GALLUS, MENAS, } Friends of Pompey. TAURUS, Lieutenant-General to Cæsar. CANIDIUS, Lieutenant-General to Antony. SILIUS, an Officer in Ventidius's Army. EUPHRONIUS, an Ambassador from Antony to Cæsar. A Soothsayer. A Clown. CLEOPATRA, Queen of Egypt. OCTAVIA, Sister to Cæsar, and Wife to Antony. CHARMIAN, IRAS, } Attendants on Cleopatra. Officers, Soldiers, Messengers, and other Attendants. SCENE, dispersed; in several Parts of the Roman Empire. Alexandria. A Room in Cleopatra's Palace. Enter DEMETRIUS and PHILO. Phi. 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 I lave glow'd like plated Mars, now bend, now turn, Enter ANTONY and CLEOPATRA, with Cleo. If it be love indeed, tell me how much. Ant. There's beggary in the love that can be reckon'd. Cleo. I'll set a bourn how far to be belov'd. Ant. Then must thou needs find out new heaven, new earth. Enter an Attendant. Att. News, ny good lord, from Rome. Cleo. Nay, hear them, Antony. Ant. 4 How, my love! Cleo Perchance,. - nay, and most like, You must not stay here longer, your dismission Is come from Cæsar; therefore hear it, Antony. Where's Fulvia's process ?5 Caesar's, I would say Both ? Char. Nay, come, tell Iras hers. as, Char. Pr'ythee, tell her but a worky-day fortune. Iras. But how? but how? give me particulars. Char. Our worser thoughts heavens mend! Alexcome, his fortune, his fortune. O, let him marry, sweet Isis 9, I beseech thee! And let her die, and give him a worse! and let worse follow worse, till the worst of all follow him laughing to his grave. 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! Dear Isis, keep decorum, and fortune Char. Amen. To-night, we'll wander through the streets, and note him accordingly! [Exeunt ANT. and CLEOP. with their Train. I am full sorry, SCENE II. Rest you happy! · Another Room. Char. Pray, then, foresee me one. Sooth. You shall be yet far fairer than you are. Iras. No, you shall paint when you are old. Alex. Vex not his prescience; be attentive. Sooth. You shall be more beloving, than beloved. Char. Good now, some excellent fortune! Let me be married to three kings in a forenoon, and widow them all find me to marry me with Octavius Cæsar, and companion me with my mistress. Sooth. You shall outlive the lady whom you serve. Than that which is to approach. Eno. Hush! here comes Antony. Not he, the queen. Enter CLEOPatra. Cleo. Saw you my lord? Eno. No, lady. Cleo. Was he not here Char. No, madam. Cleo. He was disposed to mirth; but on a sudden A Roman thought hath struck him. -Enobarbus. Eno. Madam. Cleo. Seek him and bring him hither. Where's Alexas? - My lord Aler. Here, madam, at your service. [Exeunt CLEOPATRA, ENOBARBUS, ALEXAS, IRAS, CHARMIAN, Soothsayer, and Attendants. Mess. Fulvia thy wife first came into the field. Ant. Against my brother Lucius ? Mess. Ay: But soon that war had end, and the time's state Cæsar ; Whose better issue in the war, from Italy, Ant. Well, 2 Mess. In Sicyon : Her length of sickness, with what else more serious Importeth thee to know, this bears. [Gives a Letter. Ant. Forbear me. — [Exit Messenger. There's a great spirit gone! Thus did I desire'it: What our contempts do 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 shov'd 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 ! Enter ENOBARBUS. Eno. What's your pleasure, sir? Eno. 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. Ant. I must be gone. Eno. Under 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. Ant. She is cunning past man's thought. Eno. 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 almanacks can report: this cannot be cunning in her; if it be, she makes a shower of rain as well as Jove. Ant. 'Would I had never seen her! Eno. O, sir, you had then left unseen a wonderful piece of work; which not to have been blessed withal, would have discredited your travel. Ant. Fulvia is dead. Eno. Sir? Ant. Fulvia is dead. Eno. Fulvia? Ant. Dead. Eno. 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 others 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; and, indeed, the tears live in an onion, that should water this sorrow. Ant. The business she hath broached in the state, Cannot endure my absence. Eno. And the business you have broached here, cannot be without you; especially that of Cleopatra's, which wholly depends on your abode. 4 Ant. No more light answers. Let our officers Have notice what we propose. I shall break The cause of our expedience to the queen, And get her love 5 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 Cæsar, 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 Pompey the great, and all his dignities, Upon his son; who, high in name and power, Higher than both in blood and life, stands up For the main soldier: whose quality, going on, The sides o'the world may danger: Much is breeding, Which, like the courser's hair, hath yet but life, And not a serpent's poison. Say, our pleasure, To such whose place is under us, requires Our quick remove from hence. Eno. I shall do't. SCENE III. [Exeunt. 4 Expedition. O, never, was there queen, 5 Leave. 6 Look as if I did not send you. |