Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Antony and Cleopatra
    Antony and Cleopatra
    Antony and Cleopatra
    Ebook168 pages1 hour

    Antony and Cleopatra

    By William Shakespeare

    3.5/5

    ()

    Switch to audiobook
    Read preview

    About this ebook

    Doomed Love-- Mark Antony has given himself over to the love of Cleopatra, ignoring his responsibilities to Rome. In his absence the city has suffered and petty squabbles have led to war. Despite wanting to stay by Cleopatra's side, Antony must return to Rome even though it spells disaster for all involved. The barge she sat in, like a burnished throne, Burned 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 person, It beggared all description.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherWilder Publications, Inc.
    Release dateJun 10, 2015
    ISBN9781627557245
    Author

    William Shakespeare

    William Shakespeare was an English poet, playwright, and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest dramatist in the English language. Shakespeare is often called England’s national poet and the “Bard of Avon.”  

    Read more from William Shakespeare

    Related to Antony and Cleopatra

    Related ebooks

    Humor & Satire For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Meet Your New Favorite Poet

      Feb 20, 2019

      Meet Your New Favorite Poet
      6 min read

    • Article

      The Devil’s Dictionary

      Jul 6, 2021

      Select entries from Ambrose Bierce’s lexicon of cynicism, bitterness, and humor, produced over a 30-year period beginning in 1881. APOLOGIZE, v.i. To lay the foundation for a future offence. BARD, n. A person who makes rhymes. The word is one of the

      4 min read

    • Article

      Three Poems by Geoffrey Hill

      Dec 15, 2018

      62. Why such irony in re the mystical context when a graph of even the most commonplace exchange would appear perplexed; when we drop out from the plainest statement in the posture of a bat? So, decide to make something of that, the style to resemble

      2 min read

    • Article

      Jan Morris

      Jun 15, 2018

      I have always rather envied the poet Ovid, who was banished from Rome by the emperor Augustus, you may remember, to a remote place called Tomis on the shores of the Black Sea. There he died, ten years later, and his exile has gone into legend and int

      17 min read

    • Article

      Bard In The Woods

      Nov 30, 2020

      Bard In The Woods
      4 min read

    • Article

      Wonderful Things

      Sep 7, 2023

      SHORTLISTED IN WM’S TUTANKHAMUN POETRY COMPETITION WERE: Guy Carter, Petersfield, Hampshire; Christine Griffin, Hucclecote, Gloucester; Sarah Das Gupta, Mamuden, Essex; Tracey Kitchen, Daventry, Northamptonshire; Lesley Mason, Norwich, Norfolk; Julie

      5 min read

    • Article

      Three Poems

      Mar 1, 2022

      What now? You’d flown infrom a Midwest city namedfor its rowdy summertimeabundance lying saying youwere coming to visit friendsin San Francisco and I had takenthe train from chilly Oaklandto meet you and we rode northcarefully not touching I took you

      3 min read

    • Article

      Cynthia Zarin

      Dec 1, 2020

      We look at the map. When we arrive in France from King’s Cross the fields are striated with barbed wire and it is raining. At the station in Lille we contented ourselves with two mediocre sandwiches from a stand and a visit through the back to Notre-

      4 min read

    • Article

      Septet as Memoir

      Apr 8, 2024

      Septet as Memoir
      6 min read

    • Article

      Seven Poems

      May 1, 2022

      Seven Poems
      2 min read

    • Article

      Great Read

      Jun 16, 2021

      Great Read
      4 min read

    • Article

      Until The Sea Closed Over Us And The Light Was Gone

      Jul 1, 2020

      —Dante, Canto XXVI But if the truth is dreamed of toward the morning—El Paso Although it was really last summer’s song,all this summer Despacito played on as slower then I turned myself to gazeupon Juarez. The summer everything hurts my eyes, a dozen

      6 min read

    • Article

      My Own Personal Herakles

      Sep 29, 2017

      My Own Personal Herakles
      20 min read

    • Article

      Body Language

      Aug 14, 2019

      Body Language
      5 min read

    • Article

      The Essay On Faith

      May 1, 2022

      exordium While sound and seaworthy, I confess a life of false confessions, false hearts, ample contempt for bench warrants charging me with failures to appear. Let what interest death’s elbow grease won’t erase compound, judgments sealed in my ova, m

