SCENE: In several parts of the Roman empire.

ACT I.

SCENE I. Alexandria. A room in Cleopatra's palace. Enter DEMETRIUS and PHILO.

Phi. Nay, but this dotage of our general's
O'erflows the measure: those his goodly eyes,
That o'er the files and musters of the war

Have glow'd like plated Mars, now bend, now turn,
The office and devotion of their view

Upon a tawny front: his captain's heart,

Which in the scuffles of great fights hath burst
The buckles on his breast, reneges all temper,
And is become the bellows and the fan

To cool a gipsy's lust.

Flourish.

Enter ANTONY, CLEOPATRA, her Ladies, the
Train, with Eunuchs fanning her.

Look, where they come:
Take but good note, and you shall see in him
The triple pillar of the world transform'd
Into a strumpet's fool: behold and see.

Cleo. If it be love indeed, tell me how much.

Ant. There's beggary in the love that can be reckon'd. Cleo. I'll set a bourn how far to be beloved.

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Ant. Then must thou needs find out new heaven, new earth.

Enter an Attendant.

Att. News, my good lord, from Rome.

Ant.

Grates me: the sum.

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Cleo. Nay, hear them, Antony:
Fulvia perchance is angry; or, who knows

If the scarce-bearded Cæsar have not sent
His powerful mandate to you, "Do this, or this;
Take in that kingdom, and enfranchise that;
Perform't, or else we damn thee."

Ant.

How, my love!
Cleo. Perchance' nay, and most like.

You must not stay here longer, your dismission
Is come from Caesar; therefore hear it, Antony.

Where's Fulvia's process? Cæsar's I would say? both?
Call in the messengers. As I am Egypt's queen,
Thou blushest, Antony; and that blood of thine
Is Caesar's homager: else so thy cheek pays shame
When shrill-tongued Fulvia scolds. The messengers!
Ant. Let Rome in Tiber melt, and the wide arch
Of the ranged empire fall! Here is my space.
Kingdoms are clay: our dungy earth alike
Feeds beast as man: the nobleness of life
Is to do thus; when such a mutual pair
And such a twain can do't, in which I bind,
On pain of punishment, the world to weet
We stand up peerless.

Cleo.
Excellent falsehood!
Why did he marry Fulvia, and not love her?
I'll seem the fool I am not; Antony

Will be himself.

Ant.

But stirr'd by Cleopatra.

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[Embracing.

Now, for the love of Love and her soft hours,
Let's not confound the time with conference harsh:
There's not a minute of our lives should stretch
Without some pleasure now. What sport to-night?

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Cleo. Hear the ambassadors.

Ant.
Fie, wrangling queen!
Whom every thing becomes, to chide, to laugh,

To weep; whose every passion fully strives
To make itself, in thee, fair and admired!
No messenger, but thine; and all alone
To-night we'll wander through the streets and note
The qualities of people. Come, my queen;
Last night you did desire it. speak not to us.

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[Exeunt Aut, and Cleo, with their train. Dem. Is Cæsar with Antonius prized so slight? Phi. Sir, sometimes, when he is not Antony, He comes too short of that great property Which still should go with Antony.

Dem.

I am full sorry

That he approves the common liar, who
Thus speaks of him at Rome: but I will hope
Of better deeds to-morrow. Rest you happy!

SCENE II. The same. Another room.

CO

[Exeunt.

Enter CHARMIAN, IRAS, ALEXAS, and a Soothsayer. Char. Lord Alexas, sweet Alexas, most any thing Alexas, almost most absolute Alexas, where's the soothsayer that you praised so to the queen? O, that I knew this husband, which, you say, must charge his horns with garlands!

Alex. Soothsayer!

Sooth. Your will?

Char. Is this the man? Is't you, sir, that know things? Sooth. In nature's infinite book of secrecy

A little I can read.

Eno. Bring in the banquet quickly; wine enough

Cleopatra's health to drink.

Char. Good sir, give me good fortune.

