Antony and Cleopatra

Forord og innledning ACT I Scene I. Alexandria. A Room in Cleopatra's palace. Scene II. Alexandria. Another Room in Cleopatra's palace. Scene III. Alexandria. A Room in Cleopatra's palace. Scene IV. Rome. An Apartment in Caesar's House Scene V. Alexandria. A Room in the Palace. ACT II Scene I. Messina. A Room in Pompey's house. Scene II. Rome. A Room in the House of Lepidus. Scene III. Rome. A Room in Caesar's House. Scene IV. Rome. A street. Scene V. Alexandria. A Room in the Palace. Scene VI. Near Misenum. Scene VII. On board Pompey's Galley, lying near Misenum. ACT III Scene I. A plain in Syria. Scene II. Rome. An Ante-chamber in Caesar's house. Scene III. Alexandria. A Room in the Palace. Scene IV. Athens. A Room in Antony's House. Scene V. Athens. Another Room in Antony's House. Scene VI. Rome. A Room in Caesar's House. Scene VII. Antony's Camp near the Promontory of Actium. Scene VIII. A plain near Actium. Scene IX. Another part of the Plain. Scene X. Another part of the Plain. Scene XI. Alexandria. A Room in the Palace. Scene XII. Caesar's camp in Egypt. Scene XIII. Alexandria. A Room in the Palace. ACT IV Scene I. Caesar's Camp at Alexandria. Scene II. Alexandria. A Room in the Palace. Scene III. Alexandria. Before the Palace. Scene IV. Alexandria. A Room in the Palace. Scene V. Antony's camp near Alexandria. Scene VI. Alexandria. Caesar's camp. Scene VII. Field of battle between the Camps. Scene VIII. Under the Walls of Alexandria. Scene IX. Caesar's camp. Scene X. Ground between the two Camps. Scene XI. Another part of the Ground. Scene XII. Another part of the Ground. Scene XIII. Alexandria. A Room in the Palace. Scene XIV. Alexandria. Another Room. Scene XV. Alexandria. A monument. ACT V Scene I. Caesar's Camp before Alexandria. Scene II. Alexandria. A Room in the Monument. Dramatis Personæ MARK ANTONY, Triumvir OCTAVIUS CAESAR, Triumvir LEPIDUS, Triumvir SEXTUS POMPEIUS, DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS, friend to Antony VENTIDIUS, friend to Antony EROS, friend to Antony SCARUS, friend to Antony DERCETUS, friend to Antony DEMETRIUS, friend to Antony PHILO, friend to Antony MAECENAS, friend to Caesar AGRIPPA, friend to Caesar DOLABELLA, friend to Caesar

PROCULEIUS, friend to Caesar THIDIAS, friend to Caesar GALLUS, friend to Caesar MENAS, friend to Pompey MENECRATES, friend to Pompey VARRIUS, friend to Pompey TAURUS, Lieutenant-General to Caesar CANIDIUS, Lieutenant-General to Antony SILIUS, an Officer in Ventidius's army EUPHRONIUS, an Ambassador from Antony to Caesar ALEXAS, attendant on Cleopatra MARDIAN, attendant on Cleopatra SELEUCUS, attendant on Cleopatra DIOMEDES, attendant on Cleopatra

A SOOTHSAYER

A CLOWNCLEOPATRA, Queen of Egypt
OCTAVIA, sister to Caesar and wife to Antony
CHARMIAN, Attendant on Cleopatra
IRAS, Attendant on Cleopatra
Officers, Soldiers, Messengers, and other Attendants

SCENEDispersed, in several parts of the Roman Empire.

ACT I SCENE I. Alexandria. A Room in Cleopatra's palace. Enter Demetrius and Philo.

PHILONay, but this dotage of our general's
O'erflows the measure. Those his goodly eyes,
That o'er the files and musters of the war
Have glowed like plated Mars, now bend, now turn
The office and devotion of their view
On a tawny front. His captain's heart,
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.

Flourish. Enter Antony and Cleopatra, her Ladies, the Train, with Eunuchs fanning her. Look where they come: 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.

CLEOPATRAIf it be love indeed, tell me how much.

ANTONYThere's beggary in the love that can be reckoned.

CLEOPATRAI'll set a bourn how far to be beloved.

