Appear there for a man. Speak not against it:
I will not stay behind.
Domitius Enobarbus
Nay, I have done.
Here comes the emperor.
Enter Mark Antony and Canidius
Mark Antony
Is it not strange, Canidius,
That from Tarentum and Brundusium
He could so quickly cut the Ionian sea,
And take in Toryne? You have heard on’t, sweet?
Cleopatra
Celerity is never more admired
Than by the negligent.
Mark Antony
A good rebuke,
Which might have well becomed the best of men,
To taunt at slackness. Canidius, we
Will fight with him by sea.
Cleopatra
By sea! what else?
Canidius
Why will my lord do so?
Mark Antony
For that he dares us to’t.
Domitius Enobarbus
So hath my lord dared him to single fight.
Canidius
Ay, and to wage this battle at Pharsalia.
Where Caesar fought with Pompey: but these offers,
Which serve not for his vantage, be shakes off;
And so should you.
Domitius Enobarbus
Your ships are not well mann’d;
Your mariners are muleters, reapers, people
Ingross’d by swift impress; in Caesar’s fleet
Are those that often have ’gainst Pompey fought:
Their ships are yare; yours, heavy: no disgrace
Shall fall you for refusing him at sea,
Being prepared for land.
Mark Antony
By sea, by sea.
Domitius Enobarbus
Most worthy sir, you therein throw away
The absolute soldiership you have by land;
Distract your army, which doth most consist
Of war-mark’d footmen; leave unexecuted
Your own renowned knowledge; quite forego
The way which promises assurance; and
Give up yourself merely to chance and hazard,
From firm security.
Mark Antony
I’ll fight at sea.
Cleopatra
I have sixty sails, Caesar none better.
Mark Antony
Our overplus of shipping will we burn;
And, with the rest full-mann’d, from the head of Actium
Beat the approaching Caesar. But if we fail,
We then can do’t at land.
Enter a Messenger
Thy business?
Messenger
The news is true, my lord; he is descried;
Caesar has taken Toryne.
Mark Antony
Can he be there in person? ’tis impossible;
Strange that power should be. Canidius,
Our nineteen legions thou shalt hold by land,
And our twelve thousand horse. We’ll to our ship:
Away, my Thetis!
Enter a Soldier
How now, worthy soldier?
Soldier
O noble emperor, do not fight by sea;
Trust not to rotten planks: do you misdoubt
This sword and these my wounds? Let the Egyptians
And the Phoenicians go a-ducking; we
Have used to conquer, standing on the earth,
And fighting foot to foot.
Mark Antony
Well, well: away!
Exeunt Mark Antony, Queen Cleopatra, and Domitius Enobarbus
Soldier
By Hercules, I think I am i’ the right.
Canidius
Soldier, thou art: but his whole action grows
Not in the power on’t: so our leader’s led,
And we are women’s men.
Soldier
You keep by land
The legions and the horse whole, do you not?
Canidius
Marcus Octavius, Marcus Justeius,
Publicola, and Caelius, are for sea:
But we keep whole by land. This speed of Caesar’s
Carries beyond belief.
Soldier
While he was yet in Rome,
His power went out in such distractions as
Beguiled all spies.
Canidius
Who’s his lieutenant, hear you?
Soldier
They say, one Taurus.
Canidius
Well I know the man.
Enter a Messenger
Messenger
The emperor calls Canidius.
Canidius
With news the time’s with labour, and throes forth,
Each minute, some.
Exeunt
SCENE VIII. A PLAIN NEAR ACTIUM.
Enter Octavius Caesar, and Taurus, with his army, marching
Octavius Caesar
Taurus!
Taurus
My lord?
Octavius Caesar
Strike not by land; keep whole: provoke not battle,
Till we have done at sea. Do not exceed
The prescript of this scroll: our fortune lies
Upon this jump.
Exeunt
SCENE IX. ANOTHER PART OF THE PLAIN.
Enter Mark Antony and Domitius Enobarbus
Mark Antony
Set we our squadrons on yond side o’ the hill,
In eye of Caesar’s battle; from which place
We may the number of the ships behold,
And so proceed accordingly.
Exeunt
SCENE X. ANOTHER PART OF THE PLAIN.
Canidius marcheth with his land army one way over the stage; and Taurus, the lieutenant of Octavius Caesar, the other way. After their going in, is heard the noise of a sea-fight
Alarum. Enter Domitius Enobarbus
Domitius Enobarbus
Naught, naught all, naught! I can behold no longer:
The Antoniad, the Egyptian admiral,
With all their sixty, fly and turn the rudder:
To see’t mine eyes are blasted.
Enter Scarus
Scarus
Gods and goddesses,
All the whole synod of them!
