Speakers’ Names are often inconsistent in Folio. We have regularized speech headings, but retained an element of deliberate inconsistency in entry directions, in order to give the flavor of Folio.
Verse is indicated by lines that do not run to the right margin and by capitalization of each line. The Folio printers sometimes set verse as prose, and vice versa (either out of misunderstanding or for reasons of space). We have silently corrected in such cases, although in some instances there is ambiguity, in which case we have leaned toward the preservation of Folio layout. Folio sometimes uses contraction (“turnd” rather than “turned”) to indicate whether or not the final “-ed” of a past participle is sounded, an area where there is variation for the sake of the five-beat iambic pentameter rhythm. We use the convention of a grave accent to indicate sounding (thus “turnèd” would be two syllables), but would urge actors not to overstress. In cases where one speaker ends with a verse half-line and the next begins with the other half of the pentameter, editors since the late eighteenth century have indented the second line. We have abandoned this convention, since the Folio does not use it, nor did actors’ cues in the Shakespearean theater. An exception is made when the second speaker actively interrupts or completes the first speaker’s sentence.
Spelling is modernized, but older forms are very occasionally maintained where necessary for rhythm or aural effect.
Punctuation in Shakespeare’s time was as much rhetorical as grammatical. “Colon” was originally a term for a unit of thought in an argument. The semicolon was a new unit of punctuation (some of the Quartos lack them altogether). We have modernized punctuation throughout, but have given more weight to Folio punctuation than many editors, since, though not Shakespearean, it reflects the usage of his period. In particular, we have used the colon far more than many editors: it is exceptionally useful as a way of indicating how many Shakespearean speeches unfold clause by clause in a developing argument that gives the illusion of enacting the process of thinking in the moment. We have also kept in mind the origin of punctuation in classical times as a way of assisting the actor and orator: the comma suggests the briefest of pauses for breath, the colon a middling one, and a full stop or period a longer pause. Semi-colons, by contrast, belong to an era of punctuation that was only just coming in during Shakespeare’s time and that is coming to an end now: we have accordingly only used them where they occur in our copy texts (and not always then). Dashes are sometimes used for parenthetical interjections where the Folio has brackets. They are also used for interruptions and changes in train of thought. Where a change of addressee occurs within a speech, we have used a dash preceded by a full stop (or occasionally another form of punctuation). Often the identity of the respective addressees is obvious from the context. When it is not, this has been indicated in a marginal stage direction.
Entrances and Exits are fairly thorough in Folio, which has accordingly been followed as faithfully as possible. Where characters are omitted or corrections are necessary, this is indicated by square brackets (e.g. “[and Attendants]”). Exit is sometimes silently normalized to Exeunt and Manet anglicized to “remains.” We trust Folio positioning of entrances and exits to a greater degree than most editors.
Editorial Stage Directions such as stage business, asides, or indications of addressee and of characters’ position on the gallery stage are only used sparingly in Folio. Other editions mingle directions of this kind with original Folio and Quarto directions, sometimes marking them by means of square brackets. We have sought to distinguish what could be described as directorial interventions of this kind from Folio-style directions (either original or supplied) by placing them in the right margin in a different typeface. There is a degree of subjectivity about which directions are of which kind, but the procedure is intended as a reminder to the reader and the actor that Shakespearean stage directions are often dependent upon editorial inference alone and are not set in stone. We also depart from editorial tradition in sometimes admitting uncertainty and thus printing permissive stage directions, such as an Aside?. (often a line may be equally effective as an aside or a direct address—it is for each production or reading to make its own decision) or a may exit or a piece of business placed between arrows to indicate that it may occur at various different moments within a scene.
Line Numbers in the left margin are editorial, for reference and to key the explanatory and textual notes.
Explanatory Notes at the foot of each page explain allusions and gloss obsolete and difficult words, confusing phraseology, occasional major textual cruces, and so on. Particular attention is given to non-standard usage, bawdy innuendo, and technical terms (e.g. legal and military language). Where more than one sense is given, commas indicate shades of related meaning, slashes alternative or double meanings.
Textual Notes at the end of the play indicate major departures from the Folio. They take the following form: the reading of our text is given in bold and its source given after an equals sign, with “F2” indicating a reading that derives from the Second Folio of 1632, “F3” one that derives from the Third Folio of 1663–64, “F4” one that derives from the Fourth Folio of 1685, and “Ed” one that derives from the subsequent editorial tradition. The rejected Folio (“F”) reading is then given. Thus, for example: “3.6.14 he there = Ed. F = hither” means that at Act 3/Scene 6/line 14, the Folio compositor erroneously printed “hither” and we have followed editorial tradition in emending to “he there.”
