66

Antony and Cleopatra.

ACTI SCENEI

SCENE Alexandria in Ægypt.

Enter Demetrius and Philo.

PHILO.

AY, but this Dotage of our General
O'er-flows the Meafure; thofe his goodly
Eyes

That o'er the Files and Mufters 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 fcuffles of great fights hath burft
The Buckles on his Breaft, reneges all Temper,
And is become the Bellows and the Fan
To cool a Gypfies Luft. Look where they come !

VOL. VI.

A 4

Enter

Enter Antony, and Cleopatra, her Ladies; the Train, with
Eunuchs fanning her.

Take but good Note, and you fhall fee him,
The tripple Pillar of the World, transform'd
Into a Strumpet's Fool. Behold and fee.

Cleo. If it be Love indeed, tell me how much?
Ant. There's beggary in the love that can be reckon❜d.
Cleo. I'll fet a bourn how far to be belov'd.

Ant. Then muft thou needs find out new Heav'n, new
Earth.

Enter a Messenger.

Mef. News, my good Lord, from Rome.
Ant. Rate me the Sum.

Cleo. Nay, hear them Antony.
Fulvia perchance is angry; or who knows.
If the scarce-bearded Cafar have not sent

His powerful Mandate to you. Do this, or this;
Take in that Kingdom, and infranchise that;
Perform't, or elfe we damn thee.

Ant. How, my Love?

Cleo. Perchance, nay, and most like,
You must not ftay here longer, your dismission
Is come from Cafar, therefore hear it Antony.
Where's Fulvia's Frocefs? Cafar's, I would fay,both?
Call in the Meffengers; as I am Ægypt's Queen,
Thou blufheft Antony, and that blood of thine
Is Cafar's Homager: elle fo thy Cheeks pay Shame,
When fhrill tongu'd Fulvia fcolds. The Meffengers.

Ant. Let Rome and Tyber melt, and the wide Arch
Of the rais'd 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; when such a mutual pair,
And fuch a twain can do't; in which I bind,
On pain of Punishment, the World to weet
We stand up Peerlefs.

Cleo. Excellent Falfhood!

Why did he marry Fulvia, and not love her?
I'll feem the Fool I am not. Antony will be himself.

Ant.

Ant. But ftirr'd by Cleopatra.

Now for the love of love, and his foft Hours,
Let's not confound the time with Conference harfh;
There's not a minute of our Lives fhould ftretch
Without fome Pleasure now: What fport to night?
Cleo. Hear the Ambaffadors.
Ant. Fie wrangling Queen!
Whom every thing becomes, to chide, to laugh,
To weep? whofe every Paffion fully ftrives

To make it felf in thee fair and admir'd.

No Meffenger but thine, and all alone,

To Night we'll wander through the Streets, and note
The Qualities of People. Come, my Queen,
Laft night you did defire it. Speak not to us.

Exeunt with their Train.

Dem. Is Cafar with Antonius priz'd fo flight?
Phil. Sir, fometimes when he is not Antony,
He comes too fhort of that great Property
Which ftill fhould go with Antony.

Dem. I am full forry, that he approves the common Liar, who thus fpeaks of him at Rome; but I will hope of better Deeds to morrow. Reft you happy.

Enter Enobardus, Charmian, Iras, Alexas, and a

Southsayer.

[Exeunt.

Char. L. Alexas, fweet Alexas, most any thing Alexas, almost most abfolute Aexas, where's the Soothsayer that you prais'd to th' Queen? Oh! that I knew this Huf band, which you fay, muft change his Horns with Garlands.

Alex. Soothfayer.

South. 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.

Eno. Bring in the Banquet quickly: Wine enough, Cleopatra's Health to drink.

Char. Good Sir, give me good Fortune,

Sooth. I make not, but forefee.

Char. Pray then, forefee me one.

Sooth. You fhall be yet far fairer than you are.
Char. He means in Flesh.

Iras. No, you fhall paint when you are old.
Char. Wrinkles forbid.

Alex. Vex not his Patience, be attentive.
Char. Hufh!

Sooth. You fhall be more beloving, then beloved.
Char. I had rather heat my Liver with Drinking.
Alex. Nay, hear him.

Char. Good now, fome 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 Cafar, and Companion me with my Miftrefs.

Sooth. You fhall out-live the Lady whom you ferve.
Char. Oh excellent, I love long Life better than Figs.
Sooth. You have feen and proved a fairer former Fortune,
than that which is to approach.

Char. Then belike my Children fhall have no Names;
Prithee how many Boys and Wenches muft I have?
Sooth. If every of your Wishes had a Womb,
And foretel every With, a Million.

Char. Out Fool, I forgive thee for a Witch.
Alex. You think none but your Sheets are privy to your
Wishes.

Char. Nay come, tell Iras hers.

Alex. We'll know all our Fortunes.

Eno. Mine, and most of our Fortunes to night, fhall be to go drunk to Bed.

Iras. There's a Palm prefages Chastity, if nothing else. Char. E'en as the o'erflowing Nylus prefageth Famine. Iras. Go you wild Bedfellow, you cannot Soothfay. Char. Nay, if an oily Palm be not a fruitful Prognoftication, 1 cannot fcratch mine Ear. Prithee tell her but a Workyday Fortune.

Sooth. Your Fortunes are alike.

Iras. But how, but how-give me particulars.
Sooth. I have faid.

Iras. Am I not an inch of Fortune better than fhe? Char. Well, if you were but an inch of Fortune better than I; where would you chufe it?

Iras. Not in my Husband's Nofe. Char. Our worfer thoughts Heav'ns mend. Alex. Come, his Fortune, his Fortune. Oh let him Marry a Woman that cannot go, sweet fis, I beseech thee, and let her die too, and give him a worse, and let worfe follow worfe, 'till the worst of all follow him laughing to his Grave, Fifty-fold a Cuckold. Good is, hear me this Prayer, though thou deny me a matter of more Weight; good Ifis, I beseech thee.

Char. Amen, dear Goddefs, hear that Prayer of the People. For, as it is a heart-breaking to fee a handfome Man loofe-wiv'd, fo it is a deadly Sorrow, to behold a foul Knave Uncuckolded; therefore dear Ifs, keep decorum, and Fortune him accordingly.

Char. Amen.

Alex. Lo now, if it lay in their Hands to make me a Cuckold, they would make themselves Whores, but they'd

do't.

Char. No, Madam.

Cleo. He was difpos'd to Mirth,but on the fudden A Roman thought had ftruck him. Enobarbus.

Eno. Madam.

Cleo. Seek him, and bring him hither; where's Alexas?
Alex. Here at your Service, my Lord approaches.
Enter Antony with a Messenger and Attendants.
Cleo. We will not look upon him; go with us. [Exeunt.
Mef. Fulvia thy Wife, firft came into the Field.
Ant. Againft my Brother Lucius ?

Mef. Ay, but foon that War had end, and the times ftate Made Friends of them, jointing their force 'gainst Cefar, Whose better Iflue in the War of Italy,

Upon the first encounter drave them.

Ant. Well, what worst?

Mef. The Nature of Bad News infects the Teller.