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Alexandria. A Room in the Palace. | |
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Enter CLEOPATRA, CHARMIAN, IRAS, and ALEXAS. | |
| Cleo. Where is the fellow? | |
| Alex. Half afeard to come. | |
| Cleo. Go to, go to. | 5 |
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Enter a Messenger. | |
| Come hither, sir. | |
| Alex. Good majesty, | |
| Herod of Jewry dare not look upon you | |
| But when you are well pleas’d. | 10 |
| Cleo. That Herod’s head | |
| I’ll have; but how, when Antony is gone | |
| Through whom I might command it? Come thou near. | |
| Mess. Most gracious majesty! | |
| Cleo. Didst thou behold | 15 |
| Octavia? | |
| Mess. Ay, dread queen. | |
| Cleo. Where? | |
| Mess. Madam, in Rome; | |
| I look’d her in the face, and saw her led | 20 |
| Between her brother and Mark Antony. | |
| Cleo. Is she as tall as me? | |
| Mess. She is not, madam. | |
| Cleo. Didst hear her speak? is she shrilltongu’d, or low? | |
| Mess. Madam, I heard her speak; she is low-voic’d. | 25 |
| Cleo. That’s not so good. He cannot like her long. | |
| Char. Like her! O Isis! ’tis impossible. | |
| Cleo. I think so, Charmian: dull of tongue, and dwarfish! | |
| What majesty is in her gait? Remember, | |
| If e’er thou look’dst on majesty. | 30 |
| Mess. She creeps; | |
| Her motion and her station are as one; | |
| She shows a body rather than a life, | |
| A statue than a breather. | |
| Cleo. Is this certain? | 35 |
| Mess. Or I have no observance. | |
| Char. Three in Egypt | |
| Cannot make better note. | |
| Cleo. He’s very knowing, | |
| I do perceive ’t. There’s nothing in her yet. | 40 |
| The fellow has good judgment. | |
| Char. Excellent. | |
| Cleo. Guess at her years, I prithee. | |
| Mess. Madam, | |
| She was a widow,— | 45 |
| Cleo. Widow! Charmian, hark. | |
| Mess. And I do think she’s thirty. | |
| Cleo. Bear’st thou her face in mind? is ’t long or round? | |
| Mess. Round even to faultiness. | |
| Cleo. For the most part, too, they are foolish that are so. | 50 |
| Her hair, what colour? | |
| Mess. Brown, madam; and her forehead | |
| As low as she would wish it. | |
| Cleo. There’s gold for thee: | |
| Thou must not take my former sharpness ill. | 55 |
| I will employ thee back again; I find thee | |
| Most fit for business. Go, make thee ready; | |
| Our letters are prepar’d. [Exit Messenger. | |
| Char. A proper man. | |
| Cleo. Indeed, he is so; I repent me much | 60 |
| That so I harried him. Why, methinks, by him, | |
| This creature’s no such thing. | |
| Char. Nothing, madam. | |
| Cleo. The man hath seen some majesty, and should know. | |
| Char. Hath he seen majesty? Isis else defend, | 65 |
| And serving you so long! | |
| Cleo. I have one thing more to ask him yet, good Charmian: | |
| But ’tis no matter; thou shalt bring him to me | |
| Where I will write. All may be well enough. | |
| Char. I warrant you, madam. [Exeunt. | 70 |
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