SCENE VI. Alexandria. CESAR'S camp.

Flourish. Enter CÆSAR, AGRIPPA, with ENOBARBUS, and others.

Cas. Go forth, Agrippa, and begin the fight: Our will is Antony be took alive;

Make it so known.

Agr. Cæsar, I shall.

Cas. The time of universal peace is near:
Prove this a prosp'rous day, the three-nook'd world
Shall bear the olive freely.

Plant those that have revolted in the van,
That Antony may seem to spend his fury
Upon himself.

[Exit.

IO

[Exeunt all but Enobarbus.

Eno. Alexas did revolt; and went to Jewry on Affairs of Antony; there did persuade

Great Herod to incline himself to Cæsar,

And leave his master Antony: for this pains

Cæsar hath hang'd him. Canidius and the rest
That fell away have entertainment, but
No honourable trust. I have done ill;
Of which I do accuse myself so sorely,
That I will joy no more.

Sold.

Enter a Soldier of CESAR'S.

Hath after thee sent all thy treasure, with
His bounty overplus: the messenger
Came on my guard; and at thy tent is now
Unloading of his mules.

Eno.

I give it you.
Sold. Mock not, Enobarbus.

I tell you true: best you saf'd the bringer
Out of the host; I must attend mine office,
Or would have done 't myself. Your emperor
Continues still a Jove.

Eno. I am alone the villain of the earth,

And feel I am so most. O Antony,

Thou mine of bounty, how wouldst thou have paid

My better service, when my turpitude

[Exit.

30

6 three-nook'd world Europe, Asia, and Africa, which were then the whole known world.

Thou dost so crown with gold!

This blows my heart:

If swift thought break it not, a swifter mean

Shall outstrike thought: but thought will do 't, I feel.

No: I will go seek

Some ditch wherein to die; the foul'st best fits

I fight against thee!

My latter part of life.

SCENE VII. Field of battle between the camps.

Alarum. Drums and trumpets. Enter AGRIPPA and others.

Agr. Retire, we have engag'd ourselves too far; Cæsar himself has work, and our oppression Exceeds what we expected.

Alarums. Enter ANTONY, and SCARUS wounded.

Scar. O my brave emperor, this is fought indeed! Had we done so at first, we had droven them home With clouts about their heads.

Ant.

Thou bleed'st apace.

Scar. I had a wound here that was like a T, But now 't is made an H.

Scar. We'll beat 'em into bench-holes: I have yet Room for six scotches more.

Enter EROS.

Eros. They are beaten, sir; and our advantage serves

For a fair victory.

Scar.

Let us score their backs,

And snatch 'em up, as we take hares, behind:

'T is sport to maul a runner.

Ant.

I will reward thee

Once for thy spritely comfort, and ten-fold
For thy good valour. Come thee on.

Scar.

SCENE VIII.

[Exit.

[Exeunt.

10

Alarum. Enter ANTONY, in a march; SCARUS, with others.

Ant. We have beat him to his camp: run one before,

And let the Queen know of our gests.

To-morrow,

Before the sun shall see 's, we 'll spill the blood

That has to-day escap'd. I thank you all;

For doughty-handed are you, and have fought

Not as you serv'd the cause, but as 't had been

34 blows my heart smites my heart; blows being here like safed, just above, one of S.'s reckless word-makings.

5 droven: not Elizabethan " grammar; mere heedlessness

Each man's like mine; you have shown all Hectors.
Enter the city, clip your wives, your friends,
Tell them your feats; whilst they with joyful tears
Wash the congealment from your wounds, and kiss

The honour'd gashes whole. [To Scarus.] Give me thy hand;

Enter CLEOPATRA, attended.

To this great fairy I'll commend thy acts,

Make her thanks bless thee. [To Cleo.] O thou day o' th'

world,

Chain mine arm'd neck; leap thou, attire and all,
Through proof of harness to my heart, and there
Ride on the pants triumphing!

Cleo.

Lord of lords!

O infinite virtue, com'st thou smiling from
The world's great snare uncaught?

Ant.

We have beat them to their beds.

My nightingale,
What, girl! though grey

Do something mingle with our younger brown, yet ha' we
A brain that nourishes our nerves, and can

Get goal for goal of youth. Behold this man ;
Commend unto his lips thy favouring hand:
Kiss it, my warrior: he hath fought to-day
As if a god, in hate of mankind, had
Destroy'd in such a shape.

