ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA. ACT I. SCENE I.-Alexandria.-A Room in Cleopatra's Palace. Enter DEMETRIUS and PHILO. Phil. Nay, but this dotage of our general's, Upon a tawny front: his captain's heart, Take but good note, and you shall see in him 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. 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. Cleo. Nay, hear them, Antony: Fulvia, perchance, is angry; or, who knows Ant. How, my love! • Renounces. + Bound or limit. § Subdue, conquer. Offends. Cleo. Perchance,-nay, and most like, You must not stay here longer, your dismission Call in the messengers,-As I am Egypt's queen, Ant. Let Rome in Tyber melt! and the wide arch Cleo. Excellent falshood! 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 now: What sport to-night! Cleo. Hear the ambassadors. Ant. Fie, wrangling queen! Whom every thing becomes, to chide, to laugh, To-night, we'll wander through the streets, and note [Exeunt Ant. and Cleop. with their Train. That he approves the common liars, who [Exeunt. Fame. 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 praised so to the queen? O, that I knew this husband, which, you say, must change 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. Shew 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. Iras. No, you shall paint when you are old. Alex. Vex not his prescience; be attentive. Sooth. You shall be more beloving, than beloved. 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 me 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: Pr'ythee, how many boys and wenches must I have f Shall be bastards. 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. 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 o'erflowing Nilus presageth famine. Irus. Go, you wild bedfellow, you cannot sooth say. 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. 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 be seech 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 sor row to behold a foul knave uncuckolded; there fore, 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. An Egyptian goddess. Enter CLEOPATRA. Cleo. Saw you my lord? Eno. No, lady. Cleo. Was he not here? Chur. No, madam. Cleo. He was disposed to mirth; but on the sudden A Roman thought hath struck him.-Énobarbus, 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 und ATTENDANTS. Cleo. We will not look upon him: go with us. 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 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's call'd in Rome : Rail thou in Fulvia's phrase; and taunt my faults * Seized. |