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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? Oh 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 it 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
Oh 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 tonight, shall be drunk to bed.
IRAS
There's a palm presages chastity, if nothing else.
CHARMIAN
Eene as the oreflowing 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.
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 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'd do it!
DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS
Hush, here comes Antony.
CHARMIAN
Not he, the queen.
[Enter CLEOPATRA]
CLEOPATRA
Save you, my lord.
DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS
No lady.
CLEOPATRA
Was he not here?
CHARMIAN
No madam.
CLEOPATRA
, ,
, ,
x
He was | disposed | to mirth,| but on | the sudden
, ,
,
A Rom|an thought | hath struck | him.
, x
Eno|barbus?
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
, 2
,
Fulvia | thy wife,
, ,
,
First came | into | the
field.
MARK ANTONY
, ,
,
Against | my broth|er Lu|cius?
MESSENGER
<-___ oo
, ,
,
Aye:| | but soon | that war | had end,
??
, ,
And the
/ time's state
, 2
, 2 ,
, ,
Made* friends | of them, join|ing their force |
against | Caesar,
, ,
, , ,
,
Whose^bet|ter is|sue in | the war | from It|aly,
, ,
, ,
Upon | the first | encount|er drave | them.
MARK ANTONY
, ,
Well,| what worst. (hex with prev)
MESSENGER
, 2 ,
, ,
,
The na|ture of bad | news in|fects the | teller.
MARK ANTONY
,
, , , ,
When it | concerns | the fool | or cow|ard: on.
,
, , ,
,
Things that | are past,| are done | with me.|
'Tis thus,
, , ,
2 T T T
Who tells | me true,| though in his | tale lie
death,
, ,
,
I hear | him as | he flat|tered.
MESSENGER
, ,
La|bienus
,
,
(This is / stiff news)
,
, 2 ,
Hath with | his parth|ian
force
,
, ,
, 2 ,
2 ->
Extend|ed As|ia: from | Euphra|tes his
con||quering
,
, , ,
, , ->
Ban|ner shook,| from Sy|ria | to Ly||dia,
, ,
, __
And to | Io|nia,| whilst--
MARK ANTONY
,
, T T
Anto|ny thou | wouldst say.
MESSENGER
T ,
Oh | my lord.
MARK ANTONY
,
,
Speak to | me home,
T T . T
, , ->
Mince not the gene|ral
tongue,|| name
,
, 2 ,
,
*Cle|opat|ra as | she is called | in Rome;
,
, 2 , ,
,
Rail thou | in Fulv|ia's phrase,| and taunt | my
faults
,
, 2 , ,
,
With such | full^li|cense, as both | truth and |
malice
x x
, 2 T
T T
Have power | to utter.| Oh then we | bring forth
weeds,
2 ,
T T T
2 , ,
When our quick | minds lie still,| and our ills |
told us
, ,
, , ,
Is as | our ear|ing: fare | thee well | awhile.
MESSENGER
,
, ,
At your | noble | pleasure. \\
[Exit]
MARK ANTONY
, , ,
T T T
From Si|cyon | how the | news? Speak there.
FIRST ATTENDANT
, ,
2
The man | from Sic|yon,
, ,
,
Is | there such | a one?
SECOND ATTENDANT
, ,
,
He stays | upon | your will.
MARK ANTONY
, ,
Let him | appear:
,
, ,
, ,
These strong | Egyp|tian fet|ters I | must break,
, ,
,
Or lose | myself | in dot|age.
[Enter another Messenger]
, ,
What | are you?
SECOND MESSENGER
, 2 ,
,
Fulvia | thy wife | is dead.
MARK ANTONY
T T T
Where died she.
SECOND MESSENGER
, 2 , ,
,
In Sic|yon, her | length of | sickness,
, ,
, ,
With what | else more | seri|ous, (tetra
with prev)
<- ,
, , ,
Im||porteth | thee to | know, this | bears.
[Gives a letter]
MARK ANTONY
,
For|bear me.
[Exit Second Messenger]
, x ,
, x
There's^a / great spirit | gone, thus / did I
| desire it:
,
, , ,
,
What our | contempts | doth^of|ten hurl | from
us,
x
, ,
, ,
We wish it | ours a|gain. The | present |
pleasure,
, ,
, 2 , ,
By rev|olu|tion low|ering, does | become
, ,
2 , ,
2 ,
The op|posite | of itself:| she's^good |
being^gone,
, ,
, ,
,
The hand | could pluck | her back,| that shoved |
her on.
, ,
, ,
,
I must | from this | enchant|ing queen |
break^off,
, ,
, , ,
Ten* thous|and harms,| more than | the ills | I
know
, 2
, ,
, 2 ,
My id|leness doth | hatch. How*| now Eno|barbus.
[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
Oh sir, you had then left unseen a wonderful piece of work, which not to
have been blessed 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 bus|iness she | hath broach|ed in | the state,
, ,
,
Cannot | endure | my ab|sence. \\
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^ans|wers:
, ,
,
Let | our of|ficers
,
, ,
, ,
Have not|ice what | we pur|pose. I | shall break
,
, , 2
, ,
The cause | of our | exped|ience to | the queen,
, ,
, ,
,
And get | her leave | to part.| For not | alone
,
, 2 , ,
, 2->
The death | of Fulv|ia, with / more urg|ent
touch||es
, ,
, x
,
Do strong|ly speak | to us:| but the / letters too
, ,
, , ,
Of ma|ny our | contriv|ing friends | in Rome,
,
, , ,
x
Peti|tion us | at home.| Sextus | Pompeius
x
, ,
, ,
Hath given | the dare | to Cae|sar, and |
commands
, , 2 ,
, 2 ,
The em|pire of the | sea. Our | slippery |
people,
,
, ,
, 2 ,
Whose^love | is nev|er linked | to the de|server,
,
, , ,
,
Till his | deserts | are past,| begin | to throw
,
, ,
, ,
Pompey | the Great,| and all | his dig|nities
,
, T T . T
x
Upon | his son,| who high in name | and power,
,
, ,
, ,
Higher | than both | in blood | and life,|
stands^up
2 ,
, , 2
, ,
For the main | soldier.| Whose^qual|ity go|ing
on,
, 2
, ,
, ,
->
The sides | of the world | may dang|er. Much | is
breed||ing,
T T
. T , ,
,
Which like the cour|ser's hair,| hath yet | but
life,
,
, x
, ,
And not | a serp|ent's poison.| Say our
| pleasure,
, , ,
, ,
To such | whose place | is und|er us,| requires
,
, ,
Our quick | remove | from hence.
DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS
, ,
I shall | do it.
[Exeunt]