William Shakespeare, Antony and Cleopatra

 

William Shakespeare, Antony and Cleopatra, Arden

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. … (1.1.1-6)

 

Antony: Let Rome in Tiber melt, …

…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. (1.1.34-41)

 

Soothsayer: You shall outlive the lady whom you serve.

Charmian: O, excellent! I love long life better than figs.

(1.2.32-34) [figs: the meaning is probably sexual]

 

Cleopatra: He was disposed to mirth, but on the sudden

A Roman thought hath struck him. … (1.2.87-88)

 

Antony: … She’s good, being gone. (1.2.133)

 

Antony: … My more particular,

And that which most with you should safe my going,

If Fulvia’s death.

Cleopatra: Though age from folly could not give me freedom,

It does from childishness. Can Fulvia die? (1.3.55-559)

 

Cleopatra: Oh my oblivion is a very Antony,

And I am all forgotten!

Antony: But that your royalty

Holds idleness your subject, I should take you

For idleness itself. (1.3.92-94)

 

Caesar: This is the news: he fishes, drinks, and wastes

The lamps of night in revel; is not more manlike

Than Cleopatra, nor the Queen of Ptolemy

More womanly than he; … (1.4.4-7)

 

Caesar: … at thy heel

Did famine follow, whom though fought’st against,

Though daintily brought up, with patience more

Than savages could suffer. Thou didn’t 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. 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 lanked not. (1.4.59-72)

 

Cleopatra: [yawns] 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. (1.5.3-6)

 

Enobarbus: Ay, sir, we did sleep day out of countenance

And made the night light with drinking.

Maecenas: Eight wild boars roasted whole at a breakfast,

And but twelve persons there. Is this true?

Enobarbus: This was but as a fly by an eagle. We had

Much more monstrous matter of a feast, which worthily

Deserved noting. (2.2.186-94)

 

Enobarbus: The barge she sat in, like a burnished throne,

Burned on the water; the poop was beaten gold;

Purple the sails, and so perfumed that

The winds were love-sick with them; the oars were silver,

Which to the tune of flutes kept stroke, and made

The water which they beat to follow faster,

As amorous of their strokes. … (2.2.201-07)

 

Agrippa: O, rare for Antony!

Enobarbus: Her gentlewomen, like the Nereides,

So many mermaids, tended her i’th’eyes,

And made their bends adornings. …

… From the barge a strange invisible perfume hits the sense

Of the adjacent wharfs. The city cast

Her people out upon her, and Antony,

Enthroned i’th’market-place, did sit alone,

Whistling to th’air, which, but for vacancy,

Had gone to gaze on Cleopatra, too,

And made a gap in nature.

Agrippa: Rare Egyptian! (2.2.215-28)

 

Enobarbus: I saw her once

Hop forty paces through the public street

And, having lost her breath, she spoke and panted,

That she did make defect perfection, (2.2.238-41)

 

Antony: Say to me,

Whose fortunes shall rise higher, Caesar’s or mine?

Soothsayer: Caesar’s.

Therefore, O Antony, stay not by his side.

Thy daemon—that thy spirits which keeps thee—is

Noble, courageous, high unmatchable,

Where Caesar’s is not. But near him, thy angel

Becomes afeard, as being o’erpowered; therefore

Make space enough between you.

Antony: Speak this no  more.

Soothsayer: To none but thee; no more but when to thee.

If thou dost play with him at any game,

Thou art sure to lose; and of that natural luck

He beats thee ‘gainst the odds. Thy lustre thickens

When he shines by. I say again, thy spirit

Is all afraid to govern thee near him;

But, he away, ‘tis noble. (2.3.15-29) [According to Plutarch, the soothsayer told Antony ‘thy Demon … (that is to say, the good angell and spirit that kepeth thee) is affraied of Caesar’s]

 

Cleopatra: …and next morn,

Ere the ninth hour, I drunk him to bed,

Then put my tires and mantles on him, whilst

I wore his sword Philippan. (2.5.20)

 

Lepidus: You’ve strange serpents there?

Antony: Ay, Lepidus.

Lepidus: Your serpent of Egypt is bred, now, of your

mud by the operation of your sun; so is your crocodile.

Antony: They are so. (2.7.24-28) [It was widely thought that organic life, such as snakes and flies, could be created out of vegetable matter.]

 

Caesar: What would you more? Pompey, good night. Good brother,

Let me request you off. Our graver business

Frowns at this levity. Gentle lords, let’s part.

