Burn the great sphere thou mov'st in! darkling stand

The varying shore o' the world!-O Antony!
Antony, Antony!—Charmian, help; help, Iras;
Help, friends below: let's draw him hither.
Ant.
Peace:

Not Cæsar's valour hath o'erthrown Antony;
But Antony's hath triumphed on itself.

Cleo. So it should be, that none but Antony Should conquer Antony: but woe 't is so!

Ant. I am dying, Egypt, dying: only
I here impórtune death awhile, until
Of many thousand kisses the poor last
I lay upon thy lips.

(Dear my lord, pardon); I dare not,
Lest I be taken. Not the imperious show
Of the full-fortuned Cæsar ever shall
Be brooched with me: ifknife, drugs, serpents, have
Edge, sting, or operation, I am safe:
Your wife Octavia, with her modest eyes
And still conclusion, shall acquire no honour
Demurring upon me.-But come, come, Antony :-
Help me, my women, we must draw thee up :-
Assist, good friends.

Ant.

O quick, or I am gone. Cleo. Here's sport indeed!-How heavy weighs my lord!

Our strength is all gone into heaviness:
That makes the weight!-Had I great Juno's power,
The strong-winged Mercury should fetch thee up,
And set thee by Jove's side. Yet come a little :-
Wishers were ever fools:-O, come, come, come;
[They draw ANTONY up.
And welcome, welcome! die where thou hast lived:
Quicken with kissing: had my lips that power,
Thus would I wear them out.

One word, sweet queen:

Of Cæsar seek your honour with your safety.-O. Cleo. They do not go together.

Ant.

Gentle, hear me:

None about Cæsar trust but Proculeius.

Cleo. My resolution and my hands I'll trust: None about Cæsar.

Ant. The miserable change now at my end Lament nor sorrow at: but please your thoughts In feeding them with those my former fortunes, Wherein I lived the greatest prince o' the world, The noblest and do now not basely die, Nor cowardly; put off my helmet

To my countryman:-a Roman, by a Roman Valiantly vanquished. Now my spirit is going! I can no more.

Cleo.

[Dies.

Noblest of men, woo't die? Hast thou no care of me? shall I abide In this dull world, which in thy absence is No better than a sty?-O see, my women, The crown o' the earth doth melt!-My lord!O, withered is the garland of the war; The soldier's pole is fallen: young boys and girls Are level now with men: the odds is gone, And there is nothing left remarkable Beneath the visiting moon!

Char. O, quietness, lady!

[She faints.

Iras. She is dead too, our sovereign. Char. Lady!

Iras. Madam!

Char. O madam, madam, madam!
Iras. Royal Egypt! Empress!
Char. Peace, peace, Iras.

Cleo. No more, but e'en a woman! and commanded

By such poor passion as the maid that milks,
And does the meanest chares.-It were for me
To throw my sceptre at the injurious gods,
To tell them that this world did equal theirs
Till they had stolen our jewel. All's but naught:
Patience is sottish, and impatience does
Become a dog that's mad: then is it sin
To rush into the secret house of death,
Ere death dare come to us?-How do you, women?
What, what? good cheer! Why, how now,
Charmian?

My noble girls!-Ah, women, women! look,
Our lamp is spent; it's out.-Good sirs, take
heart.-
[To the Guard below.
We'll bury him: and then, what 's brave, what's
noble,

Let's do it after the high Roman fashion,
And make death proud to take us. Come, away:
This case of that huge spirit now is cold.
Ah, women, women! come: we have no friend
But resolution and the briefest end.

[Exeunt; those above bearing off ANTONY's body.

Marc 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. If thou please

To take me to thee, as I was to him

I'll be to Cæsar: if thou pleasest not,

I yield thee up my life.

Cæs. What is 't thou sayst?

Der. I say, O Cæsar, Antony is dead. Cæs. The breaking of so great a thing should make

A greater crack: the round world

Should have shook lions into civil streets,

And citizens to their dens. The death of Antony
Is not a single doom: in the name lay
A moiety of the world.

Der. He is dead, Cæsar;

Not by a public minister of justice,
Nor by a hired knife: but that self 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.

Cæs. Look you sad, friends? The gods rebuke me, but it is tidings To wash the eyes of kings.

Agr. And strange it is

That nature must compel us to lament
Our most persisted deeds.

Mec.

His taints and honours

Waged equal with him

Agr.

A rarer spirit never

Did steer humanity: but you, gods, will give us Some faults will make us men.-Cæsar is vouched.

[Aside.

I have followed thee to this!-But we do lance
Diseases in our bodies: I must perforce
Have shewn to thee such a declining day,
Or look on thine; we could not stall together
In the whole world: but yet let me lament,
With tears as sovereign as the blood of hearts,
That thou, my brother, my competitor
In top of all design, my mate in empire,
Friend and companion in the front of war,
The arm of mine own body, and the heart
Where mine his thoughts did kindle,-that our stars
Unreconcileable, should divide

Our equalness to this.-Hear me, good friends,-
But I will tell you at some meeter season:

Enter a Messenger.

The business of this man looks out of him; We'll hear him what he says.-Whence are you?

Mess. A poor Egyptian yet. The queen my

mistress,

Confined in all she has (her monument),

Of thy intents desires instruction:
That she preparédly may frame herself
To the way she's forced to.

Cæs.

Bid her have good heart :

She soon shall know of us, by some of ours,
How honourable and how kindly we
Determine for her: for Cæsar cannot live
To be ungentle.

Mess. So the gods preserve thee! [Exit.
Cæs. Come hither, Proculeius: go, and say
We purpose her no shame: give her what comforts
The quality of her passion 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. Go;
And, with your speediest, bring us what she says,
And how you find of her.

