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Cleo. See where he is, who's with him, what he does :

I did not send you; -If you find him sad,
Say, I am dancing; if in mirth, report
That I am sudden sick : Quick, and return.
[Exit ALEXAS.
Char. Madam, methinks, if you did love him
dearly,

You do not hold the method to enforce
The like from him.

Cleo. What should I do, I do not?
Char. In each thing give him way,
in nothing.

cross him Cleo. Thou teachest like a fool the way to lose him.

:

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and true,

Though you in swearing shake the thronged gods, Who have been false to Fulvia? Riotous madness,

To be entangled with those mouth-made vows, Which break themselves in swearing!

Ant. Most sweet queen,

Cleo. Nay, pray you, seek no colour for your going, [ing, But bid farewell, and go: when you sued stay. Then was the time for words: No going then ;Eternity was in our lips, and eyes;

Bliss in our brows' bent; none our parts so poor,
But was a race ‡ of heaven :-They are so still,
Or thou the greatest soldier of the world,
Art turn'd the greatest liar.

Ant. How now, lady!

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Cleo. Though age from folly could not give me freedom,

It does from childishness :-Can Fulvia die 1 +
Ant. She's dead, my queen :

Look here, and, at thy sovereign leisure, read
The garboils she awak'd ; at the last, best :
See, when and where she died.

Cleo. O most false love 1

Where be the sacred vials thou should'st fill
With sorrowful water? Now I see, I see,
In Fulvia's death, how mine receiv'd shall be.
Ant. Quarrel no more, but be prepar'd to know
The purposes I bear; which are, or cease,
As you shall give the advice: Now, by the fire
That quickens Nilus' slime, I go from hence,
Thy soldier, servant; making peace, or war,
As thou affect'st.

Cleo. Cut my lace, Charmian, come ;-
But let it be.-I am quickly ill and well;
So Antony loves.

Ant. My precious queen, forbear;

And give true evidence to his love, which stands An honourable trial.

Cleo. So Fulvia told me.

I pr'ythee turn aside, and weep for her;
Then bid adieu to me, and say the tears
Belong to Egypt: Good now, play one scene
Of excellent dissembling; and let it look
Like perfect honour.

Ant. You'll heat my blood; no more.

Cleo. You can do better yet; but this is meetly. Ant. Now, by my sword,

Cleo. And target,-Still he mends;

But this is not the best: Look, pr'ythee, Charmian,

How this Herculean Roman does become
The carriage of his chafe.

Ant. I'll leave, you, lady.

Cleo. Courteous lord, one word.

Sir, you and I must part,-but that's not it:
Sir, you and I have lov'd,—but there's not it;
That you know well: Something it is I would,-
Oh! my oblivion is a very Antony,
And I am all forgotten.

Ant. But that your royalty

Holds idleness your subject, I should take you For idleness itself.

Cleo. 'Tis sweating labour,

To bear such idleness so near the heart
As Cleopatra this. But, Sir, forgive me;
Since my becomings kill me, when they do not
Eye well to you: Your honour calls you hence;
Therefore be deaf to my unpitied folly,
And all the gods go with you! upon your sword
Sit laurel'd victory! and smooth success
Be strew'd before your feet!

Ant. Let us go. Come:

Our separation so abides, and flies,
That thou, residing here, go'st yet with me,
And I, hence fleeting, here remain with thee.
Away.
[Exeunt.
SCENE IV.-Rome.-An apartment in
CESAR'S House.

Enter OCTAVIUS CESAR, LEPIDUS, and Atten

dants.

Ces. You may see, Lepidus, and henceforth know,

It is not Cesar's natural vice to hate

One great competitor : from Alexandria

Render my going agreeable. Can Fulvia be deac ? The commotion she occasioned. Obliv ous memory. Associate or partner.

This is the news-He fishes, drinks, and wastes

Yea, like the stag, when snow the pasture sheets, The lamps of night in revel: is not more man-The barks of trees thou browsed'st; on the Alps like

Than Cleopatra; nor the queen Ptolemy
More womanly than he hardly gave audience, or
Vouchsaf'd to think he had partners: You shall
find there

A man, who is the abstract of all faults
That all men follow.

Lep. I must not think there are
Evils enough to darken all his goodness:

His faults, in him, seem as the spots of heaven,
More fiery by night's blackness; hereditary,
Rather than purchas'd what he cannot change,
Than what he chooses.

