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 almanacs 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 broached 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 expediences to the queen, And get her loves to part. For not alone The death of Fulvia, with more urgent touches, Do strongly speak to us; but the letters too Or 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, Higher than both in blood and life, stands up For the main soldier: whose quality, going on, The sides o' the world maydanger. 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. Cleo. See where he is, who's with him, what he does: I did not send you:7-If you find him sad, You do not hold the method to enforce Cleo. What should I do, I do not? Cleo. Thou teachest like a fool: the way to lose him. • Expedition. Look as if I did not send you. • Leave. Char. Tempt him not so too far: I wish, forbear; But here comes Antony. Ant. Now, my dearest queen, Cleo. Pray you, stand further from me. Ant. What's the matter? Cleo. I know, by that same eye, there's some good news. What says Would, she had never given you leave to come! the married woman?-You may go; Let her not say, 'tis I that keep you here, I have no power upon you: hers you are. Ant. The gods best know,Cleo. So mightily betray'd? Yet, at the first, O, never was there queen I saw the treasons planted. Cleopatra, Cleo. Why should I think, you can be mine, and Cleo. Nay, pray you, seek no color for your going, But bid farewell, and go: when you sued staying, Then was the time for words: No going then;Eternity was in our lips and eyes; Bliss in our brows' bent; none our parts so poor, How now, lady! Ant. Hear me, queen: The strong necessity of time commands Breeds scrupulous faction: The hated, grown to strength, Are newly grown to love: the condemn'd Pompey, Is Fulvia's death. Cleo. Though age from folly could not give me freedom, It does from childishness:-Can Fulvia die? Of excellent dissembling; and let it look Ant. But that your royalty Holds idleness your subject, I should take you For idleness itself. Cleo. 'Tis sweating labor, To bear such idleness so near the heart Let us go. Come; That he, which is, was wish'd, until he were; And the ebb'd man, ne'er lov'd, till ne'er worth love, Comes dear'd, by being lack'd. This common body, [Exeunt. SCENE IV.-Rome. An Apartment in Cæsar's House. Antony, Cæs. The roughest berry on the rudest hedge; Cæs. You are too indulgent: Let us grant, it is not Amiss to tumble on the bed of Ptolemy; To give a kingdom for a mirth; to sit And keep the turn of tippling with a slave; To reel the streets at noon, and stand the buffet With knaves that smell of sweat: say, this becomes him, Assemble we immediate council: Pompey Lep. To-morrow, Cæsar, I shall be furnish'd to inform you rightly Till which encounter, It is my business too. Farewell. Lep. Farewell, my lord: What you shall know meantime Of stirs abroad, I shall beseech you, sir, I knew it for my bond. Doubt not, sir: [Exeunt. Char. Madam. Cleo. Ha, ha!— My power Give me to drink mandragora.7 Char. Whom these things cannot blemish,) yet must My Antony is away. Cleo. That I might sleep out this great gap of time, Why, madam! Says, it wi In Egypt No wars v He loses h Of both is You think of him Nor either Char. Too much. Men. Cleo. Thou, eunuch! Mardian! What's your highness' pleasure? Cleo. Not now to hear thee sing; I take no pleasure In aught an eunuch has: 'Tis well for thee, Cleo. Indeed? Mar. Not in deed, madam; for I can do nothing But what in deed is honest to be done: Yet have I fierce affections, and think, What Venus did with Mars. Cleo. O Charmian, Where think'st thou he is now? Stands he, or sits he? Or does he walk? or is he on his horse?happy horse, to bear the weight of Antony! Endeared by being missed. 2 Turn pale. I should have known no less:-O It hath been taught us from the primal state, • Rage. Procured by his own fault. • Consume. Oblivious memory. Visit him. Discontented. Feastings; in the old copy it is vaissailes, i. e. vassals. Are in the Pom. W tog Salt Cleopa Let witcher Tie up the Keep tis bi Sharpen wi That sleep: Even till a Do bravely, horse! for wot'st thou whom thou mov'st? The demi-Atlas of this earth, the arm Alex. Enter ALEXAS. Sovereign of Egypt, hail! Cleo. How much unlike art thou Mark Antony! Yet coming from him, that great medicine hath With his tinct gilded thee. How goes it with my brave Mark Antony? He kiss'd, the last of many doubled kisses,— Was beastly dumb'd by him. Alex. Like to the time o' the year between the extremes Of hot and cold; he was nor sad nor merry. He was not sad: for he would shine on those Char. O that brave Cæsar! Cleo. Be choked with such another emphasis! Say, the brave Antony. Char. The valiant Cæsar! If thou with Cæsar paragon again Cleo. By Isis, I will give thee bloody teeth, My man of men. Char. By your most gracious pardon, I sing but after you. [Exeunt What, was he sad, or merry? ACT II. SCENE I-Messina. A Room in Pompey's House. Enter POMPEY, MENECRATES, and MENAS. The thing we sue for. No wars without doors: Cæsar gets money, where Men. Cæsar and Lepidus Are in the field; a mighty strength they carry. Looking for Antony: But all charms of love, Let witchcraft join with beauty, lust with both! Var. This is most certain that I shall deliver: Pom. I could have given less matter A better ear.