Antony and Cleopatra (12 page)

ENOBARBUS
    They have
dispatched
²
with Pompey, he is gone.
        The
other three
³
are
sealing
. Octavia weeps
        To part from Rome, Caesar is sad, and Lepidus
        Since Pompey’s feast as Menas says, is troubled
        With the
green sickness
⁶
.

AGRIPPA
    ’Tis a noble Lepidus.

ENOBARBUS
    A very
fine
⁸
one: O, how he loves Caesar!

AGRIPPA
    Nay, but how dearly he adores Mark Antony!

ENOBARBUS
    Caesar? Why, he’s the Jupiter of men.

AGRIPPA
    What’s Antony? The god of Jupiter!

ENOBARBUS
    Spake you of Caesar? How, the
non-pareil
¹²
!

AGRIPPA
    O Antony! O thou
Arabian bird
¹³
!

ENOBARBUS
    Would you praise Caesar, say ‘Caesar’: go
        no further.

AGRIPPA
    Indeed, he plied them both with excellent praises.

ENOBARBUS
    But he loves Caesar best, yet he loves Antony:
        Ho! Hearts, tongues,
figures
¹⁷
, scribes, bards, poets, cannot
        Think, speak,
cast
¹⁸
, write, sing, number, ho,
        His love to Antony. But as for Caesar,
        Kneel down, kneel down and wonder!

AGRIPPA
    Both he loves.

ENOBARBUS
    They are his
shards
²²
and he their
Trumpet within
        beetle. So:
        This is to horse. Adieu, noble Agrippa.

AGRIPPA
    Good fortune, worthy soldier, and farewell.

Enter Caesar, Antony, Lepidus and Octavia

ANTONY
    
No further
²⁵
, sir.

CAESAR
    You take from me a great part of myself:
        
Use me well in’t
²⁷
. Sister, prove such a wife
        
As my thoughts make thee, and as my farthest bond
²⁸
        Shall
pass on
thy
approof
. Most noble Antony,
        Let not the
piece
³⁰
of virtue which is set
        
Betwixt
³¹
us as the cement of our love
        To keep it builded, be the ram to batter
        The fortress of it: for better might we
        Have loved without this
mean
³⁴
, if on both parts
        This be not cherished.

ANTONY
    Make me not offended
in
³⁶
your distrust.

CAESAR
    I have
said
³⁷
.

ANTONY
    You shall not find,
        Though you be therein
curious
³⁹
, the least cause
        For what you seem to fear. So the gods
keep
⁴⁰
you,
        And make the hearts of Romans serve your ends.
        We will here part.

CAESAR
    Farewell, my dearest sister, fare thee well.
        The
elements
⁴⁴
be kind to thee, and make
        Thy spirits all of comfort. Fare thee well.

OCTAVIA
    My noble brother!
Weeps

ANTONY
    The
April’s in her eyes: it is love’s spring
        And these the showers to bring it on
⁴⁷
. Be cheerful.

OCTAVIA
    Sir,
look well to my husband’s house
⁴⁹
, and—

CAESAR
    What, Octavia?

OCTAVIA
    I’ll tell you in your ear.
Whispers to Caesar

ANTONY
    Her tongue will not obey her heart, nor can
        Her heart inform her tongue —
the swan’s-down feather,
        That stands upon the swell at full of tide,
        And neither way inclines
⁵³
.

ENOBARBUS
    Will Caesar weep?
Enobarbus and Agrippa speak aside

AGRIPPA
    He has a
cloud
⁵⁷
in’s face.

ENOBARBUS
    He were the worse for that were he a horse,
        So is he, being a man.

AGRIPPA
    Why, Enobarbus,
        When Antony found Julius Caesar dead,
        He cried almost to roaring, and he wept
        When at Philippi he found Brutus slain.

ENOBARBUS
    That year, indeed, he was troubled with a
rheum
⁶⁴
;
        What willingly he did
confound
⁶⁵
he
wailed
,
        Believe’t, till I wept too.

CAESAR
    No, sweet Octavia,
        You shall hear from me
still
⁶⁸
: the time shall not
        
Outgo
⁶⁹
my thinking on you.

ANTONY
    Come, sir, come:
        I’ll wrestle with you in my strength of love.
        Look, here I have you, thus I let you go,
Embraces him
        And give you to the gods.

CAESAR
    Adieu. Be happy!

LEPIDUS
    Let all the number of the stars give light
        To thy fair way.

CAESAR
    Farewell, farewell!
Kisses Octavia

ANTONY
    Farewell!
Trumpets sound. Exeunt

Location: Alexandria
  

Enter Cleopatra, Charmian, Iras and Alexas

CLEOPATRA
    Where is the
fellow
¹
?

ALEXAS
    Half afeard to come.

CLEOPATRA
    Go to, go to.—Come hither, sir.

Enter the Messenger as before

ALEXAS
    Good majesty,
        
Herod of Jewry
⁵
dare not look upon you
        But when you are well pleased.

CLEOPATRA
    That Herod’s head
        I’ll have: but
how
⁸
, when Antony is gone
        Through whom I might command it?—Come thou near.

MESSENGER
    Most gracious majesty.

CLEOPATRA
    Didst thou behold Octavia?

MESSENGER
    Ay,
dread
¹²
queen.

CLEOPATRA
    Where?

MESSENGER
    Madam, in Rome.
        I looked her in the face, and saw her led
        Between her brother and Mark Antony.

