Say, I am dancing; if in mirth, report That I am fudden fick. Quick, and return. Char. Madam, methinks, if you did love him dearly, You do not hold the method to enforce The like from him. Clee. What should I do, I do not? Char. In each thing give him way, crofs him in nothing. Cleo. Thou teacheft, like a fool, the way to lose him. Char. Tempt him not fo, too far. I wish forIn time we hate that which we often fear. [bear; Enter Antony. But here comes Antony. Cleo. I'm fick, and fullen. Ant. I am forry to give breathing to my purpose. Cleo. Help me away, dear Charmian, I fhall fall; It cannot be thus long, the fides of nature Will not fuftain it. Ant. Now, my dearest Queen, [Seeming to faint. Cleo. Pray you, stand further from me. Cleo. I know, by that fame eye, there's fome good news. What lays the marry'd woman?—You may go; 'Would he had never given you leave to come! Let her not fay 'tis I that keep you here; I have no pow'r upon you. Hers you are. Cleo. O never was there Queen So mightily betray'd; yet at the first I faw the treafons planted. Ant. Cleopatra, Cleo. Why fhould I think you can be mine, and true, Though you with fwearing shake the throned gods, Who have been falfe to Fulvia? riotous madness, To be entangled with these mouth-made vows, Which break themselves in fwearing! Ant. Molt fweet Queen,— Cleo. Nay, pray you, feek no colour for you going, But bid farewell, and go: when you fued ftaying, Blifs in our brows' bent, none our parts fo poor, Art turn'd the greatest liar. Ant. How now, Lady? Cleo. I would I had thy inches; thou fhould'n know There were a heart in Ægypt. Ant. Hear me, Queen: The ftrong neceflity of time commands Breeds fcrupulous faction; the hated, grown to ftrength, Are newly grown to love; the condemn'd Pompey, It does from childishnefs. Can Fulvia die? Look here, and at thy fovereign leisure read Cleo. O moft falfe love! Where be the facred vials thou fhouldft fill i. e. had a fmack or flavour of heaven. Warb. His faults in him feem as the fpots of heav'n, More fiery by night's blackness; hereditary, Rather than purchas'd; what he cannot change, Than what he chufes. Caf. You're too indulgent. Let us grant it is not Amits to tumble on the bed of Ptolemy, To give a kingdom for a mirth, to sit And keep the turn of tippling with a flave, To reel the streets at noon, and ftand the buffet With knaves that smell of fweat; fay this becomeshim; As his compofure must be rare, indeed, Whom these things cannot blemish; yet muft An- As we rate boys, who being mature in knowledge, Enter a Meffenger. Lep. Here's more news. Me Thy biddings have been done; and every hour, Moft noble Cæfar, fhalt thou have report How 'tis abroad. Pompey is ftrong at fea;. Cæf. I fhould have known no less. It hath been taught us from the primal ftate, The word light is one of Shakespeare's favourite play-things. The, fenfe is, his trafling levity throws fo much burden upon us. Johnson. This common 'Comes dear'd, by being lack'd. body, Like to a vagabond flag upon the ftream, Goes to, and back, lacquing the varying tide, To rot itself with motion. Meff. Cæfar, I bring thee word, Menecrates and Menas, famous pirates, Make the fea ferve them; which they ear and wound With keels of every kind. Many hot inrodes Caf. Antony, Leave thy lafcivious waffails. When thou once Wert beaten from Modena, where thou flew'st Hirtius and Panfa confuls, at thy heel : Did famine follow, whom thou fought'st against, The rougheft berry on the rudeft hedge: Lep. It is pity of him. Caf. Let his fhames quickly Drive him to Rome; time is it that we twain i. e. Floating backwards and forwards with the variation of the tide, like a page, or lacquey, at his master's heels. Theobald. Thrives in our idleness. Lep. To-morrow, Cæfar, I fhall be furnish'd to inform you rightly, Caf. Till which encounter, Lep. Farewell, my Lord. What you fhall know meantime of ftirs abroad, I fhall befeech you let me be partaker. Caf. Doubt not, Sir; I knew it for my bond. [Exeunt SCENE VI. Changes to the Palace in Alexandria. Enter Cleopatra, Charmian, Iras, and Mardian. Cleo. Charmian, Char. Madam? Cleo. Ha, ha-give me to drink Mandragora. Cleo. That I might fleep out this great gap of My Antony is away. Char. You think of him too much. Cleo. O, 'tis treafon. Char. Madam, I trust not fo. Cleo. Thou eunuch, Mardian! Mar. What's your Highnefs' pleasure ? [time Cleo. Not now to hear thee fing. I take no pleasure In aught an eunuch has; 'tis well for thee, Cleo. Indeed? Mar. Not in deed, Madam; for I can do nothing But what in deed is honeft to be done : Yet have I fierce affections, and think What Venus did with Mars. Cleo. Oh Charmian ! |