Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra - the Egyptian Soothsayer

Antony and Cleopatra

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ACT I SCENE II	The same. Another room.
[Enter CHARMIAN, IRAS, ALEXAS, and a Soothsayer]
CHARMIAN	Lord Alexas, sweet Alexas, most any thing 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!	5
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.	10
ALEXAS	Show him your hand.
[Enter DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS]
DOMITIUS 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.	15
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!	20
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.	25
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.	30
Soothsayer	You shall outlive the lady whom you serve.
CHARMIAN	O excellent! I love long life better than figs.
Soothsayer	You have seen and proved a fairer former fortune
	Than that which is to approach.
CHARMIAN	Then belike my children shall have no names:	35
	prithee, 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.	40
CHARMIAN	Nay, come, tell Iras hers.
ALEXAS	We'll know all our fortunes.
DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS	Mine, and most of our fortunes, to-night, shall
	be--drunk to bed.
IRAS	There's a palm presages chastity, if nothing else.	45
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. Prithee,
	tell her but a worky-day fortune.	50
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	55
	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	60
	her die too, and give him a worse! and let worst
	follow worse, till the worst of all follow him
	laughing to his grave, fifty-fold a cuckold! Good
	Isis, hear me this prayer, though thou deny me a
	matter of more weight; good Isis, I beseech thee!	65
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!	70
CHARMIAN	Amen.
ALEXAS	Lo, now, if it lay in their hands to make me a
	cuckold, they would make themselves whores, but
	they'ld do't!
DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS	Hush! here comes Antony.	75
CHARMIAN	Not he; the queen.
[Enter CLEOPATRA]
CLEOPATRA	Saw you my lord?
DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS	No, lady.
CLEOPATRA	Was he not here?
CHARMIAN	No, madam.	80
CLEOPATRA	He was disposed to mirth; but on the sudden
	A Roman thought hath struck him. Enobarbus!
DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS	Madam?
CLEOPATRA	Seek him, and bring him hither.
	Where's Alexas?	85
ALEXAS	Here, at your service. My lord approaches.
CLEOPATRA	We will not look upon him: go with us.
[Exeunt]
[Enter MARK ANTONY with a Messenger and Attendants]
Messenger	Fulvia thy wife first came into the field.
MARK ANTONY	Against my brother Lucius?
Messenger	Ay:	90
	But soon that war had end, and the time's state
	Made friends of them, joining their force 'gainst Caesar;
	Whose better issue in the war, from Italy,
	Upon the first encounter, drave them.
MARK ANTONY	Well, what worst?	95
Messenger	The nature of bad news infects the teller.
MARK 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.	100
Messenger	Labienus--
	This is stiff news--hath, with his Parthian force,
	Extended Asia from Euphrates;
	His conquering banner shook from Syria
	To Lydia and to Ionia; Whilst--	105
MARK ANTONY	Antony, thou wouldst say,--
Messenger	O, my lord!
MARK ANTONY	Speak to me home, mince not the general tongue:
	Name Cleopatra as she is call'd in Rome;
	Rail thou in Fulvia's phrase; and taunt my faults	110
	With such full licence as both truth and malice
	Have power to utter. O, then we bring forth weeds,
	When our quick minds lie still; and our ills told us
	Is as our earing. Fare thee well awhile.
Messenger	At your noble pleasure.	115
[Exit]
MARK ANTONY	From Sicyon, ho, the news! Speak there!
First Attendant	The man from Sicyon,--is there such an one?
Second Attendant	He stays upon your will.
MARK ANTONY	Let him appear.
	These strong Egyptian fetters I must break,	120
	Or lose myself in dotage.
[Enter another Messenger]
	What are you?
Second Messenger	Fulvia thy wife is dead.
MARK ANTONY	Where died she?
Second Messenger	In Sicyon:	125
	Her length of sickness, with what else more serious
	Importeth thee to know, this bears.
[Gives a letter]
MARK ANTONY	Forbear me.
[Exit Second Messenger]
	There's a great spirit gone! Thus did I desire it:
	What our contempt doth often hurl from us,	130
	We wish it ours again; the present pleasure,
	By revolution lowering, does become
	The opposite of itself: she's good, being gone;
	The hand could pluck her back that shoved her on.
	I must from this enchanting queen break off:	135
	Ten thousand harms, more than the ills I know,
	My idleness doth hatch. How now! Enobarbus!
[Re-enter DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS]
DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS	What's your pleasure, sir?
MARK ANTONY	I must with haste from hence.
DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS	Why, then, we kill all our women:	140
	we see how mortal an unkindness is to them;
	if they suffer our departure, death's the word.
MARK ANTONY	I must be gone.
DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS	Under a compelling occasion, let women die; it were
	pity to cast them away for nothing; though, between	145
	them and a great cause, they should be esteemed
	nothing. Cleopatra, catching but the least noise of
	this, dies instantly; I have seen her die twenty
	times upon far poorer moment: I do think there is
	mettle in death, which commits some loving act upon	150
	her, she hath such a celerity in dying.
MARK ANTONY	She is cunning past man's thought.
[Exit ALEXAS]
DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS	Alack, sir, no; her passions are made of nothing but
	the finest part of pure love: we cannot call her
	winds and waters sighs and tears; they are greater	155
	storms and tempests than almanacs can report: this
	cannot be cunning in her; if it be, she makes a
	shower of rain as well as Jove.
MARK ANTONY	Would I had never seen her.
DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS	O, sir, you had then left unseen a wonderful piece	160
	of work; which not to have been blest withal would
	have discredited your travel.
MARK ANTONY	Fulvia is dead.
DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS	Sir?
MARK ANTONY	Fulvia is dead.	165
DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS	Fulvia!
MARK ANTONY	Dead.
DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS	Why, sir, give the gods a thankful sacrifice. When
	it pleaseth their deities to take the wife of a man
	from him, it shows to man the tailors of the earth;	170
	comforting therein, that when old robes are worn
	out, there are members to make new. If there were
	no more women but Fulvia, then had you indeed a cut,
	and the case to be lamented: this grief is crowned
	with consolation; your old smock brings forth a new	175
	petticoat: and indeed the tears live in an onion
	that should water this sorrow.
MARK ANTONY	The business she hath broached in the state
	Cannot endure my absence.
DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS	And the business you have broached here cannot be	180
	without you; especially that of Cleopatra's, which
	wholly depends on your abode.
MARK ANTONY	No more light answers. Let our officers
	Have notice what we purpose. I shall break
	The cause of our expedience to the queen,	185
	And get her leave to part. For not alone
	The death of Fulvia, with more urgent touches,
	Do strongly speak to us; but the letters too
	Of many our contriving friends in Rome
	Petition us at home: Sextus Pompeius	190
	Hath given the dare to Caesar, and commands
	The empire of the sea: our slippery people,
	Whose love is never link'd to the deserver
	Till his deserts are past, begin to throw
	Pompey the Great and all his dignities	195
	Upon his son; who, high in name and power,
	Higher than both in blood and life, stands up
	For the main soldier: whose quality, going on,
	The sides o' the world may danger: much is breeding,
	Which, like the courser's hair, hath yet but life,	200
	And not a serpent's poison. Say, our pleasure,
	To such whose place is under us, requires
	Our quick remove from hence.
DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS	I shall do't.
[Exeunt]

