Cleo. See where he is, who's with him, what he does : I did not send you; -If you find him sad, You do not hold the method to enforce Cleo. What should I do, I do not? cross him Cleo. Thou teachest like a fool the way to lose him. : and true, Though you in swearing shake the thronged gods, Who have been false to Fulvia? Riotous madness, To be entangled with those mouth-made vows, Which break themselves in swearing! Ant. Most sweet queen, Cleo. Nay, pray you, seek no colour for your going, [ing, But bid farewell, and go: when you sued stay. Then was the time for words: No going then ;Eternity was in our lips, and eyes; Bliss in our brows' bent; none our parts so poor, Ant. How now, lady! Cleo. Though age from folly could not give me freedom, It does from childishness :-Can Fulvia die 1 + Look here, and, at thy sovereign leisure, read Cleo. O most false love 1 Where be the sacred vials thou should'st fill Cleo. Cut my lace, Charmian, come ;- Ant. My precious queen, forbear; And give true evidence to his love, which stands An honourable trial. Cleo. So Fulvia told me. I pr'ythee turn aside, and weep for her; Ant. You'll heat my blood; no more. Cleo. You can do better yet; but this is meetly. Ant. Now, by my sword, Cleo. And target,-Still he mends; But this is not the best: Look, pr'ythee, Charmian, How this Herculean Roman does become Ant. I'll leave, you, lady. Cleo. Courteous lord, one word. Sir, you and I must part,-but that's not it: Ant. But that your royalty Holds idleness your subject, I should take you For idleness itself. Cleo. 'Tis sweating labour, To bear such idleness so near the heart Ant. Let us go. Come: Our separation so abides, and flies, Enter OCTAVIUS CESAR, LEPIDUS, and Atten dants. Ces. You may see, Lepidus, and henceforth know, It is not Cesar's natural vice to hate One great competitor : from Alexandria Render my going agreeable. Can Fulvia be deac ? The commotion she occasioned. Obliv ous memory. Associate or partner. This is the news-He fishes, drinks, and wastes Yea, like the stag, when snow the pasture sheets, The lamps of night in revel: is not more man-The barks of trees thou browsed'st; on the Alps like Than Cleopatra; nor the queen Ptolemy A man, who is the abstract of all faults Lep. I must not think there are His faults, in him, seem as the spots of heaven, Ces. You are too indulgent: let us grant, it is every hour, Most noble Cesar, shalt thou have report Ces. I should have known no less :- Mess. Cesar, 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 revolt: youth No vessel can peep forth, but 'tis as soon It is reported, thou did'st eat strange flesh, Lep. It is pity of him. Ces. Let his shames quickly Drive him to Rome: 'Tis time we twain Lep. To-morrow, Cesar, I shall be furnish'd to inform you rightly Ces. 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. Ces. Doubt not, Sir; I knew it for my bond.⚫ [Exeunt. Cleo. O Charmian, Where think'st thou he is now? Stands he, or sits be? Or does he walk? or is he on his horse? O happy horse, to bear the weight of Antony The demi-Atlas of this earth, the arm For so he calls me: Now I feed myself Cesar, When thou wast here above the ground, I was There would he anchor his aspéct, and die Enter ALEXAS. Cleo. How much unlike art thou Mark Antony! Yet, coming from him, that great medicine hath How goes it with my brave Mark Antony ? Say, the firm Roman to great Egypt sends Say thou, shall call her mistress. So he nodded, Cleo. What, was he sad, or merry? Men. Cesar and Lepidus Are in the field; a mighty strength they carry Pom. Where have you this? 'tis false. Men. From Silvius, Sir. Pom. He dreams: I know they are in Rome together, Looking for Antony: But all charms of love, Enter VARRIUS. Var. This is most certain that I shall deliver : Alex. Like to the time o'the year between the A space for further travel. extremes Of hot and cold; he was nor sad, nor merry. Pom. I could have given less matter A better ear.-Menas, I did not think Cleo. O well-divided disposition !-Note him,This amorous surfeiter would have don'd his Note him, good Charmian, 'tis the man; but note him: He was not sad; for he would shine on those So does it no man else.-Met'st thou my posts? Cleo. Who's born that day When I forget to send to Antony, For such a petty war: his soldiership [helm Cesar and Antony shall well greet together: Pom. I know not, Menas, How lesser enmities may give way to greater. Shall die a beggar.-Ink and paper, Charmian.-'Twere pregnant they should square between Welcome, my good Alexas.-Did I, Charinian, Ever love Cesar so? Char. O that brave Cesar! themselves; For they have entertained cause enough To draw their swords; but how the fear of us Cleo. Be chok'd with such another emphasis! May cement their divisions, and bind up Say, the brave Antony. Char. The valiant Cesar! Cleo. By Isis, I will give thee bloody teeth, If thou with Cesar paragon again My man of men. Char. By your most gracious pardon, I sing but after you. Cleo. My sallad days, When I was green in judgment :-cold in blood, ACT II. [Exeunt. The petty difference, we yet not know. [Exeunt. To answer like himself: if Cesar move him, SCENE I.-Messina.