Antony and Cleopatra

What if Shakespeare had had second thoughts about Romeo and Juliet? He might
have tried something different. In this version, the lovers, neither youthful nor mar-
ried to each other, conduct a long-standing, adulterous relationship. Romeo, thinking
Juliet dead because she has sent a messenger with that lie, kills himself—though with
a sword rather than poison. He partly bungles the job, however, and hence takes a
while to expire. Juliet resolves to follow suit but delays for the entire fifth act before
killing herself—though with poison rather than a sword. And when they are both finally
dead, the audience may be less likely to lament the loss of “star-crossed lovers” than
celebrate the fulfillment of heroic passion.
Shakespeare did have second thoughts about Romeo and Juliet; he called these
second thoughts Antony and Cleopatra (1606—early 1607). The last of Shakespeare's
three love tragedies, the play also rewrites Othello, the middle work of this group, con-
verting its threat from the East, there represented by Turks, into both threat and
opportunity from the East, here represented by Egyptians. All three tragedies set their
domestic concerns thematically against the backdrop of bloody political conflict, but
formally against the expectations of romantic comedy. All three seem like derailed
comedies. But Antony and Cleopatra replaces the emphasis on youth of romantic comedy,
of Romeo and Juliet, and even of Desdemona in Othello, with the most complex por-
trayal of mature love in Shakespeare’s dramatic career.
In the romantic comedies, problem plays, and romances, the female protagonist
often dominates the scene. But in the tragedies that Shakespeare composed from
roughly 1599 to 1608, Antony and Cleopatra is the only such candidate. Moreover, fol-
lowing a series of tragedies—Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, and Macbeth—in which the
protagonist’s psychology is consistently probed, Antony and Cleopatra almost com-
pletely avoids soliloquy. Antony’s and Cleopatra’s motives often remain opaque—
arguably, even to themselves. We never learn why Antony thinks marriage to Octavia
will solve his political problems, why Cleopatra flees at Actium, why she negotiates with
Caesar in the last act. Instead of self-revelation, the play offers contradictory framing
commentary by minor figures, who try to rein in their masters with a mix of praise and
ridicule, usually without success, and who are accordingly victims of Antony’s and
Cleopatra’s tragic extravagance. These external perspectives help impart an epic feel, as
do the geographical and scenic shifts, which also produce a loose, fragmentary, and
capacious structure alien to classically inspired notions of dramatic form. Antony and
Cleopatra is thus a new kind of tragedy. Its restlessness is of a piece with that of Pericles,
perhaps the next play Shakespeare wrote and the first of his late romances. And the
intimations of transcendence with which Antony and Cleopatra ends point toward the
magical or supernatural resolutions of the romances more generally.
The play may also be compared to Shakespeare's other Roman tragedies, Julius Cae-
sar and Coriolanus. All are based on Thomas North’s translation of Plutarch’s Lives of
excep-
the Noble Grecians and Romans (1579)—Shakespeare’s favorite source, with the
tion of Raphael Holinshed’s Chronicles of England, Scotland, and Ireland, and one that
he follows closely here. All three plays rely heavily on blank verse while almost entirely
avoiding rhyme, though in Antony and Cleopatra (and Coriolanus) the heavy use of
enjambment imparts a naturalistic, sometimes even colloquial, feel to poetic dialogue.
Still, the use of blank verse for serious subjects is introduced into English by the Earl of
Surrey’s sixteenth-century translation of part of the Aeneid (19 B.c.£.), Virgil’s epic of
2775
2776 +# ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA

the legendary founding of Rome,

itself understood in the poet’s own
day as an allegory of the city-state’s
bloody transition from republic
(rule by senatorial aristocracy) to
empire (monarchical power).
It is this transition that Shake-
speare dramatizes in Julius Caesar
and Antony and Cleopatra. Chrono-
logically, Antony picks up where
Julius Caesar leaves off. That earlier
play focuses on Caesar’s assassina-
tion by republicans, led by’ Brutus
and Cassius, and the assassins’ sub-
sequent defeat at the hands of Mark
Antony (Caesar’s lieutenant) and
Octavius Caesar (Caesar’s young
grandnephew and adoptive son).
Octavius Caesar, later known as Augustus, as on Antony and Cleopatra, which covers
this medal. From Guillaume Du Choul, Discours the period from 40 to 30 B.c.E.,
de la Religion des Anciens Romains (1567 ed.).
completes the narrative of Roman
civil war and the final destruction
of the Republic. The Mediterranean’s dominant military power, Rome is ruled by
the triumvirate of Lepidus, Octavius Caesar, and Mark Antony, who govern, respec-
tively, the Mediterranean portions of Africa, Europe, and Asia. Accordingly, Antony
and Cleopatra turns away from Julius Caesar’s emphasis on Rome’s internal political
system, looking instead to its imperial domains. The stylistic restraint befitting Bru-
tus’s republican austerity yields to hyperbolic verse corresponding to the Empire’s
grandeur. This would seem the theater for legendary, even mythic, performance:
Antony is associated with Hercules, and Antony and Cleopatra with Mars and Venus.
Yet Antony and Cleopatra investigates the possibility of such performance in a
postheroic world. It offers an epic view of the political arena but deprives that arena of
heroic significance. Mark Antony and Octavius Caesar contend for political suprem-
acy, but the love between Antony and Cleopatra occupies center stage. The work then
asks whether heroism can be transplanted to the private terrain of love. Much of the
play’s fascination arises from this intertwining of empire and sexuality. Plutarch and
other classical writers were preoccupied with what for them was the opposition
between the virtue of the conquering West and the luxury of the subjugated East. This
understanding of empire re-emerged in the Renaissance during a new era of Western
expansion, marked by an increasingly racialized and still-sexualized view of non-
European peoples. Just months before the probable first performance of the play, King
James authorized the establishment of an English colony in North America—an
undertaking that resulted in the founding of Jamestown the following year. As in other
Western European countries at the time, Rome was the central model of empire. The
view of Egypt was more mixed: preeminent source of ancient wisdom, it threatened to
transmit its decadence to the victors, even though Rome had defeated it.
Accordingly, Antony and Cleopatra elicits complicated judgments. Rendering this
complexity has often proven difficult in performance. Long supplanted on the stage by
John Dryden’s All for Love (1678), which recasts Shakespeare's story as a tragedy of pri-
vate life, the play came into its own only after 1800 in the heyday of the British Empire,
with Cleopatra embodying Oriental sexual vice. The text seems to justify this interpre-
tation: Rome is contrasted to Egypt, West to East, the conquerors to the conquered.
Rapid shifts of scene across enormous distances accentuate this division. A sober, mas-
culine military ethos opposes a frivolous, feminized, sexualized court. Opportunism
drives Antony’s marriage to Octavia, while love and sexual desire drive his relationship
 ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA ¢ 2777

with Cleopatra; he chooses between fidelity to a chaste, white wife and adultery with a
promiscuous, “tawny,” “black” seductress (1.1.6, 1.5.28). That seductress has a smaller
political role than in Plutarch. Though Cleopatra’s political maneuvering remains con-
siderable, this change accentuates the basic conflict. Where Caesar follows rational
self-interest (he is the “universal landlord,” 3.13.72), Antony revels in extravagant gener-
osity and challenges Caesar to one-on-one combat. Young Caesar is a bureaucrat of the
future, old Antony a warrior of the past. Caesar’s concerns are public, Antony’s private.
Antony is guilty by association with his brother and his previous wife, Fulvia, who
attack Caesar. By contrast, Caesar promises that “The time of universal peace is near”
(4.6.5), an assertion that anticipates the Pax Romana (Roman Peace) he instituted
throughout the Empire and the birth of Christ in a Roman province during his rule.
Yet the play seems to create such dichotomies only to undermine them. Antony
boasts of his valor at Philippi, while Caesar “alone / Dealt on lieutenantry” (battled
exclusively through his officers; 3.11.38—39). Earlier, however, Antony’s “officer” Ven-
tidius remarks, “Caesar and Antony have ever won / More in their officer than person”
(3.1.16-17). Caesar’s promise of “universal peace” is anticipated in a version of
Christ’s Last Supper that Antony shares with his followers:
Tend me tonight.
May be it is the period of your duty.
Haply you shall not see me more, or if,
A mangled shadow. Perchance tomorrow
You’ll serve another master.
(4.2.24-28)
Enobarbus, who functions like a skeptical chorus, criticizes Antony for moving his
friends to tears. But that skepticism is itself challenged. It leads Enobarbus to become
a Judas figure who betrays his master by defecting to Caesar and who dies shortly
thereafter, his heart broken by Antony’s generosity.
Even the geographical contrast of the play partly dissolves into parallelisms:
Roman war is eroticized, Egyptian love militarized. The external representation of
exhib-
the lovers’ relationship, the absence of scenes of them alone, and their pride in
iting their affair intensify the feeling that love and war influence each other, that
there is no distinction between public and private. Furthermore, love is on both sides
of the divide, albeit with a difference. When the work opens, Antony’s neglect of mili-
tary command is criticized as “this dotage of our general’s” (1.1.1) by Philo (a name
that means “love in friendship”), a figure invented by Shakespeare. Late in the play,
his
Antony, focused exclusively on Cleopatra, is heroically preceded in suicide by
aptly named servant Eros (romantic love), a figure from Plutarch.
The eroticization of Rome also takes the form of powerful feelings directed toward
Antony. Octavius Caesar at times acts almost as if he were the son—rather than grand-
nephew and adopted son—of Cleopatra's former lover, Julius Caesar, whose paternal
role Antony has usurped. Caesar is disgusted by Antony and Cleopatra's theatrical
coronation:
At the feet sat
Caesarion, whom they call my father’s son,
And all the unlawful issue that their lust
Since then hath made between them.
(3.6.5—8)

Note the possible confusion between Antony and the older Caesar and the definite
son.”
one between Caesarion and the younger Caesar, both of whom are “my father’s
At Antony’s death, Caesar movingly recalls his foe:
thou, my brother, my competitor
In top of all design, my mate in empire,
2778 + ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA

Friend and companion in the front of war,

The arm of mine own body, and the heart
Where mine his thoughts did kindle. . . .
(5.1.42—46)
By calling Antony his “brother” and “mate,” and by invoking a meeting of “heart” and
mind, Caesar suggests an intimacy between the two men that recalls Renaissance
celebrations of male friendship but that also borders on the erotic. But he neutralizes
any filial anxiety he may feel by describing Antony first as “my brother” and then as a
subordinate, “The arm of mine own body.”
Most important, this strategy of undermining distinctions drains the political
world of meaning. Julius Caesar’s struggle between republic and empire arises only
peripherally in Antony and Cleopatra, where it is voiced by Pompey (2.6.10—19), who
is bought off, attacked, and finally murdered by the triumvirs. The Republic is thus
virtually dead when Antony and Cleopatra opens. Egypt’s independence is at stake,
although this occurs only to Cleopatra. That leaves just the conflict between Antony
and Caesar, two ambitious men. The end of the Roman civil war is important, but it
is hard either to celebrate Caesar’s victory or to lament Antony’s defeat. The consequent
disabused view of political power might be an implicit critique of the centralizing
monarchs of Shakespeare’s own time.
Still, the political symbolism of the two men is antithetical. Caesar astutely adopts
republican style, whereas Antony offends Roman sensibilities with his monarchical
trappings (3.6.1-19). Antony’s antagonist does not emulate the older Caesar, whose
sexual and military conquests were intertwined (3.13.83—86). Hence, the younger Cae-
sar represents not the preservation but the diminution of Roman values, a constriction
of a heroic culture of which Antony is the last survivor. The play insists that politics and
sex (or any kind of grandeur) are sundered, that one can no longer have it both ways.
Certainly, Antony and Cleopatra cannot. The play characterizes them through a
language of greatness, shared by protagonists and minor figures alike, only to subvert
that rhetoric through other commentary and especially the behavior of Antony and
Cleopatra themselves. Although Shakespeare makes them more sympathetic than does
Plutarch, they remain self-absorbed and self-destructive—lying, ignoring urgent busi-
ness, acting impulsively, bullying underlings, reveling in vulgarity, betraying each
other. They are also militarily peripheral, as the fighting scenes, except for the first
Battle of Alexandria, testify. Shakespeare’s uncharacteristic decision to follow classi-
cal theater and keep all combat offstage leaves a feeling of being let down, as observers
report on the debacle. Enobarbus laments at Actium:
Naught, naught, all naught! I can behold no longer:
Th‘Antoniad, the Egyptian admiral,
With all their sixty fly and turn the rudder.
(3.10.1—3)
At the play’s last battle, it is Antony’s turn:
All is lost!
This foul Egyptian hath betrayed me!
My fleet hath yielded to the foe, and yonder
They cast their caps up and carouse together
Like friends long lost.
(4.12.9-13)
But this is not the whole story. Antony and Cleopatra are great not despite their
failings but because of them. Inability to fit into Caesar’s narrowed world of self-
discipline sets them apart. Their grandeur can be described only through paradoxi-
cal hyperbole. Antony’s heart “is become the bellows and the fan / To cool a gypsy’s
lust”: his heart is a fan that cools Cleopatra's lust by satisfying it, but in so doing he
 ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA # 2779

rekindles her passion, as if his heart were also a bellows (1.1.9—10). Similarly, when
Cleopatra meets Antony, “pretty dimpled boys” (2.2.214) attend her
With divers colored fans whose wind did seem
To glow the delicate cheeks which they did cool,
And what they undid did.
(2.2.215-17)

When told that marriage to Octavia will force Antony to abandon Cleopatra, Enobar-
bus demurs in the play’s most famous lines:
Never, he will not.
Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale
Her infinite variety. Other women cloy
The appetites they feed, but she makes hungry
Where most she satisfies.
(2.2.246—-50)

These passages might be considered accounts of middle-aged lust. The trick of

the play is to convince the audience that they are about love. Antony’s feelings are
easier to believe than Cleopatra’s: he is the one who gives up an empire. By contrast,
Cleopatra’s teasing frivolity, comic jealousy, and cold calculation render her motives
suspect. Yet Shakespeare gives her passages of extraordinary dignity early in the play,
when Antony decides to leave her upon hearing of his wife Fulvia’s death:
Courteous lord, one word.
Sir, you and I must part, but that’s not it.
Sir, you and I have loved, but there’s not it—
That you know well. Something it is Iwould—
Oh, my oblivion is a very Antony,
And | am all forgotten.
(1.3.87—92)

Cleopatra experiences something more than she can express. Its articulation thus takes
the form of a failure to articulate. There is an echo of this when Enobarbus describes
her to his fellow Romans: “her own person . . . beggared all description” (2.2.209-10).
Here, however, Cleopatra tries to convey her meaning through a witticism: her forget-
fulness makes her like Antony, who is forgetful of her. She forgets and is forgotten. But
when Antony misses the point, thinking he has merely witnessed idle wordplay, she
corrects him:
’Tis sweating labor
To bear such idleness so near the heart
As Cleopatra this. But, sir, forgive me,

... be deaf to my unpitied folly,

And all the gods go with you.
; (1.3.94—-100)

In short, Cleopatra’s playfulness is the surface of her essential depth, her “sweating
labor” like that of childbirth.
The last two acts test that depth, ultimately making Cleopatra the play’s central
character. The protagonists’ sphere of activity is reduced to Alexandria. Cleopatra
sends Antony a manipulative report of her death, he botches his suicide in response,
Instead,
and she then refuses to leave her monument to attend him as he lies dying.
up to her with the comment, “Here’s sport indeed. How heavy weighs
she hoists him
my lord!” (4.15.33), where “sport” is both playful and bitter, where “weighs” carries
both physical and psychological meaning, and, hence, where the scene combines
2780 + ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA

comedy with pathos. Antony’s politically climactic death proves a-false ending that
shifts central significance to the final act. Egypt and Cleopatra are what matter.
Egypt is associated throughout with the overflowing that Antony is faulted for at
the outset. Antony declares his love for Cleopatra by rejecting the state he rules: “Let
Rome in Tiber melt and the wide arch / Of the ranged empire fall!” (1.1.34-35). Upon
hearing of Antony’s marriage to Octavia, Cleopatra prays, “Melt Egypt into Nile,
and kindly creatures / Turn all to serpents!” (2.5.79-80). This apocalyptic imagery
dissolves all distinction. It is tied to the play’s account of spontaneous generation:
“Your serpent of Egypt is bred now of your mud by the operation of your sun. So
is your crocodile” (2.7.26—27). More generally, it contributes to the play’s insistence
on the inseparability of the human and natural worlds, perhaps with a gesture
toward the new notion of an infinite universe, clothed in the language of the Chris-
tian Bible: “Then must thou needs find out new heaven, new earth” (1.1.17).
Psychologically, this language anticipates Antony’s loss of self when he thinks
Cleopatra has betrayed him. His body seems to him as “indistinct / As water is in
water” (4.14.10—11). The language of liquefaction is also connected to the confusion
of gender identity. Antony “is not more manlike / Than Cleopatra, nor the queen of
Ptolemy / More womanly than he” (1.4.5—7). And Cleopatra reports, “I... put my
tires and mantles on him, whilst / I wore his sword Philippan” (2.5.21—23). This
behavior either confuses gender roles, thereby leading to Antony’s flight at Actium,
or overcomes a destructive opposition.
Cleopatra, who metaphorically overflows boundaries, is literally linked to Egypt
and specifically to the Egyptian goddess Isis (3.6.17), who is invoked several times,
probably owing to Plutarch’s On Isis and Osiris. Isis is the sister-wife of Osiris, whom
she restores after he is pursued to his death by his brother-rival, Typhon. The conclu-
sion thus seeks the regenerative powers of the Nile in Cleopatra. It asks whether she is
the equivalent of Isis, whether she is the wife of Antony (Osiris), whether she restores
him after he is pursued to his death by his brother (Caesar).
This is the work of Cleopatra’s suicide, which justifies these imagistic patterns
and Antony’s decision to die for her. In Shakespeare’s earlier tragedies, we may desire
the protagonists’ deaths because life has lost its meaning for them. But Antony and
Cleopatra goes further, convincing us that the two lovers’ suicides are a heroic
achievement, that anything less would constitute failure. The ending also evokes the
synthesis precluded by the play’s dichotomies but implied by. its subtler patterns.
Cleopatra dies the death of a Roman man:
My resolution’s placed, and I have nothing
Of woman in me. Now from head to foot
I am marble constant. Now the fleeting moon
No planet is of mine.
(5.2.237—40)

She also dies the death of a faithful Roman wife:

Methinks I hear
Antony call. I see him rouse himself
To praise my noble act... .

... Husband, I come.

Now to that name, my courage prove my title.
(5.2.279—84)

By taking the poisonous asp to her breast, she becomes a Roman mother as well, in a
passage that recalls her earlier intense feeling in the language of childbirth: —
Peace, peace.
Dost thou not see my baby at my breast,
 ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA ¢ 2781

That sucks the nurse asleep.

As sweet as balm, as soft as air, as gentle.

O Antony! Nay, I will take thee too.
[She applies another asp.|
(5.2.304—08)

Since the Folio lacks the stage direction included here, the final line can mean that
she takes Antony to her breast, like a mother comforting her infant son.

Sirbonys Lact
s FY tee
Z Lee
~___ Azioth s y
= : oa

AEG
Y PTVS=—Ooe

= = ee a 2 “ee =

Memphis uulz0 Me(fer Ti

yraur

Q
eetiee
<i ~

Op ge
Aw

Mare poe here |Bee RubsoT 1

=i
= “NN i, = = eS
Wl SSS ee
Jo 8 >

NSNaiecenterr seater
<= are

ti [BE Meridies§
<=

The Nile delta, showing the northern end of the river as it flows into the Mediterra-
nean Sea. Alexandria is visible near the upper left-hand corner. From a map in
Sebastian Miinster’s Cosmographia universalis (1550).
2782 + ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA

But “O Antony” is also

a cry of orgasm that recalls
Cleopatra’s earlier sexual
assertions, “I am again for
Cydnus / To meet Mark
Antony” (5.2.227—28) and
“Husband, I. come”
(5.2.283), and looks ahead
to Charmian’s sexually
ecstatic dying words,
which Shakespeare added
ty, to his source: “Ah, sol-
ve hes ~ dier!” (5.2.324). Further-
~~" more, Cleopatra’s manner
The Clown wishes Cleopatra “joy o’th’ worm” (5.2.275) as of death is clearly Egyp-
she prepares to commit suicide. From Edward Topsell’s fan. The ASP. recalls Anto-
History of Serpents (1608). ny’s description of her as
“my serpent of old Nile”
(1.5.25). Thus, Rome and Egypt, Antony and Cleopatra, martial valor and sexual
ecstasy are united in death as they cannot be in life. “Dido and her Aeneas”
(4.14.53), in Antony’s vision soon to be eclipsed by himself and Cleopatra, wander
together through the afterlife of the play. But Dido and Aeneas remain unreconciled
in the Aeneid, Shakespeare’s source for the characters. There, Aeneas abandons
Dido, whom Virgil modeled on the historical Cleopatra and thus associated with
Eastern sensuality. The abandonment is justified in the name of a higher cause—
Rome. Thus, Aeneas, despite his extramarital affair, functions as fictional forerun-
ner not of Antony but of Octavius Caesar. Insofar as Antony and Cleopatra leads the
audience to believe that its protagonists will end up together, then, it answers the
Aeneid, distancing itself from Roman and, by extension, Renaissance imperialism.
You can have it both ways. East and West, conquered and conqueror, are affirmed in
a final synthesis.
Yet countercurrents trouble Cleopatra’s “Immortal longings” (5.2.277). She
resolves on suicide not when she learns that Antony killed himself for her but when
she becomes certain that Caesar plans to lead her in humiliating triumph in Rome.
Recognizing that her suicide will ruin Caesar’s plans, she takes pleasure in imagin-
ing that Antony will “mock / The luck of Caesar,” that the asp will “call great Caesar
ass / Unpolicied” (5.2.281—82, 303-04). This rhetoric cleans up earlier dubious
behavior and puts the best face on defeat. Heroic aristocratic individualism can act
in the world only by leaving it. Moreover, the concluding, domestic Cleopatra
reduces to a conventional gender role a woman who challenged sexual hierarchy. At
her death, Cleopatra “lies / A lass unparalleled” (5.2.311—12). This eulogy juxta-
poses the extravagant Latinate “unparalleled” with the homespun “lass,” a word
that matches Cleopatra’s own rhetoric—“Husband,” “baby,” and “nurse.” Moreover,
in echoing her contempt for “Caesar [the] ass / Unpolicied,” the phrase praises her
at his expense. Alternatively, however, has Antony and Cleopatra presented “lies
alas unparalleled”?
The answer depends on the relationship between the ending and the partly
incompatible preceding material. Most critics have found the conclusion affirmative.
But the work registers ambivalence to the last, in Cleopatra’s account of the response
she expects at Rome:

The quick comedians

Extemporally will stage us and present
Our Alexandrian revels. Antony
Shall be brought drunken forth, and I shall see
 ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA ¢# 27583

Some squeaking Cleopatra boy my greatness

I’th’ posture of a whore.
(5.2.215—20)

Cleopatra shudders at the absurdity of a boy actor badly impersonating her, yet the
part of Cleopatra in Antony and Cleopatra was originally performed by a boy. This
reminder punctures the dramatic illusion just when it seems most essential. It looks
back to Cleopatra’s blurring of gender division. It emphasizes Cleopatra’s own arti-
fice—a veteran actress in her final performance. Shakespeare here flaunts his medium.
But if it is impossible to “boy” Cleopatra's “greatness,” to represent her adequately,
perhaps that is an invitation, as she has earlier suggested, to look beyond what can be
shown, to take seriously her “immortal longings.”

WALTER COHEN

SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
Archer, John Michael. “Antiquity and Degeneration in Antony and Cleopatra.” Race,
Ethnicity, and Power in the Renaissance. Ed. Joyce Green MacDonald. Madison,
NJ: Fairleigh Dickinson UP, 1997. 145-64. Explores the ambivalent image of
Egypt in the Renaissance, combining reverence for its antique wisdom with anxi-
ety about contagious decadence.
Deats, Sara Munson, ed. Antony and Cleopatra: New Critical Essays. New York:
Routledge, 2005. Presents fourteen new essays, including Munson’s own opening
survey of criticism and performance.
Egan, Gabriel. Green Shakespeare: From Ecopolitics to Ecocriticism. London: Rout-
ledge, 2006. 108-19. Examines Antony and Cleopatra’s sex without generation
versus the Nile’s generation without sex (spontaneous generation), the latter
seen as an exceeding of bounds that levels humans with the rest of the natural
world.
Geisweidt, Edward. “‘The Nobleness of Life’: Spontaneous Generation and Excre-
mental Life in Antony and Cleopatra.” Ecocritical Shakespeare. Ed. Lynne Bruck-
ner and Dan Brayton. Farnham, Surrey: Ashgate, 2011. 89-103. Discusses erosion
of the hierarchy between human and animal through the Nile’s ability to produce
life from its fertile dung and comparison of Antony and Caesar to excrement.
Loomba, Ania. Shakespeare, Race, and Colonialism. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2002. 112-34.
Explores links of empire, gender ambiguity, skin color, gypsies, and role playing.
Madeleine, Richard, ed. Antony and Cleopatra. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1998.
Offers a book-length history of productions of Antony and Cleopatra, combined with
an edition of the play annotated with accounts of various performance decisions.
Oates, Joyce Carol. “The Tragedy of Imagination in Antony and Cleopatra.” Living with
Shakespeare: Essays by Writers, Actors, and Directors. Ed. Susannah Carson. New
York: Vintage, 2013. 418-32. Sees the play as an atypical tragedy in which the pro-
tagonists’ illusions, sustained by comic and hyperbolic language, are never demysti-
fied by reality.
Singh, Jyotsna G. “The Politics of Empathy in Antony and Cleopatra: A View from
Below.” A Companion to Shakespeare's Works. Ed. Richard Dutton and Jean E.
Howard. Vol. 1: The Tragedies. Oxford: Blackwell, 2003. 411—29. Presents a cri-
tique of character-based scholarship and performances focusing on Cleopatra, in
favor of a broader view of tragedy centered on the sufferings of the minor charac-
ters and drawing on Brecht’s theory of alienation, or distancing, effects.
Weil, Judith. Service and Dependency in Shakespeare's Plays. Cambridge: Cambridge
UP, 2005. 91-104. Examines Enobarbus and Charmian’s flattery, combined
with mockery, aimed at Antony and Cleopatra, and Cleopatra’s similar strategy
with Antony.
2784 + ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA

Wofford, Susanne L., ed. Shakespeare's Late Tragedies: A Collection of Critical Essays.
Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1996. Presents five essays on Antony and
Cleopatra from the 1980s and 1990s, plus substantial discussion of the play in
three other more general pieces; primarily issues of subjectivity, race, gender, empire,
and performance.

FILM

Antony and Cleopatra. 1974. Dir. Jon Scoffield. UK. 161 min. Based on the 1972 Royal
Shakespeare Company production starring Janet Suzman as an intelligent,
“tawny,” feminist Cleopatra. Focuses on love at the expense of politics.

