Officers, Soldiers, Messengers, and other Attendants. SCENE I. Alexandria. A room in CLEOPATRA's palace. Enter DEMETRIUS and PHILO. Phi. Nay, but this dotage of our general's O'erflows the measure: those his goodly eyes, Shakespeare. VI, 21 That o'er the files and musters of the war Have glow'd like plated Mars', now bend, now turn, Upon a tawny front: his captain's heart, Which in the scuffles of great fights hath burst The buckles on his breast, reneges all temper, And is become the bellows and the fan To cool a gipsy's lust. [Flourish within.] Look where they come: The triple pillar of the world transform'd Into a strumpet's fool: behold and see. Enter ANTONY and CLEOPATRA, with their Train; Eunuchs fanning her. Cleo. If it be love indeed, tell me how much. Ant. There's beggary in the love that can be reckon'd. Ant. Then must thou needs find out new heaven, new earth. Cleo. Nay, hear them, Antony: Ant. How, my love! your dismission Cleo. Perchance! nay, and most like: You must not stay here longer, Is come from Cæsar; therefore hear it, Antony. Where's Fulvia's process? Cæsar's I would say? — both? — Ant. Let Rome in Tiber melt, and the wide arch Cleo. Excellent falsehood! Why did he marry Fulvia, and not love her? I'll seem the fool I am not; Antony Will be himself. Ant. But stirr'd by Cleopatra. [Embracing. Now, for the love of Love and her soft hours, Without some pleasure now: what sport to-night? Cleo. Fie, wrangling queen! Whom every thing becomes, To-night we'll wander through the streets, and note [Exeunt Ant. and Cleo. with their Train. Dem. I'm full sorry [Exeur SCENE II. The same. Another room in the same. Enter CHARMIAN, IRAS, ALEXAS, and a Soothsayer. Char. Lord Alexas, sweet Alexas, most any thing Alexas, almost most absolute Alexas, where's the soothsayer that you praised so to the queen? O, that I knew this husband, which, you say, must charge his horns with garlands! Alex. Soothsayer, Sooth. Your will? Char. Is this the man? - Is't you, sir, that know things? A little I can read. Eno. Bring in the banquet quickly; wine enough Cleopatra's health to drink. Char. Good sir, give me good fortune. Sooth. I make not, but foresee. Char. Pray, then, foresee me one. Sooth. You shall be yet far fairer than you are Char. He means in flesh. Iras. No, you shall paint when you are old. Char. Wrinkles forbid! Alex. Vex not his prescience; be attentive. Sooth. You shall be more beloving than belov'd. Char. Good now, some excellent fortune! Let me be married to three kings in a forenoon, and widow them all: let me have a child at fifty, to whom Herod of Jewry may do homage: find me to marry me with Octavius Cæsar, and companion me with my mistress. Sooth. You shall outlive the lady whom you serve. Char. O excellent! I love long life better than figs. Sooth. You've seen and prov'd a fairer former fortune Thần that which is to approach. Char. Then belike my children shall have no names: prithee, how many boys and wenches must I have? Sooth. If every of your wishes had a womb, And fertile every wish, a million. Char. Out, fool! I forgive thee for a witch. - Alex. You think none but your sheets are privy to your wishes. Char. Nay, come, tell Iras hers. Eno. Mine, and most of our fortunes, to-night, shall be drunk to bed. Iras. There's a palm presages chastity, if nothing else. Char. E'en as the o'erflowing Nilus presageth famine. Iras. Go, you wild bedfellow, you cannot soothsay. Char. Nay, if an oily palm be not a fruitful prognostication, I cannot scratch mine ear. Prithee, tell her but a worky-day fortune. Sooth. Your fortunes are alike. - Iras. But how, but how? give me particulars. Sooth. I have said. 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 choose it? Iras. Not in my husband's nose. Alexas, Char. Our worser thoughts heavens mend! come, his fortune, his fortune! - O, let him marry a woman that cannot go, sweet Isis, I beseech thee! and let her die too, and give him a worse! and let worse follow worse, till the worst of all follow him laughing to his grave, fifty-fold a cuckold! Good Isis, hear me this prayer, though thou deny me a matter of more weight; good Isis, I beseech thee! Iras. Amen. Dear goddess, hear that prayer of the people! for, as it is a heart-breaking to see a handsome man loose-wived, so it is a deadly sorrow to behold a foul knave uncuckolded: therefore, dear Isis, keep decorum, and fortune him accordingly! Char. Amen. |