Antony and Cleopatra (18 page)

Location: Caesar’s camp outside Alexandria
  

Enter a Sentry and his Company, Enobarbus follows

SENTRY
    If we be not relieved within this hour,
        We must return to
th’court of guard
²
: the night
        Is
shiny
³
and they say we shall
embattle
        By th’second hour i’th’morn.

FIRST WATCH
    This last day was a
shrewd
⁵
one to’s.

ENOBARBUS
    O, bear me witness, night—

SECOND WATCH
    What man is this?

FIRST WATCH
    Stand
close
⁸
, and
list
him.
They stand aside

ENOBARBUS
    Be witness to me — O thou blessèd moon —
        
When men revolted shall upon record
        Bear hateful memory
¹⁰
, poor Enobarbus did
        Before thy face repent!

SENTRY
    Enobarbus?

SECOND WATCH
    Peace! Hark further.

ENOBARBUS
    O
sovereign mistress of true melancholy
¹⁵
,
        The poisonous
damp of night
¹⁶
disponge
upon me,
        That life, a very
rebel to my will
¹⁷
,
        May hang no longer on me. Throw my heart
        Against the
flint
¹⁹
and hardness of my fault,
        Which, being
dried with grief
²⁰
, will break to powder
        And finish all foul thoughts. O Antony,
        Nobler than my revolt is infamous,
        Forgive me in
thine own particular
²³
,
        But let the world
rank me in register
²⁴
        A master-leaver and a
fugitive
²⁵
.
        O Antony! O Antony!
He sinks down and dies

FIRST WATCH
    Let’s speak to him.

SENTRY
    Let’s hear him, for the things he speaks
        May concern Caesar.

SECOND WATCH
    Let’s do so. But he sleeps.

SENTRY
    
Swoons
³¹
rather, for so
bad
a prayer as his
        Was never yet for sleep.

FIRST WATCH
    Go we to him.

SECOND WATCH
    Awake, sir, awake! Speak to us!

FIRST WATCH
    Hear you, sir?

SENTRY
    The hand of death hath
raught
³⁶
him.

Drums afar off

    Hark! The drums
demurely
³⁷
wake the sleepers.
        Let us bear him to th’court of guard:
        He is
of note
³⁹
: our
hour is fully out
.

SECOND WATCH
    Come on, then,
        He may recover yet.
Exeunt
[
with the body
]

Location: the battlefield outside Alexandria
  

Enter Antony and Scarrus with their Army

ANTONY
    Their preparation is today by sea,
        We please them not by land.

SCARRUS
    For
both
³
, my lord.

ANTONY
    I would they’d fight
i’th’fire or i’th’air
⁴
,
        We’d fight there too. But this it is: our
foot
⁵
        Upon the hills adjoining to the city
        Shall stay with us. Order for sea is given:
        They have
put forth the haven
⁸
,
        Where their
appointment
⁹
we may best discover,
        And look on their endeavour.
Exeunt

Enter Caesar and his Army

CAESAR
    
But being charged
¹
we will be
still
by land,
        Which, as I take’t,
we shall
²
, for his best force
        Is forth to man his galleys. To the
vales
³
,
        And
hold our best advantage
⁴
.
Exeunt

Alarum afar off, as at a sea-fight. Enter Antony and Scarrus

ANTONY
    
Yet they are not joined
¹
: where yond pine does stand,
        I shall discover all. I’ll bring thee word
        Straight, how ’tis like to go.
Exit

SCARRUS
    Swallows have built
        In Cleopatra’s sails their nests. The
augurers
⁵
        Say they know not, they cannot tell, look grimly,
        And dare not speak their knowledge. Antony
        Is valiant and dejected, and
by starts
⁸
        His
fretted
⁹
fortunes give him hope and fear
        Of what he has and has not.

Enter Antony

ANTONY
    All is lost:
        This foul Egyptian hath betrayèd me:
        My fleet hath yielded to the foe, and yonder
        They cast their caps up, and carouse together
        Like friends long lost.
Triple-turned whore!
¹⁵
’Tis thou
        Hast sold me to this novice, and my heart
        Makes only wars on thee. Bid them all fly:
        For when I am revenged upon my
charm
¹⁸
,
        I have done all. Bid them all fly. Be gone!

[
Exit Scarrus
]

    O sun, thy
uprise
²⁰
shall I see no more.
        Fortune and Antony part here, even here
        Do we shake hands. All come to this? The hearts
        That
spanieled
²³
me at heels, to whom I gave
        Their wishes, do
discandy
²⁴
,
melt their sweets
        On blossoming Caesar, and
this pine
²⁵
is
barked
        That overtopped them all. Betrayed I am.
        O this false soul of Egypt! This
grave
²⁷
charm
        Whose eye
becked
²⁸
forth my wars and called them home,
        
Whose bosom was my
crownet
, my chief end
²⁹
,
        Like a right
gipsy
³⁰
hath at
fast and loose
        
Beguiled
³¹
me to the very heart of loss.
        What, Eros, Eros!—

Enter Cleopatra

                Ah, thou
spell
³²
!
Avaunt
!

CLEOPATRA
    Why is my lord enraged against his love?

