The Tragedy Of Antony And Cleopatra

1 Enter Cleopatra, Enobarbus, Charmian and Iras.
2 CLEOPATRA.
3 What shall we do, Enobarbus?
4 ENOBARBUS.
5 Think, and die.
6 CLEOPATRA.
7 Is Antony or we in fault for this?
8 ENOBARBUS.
9 Antony only, that would make his will
10 Lord of his reason. What though you fled
11 From that great face of war, whose several ranges
12 Frighted each other? Why should he follow?
13 The itch of his affection should not then
14 Have nicked his captainship, at such a point,
15 When half to half the world opposed, he being
16 The mered question. ’Twas a shame no less
17 Than was his loss, to course your flying flags
18 And leave his navy gazing.
19 CLEOPATRA.
20 Prithee, peace.
21 Enter the Ambassador with Antony.
22 ANTONY.
23 Is that his answer?
24 AMBASSADOR.
25 Ay, my lord.
26 ANTONY.
27 The Queen shall then have courtesy, so she
28 Will yield us up.
29 AMBASSADOR.
30 He says so.
31 ANTONY.
32 Let her know’t.—
33 To the boy Caesar send this grizzled head,
34 And he will fill thy wishes to the brim
35 With principalities.
36 CLEOPATRA.
37 That head, my lord?
38 ANTONY.
39 To him again. Tell him he wears the rose
40 Of youth upon him, from which the world should note
41 Something particular: his coin, ships, legions,
42 May be a coward’s; whose ministers would prevail
43 Under the service of a child as soon
44 As i’ th’ command of Caesar. I dare him therefore
45 To lay his gay comparisons apart,
46 And answer me declined, sword against sword,
47 Ourselves alone. I’ll write it. Follow me.
48 [_Exeunt Antony and Ambassador._]
49 ENOBARBUS.
50 Yes, like enough high-battled Caesar will
51 Unstate his happiness, and be staged to th’ show
52 Against a sworder! I see men’s judgments are
53 A parcel of their fortunes, and things outward
54 Do draw the inward quality after them
55 To suffer all alike. That he should dream,
56 Knowing all measures, the full Caesar will
57 Answer his emptiness! Caesar, thou hast subdued
58 His judgment too.
59 Enter a Servant.
60 SERVANT.
61 A messenger from Caesar.
62 CLEOPATRA.
63 What, no more ceremony? See, my women,
64 Against the blown rose may they stop their nose
65 That kneeled unto the buds. Admit him, sir.
66 [_Exit Servant._]
67 ENOBARBUS.
68 [_Aside_.] Mine honesty and I begin to square.
