sabato 18 gennaio 2014

WST/7/01. § 7. William Shakespeare Teatro Completo: 2°. Antony and Cleopatra: a) Act I.

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Libero adattamento per finalità autodidattiche di testi e registrazioni di pubblico dominio tratti da Librivox. Acoustical liberation of books in the public domain. Opere complete di William Shakespeare. Nostra numerazione del Brano: 7. Teatro: Antony and Cleopatra (1606). Testo derivato dal "Open Source Shakespeare e registrazione da Librivox.org. Serie: 01 Act I. Reader: Group: download oppure Internet Archive Page  su “Act 1” (1).  - Dizionari: Dicios; Sansoni. Link: The Complete Works of William Shakespeare/Antony and Cleopatra.
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§ 7.
ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA
Act I

SCENE 1. → 2. 3.



ACT I
SCENE I. Alexandria. A room in CLEOPATRA's palace.

    Enter DEMETRIUS and PHILO

PHILO

    Nay, but this dotage of our general's
    O'erflows the measure: those his goodly eyes,
    That o'er the files and musters of the war
    Have glow'd like plated Mars, now bend, now turn,
    The office and devotion of their view
    Upon a tawny front: his captain's heart,
    Which in the scuffles of great fights hath burst
    The buckles on his breast, reneges all temper,
    And is become the bellows and the fan
    To cool a gipsy's lust.

    Flourish. Enter ANTONY, CLEOPATRA, her Ladies, the Train, with Eunuchs fanning her
    Look, where they come:
    Take but good note, and you shall see in him.
    The triple pillar of the world transform'd
    Into a strumpet's fool: behold and see.

CLEOPATRA

    If it be love indeed, tell me how much.

MARK ANTONY

    There's beggary in the love that can be reckon'd.

CLEOPATRA

    I'll set a bourn how far to be beloved.

MARK ANTONY

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

    Enter an Attendant

Attendant

    News, my good lord, from Rome.

MARK ANTONY

    Grates me: the sum.

CLEOPATRA

    Nay, hear them, Antony:
    Fulvia perchance is angry; or, who knows
    If the scarce-bearded Caesar have not sent
    His powerful mandate to you, 'Do this, or this;
    Take in that kingdom, and enfranchise that;
    Perform 't, or else we damn thee.'

MARK ANTONY

    How, my love!

CLEOPATRA

    Perchance! nay, and most like:
    You must not stay here longer, your dismission
    Is come from Caesar; therefore hear it, Antony.
    Where's Fulvia's process? Caesar's I would say? both?
    Call in the messengers. As I am Egypt's queen,
    Thou blushest, Antony; and that blood of thine
    Is Caesar's homager: else so thy cheek pays shame
    When shrill-tongued Fulvia scolds. The messengers!

MARK ANTONY

    Let Rome in Tiber melt, and the wide arch
    Of the ranged empire fall! Here is my space.
    Kingdoms are clay: our dungy earth alike
    Feeds beast as man: the nobleness of life
    Is to do thus; when such a mutual pair

    Embracing
    And such a twain can do't, in which I bind,
    On pain of punishment, the world to weet
    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.

MARK ANTONY

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

CLEOPATRA

    Hear the ambassadors.

MARK ANTONY

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

    Exeunt MARK ANTONY and CLEOPATRA with their train

DEMETRIUS

    Is Caesar with Antonius prized so slight?

PHILO

    Sir, sometimes, when he is not Antony,
    He comes too short of that great property
    Which still should go with Antony.

DEMETRIUS

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

    Exeunt

SCENE II. The same. Another room.

    Enter CHARMIAN, IRAS, ALEXAS, and a Soothsayer

CHARMIAN

    Lord Alexas, sweet Alexas, most any thing Alexas,
    almost most absolute Alexas, where's the soothsayer
    that you praised so to the queen? O, that I knew
    this husband, which, you say, must charge his horns
    with garlands!

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.

