Complete Plays, The (170 page)

Proculeius

Caesar, I shall.

Exit

Octavius Caesar

Gallus, go you along.

Exit Gallus

Where’s Dolabella,
To second Proculeius?

All

Dolabella!

Octavius Caesar

Let him alone, for I remember now
How he’s employ’d: he shall in time be ready.
Go with me to my tent; where you shall see
How hardly I was drawn into this war;
How calm and gentle I proceeded still
In all my writings: go with me, and see
What I can show in this.

Exeunt

S
CENE
II. A
LEXANDRIA
. A
ROOM
IN
THE
MONUMENT
.

Enter Cleopatra, Charmian, and Iras

Cleopatra

My desolation does begin to make
A better life. ’Tis paltry to be Caesar;
Not being Fortune, he’s but Fortune’s knave,
A minister of her will: and it is great
To do that thing that ends all other deeds;
Which shackles accidents and bolts up change;
Which sleeps, and never palates more the dug,
The beggar’s nurse and Caesar’s.

Enter, to the gates of the monument, Proculeius, Gallus and Soldiers

Proculeius

Caesar sends greeting to the Queen of Egypt;
And bids thee study on what fair demands
Thou mean’st to have him grant thee.

Cleopatra

What’s thy name?

Proculeius

My name is Proculeius.

Cleopatra

Antony
Did tell me of you, bade me trust you; but
I do not greatly care to be deceived,
That have no use for trusting. If your master
Would have a queen his beggar, you must tell him,
That majesty, to keep decorum, must
No less beg than a kingdom: if he please
To give me conquer’d Egypt for my son,
He gives me so much of mine own, as I
Will kneel to him with thanks.

Proculeius

Be of good cheer;
You’re fall’n into a princely hand, fear nothing:
Make your full reference freely to my lord,
Who is so full of grace, that it flows over
On all that need: let me report to him
Your sweet dependency; and you shall find
A conqueror that will pray in aid for kindness,
Where he for grace is kneel’d to.

Cleopatra

Pray you, tell him
I am his fortune’s vassal, and I send him
The greatness he has got. I hourly learn
A doctrine of obedience; and would gladly
Look him i’ the face.

Proculeius

This I’ll report, dear lady.
Have comfort, for I know your plight is pitied
Of him that caused it.

Gallus

You see how easily she may be surprised:

Here Proculeius and two of the Guard ascend the monument by a ladder placed against a window, and, having descended, come behind Cleopatra. Some of the Guard unbar and open the gates

To Proculeius and the Guard

Guard her till Caesar come.

Exit

Iras

Royal queen!

Charmian

O Cleopatra! thou art taken, queen:

Cleopatra

Quick, quick, good hands.

Drawing a dagger

Proculeius

Hold, worthy lady, hold:

Seizes and disarms her

Do not yourself such wrong, who are in this
Relieved, but not betray’d.

Cleopatra

What, of death too,
That rids our dogs of languish?

Proculeius

Cleopatra,
Do not abuse my master’s bounty by
The undoing of yourself: let the world see
His nobleness well acted, which your death
Will never let come forth.

Cleopatra

Where art thou, death?
Come hither, come! come, come, and take a queen
Worthy many babes and beggars!

Proculeius

O, temperance, lady!

Cleopatra

Sir, I will eat no meat, I’ll not drink, sir;
If idle talk will once be necessary,
I’ll not sleep neither: this mortal house I’ll ruin,
Do Caesar what he can. Know, sir, that I
Will not wait pinion’d at your master’s court;
Nor once be chastised with the sober eye
Of dull Octavia. Shall they hoist me up
And show me to the shouting varletry
Of censuring Rome? Rather a ditch in Egypt
Be gentle grave unto me! rather on Nilus’ mud
Lay me stark naked, and let the water-flies
Blow me into abhorring! rather make
My country’s high pyramides my gibbet,
And hang me up in chains!

Proculeius

You do extend
These thoughts of horror further than you shall
Find cause in Caesar.

