Antony and Cleopatra
ACT III SCENE XIII | Alexandria. Cleopatra’s palace. | |
[Enter CLEOPATRA, DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS, CHARMIAN, and IRAS] | ||
CLEOPATRA | What shall we do, Enobarbus? | |
DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS | Think, and die. | |
CLEOPATRA | Is Antony or we in fault for this? | |
DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS | Antony only, that would make his will | |
Lord of his reason. What though you fled | 5 | |
From that great face of war, whose several ranges | ||
Frighted each other? why should he follow? | ||
The itch of his affection should not then | ||
Have nick’d his captainship; at such a point, | ||
When half to half the world opposed, he being | 10 | |
The meered question: ’twas a shame no less | ||
Than was his loss, to course your flying flags, | ||
And leave his navy gazing. | ||
CLEOPATRA | Prithee, peace. | |
[Enter MARK ANTONY with EUPHRONIUS, the Ambassador] | ||
MARK ANTONY | Is that his answer? | 15 |
EUPHRONIUS | Ay, my lord. | |
MARK ANTONY | The queen shall then have courtesy, so she | |
Will yield us up. | ||
EUPHRONIUS | He says so. | |
MARK ANTONY | Let her know’t. | 20 |
To the boy Caesar send this grizzled head, | ||
And he will fill thy wishes to the brim | ||
With principalities. | ||
CLEOPATRA | That head, my lord? | |
MARK ANTONY | To him again: tell him he wears the rose | 25 |
Of youth upon him; from which the world should note | ||
Something particular: his coin, ships, legions, | ||
May be a coward’s; whose ministers would prevail | ||
Under the service of a child as soon | ||
As i’ the command of Caesar: I dare him therefore | 30 | |
To lay his gay comparisons apart, | ||
And answer me declined, sword against sword, | ||
Ourselves alone. I’ll write it: follow me. | ||
[Exeunt MARK ANTONY and EUPHRONIUS] | ||
DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS | [Aside] Yes, like enough, high-battled Caesar will | |
Unstate his happiness, and be staged to the show, | 35 | |
Against a sworder! I see men’s judgments are | ||
A parcel of their fortunes; and things outward | ||
Do draw the inward quality after them, | ||
To suffer all alike. That he should dream, | ||
Knowing all measures, the full Caesar will | 40 | |
Answer his emptiness! Caesar, thou hast subdued | ||
His judgment too. | ||
[Enter an Attendant] | ||
Attendant | A messenger from CAESAR. | |
CLEOPATRA | What, no more ceremony? See, my women! | |
Against the blown rose may they stop their nose | 45 | |
That kneel’d unto the buds. Admit him, sir. | ||
[Exit Attendant] | ||
DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS | [Aside] Mine honesty and I begin to square. | |
The loyalty well held to fools does make | ||
Our faith mere folly: yet he that can endure | ||
To follow with allegiance a fall’n lord | 50 | |
Does conquer him that did his master conquer | ||
And earns a place i’ the story. | ||
[Enter THYREUS] | ||
CLEOPATRA | Caesar’s will? | |
THYREUS | Hear it apart. | |
CLEOPATRA | None but friends: say boldly. | 55 |
THYREUS | So, haply, are they friends to Antony. | |
DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS | He needs as many, sir, as Caesar has; | |
Or needs not us. If Caesar please, our master | ||
Will leap to be his friend: for us, you know, | ||
Whose he is we are, and that is, Caesar’s. | 60 | |
THYREUS | So. | |
Thus then, thou most renown’d: Caesar entreats, | ||
Not to consider in what case thou stand’st, | ||
Further than he is Caesar. | ||
CLEOPATRA | Go on: right royal. | 65 |
THYREUS | He knows that you embrace not Antony | |
As you did love, but as you fear’d him. | ||
CLEOPATRA | O! | |
THYREUS | The scars upon your honour, therefore, he | |
Does pity, as constrained blemishes, | 70 | |
Not as deserved. | ||
CLEOPATRA | He is a god, and knows | |
What is most right: mine honour was not yielded, | ||
But conquer’d merely. | ||
DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS | [Aside] To be sure of that, | 75 |