      4 min read

    • Article

      Readers' Letters

      Feb 8, 2023

      Readers' Letters
      4 min read

    • Article

      FOUR POEMS for Lucie Brock-Broido

      Jul 1, 2019

      Correspondence from Madam Rachel, Purveyor of Eternal Youth, to Mister Walter Potter, Anthropomorphic Dioramist, ca. 1880 Most Splendid Immortalist: Herewith you have a letter sent by my solicitor, writtenin my final leapt year, my sliver of pound ca

      3 min read

    • Article

      The King and I

      May 31, 2023

      Our new king is a Shakespeare buff, so quite familiar with the famous line spoken by Francisco on the ramparts at Elsinore at the beginning of Hamlet: ‘For this relief, much thanks.’ This line was repeated by quite a few of us oldies lucky enough to

      3 min read

    • Article

      Art’s Reflection

      Jul 1, 2021

      Art’s Reflection
      4 min read

    • Article

      Hook, Line And Sinker

      Oct 18, 2018

      Hook, Line And Sinker
      4 min read

    • Article

      The Song Starts In My Body

      Nov 1, 2022

      I wanted to see her body. I’m aware it sounds strange, even lurid. What I wanted was to see her read her poetry, and her body reading it. Something about Rukeyser’s writing made me feel that she was at home in her flesh, and I wanted to see her lovin

      21 min read

    • Article

      Two Poems

      Jan 1, 2019

      What you called a cloud was not a cloud. I am in hell here. Hell is a partywhere I don’t sing, and don’t dance, and someone turns to me and says, “Youare a very pretty girl. Don’t ever forget that.” I spend all night tramping up and down the staircas