Cleo.

I'll give thee, friend,

An armour all of gold; it was a king's.

Ant. He has deserv'd it, were it carbuncled

20

Like holy Phoebus' car. Give me thy hand :
Through Alexandria make a jolly march;

30

Bear our hack'd targets like the men that owe them:

Had our great palace the capacity

To camp this host, we all would sup together,

And drink carouses to the next day's fate,

Which promises royal peril. Trumpeters,
With brazen din blast you the city's ear;

Make mingle with our rattling tabourines;

That heaven and earth may strike their sounds together,
Applauding our approach.

SCENE IX. CESAR'S camp.

Sentinels at their post.

First Sold. If we be not reliev'd within this hour, We must return to th' court of guard: the night

8 clip embrace.

37 tabourines small drums.

[Exeunt.

Stand close, and list him.

Eno. Be witness to me, O thou blessed moon,

When men revolted shall upon record

· Bear hateful memory, poor Enobarbus did

Before thy face repent!

First Sold.

Third Sold.

Enobarbus!

Hark further.

Eno. O sovereign mistress of true melancholy,
The poisonous damp of night disponge upon me,
That life, a very rebel to my will,

May hang no longer on me: throw my heart
Against the flint and hardness of my fault;

Which, being dried with grief, will break to powder,
And finish all foul thoughts. O Antony,
Nobler than my revolt is infamous,
Forgive me in thine own particular;
But let the world rank me in register
A master-leaver and a fugitive:

O Antony! O Antony!

Sec. Sold.

To him.

Let's speak

First Sold. Let's hear him, for the things he speaks May concern Cæsar.

Third Sold.

Let's do so. But he sleeps.

First Sold. Swoons rather; for so bad a prayer as his Was never yet for sleep.

Sec. Sold.

Go we to him.

Third Sold. Awake, sir, awake; speak to us.
Sec. Sold.
First Sold. The hand of death hath raught

afar off] Hark! the drums

Demurely wake the sleepers. Let us bear him
To the court of guard; he is of note: our hour
Is fully out.

20

[Dies.

Hear you, sir? him. [Drums

30

Third Sold. Come on, then ;

He

may recover yet.

30 raught

reached.

[Exeunt with the body.

31 Demurely has been supposed to be a corruption; erroneously, I am sure. It is used to express the subdued sound of the distant drum: demure modest, reserved.

Enter ANTONY and SCARUS, with their Army.

Ant. Their preparation is to-day by sea;

We please them not by land.

Scar.

For both, my lord.

Ant. I would they 'ld fight i' th' fire or i' th' air;
We 'ld fight there too. But this it is; our foot
Upon the hills adjoining to the city

Shall stay with us: order for sea is given;
They have put forth the haven. [Go we up]
Where their appointment we may best discover,
And look on their endeavour.

SCENE XI. Another part of the same.

Enter CESAR, and his Army.

Caes. But being charg'd, we will be still by land, Which, as I take 't, we shall; for his best force

Is forth to man his galleys.

To the vales,

[Exeunt.

And hold our best advantage.

SCENE XII. Another part of the same.

Enter ANTONY and SCARUS.

[Exeunt.

Ant. Yet they are not join'd: where yond pine does stand, I shall discover all: I'll bring thee word

Straight, how 't is like to go.

Scar.

Swallows have built

In Cleopatra's sails their nests: the augurers
Say they know not, they cannot tell; look grimly,
And dare not speak their knowledge. Antony
Is valiant, and dejected; and, by starts,
His fretted fortunes give him hope, and fear,
Of what he has, and has not.

Ant.

Re-enter ANTONY.

[Exit.

[Alarum afar off, as at a sea-fight.

All is lost;

This foul Egyptian hath betrayed me:

My fleet hath yielded to the foe; and yonder

They cast their caps up and carouse together

Like friends long lost. Triple-turn'd whore! 't is thou
Hast sold me to this novice; and my heart

IO

Go we up. Here there is a hiatus in the folio text, which must be filled. In doing

this I have been guided by the corresponding passage in North's Plutarch.

13 Triple turn'd, etc. Antony alludes, with somewhat ungrateful particularity, to Caesar, Pompey, and himself; and yet he fell short of the full tale.