Sooth. I make not, but foresee.

Char. Pray, then, foresee me one.

Sooth. You shall be yet far fairer than you are.
Char. He means in flesh.

Iras. No, you shall paint when you are old.

Char. Wrinkles forbid!

Alex. Vex not his prescience; be attentive.
Char. Hush!

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Sooth. You shall be more beloving than beloved.
Char. I had rather heat my liver with drinking.
Aler. Nay, hear him.

Char. Good now, some excellent fortune! Let me bo married to three kings in a forenoon, and widow them all: let me have a child at fifty, to whom Herod of Jewry may do homage: find me to marry me with Octavius Cæsar, and companion me with my mistress.

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Sooth. You shall outlive the lady whom you serve. Char. O excellent! I love long life better than figs. Sooth. You have seen and proved a fairer former fortune Than that which is to approach.

Char. Then belike my children shall have no names: prithee, how many boys and wenches must I have? Soth. If every of your wishes had a womb,

And fertile every wish, a million.

Char. Out, fool! I forgive thee for a witch.

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Alex. You think none but your sheets are privy to your wishes.

Char. Nay, come, tell Iras hers.

Alex. We'll know all our fortunes.

Eno. Mine, and most of our fortunes, to-night, shall be -drunk to bed.

Iras. There's a palm presages chastity, if nothing else. Char. E'en as the o'erflowing Nilus presageth famine. 50 Iras. Go, you wild bedfellow, you cannot soothsay.

Char. Nay, if an oily palm be not a fruitful prognostication, I cannot scratch mine ear. Prithee, tell her but a worky-day fortune.

Sooth. Your fortunes are alike.

Iras. But how, but how? give me particulars.

Sooth. I have said.

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Iras. Am I not an inch of fortune better than she? Char. Well, if you were but an inch of fortune better than I, where would you choose it?

Iras. Not in my husband's nose.

Char. Our worser thoughts heavens mend! Alexas,come, his fortune, his fortune! O, let him marry a woman that cannot go. sweet Isis, I beseech thee! and let her die too, and give him a worse! and let worse follow worse, till the worst of all follow him laughing to his grave, fiftyfold a cuckold! Good Isis, hear me this prayer, though thou deny me a matter of more weight; good Isis, I beseech thee!

Iras. Amen. Dear goddess, hear that prayer of the people! for, as it is a heart-breaking to see a handsome man loose-wived, so it is a deadly sorrow to behold a foul

knave uncuckolded: therefore, dear Isis, keep decorum, and fortune him accordingly!

Char. Amen.

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Alex. Lo, now, if it lay in their hands to make me a cuckold, they would make themselves whores, but they'ld do't!

Eno. Hush! here comes Antony.
Char.

Not he; the queen.

Cleo. He was disposed to mirth; but on the sudden A Roman thought hath struck him. Enobarbus!

Eno. Madam?

Cleo. Seek him, and bring him hither. Where's Alexas? Alex. Here, at your service. My lord approaches. 90 Cleo. We will not look upon him: go with us. [Exeunt.

Enter ANTONY with a Messenger and Attendants.
Mess. Fulvia thy wife first came into the field.
Ant. Against my brother Lucius?

Mess. Ay:

But soon that war had end, and the time's state

Made friends of them, jointing their force 'gainst Cæsar; Whose better issue in the war, from Italy,

Upon the first encounter, drave them.

Ant.

Well, what worst?

Mess. The nature of bad news infects the teller.

Ant. When it concerns the fool or coward. On: 100 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 flatter'd.

This is stiff news-hath, with his Parthian force,
Extended Asia from Euphrates;

His conquering banner shook from Syria

To Lydia and to Ionia;

Whilst

Ant. Antony, thou wouldst say,

Mess.

O, my lord!

Ant. Speak to me home, mince not the general tongue:

Name Cleopatra as she is call'd in Rome;

Rail thou in Fulvia's phrase; and taunt my faults
With such full license as both truth and malice

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