Antony and Cleopatra (5 page)

ANTONY
    Well, what worst?

MESSENGER
    The nature of bad news infects the teller.

ANTONY
    When it concerns the fool or coward. On!
        Things that are past are done with me. ’Tis thus:
        
Who tells me true, though in his tale lie death,
        I hear him as he flattered
⁹⁷
.

MESSENGER
    
Labienus
⁹⁹
—
        This is
stiff
¹⁰⁰
news — hath with his
Parthian
force
        
Extended
¹⁰¹
Asia: from
Euphrates
        His conquering banner shook, from Syria
        To
Lydia
¹⁰³
and to
Ionia
, whilst—

ANTONY
    Antony, thou
wouldst
¹⁰⁴
say.

MESSENGER
    O, my lord!

ANTONY
    Speak to me
home
¹⁰⁶
,
mince not the general tongue
,
        Name Cleopatra as she is called in Rome,
        
Rail thou in Fulvia’s phrase
¹⁰⁸
, and taunt my faults
        With such full licence as both truth and malice
        Have power to utter. O, then we bring forth weeds
        When
our
quick
¹¹¹
minds lie
still
, and our ills told us
        Is as our earing. Fare thee well awhile.

MESSENGER
    At your noble pleasure.        
Exit Messenger

Enter another Messenger

ANTONY
    From
Sicyon
¹¹⁴
how
the news? Speak there.

SECOND MESSENGER
    The man from Sicyon—

ANTONY
    Is there such an one?

SECOND MESSENGER
    He
stays upon your will
¹¹⁷
.

ANTONY
    Let him appear.—

[
Exit Second Messenger
]

        These strong Egyptian fetters I must break,
        Or lose myself in dotage.—

Enter another Messenger with a letter

                
What
¹²⁰
are you?

THIRD MESSENGER
    Fulvia thy wife is dead.

ANTONY
    Where died she?

THIRD MESSENGER
    In Sicyon.
        Her length of sickness, with what else more serious
        
Importeth
¹²⁵
thee to know, this bears.        
Gives him the letter

ANTONY
    
Forbear me
¹²⁶
.—
[
Exit Third Messenger
]

        There’s a great spirit gone. Thus did I desire it:
        
What our contempts doth often hurl from us
        We wish it ours again
¹²⁸
. The present pleasure,
        
By revolution low’ring
¹³⁰
, does become
        The opposite of itself. She’s good, being gone.
        The hand
could
¹³²
pluck her back that shoved her on.
        I must from this
enchanting
¹³³
queen break off:
        Ten thousand harms, more than the ills I know,
        My
idleness
¹³⁵
doth hatch.—

Enter Enobarbus

                How now, Enobarbus?

ENOBARBUS
    What’s your pleasure, sir?

ANTONY
    I must with haste from hence.

ENOBARBUS
    Why, then, we kill all our women. We see how
        
mortal
¹³⁹
an unkindness is to them: if they
suffer
our
        departure, death’s the word.

ANTONY
    I must be gone.

ENOBARBUS
    Under a compelling occasion, let women
die
¹⁴²
. It
        were pity to cast them away for nothing, though between
        them and a great cause they should be esteemed nothing.
        Cleopatra, catching but the least
noise
¹⁴⁵
of this, dies instantly:
        I have seen her die twenty times
upon far poorer moment
¹⁴⁶
. I
        do think there is
mettle
¹⁴⁷
in death which commits some loving
        act upon her, she hath such a
celerity
¹⁴⁸
in dying.

ANTONY
    She is
cunning
¹⁴⁹
past man’s thought.

ENOBARBUS
    Alack, sir, no: her passions are made of nothing
        but the finest
part
¹⁵¹
of pure love. We cannot call her winds and
        waters sighs and tears: they are greater storms and tempests than
        
almanacs
¹⁵³
can report. This cannot be cunning in her; if
        it be, she makes a shower of rain as well as
Jove
¹⁵⁴
.

ANTONY
    
Would
¹⁵⁵
I had never seen her.

ENOBARBUS
    O sir, you had then left unseen a wonderful
piece of
        work
¹⁵⁶
, which not to have been blest
withal
¹⁵⁷
would have
        discredited
your travel
¹⁵⁸
.

ANTONY
    Fulvia is dead.

ENOBARBUS
    Sir?

ANTONY
    Fulvia is dead.

ENOBARBUS
    Fulvia?

ANTONY
    Dead.

ENOBARBUS
    Why, sir, give the gods a thankful sacrifice. When it
        pleaseth their deities to take the wife of a man from him, it
        
shows to man the tailors of the earth
¹⁶⁶
: comforting
therein
,
        that when old robes are worn out, there are
members
¹⁶⁷
to
        make new. If there were no more women but Fulvia, then
        had you indeed a
cut
¹⁶⁹
, and the
case
to be lamented. This grief
        is
crowned
¹⁷⁰
with
consolation
: your old
smock
brings forth a
        new
petticoat
¹⁷¹
, and indeed the tears live in an onion that
        should water this sorrow.

ANTONY
    The business she hath broachèd in the state
        Cannot endure my absence.

ENOBARBUS
    And the
business
¹⁷⁵
you have
broached
here cannot
        be without you, especially that of Cleopatra’s, which wholly
        depends on your
abode
¹⁷⁷
.