      2 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Antony and Cleopatra

    3.5/5

    777 ratings21 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 3/5
      I found this so-so. Both Antony and Cleopatra are portrayed as fickle individuals absorbed in their love-making to the exclusion of everything else. Cleopatra in particular is whiny and manipulative; Antony plainly gives up on all duties. The play only becomes tragic and imbued with grandeur once I allow myself to not think of these people as, well, humans but as larger-than-life figures, household names straight out of Great (Wo)Man History. I’m not sure I want to do that. The quality picks up towards the end, but the earlier acts contain some good back-and-forth banter and penis jokes.
    • 3/5
      Not my favorite of the bard's work but he really can't write poorly. I am not as fascinated by this 'epic' love story as some may be.
    • 4/5
      Shakespeare here writes about two historical characters far more famous and important that Lear or Macbeth but he doesn't treat them in a monumental tragic fashion. He instead portrays them as rather ordinary mortals: Antony, a pliable politician and unfocused warrior; Cleopatra, a passionate but insecure cougar. The most interesting scene is a on-boat banquet where the shrewd politicos of Rome persuade a young revolutionary to abandon a rebellion he is winning. The most memorable character (to me) is Enobarbus, a close, intelligent friend of Antony who betrays him when he decides he has no chance to win and then cannot live with himself.
    • 4/5
      *If you actually don't know the story of this play, just a warning, this review will probably contain some spoilers.This Shakespeare play tells the famous love story of Marcus Antonius and Cleopatra VII. Their countries, the crumbling kingdom of Egypt and the rising, powerful kingdom of Rome, are at war, and relations are hostile between them. Despite all this, Antony and Cleopatra, who should have been enemies, are in love. Caesar is beginning to take desperate measures in order to lure Antony back to his homeland, where they need him as a general.This play contained a lot of interesting motives, with the love story between enemies as the most noticeable, of course. Caesar's many efforts to direct Antony's love back to Rome were also interesting - after the man had slighted him, insulted him, and defied him so many times, Caesar remains hopeful, and continues his attempts to reclaim his best general. Besides being in need of a strong commander for his war, Caesar obviously also loves Antony. He has him marry into his family, making Antony officially family, but he clearly thought of the young man as family far before the marriage.Cleopatra was also interesting, and one of those characters who you can't quite predict (besides knowing the story beforehand, that is). She is at times hard and cool, at other times warm. Cruel and kind, angry and happy. With Antony, her mind and moods change like the wind. I wondered, exasperated at times, how he could possibly put up with her. However, Antony seems to view this as evidence of how passionate Cleopatra is, how unique, and how mysterious she is. Antony is fascinated with her, and would have been no matter what.Like many hopeless romances that cannot possibly end well, this one doesn't. The scene where Antony flees from battle to follow Cleopatra was a sad one. On one hand, his ultimate, absolute devotion to her was touching. Being a soldier and a warrior was what he had been trained to do for all his life. Undoubtedly, he dreamed of one day being a general. He knows nothing else, and he has worked for nothing else. He will have had men in his charge on other ships, probably friends, perhaps men he grew up with. Yet he leaves them, to follow Cleopatra's ship. It was a terrible choice that had tragic consequences, one that was neither right nor wrong. Though he does not regret his love for Cleopatra, Antony acknowledges after his desertion from battle that he betrayed his men and himself. Cleopatra understands his shame.A tragic romance from Shakespeare.
    • 3/5
      "Antony & Cleopatra" is definitely not one of my favorite Shakespeare plays. It is a slow starter that sort of meanders about setting the scene for several acts before getting to the meat of the story. The ending, however, is terrific.... it just takes a long while to get there.In the play, Cleopatra has fallen in love with Antony, one of the triumverate of Roman rulers. Of course, the rulers can't see to get along and end up in conflict with each other. War, destruction and death ensue.It's an interesting story but not one of Shakespeare's most entertaining, unfortunately.
    • 5/5
      Cleopatra: the fiercest, most fabulous queen in Shakespeare.
      Marc Antony: can't even commit suicide right.
    • 3/5
      Had to read the play, cause I love the history. Im not a big fan of Shakespeare, but the loved the play because of the charectors.
    • 3/5
      I've never read the play before, and it was really interesting.
    • 4/5
      Huh. I'd have put money on my having read this before, though quite a while back, but I sure don't remember finding Cleopatra so loathsome before. I've read enough histories that cover the whole Julius Caesar/Mark Antony/Cleopatra/Octavius/death by asps thing that maybe I hadn't read Shakespeare's version before. At any rate, history suggests that Cleopatra was canny, intelligent, and deliberate, but Shakespeare's Cleopatra is a silly, fickle, whining brat. Character after character tells us that she is bewitching, glorious, and desirable, but every time we meet her she is whimpering and simpering, telling silly lies to manipulate Antony, swanning around in a way that would embarrass a sensible teenager, much less a matronly queen. And Antony isn't much better. Far from taking his position in the triumvirate seriously, he tosses his responsibilities to Rome and his family there aside to frisk, puppy-like, around his Egyptian mistress. Yuck. Neither one comes off as grown-up, much less as noble figures whose tragic fates we should find regrettable. And yet...Despite the characters' manifold flaws, the play is deeply compelling. Somehow both Antony and Cleopatra, for all their foolish choices and pettinesses, transcend all and appear, in the end, to be outsize, even archetypal figures. Their bad decisions, which so many other people must pay for, somehow end with a sort of grandeur and mythic feel that, logically, the details don't support. They are so convinced of the earth shattering significance of their lives that they convince us it is so. Having turned these historical figures into melodramatic children Shakespeare uses his art to transform them further into great tragic lovers.Part of my extreme distaste for Cleopatra may be thanks to the very excellent Arkangel recording of the play that I listened to along with my reading of the Arden Shakespeare edition. Estelle Kohler, who plays Cleopatra, doesn't hold back anything in her emotional performance. All the weeping, whining, wheedling, and cattiness is going full throttle. The asp could have showed up in, say, Act 2, and Antony could have settled down with Octavia, who seemed a nice, sensible sort of woman, and things would have been much simpler. But that wouldn't have made much of a story, would it? Marjorie Garber's wonderful essay, in her “Shakespeare After All,” helped me appreciate the play, though she couldn't make the main characters any less annoying. Highly recommended.
