If we do lose this battle, then is this Bru. Even by the rule of that philosophy, Cas. Then, if we lose this battle, You are contented to be led in triumph Thorough the streets of Rome? Bru. No,Cassius, no: think not, thou noble Roman, That ever Brutus will go bound to Rome; He bears too great a mind. But this same day Must end that work, the ides of March begun; And whether we shall meet again I know not. Therefore our everlasting farewell take :— For ever, and for ever, farewell, Cassius! If we do meet again, why we shall smile; If not, why then this parting was well made. Cas. For ever, and for ever, farewell, Brutus ! If we do meet again, we'll smile indeed; If not, 'tis true, this parting was well made. Bru. Why then, lead on.-O, that a man might know The end of this day's business, ere it come! But it sufficeth, that the day will end, And then the end is known,-Come, ho! away! [Exeunt. SCENE II.-The same. The Field of Battle. Alarum. Enter BRUTUS and MESSA LA. Come hither, sirrah : In Parthia did I take thee prisoner; [Dies. Pin. So, I am free; yet would not so have been, Mes. It is but change, Titinius; for Octavius Bru. Ride, ride, Messala, ride, and give these bills As Cassius' legions are by Antony [Loud alarum. Unto the legions on the other side: Pin. Fly further off, my lord, fly further off; Cas. This hill is far enough. Look, look, Titinius; [Eait PINDARUS. This day I breathed first: time is come round, Tit. These tidings will well comfort Cassius. All disconsolate, Tit. No, this was he, Messala, But Cassius is no more.-O setting sun! As in thy red rays thou dost sink to-night, So in his red blood Cassius' day is set; The sun of Rome is set! Our day is gone; Clouds, dews, and dangers come; our deeds are done! Mistrust of my success hath done this deed. Mes. Mistrust of good success hath done this deed. O hateful error, melancholy's child! Why dost thou shew to the apt thoughts of men The things that are not? O error, soon conceiv'd, Thou never com'st unto a happy birth, But kill'st the mother that engender'd thee. Tit. What, Pindarus! Where art tnou, Pindarus? Mes. Seek him, Titinius: whilst I go to meet The noble Brutus, thrusting this report Into his ears: I may say, thrusting it; For piercing steel, and darts envenomed, Shall be as welcome to the ears of Brutus, As tidings of this sight. Tit. Hie you, Messala, And I will seek for Pindarus the while. [Erit MES. Why didst thou send me forth, brave Cassius? Did I not meet thy friends? and did not they Put on my brows this wreath of victory, And bid ine giv't thee? Didst thou not hear their Alas, thou hast misconstrued every thing. [shouts? But hold thee, take this garland on thy brow; Thy Brutus bid me give it thee, and 1 Will do his bidding. Brutus, come apace, Bru. O Julius Cæsar, thou art mighty yet! Thy spirit walks abroad, and turns our swords In our own proper entrails. [Low alarums. Brave Titinius! Cato. Should breed thy fellow.-Friends, I owe more tears Cli. What ill request did Brutus make to thee? That it runs over even at his eyes. Bru. Come hither, good Volumnius: list a word. Why, this, Volumnius : SCENE IV.-Another Part of the Field. Alarum. Enter fighting, Soldiers of both Armies; then BRUTUS, CATO, LUCILIUS, and others. Bru. Yet, countrymen, O, yet hold up your heads! Cuto. What bastard doth not? Who will go with me? I will proclaim my name about the field :I am the son of Marcus Cato, ho! A foe to tyrants, and my country's friend; I am the son of Marcus Cato, ho! [Charges the enemy. Bru. And I am Brutus, Marcus Brutus, I; Brutus, my country's friend; know me for Brutus. [Exit, charging the enemy. CATO is overpowered, and falls. Luc. O young and noble Cato, art thou down? Why, now thou diest as bravely as Titinius; And may'st be honour'd being Cato's son. 1 Sold. Yield, or thou diest. Luc. Only I yield to die There is so much, that thou wilt kill me straight; [Offering money. Kill Brutus, and be honour'd in his death 1 Sold. We must not.-A noble prisoner. 2 Sold. Room, ho! Tell Antony, Brutus is ta'en. 1 Sold. I'll tell the news.-Here comes the general: Enter ANTONY. Brutus is ta'en, Brutus is ta'en, my lord. Ant. Where is he? Luc. Safe, Antony; Brutus is safe enough; Ant. This is not Brutus, friend; but, I assure you, Vol. Not so, my lord. Bru. Nay, I am sure it is, Volumnius. Thou see'st the world, Volumnius, how it goes, Our enemies have beat us to the pit: It is more worthy, to leap in ourselves, Than tarry till they push us. Good Volumnius, Thou know'st that we two went to school together; Even for that our love of old, I pray thee, Hold thou my sword-hilts, whilst I run on it. Vol. That's not an office for a friend, my lord. [Alarum still. Cli. Fly, fly, my lord; there is no tarrying here. Bru. Farewell to you-and you;—and you, Volum Strato, thou hast been all this while asleep; [nius.Farewell to thee too, Strato.