TEXTUAL INTRODUCTION
The Tragedy of Anthonie, and Cleopatra was entered in the Stationers’ Register on
May 20, 1608, by the book publisher Edward Blount as if it were soon to be pub-
lished, but for some reason the play was not printed until its inclusion in the First
Folio of Shakespeare's plays in 1623. The comparatively clean Folio text requires
very little emendation and serves as the base text for this edition. The text is likely
drawn from a transcript of Shakespeare’s original draft. The initial stage direction
for 1.2 announces the entrance of Lamprius, Rannius, and Lucilius, but they have
no speaking lines. Such “ghost characters” suggest an authorial manuscript rather
than the kind of copy marked by a prompter who would normally note the specific
entrances and exits required of the actors. This may explain why in the Folio Dola-
bella is mistakenly directed to enter at 5.2.315 and then again, properly, at 5.2.325.
Some of the stage directions are descriptive, indicating the playwright’s concep-
tion of what the action should look like. The initial stage direction for 3.1, “Enter
Ventidius as it were in triumph, the dead body of Pacorus borne before him,” for
example, gives an impression of the scene but no details about the actual staging.
Other stage directions permissively direct three or four characters to enter, leaving
the exact number of soldiers, attendants, or servants to be decided by the actors. At
other places, the Folio has no stage directions where modern editors supply them, as
in 5.2.35—-36, where the dialogue indicates that Caesar’s soldiers suddenly seize
Cleopatra but no stage direction is provided. Because many of the Folio spellings are
uncharacteristic of Shakespeare’s usual practice, editors believe the copy used was
not his own manuscript but a transcript very close to the original.
The central challenge in editing Antony and Cleopatra is to determine how lines in
the Folio should be organized in a modernized version. The compositors who set the
original manuscript copy into print worked from a handwritten draft that economized
on paper by running lines of poetry together. As dialogue moved from one speaker to
another, the compositors set each speech without indentation, regardless of whether
the iambic pentameter line was to be shared between two speakers. In some places
they were careless, and in other spots, finding a line too long to fit tidily in their half
page column, they cut it in two. But problems with lineation cannot all be laid at the
compositors’ feet. In the latter part of Shakespeare’s career when Antony and Cleopa-
tra was written, the dramatist used a high proportion of short and shared lines, often
eschewing metrical regularity for a more realistic representation of the way people
speak. Sometimes Shakespeare uses a series of short lines to heighten a scene’s
emotional effect, as in 2.2.169—75 when Antony, Caesar, and Lepidus discuss the
military threat posed by Pompey. At other times it is difficult to distinguish prose
from verse. In 1.2, for example, Charmian, Alexas, and Iras conduct their bawdy
repartee in prose, but the Soothsayer’s lines are metrically regular. The alternation
of verse lines with prose in this scene sets up the characters’ opposing perspectives
until the mood shifts again with Cleopatra’s entrance and a return to consistent
blank verse.
 ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA ¢ 2765

With so many variables, it is not surprising that the arrangement of Antony and
Cleopatra's lines of text often varies from edition to edition. The Norton Shakespeare
takes a conservative approach, adopting many traditional changes to the Folio linea-
tion. When the dialogue moves rapidly back and forth between characters, as in
Cleopatra’s confrontation with the Messenger in 2.5, it employs split lines to indicate
the dialogue’s rhythm. In other passages, especially when short lines are metrically
irregular, they are printed as single lines of text.
Ever since the eighteenth century, it has been customary to regularize Shake-
speare’s character names in accordance with his source, Thomas North’s English
translation of Plutarch’s Lives of the Noble Greeks and Romans. While a few recent
editions have returned to the Folio’s spellings—“Anthony” instead of “Antony,” for
example—The Norton Shakespeare adheres to the speech prefixes most commonly
associated with the play.
The Folio provides a heading for act 1, scene 1, but offers no act and scene divisions
after that. As performed by the King’s Company in the Globe, Antony and Cleopatra
would have been staged continuously, with action flowing rapidly from Rome to Egypt,
from battlefield to palace—all without interruption. Shakespeare’s eighteenth-century
editors imposed a five-act structure on the text and divided each act into separate
scenes. Although The Norton Shakespeare follows that tradition in its assignment of
act and scene numbers, the action should be conceived of as continuous.

VIRGINIA MASON VAUGHAN

PERFORMANCE NOTE

Theater companies frequently avoid Antony and Cleopatra, a widely admired but
tremendously challenging play with a history of disappointing the audience. Its sixty
speaking roles and ever-shifting locations can tax the resources of any company; its
abundance of shert scenes, some little more than fragments, frustrates efforts at
abridgment or adaptation. Furthermore, as the plot concerns legendary tragic figures
and world-shaping events, yet progresses mostly through scenes appropriate to satire
(comic exchanges, domestic situations), directors must strike difficult balances
between epic and intimate aspects and between competing genres. The more suc-
cessful productions in recent years emphasize the lovers’ fading glories and ultimate
transcendence over the political events and favor designs that facilitate fluid transi-
tions between scenes—complemented often by actors cast in multiple roles—over
attempts to evoke the grandeur of ancient cities. But there are no easy solutions.
All of the foregoing challenges seem trivial, though, when compared to those pre-
sented by the title roles. In commending Cleopatra for “her infinite variety,” Enobarbus
efficiently summarizes the role’s challenges: it seems to want an actor both calculating
and rash, coquettish and queenly, aging and yet irresistible, one who can perform pas-
sions both feigned and sincere and who can ensure that spectators are able to tell the
difference. The actor playing Antony has the even more unreasonable task ofjustifying
his reputation as a brave soldier, brilliant tactician, and constant lover, despite a glar-
ing lack of scenes or soliloquies centered on love or war. In addition, he must appear a
mythic figure and a fallen one, at once, and must earn attention while continually being
overshadowed by his scene partners (especially Cleopatra, but also Caesar, Enobarbus,
and Eros). Both roles, then, require extreme versatility while providing limitless possi-
bilities for emphasis. Versatility benefits lesser roles, too—Caesar combines callous
efficiency with moments of tenderness for Lepidus and Octavia; Enobarbus is a center
of lyricism, cynicism, and pathos, both character and choric figure. Other consider-
ations in production include Antony’s motives for marrying and hastily abandoning
Octavia; Cleopatra’s purpose in negotiating with Thidias in 3.13; hoisting Antony at the
monument (see Digital Edition PC 3); and Cleopatra’s spectacular suicide.
Bretr GAMBOA
 The Tragedy of
Antony and Cleopatra
[THE PERSONS OF THE PLAY
MARK ANTONY (Marcus Antonius), triumvir of Rome

Antony's friends and followers:

PHILO
DEMETRIUS
Domitius ENOBARBUS
VENTIDIUS
SILIUS
EROS
CANIDIUS
SCARUS
DERCETUS
Lamprius
Rannius
Lucilius

OCTAVIUS CAESAR, triumvir of Rome

Caesar's friends and followers:

MAECENAS
AGRIPPA
TAURUS
DOLABELLA
THIDIAS
PROCULEIUS
Gallus

LEPIDUS, triumvir of Rome

CLEOPATRA, Queen of Egypt

Attendants to Cleopatra:
CHARMIAN
IRAS
ALEXAS
MARDIAN, a eunuch
EGYPTIAN
DIOMEDES
SELEUCUS, treasurer to Cleopatra

POMPEY (Sextus Pompeius)

Pompey's supporters:
MENAS
VARRIUS
Menecrates

IQVIQK
 ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA 1.1 + 2787

OCTAVIA, sister to Caesar, wife to Antony

SOOTHSAYER
AMBASSADOR from Antony

SENTRY
WATCHMEN
MESSENGERS
CAPTAINS
SOLDIERS
BOY
GUARDSMEN
ATTENDANTS
CLOWN
SERVITORS or SERVANTS]

1.1
Enter DEMETRIUS and PHILO.
pHILo Nay, but this dotage® of our general's absurd infatuation
O’erflows the measure.' Those his goodly eyes,
That o’er the files and musters® of the war lines of troops
Have glowed like plated® Mars, now bend, now turn armored
The office® and devotion of their view duty
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 gypsy’s® lust. Egyptian’s; hussy’s
Flourish.° Enter ANTONY, CLEOPATRA, her ladies Trumpet fanfare
[CHARMIAN and 1RAS, and] the train® with eunuchs retinue

fanning her.
10 Look where they come!
Take but good note, and you shall see in him
The triple pillar of the world* transformed
Into a strumpet’s fool. Behold and see.
CLEOPATRA If it be love indeed, tell me how much.
ANTONY There’s beggary° in the love that can be reckoned. little value
CLEOPATRA I'll set a bourn® how far to be beloved. boundary
ANTONY Then must thou needs find out new heaven, new earth.*
Enter a MESSENGER.
MESSENGER News, my good lord, from Rome.
ANTONY Grates® me! The sum.° Irks / summary
20 CLEOPATRA Nay, hear them, Antony.
Fulvia® perchance is angry. Or, who knows (Antony's wife)
If the scarce-bearded Caesar® have not sent
His powerful mandate to you: “Do this, or this;

1.1 Location: Cleopatra’s palace, Alexandria. 5. Alluding anachronistically to Revelation 21:1

1. Goes beyond suitable bounds. (“I saw a new heaven, and a new earth”), and per-
2. A face or forehead of dark complexion (referring to haps both to the cosmological revolution initiated by
Cleopatra; see the Introduction); military “front,” or Copernicus and to the discovery of the New World.
battle line. This second meaning may connect to the imperial
3. Abandons all temperance (‘temper” is also the theme of the play—its sense of geographical expan-
hardness of tempered steel). siveness and European geographical expansion.
4. Antony, Octavius Caesar, and Lepidus were the 6. The opening of the play is set in 40 B.c.E., when
three triumvirs ruling the Roman Empire (most of Octavius Caesar was twenty-three years old; Antony
the known world, for Romans). was almost twenty years his senior.
2788 +# ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA I.1

Take in® that kingdom, and enfranchise® that! Annex

/liberate
Perform’t, or else we damn thee.”
ANTONY How,° my love? What
CLEOPATRA Perchance? Nay, and most like!”
You must not stay here longer. Your dismission® marching orders
Is come from Caesar; therefore hear it, Antony.
Where's Fulvia’s process?°>—Caesar’s, | would say—both? summons
30 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 Pays Caesar homage / or else
When shrill-tongued Fulvia scolds. The messengers!
ANTONY Let Rome in Tiber melt and the wide arch
35 Of the ranged® empire fall! Here is my space. orderly; extensive
Kingdoms are clay. Our dungy° earth alike made of manure
Feeds beast as man. The nobleness of life
Is to do thus,° when such a mutual® pair act as we do
And such a twain can do’, in which I bind—
40 On pain of punishment—the world to weet° recognize
We stand up peerless.
CLEOPATRA Excellent falsehood!
Why did he marry Fulvia and not love her?
I'll seem the fool I am not. Antony
Will be himself.?
ANTONY But stirred! by Cleopatra.
45 Now for the love of love and her soft hours,
Let’s not confound? the time with conference® harsh. ruin / conversation
There’s not a minute of our lives should stretch
Without some pleasure now. What sport® tonight? entertainment
CLEOPATRA Hear the ambassadors!
ANTONY Fie, wrangling Queen!
50 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
Tonight we'll wander through the streets and note
55 The qualities of people. Come, my queen,
Last night you did desire it. [to the MESSENGER] Speak not
to us. Exeunt [the MESSENGER, ANTONY,
and CLEOPATRA with the train.
DEMETRIUS Is Caesar with® Antonius prized® so slight? by / esteemed
PHILO Sir, sometimes when he is not Antony,
He comes too short of that great property? unique characteristic
Which still° should go with Antony. always
60 DEMETRIUS I am full sorry
That he approves® the common liar who proves correct
Thus speaks of him at Rome, but I will hope
Of better deeds tomorrow. Rest you happy. Exeunt.

7. It is most likely, rather than merely possible, that —_ will continue in his folly. (But Antony construes the
Fulvia is angry or Caesar has sent orders. words he hears as a compliment. It is also possible
8. Having the same feelings for each other; well- _ that Antony hears Cleopatra's entire speech.)
matched. 1. Aroused; motivated; disturbed.
9. I'll... himself: (ll appear to believe Antony’s. 2. I will hear only what you have to say.
falsehood, although I am really not so credulous; he
 ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA 1.2 # 2789

12}
Enter ENOBARBUS, Lamprius, a SOOTHSAYER, Rannius,
Lucilius, CHARMIAN, IRAS, MARDIAN the eunuch,
and ALEXAS.2
CHARMIAN Lord Alexas, sweet Alexas, most anything Alexas,
almost most absolute? Alexas, where’s the Soothsayer that perfect
you praised so to th’ Queen? Oh, that I knew this husband,
which you say must change his horns? with garlands.
ALEXAS Soothsayer!
SOOTHSAYER Your will?
CHARMIAN Is this the man? —Is’t you, sir, that know things?
SOOTHSAYER In nature’s infinite book of secrecy
A little I can read.
10 ALEXAS Show him your hand.
ENOBARBUS Bring in the banquet® quickly; wine enough light meal; dessert
Cleopatra’s health to drink.
CHARMIAN [giving her hand to the SOOTHSAYER] Good sir,
give me good fortune.
SOOTHSAYER I make not, but foresee.
CHARMIAN Pray then, foresee me one.
SOOTHAYER You shall be yet far fairer than you are.
CHARMIAN He means in flesh.° (by getting fatter)
IRAS No, you shall paint® when you are old. use cosmetics

20 CHARMIAN Wrinkles forbid.

ALEXAS Vex not his prescience; be attentive.
CHARMIAN Hush.
SOOTHSAYER You shall be more beloving than beloved,
CHARMIAN I had rather heat my liver with drinking.*
25 ALEXAS Nay, hear him.
CHARMIAN Good now,° some excellent fortune! Let me be Please; fine; begin
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 Caesar, and Find in my palm
30 companion me® with my mistress. make me equal
SOOTHSAYER You shall outlive the lady whom you serve.
CHARMIAN Oh, excellent! I love long life better than figs.°
SOOTHSAYER You have seen and proved? a fairer former fortune undergone
Than that which is to approach.
35 CHARMIAN Then belike® my children shall have no names.° likely / be bastards
Prithee, how many boys and wenches must I have?
SOOTHSAYER If every of your wishes had a womb
And fertile every wish, a million.
CHARMIAN Out, fool! I forgive thee for a witch.’
40 ALEXAS You think none but your sheets are privy to your wishes?
CHARMIAN [to SOOTHSAYER| Nay, come, tell Iras hers.

1.2 Location: Scene continues. 5. Anachronistic: Charmian wants homage to her

1. Texruat Comment For the rationale behind the child even from Herod, Cleopatra's enemy, who was
division of the play into scenes, despite the likelihood to become proverbial for his brutality to children for
that the play presents continuous action, see Digital his Massacre of the Innocents in an effort to kill the
Edition TC 1. infant Jesus.
2. TextuaL Comment The presence of “ghost 6. Genitalia (possibly proverbial); lines 31—32 also
characters”—those with no speaking part—suggests foreshadow 5.2.232—324.
that the play was printed from a manuscript not yet 7. Since you are a soothsayer, I will let you speak
revised for performance. See Digital Edition TC 2. freely and will not persecute you as a witch; I will
3. Must adorn his (proverbial) cuckold’s horns. forgive your outlandish prognostications because
4. Both falling in love and excessive drinking were they are unlikely to come true.
thought to inflame the liver, the seat of the passions.
2790 + ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA 1.2

ALEXAS We'll know all our fortunes.

ENOBARBUS Mine, and most of our fortunes tonight, shall be
drunk to bed.
45 RAS [giving her hand to sooTHSAYER] There’s a palm pre-
sages chastity,° if nothing else. (a dry palm)
CHARMIAN E’en as the o’erflowing Nilus presageth famine.®
IRAS Go, you wild® bedfellow, you cannot soothsay. licentious
CHARMIAN Nay, if an oily palm? be not a fruitful prognostica- (sign of sensuality)
50 tion,° I cannot scratch mine ear. [to SOOTHSAYER] Prithee, sign offertility
tell her but a workaday° fortune. an everyday
SOOTHSAYER Your fortunes are alike.
tRAS_ But how, but how? Give me particulars!
SOOTHSAYER I have said.
55 iRAS_ Am I not an inch of fortune better than she?
CHARMIAN Well, if you were but an inch of fortune better than
I, where would you choose it?
tRAS- Not in my husband’s nose!° (sexual innuendo)
CHARMIAN Our worser® thoughts heavens mend. Alexas— lascivious
60 come, his fortune, his fortune. Oh, 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
65 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 heartbreaking to see a handsome man loose-
wived,° so it is a deadly sorrow to behold a foul knave uncuck- wedded to an adulteress
olded. Therefore, dear Isis, keep decorum? and fortune him do the right thing
70 accordingly.
CHARMIAN Amen.
ALEXAS Lo now, if it lay in their hands to make me a cuckold,
they would make themselves whores, but they’d do’t.° in order to do so
Enter CLEOPATRA.
ENOBARBUS'- Hush, here comes Antony.
5) CHARMIAN Not he, the Queen.
CLEOPATRA Saw you my lord?
ENOBARBUS No, lady.
CLEOPATRA Was he not here?
CHARMIAN No, madam.
80 CLEOPATRA He was disposed to mirth, but on the sudden
A Roman’ thought hath struck him. Enobarbus! of Rome; serious
ENOBARBUS Madam.
CLEOPATRA Seek him, and bring him hither. Where’s Alexas?
ALEXAS Here, at your service. My lord approaches.
Enter ANTONY with a MESSENGER.
85 CLEOPATRA We will not look upon him: Go with us.
Exeunt [all but ANTONY and the MESSENGER].
MESSENGER Fulvia, thy wife, first came into the field.° battlefield
ANTONY Against my brother Lucius?!
MESSENGER Ay,
But soon that war had end, and the time’s state® situation at the time

8. Ironic: the silt brought down by the flooding Nile | and moon. For the comparison ofCleopatra to Isis, see
each year gave Egypt its fertile soil. the Introduction. go: come (sexual); bear children.
9. Egyptian goddess of fertility, as well as of the earth ~— 1. Lucius Antonius, Roman consul.
 ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA 1.2 # 2791

90 Made friends of them, jointing their force ’gainst Caesar,

Whose better issue® in the war from Italy greater success
Upon the first encounter drave them.° drove them out
ANTONY Well, what worst?
MESSENGER ‘The nature of bad news infects the teller.”
95 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. as if
MESSENGER Labienus?—
This is stiff news—hath with his Parthian force
100 Extended?® Asia. From Euphrates Seized
His conquering banner shook, from Syria
To Lydia, and to Ionia,
Whilst—
ANTONY Antony, thou wouldst say.
MESSENGER O my lord!
ANTONY Speak to me home,’ mince not the general tongue.* plainly
105 Name Cleopatra as she is called in Rome;
Rail thou in Fulvia’s phrase,° and taunt my faults words
With such full license as both truth and malice
Have power to utter. Oh, then we bring forth weeds
When our quick winds lie still, and our ills told us
110 Is as our earing.’ Fare thee well awhile.
MESSENGER At your noble pleasure. Exit MESSENGER.
Enter SECOND MESSENGER.
ANTONY From Sicyon,° ho, the news! Speak there.
SECOND MESSENGER The man from Sicyon—
ANTONY Is there such a one?
SECOND MESSENGER He stays upon? your will. He attends
ANTONY Let him appear.
[Exit SECOND MESSENGER.]
115 These strong Egyptian fetters I must break,
Or lose myself in dotage.
Enter THIRD MESSENGER with a letter.
What are you?
THIRD MESSENGER Fulvia, thy wife, is dead.
ANTONY Where died she?
MESSENGER In Sicyon.
Her length of sickness, with what else more serious
Importeth thee® to know, this bears. Is important
for you
[He gives aNTony the letter.
120 ANTONY Forbear® me. Leave
[Exit THIRD MESSENGER. |

2. Makes the teller hated by the hearer. For exam- Romans, conquering some of their provinces in what
ples, see 2.5 and 3.13. is now the Middle East (lines 100—102)—provinces
3. Quintus Labienus, who was sent by Brutus and Antony was supposed to protect.
Cassius following their killing of Julius Caesar (see 4. Do not play down common opinion.
Julius Caesar) to garner support from the Parthians, 5. Oh... earing: Antony compares his recent behav-
an Asian people whose empire came to include much ior to an unplowed field: just as the field sprouts
of Mesopotamia (Iraq) and Persia (Iran) and who weeds when it remains untilled (by hand or) by a
regularly warred with Rome. After Brutus’s and Cas- “quick” (fertile) wind, he falls into “ill” habits when
sius’s defeat at Philippi by Antony, Octavius Caesar, he is not forced to face criticism (to undergo “earing,”
and Lepidus, Labienus defected to take command of plowing).
the Parthian army and began a war against the 6. City in Greece where Antony left Fulvia.
2792 + ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA 1.2

There’s a great spirit gone. Thus did I desire it.

What our contempts doth often hurl from us,
We wish it ours again. The present pleasure,
By revolution low’ring,’ does become
125 The opposite of itself. She’s® good, being gone. Fulvia is
The hand could? pluck her back that shoved her on. would wish to
I must from this enchanting® queen break off. spellbinding
Ten thousand harms, more than the ills I know,
My idleness doth hatch. How now, Enobarbus!
Enter ENOBARBUS.
ENOBARBUS What’s your pleasure, sir?
130 ANTONY I must with haste from hence.
ENOBARBUS Why, then we kill® all our women. We see how
mortal an unkindness is to them; if they suffer our depar-
ture, death’s the word.
ANTONY I must be gone.
135. ENOBARBUS Under a compelling occasion, let women die. 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 of this, dies instantly.
I have seen her die twenty times upon far poorer moment.° for far less reason
140 I do think there is mettle® in death, which commits some (sexwial) potency; courage
loving act upon her, she hath such a celerity® in dying. speed
ANTONY She is cunning past man’s thought.
ENOBARBUS_ Alack, sit, no! Her passions are made of nothing
but the finest part of pure love. We cannot call her winds
145 and waters, sighs and tears—they are greater storms and
tempests than almanacs can report. This cannot be cunning
in her; if it be, she makes a shower of rain as well as Jove.”
ANTONY Would IJ had never seen her!
ENOBARBUS QO sir, you had then left unseen a wonderful piece
150 of work,° which not to have been blest withal° would have masterpiece / with
discredited your travel.'
ANTONY Fulvia is dead.
ENOBARBUS | Sir.
ANTONY Fulvia is dead.
155. 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, comforting
160 therein, that when old robes°® are worn out, there are mem- clothes; women
bers? to make new. If there were no more women but Fulvia,
then had you indeed a cut, and the case to be lamented.
This grief is crowned with consolation; your old smock brings
forth a new petticoat, and indeed, the tears live in an onion
165 that should water this sorrow.° don't shed any real tears

7. Growing lower by turning (as of a wheel, such as 1. Would have cast doubt on your success as a tray-
Fortune’s). eler. “Travel” also suggests “travail,” or work, as in
8. Alluding to achieving an orgasm. Throughout the “piece of work” (lines 149-50). é
scene, the words “kill,” “death,” and “dying” all carry 2. Limbs; sexual organs, The sexual innuendo is con-
this bawdy resonance. “Nothing,” which Enobarbus tinued in “cut” (line 162; severe blow; slash in a gar-
repeats, may refer to the female genitals. ment; vagina), “case” (line 162: situation; set of clothes;
9. Jupiter; ruler of the gods: one of his duties was to vagina), and “broachéd” (lines 166, 168: opened or
govern rain. pricked).
 ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA 1.3. # 2793

ANTONY ‘The business she hath broachéd in the state,

Cannot endure my absence.
ENOBARBUS_ And the business you have broached here cannot
be without you, especially that of Cleopatra’s, which wholly
170 depends on your abode.” staying on here
ANTONY No more light answers. Let our officers
Have notice what we purpose. I shall break
The cause of our expedience® to the Queen haste
And get her leave to part. For not alone
175 The death of Fulvia, with more urgent touches?® concerns

Do strongly speak to us, but the letters, too,

Of many our contriving friends’ in Rome
Petition us at home.° Sextus Pompeius to go home
Hath given the dare to Caesar and commands
180 The empire of the sea.* Our slippery° people, inconstant
Whose love is never linked to the deserver
Till his deserts are past, begin to throw® ascribe (the title of)
Pompey the Great and all his dignities
Upon his son, who, high in name and power—
185 Higher than both in blood and life°—stands up vitality and energy
For the main soldier;° whose quality going on, acts like the top soldier
The sides o’th’ world may danger.* Much is breeding,
Which like the courser’s hair hath yet but life,
And not a serpent’s poison.® Say our pleasure,
190 To such whose place® is under us, requires rank
Our quick remove from hence.
ENOBARBUS I shall do’.

1.3
Enter CLEOPATRA, CHARMIAN, ALEXAS, and IRAS.
CLEOPATRA Where is he?
CHARMIAN I did not see him since.° recently
CLEOPATRA See where he is, who’s with him, what he does.
I did not send you.! If you find him sad,° serious
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 the method? to enforce act appropriately
The like from him.
CLEOPATRA What should I do, I do not?° What else should I do?
CHARMIAN In each thing give him way. Cross him in nothing.
CLEOPATRA Thou teachest like a fool the way to lose him.
CHARMIAN Tempt® him not so too far. I wish—forbear°— Test / that youd forbear
In time we hate that which we often fear.
Enter ANTONY.
But here comes Antony.
CLEOPATRA I am sick and sullen.° dispirited
ANTONY Iam sorry to give breathing® to my purpose. voice

3. Of many friends acting on our behalf. acter, should they continue to succeed, might endanger
4. Sextus Pompey was the younger son of Pompey the the entire arrangement of the world.
Great, who was a foe ofJulius Caesar (see Julius Caesar 6. A horse’s (“courser’s,” line 188) hair was believed
1.1). Previously an outlaw, the Pompey of the play had to become a live snake if put in water.
gained control of the shipping routes around Sicily. 1.3 Location: Scene continues.
5. whose . . danger: whose accomplishments and char- _1. Do not say I sent you.
2794 + ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA 1.3

15 CLEOPATRA Help me away, dear Charmian, I shall fall.

It cannot be thus long; the sides of nature?
Will not sustain it.
ANTONY Now, my dearest queen—
CLEOPATRA Pray you, stand farther from me.
ANTONY What’s the matter?
CLEOPATRA I know by that same eye there’s some good news.
20 What? Says the married woman? you may go? (Fulvia)
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 Oh, 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 thronéd gods?—
Who have been false to Fulvia? Riotous madness,
30 To be entangled with those mouth-made?® vows, hypocritical
Which break themselves in swearing.° as they are made
ANTONY Most sweet queen—
CLEOPATRA Nay, pray you seek no color® for your going, excuse
But bid farewell, and go. When you sued staying,° entreated to remain
Then was the time for words. No going then;
35 Eternity was in our® lips and eyes, (royal plural)
Bliss in our brows’ bent,° none our parts® so poor curve / of our parts was
But was a race of heaven. They are so still,
Or thou, the greatest soldier of the world,
Art turned the greatest liar.
ANTONY How now, lady?
40 CLEOPATRA I would I had thy inches;° thou shouldst know _ size: (phallic)
There were a heart in Egypt.*
ANTONY Hear me, Queen.
The strong necessity of time commands
Our services awhile, but my full heart
Remains in use® with you. Our Italy in trust
45 Shines o’er with civil swords.° Sextus Pompeius swords of civil war
Makes his approaches to the port of Rome;° Ostia (sixteen miles away)
Equality of two domestic powers
Breed scrupulous faction.° The hated, grown to strength, distrustful dissent
Are newly grown to love.? The condemnéd® Pompey, popularity /banished
50 Rich in his father’s honor, creeps® apace insinuates himself
Into the hearts of such as have not thrived :
Upon the present state,° whose numbers threaten, government
And quietness grown sick of rest would purge
By any desperate change.’ My more particular,° personal motivation
55 And that which most with you should safe° my going, sanction
Is Fulvia’s death.
CLEOPATRA Though age from folly could not give me freedom

2. This cannot go on much longer; the bodily frame. _ the country (Queen) of Egypt.
3. When Jupiter swore an oath, Mount Olympus, home 5. And... . change: And peace, made ill by inactivity,
of the gods, was supposed to shake. wishes to purge itself of impurities by a violently act-
4. There were courage (to respond to such insults) in —_ing remedy.
 ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA 1.3. # 2795

It does from childishness. Can Fulvia die?

ANTONY She’s dead, my queen.
|He shows the letters.]
60 Look here, and at thy sovereign leisure read
The garboils°® she awaked; at the last, best°— upheavals
See when and where she died.
CLEOPATRA Oh, most false love!
Where be the sacred vials’ thou shouldst fill
With sorrowful water? Now I see, I see,
65 In Fulvia’s death how mine received shall be.
ANTONY Quarrel no more, but be prepared to know
The purposes I bear, which are, or cease® continue, or not
As you shall give th’advice. By the fire® SUN

That quickens Nilus’ slime,® I go from hence

70 Thy soldier-servant, making peace or war
As thou affects.° choose
CLEOPATRA Cut my lace,? Charmian, come—
But let it be. | am quickly ill and well,
So! Antony loves.
ANTONY My precious queen, forbear
And give true evidence? to his love which stands be an honest witness
An honorable trial.
13 CLEOPATRA So Fulvia told me.
I prithee, turn aside and weep for her,
Then bid adieu to me and say the tears
Belong to Egypt.° Good now, play one scene Cleopatra
Of excellent dissembling, and let it look
Like perfect honor.
80 ANTONY You'll heat my blood? no more! make me angry
CLEOPATRA You can do better yet: but this is meetly.° fairly good (acting)
ANTONY Now, by my sword!
CLEOPATRA And target.” Still he mends.° improves
But this is not the best. Look, prithee, Charmian,
How this Herculean Roman does become
85 The carriage of his chafe.° His posture of rage
ANTONY I'll leave you, lady.
CLEOPATRA Courteous lord, one word.
Sir, you and I must part, but that’s not it.
Sir, you and I have loved, but there’s not it—
90 That you know well. Something it is ]would—
Oh, my oblivion is a very Antony,
And I am all forgotten.?
ANTONY But that your royalty
Holds idleness your subject, I should take you
For idleness itself.*
CLEOPATRA ’Tis sweating labor® work; birth pains

6. The best news last; Fulvia was at her best at the 1. As long as; thus (falsely).
end of her life. 2. Shield. Cleopatra parodies the blustering oaths of
7. Renaissance writers thought that the Romans heroic drama.
filled small bottles with tears to place in graves; also, 3. my... forgotten: my memory has deserted me as
where are your sad and watery eyes (“vials”)? you are doing, and I have forgotten everything (am
8. That causes plants to grow in the silt that the Nile totally forgotten—by Antony).
deposits. 4. But... itself: If you were not queen over your flip-
9. Cutting the strings would be quicker than untying pancy and hence in full control of it, I would think
the lace on her bodice to relieve her from her feigne that you were flippancy itself.
fainting spell.
2796 +# ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA 1.4

95 To bear such idleness® so near the heart flippancy; laziness

As Cleopatra this. But, sir, forgive me,
Since my becomings? kill me when they do not transformations; graces
Eye® well to you. Your honor calls you hence; Look
Therefore be deaf to my unpitied folly,
100 And all the gods go with you. Upon your sword
Sit laurel victory,° and smooth success the laurels of victory
Be strewed before your feet.
ANTONY Let us go. Come.
Our separation so abides and flies,
That thou residing here goes yet with me,
And I hence fleeting here remain with thee.
Away. Exeunt.