ANTONY
    Vanish or I shall give thee thy deserving
        And
blemish Caesar’s triumph
³⁵
. Let him take thee
        And hoist thee up to the shouting
plebeians
³⁶
.
        Follow his chariot like the greatest
spot
³⁷
        Of all thy sex. Most
monster-like, be shown
³⁸
        
For
³⁹
poor’st diminutives
, for
dolts
, and let
        
Patient
⁴⁰
Octavia plough thy visage up
        With her
preparèd
⁴¹
nails!
Exit Cleopatra
                ’Tis well thou’rt gone
        If it be well to live. But better ’twere
        Thou
fell’st into
⁴³
my fury, for one death
        Might have prevented many. Eros, ho!
        The
shirt of Nessus
⁴⁵
is upon me. Teach me,
        
Alcides
⁴⁶
, thou mine ancestor, thy rage:
        Let me lodge
Lichas
⁴⁷
on the horns o’th’moon,
        And with those hands that grasped the heaviest
club
⁴⁸
        Subdue my
worthiest
⁴⁹
self. The witch shall die.
        To the young Roman boy she hath sold me, and I fall
        Under this plot. She dies for’t. Eros, ho!
Exit

Location: Alexandria
  

Enter Cleopatra, Charmian, Iras, Mardian

CLEOPATRA
    Help me, my women! O, he’s more mad
        Than
Telamon for his shield
²
: the
boar of Thessaly
        Was never so
embossed
³
.

CHARMIAN
    To
th’monument
⁴
!
        There lock yourself and send him word you are dead:
        The soul and body
rive
⁶
not more in parting
        Than greatness
going off
⁷
.

CLEOPATRA
    To th’monument!
        Mardian, go tell him I have slain myself:
        Say that the last I spoke was ‘Antony’,
        And word it — prithee — piteously. Hence, Mardian,
        And bring me how he takes my death. To th’monument!

Exeunt

Enter Antony and Eros

ANTONY
    Eros,
thou yet behold’st me
¹
?

EROS
    Ay, noble lord.

ANTONY
    Sometimes we see a cloud that’s
dragonish
³
,
        A vapour sometime like a bear or lion,
        A towered citadel, a
pendent
⁵
rock,
        A forkèd mountain, or blue
promontory
⁶
        With trees upon’t that nod unto the world
        And
mock
⁸
our eyes with air. Thou hast seen these
signs
:
        They are black
vesper’s
⁹
pageants
.

EROS
    Ay, my lord.

ANTONY
    That which is now a horse, even
with a thought
¹¹
        The
rack
¹²
dislimns
and makes it indistinct
        As water is in water.

EROS
    It does, my lord.

ANTONY
    My good
knave
¹⁵
Eros, now thy captain is
        Even such a body: here I am Antony,
        Yet cannot hold this visible shape, my knave.
        I made these wars for
Egypt
¹⁸
, and the queen —
        Whose heart I thought I had, for she had mine,
        Which whilst it was mine had annexed unto’t
        A million more, now lost — she, Eros, has
        
Packed
²²
cards with Caesar, and
false-played
my glory
        Unto an enemy’s
triumph
²³
.
        Nay, weep not, gentle Eros, there is left us
        Ourselves to end ourselves.—

Enter Mardian

                O, thy vile lady!
        She has
robbed me of my sword
²⁶
.

MARDIAN
    No, Antony,
        My mistress loved thee and her fortunes
mingled
        With thine entirely
²⁸
.

ANTONY
    Hence,
saucy
³⁰
eunuch. Peace!
        She hath betrayed me and shall die the death.

MARDIAN
    Death of one person can be paid but once,
        And that she has
discharged
³³
. What thou wouldst do
        Is done
unto thy hand
³⁴
: the last she spake
        Was ‘Antony! Most noble Antony!’
        Then in the midst a tearing groan did break
        The name of Antony: it was
divided
        Between her heart and lips
³⁷
: she
rendered
³⁸
life,
        Thy name so buried in her.

ANTONY
    Dead, then?

MARDIAN
    Dead.

ANTONY
    Unarm, Eros: the long day’s task is done
        And we must sleep.—
That thou depart’st
        hence safe
To Mardian
        
Does pay thy labour richly
⁴³
. Go.—
Exit Mardian

        Off, pluck off!
Eros unarms him

    The
seven-fold shield of Ajax
⁴⁶
cannot keep
        The
battery
⁴⁷
from my heart.—O,
cleave
, my sides!
        Heart, once be stronger than thy
continent
⁴⁸
,
        Crack thy frail case!—
Apace
⁴⁹
, Eros, apace!—
        No more a soldier:
bruisèd pieces
⁵⁰
, go.
        You have been nobly borne.—
From
⁵¹
me awhile.—

Exit Eros

    I will o’ertake thee, Cleopatra, and
        Weep for my pardon.—So it must be, for now
        All
length
⁵⁴
is torture: since the
torch
is out,
        Lie down and stray no further. Now all labour
        Mars what it does: yea,
very force entangles
        Itself with strength
⁵⁶
.
Seal
⁵⁷
then, and all is done.—
        Eros!—I come, my queen.—Eros!—
Stay
⁵⁸
for me:
        Where
souls do
couch
on flowers
⁵⁹
we’ll hand in hand
        And with our
sprightly port
⁶⁰
make the ghosts gaze.
        
Dido and her Aeneas
⁶¹
shall
want troops
,
        And
all the haunt be ours
⁶²
.—Come, Eros, Eros!