Antony and Cleopatra
ACT IV SCENE II | Alexandria. Cleopatra’s palace. | |
[ Enter MARK ANTONY, CLEOPATRA, DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS, CHARMIAN, IRAS, ALEXAS, with others ] | ||
MARK ANTONY | He will not fight with me, Domitius. | |
DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS | No. | |
MARK ANTONY | Why should he not? | |
DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS | He thinks, being twenty times of better fortune, | |
He is twenty men to one. | 5 | |
MARK ANTONY | To-morrow, soldier, | |
By sea and land I’ll fight: or I will live, | ||
Or bathe my dying honour in the blood | ||
Shall make it live again. Woo’t thou fight well? | ||
DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS | I’ll strike, and cry ‘Take all.’ | 10 |
MARK ANTONY | Well said; come on. | |
Call forth my household servants: let’s to-night | ||
Be bounteous at our meal. | ||
[Enter three or four Servitors] | ||
Give me thy hand, | ||
Thou hast been rightly honest;–so hast thou;– | 15 | |
Thou,–and thou,–and thou:–you have served me well, | ||
And kings have been your fellows. | ||
CLEOPATRA | [Aside to DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS] What means this? | |
DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS | [Aside to CLEOPATRA] ‘Tis one of those odd | |
tricks which sorrow shoots | 20 | |
Out of the mind. | ||
MARK ANTONY | And thou art honest too. | |
I wish I could be made so many men, | ||
And all of you clapp’d up together in | ||
An Antony, that I might do you service | 25 | |
So good as you have done. | ||
All | The gods forbid! | |
MARK ANTONY | Well, my good fellows, wait on me to-night: | |
Scant not my cups; and make as much of me | ||
As when mine empire was your fellow too, | 30 | |
And suffer’d my command. | ||
CLEOPATRA | [Aside to DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS] What does he mean? | |
DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS | [Aside to CLEOPATRA] To make his followers weep. | |
MARK ANTONY | Tend me to-night; | |
May be it is the period of your duty: | 35 | |
Haply you shall not see me more; or if, | ||
A mangled shadow: perchance to-morrow | ||
You’ll serve another master. I look on you | ||
As one that takes his leave. Mine honest friends, | ||
I turn you not away; but, like a master | 40 | |
Married to your good service, stay till death: | ||
Tend me to-night two hours, I ask no more, | ||
And the gods yield you for’t! | ||
DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS | What mean you, sir, | |
To give them this discomfort? Look, they weep; | 45 | |
And I, an ass, am onion-eyed: for shame, | ||
Transform us not to women. | ||
MARK ANTONY | Ho, ho, ho! | |
Now the witch take me, if I meant it thus! | ||
Grace grow where those drops fall! | 50 | |
My hearty friends, | ||
You take me in too dolorous a sense; | ||
For I spake to you for your comfort; did desire you | ||
To burn this night with torches: know, my hearts, | ||
I hope well of to-morrow; and will lead you | 55 | |
Where rather I’ll expect victorious life | ||
Than death and honour. Let’s to supper, come, | ||
And drown consideration. | ||
[Exeunt] |
Antony and Cleopatra, Act 4, Scene 3
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Explanatory Notes for Act 4, Scene 2
From Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra. Ed. M. Eaton. Boston: Educational Publishing Company.
(Line numbers have been altered.)
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9. Woo’t. Would thou. A provincial form.
10. Take all. That is, I would give no quarter.
24. Clapp’d. That is, I wish I could be made into many persons while you all became Antony.
28. Scant. Do not stint the wine.
30. Fellow. That is, when I had an empire at my command as well as you.
35. Period. End.
36. Haply. Perhaps.
36. If. That is, if you do see me, it may be as a mangled corpse.
43. Yield. Give you reward.
46. Onion-eyed. Have tears in my eyes.
48. Ho, etc. Said in mockery and perhaps rebuke.
52. Dolorous. Doleful, melancholy.
54. Burn this night. That is, burn out; feast all night long.
44. Death and honor. An honorable death.
45. Consideration. Serious thoughts.
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How to cite the explanatory notes:Shakespeare, William. Antony and Cleopatra. Ed. M. Eaton. Boston: Educational Publishing Company, 1908.