Anthony and Cleopatra | Act 1.1

[Enter DEMETRIUS and PHILO]

PHILO    Nay, but this dotage of our general’s
O’erflows the measure: those his goodly eyes,
That o’er the files and musters of the war
Have glow’d like plated Mars, now bend, now turn,
The office and devotion of their view
Upon a tawny front: his captain’s heart,
Which in the scuffles of great fights hath burst
The buckles on his breast, reneges all temper,
And is become the bellows and the fan
To cool a gipsy’s lust.

[Flourish. Enter ANTONY, CLEOPATRA,
her Ladies, the Train, with Eunuchs fanning her]

   Look, where they come:
Take but good note, and you shall see in him.
The triple pillar of the world transform’d
Into a strumpet’s fool: behold and see.

CLEOPATRA    If it be love indeed, tell me how much.

MARK ANTONY
   There’s beggary in the love that can be reckon’d.

CLEOPATRA    I’ll set a bourn how far to be beloved.

MARK ANTONY
Then must thou needs find out new heaven, new earth.

[Enter an Attendant]

Attendant    News, my good lord, from Rome.

MARK ANTONY    Grates me: the sum.

CLEOPATRA    Nay, hear them, Antony:
   Fulvia perchance is angry; or, who knows
   If the scarce-bearded Caesar have not sent
   His powerful mandate to you, ‘Do this, or this;
   Take in that kingdom, and enfranchise that;
   Perform ‘t, or else we damn thee.’

MARK ANTONY    How, my love!

CLEOPATRA    Perchance! nay, and most like:
   You must not stay here longer, your dismission
   Is come from Caesar; therefore hear it, Antony.
   Where’s Fulvia’s process? Caesar’s I would say? both?
   Call in the messengers. As I am Egypt’s queen,
   Thou blushest, Antony; and that blood of thine
   Is Caesar’s homager: else so thy cheek pays shame
    When shrill-tongued Fulvia scolds. The messengers!

MARK ANTONY
   Let Rome in Tiber melt, and the wide arch
   Of the ranged empire fall! Here is my space.
   Kingdoms are clay: our dungy earth alike
   Feeds beast as man: the nobleness of life
    Is to do thus; when such a mutual pair

[Embracing]

   And such a twain can do’t, in which I bind,
On pain of punishment, the world to weet
We stand up peerless.

CLEOPATRA    Excellent falsehood!
   Why did he marry Fulvia, and not love her?
   I’ll seem the fool I am not; Antony
    Will be himself.

MARK ANTONY    But stirr’d by Cleopatra.
   Now, for the love of Love and her soft hours,
   Let’s not confound the time with conference harsh:
   There’s not a minute of our lives should stretch
   Without some pleasure now. What sport tonight?

CLEOPATRA    Hear the ambassadors.

MARK ANTONY    Fie, wrangling queen!
   Whom every thing becomes, to chide, to laugh,
   To weep; whose every passion fully strives
   To make itself, in thee, fair and admired!
   No messenger, but thine; and all alone
   To-night we’ll wander through the streets and note
   The qualities of people. Come, my queen;
    Last night you did desire it: speak not to us.

[Exeunt MARK ANTONY and
CLEOPATRA with their train]

DEMETRIUS
Is Caesar with Antonius prized so slight?

PHILO    Sir, sometimes, when he is not Antony,
   He comes too short of that great property
   Which still should go with Antony.

DEMETRIUS    I am full sorry
   That he approves the common liar, who
   Thus speaks of him at Rome: but I will hope
   Of better deeds to-morrow. Rest you happy!

 

[Exeunt]
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Updated: May 22, 2021 — 3:17 pm