Antony and Cleopatra, Act 1, Scene 3
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Explanatory Notes for Act 1, Scene 2
From Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra. Ed. M. Eaton. Boston: Educational Publishing Company.
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2. Absolute. Complete, perfect.

21. Prescience. One who knows all things; used here jokingly as a title.

24. Liver. Heart. Liver was often used as the seat of love.

27. Widow. Outlive them.

28. Herod of Jewry. A reference to Herod's slaughter of the innocents. He is represented in the old mystery plays as a fierce tyrant.

29. Find me. Find out that it may be my destiny.

30. Companion. Make me an equal with.

35. Belike. It is likely I shall have no children to name.

37. Every. Every one.

39. For a witch. If this is the best you can do you will never be burned for a witch.

46. E'en. As little as, etc.

46. Nilus. Nile.

47. Wild. Extravagant.

49. Prognostication. A sign of fruitfulness.

50. Worky-day. Common, ordinary.

58. Come. Come, tell me his fortune.

60. Isis. The Egyptian goddess of the earth and of fertility.

82. Roman. A thought about Rome.

88. Into the field. Took up arms.

92. Time's state. The state of affairs made friendship necessary.

92. Jointing. Joining.

93. Issue. Fortune, success.

94. Drave. An old form not commonly used by Shakespeare.

100. As. As if.

102. Stiff. Hard to tell.

103. Extended. A legal term meaning to seize upon.

103. Eurphrates. Here accented on the first syllable.

104. Syria, etc. Provinces of Asia Minor.

108. Home. Frankly, without reserve.

113. Quick. Active.

114. Earing. Ploughing. That is, the knowledge of our faults is like ploughing the mind for bringing forth a new and worthy crop instead of weeds.

117. Sicyon. One of the most ancient cities in southern Greece.

118. Stays. Awaits your pleasure.

127. Importeth. It is of importance for you to know.

128. Forbear. Have patience with me.

129. Great Spirit. A noble mind.

130. Contempt. What we fling away with careless contempt.

132. Revolution. What at the moment seems pleasure to us, by the changes of time and events, often becomes pain.

133. Being gone. Though I prized her little when alive, being gone, she seems of value.

134. Could. Could willingly, would.

142. Word. Will be the result.

149. Moment. For far less reason.

150. Mettle. Spirit.

156. Almanacs. The old almanacs used to predict changes in the weather.

158. Jove. The god of thunder.

162. Discredited. That is, made you seem but a poor traveler.

168. Thankful. Sacrifice of thanksgiving.

170. Tailors. It shows the deities as tailors of the earth who, when old robes are worn out, can make him new. So the gods can supply men with a new wife.

175. Smock. Coat.

176. Onion. Mock tears are all you need.

178. Broached. The affairs she has set on foot.

182. Abode. Abiding.

185. Expedience. Expedition.

186. Part. Depart.

187. Touches. Other matters which affect us more strongly.

189. Contriving. Our many friends who are contriving or plotting in our interests.

190. Petition. Petition us to come home.

191. Dare. Declared defiance.

192. Slippery. Fickle, changeable.

194. Deserts are past. The time has gone by for giving him his deserts.

195. Pompey. Invest the son with all the dignities of the father. Pompey was a famous Roman general.

196. Blood. Courage.

198. Main. Chief soldier of the world.

198. Quality. Disposition.

199. Sides. The whole empire of Rome.

200. Coursers. A reference to the old superstition that a horse hair, when put into water, will turn into a snake.

200. But. Only.

201. Say. Give our commands to our subordinates.

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How to cite the explanatory notes:
Shakespeare, William. Antony and Cleopatra. Ed. M. Eaton. Boston: Educational Publishing Company, 1908. Shakespeare Online. 20 Feb. 2010. (date when you accessed the information) < http://www.shakespeare-online.com/plays/antony_1_2.html >.

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