-Menas, I did not think, A helmet. 1 Furious. Declined, faded. ■ To. This amorous surfeiter would have don'd4 his helm5 Is twice the other twain: But let us rear For they have entertained cause enough [Exeunt. By laying defects of judgment to me; but You patch'd up your excuses. Ant. Not so, not so; I know you could not lack, I am certain on't, Very necessity of this thought, that I. Your partner in the cause 'gainst which he fought, Could not with graceful eyes attend those wars Which 'fronted mine own peace. As for my wife, I would you had her spirit in such another: The third o' the world is yours; which with a snaffle You may pace easy, but not such a wife. Eno. 'Would we had all such wives, that the men might go to wars with the women! Ant. So much uncurable, her garboils,3 Caesar, I wrote to you, Ant. He fell upon me, ere admitted; then Sir, Be nothing of our strife; if we contend, You have broken The article of your oath; which you shall never Have tongue to charge me with. Lep. Soft, Cæsar. Cæs. To lend me arms, and aid, when I required them; The which you both denied. Ant. Thou art a soldier only; speak no more. Eno. That truth should be silent, I had almost forgot. Ant. You wrong this presence, therefore speak Cæs. Say not so, Agrippa; If Cleopatra heard you, your reproof Were well deserv'd of rashness. Ant. I am not married, Cæsar: let me hear Agrippa further speak, Agr. To hold you in perpetual amity, To make you brothers, and to knit your hearts Ant. Will Cæsar speak? Cæs. Not till he hears how Antony is touch'd With what is spoke already. Ant. What power is in Agrippa, If I would say, Agrippa, be it so, To make this good? Cæs. The power of Cæsar, and His power unto Octavia. Ant. May I never To this good purpose, that so fairly shows, Cæs. There is my hand. A sister I bequeath you, whom no brother Did ever love so dearly: Let her live Not lack your company. Lep. Let us, Lepidus, Noble Antony, Not sickness should detain me. [Flourish. Exeunt CESAR, ANTONY, and LEPIDUS. Mec. Welcome from Egypt, sir. Hop forty paces through the public street: And having lost her breath, she spoke, and panted, That she did make defect, perfection, And, breathless, power breathe forth. Mec. Now Antony must leave her utterly. Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale Cloy th'appetites they feed; but she makes hungry Mec. If beauty, wisdom, modesty can settle A blessed lottery to him. Let us go. Good Enobarbus, make yourself my guest, Humbly, sir, I thank you. [Exeunt. SCENE III-A Room in Cæsar's House. Eno. Half the heart of Casar, worthy Mecenas! Divide me from your bosom. -my honorable friend, Agrippa!— Agr. Good Enobarbus! Mec. We have cause to be glad, that matters are so well digested. You stay'd well by it in Egypt. Eno. Ay, sir; we did sleep day out of countenance, and made the night light with drinking. Mec. Eight wild boars roasted whole at a breakfast, and but twelve persons there: Is this true? Eno. This was but as a fly by an eagle: we had much more monstrous matter of feasts, which worthily deserved noting. Mec. She's a most triumphant lady, if report be square9 to her. Eno. When she first met Mark Antony, she pursed up his heart upon the river of Cydnus. Agr. There she appeared indeed; or my reporter devised well for her. Eno. I will tell you: The barge she sat in, like a burnish'd throne, Which to the tune of flutes kept stroke, and made Agr. Agr. Rare Egyptian! Eno. Upon her landing, Antony sent to her, It should be better, he became her guest; Octa. All which time Good-night, sir.-My Octavia, Octa. Good-night, sir. Cæs. Good-night. [Ex. CESAR and OCTAVIA. Ant. Now, sirrah! you do wish yourself in Egypt? Sooth. Would I had never come from thence, nor you Thither! Ant. Sooth. If you can, your reason? I see't in My motion, have it not in my tongue: But yet Hie you again to Egypt. Ant. Say to me, Whose fortunes shall rise higher, Cæsar's, or mine? Sooth. Cæsar's. Therefore, O Antony, stay not by his side: Where Cæsar's is not; but near him, thy angel Ant. If thou dost play with him at any game, Thou art sure to lose; and, of that natural luck, Ant. He shall to Parthia.-Be it art, or hap, Enter VENTIDIUS. I' the east my pleasure lies:-O, come, Ventidius, a Wanton. The ancients used to match quails as we match cocks • Inclosed. |