THE TRAGEDY OF ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA ACT I SCENE I. Alexandria. A Room in CLEOPATRA'S Palace. Enter DEMETRIUS and PHILO. PHI. Nay, but this dotage of our General's Have glow'd like plated Mars, now bend, now turn, 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 : Take but good note, and you shall see in him ANT. There's beggary in the love that can be reckon❜d. CLEO. I'll set a bourn how far to be belov'd. 10 ANT. Then must thou needs find out new Heaven, new Enter an Attendant. ATT. News, my good Lord, from Rome. ANT. Grates me. The sum. ACT I CLEO. Nay, hear them, Antony: Sc. I Fulvia perchance is angry; or, who knows How, my Love! ANT. 20 You must not stay here longer; your dismission both? Call in the messengers. As I am Egypt's Queen, Is to do thus; [embracing.] when such a mutual pair On pain of punishment, the world to weet We stand up peerless. CLEO. Excellent falsehood! Why did he marry Fulvia, and not love her? 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 new. CLEO. Hear the ambassadors. ANT. What sport to-night? Fie, wrangling Queen! Whom every thing becomes, to chide, to laugh, To weep; whose every passion fully strives To make itself, in thee, fair and admir'd! No messenger but thine; and all alone To-night we'll wander through the streets, and note 30 40 50 The qualities of people. Come, my Queen; DEM. Is Cæsar with Antonius priz'd so slight? I am full sorry That he approves the common liar, who Thus speaks of him at Rome; but I will hope 60 Of better deeds to-morrow. Rest you happy! [exeunt. ACT I SCENE II. The Same. Another Room. Enter CHARMIAn, Iras, Alexas, and a Soothsayer. CHAR. Lord Alexas, sweet Alexas, most any-thing Alexas, almost most absolute Alexas, where's the Soothsayer that you prais'd so to the Queen? O, that I knew this husband, which, you say, must charge his horns with garlands! ALEX. Soothsayer SOOTH. Your will? CHAR. Is this the man? Is 't you, Sir, that know things? A little I can read. ALEX. Shew him your hand. ΤΟ Enter ENOBArbus. ENO. Bring in the banquet quickly; wine enough Cleopatra's health to drink. CHAR. Good Sir, give me good fortune, SOOTH. I make not, but foresee. CHAR. Pray, then, foresee me one. SOOTH. You shall be yet far fairer than you are. CHAR. He means in flesh. IRAS. No, you shall paint when you are old. ALEX. Vex not his prescience; be attentive. 20 ACT I CHAR. Hush! Sc. II SOOTH. You shall be more beloving than belov❜d. CHAR. Good now, some excellent fortune! Let me be 30 CHAR. Then belike my children shall have no names. And fertile every wish, a million. CHAR. Out, Fool! I forgive thee for a Witch. ALEX. You think none but your sheets are privy to your wishes. CHAR. Nay, come, tell Iras her's. ALEX. We'll know all our fortunes. 40 ENO. Mine, and most of our fortunes, to-night, shall be -drunk to bed. IRAS. There's a palm presages chastity, if nothing else. CHAR. E'en as the o'erflowing Nilus presageth famine. IRAS. Go, you wild Bedfellow, you cannot soothsay. CHAR. Nay, if an oily palm be not a fruitful prognostication, I cannot scratch mine ear. Pr'ythee, tell her but a worky-day fortune. SOOTH. Your fortunes are alike. IRAS. But how, but how? give me particulars. SOOTH. I have said. 50 IRAS. Am I not an inch of fortune better than she? 57 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 C let her die too, and give him a worse! and let worse 70 ALEX. Lo, now, if it lay in their hands to make me ACT I Sc. II CLEO. He was dispos'd to mirth; but on the sudden A Roman thought hath struck him. Enobarbus— 80 CLEO. Seek him, and bring him hither. Where's Alexas? Enter ANTONY with a Messenger and Attendants. MESS. Fulvia thy wife first came into the field. MESS. Ay: But soon that war had end, and the time's state Made friends of them, jointing 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. 91 |