TAURUS, Lieutenant-General to Cæsar. CANIDIUS, Lieutenant-General to Antony. SILIUS, an Officer under Ventidius. EUPHRONIUS, Ambassador from Antony to Cæsar. ALEXAS, MARDIAN, SELEUCUS, and DIOMEDES, Attendants on Cleopatra. A Soothsayer. A Clown. CLEOPATRA, Queen of Egypt. OCTAVIA, Sister to Cæsar, and Wife to Antony. CHARMIAN, Attendants on Cleopatra. IRAS, Officers, Soldiers, Messengers, and other Attendants. SCENE: in several parts of the Roman Empire, principally Alexandria in Egypt, and Rome. (6) NA O'erflows the measure: those his goodly eyes, 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, Which in the scuffles of great fights hath burst And is become the bellows and the fan To cool a gipsy's lust. Look, where they come. 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. Cleopatra. If it be love indeed, tell me how much. Antony. 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. Enter an Attendant. Attendant. News, my good lord, from Rome. Grates me: the sum. Ant. Cleo. Nay, hear them, Antony : Fulvia, perchance, is angry; or, who knows If the scarce-bearded Cæsar have not sent His powerful mandate to you, 'Do this, or this; Ant. How, my love! Cleo. Perchance, nay, and most like, You must not stay here longer; your dismission 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, Ant. Let Rome in Tyber melt, and the wide arch [Embracing. And such a twain can do 't, in which I bind, On pain of punishment, the world to wit We stand up peerless. Cleo. Excellent falsehood! 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, Without some pleasure now. Ant. Fie, wrangling Queen! Whom every thing becomes, to chide, to laugh, To weep; whose every passion fully strives To-night we'll wander through the streets, and note [Exeunt ANT. and CLEOP. with their train. Dem. I am full sorry, That he approves the common liar, who [Exeunt. SCENE II. The Same. Another Room. Enter CHARMIAN, IRAS, ALEXAS, and a Soothsayer. Charmian. 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 charge his horns with garlands! Alexas. Soothsayer! Soothsayer. 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. Enobarbus. 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. Char. He means, in flesh. Iras. No, you shall paint when you are old. Char. Wrinkles forbid ! Alex. Char. Vex not his prescience; be attentive. Sooth. You shall be more beloving than belov'd. 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. O, excellent! I love long life better than Char. figs. |