Antony and Cleopatra | Page 4

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 their Train.]
DEMETRIUS.
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.
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. Alexandria. Another Room in 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 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 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 former fortune

Than that which is to approach.
CHARMIAN.
Then belike my children shall have no
names:--pr'ythee, 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.
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.--Pr'ythee, tell her but 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 worse follow worse, till the worst of all follow him laughing to
his grave, fiftyfold 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't!
ENOBARBUS.
Hush! Here comes Antony.
CHARMIAN.
Not he; the queen.
[Enter CLEOPATRA.]
CLEOPATRA.
Saw you my lord?
ENOBARBUS.
No, lady.
CLEOPATRA.
Was he not here?
CHARMIAN.
No, madam.
CLEOPATRA.
He was dispos'd to mirth; but on the sudden
A

Roman thought hath struck him.--Enobarbus,--
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 CLEOPATRA, ENOBARBUS, CHAR., IRAS, ALEX., and

Soothsayer.]
[Enter ANTONY, with a MESSENGER and Attendants.]
MESSENGER.
Fulvia thy wife first came into the field.
ANTONY.
Against my brother Lucius.
MESSENGER.
Ay:
But soon that war had end, and the time's state

Made friends of them, jointing their force 'gainst Caesar;
Whose
better issue in the war, from Italy
Upon the first encounter, drave
them.
ANTONY.
Well, what worst?
MESSENGER.
The nature of bad news infects the teller.
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