ANTONYThen must thou needs find out new heaven, new earth.

Enter a Messenger.

MESSENGERNews, my good lord, from Rome.

ANTONYGrates me, the sum.

CLEOPATRANay, hear them, Antony.
Fulvia perchance is angry; or who knows
If the scarce-bearded Caesar have not sent
His powerful mandate to you: "Do this or this;
Take in that kingdom and enfranchise that.
Perform't, or else we damn thee."

ANTONYHow, my love?

CLEOPATRA

Perchance! Nay, and most like. You must not stay here longer; your dismission Is come from Caesar; therefore hear it, Antony. Where's Fulvia's process?—Caesar's I would say? Both? Call in the messengers. As I am Egypt's queen, Thou blushest, Antony, and that blood of thine Is Caesar's homager; else so thy cheek pays shame When shrill-tongued Fulvia scolds. The messengers!

ANTONYLet Rome in Tiber melt, and the wide arch
Of the ranged empire fall! Here is my space.
Kingdoms are clay. Our dungy earth alike
Feeds beast as man. The nobleness of life
Is to do thus [Embracing]; when such a mutual pair
And such a twain can do't, in which I bind,
On pain of punishment, the world to weet
We stand up peerless.

CLEOPATRAExcellent falsehood!
Why did he marry Fulvia, and not love her?
I'll seem the fool I am not. Antony
Will be himself.

ANTONYBut stirred by Cleopatra.
Now, for the love of Love and her soft hours,
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?

CLEOPATRAHear the ambassadors.

ANTONYFie, wrangling queen!
Whom everything becomes—to chide, to laugh,
To weep; whose every passion fully strives
To make itself, in thee fair and admired!
No messenger but thine, and all alone
Tonight 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 the Train.

DEMETRIUSIs Caesar with Antonius prized so slight?

PHILOSir, sometimes when he is not Antony,
He comes too short of that great property
Which still should go with Antony.

DEMETRIUSI am full sorry
That he approves the common liar who
Thus speaks of him at Rome, but I will hope
Of better deeds tomorrow. Rest you happy!

Exeunt. SCENE II. Alexandria. Another Room in Cleopatra's palace. Enter Enobarbus, a Soothsayer, Charmian, Iras, Mardian and Alexas.

CHARMIAN

Lord Alexas, sweet Alexas, most anything Alexas, almost most absolute Alexas, where's the soothsayer that you praised so to th' queen? O, that I knew this husband which you say must charge his horns with garlands!

ALEXASSoothsayer!

SOOTHSAYERYour will?

CHARMIANIs this the man? Is't you, sir, that know things?

SOOTHSAYERIn nature's infinite book of secrecy
A little I can read.

ALEXASShow him your hand.

ENOBARBUSBring in the banquet quickly; wine enough
Cleopatra's health to drink.

CHARMIANGood, sir, give me good fortune.

SOOTHSAYERI make not, but foresee.

CHARMIANPray, then, foresee me one.

SOOTHSAYERYou shall be yet far fairer than you are.

CHARMIANHe means in flesh.

IRASNo, you shall paint when you are old.

CHARMIANWrinkles forbid!

ALEXASVex not his prescience. Be attentive.

CHARMIANHush!

SOOTHSAYERYou shall be more beloving than beloved.

CHARMIANI had rather heat my liver with drinking.

ALEXASNay, hear him.

CHARMIANGood 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 Caesar, and companion me with my mistress.

SOOTHSAYERYou shall outlive the lady whom you serve.

CHARMIANO, excellent! I love long life better than figs.

SOOTHSAYERYou have seen and proved a fairer former fortune
Than that which is to approach.

CHARMIANThen belike my children shall have no names. Prithee, how many boys and wenches must I have?

SOOTHSAYERIf every of your wishes had a womb,
And fertile every wish, a million.

CHARMIANOut, fool! I forgive thee for a witch.

ALEXASYou think none but your sheets are privy to your wishes.

CHARMIANNay, come, tell Iras hers.

ALEXASWe'll know all our fortunes.

ENOBARBUSMine, and most of our fortunes tonight, shall be drunk to bed.

IRASThere's a palm presages chastity, if nothing else.

CHARMIANE'en as the o'erflowing Nilus presageth famine.

