The Oxford Shakespeare: The Complete Works

by William Shakespeare

  Have power to utter. O, then we bring forth weeds

  When our quick winds lie still, and our ills told us

  Is as our earing. Fare thee well a while.

  MESSENGER At your noble pleasure.

  Exit Messenger

  Enter another Messenger

  ANTONY

  From Sicyon, ho, the news? Speak there.

  ⌈SECOND MESSENGER⌉

  The man from Sicyon—

  ⌈ANTONY⌉ Is there such a one?

  ⌈SECOND MESSENGER⌉

  He stays upon your will.

  ANTONY Let 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 MESSENGER⌉

  Fulvia thy wife is dead.

  ANTONY Where died she?

  THIRD MESSENGER In Sicyon.

  Her length of sickness, with what else more serious

  Importeth thee to know, this bears.

  He gives Antony the letter

  ANTONY Forbear 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 low’ring, 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⌉

  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.

  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 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.

  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 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 blessed withal would have discredited your travel.

  ANTONY Fulvia is dead.

  ENOBARBUS Sir.

  ANTONY Fulvia is dead.

  ENOBARBUS Fulvia?

  ANTONY Dead.

  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 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.

  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.

  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,

  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

  Upon 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.

  ENOBARBUS

  I shall do’t.

  Exeunt severally

  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

  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.

  CLEOPATRA

  Thou teachest like a fool, the way to lose him.

  CHARMIAN

  Tempt him not so too far. Iwis, 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.

  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.

  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

  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 thronèd gods—

  Who have been false to Fulvia? Riotous madness,

  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.

  Eternity was in our lips and eyes,

  Bliss in our brow’s 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.<
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  ANTONY

  How now, lady!

  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 a while, but my full heart

  Remains in use with you. Our Italy

  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,

  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 any desperate change. My more particular,

  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.

  He offers letters

  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,

  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

  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

  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

  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

  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;

  That you know well. Something it is I would—

  O, 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 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,

  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,

  And I hence fleeting, here remain with thee.

  Away.

  Exeunt severally

  1.4 Enter Octavius 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

  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

  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.

  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

  With knaves that smells of sweat. Say this becomes

  him—

  As his composure must be rare indeed

  Whom these things cannot blemish—yet must Antony

  No way excuse his foils when we do bear

  So great weight in his lightness. If he filled

  His vacancy with his voluptuousness,

  Full surfeits and the dryness of his bones

  Call on him for’t. But to confound such time

  That drums him from his sport, and speaks as loud

  As his own state and ours—’tis to be chid

  As we rate boys who, being mature in knowledge,

  Pawn their experience to their present pleasure,

  And so rebel to judgement.

  Enter a Messenger

  LEPIDUS

  Here’s more news.

  MESSENGER

  Thy biddings have been done, and every hour,

  Most noble Caesar, shalt thou have report

  How ’tis abroad. Pompey is strong at sea,

  And it appears he is beloved of those

  That only have feared Caesar. To the ports

  The discontents repair, and men’s reports

  Give him much wronged.

  ⌈Exit⌉

  CAESAR

  I should have known no less. It hath been taught us from the primal state

  That he which is was wished until he were,

  And the ebbed man, ne‘er loved till ne’er worth love,

  Comes deared by being lacked. This common body,

  Like to a vagabond flag upon the stream,

  Goes to, and back, lackeying the varying tide,

  To rot itself with motion.

  ⌈Enter a second Messenger⌉

  SECOND MESSENGER

  Caesar, I bring thee word Menecrates and Menas, famous pirates,

  Makes the sea serve them, which they ear and wound

  With keels of every kind. Many hot inroads

  They make in Italy. The borders maritime

  Lack blood to think on‘t, and flush youth revolt.

  No vessel can peep forth but ’tis as soon

  Taken as seen; for Pompey’s name strikes more

  Than could his war resisted.

  ⌈Exit⌉

  CAESAR

  Antony,

  Leave thy lascivious wassails. When thou once

  Was beaten from Modena, where thou slew‘st

  Hirtius and Pansa, consuls, at t
hy heel

  Did famine follow, whom thou fought’st against—

  Though daintily brought up—with patience more

  Than savages could suffer. Thou didst drink

  The stale of horses, and the gilded puddle

  Which beasts would cough at. Thy palate then did

  deign

  The roughest berry on the rudest hedge.

  Yea, like the stag when snow the pasture sheets,

  The barks of trees thou browsed. On the Alps

  It is reported thou didst eat strange flesh,

  Which some did die to look on; and all this—

  It wounds thine honour that I speak it now—

  Was borne so like a soldier that thy cheek

  So much as lanked not.

  LEPIDUS ’Tis pity of him.

  CAESAR Let his shames quickly

  Drive him to Rome. ‘Tis time we twain

  Did show ourselves i’th’ field; and to that end

  Assemble we immediate council. Pompey

  Thrives in our idleness.

  LEPIDUS

  Tomorrow, Caesar,

  I shall be furnished to inform you rightly

  Both what by sea and land I can be able

  To front this present time.

  CAESAR Till which encounter

  It is my business, too. Farewell.

  LEPIDUS

  Farewell, my lord. What you shall know meantime

  Of stirs abroad I shall beseech you, sir,

  To let me be partaker.

  CAESAR

  Doubt not, sir. I knew it for my bond.

  Exeunt

  1.5 Enter Cleopatra, Charmian, Iras, and Mardian

  CLEOPATRA Charmian!

  CHARMIAN Madam?

  CLEOPATRA (yawning)

  Ha, ha. Give me to drink mandragora.

  CHARMIAN Why, madam?

  CLEOPATRA

  That I might sleep out this great gap of time

  My Antony is away.

  CHARMIAN

  You think of him too much.

  CLEOPATRA

  O, ’tis treason!

  CHARMIAN Madam, I trust not so.

  CLEOPATRA

  Thou, eunuch Mardian!

  MARDIAN What’s your highness’ pleasure?

  CLEOPATRA

  Not now to hear thee sing. I take no pleasure

  In aught an eunuch has. ’is well for thee

  That, being unseminared, thy freer thoughts

  May not fly forth of Egypt. Hast thou affections?

  MARDIAN Yes, gracious madam.