Iras. There's a palm prefages chastity, if nothing elfe.

Char. Ev'n as the o'er-flowing Nilus prefageth fa

mine.

Iras. Go, you wild bedfellow, you cannot foothfay. Char. Nay, if an oily palm be not a fruitful prognoftication, I cannot fcratch mine ear. Pr'ythee, tell her but a workyday fortune.

Sooth. Your fortunes are alike.

Iras. But how, but how?give me particulars. Sooth. I have faid.

Iras. Am I not an inch of fortune better than she? Char. Well, if you were but an inch of fortune better than I, where would you chufe it?

Iras. Not in my husband's nofe.

O, let him

Char. Our worfer thoughts heav'ns mend! Alexas, Come, his fortune; his fortune. marry a Woman that cannot go, fweet Ifis, I beseech thee; and let her die too, and give him a worse; and let worfe follew worft, 'till the worst of all follow him laughing to his Grave, fifty-fold a Cuckold! good Ifis, hear me this prayer, though thou deny me a matter of more weight; good Ifis, I beseech thee!

Iras. Amen, dear Goddefs, hear that prayer of the people! for, as it is a heart-breaking to fee a handfome man loofe-wiv'd, so it is a deadly forrow to behold a foul knave uncuckolded; therefore, dear Isis, keep decorum, and fortune him accordingly.

Char. Amen!

Alex. Lo, now if it lay in their hands to make me a cuckold, they would make themselves whores, but they'd do't

Eno.

H

SCENE

Enter Cleopatra.

USH! here comes Antony.,
Char. Not he, the Queen.

III.

Cleo.

Cleo. Was he not here?

Char. No, Madam.

Cleo. He was difpos'd to mirth, but on the fudden A Roman thought hath ftruck him. Enobarbus, Eno. Madam.

Cleo. Seek him, and bring him hither; where's Alexas?

Alex. Here at your fervice; my Lord approaches.

Enter Antony with a Messenger, and Attendants.
Cleo. We will not look upon him : go

with us.

[Exeunt. Mef. Fluvia thy Wife firft came into the field. Ant. Against my brother Lucius?

Mef. Ay, but foon that war had end, and the time's state

Made friends of them, jointing their force 'gainst

Cæfar:

Whose better iffue in the war from Italy,

Upon the first encounter, drave them.

Ant. Well, what worft?

Mef. The nature of bad news infects the teller. Ant. When it concerns the fool or coward; no.— Things, that are past, are done, with me. 'Tis thus ; Who tells me true, though in the tale lie death, I hear, as if he flatter'd.

Mef. Labienus (this is ftiff news)

Hath, with his Parthian force, extended Afia;
From Euphrates his conquering banner shook,
From Syria to Lydia, and Ionia;

Whilft

Ant. Antony, thou wouldst say

Mef. Oh, my Lord!

Ant. Speak to me home, mince not the gen'ral

tongue;

Name Cleopatra as fhe's call'd in Rome.

Rail thou in Fulvia's phrafe, and taunt my faults] With fuch full licence, as both truth and malice Have power to utter. Oh, then we bring both weeds, When our quick minds lie ftill; and our ill, told us, Is as our earing; fare thee well a while.

Mef. At your noble pleasure.

Ant. From Sicyon, how the news? fpeak there.
Mef. The Man from Sicyon, is there such an one?]
[Exit firf Meffenger.

Attend. He' ftays upon your will.

Ant. Let him appear;

Thefe ftrong Egyptian fetters I must break,
Or lofe myself in dotage. What are you?
Enter another Messenger, with a Letter.

2 Mef. Fulvia thy wife is dead,

Ant. Where died fhe ?

2 Mef. In Sicyon.

Her length of fick nefs, with what else more ferious Importeth thee to know, this bears.

Ant. Forbear me.

[Exit fecond Meffenger.
There's a great spirit gone! thus did I defire it.
What our contempts do often hurl from us,
We wish it ours again; the prefent pleasure,
By revolution lowring, does become

The oppofite of itfelf; fhe's good, being gone;
The hand could pluck her back, that fhov'd her on.
I muft from this enchanting Queen break off.
Ten thousand harms, more than the ills I know,
My idleness doth hatch. How now, Enobarbus?
Enter Enobarbus.

Eno. What's your pleasure, Sir?

Ant. I muft with hafte from hence.

Eno. Why, then we kill all our women.

We fee,

how mortal an unkindness is to them; if they fuffer

our departure, death's the word.

Ant. I must be gone.

Eno. Under a compelling occafion, let women die.

It

It were pity to caft them away for nothing; though between them and a great caufe, they would be esteem'd nothing. Cleopatra, catching but the leaft noife of this, dies inftantly; I have feen her die twenty times upon far poorer moment: I do think, there is mettle in death, which commits fome loving act upon her; fhe hath fuch a celerity in dying.

Ant. She is cunning paft man's thought.

Eno. Alack, Sir, no; her paffions are made of nothing but the finest part of pure love. We cannot call her winds and waters, fighs and tears: they are greater forms and tempefts than almanacks can report. This cannot be cunning in her: if it be, fhe makes a fhow'r of rain as well as Jove.

Ant. 'Would I had never feen her!

Eno. Oh, Sir, you had then left unfeen a wonderful piece of work, which, not to have been bleft withal, would have difcredited your travel.

Eno. Why, Sir, give the Gods a thankful facrifice: when it pleaseth their Deities to take the wife of a man from him, it fhews to man the tailor of the earth; comforting him therein, that when old robes are worn out, there are members to make new. If there were no more women but Fulvia, then had you indeed a cut, and the cafe were to be lamented: this grief is crowned with confolation; your old fmock brings forth a new petticoat, and, indeed, the tears live in an onion that fhould water this forrow.

Ant. The business, fhe hath broached in the state, Cannot endure my abfence.

Eno. And the business, you have broach'd here, cannot be without you; especially that of Cleopatra's, which wholly depends on your abode.

Ant.

Ant. No more light answers: let our officers Have notice what we purpofe. I fhall break The caufe of our expedience to the Queen, And get her leave to part. For not alone The death of Fulvia, with more urgent touches, Do ftrongly speak t'us; but the letters too Of many our contriving friends in Rome Petition us at home. Sextus Pompeius Hath giv'n the dare to Cæfar, and commands The Empire of the Sea. Our flipp`ry people, (Whose love is never link'd to the deferver, 'Till his deferts are paft,) begin to throw Pompey the Great and all his Dignities Upon his fon; who high in name and pow'r, Higher than both in blood and life, ftands up For the main Soldier; whofe quality going on, The fides o'th' world may danger. Much is breeding; Which, like the courfer's hair, hath yet but life, And not a ferpent's poifon. Say, our pleasure, To fuch whofe place is under us, requires Our quick remove from hence.

Cle.

Eno. I'll do't.

[Exeunt.

Enter Cleopatra, Charmian, Alexas, and Iras.

W Char.

THERE is he?

I did not fee him fince. Cleo. See, where he is, who's with him, what he does.

I did not fend you:-
:-If you find him fad,
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.

Cleo. What fhould I do, I do not?

Char. In each thing give him way, cross him in

nothing.

Cleo.