1.4
Enter Octavius [CAESAR] reading a letter, LEPIDUS,
and their train.
CAESAR You may see, Lepidus, and henceforth know,
It is not Caesar's natural vice to hate
Our great competitor.° From Alexandria ally; rival
This is the news: he fishes, drinks, and wastes
wn The lamps of night in revel; is not more manlike
Than Cleopatra, nor the queen of Ptolemy!
More womanly than he; hardly gave audience” or
Vouchsafed to think he had partners. You shall find there® (in the letter); (in Egypt)
A man who is th’abstract® of all faults the paradigm
That all men follow.
LEPIDUS I must not think there are
Evils enough to darken all his goodness.
His faults in him seem as the spots of heaven,° stars

More fiery by night’s blackness—hereditary,

Rather than purchased,° what he cannot change, acquired
Than? what he chooses. Rather than
CAESAR You are too indulgent. Let’s grant it is not
Amiss to tumble on the bed of Ptolemy,
To give a kingdom for a mirth,’ to sit joke
And keep the turn of® tippling with a slave, take turns at
20 To reel the streets at noon, and stand the buffet° come to blows
With knaves that smell of sweat. Say® this becomes him— Even if
As his composure® must be rare indeed And his character
Whom these things cannot blemish—yet must Antony
No way excuse his foils® when we do bear faults
tw wn So great weight in® his lightness. If he filled as @ result of
His vacancy® with his voluptuousness, leisure
Full surfeits and the dryness of his bones?
Call on° him for’t. But to confound® such time Afflict / waste
That drums? him from his sport and speaks as loud summons
30 As his own state® and ours, ’tis to be chid public responsibility

5. Consists so much of both remaining together and Egyptian royal family); she was said to have had Ptol-
being separated (in that we are united by the shared emy poisoned.
experience of it). 2.. Hardly listened (to Octavius’s messenger, in 1.1).
1.4 Location: Rome. 3. Full... bones: Ill health caused by overeating and
1. Julius Caesar had commanded Cleopatra to marry venereal disease.
her half brother Ptolemy XIV (acceptable within the
 ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA 1.4 # 2797

As we rate® boys who, being mature in knowledge, upbraid

Pawn their experience to their present pleasure
And so rebel to judgment.*
Enter a MESSENGER.
LEPIDUS Here’s more news.
MESSENGER Thy biddings have been done, and every hour,
35 Most noble Caesar, shalt thou have report
How ‘tis abroad. Pompey is strong at sea,
And it appears he is beloved of those
That only have feared Caesar.’ To the ports
The discontents° repair, and men’s reports discontented people
Give him® much wronged. Say he is
40 CAESAR I should have known no less.
It hath been taught us from the primal state®
That he which is was wished until he were,’
And the ebbed® man, ne’er loved till ne’er worth love, fallen
Comes feared? by being lacked. This common body,° Is revered / The people
45 Like to a vagabond flag® upon the stream, drifting reed
Goes to and back, lackeying® the varying tide following slavishly
To rot itself with motion.
[Enter a SECOND MESSENGER. |
SECOND MESSENGER Caesar, I bring thee word:
Menecrates and Menas, famous pirates,” (allied with Pompey)
Makes the sea serve them, which they ear° and wound plow
50 With keels of every kind. Many hot inroads
They make in Italy; the borders maritime® coastal territories
Lack blood? to think on’t, and flush® youth revolt. Go pallid / spirited
No vessel can peep forth but ’tis as soon
Taken as seen—for Pompey’s name strikes more
Than could his war resisted.®
CAESAR Antony,
Leave thy lascivious wassails.? When thou once drunken revels
Was beaten from Modena,’ where thou slew’st
Hirsius and Pansa, consuls, at thy heel
Did famine follow, whom thou fought’st against,
60 Though daintily brought up, with patience more
Than savages could suffer. Thou didst drink
The stale° of horses and the gilded® puddle urine / slime-covered
Which beasts would cough at.° Thy palate then did deign® refuse (to drink) / accept
The roughest berry on the rudest hedge.
65 Yea, like the stag when snow the pasture sheets,° covers

The barks of trees thou browséd.° On the Alps fed upon

It is reported thou didst eat strange flesh
Which some did die to look on. And all this—
It wounds thine honor that I speak it now—
70 Was borne so like a soldier that thy cheek
So much as lanked? not. grew thin

4. being... judgment: being old enough to know 8. Pompey’. . . resisted: Pompey’s name alone is more
better, abandon their wisdom in favor of momentary powerful than his forces would be if confronted in
pleasure and thus act against their better judgment. battle.
_5. That obeyed Caesar only out of fear. 9, Site of a battle in which Antony was defeated by
6. Since the first society was organized. the combined armies of Octavius Caesar and the
_7. That man who rules was supported until he began Roman Senate, at the instigation of Cicero.
to rule.
2798 + ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA 1.5

LEPIDUS "Tis pity of him.

CAESAR Let his shames quickly
Drive him to Rome. ’Tis time we twain
Did show ourselves i’th’ field, and to that end
75 Assemble we immediate council. Pompey
Thrives in our idleness.
LEPIDUS Tomorrow, Caesar,
I shall be furnished to inform you rightly
Both what? by sea and land I can be able® what forces / assemble
To front® this present time. To confront the enemy at
CAESAR Till which encounter,
80 It is my business too. Farewell.
LEPIDUS Farewell, my lord. What you shall know meantime
Of stirs® abroad, I shall beseech you, sir, incidents
To let me be partaker.
CAESAR Doubt not, sir.
I knew it for my bond.° Exeunt. responsibility

1.5
Enter CLEOPATRA, CHARMIAN, IRAS, and MARDIAN.
CLEOPATRA Charmian!
CHARMIAN Madam?
CLEOPATRA Ha, ha! Give me to drink mandragora. 1
CHARMIAN Why, madam?
CLEOPATRA That I might sleep out this great gap of time
My Antony is away.
CHARMIAN You think of him too much.
CLEOPATRA Oh, ’tis treason.
CHARMIAN Madam, I trust not so.
CLEOPATRA Thou, eunuch Mardian!
MARDIAN What's your highness’ pleasure?
CLEOPATRA Not now to hear thee sing.” I take no pleasure
In aught? an eunuch has. ’Tis well for thee
That, being unseminared,° thy freer thoughts castrated
May not fly forth of Egypt. Hast thou affections?° desires
MARDIAN _ Yes, gracious madam.
CLEOPATRA Indeed?
MARDIAN — Not in deed, madam, for I can do° nothing (sexually)
But what indeed is honest® to be done. chaste; moral
Yet have I fierce affections and think
What Venus did with Mars.*
CLEOPATRA O Charmian,
Where think’st thou he is now? Stands he, or sits he?
20 Or does he walk? Or is he on his horse?
Oh, happy horse to bear the weight of Antony!
Do bravely, horse, for wot’st° thou whom thou mov’st, know
The demi-Atlas° of this earth, the arm° champion
And burgonet® of men. He’s speaking now helmet; guardian

1.5 Location: Alexandria. 3. In anything; in the nothing. The eunuch has noth-
1. Anarcotic, made from the mandrake plant. ing instead of testicles.
2. Castrati were used in Italian music from the end of 4. Venus, goddess of love (married to Vulcan), and
the sixteenth century, and Shakespeare associates sing- Mars, god of war, were lovers.
ing eunuchs with the eastern Mediterranean in Twelfth 5. Octavius and Antony between them rule the
Night and A Midsummer Night's Dream; they are not world—Lepidus having conveniently been forgotten—
thought to have been used as singers in ancient Rome. as Atlas bore it on his shoulders.
 ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA 1.5 # 27°99

25 Or murmuring, “Where’s my serpent of old Nile?”®

(For so he calls me). Now I feed myself
With most delicious poison. Think on me
That am with Phoebus’® amorous pinches black the sun god's
And wrinkled deep in time. Broad-fronted® Caesar,° Broad-browed / (Julius)
30 When thou wast here above the ground, I was
A morsel for a monarch, and great Pompey’
Would stand and make his eyes grow in my brow;
There would he anchor his aspect® and die® gaze / (sexual)
With looking on his life.
Enter ALEXAS from [ANTONY].
35 ALEXAS Sovereign of Egypt, hail!
CLEOPATRA How much unlike art thou Mark Antony!
Yet coming from him, that great med’cine® hath
With his tinct® gilded thee. power; color
How goes it with my brave® Mark Antony? magnificent
40 ALEXAS Last thing he did, dear queen,
He kissed—the last of many doubled kisses—
This orient? pearl. His speech sticks in my heart.
CLEOPATRA Mine ear must pluck it thence.
ALEXAS “Good friend,” quoth he,
“Say the firm® Roman to great Egypt° sends loyal; resolute / Cleopatra
45 This treasure of an oyster: at whose foot,
To mend’ the petty present, I will piece® improve / add to
Her opulent throne with kingdoms. All the East,”
Say thou, “shall call her mistress.” So he nodded,
And soberly did mount an arm-gaunt steed,!
50 Who neighed so high that what I would have spoke
Was beastly dumbed? by him. drowned out
CLEOPATRA What was he, sad or merry?
ALEXAS Like to the time o'th’ year between th’extremes
Of hot and cold, he was nor® sad nor merry. neither
CLEOPATRA Oh, well-divided® disposition! Note him, balanced
Note him, good Charmian, ’tis the man, but note him.
He was not sad, for he would shine on those
That make their looks by his;* he was not merry,
Which seemed to tell them his remembrance lay
60 In Egypt with his joy—but between both.
Oh, heavenly mingle! Be’st thou sad or merry,
The violence of either thee becomes,
So does it no man else. —Mett’st thou my posts?° messengers
ALEXAS Ay, madam, twenty several° messengers. separate
Why do you send so thick?
65 CLEOPATRA Who's? born that day Whoever is
When I forget to send to Antony,
Shall die a beggar. Ink and paper, Charmian.
Welcome, my good Alexas! Did I, Charmian,
Ever love Caesar so?

6. See 2.7.26-27 for the superstition that snakes 8. Elixir of life: sought by alchemists, it was thought to
formed spontaneously in the Nile mud; the asp in be able to turn base metals to gold and cure all disease.
particular was associated with Isis, with whom Cleopa- 9. From India (more lustrous than European pearls).
tra identifies herself. 1. Thin but fiery war horse. TExruaL COMMENT For
7. Gneius Pompey, older brother of Sextus Pompey Shakespeare’s invention of compound words like this
(the character in this play) and son of Pompey the one, see Digital Edition TC 3.
Great. But Cleopatra's phrasing makes him sound like 2. Who are dependent on his mood; who reflect his
the father. appearance in their own.
2800 + ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA 2.1

CHARMIAN Oh, that brave Caesar!

CLEOPATRA Be choked with such another emphasis,
Say “the brave Antony.”
CHARMIAN The valiant Caesar.
CLEOPATRA By Isis, I will give thee bloody teeth,
If thou with Caesar paragon® again compare
My man of men.
CHARMIAN By your most gracious pardon,
I sing but after you.
i CLEOPATRA My salad days,
When I was green® in judgment, cold in blood,’ immature /feeling
To say as I said then. But come, away;
Get me ink and paper.
He shall have every day a several greeting
80 Or I'll unpeople Egypt.? Exeunt.

2.1
Enter Pompey, Menecrates, and MENAS,! in
warlike manner.
pompEy If the great gods be just, they shall assist
The deeds ofjustest men.
MENAS Know, worthy Pompey,
That what they do delay they not deny.
POMPEY Whiles we are suitors to their throne, decays
The thing we sue for.?
MENAS We, ignorant of ourselves,
Beg often our own harms, which the wise powers
Deny us for our® good. So find we profit our own

By losing of our prayers.

POMPEY I shall do well.
The people love me, and the sea is mine;
My powers are crescent, and my auguring® hope growing / prophesying
Says it® will come to th’ full.* Mark Antony (my military power)
In Egypt sits at dinner and will make
No wars without doors.* Caesar gets money where
He loses hearts. Lepidus flatters both,
Of? both is flattered; but he neither loves,° By / loves neither
Nor either cares for him.
MENAS Caesar and Lepidus
Are in the field. A mighty strength they carry.
POMPEY Where have you this? ’Tis false.
‘MENAS From Silvius, sir.
POMPEY He dreams. I know they are in Rome together
20 Looking?® for Antony. But all the charms? of love, Waiting / incantations
Salt° Cleopatra, soften thy waned? lip! Lecherous
Let witchcraft join with beauty, lust with both;
Tie up the libertine in a field of feasts;

3. If not, it will be only because I have run out of what we request is losing its value.
Egyptians to act as messengers (or: because | have 3. Like the “crescent” moon.
killed all Egyptians). 4. Outside doors. Antony is concerned only with the
2.1 Location: Pompey’s headquarters (in Sicily). wars of love, conducted indoors.
1. TexruaL ComMENT For the assignment to Menas 5. Withered; decreased, like the moon, perhaps in
of all dialogue with the speech prefix Mene.in F, see implicit contrast to the “crescent” and potentially
Digital Edition TC 4. “full” moon of Pompey’s “powers” (lines 10-11).
2. Whiles .. . for: While we are beseeching the gods,
 ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA 2.2 ¢ 2801

Keep his brain fuming.° Epicurean® cooks, drunk

25 Sharpen with cloyless sauce’ his appetite,
That sleep and feeding may prorogue® his honor postpone
Even till a Lethe’d dullness’—
Enter VARRIUS.
How now, Varrius?
vaRRIUS This is most certain that I shall deliver:
Mark Antony is every hour in Rome
30 Expected. Since he went from Egypt ’tis
A space for farther travel.?
POMPEY I could have given less® matter less crucial
A better ear. Menas, I did not think
This amorous surfeiter would have donned his helm° helmet
35 For such a petty war. His soldiership
Is twice the other twain. But let us rear® elevate
The higher our opinion, that our stirring (of ourselves)
Can from the lap of Egypt’s widow? pluck (see note to 1.4.6)
The ne’er-lust-wearied Antony.
MENAS I cannot hope® suppose
40 Caesar and Antony shall well greet together.
His wife that’s dead did trespasses to°® Caesar; offended against
His brother warred upon him, although I think
Not moved? by Antony. prompted
POMPEY I know not, Menas,
How lesser enmities may give way to greater.
45 Were'’t not that we stand up against them all,
’Twere pregnant® they should square® between themselves, evident / argue
For they have entertainéd® cause enough sustained
To draw their swords. But how the fear of us
May cement their divisions® and bind up unite them
50 The petty difference, we yet not know.
Be’t as our gods will have’t! It only stands
Our lives upon to use! our strongest hands.
Come, Menas. Exeunt.

2.2
Enter ENOBARBUS and LEPIDUS.
LEPIDUS Good Enobarbus, ’tis a worthy deed,
And shall become you well, to entreat your captain
To soft and gentle speech.
ENOBARBUS I shall entreat him
To answer like himself.' If Caesar move? him, angers
Let Antony look over Caesar’s head
And speak as loud as Mars. By Jupiter,
Were I the wearer of Antonio’s beard,
I would not shave’t today.”
LEPIDUS "Tis not a time for private stomaching.° quarrels
ENOBARBUS Every time serves for the matter that is then born in’t.

6. The philosopher Epicurus and his followers believed between Egypt and Rome).
that the gods took no interest in humans’ actions and 1. It... use: Our lives depend entirely on the use of.
that the only aim of life was to seek pleasure. 2.2 Location: Rome.
7. Sauce that never wearies or disgusts. 1. To answer in a manner appropriate to his character.
8. Drinking the water of Lethe, one of the rivers 2. Plucking a man’s beard was an insult; Enobarbus
bounding Hades, was believed to cause total loss of wants Antony to give Octavius the chance to insult
memory. him. Possibly, Enobarbus is suggesting not that
9. Sufficient time to have traveled even farther (than Antony act heroically but that he merely look the part.
2802 +¢ ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA 2.2

LEPIDUS But small to greater matters must give way.

ENOBARBUS Not if the small come first.
LEPIDUS Your speech is passion.° But pray you stir not reasoned
No embers? up. Here comes the noble Antony. old resentments
Enter ANTONY and VENTIDIUS.
ENOBARBUS' And yonder Caesar.
Enter CAESAR, MAECENAS, and AGRIPPA.
ANTONY [to VENTIDIUS] If we compose? well here, to Parthia. reach agreement
Hark, Ventidius.
[They confer apart.]
CAESAR I do not know, Maecenas, ask Agrippa.
Lepipus Noble friends.
20 That which combined us was most great, and let not
A leaner® action rend us. What’s amiss, less important
May it be gently heard. When we debate
Our trivial difference loud,° we do commit loudly; violently
Murder in® healing wounds. Then, noble partners, in the process of
25 The rather for® I earnestly beseech, Especially because
Touch you the sourest points with sweetest terms,
Nor curstness grow® to th’ matter. Do not let ill temper add
ANTONY Tis spoken well.
Were we? before our armies, and to® fight, If we were / about to
I should do thus.
Flourish.
30 CAESAR Welcome to Rome.
ANTONY Thank you.
CAESAR Sit.
ANTONY Sit, sir.
[They sit.]
CAESAR Nay, then.
ANTONY | learn you take things ill which are not so,
Or being,° concern you not. being ill
CAESAR I must be laughed at,
If or° for nothing, or a little, I either
Should say myself offended, and with you
Chiefly i’th’® world; more laughed at, that I should Of all the
40 Once name you derogately® when to sound censoriously
Your name it not concerned me.
ANTONY My being in Egypt, Caesar, what was'’t to you?
CAESAR No more than my residing here at Rome
Might be to you in Egypt. Yet if you there
45 Did practice on° my state, your being in Egypt scheme against
Might be my question.° concern

ANTONY How intend you, practiced?

CAESAR You may be pleased to catch at® mine intent grasp
By what did here befall me. Your wife and brother
Made wars upon me, and their contestation
50 Was theme for you—you'were the word of war.*
ANTONY You do mistake your business. My brother never
Did urge me in his act.’ I did inquire? it, inquire into
And have my learning from some true reports° reliable sources

3. Formally embrace you, as I do now; possibly, speak ple for you to follow (had you as its theme)—your
as you request, name was the war cry (war was waged in your name).
4. contestation ... war: war was meant as an exam- 5. Claimed to be acting as my proxy.
 ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA 2.2 # 2803

That drew their swords with you. Did he not rather

55 Discredit my authority with yours
And make the wars alike against my stomach,? wish
Having alike° your cause? Of this, my letters Since I shared
Before did satisfy you. If you'll patch a quarrel,
As matter whole you have to make it with,°®
It must not be with this.
60 CAESAR You praise yourself
By laying defects of judgment to me, but
You patched up your excuses.
ANTONY Not so, not so!
I know you could not lack—I am certain on’t—
Very necessity of this thought,’ that I,
65 Your partner in the cause 'gainst which he fought,
Could not with graceful eyes attend® those wars
Which fronted° mine own peace. As for my wife, opposed
I would you had her spirit in such another.
The third o’th’ world is yours, which with a snaffle?
70 You may pace’® easy, but not such a wife. train to walk
ENOBARARBUS Would we had all such wives, that the men
might go to wars with the women.
ANTONY So much uncurbable,° her garboils,° Caesar, uncontrollable /tumults
Made out of her impatience—which not wanted° did not lack
75 Shrewdness of policy too—I grieving grant
Did you too much disquiet. For that you must
But® say I could not help it. Only
CAESAR I wrote to you,
When rioting in Alexandria you
Did pocket up my letters and with taunts
80 Did gibe my missive out of audience.!
ANTONY Sir, he fell upon® me ere admitted then. broke in on
Three kings I had newly feasted, and did want
Of what I was? i’th’ morning. But next day
I told him of myself,° which was as much my situation
85 As to have asked him pardon. Let this fellow
Be nothing? of our strife; if we contend Be no part
Out of our question® wipe him. dispute
CAESAR You have broken
The article® of your oath, which you shall never terms
Have tongue to charge me with.
90 LEPIDUS Soft, Caesar!
ANTONY No, Lepidus, let him speak.
The honor is sacred which he talks on now,
Supposing that I lacked it.* But on, Caesar—
The article of my oath?
95 CAESAR To lend me arms and aid when I required them,
The which you both denied.
ANTONY Neglected rather—

6. If... with: If you'll patch together an old quarrel _ horses).

with trivia, when you have enough material to make a —_1. Scoffed my messenger out of your (public) hearing
new one (or, possibly, as if you had enough material to _ (referring to 1.1).
make one). 2. did... was: was not myself.
7. | know... thought: I'm confident that you must’ 3. The honor. . . it: What Caesar speaks of now is my
have been aware. sacred honor, which he assumes I lack (even assuming
8. Could not look with approval on. I lack it).
9. Bridle (one without a curb, for good-tempered
2804 +¢ ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA 2.2

And then when poisoned hours had bound me up

From mine own knowledge.* As nearly as I may,
I'll play the penitent to you. But mine honesty
100 Shall not make poor my greatness, nor my power
Work without it.° Truth is that Fulvia,
To have me out of Egypt, made war here,
For which myself, the ignorant motive, do
So far ask pardon as befits mine honor® dignity
To stoop in such a case.
LEPIDUS "Tis noble spoken.
MAECENAS If it might please you to enforce no further
The griefs° between ye; to forget them quite grievances
Were to remember that the present need
Speaks to atone you.° Is to reconcile you
LEPIDUS Worthily spoken, Maecenas.
110. ENOBARBUS 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 noth-
ing else to do.
ANTONY Thou art a soldier only. Speak no more.
ENOBARBUS That truth should be silent I had almost forgot.
ANTONY |You wrong this presence;° therefore speak no more! (noble) company
ENOBARBUS' Go to, then. Your considerate stone.°®
CAESAR I do not much dislike the matter® but content
The manner of his speech, for’t cannot be
120 We shall remain in friendship, our conditions® dispositions
So diff’ring in their acts. Yet if Iknew
What hoop should hold us staunch,° from edge to edge watertight; bound
O'th’ world I would pursue it.
AGRIPPA Give me leave, Caesar.
CAESAR Speak, Agrippa.
AGRIPPA Thou hast a sister by the mother’s side,
Admired Octavia. Great Mark Antony
Is now a widower.
CAESAR Say not so, Agrippa;
If Cleopatra heard you, your reproof
130 Were well deserved of rashness.’
ANTONY Iam not married, Caesar. Let me hear
Agrippa further speak.
AGRIPPA To hold you in perpetual amity,
To make you brothers, and to knit your hearts
135 With an unslipping knot, take Antony° let Antony take
Octavia to° his wife, whose beauty claims for
No worse a husband than the best of men,
Whose virtue and whose general graces speak
That which none else can utter.® By this marriage
140 All little jealousies,° which now seem great, _ mistrusts
And all great fears, which now import? their dangers, bring along
Would then be nothing. Truths would be tales,

4. bound... knowledge: prevented me from realiz- thought. i

ing what I was doing. 7. your... rashness: the reproof you would receive
5. mine... it: my honorable behavior (in admitting a would befit your rashness.
fault) will not diminish my power, nor shall my power 8. speak... utter: speak for themselves; speak more
operate without honor. powerfully than in any other woman.
6. Very well, then; still and silent, but capable of
 ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA 2.2 # 2805

Where now half-tales be truths.? Her love to both

Would each to other and all loves to both
145 Draw after her. Pardon what I have spoke,
For ‘tis a studied, not a present® thought, sudden
By duty ruminated.
ANTONY Will Caesar speak?
CAESAR Not till he hears how Antony is touched® reacts
With° what is spoke already. To
150 ANTONY What power is in Agrippa,
If Iwould say, “Agrippa, be it so,”
To make this good?
CAESAR The power of Caesar, and
His power unto Octavia.
ANTONY May I never
To this good purpose, that so fairly shows,
155 Dream of impediment!! Let me have thy hand.
Further this act of grace, and from this hour
The heart of brothers govern in our loves
And sway our great designs.
CAESAR There’s my hand.
A sister I bequeath® you, whom no brother hand over to
160 Did ever love so dearly. Let her live
To join our kingdoms and our hearts, and never
Fly off our loves again.
LEPIDUS Happily, amen!
ANTONY | did not think to draw my sword ’gainst Pompey,
For he hath laid strange° courtesies and great uncommon
165 Of late upon me. I must thank him, only° at least
Lest my remembrance? suffer ill report— gratitude
At heel of° that, defy him. Right after
LEPIDUS Time calls upon’s.
Of? us must Pompey presently° be sought, By / immediately
Or else he seeks out us.
ANTONY Where lies he?
CAESAR About the Mount Misena.*
ANTONY What is his strength by land?
CAESAR Great, and increasing,
But by sea he is an absolute master.
175 ANTONY So is the fame.° report
Would we had spoke together!° Haste we for it, (earlier)
Yet ere we put ourselves in arms, dispatch we
The business we have talked of.
CAESAR With most gladness,
And do? invite you to my sister’s view, Ido
180 Whither straight I’ll lead you.
ANTONY Let us, Lepidus, not lack your company.
Lepipus Noble Antony, not sickness should detain me.
Flourish. Exeunt |CAESAR, ANTONY, LEPIDUS,
and VENTIDIUS|. ENOBARBUS, AGRIPPA,
and MAECENAS remain.
9. Truths... truths: True reports, even if they were the marriage of true minds / Admit impediments.” so
disturbing, could be passed over, regarded as hear- fairly shows: appears so attractive.
say, where now incomplete rumors are accepted as 2. never... again: may our love for each other never
truth. again desert us.
1. May...impediment: alluding to the Anglican 3. Misenum, a hilly outcropping at the northern end
marriage service, as does Sonnet 116: “Let me not to of the Bay of Naples.
2806 + ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA 2.2

MAECENAS Welcome from Egypt, sir.

ENOBARBUS Half the heart® of Caesar, worthy Maecenas. —My Beloved friend
185 honorable friend, Agrippa!
AGRIPPA Good Enobarbus!
MAECENAS’ We have cause to be glad that matters are so well
digested.° You stayed well by’t* in Egypt. settled
ENOBARBUS _ Ay, sir, we did sleep day out of countenance? and
190 made the night light° with drinking. bright; merry
MAECENAS Eight wild boars roasted whole at a breakfast and
but twelve persons there. Is this true?
ENOBARBUS This was but as a fly by° an eagle. We had much compared with
more monstrous matter of feast, which worthily deserved
195 noting.
MAECENAS She’s a most triumphant? lady, if report be square® magnificent /fair
to her.
ENOBARBUS When she first met Mark Antony, she pursed up
his heart upon the river of Cydnus.°®
AGRIPPA There she appeared indeed, or my reporter devised® imagined
well for her.
ENOBARBUS I will tell you.
The barge? she sat in, like a burnished throne oar-driven ship
Burned on the water. The poop® was beaten gold, upper deck
205 Purple® the sails, and so perfuméd that (royal dye)
The winds were lovesick with them. The oars were silver,
Which to the tune of flutes kept stroke and made
The water which they beat to follow faster,
As° amorous of their strokes. For® her own person, As if / As for
210 It beggared all description. She did lie
In her pavilion—cloth of gold, of tissue’—
O’er-picturing that Venus where we see
The fancy outwork nature.® On each side her
Stood pretty dimpled boys, like smiling Cupids,
215 With divers colored fans whose wind did seem
To glow® the delicate cheeks which they did cool, make glow
And what they undid did.
AGRIPPA Oh, rare for Antony.
ENOBARBUS Her gentlewomen like the Nereides,° sea nymphs
So many mermaids, tended her i’th’ eyes° under her watchful eyes
220 And made their bends adornings.? At the helm
A seeming mermaid steers. The silken tackle® sails and ropes
Swell with the touches of those flower-soft hands
That yarely frame? the office. From the barge artfully carry out
A strange invisible perfume hits the sense
225 Of the adjacent wharfs.° The city cast banks
Her people out upon’ her, and Antony, toward
Enthroned i’th’ marketplace, did sit alone
Whistling to th’air, which, but for vacancy,!
Had? gone to gaze on Cleopatra too, Would have
And made a gap in nature.
4. You hung in there; you had a high old time. 8. Oler-picturing ... nature: Outdoing even the pic-
5. We disconcerted day by sleeping through it and ture of Venus in which the artist outdid nature.
did not see what it looked like. 9. Made their curtsies additions to the decoration.
6. She took possession of his heart on the Cydnus 1. Which, if not for the fact that its absence would
River in Cilicia, Asia Minor (Turkey), on which the have left a vacuum (already in Shakespeare’s time pro-
city of Tarsus stood. verbially impossible in nature).
7. Fabric interwoven with gold thread.
 ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA 2.3. # 2807

230 AGRIPPA Rare Egyptian!

ENOBARBUS Upon her landing, Antony sent to her,
Invited her to supper. She replied,
It should be better he became her guest,
Which she entreated. Our courteous Antony,
235 Whom ne'er the word of “No” woman heard speak,
Being barbered ten times o’er, goes to the feast,
And for his ordinary°® pays his heart public meal at an inn
For what his eyes eat only.
AGRIPPA Royal wench!
She made great Caesar°® lay his sword to bed; (Julius)
He ploughed her, and she cropped.?
240 ENOBARBUS I saw her once
Hop forty paces through the public street
And, having lost her breath, she spoke and panted
That° she did make defect° perfection, So that / her panting
And breathless pour breath forth.
245 MAECENAS Now Antony must leave her utterly.
ENOBARBUS Never, he will not.
Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale® familiarity diminish
Her infinite variety. Other women cloy
The appetites they feed, but she makes hungry
250 Where most she satisfies. For vilest things
Become themselves? in her, that® the holy priests Are becoming / so that
Bless her when she is riggish.° acts like a slut
MAECENAS _ If beauty, wisdom, modesty can settle
The heart of Antony, Octavia is
A blesséd lottery° to him. prize
AGRIPPA Let us go.
Good Enobarbus, make yourself my guest
Whilst you abide here.
ENOBARBUS Humbly, sir, I thank you. Exeunt.

