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ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA.

(WRITTEN ABOUT 1607.)

INTRODUCTION.

This play, though by the person of Antony it connects itself with Julius Caesar, is a striking contrast to it in subject and style, and is separated from it in the chronological order by a wide interval. In May of the year 1608, Blount (afterwards one of the publishers of the First Folio) entered in the Stationers' register A Book called Antony and Cleopatra. This was probably Shakespeare's tragedy. The source of the play is the life of Antonius in North's Plutarch. Shakespeare had found in Plutarch his Brutus almost ready made to his hand; he deemed it necessary to transform and transfigure the Antony of history, stained as he is not only by crimes of voluptuousness but of cruelty. "Of all Shakespeare's historical plays," says Coleridge," Antony and Cleopatra is by far the most wonderful," and he calls attention to what he terms its "happy valianey of style. Shakespeare, indeed, nowhere seems a greater master of a great dramatic theme. The moral ideals, the doctrines, the stoical habits and stoical philosophy of Brutus and Portia, are as remote as possible from the sensuous splendors of the life in Egypt, from Antony's careless magnificence of strength, and the beauty, the arts, and the endless variety of Cleopatra. Yet, though the tragedy has all the glow and color of oriental magnificence, it remains true at heart to the moral laws which govern human life. The worship of pleasure by the Egyptian queen and her paramour is, after all, a failure, even from the first. There is no true confidence, no steadfast strength of love possible between Antony and his "serpent of old Nile." Each inspires the other with a mastering spirit of fascination, but Antony knows not the moment when Cleopatra may be faithless to him, and Cleopatra weaves her endless snares to retain her power over Antony. The great Roman soldier gradually loses his energy, his judgment, and even his joy in life; at last, the despair of spent forces settles down upon him, and it is only out of despair that he snatches strength enough to fight fiercely when driven to bay. He is the ruin of Cleopatra's magic. Upon Cleopatra herself the genius of Shakespeare has been lavished. She is the most wonderful of his creations of women, formed of the greatest number of elements-apparently conflicting elements, yet united by the mystery of life. While creating, with so much imaginative ardor, his Cleopatra, Shakespeare yet stands away from her, and, in a manner, criticises her. Enobarbus, who sees through every wile and guile of the Queen, is, as it were, a chorus to the play, a looker-on at the game; he stands clear of the golden haze which makes up the atmosphere around Cleopatra; and yet he is not a mere critic or commentator (Shakespeare never permitting the presence of a person in his drama who is not a true portion of it). Enobarbus himself is under the influence of the charm of Antony, and slays himself because he has wronged his master. The figures of Antony and the Queen are ennobled and elevated by the strong power of attraction, even of devotion, which they exert over those about them-Antony over Enobarbus, Cleopatra over her attendants, Charmian and Iras.

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SCENE: In several parts of the Roman empire.

ACT I.

SCENE I. 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 Have glow'd like plated Mars, now bend, now turn,

The office and devotion of their view

Upon a tawny front: his captain's heart,
Which in the scuffles of great fights hath burst
The buckles on his breast, reneges all temper,
And is become the bellows and the fan
To cool a gipsy's lust.

Flourish. Enter ANTONY, CLEOPATRA, her
Ladies, the Train, with Eunuchs fanning her.
Look, where they come 10
Take but good note, and you shall see in him.
The triple pillar of the world transform'd
Into a strumpet's fool: behold and see.

Cleo. If it be love indeed, tell me how much. Ant. There's beggary in the love that can be reckon'd.

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Att. News, my good lord, from Rome. Ant. Grates me the sum. Cleo. Nay, hear them, Antony: Fulvia perchance is angry; or, who knows 20 If the scarce-bearded Cæsar have not sent His powerful mandate to you, 'Do this, or this;

Take in that kingdom, and enfranchise that; Perform 't, or else we damn thee.'

Ant. 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? Cæsar's I would

say? both?

Call in the messengers. As I am Egypt's queen, Thou blushest, Antony; and that blood of thine

30

Is Cæsar's homager: else so thy cheek pays shame

When shrill-tongued Fuivia scolds. The messengers!

Ant. Let Rome in Tiber melt, and the wide arch

Of the ranged empire fall! Here is my space.
Kingdoms are clay: our dungy earth alike
Feeds beast as man: the nobleness of life
Is to do thus; when such a mutual pair

[Embracing.
And such a twain can do't, in which I bind,
On pain of punishment, the world to weet
We stand up peerless.

Cleo. Excellent falsehood! 40 Why did he marry Fulvia, and not love her?

I'll seem the fool I am not; Antony Will be himself.

