ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA. ACT I. SCENE I-Alexandria. A Room in Cleopatra's palace. Enter DEMETRIUS and PHILO. Phi. NAY, but this dotage of our general's 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 And is become the bellows, and the fan, To cool a gipsy's lust. Look, where they come : Flourish. Enter ANTONY and CLEOPATRA, with their train; Eunuchs fanning her. Take but good note, and you shall see in him Into a strumpet's fool: behold and see! 2 Cleo. If it be love indeed, tell me how much. Ant. There's beggary in the love that can be reckon'd. -RENEGES all temper ;] i. e., Denies or refuses all temper. See King Lear, act ii, sc. 2, p. 45, where the word occurs. Cleo. I'll set a bourn how far to be beloved. Ant. Then must thou needs find out new heaven, new Fulvia, perchance, is angry; or, who knows If the scarce-bearded Cæsar have not sent Ant. How, my love! Cleo. Perchance,-nay, and most like,— You must not stay here longer; your dismission Both ? Call in the messengers.-As I am Egypt's queen, [Embracing. 3-the world to WEET,] . ., to wit or know, i.e., "witness the world." We stand up peerless. Cleo. Excellent falsehood! Why did he marry Fulvia, and not love her? I'll seem the fool I am not; Anthony Will be himself. Ant. But stirr'd by Cleopatra.— Now, for the love of Love, and her soft hours, Let's not confound the time with conference harsh : Without some pleasure now. What sport to-night? Fie, wrangling queen! Whom everything becomes, to chide, to laugh, To-night we'll wander through the streets, and note Last night you did desire it.-Speak not to us. [Exeunt ANT., CLEOP., and train. Dem. Is Cæsar with Antonius prized so slight? Dem. I am full sorry, That he approves the common liar, who Exeunt, severally. SCENE II.-The Same. Another Room. Enter CHARMIAN, IRAS, ALEXAS, and a Soothsayer. Char. Lord Alexas, most sweet Alexas, most anything 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? Sooth. In nature's infinite book of secrecy A little I can read. Alex. Show him your hand. [To CHAR. Enter ENOBARBUS. 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. Hush! Sooth. You shall be more beloving, than belov'd. Alex. Nay, hear him. 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 have seen, and proved a fairer former fortune Than 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. Alex. We'll know all our fortunes. 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. Even 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? ♦ And FERTILE every wish,] The old copies read "foretell every wish" the correction was made by Warburton; but, possibly, fruitful might be better, and such is the emendation in the Corr. fol. 1632. |