Domitius Enobarbus
What’s thy passion!
Scarus
The greater cantle of the world is lost
With very ignorance; we have kiss’d away
Kingdoms and provinces.
Domitius Enobarbus
How appears the fight?
Scarus
On our side like the token’d pestilence,
Where death is sure. Yon ribaudred nag of Egypt,—
Whom leprosy o’ertake!— i’ the midst o’ the fight,
When vantage like a pair of twins appear’d,
Both as the same, or rather ours the elder,
The breese upon her, like a cow in June,
Hoists sails and flies.
Domitius Enobarbus
That I beheld:
Mine eyes did sicken at the sight, and could not
Endure a further view.
Scarus
She once being loof’d,
The noble ruin of her magic, Antony,
Claps on his sea-wing, and, like a doting mallard,
Leaving the fight in height, flies after her:
I never saw an action of such shame;
Experience, manhood, honour, ne’er before
Did violate so itself.
Domitius Enobarbus
Alack, alack!
Enter Canidius
Canidius
Our fortune on the sea is out of breath,
And sinks most lamentably. Had our general
Been what he knew himself, it had gone well:
O, he has given example for our flight,
Most grossly, by his own!
Domitius Enobarbus
&nbs
p; Ay, are you thereabouts?
Why, then, good night indeed.
Canidius
Toward Peloponnesus are they fled.
Scarus
’Tis easy to’t; and there I will attend
What further comes.
Canidius
To Caesar will I render
My legions and my horse: six kings already
Show me the way of yielding.
Domitius Enobarbus
I’ll yet follow
The wounded chance of Antony, though my reason
Sits in the wind against me.
Exeunt
SCENE XI. ALEXANDRIA. CLEOPATRA’S PALACE.
Enter Mark Antony with Attendants
Mark Antony
Hark! the land bids me tread no more upon’t;
It is ashamed to bear me! Friends, come hither:
I am so lated in the world, that I
Have lost my way for ever: I have a ship
Laden with gold; take that, divide it; fly,
And make your peace with Caesar.
All
Fly! not we.
Mark Antony
I have fled myself; and have instructed cowards
To run and show their shoulders. Friends, be gone;
I have myself resolved upon a course
Which has no need of you; be gone:
My treasure’s in the harbour, take it. O,
I follow’d that I blush to look upon:
My very hairs do mutiny; for the white
Reprove the brown for rashness, and they them
For fear and doting. Friends, be gone: you shall
Have letters from me to some friends that will
Sweep your way for you. Pray you, look not sad,
Nor make replies of loathness: take the hint
Which my despair proclaims; let that be left
Which leaves itself: to the sea-side straightway:
I will possess you of that ship and treasure.
Leave me, I pray, a little: pray you now:
Nay, do so; for, indeed, I have lost command,
Therefore I pray you: I’ll see you by and by.
Sits down
Enter Cleopatra led by Charmian and Iras; Eros following
Eros
Nay, gentle madam, to him, comfort him.
Iras
Do, most dear queen.
Charmian
Do! why: what else?
Cleopatra
Let me sit down. O Juno!
Mark Antony
No, no, no, no, no.
Eros
See you here, sir?
Mark Antony
O fie, fie, fie!
Charmian
Madam!
Iras
Madam, O good empress!
Eros
Sir, sir,—
Mark Antony
Yes, my lord, yes; he at Philippi kept
His sword e’en like a dancer; while I struck
The lean and wrinkled Cassius; and ’twas I
That the mad Brutus ended: he alone
Dealt on lieutenantry, and no practise had
In the brave squares of war: yet now — No matter.
Cleopatra
Ah, stand by.
Eros
The queen, my lord, the queen.
Iras
Go to him, madam, speak to him:
He is unqualitied with very shame.
Cleopatra
Well then, sustain him: O!
Eros
Most noble sir, arise; the queen approaches:
Her head’s declined, and death will seize her, but
Your comfort makes the rescue.
Mark Antony
I have offended reputation,
A most unnoble swerving.
Eros
Sir, the queen.
Mark Antony
O, whither hast thou led me, Egypt? See,
How I convey my shame out of thine eyes
By looking back what I have left behind
’stroy’d in dishonour.
Cleopatra
O my lord, my lord,
Forgive my fearful sails! I little thought
You would have follow’d.
Mark Antony
Egypt, thou knew’st too well
My heart was to thy rudder tied by the strings,
And thou shouldst tow me after: o’er my spirit
Thy full supremacy thou knew’st, and that
Thy beck might from the bidding of the gods
Command me.
Cleopatra
O, my pardon!
