Alexandria. A Room in CLEOPATRA’S Palace. | |
| |
Enter DEMETRIUS and PHILO. | |
| Phi. Nay, but this dotage of our general’s | |
| O’erflows the measure; those his goodly eyes, | 4 |
| That o’er the files and musters of the war | |
| Have glow’d like plated Mars, now bend, now turn | |
| The office and devotion of their view | |
| Upon a tawny front; his captain’s heart, | 8 |
| Which in the scuffles of great fights hath burst | |
| The buckles on his breast, reneges all temper, | |
| And is become the bellows and the fan | |
| To cool a gipsy’s lust. Look! where they come. | 12 |
| |
Flourish. Enter ANTONY and CLEOPATRA, with their Trains; Eunuchs fanning her. | |
| Take but good note, and you shall see in him | |
| The triple pillar of the world transform’d | |
| Into a strumpet’s fool; behold and see. | 16 |
| 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 belov’d. | |
| Ant. Then must thou needs find out new heaven, new earth. | 20 |
| |
Enter an Attendant. | |
| Att. News, my good lord, from Rome. | |
| Ant. Grates me; the sum. | |
| Cleo. Nay, hear them, Antony: | 24 |
| 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; | 28 |
| 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 | 32 |
| Is come from Cæsar; therefore hear it, Antony. | |
| Where’s Fulvia’s process? Cæsar’s I would say? both? | |
| Call in the messengers. As I am Egypt’s queen, | |
| Thou blushest, Antony, and that blood of thine | 36 |
| Is Cæsar’s homager; else so thy cheek pays shame | |
| When shrill-tongu’d Fulvia scolds. The messengers! | |
| Ant. Let Rome in Tiber melt, and the wide arch | |
| Of the rang’d empire fall! Here is my space. | 40 |
| 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, | 44 |
| On pain of punishment, the world to weet | |
| We stand up peerless. | |
| Cleo. Excellent falsehood! | |
| Why did he marry Fulvia and not love her? | 48 |
| 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, | 52 |
| 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 tonight? | |
| Cleo. Hear the ambassadors. | 56 |
| Ant. Fie, wrangling queen! | |
| Whom every thing becomes, to chide, to laugh, | |
| To weep; whose every passion fully strives | |
| To make itself, in thee, fair and admir’d. | 60 |
| 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. | 64 |
| 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. | 68 |
| Dem. I am 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. | 72 |