Enter the Messenger as before Come hither, sir. ALEXAS Good majesty, Herod of Jewry dare not look upon you But when you are well pleased. CLEOPATRA That Herod's head I'll have: but how, when Antony is gone Through whom I might command it? Come thou near. Messenger Most gracious majesty,-- CLEOPATRA Didst thou behold Octavia? Messenger Ay, dread queen. CLEOPATRA Where? Messenger Madam, in Rome;I look'd her in the face, and saw her led Between her brother and Mark Antony. CLEOPATRA Is she as tall as me? Messenger She is not, madam. CLEOPATRA Didst hear her speak? is she shrill-tongued or low? Messenger Madam, I heard her speak; she is low-voiced. CLEOPATRA That's not so good: he cannot like her long. CHARMIAN Like her! O Isis! 'tis impossible. CLEOPATRA I think so, Charmian: dull of tongue, and dwarfish!
What majesty is in her gait? Remember, If e'er thou look'dst on majesty. Messenger She creeps:
Her motion and her station are as one;
She shows a body rather than a life, A statue than a breather. CLEOPATRA Is this certain? Messenger Or I have no observance. CHARMIAN Three in Egypt Cannot make better note. CLEOPATRA He's very knowing;I do perceive't: there's nothing in her yet:
The fellow has good judgment. CHARMIAN Excellent. CLEOPATRA Guess at her years, I prithee. Messenger Madam, She was a widow,-- CLEOPATRA Widow! Charmian, hark. Messenger And I do think she's thirty. CLEOPATRA Bear'st thou her face in mind? is't long or round? Messenger Round even to faultiness. CLEOPATRA For the most part, too, they are foolish that are so.
Her hair, what colour? Messenger Brown, madam: and her forehead As low as she would wish it. CLEOPATRA There's gold for thee.
Thou must not take my former sharpness ill:
I will employ thee back again; I find thee Most fit for business: go make thee ready;Our letters are prepared.
Exit Messenger CHARMIAN A proper man. CLEOPATRA Indeed, he is so: I repent me much That so I harried him. Why, methinks, by him, This creature's no such thing. CHARMIAN Nothing, madam. CLEOPATRA The man hath seen some majesty, and should know. CHARMIAN Hath he seen majesty? Isis else defend, And serving you so long! CLEOPATRA I have one thing more to ask him yet, good Charmian:
But 'tis no matter; thou shalt bring him to me Where I will write. All may be well enough. CHARMIAN I warrant you, madam.
Exeunt SCENE IV. Athens. A room in MARK ANTONY's house. Enter MARK ANTONY and OCTAVIA MARK ANTONY Nay, nay, Octavia, not only that,--That were excusable, that, and thousands more Of semblable import,--but he hath waged New wars 'gainst Pompey; made his will, and read it To public ear:
Spoke scantly of me: when perforce he could not But pay me terms of honour, cold and sickly He vented them; most narrow measure lent me:
When the best hint was given him, he not took't, Or did it from his teeth. OCTAVIA O my good lord, Believe not all; or, if you must believe, Stomach not all. A more unhappy lady, If this division chance, ne'er stood between, Praying for both parts:
The good gods me presently, When I shall pray, 'O bless my lord and husband!'
Undo that prayer, by crying out as loud, 'O, bless my brother!' Husband win, win brother, Prays, and destroys the prayer; no midway 'Twixt these extremes at all. MARK ANTONY Gentle Octavia, Let your best love draw to that point, which seeks Best to preserve it: if I lose mine honour, I lose myself: better I were not yours Than yours so branchless. But, as you requested, Yourself shall go between 's: the mean time, lady, I'll raise the preparation of a war Shall stain your brother: make your soonest haste;So your desires are yours. OCTAVIA Thanks to my lord.
The Jove of power make me most weak, most weak, Your reconciler! Wars 'twixt you twain would be As if the world should cleave, and that slain men Should solder up the rift. MARK ANTONY When it appears to you where this begins, Turn your displeasure that way: for our faults Can never be so equal, that your love Can equally move with them. Provide your going;Choose your own company, and command what cost Your heart has mind to.
Exeunt SCENE V. The same. Another room. Enter DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS and EROS, meeting DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS How now, friend Eros! EROS There's strange news come, sir. DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS What, man? EROS Caesar and Lepidus have made wars upon Pompey. DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS This is old: what is the success? EROS Caesar, having made use of him in the wars 'gainst Pompey, presently denied him rivality; would not let him partake in the glory of the action: and not resting here, accuses him of letters he had formerly wrote to Pompey; upon his own appeal, seizes him:
so the poor third is up, till death enlarge his confine. DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS Then, world, thou hast a pair of chaps, no more;And throw between them all the food thou hast, They'll grind the one the other. Where's Antony? EROS He's walking in the garden--thus; and spurns The rush that lies before him; cries, 'Fool Lepidus!'
And threats the throat of that his officer That murder'd Pompey. DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS Our great navy's rigg'd. EROS For Italy and Caesar. More, Domitius;My lord desires you presently: my news I might have told hereafter. DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS 'Twill be naught:
But let it be. Bring me to Antony. EROS Come, sir.
Exeunt SCENE VI. Rome. OCTAVIUS CAESAR's house. Enter OCTAVIUS CAESAR, AGRIPPA, and MECAENAS OCTAVIUS CAESAR Contemning Rome, he has done all this, and more, In Alexandria: here's the manner of 't:
I' the market-place, on a tribunal silver'd, Cleopatra and himself in chairs of gold Were publicly enthroned: at the feet sat Caesarion, whom they call my father's son, And all the unlawful issue that their lust Since then hath made between them. Unto her He gave the stablishment of Egypt; made her Of lower Syria, Cyprus, Lydia, Absolute queen. MECAENAS This in the public eye? OCTAVIUS CAESAR I' the common show-place, where they exercise.
His sons he there proclaim'd the kings of kings:
Great Media, Parthia, and Armenia.