    • 4/5
      We had a free-choice play for my Shakespeare class, so I thought this would be a good one because Cleopatra is a great character. I also attempted to make a beaded headpiece to wear during my presentation, which didn't entirely work. The play is long and goes all over the place, but it's one of the greatest romances of all time, and worth reading.
    • 4/5
      This is truly a play of epic proportions, moving from the centre of Rome to her periphery, including places such as Egypt and the borders of Parthia. It is one of Shakespeare's later works, and the skill in which he brings so much together onto the stage simply goes to show how skillful he was at producing historical drama. Now, some scholars like to argue that Shakespeare could not have been responsible for so many plays of such high quality, however I personally find such research and argument to be quite useless. In the end, I tend to, and have always tended to, lean towards the mythological than the scientific, and while it may be the case that Shakespeare was not responsible for the plays, I personally see no benefit in such argument and speculation.One of the things that I struggle with these plays is that they can be difficult to follow at times with the poetical language of the 17th Century and the difficulties in determining which character is who (which in some cases involves flipping back to the dramatis personae). I have also been watching the series Rome, and the characters of Mark Antony and Cleopatra seem to invade my mind from that show making it a little difficult differentiating Shakespeare's characters. The Mark Antony of the TV series is a much more brutal and despotic character than is Shakespeare's. However, we must remember two things, and they are that Shakespeare is not attempting to give us an insight into the culture and lifestyles of Ancient Romans, while Bruno Heller is not trying to produce, or even rewrite Shakespeare. In fact it is very clear that Heller, in his TV series, is giving Shakespeare a very wide berth.I find the topics of Shakespeare's plays quite interesting though because I have noted that Shakespeare seems to steer clear of writing any plays based upon biblical stories, even tragedies (and there are many stories in the bible that a skillful playwright could transform into a tragedy of Shakespearian proportions), but rather he seems to lean much closer to the secular world of Ancient Rome. Further, he does not seem to go to rewrite the ancient tragedies, even those of Seneca (Shakespeare did not know Greek therefore he only had access to Greek texts that had been translated, such as Plutarch's Lives). Even then, Shakespeare only borrowed three stories from Plutarch's Lives, that being Coriolanus, Julius Ceaser, and Mark Antony (even though Julius Ceaser is the tragedy of Brutus).I am almost inclined to suggest that if it was not for this play or for Julius Ceaser, that the characters of Ceaser, Brutus, Antony, and Cleopatra, would probably not be as dominant in our culture as they are. In a way, Shakespeare took one of the defining periods of Roman History, namely the period in which the republic collapsed and was replaced by the empire, and placed them onto the stage. Whether this play is supposed to be a 'sequal' to Julius Ceaser is difficult to determine, though it is interesting to note that Bernard Shaw later wrote a third play, Ceaser and Cleopatra, to turn this into a trilogy.The background of these events is when Ceaser Augustus defeated his enemies and ascended to the throne as the first emperor of Rome. However, it is also interesting that after this we have another great shift in European history: we shift from the west, back to the east, to the birth, life, and death, of the messiah - Jesus Christ. However, this is not mentioned in the play, though there are some hints to the appearance of Herod the Great.It is difficult to tell whether there is truly a fatal flaw in Mark Antony, and it is also difficult to determine whether Cleopatra actually loved him. Her trick at the end of the play, where she feigns death, and as a result Antony kills himself, is not the action of somebody in love, even chivalrous love. In a way she has been testing Antony's love throughout the play, but whether she loved him, or simply lusted after him, is difficult to tell. Many of us like to see this as a love story, but to me, it is not. It is a story about a man who let himself become possessed by a wiry woman which in turn brought about his downfall. Remember two things about Egypt of this period: it was not a part of Rome, rather it was a protectorate, and secondly Cleopatra considered herself a god. While she was subservient to Rome, she still did not recognise Rome as her ruler. As such, by sinking her claws into Antony proved a way of enabling her to shift the balance of power back to her.It is interesting that Shakespeare uses the serpent as the means of her death. It is almost as if the serpent is submitting herself to a serpent. She wrapped her coils around Antony and enchanted him, and in doing so set his downfall in motion (remembering that this is not the Mark Antony that is portrayed elsewhere). Ceaser tries everything to break her spell, including marrying him to his sister, but he fails. In the middle of an important battle with the pirates that are preventing wheat shipments from reaching Rome, Antony deserts and travels to Egypt. In Egypt he finds that his soldiers are deserting him, and even though he wins the first battle, he makes a tactical error, by fighting at sea instead of land, and as a result he is defeated.However, it is interesting that Ceaser does not condemn or punish him for his crimes. It appears that Ceaser understands that it was Cleopatra's whiles that dragged him to this point and has his body carried off in honour and leaves his legacy intact. However Cleopatra, recognising that her life of luxury and as a queen of Egypt is over instead of going into slavery she poisons herself. We hear her speak of being a slave and of watching plays where she is turned into a whore and mocked on stage. It is not her position that leads her to her death, but her legacy. However, this is not the legacy that has come down to us because we, today, know of Cleopatra as the beautiful queen of Egypt.
    • 4/5
      I didn't like Antony and Cleopatra very much at the beginning -- but then, it always seems to take about an act for me to get into the swing of a Shakespeare play. It helps with Julius Caesar and Antony and Cleopatra that I'm familiar with the history it's based on. It took me a while to warm to the characters of Antony and Cleopatra, though, but for all that there's something very human about the way Cleopatra reacts to Antony -- now this, now that -- and how he responds to her.

