Ten thousand harms, more than the ills I know,
My idleness doth hatch. How now, Enobarbus!
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Enter ENOBARBUS.
ENOBARBUS What’s your pleasure, sir?
ANTONY I must with haste from hence.
ENOBARBUS Why then we kill all our women. We see
how mortal an unkindness is to them. If they suffer
our departure, death’s the word.
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ANTONY I 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
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noise of this, dies instantly. I have seen her die twenty
times upon far poorer moment. I do think there is
mettle in death which commits some loving act upon
her, she hath such a celerity in dying.
ANTONY She is cunning past man’s thought.
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ENOBARBUS Alack, 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
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shower of rain as well as Jove.
ANTONY Would I had never seen her!
ENOBARBUS O, sir, you had then left unseen a wonderful
piece of work, which not to have been blest withal
would have discredited your travel.
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ANTONY Fulvia is dead.
ENOBARBUS Sir?
ANTONY Fulvia is dead.
ENOBARBUS Fulvia?
ANTONY Dead.
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ENOBARBUS Why, 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
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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.
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ANTONY The business she hath broached in the state
Cannot endure my absence.
ENOBARBUS And the business you have broached here
cannot be without you, especially that of Cleopatra’s,
which wholly depends on your abode.
180
ANTONY No 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,
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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,
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Whose love is never linked to the deserver
Till his deserts are past, begin to throw
Pompey the Great and all his dignities
Upon his son, who, high in name and power,
Higher than both in blood and life, stands up
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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
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Our quick remove from hence.
ENOBARBUS I shall do’t. Exeunt.
1.3 Enter CLEOPATRA, CHARMIAN, ALEXAS and IRAS.
CLEOPATRA Where is he?
CHARMIAN I did not see him since.
CLEOPATRA [to Alexas]
See 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
5
That I am sudden sick. Quick, and return.
Exit Alexas.
CHARMIAN
Madam, methinks if you did love him dearly,
You do not hold the method to enforce
The like from him.
CLEOPATRA What should I do I do not?
CHARMIAN
In each thing give him way; cross him in nothing.
10
CLEOPATRA
Thou teachest like a fool: the way to lose him.
CHARMIAN Tempt him not so too far; I wish, forbear.
In time we hate that which we often fear.
Enter ANTONY.
But here comes Antony.
CLEOPATRA I am sick and sullen.
ANTONY I am sorry to give breathing to my purpose –
15
CLEOPATRA Help me away, dear Charmian! I shall fall!
It cannot be thus long; the sides of nature
Will not sustain it.
ANTONY Now, my dearest queen –
CLEOPATRA Pray you, stand farther from me!
ANTONY What’s the matter?
CLEOPATRA
I know by that same eye there’s some good news.
20
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 upon you; hers you are.
ANTONY The gods best know –
CLEOPATRA O, never was there queen
25
So mightily betrayed! Yet at the first
I saw the treasons planted.
ANTONY Cleopatra –
CLEOPATRA
Why should I think you can be mine and true –
Though you in swearing shake the throned gods –
Who have been false to Fulvia? Riotous madness,
30
To be entangled with those mouth-made vows
Which break themselves in swearing!
ANTONY Most sweet queen –
CLEOPATRA
Nay, pray you seek no colour for your going,
But bid farewell and go. When you sued staying,
Then was the time for words; no going then.
35
Eternity was in our lips and eyes,
Bliss in our brows’ bent; none our parts so poor
But was a race of heaven. They are so still,
Or thou, the greatest soldier of the world,
Art turned the greatest liar.
ANTONY How now, lady?
40
CLEOPATRA
I would I had thy inches! Thou shouldst know
There were a heart in Egypt!
ANTONY Hear me, queen.
