Cleo. Why should I think you can be mine and true, Though you in swearing shake the throned gods, Who have been false to Fulvia? Riotous madness, To be entangled with those mouth-made vows, Which break themselves in swearing!

Ant.

Most sweet queen,

Cleo. Nay, pray you, seek no colour for your going,
But bid farewell, and go: when you su'd staying,
Then was the time for words: no going then ;—

Eternity was in our lips and eyes,

Bliss in our brows' bent; none our parts so poor,
But was a race of heaven: they are so still,

Or thou, the greatest soldier of the world,
Art turn'd the greatest liar.

Ant.

How now, lady!

Cleo. I would I had thy inches; thou shouldst know There were a heart in Egypt.

Ant.

Hear me, queen:

The strong necessity of time commands

Our services awhile; but my full heart
Remains in use with you. Our Italy

Shines o'er with civil swords: Sextus Pompeius
Makes his approaches to the port of Rome: .

Equality of two domestic powers

Breed (13) scrupulous faction: the hated, grown to strength,

Are newly grown to love: the condemn'd Pompey,
Rich in his father's honour, creeps apace

Into the hearts of such as have not thriv'd

Upon the present state, whose numbers threaten;
And quietness, grown sick of rest, would purge
By any desperate change: my more particular,
And that which most with you should safe my going,
Is Fulvia's death.

Cleo. Though age from folly could not give me freedom, It does from childishness:-can Fulvia die?

Ant. She's dead, my queen:

Look here, and, at thy sovereign leisure, read
The garboils she awak'd; at the last, best:
See when and where she died.

Cleo.

O most false love!

Where be the sacred vials thou shouldst fill
With sorrowful water? Now I see, I see,
In Fulvia's death, how mine receiv'd shall be.

Ant. Quarrel no more, but be prepar'd to know
The purposes I bear; which are, or cease,
As you shall give the advice: by the fire
That quickens Nilus' slime, I go from hence
Thy soldier, servant; making peace or war
As thou affect'st.

Cleo.

Cut my lace, Charmian, come ;But let it be:-I am quickly ill, and well,

So Antony loves.

Ant.

My precious queen, forbear;

And give true evidence (14) to his love, which stands
An honourable trial.

I prithee, turn aside, and weep for her;
Then bid adieu to me, and say the tears
Belong to Egypt: good now, play one scene
Of excellent dissembling; and let it look
Like perfect honour.

Ant.

You'll heat my blood: no more.
Cleo. You can do better yet; but this is meetly.

Ant. Now, by my (15) sword,—

Cleo.

And target. Still he mends;

But this is not the best:-look, prithee, Charmian,

How this Herculean Roman does become

The carriage of his chafe.

Ant. I'll leave you, lady.
Cleo.

Courteous lord, one word.

Sir, you and I must part,-but that's not it:
Sir, you and I have lov'd, but there's not it;
That you know well: something it is I would,—
O, my oblivion is a very Antony,

And I am all forgotten.

Ant.

But that your royalty

Holds idleness your subject, I should take you

For idleness itself.

To bear such idleness so near the heart

As Cleopatra this. But, sir, forgive me;
Since my becomings kill me, when they do not
Eye well to you: your honour calls you hence;
Therefore be deaf to my unpitied folly,

And all the gods go with you! upon your sword
Sit laurel victory! and smooth success

Be strew'd before your feet!

Ant.

Let us go. Come;
Our separation so abides, and flies,

That thou, residing here, go'st yet with me,
And I, hence fleeting, here remain with thee.
Away!

[Exeunt.

SCENE IV. Rome. An apartment in CÆSAR's house.

Enter OCTAVIUS CÆSAR, LEPIDUS, and Attendants. Cæs. You may see, Lepidus, and henceforth know, It is not Cæsar's natural vice to hate

Our (16) great competitor: from Alexandria

This is the news:-he fishes, drinks, and wastes
The lamps of night in revel: is not more manlike
Than Cleopatra; nor the queen of Ptolemy

More womanly than he: hardly gave audience, or

Vouchsaf'd (17) to think he had partners: you shall find there A man who is the abstract (18) of all faults

That all men follow.

Lep.

I must not think there are

Evils enow to darken all his goodness:

His faults, in him, seem as the spots of heaven,
More fiery by night's blackness; hereditary,
Rather than purchas'd; what he cannot change,
Than what he chooses.

Cæs. You are too indulgent. Let us grant, it is not
Amiss to tumble on the bed of Ptolemy;

To give a kingdom for a mirth; to sit

And keep the turn of tippling with a slave ;

To reel the streets at noon, and stand the buffet

With knaves that smell of sweat: say this becomes him,— As his composure must be rare indeed

Whom these things cannot blemish,—yet must Antony

No way excuse his soils, (19) when we do bear
So great weight in his lightness. If he fill'd
His vacancy with his voluptuousness,

Full surfeits, and the dryness of his bones,
Call() on him for 't: but to confound such time,
That drums him from his sport, and speaks as loud
As his own state and ours,-'tis to be chid
As we rate boys, who, being mature in knowledge,
Pawn their experience to their present pleasure,
And so rebel to judgment.

Lep.

Enter a Messenger.

Here's more news.

Mess. Thy biddings have been done; and every hour, Most noble Cæsar, shalt thou have report

How 'tis abroad. Pompey is strong at sea;
And it appears he is belov'd of those

That only have fear'd Cæsar: to the ports
The discontents repair, and men's reports
Give him much wrong'd.

Cæs.

I should have known no less:

It hath been taught us from the primal state,
That he which is was wish'd until he were;

And the ebb'd man, ne'er lov'd till ne'er worth love,
Comes dear'd (21) by being lack'd. This common body,
Like to a vagabond flag upon the stream,

Goes to and back, lackeying (22) the varying tide,

To rot itself with motion.

Mess.

Cæsar, I bring thee word,

Menecrates and Menas, famous pirates,

Make the sea serve them, which they ear and wound
With keels of every kind: many hot inroads

They make in Italy; the borders maritime

Lack blood to think on't, and flush youth revolt:

No vessel can peep forth, but 'tis as soon

Taken as seen; for Pompey's name strikes more
Than could his war resisted.

Leave thy lascivious wassails.(23) When thou once
Wast beaten from Modena, where thou slew'st
Hirtius and Pansa, consuls, at thy heel

Did famine follow; whom thou fought'st against,
Though daintily brought up, with patience more
Than savages could suffer: thou didst drink
The stale of horses, and the gilded puddle

Which beasts would cough at: thy palate then did deign
The roughest berry on the rudest hedge;

Yea, like the stag, when snow the pasture sheets,
The barks of trees thou browsed'st; on the Alps
It is reported thou didst eat strange flesh,
Which some did die to look on: and all this
(It wounds thine honour that I speak it now)
Was borne so like a soldier, that thy cheek
So much as lank'd not.

Lep.

'Tis pity of him.

Cæs. Let his shames quickly

Drive him to Rome: 'tis time we twain (24)

Did show ourselves i' the field; and to that end
Assemble we (25) immediate council: Pompey
Thrives in our idleness.

Lep.

To-morrow, Cæsar,

I shall be furnish'd to inform you rightly
Both what by sea and land I can be able
To front this present time.

Cæs.

Till which encounter,

It is my business too. Farewell.

Lep. Farewell, my lord: what you shall know meantime

Of stirs abroad, I shall beseech you, sir,

To let me be partaker.

Cæs.

I knew it for my bond.

Doubt not, sir;

[Exeunt.