Enter Dolabella

Dolabella

Proculeius,
What thou hast done thy master Caesar knows,
And he hath sent for thee: for the queen,
I’ll take her to my guard.

Proculeius

So, Dolabella,
It shall content me best: be gentle to her.

To Cleopatra

To Caesar I will speak what you shall please,
If you’ll employ me to him.

Cleopatra

Say, I would die.

Exeunt Proculeius and Soldiers

Dolabella

Most noble empress, you have heard of me?

Cleopatra

I cannot tell.

Dolabella

 
Assuredly you know me.

Cleopatra

No matter, sir, what I have heard or known.
You laugh when boys or women tell their dreams;
Is’t not your trick?

Dolabella

I understand not, madam.

Cleopatra

I dream’d there was an Emperor Antony:
O, such another sleep, that I might see
But such another man!

Dolabella

If it might please ye,—

Cleopatra

His face was as the heavens; and therein stuck
A sun and moon, which kept their course, and lighted
The little O, the earth.

Dolabella

Most sovereign creature,—

Cleopatra

His legs bestrid the ocean: his rear’d arm
Crested the world: his voice was propertied
As all the tuned spheres, and that to friends;
But when he meant to quail and shake the orb,
He was as rattling thunder. For his bounty,
There was no winter in’t; an autumn ’twas
That grew the more by reaping: his delights
Were dolphin-like; they show’d his back above
The element they lived in: in his livery
Walk’d crowns and crownets; realms and islands were
As plates dropp’d from his pocket.

Dolabella

Cleopatra!

Cleopatra

Think you there was, or might be, such a man
As this I dream’d of?

Dolabella

Gentle madam, no.

Cleopatra

You lie, up to the hearing of the gods.
But, if there be, or ever were, one such,
It’s past the size of dreaming: nature wants stuff
To vie strange forms with fancy; yet, to imagine
And Antony, were nature’s piece ’gainst fancy,
Condemning shadows quite.

Dolabella

Hear me, good madam.
Your loss is as yourself, great; and you bear it
As answering to the weight: would I might never
O’ertake pursued success, but I do feel,
By the rebound of yours, a grief that smites
My very heart at root.

Cleopatra

I thank you, sir,
Know you what Caesar means to do with me?

Dolabella

I am loath to tell you what I would you knew.

Cleopatra

Nay, pray you, sir,—

Dolabella

Though he be honourable,—

Cleopatra

He’ll lead me, then, in triumph?

Dolabella

Madam, he will; I know’t.

Flourish, and shout within, ‘Make way there: Octavius Caesar!’

Enter Octavius Caesar, Gallus, Proculeius, Mecaenas, Seleucus, and others of his Train

Octavius Caesar

Which is the Queen of Egypt?

Dolabella

It is the emperor, madam.

Cleopatra kneels

Octavius Caesar

Arise, you shall not kneel:
I pray you, rise; rise, Egypt.

Cleopatra

Sir, the gods
Will have it thus; my master and my lord
I must obey.

Octavius Caesar

 
Take to you no hard thoughts:
The record of what injuries you did us,
Though written in our flesh, we shall remember
As things but done by chance.

Cleopatra

Sole sir o’ the world,
I cannot project mine own cause so well
To make it clear; but do confess I have
Been laden with like frailties which before
Have often shamed our sex.

Octavius Caesar

Cleopatra, know,
We will extenuate rather than enforce:
If you apply yourself to our intents,
Which towards you are most gentle, you shall find
A benefit in this change; but if you seek
To lay on me a cruelty, by taking
Antony’s course, you shall bereave yourself
Of my good purposes, and put your children
To that destruction which I’ll guard them from,
If thereon you rely. I’ll take my leave.

Cleopatra

And may, through all the world: ’tis yours; and we,
Your scutcheons and your signs of conquest, shall
Hang in what place you please. Here, my good lord.

Octavius Caesar

You shall advise me in all for Cleopatra.