69 The loyalty well held to fools does make
70 Our faith mere folly. Yet he that can endure
71 To follow with allegiance a fallen lord
72 Does conquer him that did his master conquer,
73 And earns a place i’ th’ story.
74 Enter Thidias.
75 CLEOPATRA.
76 Caesar’s will?
77 THIDIAS.
78 Hear it apart.
79 CLEOPATRA.
80 None but friends. Say boldly.
81 THIDIAS.
82 So haply are they friends to Antony.
83 ENOBARBUS.
84 He needs as many, sir, as Caesar has,
85 Or needs not us. If Caesar please, our master
86 Will leap to be his friend. For us, you know
87 Whose he is we are, and that is Caesar’s.
88 THIDIAS.
89 So.—
90 Thus then, thou most renowned: Caesar entreats
91 Not to consider in what case thou stand’st
92 Further than he is Caesar.
93 CLEOPATRA.
94 Go on; right royal.
95 THIDIAS.
96 He knows that you embrace not Antony
97 As you did love, but as you feared him.
98 CLEOPATRA.
99 O!
100 THIDIAS.
101 The scars upon your honour, therefore, he
102 Does pity as constrained blemishes,
103 Not as deserved.
104 CLEOPATRA.
105 He is a god and knows
106 What is most right. Mine honour was not yielded,
107 But conquered merely.
108 ENOBARBUS.
109 [_Aside_.] To be sure of that,
110 I will ask Antony. Sir, sir, thou art so leaky
111 That we must leave thee to thy sinking, for
112 Thy dearest quit thee.
113 [_Exit Enobarbus._]
114 THIDIAS.
115 Shall I say to Caesar
116 What you require of him? For he partly begs
117 To be desired to give. It much would please him
118 That of his fortunes you should make a staff
119 To lean upon. But it would warm his spirits
120 To hear from me you had left Antony,
121 And put yourself under his shroud,
122 The universal landlord.
123 CLEOPATRA.
124 What’s your name?
125 THIDIAS.
126 My name is Thidias.
127 CLEOPATRA.
128 Most kind messenger,
129 Say to great Caesar this in deputation:
130 I kiss his conqu’ring hand. Tell him I am prompt
131 To lay my crown at’s feet, and there to kneel.
132 Tell him, from his all-obeying breath I hear
133 The doom of Egypt.
134 THIDIAS.
135 ’Tis your noblest course.
136 Wisdom and fortune combating together,
137 If that the former dare but what it can,
138 No chance may shake it. Give me grace to lay
139 My duty on your hand.
140 CLEOPATRA.
141 Your Caesar’s father oft,
142 When he hath mused of taking kingdoms in,
143 Bestowed his lips on that unworthy place
144 As it rained kisses.
145 Enter Antony and Enobarbus.
146 ANTONY.
147 Favours, by Jove that thunders!
148 What art thou, fellow?
149 THIDIAS.
150 One that but performs
151 The bidding of the fullest man and worthiest
152 To have command obeyed.
153 ENOBARBUS.
154 [_Aside_.] You will be whipped.
155 ANTONY.
156 Approach there.—Ah, you kite!—Now, gods and devils,
157 Authority melts from me. Of late when I cried “Ho!”
158 Like boys unto a muss, kings would start forth
159 And cry “Your will?” Have you no ears? I am
160 Antony yet.
161 Enter Servants.
162 Take hence this jack and whip him.
163 ENOBARBUS.
164 ’Tis better playing with a lion’s whelp
165 Than with an old one dying.
166 ANTONY.
167 Moon and stars!
168 Whip him. Were’t twenty of the greatest tributaries
169 That do acknowledge Caesar, should I find them
170 So saucy with the hand of she here—what’s her name
171 Since she was Cleopatra? Whip him, fellows,
172 Till like a boy you see him cringe his face
173 And whine aloud for mercy. Take him hence.
174 THIDIAS.
175 Mark Antony—
176 ANTONY.
177 Tug him away. Being whipp’d,
178 Bring him again. This jack of Caesar’s shall
179 Bear us an errand to him.
180 [_Exeunt Servants with Thidias._]