2.3
Enter ANTONY, CAESAR, OCTAVIA between them.
ANTONY The world and my great office will sometimes
Divide me from your bosom.
OCTAVIA All which time,
Before the gods my knee shall bow my prayers
To them for you.
ANTONY Good night, sir. —My Octavia,
Read not my blemishes in the world’s report.
I have not kept my square,° but that°® to come stayed in line / what's
Shall all be done by th’ rule.’ Good night, dear lady.
—Good night, sir.
CAESAR Good night. Exeunt [CAESAR and OCTAVIA].
Enter SOOTHSAYER.
ANTONY Now, sirrah,* you do wish yourself in Egypt?

2. She bore Caesarion. After the assassination of On Ptolemy XV’s fate, see note to 5.2.358.
Julius Caesar in 44 B.c.£., Cleopatra returned from 2.3 Location: Scene continues.
Rome, where she had accompanied him, to Egypt. 1. Regulation; ruler, as unit of measure (picking up
There she reigned with their son, who became Ptol- “square,” line 6, a measuring tool).
emy XV, after she ordered the death of her half 2. Term by which a subordinate or social inferior is
brother. See 1.4.6 with note and 2.1.38. On Antony addressed.
and Cleopatra's plans for Ptolemy XV, see 3.6.1—16.
2808 +¢ ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA 2.4

SOOTHSAYER Would I had never come from thence,

Nor you thither!
ANTONY If you can, your reason?
SOOTHSAYER I see it in my motion,° have it not in my tongue; intuition
But yet hie® you to Egypt again. hurry
ANTONY Say to me,
15 Whose fortunes shall rise higher: Caesar’s or mine?
SOOTHSAYER Caesar's.
Therefore, O Antony, stay not by his side.
Thy demon—that thy spirit? which keeps thee—is
Noble, courageous, high, unmatchable,
20 Where Caesar’s is not. But near him thy angel
Becomes afeard, as° being o’er-powered. Therefore as if
Make space enough between you.
ANTONY Speak this no more.
SOOTHSAYER To none but thee—no more but when’ to thee. not at all except
If thou dost play with him at any game,
25 Thou art sure to lose, and of° that natural luck by
He beats thee ’gainst the odds. Thy luster thickens® Your brightness dims
When he shines by. I say again, thy spirit
Is all afraid to govern thee near him,
But he away, 'tis noble.
ANTONY Get thee gone.
30 Say to Ventidius I would speak with him.
Exit [SOOTHSAYER].
He shall to Parthia. Be it art or hap,° talent or luck
He? hath spoken true. The very dice obey him,° (the soothsayer) / (Caesar)
And in our sports my better cunning? faints ‘capability
Under his chance.° If we draw lots, he speeds;° luck / succeeds
35 His cocks do win the battle still of? mine always against
When it is all to naught, and his quails ever
Beat mine, inhooped, at odds.* I will to Egypt.
And though I make this marriage for my peace,
I’th’ East my pleasure lies.
Enter VENTIDIUS.
Oh, come, Ventidius.
40 You must to Parthia; your commission’s ready.
Follow me and receive’t. Exeunt.

2.4
Enter LEPIDUS, MAECENAS, and AGRIPPA.
LEpIpUS Trouble yourselves no further. Pray you hasten
Your generals after.’
AGRIPPA Sir, Mark Antony
Will e’en but® kiss Octavia, and we'll follow. merely
Lepipus Till I shall see you in your soldiers’ dress,
Which will become you both, farewell.
5 MAECENAS We shall,
As I conceive the journey, be at the Mount® Mount Misenum
Before you, Lepidus.
LEPIDUS Your way is shorter.

3. Thy demon... spirit: Your guardian angel, which _ sure to make them fight, his always beat mine, against
is the spirit. all odds.
4. When... odds: When the odds completely favor | 2.4 Location: Scene continues.
me, and when our quails are placed in around enclo- 1. hasten. . . after: follow your leaders.
 ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA 2.5 # 2809

My purposes do draw me® much about; force me to go

You'll win two days upon me.
MAECENAS and AGRIPPA Sir, good success.
10 LEPIDUS Farewell. Exeunt.

25
Enter CLEOPATRA, CHARMIAN, IRAS, and ALEXAS.
CLEOPATRA Give me some music—music, moody? food melancholy
Of us that trade in love.
CHARMIAN, IRAS, and ALEXAS The music, ho!
Enter MARDIAN the eunuch.
CLEOPATRA Let it alone. Let’s to billiards. Come, Charmian.
CHARMIAN My arm is sore. Best play with Mardian.
CLEOPATRA As well a woman with an eunuch played
As with a woman. Come, you'll play with me, sir?
MARDIAN As well as I can, madam.
CLEOPATRA And when good will is showed, though’t come too
short!
The actor may plead pardon. I’ll none now.° I won't play now
Give me mine angle.° We'll to th’ river. There, fishing rod
My music playing far off, I will betray° catch
Tawny-finned fishes. My bended hook shall pierce
Their slimy jaws, and as I draw them up,
I'll think them every one an Antony
And say, “Aha! You're caught!”
vi CHARMIAN "Twas merry when
You wagered on your angling, when your diver
Did hang a salt® fish on his hook which he preserved
With fervency drew up.
CLEOPATRA That time? Oh, times!
I laughed him out of patience, and that night
20 I laughed him into patience, and next morn,
Ere the ninth hour, I drunk him to his bed,
Then put my tires and mantles° on him, whilst headdresses and robes
I wore his sword Philippan.?
Enter a MESSENGER.
Oh, from Italy!
Ram thou thy fruitful tidings in mine ears
That long time have been barren.
25 MESSENGER Madam, madam!
CLEOPATRA Antonio's dead? If thou say so, villain,
Thou kill’st thy mistress; but well and free—
If thou so yield° him—there is gold, and here report
My bluest veins to kiss, a hand that kings
30 Have lipped and trembled kissing.
MESSENGER First, madam, he is well.
CLEOPATRA Why, there’s more gold. But, sirrah, mark, we use
To say the dead are well. Bring it to that,
The gold I give thee will I melt and pour
Down thy ill-uttering throat.
MESSENGER Good madam, hear me.
CLEOPATRA Well, go to, I will.

2.5 Location: Alexandria. 2. The sword with which Antony had beaten Brutus
1. Referring to Mardian’s sexual incapacity. and Cassius at Philippi.
2810 + ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA 2.5

But there’s no goodness in thy face. If Antony

Be free and healthful, so tart a favor° so sour an expression
40 To trumpet such good tidings! If not well,
Thou shouldst come like a fury? crowned with snakes,
Not like a formal°® man. Not in the shape of a
MESSENGER Will’t please you hear me?
CLEOPATRA | have a mind to strike thee ere thou speak’st.
Yet if thou say Antony lives, ‘tis well,
45 Or friends with Caesar, or not captive to him,
I'll set thee in a shower of gold and hail
Rich pearls upon thee.
MESSENGER Madam, he’s well.
CLEOPATRA Well said.
MESSENGER And friends with Caesar.
CLEOPATRA Thou’rt an honest man.
MESSENGER Caesar and he are greater friends than ever.
CLEOPATRA Make thee a fortune from me.
50 MESSENGER But yet, madam—
CLEOPATRA I do not like “But yet.” It does allay® dissipate
The good precedence.° Fie upon “But yet”! preceding good news
“But yet” is as a jailor to bring forth
Some monstrous malefactor. Prithee, friend,
55 Pour out the pack of matter to mine ear,° Give me all the news
The good and bad together. He’s friends with Caesar,
In state of health, thou say’st, and thou say’st, free.
MESSENGER Free, madam, no! I made no such report.
He’s bound unto Octavia.
CLEOPATRA For what good turn?® good deed
MESSENGER For the best turn i’th’ bed.
60 CLEOPATRA I am pale, Charmian.
MESSENGER Madam, he’s married to Octavia.
CLEOPATRA The most infectious pestilence upon thee!
[She] strikes him down.
MESSENGER Good madam, patience!
CLEOPATRA What say you?
[She] strikes him.
Hence, horrible villain, or I'll spurn® thine eyes kick
65 Like balls before me! I’ll unhair thy head;
She hales° him up and down. drags
Thou shalt be whipped with wire and stewed in brine,
Smarting in ling’ring pickle.° salt water
MESSENGER Gracious madam,
I that do bring the news made not the match!
CLEOPATRA Say tis not so! A province I will give thee
70 And make thy fortunes proud. The blow thou hadst
Shall make thy peace for moving me to rage,
And I will boot? thee with what® gift beside compensate / whatever
Thy modesty can beg.
MESSENGER He’s married, madam.
CLEOPATRA Rogue, thou hast lived too long.
[She] draws a knife.
MESSENGER Nay, then I'll run.
What mean you, madam? | have made no fault. Exit.

3. In Greek mythology, a female avenging spirit.

 ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA 2.5 ¢ 2811

CHARMIAN Good madam, keep yourself within yourself.° restrain yourself

The man is innocent.
CLEOPATRA Some innocents scape® not the thunderbolt. escape
Melt Egypt into Nile, and kindly? creatures harmless
80 Turn all to serpents! Call the slave again.
Though I am mad, I will not bite him. Call!
CHARMIAN He is afeard to come.
CLEOPATRA I will not hurt him.
These hands do lack nobility that they strike
A meaner? than myself, since I myself One of lower rank
Have given myself the cause.° (by loving Antony)
Enter the MESSENGER again.
85 Come hither, sir.
Though it be honest, it is never good
To bring bad news. Give to a gracious message
An host? of tongues, but let ill tidings tell A multitude
Themselves when they be felt.*
MESSENGER | have done my duty.
90 CLEOPATRA Is he married?
I cannot hate thee worser than I do
If thou again say “Yes.”
MESSENGER He’s married, madam.
CLEOPATRA The gods confound? thee. Dost thou hold there still? destroy
MESSENGER Should I lie, madam?
CLEOPATRA Oh, I would thou didst,
95 So° half my Egypt were submerged and made Even if
A cistern® for scaled snakes. Go, get thee hence! reservoir; chamber pot
Hadst thou Narcissus? in thy face, to me
Thou wouldst appear most ugly. He is married?
MESSENGER I crave your highness’ pardon.
CLEOPATRA He is married?
100 MESSENGER Take no offense that I would not® offend you; since I don't want to
To punish me for what you make me do
Seems much unequal.° He’s married to Octavia. most unfair
CLEOPATRA Oh, that his fault should make a knave?® of thee, villain
That art not what thou’rt sure of!° Get thee hence.
105 The merchandise which thou hast brought from Rome
Are all too dear for me. Lie they upon thy hand,’
And be undone® by ‘em. [Exit MESSENGER. | ruined (financially)
CHARMIAN Good your highness, patience!
CLEOPATRA In praising Antony, I have dispraised Caesar.
CHARMIAN Many times, madam.
110 CLEOPATRA Iam paid for’t now. Lead me from hence.
I faint. O Iras, Charmian—'tis no matter.
Go to the fellow, good Alexas. Bid him
Report the feature® of Octavia, her years, appearance
Her inclination.° Let him not leave out disposition
115 The color of her hair. Bring me word quickly.
[Exit ALEXAS.]
Let him forever go—let him not! Charmian,
Though he be painted one way like a Gorgon,

4. let .. . felt: bad news is best revealed by letting the | 6. Who are not bad, unlike the offense you know
victim feel the effects. about.
5. In Greek mythology, a surpassingly beautiful young 7. Leave with your goods unsold.
man.
2812 + ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA 2.6

The other way’s a Mars.® [to MARDIAN] Bid you Alexas

Bring me word how tall she is. Pity me, Charmian,
120 But do not speak to me. Lead me to my chamber. Exeunt.

2.6
Flourish. Enter Pompey and MENAS at one door with
drum and trumpet. At another [door enter] CAESAR,
LEPIDUS, ANTONY, ENOBARBUS, MAECENAS, and
AGRIPPA with SOLDIERS marching.
pompey Your hostages I have, so have you mine,
And we shall talk before we fight.
CAESAR Most meet® fitting
That first we come to words, and therefore have we
Our written purposes? before us sent, offers
Which if thou hast considered, let us know
If ‘twill tie up® thy discontented sword lead you to put aside
And carry back to Sicily much tall° youth courageous
That else must perish here.
POMPEY To you all three,
The senators alone® of this great world, sole governors
Chief factors° for the gods: I do not know agents
Wherefore® my father! should revengers want,” why / lack
Having a son and friends, since Julius Caesar,
Who at Philippi the good Brutus ghosted,*
There saw you laboring for him.? What was’t on his behalf
That moved pale Cassius to conspire? And what
Made all-honored, honest,? Roman Brutus, honorable
With the armed rest, courtiers° of beauteous freedom, seekers
To drench® the Capitol, but that they would (in blood)
Have one man but a man?° And that is it (and not a king)

20 Hath made me rig® my navy. At whose burden equip

The angered ocean foams, with which I meant

To scourge th’ingratitude that despiteful Rome
Cast on my noble father.
CAESAR Take your time.
ANTONY Thou canst not fear® us, Pompey, with thy sails. intimidate

25 We'll speak with? thee at sea. At land thou know’st engage

How much we do o’ercount® thee. outnumber

POMPEY At land indeed

Thou dost o’ercount me of my father’s house. 3
But, since the cuckoo builds not for himself,*
Remain in’t as thou mayst.° as long as you can
LEPIDUS Be pleased to tell us,

8. Cleopatra imagines Antony as a figure in a perspec- Caesar is then himself assassinated by the Roman
tive painting: popular in Shakespeare’s time, they republican conspirators, including Cassius and Bru-
showed different images according to the angle from tus, who are in turn killed by the triumyirs (see note
which they were viewed. In classical mythology, a Gor- to 1.2.98), The younger Pompey thus believes that by
gon was one of three female monsters with snakes for making war on the triumvirate, he avenges his father's
hair whose horrific appearance could turn others to death and the deaths of Brutus and Cassius (and,
stone. therefore, fights for the Republic).
2.6 Location: Near Misenum, Italy. 2. Caesar appeared as a ghost to Brutus at the Battle
1. Pompey the Great. After being defeated by Julius of Philippi.
Caesar at Pharsalia, Pompey the Great fled to Egypt 3. Plutarch records that Antony agreed to buy the elder
and was there assassinated by agents of Ptolemy, Pompey’s house but ultimately refused to pay for it.
Cleopatra’s half brother (prior to the events in Julius 4, The cuckoo lays eggs in the nests of other birds,
Caesar; see note to 1.4.6). In Julius Caesar, Julius rather than building a nest of its own.
 ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA 2.6 + 2813

30 For this is from the present,° how you take beside the point
The offers we have sent you.
CAESAR There’s the point.
ANTONY Which do not be entreated to,° but weigh convinced unfairly of
What it is worth embraced. if you consent
CAESAR And what may follow
To try a larger fortune.°
POMPEY You have made me offer
35 Of Sicily, Sardinia, and I must
Rid all the sea of pirates; then, to send
Measures of wheat to Rome. This ’greed upon,
To part with unhacked edges® and bear back unused swords
Our targes undinted.° shields untouched
CAESAR, ANTONY, and LepIDUS That’s our offer.
POMPEY Know, then,
40 I came before you here a man prepared
To take this offer. But Mark Antony
Put me to some impatience. Though I lose
The praise of it by telling, you must know,
When Caesar and your brother were at blows,
45 Your mother came to Sicily and did find
Her welcome friendly.
ANTONY I have heard it, Pompey,
And am well studied for° a liberal thanks, intend to offer
Which I do owe you.
POMPEY Let me have your hand.
[They shake hands.]
I did not think, sir, to have met you here.
50 ANTONY The beds i'th’ East are soft, and thanks to you
That called me timelier® than my purpose?® hither, earlier
/intention
For I have gained by’t.
CAESAR Since I saw you last,
There’s a change upon you.
POMPEY Well, I know not
What counts harsh fortune casts upon my face,°
55 But in my bosom shall she never come
To make my heart her vassal.
LEPIDUS Well met here.
POMPEY | hope so, Lepidus. Thus we are agreed.
I crave our composition® may be written pact
And sealed between us.
CAESAR That’s the next to do.
60 POMPEY We'll feast each other ere we part, and let’s
Draw lots who shall begin.° act as host
ANTONY That will 1, Pompey.
Pompey No, Antony, take the lot, but first or last,
Your fine Egyptian cookery shall have
The fame. I have heard that Julius Caesar
Grew fat with feasting there.
65 ANTONY You have heard much.
pomPEY I have fair° meaning, sir. amicable
ANTONY And fair® words to them. (ironic)

5. If you try (by fighting us) for a still larger fortune 6. What accounts cruel fortune calculates (by mark-
than we have offered. ing notches, like wrinkles).
2814 + ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA 2.6

pompgey Then so much have I heard,

And I have heard Apollodorus carried’—
ENoBARBUS No more that. He did so.
70 POMPEY What, I pray you?
ENOBARBUS' A certain queen to Caesar in a mattress.
pompeY 1 know thee now. How far’st thou, soldier?
ENOBARBUS Well, and well am like to do, for I perceive
Four feasts are toward.° to come

POMPEY Let me shake thy hand,

I never hated thee. I have seen thee fight
When I have envied thy behavior.
ENOBARBUS Sir,
I never loved you much, but I ha’ praised ye,
When you have well deserved ten times as much
As I have said you did.
POMPEY Enjoy thy plainness;° matter-of-fact speech
80 It nothing ill becomes thee.
Aboard my galley I invite you all.
Will you lead, lords?
CAESAR, ANTONY, and LEPIDUS. Show's the way, sir.
POMPEY Come.
Exeunt all but ENOBARBUS and MENAS.
MENAS [aside] Thy father, Pompey, would ne’er have made
this treaty. [to ENoBARBUS] You and I have known,’ sir. met each other

85 ENOBARBUS At sea, I think.

MENAS' We have, sir.
ENOBARBUS You have done well by water.
MENAS. And you by land.
ENOBARBUS _| will praise any man that will praise me, though
90 it cannot be denied what I have done by land.
mENAS’ Nor what I have done by water.
ENOBARBUS Yes, something you can deny for your own safety.
You have been a great thief by sea.
MENAS' And you by land.
95 ENOBARBUS ‘There I deny my land service, but give me your
hand, Menas. If our eyes had authority,° here they might (to make an arrest)
take two thieves kissing.®
mENAS. All men’s faces are true,° whatsoe’er their hands are. honest

ENOBARBUS But there is never a fair woman has a true® face. (without makeup)
meNAs’ No slander°—they steal hearts. That's true
100
ENOBARBUS We came hither to fight with you.
mENAS. For my part, I am sorry it is turned to a drinking.
Pompey doth this day laugh away his fortune.
ENOBARBUS If he do, sure he cannot weep'’t back again.
105 MENAS You've said,° sir. We looked not for Mark Antony here. spoken truly
Pray you, is he married to Cleopatra?
ENOBARBUS_ Caesar’s sister is called Octavia.
MENAS True, sir. She was the wife of Caius Marcellus.
ENOBARBUS But she is now the wife of Marcus Antonius.
MENAS Pray ye,° sir? Really
110
ENOBARBUS_ "Tis true.

7. Alluding to the story that Cleopatra gained access _ palace (told in Plutarch).
to her lover, Julius Caesar, by having herself rolled up 8. Arrest two thieves embracing; catch two thieving
in a sleeping mat that Apollodorus carried into the hands in a handshake, plotting together.
 ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA 2.7. # 2815

MENAS Then is Caesar and he forever knit together.

ENOBARBUS_ If I were bound to divine? of this unity, I would make predictions
not prophesy so.
115 MENAS | think the policy of that purpose made more? in the
marriage than the love of the parties.
ENOBARBUS I think so too. But you shall find the band that
seems to tie their friendship together will be the very strangler
of their amity. Octavia is of a holy, cold, and still conversation.° disposition
120 MENAS' Who would not have his wife so?
ENOBARBUS Not he that himself is not so, which is Mark
Antony. He will to his Egyptian dish again. Then shall the
sighs of Octavia blow the fire up in Caesar, and—as I said
before—that which is the strength of their amity shall prove
125 the immediate author® of their variance.° Antony will use his cause / enmity
affection where it is. He married but his occasion here.!
MENAS And thus it may be. Come, sir, will you aboard? I have
a health® for you. toast
ENOBARBUS | shall take it, sir; we have used our throats in Egypt.
130 MENAS Come, let’s away. Exeunt.

2.7
Music plays.
Enter two or three SERVANTS with a banquet.!
FIRST SERVANT Here they'll be, man. Some o'their plants are
ill-rooted? already. The least wind i’th’ world will blow them
down.
SECOND SERVANT Lepidus is high-colored.
FIRST SERVANT They have made him drink alms-drink.?
SECOND SERVANT As they pinch one another by the disposi-
tion,*? he cries out, “No more,” reconciles them to his
entreaty,° and himself to th’ drink. (to stop arguing)
FIRST SERVANT But it raises the greater war between him and
10 his discretion.
SECOND SERVANT Why, this it is to have a name® in great men’s only a nominal place
fellowship. I had as lief° have a reed that will do me no service just as soon
as a partisan I could not heave.’
FIRST SERVANT To be called into a huge sphere, and not to be
seen to move in'’t, are the holes where eyes should be, which
pitifully disaster the cheeks.°
A sennet° sounded. flourish of trumpets
Enter CAESAR, ANTONY, POMPEY, LEPIDUS, AGRIPPA,
MAECENAS, ENOBARBUS, [and] MENAS, with other
CAPTAINS [and a Boy].
ANTONY Thus do they, sir. They take the flow° o’th’ Nile measure the depth
By certain scales i’'th’® pyramid. They know marks on the

9. I think the politics of that “unity” weighed more quarrel; one too many.
heavily. 4. As they irritate one another according to their
1. Antony... here: Antony will act on his desire natures.
where it really is located (Egypt). He married out of 5. Asa spear I could not lift (position without power).
self-interest here. 6. To be... cheeks: To be placed in high circles
2.7 Location: Pompey’s galley, off Misenum. where one is incapable of moving is like having,
1. One of the courses of the feast, possibly dessert. instead of eyes, empty eye sockets that disfigure one’s
2. their... . rooted: the soles ofthe feet of the (drunken) face. (In Ptolemaic astronomy, a planet “moves”
leaders are unsteady; the alliance between Antony and within its “sphere,” one of a series of concentric cir-
Caesar is shaky. cles of which the universe is formed, with the earth at
3. Drink given out of charity; in this case, extra the center. A planet's ill influence causes “disaster”—
rounds given to reconcile the parties each time they literally, “bad star.”)
2816 + ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA 2.7

By th’ height, the lowness, or the mean? if dearth middle position

Or foison® follow. The higher Nilus swells, abundance
20
The more it promises; as it ebbs, the seedsman
Upon the slime and ooze scatters his grain,
And shortly comes to harvest.
LEPIDUS You've strange serpents there?
25 ANTONY Ay, Lepidus.
LEpIDUS Your serpent of Egypt is bred now of your mud by
the operation of your sun. So is your crocodile.
ANTONY ‘They are so.
pompEY Sit, and some wine. A health to Lepidus!
30 LEPIDUS Jam not so well as I should be, but I’ll ne’er out.° leave; miss a round

ENOBARBUS [aside] Not till you have slept. I fear me you'll be

in® till then. remain; be drunk

Lepipus Nay, certainly, I have heard the Ptolemies’ pyramises’

are very goodly things. Without contradiction I have heard
35 that.
MENAS [aside to POMPEY] Pompey, a word.
pomPEyY [aside to MENAS] Say in mine ear. What is’t?
MENAS. Forsake thy seat, I do beseech thee, captain,
And hear me speak a word.
40 poMmPEY (whispering in [Menas’] ear) Forbear° me till anon. Wait for
—This wine for Lepidus.
LEPIDUS What manner o’thing is your crocodile?
ANTONY | It is shaped, sir, like itself, and it is as broad as it hath
breadth. It is just so high as it is, and moves with it? own its

45 organs. It lives by that which nourisheth it, and the elements

once out of it, it transmigrates.®
LEPIDUS What color is it of?
ANTONY Of it own color, too.
LEPIDUS Tis a strange serpent.
50 ANTONY Tis so, and the tears of it are wet.° deceitful crocodile tears
CAESAR Will this description satisfy him?
Antony With the health that Pompey gives him, else he is a
very epicure.” an insatiable glutton
[MENAS whispers to POMPEY.]
pompey Go hang, sir, hang! Tell me of that? Away!
55 Do as I bid you. —Where’s this cup I called for?
MENAS [aside to Pompey] If for the sake of merit? thou wilt past deeds
hear me, rise from thy stool.
pompey I think thou'rt mad. [They step aside.] The matter?
MENAS I have ever held my cap off to° thy fortunes. ever served

60 poMpEY Thou hast served me with much faith. What’s else to

say? —Be jolly, lords.
ANTONY These quicksands, Lepidus, keep off them, for you sink.
MENAS’ Wilt thou be lord of all the world?
POMPEY What say’st thou?
MENAS. Wilt thou be lord of the whole world? That’s twice.
pompEey How should that be?
65 MENAS But entertain® it, consider
And though thou think me poor, I am the man
Will give thee all the world.
7. Pyramids (drunken speech). that at death the soul moves into another newborn
8. Passes into other forms of life: referring to — living thing.
Pythagoras’s theory, apparently of Egyptian origin,
 ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA 2.7. # 2817

POMPEY Hast thou drunk well?

