Antony and Cleopatra by William Shakespeare (english novels to read txt) 📕

savages could suffer: thou didst drink
The stale of horses, and the gilded puddle
Which beasts would cough at: thy palate then did deign
The roughest berry on the rudest hedge;
Yea, like the stag when snow the pasture sheets,
The barks of trees thou browsed'st; on the Alps
It is reported thou didst eat strange flesh,
Which some did die to look on: and all this,--
It wounds thine honour that I speak it now,--
Was borne so like a soldier that thy cheek
So much as lank'd not.

LEPIDUS.
'Tis pity of him.

CAESAR.
Let his shames quickly
Drive him to Rome; 'tis time we twain
Did show ourselves i' thefield; and to that end
Assemble we immediate council: Pompey
Thrives in our idleness.

LEPIDUS.
To-morrow, Caesar,
I shall be furnish'd to inform you rightly
Both what by sea and land I can be able
To front this present time.

CAESAR.
Till which encounter
It is my business too. Farewell.

LEPIDUS.
Farewell, my lord: what you shall know meantime
Of stirs abroad, I shall beseech you, sir,
To let me be partaker.

CAESAR.
Doubt not, sir;
I knew it for my bond.

[Exeunt.]


SCENE V. Alexandria. A Room in the Palace.

[Enter CLEOPATRA, CHARMIAN, IRAS, and MARDIAN.]

CLEOPATRA.
Charmian,--

CHARMIAN.
Madam?

CLEOPATRA.
Ha, ha!--
Give me to drink mandragora.

CHARMIAN.
Why, madam?

CLEOPATRA.
That I might sleep out this great gap of time
My Antony is away.

CHARMIAN.
You think of him too much.

CLEOPATRA.
O, 'tis treason!

CHARMIAN.
Madam, I trust, not so.

CLEOPATRA.
Thou, eunuch Mardian!

MARDIAN.
What's your highness' pleasure?

CLEOPATRA.
Not now to hear thee sing; I take no pleasure
In aught an eunuch has; 'tis well for thee
That, being unseminar'd, thy freer thoughts
May not fly forth of Egypt. Hast thou affections?

MARDIAN.
Yes, gracious madam.

CLEOPATRA.
Indeed!

MARDIAN.
Not in deed, madam; for I can do nothing
But what indeed is honest to be done:
Yet have I fierce affections, and think
What Venus did with Mars.

CLEOPATRA.
O Charmian,
Where think'st thou he is now? Stands he or sits he?
Or does he walk? or is he on his horse?
O happy horse, to bear the weight of Antony!
Do bravely, horse! for wott'st thou whom thou mov'st?
The demi-Atlas of this earth, the arm
And burgonet of men.--He's speaking now,
Or murmuring 'Where's my serpent of old Nile?'
For so he calls me.--Now I feed myself
With most delicious poison:--think on me,
That am with Phoebus' amorous pinches black,
And wrinkled deep in time? Broad-fronted Caesar,
When thou wast here above the ground I was
A morsel for a monarch: and great Pompey
Would stand and make his eyes grow in my brow;
There would he anchor his aspect and die
With looking on his life.

[Enter ALEXAS.]

ALEXAS.
Sovereign of Egypt, hail!

CLEOPATRA.
How much unlike art thou Mark Antony!
Yet, coming from him, that great medicine hath
With his tinct gilded thee.--
How goes it with my brave Mark Antony?

ALEXAS.
Last thing he did, dear queen,
He kiss'd,--the last of many doubled kisses,--
This orient pearl: his speech sticks in my heart.

CLEOPATRA.
Mine ear must pluck it thence.

ALEXAS.
'Good friend,' quoth he
'Say, the firm Roman to great Egypt sends
This treasure of an oyster; at whose foot,
To mend the petty present, I will piece
Her opulent throne with kingdoms; all the east,
Say thou, shall call her mistress.' So he nodded,
And soberly did mount an arm-girt steed,
Who neigh'd so high that what I would have spoke
Was beastly dumb'd by him.

