Antony and Cleopatra (20 page)

Exeunt,
bearing of
Antony’s body

Location: Caesar’s camp outside Alexandria
  

Enter Caesar, Agrippa, Dolabella, Maecenas
, [
Gallus, Proculeius
]
, with his Council of War

CAESAR
    Go to him, Dolabella, bid him yield.
        Being so
frustrate
²
, tell him he
mocks
        The
pauses
³
that he makes.

DOLABELLA
    Caesar, I shall.
[
Exit
]

Enter Dercetus with the sword of Antony

CAESAR
    Wherefore is that? And what art thou that dar’st
        Appear
thus
⁶
to us?

DERCETUS
    I am called Dercetus:
        Mark Antony I served, who best was worthy
        Best to be served: whilst he stood up and spoke
        He was my master, and I
wore my life
        To spend upon his haters
¹⁰
. If thou please
        To take me to thee, as I was to him
        I’ll be to Caesar: if thou pleasest not,
        I yield thee up my life.

CAESAR
    What is’t thou say’st?

DERCETUS
    I say — O Caesar — Antony is dead.

CAESAR
    The
breaking
¹⁷
of so great a thing should make
        A greater
crack
¹⁸
. The round world
        Should have shook lions into
civil
¹⁹
streets
        And citizens to
their dens
²⁰
. The death of Antony
        Is not a
single doom
²¹
: in the name lay
        A
moiety
²²
of the world.

DERCETUS
    He is dead, Caesar,
        Not by a public minister of justice,
        Nor by a hirèd knife, but that
self
²⁵
hand
        Which writ his honour in the acts it did
        Hath, with the courage which the heart did lend it,
        Splitted the heart. This is his sword:
        I robbed his wound of it. Behold it stained
        With his most noble blood.

Shows sword

CAESAR
    Look you, sad friends.
Points to the sword
        The gods rebuke me, but it is tidings
        To wash the eyes of kings.

AGRIPPA
    And strange it is
        That nature must compel us to lament
        Our most
persisted
³⁶
deeds.

MAECENAS
    His taints and honours
waged equal with
³⁷
him.

AGRIPPA
    A rarer spirit never
        Did
steer humanity
³⁹
: but you gods will give us
        Some faults to make us men. Caesar is touched.

MAECENAS
    When such a spacious mirror’s set before him,
        He needs must see himself.

CAESAR
    O Antony,
        I have followed thee to this, but we do
launch
⁴⁴
        Diseases in our bodies. I must perforce
        Have
shown
⁴⁶
to thee such a declining day
        Or look on thine: we could not
stall
⁴⁷
together
        In the whole world. But yet let me lament,
        With tears as
sovereign as the blood of hearts
⁴⁹
        That thou my brother, my
competitor
⁵⁰
        In
top of all design
⁵¹
, my mate in empire,
        Friend and companion in the
front
⁵²
of war,
        The arm of mine own body, and the
heart
        Where mine his thoughts did kindle
⁵³
, that our
stars,
        Unreconciliable
⁵⁴
, should
divide
        Our equalness to this
⁵⁵
.—Hear me, good friends —
        But I will tell you at some
meeter season
⁵⁷
:
        The business of this man
looks out of him
⁵⁸
:
        We’ll hear him what he says.—

Enter an Egyptian

                Whence are you?

EGYPTIAN
    A poor Egyptian
yet
⁶⁰
, the queen my mistress,
        Confined in all she has, her monument,
        Of thy
intents
⁶²
desires instruction,
        That she preparedly may
frame herself
⁶³
        To th’way she’s forced to.

CAESAR
    Bid her have good heart.
        She soon shall know of us,
by some of ours
⁶⁶
,
        How honourable and how kindly we
        Determine for her. For Caesar cannot
lean
⁶⁸
        To be
ungentle
⁶⁹
.

EGYPTIAN
    So the gods preserve thee!
Exit

CAESAR
    Come hither, Proculeius. Go and say
        We
purpose
⁷²
her no shame: give her what comforts
        The
quality of her passion
⁷³
shall require,
        Lest, in her greatness, by some mortal stroke
        She do defeat us. For
her life in Rome
        Would be eternal in our triumph
⁷⁵
. Go,
        And
with your speediest
⁷⁷
bring us what she says
        And how you find
of her
⁷⁸
.

PROCULEIUS
    Caesar, I shall.
Exit Proculeius

CAESAR
    Gallus, go you along.—
[
Exit Gallus
]

                Where’s Dolabella
        To second Proculeius?

ALL
    Dolabella!

CAESAR
    Let him alone, for I remember now
        How he’s employed: he shall in time be ready.
        Go with me to my tent, where you shall see
        How
hardly
⁸⁶
I was drawn into this war,
        How calm and gentle I proceeded
still
⁸⁷
        In all my
writings
⁸⁸
. Go with me and see
        What I can show in this.
Exeunt

Location: inside Cleopatra’s monument, Alexandria
  

Enter Cleopatra, Charmian, Iras and Mardian

CLEOPATRA
    My
desolation
¹
does begin to make
        A
better life
²
: ’tis paltry to be Caesar:
        Not being Fortune, he’s but Fortune’s
knave
³
,
        A minister of her will: and it is great
        To do
that thing
⁵
that ends all other deeds,
        Which
shackles accidents and bolts up change
⁶
,
        Which sleeps, and never
palates
⁷
more the
dung
,
        The
beggar’s nurse and Caesar’s
⁸
.