MENAS No, Pompey, I have kept me from the cup.
Thou art, if thou dar’st be, the earthly Jove.
70 Whate'er the ocean pales? or sky inclips? encloses / embraces
Is thine, if thou wilt ha’t.
POMPEY Show me which way?
MENAS_ These three world-sharers, these competitors® allies
Are in thy vessel. Let me cut the cable,
And when we are put off,° fall to their throats. (from shore)
All there is thine.
75 POMPEY Ah, this thou shouldst have done
And not have spoke on't. In me ’tis villainy;
In thee’t had been good service. Thou must know,
"Tis not my profit that does lead mine honor,
Mine honor it.’ Repent that e’er thy tongue
80 Hath so betrayed thine act.' Being done unknown,
I should have found it afterwards well done,
But must condemn it now. Desist, and drink.
MENAS [aside] For this, I’ll never follow thy palled° fortunes diminished
more.
Who seeks and will not take when once ’tis offered
Shall never find it more.
85 POMPEY This health to Lepidus.
ANTONY Bear him ashore. I'll pledge it° for him, Pompey. drink the toast
ENOBARBUS Here’s to thee, Menas.
MENAS Enobarbus, welcome.
pomPEY Fill till the cup be hid.
ENOBARBUS [pointing to the servant carrying LEprDUS] There’s
a strong fellow, Menas.
90 MENAS Why?
ENOBARBUS_ A° bears the third part of the world, man. See’st not? He
MENAS The third part then he is drunk—would it were all,
That it might go on wheels!° easily; out of control
ENOBARBUS Drink thou. Increase the reels.° revels; spinning
95 MENAS Come.
POMPEY This is not yet an Alexandrian feast.
ANTONY It ripens towards it. Strike the vessels,° ho! Open more casks
Here’s to Caesar!
CAESAR I could well forbear’t.
It’s monstrous® labor when I wash my brain unnatural
And? it grow fouler. Tf as a result
100 ANTONY Be a child o’th’ time.
CAESAR Possess it. I’ll make answer, 2
But I had rather fast from all° four days for all of
Than drink so much in one.
ENOBARBUS Ha, my brave emperor,
Shall we dance now the Egyptian bacchanals*
105 And celebrate our drink?
POMPEY Let’s ha’, good soldier.
ANTONY Come, let’s all take hands,

9. ’Tis... it: It is my honor that precedes or is the 2. Take it, and I'll drink, too; be in command of the
basis of my profit. time, I say.
1. Treacherously disclosed your intentions and so 3. Wild, drunken revels in honor of Bacchus, god of
made it impossible to carry them out. wine and revelry.
2818 + ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA 3.1

Till that the conquering wine hath steeped our sense

In soft and delicate Lethe.° oblivion
ENOBARBUS All take hands.
110 Make battery to° our ears with the loud music, Besiege
The while I'll place you; then the boy shall sing.
The holding® every man shall beat® as loud refrain / beat out
As his strong sides can volley.° fire off
Music plays. ENoBARBUS places them hand in hand.
The Song.
Boy [sings] Come thou monarch of the vine,
115 Plumpy Bacchus with pink eyne!*
In thy fats our cares be drowned,
With thy grapes our hairs be crowned.
Cup us till the world go round;
Cup us till the world go round.
120 CAESAR What would you more? Pompey, good night. —Good
brother,° Brother-in-law
Let me request you off.° Our graver business to come ashore
Frowns at this levity. Gentle lords, let’s part.
You see we have burned? our cheeks. Strong Enobarb flushed
Is weaker than the wine, and mine own tongue
125 Splits? what it speaks. The wild disguise® hath almost Deforms / drunkenness
Anticked us all.° What needs more words? Good night. Made us all clowns
Good Antony, your hand.
POMPEY I’ll try you on the shore. test your drinking
ANTONY And shall, sir—give’s your hand.
pomPEy O Antony, you have my father’s house.
130 But what? We are friends! Come down into the boat.
ENOBARBUS Take heed you fall not.
[Exeunt all but ENOBARBUS and MENAS.|
Menas, I'll not® on shore. not go
MENAS No, to my cabin. These drums, these trumpets, flutes!
What!
Let Neptune hear we bid a loud farewell
To these great fellows. Sound and be hanged. Sound out!
Sound a flourish with drums.
135 ENOBARBUS Hoo! Says ’a.° There’s my cap! he
[He throws his cap in the air.]
MENAS' Hoo! Noble captain, come. Exeunt.

3.1
Enter VENTIDIUS as it were in triumph, the dead body
of Pacorus borne before him|, with sirius and other
SOLDIERS].
vENTipIus Now, darting Parthia,! art thou struck, and now
Pleased fortune does of Marcus Crassus’? death
Make me revenger. Bear the King’s son’s body
Before our army. Thy° Pacorus, Orades, Your son
Pays this for Marcus Crassus.
SILIUS Noble Ventidius,

4. Half-closed and red from drinking. refers to both the nation and its king, Orodes.
3.1 Location: Syria. 2. A member, with Pompey the Great and Julius
1. Parthian cavalry advanced while flinging darts, Caesar, of the first triumvirate, treacherously and
then retreated while shooting arrows. “Parthia” here cruelly killed in defeat by Orodes in 53 B.C.E.
 ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA 3.2. # 2819

Whilst yet with Parthian blood thy sword is warm,

The fugitive Parthians follow.? Spur through Media,’
Mesopotamia, and the shelters whither
The routed fly. So thy grand captain Antony
Shall set thee on triumphant? chariots and triumphal
Put garlands on thy head.
VENTIDIUS O Silius, Silius,
I have done enough. A lower place,’ note well, man of low rank
May make too great an act. For learn this, Silius;
Better to leave undone than by our deed
Acquire too high a fame when him we serve’s away.
Caesar and Antony have ever won
More in their officer than person.® Sossius,
One of my place in Syria, his° lieutenant, (Antony's)
For quick accumulation of renown,
20 Which he achieved by th’ minute,° lost his favor. more of every minute
Who does i’th’ wars more than his captain can
Becomes his captain’s captain, and ambition,
The soldier’s virtue, rather makes choice of loss
Than gain which darkens him.° eclipses his renown
25 I could do more to do Antonius good,
But ‘twould offend him. And in his offense
Should my performance perish.° lose its value
siLius. Thou hast, Ventidius, that° (discretion)
Without the which a soldier and his sword
30 Grants scarce® distinction. Thou wilt write to Antony? Scarcely admits of
vENTipIUs_ I'll humbly signify what in his name—
That magical word of war—we have effected;
How with his banners and his well-paid ranks
The ne’er-yet-beaten horse® of Parthia cavalry
We have jaded? out o’th’ field. chased like tired nags
35 SILIUS Where is he now?
VENTIDIUsS__He purposeth to Athens, whither with what haste
The weight we must convey with ’s will permit,
We shall appear before him. —On there! Pass along!
Exeunt.

3.2
Enter AGRIPPA at one door, ENOBARBUS at another.
AGRIPPA What, are the brothers parted?° brothers-in-law gone
ENOBARBUS_ They have dispatched® with Pompey. He is gone; finished the business
The other three are sealing.° Octavia weeps signing their pact
To part from Rome. Caesar is sad, and Lepidus,
Since Pompey’s feast—as Menas says—is troubled
With the greensickness:!
AGRIPPA "Tis a noble Lepidus.
ENOBARBUS A very fine one. Oh, how he loves Caesar!
AGRIPPA Nay, but how dearly he adores Mark Antony!

3. Chase the fleeing Parthians. 3.2 Location: Rome.

4. The land between Persia and Armenia, east of 1. Anemia in adolescent, lovesick girls (hence, a fem-
Mesopotamia—part of the Parthian Empire. inizing attribute); here, used humorously for Lepi-
5. Owing more to the skill of their officers than to dus’s hangover and its effect, as well as ironically for
their own skill. his overblown affection for Caesar and Antony.
2820 + ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA 3.2

ENOBARBUS Caesar? Why, he’s the Jupiter of men.

AGRIPPA What’s Antony? The god of Jupiter?
ENOBARBUS Spake you of Caesar? How, the nonpareil?° incomparable
acripPpA QO Antony! O thou Arabian bird!*
ENOBARBUS Would you praise Caesar? Say “Caesar.” Go no
further.
AGRIPPA Indeed, he plied them both with excellent praises.
ENOBARBUS' But he loves Caesar best, yet he loves Antony.
Hoo! Hearts, tongues, figures,° scribes, bards, poets cannot (of speech); numbers
Think, speak, cast,° write, sing, number!° Hoo! calculate / make verses
His love to Antony. But as for Caesar—
Kneel down, kneel down, and wonder.
AGRIPPA Both he loves.
ENOBARBUS They are his shards? and he their beetle.
[Trumpets sound within. |
20 So,
This is° to horse. Adieu, noble Agrippa. calls us
acrippA Good fortune, worthy soldier, and farewell.
Enter CAESAR, ANTONY, LEPIDUS, and OCTAVIA.
ANTONY No further, sir.
CAESAR You take from me a great part of myself.
25 Use me well in’t. —Sister, prove such a wife
As my thoughts make thee, and as my farthest band
Shall pass on thy approof.* —Most noble Antony,
Let not the piece® of virtue which is set paragon
Betwixt us as the cement of our love
30 To keep it builded, be the ram to batter
The fortress of it. For better might we
Have loved without this mean? if on both parts intermediary
This be not cherished.
ANTONY Make me not offended
In° your distrust. By
CAESAR I have said.
ANTONY You shall not find,
35 Though you be therein curious,° the least cause overly probing
For what you seem to fear. So the gods keep you
And make the hearts of Romans serve your ends.
We will here part.
CAESAR Farewell, my dearest sister, fare thee well.
40 The elements be kind to thee and make
Thy spirits all of comfort. Fare thee well.
ocravia My noble brother.
ANTONY The April's in her eyes;° it is love’s spring, She weeps
And these the showers to bring it on. Be cheerful.
45 ocTaviA _ Sir, look well to my husband’s? house, and— (Antony's)
CAESAR What, Octavia?
OCTAVIA I'll tell you in your ear.
ANTONY Her tongue will not obey her heart, nor can
Her heart inform her tongue. The swansdown feather

2. The phoenix, a legendary, self-resurrecting bird, __the beetle flies).

only one of which existed at a time. It was believedto 4. and as. . . approof: and (such a wife) as to make
live for several centuries, to die in flames, and to be __my largest contractual commitment (also, my closest
reborn from its own ashes. tie of affection: here, Caesar's to Octavia) approved
3. Dung patches (between which the beetle crawls _ on the basis of what you will prove to be.
to feed and breed); perhaps, wing cases (with which
 ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA 3.3. # 2821

That stands upon the swell at the full of tide

And neither way inclines.
50 ENOBARBUS [aside to aGrippa] Will Caesar weep?
AGRIPPA He has a cloud in’s face.
ENOBARBUS He were the worse for that were he a horse;°
So is he being a man.
AGRIPPA Why, Enobarbus,
When Antony found Julius Caesar dead,
55 He cried almost to roaring. And he wept
When at Philippi he found Brutus slain.
ENOBARBUS That year, indeed, he was troubled with a rheum° flu; watery eyes
What willingly he did confound? he wailed,° destroy / mourned
Believe'’t, till 1weep too.
CAESAR No, sweet Octavia,
60 You shall hear from me still.° The time shall not constantly
Outgo’ my thinking on° you. of
ANTONY Come, sir, come,
I'll wrestle with you in my strength of love.
Look, here I have you. [He embraces carsar.] Thus I let you go,
And give you to the gods.
CAESAR Adieu. Be happy.
65 LEPIDuS Let all the number of the stars give light
To thy fair way.
CAESAR Farewell, farewell.
([He] kisses ocTAVIA.)
ANTONY Farewell.
Trumpets sound. Exeunt.

3.3
Enter CLEOPATRA, CHARMIAN, IRAS, and ALEXAS.
CLEOPATRA Where is the fellow?
ALEXAS Half afeard to come.
CLEOPAPTRA Go to, go to! Come hither, sir.
Enter the MESSENGER as before.
ALEXAS Good majesty,
Herod of Jewry! dare not look upon you
But when you are well pleased.
CLEOPATRA That Herod’s head
I'll have, but how, when Antony is gone
Through whom I might command it? —Come thou near.
MESSENGER Most gracious majesty.
CLEOPATRA Didst thou behold Octavia?
MESSENGER Ay, dread queen.
CLEOPATRA Where?
MESSENGER Madam, in Rome.
I looked her in the face and saw her led
Between her brother and Mark Antony.
CLEOPATRA Is she as tall as me?
MESSENGER She is not, madam.
CLEOPATRA Didst hear her speak? Is she shrill-tongued or low?
5. the swansdown... inclines: (she is like) the star—on its face was supposedly ill tempered.
feather of a swan’s down that floats in still water, 7. The... / Outgo: Even time will not endure beyond.
unmoving (just as she can’t speak) when the tide is 3.3 Location: Alexandria.
about to turn. Octavia's emotions, balanced between 1. Renowned for his irrational cruelty. See note to
brother and husband, are too strong to allow speech. 1.2.28.
6. A horse with a cloud—a dark rather than a white
2822 + ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA 3.4

MESSENGER Madam, I heard her speak; she is low voiced.

CLEOPATRA That’s not so good. ° He cannot like her long. favorable to Octavia
CHARMIAN Like her? O Isis, ’tis impossible!
CLEOPATRA I think so, Charmian—dull of tongue and dwarfish!
What majesty is in her gait? Remember,
If ere thou look’st on majesty.
MESSENGER She creeps.
Her motion and her station® are as one. standing still
20 She shows? a body rather than a life, seems to be
A statue than® a breather. rather than
CLEOPAPTRA Is this certain?
MESSENGER Or I have no observance.° powers of observation
CHARMIAN Three in Egypt cannot make better note.”
CLEOPATRA He’s very knowing; I do perceive’t.
25 There’s nothing in her yet.
The fellow has good judgment.
CHARMIAN Excellent.
CLEOPATRA Guess at her years, | prithee.
MESSENGER Madam, she was a widow.
CLEOPATRA Widow? Charmian, hark.
30 MESSENGER And I do think she’s thirty.° (Cleopatra was 38)
CLEOPATRA Bear’st thou her face in mind? Is’t long or round?
MESSENGER Round, even to faultiness.
CLEOPATRA For the most part, too, they are foolish that are so.
Her hair, what color?
MESSENGER Brown, madam, and her forehead
As low as she would wish it.?
35 CLEOPATRA There’s gold for thee.
Thou must not take my former sharpness ill.
I will employ thee back° again. I find thee to go back to Rome
Most fit for business. Go, make thee ready.
Our letters are prepared. [Exit MESSENGER. ]
CHARMIAN A proper® man. An admirable
40 CLEOPATRA Indeed, he is so. I repent me much
That so I harried him. Why, methinks by him® by his account
This creature’s no such thing.° nothing special
CHARMIAN Nothing, madam.
CLEOPATRA The man hath seen some majesty and should know.
CHARMIAN Hath he seen majesty? Isis else defend,
45 And serving you so long.*
CLEOPATRA I have one thing more to ask him yet, good Charmian.
But ’tis no matter; thou shalt bring him to me
Where I will write. All may be well enough.
CHARMIAN I warrant you, madam. Exeunt.

3.4
Enter ANTONY and OCTAVIA.
ANTONY Nay, nay, Octavia, not only that—
That were excusable, that and thousands more
Of semblable® import—but he hath waged like
New wars ’gainst Pompey; made his will and read it

2. Three... note: There are not three better witnesses 4. Isis... . long: He surely has, considering how long
in all Egypt. he’s served you. else defend: May Isis prevent it from
3. So that she would wish it no lower: high foreheads __ being otherwise.
were admired. 3.4 Location: Athens.
 ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA 3.5 +# 2823

To public ear;' spoke scantly° of me. meanly

When perforce he could not
But pay me terms of honor, cold and sickly
He vented them—most narrow measure? lent me. little credit
When the best hint® was given him, he not took’t opportunity
Or did it from his teeth.° insincerely
10 OCTAVIA O my good lord,
Believe not all, or, if you must believe,
Stomach’ not all. A more unhappy lady, Resent
If this division chance, ne’er stood between
Praying for both parts.
The good gods will mock me presently:° at once
When I shall pray, “Oh, bless my lord and husband,”
Undo?® that prayer by crying out as loud, I'll then undo
“Oh, bless my brother.” Husband win, win brother,
Prays and destroys the prayer?—no midway
Twixt these extremes at all.
ANTONY Gentle Octavia,
Let your best love draw to that point which seeks
Best to preserve it.* If Ilose mine honor,
I lose myself. Better I were not yours
Than yours so branchless.° But as you requested, amputated
25 Yourself shall go between ’s. The meantime, lady,
I'll raise the preparation of a war
Shall stain your brother.° Make your soonest haste, dim his luster
So° your desires are yours. In this way; If
OCTAVIA Thanks to my lord.
The Jove of power make me, most weak, most weak,
30 Your reconciler. Wars twixt you twain would be
As if the world should cleave and that slain men
Should solder up the rift.4
ANTONY When it appears to you where this begins,° who started this
Turn your displeasure that way, for our faults
35 Can never be so equal that your love
Can equally move with® them. Provide? your going, judge / Prepare
for
Choose your own company, and command what cost
Your heart has mind to. Exeunt.

3.5
Enter ENOBARBUS and EROS.
ENOBARBUS How now, friend Eros?
EROS There’s strange news come, sir.
ENOBARBUS What, man?
EROS Caesar and Lepidus have made wars upon Pompey.
ENOBARBUS This is old. What is the success?° outcome
EROS Caesar, having made use of him? in the wars ‘gainst Pom- (Lepidus)
pey, presently denied him rivality,° would not let him partake equal partnership
in the glory of the action, and not resting® here, accuses him stopping
of letters he had formerly wrote to Pompey. Upon his°® own (Caesar's)
10 appeal? seizes him, so the poor third is up® till death enlarge accusation / imprisoned
his confine.

1. Caesar's act implies promises to the public. who best strives to preserve your love.
2. Wishing well for husband and then brother is tu 4. that. . . rift: many deaths would be needed to repair
pray and then to undermine the prayer. the breach.
3. Let... it: Choose the one of us (Antony or Caesar) 3.5 Location: Scene continues.
2824 + ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA 3.6

ENOBARBUS Then, world, thou hast a pair of chaps,° no more,° jaws / (than two)
And throw°® between them all the food thou hast, if you should throw
They’ll grind the one the other. Where’s Antony?
EROS He’s walking in the garden, thus, and spurns°® kicks
The rush? that lies before him; cries, “Fool Lepidus!” rushes
And threats the throat of that his officer® of that officer of his
That murdered Pompey.'
ENOBARBUS Our great navy’s rigged.° prepared
EROS For Italy and Caesar. More,° Domitius: There's more (to say)
20 My lord desires you presently. My news
I might have told hereafter.
ENOBARBUS Twill be naught?—
But let it be. Bring me to Antony.
EROS Come, sir. Exeunt.

3.6
Enter AGRIPPA, MAECENAS, and CAESAR.
CAESAR Contemning® Rome, he has done all this and more Despising
In Alexandria. Here’s the manner oft:
I’th’ marketplace on a tribunal? silvered, platform
Cleopatra and himself in chairs of gold
Were publicly enthroned. At the feet sat
Caesarion, whom they call my father’s! son,
And all the unlawful issue that their lust
Since then hath made between them. Unto her
He gave the stablishment° of Egypt, made her full possession
Of lower Syria, Cyprus, Lydia,?
Absolute queen.
MAECENAS This in the public eye?
CAESAR I’th’ common showplace where they exercise,*
His sons were there proclaimed the kings of kings;
Great Media, Parthia, and Armenia
He gave to Alexander. To Ptolemy he assigned
Syria, Cilicia, and Phoenicia. She
In th’ habiliments? of the goddess Isis costume

That day appeared, and oft before gave audience,

As ’tis reported, so.° in this costume
20 MAECENAS Let Rome be thus informed.
AGRIPPA Who, queasy with® his insolence already, sick of
Will their good thoughts call° from him. remove

CAESAR The people knows it and have now received

His accusations.
AGRIPPA Who does he accuse?
25 CAESAR Caesar, and that having in Sicily
Sextus Pompeius spoiled,° we had not rated® him ransacked / allotted
His part o’th’ isle.° Then does he say he lent me (Sicily)
Some shipping unrestored.° Lastly, he frets not returned (by me)
That Lepidus of the triumvirate

1. Historically, though Shakespeare leaves Antony’s Octavius as his son). See 2.2.239—40 with note and
responsibility for the killing unclear, Pompey was note to 5.2.358.
said to have been murdered at the command of An- 2. District on the western coast of Asia Minor.
tony, who here regrets the death because Pompey Shakespeare took the name from North’s translation
might have been a useful ally against Caesar. of Plutarch, but the original has “Libya.”
2. Of no consequence; extremely harmful. 3, In the arena (theater) where they engage in sports
3.6 Location: Rome. (perform).
1. Julius Caesar (who adopted his grandnephew
 ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA 3.6 # 2825

wo Should be deposed, and being that,° we detain being deposed

All his revenue.
AGRIPPA Sir, this should be answered.
CAESAR Tis done already and the messenger gone.
I have told him Lepidus was grown too cruel,
That he his high authority abused
35 And did deserve his change. For® what I have conquered, As for
I grant him part; but then in his Armenia
And other of his conquered kingdoms, I
Demand the like.
MAECENAS He'll never yield to that.
CAESAR Nor must not then be yielded to in this.
Enter octavia with her train.
40 octaviA Hail, Caesar, and my lord. Hail, most dear Caesar!
CAESAR That ever I should call thee castaway!
ocTaviA You have not called me so, nor have you cause.
CAESAR Why have you stol’n upon us thus? You come not
Like Caesar’s sister. The wife of Antony
45 Should have an army for an usher and
The neighs of horse to tell of her approach
Long ere she did appear. The trees by th’ way
Should have borne men, and expectation fainted,
Longing for what it had not. Nay, the dust
50 Should have ascended to the roof of heaven,
Raised by your populous troops. But you ‘are come
A market maid to Rome, and have prevented° (by coming too early)
The ostentation® of our love, which, left unshown, public display
Is often left unloved.* We should have met you
55 By sea and land, supplying every stage® (of the voyage)
With an augmented greeting.
OCTAVIA Good my lord,
To come thus was I not constrained, but did it
On my free will. My lord, Mark Antony,
Hearing that you prepared for war, acquainted
60 My grieved ear withal, whereon I begged
His pardon for® return. permission to
CAESAR Which soon he granted,
Being an abstract ‘tween his lust and him.
ocTAviA Do not say so, my lord.
CAESAR I have eyes upon him,
And his affairs come to me on the wind.
Where is he now?
65 OCTAVIA My lord, in Athens.
CAESAR No, my most wronged sister. Cleopatra
Hath nodded him to her. He hath given his empire
Up to a whore, who® now are levying both of them
The kings o’th’ earth for war. He hath assembled
70 Bocchus, the King of Libya; Archelaus
Of Cappadocia; Philadelphos, King
Of Paphlagonia; the Thracian king, Adallas;
King Manchus of Arabia; King of Pont;
Herod of Jewry; Mithridates, King

4. Is often thought not to be love at all. Or, which . . . unloved: lack of opportunity to demonstrate love often
leads to its actual decline.
2826 + ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA 3.7

75 Of Comagene; Polemon and Amintas,

The Kings of Mede and Lycaonia,’
With a more larger® list of scepters. yet longer
ocTaviA Ay me, most wretched,
That have my heart parted betwixt two friends
That does afflict each other.
80 CAESAR Welcome hither.
Your letters did withhold our® breaking forth restrain me from
Till we perceived both how you were wrong? led wrongly
And we in negligent danger.° Cheer your heart. danger from negligence
Be you not troubled with the time,° which drives present business
O’er your content® these strong necessities, contentment

But let determined things to destiny

Hold unbewailed their way.° Welcome to Rome,
Nothing more dear to me. You are abused
Beyond the mark° of thought, and the high gods limits
90 To do you justice makes his ministers° agents
Of us and those that love you. Best of comfort,
And ever welcome to us.
AGRIPPA Welcome, lady.
MAECENAS Welcome, dear madam.
Each heart in Rome does love and pity you.
95 Only th’adulterous Antony, most large® unlimited
In his abominations, turns you off
And gives his potent regiment? to a trull® powerful rule / whore
That noises it® against us. cries out
OCTAVIA Is it so, sir?
CAESAR Most certain. Sister, welcome. Pray you,
100 Be ever known to patience. My dear’st sister! Exeunt.

3.7
Enter CLEOPATRA and ENOBARBUS.
CLEOPATRA I will be° even with thee, doubt it not. get
ENOBARBUS- But why, why, why?
CLEOPATRA Thou hast forespoke® my being in these wars opposed
And say’st it is not fit.
ENOBARBUS Well, is it, is it?
CLEOPATRA If not denounced? against us, why should not we Ifwar is declared
Be there in person?
ENOBARBUS Well, I could reply:
If we should serve with horse and mares together,
The horse were merely lost.' The mares would bear® seduce; carry
A soldier and his horse.
CLEOPATRA What is’t you say?
ENOBARBUS_ Your presence needs must puzzle°® Antony, distract
Take from his heart, take from his brain, from ’s time,
What should not then be spared. He is already
Traduced?® for levity, and ’tis said in Rome Slandered
That Photinus, an eunuch, and your maids
Manage this war.
CLEOPATRA Sink Rome,’ and their tongues rot To hell with Rome

5. All kings from the East. 1. If... lost: If we take both male and female horses
6. let... way: let predetermined events go to their (whores) to the wars, the males would have no hope
destined conclusions without complaint. of triumphing, because of the females (“merely”
3.7 Location: Antony’s camp, near Actium, Greece. equals “mare-ly”).
 ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA 3.7 # 2827

That speak against us! A charge® we bear i’th’ war, An expense; duty
And as the president of my kingdom will
Appear there for? a man. Speak not against it; as if I were
I will not stay behind.
Enter ANTONY and CANIDIUS.
20 ENOBARBUS Nay, I have done. Here comes the Emperor.
ANTONY Is it not strange, Canidius,
That from Tarentum and Brundusium?
He could so quickly cut® the Ionian® Sea cut across / Adriatic
And take in° Toryne?® —You have heard on’t, sweet? overrun / (near Actium)
25 CLEOPATRA Celerity is never more admired°® wondered at
Than by the negligent.
ANTONY A good rebuke,
Which might have well becomed the best of men
To taunt at slackness. Canidius, we
Will fight with him by sea.
CLEOPATRA By sea, what else?
CANIDIUS Why will my lord do so?
30 ANTONY For that he dares us to’t.
ENOBARBUS_ So hath my lord dared him to single fight.
CANIDIUS Ay, and to wage this battle at Pharsalia,° (near Actium)
Where Caesar fought with Pompey. But these offers
Which serve not for his vantage, he shakes off,
And so should you.
35 ENOBARBUS Your ships are not well manned,
Your mariners are muleteers,° reapers, people mule drivers
Engrossed® by swift impress.° In Caesar’s fleet Amassed / conscription
Are those that often have ‘gainst Pompey fought.
Their ships are yare,° yours heavy. No disgrace smooth running
40 Shall fall° you for refusing him at sea, befall
Being prepared for land.
ANTONY By sea, by sea.
ENOBARBUS Most worthy sir, you therein throw away
The absolute soldiership you have by land,
Distract® your army, which doth most consist Divert
45 Of war-marked footmen, leave unexecuted® untapped
Your own renownéd knowledge, quite forgo
The way which promises assurance,° and victory
Give up yourself merely® to chance and hazard completely
From firm security.
ANTONY I'll fight at sea.
50 CLEOPATRA [| have sixty sails, Caesar none better.
ANTONY Our overplus of shipping will we burn,*
And with the rest full manned, from th’ head® of Actium promontory
Beat th’approaching Caesar. But if we fail,
We then can do’t at land.
Enter a MESSENGER.
Thy business?
MESSENGER ‘The news is true, my lord. He is descried;° He has been seen
Caesar has taken Toryne. [Exit MESSENGER.|
ANTONY Can he be there in person? "Tis impossible!

2. Ports in southeastern Italy. to man them adequately and feared that they could
3. Antony seems to have burned his excess (“over- easily be taken by Octavius Caesar.
plus”) ships because he did not have enough sailors
2828 + ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA 3.9

Strange, that his power® should be. Canidius, his entire army
Our nineteen legions thou shalt hold by land,
60 And our twelve thousand horse. We'll to our ship.
—Away, my Thetis.*
Enter a SOLDIER.”
How now, worthy soldier?
SOLDIER O noble emperor, do not fight by sea.
Trust not to rotten planks. Do you misdoubt
This sword and these my wounds? Let th’Egyptians
65 And the Phoenicians go a-ducking.? We to sea

Have used to conquer standing on the earth

And fighting foot to foot.
ANTONY Well, well, away!
Exeunt ANTONY, CLEOPATRA, and ENOBARBUS.
SOLDIER By Hercules, I think I am i’th’ right.
cANIDIus_ Soldier, thou art, but his whole action grows
70 Not in the power on't.® So our leader’s led,
And we are women’s men.
SOLDIER You keep by land
The legions and the horse whole, do you not?
CcANIDIUS Marcus Octavius, Marcus Justeius,
Publicola, and Caelius are for sea,
1 But we keep whole? by land. This speed of Caesar's stay undivided
Carries beyond’ belief. Exceeds
SOLDIER While he was yet in Rome,
His power went out in such distractions® as separate detachments
Beguiled all spies.
CANIDIUS Who's his lieutenant, hear you?
SOLDIER They say one Taurus.
CANIDIUS Well I know the man.
Enter a MESSENGER.
80 MESSENGER The Emperor calls, Canidius.
CANIDIUS With news the time’s with labor and throws forth
Each minute, some.’ Exeunt.

3.8
Enter CAESAR with his army, marching|, and TauRus].
CAESAR ‘Taurus?
tTAuRUS My lord?
CAESAR Strike not by land; keep whole.° Provoke not battle “stay in reserve
Till we have done at sea. Do not exceed
The prescript® of this scroll. Our fortune lies written orders
Upon this jump.° Exeunt. ploy

3.9
Enter ANTONY and ENOBARBUS.
ANTONY Set we our squadrons on yond side o’th’ hill
In eye® of Caesar’s battle,° from which place view / battle line
We may the number of the ships behold
And so proceed accordingly. Exeunt.

