Ant. But that your royalty

Holds idleness your subject, I should take you
For idleness itself.

Cleo. 'Tis sweating labour,

To bear such idleness so near the heart

As Cleopatra this. But, Sir, forgive me;
Since my becomings kill me, when they do not
Eye well to you: your honour calls you hence;
Therefore be deaf to my unpitied folly,

And all the gods go with you! Upon your sword
Sit laurel'd victory! and smooth success
Be strew'd before your feet!

Ant. Let us go. Come;

Our separation so abides, and flies,

That thou, residing here, go'st yet with me,
And I, hence fleeting, here remain with thee.
Away.
[Exeunt.
SCENE IV.-Rome.-An Apartment in Casar's

House.

Enter OCTAVIUS CESAR, LEPIDUS, and Attendants. Cas. You may see, Lepidus, and henceforth know,

It is not Cæsar's natural vice to hate

One great competitor: from Alexandria

This is the news; he fishes, drinks, and wastes
The lamps of night in revel: is not more manlike
Than Cleopatra; nor the queen Ptolemy

More womanly than be: hardly gave audience, or
Vouchsafed to think he had partners: you shall
find there

A man, who is the abstract of all faults

That all men follow.

Lep. I must not think, there are

Evils enough to darken all his goodness:

His faults, in him, seem as the spots of heaven,
More fiery by night's blackness; hereditary,
Rather than purchased +; what he cannot change,
Than what he chooses.

Cas. You are too indulgent: let us grant, it is not
Amiss to tumble on the bed of Ptolemy;

To give a kingdom for a mirth; to sit

And keep the turn of tippling with a slave;

To reel the streets at noon, and stand the buffet With knaves that smell of sweat: say, this becomes him,

Associate or partner.

+ Procured by his own fault.

(As his composure must be rare indeed, ' Whom these things cannot blemish); yet must An

tony

No way excuse his soils, when we do bear

So great weight in his lightness. If he fill'd
His vacancy with his voluptuousness,

Full surfeits, and the dryness of his bones,
Call on him for't: but, to confound I such time,
That drams him from his sport, and speaks as loud
As his own state, and ours,-'tis to be chid

As we rate boys; who, being mature in knowledge,
Pawn their experience to their present pleasure,
And so rebel to judgment.

Enter a MESSENGER.

Lep. Here's more news.

Mess. Thy biddings have been done; and every hour,

Most noble Cæsar, shalt thou have report
How 'tis abroad. Pompey is strong at sea;
And it appears, he is beloved of those
That only have fear'd Cæsar: to the ports
The discontents repair, and men's reports
Give him much wrong'd.

Cas. I should have known no less :

It hath been taught us from the primal state,
That he, which is, was wish'd, until he were;

And the ebb'd man, ne'er loved, till ne'er worth

love,

Comes dear'd, by being lack'd. This common body,

Like a vagabond flag upon the stream,

Goes to, and back, lackeying the varying tide,
To rot itself with motion.

Mess. Cæsar, I bring thee word,
Menecrates and Menas, famous pirates,

Make the sea serve them; which they ear and wound

With keels of every kind: many hot inroads
They make in Italy; the borders maritime

Lack blood to think on't, and flush it youth revolt:
No vessel can peep forth, but 'tis as soon

Taken as seen; for Pompey's name strikes more, Than could his war resisted.

Cas. Antony,

Leave thy lascivions wassels. When thou once Wast beaten from Modena, where thou slew'st Hirtius and Pansa, consuls, at thy heel

Did famine follow; whom thou fought'st against,
Though daintily brought up, with patience more
Than savages could suffer: thou didst drink
The stale + of horses, and the gilded puddle
Which beasts would cough at: thy palate then did
deign

The roughest berry on the rudest hedge;

Yea, like the stag, when snow the pasture sheets,
The barks of trees thou browsed'st; on the Alps
It is reported, thou didst eat strange flesh,
Which some did die to look on: and all this
(It wounds thine honour, that I speak it now),
Was borne so like a soldier, that thy cheek
So much as lank'd not.

Lep. It is pity of him.

Cas. Let his shames quickly

Drive him to Rome: 'tis time we twain

Did shew ourselves i' the field; and, to that end, Assemble we immediate council: Pompey Thrives in our idleness.

Lep. To-morrow, Cæsar,

I shall be furnish'd to inform you rightly
Both what by sea and land I can be able,
To 'front this present time.