Pro. Cæsar, I shall. [Exit PROCULEIUS. Cæs. Gallus, go you along.—Where's Dolabella, To second Proculeius? [Exit GALLUS.

SCENE II.-Alexandria. A Room in the Monument.

Enter CLEOPATRA, CHARMIAN, and IRAS. Cleo. My desolation does begin to make A better life. 'Tis paltry to be Cæsar: Not being fortune, he 's but fortune's knave; A minister of her will. And it is great To do that thing that ends all other deeds; Which shackles accidents, and bolts up change; Which sleeps, and never palates more the dung, The beggar's nurse and Cæsar's.

Enter, to the gates of the Monument, PROCULEIUS,
GALLUS, and Soldiers.

Pro. Cæsar sends greeting to the Queen of
Egypt;

And bids thee study on what fair demands
Thou mean'st to have him grant thee.

Of him that caused it.

Gal. You see how easily she may be surprised.[PROCULEIUS and two of the Guard enter the Monument by a ladder placed against a window, and come behind CLEOPATRA. Others unbar and open the gates. Guard her till Cæsar come. Iras. Royal queen!

[Exit GALLUS.

Char. O Cleopatra, thou art taken, queen! Cleo. Quick, quick, good hands!

[Draws a dagger. Pro. Hold, worthy lady, hold! [Disarms her. Do not yourself such wrong, who are in this Relieved, but not betrayed.

Dol.

Most sovereign creature,-

Cleo. His legs bestrid the ocean: his reared arm Crested the world: his voice was propertied As all the tunéd spheres, and that to friends; But when he meant to quail and shake the orb, He was a rattling thunder. For his bounty, There was no winter in 't; an autumn 't was, That grew the more by reaping: his delights Were dolphin-like; they shewed his back above The element they lived in: in his livery Walked crowns and crownets; realms and islands were

As plates dropped from his pocket.

Dol.

Cleopatra,

Cleo. Nay, pray you, sir,—

Dol. Though he be honourable,—

Cleo. He'll lead me, then, in triumph?

Dol. Madam, he will: I know it.
Within. Make way there :-Cæsar!

Enter CESAR, GALLUS, PROCULEIUS, MECENAS,
SELEUCUS, and Attendants.

Cas. Which is the Queen of Egypt?
Dol. It is the emperor, madam.

[CLEOPATRA kneels. Cæs. Arise; you shall not kneel.

I pray you, rise: rise, Egypt.

Will have it thus: my master and my lord I must obey.

Cæs.

Take to you no hard thoughts: The record of what injuries you did us, Though written in our flesh, we shall remember As things but done by chance.

Cleo.

Sole sir o' the world,

I cannot project mine own cause so well To make it clear: but do confess I have Been laden with like frailties which before Have often shamed our sex.

A benefit in this change: but if you seek
To lay on me a cruelty, by taking

Antony's course, you shall bereave yourself
Of my good purposes, and put your children
To that destruction which I'll guard them from
If thereon you rely. I'll take my leave.

Cleo. And may through all the world: 't is
yours; and we,

Your 'scutcheons and your signs of conquest,

shall

Hang in what place you please. Here, my good

lord:

Cæs. You shall advise me in all for Cleopatra. Cleo. This is the brief of money, plate, and jewels,

I am possessed of: 't is exactly valued;
Not petty things admitted.-Where's Seleucus?
Sel. Here, madam.

Cleo. This is my treasurer: let him speak, my lord,

Upon his peril, that I have reserved

To myself nothing.-Speak the truth, Seleucus.
Sel. Madam,

I had rather seel my lips than, to my peril,
Speak that which is not.

Cæs.

Good queen, let us entreat you.
Cleo. O Cæsar, what a wounding shame is this,
That thou, vouchsafing here to visit me,
Doing the honour of thy lordliness

To one so meek, that mine own servant should
Parcel the sum of my disgraces by
Addition of his envy! Say, good Cæsar,
That I some lady trifles have reserved,
Immoment toys, things of such dignity

As we greet modern friends withal; and say,
Some nobler token I have kept apart
For Livia and Octavia, to induce
Their mediation; must I be unfolded

With one that I have bred? The gods! it smites

me

Beneath the fall I have.-Pr'y thee, go hence; [TO SELEUCUS.

Or I shall shew the cinders of my spirits Through the ashes of my chance :-wert thou a

man,

Thou wouldst have mercy on me.

Cæs. Forbear, Seleucus. [Exit SELEUCUS. Cleo. Be it known that we, the greatest, are

mis-thought

For things that others do; and when we fall,

Put we i' the roll of conquest: still be it yours, Bestow it at your pleasure: and believe Cæsar's no merchant, to make prize with you Of things that merchants sold. Therefore be cheered;

Make not your thoughts your prisons; no, dear queen;

For we intend so to dispose you as
Yourself shall give us counsel. Feed and sleep:
Our care and pity is so much upon you,
That we remain your friend : and so adieu.
Cleo. My master and my lord!

Cæs. Not so: adieu. [Exeunt CÆSAR and Train.
Cleo. He words me, girls; he words me, that
I should not

Be noble to myself: but hark thee, Charmian.
[Whispers CHARMIAN.
Iras. Finish, good lady: the bright day is done,
And we are for the dark.
Hie thee again :

Cleo.

I have spoke already, and it is provided. Go, put it to the haste.

I shall remain your debtor.
Dol. I your servant.
Adieu, good queen: I must attend on Cæsar.
Cleo. Farewell, and thanks. [Exit DOLABELLA.
Now, Iras, what think'st thou?
Thou, an Egyptian puppet, shalt be shewn
In Rome, as well as I: mechanic slaves,
With greasy aprons, rules, and hammers, shall
Uplift us to the view: in their thick breaths,
Rank of gross diet, shall we be enclouded,
And forced to drink their vapour.