-A Room in POMPEY's I would not shave to-day. It not concern'd me. Ant. My being in Egypt, Cesar, What was't to you? Ces. No more than my residing here at Rome Might be to you in Egypt: Yet, if you there Did practise on my state, your being in Egypt Might be my question. Ant. How intend you, practis'd? Ces. You may be pleas'd to catch at mine intent, [ther, By what did here befal me. Your wife, and broMade wars upon me; and their contestation Was theme for you, you were the word of war. Ant. You do mistake your business; my brother never Did urge me in his act: I did enquire it; Discredit my authority with yours; Ces. You praise yourself By laying defects of judgment to me; but Ant. Not so, not so; I know you could not lack, I am certain on't Your partner in the cause 'gainst which he fought, Could not with grateful eyes attend those wars Which 'fronted mine own peace. As for my wife, I would you had her spirit in such another : The third o'the world is yours; which, with a snaffle T You may pace easy, but not such a wife. Eno. 'Would we had all such wives, that the men might go to wars with the women! Ant. So much incurable, her garboils, Cesar, Made out of her impatience, (which not wanted Shrewdness of policy too,) I grieving grant, Did you too much disquiet: for that, you must But say, I could not help it. Ces. I wrote to you, When rioting in Alexandria: you Did pocket up my letters, and with taunts He fell upon me, ere admitted; then Three kings I had newly feasted, and did want And then, when poison'd hours had bound me up To have me out of Egypt, made wars here; Lep. 'Tis nobly spoken. Mec. If it might please you to enforce no further The griefs + between ye, to forget them quite, Lep. Worthily spoke, Mecænas. Eno. Or, if you borrow one another's love for the instant, you may, when you hear no more words of Pompey, return it again: you shall have time to wrangle in, when you have nothing else to do. Ant. Thou art a soldier only; speak no more. Eno. That truth should be silent, I had almost forgot. Ant. You wrong this presence, therefore speak no more. Eno. Go to then; your considerate stone. Ces. I do not much dislike the matter, but The manner of his speech: for it cannot be, We shall remain in friendship, our conditions So differing in their acts. Yet, if I knew What hoop should hold us staunch, from edge to edge O'the world I would pursue it. Agr. Give me leave, Cesar,- Agr. Thou hast a sister by the mother's side, Ces. Say not so, Agrippa; If Cleopatra heard you, your reproof Ant. I am not married, Cesar: let me hear Agrippa further speak. Agr. To hold you in perpetual amity, To make you brothers, and to kuit your hearts With an unslipping knot, take Antony Octavia to his wife: whose beauty claims No worse a husband than the best of men! Whose virtue, and whose general graces, speak That which none else can utter. By this mar Ant. Will Cesar speak? Ces. Not till he hears how Antony is touch ð With what is spoke already. Ant. What power is in Agrippa, 'Would we had spoke together! Haste we for it: Yet, ere we put ourselves in arms, despatch we The business we have talk'd of. Ces. With most gladness; And do invite you to my sister's view, Ant. Let us, Lepidus, Not lack your company. Lep. Noble Antony, Not sickness should detain me. And what they undid, did, Agr. Oh, rare for Antony! Eno. Her gentlewomen, like the Nereides, So many mermaids, tended her i'the eyes, And made their bends adornings: at the helm A seeming Mermaid steers; the silken tackle Swell with the touches of those flower-soft hands That yarely frame the office. From the barge A strange invisible pérfume hits the sense Of the adjacent wharfs. The city cast Her people out upon her; and Antony, Enthron'd in the market-place, did sit alone, Whistling to the air; which, but for vacancy, Had gone to gaze on Cleopatra too, And made a gap in nature. Where most she satisfies. For vilest things Mec. If beauty, wisdom, modesty, can settle [Flourish. Exeunt CESAR, ANTONY, and The heart of Antony, Octavia is LEPIDUS. Mec. Welcome from Egypt, Sir. Eno. Half the heart of Cesar, worthy Mecanas! my honourable friend, Agrippa!Agr. Good Enobarbus ! Mec. We have cause to be glad that matters are so well digested. You staid well by it in Egypt. Eno. Ay, Sir; we did sleep day out of countenance, and made the night light with drinking. Mec. Eight wild boars roasted whole at a breakfast, and but twelve persons there. Is this true? Eno. This was but as a fly by an eagle: we had much more monstrous matter of feast, which worthily deserved noting. Mec. She's a most triumphant lady, if report be square to her. Eno. When she first met Mark Antony, she pursed up his heart upon the river of Cyduus. A blessed lottery to him, Agr. Let us go. Good Enobarbus, make yourself my guest, Whilst you abide here. Eno. Humbly, Sir, I thank you, [Exeunt. SCENE III.-The same.-A Room in CESAR'S House. Enter CESAR, ANTONY, OCTAVIA between them ; ATTENDANTS, and a SoотHSAYER. Ant. The world, and my great office, will sometimes Divide me from your bosom. Ant. Good night, Sir.-My Octavia, Agr. There she appear'd indeed; or my re-Shall all be done by the rule. Good night, dear porter devised well for her. Eno. I will tell you: The barge she sat in, like a burnish'd throne, Burn'd on the water: the poop was beaten gold; Purple the sails, and so perfumed, that The winds were love-sick with them: the oars were silver : Which to the tune of flutes kept stroke, and made lady. Octa. Good night, Sir. Ces. Good night. |