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.
Ani. There's beggary in the love that can be reckon'd.
Cleo. I'll set a bourn * how far to be beloved.
Ant. Then must thou needs find out new heaven, new earth.

Enter an ATTENDANT.
Att. News, my good lord, from Rome.
Ant. Gratest me :-The sum?

Cleo. Nay, hear them, Antony:
Fulvia, perchance is angry: Or, who knows
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
ls come from Cæsar; therefore hear it, Antony.-
Where's Fulvia's process ! S Cæsar's, I would say ?-Both ?-
Call in the messengers.-As I am Egypt's queen,
Thou blushest, Antony; and that blood of thine
Is Cæsar's homager; else so thy cheek pays shame,
When shrill-tongued Fulvia scolds.-The messengers.

Ant. Let Rome in Tyber 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, T
We stand up peeriess.

Cleo. Excellent Falsehood !
Why did we 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 to-night?

Cleo. Hear the ambassadors.

Ant. Fie, wrangling queen!
Whom everything becomes, to chide, to laugh,
To weep; whose every passion fully strives
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 ANTONY and CLEOPATRA, with their train. * Bound, limit.

# Subdue, conquer. Summons. | Wide spread.

Dem. Is Cæsar with Antonius prized so slight ?
Phi. Sir, sometimes, when he is not Antony,
He comes too short of that great property
Which still should go with Antony.

Dem. I'm full sorry,
That he approves the common liar, * who
Thus speaks of him at Rome: But I will hope
Of better deeds to-morrow. Rest you happy! [Exeunt.

SCENE II.-The same. Another Room. Enter CHARMJAN, IRAS, ALEXAS, and a SOOTHSAYER. Char. Lord Alexas, sweet Alexas, most anything, Alexas, almost most absolute Alexas, where's the soothsayer that you praised 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 ?

Sooth. In nature's infinite book of secrecy,
A little I can read.
Alex. Show him your hand.

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.
Char. Wrinkles forbid !
Alex. Vex not his prescience; be attentive.
Char. Hush!
Sooth. You shall be more beloving, than beloved.
Char. I had rather eat my liver with drinking.
Alex. Nay, hear him.

Char. Good now, some excellent fortune! Let me be married to three kings in a forenoon, and widow them all: let me have a child at fifty, to whom Herod of Jewry may do homage: find mo to marry me with Octavius Cæsar, and companion me with my mistress.

Sooth. You shall outlive the lady whom you serve.
Char. O excellent! I love long life better than figs.
Sooth. You have seen and proved a fairer former fortune
Than that which is to approach.

Char. Then, belike, my children shall have no names:t Prythee, how

many boys and wenches must I have ? Sooth. If every of your wishes had a womb, 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. * Confirms fame, rumour.

† Shall be bastards.

Char. Nay, come, tell Iras hers.
Alex. We'll know all our fortunes.

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. Even as the overflowing 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.-Prythee, tell her but a worky-day fortune.

Sooth. Your fortunes are alike.
Iras. But how, but how? give me particulars.
Sooth. I have said.
Iras. Am I not an inch of fortune better than she ?

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.-0, 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 worse 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 heart-breaking 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.

Alex. Lo, now! if it lay in their hands to make me a cuckold, they would make themselves whores, but they'd do't.

Éno. Hush! here comes Antony.
Char. 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 the sudden
A Roman thought hath struck him.- Enobarbus, –

Eno. Madam.
Cleo. Seek him, and bring him hither. Where's Alexas?
Alex. Here, madam, at your service.--My lord approaches.

Enter ANTONY, with a MESSENGER and Attendants.
Cleo. We will not look upon him : Go with us.

[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
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.
Ant. When it concerns the fool, or coward.-On:
Things, that are past, are done, with me.--"Tis thus;
Who tells me true, though in his tale lie death,
I hear him as he flatter'd.

Mess. Labienus
(This is stiff news) hath with his Parthian force,
Extended * Asia from Euphrătes;
His conquering banner shook, from Syria
To Lydia, and to Ionia;
Whilst

Ant. Antony, thou would'st say,-
Mess. O, my

lord !
Ant. Speak to me home, mince not the general tongue;
Name Cleopatra as she's callid in Rome:
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 winds lie still; and our ills told us,
Is as our earing. † Fare thee well a while.
Mess. At your noble pleasure.

[Exit. Ant. From Sicyon how the news ? Speak there. 1 Att. The man from Sicyon.-Is there such a one ? 2 Att. He stays upon your will.

Ant. Let him appear,
These strong Egyptian fetters I must break,

Enter another MESSENGER.
Or lose myself in dptage.- What are you?

2 Mess. Fulvia thy wife is dead. Ant. Where died she?

2 Mess. In Sicyon: Her length of sickness, with what else more serious Importeth thee to know, this bears.

[Gives a letter. Ant. Forbear I 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 shoved 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?
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. 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 hath such a celerity in dying.

Ant. She is cunning past man's thought.

Eno. Alack, Sir, po; 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 members 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; your old smock brings forth a new petticoat:-and indeed, the tears live in an onion, that should water this sorrow.

Ant. The business she hath broach'd 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.

Ant. No more light answers. Let our officers
Have notice what we purpose. I shall break
The cause of our expedience to the queen,
And get her love 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
* For much less matter.

† Expedition. #Love's Icave.)