William Shakespeare: The Complete Works 2nd Edition (449 page)
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Authors: William Shakespeare
Tags: #Drama, #Literary Criticism, #Shakespeare
BOOK: William Shakespeare: The Complete Works 2nd Edition
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In
Antony and Cleopatra
the classical restraint of
Julius Caesar
gives way to a fine excess of language, of dramatic action, and of individual behaviour. The style is hyperbolical, overflowing the measure of the iambic pentameter. The action is amazingly fluid, shifting with an ease and rapidity that caused bewilderment to ages unfamiliar with the conventions of Shakespeare’s theatre. And the characterization is correspondingly extravagant, delighting in the quirks of individual behaviour, above all in the paradoxes and inconsistencies of the Egyptian queen who contains within herself the capacity for every extreme of human behaviour, from vanity, meanness, and frivolity to the sublime self-transcendence with which she faces and embraces death.
Antony and Cleopatra
the classical restraint of
Julius Caesar
gives way to a fine excess of language, of dramatic action, and of individual behaviour. The style is hyperbolical, overflowing the measure of the iambic pentameter. The action is amazingly fluid, shifting with an ease and rapidity that caused bewilderment to ages unfamiliar with the conventions of Shakespeare’s theatre. And the characterization is correspondingly extravagant, delighting in the quirks of individual behaviour, above all in the paradoxes and inconsistencies of the Egyptian queen who contains within herself the capacity for every extreme of human behaviour, from vanity, meanness, and frivolity to the sublime self-transcendence with which she faces and embraces death.
THE PERSONS OF THE PLAY
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 glowed 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.
O‘erflows the measure. Those his goodly eyes,
That o’er the files and musters of the war
Have glowed 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 herLook where they come.
Take but good note, and you shall see in him
The triple pillar of the world transformed
Into a strumpet’s fool. Behold and see.
The triple pillar of the world transformed
Into a strumpet’s fool. Behold and see.
CLEOPATRA
(to Antony)
(to Antony)
If it be love indeed, tell me how much.
ANTONY
There’s beggary in the love that can be reckoned.
CLEOPATRA
I’ll set a bourn how far to be beloved.
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 powerful mandate to you: ‘Do this, or this,
Take in that kingdom and enfranchise that.
Perform’t, or else we damn thee.’
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.’
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?
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!
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!
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
And such a twain can do’t—in which I bind
On pain of punishment the world to weet—
We stand up peerless.
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
And such a twain can do’t—in which I bind
On pain of punishment the world to weet—
We stand up peerless.
CLEOPATRA ⌈
aside
⌉ Excellent falsehood!
aside
⌉ Excellent falsehood!
Why did he marry Fulvia and not love her?
I’ll seem the fool I am not.
(To Antony)
Antony
Will be himself.
I’ll seem the fool I am not.
(To Antony)
Antony
Will be himself.
ANTONY
But stirred 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?
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.
ANTONY
Fie, wrangling queen,
Whom everything becomes—to chide, to laugh,
To weep; how every passion fully strives
To make itself, in thee, fair and admired!
No messenger but thine; and all alone
Tonight we’ll wander through the streets and note
The qualities of people. Come, my queen.
Last night you did desire it. (To the Messenger) Speak
not to us.
To weep; how every passion fully strives
To make itself, in thee, fair and admired!
No messenger but thine; and all alone
Tonight we’ll wander through the streets and note
The qualities of people. Come, my queen.
Last night you did desire it. (To the Messenger) Speak
not to us.
Exeunt Antony and Cleopatra with the train,
⌈
and by another door the Messenger
⌉
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.
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.
Thus speaks of him at Rome; but I will hope
Of better deeds tomorrow. Rest you happy.
Exeunt
Enter Enobarbus, a Soothsayer, Charmian, Iras, Mardian the eunuch, Alexas,
⌈
and attendants
⌉
CHARMIAN Lord Alexas, sweet Alexas, most anything Alexas, almost most absolute Alexas, where’s the soothsayer that you praised so to th’ 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? Is’t you, sir, that know things?
SOOTHSAYER
In nature’s infinite book of secrecy
A little I can read.