You see we have burnt our cheeks. Strong Enobarb

Is weaker than wine, and mine own tongue

Splits what it speaks. The wild disguise hath almost

Anticked us all. What needs more words? Good night. (2.7.119-25)

 

Caesar: I’th’market-place, on a tribunal silvered,

Cleopatra and himself in chains 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. (3.6.3-11)

 

Caesar: … The wife of Antony

Should have an army for an usher, and

The neighs of horse to tell of her approach

Long ere she did appear. The trees by th’way

Should have borne men, and expectation fainted,

Longing for what it had not. Nay, the dust

Should have ascended to the roof of heaven,

Raised by your populous troops. But you are come

A market maid to Rome, and have prevented

The Ostentation of our love … (3.6.44-53)

 

Soldier: O noble Emperor, do not fight by sea.

Trust not to rotten planks. Do you misdoubt

This sword and these my wounds? Let th’Egyptians

And the Phoenicians go a-ducking; we

Have used to conquer standing on the earth (3.7.61-65)

 

Scarus: … Antony,

Claps on his sea-wing and, like a doting mallard,

Leaving the fight in heights, flies after her.

I never saw an action of such shame.

Experience, manhood, honour, ne’er before

Did violate so itself. (3.10.19-25)

 

Antony: My very hairs do mutiny, for the white

Reprove the brown for rashness, and they them

For fear and doting. … (3.11.13-15)

 

Cleopatra; O, my lord, my lord,

Forgive my fearful sails! I little thought

You would have followed.

Antony: Egypt, thou knewst too well

My heart was to thy rudder tied by th’strings (3.11.54-57)

 

Antony: Fall not a tear, I say; one of them rates

All that is won and lost. Give me a kiss. [They kiss.]

Even this repays me.

We sent our schoolmaster. Is a come back?

Love, I am full of lead. Some wine

Within there and our viands! Fortune knows

We scorn her most when most she offers blows. (3.11.69-75)

 

Caesar: … Women are not

In their best fortunes strong, but want will perjure

The ne’er-touched vestal. Try thy cunning, Thidias;

Make thine own edict for thy pains, which we

Will answer as a law. (3.12.29-33)

 

Cleopatra: What shall we do, Enobarbus?

Enobarbus: Think, and die.

Cleopatra: Is Antony or we in fault for this?

Enobarbus: Antony only, that would make his will

Lord of his reason. … (3.13.1-4)

 

Enobarbus: Mine honesty and I begin to square.

The loyalty well held to fools does make

Our faith mere folly. Yet he that can endure

To follow with allegiance a fallen lord

Does conquer him that did his master conquer,

And earns a place i’th’story. (3.13.42-47)

 

Antony: I found you as a morsel, cold upon

Dead Caesar’s trencher—nay, you were a fragment

Of Gnaeus Pompey’s, besides what hotter hours,

Unregistered in vulgar fame, you have

Luxuriously picked out. … (3.13.121-5)

 

Antony: If that thy father live, let him repent

Thou wast not made his daughter; and be thou sorry

To follow Caesar in his triumph, since

Thou hast been whipped for following him. Henceforth

The white hand of a lady fever thee;

Shake thou to look on’t. Get thee back to Caesar;

Tell him thy entertainment. Look thou say

He makes me angry with him. For he seems

Proud and disdainful, harping on what I am,

Not what he knew I was. He makes me angry,

And at this time most easy ‘tis to do’t,

When my good stars that were my former guides

Have empty left their orbs and shot their fires

Into th’abysm of hell. If he mislike

My speech and what is done, tell him he has

Hipparchus, my enfranched bondman, whom

He may at pleasure whip or hang or torture,

As he shall like to quit me. Urge it thou.

Hence with thy stripes! Be gone! (3.13.140-157)

 

Antony: I will treble-sinewed, hearted, breathed,

And fight maliciously. For when mine hours

Were nice and lucky, men did ransom lives

Of me for jests. But now, I’ll set my teeth

And send to darkness all that stop me. Come,

Let’s have one other gaudy night. Call to me

All my sad captains. Fill our bowls once more.

Let’s mock the midnight bell.

Cleopatra: It is my birthday.