Cleopatra

This is the brief of money, plate, and jewels,
I am possess’d of: ’tis exactly valued;
Not petty things admitted. Where’s Seleucus?

Seleucus

Here, madam.

Cleopatra

This is my treasurer: let him speak, my lord,
Upon his peril, that I have reserved
To myself nothing. Speak the truth, Seleucus.

Seleucus

Madam,
I had rather seal my lips, than, to my peril,
Speak that which is not.

Cleopatra

What have I kept back?

Seleucus

Enough to purchase what you have made known.

Octavius Caesar

Nay, blush not, Cleopatra; I approve
Your wisdom in the deed.

Cleopatra

See, Caesar! O, behold,
How pomp is follow’d! mine will now be yours;
And, should we shift estates, yours would be mine.
The ingratitude of this Seleucus does
Even make me wild: O slave, of no more trust
Than love that’s hired! What, goest thou back? thou shalt
Go back, I warrant thee; but I’ll catch thine eyes,
Though they had wings: slave, soulless villain, dog!
O rarely base!

Octavius Caesar

 
Good queen, let us entreat you.

Cleopatra

O Caesar, what a wounding shame is this,
That thou, vouchsafing here to visit me,
Doing the honour of thy lordliness
To one so meek, that mine own servant should
Parcel the sum of my disgraces by
Addition of his envy! Say, good Caesar,
That I some lady trifles have reserved,
Immoment toys, things of such dignity
As we greet modern friends withal; and say,
Some nobler token I have kept apart
For Livia and Octavia, to induce
Their mediation; must I be unfolded
With one that I have bred? The gods! it smites me
Beneath the fall I have.

To Seleucus

Prithee, go hence;
Or I shall show the cinders of my spirits
Through the ashes of my chance: wert thou a man,
Thou wouldst have mercy on me.

Octavius Caesar

Forbear, Seleucus.

Exit Seleucus

Cleopatra

Be it known, that we, the greatest, are misthought
For things that others do; and, when we fall,
We answer others’ merits in our name,
Are therefore to be pitied.

Octavius Caesar

Cleopatra,
Not what you have reserved, nor what acknowledged,
Put we i’ the roll of conquest: still be’t yours,
Bestow it at your pleasure; and believe,
Caesar’s no merchant, to make prize with you
Of things that merchants sold. Therefore be cheer’d;
Make not your thoughts your prisons: no, dear queen;
For we intend so to dispose you as
Yourself shall give us counsel. Feed, and sleep:
Our care and pity is so much upon you,
That we remain your friend; and so, adieu.

Cleopatra

My master, and my lord!

Octavius Caesar

Not so. Adieu.

Flourish. Exeunt Octavius Caesar and his train

Cleopatra

He words me, girls, he words me, that I should not
Be noble to myself: but, hark thee, Charmian.

Whispers Charmian

Iras

Finish, good lady; the bright day is done,
And we are for the dark.

Cleopatra

Hie thee again:
I have spoke already, and it is provided;
Go put it to the haste.

Charmian

Madam, I will.

Re-enter Dolabella

Dolabella

Where is the queen?

Charmian

Behold, sir.

Exit

Cleopatra

Dolabella!

Dolabella

Madam, as thereto sworn by your command,
Which my love makes religion to obey,
I tell you this: Caesar through Syria
Intends his journey; and within three days
You with your children will he send before:
Make your best use of this: I have perform’d
Your pleasure and my promise.

Cleopatra

Dolabella,
I shall remain your debtor.

Dolabella

I your servant,
Adieu, good queen; I must attend on Caesar.

Cleopatra

Farewell, and thanks.

Exit Dolabella

Now, Iras, what think’st thou?
Thou, an Egyptian puppet, shalt be shown
In Rome, as well as I mechanic slaves
With greasy aprons, rules, and hammers, shall
Uplift us to the view; in their thick breaths,
Rank of gross diet, shall be enclouded,
And forced to drink their vapour.

Iras