ACT IV SCENE XV

Antony and Cleopatra

ACT IV SCENE XV	The same. A monument.
[ Enter CLEOPATRA and her maids aloft, with CHARMIAN and IRAS ]
CLEOPATRA	O Charmian, I will never go from hence.
CHARMIAN	Be comforted, dear madam.
CLEOPATRA	No, I will not:
	All strange and terrible events are welcome,
	But comforts we despise; our size of sorrow,	5
	Proportion’d to our cause, must be as great
	As that which makes it.
[Enter, below, DIOMEDES]
	How now! is he dead?
DIOMEDES	His death’s upon him, but not dead.
	Look out o’ the other side your monument;	10
	His guard have brought him thither.
[Enter, below, MARK ANTONY, borne by the Guard]
CLEOPATRA	O sun,
	Burn the great sphere thou movest in!
	darkling stand
	The varying shore o’ the world. O Antony,	15
	Antony, Antony! Help, Charmian, help, Iras, help;
	Help, friends below; let’s draw him hither.
MARK ANTONY	Peace!
	Not Caesar’s valour hath o’erthrown Antony,
	But Antony’s hath triumph’d on itself.	20
CLEOPATRA	So it should be, that none but Antony
	Should conquer Antony; but woe ’tis so!
MARK ANTONY	I am dying, Egypt, dying; only
	I here importune death awhile, until
	Of many thousand kisses the poor last	25
	I lay up thy lips.
CLEOPATRA	I dare not, dear,–
	Dear my lord, pardon,–I dare not,
	Lest I be taken: not the imperious show
	Of the full-fortuned Caesar ever shall	30
	Be brooch’d with me; if knife, drugs,
	serpents, have
	Edge, sting, or operation, I am safe:
	Your wife Octavia, with her modest eyes
	And still conclusion, shall acquire no honour	35
	Demuring upon me. But come, come, Antony,–
	Help me, my women,–we must draw thee up:
	Assist, good friends.
MARK ANTONY	O, quick, or I am gone.
CLEOPATRA	Here’s sport indeed! How heavy weighs my lord!	40
	Our strength is all gone into heaviness,
	That makes the weight: had I great Juno’s power,
	The strong-wing’d Mercury should fetch thee up,
	And set thee by Jove’s side. Yet come a little,–
	Wishes were ever fools,–O, come, come, come;	45
[They heave MARK ANTONY aloft to CLEOPATRA]
	And welcome, welcome! die where thou hast lived:
	Quicken with kissing: had my lips that power,
	Thus would I wear them out.
All	A heavy sight!
MARK ANTONY	I am dying, Egypt, dying:	50
	Give me some wine, and let me speak a little.
CLEOPATRA	No, let me speak; and let me rail so high,
	That the false housewife Fortune break her wheel,
	Provoked by my offence.
MARK ANTONY	One word, sweet queen:	55
	Of Caesar seek your honour, with your safety. O!
CLEOPATRA	They do not go together.
MARK ANTONY	Gentle, hear me:
	None about Caesar trust but Proculeius.
CLEOPATRA	My resolution and my hands I’ll trust;	60
	None about Caesar.
MARK ANTONY	The miserable change now at my end
	Lament nor sorrow at; but please your thoughts
	In feeding them with those my former fortunes
	Wherein I lived, the greatest prince o’ the world,	65
	The noblest; and do now not basely die,
	Not cowardly put off my helmet to
	My countryman,–a Roman by a Roman
	Valiantly vanquish’d. Now my spirit is going;
	I can no more.	70
CLEOPATRA	Noblest of men, woo’t die?
	Hast thou no care of me? shall I abide
	In this dull world, which in thy absence is
	No better than a sty? O, see, my women,
[MARK ANTONY dies]
	The crown o’ the earth doth melt. My lord!	75
	O, wither’d is the garland of the war,
	The soldier’s pole is fall’n: young boys and girls
	Are level now with men; the odds is gone,
	And there is nothing left remarkable
	Beneath the visiting moon.	80
[Faints]
CHARMIAN	O, quietness, lady!
IRAS	She is dead too, our sovereign.
CHARMIAN	Lady!
IRAS	Madam!
CHARMIAN	O madam, madam, madam!	85
IRAS	Royal Egypt, Empress!
CHARMIAN	Peace, peace, Iras!
CLEOPATRA	No more, but e’en a woman, and commanded
	By such poor passion as the maid that milks
	And does the meanest chares. It were for me	90
	To throw my sceptre at the injurious gods;
	To tell them that this world did equal theirs
	Till they had stol’n our jewel. All’s but naught;
	Patience is sottish, and impatience does
	Become a dog that’s mad: then is it sin	95
	To rush into the secret house of death,
	Ere death dare come to us? How do you, women?
	What, what! good cheer! Why, how now, Charmian!
	My noble girls! Ah, women, women, look,
	Our lamp is spent, it’s out! Good sirs, take heart:	100
	We’ll bury him; and then, what’s brave,
	what’s noble,
	Let’s do it after the high Roman fashion,
	And make death proud to take us. Come, away:
	This case of that huge spirit now is cold:	105
	Ah, women, women! come; we have no friend
	But resolution, and the briefest end.
[Exeunt; those above bearing off MARK ANTONY’s body]

Antony and Cleopatra, Act 5, Scene 1
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Explanatory Notes for Act 4, Scene 15
From Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra. Ed. M. Eaton. Boston: Educational Publishing Company.
(Line numbers have been altered.)
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13. Great sphere. The sun would then fall from his place and the earth become dark.

14. Darkling. In the dark.

24. Importunate. Beg him to delay.

27. Dare not. That is, dare not come down from the monument.

29. Imperious. Triumphal entry into Rome.

31. Brooch’d. Adorned as with a brooch or large pin.

35. Still conclusion. Her quietly disdainful way of observing and drawing conclusions.

36. Demuring. Looking demurely. [Not found elsewhere in Shakespeare.]

40. Sport. Said, of course, with pathetic and bitter irony.

41. Heaviness. A play upon the word, both literally and in the figurative sense of “sorrow.”

43. Mercury. The messenger of the gods.

47. Quicken. Revive, make alive.

52. High. Violently.

53. Housewife. Housewife was often used as a term of contempt.

71. Woo’t. Wouldest thou.

76. Garland. He who was the glory of war.

77. Pole. The one about whom they rally. Shakespeare was probably thinking of the pole decked with garlands about which village festivities were held.

78. Odds. The favor of fortune.

79. Remarkable. In Shakespeare’s day this word was stronger than it is now, and meant something singular and impressive.

90. Chares. Drudgery. Compare the modern word “chores.”

76. Injurious. Working injury, malignant.

93. Naught. Worthless, of no use.

94. Sottish. Stupid.

100. Sirs. We find this word applied to women in Beaumont and Fletcher also.

107. Briefest. Quickest.

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How to cite the explanatory notes:Shakespeare, William. Antony and Cleopatra. Ed. M. Eaton. Boston: Educational Publishing Company, 1908.