      There are, of course, some beautiful speeches and descriptions here: I was nudged into reading this by reading a reference just yesterday to Cleopatra burning upon the water. I don't think I've seen this one as often quoted as I have the other Shakespeare plays I've been reading lately, though...
    • 4/5
      Despite its length and myriads of scene changes and characters to keep track of, I really enjoyed this play. I feel like it's not performed often enough on the Shakepeare circuits, but that helps to keep it fresh for me when I read it. The Folger edition contains footnotes to explain some of the archaic language and references, which is extremely helpful when reading.
    • 3/5
      The classical tragic romance.
      I found Cleopatra a little annoying but overall enjoyed this doomed tale.
    • 3/5
      Although a classic story, the characters came across to me as very mono-dimensional. I didn't really care about any of them. Antony just seemed whipped and Cleo didn't seem to have anything to inspire his devotion. Too melodramatic without much substance.
    • 3/5
      I know it's anathema for an English major, but this play was ho hum to me. Probably the et tu Brute....
    • 3/5
      Why do men do what they do when they're totally in love with women? Read this to find out...or at least dwell on it. Maybe we'll never come to a conclusion.
    • 4/5
      First reading of this play. For me it is definitely a play of two halves. The first three acts felt rather tedious and the dialogue unmemorable. But the fourth act, divided into no less than 13 scenes, mostly very short, contained the famous meat of the drama. Act 5 scene 2 also served as a dramatic conclusion.
    • 3/5
      Read on my Kindle as part of Shakespeare's "The Complete Works".While the plot of this tragedy had plenty of action, somehow it just didn't work for me. I don't know if it was the language, my mood, or reading it instead of watching a performance... I'll have to try this one again sometime
    • 3/5
      I do like the bit where Antony gives a grandiose speech, stabs himself, and then is mortified with annoyed surprise at the fact that he's still alive afterward.
    • 4/5
      I didn't like it as much as Shakespeare's other plays, probably because, for some reason, I had a harder time understanding it and it took me most of the first half of the play to really get into it. The very last scene is definitely my favorite, and I wish the rest of the play was that good.Cleopatra is probably one of my favorite female Shakespeare characters, though, along with her maids.