-Countrymen, My heart doth joy, that yet, in all my life, 1 found no man, but he was true to me. I shall have glory by this losing day, More than Octavius, and Mark Antony, By this vile conquest shall attain unto. So, fare you well at once; for Brutus' tongue Hath almost ended his life's history: Night hangs upon mine eyes; my bones would rest, That have but labour'd to attain this hour [Alarum. Cry within; Fly, fly, fly, Cli. Fly, my lord, fly. Bru. Hence; I will follow thee. Thy life hath had some smatch of honour in it: Stra. Give me your hand first: Fare you well, my lord. Bru. Farewell, good Strato.-Cæsar, now be still: I kill'd not thee with half so good a will. [He runs on his sword, and dies. Alarum. Retreat. Enter OCTAVIUS, ANTONY MESSALA, LUCILIUS, and their army. Oct. What man is that? Mes. My master's man.-Strato, where is thy master? Stra. Free from the bondage you are, in, Messala; [Exeunt. The conquerors can but make a fire of him; For Brutus only overcame himself, And no man else hath honour by his death. Mes. Ant. This was the noblest Roman of them all : All the conspirators, save only he, Oct. According to his virtue let us use him, [Exeunt. Or this tragedy many particular passages deserve regard, and the contention and reconcilement of Brutus and Cassius is universally celebrated; but I have never been strongly agitated in perusing it, and think it somewhat cold and unaffecting, compared with some other of Shakspeare's plays: his adherence to the real story, and to Roman manners, seems to have impeded the natural vigour of his genius-JOHNSON. ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA. THIS play was entered in the Stationers' books, May 2, 1608; and was, according to the conjecture of Malone, composed in the same year. It was not, however, printed till the folio of 1623. The subject is taken from Plutarch's Life of Antony, which has been closely followed. SEXTUS POMPEIUS. MENAS, MENECRATES, VARRIUS, friends of Pompey. A Soothsayer. A Clown. ACT I. SCENE I. Alexandria.-A Room in Cleopatra's Palace. Phi. Nay, but this dotage of our general's To cool a gipsy's lust. Look, where they come ! Flourish. Enter ANTONY and CLEOPATRA, with their Take but good note, and you shall see in him Cleo. If it be love indeed, tell me how much. Enter an Attendant. Ant. Call in the messengers.-As I am Egypt's queen, Cleo. 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: Fye, wrangling queen! [Exeunt ANT. and CLEOP. with their Train. Dem. Is Cæsar with Antonius priz'd 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, 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. Iras. No, you shall paint when you are old. Alex. Vex not his prescience; be attentive. Sooth. You shall be more beloving, than beloved. Iras. There's a palm presages chastity, if nothing else. [mire. Char. Even as the o'erflowing Nilus presageth faIras. 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. 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. 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 He-But Jod of Jewry may do homage: find me to marry me with Octavius Cæsar, and companion me with my soon that war had end, and the time's state Made friends of them, jointing their force 'gainst Whose better issue in the war, from Italy, [Cæsar; Upon the first encounter, drave them. Ant. What worst? Well, Ant. Speak to me home, mince not the general Name Cleopatra as she's call'd in Rome: [tongue; Rail thou in Fulvia's phrase; and taunt my faults With such full licence, 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 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 an 2 Att. He stays upon your will. [one? Ant. Let him appear,— These strong Egyptian fetters I must break," Enter another Messenger. Or lose myself in dotage.-What are you? 2 Mess. Fulvia thy wife is dead. Ant. Ant. Forbear me. Where died she? 2 Mess. In Sicyon : 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 a 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 broached in the state, Cannot endure my absence. Fno. 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 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, For the main soldier: whose quality, going on, Higher than both in blood and life, stands up 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 Enter CLEOPATRA, CHARMIAN, IRAS, and ALEXAS. I did not see him since. [Exit ALEX. Char. Madam, methinks, if you did love him dearly, You do not hold the method to enforce The like from him. [thing. Cleo. What should I do, I do not? Char. In each thing give him way, cross him in noCleo. Thou teachest like a fool: the way to lose him. Char. Tempt him not so too far: I wish, forbear; In time we hate that which we often fear. Enter ANTONY. But here comes Antony. Ant. Now, my dearest queen,— I have no power upon you; hers you are. O, never was there queen I [true, Cleo. Why should I think, you can be mine and Though you in swearing shake the throned gods, Who have been false to Fulvia! Riotous madness, To be entangled with those mouth-made vows, Which break themselves in swearing! |