Read Antony and Cleopatra Online
Authors: William Shakespeare
CLEOPATRA
Mine ear must pluck it thence.
ALEXAS
‘Good friend,’
quoth
49
he,
‘Say the
firm
50
Roman to great
Egypt
sends
This treasure of an oyster, at whose foot,
To
mend
52
the petty present, I will
piece
Her opulent throne with kingdoms. All the east,
Say thou, shall call her mistress.’ So he nodded,
And soberly did mount an
arm-gaunt steed
55
Who neighed so
high
56
that what I would have spoke
Was
beastly dumbed
57
by him.
CLEOPATRA
What, was he sad, or merry?
ALEXAS
Like to the time o’th’year between the extremes
Of hot and cold, he was
nor sad nor
60
merry.
CLEOPATRA
O well-divided disposition! Note him,
Note him, good Charmian,
’tis the man
62
; but note him.
He was not sad, for he would shine on those
That
make their looks by his
64
: he was not merry,
Which seemed to tell them his remembrance lay
In Egypt with his joy: but between both.
O heavenly mingle! Be’st thou sad or merry,
The
violence
68
of either thee becomes,
So does it no man else.—Met’st thou my
posts
69
?
ALEXAS
Ay, madam, twenty
several
70
messengers.
Why do you send
so thick
71
?
CLEOPATRA
Who’s
72
born that day
When I forget to send to Antony
Shall die a beggar. Ink and paper, Charmian.
Welcome, my good Alexas. Did I, Charmian,
Ever love Caesar so?
CHARMIAN
O, that brave Caesar!
CLEOPATRA
Be choked with such another emphasis.
Say ‘the brave Antony’.
CHARMIAN
The valiant Caesar.
CLEOPATRA
By Isis, I will give thee bloody teeth,
If thou with Caesar
paragon
82
again
My man of men.
CHARMIAN
By your most gracious pardon,
I sing but after you.
CLEOPATRA
My salad days,
When I was
green
87
in judgement, cold in
blood
,
To say as I said then. But come, away,
Get me ink and paper.
He shall have every day a several greeting
Or I’ll unpeople Egypt!
Exeunt
Location: Sicily
Enter Pompey, Menecrates and Menas, in warlike manner
POMPEY
If the great gods be just, they shall assist
The deeds of justest men.
MENECRATES
Know, worthy Pompey,
That
what they do delay, they not deny
4
.
POMPEY
Whiles we are suitors to their throne, decays
The thing we sue for
5
.
MENECRATES
We, ignorant of ourselves,
Beg often our own harms, which the wise powers
Deny us for our good: so find we profit
By losing of our prayers.
POMPEY
I shall do well:
The people love me, and
the sea
12
is mine;
My
powers
13
are
crescent
, and my
auguring
hope
Says it will come to th’full. Mark Antony
In Egypt sits at
dinner
15
, and will make
No wars
without
16
doors: Caesar gets money where
He loses hearts: Lepidus flatters both,
Of
18
both is flattered, but he
neither loves
,
Nor either cares for him.
MENAS
Caesar and Lepidus are in the field:
A mighty
strength
21
they carry.
POMPEY
Where have you this? ’Tis false.
MENAS
From Silvius, sir.
POMPEY
He dreams. I know they are in Rome together,
Looking for
25
Antony. But all the
charms
of love,
Salt
26
Cleopatra, soften thy
waned
lip!
Let witchcraft join with beauty, lust with both,
Tie up the libertine in a field of feasts:
Keep his brain
fuming
29
:
epicurean
cooks
Sharpen with
cloyless
30
sauce his appetite
That
31
sleep and feeding may
prorogue
his honour,
Even till a
Lethe’d
32
dullness—
Enter Varrius
How now, Varrius?
VARRIUS
This is most certain that I shall deliver
33
:
Mark Antony is every hour in Rome
Expected. Since he went from Egypt
’tis
A space for
35
further travel.
POMPEY
I could have given
less matter
37
A better
ear
38
. Menas, I did not think
This amorous surfeiter would have
donned his helm
39
For such a petty war:
his soldiership
Is twice the other twain
40
. But let us
rear
The higher our opinion
41
, that our stirring
Can from the
lap
43
of
Egypt’s widow
pluck
The ne’er lust-wearied Antony.
MENAS
I cannot
hope
45
Caesar and Antony shall
well greet together
46
;
His
wife that’s dead
47
did
trespasses
to Caesar:
His
brother
48
warred upon him, although I think
Not
moved
49
by Antony.
POMPEY
I know not, Menas,
How lesser enmities may give way to greater.