ALEXAS

    Show him your hand.

    Enter DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS

DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS

    Bring in the banquet quickly; wine enough
    Cleopatra's health to drink.

CHARMIAN

    Good sir, give me good fortune.

Soothsayer

    I make not, but foresee.

CHARMIAN

    Pray, then, foresee me one.

Soothsayer

    You shall be yet far fairer than you are.

CHARMIAN

    He means in flesh.

IRAS

    No, you shall paint when you are old.

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.

ALEXAS

    Nay, hear him.

CHARMIAN

    Good now, some excellent fortune! Let me be 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 companion me with my mistress.

Soothsayer

    You shall outlive the lady whom you serve.

CHARMIAN

    O excellent! I love long life better than figs.

Soothsayer

    You have seen and proved a fairer former fortune
    Than that which is to approach.

CHARMIAN

    Then belike my children shall have no names:
    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.

ALEXAS

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

CHARMIAN

    Nay, come, tell Iras hers.

ALEXAS

    We'll know all our fortunes.

DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS

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

IRAS

    There's a palm presages chastity, if nothing else.

CHARMIAN

    E'en as the o'erflowing Nilus presageth famine.

IRAS

    Go, you wild bedfellow, you cannot soothsay.

CHARMIAN

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

Soothsayer

    Your fortunes are alike.

IRAS

    But how, but how? give me particulars.

Soothsayer

    I have said.

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?

IRAS

    Not in my husband's nose.

CHARMIAN

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

IRAS

    Amen. Dear goddess, hear that prayer of the people!
    for, as it is a heartbreaking to see a handsome man
    loose-wived, so it is a deadly sorrow to behold a
    foul knave uncuckolded: therefore, dear Isis, keep
    decorum, and fortune him accordingly!

CHARMIAN

    Amen.

ALEXAS

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

DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS

    Hush! here comes Antony.

CHARMIAN

    Not he; the queen.

    Enter CLEOPATRA

CLEOPATRA

    Saw you my lord?

DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS

    No, lady.

CLEOPATRA

    Was he not here?

CHARMIAN

    No, madam.

CLEOPATRA

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

DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS

    Madam?

CLEOPATRA

    Seek him, and bring him hither.
    Where's Alexas?

ALEXAS

    Here, at your service. My lord approaches.

CLEOPATRA

    We will not look upon him: go with us.

    Exeunt

    Enter MARK ANTONY with a Messenger and Attendants

Messenger

    Fulvia thy wife first came into the field.

MARK ANTONY

    Against my brother Lucius?

Messenger

    Ay:
    But soon that war had end, and the time's state
    Made friends of them, joining their force 'gainst Caesar;
    Whose better issue in the war, from Italy,
    Upon the first encounter, drave them.

MARK ANTONY

    Well, what worst?

Messenger

    The nature of bad news infects the teller.

MARK 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 flatter'd.

Messenger

    Labienus--
    This is stiff news--hath, with his Parthian force,
    Extended Asia from Euphrates;
    His conquering banner shook from Syria
    To Lydia and to Ionia; Whilst--

MARK ANTONY

    Antony, thou wouldst say,--

Messenger

    O, my lord!

MARK ANTONY

    Speak to me home, mince not the general tongue:
    Name Cleopatra as she is call'd in Rome;
    Rail thou in Fulvia's phrase; and taunt my faults
    With such full licence as both truth and malice
    Have power to utter. O, then we bring forth weeds,
    When our quick minds lie still; and our ills told us
    Is as our earing. Fare thee well awhile.

Messenger

    At your noble pleasure.

    Exit

MARK ANTONY

    From Sicyon, ho, the news! Speak there!

First Attendant

    The man from Sicyon,--is there such an one?

Second Attendant

    He stays upon your will.

MARK ANTONY

    Let him appear.
    These strong Egyptian fetters I must break,
    Or lose myself in dotage.

    Enter another Messenger
    What are you?

