More than Octavius and Mark Antony

By this vile conquest shall attain unto.

So, fare you well at once; for Brutus' tongue

Hath almost ended his life's history:

Night hangs upon mine eyes; my bones would rest,
That have but labour'd to attain this hour.

Cli. Fly, my lord, fly!

Bru.

[Alarum. Cry within; Fly, fly, fly!

Hence; I will follow.

[Exeunt CLITUS, L'ARDANIUS, and VOLUMNIUS.

I prithee, Strato, stay thou by thy lord:

Thou art a fellow of a good respect;

Thy life hath had some smatch of honour in it:

Hold then my sword, and turn away thy face,

While I do run upon it. Wilt thou, Strato?

Stra. Give me your hand first: Fare you well, my lord
Bru. Farewell, good Strato.-Cæsar, now be still:

I kill'd not thee with half so good a will.

[He runs on his sword, and dies.

Alarum. Retreat. Enter OCTAVIUS, ANTONY, MESSALA, LUCILIUS, and their Army.

Oct. What man is that?

Mes. My master's man.-Strato, where is thy master?
Stra. Free from the bondage you are in, Messala ;

The conquerors can but make a fire of him;

For Brutus only overcame himself,

And no man else hath honour by his death.

Luc. So Brutus should be found.—I thank thee, Brutus,

That thou hast prov'd Lucilius' saying true.

Oct. All that serv'd Brutus, I will entertain them.

Fellow, wilt thou bestow thy time with me?
Stra. Ay, if Messala will prefer me to you.
Oct. Do so, good Messala.

Mes.

How died my master, Strato?

Stra. I held the sword, and he did run on it.
Mes. Octavius, then take him to follow thee,

That did the latest service to my master.

Ant. This was the noblest Roman of them all:

All the conspirators, save only he,

Did that they did in envy of great Cæsar;

He only, in a general honest thought,
And common good to all, made one of them.
His life was gentle; and the elements
So mix'd in him, that Nature might stand up,
And say to all the world, 'This was a man!'

Oct. According to his virtue let us use him,
With all respect and rites of burial.
Within my tent his bones to-night shall lie,
Most like a soldier, order'd honourably.-
So, call the field to rest: and let's away,
To part the glories of this happy day.

[Exeunt.

SCENE I.--Alexandria. A Room in Cleopatra's Palace.

Enter DEMETRIUS and PHILO.

Phi. 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, reneagues all temper;

And is become the bellows, and the fan,

To cool a gipsy's lust. Look, where they come !

Flourish. Enter ANTONY and CLEOPATRA, with their
Trains; Eunuchs fanning her.

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.

Cleo. If it be love indeed, tell me how much.

Ant.

Cleo.
Ant.

There's beggary in the love that can be reckon'd.
I'll set a bourn how far to be belov'd.

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

Enter an Attendant.

Att. News, my good lord, from Rome—
Ant.

Cleo. Nay, hear them, Antony:

Grates me :-The sum,

Fulvia, perchance, is angry; Or, who knows

If the scarce-bearded Cæsar 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.'

Ant.

How, my love!

Cleo. Perchance,-nay, and most like,

You must not stay here longer, your dismission

Is come from Cæsar; therefore hear it, Antony.

Where's Fulvia's process? Cæsar's, I would say.-Both.-
Call in the messengers.-As I am Egypt's queen,
Thou blushest, Antony; and that blood of thine
Is Cæsar's homager: else so thy cheek pays shame
When shrill-tongued Fulvia scolds.-The messengers.
Ant. Let Rome in Tiber melt! and the wide arch
Of the rang'd 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,
And such a twain can do 't, in which I bind,
On pain of punishment, the world to weet
We stand up peerless.

Cleo.
Excellent falsehood!
Why did he marry Fulvia, and not love her?-
I'll seem the fool I am not; Antony

Will be himself

Ant.

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 to-night?
Cleo. Hear the ambassadors.
Ant.

Fie, wrangling queen'

Whom everything becomes, to chide, to laugh,

To weep; whose every passion fully strives
To make itself, in thee, fair and admir'd!
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 ANT. and CLEOP., with their Train. Dem. Is Cæsar with Antonius priz'd so slight? Phi. Sir, sometimes, when he is not Antony,

He comes too short of that great property
Which still should go with Antony.

Dem.

I'm 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!

SCENE II.-The same. Another Room.

[Exeunt.

Enter CHARMIAN, IRAS, ALEXAS, and a Soothsayer."

Char. Lord Alexas, sweet Alexas, most anything 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 change his horns with garlands !

Char. Is this the man?-Is 't you, sir, that know things?
Sooth. In nature's infinite book of secrecy

A little I can read.

Alex.

Show him your hand.

Enter ENOBARBUS.

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

Char. Good sir, give me good fortune.

Sooth. I make not, but foresee.

Char.

Sooth.

Char.

Pray then, foresee me one.

You shall be yet far fairer than you are.
He means in flesh.

Iras. No, you shall paint when you are old.

Char. Wrinkles forbid !

Alex. Vex not his prescience: be attentive.

Sooth. You shall be more beloving than belov'd.
Char. I had rather heat my liver with drinking.

Alex. Nay, hear him.

Char. 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 Cæsar, and companion me with my mistress.

Sooth. You shall outlive the lady whom you serve.
Char. O excellent! I love long life better than figs.
Sooth. You have seen and prov'd a fairer former fortune

Than that which is to approach.

Char. Then, belike my children shall have no names: Prithee,

how many boys and wenches must I have?

Sooth. If every of your wishes had a womb,

A fertile every wish, a million.

Char. Out, fool! I forgive thee for a witch.

Alex. You think none but your sheets are privy to your wishes.
Char.
Nay, come, tell Iras hers.

Alex. We'll know all our fortunes.

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

Iras. There's a palm presages chastity, if nothing else.
Char. Even as the o'erflowing Nilus presageth famine.
Iras. Go, you wild bedfellow, you cannot soothsay.

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

Sooth. Your fortunes are alike.

Iras. But how, but how? give me particulars.

Sooth. I have said.

Iras. Am I not an inch of fortune better than she?

Char. Well, if you were but an inch of fortune better than I, where would you choose it?

Iras. Not in my husband's nose.

Char. 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 worse 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 heart-breaking 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!

Char. Amen.

Alex. Lo, now! if it lay in their hands to make me a cuckold, they would make themselves whores but they'd do 't. Eno. Hush! here comes Antony. Char.

Not he; the queen.

Cleo. He was dispos'd to mirth; but on the sudden

A Roman thought had struck him.-Enobarbus,—

Cleo. Seek him, and bring him hither. Where's Alexas?
Alex. Here, at your service.-My lord approaches.

Enter ANTONY, with a Messenger, and Attendants.

Cleo. We will not look upon him: Go with us.

[Exeunt CLEOPATRA, ENOBARBUS, ALEXAS, IRAS,
CHARMIAN, Soothsayer, and Attendants.

Mess. Fulvia thy wife first came into the field.
Ant. Against my brother Lucius?

Mess. Ay:

But soon that war had end, and the time's state

Made friends of them, jointing their force 'gainst Cæsar;