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.