| ACT III SCENE XIII | Alexandria. Cleopatra'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 | 5 |
| 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 | 10 |
| The meered question: 'twas a shame no less |
| Than was his loss, to course your flying flags, |
| And leave his navy gazing. |
| CLEOPATRA | Prithee, peace. |
| [Enter MARK ANTONY with EUPHRONIUS, the Ambassador] |
| MARK ANTONY | Is that his answer? | 15 |
| EUPHRONIUS | Ay, my lord. |
| MARK ANTONY | The queen shall then have courtesy, so she |
| Will yield us up. |
| EUPHRONIUS | He says so. |
| MARK ANTONY | Let her know't. | 20 |
| To the boy Caesar send this grizzled head, |
| And he will fill thy wishes to the brim |
| With principalities. |
| CLEOPATRA | That head, my lord? |
| MARK ANTONY | To him again: tell him he wears the rose | 25 |
| Of youth upon him; from which the world should note |
| Something particular: his coin, ships, legions, |
| May be a coward's; whose ministers would prevail |
| Under the service of a child as soon |
| As i' the command of Caesar: I dare him therefore | 30 |
| To lay his gay comparisons apart, |
| And answer me declined, sword against sword, |
| Ourselves alone. I'll write it: follow me. |
| [Exeunt MARK ANTONY and EUPHRONIUS] |
| DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS | [Aside] Yes, like enough, high-battled Caesar will
|
| Unstate his happiness, and be staged to the show, | 35 |
| Against a sworder! I see men's judgments are |
| A parcel of their fortunes; and things outward |
| Do draw the inward quality after them, |
| To suffer all alike. That he should dream, |
| Knowing all measures, the full Caesar will | 40 |
| Answer his emptiness! Caesar, thou hast subdued |
| His judgment too. |
| [Enter an Attendant] |
| Attendant | A messenger from CAESAR. |
| CLEOPATRA | What, no more ceremony? See, my women! |
| Against the blown rose may they stop their nose | 45 |
| That kneel'd unto the buds. Admit him, sir. |
| [Exit Attendant] |
| DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS | [Aside] Mine honesty and I begin to square.
|
| The loyalty well held to fools does make |
| Our faith mere folly: yet he that can endure |
| To follow with allegiance a fall'n lord | 50 |
| Does conquer him that did his master conquer |
| And earns a place i' the story. |
| [Enter THYREUS] |
| CLEOPATRA | Caesar's will? |
| THYREUS | Hear it apart. |
| CLEOPATRA | None but friends: say boldly. | 55 |
| THYREUS | So, haply, are they friends to Antony. |
| DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS | He needs as many, sir, as Caesar has; |
| Or needs not us. If Caesar please, our master |
| Will leap to be his friend: for us, you know, |
| Whose he is we are, and that is, Caesar's. | 60 |
| THYREUS | So. |
| Thus then, thou most renown'd: Caesar entreats,
|
| Not to consider in what case thou stand'st, |
| Further than he is Caesar. |
| CLEOPATRA | Go on: right royal. | 65 |
| THYREUS | He knows that you embrace not Antony |
| As you did love, but as you fear'd him. |
| CLEOPATRA | O! |
| THYREUS | The scars upon your honour, therefore, he |
| Does pity, as constrained blemishes, | 70 |
| Not as deserved. |
| CLEOPATRA | He is a god, and knows |
| What is most right: mine honour was not yielded, |
| But conquer'd merely. |
| DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS | [Aside] To be sure of that,
| 75 |
| I will ask Antony. Sir, sir, thou art so leaky, |
| That we must leave thee to thy sinking, for |
| Thy dearest quit thee. |
| [Exit] |
| THYREUS | Shall I say to Caesar |
| What you require of him? for he partly begs | 80 |
| To be desired to give. It much would please him, |
| That of his fortunes you should make a staff |
| To lean upon: but it would warm his spirits, |
| To hear from me you had left Antony, |
| And put yourself under his shrowd, | 85 |
| The universal landlord. |
| CLEOPATRA | What's your name? |
| THYREUS | My name is Thyreus. |
| CLEOPATRA | Most kind messenger, |
| Say to great Caesar this: in deputation | 90 |
| I kiss his conquering hand: tell him, I am prompt |
| To lay my crown at 's feet, and there to kneel: |
| Tell him from his all-obeying breath I hear |
| The doom of Egypt. |
| THYREUS | 'Tis your noblest course. | 95 |
| Wisdom and fortune combating together, |
| If that the former dare but what it can, |
| No chance may shake it. Give me grace to lay |
| My duty on your hand. |
| CLEOPATRA | Your Caesar's father oft, | 100 |
| When he hath mused of taking kingdoms in, |
| Bestow'd his lips on that unworthy place, |
| As it rain'd kisses. |
| [Re-enter MARK ANTONY and DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS] |
| MARK ANTONY | Favours, by Jove that thunders! |
| What art thou, fellow? | 105 |
| THYREUS | One that but performs |
| The bidding of the fullest man, and worthiest |
| To have command obey'd. |
| DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS | [Aside] You will be whipp'd.
