This foul Egyptian hath betrayed me:
My fleet hath yielded to the foe; and yonder
They cast their caps up, and carouse together
Like friends long lost.-Triple-turned whore!
't is thou

Hast sold me to this novice: and my heart
Makes only war on thee.—Bid them all fly :
For when I am revenged upon my charm,
I have done all.-Bid them all fly; be gone!
[Exit SCARUS.

O sun, thy uprise shall I see no more!
Fortune and Antony part here; even here

Do we shake hands.-All come to this?-The hearts

That spanielled me at heels, to whom I gave
Their wishes, do discandy, melt their sweets
On blossoming Cæsar: and this pine is barked,
That overtopped them all. Betrayed I am :
O this false soul of Egypt! this grave charm,—
Whose eye becked forth my wars, and called
them home;

Whose bosom was my crownet, my chief end,
Like a right gipsy, hath, at fast and loose,
Beguiled me to the very heart of loss.—
What, Eros, Eros!

Enter CLEOPATRA.

Ah, thou spell: avaunt!

Cleo. Why is my lord enraged against his love?

Ant. Vanish; or I shall give thee thy deserving, And blemish Cæsar's triumph. Let him take

thee,

And hoist thee up to the shouting plebeians:
Follow his chariot, like the greatest spot
Of all thy sex most monster-like, be shewn
For poor'st diminutives, to dolts; and let
Patient Octavia plough thy visage up
With her preparéd nails. [Exit CLEOPATRA.
'Tis well thou 'rt gone,
If it be well to live: but better 't were
Thou fell'st into my fury; for one death
Might have prevented many.-Eros, ho!—
The shirt of Nessus is upon me: teach me,
Alcides, thou mine ancestor, thy rage:
Let me lodge Lichas on the horns o' the moon ;
And with those hands, that grasped the heaviest

club,

Subdue my worthiest self. The witch shall die: To the Roman boy she hath sold me, and I fall

Under this plot: she dies for 't.-Eros, ho! [Exit.

Ant. My good knave, Eros, now thy captain is Even such a body: here I am Antony; Yet cannot hold this visible shape, my knave. I made these wars for Egypt; and the queen (Whose heart I thought I had, for she had mine; Which, whilst it was mine, had annexed unto 't A million more, now lost)-she, Eros, has Packed cards with Cæsar, and false played my glory Unto an enemy's triumph.

Nay, weep not, gentle Eros: there is left us Ourselves to end ourselves.-O, thy vile lady!

Ant. Eros, unarm: the long day's task is done, And we must sleep.—That thou depart'st hence safe

Does pay thy labour richly: go.-[Exit MARDIAN.
Off, pluck off!—

The sevenfold shield of Ajax cannot keep
The battery from my heart. O cleave, my sides!
Heart, once be stronger than thy continent;
Crack thy frail case!-Apace, Eros, apace.—
No more a soldier: bruiséd pieces, go;
You have been nobly borne.-From me awhile.—
[Exit EROS.

I will o'ertake thee, Cleopatra, and
Weep for my pardon. So it must be, for now
All length is torture. Since the torch is out,
Lie down and stray no further: now all labour
Mars what it does; yea, very force entangles
Itself with strength: seal then, and all is done.-
Eros!-I come, my queen :-Eros!-Stay for me:
Where souls do couch on flowers we'll hand in hand,
And with our sprightly port make the ghosts gaze:
Dido and her Æneas shall want troops,
And all the haunt be ours.-Come, Eros, Eros!
Re-enter EROS.

Eros. What would my lord?
Ant.

Since Cleopatra died,

I have lived in such dishonour that the gods
Detest my baseness. I, that with my sword
Quartered the world, and o'er green Neptune's
back

With ships made cities, condemn myself, to lack
The courage of a woman: less noble mind
Than she, which, by her death, our Cæsar tells,
"I am conqueror of myself." Thou art sworn, Eros,
That, when the exigent should come (which now
Is come indeed), when I should see behind me
The inevitable prosecution of disgrace

And horror, that, on my command, thou then
Wouldst kill me:-do 't; the time is come:
Thou strik'st not me; 'tis Cæsar thou defeat'st.
Put colour in thy cheek.

To do this when I bade thee? Do it at once;
Or thy precedent services are all
But accidents unpurposed. Draw, and come.
Eros. Turn from me, then, that noble coun-
tenance,

Wherein the worship of the whole world lies.
Ant. Lo thee.
[Turning from him.

Eros. My sword is drawn.
Ant.

Then let it do at once

The thing why thou hast drawn it.
My dear master,

Eros.
My captain, and my emperor, let me say,
Before I strike this bloody stroke, farewell.
Ant. "Tis said, man;—and farewell.
Eros. Farewell, great chief. Shall I strike now?
Now, Eros.
Eros. Why, there then!

Ant.

[Falls on his sword. Thus do I escape the sorrow

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

The varying shore o' the world!-0 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.

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.

Caes. What is 't thou sayst?

Der. I say, O Cæsar, Antony is dead. Cas. 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 touched.

[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?