IRASGo, you wild bedfellow, you cannot soothsay.

CHARMIAN

Nay, if an oily palm be not a fruitful prognostication, I cannot scratch mine ear. Prithee, tell her but workaday fortune.

SOOTHSAYERYour fortunes are alike.

IRASBut how, but how? give me particulars.

SOOTHSAYERI have said.

IRASAm I not an inch of fortune better than she?

CHARMIANWell, if you were but an inch of fortune better than I, where would you choose it?

IRASNot in my husband's nose.

CHARMIANOur worser thoughts heavens mend! Alexas—come, his fortune! his fortune! O, let him marry a woman that cannot go, sweet Isis, I beseech thee, and let her die too, and give him a worse, and let worse follow worse, till the worst of all follow him laughing to his grave, fiftyfold a cuckold! Good Isis, hear me this prayer, though thou deny me a matter of more weight; good Isis, I beseech thee!

IRASAmen. Dear goddess, hear that prayer of the people! For, as it is a heartbreaking to see a handsome man loose-wived, so it is a deadly sorrow to behold a foul knave uncuckolded. Therefore, dear Isis, keep decorum and fortune him accordingly!

CHARMIANAmen.

ALEXASLo now, if it lay in their hands to make me a cuckold, they would make themselves whores but they'd do't!

Enter Cleopatra.

ENOBARBUSHush, Here comes Antony.

CHARMIANNot he, the queen.

CLEOPATRASaw you my lord?

ENOBARBUSNo, lady.

CLEOPATRAWas he not here?

CHARMIANNo, madam.

CLEOPATRAHe was disposed to mirth; but on the sudden
A Roman thought hath struck him. Enobarbus!

ENOBARBUSMadam?

CLEOPATRASeek him and bring him hither. Where's Alexas?

ALEXASHere, at your service. My lord approaches.

Enter Antony with a Messenger.

CLEOPATRAWe will not look on him. Go with us.

Exeunt Cleopatra, Enobarbus, Charmian, Iras, Alexas and Soothsayer.

MESSENGERFulvia thy wife first came into the field.

ANTONYAgainst my brother Lucius.

MESSENGERAy.
But soon that war had end, and the time's state
Made friends of them, jointing their force 'gainst Caesar,
Whose better issue in the war from Italy
On the first encounter drave them.

ANTONYWell, what worst?

MESSENGER

The nature of bad news infects the teller.

ANTONYWhen it concerns the fool or coward. On.
Things that are past are done with me. 'Tis thus:
Who tells me true, though in his tale lie death,
I hear him as he flattered.

MESSENGERLabienus—
This is stiff news—hath with his Parthian force
Extended Asia from Euphrates
His conquering banner shook from Syria
To Lydia and to Ionia,
While—

ANTONY"Antony", thou wouldst say—

MESSENGERO, my lord!

ANTONYSpeak to me home; mince not the general tongue. Name Cleopatra as she is called in Rome; Rail thou in Fulvia's phrase, and taunt my faults With such full licence as both truth and malice Have power to utter. O, then we bring forth weeds When our quick minds lie still, and our ills told us Is as our earing. Fare thee well awhile.

MESSENGERAt your noble pleasure.

Exit Messenger. Enter another Messenger.

ANTONYFrom Sicyon, ho, the news? Speak there!

SECOND MESSENGERThe man from Sicyon—

ANTONYIs there such a one?

SECOND MESSENGERHe stays on your will.

ANTONYLet him appear.

Exit second Messenger. These strong Egyptian fetters I must break, Or lose myself in dotage. Enter another Messenger with a letter. What are you?

THIRD MESSENGERFulvia thy wife is dead.

ANTONYWhere died she?

THIRD MESSENGERIn Sicyon:
Her length of sickness, with what else more serious
Importeth thee to know, this bears.
Gives a letter.

ANTONYForbear me.

Exit third Messenger. There's a great spirit gone! Thus did I desire it. What our contempts doth often hurl from us, We wish it ours again. The present pleasure, By revolution lowering, does become The opposite of itself. She's good, being gone. The hand could pluck her back that shoved her on. I must from this enchanting queen break off. Ten thousand harms, more than the ills I know, My idleness doth hatch. How now, Enobarbus! Enter Enobarbus.

ENOBARBUSWhat's your pleasure, sir?