I had thought t’have held it poor, but since my lord

Is Antony again, I will be Cleopatra. (3.13.183-92)

 

Antony: … The next time I do fight

I’ll make Death love me, for I will content

Even with his pestilent scythe. (3.13.197-99) [‘I will destroy as many as death does in times of plague’. ‘Contend’ is used in the sense of ‘compete’]

 

Caesar: He calls me boy, and chides as he had power

To beat me out of Egypt. My messenger

He had whipped with rods; dares me to personal combat,

Caesar to Antony. Let the old ruffian know

I have many other ways to die; meantime

Laugh at his challenge. (4.1.1-5) [This is a mistranslation of Plutarch’s original Greek version in which Caesar says that Antony can find many other ways to die.]

 

Cleopatra: What does he mean?

Enobarbus: To make his followers weep. (4.2.24-25)

 

Enobarbus: I fight against thee? No, I will go seek

Some ditch wherein to die; the foul’st best fits

My latter part of life. (4.6.37-9)

 

Antony: … Trumpeters,

With brazen din blast you the city’s ear;

Make mingle with our rattling taborins

That heaven and earth may strike their sounds together,

Applauding our approach. (4.8.35-39)

 

Scarus: Swallows have built

In Cleopatra’s sails their nests. The augurs

Say they know not, they cannot tell; look grimly,

And dare not speak their knowledge. … (4.12.3-6)

 

Antony: 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 spanieled me at heels, to whom I gave

Their wishes, do discandy, melt their sweets

On blossoming Caesar, … (4.18-23) [discandy: literally ‘melt’ as in 3.13.170, but the image is of dogs which, having been given sweetmeats, all them to melt and dribble from their mouths. Shakespeare is thinking of ‘the unclean practice of feeding dogs at meals under the table.’]

 

Antony: Eros, thou yet behold’st me?

Eros: Ay, noble lord.

Antony: Sometimes we see a cloud that’s dragonish,

A vapour sometime is like a bear or lion,

A towered citadel, a pendent rock,

A forked mountain, or blue promontory

With trees upon’t that nod unto the world

And mock our eyes with air. Thou hast seen these signs?

They are black vesper’s pageants.

Eros: Ay, my lord.

Antony: That which is now a horse, even with a thought

The rack dislimns and makes it indistinct

As water is in water. (4.14.1-11) [This is the fullest expression in the play of the phenomena of transformation and melting.]

 

Charmian: Be comforted, dear madam.

Cleopatra: No, I will not.

All strange and terrible events are welcome,

But comforts we despise. … (4.15.2-6)

 

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’th’world,

The noblest; and do now not basely die,

Not cowardly put off my helmet to

My countryman; a Roman by a Roman

Valiantly vanquished. 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,

The crown o’th’earth doth melt. My lord! [Antony dies.]

O withered is the garland of the war,

The soldier’s pole is fallen; young boys and girls

Are level now with men; the odds is gone

And there is nothing left remarkable

Beneath the visiting moon. [she faints.] (4.15.53-70)

 

Cleopatra: …Then is it sin

To rush into the secret house of death

Ere death dare come to us? … (4.5.84-6)

 

Dercetus: I say, O Caesar, Antony is dead.

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 moity of the world. (5.1.13-18) [moiety – half]

 

Cleopatra: His legs bestrid the ocean; his reared arm

Crested the world; his voice was propertied

As all the tunes spheres, and that to friends;

But when he meant to quail and shake the orb,

He was as rattling thunder. For his bounty,

There was no winter in’t; an autumn it was

That grew the more by reaping. His delights

Were dolphin-like: they showed his back above

The element they lived in. in his livery

Walked crowns and crownets; realms and islands were

As plates dropped from his pocked. (5.2.81-91) [‘as the dolphin shows his back above the water, so Antony rose superior to the pleasures which were his element’]

 

Cleopatra: … Now, Iras, what think’st thou?

Thou an Egyptian puppet shall be shown

In Rome as well as I. Mechanic slaves

With greasy aprons, rules and hammers shall

Uplift us to the view. In their thick breaths,

Rank of gross diet, shall we be enclouded

And forced to drink their vapour.

Iras: The gods forbid!

Cleopatra: Nay, ‘tis most certain, Iras. Saucy lictors

Will catch at us like strumpets, and scald rhymers

Ballad us out o’tune. The quick comedians

Extemporally will stage us and present

Our Alexandrian revels; Antony

Shall be brought drunken forth; and I shall see

Some squeaking Cleopatra boy my greatness

I’th’posture of a whore. (5.2.206-220)