4. Sea goddess, mother of the Greek hero Achilles. his resources.

5. TextuaL Comment For the significance of the 7. throws... some: each minute, more news is born.
possible identification of this unnamed soldier with 3.8 Location: Near Actium.
the character Scarus in 3.10, see Digital Edition TC 5. 3.9. Location: Scene continues.
6. His entire plan is made without taking into account
 ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA 3.10 ¢ 2829

3.10
CANIDIUS marcheth with his land army one way over
the stage, and Taurus, the lieutenant of Caesar, the
other way. After their going in is heard the noise of a
sea fight. Alarum, Enter ENOBARBUS.
ENOBARBUS Naught, naught, all naught!° I can behold no longer: lost; ruined
Th’Antoniad, the Egyptian admiral,° flagship
With all their sixty fly and turn the rudder.
To see’t mine eyes are blasted.° (as if by lightning)
Enter SCARUS.
SCARUS Gods and goddesses,
All the whole synod? of them! assembly
ENOBARBUS What’s® thy passion? What provokes
scarus’ The greater cantle® of the world is lost corner; portion
With? very ignorance.° We have kissed away Through / idiocy
Kingdoms and provinces.
ENOBARBUS How appears the fight?
scarus On our side, like the tokened pestilence,!
Where death is sure. Yon ribald nag of Egypt—
Whom leprosy o’ertake—i’th’ midst o’th’ fight,
When vantage like a pair of twins appeared
Both as the same*—or rather, ours the elder°— ours the stronger
The breeze upon her? like a cow in June,
Hoists sails and flies.
ENOBARBUS That I beheld.
Mine eyes did sicken at the sight and could not
Endure a further view.
SCARUS She once being loofed,*
. The noble ruin® of her magic, Antony, casualty
Claps on his sea-wing,° and—like a doting mallard°— sails / male duck
20 Leaving the fight in® height, flies after her! at its
I never saw an action of such shame.
Experience, manhood, honor ne’er before
Did violate so itself.
ENOBARBUS Alack, alack!
Enter CANIDIUS.
CANIDIUS Our fortune on the sea is out of breath
25 And sinks most lamentably. Had our general
Been what he knew himself,° it had gone well. (to be)
Oh, he has given example for our flight
Most grossly by his own!
ENOBARBUS Ay, are you thereabouts?° Why, then, good night of the same mind
indeed.
30 CANIDIUS Toward Peloponnesus are they fled.
scARus Tis easy to't,° and there I will attend to reach that place
What further comes.
CANIDIUS To Caesar will I render
My legions and my horse. Six kings already
Show me the way of yielding.
ENOBARBUS Pll yet follow

3.10 Location: Scene continues. 3. Bitten by a gadfly; driven by a breeze.

1. Plague manifested in tokens (red spots presaging 4. Luffed—prepared to sail close to the wind (ready
death). to leave); aloof.
2. When the fight could have gone either way.
2830 ¢# ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA 3.11

35 The wounded chance’® of Antony, though my reason fortune

Sits in the wind against me.° [Exeunt.] Opposes

3.11
Enter ANTONY with ATTENDANTS.
ANTONY Hark, the land bids me tread no more upon't.
It is ashamed to bear me. Friends, come hither.
I am so lated? in the world that I lost in the dark
Have lost my way forever. I have a ship
Laden with gold. Take that; divide it. Fly,
And make your peace with Caesar.
ATTENDANTS Fly? Not we.
ANTONY I have fled myself, and have instructed cowards
To run and show their shoulders.° Friends, begone! backs
I have myself resolved upon a course
Which has no need of you. Begone!
My treasure’s in the harbor. Take it. Oh,
I followed that? I blush to look upon. that which
My very hairs do mutiny, for the white
Reprove the brown for rashness, and they them® they the others
For fear and doting. Friends, begone! You shall
Have letters from me to some friends that will
Sweep® your way for you. Pray you, look not sad, Clear
Nor make replies of loathness.° Take the hint°® reluctance / chance
Which my despair proclaims. Let that be left
20 Which leaves’ itself. To the seaside straightway! ceases to be; flees
I will possess you of that ship and treasure.
Leave me, I pray, a little-—pray you now, for a brief time
Nay, do so, for indeed I have lost command;° the right to command you
Therefore I pray you. I'll see you by and by.
[Exeunt ATTENDANTS. |
[ANTONY] sits down.
Enter CLEOPATRA, led by CHARMIAN, [IRAS,] and EROS.
25 EROS Nay, gentle madam, to him, comfort him.
iRAS_ Do, most dear queen.
CHARMIAN Do, why, what else?
CLEOPATRA Let me sit down. O Juno!
ANTONY No, no, no, no, no.
30. EROS See you here, sir?
ANTONY Oh, fie, fie, fie!
CHARMIAN Madam.
irAS_ Madam, oh, good empress!
EROS | Sir, sir.
35 ANTONY Yes, my lord, yes! He® at Philippi kept (Octavius)
His sword e’en like a dancer,° while I struck (for decoration only)
The lean and wrinkled Cassius, and ’twas I
That the mad Brutus ended.° He alone defeated
Dealt on lieutenantry° and no practice had Fought through others
40 In the brave squares® of war, yet now—no matter. fine formations
CLEOPATRA Ah, stand by.
EROS The Queen, my lord! The Queen!
iRAS_ Go to him, madam. Speak to him;
He’s unqualitied® with very shame. lost his sense of self

3.11 Location: Alexandria.

 ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA 3.12 # 283i

45 CLEOPATRA [rising] Well, then, sustain me. Oh!

EROS Most noble sir, arise. The Queen approaches;
Her head’s declined, and death will seize her but° unless
Your comfort makes the rescue.
ANTONY [have offended reputation,
A most unnoble swerving.° slippage
50 EROS Sir, the Queen.
ANTONY Oh, whither hast thou led me, Egypt? See
How I convey my shame out of? thine eyes, out of sight of; from
By looking back° what I have left behind recalling
’Stroyed® in dishonor. Destroyed
CLEOPATRA O my lord, my lord!
55 Forgive my fearful sails. I little thought
You would have followed.
ANTONY Egypt, thou knew’st too well
My heart was to thy rudder tied by th’ strings,
And thou shouldst tow me after. O’er my spirit
Thy full supremacy thou knew’st and that
60 Thy beck® might from the bidding of the gods call
Command me.
CLEOPATRA Oh, my pardon.
ANTONY Now I must
To the young man! send humble treaties,° dodge appeals
And palter in the shifts of lowness,* who
With half the bulk o’th’ world played as I pleased,
65 Making and marring fortunes. You did know
How much you were my conqueror, and that
My sword, made weak by my affection,° would desire
Obey it on all cause.° for any reason
CLEOPATRA Pardon, pardon!
ANTONY Fall? not a tear, I say. One of them rates° Weep / is worth
70 All that is won and lost. Give me a kiss.
[They kiss.]
Even this repays me.
We sent our schoolmaster.° Is 'a° come back? tutor to our children / he
Love, I am full of lead. —Some wine
Within there, and our viands!° Fortune knows food
75 We scorn her most when most she offers blows. Exeunt.

Z.2
Enter CAESAR, [THIDIAS,] AGRIPPA, and DOLABELLA,
with others.
CAESAR Let him appear that’s come from Antony.
Know you him?
DOLABELLA Caesar, ‘tis his schoolmaster—
An argument’ that he is plucked, when hither A proof
He sends so poor a pinion® of his wing, an outer feather
Which? had superfluous kings for messengers He who
Not many moons gone by.
Enter AMBASSADOR from Antony.
CAESAR Approach and speak.

1. Octavius Caesar at this time (31 B.c.£.) was thirty- in the shifty ways of a man brought low.
two years old, Antony fifty-one. 3.12 Location: Caesar’s camp, Egypt.
2. dodge... lowness: shuffle and play fast and loose
2832 +¢ ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA 3.13

AMBASSADOR Such as | am, I come from Antony.

I was of late as petty° to his ends inconsequential
As is the morn dew on the myrtle leaf
To his grand sea.!
CAESAR Be’t so. Declare thine office.° business
AMBASSADOR Lord of his fortunes, he salutes thee and
Requires® to live in Egypt, which not granted, Asks
He lessens his requests and to thee sues
To let him breathe between the heavens and earth
15 A private man in Athens. This for him.
Next, Cleopatra does confess thy greatness,
Submits her to thy might, and of thee craves
The circle® of the Ptolomies for her heirs, crown
Now hazarded to thy grace.° placed at your mercy
CAESAR For Antony,
20 I have no ears to his request. The Queen
Of audience nor desire shall fail, so? she
From Egypt drive her all-disgracéd friend
Or take his life there. This if she perform
She shall not sue unheard. So to them both.
AMBASSADOR Fortune pursue thee!
25 CAESAR Bring® him through the bands.° Escort / ranks
[Exit AMBASSADOR, attended. |
[to rHIDIAs] To try thy eloquence, now 'tis time. Dispatch;
From Antony win Cleopatra. Promise,
And in our name, what she requires; add more
(From thine invention’) offers. Women are not . imagination
30 In° their best fortunes strong, but want will perjure While in
The ne’er-touched vestal.* Try thy cunning, Thidias;
Make thine own edict° for thy pains, wh ich we Command your reward
Will answer as a law.
THIDIAS Caesar, I go.
CAESAR Observe how Antony becomes his flaw,° reacts to his fall
35 And what thou think’st his very action speaks
In every power that moves.*
THIDIAS Caesar, I shall. Exeunt.

3.13
Enter CLEOPATRA, ENOBARBUS, CHARMIAN, and IRAS.
CLEOPATRA What shall we do, Enobarbus?
ENOBARBUS Think,° and die. (about our misery)
CLEOPATRA Is Antony or we in fault for this?
ENOBARBUS' Antony only, that would make his will® lust
Lord of his reason. What though® you fled | What if
From that great face of war, whose several ranges° battle lines
Frighted each other? Why should he foll ow?
The itch of his affection should not then
Have nicked? his captainship at such a point, bettered (gambling term)
When half to half the world opposed, he being
The meréd?® question? "Twas a shame no less disputed

1. In relation to the great sea, ultimate source of break her vows.

dew, that is Antony. 4. his very... moves: his actions themselves reveal
2. Shall not fail to receive either a hearing or fulfill- in every move he makes.
ment of her wishes; as long as. 3.13 Location: Alexandria.
3. want... vestal: need will make the purest virgin
 ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA 3.13 # 2833

Than was his loss to course® your flying flags chase

And leave his navy gazing.
CLEOPATRA Prithee, peace.
Enter the AMBASSADOR with ANTONY.
ANTONY Is that his answer?
AMBASSADOR Ay, my lord.
15 ANTONY The Queen shall then have courtesy, so° she as long as
Will yield us up.
AMBASSADOR He says so.
ANTONY Let her know't.
—To the boy Caesar send this grizzled head,
And he will fill thy wishes to the brim
With principalities.
CLEOPATRA That head, my lord?
20 ANTONY ‘To him again. Tell him he wears the rose
Of youth upon him, from which the world should note
Something particular.° His coin, ships, legions, anticipate the remarkable
May be a coward’s,' whose ministers? would prevail aides; underlings
Under the service of a child as soon® as well
25 As i'th’ command of Caesar. I dare him therefore
To lay his gay caparisons°® apart showy adornments
And answer me declined,” sword against sword,
Ourselves alone. I'll write it. Follow me.
[Exeunt ANTONY and AMBASSADOR. |
ENOBARBUS [aside] Yes, like enough. High-battled® Caesar will With many troops
30 Unstate° his happiness and be staged to th’ show? Overthrow
Against a sworder! I see men’s judgments are
A parcel of° their fortunes, and things outward Consistent with
Do draw the inward quality after them
To suffer all alike.° That he should dream, To decay together
35 Knowing all measures,‘ the full Caesar will
Answer? his emptiness. Caesar, thou hast subdued Fight; reply to
His judgment too.”
Enter a SERVANT.
SERVANT A messenger from Caesar.
CLEOPATRA What, no more ceremony? See, my women,
Against the blown? rose may they stop their nose decaying
40. That° kneeled unto the buds. —Admit him, sir. Who once
ENOBARBUS [aside] Mine honesty® and I begin to square.° honor / square off; argue
The loyalty well held° to fools does make given
Our faith mere? folly. Yet he that can endure complete
To follow with allegiance a fall’n lord
45 Does conquer him that did his master conquer
And earns a place i’th’ story.
Enter THIDIAS.
CLEOPATRA Caesar’s will?
THIDIAS Hear it apart.
CLEOPATRA None but friends. Say boldly.

1. Could just as well be a coward’s (unless he does ness,” lines 35—36).

something special by himself). 5. PERFORMANCE CoMMENT For the consequences
2. And meet me past my prime, in my misfortune. of treating Enobarbus’s speech here as an aside (as
3. Be displayed to the public gaze (as in the London the stage direction indicates), as a private address to
theater or Roman gladiatorial combat). Cleopatra, or as an aside overheard by Cleopatra, see
4. Having known the best and worst of times (“all Digital Edition PC 1.
measures” of fortune, both “full{ness]” and “empti-
2834 + ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA 3.13

THIDIAS So haply° are they friends to Antony. possibly

ENOBARBUS'_ He needs as many, sir, as Caesar has,
50 Or needs not us.® If Caesar please, our master
Will leap to be his friend. For us, you know,
Whose he is we are, and that is Caesar's.
THIDIAS So,
Thus then, thou most renowned: Caesar entreats,
Not to consider® in what case thou stand’st be concerned
Further than he is Caesar.’
55 CLEOPATRA Go on; right royal.° most generous
THIpIAS He knows that you embrace not Antony
As you did love, but as you feared him.
CLEOPATRA Oh.
THIDIAS' The scars upon your honor, therefore, he
Does pity as constrainéd° blemishes, involuntary
Not as deserved.
60 CLEOPATRA He is a god and knows
What is most right. Mine honor was not yielded,
But conquered merely.
ENOBARBUS [aside] To be sure of that,
I will ask Antony. Sir, sir, thou art so leaky
That we must leave thee to thy sinking, for
Thy dearest quit thee. Exit ENOBARBUS.
THIDIAS Shall I say to Caesar
What you require® of him? For he partly begs request
To be desired to give. It much would please him,
That of his fortunes you should make a staff
To lean upon. But it would warm his spirits
To hear from me you had left Antony
And put yourself under his shroud,° protection; burial sheet
The universal landlord.
CLEOPATRA What's your name?
THIDIAS My name is Thidias.
CLEOPATRA Most kind messenger,
Say to great Caesar this in deputation:° as my representative
ip) I kiss his conqu’ring hand. Tell him I am prompt
To lay my crown at ’s feet and there to kneel.
Tell him from his all-obeying? breath I hear which all obey
The doom of Egypt.®
THIDIAS "Tis your noblest course.
Wisdom and fortune combating together,
80 If that the former dare but what it can,?
No chance may shake it. Give me grace to lay
My duty on your hand.
[He kisses her hand.|
CLEOPATRA Your Caesar’s father oft,
When he hath mused of taking kingdoms in,° subduing kingdoms
85 Bestowed his lips on that unworthy place
As° it rained kisses. As if
Enter ANTONY and ENOBARBUS.

6. Or needs not us: If the situation is truly hopeless, a more sinister undertone as well).
he doesn’t even need our friendship. 8. What he destines for Egypt and its queen.
7. Beyond remembering that he is Caesar—and hence 9. If the wise man confines his daring to what is
nobly generous in forgiving insult and injury (but with _ possible.
 ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA 3.13. # 2825

ANTONY Favors? By Jove that thunders!!

What art thou, fellow?
THIDIAS One that but performs
The bidding of the fullest? man and worthiest most successful
To have command obeyed.
ENOBARBUS You will be whipped.
90 ANTONY Approach there! Ah, you kite!? Now gods and devils! bird of prey; whore
Authority melts from me. Of late, when I cried, “Ho!”
Like boys unto a muss? kings would start forth
And cry, “Your will?” Have you no ears? I am
Antony yet.
Enter SERVANT\s].
Take hence this jack°® and whip him. knave
95 ENOBARBUS [aside] Tis better playing with a lion’s whelp® cub
Than with an old one dying.
ANTONY Moon and stars,
Whip him! Were’t twenty of the greatest tributaries
That do acknowledge Caesar, should I find them
So saucy with the hand of she here—what’s her name
100 Since she was Cleopatra?? Whip him, fellows,
Till like a boy you see him cringe® his face distort
And whine aloud for mercy. Take him hence.
THIDIAS Mark Antony!
ANTONY Tug him away! Being whipped,
Bring him again; the jack of Caesar's shall
105 Bear us an errand to him.
Exeunt [SERVANTS] with THIDIAS.
You were half blasted® ere | knew you! Ha? decayed
Have I my pillow left unpressed in Rome,
Forborne the getting® of a lawful race, begetting
And by a gem of women, to be abused
By one that looks on feeders?° parasites; servants
110 CLEOPATRA Good my lord.
ANTONY You have been a boggler® ever, fickle one
But when we in our viciousness grow hard
(Oh, misery on’t), the wise gods seal* our eyes
In our own filth, drop our clear judgments, make us
115 Adore our errors, laugh at ’s while we strut
To our confusion.
CLEOPATRA Oh, is’t come to this?
ANTONY I found you as a morsel cold upon
Dead Caesar’s trencher.° Nay, you were a fragment?® plate / leftover
Of Gneius Pompey’s’—besides what hotter hours
120 Unregistered in vulgar fame® you have base gossip
Luxuriously® picked out. For I am sure, Wantonly
Though you can guess what temperance should be,
You know not what it is.
CLEOPATRA Wherefore is this?

1. PERFORMANCE ComMENT For the different views 3. Antony’s question suggests that since Cleopatra's
of both Cleopatra and Antony that follow from having behavior has changed, her name must have changed
Cleopatra's response to Thidias seem a betrayal of as well.
Antony or, at the other extreme, an effort to protect 4. Blind: hawks’ eyes were sealed (sewn up) to tame
her defeated lover, see Digital Edition PC 2. them.
2. Game in which small items were tossed to the 5. Older brother of the Pompey of the play and son of
ground for children to snatch and grab. Pompey the Great. See note to 1.5.31.
 2836 + ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA 3.13

ANTONY To let a fellow that will take rewards

And say, “God quit® you” be familiar with repay

My playfellow, your hand, this kingly seal

And plighter° of high hearts. Oh, that I were pledger
Upon the hill of Basan to outroar
The hornéd herd,° for I have savage cause,
130 And to proclaim it civilly were like
A haltered® neck which does the hangman thank ‘in the noose
For being yare® about him. swift
Enter a SERVANT with THIDIAS.
Is he whipped?
SERVANT Soundly, my lord.
ANTONY Cried he? and begged a pardon?
135 SERVANT He did ask favor.
ANTONY If that thy father live, let him repent
Thou wast not made his daughter, and be thou sorry
To follow Caesar in his triumph, since
Thou hast been whipped for following him. Henceforth
140 The white hand of a lady fever thee;”
Shake thou to look on’t. Get thee back to Caesar.
Tell him thy entertainment.° Look® thou say treatment / See that
He makes me angry with him, for he seems
Proud and disdainful, harping on what I am,
145 Not what he knew I was. He makes me angry,
And at this time most easy ’tis to do’t,
When my good stars that were my former guides
Have empty left their orbs° and shot their fires spheres
Into th’abysm of hell. If he mislike
150 My speech and what is done, tell him he has
Hipparchus, my enfranchéd? bondman, whom emancipated
He may at pleasure whip, or hang, or torture,
As he shall like to quit® me. Urge it thou. requite
Hence with thy stripes.° Begone! wounds
Exeunt [SERVANT and] THIDIAS.
CLEOPATRA Have you done yet?
155 ANTONY Alack, our terrene moon? is now eclipsed,
And it portends alone the fall of Antony.
CLEOPATRA I must stay his time.?
ANTONY To flatter Caesar, would you mingle eyes
With one that ties his points.!
CLEOPATRA Not know me yet?
ANTONY Cold-hearted toward me?
160 CLEOPATRA Ah, dear, if Ibe so,
From my cold heart let heaven engender hail,
And poison it in the source, and the first stone
Drop in my neck.° As it determines,° so throat / turns to liquid
Dissolve my life; the next Caesarion smite;
165 Till by degrees the memory of my womb,° my children
Together with my brave Egyptians all,

6. Alluding to the bulls of the hill of Basan (Bashan) 8. Terrestrial moon goddess—Cleopatra.
in Psalms 68:15 and 22:12; Antony sees himself as a _9. I must hold my tongue until he is over his rage.
cuckold (a man whose wife has committed adultery), 1. would... points: would you flirt with one of his
conventionally imagined with horns. servants? points: laces (attaching stockings to other
7. May the white hand of a lady make you shiver with _ clothing).
fear, as from a fever.
 ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA 4.1 # 2837

By the discandying? of this pelleted storm dissolving

Lie graveless till the flies and gnats of Nile
Have buried them for prey!
ANTONY I am satisfied.
170 Caesar sets down in® Alexandria, where besieges
I will oppose his fate.* Our force by land
Hath nobly held, our severed navy too
Have knit again, and fleet,° threat’ning most sealike. are afloat
Where hast thou been, my heart?° Dost thou hear, lady? bravery
If from the field I shall return once more
To kiss these lips, I will appear in blood.° bloody; vigorous
I and my sword will earn our chronicle. historical reputation
There’s hope in’t yet.
CLEOPATRA That’s my brave lord.
ANTONY |I will be treble-sinewed, -hearted, -breathed,
180 And fight maliciously.° For when mine hours furiously
Were nice? and lucky, men did ransom® lives buy their
Of? me for jests.° But now I'll set my teeth From / trinkets
And send to darkness all that stop me. Come,
Let’s have one other gaudy° night. Call to me merry
185 All my sad captains. Fill our bowls once more;
Let’s mock the midnight bell.*
CLEOPATRA It is my birthday.
I had thought t’have held it poor,° but since my lord modestly commemorated it
Is Antony again, I will be Cleopatra.
ANTONY We will yet do well.
190 CLEOPATRA Call all his noble captains to my lord.
ANTONY Do so. We'll speak to them, and tonight I'll force
The wine peep through their scars. Come on, my queen,
There’s sap in’t? yet. The next time I do fight vigor in (our cause)
do battle
I'll make death love me, for I will contend?
plague-dealing
195 Even with his pestilent® scythe.
Exeunt [all but ENOBARBUS].
ENOBARBUS Now he'll outstare® the lightning. To be furious° stare down / in a frenzy

Is to be frighted out of fear, and in that mood

The dove will peck the estridge;° and I see still° a kind of hawk /always

A diminution in our captain’s brain

200 Restores his heart. When valor preys on reason,
‘It eats the sword it fights with. I will seek
Some way to leave him. Exit.

4.1
Enter CAESAR, AGRIPPA, and MAECENAS, with his
army, CAESAR reading a letter.
CAESAR He calls me “boy” and chides as’ he had power
as though

To beat me out of Egypt. My messenger

He hath whipped with rods—dares me to personal combat,
Caesar to Antony! Let the old ruffian know
I have many other ways to die; meantime
Mock
Laugh at° his challenge.
MAECENAS Caesar must think,

2. I will resist his apparently destined victory. 4, Let’s make a mockery of the hour by revelry; let’s
3. Were nice: Permitted me to pick and choose, to act mock the death knell that fate seems to ring for us.
with noble generosity; were lascivious; were pampered. 4.1 Location: Caesar's camp, before Alexandria.
2838 + ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA 4.2

When one so great begins to rage, he’s hunted

Even to falling. Give him no breath,° but now time to catch breath
Make boot? of his distraction.° Never anger Take advantage /fury
Made good guard for itself.
10 CAESAR Let our best heads° officers
Know that tomorrow the last of many battles
We mean to fight. Within our files® there are troops
Of those that served Mark Antony but late,
Enough to fetch him in.° See it done, capture him
And feast the army. We have store to do’t,
And they have earned the waste.° Poor Antony! Exeunt. expense

4.2
Enter ANTONY, CLEOPATRA, ENOBARBUS, CHARMIAN,
IRAS, ALEXAS, with others.
ANTONY He will not fight with me, Domitius?
ENOBARBUS No.
ANTONY Why should he not?
ENOBARBUS He thinks, being twenty times of better fortune,
He is twenty men to one.
ANTONY Tomorrow, soldier,
By sea and land [’ll fight. Or? I will live, Either
Or bathe my dying honor in the blood
Shall make it live again. Woo't thou? fight well? Will you
ENOBARBUS I'Il strike, and cry, “Take all!’”° Winner take all
ANTONY Well said. Come on;
Call forth my household servants.
Enter |some| SERVITORS.
Let’s tonight
Be bounteous at our meal. Give me thy hand;
Thou hast been rightly honest. So hast thou,
Thou, and thou, and thou. You have served me well,
And kings have been your fellows.° companions
CLEOPATRA [aside to ENOBARBUS| What means this?
ENOBARBUS [aside to CLEOPATRA] Tis one of those odd tricks
which sorrow shoots
Out of the mind.
ANTONY And thou art honest, too.
I wish I could be made® so many men, split up into
And all of you clapped up together in
An Antony, that I might do you service
So good as you have done.
SERVITORS The gods forbid.
ANTONY Well, my good fellows, wait on me tonight.
Scant not my cups, and make as much of me
As when mine empire was your fellow° too fellow servant
And suffered® my command. obeyed
CLEOPATRA [aside to ENOBARBUS| What does he mean?
ENOBARBUS [aside to CLEOPATRA] To make his followers weep.
ANTONY Tend me tonight.
May be it is the period® of your duty. end
Haply° you shall not see me more, or if,° Maybe / ifyou do

4.2 Location: Alexandria.

 ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA 4.3. # 2839

A mangled shadow.° Perchance tomorrow phantom

You'll serve another master. I look on you
As one that takes his leave. Mine honest friends,
30 I turn you not away, but, like a master
Married to your good service, stay till death.'
Tend me tonight two hours—I ask no more—
And the gods yield® you for’t! reward
ENOBARBUS What mean you, sir,
To give them this discomfort? Look, they weep,
And I, an ass, am onion-eyed.° For shame! weepy
Transform us not to women.
ANTONY Ho, ho, ho!
Now the witch take° me if Imeant it thus. bewitch
Grace grow where those drops fall! My hearty friends,
You take me in too dolorous a sense,
40 For I spake to you for your comfort, did desire you
To burn this night with torches. Know, my hearts,
I hope well of tomorrow, and will lead you
Where rather I'll expect victorious life
Than death and honor. Let’s to supper. Come,
45 And drown consideration.® Exeunt. serious thoughts

4.3
Enter a company of SOLDIERS.
FIRST SOLDIER Brother, goodnight. Tomorrow is the day.
SECOND SOLDIER It will determine one way. Fare you well.° Good luck
Heard you of nothing strange about° the streets? in
FIRST SOLDER Nothing. What news?
SECOND SOLDIER Belike® tis but a rumor. Good night to you. Most likely
FIRST SOLDIER Well, sir, good night.
[Enter] other soLDIERS [to meet them].
‘SECOND SOLDIER Soldiers, have careful watch.
THIRD SOLDIER And you. Good night, good night.
They place themselves in every corner of the stage.
SECOND SOLDIER Here we,! and if tomorrow
id Our navy thrive, I have an absolute hope
Our landmen will stand up.° make a stand
FIRST SOLDIER Tis a brave army and full of purpose.
Music of the hautboys° is under the stage. oboes
SECOND SOLDIER Peace, what noise?
FIRST SOLDIER List, list.
15 SECOND SOLDIER Hark.
FIRST SOLDIER Music i’th’ air.
THIRD SOLDIER Under the earth.
FOURTH SOLDIER It signs° well, does it not? bodes
THIRD SOLDIER No.
20 FIRST SOLDIER Peace, I say! What should this mean?
SECOND SOLDIER “Tis the god Hercules whom Antony loved
Now leaves him.
FIRST SOLDIER Walk. Let’s see if other watchmen
Do hear what we do.

1. Antony considers himself a good “master” because 4.3 Location: Outside Cleopatra's palace, Alexandria.
he will remain loyal to (“stay” with) his followers until 1. Here are our positions.
his (imminent) death.
2840 + ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA 4.4

SECOND SOLDIER How now, masters?° good sirs

[They] speak together.’
25 ALL How now? How now? Do you hear this?
FIRST SOLDIER Ay, is’t not strange?
THIRD SOLDIER Do you hear, masters? Do you hear?
FIRST SOLDIER Follow the noise so far as we have quarter.
Let’s see how it will give off.° end
ALL Content. ’Tis strange. Exeunt.

