Antony and Cleopatra | Page 6

I wish, forbear;
In time
we hate that which we often fear.
But here comes Antony.
[Enter ANTONY.]
CLEOPATRA.
I am sick and sullen.
ANTONY.
I am sorry to give breathing to my purpose,--
CLEOPATRA.
Help me away, dear Charmian; I shall fall;
It
cannot be thus long, the sides of nature
Will not sustain it.
ANTONY.
Now, my dearest queen,--
CLEOPATRA.
Pray you, stand farther from me.
ANTONY.
What's the matter?
CLEOPATRA.
I know by that same eye there's some good news.

What says the married woman?--You may go.
Would she had never
given you leave to come!
Let her not say 'tis I that keep you here,--

I have no power upon you; hers you are.
ANTONY.
The gods best know,--
CLEOPATRA.
O, never was there queen
So mightily betray'd!
Yet at the first
I saw the treasons planted.
ANTONY.
Cleopatra,--
CLEOPATRA.
Why should I think you can be mine and true,

Though you in swearing shake the throned gods,
Who have been false
to Fulvia? Riotous madness,
To be entangled with those mouth-made
vows,
Which break themselves in swearing!
ANTONY.
Most sweet queen,--

CLEOPATRA.
Nay, pray you, seek no colour for your going,
But
bid farewell, and go: when you su'd staying,
Then was the time for
words: no going then;--
Eternity was in our lips and eyes,
Bliss in
our brows' bent; none our parts so poor
But was a race of heaven:
they are so still,
Or thou, the greatest soldier of the world,
Art turn'd
the greatest liar.
ANTONY.
How now, lady!
CLEOPATRA.
I would I had thy inches; thou shouldst know

There were a heart in Egypt.
ANTONY.
Hear me, queen:
The strong necessity of time
commands
Our services awhile; but my full heart
Remains in use
with you. Our Italy
Shines o'er with civil swords: Sextus Pompeius

Makes his approaches to the port of Rome;
Equality of two domestic
powers
Breed scrupulous faction: the hated, grown to strength,
Are
newly grown to love: the condemn'd Pompey,
Rich in his father's
honour, creeps apace
Into the hearts of such as have not thriv'd

Upon the present state, whose numbers threaten;
And quietness,
grown sick of rest, would purge
By any desperate change. My more
particular,
And that which most with you should safe my going,
Is
Fulvia's death.
CLEOPATRA.
Though age from folly could not give me freedom,

It does from childishness:--can Fulvia die?
ANTONY.
She's dead, my queen.
Look here, and, at thy sovereign
leisure, read
The garboils she awak'd;at the last, best.
See when and
where she died.
CLEOPATRA.
O most false love!
Where be the sacred vials thou
shouldst fill
With sorrowful water? Now I see, I see,
In Fulvia's
death how mine receiv'd shall be.

ANTONY.
Quarrel no more, but be prepar'd to know
The purposes
I bear; which are, or cease,
As you shall give theadvice. By the fire

That quickens Nilus' slime, I go from hence
Thy soldier, servant,
making peace or war
As thou affect'st.
CLEOPATRA.
Cut my lace, Charmian, come;--
But let it be: I am
quickly ill and well,
So Antony loves.
ANTONY.
My precious queen, forbear;
And give true evidence to
his love, which stands
An honourable trial.
CLEOPATRA.
So Fulvia told me.
I pr'ythee, turn aside and weep
for her;
Then bid adieu to me, and say the tears
Belong to Egypt:
good now, play one scene
Of excellent dissembling; and let it look

Like perfect honour.
ANTONY.
You'll heat my blood: no more.
CLEOPATRA.
You can do better yet; but this is meetly.
ANTONY.
Now, by my sword,--
CLEOPATRA.
And target.--Still he mends;
But this is not the
best:--look, pr'ythee, Charmian,
How this Herculean Roman does
become
The carriage of his chafe.
ANTONY.
I'll leave you, lady.
CLEOPATRA.
Courteous lord, one word.
Sir, you and I must
part,--but that's not it;
Sir, you and I have lov'd,--but there's not it;

That you know well: something it is I would,--
O, my oblivion is a
very Antony,
And I am all forgotten.
ANTONY.
But that your royalty
Holds idleness your subject, I
should take you
For idleness itself.

CLEOPATRA.
'Tis sweating labour
To bear such idleness so near
the heart
As Cleopatra this. But, sir, forgive me;
Since my
becomings kill me, when they do not
Eye well to you: your honour
calls you hence;
Therefore be deaf to my unpitied folly,
And all the
gods go with you! upon your sword
Sit laurel victory! and smooth
success
Be strew'd before your feet!
ANTONY.
Let us go. Come;
Our separation so abides, and flies,

That thou, residing here, goes yet with me,
And I, hence fleeting, here
remain with thee.
Away!
[Exeunt.]
SCENE IV. Rome. An Apartment in CAESAR'S House.
[Enter OCTAVIUS CAESAR, LEPIDUS, and Attendants.]
CAESAR.
You may see, Lepidus, and henceforth know,
It is not
Caesar's natural vice to hate
Our great competitor. From Alexandria

This is the news:--he fishes, drinks, and wastes
The lamps of night
in revel: is not more manlike
Than Cleopatra;, nor the queen of
Ptolemy
More womanly than he: hardly gave audience, or

Vouchsaf'd to think he had partners: you shall find there
A man who
is the abstract of all faults
That all men follow.
LEPIDUS.
I must not think there are
Evils enow to darken all his
goodness:
His faults in him seem as the spots of heaven,
More fiery
by night's blackness; hereditary
Rather than purchas'd; what he
cannot change
Than what he chooses.
CAESAR.
You are too indulgent. Let's grant it is not
Amiss to
tumble on the bed of Ptolemy;
To give a kingdom