Alexandria. A Room in the Palace. | |
| |
Enter CLEOPATRA, CHARMIAN, IRAS, and MARDIAN. | |
| Cleo. Charmian! | |
| Char. Madam! | 4 |
| Cleo. Ha, ha! | |
| Give me to drink mandragora. | |
| Char. Why, madam? | |
| Cleo. That I might sleep out this great gap of time | 8 |
| My Antony is away. | |
| Char. You think of him too much. | |
| Cleo. O! ’tis treason. | |
| Char. Madam, I trust, not so. | 12 |
| Cleo. Thou, eunuch Mardian! | |
| Mar. What ’s your highness’ pleasure? | |
| Cleo. Not now to hear thee sing; I take no pleasure | |
| In aught a eunuch has. ’Tis well for thee, | 16 |
| That, being unseminar’d, thy freer thoughts | |
| May not fly forth of Egypt. Hast thou affections? | |
| Mar. Yes, gracious madam. | |
| Cleo. Indeed! | 20 |
| 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. | 24 |
| 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! | 28 |
| Do bravely, horse, for wot’st thou whom thou mov’st? | |
| The demi-Atlas of this earth, the arm | |
| And burgonet of men. He’s speaking now, | |
| Or murmuring ‘Where’s my serpent of old Nile?’ | 32 |
| For so he calls me. Now I feed myself | |
| With most delicious poison. Think on me, | |
| That am with Phœbus’ amorous pinches black, | |
| And wrinkled deep in time? Broad-fronted Cæsar, | 36 |
| 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 aspect and die | 40 |
| With looking on his life. | |
| |
Enter ALEXAS. | |
| Alex. Sovereign of Egypt, hail! | |
| Cleo. How much unlike art thou Mark Antony! | 44 |
| Yet, coming from him, that great medicine hath | |
| With his tinct gilded thee. | |
| How goes it with my brave Mark Antony? | |
| Alex. Last thing he did, dear queen, | 48 |
| 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, | 52 |
| ‘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, | 56 |
| Say thou, shall call her mistress.’ So he nodded, | |
| And soberly did mount an arm-gaunt steed, | |
| Who neigh’d so high that what I would have spoke | |
| Was beastly dumb’d by him. | 60 |
| 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, | 64 |
| 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 | 68 |
| 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. Mett’st thou my posts? | 72 |
| 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, | 76 |
| Shall die a beggar. Ink and paper, Charmian. | |
| Welcome, my good Alexas. Did I, Charmian, | |
| Ever love Cæsar so? | |
| Char. O! that brave Cæsar. | 80 |
| Cleo. Be chok’d with such another emphasis! | |
| Say the brave Antony. | |
| Char. The valiant Cæsar! | |
| Cleo. By Isis, I will give thee bloody teeth, | 84 |
| If thou with Cæsar paragon again | |
| My man of men. | |
| Char. By your most gracious pardon, | |
| I sing but after you. | 88 |
| Cleo. My salad days, | |
| When I was green in judgment, cold in blood, | |
| To say as I said then! But come, away; | |
| Get me ink and paper: | 92 |
| He shall have every day a several greeting, | |
| Or I’ll unpeople Egypt. [Exeunt. | |
