Exit Attendant
Domitius Enobarbus
[Aside] Mine honesty and I begin to square.
The loyalty well held to fools does make
Our faith mere folly: yet he that can endure
To follow with allegiance a fall’n lord
Does conquer him that did his master conquer
And earns a place i’ the story.
Enter Thyreus
Cleopatra
Caesar’s will?
Thyreus
Hear it apart.
Cleopatra
None but friends: say boldly.
Thyreus
So, haply, are they friends to Antony.
Domitius Enobarbus
He needs as many, sir, as Caesar has;
Or needs not us. If Caesar please, our master
Will leap to be his friend: for us, you know,
Whose he is we are, and that is, Caesar’s.
Thyreus
So.
Thus then, thou most renown’d: Caesar entreats,
Not to consider in what case thou stand’st,
Further than he is Caesar.
Cleopatra
Go on: right royal.
Thyreus
He knows that you embrace not Antony
As you did love, but as you fear’d him.
Cleopatra
O!
Thyreus
The scars upon your honour, therefore, he
Does pity, as constrained blemishes,
Not as deserved.
Cleopatra
He is a god, and knows
What is most right: mine honour was not yielded,
But conquer’d merely.
Domitius Enobarbus
[Aside] To be sure of that,
I will ask Antony. Sir, sir, thou art so leaky,
That we must leave thee to thy sinking, for
Thy dearest quit thee.
Exit
Thyreus
Shall I say to Caesar
What you require of him? for he partly begs
To be desired to give. It much would please him,
That of his fortunes you should make a staff
To lean upon: but it would warm his spirits,
To hear from me you had left Antony,
And put yourself under his shrowd,
The universal landlord.
Cleopatra
What’s your name?
Thyreus
My name is Thyreus.
Cleopatra
Most kind messenger,
Say to great Caesar this: in deputation
I kiss his conquering hand: tell him, I am prompt
To lay my crown at ’s feet, and there to kneel:
Tell him from his all-obeying breath I hear
The doom of Egypt.
Thyreus
’Tis your noblest course.
Wisdom and fortune combating together,
If that the former dare but what it can,
No chance may shake it. Give me grace to lay
My duty on your hand.
Cleopatra
Your Caesar’s father oft,
When he hath mused of taking kingdoms in,
Bestow’d his lips on that unworthy place,
As it rain’d kisses.
Re-enter Mark Antony and Domitius Enobarbus
Mark Antony
Favours, by Jove that thunders!
What art thou, fellow?
Thyreus
One that but performs
The bidding of the fullest man, and worthiest
To have command obey’d.
Domitius Enobarbus
[Aside] You will be whipp’d.
Mark Antony
Approach, there! Ah, you kite! Now, gods and devils!
Authority melts from me: of late, when I cried ’Ho!’
Like boys unto a muss, kings would start forth,
And cry ‘Your will?’ Have you no ears? I am Antony yet.
Enter Attendants
Take hence this Jack, and whip him.
Domitius Enobarbus
[Aside] ’Tis better playing with a lion’s whelp
Than with an old one dying.
Mark Antony
Moon and stars!
Whip him. Were’t twenty of the greatest tributaries
That do acknowledge Caesar, should I find them
So saucy with the hand of she here,— what’s her name,
Since she was Cleopatra? Whip him, fellows,
Till, like a boy, you see him cringe his face,
And whine aloud for mercy: take him hence.
Thyreus
Mark Antony!
Mark Antony
Tug him away: being whipp’d,
Bring him again: this Jack of Caesar’s shall
Bear us an errand to him.
Exeunt Attendants with Thyreus
You were half blasted ere I knew you: ha!
Have I my pillow left unpress’d in Rome,
Forborne the getting of a lawful race,
And by a gem of women, to be abused
By one that looks on feeders?
Cleopatra
Good my lord,—
Mark Antony
You have been a boggler ever:
But when we in our viciousness grow hard —
O misery on’t!— the wise gods seel our eyes;
In our own filth drop our clear judgments; make us
Adore our errors; laugh at’s, while we strut
To our confusion.
Cleopatra
O, is’t come to this?
Mark Antony
I found you as a morsel cold upon
Dead Caesar’s trencher; nay, you were a fragment
Of Cneius Pompey’s; besides what hotter hours,
Unregister’d in vulgar fame, you have
Luxuriously pick’d out: for, I am sure,
Though you can guess what temperance should be,
You know not what it is.
Cleopatra
Wherefore is this?
Mark Antony
To let a fellow that will take rewards
And say ‘God quit you!’ be familiar with
My playfellow, your hand; this kingly seal
And plighter of high hearts! O, that I were
Upon the hill of Basan, to outroar
The horned herd! for I have savage cause;
And to proclaim it civilly, were like
A halter’d neck which does the hangman thank
For being yare about him.