Ces. You are too indulgent: let us grant, it is

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every hour,

Most noble Cesar, shalt thou have report
How 'tis abroad. Pompey is strong at sea;
And, it appears, he is belov'd of those
That only have fear'd Cesar: to the ports
The discontents || repair, and men's reports
Give him much wrong'd.

Ces. I should have known no less :-
It hath been taught us from the primal state,
That he, which is, was wish'd, until he were ;
And the ebb'd man, ne'er lov'd, till ne'er worth
love
[body,
Comes dear'd, by being lack'd. ¶ This common
Like a vagaboud flag upon the stream,
Goes to, and back, lackeying the varying tide,
To rot itself with motion.

Mess. Cesar, I bring thee word, Menecrates and Menas, famous pirates,

Make the sea serve them: which they ear ** and wound

With keels of every kind: Many hot inroads
They make in Italy; the borders maritime
Lack blood to think on't, and flush

revolt:

youth

No vessel can peep forth, but 'tis as soon
Taken as seen; for Pompey's name strikes more
Than could his war resisted.

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It is reported, thou did'st eat strange flesh,
Which some did die to look on: And all this,
(It wounds thine honour, that I speak it now,)
Was borne so like a soldier, that thy cheek
So much as lank'd not.

Lep. It is pity of him.

Ces. Let his shames quickly

Drive him to Rome: 'Tis time we twain
Did show ourselves i'the field; and, to that end,
Assemble we immediate council: Pompey
Thrives in our idleness.

Lep. To-morrow, Cesar,

I shall be furnish'd to inform you rightly
Both what by sea and land I can be able,
To 'front this present time.

Ces. Till which encounter,

It is my business too. Farewell.

Lep. Farewell, my lord: What you shall know mean time

of stirs abroad, I shall beseech you, Sir, To let me be partaker.

Ces. Doubt not, Sir;

I knew it for my bond.⚫

[Exeunt.

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Cleo. O Charmian,

Where think'st thou he is now? Stands he, or sits be?

Or does he walk? or is he on his horse?

O happy horse, to bear the weight of Antony
Do bravely, horse for wot'st thou whom thou
mov'st?

The demi-Atlas of this earth, the arm
And burgonet $ of men.-He's speaking now,
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,
And wrinkled deep in time?
Broad-fronted

Cesar,

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 aspéct, and die
With looking on his life.

Enter ALEXAS.
Alex. Sovereign of Egypt, bail!

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Cleo. How much unlike art thou Mark Antony!

Yet, coming from him, that great medicine hath
With his tinct gilded thee.-

How goes it with my brave Mark Antony ?
Alex. Last thing he did, dear queen,
He kiss'd, the last of many doubled kisses,-
This orient pearl.-His speech sticks in my heart.
Cleo. Mine ear must pluck it thence.
Alex. Good friend, quoth he,

Say, the firm Roman to great Egypt sends
This treasure of an oyster; at whose foot
To mend the petty present, I will piece
Her opulent throne with kingdoms; All the
east,

Say thou, shall call her mistress. So he nodded,
And soberly did mount a termagant * steed,
Who neigh'd so high, that what I would have spoke
Was beastly dumb'd by hin.

Cleo. What, was he sad, or merry?

Men. Cesar and Lepidus

Are in the field; a mighty strength they carry Pom. Where have you this? 'tis false.

Men. From Silvius, Sir.

Pom. He dreams: I know they are in Rome

together,

Looking for Antony: But all charms of love,
Salt Cleopatra, soften thy wan'd⚫ lip!
Let witchcraft join with beauty, lust with both
Tie up the libertine in a field of feasts,
Keep his brain fuming; Epicurean cooks,
Sharpen with cloyless sauce his appetite;
That sleep and feeding may prorogue his honour,
Even till a Lethe'd dullness !-How now, Var-
rius ?

Enter VARRIUS.

Var. This is most certain that I shall deliver :
Mark Antony is every hour in Rome
Expected; since he went from Egypt, 'tis

Alex. Like to the time o'the year between the A space for further travel.

extremes

Of hot and cold; he was nor sad, nor merry.

