Read Antony and Cleopatra Online
Authors: William Shakespeare
Location: Alexandria, the Egyptian capital
Enter Demetrius and Philo
PHILO
Nay, but this
dotage
1
of our
general’s
O’erflows the
measure
2
: those his
goodly
eyes,
That o’er the
files and musters
3
of the war
Have glowed like
plated
4
Mars
, now
bend
, now turn
The
office
5
and devotion of their view
Upon a
tawny
6
front
. His captain’s heart,
Which in the scuffles of great fights hath burst
The buckles on his breast,
reneges
8
all
temper
And is become the bellows and the fan
To cool a
gipsy’s
10
lust.
Flourish
.
Enter Antony, Cleopatra, her Ladies
[
Charmian and Iras
]
, the
Train
, with
Eunuchs
fanning her
Look where they come:
Take but good note, and you shall see in him
The
triple pillar of the world
12
transformed
Into a
strumpet
13
’s fool. Behold and see.
CLEOPATRA
If it be love indeed,
tell
14
me how much.
ANTONY
There’s
beggary in the love that can be reckoned
15
.
CLEOPATRA
I’ll set a
bourn
16
how far to be beloved.
ANTONY
Then must thou needs find out new heaven, new
earth
17
.
Enter a Messenger
MESSENGER
News, my good lord, from Rome.
ANTONY
Grates me!
19
The sum
.
CLEOPATRA
Nay, hear
them
20
, Antony.
Fulvia
21
perchance
is angry, or who knows
If the
scarce-bearded Caesar
22
have not sent
His powerful
mandate
23
to you: ‘Do this, or this;
Take in
24
that kingdom, and
enfranchise
that:
Perform’t, or else we damn thee.’
ANTONY
How
26
, my love?
CLEOPATRA
Perchance? Nay, and most like
27
.
You must not stay here longer: your
dismission
28
Is come from Caesar, therefore hear it, Antony.
Where’s Fulvia’s
process
30
? — Caesar’s I would say. Both?
Call in the messengers. As I am Egypt’s queen,
Thou blushest, Antony, and that blood of thine
Is Caesar’s
homager
33
:
else so
thy cheek pays shame
When shrill-tongued Fulvia
scolds
34
. The messengers!
They embrace
ANTONY
Let Rome in
Tiber
35
melt, and the wide arch
Of the
ranged
36
empire fall: here is my space.
Kingdoms are clay: our
dungy
37
earth alike
Feeds beast as man. The nobleness of life
Is to do thus: when such a
mutual
39
pair
And such a
twain
40
can do’t, in which I
bind
,
On pain of punishment
41
, the world to
weet
We stand up
peerless
42
.
CLEOPATRA
Excellent falsehood!
Why did he marry Fulvia
and not
44
love her?
I’ll
seem
45
the fool I am not. Antony
Will be himself.
ANTONY
But
stirred
47
by Cleopatra.
Now, for the love of Love and her soft hours,
Let’s not
confound
49
the time with
conference
harsh;
There’s not a minute of our lives should
stretch
50
Without some pleasure now. What
sport
51
tonight?
CLEOPATRA
Hear the ambassadors.
ANTONY
Fie
53
,
wrangling
queen,
Whom everything becomes
54
, to
chide
, to laugh,
To weep, whose every passion fully strives
To make itself in thee fair and admired.
No
57
messenger but thine, and all alone
Tonight we’ll wander through the streets and note
The
qualities
59
of people. Come, my queen,
Last night you did desire it.—Speak not to us.
To the Messenger
Exeunt
[
Antony and Cleopatra
]
with the Train
DEMETRIUS
Is Caesar
with
61
Antonius
prized so slight
?
PHILO
Sir, sometimes
when he is not Antony
62
,
He comes too short of that great
property
63
Which
still
64
should go with Antony.
DEMETRIUS
I am
full
65
sorry
That he
approves
66
the common liar who
Thus speaks of him at Rome; but I will hope
Of better deeds tomorrow.
Rest you happy
68
.
Exeunt
Enter Enobarbus, Lamprius, a
Soothsayer
, Rannius, Lucillius, Charmian, Iras, Mardian the Eunuch and Alexas
CHARMIAN
Lord Alexas, sweet Alexas, most anything Alexas,
almost most
absolute
2
Alexas, where’s the soothsayer that
you praised so to th’queen? O, that I knew this husband
which you say must
charge
4
his
horns with garlands
!
ALEXAS
Soothsayer.
SOOTHSAYER
Your will?
CHARMIAN
Is this the man? Is’t you, sir, that know things?
SOOTHSAYER
In nature’s infinite book of secrecy
A little I can read.