ANTONY
    No more
light
¹⁷⁸
answers. Let our officers
        Have notice what we purpose. I shall break
        The cause of our
expedience
¹⁸⁰
to the queen,
        And get her
leave to part
¹⁸¹
. For not
alone
        The death of Fulvia, with more urgent
touches
¹⁸²
,
        Do strongly speak to us, but the letters too
        Of many our
contriving
¹⁸⁴
friends in Rome
        
Petition us at home
¹⁸⁵
.
Sextus Pompeius
        Hath
given the dare to
¹⁸⁶
Caesar and commands
        The empire of the sea. Our
slippery
¹⁸⁷
people,
        Whose love is never linked to the deserver
        Till his deserts are past, begin to
throw
¹⁸⁹
        
Pompey the Great
¹⁹⁰
and all his
dignities
        Upon his son, who,
high
¹⁹¹
in name and power,
        Higher than both in
blood and life
¹⁹²
,
stands up
        For
the
main
¹⁹³
soldier, whose
quality
going on
,
        
The sides o’th’world may danger
¹⁹⁴
. Much is breeding
        Which, like the
courser’s
hair, hath yet but life
        And not a serpent’s poison
¹⁹⁵
.
Say our pleasure,
        To such whose place is under us, requires
        Our quick
remove
¹⁹⁸
from hence
¹⁹⁶
.

ENOBARBUS
    I shall do’t.
[
Exeunt separately
]

Enter Cleopatra, Charmian, Alexas and Iras

CLEOPATRA
    Where is he?

CHARMIAN
    I
did not see him since
²
.

CLEOPATRA
    See where he is, who’s with him, what he
        does.
To Alexas

        
I did not send you
⁴
: if you find him
sad
,
        Say I am dancing, if in mirth, report
        That I am sudden sick. Quick, and return.
[
Exit Alexas
]

CHARMIAN
    Madam, methinks if you did love him dearly,
        You do not
hold
⁸
the method to enforce
        The
like
⁹
from him.

CLEOPATRA
    What should I do I do not?

CHARMIAN
    In each thing
give him way
¹¹
:
cross
him in nothing.

CLEOPATRA
    Thou teachest like a fool, the way to lose him.

CHARMIAN
    
Tempt
¹³
him not so too far. I wish,
forbear
:
        In time we hate that which we often fear.

Enter Antony

        But here comes Antony.

CLEOPATRA
    I am sick and
sullen
¹⁶
.

ANTONY
    I am sorry to give
breathing
¹⁷
to my purpose—

CLEOPATRA
    Help me away, dear Charmian! I shall fall.
        It cannot be
thus long
¹⁹
:
the sides of nature
        Will not sustain it
.

ANTONY
    Now, my dearest queen—

CLEOPATRA
    Pray you
stand further from me
²²
.

ANTONY
    What’s the matter?

CLEOPATRA
    I know by that same
eye
²⁴
there’s some good news.
        What, says
the married woman
²⁵
you may go?
        Would she had never given you leave to come.
        Let her not say ’tis I that keep you here.
        I have no power upon you: hers you are.

ANTONY
    The gods best know—

CLEOPATRA
    O, never was there queen
        So mightily betrayed! Yet at the first
        I saw the treasons planted.

ANTONY
    Cleopatra—

CLEOPATRA
    Why should I think you can be mine, and true —
        Though you in swearing shake the thronèd gods —
        Who have been
false
³⁶
to Fulvia?
Riotous madness
,
        To be entangled with those
mouth-made
³⁷
vows
        Which break themselves
in swearing
³⁸
!

ANTONY
    Most sweet queen—

CLEOPATRA
    Nay, pray you seek no
colour
⁴⁰
for your going,
        But bid farewell and go: when you
sued staying
⁴¹
,
        Then was the time for words: no going then.
        Eternity was in
our
⁴³
lips and eyes,
        Bliss in our
brows bent
⁴⁴
:
none our parts
so poor
        But was
a race of heaven
⁴⁵
. They are so still,
        Or thou, the greatest soldier of the world,
        Art turned the greatest liar.

ANTONY
    
How now
⁴⁸
, lady?

CLEOPATRA
    I would I had thy
inches
⁴⁹
: thou shouldst know
        There were a
heart
⁵⁰
in
Egypt
.

ANTONY
    Hear me, queen:
        The strong necessity of time commands
        Our services awhile, but my full heart
        Remains
in use
⁵⁴
with you. Our Italy
        Shines o’er with
civil swords
⁵⁵
; Sextus Pompeius
        Makes his approaches to the
port
⁵⁶
of Rome.
        
Equality of two domestic powers
        Breed scrupulous faction
⁵⁷
: the
hated, grown to strength,
        Are newly grown to love
⁵⁸
: the condemned Pompey,
        Rich in his father’s honour, creeps
apace
⁶⁰
        Into the hearts of such as have not thrived
        
Upon the present state
⁶²
, whose numbers threaten,
        And quietness, grown sick of rest, would
purge
⁶³
        By any desperate change. My more
particular
⁶⁴
,
        And that which most with you should
safe
⁶⁵
my going,
        Is Fulvia’s death.

CLEOPATRA
    Though age from folly could not give me freedom,
        It does from childishness. Can Fulvia die?

ANTONY
    She’s dead, my queen.
Gives her the letters
        Look here, and at thy sovereign leisure read
        The
garboils
⁷¹
she awaked: at the last,
best
,
        See when and where she died.