Pom. I could have given less matter A better ear.-Menas, I did not think

Cleo. O well-divided disposition !-Note him,This amorous surfeiter would have don'd his 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 seem'd to tell them, his remembrance lay
In Egypt with his joy: but between both:
O heavenly mingle; Be'st thou sad, or merry,
The violence of either thee becomes;

So does it no man else.-Met'st thou my posts?
Alex. Ay, madam, twenty several messengers:
Why do you send so thick?

Cleo. Who's born that day

When I forget to send to Antony,

For such a petty war: his soldiership
Is twice the other twain: But let us rear
The higher our opinion, that our stirring
Can from the lap of Egypt's widow pluck
The ne'er lust-wearied Antony.
Men. I cannot hope,

[helm

Cesar and Antony shall well greet together:
His wife, that's dead, did trespasses to Cesar;
His brother warr'd upon him; although, I think,
Not mov'd by Antony.

Pom. I know not, Menas,

How lesser enmities may give way to greater.
Were't not that we stand up against them all,

Shall die a beggar.-Ink and paper, Charmian.-'Twere pregnant they should square between Welcome, my good Alexas.-Did I, Charinian,

Ever love Cesar so?

Char. O that brave Cesar!

themselves;

For they have entertained cause enough

To draw their swords; but how the fear of us

Cleo. Be chok'd with such another emphasis! May cement their divisions, and bind up

Say, the brave Antony.

Char. The valiant Cesar!

Cleo. By Isis, I will give thee bloody teeth,

If thou with Cesar paragon again

My man of men.

Char. By your most gracious pardon,

I sing but after you.

Cleo. My sallad days,

When I was green in judgment :-cold in blood,
To say as I said then!-But, coine, away:
Get me ink and paper: he shall have every day
A several greeting, or I'll unpeople Egypt.

ACT II.

[Exeunt.

The petty difference, we yet not know.
Be it as our gods will have it! It only stands
Our lives upon, to use our strongest hands.
Come, Menas.

[Exeunt.

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To answer like himself: if Cesar move him,
Let Antony look over Cesar's head,
And speak as loud as Mars. By Jupiter,
Were I the wearer of Antonius' beard,

SCENE I.-Messina.-A Room in POMPEY's I would not shave to-day.

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It not concern'd me.

Ant. My being in Egypt, Cesar,

What was't to you?

Ces. No more than my residing here at Rome Might be to you in Egypt: Yet, if you there Did practise on my state, your being in Egypt Might be my question.

Ant. How intend you, practis'd?

Ces. You may be pleas'd to catch at mine intent, [ther, By what did here befal me. Your wife, and broMade wars upon me; and their contestation Was theme for you, you were the word of war. Ant. You do mistake your business; my brother never

Did urge me in his act: I did enquire it;
And have my learning from some true reports, §
That drew their swords with you. Did he ot
rather

Discredit my authority with yours;
And make the wars alike against my stomach,
Having alike your cause? Of this, my letters
Before did satisfy you. If you'll patch a quarrel,
As matter whole you have not to make it with,
It must not be with this.

Ces. You praise yourself

By laying defects of judgment to me; but
You patch'd up your excuses.

Ant. Not so, not so;

I know you could not lack, I am certain on't
Very necessity of this thought, that I,

Your partner in the cause 'gainst which he fought,

Could not with grateful eyes attend those wars Which 'fronted mine own peace. As for my

wife,

I would you had her spirit in such another : The third o'the world is yours; which, with a snaffle T

You may pace easy, but not such a wife. Eno. 'Would we had all such wives, that the men might go to wars with the women!

Ant. So much incurable, her garboils, Cesar, Made out of her impatience, (which not wanted Shrewdness of policy too,) I grieving grant, Did you too much disquiet: for that, you must But say, I could not help it.

Ces. I wrote to you,

When rioting in Alexandria: you

Did pocket up my letters, and with taunts
Did gibe my missive ** out of audience.
Ant. Sir,

He fell upon me, ere admitted; then

Three kings I had newly feasted, and did want

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And then, when poison'd hours had bound me up
From mine own knowledge. As nearly as I may,
I'll play the penitent to you: but mine honesty
Shall not make poor my greatness, nor my power
Work without it: Truth is, that Fulvia,

To have me out of Egypt, made wars here;
For which myself, the ignorant motive, do
So far ask pardon, as befits mine honour
To stoop in such a case.

Lep. 'Tis nobly spoken.

Mec. If it might please you to enforce no

further

The griefs + between ye, to forget them quite,
Were to remember that the present need
Speaks to atone you.