ALEXAS
Show him your hand.
To Charmian
ENOBARBUS
Bring in the
banquet
11
quickly: wine
To Servants within
enough Cleopatra’s health to drink.
Servants bring fruit and wine
CHARMIAN
Good sir, give me good fortune.
Holds out her hand
SOOTHSAYER
I make not, but foresee.
CHARMIAN
Pray then foresee me one.
SOOTHSAYER
You shall be yet far
fairer
16
than you are.
CHARMIAN
He means in flesh.
IRAS
No, you shall
paint
18
when you are old.
CHARMIAN
Wrinkles forbid!
ALEXAS
Vex not his
prescience
20
: be attentive.
CHARMIAN
Hush!
SOOTHSAYER
You shall be more
beloving
22
than beloved.
CHARMIAN
I had rather heat my
liver
23
with drinking.
ALEXAS
Nay, hear him.
CHARMIAN
Good now
25
, some excellent fortune: let me be
married to three kings in a
forenoon
26
and widow them all: let
me have a child at fifty to whom
Herod of Jewry
27
may do
homage
28
. Find me to marry me with Octavius Caesar and
companion me with my mistress.
SOOTHSAYER
You shall outlive the lady whom you serve.
CHARMIAN
O, excellent! I love long life better than
figs
31
.
SOOTHSAYER
You have seen and
proved
32
a fairer former fortune
Than that which is to approach.
CHARMIAN
Then
belike
34
my children shall
have no names
:
prithee, how many boys and
wenches
35
must
I have?
SOOTHSAYER
If every of your wishes had a womb,
And fertile every wish, a million.
CHARMIAN
Out
38
, fool! I
forgive thee for a witch
.
ALEXAS
You think none but your sheets
are privy to
39
your
wishes.
CHARMIAN
Nay, come, tell Iras hers.
ALEXAS
We’ll know all our fortunes.
ENOBARBUS
Mine, and most of our fortunes tonight, shall be
drunk to bed
44
.
IRAS
There’s a palm
presages
45
chastity, if
Holds out her hand
nothing else.
CHARMIAN
E’en as the o’erflowing
Nilus presageth famine
47
.
IRAS
Go, you
wild
48
bedfellow, you cannot soothsay.
CHARMIAN
Nay, if an
oily palm
49
be not a
fruitful prognostication
,
I cannot
scratch mine ear
50
. Prithee tell her but a
workaday
fortune.
SOOTHSAYER
Your fortunes are alike.
IRAS
But how? But how? Give me particulars.
SOOTHSAYER
I have said
54
.
IRAS
Am I not an inch of fortune better than she?
CHARMIAN
Well, if you were but an inch of fortune better than
I, where would you choose it?
IRAS
Not in my husband’s nose
58
.
CHARMIAN
Our worser thoughts heavens mend. Alexas —
come, his fortune, his fortune! O, let him marry a woman
that cannot
go
61
, 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,
fifty-fold
63
a
cuckold
64
! Good Isis, hear me this prayer, though thou deny
me a
matter of more weight
65
: good Isis, I beseech thee!
IRAS
Amen, dear goddess, hear that prayer of the people!
For as it is a heartbreaking to see a handsome man
loose-wived
67
,
so it is a deadly sorrow to behold a
foul
68
knave
uncuckolded
69
: therefore, dear Isis,
keep decorum
and fortune
him accordingly.
CHARMIAN
Amen.
ALEXAS
Lo, now, if it lay in their hands to make me a cuckold,
they would make themselves whores, but
they’d do’t
73
!
Enter Cleopatra
ENOBARBUS
Hush, here comes Antony.
CHARMIAN
Not he, the queen.
CLEOPATRA
Saw you my lord?
ENOBARBUS
No, lady.
CLEOPATRA
Was he not here?
CHARMIAN
No, madam.
CLEOPATRA
He was disposed to mirth, but on the sudden
A Roman thought
81
hath struck him. Enobarbus?
ENOBARBUS
Madam?
CLEOPATRA
Seek him and bring him hither.
[
Exit Enobarbus
]
Where’s Alexas?
ALEXAS
Here, at your service. My lord approaches.
Enter Antony with a Messenger
CLEOPATRA
We
85
will not look upon him: go with us.
Exeunt
. [
Antony and Messenger remain
]
MESSENGER
Fulvia thy wife first came into the
field
86
.
ANTONY
Against my brother Lucius?
MESSENGER
Ay,
But soon that war had end, and the
time’s state
89
Made friends of them,
jointing their force
90
gainst Caesar,
Whose
better issue
91
in the war from Italy
Upon the first
encounter
92
,
drave them
.