Were’t not that we stand up against them all,
’Twere
pregnant
53
they should
square
between themselves,
For they have
entertainèd
54
cause enough
To draw their swords. But how the fear of us
May cement their divisions, and bind up
The petty difference, we
yet not
57
know.
Be’t as our gods will have’t!
It only stands
Our lives upon to use our strongest hands
58
.
Come, Menas.
Exeunt
Location: Rome
Enter Enobarbus and Lepidus
LEPIDUS
Good Enobarbus, ’tis a worthy deed,
And shall become you well, to entreat your captain
To soft and gentle speech.
ENOBARBUS
I shall entreat him
To answer
like himself
5
: if Caesar
move
him,
Let Antony
look over Caesar’s head
6
And speak as
loud as Mars
7
. By
Jupiter
,
Were I the wearer of Antonio’s beard,
I would not shave’t today
9
!
LEPIDUS
’Tis not a time for private
stomaching
10
.
ENOBARBUS
Every time
Serves for the matter that is then born in’t.
LEPIDUS
But small to greater matters must give way.
ENOBARBUS
Not if the small come first.
LEPIDUS
Your speech is passion:
But pray you stir no embers up. Here comes
The noble Antony.
Enter Antony and Ventidius
ENOBARBUS
And yonder Caesar.
Enter Caesar, Maecenas and Agrippa
ANTONY
If we
compose
19
well here,
to Parthia
.
Hark, Ventidius
20
.
They converse apart
CAESAR
I do not know, Maecenas, ask Agrippa.
LEPIDUS
Noble friends,
That which combined
23
us was most great, and let not
A
leaner action rend us
24
.
What’s
amiss,
May it be
gently
25
heard. When we debate
Our trivial difference loud, we do
commit
Murder in healing wounds
26
. Then, noble partners,
The rather for
28
I earnestly beseech,
Touch
29
you the sourest points with sweetest terms,
Nor curstness grow to th’matter
30
.
ANTONY
’Tis spoken well:
Were we before our armies, and
to
32
fight,
I should do thus.
Flourish
CAESAR
Welcome to Rome.
ANTONY
Thank you.
CAESAR
Sit.
ANTONY
Sit, sir.
CAESAR
Nay then
38
.
Caesar sits, then Antony
ANTONY
I learn you take things ill which are not so,
Or
being
40
, concern you not.
CAESAR
I must be laughed at
If,
or
42
for nothing or a little, I
Should say myself offended, and with you
Chiefly i’th’world
44
: more laughed at that I should
Once name you
derogately
45
when to sound your name
It
not concerned me
46
.
ANTONY
My being in Egypt, Caesar,
What was’t to you?
CAESAR
No more than my residing here at Rome
Might be to you in Egypt: yet if you there
Did
practise on my state
51
, your being in Egypt
Might be my
question
52
.
ANTONY
How intend you
53
, ‘practised’?
CAESAR
You may be pleased to
catch at
54
mine intent
By what did here befall me. Your wife and brother
Made wars upon me, and their
contestation
56
Was
theme for you
57
:
you were the word of war
.
ANTONY
You do mistake your business. My brother never
Did
urge me
59
in his act: I did
inquire
it,
And have my
learning
60
from some true
reports
That
drew their swords with you
61
. Did he not rather
Discredit my authority
with
62
yours,
And make the wars alike against my
stomach
63
,
Having alike your cause
64
? Of this my letters
Before did satisfy you. If you’ll
patch
65
a quarrel,
As matter whole
66
you have to make it with,
It must not be with this.
CAESAR
You praise yourself
By laying defects of judgement to me, but
You patched up your excuses.
ANTONY
Not so, not so:
I know you could not lack, I am certain on’t,
Very necessity of this thought
72
, that I,
Your partner in the cause gainst which
he
74
fought,
Could not with
graceful
75
eyes attend those wars
Which
fronted
76
mine own peace. As for my wife,
I would you had her spirit in such another
77
:
The third o’th’world is yours, which with a
snaffle
78
You may
pace
79
easy, but not such a wife.
ENOBARBUS
Would we had all such wives, that the men might
go to wars with the women!
ANTONY
So much
uncurbable
82
, her
garboils
, Caesar,
Made out of her impatience — which
not wanted
83
Shrewdness of
policy
84
too — I
grieving grant
Did you too much disquiet. For that you must
But
86
say I could not help it.
CAESAR
I wrote to you:
When
rioting
88
in Alexandria you
Did pocket up my letters, and with taunts
Did
gibe my missive out of audience
90
.