I will ask Antony. Sir, sir, thou art so leaky, | ||
That we must leave thee to thy sinking, for | ||
Thy dearest quit thee. | ||
[Exit] | ||
THYREUS | Shall I say to Caesar | |
What you require of him? for he partly begs | 80 | |
To be desired to give. It much would please him, | ||
That of his fortunes you should make a staff | ||
To lean upon: but it would warm his spirits, | ||
To hear from me you had left Antony, | ||
And put yourself under his shrowd, | 85 | |
The universal landlord. | ||
CLEOPATRA | What’s your name? | |
THYREUS | My name is Thyreus. | |
CLEOPATRA | Most kind messenger, | |
Say to great Caesar this: in deputation | 90 | |
I kiss his conquering hand: tell him, I am prompt | ||
To lay my crown at ‘s feet, and there to kneel: | ||
Tell him from his all-obeying breath I hear | ||
The doom of Egypt. | ||
THYREUS | ‘Tis your noblest course. | 95 |
Wisdom and fortune combating together, | ||
If that the former dare but what it can, | ||
No chance may shake it. Give me grace to lay | ||
My duty on your hand. | ||
CLEOPATRA | Your Caesar’s father oft, | 100 |
When he hath mused of taking kingdoms in, | ||
Bestow’d his lips on that unworthy place, | ||
As it rain’d kisses. | ||
[Re-enter MARK ANTONY and DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS] | ||
MARK ANTONY | Favours, by Jove that thunders! | |
What art thou, fellow? | 105 | |
THYREUS | One that but performs | |
The bidding of the fullest man, and worthiest | ||
To have command obey’d. | ||
DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS | [Aside] You will be whipp’d. | |
MARK ANTONY | Approach, there! Ah, you kite! Now, gods | 110 |
and devils! | ||
Authority melts from me: of late, when I cried ‘Ho!’ | ||
Like boys unto a muss, kings would start forth, | ||
And cry ‘Your will?’ Have you no ears? I am | ||
Antony yet. | 115 | |
[Enter Attendants] | ||
Take hence this Jack, and whip him. | ||
DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS | [Aside] ‘Tis better playing with a lion’s whelp | |
Than with an old one dying. | ||
MARK ANTONY | Moon and stars! | |
Whip him. Were’t twenty of the greatest tributaries | 120 | |
That do acknowledge Caesar, should I find them | ||
So saucy with the hand of she here,–what’s her name, | ||
Since she was Cleopatra? Whip him, fellows, | ||
Till, like a boy, you see him cringe his face, | ||
And whine aloud for mercy: take him hence. | 125 | |
THYREUS | Mark Antony! | |
MARK ANTONY | Tug him away: being whipp’d, | |
Bring him again: this Jack of Caesar’s shall | ||
Bear us an errand to him. | ||
[Exeunt Attendants with THYREUS] | ||
You were half blasted ere I knew you: ha! | 130 | |
Have I my pillow left unpress’d in Rome, | ||
Forborne the getting of a lawful race, | ||
And by a gem of women, to be abused | ||
By one that looks on feeders? | ||
CLEOPATRA | Good my lord,– | 135 |
MARK ANTONY | You have been a boggler ever: | |
But when we in our viciousness grow hard– | ||
O misery on’t!–the wise gods seel our eyes; | ||
In our own filth drop our clear judgments; make us | ||
Adore our errors; laugh at’s, while we strut | 140 | |
To our confusion. | ||
CLEOPATRA | O, is’t come to this? | |
MARK ANTONY | I found you as a morsel cold upon | |
Dead Caesar’s trencher; nay, you were a fragment | ||
Of Cneius Pompey’s; besides what hotter hours, | 145 | |
Unregister’d in vulgar fame, you have | ||
Luxuriously pick’d out: for, I am sure, | ||
Though you can guess what temperance should be, | ||
You know not what it is. | ||
CLEOPATRA | Wherefore is this? | 150 |
MARK ANTONY | To let a fellow that will take rewards | |
And say ‘God quit you!’ be familiar with | ||
My playfellow, your hand; this kingly seal | ||
And plighter of high hearts! O, that I were | ||
Upon the hill of Basan, to outroar | 155 | |
The horned herd! for I have savage cause; | ||
And to proclaim it civilly, were like | ||
A halter’d neck which does the hangman thank | ||
For being yare about him. | ||
[Re-enter Attendants with THYREUS] | ||
Is he whipp’d? | 160 | |
First Attendant | Soundly, my lord. | |