A little I can read.
ALEXAS
(to Charmian)
Show him your hand.
(to Charmian)
Show him your hand.
ENOBARBUS
(calling)
Bring in the banquet quickly,
(calling)
Bring in the banquet quickly,
Wine enough Cleopatra’s health to drink.
⌈
Enter servants with food and wine, and exeunt
⌉
CHARMIAN
(to Soothsayer)
Good sir, give me good fortune.
(to Soothsayer)
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 proved a fairer former fortune
Than that which is to approach.
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.
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 (
to the Soothsayer
) Nay, come, tell Iras hers.
to the Soothsayer
) Nay, come, tell Iras hers.
ALEXAS We’ll know all our fortunes.
ENOBARBUS Mine, and most of our fortunes, tonight shall be drunk to bed.
IRAS
(showing her hand to the Soothsayer)
There’s a palm presages chastity, if nothing else.
(showing her hand to the Soothsayer)
There’s a palm presages chastity, if nothing else.
CHARMIAN E’s the o’erflowing 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.
(To the Soothsayer)
Prithee, tell her but a workaday fortune.
(To the Soothsayer)
Prithee, tell her but a workaday 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 husband’s 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 heart-breaking to see a handsome man loose-wived, so it is a deadly sorrow to behold a foul knave uncuckolded. Therefore, dear Isis, keep decorum, and fortune him accordingly.
CHARMIAN Amen.
ALEXAS Lo now, if it lay in their hands to make me a cuckold, they would make themselves whores but they’d do’t.
Enter Cleopatra
ENOBARBUS Hush, here comes Antony.
CHARMIAN Not he, the Queen.
CLEOPATRA Saw you my lord?
ENOBARBUS
No, lady.
CLEOPATRA Was he not here?
CHARMIAN No, madam.
CLEOPATRA
He was disposed to mirth, but on the sudden
A Roman thought hath struck him. Enobarbus!
ENOBARBUS Madam?
A Roman thought hath struck him. Enobarbus!
ENOBARBUS Madam?
CLEOPATRA
Seek him, and bring him hither. Where’s Alexas?
ALEXAS
Here at your service. My lord approaches.
Enter Antony with a Messenger
CLEOPATRA
We will not look upon him. Go with us.
Exeunt all but Antony and the Messenger
MESSENGER
Fulvia thy wife first came into the field.
ANTONY Against my brother Lucius?
MESSENGER
Ay, but soon that war had end, and the time’s state
Made friends of them, jointing their force ’gainst
Caesar,
Whose better issue in the war from Italy
Upon the first encounter drave them.
Made friends of them, jointing their force ’gainst
Caesar,
Whose better issue in the war from Italy
Upon the first encounter drave them.
ANTONY
Well, what worst?
MESSENGER
The nature of bad news infects the teller.
ANTONY
When it concerns the fool or coward. On.
Things that are past are done. With me ’tis thus:
Who tells me true, though in his tale lie death,
I hear him as he flattered.
Things that are past are done. With me ’tis thus:
Who tells me true, though in his tale lie death,
I hear him as he flattered.
MESSENGER Labienus—
This is stiff news—hath with his Parthian force
Extended Asia; from Euphrates
His conquering banner shook, from Syria
To Lydia and to Ionia,
Whilst—
Extended Asia; from Euphrates
His conquering banner shook, from Syria
To Lydia and to Ionia,
Whilst—
ANTONYAntony, thou wouldst say—
MESSENGER O, my lord!
ANTONY
Speak to me home. Mince not the general tongue.
Name Cleopatra as she is called in Rome.
Rail thou in Fulvia’s phrase, and taunt my faults
With such full licence as both truth and malice
Have power to utter. O, then we bring forth weeds
When our quick winds lie still, and our ills told us
Is as our earing. Fare thee well a while.
Name Cleopatra as she is called in Rome.
Rail thou in Fulvia’s phrase, and taunt my faults
With such full licence as both truth and malice
Have power to utter. O, then we bring forth weeds
When our quick winds lie still, and our ills told us
Is as our earing. Fare thee well a while.
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