ANTONYI must with haste from hence.

ENOBARBUSWhy then we kill all our women. We see how mortal an unkindness is to them. If they suffer our departure, death's the word.

ANTONYI must be gone.

ENOBARBUS

Under a compelling occasion, let women die. It were pity to cast them away for nothing, though, between them and a great cause they should be esteemed nothing. Cleopatra, catching but the least noise of this, dies instantly. I have seen her die twenty times on far poorer moment. I do think there is mettle in death which commits some loving act on her, she hath such a celerity in dying.

ANTONYShe is cunning past man's thought.

ENOBARBUSAlack, sir, no; her passions are made of nothing but the finest part of pure love. We cannot call her winds and waters sighs and tears; they are greater storms and tempests than almanacs can report. This cannot be cunning in her; if it be, she makes a shower of rain as well as Jove.

ANTONYWould I had never seen her!

ENOBARBUSO, sir, you had then left unseen a wonderful piece of work, which not to have been blest withal would have discredited your travel.

ANTONYFulvia is dead.

ENOBARBUSSir?

ANTONYFulvia is dead.

ENOBARBUSFulvia?

ANTONYDead.

ENOBARBUSWhy, sir, give the gods a thankful sacrifice. When it pleaseth their deities to take the wife of a man from him, it shows to man the tailors of the earth; comforting therein that when old robes are worn out, there are members to make new. If there were no more women but Fulvia, then had you indeed a cut, and the case to be lamented. This grief is crowned with consolation; your old smock brings forth a new petticoat: and indeed the tears live in an onion that should water this sorrow.

ANTONYThe business she hath broached in the state
Cannot endure my absence.

ENOBARBUSAnd the business you have broached here cannot be without you, especially that of Cleopatra's, which wholly depends on your abode.

ANTONYNo more light answers. Let our officers
Have notice what we purpose. I shall break
The cause of our expedience to the Queen,
And get her leave to part. For not alone
The death of Fulvia, with more urgent touches,
Do strongly speak to us, but the letters too
Of many our contriving friends in Rome
Petition us at home. Sextus Pompeius
Hath given the dare to Caesar, and commands

The empire of the sea. Our slippery people, Whose love is never linked to the deserver Till his deserts are past, begin to throw Pompey the Great and all his dignities On his son, who, high in name and power, Higher than both in blood and life, stands up For the main soldier; whose quality, going on, The sides o' th' world may danger. Much is breeding Which, like the courser's hair, hath yet but life And not a serpent's poison. Say our pleasure To such whose place is under us, requires Our quick remove from hence.

ENOBARBUSI shall do't.

Exeunt. SCENE III. Alexandria. A Room in Cleopatra's palace. Enter Cleopatra, Charmian, Alexas and Iras.

CLEOPATRAWhere is he?

CHARMIANI did not see him since.

CLEOPATRASee where he is, who's with him, what he does.
I did not send you. If you find him sad,
Say I am dancing; if in mirth, report
That I am sudden sick. Quick, and return.

Exit Alexas.

CHARMIANMadam, methinks, if you did love him dearly,
You do not hold the method to enforce
The like from him.

CLEOPATRAWhat should I do I do not?

CHARMIANIn each thing give him way; cross him in nothing.

CLEOPATRAThou teachest like a fool: the way to lose him.

CHARMIANTempt him not so too far; I wish, forbear.
In time we hate that which we often fear.
But here comes Antony.

Enter Antony.

CLEOPATRAI am sick and sullen.

ANTONYI am sorry to give breathing to my purpose—

CLEOPATRAHelp me away, dear Charmian! I shall fall.
It cannot be thus long; the sides of nature
Will not sustain it.

ANTONYNow, my dearest queen—

CLEOPATRAPray you, stand farther from me.

ANTONYWhat's the matter?

CLEOPATRAI know by that same eye there's some good news.
What, says the married woman you may go?
Would she had never given you leave to come!
Let her not say 'tis I that keep you here.
I have no power on you; hers you are.

ANTONYThe gods best know—

CLEOPATRAO, never was there queen
So mightily betrayed! Yet at the first
I saw the treasons planted.

ANTONYCleopatra—

CLEOPATRAWhy should I think you can be mine and true,
Though you in swearing shake the throned gods,