ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA

Act 1 Scene 2

(Enter Enobarbus, a Soothsayer, Charmian, Iras, Mardian the eunuch, Alexas, and attendants)
l1l	Charmian	 Lord Alexas, sweet Alexas, most anything
l2l		Alexas, almost most absolute Alexas, where’s the
l3l		soothsayer that you praised so to th’ Queen?
l4l		O that I knew this husband, which you say
l5l		Must charge his horns with garlands!
	Alexas	Soothsayer!
l6l	Soothsayer	Your will?
l7l	Charmian	Is this the man? Is ’t you, sir, that know things?
l8l	Soothsayer	In nature’s infinite book of secrecy
l9l		A little I can read.
l10l	Alexas	(to Charmian)
		 Show him your hand.
l11l	Enobarbus	(calling)
		 Bring in the banquet quickly,
l12l		Wine enough Cleopatra’s health to drink.
		(Enter servants with food and wine, and exeunt)
l13l	Charmian	(to Soothsayer)
		 Good sir, give me good fortune.
l14l	Soothsayer	I make not, but foresee.
l15l	Charmian	Pray then, foresee me one.
	Soothsayer	You shall be yet
l16l		Far fairer than you are.
	Charmian	He means in flesh.
l17l	Iras	No, you shall paint when you are old.
	Charmian	Wrinkles forbid!
l18l	Alexas	Vex not his prescience. Be attentive.
	Charmian	Hush!
l19l	Soothsayer	You shall be more beloving than beloved.
l20l	Charmian	 I had rather heat my liver with drinking.
l21l	Alexas	Nay, hear him.
l22l	Charmian	Good now, some excellent fortune! Let me be
l23l		married to three kings in a forenoon and widow them
l24l		all. Let me have a child at fifty to whom Herod of Jewry
l25l		may do homage. Find me to marry me with Octavius
l26l		Caesar, and companion me with my mistress.
l27l	Soothsayer	 You shall outlive the lady whom you serve.
l28l	Charmian	 O, excellent! I love long life better than figs.
l29l	Soothsayer	 You have seen and proved a fairer former fortune
l30l		Than that which is to approach.
l31l	Charmian	 Then belike my children shall have no names.
l32l		Prithee, how many boys and wenches must I have?
l33l	Soothsayer	 If every of your wishes had a womb,
l34l		And fertile every wish, a million.
l35l	Charmian	 Out, fool—I forgive thee for a witch.
l36l	Alexas	You think none but your sheets are privy to your
l37l		wishes.
l38l	Charmian	(to the Soothsayer)
		 Nay, come, tell Iras hers.
l39l	Alexas	 We’ll know all our fortunes.
l40l	Enobarbus	Mine, and most of our fortunes, tonight shall
l41l		be drunk to bed.
l42l	Iras	(showing her hand to the Soothsayer)
		 There’s a palm
l43l		presages chastity, if nothing else.
l44l	Charmian	E’en as the o’erflowing Nilus presageth famine.
l45l	Iras	Go, you wild bedfellow, you cannot soothsay.
l46l	Charmian	Nay, if an oily palm be not a fruitful prognostication,
l47l		I cannot scratch mine ear.
		(To the Soothsayer)
l48l		Prithee, tell her but a workaday fortune.
l49l	Soothsayer	 Your fortunes are alike.
l50l	Iras	But how, but how? Give me particulars.
l51l	Soothsayer	I have said.
l52l	Iras	 Am I not an inch of fortune better than she?
l53l	Charmian	Well, if you were but an inch of fortune better
l54l		than I, where would you choose it?
l55l	Iras	Not in my husband’s nose.
l56l	Charmian	Our worser thoughts heavens mend! Alexas—
l57l		come, his fortune, his fortune. O, let him marry a
l58l		woman that cannot go, sweet Isis, I beseech thee, and
l59l		let her die too, and give him a worse, and let worse
l60l		follow worse till the worst of all follow him laughing
l61l		to his grave, fiftyfold a cuckold. Good Isis, hear me this
l62l		prayer, though thou deny me a matter of more weight#
l63l		good Isis, I beseech thee.
l64l	Iras	Amen, dear goddess, hear that prayer of the people.
l65l		For as it is a heart-breaking to see a handsome man
l66l		loose-wived, so it is a deadly sorrow to behold a foul
l67l		knave uncuckolded. Therefore, dear Isis, keep decorum,
l68l		and fortune him accordingly.
l69l	Charmian	Amen.
l70l	Alexas	Lo now, if it lay in their hands to make me a
l71l		cuckold, they would make themselves whores but
l72l		they’d do ’t.
		(Enter Cleopatra)
l73l	Enobarbus	 Hush, here comes Antony.
	Charmian	Not he, the Queen.
l74l	Cleopatra	Saw you my lord?
	Enobarbus	No, lady.
	Cleopatra	Was he not here?
l75l	Charmian	No, madam.
l76l	Cleopatra	He was disposed to mirth, but on the sudden
l77l		A Roman thought hath struck him. Enobarbus!
l78l	Enobarbus	Madam?
l79l	Cleopatra	Seek him, and bring him hither. Where’s Alexas?
l80l	Alexas	Here at your service. My lord approaches.
		(Enter Antony with a Messenger)
l81l	Cleopatra	 We will not look upon him. Go with us.
		( 81 Exeunt all but Antony and the Messenger)
l82l	Messenger	 Fulvia thy wife first came into the field.
l83l	Antony	Against my brother Lucius?
l84l	Messenger	Ay, but soon that war had end, and the time’s state
l85l		Made friends of them, jointing their force ’gainst Caesar,
l86l		Whose better issue in the war from Italy
l87l		Upon the first encounter drave them.
	Antony	Well, what worst?
l88l	Messenger	The nature of bad news infects the teller.
l89l	Antony	When it concerns the fool or coward. On.
l90l		Things that are past are done. With me ’tis thus:
l91l		Who tells me true, though in his tale lie death,
l92l		I hear him as he flattered.
	Messenger	Labienus—
l93l		This is stiff news—hath with his Parthian force
l94l		Extended Asia# from Euphrates
l95l		His conquering banner shook, from Syria
l96l		To Lydia and to Ionia,
l97l		Whilst—
	Antony	Antony, thou wouldst say—
	Messenger	O, my lord!
l98l	Antony	Speak to me home. Mince not the general tongue.
l99l		Name Cleopatra as she is called in Rome.
l100l		Rail thou in Fulvia’s phrase, and taunt my faults
l101l		With such full licence as both truth and malice
l102l		Have power to utter. O, then we bring forth weeds
l103l		When our quick winds lie still, and our ills told us
l104l		Is as our earing. Fare thee well a while.
l105l	Messenger	At your noble pleasure.
		(Exit Messenger)
l106l		(Enter another Messenger)
		Antony	 From Sicyon, ho, the news? Speak there.
l107l	[Second Messenger]	The man from Sicyon—
	[Antony]	Is there such a one?
l108l	[Second Messenger]	He stays upon your will.
	Antony	Let him appear.
		(Exit Second Messenger)
l109l		These strong Egyptian fetters I must break,
l110l		Or lose myself in dotage.
		(Enter another Messenger with a letter)
		 What are you?
l111l	[Third Messenger]	Fulvia thy wife is dead.
	Antony	Where died she?
l112l	Third Messenger	In Sicyon.
l113l		Her length of sickness, with what else more serious
l114l		Importeth thee to know, this bears.
		(He gives Antony the letter)
		
