Complete Plays, The (165 page)

Mark Antony

I’ll fight at sea.

Cleopatra

I have sixty sails, Caesar none better.

Mark Antony

Our overplus of shipping will we burn;
And, with the rest full-mann’d, from the head of Actium
Beat the approaching Caesar. But if we fail,
We then can do’t at land.

Enter a Messenger

Thy business?

Messenger

The news is true, my lord; he is descried;
Caesar has taken Toryne.

Mark Antony

Can he be there in person? ’tis impossible;
Strange that power should be. Canidius,
Our nineteen legions thou shalt hold by land,
And our twelve thousand horse. We’ll to our ship:
Away, my Thetis!

Enter a Soldier

How now, worthy soldier?

Soldier

O noble emperor, do not fight by sea;
Trust not to rotten planks: do you misdoubt
This sword and these my wounds? Let the Egyptians
And the Phoenicians go a-ducking; we
Have used to conquer, standing on the earth,
And fighting foot to foot.

Mark Antony

Well, well: away!

Exeunt Mark Antony, Queen Cleopatra, and Domitius Enobarbus

Soldier

By Hercules, I think I am i’ the right.

Canidius

Soldier, thou art: but his whole action grows
Not in the power on’t: so our leader’s led,
And we are women’s men.

Soldier

You keep by land
The legions and the horse whole, do you not?

Canidius

Marcus Octavius, Marcus Justeius,
Publicola, and Caelius, are for sea:
But we keep whole by land. This speed of Caesar’s
Carries beyond belief.

Soldier

While he was yet in Rome,
His power went out in such distractions as
Beguiled all spies.

Canidius

Who’s his lieutenant, hear you?

Soldier

They say, one Taurus.

Canidius

Well I know the man.

Enter a Messenger

Messenger

The emperor calls Canidius.

Canidius

With news the time’s with labour, and throes forth,
Each minute, some.

Exeunt

S
CENE
VIII. A
PLAIN
NEAR
A
CTIUM
.

Enter Octavius Caesar, and Taurus, with his army, marching

Octavius Caesar

Taurus!

Taurus

My lord?

Octavius Caesar

Strike not by land; keep whole: provoke not battle,
Till we have done at sea. Do not exceed
The prescript of this scroll: our fortune lies
Upon this jump.

Exeunt

S
CENE
IX. A
NOTHER
PART
OF
THE
PLAIN
.

Enter Mark Antony and Domitius Enobarbus

Mark Antony

Set we our squadrons on yond side o’ the hill,
In eye of Caesar’s battle; from which place
We may the number of the ships behold,
And so proceed accordingly.

Exeunt

S
CENE
X. A
NOTHER
PART
OF
THE
PLAIN
.

Canidius marcheth with his land army one way over the stage; and Taurus, the lieutenant of Octavius Caesar, the other way. After their going in, is heard the noise of a sea-fight

Alarum. Enter Domitius Enobarbus

Domitius Enobarbus

Naught, naught all, naught! I can behold no longer:
The Antoniad, the Egyptian admiral,
With all their sixty, fly and turn the rudder:
To see’t mine eyes are blasted.

Enter Scarus

Scarus

Gods and goddesses,
All the whole synod of them!

Domitius Enobarbus

What’s thy passion!

Scarus

The greater cantle of the world is lost
With very ignorance; we have kiss’d away
Kingdoms and provinces.

Domitius Enobarbus

How appears the fight?

Scarus

On our side like the token’d pestilence,
Where death is sure. Yon ribaudred nag of Egypt,—
Whom leprosy o’ertake!— i’ the midst o’ the fight,
When vantage like a pair of twins appear’d,
Both as the same, or rather ours the elder,
The breese upon her, like a cow in June,
Hoists sails and flies.

Domitius Enobarbus

That I beheld:
Mine eyes did sicken at the sight, and could not
Endure a further view.

Scarus

She once being loof’d,
The noble ruin of her magic, Antony,
Claps on his sea-wing, and, like a doting mallard,
Leaving the fight in height, flies after her:
I never saw an action of such shame;
Experience, manhood, honour, ne’er before
Did violate so itself.

Domitius Enobarbus

Alack, alack!

Enter Canidius

Canidius

Our fortune on the sea is out of breath,
And sinks most lamentably. Had our general
Been what he knew himself, it had gone well:
O, he has given example for our flight,
Most grossly, by his own!

Domitius Enobarbus

Ay, are you thereabouts?
Why, then, good night indeed.

Canidius

Toward Peloponnesus are they fled.

Scarus

’Tis easy to’t; and there I will attend
What further comes.

Canidius

To Caesar will I render
My legions and my horse: six kings already
Show me the way of yielding.

Domitius Enobarbus

I’ll yet follow
The wounded chance of Antony, though my reason
Sits in the wind against me.

Exeunt

S
CENE
XI. A
LEXANDRIA
. C
LEOPATRA
’
S
PALACE
.

Enter Mark Antony with Attendants

Mark Antony

Hark! the land bids me tread no more upon’t;
It is ashamed to bear me! Friends, come hither:
I am so lated in the world, that I
Have lost my way for ever: I have a ship
Laden with gold; take that, divide it; fly,
And make your peace with Caesar.

All

Fly! not we.