Ant.

But stirr'd by Cleopatra.

Now, for the love of Love and her soft hours, Let's not confound the time with conference harsh :

There's not a minute of our lives should stretch

Without some pleasure now. What sport tonight?

Cleo. Hear the ambassadors. Ant. Fie, wrangling queen! Whom every thing becomes, to chide, to laugh, To weep; whose every passion fully strives 50 To make itself, in thee, fair and admired! No messenger, but thine; and all alone To-night we'll wander through the streets and note

The qualities of people. Come, my queen; Last night you did desire it: speak not to us. [Exeunt Ant. and Cleo. with their train. Dem. Is Cæsar with Antonius prized so slight?

Dem.

Phi. Sir, sometimes, when he is not Antony, He comes too short of that great property Which still should go with Antony. I am full sorry That he approves the common liar, who 60 Thus speaks of him at Rome: but I will hope Of better deeds to-morrow. Rest you happy! [Exeunt Another room.

SCENE II. The same.

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Char. Well, if you were but an inch of fortune better than I, where would you choose it? Iras. Not in my husband's nose.

Char. Our worser thoughts heavens mend! Alexas,-come, his fortune, his fortune! O, let him marry a woman that cannot go, sweet Isis, I beseech thee! and let her die too, and give him a worse! and let worst follow worse, till the worst of all follow him laughing to his grave, fifty-fold a cuckold! 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! for, as it is a heartbreaking to see a handsome man loose-wived, so it is a deadly sorrow to behold a foul knave uncuckolded: therefore, dear Isis, keep decorum, and fortune him accordingly!

Char. Amen.

79

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Char. No, madam.

Was he not here?

Cleo. He was disposed to mirth; but on the sudden

A Roman thought hath struck him. Enobarbus! Eno. Madam ?

Cleo. Seek him, and bring him hither. Where's Alexas?

Alex. Here, at your service. My lord ap

proaches.

us.

90 Cleo. We will not look upon him go with [Exeunt. Enter ANTONY with a Messenger 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

Made friends of them, joining their force 'gainst Cæsar;

Whose better issue in the war, from Italy,
Upon the first encounter, drave them.

Ant.

Well, what worst ? Mess. The nature of bad news infects the teller.

On :

Ant. When it concerns the fool or coward. 100 Things that are past are done with me. 'Tis thus:

Who tells me true, though in his tale iie death,

I hear him as he flatter'd.
Mess.

Labienus

This is stiff news-hath, with his Parthian force,

Extended Ásia from Euphrates;

His conquering banner shook from Syria
To Lydia and to Ionia ;
Whilst-

Ant. Antony, thou wouldst say,-
Mess.

O, my lord! Ant. Speak to me home, mince not the general tongue :

Name Cleopatra as she is call'd in Rome, 110 Rail thou in Fulvia's phrase; and taunt my faults

With such full license as both truth and malice

Have power to utter. O, then we bring forth weeds,

When our quick minds lie still; and our ills told us

Is as our earing. Fare thee well awhile.
Mess. At your noble pleasure.
Ant. From Sicyon, ho, the news! Speak

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Re-enter ENOBARBUS.

Eno. What's your pleasure, sir?
Ant. I must with haste from hence.

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.

140

Eno. Under a 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: I do think there is mettle in death, which commits some loving act upon her, she hat such a celerity in dying.

Ant. She is cunning past man's thought. 150 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 almanacs 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 blest withal would have áiscredited 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 members to make new. If then. were no more women but Fulvia, then hađ you indeed a cut, and the case to be lamented: this grief is crowned with consolation; your old smock brings forth a new petticoat and indeed the tears live in an onion that should water this sorrow. [state

Ant. The business she hath broached in the Cannot endure my absence.

179 Eno. And the business you have broached here cannot be without you; especially that of Cleopatra's, which wholly depends on your abode.

Ant. No more light answers. Let our offi

cers

190

Have notice what we purpose. I shall break
The cause of our expedience to the queen,
And get her leave 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

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SCENE III. The same. Another room. Enter CLEOPATRA, CHARMIAN, IRAS, and ALEXAS.

Cleo. Where is he?
Char.
I did not see him since.
Cleo. See where he is, who's with him,
what he does :

I did not send you: if you find him sad,
Say I am dancing; if in mirth. report
That I am sudden sick. quick, and return.
[Exit Alexas.
Char. Madam, methinks, if you did love
him dearly,

You do not hold the method to enforce
The like from him.

Cleo.
What should I do, I do not?
Char. In each thing give him way, cross
him in nothing.

Cleo. Thou teachest like a fool; the way

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