Equality of two domestick powers

Breeds scrupulous faction: The hated, grown to

strength,

Are newly grown to love: the condemn'd Pompey,
Rich in his father's honour, creeps apace

Into the hearts of such as have not thriv'd
Upon the present state, whose numbers threaten;
And quietness, grown sick of rest, would purge
By any desperate change: My more particular,
And that which most with you should safe4 my going,
Is Fulvia's death.

Cleo. Though age from folly could not give me freedom,

It does from childishness:-Can Fulvia die? 5

Ant. She's dead, my queen:

Look here, and, at thy sovereign leisure, read

6

The garboils she awak'd; at the last, best:
See, when, and where she died.

Cleo.

O most false love!

Where be the sacred vials thou should'st fill

With sorrowful water?

Now I see,

I see,

In Fulvia's death, how mine receiv'd shall be.
Ant. Quarrel no more, but be prepar'd to know
The purposes I bear; which are, or cease,
As you shall give the advice: Now, by the fire,
That quickens Nilus' slime, I go from hence,

Thy soldier, servant; making peace, or war,
As thou affect'st.

Cleo.

Cut my lace, Charmian, come;But let it be. I am quickly ill, and well:

4 Render my going not dangerous. The commotion she occasioned..

5 Can Fulvia be dead? 7 Mud of the river Nile.

So Antony loves.

Ant.

My precious queen, forbear;

And give true evidence to his love, which stands

Belong to Egypt: 8 Good now, play one scene
Of excellent dissembling; and let it look

Like perfect honour..

Ant.

You'll heat my blood; no more. Cleo. You can do better yet; but this is meetly. Ant. Now, by my sword,

Cleo.

And target,-Still he mends;

But this is not the best: Look, pr'ythee, Charmian, How this Herculean Roman does become

The carriage of his chafe."

Ant.

I'll leave you, lady.

Cleo. Courteous lord, one word.

Sir, you and I must part,—but that's not it:
Sir, you and I have lov'd,—but there's not it;
That you know well: Something it is I would,-
O, my oblivion' is a very Antony,

And I am all forgotten.

As Cleopatra this. But, sir, forgive me ;
Since my becomings kill me, when they do not
Eye well to you: Your honour calls you hence;
Therefore be deaf to my unpitied folly,

And all the gods go with you! upon your sword
Sit laurel'd victory! and smooth success

Be strew'd before your feet!

Ant.

Let us go. Come;
Our separation, so abides, and flies,

That thou, residing here, go'st yet with me,
And I, hence fleeting, here remain with thee.

Away.

SCENE IV.

[Exeunt.

Rome. An Apartment in Cæsar's House.

Enter OCTAVIUS CESAR, LEPIDUS, and Attendants.

Cas. You may see, Lepidus, and henceforth know It is not Cæsar's natural vice to hate

One great competitor: 2 From Alexandria

This is the news; He fishes, drinks, and wastes
The lamps of night in revel: is not more manlike
Than Cleopatra; nor the queen Ptolemy

More womanly than he: hardly gave audience, or
Vouchsaf'd to think he had partners: You shall find

there

A man, who is the abstract of all faults

That all men follow.

Lep.

I must not think, there are

Evils enough to darken all his goodness:

2 Associate or partner.

His faults, in him, seem as the spots of heaven,
More fiery by night's blackness; hereditary,
Rather than purchas'd;3 what he cannot change,
Than what he chooses.

Cas. You are too indulgent: Let us grant, it is not Amiss to tumble on the bed of Ptolemy;

To give a kingdom for a mirth; to sit
And keep the turn of tippling with a slave;

To reel the streets at noon, and stand the buffet
With knaves that smell of sweat: say, this becomes

him,

(As his composure must be rare indeed,

Whom these things cannot blemish,) yet must Antony
No way excuse his soils, when we do bear

So great weight in his lightness.4 If he fill'd
His vacancy with his voluptuousness,

Full surfeits, and the dryness of his bones,

Call on him for't: but, to confound such time,
That drums him from his sport, and speaks as loud
As his own state, and ours,-'tis to be chid

As we rate boys; who, being mature in knowledge,
Pawn their experience to their present pleasure,
And so rebel to judgment.

Lep.

Enter a Messenger.

Here's more news.

Mess. Thy biddings have been done; and every

hour,

Most noble Cæsar, shalt thou have report

How 'tis abroad. Pompey is strong at sea;

3 Procured by his own fault.

4 Levity.

• Consume.

5 Visit him.

And it appears, he is belov'd of those

That only have fear'd Cæsar: to the ports
The discontents repair, and men's reports
Give him much wrong'd.

Cæs.

I should have known no less:-
It hath been taught us from the primal state,
That he, which is, was wish'd, until he were ;
And the ebb'd man, ne'er lov'd, till ne'er worth love,
Comes dear'd, by being lack'd. This common body,
Like a vagabond flag upon the stream,

Goes to, and back, lackeying the varying tide,
To rot itself with motion.

Mess.

Cæsar, I bring thee word,

Menecrates and Menas, famous pirates,

Make the sea serve them; which they ear9 and

wound

With keels of every kind: Many hot inroads

They make in Italy; the borders maritime

Lack blood' to think on't, and flush2 youth revolt: No vessel can peep forth, but 'tis as soon

Taken as seen; for Pompey's name strikes more, Than could his war resisted.

Cæs.

Leave thy lascivious wassals.

Antony,

When thou once

Wast beaten from Modena, where thou slew'st
Hirtius and Pansa, consuls, at thy heel

Did famine follow; whom thou fought'st against,
Though daintily brought up, with patience more
Than savages could suffer: Thou didst drink

7 Discontented. 8 Endeared by being missed. 9 Plough. I Turn pale. 2 Ruddy.

3 Feastings, in the old copy it is waissailes, i. e. vassals.