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.-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 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! Eno. 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, 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, &c. Mess. Fulvia thy wife first came into the field. Ant. Against my brother Lucius ? 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 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 celerity in dying. 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 shews 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 broachéd 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 The death of Fulvia, with more urgent touches, Which, like the courser's hair, hath yet but life, [Exeunt. SCENE III.-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. O most false love! Cleo. The purposes I bear: which are or cease Cleo. Cut my lace, Charmian, come :But let it be. I am quickly ill and well: To bear such idleness so near the heart Ant. Our separation so abides and flies, SCENE IV.-Rome. An Apartment in Cæsar's House. Enter OCTAVIUS, CESAR, LEPIDUS, andAttendants. A man who is the abstract of all faults Lep. I must not think there are Evils enough to darken all his goodness: His faults in him seem as the spots of heaven, More fiery by night's blackness: hereditary, Rather than purchased: what he cannot change, Than what he chooses. Cas. You are too indulgent. Let's grant is not Amiss to tumble on the bed of Ptolemy; it (As his composure must be rare indeed No way excuse his soils, when we do bear Full surfeits and the dryness of his bones Enter a Messenger. Lep. Here's more news. Mess. Thy biddings have been done; and every hour, Most noble Cæsar, shalt thou have report Cæs. Comes deared by being lacked. This common body, Mess. Cæsar, I bring thee word Menecrates and Menas, famous pirates, Make the sea serve them, which they ear and Leave thy lascivious wassels. When thou once The roughest berry on the rudest hedge: My Antony is away. of Char. Madam, I trust not so. pleasure In aught an eunuch has. 'Tis well for thee Mar. Yes, gracious madam. Mar. Not in deed, madam; for I can do nothing But what indeed is honest to be done: |