Lep. Worthily spoke, Mecænas.

Eno. Or, if you borrow one another's love for the instant, you may, when you hear no more words of Pompey, return it again: you shall have time to wrangle in, when you have nothing else to do.

Ant. Thou art a soldier only; speak no more. Eno. That truth should be silent, I had almost forgot.

Ant. You wrong this presence, therefore speak

no more.

Eno. Go to then; your considerate stone. Ces. I do not much dislike the matter, but The manner of his speech: for it cannot be, We shall remain in friendship, our conditions So differing in their acts. Yet, if I knew What hoop should hold us staunch, from edge to edge

O'the world I would pursue it.

Agr. Give me leave, Cesar,-
Ces. Speak, Agrippa.

Agr. Thou hast a sister by the mother's side,
Admir'd Octavia: great Mark Antony
Is now a widower.

Ces. Say not so, Agrippa;

If Cleopatra heard you, your reproof
Were well deserv'd of rashness.

Ant. I am not married, Cesar: let me hear Agrippa further speak.

Agr. To hold you in perpetual amity, To make you brothers, and to kuit your hearts With an unslipping knot, take Antony Octavia to his wife: whose beauty claims No worse a husband than the best of men! Whose virtue, and whose general graces, speak That which none else can utter. By this mar

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Ant. Will Cesar speak?

Ces. Not till he hears how Antony is touch ð With what is spoke already.

Ant. What power is in Agrippa,

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'Would we had spoke together! Haste we for it: Yet, ere we put ourselves in arms, despatch we The business we have talk'd of.

Ces. With most gladness;

And do invite you to my sister's view,
Whither straight I will lead you.

Ant. Let us, Lepidus,

Not lack your company.

Lep. Noble Antony,

Not sickness should detain me.

And what they undid, did,

Agr. Oh, rare for Antony!

Eno. Her gentlewomen, like the Nereides, So many mermaids, tended her i'the eyes, And made their bends adornings: at the helm A seeming Mermaid steers; the silken tackle Swell with the touches of those flower-soft hands That yarely frame the office. From the barge A strange invisible pérfume hits the sense Of the adjacent wharfs. The city cast Her people out upon her; and Antony, Enthron'd in the market-place, did sit alone, Whistling to the air; which, but for vacancy, Had gone to gaze on Cleopatra too, And made a gap in nature.

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Where most she satisfies. For vilest things
Become themselves in her; that the holy priests
Bless her, when she's riggish.

Mec. If beauty, wisdom, modesty, can settle

[Flourish. Exeunt CESAR, ANTONY, and The heart of Antony, Octavia is

LEPIDUS.

Mec. Welcome from Egypt, Sir.

Eno. Half the heart of Cesar, worthy Mecanas! my honourable friend, Agrippa!Agr. Good Enobarbus !

Mec. We have cause to be glad that matters are so well digested. You staid well by it in Egypt.

Eno. Ay, Sir; we did sleep day out of countenance, and made the night light with drinking.

Mec. Eight wild boars roasted whole at a breakfast, and but twelve persons there. Is this true?

Eno. This was but as a fly by an eagle: we had much more monstrous matter of feast, which worthily deserved noting.

Mec. She's a most triumphant lady, if report be square to her.

Eno. When she first met Mark Antony, she pursed up his heart upon the river of Cyduus.

A blessed lottery to him,

Agr. Let us go.

Good Enobarbus, make yourself my guest, Whilst you abide here.

Eno. Humbly, Sir, I thank you,

[Exeunt.

SCENE III.-The same.-A Room in CESAR'S

House.

Enter CESAR, ANTONY, OCTAVIA between them ; ATTENDANTS, and a SoотHSAYER.

Ant. The world, and my great office, will sometimes

Divide me from your bosom.
Octa. All which time,
Before the gods my knee shall bow my prayers
To them for you.

Ant. Good night, Sir.-My Octavia,
Read not my blemishes in the world's report:
I have not kept my square; but that to come

Agr. There she appear'd indeed; or my re-Shall all be done by the rule. Good night, dear porter devised well for her.

Eno. I will tell you:

The barge she sat in, like a burnish'd throne, Burn'd on the water: the poop was beaten gold; Purple the sails, and so perfumed, that

The winds were love-sick 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 per-

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lady.

Octa. Good night, Sir. Ces. Good night.

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