CLEOPATRA.
What, was he sad or merry?

ALEXAS.
Like to the time o' the year between the extremes
Of hot and cold, he was nor sad nor merry.

CLEOPATRA.
O well-divided disposition!--Note him,
Note him, good Charmian; 'tis the man; but note him:
He was not sad,--for he would shine on those
That make their looks by his; he was not merry,--
Which seem'd to tell them his remembrance lay
In Egypt with his joy; but between both:
O heavenly mingle!--Be'st thou sad or merry,
The violence of either thee becomes,
So does it no man else.--Mett'st thou my posts?

ALEXAS.
Ay, madam, twenty several messengers.
Why do you send so thick?

CLEOPATRA.
Who's born that day
When I forget to send to Antony
Shall die a beggar.--Ink and paper, Charmian.--
Welcome, my good Alexas.--Did I, Charmian,
Ever love Caesar so?

CHARMIAN.
O that brave Caesar!

CLEOPATRA.
Be chok'd with such another emphasis!
Say 'the brave Antony.'

CHARMIAN.
The valiant Caesar!

CLEOPATRA.
By Isis, I will give thee bloody teeth
If thou with Caesar paragon again
My man of men.

CHARMIAN.
By your most gracious pardon,
I sing but after you.

CLEOPATRA.
My salad days,
When I was green in judgment:--cold in blood,
To say as I said then!--But come, away;
Get me ink and paper: he shall have every day
A several greeting,
Or I'll unpeople Egypt.

[Exeunt.]


ACT II.

SCENE I. Messina. A Room in POMPEY'S house.

[Enter POMPEY, MENECRATES, and MENAS.]

POMPEY.
If the great gods be just, they shall assist
The deeds of justest men.

MENECRATES.
Know, worthy Pompey,
That what they do delay they not deny.

POMPEY.
Whiles we are suitors to their throne, decays
The thing we sue for.

MENECRATES.
We, ignorant of ourselves,
Beg often our own harms, which the wise powers
Deny us for our good; so find we profit
By losing of our prayers.

POMPEY.
I shall do well;
The people love me, and the sea is mine;
My powers are crescent, and my auguring hope
Says it will come to the full. Mark Antony
In Egypt sits at dinner, and will make
No wars without doors: Caesar gets money where
He loses hearts: Lepidus flatters both,
Of both is flatter'd; but he neither loves
Nor either cares for him.

MENAS.
Caesar and Lepidus
Are in the field: a mighty strength they carry.

POMPEY.
Where have you this? 'tis false.

MENAS.
From Silvius, sir.

POMPEY.
He dreams: I know they are in Rome together,
Looking for Antony. But all the charms of love,
Salt Cleopatra, soften thy wan'd lip!
Let witchcraft join with beauty, lust with both!
Tie up the libertine in a field of feasts,
Keep his brain fuming; Epicurean cooks
Sharpen with cloyless sauce his appetite;
That sleep and feeding may prorogue his honour
Even till a Lethe'd dullness.

[Enter VARRIUS.]

How now, Varrius!

VARRIUS.
This is most certain that I shall deliver:--
Mark Antony is every hour in Rome
Expected: since he went from Egypt 'tis
A space for further travel.

POMPEY.
I could have given less matter
A better ear.--Menas, I did not think
This amorous surfeiter would have donn'd his helm
For such a petty war; his soldiership
Is twice the other twain: but let us rear
The higher our opinion, that our stirring
Can from the lap of Egypt's widow pluck
The ne'er lust-wearied Antony.

MENAS.
I cannot hope
Caesar and Antony shall well greet together:
His wife that's dead did trespasses to Caesar;
His brother warr'd upon him; although, I think,
Not mov'd by Antony.

POMPEY.
I know not, Menas,
How lesser enmities may give way to greater.
Were't not that we stand up against them all,
'Twere pregnant they should square between themselves;
For they have entertained cause enough
To draw their swords: but how the fear of us
May cement their divisions, and bind up
The petty difference, we yet not know.
Be't as our gods will have't! It only stands
Our lives upon to use our strongest hands.
Come, Menas.

