Read Antony and Cleopatra Online
Authors: William Shakespeare
CLEOPATRA
O most false love!
Where be the
sacred vials
74
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
77
The purposes I bear
78
, which
are, or cease
,
As you shall give
th’advice
79
. By the
fire
That quickens Nilus’ slime
, I go from hence
Thy soldier, servant, making peace or war
As
thou affects
82
.
CLEOPATRA
Cut my
lace
83
, Charmian, come!
But
let it be
84
: I am quickly ill and well,
So Antony loves
85
.
ANTONY
My precious queen,
forbear
86
And
give true evidence
87
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
92
. Good now, play one scene
Of excellent
dissembling
93
, and let it look
Like perfect honour.
ANTONY
You’ll
heat my blood
95
no more!
CLEOPATRA
You can do better yet, but this is
meetly
96
.
ANTONY
Now, by sword—
CLEOPATRA
And
target
98
. Still he
mends
,
But this is not the best. Look, prithee, Charmian,
How this
Herculean
100
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
107
is a very Antony,
And I am
all forgotten
108
.
ANTONY
But
109
that your royalty
Holds
idleness
your subject
110
, I should take you
For idleness itself.
CLEOPATRA
’Tis
sweating labour
112
To bear such idleness so near the heart
As Cleopatra this. But, sir, forgive me,
Since my
becomings
115
kill me when they do not
Eye
116
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
119
.
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
122
.
Away!
Exeunt
Location: Rome, Italy
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
3
. From Alexandria
This is the news: he fishes, drinks and wastes
The lamps of night in revel.
Is
5
not more manlike
Than Cleopatra, nor the
Queen of Ptolemy
6
More womanly than he. Hardly
gave audience
7
, or
Vouchsafed
8
to think he had partners. You shall find there
A man who is th’
abstract
9
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
13
,
More fiery by night’s blackness; hereditary
Rather than
purchased
15
, what he cannot change,
Than what he chooses.
CAESAR
You are too indulgent. Let’s grant it is not
Amiss to
tumble
18
on the bed of Ptolemy,
To give a kingdom for a
mirth
19
, to sit
And
keep the turn of tippling
20
with a slave,
To
reel
21
the streets at noon, and
stand the buffet
With knaves that smell of sweat: say this becomes him —
As
23
his
composure
must be rare indeed
Whom these things cannot blemish — yet must Antony
No way excuse his
foils
25
when we do bear
So great weight in his lightness
. If he filled
His
vacancy
27
with his
voluptuousness
,
Full
surfeits
28
and the
dryness of his bones
Call on him for’t. But to
confound
29
such time
That
drums
30
him from his sport, and speaks as loud
As
his own state and ours
31
,
’tis to be chid
As we
rate
32
boys, who, being
mature in knowledge
,
Pawn their experience to their present pleasure
And so rebel
to
34
judgement.
Enter a Messenger
LEPIDUS
Here’s more news.
MESSENGER
Thy
biddings
36
have been done, and every hour,
Most noble Caesar, shalt thou have report
How ’tis
38
abroad. Pompey is strong at sea,
And it appears he is beloved of those
That
only have feared
40
Caesar: to the ports
The
discontents
41
repair, and men’s reports
Give him
42
much wronged.
CAESAR
I should have known no less.
It hath been taught us from the
primal state
44
That
he which is was wished until he were
45
,
And the
ebbed
46
man,
ne’er loved
till ne’er worth love,
Comes deared
47
by being
lacked
.
This common body
,
Like to a
vagabond
48
flag
upon the stream,
Goes to and back,
lackeying
49
the varying tide,
To rot itself with motion.
[
Enter another Messenger
]
SECOND MESSENGER
Caesar, I bring thee word
Menecrates and Menas,
famous
52
pirates,
Make the sea serve them, which they
ear
53
and wound
With keels of every kind. Many
hot inroads
54
They make in Italy: the
borders maritime
55
Lack blood
56
to think on’t, and
flush
youth revolt.
No vessel can peep forth but ’tis as soon
Taken
58
as seen, for Pompey’s name
strikes more
Than could his war resisted
.
CAESAR
Antony,
Leave thy lascivious
wassails
61
. When thou once
Was beaten from
Modena
62
, where thou slew’st
Hirtius and Pansa, consuls, at thy heel
Did famine follow,
whom
64
thou fought’st against —
Though
daintily
65
brought up — with patience more
Than savages could suffer. Thou didst drink
The
stale
67
of horses and the
gilded
puddle
Which beasts would cough at. Thy palate then did
deign
68
The roughest berry on the
rudest
69
hedge.
Yea, like the stag when snow the pasture
sheets
70
,
The barks of trees thou
browsèd
71
. 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
76
.
LEPIDUS
’Tis
pity of
77
him.
CAESAR
Let his shames quickly
Drive him to Rome: ’tis time we
twain
79
Did show ourselves
i’th’field
80
, 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
85
To
front
86
this present time.
CAESAR
Till which encounter,
It is my business too. Farewell.
LEPIDUS
Farewell, my lord. What you shall know meantime
Of
stirs
90
abroad, I shall beseech you, sir,
To let me be partaker.
CAESAR
Doubt not, sir,
I knew it for my
bond
93
.
Exeunt
Location: Alexandria
Enter Cleopatra, Charmian, Iras and Mardian
CLEOPATRA
Charmian!
CHARMIAN
Madam?
CLEOPATRA
Ha, ha.
Yawns
Give me to drink
mandragora
4
.
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
13
. I take no pleasure
In aught an eunuch has: ’tis well for thee
That, being
unseminared
15
, thy
freer
thoughts
May not fly forth of Egypt. Hast thou
affections
16
?
MARDIAN
Yes, gracious madam.
CLEOPATRA
Indeed?
MARDIAN
Not
in deed
19
, madam, for I can
do
nothing
But what in deed is
honest
20
to be done:
Yet have I fierce affections, and think
What
Venus did with Mars
22
.
CLEOPATRA
O, Charmian,
Where think’st thou he is now? Stands he, or sits he?
Or does he walk? Or is he on his horse?
O happy horse, to bear the weight of Antony!
Do
bravely
27
, horse, for
wot’st thou
whom thou mov’st?
The
demi-Atlas
28
of this earth, the
arm
And
burgonet
29
of men. He’s speaking now,
Or murmuring ‘Where’s my serpent of old Nile?’
For so he calls me. Now I feed myself
With most delicious poison. Think on me
That am with
Phoebus
33
’ amorous pinches
black
And wrinkled deep in time.
Broad-fronted
34
Caesar
,
When thou wast here above the ground, I was
A
morsel
36
for a monarch, and
great Pompey
Would stand and
make his eyes grow in my brow
37
:
There would he anchor his
aspect
38
, and
die
With looking on
his life
39
.
Enter Alexas from Antony
ALEXAS
Sovereign of Egypt, hail!
CLEOPATRA
How much unlike art thou Mark Antony!
Yet, coming from him, that
great med’cine
42
hath
With his
tinct
43
gilded thee.
How goes it with my
brave
44
Mark Antony?
ALEXAS
Last thing he did, dear queen,
He kissed — the last of many doubled kisses —
This
orient
47
pearl. His speech sticks in my heart.