Second Messenger

    Fulvia thy wife is dead.

MARK ANTONY

    Where died she?

Second Messenger

    In Sicyon:
    Her length of sickness, with what else more serious
    Importeth thee to know, this bears.

    Gives a letter

MARK ANTONY

    Forbear me.

    Exit Second Messenger
    There's a great spirit gone! Thus did I desire it:
    What our contempt doth often hurl from us,
    We wish it ours again; the present pleasure,
    By revolution lowering, does become
    The opposite of itself: she's good, being gone;
    The hand could pluck her back that shoved her on.
    I must from this enchanting queen break off:
    Ten thousand harms, more than the ills I know,
    My idleness doth hatch. How now! Enobarbus!

    Re-enter DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS

DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS

    What's your pleasure, sir?

MARK ANTONY

    I must with haste from hence.

DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS

    Why, then, we kill all our women:
    we see how mortal an unkindness is to them;
    if they suffer our departure, death's the word.

MARK ANTONY

    I must be gone.

DOMITIUS 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: I do think there is
    mettle in death, which commits some loving act upon
    her, she hath such a celerity in dying.

MARK ANTONY

    She is cunning past man's thought.

    Exit ALEXAS

DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS

    Alack, sir, no; her passions are made of nothing but
    the finest part of pure love: we cannot call her
    winds 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.

MARK ANTONY

    Would I had never seen her.

DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS

    O, sir, you had then left unseen a wonderful piece
    of work; which not to have been blest withal would
    have discredited your travel.

MARK ANTONY

    Fulvia is dead.

DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS

    Sir?

MARK ANTONY

    Fulvia is dead.

DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS

    Fulvia!

MARK ANTONY

    Dead.

DOMITIUS 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 therein, that when old robes are worn
    out, there are members 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
    that should water this sorrow.

MARK ANTONY

    The business she hath broached in the state
    Cannot endure my absence.

DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS

    And the business you have broached here cannot be
    without you; especially that of Cleopatra's, which
    wholly depends on your abode.

MARK ANTONY

    No more light answers. Let our officers
    Have notice what we purpose. I shall break
    The cause of our expedience to the queen,
    And get her leave to part. For not alone
    The death of Fulvia, with more urgent touches,
    Do strongly speak to us; but the letters too
    Of many our contriving friends in Rome
    Petition us at home: Sextus Pompeius
    Hath given the dare to Caesar, and commands
    The empire of the sea: our slippery people,
    Whose love is never link'd to the deserver
    Till his deserts are past, begin to throw
    Pompey the Great and all his dignities
    Upon his son; who, high in name and power,
    Higher than both in blood and life, stands up
    For the main soldier: whose quality, going on,
    The sides o' the 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,
    To such whose place is under us, requires
    Our quick remove from hence.

DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS

    I shall do't.

    Exeunt

SCENE III. The same. Another room.

    Enter CLEOPATRA, CHARMIAN, IRAS, and ALEXAS

CLEOPATRA

    Where is he?

CHARMIAN

    I did not see him since.

CLEOPATRA

    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

CHARMIAN

    Madam, methinks, if you did love him dearly,
    You do not hold the method to enforce
    The like from him.

CLEOPATRA

    What should I do, I do not?

CHARMIAN

    In each thing give him way, cross him nothing.

CLEOPATRA

    Thou teachest like a fool; the way to lose him.

CHARMIAN

    Tempt him not so too far; I wish, forbear:
    In time we hate that which we often fear.
    But here comes Antony.

    Enter MARK ANTONY

CLEOPATRA

    I am sick and sullen.

MARK ANTONY

    I am sorry to give breathing to my purpose,--

CLEOPATRA

    Help me away, dear Charmian; I shall fall:
    It cannot be thus long, the sides of nature
    Will not sustain it.

MARK ANTONY

    Now, my dearest queen,--

CLEOPATRA

    Pray you, stand further from me.

