposed; and, being, that we detain
All his revenue.
Agrippa
Sir, this should be answer’d.
Octavius Caesar
’Tis done already, and the messenger gone.
I have told him, Lepidus was grown too cruel;
That he his high authority abused,
And did deserve his change: for what I have conquer’d,
I grant him part; but then, in his Armenia,
And other of his conquer’d kingdoms, I
Demand the like.
Mecaenas
He’ll never yield to that.
Octavius Caesar
Nor must not then be yielded to in this.
Enter Octavia with her train
Octavia
Hail, Caesar, and my lord! hail, most dear Caesar!
Octavius Caesar
That ever I should call thee castaway!
Octavia
You have not call’d me so, nor have you cause.
Octavius Caesar
Why have you stol’n upon us thus! You come not
Like Caesar’s sister: the wife of Antony
Should have an army for an usher, and
The neighs of horse to tell of her approach
Long ere she did appear; the trees by the way
Should have borne men; and expectation fainted,
Longing for what it had not; nay, the dust
Should have ascended to the roof of heaven,
Raised by your populous troops: but you are come
A market-maid to Rome; and have prevented
The ostentation of our love, which, left unshown,
Is often left unloved; we should have met you
By sea and land; supplying every stage
With an augmented greeting.
Octavia
Good my lord,
To come thus was I not constrain’d, but did
On my free will. My lord, Mark Antony,
Hearing that you prepared for war, acquainted
My grieved ear withal; whereon, I begg’d
His pardon for return.
Octavius Caesar
Which soon he granted,
Being an obstruct ’tween his lust and him.
Octavia
Do not say so, my lord.
Octavius Caesar
I have eyes upon him,
And his affairs come to me on the wind.
Where is he now?
Octavia
My lord, in Athens.
Octavius Caesar
No, my most wronged sister; Cleopatra
Hath nodded him to her. He hath given his empire
Up to a whore; who now are levying
The kings o’ the earth for war; he hath assembled
Bocchus, the king of Libya; Archelaus,
Of Cappadocia; Philadelphos, k
ing
Of Paphlagonia; the Thracian king, Adallas;
King Malchus of Arabia; King of Pont;
Herod of Jewry; Mithridates, king
Of Comagene; Polemon and Amyntas,
The kings of Mede and Lycaonia,
With a more larger list of sceptres.
Octavia
Ay me, most wretched,
That have my heart parted betwixt two friends
That do afflict each other!
Octavius Caesar
Welcome hither:
Your letters did withhold our breaking forth;
Till we perceived, both how you were wrong led,
And we in negligent danger. Cheer your heart;
Be you not troubled with the time, which drives
O’er your content these strong necessities;
But let determined things to destiny
Hold unbewail’d their way. Welcome to Rome;
Nothing more dear to me. You are abused
Beyond the mark of thought: and the high gods,
To do you justice, make them ministers
Of us and those that love you. Best of comfort;
And ever welcome to us.
Agrippa
Welcome, lady.
Mecaenas
Welcome, dear madam.
Each heart in Rome does love and pity you:
Only the adulterous Antony, most large
In his abominations, turns you off;
And gives his potent regiment to a trull,
That noises it against us.
Octavia
Is it so, sir?
Octavius Caesar
Most certain. Sister, welcome: pray you,
Be ever known to patience: my dear’st sister!
Exeunt
SCENE VII. NEAR ACTIUM. MARK ANTONY’S CAMP.
Enter Cleopatra and Domitius Enobarbus
Cleopatra
I will be even with thee, doubt it not.
Domitius Enobarbus
But why, why, why?
Cleopatra
Thou hast forspoke my being in these wars,
And say’st it is not fit.
Domitius Enobarbus
Well, is it, is it?
Cleopatra
If not denounced against us, why should not we
Be there in person?
Domitius Enobarbus
[Aside] Well, I could reply:
If we should serve with horse and mares together,
The horse were merely lost; the mares would bear
A soldier and his horse.
Cleopatra
What is’t you say?
Domitius Enobarbus
Your presence needs must puzzle Antony;
Take from his heart, take from his brain, from’s time,
What should not then be spared. He is already
Traduced for levity; and ’tis said in Rome
That Photinus an eunuch and your maids
Manage this war.
Cleopatra
Sink Rome, and their tongues rot
That speak against us! A charge we bear i’ the war,
And, as the president of my kingdom, will
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