Antony and Cleopatra by William Shakespeare (i am reading a book TXT) 📕

as’t had been
Each man’s like mine; you have shown all Hectors.
Enter the city, clip your wives, your friends,
Tell them your feats; whilst they with joyful tears
Wash the congealment from your wounds, and kiss
The honour’d gashes whole. To Scarus. Give me thy hand; Enter Cleopatra, attended.

To this great fairy I’ll commend thy acts,
Make her thanks bless thee. To Cleopatra. O thou day o’ the world,
Chain mine arm’d neck; leap thou, attire and all,
Through proof of harness to my heart, and there
Ride on the pants triumphing!

Cleopatra

Lord of lords!
O infinite virtue, comest thou smiling from
The world’s great snare uncaught?

Antony

My nightingale,
We have beat them to their beds. What, girl! though grey
Do something mingle with our younger brown, yet ha’ we
A brain that nourishes our nerves, and can
Get goal for goal of youth. Behold this man;
Commend unto his lips thy favouring hand:
Kiss it, my warrior: he hath fought to-day
As if a god, in hate of mankind, had
Destroy’d in such a shape.

Cleopatra

I’ll give thee, friend,
An armour all of gold; it was a king’s.

Antony

He has deserved it, were it carbuncled
Like holy Phoebus’ car. Give me thy hand:
Through Alexandria make a jolly march;
Bear our hack’d targets like the men that owe them:
Had our great palace the capacity
To camp this host, we all would sup together,
And drink carouses to the next day’s fate,
Which promises royal peril. Trumpeters,
With brazen din blast you the city’s ear;
Make mingle with rattling tabourines;
That heaven and earth may strike their sounds together,
Applauding our approach. Exeunt.

Scene IX

Caesar’s camp.

Sentinels at their post. First Soldier

If we be not relieved within this hour,
We must return to the court of guard: the night
Is shiny; and they say we shall embattle
By the second hour i’ the morn.

Second Soldier

This last day was
A shrewd one to’s.

Enter Enobarbas. Enobarbas O, bear me witness, night⁠— Third Soldier What man is this? Second Soldier Stand close, and list him. Enobarbas

Be witness to me, O thou blessed moon,
When men revolted shall upon record
Bear hateful memory, poor Enobarbus did
Before thy face repent!

First Soldier Enobarbus! Third Soldier

Peace!
Hark further.

Enobarbas

O sovereign mistress of true melancholy,
The poisonous damp of night disponge upon me,
That life, a very rebel to my will,
May hang no longer on me: throw my heart
Against the flint and hardness of my fault;
Which, being dried with grief, will break to powder,
And finish all foul thoughts. O Antony,
Nobler than my revolt is infamous,
Forgive me in thine own particular;
But let the world rank me in register
A master-leaver and a fugitive:
O Antony! O Antony! Dies.

Second Soldier

Let’s speak
To him.

First Soldier

Let’s hear him, for the things he speaks
May concern Caesar.

Third Soldier Let’s do so. But he sleeps. First Soldier

Swoons rather; for so bad a prayer as his
Was never yet for sleep.

Second Soldier Go we to him. Third Soldier Awake, sir, awake; speak to us. Second Soldier Hear you, sir? First Soldier

The hand of death hath raught him. Drums afar off. Hark! the drums
Demurely wake the sleepers. Let us bear him
To the court of guard; he is of note: our hour
Is fully out.

Third Soldier

Come on, then;
He may recover yet. Exeunt with the body.

Scene X

Between the two camps.

Enter Antony and Scarus, with their Army. Antony

Their preparation is to-day by sea;
We please them not by land.

Scarus For both, my lord. Antony

I would they’ld fight i’ the fire or i’ the air;
We’ld fight there too. But this it is; our foot
Upon the hills adjoining to the city
Shall stay with us: order for sea is given;
They have put forth the haven
Where their appointment we may best discover,
And look on their endeavour. Exeunt.

Scene XI

Another part of the same.

Enter Caesar, and his Army. Caesar

But being charged, we will be still by land,
Which, as I take’t, we shall; for his best force
Is forth to man his galleys. To the vales,
And hold our best advantage. Exeunt.

Scene XII

Another part of the same.

Enter Antony and Scarus. Antony

Yet they are not join’d: where yond pine does stand,
I shall discover all: I’ll bring thee word
Straight, how ’tis like to go. Exit.

Scarus

Swallows have built
In Cleopatra’s sails their nests: the augurers
Say they know not, they cannot tell; look grimly,
And dare not speak their knowledge. Antony
Is valiant, and dejected; and, by starts,
His fretted fortunes give him hope, and fear,
Of what he has, and has not. Alarum afar off, as at a sea-fight.

Re-enter Antony. Antony

All is lost;
This foul Egyptian hath betrayed me:
My fleet hath yielded to the foe; and yonder
They cast their caps up and carouse together
Like friends long lost. Triple-turn’d whore! ’tis thou
Hast sold me to this novice; and my heart
Makes only wars on thee. Bid them all fly;
For when I am revenged upon my charm,
I have done all. Bid them all fly; begone. Exit Scarus.
O sun, thy uprise shall I see no more:
Fortune and Antony part here; even here
Do we shake hands. All come to this? The hearts
That spaniel’d me at heels, to whom I gave
Their wishes, do discandy, melt their sweets
On blossoming Caesar; and this pine is bark’d,
That overtopp’d them all. Betray’d I am:
O this false soul of Egypt! this grave charm⁠—
Whose eye beck’d forth my wars, and call’d them home;
Whose bosom was my crownet, my chief end⁠—
Like a right gipsy, hath, at fast and loose,
Beguiled me to the very heart of loss.
What, Eros, Eros!

Enter Cleopatra. Ah, thou spell! Avaunt! Cleopatra Why is my lord enraged against his love? Antony

Vanish, or I shall give thee thy deserving,
And blemish Caesar’s triumph. Let him take thee,
And hoist thee up to the shouting plebeians:
Follow his chariot, like the greatest spot
Of all thy sex; most monster-like, be shown
For poor’st diminutives, for doits; and let
Patient Octavia plough thy visage up
With her prepared nails. Exit Cleopatra. ’Tis well thou’rt gone,
If it be well to live; but