Mark Antony
Now I must
To the young man send humble treaties, dodge
And palter in the shifts of lowness; who
With half the bulk o’ the world play’d as I pleased,
Making and marring fortunes. You did know
How much you were my conqueror; and that
My sword, made weak by my affection, would
Obey it on all cause.
Cleopatra
Pardon, pardon!
Mark Antony
Fall not a tear, I say; one of them rates
All that is won and lost: give me a kiss;
Even this repays me. We sent our schoolmaster;
Is he come back? Love, I am full of lead.
Some wine, within there, and our viands! Fortune knows
We scorn her most when most she offers blows.
Exeunt
SCENE XII. EGYPT. OCTAVIUS CAESAR’S CAMP.
Enter Octavius Caesar, Dolabella, Thyreus, with others
Octavius Caesar
Let him appear that’s come from Antony.
Know you him?
Dolabella
Caesar, ’tis his schoolmaster:
An argument that he is pluck’d, when hither
He sends so poor a pinion off his wing,
Which had superfluous kings for messengers
Not many moons gone by.
Enter Euphronius, ambassador from Mark Antony
Octavius Caesar
Approach, and speak.
Euphronius
Such as I am, I come from Antony:
I was of late as petty to his ends
As is the morn-dew on the myrtle-leaf
To his grand sea.
Octavius Caesar
Be’t so: declare thine office.
Euphronius
Lord of his fortunes he salutes thee, and
Requires to live in Egypt: which not granted,
He lessens his requests; and to thee sues
To let him breathe between the heavens and earth,
A private man in Athens: this for him.
Next, Cleopatra does confess thy greatness;
Submits her to thy might; and of thee craves
The circle of the Ptolemies for her heirs,
Now hazarded to thy grace.
Octavius Caesar
For Antony,
I have no ears to his request. The queen
Of audience nor desire shall fail, so she
From Egypt drive her all-disgraced friend,
Or take his life there: this if she perform,
She shall not sue unheard. So to them both.
Euphronius
Fortune pursue thee!
Octavius Caesar
Bring him through the bands.
Exit Euphronius
To Thyreus
From Antony win Cleopatra: promise,
And in our name, what she requires; add more,
From thine invention, offers: women are not
In their best fortunes strong; but want will perjure
The ne’er touch’d vestal: try thy cunning, Thyreus;
Make thine own edict for thy pains, which we
Will answer as a law.
Thyreus
Caesar, I go.
Octavius Caesar
Observe how Antony becomes his flaw,
&nbs
p; And what thou think’st his very action speaks
In every power that moves.
Thyreus
Caesar, I shall.
Exeunt
SCENE XIII. ALEXANDRIA. CLEOPATRA’S PALACE.
Enter Cleopatra, Domitius Enobarbus, Charmian, and Iras
Cleopatra
What shall we do, Enobarbus?
Domitius Enobarbus
Think, and die.
Cleopatra
Is Antony or we in fault for this?
Domitius Enobarbus
Antony only, that would make his will
Lord of his reason. What though you fled
From that great face of war, whose several ranges
Frighted each other? why should he follow?
The itch of his affection should not then
Have nick’d his captainship; at such a point,
When half to half the world opposed, he being
The meered question: ’twas a shame no less
Than was his loss, to course your flying flags,
And leave his navy gazing.
Cleopatra
Prithee, peace.
Enter Mark Antony with Euphronius, the Ambassador
Mark Antony
Is that his answer?
Euphronius
Ay, my lord.
Mark Antony
The queen shall then have courtesy, so she
Will yield us up.
Euphronius
He says so.
Mark Antony
Let her know’t.
To the boy Caesar send this grizzled head,
And he will fill thy wishes to the brim
With principalities.
Cleopatra
That head, my lord?
Mark Antony
To him again: tell him he wears the rose
Of youth upon him; from which the world should note
Something particular: his coin, ships, legions,
May be a coward’s; whose ministers would prevail
Under the service of a child as soon
As i’ the command of Caesar: I dare him therefore
To lay his gay comparisons apart,
And answer me declined, sword against sword,
Ourselves alone. I’ll write it: follow me.
Exeunt Mark Antony and Euphronius
Domitius Enobarbus
[Aside] Yes, like enough, high-battled Caesar will
Unstate his happiness, and be staged to the show,
Against a sworder! I see men’s judgments are
A parcel of their fortunes; and things outward
Do draw the inward quality after them,
To suffer all alike. That he should dream,
Knowing all measures, the full Caesar will
Answer his emptiness! Caesar, thou hast subdued
His judgment too.
Enter an Attendant
Attendant
A messenger from Caesar.
Cleopatra
What, no more ceremony? See, my women!
Against the blown rose may they stop their nose
That kneel’d unto the buds. Admit him, sir.
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