MARK ANTONY

    What's the matter?

CLEOPATRA

    I know, by that same eye, there's some good news.
    What says the married woman? You may go:
    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.

MARK ANTONY

    The gods best know,--

CLEOPATRA

    O, never was there queen
    So mightily betray'd! yet at the first
    I saw the treasons planted.

MARK ANTONY

    Cleopatra,--

CLEOPATRA

    Why should I think you can be mine and true,
    Though you in swearing shake the throned gods,
    Who have been false to Fulvia? Riotous madness,
    To be entangled with those mouth-made vows,
    Which break themselves in swearing!

MARK ANTONY

    Most sweet queen,--

CLEOPATRA

    Nay, pray you, seek no colour for your going,
    But bid farewell, and go: when you sued staying,
    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.

MARK ANTONY

    How now, lady!

CLEOPATRA

    I would I had thy inches; thou shouldst know
    There were a heart in Egypt.

MARK ANTONY

    Hear me, queen:
    The strong necessity of time commands
    Our services awhile; but my full heart
    Remains in use with you. Our Italy
    Shines o'er with civil swords: Sextus Pompeius
    Makes his approaches to the port of Rome:
    Equality of two domestic powers
    Breed scrupulous faction: the hated, grown to strength,
    Are newly grown to love: the condemn'd Pompey,
    Rich in his father's honour, creeps apace,
    Into the hearts of such as have not thrived
    Upon the present state, whose numbers threaten;
    And quietness, grown sick of rest, would purge
    By any desperate change: my more particular,
    And that which most with you should safe my going,
    Is Fulvia's death.

CLEOPATRA

    Though age from folly could not give me freedom,
    It does from childishness: can Fulvia die?

MARK ANTONY

    She's dead, my queen:
    Look here, and at thy sovereign leisure read
    The garboils she awaked; at the last, best:
    See when and where she died.

CLEOPATRA

    O most false love!
    Where be the sacred vials thou shouldst fill
    With sorrowful water? Now I see, I see,
    In Fulvia's death, how mine received shall be.

MARK ANTONY

    Quarrel no more, but be prepared to know
    The purposes I bear; which are, or cease,
    As you shall give the advice. By the fire
    That quickens Nilus' slime, I go from hence
    Thy soldier, servant; making peace or war
    As thou affect'st.

CLEOPATRA

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

MARK ANTONY

    My precious queen, forbear;
    And give true evidence to his love, which stands
    An honourable trial.

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
    Of excellent dissembling; and let it look
    Life perfect honour.

MARK ANTONY

    You'll heat my blood: no more.

CLEOPATRA

    You can do better yet; but this is meetly.

MARK ANTONY

    Now, by my sword,--

CLEOPATRA

    And target. Still he mends;
    But this is not the best. Look, prithee, Charmian,
    How this Herculean Roman does become
    The carriage of his chafe.

MARK 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;
    That you know well: something it is I would,
    O, my oblivion is a very Antony,
    And I am all forgotten.

MARK ANTONY

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

CLEOPATRA

    '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 victory! and smooth success
    Be strew'd before your feet!

MARK ANTONY

    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. OCTAVIUS CAESAR's house.

    Enter OCTAVIUS CAESAR, reading a letter, LEPIDUS, and their Train

OCTAVIUS CAESAR

    You may see, Lepidus, and henceforth know,
    It is not Caesar's natural vice to hate
    Our great competitor: from Alexandria
    This is the news: he fishes, drinks, and wastes
    The lamps of night in revel; is not more man-like
    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
    A man who is the abstract of all faults
    That all men follow.

LEPIDUS

    I must not think there are
    Evils enow to darken all his goodness:
    His faults in him seem as the spots of heaven,
    More fiery by night's blackness; hereditary,
    Rather than purchased; what he cannot change,
    Than what he chooses.