4.4
Enter ANTONY and CLEOPATRA, with [CHARMIAN
and| others.
ANTONY Eros, mine armor, Eros!
CLEOPATRA Sleep a little.
ANTONY No, my chuck.° Eros, come, mine armor, Eros! my dear
Enter EROS.
Come, good fellow, put thine iron on.!
If fortune be not ours today, it is
Because we brave® her. Come. dare
CLEOPATRA Nay, I'll help too.
What’s this for?
ANTONY Ah, let be, let be. Thou art
The armorer of my heart. False, false.° This, this. wrong
CLEOPATRA Sooth,” la. I'll help. Thus it must be. Truly
ANTONY Well, well,
We shall thrive now. —See’st thou, my good fellow?
Go, put on thy defenses.° armor
10 EROS Briefly,° sir. Soon
CLEOPATRA Is not this buckled well?
ANTONY Rarely, rarely.° very well
He that unbuckles this, till we do please
To daff’t® for our repose, shall hear a storm. _ remove it
—Thou fumblest, Eros, and my queen's a squire® attendant to a knight
More tight® at this than thou. Dispatch.° —O love, able / Finish
That thou couldst see my wars today, and knew’st
The royal occupation, thou shouldst see
A workman?’ in’t. | An expert
Enter an armed SOLDIER.
Good morrow to thee. Welcome.
Thou look’st like him that knows a warlike charge.° purpose
20 To business that we love we rise betime® early
And go to’t with delight.
SOLDIER A thousand, sir,
Early though’t be, have on their riveted trim® armor
And at the port expect you.
Shout. Trumpets flourish.
Enter CAPTAINS and SOLDIERS.
CAPTAIN The morn is fair. Good morrow, general.
SOLDIERS Good morrow, general.
ANTONY Tis well blown,? lads.

2. Individual soldiers probably address different ques- 1. Clothe me in that piece of armor of mine that
tions and comments to one another rather than speak- you have.
ing in chorus. 2. Well sounded (of the trumpet); well started (of the
3. As far as the limit of our watch. morning).
4.4 Location: Cleopatra’s palace.
 ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA 4.6 ¢# 2841

This morning, like the spirit of a youth

That means to be of note, begins betimes.
[to CLEOPATRA] So, so. Come, give me that. This way. Well
said.° Well done
Fare thee well, dame. Whate’er becomes of me,
30 This is a soldier’s kiss. Rebukable,
And worthy shameful check° it were to stand reprimand
On more mechanic® compliment. I'll leave thee coarse
Now like a man of steel. —You that will fight,
Follow me close. I'll bring you to’t. —Adieu.
Exeunt [ANTONY, EROS, CAPTAINS, and SOLDIERS].
CHARMIAN Please you retire to your chamber?
35 CLEOPATRA Lead me.
He goes forth gallantly. That he and Caesar might
Determine this great war in single fight,
Then Antony—but now —Well, on. Exeunt.

4.5
Trumpets sound. Enter ANTONY, EROS[, and a SOLDIER].
SOLDIER The gods make this a happy® day to Antony! fortunate
ANTONY Would thou and those thy scars had once? prevailed earlier
To make me fight at land!
SOLDIER Hadst thou done so,
The kings that have revolted° and the soldier deserted
That has this morning left thee would have still
Followed thy heels.
ANTONY Who's gone this morning?
SOLDIER Who?
One ever near thee. Call for Enobarbus;
He shall not hear thee, or from Caesar’s camp
Say, “I am none of thine.”
ANTONY What sayest thou?
SOLDIER Sir,
He is with Caesar.
10 EROS Sir, his chests and treasure
He has not with him.
ANTONY Is he gone?
SOLDIER Most certain.
ANTONY Go, Eros; send his treasure after. Do it.
Detain no jot, I charge thee. Write to him—
I will subscribe°—gentle adieus and greetings. sign my name
Say that I wish he never find more cause
To change a master. Oh, my fortunes have
Corrupted honest men. Dispatch. —Enobarbus! _ Exeunt.

4.6
Flourish. Enter AGRIPPA, CAESAR, with ENOBARBUS
and DOLABELLA.
caEsaR_ Go forth, Agrippa, and begin the fight.
Our will is Antony be took alive.
Make it so known.
AGRIPPA Caesar, | shall. [Exit AGRIPPA.|

4.5. Location: Antony's camp, Alexandria. 4.6 Location: Caesar's camp, Alexandria.
2842 + ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA 4.7

> CAESAR The time of universal peace is near.!

Prove this° a prosp’rous day, the three-nooked world? If this proves
Shall bear the olive® freely. ' sign of peace
Enter a MESSENGER.
MESSENGER Antony
Is come into the field.
CAESAR Go charge Agrippa
Plant those that have revolted in the van,° front lines
That Antony may seem to spend his fury
Upon himself.° Exeunt [all but ENoBARBUS]. On his former troops
ENOBARBUS_ Alexas did revolt and went to Jewry on
Affairs of Antony; there did dissuade® persuade
Great Herod to incline himself to Caesar
And leave his master Antony. For this pains,
Caesar hath hanged him. Canidius and the rest
That fell away have entertainment? but employment
No honorable trust. I have done ill,
Of which I do accuse myself so sorely
That I will joy no more.
Enter a SOLDIER of Caesar's.
SOLDIER Enobarbus, Antony
Hath after thee sent all thy treasure, with
His bounty overplus. The messenger
Came on my guard?® and at thy tent is now on my watch
Unloading of his mules.
ENOBARBUS I give it you.
SOLDIER Mock not, Enobarbus,
I tell you true. Best you safed the bringer
Out of the host.? I must attend mine office, look after my duties
Or would have done’t myself. Your emperor
30 Continues still a Jove. Exit.
ENOBARBUS I am alone the? villain of the earth the single greatest
And feel I am so most.* O Antony,
Thou mine of bounty, how wouldst thou have paid
My better service when my turpitude
Thou dost so crown with gold! This blows° my heart. swells; bursts
If swift thought® break it not, a swifter mean® regret / means (suicide)
Shall outstrike thought; but thought will do’t, I feel.
I fight against thee? No, I will go seek
Some ditch wherein to die. The foul’st best fits
40 My latter part of life. Exit.

4.7
Alarum, drums, and trumpets.
Enter AGRIpPA [and SOLDIERS].
AGRIPPA Retire!° We have engaged ourselves too far. Sound the retreat
Caesar himself has work,° and our oppression® is beset / what we face

1. Octavius Caesar, later the Emperor Augustus, was three races of Noah can to an extent be superim-
known for the Pax Romana—Roman peace—of his posed on the three continents and may connect with
reign; the phrase also alludes to the birth of Christ, the later religious connotations of the Roman Empire.
which occurred while Augustus was emperor. See See the previous note.
the Introduction. 3. Best... host: It would be best if you ensured safe
2. Three-cornered world. Referring (in descending conduct through the lines for the messenger who
order of probability) to Europe, Asia, Africa (the tri- brought the treasure.
umvirate’s holdings); the three races descended from 4. I, more than anyone else, know this to be true of me.
Noah’s sons (Japhet, Shem, Ham); earth, sea, sky. The 4.7 Location: The battlefield, Alexandria.
 ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA 4.8 # 2843

Exceeds what we expected. Exeunt.

Alarums. Enter ANTONY and scarus, wounded.
scaRus O my brave emperor, this is fought indeed!
Had we done so at first, we had droven them home
With clouts® about their heads. bandages; blows
ANTONY Thou bleed’st apace.
scarus I had a wound here that was like a T,
But now ‘tis made an H.!
[Sound retreat] far off.
ANTONY They do retire.
scarRus We'll beat ’em into bench-holes.° I have yet latrine holes
10 Room for six scotches° more. gashes
Enter EROS.
EROS They are beaten, sir, and our advantage serves
For a fair victory.
SCARUS Let us score® their backs, slash
And snatch ’em up, as° we take hares—behind! in the same way as
’Tis sport to maul a runner.° coward
ANTONY I will reward thee
15 Once for thy sprightly° comfort, and tenfold cheerful
For thy good valor. Come thee on!
scarus_ I'll halt® after. Exeunt. limp

4.8
Alarum. Enter ANTONY again in a march; SCARUS,
with others.
ANTONY We have beat him to his camp. Run one before,
And let the Queen know of our gests.° [Exit a SOLDIER.| deeds
' Tomorrow
Before the sun shall see ’s, we'll spill the blood
That has today escaped. I thank you all,
For doughty-handed? are you, and have fought brave
Not as° you served the cause, but as’t had been as though
Each man’s like mine. You have shown all Hectors.'
Enter the city, clip® your wives, your friends; embrace

Tell them your feats, whilst they with joyful tears

10 Wash the congealment from your wounds and kiss
The honored gashes whole.
Enter CLEOPATRA.
[to sCARUS] Give me thy hand;
To this great fairy° I'll commend thy acts, enchantress

Make her thanks bless thee. [fo CLEOPATRA] O thou day? o’th’ light
world,
Chain mine armed neck. Leap thou, attire and all,
15 Through proof of harness° to my heart, and there impenetrable armor
Ride on the pants° triumphing. heartbeats

CLEOPATRA Lord of lords!

O infinite virtue,° com’st thou smiling from valor
The world’s great snare uncaught?
ANTONY My nightingale,
We have beat them to their beds. What, girl, though gray
1. wound...H: The wound was originally shaped 4.8 Location: Scene continues.
like a T, but another gash across its bottom has made 1. You have all fought like Hector (the greatest of the
it look like an H turned sideways (punning on “ache,” Trojan warriors).
pronounced “aitch”).
2844 + ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA 4.9

20 Do something® mingle with our younger brown, yet ha’ we somewhat

A brain that nourishes our nerves® and can muscles
Get goal for goal of youth.? Behold this man.
Commend unto his lips thy favoring hand.
[She offers scarus her hand.]
—Kiss it, my warrior. —He hath fought today
As if a god in hate of mankind had
Destroyed in such a shape.
CLEOPATRA I'll give thee, friend,
An armor all of gold. It was a king’s.
ANTONY He has deserved it, were it carbuncled® bejeweled
Like holy Phoebus’ car.° Give me thy hand. the sun god's chariot
30 Through Alexandria make a jolly march.
Bear our hacked targets like® the men that owe°® them. shields as befits / own
Had our great palace the capacity
To camp* this host, we all would sup together put up
And drink carouses to the next day’s fate,
35 Which promises royal° peril. —Trumpeters, great
With brazen din blast you the city’s ear.
Make mingle with our rattling taborins,° small drums
That heaven and earth may strike their sounds together,
Applauding our approach. [Trumpets sound.] Exeunt.

4.9
Enter a SENTRY and his company [of watcu];
ENOBARBUS follows.
SENTRY If we be not relieved within this hour,
We must return to th’ court of guard.° The night guardroom
Is shiny,° and they say we shall embattle® bright / go to battle
By th’ second hour i’th’ morn.
uw FIRST WATCH This last day was a shrewd? one to’s. bad
ENOBARBUS Oh, bear me witness, night—
SECOND WATCH What man is this?
FIRST WATCH Stand close,° and list® him. hidden / listen to
[They stand aside.]
ENOBARBUS —Be witness to me, O thou blesséd moon,
When men revolted? shall upon record deserters
Bear hateful memory, poor Enobarbus did
Before thy face repent.
SENTRY Enobarbus?
SECOND WATCH Peace! Hark further.
ENOBARBUS O sovereign mistress of true melancholy,’ (the moon)
The poisonous damp of night disponge® upon me, pour down
That life, a very rebel to my will,
May hang no longer on me. Throw my heart
Against the flint and hardness of my fault,
Which,” being dried with grief, will break to powder (his heart)
And finish all foul thoughts. O Antony,
Nobler than my revolt is infamous,
Forgive me in thine own particular!
But let the world rank me in register® its records

2. Compete with any youth. Antony is clearly refer-- 4.9 Location: Caesar's camp.
ring here to the “boy” Caesar, but also, possibly, tohis 1. In whatever aspects of this business concern
own boyhood. only you.
 ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA 4.12 # 2845

A master-leaver and a fugitive.° deserter

O Antony! O Antony!
[He dies.|*
FIRST WATCH Let’s speak to him.
25 sENTRY Let's hear him, for the things he speaks
May concern Caesar.
SECOND WATCH Let’s do so. But he sleeps.
SENTRY Swoons rather, for so bad a prayer as his
Was never yet for® sleep. in preparation for
FIRST WATCH Go we to him.
SECOND WATCH Awake, sir, awake! Speak to us.
FIRST WATCH Hear you, sir?
30 SENTRY The hand of death hath raught? him. taken
Drums afar off.
Hark, the drums demurely® wake the sleepers. with subdued sound
Let us bear him to th’ court of guard.
He is of note. Our hour is fully out.° expired
SECOND WATCH Come on, then. He may recover yet.
Exeunt [with the body].

4.10
Enter ANTONY and scarus with their army.
ANTONY ‘Their preparation is today by sea;
We please them not by land.
SCARUS For both, my lord.
ANTONY I would they’d fight i’th’ fire, or i’th’ air;
We'd fight there too.' But this it is: our foot® foot soldiers
Upon the hills adjoining to the city
Shall stay with us—order for sea is given;
They have put forth? the haven— departed from
Where their appointment® we may best discover purpose; battle plan
And look on their endeavor. Exeunt.

4.11
Enter CAESAR and his army.
CAESAR But being? charged, we will be still° by land— /inactive
Unless we're
Which, as I take’t, we shall, for his best force
Is forth to man his galleys. To the vales,° valleys
And hold our best advantage.° Exeunt. ~ take the best position

4.12
Alarum afar off, as at a sea fight.
Enter ANTONY and SCARUS.
ANTONY Yet they are not joined. Where yond pine does stand, (in battle)
I shall discover all. I’ll bring thee word
Straight® how ’tis like® to go. Exit. Promptly/likely
SCARUS Swallows have built
In Cleopatra’s sails their nests. The augurs® soothsayers
Say they know not, they cannot tell; look grimly
And dare not speak their knowledge. Antony
Is valiant and dejected, and by starts

2. Enobarbus'’s death is not yet obvious to those onstage —_1. As well as in the other elements, earth and water.
and, depending on how the moment is played, may nat 4.11 Location: Scene continues.
be to the audience either. 4.12 Location: Scene continues.
4.10 Location: The battlefield.
2846 + ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA 4.12

His fretted° fortunes give him hope and fear diminished

Of what he has and has not.
Enter ANTONY.
ANTONY All is lost!
This foul Egyptian hath betrayed 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!! ’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,° sorceress
I have done all. Bid them all fly! Be gone! [Exit SCARUS.]
O sun, thy uprise shall I see no more.
Fortune and Antony part here; even here
20 Do we shake hands.° All come to this? The hearts (before parting)
That spanieled® me at heels, to whom I gave fawned upon
Their wishes, do discandy,° melt their sweets melt
On blossoming Caesar, and this pine? is barked? (Antony)
That overtopped them all. Betrayed I am.
25 Oh, this false soul of Egypt! This grave® charm, deadly
Whose eye becked® forth my wars and called them home, beckoned
Whose bosom was my crownet,° my chief end,° coronet / reward
Like a right° gypsy, hath at fast and loose? true
Beguiled® me to the very heart of loss.° Cheated / ruin
What, Eros, Eros!
Enter CLEOPATRA.
30 Ah, thou spell! Avaunt.° Leave me
CLEOPATRA Why is my lord enraged against his love?
ANTONY Vanish, or I shall give thee thy deserving
And blemish Caesar’s triumph.° Let him take thee triumphal procession
And hoist thee up to the shouting plebeians!
35 Follow his chariot like the greatest spot® taint
Of all thy sex. Most monster-like be shown
For poor’st diminutives,* for dolts, and let
Patient Octavia plough thy visage up
With her preparéd? nails! Exit CLEOPATRA. specially sharpened
‘Tis well thou’rt gone,
40 If it be well to live. But better ’twere
Thou fell’st into® my fury, for one death a victim to
Might have prevented many. Eros, ho!
The shirt of Nessus> is upon me. Teach me,
Alcides, thou mine ancestor, thy rage.
45 Let me lodge Lichas on the horns o’th’ moon,
And with those hands that grasped the heaviest club
Subdue my worthiest self.° The witch shall die! commit suicide
To the young Roman boy she hath sold me, and I fall
Under this plot. She dies for’t. Eros, ho! Exit.

1. Cleopatra is “triple-turned” because disloyal to the centaur Nessus with poisoned arrows for trying to
three (Julius Caesar, Pompey, and Antony); alluding rape his wife, Deianira. Nessus gave her some of his
to her changing political allegiances. blood, falsely claiming that it would act as a love
2. Stripped of its bark (and so killed). potion. Years later, she smeared some of the deadly
3. fast and loose: a cheating game played by gypsies. blood on a shirt and sent it to Hercules, for whom it
4. For the benefit of (in place of) the lowest people produced an agonizing death. Before succumbing and
(dwarfs). blaming Lichas (line 45), who had brought the shirt,
5. Hercules, also known as Alcides (line 44), with Hercules cast him into the sea, When Deianira real-
whom Antony is repeatedly compared, fatally wounded ized what she had done, she killed herself.
 ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA 4.14 # 2847

4.13
Enter CLEOPATRA, CHARMIAN, IRAS|, and] MARDIAN.
CLEOPATRA Help me, my women! Oh, he’s more mad
Than Telamon for his shield;! the boar of Thessaly”
Was never so embossed.?
CHARMIAN To th’ monument!*
There lock yourself, and send him word you are dead.
5 The soul and body rive® not more in parting separate
Than greatness going off.° leaving someone
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,
10 And bring me® how he takes my death. To th’ monument! bring me word
Exeunt.

4.14
Enter ANTONY and EROS.
ANTONY Eros, thou yet behold’st me?
EROS Ay, noble lord.
ANTONY Sometime we see a cloud that’s dragonish,° in a dragon's shape
A vapor sometime like a bear or lion,
A towered citadel, a pendant® rock, hanging
A forkéd mountain or blue promontory
With trees upon’t that nod unto the world
And mock our eyes with air. Thou hast seen these signs.
They are black vesper’s pageants.
EROS Ay, my lord.
ANTONY That which is now a horse, even with a thought
10 The rack dislimns°® and makes it indistinct cloud dims
As water is in water.
EROS It does, my lord.
ANTONY My good knave® Eros, now thy captain is boy
Even such a body. Here I am Antony,
Yet cannot hold this visible shape, my knave.
15 I made these wars for Egypt 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 cards° with Caesar and false played my glory Stacked the deck
20 Unto an enemy’s triumph.° victory; trump card
Nay, weep not, gentle Eros, there is left us
Ourselves to end ourselves.
Enter MARDIAN.
Oh, thy vile lady,
She has robbed me of my sword.° valor; manhood
MARDIAN No, Antony,

4.13 Location: Alexandria. ing term).

1. Ajax, also known as Telamon, went mad and killed 4. The tomb that Cleopatra, forseeing her death, had
himself after the capture of Troy when he was not built.
awarded Achilles’ shield. 4.14 Location: Scene continues.
2. Sent by Diana to lay waste Calydon (killed by 1. Illusory spectacles heralding the approach of night—
Meleager). with a probable allusion to funerals and death. (Pag-
3. Was never so exhaustedly foaming at the mouth— eants were originally moving stages on which miracle
that is, was never driven to such extremity (a hunt- plays were presented.)
2848 + ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA 4.14

My mistress loved thee, and her fortunes mingled

With thine entirely.
25 ANTONY Hence, saucy® eunuch! Peace! disrespectful
She hath betrayed me and shall die the death.
MARDIAN Death of one person can be paid but once,
And that she has discharged. What thou wouldst do
Is done unto thy hand.° The last she spake for you
30 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.* She rendered? life gave up
Thy name so? buried in her. With thy name in this way
ANTONY Dead then?
MARDIAN Dead.
35 ANTONY Unarm, Eros. The long day’s task is done,
And we must sleep. [to MARDIAN] That thou depart’st hence safe
Does pay thy labor richly. Go. Exit MARDIAN.
Off, pluck off!
[EROS unarms him.]
The sevenfold shield? of Ajax cannot keep
The battery° from my heart. Oh, cleave my sides! onslaught
40 Heart, once be stronger than thy continent°— container
Crack thy frail case. Apace,° Eros, apace! Quickly
No more a soldier. —Bruiséd pieces,° go! (of armor)
You have been nobly borne. —From me awhile. Exit ERos.
I will o’ertake thee, Cleopatra, and
45 Weep for my pardon. So it must be, for now
All length® is torture. Since the torch? is out, longer life / (Cleopatra)
Lie down and stray no farther. Now all labor
Mars what it does. Yea, very force entangles
Itself with strength. Seal° then, and all is done. Finish the deed
50 Eros! —I come, my queen. —Eros! —Stay for me,
Where souls do couch on flowers;> we'll hand in hand,
And with our sprightly port® make the ghosts gaze. cheerful stance
Dido and her Aeneas shall want troops,°
And all the haunt® be ours. —Come, Eros, Eros! place; ghosts
Enter EROS.
EROS What would my lord?
55 ANTONY Since Cleopatra died,
I have lived in such dishonor that the gods
Detest my baseness. I, that with my sword
Quartered the world and o’er green Neptune’s back° on the sea
With ships made cities,’ condemn myself to lack? for lacking
60 The courage of a woman—less noble mind
Than she which by her death our Caesar tells,
“I am conqueror of myself.” Thou art sworn, Eros,
That when the exigent® should come, which now urgent need

2. It... lips: It was half-uttered. Aeneas, legendary Trojan founder of Rome, in Virgil’s
3. A shield made of brass lined with six thicknesses Aeneid; they are not reconciled in the underworld.
of oxhide. Dido, who originally hailed from: Phoenicia, is meant
4. very... strength: strength defeats itself by its own to recall Cleopatra. In leaving her, Aeneas places
exertions. public responsibility above personal desire—unlike
5. Lie (“couch”) in the Elysian Fields of the blessed Antony but very much like Octavius Caesar, whom
dead in the mythological underworld. Virgil intended him to resemble.
6. Shall lack followers. Dido, Queen of Carthage, 7. Put so many ships to sea that the fleet resembled
commits suicide after being abandoned by her lover, a city.
 ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA 4.14 # 2849

Is come indeed, when I should see behind me

65 Th’inevitable prosecution® of pursuit
Disgrace and horror, that on my command
Thou then wouldst kill me. Do’t. The time is come.
Thou strik’st not me—'tis Caesar thou defeat’st.
Put color in thy cheek.
EROS The gods withhold me!° God forbid
70 Shall I do that which all the Parthian darts,
Though enemy, lost aim and could not?
ANTONY Eros,
Wouldst thou be windowed? in great Rome and see looking from a window
Thy master thus with pleached® arms, bending down tied
His corrigible® neck, his face subdued submissive
75 To penetrative® shame; whilst the wheeled seat°® piercing / chariot
Of fortunate Caesar, drawn before him, branded
His baseness that ensued?®
EROS I would not see’t.
ANTONY Come, then, for with a wound I must be cured.
Draw that thy honest® sword, which thou hast worn honorable
Most useful for thy country.
80 EROS O sir, pardon me.
ANTONY When I did make thee free, swor’st thou not then
To do this when I bade thee? Do it at once,
Or thy precedent? services are all earlier
But accidents unpurposed.° Draw, and come. But pointless events
85 EROS Turn from me then that noble countenance
Wherein the worship® of the whole world lies. esteem; worth
ANTONY Lo thee!
[He turns away.]
EROS My sword is drawn.
ANTONY Then let it do at once
The thing why thou hast drawn it.
EROS My dear master,
90 My captain and my emperor, let me say,
Before I strike this bloody stroke, farewell.
ANTONY "Tis said, man, and farewell.
EROS Farewell, great chief. Shall I strike now?
ANTONY Now, Eros.
EROS Why, there, then! ({He] kills himself.) Thus I do escape
the sorrow
Of Antony’s death.
95 ANTONY Thrice-nobler than myself,
Thou teachest me, O valiant Eros, what
I should and thou couldst not. My queen and Eros
Have by their brave instruction got upon® me gained ahead of
A nobleness in record.° But I will be history
100 A bridegroom in my death and run into'’t
As to a lover’s bed.? Come, then, and Eros,
Thy master dies thy scholar; to do thus
I learned of thee. [He falls on his sword.] How, not dead?
Not dead?

8. branded... ensued: indicated, as if byacriminal’s union or climax, with Antony as the bridegroom and
brand, the humiliation of the man who followed. death (and Cleopatra) the bride.
9. But... bed: Death is here treated as a form of erotic
 2850 + ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA 4.14

The guard, ho! Oh, dispatch® me! finish

Enter a [company of the] GuarD[, one of them
DERCETUS].
FIRST GUARD What’s the noise?
105 ANTONY I have done my work ill, friends. Oh, make an end
Of what I have begun.
SECOND GUARD The star is fall’n.
FIRST GUARD And time is at his period.° its end
ALL THE GUARD Alas, and woe.
ANTONY Let him that loves me, strike me dead.
FIRST GUARD Not I.
110 SECOND GUARD Nor I.
THIRD GUARD Nor anyone.
Exeunt [all the GuarD but DERCETUS].
DERCETUS Thy death and fortunes bid thy followers fly.
[He takes Antony's sword.|
This sword, but shown to Caesar with this tidings,
Shall enter me° with him. gain me favor
Enter DIOMEDES.
115 DIOMEDES Where’s Antony?
DERCETUS There, Diomed, there.
DIOMEDES Lives he? Wilt thou not answer, man?
[Exit DERCETUS.]
ANTONY Art thou there, Diomed? Draw thy sword and give me
Sufficing® strokes for death. Enough
DIOMEDES Most absolute lord,
120 My mistress Cleopatra sent me to thee.
ANTONY When did she send thee?
DIOMEDES Now, my lord.
ANTONY Where is she?
DIOMEDES Locked in her monument. She had a prophesying
fear
Of what hath come to pass; for when she saw—
Which never shall be found°’—you did suspect (to be true)
125 She had disposed® with Caesar, and that your rage made an alliance
Would not be purged, she sent you word she was dead.
But fearing since how it might work, hath sent
Me to proclaim the truth, and I am come,
I dread, too late.
130 ANTONY Too late, good Diomed. Call my guard, I prithee.
DIOMEDES What ho! The Emperor's guard! The guard, what ho!
Come, your lord calls.
Enter [some] of the Guarp of Antony.
ANTONY Bear me, good friends, where Cleopatra bides.° waits; dwells
‘Tis the last service that I shall command you.
135 FIRST GUARD Woe, woe are we, sir, you may not live to wear
All your true followers out.° outlive your followers
ALL THE GUARD Most heavy day!
ANTONY Nay, good my fellows, do not please sharp fate
To grace® it with your sorrows. Bid that welcome By gracing
Which comes to punish us, and we punish it
140 Seeming to bear it lightly. Take me up.
I have led you oft; carry me now, good friends,
And have my thanks for all.
Exeunt, bearing ANTONY [and EROs].
 ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA 4.15 ¢ 2851

4.15
Enter CLEOPATRA and her maids aloft, with CHARMIAN
and IRAS.
CLEOPATRA O Charmian, I will never go from hence.
CHARMIAN Be comforted, dear madam.
CLEOPATRA No, I will not.
All strange and terrible events are welcome,
But comforts we despise. Our size of sorrow
Proportioned to our cause must be as great
As that which makes it.
Enter DIOMEDES [below].
How now? Is he dead?
pIOMEDES His death’s upon him, but not dead.
Look out o’th’ other side your monument;
His guard have brought him thither.
Enter ANTONY [below] and the Guarp [bearing him].
CLEOPATRA O sun,
Burn the great sphere thou mov’st in; darkling' stand
The varying shore o’th’ world. O Antony,
Antony, Antony! Help, Charmian, help Iras, help!
Help friends below! Let’s draw him hither.
ANTONY Peace!
15 Not Caesar’s valor hath o’erthrown Antony,
But Antony’s hath triumphed on itself.
CLEOPATRA So it should be that none but Antony
Should conquer Antony, but woe ’tis so!
ANTONY Iam dying, Egypt, dying. Only
20 I here importune death® awhile until ask death to wait
Of many thousand kisses, the poor last
I lay upon thy lips.
CLEOPATRA I dare not,° dear. dare not come down
Dear my lord, pardon! I dare not
Lest I be taken. Not th’imperious show® triumphal procession
25 Of the full-fortuned Caesar ever shall
Be brooched? with me; if knife, drugs, serpents have decorated
Edge, sting, or operation,’ I am safe. power
Your wife Octavia, with her modest eyes
And still conclusion,° shall acquire no honor silent judgment
30 Demuring® upon me. But come, come Antony. Gazing solemnly
—Help me, my women! —We must draw thee up.
Assist, good friends!
[They begin lifting ANTONY.|
ANTONY Oh, quick, or I am gone.
CLEOPATRA Here’s sport indeed. How heavy weighs my lord!
Our strength is all gone into heaviness°— sadness; weight
35 That makes the weight. Had I great Juno’s power,
The strong-winged Mercury should fetch thee up
And set thee by Jove’s side. Yet, come a little.
Wishers were ever fools. Oh, come, come, come!
They heave aNTony aloft to CLEOPATRA.”

