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  • Title: Anthony and Cleopatra (Modern)
  • Editor: Randall Martin

    • ISBN: 978-1-55058-433-2

    Copyright Randall Martin. This text may be freely used for educational, non-profit purposes; for all other uses contact the Editor.
    Author: William Shakespeare
    Editor: Randall Martin
    Not Peer Reviewed

    Anthony and Cleopatra (Modern)

    [4.13]
    Alarum afar off, as at a sea-fight. Enter Antony and Scarrus.
    Antony
    Yet they are not joined. 2755Where yond pine does stand,
    I shall discover all. I'll bring thee word
    Straight how 'tis like to go.
    Exit.
    Scarrus
    Swallows have built
    In Cleopatra's sails their nests. The augurers
    Say they know not, they cannot tell, look grimly,
    2760And dare not speak their knowledge. Antony
    Is valiant and dejected, and by starts
    His fretted fortunes give him hope and fear
    Of what he has and has not.
    Enter Antony.
    2765Antony
    All is lost.
    This foul Egyptian hath betrayed me:
    My fleet hath yielded to the foe, and yonder
    They cast their caps up and carouse together
    Like friends long lost. Triple-turned whore, 'tis thou
    2770Hast sold me to this novice, and my heart
    Makes only wars on thee! Bid them all fly!
    For when I am revenged upon my charm,
    I have done all. Bid them all fly, be gone!
    [Exit Scarrus].
    Oh sun, thy uprise shall I see no more.
    2775Fortune 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; and this pine is barked
    2780That over-topped them all. Betrayed I am.
    Oh this false soul of Egypt! This grave charm,
    Whose eye becked forth my wars and called them home,
    Whose bosom was my crownet, my chief end,
    Like a right gipsy hath at fast and loose
    2785Beguiled me to the very heart of loss.
    What, Eros, Eros!
    Enter Cleopatra.
    Ah, thou spell, avaunt!
    Cleopatra
    Why is my lord enraged against his love?
    2790Antony
    Vanish, or I shall give thee thy deserving,
    And blemish Caesar's triumph. Let him take thee
    And hoist thee up to the shouting plebeians.
    Follow his chariot like the greatest spot
    Of all thy sex. Most monster-like be shown
    2795For poor'st diminutives, for dolts, and let
    Patient Octavia plough thy visage up
    With her preparèd nails.
    Exit Cleopatra.
    'Tis well th'art gone,
    If it be well to live. But better 'twere
    2800Thou fell'st into my fury, for one death
    Might have prevented many. Eros, ho!
    The shirt of Nessus is upon me. Teach me,
    Alcides, thou mine ancestor, thy rage.
    Let me lodge Lichas on the horns o'th'moon,
    2805And with those hands that grasped the heaviest club
    Subdue my worthiest self. The witch shall die.
    To the young Roman boy she hath sold me, and I fall
    Under this plot. She dies for't. Eros, ho!
    Exit.
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