Complete Plays, The (168 page)

To Scarus

Give me thy hand

Enter Cleopatra, attended

To this great fairy I’ll commend thy acts,
Make her thanks bless thee.

To Cleopatra

O thou day o’ the world,
Chain mine arm’d neck; leap thou, attire and all,
Through proof of harness to my heart, and there
Ride on the pants triumphing!

Cleopatra

Lord of lords!
O infinite virtue, comest thou smiling from
The world’s great snare uncaught?

Mark Antony

My nightingale,
We have beat them to their beds. What, girl! though grey
Do something mingle with our younger brown, yet ha’ we
A brain that nourishes our nerves, and can
Get goal for goal of youth. Behold this man;
Commend unto his lips thy favouring hand:
Kiss it, my warrior: he hath fought to-day
As if a god, in hate of mankind, had
Destroy’d in such a shape.

Cleopatra

I’ll give thee, friend,
An armour all of gold; it was a king’s.

Mark Antony

He has deserved it, were it carbuncled
Like holy Phoebus’ car. Give me thy hand:
Through Alexandria make a jolly march;
Bear our hack’d targets like the men that owe them:
Had our great palace the capacity
To camp this host, we all would sup together,
And drink carouses to the next day’s fate,
Which promises royal peril. Trumpeters,
With brazen din blast you the city’s ear;
Make mingle with rattling tabourines;
That heaven and earth may strike their sounds together,
Applauding our approach.

Exeunt

S
CENE
IX. O
CTAVIUS
C
AESAR
’
S
CAMP
.

Sentinels at their post

First Soldier

If we be not relieved within this hour,
We must return to the court of guard: the night
Is shiny; and they say we shall embattle
By the second hour i’ the morn.

Second Soldier

This last day was
A shrewd one to’s.

Enter Domitius Enobarbus

Domitius Enobarbus

 
O, bear me witness, night,—

Third Soldier

What man is this?

Second Soldier

 
Stand close, and list him.

Domitius Enobarbus

Be witness to me, O thou blessed moon,
When men revolted shall upon record
Bear hateful memory, poor Enobarbus did
Before thy face repent!

First Soldier

Enobarbus!

Third Soldier

Peace!
Hark further.

Domitius Enobarbus

O sovereign mistress of true melancholy,
The poisonous damp of night disponge upon me,
That life, a very rebel to my will,
May hang no longer on me: throw my heart
Against the flint and hardness of my fault:
Which, being dried with grief, will break to powder,
And finish all foul thoughts. O Antony,
Nobler than my revolt is infamous,
Forgive me in thine own particular;
But let the world rank me in register
A master-leaver and a fugitive:
O Antony! O Antony!

Dies

Second Soldier

Let’s speak To him.

First Soldier

Let’s hear him, for the things he speaks
May concern Caesar.

Third Soldier

Let’s do so. But he sleeps.

First Soldier

Swoons rather; for so bad a prayer as his
Was never yet for sleep.

Second Soldier

Go we to him.

Third Soldier

Awake, sir, awake; speak to us.

Second Soldier

Hear you, sir?

First Soldier

The hand of death hath raught him.

Drums afar off

Hark! the drums
Demurely wake the sleepers. Let us bear him
To the court of guard; he is of note: our hour
Is fully out.

Third Soldier

Come on, then;
He may recover yet.

Exeunt with the body

S
CENE
X. B
ETWEEN
THE
TWO
CAMPS
.

Enter Mark Antony and Scarus, with their Army

Mark Antony

Their preparation is to-day by sea;
We please them not by land.

Scarus

For both, my lord.

Mark Antony

I would they’ld fight i’ the fire or i’ the air;
We’ld fight there too. But this it is; our foot
Upon the hills adjoining to the city
Shall stay with us: order for sea is given;
They have put forth the haven
Where their appointment we may best discover,
And look on their endeavour.

Exeunt

S
CENE
XI. A
NOTHER
PART
OF
THE
SAME
.

Enter Octavius Caesar, and his Army

Octavius Caesar

But being charged, we will be still by land,
Which, as I take’t, we shall; for his best force
Is forth to man his galleys. To the vales,
And hold our best advantage.

Exeunt

S
CENE
XII. A
NOTHER
PART
OF
THE
SAME
.

Enter Mark Antony and Scarus

Mark Antony

Yet they are not join’d: where yond pine does stand,
I shall discover all: I’ll bring thee word
Straight, how ’tis like to go.

Exit

Scarus

Swallows have built
In Cleopatra’s sails their nests: the augurers
Say they know not, they cannot tell; look grimly,
And dare not speak their knowledge. Antony
Is valiant, and dejected; and, by starts,
His fretted fortunes give him hope, and fear,
Of what he has, and has not.

Alarum afar off, as at a sea-fight

Re-enter Mark Antony

Mark Antony

All is lost;
This foul Egyptian hath betrayed me:
My fleet hath yielded to the foe; and yonder
They cast their caps up and carouse together
Like friends long lost. Triple-turn’d whore!
’tis thou
Hast sold me to this novice; and my heart
Makes only wars on thee. Bid them all fly;
For when I am revenged upon my charm,
I have done all. Bid them all fly; begone.

Exit Scarus

O sun, thy uprise shall I see no more:
Fortune and Antony part here; even here
Do we shake hands. All come to this? The hearts
That spaniel’d me at heels, to whom I gave
Their wishes, do discandy, melt their sweets
On blossoming Caesar; and this pine is bark’d,
That overtopp’d them all. Betray’d I am:
O this false soul of Egypt! this grave charm,—
Whose eye beck’d forth my wars, and call’d them home;
Whose bosom was my crownet, my chief end,—
Like a right gipsy, hath, at fast and loose,
Beguiled me to the very heart of loss.
What, Eros, Eros!

