The Complete Works of William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare (moboreader .TXT) π
The world will be thy widow and still weep,
That thou no form of thee hast left behind,
When every private widow well may keep,
By children's eyes, her husband's shape in mind:
Look what an unthrift in the world doth spend
Shifts but his place, for still the world enjoys it;
But beauty's waste hath in the world an end,
And kept unused the user so destroys it:
No love toward others in that bosom sits
That on himself such murd'rous shame commits.
10
For shame deny that thou bear'st love to any
Who for thy self art so unprovident.
Grant if thou wilt, thou art beloved of many,
But that thou none lov'st is most evident:
For thou art so possessed with murd'rous hate,
That 'gainst thy self thou stick'st not to conspire,
Seeking that beauteous roof to ruinate
Which to repair should be thy chief desire:
O change thy thought, that I may change my mind,
Shall hate be fairer lodged than
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KING. This ring was mine, I gave it his first wife.
DIANA. It might be yours or hers, for aught I know.
KING. Take her away, I do not like her now; To prison with her. And away with him.
Unless thou tellβst me where thou hadst this ring, Thou diest within this hour.
DIANA. Iβll never tell you.
KING. Take her away.
DIANA. Iβll put in bail, my liege.
KING. I think thee now some common customer.
DIANA. By Jove, if ever I knew man, βtwas you.
KING. Wherefore hast thou accusβd him all this while?
DIANA. Because heβs guilty, and he is not guilty.
He knows I am no maid, and heβll swear toβt: Iβll swear I am a maid, and he knows not.
Great King, I am no strumpet, by my life; I am either maid, or else this old manβs wife.
[Pointing to LAFEU]
KING. She does abuse our ears; to prison with her.
DIANA. Good mother, fetch my bail. Stay, royal sir; Exit WIDOW
The jeweller that owes the ring is sent for, And he shall surety me. But for this lord Who hath abusβd me as he knows himself, Though yet he never harmβd me, here I quit him.
He knows himself my bed he hath defilβd; And at that time he got his wife with child.
Dead though she be, she feels her young one kick; So thereβs my riddle: one thatβs dead is quick-And now behold the meaning.
Re-enter WIDOW with HELENA KING. Is there no exorcist
Beguiles the truer office of mine eyes?
Isβt real that I see?
HELENA. No, my good lord;
βTis but the shadow of a wife you see, The name and not the thing.
BERTRAM. Both, both; o, pardon!
HELENA. O, my good lord, when I was like this maid, I found you wondrous kind. There is your ring, And, look you, hereβs your letter. This it says: βWhen from my finger you can get this ring, And are by me with child,β etc. This is done.
Will you be mine now you are doubly won?
BERTRAM. If she, my liege, can make me know this clearly, Iβll love her dearly, ever, ever dearly.
HELENA. If it appear not plain, and prove untrue, Deadly divorce step between me and you!
O my dear mother, do I see you living?
LAFEU. Mine eyes smell onions; I shall weep anon. [To PAROLLES]
Good Tom Drum, lend me a handkercher. So, I thank thee. Wait on me home, Iβll make sport with thee; let thy curtsies alone, they are scurvy ones.
KING. Let us from point to point this story know, To make the even truth in pleasure flow.
[To DIANA] If thou beest yet a fresh uncropped flower, Choose thou thy husband, and Iβll pay thy dower; For I can guess that by thy honest aid Thou keptβst a wife herself, thyself a maid.-
Of that and all the progress, more and less, Resolvedly more leisure shall express.
All yet seems well; and if it end so meet, The bitter past, more welcome is the sweet. [Flourish]
EPILOGUE.
KING. The Kingβs a beggar, now the play is done.
All is well ended if this suit be won, That you express content; which we will pay With strife to please you, day exceeding day.
Ours be your patience then, and yours our parts; Your gentle hands lend us, and take our hearts.
