ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA. ACT I. SCENE I. Alexandria. A Room in Cleopatra's Palace. Philo. NAY, but this dotage of our general's Upon a tawny front. His captain's heart, To cool a gypsy's lust. Look, where they come! Flourish. Enter ANTONY and CLEOPATRA, with their Take but good note, and you shall see in him Cleo. If it be love indeed, tell me how much. Ant. There's beggary in the love that can be reckoned. Cleo. I'll set a bourn how far to be beloved. Ant. Then must thou needs find out new heaven, new earth. Enter an Attendant. Att. News, my good lord, from Rome. Ant. Cleo. Nay, hear them, Antony. Grates me:-The sum. 7 Fulvia, perchance, is angry; or, who knows Ant. How, my love! Cleo. Perchance,- nay, and most like, You must not stay here longer, your dismission Is come from Cæsar; therefore hear it, Antony.- Is, to do thus; when such a mutual pair, [Embracing. On pain of punishment, the world to weet, We stand up peerless. Cleo. Excellent falsehood! Why did he marry Fulvia, and not love her?- Will be himself. Ant. But stirred by Cleopatra. Now, for the love of love, and her soft hours, Without some pleasure now. What sport to-night? Fie wrangling queen! Whom every thing becomes; to chide, to laugh, To-night, we'll wander through the streets, and note [Exeunt ANT. and CLEO., with their Train. Dem. I'm full sorry, 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. SCENE II. The same. Another Room. Enter CHARMIAN, IRAS, ALEXAS, and a Soothsayer. Char. Lord Alexas, sweet Alexas, most any thing Alexas, almost most absolute Alexas, where's the soothsayer that you praised so to the queen? O that I knew this husband, which, you say, must charge his horns with garlands! Alex. Soothsayer Sooth. Your will? Char. Is this the man?-Is't you, sir, that know things! A little I can read Aler. Show him your hand. Enter ENOBArbus. 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 foresee. Char. Pray then, foresee me one. Sooth. You shall be yet far fairer than you are. Char He means, in flesh. Iras. No, you shall paint when you are old. Alex. Vex not his prescience; be attentive. Sooth. You shall be more beloving, than beloved. 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 Cæsar, and companion me with my mistress. Sooth. You shall outlive the lady whom you serve. Char. O excellent! I love long life better than figs. Sooth. You have seen and proved a fairer former fortune Thau that which is to approach. Char. Then, belike, my children shall have no names. Pr'ythee, how many boys and wenches must I have? South. If every of your wisnes had a womb, And fertile 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 drunk to bed. Iras. There's a palm presages chastity, if nothing else. Char. Even as the o'erflowing Nilus presageth famine. Iras. Go, you wild bedfellow, you cannot soothsay. Char. Nay, if an oily palm be not a fruitful prognostication, I cannot scratch mine ear.-Pr'ythee, tell her but a worky-day fortune. Sooth. Your fortunes are alike. Iras. But how, but how? give me particulars. Sooth. I have said. Iras. Am I not an inch of fortune better than she? Char. Well, if you were but an inch of fortune better than I, where would you choose it? Iras. Not in my husband's nose. Char. Our worser thoughts Heavens mend!--Alexas,come, his fortune, his fortune.-O, let him marry a woman that cannot go, sweet Isis, 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, fiftyfold a cuckold! Good Isis, hear me this prayer, though thou deny me a matter of more weight; good Isis, I beseech thee! Iras. Amen. Dear goddess, hear that prayer of the people! for, as it is a heart-breaking to see a handsome man loose-wived, so it is a deadly sorrow to behold a foul knave uncuckolded. Therefore, dear Isis, 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 it. Eno. Hush! here comes Antony. Char. Not he, the queen. Cleo. He was disposed to mirth; but on the sudden A Roman thought hath struck him.-Enobarbus,Eno. Madam. Cleo. Seek him, and bring him hither. Where's Alexas? Alex. Here, madam, at your service. My lord approaches. Enter ANTONY, with a Messenger and Attendants. Mess. Ay: But soon that war had end, and the time's state Upon the first encounter, drave them. Ant. What worst? Well, Mess. The nature of bad news infects the teller. Mess. Labienus (This is stiff news) hath, with his Parthian force, His conquering banner shook, from Syria Whilst Ant. Antony, thou wouldst say, Mess. O my lord! Ant. Speak to me home; mince not the general tongue; Name Cleopatra as she's called in Rome: Rail thou in Fulvia's phrase; and taunt my faults With such full license, as both truth and malice Have power to utter. O, then we bring forth weeds, When our quick minds lie still; and our ills told us, Is as our earing. Fare thee well a while. Mess. At your noble pleasure. [Exit. Ant. From Sicyon how the news? Speak there. 1 Att. The man from Sicyon. Is there such a one? 2 Att. He stays upon your will. Ant. Let him appear, These strong Egyptian fetters I must break, |