|
| MARK ANTONY | Approach, there! Ah, you kite! Now, gods | 110 |
| and devils! |
| Authority melts from me: of late, when I cried 'Ho!' |
| Like boys unto a muss, kings would start forth, |
| And cry 'Your will?' Have you no ears? I am |
| Antony yet. | 115 |
[Enter Attendants] |
| Take hence this Jack, and whip him. |
| DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS | [Aside] 'Tis better playing with a lion's whelp
|
| Than with an old one dying. |
| MARK ANTONY | Moon and stars! |
| Whip him. Were't twenty of the greatest tributaries | 120 |
| That do acknowledge Caesar, should I find them |
| So saucy with the hand of she here,--what's her name, |
| Since she was Cleopatra? Whip him, fellows, |
| Till, like a boy, you see him cringe his face, |
| And whine aloud for mercy: take him hence. | 125 |
| THYREUS | Mark Antony! |
| MARK ANTONY | Tug him away: being whipp'd, |
| Bring him again: this Jack of Caesar's shall |
| Bear us an errand to him. |
[Exeunt Attendants with THYREUS] |
| You were half blasted ere I knew you: ha! | 130 |
| Have I my pillow left unpress'd in Rome, |
| Forborne the getting of a lawful race, |
| And by a gem of women, to be abused |
| By one that looks on feeders? |
| CLEOPATRA | Good my lord,-- | 135 |
| MARK ANTONY | You have been a boggler ever: |
| But when we in our viciousness grow hard-- |
| O misery on't!--the wise gods seel our eyes; |
| In our own filth drop our clear judgments; make us |
| Adore our errors; laugh at's, while we strut | 140 |
| To our confusion. |
| CLEOPATRA | O, is't come to this? |
| MARK ANTONY | I found you as a morsel cold upon |
| Dead Caesar's trencher; nay, you were a fragment |
| Of Cneius Pompey's; besides what hotter hours, | 145 |
| Unregister'd in vulgar fame, you have |
| Luxuriously pick'd out: for, I am sure, |
| Though you can guess what temperance should be, |
| You know not what it is. |
| CLEOPATRA | Wherefore is this? | 150 |
| MARK ANTONY | To let a fellow that will take rewards |
| And say 'God quit you!' be familiar with |
| My playfellow, your hand; this kingly seal |
| And plighter of high hearts! O, that I were |
| Upon the hill of Basan, to outroar | 155 |
| The horned herd! for I have savage cause; |
| And to proclaim it civilly, were like |
| A halter'd neck which does the hangman thank |
| For being yare about him. |
[Re-enter Attendants with THYREUS] |
| Is he whipp'd? | 160 |
| First Attendant | Soundly, my lord. |
| MARK ANTONY | Cried he? and begg'd a' pardon? |
| First Attendant | He did ask favour. |
| MARK ANTONY | If that thy father live, let him repent |
| Thou wast not made his daughter; and be thou sorry | 165 |
| To follow Caesar in his triumph, since |
| Thou hast been whipp'd for following him: henceforth |
| The white hand of a lady fever thee, |
| Shake thou to look on 't. Get thee back to Caesar, |
| Tell him thy entertainment: look, thou say | 170 |
| He makes me angry with him; for he seems |
| Proud and disdainful, harping on what I am, |
| Not what he knew I was: he makes me angry; |
| And at this time most easy 'tis to do't, |
| When my good stars, that were my former guides, | 175 |