MARK ANTONY | Cried he? and begg’d a’ pardon? | |
First Attendant | He did ask favour. | |
MARK ANTONY | If that thy father live, let him repent | |
Thou wast not made his daughter; and be thou sorry | 165 | |
To follow Caesar in his triumph, since | ||
Thou hast been whipp’d for following him: henceforth | ||
The white hand of a lady fever thee, | ||
Shake thou to look on ‘t. Get thee back to Caesar, | ||
Tell him thy entertainment: look, thou say | 170 | |
He makes me angry with him; for he seems | ||
Proud and disdainful, harping on what I am, | ||
Not what he knew I was: he makes me angry; | ||
And at this time most easy ’tis to do’t, | ||
When my good stars, that were my former guides, | 175 | |
Have empty left their orbs, and shot their fires | ||
Into the abysm of hell. If he mislike | ||
My speech and what is done, tell him he has | ||
Hipparchus, my enfranched bondman, whom | ||
He may at pleasure whip, or hang, or torture, | 180 | |
As he shall like, to quit me: urge it thou: | ||
Hence with thy stripes, begone! | ||
[Exit THYREUS] | ||
CLEOPATRA | Have you done yet? | |
MARK ANTONY | Alack, our terrene moon | |
Is now eclipsed; and it portends alone | 185 | |
The fall of Antony! | ||
CLEOPATRA | I must stay his time. | |
MARK ANTONY | To flatter Caesar, would you mingle eyes | |
With one that ties his points? | ||
CLEOPATRA | Not know me yet? | 190 |
MARK ANTONY | Cold-hearted toward me? | |
CLEOPATRA | Ah, dear, if I be so, | |
From my cold heart let heaven engender hail, | ||
And poison it in the source; and the first stone | ||
Drop in my neck: as it determines, so | 195 | |
Dissolve my life! The next Caesarion smite! | ||
Till by degrees the memory of my womb, | ||
Together with my brave Egyptians all, | ||
By the discandying of this pelleted storm, | ||
Lie graveless, till the flies and gnats of Nile | 200 | |
Have buried them for prey! | ||
MARK ANTONY | I am satisfied. | |
Caesar sits down in Alexandria; where | ||
I will oppose his fate. Our force by land | ||
Hath nobly held; our sever’d navy too | 205 | |
Have knit again, and fleet, threatening most sea-like. | ||
Where hast thou been, my heart? Dost thou hear, lady? | ||
If from the field I shall return once more | ||
To kiss these lips, I will appear in blood; | ||
I and my sword will earn our chronicle: | 210 | |
There’s hope in’t yet. | ||
CLEOPATRA | That’s my brave lord! | |
MARK ANTONY | I will be treble-sinew’d, hearted, breathed, | |
And fight maliciously: for when mine hours | ||
Were nice and lucky, men did ransom lives | 215 | |
Of me for jests; but now I’ll set my teeth, | ||
And send to darkness all that stop me. Come, | ||
Let’s have one other gaudy night: call to me | ||
All my sad captains; fill our bowls once more; | ||
Let’s mock the midnight bell. | 220 | |
CLEOPATRA | It is my birth-day: | |
I had thought to have held it poor: but, since my lord | ||
Is Antony again, I will be Cleopatra. | ||
MARK ANTONY | We will yet do well. | |
CLEOPATRA | Call all his noble captains to my lord. | 225 |
MARK ANTONY | Do so, we’ll speak to them; and to-night I’ll force | |
The wine peep through their scars. Come on, my queen; | ||
There’s sap in’t yet. The next time I do fight, | ||
I’ll make death love me; for I will contend | ||
Even with his pestilent scythe. | 230 | |
[Exeunt all but DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS] | ||
DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS | Now he’ll outstare the lightning. To be furious, | |
Is to be frighted out of fear; and in that mood | ||
The dove will peck the estridge; and I see still, | ||
A diminution in our captain’s brain | ||
Restores his heart: when valour preys on reason, | 235 | |
It eats the sword it fights with. I will seek | ||
Some way to leave him. | ||
[Exit] |
Antony and Cleopatra, Act 4, Scene 1
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Explanatory Notes for Act 3, Scene 13
From Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra. Ed. M. Eaton. Boston: Educational Publishing Company.