OCTAVIUS CAESAR

    You are too indulgent. Let us grant, it is not
    Amiss to tumble on the bed of Ptolemy;
    To give a kingdom for a mirth; to sit
    And keep the turn of tippling with a slave;
    To reel the streets at noon, and stand the buffet
    With knaves that smell of sweat: say this
    becomes him,--
    As his composure must be rare indeed
    Whom these things cannot blemish,--yet must Antony
    No way excuse his soils, when we do bear
    So great weight in his lightness. If he fill'd
    His vacancy with his voluptuousness,
    Full surfeits, and the dryness of his bones,
    Call on him for't: but to confound such time,
    That drums him from his sport, and speaks as loud
    As his own state and ours,--'tis to be chid
    As we rate boys, who, being mature in knowledge,
    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,
    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 fear'd Caesar: to the ports
    The discontents repair, and men's reports
    Give him much wrong'd.

OCTAVIUS CAESAR

    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 loved till ne'er worth love,
    Comes dear'd by being lack'd. This common body,
    Like to a vagabond flag upon the stream,
    Goes to and back, lackeying the varying tide,
    To rot itself with motion.

Messenger

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

OCTAVIUS CAESAR

    Antony,
    Leave thy lascivious wassails. When thou once
    Wast beaten from Modena, where thou slew'st
    Hirtius and Pansa, consuls, at thy heel
    Did famine follow; whom thou fought'st against,
    Though daintily brought up, with patience more
    Than savages could suffer: thou didst drink
    The stale of horses, and the gilded puddle
    Which beasts would cough at: thy palate then did deign
    The roughest berry on the rudest hedge;
    Yea, like the stag, when snow the pasture sheets,
    The barks of trees thou browsed'st; on the Alps
    It is reported thou didst 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.

LEPIDUS

    'Tis pity of him.

OCTAVIUS CAESAR

    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.

LEPIDUS

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

OCTAVIUS CAESAR

    Till which encounter,
    It is my business too. Farewell.

LEPIDUS

    Farewell, my lord: what you shall know meantime
    Of stirs abroad, I shall beseech you, sir,
    To let me be partaker.

OCTAVIUS CAESAR

    Doubt not, sir;
    I knew it for my bond.

    Exeunt

SCENE V. Alexandria. CLEOPATRA's palace.

    Enter CLEOPATRA, CHARMIAN, IRAS, and MARDIAN

CLEOPATRA

    Charmian!

CHARMIAN

    Madam?

CLEOPATRA

    Ha, ha!
    Give me to drink mandragora.

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

    O, '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 unseminar'd, thy freer thoughts
    May not fly forth of Egypt. Hast thou affections?

MARDIAN

    Yes, gracious madam.

CLEOPATRA

    Indeed!

MARDIAN

    Not in deed, madam; for I can do nothing
    But what indeed is honest to be done:
    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?
    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 movest?
    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 Caesar,
    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
    With looking on his life.

    Enter ALEXAS, from OCTAVIUS CAESAR

ALEXAS

    Sovereign of Egypt, hail!

CLEOPATRA

    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?

ALEXAS

    Last thing he did, dear queen,
    He kiss'd,--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
    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 an arm-gaunt steed,
    Who neigh'd so high, that what I would have spoke
    Was beastly dumb'd by him.

CLEOPATRA

    What, was he sad or merry?

ALEXAS

    Like to the time o' the year between the extremes
    Of hot and cold, he was nor sad nor merry.

CLEOPATRA

    O well-divided disposition! Note him,
    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?

ALEXAS

    Ay, madam, twenty several messengers:
    Why do you send so thick?

CLEOPATRA

    Who's born that day
    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?

CHARMIAN

    O 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
    My man of men.

CHARMIAN

    By your most gracious pardon,
    I sing but after you.

CLEOPATRA

    My salad days,
    When I was green in judgment: cold in blood,
    To say as I said then! But, come, away;
    Get me ink and paper:
    He shall have every day a several greeting,
    Or I'll unpeople Egypt.

    Exeunt

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