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:
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;
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,
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.
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!
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.
Faints
CHARMIAN O, quietness, lady!
IRAS She is dead too, our sovereign.
CHARMIAN Lady!
IRAS Madam!
CHARMIAN O madam, madam, madam!
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
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 scottish, and impatience does
Become a dog that’s mad: then is it sin
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:
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:
Ah, women, women! come; we have no friend
But resolution, and the briefest end.
Exeunt; those above bearing off MARK ANTONY’s body
Act 5
Scene 1
Alexandria. OCTAVIUS CAESAR’s camp.
Enter OCTAVIUS CAESAR, AGRIPPA, DOLABELLA, MECAENAS, GALLUS, PROCULEIUS, and others, his council of war
OCTAVIUS CAESAR Go to him, Dolabella, bid him yield;
Being so frustrate, tell him he mocks
The pauses that he makes.
DOLABELLA Caesar, I shall.
Exit
Enter DERCETAS, with the sword of MARK ANTONY
OCTAVIUS CAESAR Wherefore is that? and what art thou that darest
Appear thus to us?
DERCETAS I am call’d Dercetas;
Mark Antony I served, who best was worthy
Best to be served: whilst he stood up and spoke,
He was my master; and I wore my life
To spend upon his haters. If thou please
To take me to thee, as I was to him
I’ll be to Caesar; if thou pleasest not,
I yield thee up my life.
OCTAVIUS CAESAR What is’t thou say’st?
DERCETAS I say, O Caesar, Antony is dead.
OCTAVIUS CAESAR The breaking of so great a thing should make
A greater crack: the round world
Should have shook lions into civil streets,
And citizens to their dens: the death of Antony
Is not a single doom; in the name lay
A moiety of the world.
DERCETAS He is dead, Caesar:
Not by a public minister of justice,
Nor by a hired knife; but that self hand,
Which writ his honour in the acts it did,
Hath, with the courage which the heart did lend it,
Splitted the heart. This is his sword;
I robb’d his wound of it; behold it stain’d
With his most noble blood.
OCTAVIUS CAESAR Look you sad, friends?
The gods rebuke me, but it is tidings
To wash the eyes of kings.
AGRIPPA And strange it is,
That nature must compel us to lament
Our most persisted deeds.
MECAENAS His taints and honours
Waged equal with him.
AGRIPPA A rarer spirit never
Did steer humanity: but you, gods, will give us
Some faults to make us men. Caesar is touch’d.
MECAENAS When such a spacious mirror’s set before him,
He needs must see himself.
OCTAVIUS CAESAR O Antony!
I have follow’d thee to this; but we do lance
Diseases in our bodies: I must perforce
Have shown to thee such a declining day,
Or look on thine; we could not stall together
In the whole world: but yet let me lament,
With tears as sovereign as the blood of hearts,
That thou, my brother, my competitor
In top of all design, my mate in empire,
Friend and companion in the front of war,
The arm of mine own body, and the heart
Where mine his thoughts did kindle,–that our stars,
Unreconciliable, should divide
Our equalness to this. Hear me, good friends–
But I will tell you at some meeter season:
Enter an Egyptian
The business of this man looks out of him;
We’ll hear him what he says. Whence are you?
Egyptian A poor Egyptian yet. The queen my mistress,
Confined in all she has, her monument,
Of thy intents desires instruction,
That she preparedly may frame herself
To the way she’s forced to.
OCTAVIUS CAESAR Bid her have good heart:
She soon shall know of us, by some of ours,
How honourable and how kindly we
Determine for her; for Caesar cannot live
To be ungentle.
Egyptian So the gods preserve thee!
Exit
OCTAVIUS CAESAR Come hither, Proculeius. Go and say,
We purpose her no shame: give her what comforts
The quality of her passion shall require,
Lest, in her greatness, by some mortal stroke
She do defeat us; for her life in Rome
Would be eternal in our triumph: go,
And with your speediest bring us what she says,
And how you find of her.
PROCULEIUS Caesar, I shall.
Exit
OCTAVIUS CAESAR Gallus, go you along.
Exit GALLUS
Where’s Dolabella,
To second Proculeius?
All Dolabella!
OCTAVIUS CAESAR Let him alone, for I remember now
How he’s employ’d: he shall in time be ready.
Go with me to my tent; where you shall see
How hardly I was drawn into this war;
How calm and gentle I proceeded still
In all my writings: go with me, and see
What I can show in this.
Exeunt
Scene 2
Alexandria. A room in the monument.
Enter CLEOPATRA, CHARMIAN, and IRAS
CLEOPATRA My desolation does begin to make
A better life. ‘Tis paltry to be Caesar;
Not being Fortune, he’s but Fortune’s knave,
A minister of her will: and it is great
To do that thing that ends all other deeds;
Which shackles accidents and bolts up change;
Which sleeps, and never palates more the dug,
The beggar’s nurse and Caesar’s.
Enter, to the gates of the monument, PROCULEIUS, GALLUS and Soldiers
PROCULEIUS Caesar sends greeting to the Queen of Egypt;
And bids thee study on what fair demands
Thou mean’st to have him grant thee.
CLEOPATRA What’s thy name?
PROCULEIUS My name is Proculeius.
CLEOPATRA Antony
Did tell me of you, bade me trust you; but
I do not greatly care to be deceived,
That have no use for trusting. If your master
Would have a queen his beggar, you must tell him,
That majesty, to keep decorum, must
No less beg than a kingdom: if he please
To give me conquer’d Egypt for my son,
He gives me so much of mine own, as I
Will kneel to him with thanks.
PROCULEIUS Be of good cheer;
You’re fall’n into a princely hand, fear nothing:
Make your full reference freely to my lord,
Who is so full of grace, that it flows over
On all that need: let me report to him
Your sweet dependency; and you shall find
A conqueror that will pray in aid for kindness,
Where he for grace is kneel’d to.
CLEOPATRA Pray you, tell him
I am his fortune’s vassal, and I send him
The greatness he has got. I hourly learn
A doctrine of obedience; and would gladly
Look him i’ the face.
PROCULEIUS This I’ll report, dear lady.
Have comfort, for I know your plight is pitied
Of him that caused it.
GALLUS You see how easily she may be surprised:
Here PROCULEIUS and two of the Guard ascend the monument by a ladder placed against a window, and, having descended, come behind CLEOPATRA. Some of the Guard unbar and open the gates
To PROCULEIUS and the Guard
Guard her till Caesar come.
Exit
IRAS Royal queen!
CHARMIAN O Cleopatra! thou art taken, queen:
CLEOPATRA Quick, quick, good hands.
Drawing a dagger
PROCULEIUS Hold, worthy lady, hold:
Seizes and disarms her