| Have empty left their orbs, and shot their fires |
| Into the abysm of hell. If he mislike |
| My speech and what is done, tell him he has |
| Hipparchus, my enfranched bondman, whom |
| He may at pleasure whip, or hang, or torture, | 180 |
| As he shall like, to quit me: urge it thou: |
| Hence with thy stripes, begone! |
| [Exit THYREUS] |
| CLEOPATRA | Have you done yet? |
| MARK ANTONY | Alack, our terrene moon |
| Is now eclipsed; and it portends alone | 185 |
| The fall of Antony! |
| CLEOPATRA | I must stay his time. |
| MARK ANTONY | To flatter Caesar, would you mingle eyes |
| With one that ties his points? |
| CLEOPATRA | Not know me yet? | 190 |
| MARK ANTONY | Cold-hearted toward me? |
| CLEOPATRA | Ah, dear, if I be so, |
| From my cold heart let heaven engender hail, |
| And poison it in the source; and the first stone |
| Drop in my neck: as it determines, so | 195 |
| Dissolve my life! The next Caesarion smite! |
| Till by degrees the memory of my womb, |
| Together with my brave Egyptians all, |
| By the discandying of this pelleted storm, |
| Lie graveless, till the flies and gnats of Nile | 200 |
| Have buried them for prey! |
| MARK ANTONY | I am satisfied. |
| Caesar sits down in Alexandria; where |
| I will oppose his fate. Our force by land |
| Hath nobly held; our sever'd navy too | 205 |
| Have knit again, and fleet, threatening most sea-like. |
| Where hast thou been, my heart? Dost thou hear, lady? |
| If from the field I shall return once more |
| To kiss these lips, I will appear in blood; |
| I and my sword will earn our chronicle: | 210 |
| There's hope in't yet. |
| CLEOPATRA | That's my brave lord! |
| MARK ANTONY | I will be treble-sinew'd, hearted, breathed, |
| And fight maliciously: for when mine hours |
| Were nice and lucky, men did ransom lives | 215 |
| Of me for jests; but now I'll set my teeth, |
| And send to darkness all that stop me. Come, |
| Let's have one other gaudy night: call to me |
| All my sad captains; fill our bowls once more; |
| Let's mock the midnight bell. | 220 |
| CLEOPATRA | It is my birth-day: |
| I had thought to have held it poor: but, since my lord |
| Is Antony again, I will be Cleopatra. |
| MARK ANTONY | We will yet do well. |
| CLEOPATRA | Call all his noble captains to my lord. | 225 |
| MARK ANTONY | Do so, we'll speak to them; and to-night I'll force |
| The wine peep through their scars. Come on, my queen; |
| There's sap in't yet. The next time I do fight, |
| I'll make death love me; for I will contend |
| Even with his pestilent scythe. | 230 |
| [Exeunt all but DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS] |
| DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS | Now he'll outstare the lightning. To be furious, |
| Is to be frighted out of fear; and in that mood |
| The dove will peck the estridge; and I see still, |
| A diminution in our captain's brain |
| Restores his heart: when valour preys on reason, | 235 |
| It eats the sword it fights with. I will seek |
| Some way to leave him. |
| [Exit] |
Plutarch's Influence on Shakespeare and Other Writers of the Sixteenth Century