| Enter Antony with Attendants. |
| Antony | Hark! the land bids me tread no more upon’t;
It is ashamed to bear me! Friends, come hither:
I am so lated in the world, that I
Have lost my way for ever: I have a ship
Laden with gold; take that, divide it; fly,
And make your peace with Caesar. |
| All | Fly! not we. |
| Antony | I have fled myself; and have instructed cowards
To run and show their shoulders. Friends, be gone;
I have myself resolved upon a course
Which has no need of you; be gone:
My treasure’s in the harbour, take it. O,
I follow’d that I blush to look upon:
My very hairs do mutiny; for the white
Reprove the brown for rashness, and they them
For fear and doting. Friends, be gone: you shall
Have letters from me to some friends that will
Sweep your way for you. Pray you, look not sad,
Nor make replies of loathness: take the hint
Which my despair proclaims; let that be left
Which leaves itself: to the sea-side straightway:
I will possess you of that ship and treasure.
Leave me, I pray, a little: pray you now:
Nay, do so; for, indeed, I have lost command,
Therefore I pray you: I’ll see you by and by. Sits down. |
| Enter Cleopatra led by Charmian and Iras; Eros following. |
| Eros | Nay, gentle madam, to him, comfort him. |
| Iras | Do, most dear queen. |
| Charmian | Do! why: what else? |
| Cleopatra | Let me sit down. O Juno! |
| Antony | No, no, no, no, no. |
| Eros | See you here, sir? |
| Antony | O fie, fie, fie! |
| Charmian | Madam! |
| Iras | Madam, O good empress! |
| Eros | Sir, sir— |
| Antony | Yes, my lord, yes; he at Philippi kept
His sword e’en like a dancer; while I struck
The lean and wrinkled Cassius; and ’twas I
That the mad Brutus ended: he alone
Dealt on lieutenantry, and no practice had
In the brave squares of war: yet now—No matter. |
| Cleopatra | Ah, stand by. |
| Eros | The queen, my lord, the queen. |
| Iras | Go to him, madam, speak to him:
He is unqualitied with very shame. |
| Cleopatra | Well then, sustain him: O! |
| Eros | Most noble sir, arise; the queen approaches:
Her head’s declined, and death will seize her, but
Your comfort makes the rescue. |
| Antony | I have offended reputation,
A most unnoble swerving. |
| Eros | Sir, the queen. |
| Antony | O, whither hast thou led me, Egypt? See,
How I convey my shame out of thine eyes
By looking back what I have left behind
’Stroy’d in dishonour. |
| Cleopatra | O my lord, my lord,
Forgive my fearful sails! I little thought
You would have follow’d. |
| Antony | Egypt, thou knew’st too well
My heart was to thy rudder tied by the strings,
And thou shouldst tow me after: o’er my spirit
Thy full supremacy thou knew’st, and that
Thy beck might from the bidding of the gods
Command me. |
| Cleopatra | O, my pardon! |
| Antony | Now I must
To the young man send humble treaties, dodge
And palter in the shifts of lowness; who
With half the bulk o’ the world play’d as I pleased,
Making and marring fortunes. You did know
How much you were my conqueror; and that
My sword, made weak by my affection, would
Obey it on all cause. |
| Cleopatra | Pardon, pardon! |
| Antony | Fall not a tear, I say; one of them rates
All that is won and lost: give me a kiss;
Even this repays me. We sent our schoolmaster;
Is he 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. Exeunt. |