The strong necessity of time commands
Our services awhile, but my full heart
Remains in use with you. Our Italy
45
Shines o’er with civil swords; Sextus Pompeius
Makes his approaches to the port of Rome;
Equality of two domestic powers
Breed scrupulous faction; the hated, grown to
strength,
Are newly grown to love; the condemned Pompey,
50
Rich in his father’s honour, creeps apace
Into the hearts of such as have not thrived
Upon the present state, whose numbers threaten;
And quietness, grown sick of rest, would purge
By an
y desperate change. My more particular,
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And that which most with you should safe my going,
Is Fulvia’s death.
CLEOPATRA
Though age from folly could not give me freedom,
It does from childishness. Can Fulvia die?
ANTONY She’s dead, my queen. [Gives her the letters.]
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Look here, and at thy sovereign leisure read
The garboils she awaked. At the last, best,
See when and where she died.
CLEOPATRA O most false love!
Where be the sacred vials thou shouldst fill
With sorrowful water? Now I see, I see,
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In Fulvia’s death how mine received shall be.
ANTONY Quarrel no more, but be prepared to know
The purposes I bear; which are, or cease,
As you shall give th’advice. By the fire
That quickens Nilus’ slime, I go from hence
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Thy soldier, servant, making peace or war
As thou affects.
CLEOPATRA Cut my lace, Charmian, come!
But let it be; I am quickly ill and well –
So Antony loves.
ANTONY My precious queen, forbear,
And give true evidence to his love, which stands
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An honourable trial.
CLEOPATRA So Fulvia told me.
I prithee, turn aside and weep for her,
Then bid adieu to me, and say the tears
Belong to Egypt. Good now, play one scene
Of excellent dissembling, and let it look
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Like perfect honour.
ANTONY You’ll heat my blood. No more.
CLEOPATRA You can do better yet, but this is meetly.
ANTONY Now by my sword –
CLEOPATRA And target. Still he mends,
But this is not the best. Look, prithee, Charmian,
How this Herculean Roman does become
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The carriage of his chafe.
ANTONY I’ll leave you, lady.
CLEOPATRA Courteous lord, one word:
Sir, you and I must part, but that’s not it;
Sir, you and I have loved, but there’s not it;
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That you know well. Something it is I would –
Oh, my oblivion is a very Antony,
And I am all forgotten!
ANTONY But that your royalty
Holds idleness your subject, I should take you
For idleness itself.
CLEOPATRA ’Tis sweating labour
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To bear such idleness so near the heart
As Cleopatra this. But, sir, forgive me,
Since my becomings kill me when they do not
Eye well to you. Your honour calls you hence;
Therefore be deaf to my unpitied folly,
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And all the gods go with you! Upon your sword
Sit laurel victory, and smooth success
Be strewed before your feet!
ANTONY Let us go. Come.
Our separation so abides and flies
That thou, residing here, goes yet with me,
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And I, hence fleeting, here remain with thee.
Away! Exeunt.
1.4 Enter OCTAVIUS CAESAR reading a letter, LEPIDUS and their train.
CAESAR You may see, Lepidus, and henceforth know,
It is not Caesar’s natural vice to hate
Our great competitor. From Alexandria
This is the news: he fishes, drinks, and wastes
The lamps of night in revel; is not more manlike
5
Than Cleopatra, nor the Queen of Ptolemy
More womanly than he; hardly gave audience, or
Vouchsafed to think he had partners. You shall find
there
A man who is the abstract of all faults
That all men follow.
LEPIDUS I must not think there are
10
Evils enough to darken all his goodness.
His faults, in him, seem as the spots of heaven,
More fiery by night’s blackness; hereditary
Rather than purchased; what he cannot change
Than what he chooses.
15
CAESAR You are too indulgent. Let’s grant it is not
Amiss to tumble on the bed of Ptolemy,
To give a kingdom for a mirth, to sit
And keep the turn of tippling with a slave,
To reel the streets at noon, and stand the buffet
20
With knaves that smells of sweat. Say this becomes
The Arden Shakespeare Complete Works Page 47
