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Enter Antony, and Cleopatra, her Ladies; the Train, with

Eunuchs fanning her.

Take but good Note, and you shall see 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 must thou needs find out new Heav'n, new Earth.

Enter a Messenger.

Mes. 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 fent
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 Fluvia's Process ? Casar's I would say, both?
Call in the Messengers; as I am Ægypt's Queen,
Thou blushest Antony, and that blood of thine
Is Cafar's Homager: else so thy Cheeks pay Shame,
When shrill-tongu'd Fulvia scolds. The Messengers.

Ant. Let Rome in 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 such a twain can do't; in which I bind,
On pain of Punishment, the World to weet
We stand up Peerless.

Cleo. Excellent Falshood!

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

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Ant.

Ant. But stirr'd by Cleopatra.

Now for the love of love, and his 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 to night?
Cleo. Hear the Ambassadors.

Ant. Fie wrangling Queen!

Whom every thing becomes, to chide, to laugh,
To weep; whose every Passion fully strives
To make it felf in thee fair and admir'd.

No Messenger but thine, and all alone,

To Night we'll wander through the Streets, and note

The Qualities of People. Come, my Queen,

Last night you did defire it. Speak not to us.

[Exeunt with their Train.

Dem. Is Cafar with Antonius priz'd so flight ?

Phil Sir, fometimes when he is not Antony,

He comes too short of that great Property

Which still should go with Antony.

Dem. I am full forry, that he approves the common Liar, who thus speaks of him at Rome; but I will hope of better

Deeds to morrow. Rest you happy.

[Exeunt.

Enter Enobarbus, Charmian, Iras, Alexas, and a

Soothsayer.

Char. L. Alexas, sweet Alexas, most any thing Alexas, almost most absolute Alexas, where's the Soothsayer that you prais'd to the Queen ? Oh! that I knew this Hufband, which you fay, must change his Horns with Garlands.

Alex. Soothsayer.
Sooth. 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, foresee me one.

Sooth. You shall be yet far fairer than you are.

Char. He means in Flesh.

Iras.

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

Alex. Vex not his Patience, be attentive.

Char. Huh!

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

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 Cafar, and Companion me with my Mistress.

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

Char. Then belike my Children shall have no Names; Prithee how many Boys and Wenches must I have ? Sooth. If every of your Wishes had a Womb,

And foretel every Wish, 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, shall be to go drunk to Bed.

Iras. There's a Palm presages Chastity, if nothing elfe. Char. E'en as the o'erflowing Nylus presageth Famine. Iras. Go you wild Bedfellow, you cannot Soothsay. Char. Nay, if an oily Palm be not a fruitful Prognoftication, I cannot scratch 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 the?
Char. Well, if you were but an inch of Fortune better

than I; where would you chuse it ?

Iras. Not in my Husband's Nofe.
Char. Our worser thoughts Heav'ns mend.

Alex. Come, his Fortune, his Fortune. Oh let him Marry a Woman that cannot go, sweet Ifis, 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, Fifty-fold a Cuckold. Good Isis, hear me this Prayer, though thou deny me a matter of more Weight; good Ifis, I befeech thee.

Char. Amen, dear Goddess, hear that Prayer of the People. For, as it is a heart-breaking to fee a handfome Man loose-wiv'd, so it is a deadly Sorrow, to behold a foul Knave Uncuckolded; therefore, dear Ifis, 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.

Enter Cleopatra.

Eno. Hush, here comes Antony.

Char. Not he, the Queen.

Cleo. Saw you my Lord ?

Eno. No, Lady.

Cleo. Was he not here ?

Char. No, Madam.

Cleo. He was dispos'd to Mirth, but on the sudden

A Roman thought had struck 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.

Mes. Fulvia thy Wife, first came into the Field.

Ant. Against my Brother Lucius ?

Mes. Ay, but foon that War had end, and the times state Made Friends of them, jointing their force 'gainst Cafar,

Whose better Isse in the War of Italy,

Upon the first encounter drave them.

Ant. Well, what worst ?

Mes. The Nature of bad News infects the Teller.

Ant.

Ant. The Business she hath broached in the State, Cannot endure my Absence.

Eno. And the Business you have broach'd here cannot be without you, especially that of Cleopatra's, which wholly depends on your Aboad.

Ant. No more like Answers: Let our Officers
Have notice what we purpose. I shall break
The cause of our Expedience to the Queen,
And get her Love 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 giv'n the Dare to Cafar, and commands
The Empire of the Sea. Our flipp'ry People,
Whofe Love is never link'd to the Deserver,
'Till his Deferts are past, begin to throw
Pompey the Great, and all his Dignities
Upon his Son; who high in Name and Pow'r,
Higher than both in Blood and Life, stands up
For the main Soldier: Whose Quality going on,
The fides 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.

Eno. I shall do't.

Enter Cleopatra, Charmian, Alexas, and Iras.

Cleo. Where is he?

Char. I did not see him fince.

Cleo. See where he is, who's with him, what he do's:

I did not fend you. If you find him fad,
Say I am Dancing: if in Mirth, report

That I am fudden fick. Quickly, and return.

Char. Madam, methinks if you did love him dearly,

The like from him.

You do not hold the method, to enforce

Cleo. What should I do, I do not?

[Exeunt.

Char. In each thing give him way, cross him in nothing.

Cleo. Thou teachest like a Fool: the way to lose him.

Char.

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