Re-enter Attendants with Thyreus
Is he whipp’d?
First Attendant
Soundly, my lord.
Mark Antony
Cried he? and begg’d a’ pardon?
First Attendant
He did ask favour.
Mark Antony
If that thy father live, let him repent
Thou wast not made his daughter; and be thou sorry
To follow Caesar in his triumph, since
Thou hast been whipp’d for following him: henceforth
The white hand of a lady fever thee,
Shake thou to look on ’t. Get thee back to Caesar,
Tell him thy entertainment: look, thou say
He makes me angry with him; for he seems
Proud and disdainful, harping on what I am,
Not what he knew I was: he makes me angry;
And at this time most easy ’tis to do’t,
When my good stars, that were my former guides,
Have empty left their orbs, and shot their fires
Into the abysm of hell. If he mislike
My speech and what is done, tell him he has
Hipparchus, my enfranched bondman, whom
He may at pleasure whip, or hang, or torture,
As he shall like, to quit me: urge it thou:
Hence with thy stripes, begone!
Exit Thyreus
Cleopatra
>
Have you done yet?
Mark Antony
Alack, our terrene moon
Is now eclipsed; and it portends alone
The fall of Antony!
Cleopatra
I must stay his time.
Mark Antony
To flatter Caesar, would you mingle eyes
With one that ties his points?
Cleopatra
Not know me yet?
Mark Antony
Cold-hearted toward me?
Cleopatra
Ah, dear, if I be so,
From my cold heart let heaven engender hail,
And poison it in the source; and the first stone
Drop in my neck: as it determines, so
Dissolve my life! The next Caesarion smite!
Till by degrees the memory of my womb,
Together with my brave Egyptians all,
By the discandying of this pelleted storm,
Lie graveless, till the flies and gnats of Nile
Have buried them for prey!
Mark Antony
I am satisfied.
Caesar sits down in Alexandria; where
I will oppose his fate. Our force by land
Hath nobly held; our sever’d navy too
Have knit again, and fleet, threatening most sea-like.
Where hast thou been, my heart? Dost thou hear, lady?
If from the field I shall return once more
To kiss these lips, I will appear in blood;
I and my sword will earn our chronicle:
There’s hope in’t yet.
Cleopatra
That’s my brave lord!
Mark Antony
I will be treble-sinew’d, hearted, breathed,
And fight maliciously: for when mine hours
Were nice and lucky, men did ransom lives
Of me for jests; but now I’ll set my teeth,
And send to darkness all that stop me. Come,
Let’s have one other gaudy night: call to me
All my sad captains; fill our bowls once more;
Let’s mock the midnight bell.
Cleopatra
It is my birth-day:
I had thought to have held it poor: but, since my lord
Is Antony again, I will be Cleopatra.
Mark Antony
We will yet do well.
Cleopatra
Call all his noble captains to my lord.
Mark Antony
Do so, we’ll speak to them; and to-night I’ll force
The wine peep through their scars. Come on, my queen;
There’s sap in’t yet. The next time I do fight,
I’ll make death love me; for I will contend
Even with his pestilent scythe.
Exeunt all but Domitius Enobarbus
Domitius Enobarbus
Now he’ll outstare the lightning. To be furious,
Is to be frighted out of fear; and in that mood
The dove will peck the estridge; and I see still,
A diminution in our captain’s brain
Restores his heart: when valour preys on reason,
It eats the sword it fights with. I will seek
Some way to leave him.
Exit
ACT IV
SCENE I. BEFORE ALEXANDRIA. OCTAVIUS CAESAR’S CAMP.
Enter Octavius Caesar, Agrippa, and Mecaenas, with his Army; Octavius Caesar reading a letter
Octavius Caesar
He calls me boy; and chides, as he had power
To beat me out of Egypt; my messenger
He hath whipp’d with rods; dares me to personal combat,
Caesar to Antony: let the old ruffian know
I have many other ways to die; meantime
Laugh at his challenge.
Mecaenas
Caesar must think,
When one so great begins to rage, he’s hunted
Even to falling. Give him no breath, but now
Make boot of his distraction: never anger
Made good guard for itself.
Octavius Caesar
Let our best heads
Know, that to-morrow the last of many battles
We mean to fight: within our files there are,
Of those that served Mark Antony but late,
Enough to fetch him in. See it done:
And feast the army; we have store to do’t,
And they have earn’d the waste. Poor Antony!
Exeunt
SCENE II. ALEXANDRIA. CLEOPATRA’S PALACE.