Cas. Till which encounter,

It is my business too. Farewell.

Lep. Farewell, my lord: what you 'shall know mean time

Of stirs abroad, I shall beseech you, Sir,

To let me be partaker.

Cas. Doubt not, Sir;

I knew it for my bond §.

[Exeunt.

SCENE V.-Alexandria.-A Room in the Palace.

Enter CLEOPATRA, CHARMIAN, IRAS, and MARDIAN.

Cleo. Charmian,

Char. Madam.

Cleo. Ha, ha!

Give me to drink mandragora ||.

Feastings: in the old copy it is vaissailes, i. e.

vassals.

Stagnant, slimy water.
My bounden duty.

+ Urine.

A sleepy potion.

Char. Why, madam?

Cleo. That I might sleep out this great gap of

time,

My Antony is away.

Char. You think of him

Too much.

Cleo. O, treason!

Char. Madam, I trust, not so.

Cleo. Thou, eunuch! Mardian!

Mar. What's your highness' pleasure?

Cleo. Not now to hear thee sing; I take no plea

sure

In aught an eunuch has: 'tis well for thee,
That, being unseminar'd, thy freer thoughts
May not fly forth of Egypt. Hast thou affections?
Mar. Yes, gracious Madam.

Cleo. Indeed?

Mar. Not in deed, madam: for I can do nothing But what in deed is honest to be done :

Yet have I fierce affections, and think,

What Venus did with Mars.

Cleo. O Charmian.

Where think'st thou he is now? Stands he, or sits he?

Or does he walk ? or is he on his horse?

O happy horse, to bear the weight of Antony ! Do bravely, horse! For wot'st thou whom thou movest?

The demi-Atlas of this earth, the arm

And burgonett of men.-He's speaking now,

Or murmuring, Where's my serpent of old Nile?
For so he calls me; now I feed myself

With most delicious poison :-Think on me,
That am with Phebus' amorous pinches black,
And wrinkled deep in time? Broad-fronted Cæsar,
When thou wast here above the ground, I was
A morsel for a monarch: and great Pompey
Would stand, and make his eyes grow in my brow;
There would he anchor his aspéct, and die
With looking on his life.

Enter ALEXAS.

Alex. Sovereign of Egypt, hail!

Cleo. How much unlike art thou Mark Antony! Yet, coming from him, that great medicine hath) With his tinct gilded thee.

How goes it with my brave Mark Antony?

Unmanned.

+ A helmet.

Alex. Last thing he did, dear queen,

He kiss'd,-the last of many doubled kisses,

This orient pearl;-his speech sticks in my heart.
Cleo. Mine ear must pluck it thence.

Alex. Good friend, quoth he,

Say, the firm Roman to great Egypt sends
This treasure of an oyster; at whose foot
To mend the petty present, I will piece

Her opulent throne with kingdoms; all the east,
Say thou, shall call her mistress. So he nodded,
And soberly did mount a termagant steed,

3. Who neigh'd so high, that what I would have spoke Was beastly dumb'd by him.

Cleo. What, was he sad, or merry?

Alex. Like to the time o' the year between the

extremes

Of hot and cold; he was nor sad, nor merry.

Cleo. O well-divided disposition!-Note him, Note him, good Charmian, 'tis the man; but note him:

He was not sad; for he would shine on those
That make their looks by his: he was not merry;
Which seem'd to tell them, his remembrance lay
In Egypt with his joy: but between both:
O heavenly mingle!-Be'st thou sad, or merry,
The violence of either thee becomes;

So does it no man else.-Met'st thou my posts?
Alex. Ay, madam, twenty several messengers:
Why do you send so thick?

Cleo. Who's born that day

When I forget to send to Antony,

Shall die a beggar.-Ink and paper, Charmian.-
Welcome, my good Alexas.-Did I, Charmian,
Ever love Cæsar so?

Char. O that brave Cæsar!

Cleo. Be choked with such another emphasis ! Say, the brave Antony.

Char. The valiant Cæsar!

Cleo. By Isis, I will give thee bloody teeth,
If thou with Cæsar paragon again

My man of men.

Char. By your most gracious pardon,

I sing but after you.

Cleo. My sallad days;

When I was green in judgment :-Cold in blood,"
To say, as I said then!-But, come, away:

Get me ink and paper: he shall have every day.
A several greeting, or I'll unpeople Egypt.

[Exeunt.