4.15 Location: Cleopatra’s monument, Alexandria. leaving the earth in darkness (“darkling”).
1. O...darkling: For the spheres in which the sun, 2. Texruat Comment For the problem of visualizing
like the planets and stars, was thought to move around _ this as stage action, see Digital Edition TC 6. PERFOR-
the earth, see note to 2.7.16. If the sun burned its | MANCE Comment For how modern productions have
sphere, presumably it would move out of orbit, thus dealt with this problem, see Digital Edition PC 3.
2852 +¢ ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA 4.15

And welcome, welcome. Die when thou hast lived;° lived again
40 Quicken® with kissing. Had my lips that power, Revive
Thus would I wear them out.
[She kisses him.]
ALL A heavy sight.
ANTONY I am dying, Egypt, dying.
Give me some wine and let me speak a little.
CLEOPATRA No, let me speak, and let me rail so high
That the false hussy Fortune break her wheel,
Provoked by my offense.° insults
ANTONY One word, sweet queen.
Of Caesar seek your honor with your safety. Oh!
CLEOPATRA They do not go together.
ANTONY Gentle, hear me.
50 None about Caesar trust but Proculeius.
CLEOPATRA My resolution and my hands I'll trust,
None about Caesar.
ANTONY The miserable change now at my end
Lament® nor sorrow at, but please your thoughts Neither lament
55 In feeding them with those my former fortunes,
Wherein I lived the greatest prince o’th’ world,
The noblest, and do now not basely die,
Not cowardly put off my helmet to
My countryman—a Roman by a Roman
60 Valiantly vanquished. Now my spirit is going.
I can no more.
CLEOPATRA Noblest of men, woo’t® die? will you
Hast thou no care of me? Shall I abide
In this dull world, which in thy absence is
No better than a sty? —Oh, see, my women,
65 The crown o’th’ earth doth melt. —My lord?
[ANTONY dies.}
Oh, withered is the garland® of the war; crowning glory
The soldier's pole? is fall’n. Young boys and girls
Are level now with men. The odds° is gone, distinction among humans
And there is nothing left remarkable
Beneath the visiting moon.
CHARMIAN Oh, quietness, lady.
trAS_ She’s dead, too, our sovereign.
CHARMIAN Lady!
RAS Madam!
CHARMIAN O madam, madam, madam!
wit IRAS_ Royal Egypt! Empress!
CHARMIAN Peace, peace, Iras!
CLEOPATRA No more but e’en® a woman and commanded just (no longer Queen)
By such poor passion as the maid that milks
And does the meanest chores. It were for° me would befit
80 To throw my scepter at the injurious gods
To tell them that this world did equal theirs
Till they had stol’n our jewel. All’s but naught.
Patience is sottish,° and impatience does foolish
Become a dog that’s mad. Then is it sin
85 To rush into the secret house of death
Ere death dare come to us? How do you, women?

3. Polestar; military standard; phallus.

 ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA 5.1 # 2853

What, what, good cheer! Why, how now, Charmian?

My noble girls! Ah, women, women! Look!
Our lamp is spent; it’s out. Good sirs,° take heart. (to the women)
90 We'll bury him, and then, what’s brave,° what’s noble, fine
Let’s do’t after the high Roman fashion
And make death proud to take us. Come, away!
This case of that huge spirit now is cold.
Ah, women, women! Come, we have no friend
95 But resolution and the briefest® end. fastest
Exeunt, bearing off Antony's body.

5.1
Enter CAESAR with AGRIPPA, DOLABELLA,
[MAECENAS, GALLUS, and PROCULEIUS, |
his council of war.
CAESAR Go to him, Dolabella, bid him yield.
Being so frustrate, tell him he mocks
The pauses that he makes.!
DOLABELLA Caesar, I shall.
[Exit DOLABELLA.|
Enter DERCETUS with the sword of Antony.
CAESAR Wherefore is that? And what art thou that dar’st
Appear thus°® to us? (with a drawn weapon)
DERCETUS I am called Dercetus.
Mark Antony I served, who best was worthy
Best to be served. Whilst he stood up and spoke
He was my master, and I wore my life
To spend? upon his haters. If thou please expend
10 To take me to thee, as I was to him
I’ll be to Caesar; if thou pleasest not,
I yield thee up my life.
CAESAR What is’t thou say’st?
DERCETus I say, O Caesar, Antony is dead.
CAESAR The breaking?® of so great a thing should make end; telling
A greater crack!° The round world noise; fracture
Should have shook lions into civil® streets city
And citizens to their® dens. The death of Antony (the lions’)
Is not a single doom—in the name lay
A moiety° of the world. half
DERCETUS He is dead, Caesar,
20 Not by a public minister ofjustice,
Nor by a hired knife, but that self? hand same

Which writ hig honor in the acts it did

Hath, with the courage which the heart did lend it,
Splitted the heart. This is his sword.
25 I robbed his wound of it. Behold it stained
With his most noble blood.
CAESAR Look you sad, friends?
The gods rebuke me,° but it is tidings (for my tears)
To wash the eyes of kings.
DOLABELLA And strange it is,
That nature must compel us to lament
Our most persisted deeds.° What we persevered in

5.1 Location: Caesar’s camp. 1. he mocks . . . makes: his delays are a mere mockery.
2854 + ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA 5.1

30 MAECENAS His taints and honors

Waged? equal with® him. Fought as if / in
DOLABELLA A rarer spirit never
Did steer humanity,° but you gods will give us govern (any) man
Some faults to make us men. Caesar is touched.
MAECENAS’ When such a spacious mirror’s set before him,
He needs must see himself.
35 CAESAR O Antony,
I have followed? thee to this, but we do lance® pursued / wound to cure
Diseases in our bodies. I must perforce
Have shown to thee such a declining day?
Or look on thine. We could not stall° together live in peace
40 In the whole world. But yet let me lament
With tears as sovereign® as the blood of hearts as efficacious
That thou, my brother, my competitor® comrade; foe
In top of all design,° my mate in empire, In the greatest ventures
Friend and companion in the front of war,
45 The arm of mine own body, and the heart
Where mine his° thoughts did kindle—that our stars its
Unreconcilable should divide
Our equalness? to this. Hear me, good friends— partnership
Enter an EGYPTIAN.
But I will tell you at some meeter season.° fitter time
50 The business of this man looks out of him.
We'll hear him what he says. —Whence are you?
EGYPTIAN A poor Egyptian yet. The Queen, my mistress,
Confined in all she has—her monument—
Of thy intents desires instruction,
55 That she preparedly may frame herself
To th’ way she’s forced to.
CAESAR Bid her have good heart.
She soon shall know of us by some of ours
How honorable and how kindly we
Determine for her. For Caesar cannot live
To be ungentle.
60 EGYPTIAN So. The gods preserve thee. Exit.
CAESAR Come hither, Proculeius. Go and say
We purpose her no shame. Give her what comforts
The quality° of her passion® shall require, strength / grief
Lest in her greatness by some mortal stroke
65 She do defeat us. For her life in Rome
Would be eternal in our triumph. Go,
And with your speediest bring us what she says
And how you find of her.
PROCULEIUS Caesar, I shall. Exit.
CAESAR Gallus, go you along. [Exit GALLUs.]
Where’s Dolabella,
To second Proculeius?
ALL BUT CAESAR Dolabella!
CAESAR Let him alone, for I remember now
How he’s employed. He shall in time be ready.

2. I must... day: I would have had to exhibit my would bring eternal renown to my triumphal
demise to you. perforce: necessarily. procession.
3. her life. . . triumph: her presence alive in Rome
 ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA 5.2. # 2855

Go with me to my tent, where you shall see

How hardly° I was drawn into this war, unwillingly
75 How calm and gentle I proceeded still
In all my writings.° Go with me and see (letters to Antony)
What I can show in this. Exeunt.

5.2
Enter CLEOPATRA, CHARMIAN, IRAS, and MARDIAN.
CLEOPATRA My desolation does begin to make
A better life. Tis paltry to be Caesar;
Not being Fortune, he’s but Fortune’s knave,° servant

A minister of her will. And it is great

To do that thing? that ends all other deeds, (suicide)
Which shackles accidents and bolts up change,
Which sleeps and never palates more the dung,
The beggar’s nurse and Caesar’s.!
Enter PROCULEIUS.”
PROCULEIUS Caesar sends greeting to the Queen of Egypt,
And bids thee study on°® what fair demands give thought to
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
15 That° have no use for trusting.’ If your master (I) who
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 conquered Egypt for my son,
20 He gives me so much of mine own as° I that
Will kneel to him with thanks.
PROCULEIUS Be of good cheer.
Youre fall’n into a princely hand. Fear nothing.
Make your full reference® freely to my lord, case
Who is so full of grace that it flows over
25 On all that need. Let me report to him
Your sweet dependency,° and you shall find meek obeisance
A conqueror that will pray in aid for kindness*
Where he for grace is kneeled to.
CLEOPATRA Pray you, tell him
I am his fortune’s vassal, and I send him
30 The greatness he has got.’ I hourly learn
A doctrine of obedience and would gladly
Look him i’th’ face.
PROCULEIUS This I'll report, dear lady.
Have comfort, for I know your plight is pitied

5.2 Location: Cleopatra’s monument. reveal Caesar's intentions. But she may also mean
1. Which sleeps... Caesar's: Which brings a sleep in that she doesn’t like being deceived, knowing as she
which we no longer taste the produce of the earth does the perils of misplaced trust.
(“dung”), nourisher of all from beggar to emperor. 4. Who will beg help in finding new ways to be kind.
2. Cleopatra and her women are inside the monu- 5. Iam... got: | do homage to his good fortune, and
ment, the others outside it. I acknowledge the great position he has won. “Send
3. Cleopatra claims not to care whether she is deceived, him” may suggest Cleopatra’s sense of superiority in
in the hope that Proculeius will relax his guard and conferring greatness upon Caesar.
2856 + ANTONY
AND CLEOPATRA 5.2

Of? him that caused it. By

[Enter Roman SOLDIERS, who.seize CLEOPATRA
from behind.|°
35 [to soLp1ERs] You see how easily she may be surprised.
Guard her till Caesar come.
IRAS Royal Queen!
CHARMIAN O Cleopatra, thou art taken, Queen!
CLEOPATRA [drawing a dagger] Quick, quick, good hands.
PROCULEIUS [seizing the dagger] Hold, worthy lady, hold!
Do not yourself such wrong, who are in this
Relieved® but not betrayed. Rescued
40 CLEOPATRA What, of° death, too, deprived of
That rids our dogs of languish?’
PROCULEIUS Cleopatra,
Do not abuse my master’s bounty by
Th'undoing of yourself. Let the world see
His nobleness well acted, which your death
Will never let come forth.° allow to be displayed
45 CLEOPATRA Where art thou, death?
Come hither, come! Come, come, and take a queen
Worth many babes and beggars!*®
PROCULEIUS Oh, temperance, lady!
CLEOPATRA _ Sir, I will eat no meat,° I’ll not drink, sir; food
If idle talk will once be necessary?
I’ll not sleep, neither. This mortal house? I'l] ruin, My body
Do Caesar what he can. Know, sir, that I
Will not wait pinioned! at your master’s court,
Nor once be chastised with the sober eye
Of dull Octavia. Shall they hoist me up
55 And show me to the shouting varletry°® rabble
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
60 My country’s high pyramids my gibbet,° gallows
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,
65 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 Caesar I will speak what® you shall please, whatever
If you'll employ me to him.

6. TExTUAL CoMMENT For the difficulty of under- 9. (Even) if useless words are at times needed (to
standing what happens in lines 33-37, perhaps keep me awake); if | am forced to engage in pointless
because intervening material has been lost, see Digi- chatter.
tal Edition TC 7. 1. Will not serve shackled (or: will not wait like a
7. Which rids even our dogs of protracted demise. bird with clipped wings).
8. babes and beggars: death's cheapest victims; those 2. Lay their eggs on me (thereby breeding maggots)
most often “Relieved” (line 39) by the great. so that I become disgusting, abhorrent.
 ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA 5.2. # 2857

CLEOPATRA Say, I would die.

Exit PROCULEIUS [with SOLDIERS].
70 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?® custom

DOLABELLA I understand not, madam.

CLEOPATRA I dreamt there was an emperor Antony.
Oh, such another sleep, that I might see
But such another man.
DOLABELLA If it might please ye—
CLEOPATRA His face was as the heav’ns, and therein stuck°® were stuck
A sun and moon, which kept their course and lighted
The little O, th’earth.
80 DOLABELLA Most sovereign creature!
CLEOPATRA His legs bestrid® the ocean; his reared arm straddled
Crested? the world. His voice was propertied
As all the tunéd spheres,’ and that to friends.
But when he meant to quail® and shake the orb,° awe | globe
He was as rattling thunder. For his bounty,
There was no winter in't. An Antony it was,
That grew the more by reaping. His delights
Were dolphin-like; they showed his back above® they rose above
The element they lived in.? In his livery® service

Walked crowns and crownets.° Realms and islands were kings and princes
As plates® dropped from his pocket. silver coins
DOLABELLA Cleopatra—
CLEOPATRA Think you there was or might be such a man
As this I dreamt of?
DOLABELLA Gentle madam, no.
CLEOPATRA You lie up to the hearing of the gods!
But if there be, nor ever were one such,
It’s past the size of dreaming.° Nature wants stuff
To vie strange forms with fancy, yet t'imagine
An Antony were nature’s piece ’gainst fancy,
Condemning shadows quite.’
DOLABELLA Hear me, good madam.
100. Your loss is as yourself, great, and you bear it
As answering to the° weight. Would I might never Appropriately, given its
O’ertake® pursued success, but® I do feel Achieve / unless

By the rebound? of yours a grief that suits reflection

My very heart at root!
CLEOPATRA I thank you, sir.
105 Know you what Caesar means to do with me?
DOLABELLA Iam loath to tell you what I would you knew.
CLEOPATRA Nay, pray you, sir.
DOLABELLA Though he be honorable—

3. Formed a crest over (as in heraldry). 7. Nature... quite: Nature lacks material to com-
4. was... spheres: sounded like the music of the pete with the remarkable visions of the imagination
spheres, supposedly produced by the harmonious in creating fantastic forms; but by imagining and
structure of the universe. See note to 2.7.16. creating Antony, nature has produced a masterpiece
5. Just as the dolphin’s back appears above the water. _ that outstrips even fancy and thus discredits imagi-
6. My vision of him surpasses what can be dreamed. __nary conceptions.
2858 +¢ ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA 5.2

CLEOPATRA He'll lead me then in triumph?

DOLABELLA Madam, he will; I know’t.
Flourish.
Enter PROCULEIUS, CAESAR, GALLUS, MAECENAS, and
others of his train.
110 ALL° Make way there! Caesar! (Caesar's train)
CAESAR Which is the Queen of Egypt?
DOLABELLA It is the Emperor, madam.
CLEOPATRA kneels.
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, (that I obey you)
I must obey.
[She rises.]
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’th’ world, lord
I cannot project° mine own cause so well lay out
To make it clear,° but do confess I have innocent seeming
Been laden with like frailties, which before
Have often shamed our sex.
CAESAR Cleopatra, know,
We will extenuate rather than enforce.° emphasize (faults)
If you apply yourself° to our intents, conform
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 charge of cruelty
Antony’s course, you shall bereave yourself
130 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 captured shields
Hang in what place you please. Here, my good lord.
[She holds out a paper.]
CAESAR You shall advise me in all for® Cleopatra. concerning
CLEOPATRA This is the brief° of money, plate, and jewels summary
I am possessed of. ’Tis exactly valued,
Not petty things admitted.° Where’s Seleucus? Except trivial things
[Enter SELEUCUS.]
140 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 sew up

Than to my peril speak that which is not.

CLEOPATRA What have I kept back?
SELEUCUS Enough to purchase what you have made known.
CAESAR Nay, blush not, Cleopatra. I approve
Your wisdom in the deed.

8. As you may (take your leave and go) anywhere (as ruler of the world).
 ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA 5.2 2859

CLEOPATRA See, Caesar! Oh, behold,

150 How pomp is followed!? Mine® will now be yours, My followers
And should we shift estates,° yours would be mine. change positions
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
155 Go back, I warrant thee, but I’Il catch thine eyes,
Though? they had wings. Slave! Soulless villain! Even if
Dog! Oh, rarely° base! exceptionally
CAESAR Good queen, let us entreat you—
CLEOPATRA O Caesar, what 'a wounding shame is this,
That thou vouchsafing® here to visit me, stooping to come
160 Doing the honor of thy lordliness
To one so meek, that mine own servant should
Parcel® the sum of my disgraces by Particularize; add to
Addition of his envy!° Say, good Caesar, spite
That I some lady? trifles have reserved, ladylike
165 Immoment toys,° things of such dignity Worthless trinkets
As we greet modern? friends withal,° and say everyday / with
Some nobler token I have kept apart
For Livia® and Octavia to induce (Caesar's wife)
Their mediation, must I be unfolded
170 With? one that I have bred! The gods! It smites me turned in by
Beneath the fall I have. —Prithee, go hence,
Or I shall show the cinders° of my spirits smoldering coals
Through th’ashes of my chance.° Wert thou a man, fortune
Thou wouldst have mercy on me.
CAESAR Forbear, Seleucus.
[Exit SELEUCUS.|
175 CLEOPATRA Be it known that we, the greatest, are misthought® misjudged
For things that others do; and when we fall,
We answer others’ merits in our name'—
Are therefore to be pitied.
CAESAR Cleopatra,
Not what you have reserved nor what acknowledged
180 Put we i’th’ roll of conquest. Still be’t yours.
Bestow’ it at your pleasure, and believe Dispense
Caesar’s no merchant to make prize® with you haggle
Of things that merchants sold. Therefore be cheered;
Make not your thoughts your prisons.* No, dear Queen,
185 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!
CAESAR Not so. Adieu.
Flourish. Exeunt CAESAR and his train
[including DOLABELLA].
190 CLEOPATRA He words me, girls, he words me, that I should not
Be noble to myself.* But hark thee, Charmian.

9. How the great are served. 2. Don't think yourself a prisoner; don’t be impris-
1. We are responsible for the deeds committed oned by (or in) your thoughts.
by others in our names (an effort to shift the blame 3. He words... myself: He puts me off from commit-
to Seleucus). ting suicide with mere words.
 2860 # ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA 5.2

tRAS_ Finish, good lady. The bright day is done,

And we are for the dark.
CLEOPATRA [to CHARMIAN]_ Hie thee again.° Hurry back
I have spoke already, and it is provided.
Go, put it to the haste.° . Doit quickly
195 CHARMIAN Madam, I will.
Enter DOLABELLA.
DOLABELLA Where's the Queen?
CHARMIAN Behold, sir.
[Exit CHARMIAN.|
CLEOPATRA Dolabella!
DOLABELLA Madam, as thereto sworn by your command,
Which my love makes religion® to obey, compels me
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 performed
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, shall be shown
In Rome as well as I. Mechanic slaves® Laborers
With greasy aprons, rules,° and hammers shall measuring sticks
210 Uplift us to the view. In their thick® breaths, foul
Rank? of gross diet,° shall we be enclouded Stinking / coarse food
And forced to drink® their vapor. inhale
IRAS The gods forbid!
CLEOPATRA Nay, ’tis most certain, Iras. Saucy lictors® Insolent law officers
Will catch at us like strumpets, and scald° rhymers scurvy
215 Ballad us out o’tune. The quick comedians
Extemporally® will stage us and present In improvised manner
Our Alexandrian revels. Antony
Shall be brought drunken forth, and I shall see
Some squeaking Cleopatra boy? my greatness
I’th’ posture of a whore.
220 IRAS O the good gods!
CLEOPATRA Nay, that’s certain.
mRAS__ I'll never see’t! For I am sure my nails
Are stronger than mine eyes.
CLEOPATRA Why, that’s the way
To fool their preparation and to conquer
Their most absurd intents.
Enter CHARMIAN.
i Nn wi) Now, Charmian!
Show® me, my women, like a queen. Go, fetch Display
My best attires. I am again for Cydnus
To meet Mark Antony.’ Sirrah Iras, go!
Now, noble Charmian, we'll dispatch® indeed, hurry; finish

4. Cleopatra's part will be played by a boy (as it was 5. See 2.2.198—238.

in Shakespeare's day).
 ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA 5.2 ¢ 2861

230 And when thou hast done this chore, I’ll give thee leave
To play till doomsday. Bring our crown and all.
[Exit 1ras.]
A noise within.
Wherefore’s this noise?
Enter a GUARDSMAN.
GUARDSMAN Here is a rural fellow
That will not be denied your highness’ presence.
He brings you figs.
CLEOPATRA Let him come in. Exit GUARDSMAN.
235 What? poor an instrument How
May do a noble deed! He brings me liberty.
My resolution’s placed,° and I have nothing unwavering
Of woman in me. Now from head to foot
I am marble constant. Now the fleeting? moon changeable
No planet is of mine.
Enter GUARDSMAN and CLowN?® [with basket]. a rustic
240 GUARDSMAN This is the man.
CLEOPATRA Avoid,° and leave him. Exit GUARDSMAN. Withdraw
Hast thou the pretty worm? of Nilus there
That kills and pains not?
cLown Truly I have him, but I would not be the party that
245 should desire you to touch him, for his biting is immortal.’
Those that do die of it do seldom or never recover.
CLEOPATRA Remember’st thou any that have died on’t?° of it
CLOWN Very many; men and women too! I heard of one of
them no longer than yesterday—a very honest° woman, but truthful; chaste
250 something given to lie,° as a woman should not do but in the fib; lie with men
way of honesty—how she died? of the biting of it, what pain perished; had an orgasm
she felt. Truly, she makes a very good report o’th’ worm. But
he that will believe all that they say shall never be saved by
half that they do.® But this is most falliable;° the worm’s an (error for “infallible”)
255 odd worm.
CLEOPATRA Get thee hence, farewell.
CLown: I wish you all joy of the worm.
CLEOPATRA Farewell.
cLown You must think this, look you, that the worm will do
260 his kind.° what's in its nature
CLEOPATRA Ay, ay, farewell.
cLown Look you, the worm is not to be trusted but in the
keeping of wise people. For indeed, there is no goodness in
the worm.
265 CLEOPATRA ‘Take thou no care; it shall be heeded.
CLowN Very good. Give it nothing, I pray you, for it is not worth
the feeding.
CLEOPATRA Will it eat me?
CLowN You must not think I am so simple but I know the
270 devil himself will not eat a woman. I know that a woman is
a dish for the gods, if the devil dress° her not. But truly, prepare (food); clothe

6. Snake or serpent. In the Clown’s description 8. Perhaps the point is that a woman “given to lie”
(lines 244-52), the “worm” also suggests the penis. (line 250) is not to be believed. If Cleopatra acts on
7. Comic error: the Clown means the opposite, but this “good report o’th’ worm,” she will “never be saved”
as so often occurs with such malapropisms in Shake- _ (lines 252~53): she will die and, in Christian terms,
speare, the mistake reveals an unintended truth. See _will lose hope of salvation by committing suicide.
Cleopatra's “Immortal longings” (line 277).
 2862 + ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA 5.2

these same whoreson? devils do the gods great harm in their accursed
women. For in every ten that they make, the devils mar five.
CLEOPATRA Well, get thee gone. Farewell.
275 cLown Yes, forsooth. I wish you joy o’th’ worm. Exit.
[Enter 1rAs with robe and crown.|
CLEOPATRA Give me my robe; put on my crown. I have
Immortal longings in me. Now no more
The juice of Egypt’s grape shall moist this lip.
Yare,° yare, good Iras. Quick! Methinks I hear Briskly
280 Antony call. I see him rouse himself
To praise my noble act. I hear him mock
The luck of Caesar, which the gods give men
To excuse their® after wrath. Husband, I come. (the gods’)
Now to that name, my courage prove my title.
I am fire and air. My other elements
I give to baser life.? So, have you done?
Come, then, and take the last warmth of my lips.
Farewell, kind Charmian, Iras, long farewell.
[She kisses CHARMIAN and tras, who falls and dies.|
Have I the aspic® in my lips? Dost fall? asp

290 If thou and nature can so gently part,

The stroke of death is as a lover’s pinch,
Which hurts and is desired. Dost thou lie still?
If thus thou vanishest, thou tell’st the world,
It is not worth leave-taking.
295 CHARMIAN Dissolve, thick cloud, and rain, that I may say
The gods themselves do weep.
CLEOPATRA This proves me base.° ignoble
If she first meet the curléd® Antony, curly-haired
He’ll make demand of? her and spend that kiss question; (sexual)
Which is my heaven to have. Come, thou mortal wretch;? deadly creature
[She applies an asp.]
300 With thy sharp teeth this knot intrinsicate® intricate
Of life at once untie. Poor venomous fool,
Be angry and dispatch. Oh, couldst thou speak
That I might hear thee call great Caesar ass
Unpolicied.° Outsmarted
CHARMIAN O eastern star!° (Venus; Cleopatra)
CLEOPATRA Peace, peace.
305 Dost thou not see my baby at my breast,
That sucks the nurse asleep.
CHARMIAN Oh, break! Oh, break!
CLEOPATRA As sweet as balm, as soft as air, as gentle.
O Antony! Nay, I will take thee too.
[She applies another asp.]
What? should I stay— Why
[She] dies.
310 CHARMIAN In this wild world? So, fare thee well.
Now boast thee, death, in thy possession lies
A lass unparalleled. Downy windows? close, eyelids

9. lam... life: The “other elements” (line 285) are of) Egypt. By asserting that she is only “fire and air,”
earth and water, the lower and heavier elements tradi- she is claiming to be manly (as in lines 237-38) and is
tionally linked to women and thought to explain their _ also referring to the separation of the soul from the
fickleness. Cleopatra is particularly associated with body at death.
these elements through her equation with (the mud
 ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA 5.2 # 2863

And golden Phoebus never be beheld

Of eyes again so royal. Your crown’s awry.
315 Pll mend it,° and then play— set it right
Enter the GUARD rustling? in. clattering
FIRST GUARD Where's the Queen?
CHARMIAN Speak softly. Wake her not.
FIRST GUARD Caesar hath sent—
CHARMIAN Too slow a messenger.
[She applies an asp.]
Oh, come apace, dispatch. I partly feel thee.
FIRST GUARD Approach, ho! All’s not well. Caesar's beguiled.° deceived
320 SECOND GUARD There’s Dolabella sent from Caesar. Call him.
[Exit a GUARD.]
FIRST GUARD What work is here, Charmian? Is this well done?
CHARMIAN It is well done and fitting for a princess
Descended of so many royal kings.
Ah, soldier!
CHARMIAN dies.
Enter DOLABELLA.
DOLABELLA How goes it here?
SECOND GUARD All dead.
325 DOLABELLA Caesar, thy thoughts
Touch their effects° in this. Thyself art coming Are realized
To see performed the dreaded act which thou
So sought’st to hinder.
Enter CAESAR and all his train, marching.
ALL A way there, a way for Caesar!
330 DOLABELLA OO sir, you are too sure an augurer.
That° you did fear is done. What
CAESAR Bravest at the last,
She leveled at® our purposes and, being royal, discerned rightly
Took her own way. The manner of their deaths?
I do not see them bleed.
DOLABELLA Who was last with them?
FIRST GUARD A simple countryman that brought her figs.
This was his basket.
CAESAR Poisoned then.
FIRST GUARD O Caesar,
This Charmian lived but now; she stood and spake.
I found her trimming up the diadem
On her dead mistress. Tremblingly she stood,
And on the sudden dropped.
340 CAESAR Oh, noble weakness!
If they had swallowed poison, ’twould appear
By external swelling; but she looks like sleep,
As° she would catch another Antony As if
In her strong toil? of grace. snare

DOLABELLA Here on her breast

There is a vent of blood and something blown;° emitted; swollen
The like is on her arm.
FIRST GUARD This is an aspic’s trail, and these fig leaves
Have slime upon them, such as th’aspic leaves
Upon the caves of Nile.
CAESAR Most probable
That so she died, for her physician tells me
2864 +¢ ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA 5.2

She hath pursued conclusions? infinite trial outcomes

Of easy ways to die. Take up her bed,
And bear her women from the monument.
She shall be buried by her Antony.
355 No grave upon the earth shall clip® in it embrace
A pair so famous. High events as these
Strike° those that make® them, and their story is Afflict / cause
No less in pity than his glory’ which
Brought them to be lamented. Our army shall
360 In solemn show attend this funeral,
And then to Rome. Come, Dolabella, see
High order in this great solemnity.
Exeunt all[, the Guarps bearing the dead bodies).

1. their... glory: there is no less pity in their story us's great-uncle and adoptive father, this act, which
than there is glory in the exploits of Caesar. The ended the Ptolemaic dynasty, might be seen as fratri-
immodesty of these lines, in the guise ofpraise, recalls cide. See 2.2.239—40, with note, and 3.6.1—16, with
Caesar's ambiguous grief, his combination of calcula- note to line 6. By contrast, after Antony and Cleopa-
tion and sentiment, at the news of Antony’s death in tra’s deaths, the historical Octavia, over her brother
5.1. The historical Octavius Caesar went on to order Octavius’s objections, raised Antony's children by
the murder of Ptolemy XV (Caesarion), Cleopatra’s Fulvia and Cleopatra, as well as her own five children
son by Julius Caesar. Since Julius Caesar was Octavi- by Antony and a previous husband.