	Antony	 Forbear me.
		(Exit Third Messenger)
l115l		There’s a great spirit gone. Thus did I desire it.
l116l		What our contempts doth often hurl from us
l117l		We wish it ours again. The present pleasure,
l118l		By revolution low’ring, does become
l119l		The opposite of itself. She’s good being gone#
l120l		The hand could pluck her back that shoved her on.
l121l		I must from this enchanting queen break off.
l122l		Ten thousand harms more than the ills I know
l123l		My idleness doth hatch. How now, Enobarbus!
		(Enter Enobarbus)
l124l	Enobarbus	 What’s your pleasure, sir?
	Antony	I must with haste from hence.
l125l	Enobarbus	 Why, then we kill all our women. We see
l126l		how mortal an unkindness is to them# if they suffer
l127l		our departure, death’s the word.
l128l	Antony	 I must be gone.
l129l	Enobarbus	 Under a compelling occasion let women die.
l130l		It were pity to cast them away for nothing, though
l131l		between them and a great cause they should be
l132l		esteemed nothing. Cleopatra catching but the least
l133l		noise of this dies instantly. I have seen her die twenty
l134l		times upon far poorer moment. I do think there is
l135l		mettle in death, which commits some loving act upon
l136l		her, she hath such a celerity in dying.
l137l	Antony	 She is cunning past man’s thought.
l138l	Enobarbus	 Alack, sir, no. Her passions are made of
l139l		nothing but the finest part of pure love. We cannot call
l140l		her winds and waters sighs and tears# they are greater
l141l		storms and tempests than almanacs can report. This
l142l		cannot be cunning in her# if it be, she makes a shower
l143l		of rain as well as Jove.
l144l	Antony	 Would I had never seen her!
l145l	Enobarbus	 O, sir, you had then left unseen a wonderful
l146l		piece of work, which not to have been blessed withal
l147l		would have discredited your travel.
l148l	Antony	Fulvia is dead.
l149l	Enobarbus	Sir.
l150l	Antony	Fulvia is dead.
l151l	Enobarbus	Fulvia?
l152l	Antony	Dead.
l153l	Enobarbus	Why, sir, give the gods a thankful sacrifice.
l154l		When it pleaseth their deities to take the wife of a man
l155l		from him, it shows to man the tailors of the earth#
l156l		comforting therein that when old robes are worn out
l157l		there are members to make new. If there were no more
l158l		women but Fulvia, then had you indeed a cut, and the
l159l		case to be lamented. This grief is crowned with consolation#
l160l		your old smock brings forth a new petticoat, and
l161l		indeed the tears live in an onion that should water this
l162l		sorrow.
l163l	Antony	 The business she hath broachèd in the state
l164l		Cannot endure my absence.
l165l	Enobarbus	 And the business you have broached here
l166l		cannot be without you, especially that of Cleopatra’s,
l167l		which wholly depends on your abode.
l168l	Antony	 No more light answers. Let our officers
l169l		Have notice what we purpose. I shall break
l170l		The cause of our expedience to the Queen,
l171l		And get her leave to part# for not alone
l172l		The death of Fulvia, with more urgent touches,
l173l		Do strongly speak to us, but the letters too
l174l		Of many our contriving friends in Rome
l175l		Petition us at home. Sextus Pompeius
l176l		Hath given the dare to Caesar and commands
l177l		The empire of the sea. Our slippery people,
l178l		Whose love is never linked to the deserver
l179l		Till his deserts are past, begin to throw
l180l		Pompey the Great and all his dignities
l181l		Upon his son, who—high in name and power,
l182l		Higher than both in blood and life—stands up
l183l		For the main soldier# whose quality, going on,
l184l		The sides o’ th’ world may danger. Much is breeding
l185l		Which, like the courser’s hair, hath yet but life,
l186l		And not a serpent’s poison. Say our pleasure,
l187l		To such whose place is under us, requires
l188l		Our quick remove from hence.
	Enobarbus	I shall do ’t.
		(Exeunt severally)