The strong necessity of time commands It does from childishness:Can Fulvia die ? Look here, and, at thy sovereign leisure, read Cleo. O most false love; Where be the sacred vials thou shouldst fille Cleo. Cut my lace, Charmian, come ;— Ant. My precious queen, forbear And give true evidence to his love, which stands An honourable trial. Cleo. So Fulvia told me. 4 I pr'ythee, turn aside, and weep for her; Ant. You'll heat my blood; no more. Our separation so abides, and flies, SCENE IV. ROME. AN APARTMENT AT CÆSAR'S Enter Octavius Cæsar, Lepidus, and Attendants. Cas. You may see, Lepidus, and henceforth i It is not Cæsar's natural vice to hates on [know, One great competitor: From Alexandria duo This is the news; he fishes, drinks, and wastes The lamps of night in revel: is not more manlike Than Cleopatra; nor the queen of Ptolemy V More womanly then he: hardly gave audience, or Vouchsaf'd to think he had partners: You shall A man, who is the abstract of all faults [find there That all men follow. Lep. I must not think, there are Evils enough to darken all his goodness:end His faults, in him, seem as the spots of heaven, More fiery by night's blackness; hereditary,625 Rather than purchas'd; what he cannot change, Than what he chooses. [is not Cas. You are too indulgent: Let us grant, is No way excuse his soils, when we do bear) Pawn their experience to their present pleasure, Enter a Messenger. Lep. Here's more news. Mess. Thy biddings have been done; and every Cæs. I should have known no less: It hath been taught us from the primal state, [body, This common Come's dear'd, by being lack'd. To rot itself with motion. Mess. Cæsar, I bring thee word, Menecrates, and Menas, famous pirates, Cleo. Ha! ha! Cleo. Indeed? Mar. Not in deed, madam; for I can do nothing Make the sea serve them; which they ear and But what in deed is honest to be done: wound With keels of every kind: Many hot inroads Cas. Antony, Yet have I fierce affections, and think, Cleo. O Charmian, Where think'st thou he is now? [sits he? Stands he, or Or does he walk? or is he on his horse? Leave thy lascivious wassals. When thou once deign The roughest berry on the rudest hedge; Yea, like the stag, when snow the pasture sheets, Lep. It is pity of him. Cas. Let his shames quickly Drive him to Rome: 'Tis time we twain Did show ourselves i'the field; and, to that end, Lep. To-morrow, Cæsar, I shall be furnish'd to inform you rightly Cas. Till which encounter, It is my business too. Farewell. Alex. Sovereign of Egypt, hail! Cleo. How much unlike art thou Mark Antony! Yet, coming from him, that great medicine hath With his tinct gilded thee. How goes it with my brave Mark Antony Alex. Last thing he did, dear queen, Alex. Good friend, quoth he, Say, The firm Roman to great Egypt sends Lep. Farewell, my lord: What you shall know Was beastly dumb'd by him. Note him, good Charmian, 'tis the man; but note He was not sad; for he would shine on those So does it no man else.-Met'st thou my posts? Cleo. Who's born that day Shall die a beggar.-Ink and paper, Charmian. The people love me, and the sea is mine; No wars without doors: Cæsar gets money, where Men. Cæsar and Lepidus Are in the field; a mighty strength they carry. [together, Let witchcraft join with beauty, lust with both! Cæsar and Antony shall well greet together: Pom. I know not, Menas, How lesser enmities may give way to greater. [exeunt. Here comes Enter Antony and Ventidius. Var. This is most certain that I shall deliver: The noble Antony. Pom. I could have given less matter This amorous surfeiter would have don'd his helm Is twice the other twain: But let us rear Men. I cannot hope, Eno. And yonder, Cæsar. Enter Casar, Mecanas, and Agrippa. Cæs. I do not know, Lep. Toole friends, [not That whic combin'd us was most great, and let May it be gently heard: When we debate Marder in healing wounds: Then, noble partners, | Did pocket up my letters, and with tauntski stol (The rather, for I earnestly beseech) I know you could not lack, I am certain on't, Eno. Would, we had all such wives, that the men might go to wars with the women! Ant. So much uncurable, her garboils, Caesar, Made out of her impatience, (which not wanted Shrewdness of policy too), I grieving grant, Did you too much disquiet; for that, you must But say, I could not help it. Cas. I wrote to you, When rioting in Alexandria; you Did gibe my missive out of audience. He fell upon me, ere admitted; then Three kings I had newly feasted, and did want Of what I was i'the morning: but, next day, I told him of myself; which was as much Lep. 'Tis nobly spoken. [ther Mec. If it might please you, to enforce no furThe griefs between ye: to forget them quite, Were to remember that the present need it Speaks to atone you. Lep. Worthily spoke, Mecenas. Eno. Or, if you borrow one another's love for the instant, you may, when you hear no more words of Pompey, return it again: you shall have time to wrangle in, when you have nothing else to do. Ant. Thou art a soldier only; speak no more. Eno. That truth should be silent, I had almost forgot. [no more. Ant. You wrong this présence, therefore speak Eno. Go to then; your considerate stone. Cas. I do not much dislike the matter, but The manner of his speech: for it cannot be, We shall remain in friendship, our conditions So differing in their acts. Yet, if I knew What hoop should hold us staunch, from edge to O' the world I would pursue it. att smi[edge) Agr. Give me leave, Cæsar,Cas. Speak, Agrippa. Agr. Thou hast a sister by the mother's side, if Admir'd Octavia: great Mark Antony Is now a widower Cas. Say not so, Agrippa; Ant. I am not married, Cæsar; let me hear Agr. To hold you in perpetual amitypdeck and To make you brothers, and to knit your hearts & With an unslipping knot, take Antony Octavia to his wife: whose beauty claims No worse a husband than the best of men; Ant. Will Cæsar speak? Cas. Not till he hears how Antony is touch'a Burn'd on the water: the poop was beaten gold; With what is spoke already. Ant. What power is in Agrippa, If I would say, Agrippa, be it so, 'Would, we had spoke together! haste we for it: Yet, ere we put ourselves in arms, despatch we The business we have talk'd of. Cas. With most gladness; Ant. Let us, Lepidus, Not lack your company. [flourish; exeunt Cas. Ant. & Lep. Mec. Welcome from Egypt, sir. Eno. Half the heart of Caesar, worthy Mecenas! -my honourable friend, Agrippa! Agr. Good Enobarbus! Mec. We have cause to be glad, that matters are so well digested. You stay'd well by it in Egypt. Eno. Ay, sir; we did sleep day out of countenance, and made the night light with drinking. Purple the sails, and so perfum'd, that t The winds were love-sick with them: the oars were silver; Which to the tune of flutes kept stroke, and made Eno. Her gentlewomen, like the Nereides, So many mermaids, tended her i'the eyes And made their bends adornings: at the helm A seeming mermaid steers; the silken tackle Swell with the touches of those flower-soft hands That yarely frame the office. From the barge A strange invisible perfume hits the sens Of the adjacent wharfs. The city cast Her people out upon her; and Antony, Enthron'd in the market-place, did sit alone, Whistling to the air; which, but for vacancy, Had gone to gaze on Cleopatra too, And made a gap in nature. Agr. Rare Egyptian ! 7 ་ Eno. Upon her landing, Antony sent to her, Invited her to supper: she replied, It should be better, he became her guest ;' Agr. Royal wench! 116 21 |