KEY FACTS
MAJOR PARTS: (with percentage of lines/number of speeches/scenes on stage) Mark Antony (24%/202/22), Cleopatra (19%/204/16), Octavius Caesar (12%/98/14), Enobarbus (10%/113/12), Pompey (4%/41/3), Charmian (3%/63/10), Lepidus (2%/30/6), Menas (2%/35/3), Agrippa (2%/28/7), Dolabella (1%/23/3), Eros (1%/27/6), Scarrus (1%/12/4).
LINGUISTIC MEDIUM: 95% verse, 5% prose.
DATE: 1606–07. Perhaps performed at court Christmas 1606 or Christmas 1607. Registered for publication in May 1608 (though not actually published prior to the First Folio); it seems to have influenced a play by Barnabe Barnes that was performed and published in 1607.
SOURCES: Closely based on the “Life of Marcus Antonius” in Plutarch’s Lives of the Most Noble Grecians and Romanes, translated by Thomas North (1579); there are some exceptionally close verbal parallels. The main addition is the character of Enobarbus, who is only mentioned very briefly in Plutarch. Shakespeare also seems to have known Samuel Daniel’s Cleopatra (1594, a play written to be read rather than performed); Daniel, in turn, seems to have been influenced by Shakespeare when revising his play in 1607.
TEXT: The First Folio of 1623 is the only early text. Apparently set from a scribal transcript of Shakespeare’s manuscript, it is notably inconsistent in the spelling of proper names and has a plethora of minor errors but few major ones.
THE TRAGEDY
OF ANTONY
AND CLEOPATRA
LIST OF PARTS
Act 1 Scene 1
running scene 1
Location: Alexandria, the Egyptian capital
* * *
Enter Demetrius and Philo
PHILO Nay, but this dotage1 of our general’s
O’erflows the measure2: those his goodly eyes,
That o’er the files and musters3 of the war
Have glowed like plated4 Mars, now bend, now turn
The office5 and devotion of their view
Upon a tawny6 front. His captain’s heart,
Which in the scuffles of great fights hath burst
The buckles on his breast, reneges8 all temper
And is become the bellows and the fan
To cool a gipsy’s10 lust.
Flourish. Enter Antony, Cleopatra, her Ladies [Charmian and Iras], 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 world12 transformed
Into a strumpet13’s fool. Behold and see.
/> CLEOPATRA If it be love indeed, tell14 me how much.
ANTONY There’s beggary in the love that can be reckoned15.
CLEOPATRA I’ll set a bourn16 how far to be beloved.
ANTONY Then must thou needs find out new heaven, new
earth17.
Enter a Messenger
MESSENGER News, my good lord, from Rome.
ANTONY Grates me!19 The sum.
CLEOPATRA Nay, hear them20, Antony.
Fulvia21 perchance is angry, or who knows
If the scarce-bearded Caesar22 have not sent
His powerful mandate23 to you: ‘Do this, or this;
Take in24 that kingdom, and enfranchise that:
Perform’t, or else we damn thee.’
ANTONY How26, my love?
CLEOPATRA Perchance? Nay, and most like27.
You must not stay here longer: your dismission28
Is come from Caesar, therefore hear it, Antony.
Where’s Fulvia’s process30? — 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 homager33: else so thy cheek pays shame
When shrill-tongued Fulvia scolds34. The messengers!
They embrace
ANTONY Let Rome in Tiber35 melt, and the wide arch
Of the ranged36 empire fall: here is my space.
Kingdoms are clay: our dungy37 earth alike
Feeds beast as man. The nobleness of life
Is to do thus: when such a mutual39 pair
And such a twain40 can do’t, in which I bind,
On pain of punishment41, the world to weet
We stand up peerless42.
CLEOPATRA Excellent falsehood!
Why did he marry Fulvia and not44 love her?
I’ll seem45 the fool I am not. Antony
Will be himself.
ANTONY But stirred47 by Cleopatra.
Now, for the love of Love and her soft hours,
Let’s not confound49 the time with conference harsh;
There’s not a minute of our lives should stretch50
Without some pleasure now. What sport51 tonight?
CLEOPATRA Hear the ambassadors.
ANTONY Fie53, wrangling queen,
Whom everything becomes54, to chide, to laugh,
To weep, whose every passion fully strives
To make itself in thee fair and admired.
No57 messenger but thine, and all alone
Tonight we’ll wander through the streets and note
The qualities59 of people. Come, my queen,
Last night you did desire it.—Speak not to us.
To the Messenger
Exeunt [Antony and Cleopatra] with the Train
DEMETRIUS Is Caesar with61 Antonius prized so slight?