Enter Mark Antony, Cleopatra, Domitius Enobarbus, Charmian, Iras, Alexas, with others
Mark Antony
He will not fight with me, Domitius.
Domitius Enobarbus
No.
Mark Antony
Why should he not?
Domitius Enobarbus
He thinks, being twenty times of better fortune,
He is twenty men to one.
Mark Antony
To-morrow, soldier,
By sea and land I’ll fight: or I will live,
Or bathe my dying honour in the blood
Shall make it live again. Woo’t thou fight well?
Domitius Enobarbus
I’ll strike, and cry ‘Take all.’
Mark Antony
Well said; come on.
Call forth my household servants: let’s to-night
Be bounteous at our meal.
Enter three or four Servitors
Give me thy hand,
Thou hast been rightly honest;— so hast thou;—
Thou,— and thou,— and thou:— you have served me well,
And kings have been your fellows.
Cleopatra
[Aside to Domitius Enobarbus] What means this?
Domitius Enobarbus
[Aside to Cleopatra] ’Tis one of those odd tricks which sorrow shoots Out of the mind.
Mark Antony
And thou art honest too.
I wish I could be made so many men,
And all of you clapp’d up together in
An Antony, that I might do you service
So good as you have done.
All
The gods forbid!
Mark Antony
Well, my good fellows, wait on me to-night:
Scant not my cups; and make as much of me
As when mine empire was your fellow too,
And suffer’d my command.
Cleopatra
[Aside to Domitius Enobarbus] What does he mean?
Domitius Enobarbus
[Aside to Cleopatra] To make his followers weep.
Mark Antony
Tend me to-night;
May be it is the period of your duty:
Haply you shall not see me more; or if,
A mangled shadow: perchance to-morrow
You’ll serve another master. I look on you
As one that takes his leave. Mine honest friends,
I turn you not away; but, like a master
Married to your good service, stay till death:
Tend me to-night two hours, I ask no more,
And the gods yield you for’t!
Domitius Enobarbus
What mean you, sir,
To give them this discomfort? Look, they weep;
And I, an ass, am onion-eyed: for shame,
Transform us not to women.
Mark Antony
Ho, ho, ho!
Now the witch take me, if I meant it thus!
Grace grow where those drops fall!
My hearty friends,
You take me in too dolorous a sense;
For I spake to you for your comfort; did desire you
To burn this night with torches: know, my hearts,
I hope well of to-morrow; and will lead you
Where rather I’ll expect victorious life
Than death and honour. Let’s to supper, come,
And drown consideration.
> Exeunt
SCENE III. THE SAME. BEFORE THE PALACE.
Enter two Soldiers to their guard
First Soldier
Brother, good night: to-morrow is the day.
Second Soldier
It will determine one way: fare you well.
Heard you of nothing strange about the streets?
First Soldier
Nothing. What news?
Second Soldier
Belike ’tis but a rumour. Good night to you.
First Soldier
Well, sir, good night.
Enter two other Soldiers
Second Soldier
Soldiers, have careful watch.
Third Soldier
And you. Good night, good night.
They place themselves in every corner of the stage
Fourth Soldier
Here we: and if to-morrow
Our navy thrive, I have an absolute hope
Our landmen will stand up.
Third Soldier
’Tis a brave army,
And full of purpose.
Music of the hautboys as under the stage
Fourth Soldier
Peace! what noise?
First Soldier
List, list!
Second Soldier
Hark!
First Soldier
Music i’ the air.
Third Soldier
Under the earth.
Fourth Soldier
It signs well, does it not?
Third Soldier
No.
First Soldier
Peace, I say!
What should this mean?
Second Soldier
’Tis the god Hercules, whom Antony loved,
Now leaves him.
First Soldier
Walk; let’s see if other watchmen
Do hear what we do?
They advance to another post
Second Soldier
How now, masters!
All
[Speaking together] How now!
How now! do you hear this?
First Soldier
Ay; is’t not strange?
Third Soldier
Do you hear, masters? do you hear?
First Soldier
Follow the noise so far as we have quarter;
Let’s see how it will give off.
All
Content. ’Tis strange.
Exeunt
SCENE IV. THE SAME. A ROOM IN THE PALACE.
Enter Mark Antony and Cleopatra, Charmian, and others attending
Mark Antony
Eros! mine armour, Eros!
Cleopatra
Sleep a little.
Mark Antony
No, my chuck. Eros, come; mine armour, Eros!
Enter Eros with armour
Come good fellow, put mine iron on:
If fortune be not ours to-day, it is
Because we brave her: come.
Cleopatra
Nay, I’ll help too.
What’s this for?
Mark Antony
Ah, let be, let be! thou art
The armourer of my heart: false, false; this, this.
Complete Plays, The Page 132