[Exeunt.]


SCENE II. Rome. A Room in the House of LEPIDUS.

[Enter ENOBARBUS and LEPIDUS.]

LEPIDUS.
Good Enobarbus, 'tis a worthy deed,
And shall become you well, to entreat your captain
To soft and gentle speech.

ENOBARBUS.
I shall entreat him
To answer like himself: if Caesar move him,
Let Antony look over Caesar's head,
And speak as loud as Mars. By Jupiter,
Were I the wearer of Antonius' beard,
I would not shave't to-day.

LEPIDUS.
'Tis not a time
For private stomaching.

ENOBARBUS.
Every time
Serves for the matter that is then born in't.

LEPIDUS.
But small to greater matters must give way.

ENOBARBUS.
Not if the small come first.

LEPIDUS.
Your speech is passion:
But, pray you, stir no embers up. Here comes
The noble Antony.

[Enter ANTONY and VENTIDIUS.]

ENOBARBUS.
And yonder, Caesar.

[Enter CAESAR, MAECENAS, and AGRIPPA.]

ANTONY.
If we compose well here, to Parthia;
Hark, Ventidius.

CAESAR.
I do not know,
Maecenas; ask Agrippa.

LEPIDUS.
Noble friends,
That which combin'd us was most great, and let not
A leaner action rend us. What's amiss,
May it be gently heard: when we debate
Our trivial difference loud, we do commit
Murder in healing wounds: then, noble partners,--
The rather for I earnestly beseech,--
Touch you the sourest points with sweetest terms,
Nor curstness grow to the matter.

ANTONY.
'Tis spoken well.
Were we before our armies, and to fight,
I should do thus.

CAESAR.
Welcome to Rome.

ANTONY.
Thank you.

CAESAR.
Sit.

ANTONY.
Sit, sir.

CAESAR.
Nay, then.

ANTONY.
I learn you take things ill which are not so,
Or being, concern you not.

CAESAR.
I must be laugh'd at
If, or for nothing or a little, I
Should say myself offended, and with you
Chiefly i' the world; more laugh'd at that I should
Once name you derogately, when to sound your name
It not concern'd me.

ANTONY.
My being in Egypt, Caesar,
What was't to you?

CAESAR.
No more than my residing here at Rome
Might be to you in Egypt: yet, if you there
Did practise on my state, your being in Egypt
Might be my question.

ANTONY.
How intend you practis'd?

CAESAR.
You may be pleas'd to catch at mine intent
By what did here befall me. Your wife and brother
Made wars upon me; and their contestation
Was theme for you, you were the word of war.

ANTONY.
You do mistake your business; my brother never
Did urge me in his act: I did inquire it;
And have my learning from some true reports
That drew their swords with you. Did he not rather
Discredit my authority with yours;
And make the wars alike against my stomach,
Having alike your cause? Of this my letters
Before did satisfy you. If you'll patch a quarrel
As matter whole you have not to make it with,
It must not be with this.

CAESAR.
You praise yourself
By laying defects of judgment to me; but
You patch'd up your excuses.

ANTONY.
Not so, not so;
I know you could not lack, I am certain on't,
Very necessity of this thought, that I,
Your partner in the cause 'gainst which he fought,
Could not with graceful eyes attend those wars
Which 'fronted mine own peace. As for my wife,
I would you had her spirit in such another:
The third o' theworld is yours; which with a snaffle
You may pace easy, but not such a wife.

ENOBARBUS.
Would we had all such wives, that the men
Might go to wars with the women.

ANTONY.
So much uncurbable, her garboils, Caesar,
Made out of her impatience,--which not wanted
Shrewdness of policy too,--I grieving grant
Did you too much disquiet: for that you must
But say I could not help it.

CAESAR.
I wrote to you
When rioting in