Enter Proculeius

PROCULEIUS
    Caesar sends greeting to the Queen of Egypt,
        And bids thee
study on
¹⁰
what
fair
demands
        
Thou mean’st
¹¹
to have him grant thee.

CLEOPATRA
    What’s thy name?

PROCULEIUS
    My name is Proculeius.

CLEOPATRA
    Antony
        Did tell me of you, bade me trust you, but
        
I do not greatly care to be deceived
        That have no use for trusting
¹⁶
. If your master
        Would have a queen his beggar, you must tell him
        That majesty, to keep decorum, must
        No less beg than a kingdom: if he please
        To give me conquered Egypt for my son,
        He gives me so much of mine own as I
        Will kneel to him with thanks.

PROCULEIUS
    Be of good cheer:
        You’re fall’n into a princely hand, fear nothing.
    
Make your full reference
²⁶
freely to my lord,
        Who is so full of
grace
²⁷
that it flows over
        On all that need. Let me report to him
        Your
sweet dependency
²⁹
, and you shall find
        A conqueror that will
pray in aid
³⁰
for kindness
        Where he for grace is kneeled to.

CLEOPATRA
    Pray you, tell him
        I am his fortune’s
vassal
³³
and I
send him
        The greatness he has got
. I hourly learn
        A
doctrine
³⁵
of obedience, and would gladly
        Look him i’th’face.

PROCULEIUS
    This I’ll report, dear lady.
        Have comfort, for I know your plight is pitied
        Of him that caused it.—

[
Enter Gallus and Roman Soldiers
]

    You see how easily she may be
surprised
⁴⁰
:
To the Soldiers
        Guard her till Caesar come.
[
Exit Gallus and Soldiers
]

IRAS
    Royal queen!

CHARMIAN
    O Cleopatra, thou art taken, queen!

CLEOPATRA
    Quick, quick, good hands!
Draws a dagger

PROCULEIUS
    Hold, worthy lady, hold!
Disarms her
        Do not yourself such wrong, who are in this
        
Relieved
⁴⁷
, but not betrayed.

CLEOPATRA
    What, of death too,
        That rids our dogs of anguish?

PROCULEIUS
    Cleopatra,
        Do not abuse my master’s bounty by
        Th’undoing of yourself: let the world see
        His nobleness well acted, which your death
        Will never
let come forth
⁵⁴
.

CLEOPATRA
    Where art thou, death?
        Come hither, come! Come, come, and take a queen
        Worthy many babes and beggars!

PROCULEIUS
    O, temperance, lady!

CLEOPATRA
    Sir, I will eat no
meat
⁵⁹
, I’ll not drink, sir:
        If
idle talk will once be necessary
⁶⁰
,
        I’ll not sleep neither. This
mortal house
⁶¹
I’ll ruin,
        Do Caesar what he can. Know, sir, that I
        Will not wait
pinioned
⁶³
at your master’s court,
        Nor once be chastised with the sober eye
        Of dull Octavia. Shall they hoist me up
        And show me to the shouting
varletry
⁶⁶
        Of
censuring
⁶⁷
Rome? Rather a ditch in Egypt.
        Be gentle grave unto me! Rather on Nilus’ mud
        Lay me stark naked, and let the water-flies
        
Blow me into abhorring
⁷⁰
! Rather
make
        My country’s high
pyramids
⁷¹
my gibbet
        And hang me up in chains!

PROCULEIUS
    You do
extend
⁷³
        These thoughts of horror further than you shall
        Find cause in Caesar.

Enter Dolabella

DOLABELLA
    Proculeius,
        What thou hast done thy master Caesar knows,
        And he hath sent
for
⁷⁸
thee. For the queen,
        I’ll take her to my guard.

To Cleopatra

PROCULEIUS
    So, Dolabella,
        It shall content me best: be gentle to her.—
        To Caesar I will speak what you shall please,
        If you’ll employ me to him.

Exit Proculeius
[
with Gallus and Soldiers
]

CLEOPATRA
    Say I would die.

DOLABELLA
    Most noble empress, you have heard of me?

CLEOPATRA
    I cannot tell.

DOLABELLA
    Assuredly you know me.

CLEOPATRA
    No matter, sir, what I have heard or known.
        You laugh when boys or women tell their dreams:
        Is’t not your
trick
⁹⁰
?

DOLABELLA
    I understand not, madam.

CLEOPATRA
    I dreamt there was an Emperor Antony:
        O, such another sleep, that I might see
        But such another man!

DOLABELLA
    If it might please ye—

CLEOPATRA
    His face was as the heavens, and therein
stuck
⁹⁶
        A sun and moon which kept their course and lighted
        The
little
⁹⁸
o’th’earth.

DOLABELLA
    Most sovereign creature—

CLEOPATRA
    His legs
bestrid
¹⁰⁰
the ocean, his
reared
arm
        
Crested
¹⁰¹
the world: his voice was
propertied
        As all the tunèd spheres, and that
to friends
¹⁰²
:
        But when he meant to
quail
¹⁰³
and shake the
orb
,
        He was as rattling thunder.
For
¹⁰⁴
his bounty,
        There was no winter in’t: an autumn it was
        That grew the more by reaping. His
delights
        Were dolphin-like: they showed his back above
        The element they lived in
¹⁰⁶
. In his
livery
¹⁰⁸
        Walked
crowns and crownets
¹⁰⁹
, realms and islands were
        As
plates
¹¹⁰
dropped from his pocket.