Exeunt omnes THE END
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1607
THE TRAGEDY OF ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA
by William Shakespeare
DRAMATIS PERSONAE
MARK ANTONY, Triumvirs
OCTAVIUS CAESAR, β
M. AEMILIUS LEPIDUS, β
SEXTUS POMPEIUS, β
DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS, friend to Antony
VENTIDIUS, β β β
EROS, β β β
SCARUS, β β β
DERCETAS, β β β
DEMETRIUS, β β β
PHILO, β β β
MAECENAS, friend to Caesar
AGRIPPA, β β β
DOLABELLA, β β β
PROCULEIUS, β β β
THYREUS, β β β
GALLUS, β β β
MENAS, friend to Pompey
MENECRATES, β β β
VARRIUS, β β β
TAURUS, Lieutenant-General to Caesar
CANIDIUS, Lieutenant-General to Antony
SILIUS, an Officer in Ventidiusβs army
EUPHRONIUS, an Ambassador from Antony to Caesar ALEXAS, attendant on Cleopatra
MARDIAN, β β β
SELEUCUS, β β β
DIOMEDES, β β β
A SOOTHSAYER
A CLOWN
CLEOPATRA, Queen of Egypt
OCTAVIA, sister to Caesar and wife to Antony CHARMIAN, lady attending on Cleopatra
IRAS, β β β β
Officers, Soldiers, Messengers, and Attendants <<THIS ELECTRONIC VERSION OF THE COMPLETE WORKS OF WILLIAM
SHAKESPEARE IS COPYRIGHT 1990-1993 BY WORLD LIBRARY, INC., AND IS
PROVIDED BY PROJECT GUTENBERG ETEXT OF ILLINOIS BENEDICTINE COLLEGE
WITH PERMISSION. ELECTRONIC AND MACHINE READABLE COPIES MAY BE
DISTRIBUTED SO LONG AS SUCH COPIES (1) ARE FOR YOUR OR OTHERS
PERSONAL USE ONLY, AND (2) ARE NOT DISTRIBUTED OR USED
COMMERCIALLY. PROHIBITED COMMERCIAL DISTRIBUTION INCLUDES BY ANY
SERVICE THAT CHARGES FOR DOWNLOAD TIME OR FOR MEMBERSHIP.>>
SCENE:
The Roman Empire
ACT I. SCENE I.
Alexandria. CLEOPATRAβS palace
Enter DEMETRIUS and PHILO
PHILO. Nay, but this dotage of our generalβs Oβerflows the measure. Those his goodly eyes, That oβer the files and musters of the war Have glowβd like plated Mars, now bend, now turn, The office and devotion of their view Upon a tawny front. His captainβs 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 gipsyβs 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 transformβd Into a strumpetβs fool. Behold and see.
CLEOPATRA. If it be love indeed, tell me how much.
ANTONY. Thereβs beggary in the love that can be reckonβd.
CLEOPATRA. Iβll set a bourn how far to be belovβd.
ANTONY. Then must thou needs find out new heaven, new earth.
Enter a MESSENGER
MESSENGER. News, my good lord, from Rome.
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 powβrful mandate to you: βDo this or this; Take in that kingdom and enfranchise that; Performβt, or else we damn thee.β
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.
Whereβs Fulviaβs process? Caesarβs I would say? Both?
Call in the messengers. As I am Egyptβs Queen, Thou blushest, Antony, and that blood of thine Is Caesarβs homager. Else so thy cheek pays shame When shrill-tonguβd Fulvia scolds. The messengers!
ANTONY. Let Rome in Tiber melt, and the wide arch Of the rangβd 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 [emhracing], when such a mutual pair And such a twain can doβt, 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?
Iβll seem the fool I am not. Antony
Will be himself.
ANTONY. But stirrβd by Cleopatra.
Now for the love of Love and her soft hours, Letβs not confound the time with conference harsh; Thereβs not a minute of our lives should stretch Without some pleasure now. What sport tonight?
CLEOPATRA. Hear the ambassadors.
ANTONY. Fie, wrangling queen!