CLEOPATRA
    Is she as tall as me?

MESSENGER
    She is not, madam.

CLEOPATRA
    Didst hear her speak? Is she shrill-tongued or low?

MESSENGER
    Madam, I heard her speak: she is low-voiced.

CLEOPATRA
    
That’s not so good
²¹
: he cannot like her long.

CHARMIAN
    Like her? O Isis! ’Tis impossible.

CLEOPATRA
    I think so, Charmian: dull of tongue and dwarfish!
        What majesty is in her
gait
²⁴
? Remember,
        If e’er thou look’dst on majesty.

MESSENGER
    She creeps:
        Her motion and her
station
²⁷
are as one.
        She
shows
²⁸
a body rather than a life,
        A statue than a
breather
²⁹
.

CLEOPATRA
    Is this certain?

MESSENGER
    Or I have no
observance
³¹
.

CHARMIAN
    Three in Egypt cannot make better note.

CLEOPATRA
    He’s very knowing,
        I do perceive’t. There’s nothing
in her yet
³⁴
:
        The fellow has good judgement.

CHARMIAN
    Excellent.

CLEOPATRA
    Guess at her years, I prithee.

MESSENGER
    Madam, she was a widow.

CLEOPATRA
    Widow? Charmian, hark.

MESSENGER
    And I do think she’s thirty.

CLEOPATRA
    Bear’st thou her face in mind? Is’t long or round?

MESSENGER
    Round, even to faultiness.

CLEOPATRA
    For the most part, too, they are foolish that are so.
        Her hair, what colour?

MESSENGER
    Brown, madam: and her forehead
        
As low as she would wish it
⁴⁶
.

CLEOPATRA
    There’s gold for thee.
        Thou must not take my former sharpness ill.
        I will
employ thee back again
⁴⁹
: I find thee
        Most fit for business. Go, make thee ready.
        Our letters are prepared.
[
Exit Messenger
]

CHARMIAN
    A
proper
⁵²
man.

CLEOPATRA
    Indeed, he is so: I repent me much
        That so I
harried
⁵⁴
him. Why, methinks,
by
him,
        This creature’s
no such thing
⁵⁵
.

CHARMIAN
    Nothing, madam.

CLEOPATRA
    The man hath seen some majesty, and should know.

CHARMIAN
    Hath he seen majesty? Isis
else defend
⁵⁸
,
        And serving you so long!

CLEOPATRA
    I have one thing more to ask him yet, good
        Charmian:
        But ’tis no matter. Thou shalt bring him to me
        Where I will write. All may be well enough.

CHARMIAN
    I
warrant
⁶³
you, madam.
[
Exeunt
]

Location: Athens, Greece
  

Enter Antony and Octavia

ANTONY
    
Nay, nay, Octavia, not only that
¹
—
        That were excusable, that, and thousands more
        Of
semblable import
³
— but he hath waged
        New wars gainst Pompey,
made his will, and read it
        To public ear
⁴
,
        Spoke
scantly
⁶
of me, when
perforce
he could not
        But pay me terms of honour: cold and sickly
        He
vented
⁸
them,
most narrow me
asure lent me:
        When the best
hint
⁹
was given him, he not took’t,
        Or did it
from his teeth
¹⁰
.

OCTAVIA
    O my good lord,
        Believe not all, or if you must believe,
        
Stomach
¹³
not all. A more unhappy lady,
        If this division
chance
¹⁴
, ne’er stood between,
        Praying for both parts:
        The good gods will mock me
presently
¹⁶
        When I shall pray, ‘O, bless my lord and husband!’,
        
Undo
¹⁸
that prayer, by crying out as loud,
        ‘O, bless my brother!’ Husband win, win brother,
        Prays and destroys the prayer, no midway
        ’Twixt these extremes at all.

ANTONY
    Gentle Octavia,
        
Let your best love draw to that point which seeks
        Best to preserve it
²³
. If I lose mine honour,
        I lose myself: better I were not yours
        Than yours so
branchless
²⁶
. But, as you requested,
        Yourself shall go between’s. The meantime, lady,
        I’ll raise the
preparation of a war
²⁸
        Shall
stain
²⁹
your brother. Make your soonest haste,
    
So your desires are yours
³⁰
.

OCTAVIA
    Thanks to my lord.
        The Jove of power make me most weak, most weak,
        Your reconciler! Wars ’twixt you twain would be
        As if the world should
cleave
³⁴
, and that
slain men
        Should solder up the rift
.

ANTONY
    When
it
appears
to you where this begins
³⁶
,
        Turn your displeasure that way, for
our faults
        Can never be so equal that your love
        Can equally move with them
³⁷
.
Provide your going
³⁹
,
        Choose your own company, and command
what
⁴⁰
cost
        Your heart has mind to.
Exeunt

Enter Enobarbus and Eros
Meeting

ENOBARBUS
    How now, friend Eros?

EROS
    There’s strange news come, sir.

ENOBARBUS
    What, man?

EROS
    Caesar and Lepidus have made wars upon Pompey.

ENOBARBUS
    This is old. What is the
success
⁵
?

EROS
    Caesar, having made use of
him
⁶
in the wars gainst
        Pompey,
presently
⁷
denied him
rivality
, would not let him
        partake in the glory of the
action
⁸
, and not
resting here
,
        accuses him of letters he had formerly wrote to Pompey,
        
up
on
his own appeal
¹⁰
seizes him: so the poor third is up, till
        death
enlarge his confine
¹¹
.