Cleo. You can do better yet; but this is meetly. Cleo. And target,-Still he mends; But this is not the best: Look, pr'ythee, Charmian, How this Herculean Roman does become The carriage of his chafe. Ant. I'll leave you, lady. Cleo. Courteous lord, one word. Sir, you and I must part, but that's not it: And I am all forgotten. Ant. But that your royalty Holds idleness your subject, I should take you Cleo. 'Tis sweating labour, To bear such idleness so near the heart As Cleopatra this. But, sir, forgive me; Since my becomings kill me, when they do not And all the gods go with you! upon your sword Ant. Let us go. Come; Our separation so abides, and flies, That thou, residing here, go'st yet with me, And I, hence fleeting, here remain with thee. [Exeunt. SCENE IV.-Rome. An Apartment in Casar's House. Enter OCTAVIUS CæSAR, LEPIDUS, and Attendants. Cæs. You may see, Lepidus, and henceforth know, It is not Cæsar's natural vice to hate One great competitor: From Alexandria This is the news; He fishes, drinks, and wastes More womanly than he hardly gave audience, or there A man, who is the abstract of all faults That all men follow. Lep. I must not think, there are Evils enough to darken all his goodness: His faults, in him, seem as the spots of heaven, More fiery by night's blackness; hereditary, Cas. 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, (As his composure must be rare indeed, Whom these things cannot blemish,) yet must Antony No way excuse his soils, when we do bear So great weight in his lightness. If he fill'd Full surfeits, and the dryness of his bones, As we rate boys; who, being mature in knowledge, Enter a Messenger. Lep. Here's more news. Mess. Thy biddings have been done; and every hour, Most noble Cæsar, shalt thou have report How 'tis abroad. Pompey is strong at sea; And it appears, he is belov'd of those That only have fear'd Cæsar: to the ports Cæs. I should have known no less : It hath been taught us from the primal state, That he, which is, was wish'd, untill he were ; And the ebb'd man, ne'er lov'd, till ne'er worth love, Goes to, and back, lackeying the varying tide, Mess. Cæsar, I bring thee word, Menecrates and Menas, famous pirates, Make the sea serve them; which they ear and wound With keels of every kind: Many hot inroads They make in Italy; the borders maritime Lack blood to think on't, and flush youth revolt: Taken as seen; for Pompey's naine strikes more, Cæs. Antony, Leave thy lascivious wassals. When thou once Did famine follow; whom thou fought'st against, Which beasts would cough at thy palate then did deign The roughest berry on the rudest hedge; Yea, like the stag, when snow the pasture sheets, Lep. It is pity of him. Cas. Let his shames quickly Drive him to Rome: "Tis time we twain Did shew ourselves i' the field; and, to that end, Lep. To-morrow, Cæsar, I shall be furnish'd to inform you rightly To 'front this present time. Cas. Till which encounter, It is my business too. Farewell. Lep. Farewell, my lord: What you shall know mean time Of stirs abroad, I shall beseech you, sir, To let me be partaker. Cas. Doubt not, sir; I knew it for my bond. [Exeunt. SCENE V.-Alexandria. A Room in the Palace. Enter CLEOPATRA, CHARMIAN, IRAS, and MARDIAN. Cleo. Charmian, Char. Madam. Cleo. Ha, ha !— Give me to drink mandragora. Char. Why, madam ? Cleo. That I might sleep out this great gap of time, My Antony is away. Char. You think of him Too much. Cleo. O, treason! Char. Madam, I trust, not so. Cleo. Thou, eunuch! Mardian ! Mar. 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, That, being unseminar'd, thy freer thoughts May not fly forth of Egypt. Hast thou affections? Mar. Yes, gracious madam. |