    Book preview

    Antony and Cleopatra - William Shakespeare

    ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA

    by William Shakespeare

    Wilder Publications, Inc.

    Copyright © 2014

    All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever.

    10   9   8   7   6   5   4   3   2   1

    ISBN 978-1-62755-724-5

    Table of Contents

    DRAMATIS PERSONAE

    ACT I

    ACT I. SCENE I. Alexandria. CLEOPATRA’S palace

    ACT I. SCENE II. Alexandria. CLEOPATRA’S palace

    ACT I. SCENE III. Alexandria. CLEOPATRA’S palace

    ACT I. SCENE IV. Rome. CAESAR’S house

    ACT I. SCENE V. Alexandria. CLEOPATRA’S palace

    ACT II

    ACT II. SCENE I. Messina. POMPEY’S house

    ACT II. SCENE II. Rome. The house of LEPIDUS

    ACT II. SCENE III. Rome. CAESAR’S house

    ACT II. SCENE IV. Rome. A street

    ACT II. SCENE V. Alexandria. CLEOPATRA’S palace

    ACT II. SCENE VI. Near Misenum

    ACT II. SCENE VII. On board POMPEY’S galley, off Misenum

    ACT III

    ACT III. SCENE I. A plain in Syria

    ACT III. SCENE II. Rome. CAESAR’S house

    ACT III. SCENE III. Alexandria. CLEOPATRA’S palace

    ACT III. SCENE IV. Athens. ANTONY’S house

    ACT III. SCENE V. Athens. ANTONY’S house

    ACT III. SCENE VI. Rome. CAESAR’S house

    ACT III. SCENE VII. ANTONY’S camp near Actium

    ACT III. SCENE VIII. A plain near Actium

    ACT III. SCENE IX. Another part of the plain

    ACT III. SCENE X. Another part of the plain

    ACT III. SCENE XI. Alexandria. CLEOPATRA’S palace

    ACT III. SCENE XII. CAESAR’S camp in Egypt

    ACT III. SCENE XIII. Alexandria. CLEOPATRA’S palace

    ACT IV

    ACT IV. SCENE I. CAESAR’S camp before Alexandria

    ACT IV. SCENE II. Alexandria. CLEOPATRA’s palace

    ACT IV. SCENE III. Alexandria. Before CLEOPATRA’s palace

    ACT IV. SCENE IV. Alexandria. CLEOPATRA’s palace

    ACT IV. SCENE V. Alexandria. ANTONY’S camp

    ACT IV. SCENE VI. Alexandria. CAESAR’S camp

    ACT IV. SCENE VII. Field of battle between the camps

    ACT IV. SCENE VIII. Under the walls of Alexandria

    ACT IV. SCENE IX. CAESAR’S camp

    ACT IV. SCENE X. Between the two camps

    ACT IV. SCENE XI. Between the camps

    ACT IV. SCENE XII. A hill near Alexandria

    ACT IV. SCENE XIII. Alexandria. CLEOPATRA’s palace

    ACT IV. SCENE XIV. CLEOPATRA’S palace

    ACT IV. SCENE XV. Alexandria. A monument

    ACT V

    ACT V. SCENE I. Alexandria. CAESAR’S camp

    ACT V. SCENE II. Alexandria. The monument

    DRAMATIS PERSONAE

    MARK ANTONY, Triumvirs

    OCTAVIUS CAESAR, "

    M. AEMILIUS LEPIDUS, "

    SEXTUS POMPEIUS, "

    DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS, friend to Antony

    VENTIDIUS, friend to Antony

    EROS, friend to Antony

    SCARUS, friend to Antony

    DERCETAS, friend to Antony

    DEMETRIUS, friend to Antony

    PHILO, friend to Antony

    MAECENAS, friend to Caesar

    AGRIPPA, friend to Caesar

    DOLABELLA, friend to Caesar

    PROCULEIUS, friend to Caesar

    THYREUS, friend to Caesar

    GALLUS, friend to Caesar

    MENAS, friend to Pompey

    MENECRATES, friend to Pompey

    VARRIUS, friend to Pompey

    TAURUS, Lieutenant—General to Caesar

    CANIDIUS, Lieutenant—General to Antony

    SILIUS, an Officer in Ventidius’s army

    EUPHRONIUS, an Ambassador from Antony to Caesar

    ALEXAS, attendant on Cleopatra

    MARDIAN, attendant on Cleopatra

    SELEUCUS, attendant on Cleopatra

    DIOMEDES, attendant on Cleopatra

    A SOOTHSAYER

    A CLOWN

    CLEOPATRA, Queen of Egypt

    OCTAVIA, sister to Caesar and wife to Antony

    CHARMIAN, lady attending on Cleopatra

    IRAS lady attending on Cleopatra

    Officers, Soldiers, Messengers, and Attendants

    SCENE: The Roman Empire

    ACT I

    ACT I. SCENE I. Alexandria. 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.

    ANTONY: There’s beggary in the love that can be reckon’d.

    CLEOPATRA: I’ll set a bourn how far to be belov’d.

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

    Enter a MESSENGER

    MESSENGER: News, my good lord, from Rome.

    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 pow’rful mandate to you: ‘Do this or this;

    Take in that kingdom and enfranchise that;

    Perform’t, or else we damn thee.’

    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—tongu’d Fulvia scolds. The messengers!

    ANTONY: 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 [emhracing], 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.

    CLEOPATRA: Excellent falsehood!

    Why did he marry Fulvia, and not love her?

    I’ll seem the fool I am not. Antony

    Will be himself.

    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 to—night?

    CLEOPATRA: Hear the ambassadors.

    ANTONY: 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 ANTONY and CLEOPATRA, with the train

    MESSENGER: Is Caesar with Antonius priz’d so slight?

    PHILO: Sir, sometimes when he is not Antony,

    He comes too short of that great property

    Which still should go with Antony.

    MESSENGER: 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

    ACT I. SCENE II. Alexandria. CLEOPATRA’S palace

    Enter CHARMIAN, IRAS, ALEXAS, and a SOOTHSAYER

    CHARMIAN: Lord Alexas, sweet Alexas, most anything Alexas, almost

    most absolute Alexas, where’s the soothsayer that you prais’d so

    to th’ 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 ENOBARBUS

    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 prov’d a fairer

    Enjoying the preview?
    Page 1 of 1