Whom everything becomes-to chide, to laugh, To weep; whose every passion fully strives To make itself in thee fair and admirβd.
No messenger but thine, and all alone Tonight weβll wander through the streets and note The qualities of people. Come, my queen; Last night you did desire it. Speak not to us.
Exeunt ANTONY and CLEOPATRA, with the train DEMETRIUS. Is Caesar with Antonius prizβd 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 tomorrow. Rest you happy! Exeunt
SCENE II.
Alexandria. CLEOPATRAβS palace
Enter CHARMIAN, IRAS, ALEXAS, and a SOOTHSAYER
CHARMIAN. Lord Alexas, sweet Alexas, most anything Alexas, almost most absolute Alexas, whereβs the soothsayer that you praisβd so to thβ Queen? O that I knew this husband, which you say must charge his horns with garlands!
ALEXAS. Soothsayer!
SOOTHSAYER. Your will?
CHARMIAN. Is this the man? Isβt you, sir, that know things?
SOOTHSAYER. In natureβs infinite book of secrecy A little I can read.
ALEXAS. Show him your hand.
Enter ENOBARBUS
ENOBARBUS. Bring in the banquet quickly; wine enough Cleopatraβs health to drink.
CHARMIAN. Good, sir, give me good fortune.
SOOTHSAYER. I make not, but foresee.
CHARMIAN. Pray, then, foresee me one.
SOOTHSAYER. You shall be yet far fairer than you are.
CHARMIAN. He means in flesh.
IRAS. No, you shall paint when you are old.
CHARMIAN. Wrinkles forbid!
ALEXAS. Vex not his prescience; be attentive.
CHARMIAN. Hush!
SOOTHSAYER. You shall be more beloving than beloved.
CHARMIAN. I had rather heat my liver with drinking.
ALEXAS. Nay, hear him.
CHARMIAN. Good now, some excellent fortune! Let me be married to three kings in a forenoon, and widow them all. Let me have a child at fifty, to whom Herod of Jewry may do homage. Find me to marry me with Octavius Caesar, and companion me with my mistress.
SOOTHSAYER. You shall outlive the lady whom you serve.
CHARMIAN. O, excellent! I love long life better than figs.
SOOTHSAYER. You have seen and provβd a fairer former fortune Than that which is to approach.
CHARMIAN. Then belike my children shall have no names.
Prithee, how many boys and wenches must I have?
SOOTHSAYER. If every of your wishes had a womb, And fertile every wish, a million.
CHARMIAN. Out, fool! I forgive thee for a witch.
ALEXAS. You think none but your sheets are privy to your wishes.
CHARMIAN. Nay, come, tell Iras hers.
ALEXAS. Weβll know all our fortunes.
ENOBARBUS. Mine, and most of our fortunes, tonight, shall be-drunk to bed.
IRAS. Thereβs a palm presages chastity, if nothing else.
CHARMIAN. Eβen as the oβerflowing Nilus presageth famine.
IRAS. Go, you wild bedfellow, you cannot soothsay.
CHARMIAN. Nay, if an oily palm be not a fruitful prognostication, I cannot scratch mine ear. Prithee, tell her but worky-day fortune.
SOOTHSAYER. Your fortunes are alike.
IRAS. But how, but how? Give me particulars.
SOOTHSAYER. I have said.
IRAS. Am I not an inch of fortune better than she?
CHARMIAN. Well, if you were but an inch of fortune better than I, where would you choose it?
IRAS. Not in my husbandβs nose.
CHARMIAN. Our worser thoughts heavens mend! Alexas-come, his fortune, his fortune! O, let him marry a woman that cannot go, sweet Isis, I beseech thee! And let her die too, and give him a worse! And let worse follow worse, till the worst of all follow him laughing to his grave, fiftyfold a cuckold! Good Isis, hear me this prayer, though thou deny me a matter of more weight; good Isis, I beseech thee!
IRAS. Amen. Dear goddess, hear that prayer of the people! For, as it is a heartbreaking to see a
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