Mark Antony

I have fled myself; and have instructed cowards
To run and show their shoulders. Friends, be gone;
I have myself resolved upon a course
Which has no need of you; be gone:
My treasure’s in the harbour, take it. O,
I follow’d that I blush to look upon:
My very hairs do mutiny; for the white
Reprove the brown for rashness, and they them
For fear and doting. Friends, be gone: you shall
Have letters from me to some friends that will
Sweep your way for you. Pray you, look not sad,
Nor make replies of loathness: take the hint
Which my despair proclaims; let that be left
Which leaves itself: to the sea-side straightway:
I will possess you of that ship and treasure.
Leave me, I pray, a little: pray you now:
Nay, do so; for, indeed, I have lost command,
Therefore I pray you: I’ll see you by and by.

Sits down

Enter Cleopatra led by Charmian and Iras; Eros following

Eros

Nay, gentle madam, to him, comfort him.

Iras

Do, most dear queen.

Charmian

Do! why: what else?

Cleopatra

Let me sit down. O Juno!

Mark Antony

No, no, no, no, no.

Eros

See you here, sir?

Mark Antony

O fie, fie, fie!

Charmian

Madam!

Iras

Madam, O good empress!

Eros

Sir, sir,—

Mark Antony

Yes, my lord, yes; he at Philippi kept
His sword e’en like a dancer; while I struck
The lean and wrinkled Cassius; and ’twas I
That the mad Brutus ended: he alone
Dealt on lieutenantry, and no practise had
In the brave squares of war: yet now — No matter.

Cleopatra

Ah, stand by.

Eros

The queen, my lord, the queen.

Iras

Go to him, madam, speak to him:
He is unqualitied with very shame.

Cleopatra

Well then, sustain him: O!

Eros

Most noble sir, arise; the queen approaches:
Her head’s declined, and death will seize her, but
Your comfort makes the rescue.

Mark Antony

I have offended reputation,
A most unnoble swerving.

Eros

Sir, the queen.

Mark Antony

O, whither hast thou led me, Egypt? See,
How I convey my shame out of thine eyes
By looking back what I have left behind
’stroy’d in dishonour.

Cleopatra

O my lord, my lord,
Forgive my fearful sails! I little thought
You would have follow’d.

Mark Antony

Egypt, thou knew’st too well
My heart was to thy rudder tied by the strings,
And thou shouldst tow me after: o’er my spirit
Thy full supremacy thou knew’st, and that
Thy beck might from the bidding of the gods
Command me.

Cleopatra

 
O, my pardon!

Mark Antony

Now I must
To the young man send humble treaties, dodge
And palter in the shifts of lowness; who
With half the bulk o’ the world play’d as I pleased,
Making and marring fortunes. You did know
How much you were my conqueror; and that
My sword, made weak by my affection, would
Obey it on all cause.

Cleopatra

Pardon, pardon!

Mark Antony

Fall not a tear, I say; one of them rates
All that is won and lost: give me a kiss;
Even this repays me. We sent our schoolmaster;
Is he come back? Love, I am full of lead.
Some wine, within there, and our viands! Fortune knows
We scorn her most when most she offers blows.

Exeunt

S
CENE
XII. E
GYPT
. O
CTAVIUS
C
AESAR
’
S
CAMP
.

Enter Octavius Caesar, Dolabella, Thyreus, with others

Octavius Caesar

Let him appear that’s come from Antony.
Know you him?

Dolabella

 
Caesar, ’tis his schoolmaster:
An argument that he is pluck’d, when hither
He sends so poor a pinion off his wing,
Which had superfluous kings for messengers
Not many moons gone by.

Enter Euphronius, ambassador from Mark Antony

Octavius Caesar

Approach, and speak.

Euphronius

Such as I am, I come from Antony:
I was of late as petty to his ends
As is the morn-dew on the myrtle-leaf
To his grand sea.

Octavius Caesar

 
Be’t so: declare thine office.

Euphronius

Lord of his fortunes he salutes thee, and
Requires to live in Egypt: which not granted,
He lessens his requests; and to thee sues
To let him breathe between the heavens and earth,
A private man in Athens: this for him.
Next, Cleopatra does confess thy greatness;
Submits her to thy might; and of thee craves
The circle of the Ptolemies for her heirs,
Now hazarded to thy grace.

Octavius Caesar

For Antony,
I have no ears to his request. The queen
Of audience nor desire shall fail, so she
From Egypt drive her all-disgraced friend,
Or take his life there: this if she perform,
She shall not sue unheard. So to them both.

Euphronius

Fortune pursue thee!

Octavius Caesar

Bring him through the bands.

Exit Euphronius

To Thyreus

From Antony win Cleopatra: promise,
And in our name, what she requires; add more,
From thine invention, offers: women are not
In their best fortunes strong; but want will perjure
The ne’er touch’d vestal: try thy cunning, Thyreus;
Make thine own edict for thy pains, which we
Will answer as a law.

Thyreus

Caesar, I go.

Octavius Caesar

Observe how Antony becomes his flaw,
And what thou think’st his very action speaks
In every power that moves.

Thyreus

Caesar, I shall.

Exeunt

S
CENE
XIII. A
LEXANDRIA
. C
LEOPATRA
’
S
PALACE
.

Enter Cleopatra, Domitius Enobarbus, Charmian, and Iras

Cleopatra

What shall we do, Enobarbus?

Domitius Enobarbus

Think, and die.

Cleopatra

Is Antony or we in fault for this?

Domitius Enobarbus

Antony only, that would make his will
Lord of his reason. What though you fled
From that great face of war, whose several ranges
Frighted each other? why should he follow?
The itch of his affection should not then
Have nick’d his captainship; at such a point,
When half to half the world opposed, he being
The meered question: ’twas a shame no less
Than was his loss, to course your flying flags,
And leave his navy gazing.