(Line numbers have been altered.)
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2. Think, and die. Take thought, despair and die.
6. Ranges. Ranks.
9. Nick’d. Disfigure, mark with folly.
11. Meered. The whole question, the only cause of dispute. The etymology of this word is somewhat doubtful.
12. Course. Follow as a hunter courses after game.
13. Gazing. That is, gazing after him in consternation.
23. Principalities. Kingdoms.
31. Comparisons. Some editors think this means his advantages as compared with mine; others take it as a misprint for “caparisons.”
32. Declined. Fallen in estate.
34. High-battled. The commander of proud and victorious armies.
35. Unstate. Divest himself of his advantages.
35. Staged. Exhibit himself on a stage.
36. Sworder. A gladiator, a slave who fought in the arena at public shows.
37. Parcel. Of a piece with, correspond with.
39. Suffer. To suffer the same ruin.
40. Measures. So well able to guage men’s measures or capacities.
45. Blown. Full blown.
47. Square. Quarrel.
48. Loyalty. Loyalty to a fool becomes mere folly.
52. I’ the story. Wins renown when the story is told.
56. Haply. Perhaps.
59. Leap. Is eager to be friends.
60. He is. We acknowledge Antony’s master, that is, Caesar.
60. Right royal. Gracious sir.
70. Constrained. Faults forced upon you.
76. Leaky. So like a leaky ship.
85. Shrowd. Protection. The word originally meam any kind of garment or covering.
90. Deputation. By deputy or proxy.
93. All-obeying. Whose commands are obeyed by all men.
98. Grace. Allow men the favor of kissing your hand.
100. Caesar’s father. The great general, Julius Caesar, who had adopted Octavius, his grandnephew.
101. Kingdoms in. Conquering kingdoms.
103. As. As if.
107. Fullest. Most complete or perfect, fullest of good qualities.
113. Muss. A scramble after some object that had been thrown down.
116. Jack. Impudent fellow.
122. She here. Used contemptuously. Of this woman here who was once Cleopatra.
124. Cringe. Distort his face in pain or fear.
134. Feeders. Parasites, those who live on the bounty of others. Some think it means merely servants.
136. Boggler. Bungler, blunderer.
138. Seel. Blind.
144. Trencher. A large plate.
145. Cneius Pompey. The present Pompey’s father, a great Roman general.
147. Luxuriously. Wantonly.
148. Temperance. Here, chastity.
152. Quit. Requite. A common phrase of beggars.
155. Basan. We find in the Psalms, “As the hill of Basan, so is God’s hill; even an high hill, as the hill of Basan.” And again, “Many oxen have come about me: fat bulls of Basan close me in on every side.”
159. Yare. Prompt and skillful.
162. A’. Our.
168. Fever. Give you a fever.
176. Orbs. Spheres.
177. Abysm. Abyss.
177. Mislike. Dislike, is angry at.
179. Enfranched. Enfranchised; a slave who has been set free.
181. Quit. Requhe, get even with me.
183. Stripes. Lashings.
184. Terrene. Earthly moon; that is, Cleopatra.
185. Portends. Foretells, indicates.
189. Ties his points. One who does the duty of a servant; literally, fastens the tagged lacings of his garments, or his points, as they were called.
195. Determines. As the stone dissolves.
196. Caesarion. Her son by Julius Caesar.
199. Discandying. Melting.
199. Pelleted. Storm of pellets or hail stones.
206. Fleet, Float, in sea trim.
210. Chronicle, Will perform acts that deserve to be chronicled.
213. Breathed. Endowed with treble breath.
214. Maliciously. Without mercy.
215. Nice. Dainty, luxurious.
218. Gaudy. Joyous, festive.
228. Sap. Life.
233. Estridge. Ostrich.
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How to cite the explanatory notes:Shakespeare, William. Antony and Cleopatra. Ed. M. Eaton. Boston: Educational Publishing Company, 1908.