181 You were half blasted ere I knew you. Ha!
182 Have I my pillow left unpressed in Rome,
183 Forborne the getting of a lawful race,
184 And by a gem of women, to be abused
185 By one that looks on feeders?
186 CLEOPATRA.
187 Good my lord—
188 ANTONY.
189 You have been a boggler ever.
190 But when we in our viciousness grow hard—
191 O misery on’t!—the wise gods seal our eyes,
192 In our own filth drop our clear judgments, make us
193 Adore our errors, laugh at’s while we strut
194 To our confusion.
195 CLEOPATRA.
196 O, is’t come to this?
197 ANTONY.
198 I found you as a morsel cold upon
199 Dead Caesar’s trencher; nay, you were a fragment
200 Of Gneius Pompey’s, besides what hotter hours,
201 Unregistered in vulgar fame, you have
202 Luxuriously pick’d out. For I am sure,
203 Though you can guess what temperance should be,
204 You know not what it is.
205 CLEOPATRA.
206 Wherefore is this?
207 ANTONY.
208 To let a fellow that will take rewards
209 And say “God quit you!” be familiar with
210 My playfellow, your hand, this kingly seal
211 And plighter of high hearts! O that I were
212 Upon the hill of Basan, to outroar
213 The horned herd! For I have savage cause,
214 And to proclaim it civilly were like
215 A haltered neck which does the hangman thank
216 For being yare about him.
217 Enter a Servant with Thidias.
218 Is he whipped?
219 SERVANT.
220 Soundly, my lord.
221 ANTONY.
222 Cried he? And begged he pardon?
223 SERVANT.
224 He did ask favour.
225 ANTONY.
226 If that thy father live, let him repent
227 Thou wast not made his daughter; and be thou sorry
228 To follow Caesar in his triumph, since
229 Thou hast been whipped for following him. Henceforth
230 The white hand of a lady fever thee;
231 Shake thou to look on’t. Get thee back to Caesar;
232 Tell him thy entertainment. Look thou say
233 He makes me angry with him; for he seems
234 Proud and disdainful, harping on what I am,
235 Not what he knew I was. He makes me angry,
236 And at this time most easy ’tis to do’t,
237 When my good stars that were my former guides
238 Have empty left their orbs and shot their fires
239 Into th’ abysm of hell. If he mislike
240 My speech and what is done, tell him he has
241 Hipparchus, my enfranched bondman, whom
242 He may at pleasure whip, or hang, or torture,
243 As he shall like, to quit me. Urge it thou.
244 Hence with thy stripes, be gone.
245 [_Exit Thidias._]
246 CLEOPATRA.
247 Have you done yet?
248 ANTONY.
249 Alack, our terrene moon is now eclipsed,
250 And it portends alone the fall of Antony.
251 CLEOPATRA.
252 I must stay his time.
253 ANTONY.
254 To flatter Caesar, would you mingle eyes
255 With one that ties his points?
256 CLEOPATRA.
257 Not know me yet?
258 ANTONY.
259 Cold-hearted toward me?
260 CLEOPATRA.
261 Ah, dear, if I be so,
262 From my cold heart let heaven engender hail
263 And poison it in the source, and the first stone
264 Drop in my neck; as it determines, so
265 Dissolve my life! The next Caesarion smite,
266 Till, by degrees the memory of my womb,
267 Together with my brave Egyptians all,
268 By the discandying of this pelleted storm,
269 Lie graveless, till the flies and gnats of Nile
270 Have buried them for prey!
271 ANTONY.
272 I am satisfied.
273 Caesar sits down in Alexandria, where
274 I will oppose his fate. Our force by land
275 Hath nobly held; our severed navy too
276 Have knit again, and fleet, threat’ning most sea-like.
277 Where hast thou been, my heart? Dost thou hear, lady?
278 If from the field I shall return once more
279 To kiss these lips, I will appear in blood.
280 I and my sword will earn our chronicle.
281 There’s hope in’t yet.
282 CLEOPATRA.
283 That’s my brave lord!
284 ANTONY.
285 I will be treble-sinewed, hearted, breathed,
286 And fight maliciously. For when mine hours
287 Were nice and lucky, men did ransom lives
288 Of me for jests. But now I’ll set my teeth
289 And send to darkness all that stop me. Come,
290 Let’s have one other gaudy night. Call to me
291 All my sad captains. Fill our bowls once more
292 Let’s mock the midnight bell.
293 CLEOPATRA.
294 It is my birthday.
295 I had thought t’have held it poor, but since my lord
296 Is Antony again, I will be Cleopatra.
297 ANTONY.
298 We will yet do well.
299 CLEOPATRA.
300 Call all his noble captains to my lord.
301 ANTONY.
302 Do so; we’ll speak to them; and tonight I’ll force
303 The wine peep through their scars. Come on, my queen,
304 There’s sap in’t yet. The next time I do fight
305 I’ll make Death love me, for I will contend
306 Even with his pestilent scythe.
307 [_Exeunt all but Enobarbus._]
308 ENOBARBUS.
309 Now he’ll outstare the lightning. To be furious
310 Is to be frighted out of fear, and in that mood
311 The dove will peck the estridge; and I see still
312 A diminution in our captain’s brain
313 Restores his heart. When valour preys on reason,
314 It eats the sword it fights with. I will seek
315 Some way to leave him.
316 [_Exit._]