Enter Cleopatra

Ah, thou spell! Avaunt!

Cleopatra

Why is my lord enraged against his love?

Mark Antony

Vanish, or I shall give thee thy deserving,
And blemish Caesar’s triumph. Let him take thee,
And hoist thee up to the shouting plebeians:
Follow his chariot, like the greatest spot
Of all thy sex; most monster-like, be shown
For poor’st diminutives, for doits; and let
Patient Octavia plough thy visage up
With her prepared nails.

Exit Cleopatra

’Tis well thou’rt gone,
If it be well to live; but better ’twere
Thou fell’st into my fury, for one death
Might have prevented many. Eros, ho!
The shirt of Nessus is upon me: teach me,
Alcides, thou mine ancestor, thy rage:
Let me lodge Lichas on the horns o’ the moon;
And with those hands, that grasp’d the heaviest club,
Subdue my worthiest self. The witch shall die:
To the young Roman boy she hath sold me, and I fall
Under this plot; she dies for’t. Eros, ho!

Exit

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

Enter Cleopatra, Charmian, Iras, and Mardian

Cleopatra

Help me, my women! O, he is more mad
Than Telamon for his shield; the boar of Thessaly
Was never so emboss’d.

Charmian

To the monument!
There lock yourself, and send him word you are dead.
The soul and body rive not more in parting
Than greatness going off.

Cleopatra

To the monument!
Mardian, go tell him I have slain myself;
Say, that the last I spoke was ‘Antony,’
And word it, prithee, piteously: hence, Mardian,
And bring me how he takes my death.
To the monument!

Exeunt

S
CENE
XIV. T
HE
SAME
. A
NOTHER
ROOM
.

Enter Mark Antony and Eros

Mark Antony

Eros, thou yet behold’st me?

Eros

Ay, noble lord.

Mark Antony

Sometimes we see a cloud that’s dragonish;
A vapour sometime like a bear or lion,
A tower’d citadel, a pendent rock,
A forked mountain, or blue promontory
With trees upon’t, that nod unto the world,
And mock our eyes with air: thou hast seen these signs;
They are black vesper’s pageants.

Eros

Ay, my lord,

Mark Antony

That which is now a horse, even with a thought
The rack dislimns, and makes it indistinct,
As water is in water.

Eros

It does, my lord.

Mark Antony

My good knave Eros, now thy captain is
Even such a body: here I am Antony:
Yet cannot hold this visible shape, my knave.
I made these wars for Egypt: and the queen,—
Whose heart I thought I had, for she had mine;
Which whilst it was mine had annex’d unto’t
A million more, now lost,— she, Eros, has
Pack’d cards with Caesar, and false-play’d my glory
Unto an enemy’s triumph.
Nay, weep not, gentle Eros; there is left us
Ourselves to end ourselves.

Enter Mardian

O! thy vile lady!
She has robb’d me of my sword.

Mardian

No, Antony;
My mistress loved thee, and her fortunes mingled
With thine entirely.

Mark Antony

Hence, saucy eunuch; peace!
She hath betray’d me and shall die the death.

Mardian

Death of one person can be paid but once,
And that she has discharged: what thou wouldst do
Is done unto thy hand: the last she spake
Was ‘Antony! most noble Antony!’
Then in the midst a tearing groan did break
The name of Antony; it was divided
Between her heart and lips: she render’d life,
Thy name so buried in her.

Mark Antony

Dead, then?

Mardian

Dead.

Mark Antony

Unarm, Eros; the long day’s task is done,
And we must sleep.

To Mardian

That thou depart’st hence safe,
Does pay thy labour richly; go.

Exit Mardian

Off, pluck off:
The seven-fold shield of Ajax cannot keep
The battery from my heart. O, cleave, my sides!
Heart, once be stronger than thy continent,
Crack thy frail case! Apace, Eros, apace.
No more a soldier: bruised pieces, go;
You have been nobly borne. From me awhile.

Exit Eros

I will o’ertake thee, Cleopatra, and
Weep for my pardon. So it must be, for now
All length is torture: since the torch is out,
Lie down, and stray no farther: now all labour
Mars what it does; yea, very force entangles
Itself with strength: seal then, and all is done.
Eros!— I come, my queen:— Eros!— Stay for me:
Where souls do couch on flowers, we’ll hand in hand,
And with our sprightly port make the ghosts gaze:
Dido and her Aeneas shall want troops,
And all the haunt be ours. Come, Eros, Eros!

Re-enter Eros

Eros

What would my lord?

Mark Antony

Since Cleopatra died,
I have lived in such dishonour, that the gods
Detest my baseness. I, that with my sword
Quarter’d the world, and o’er green Neptune’s back
With ships made cities, condemn myself to lack
The courage of a woman; less noble mind
Than she which by her death our Caesar tells
‘I am conqueror of myself.’ Thou art sworn, Eros,
That, when the exigent should come, which now
Is come indeed, when I should see behind me
The inevitable prosecution of
Disgrace and horror, that, on my command,
Thou then wouldst kill me: do’t; the time is come:
Thou strikest not me, ’tis Caesar thou defeat’st.
Put colour in thy cheek.

Eros

The gods withhold me!
Shall I do that which all the Parthian darts,
Though enemy, lost aim, and could not?

Mark Antony

Eros,
Wouldst thou be window’d in great Rome and see
Thy master thus with pleach’d arms, bending down
His corrigible neck, his face subdued
To penetrative shame, whilst the wheel’d seat
Of fortunate Caesar, drawn before him, branded
His baseness that ensued?

Eros

I would not see’t.

Mark Antony

Come, then; for with a wound I must be cured.
Draw that thy honest sword, which thou hast worn
Most useful for thy country.