PHILO Sir, sometimes when he is not Antony62,
He comes too short of that great property63
Which still64 should go with Antony.
DEMETRIUS I am full65 sorry
That he approves66 the common liar who
Thus speaks of him at Rome; but I will hope
Of better deeds tomorrow. Rest you happy68.
Exeunt
[Act 1 Scene 2]
running scene 1 continues
* * *
Enter Enobarbus, Lamprius, a Soothsayer, Rannius, Lucillius, Charmian, Iras, Mardian the Eunuch and Alexas
CHARMIAN Lord Alexas, sweet Alexas, most anything Alexas,
almost most absolute2 Alexas, where’s the soothsayer that
you praised so to th’queen? O, that I knew this husband
which you say must charge4 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.
To Charmian
ENOBARBUS Bring in the banquet11 quickly: wine
To Servants within
enough Cleopatra’s health to drink.
Servants bring fruit and wine
CHARMIAN Good sir, give me good fortune.
Holds out her hand
SOOTHSAYER I make not, but foresee.
CHARMIAN Pray then foresee me one.
SOOTHSAYER You shall be yet far fairer16 than you are.
CHARMIAN He means in flesh.
IRAS No, you shall paint18 when you are old.
CHARMIAN Wrinkles forbid!
ALEXAS Vex not his prescience20: be attentive.
CHARMIAN Hush!
SOOTHSAYER You shall be more beloving22 than beloved.
CHARMIAN I had rather heat my liver23 with drinking.
ALEXAS Nay, hear him.
CHARMIAN Good now25, some excellent fortune: let me be
married to three kings in a forenoon26 and widow them all: let
me have a child at fifty to whom Herod of Jewry27 may do
homage28. 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 figs31.
SOOTHSAYER You have seen and proved32 a fairer former fortune
Than that which is to approach.
CHARMIAN Then belike34 my children shall have no names:
prithee, how many boys and wenches35 must I have?
SOOTHSAYER If every of your wishes had a womb,
And fertile every wish, a million.
CHARMIAN Out38, fool! I forgive thee for a witch.
ALEXAS You think none but your sheets are privy to39 your
wishes.
CHARMIAN Nay, come, tell Iras hers.
ALEXAS We’ll know all our fortunes.
ENOBARBUS Mine, and most of our fortunes tonight, shall be
drunk to bed44.
IRAS There’s a palm presages45 chastity, if
Holds out her hand
nothing else.
CHARMIAN E’en as the o’erflowing Nilus presageth famine47.
IRAS Go, you wild48 bedfellow, you cannot soothsay.
CHARMIAN Nay, if an oily palm49 be not a fruitful prognostication,
I cannot scratch mine ear50. Prithee tell her but a workaday
fortune.
SOOTHSAYER Your fortunes are alike.
IRAS But how? But how? Give me particulars.
SOOTHSAYER I have said54.
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 nose58.
CHARMIAN Our worser thoughts heavens mend. Alexas —
come, his fortune, his fortune! O, let him marry a woman
that cannot go61, sweet Isis, I beseech thee, and let her die too,
and give him a worse, and let worse follow worse, till the
worst of all follow him laughing to his grave, fifty-fold63 a
cuckold64! Good Isis, hear me this prayer, though thou deny
me a matter of more weight65: 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-wived67,
so it is a deadly sorrow to behold a foul68 knave
uncuckolded69: 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’d do’t73!
Enter Cleopatra
ENOBARBUS Hush, here comes Antony.
CHARMIAN Not he, the queen.
CLEOPATRA Saw you my lord?
ENOBARBUS No, lady.
&
nbsp; CLEOPATRA Was he not here?
CHARMIAN No, madam.
CLEOPATRA He was disposed to mirth, but on the sudden
A Roman thought81 hath struck him. Enobarbus?
ENOBARBUS Madam?
CLEOPATRA Seek him and bring him hither.
[Exit Enobarbus]
Where’s Alexas?
ALEXAS Here, at your service. My lord approaches.
Enter Antony with a Messenger
CLEOPATRA We85 will not look upon him: go with us.
Exeunt. [Antony and Messenger remain]
MESSENGER Fulvia thy wife first came into the field86.
ANTONY Against my brother Lucius?
MESSENGER Ay,
But soon that war had end, and the time’s state89
Made friends of them, jointing their force90 gainst Caesar,
Whose better issue91 in the war from Italy
Upon the first encounter92, drave them.
ANTONY Well, what worst?
MESSENGER The nature of bad news infects the teller.
ANTONY When it concerns the fool or coward. On!
Things that are past are done with me. ’Tis thus:
Antony and Cleopatra Page 3