The Complete Works of William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare (book suggestions TXT) 📖

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.

LEPIDUS. I must not think there are

Evils enow to darken all his goodness.

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

CAESAR. You are too indulgent. Let’s 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 himAs his composure must be rare indeed

Whom these things cannot blemish-yet must Antony No way excuse his foils when we do bear So great weight in his lightness. 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.

 

Enter a MESSENGER

 

LEPIDUS. Here’s more news.

MESSENGER. Thy biddings have been done; and every hour, Most noble Caesar, shalt thou have report How ‘tis abroad. Pompey is strong at sea, And it appears he is belov’d of those That only have fear’d Caesar. To the ports The discontents repair, and men’s reports Give him much wrong’d.

CAESAR. 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 to a vagabond flag upon the stream, Goes to and back, lackeying the varying tide, To rot itself with motion.

MESSENGER. Caesar, I bring thee word

Menecrates and Menas, famous pirates, Make the sea serve them, which they ear and wound With keels of every kind. Many hot inroads They make in Italy; the borders maritime Lack blood to think on’t, and flush 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.

CAESAR. Antony,

Leave thy lascivious wassails. When thou once Was 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 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 brows’d. 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 lank’d not.

LEPIDUS. ‘Tis pity of him.

CAESAR. Let his shames quickly

Drive him to Rome. ‘Tis time we twain Did show ourselves i’ th’ field; and to that end Assemble we immediate council. Pompey Thrives in our idleness.

LEPIDUS. Tomorrow, Caesar,

I shall be furnish’d to inform you rightly Both what by sea and land I can be able To front this present time.

CAESAR. Till which encounter

It is my business too. Farewell.

LEPIDUS. Farewell, my lord. What you shall know meantime Of stirs abroad, I shall beseech you, sir, To let me be partaker.

CAESAR. Doubt not, sir;

I knew it for my bond. Exeunt

SCENE V.

Alexandria. CLEOPATRA’S palace

 

Enter CLEOPATRA, CHARMIAN, IRAS, and MARDIAN

 

CLEOPATRA. Charmian!

CHARMIAN. Madam?

CLEOPATRA. 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.

CHARMIAN. You think of him too much.

CLEOPATRA. O, ‘tis treason!

CHARMIAN. Madam, I trust, not so.

CLEOPATRA. Thou, eunuch Mardian!

MARDIAN. What’s your Highness’ pleasure?

CLEOPATRA. Not now to hear thee sing; I take no pleasure In aught an eunuch has. ‘Tis well for thee That, being unseminar’d, thy freer thoughts May not fly forth of Egypt. Hast thou affections?

MARDIAN. Yes, gracious madam.

CLEOPATRA. Indeed?

MARDIAN. Not in deed, madam; for I can do nothing But what indeed is honest to be done.

Yet have I fierce affections, and think What Venus did with Mars.

CLEOPATRA. O Charmian,

Where think’st thou he is now? Stands he or sits he?

Or does he walk? or is he on his horse?

O happy horse, to bear the weight of Antony!

Do bravely, horse; for wot’st thou whom thou mov’st?

The demi-Atlas of this earth, the arm And burgonet of men. He’s speaking now, Or murmuring ‘Where’s my serpent of old Nile?’

For so he calls me. Now I feed myself With most delicious poison. Think on me, That am with Phoebus’ amorous pinches black, And wrinkled deep in time? Broad-fronted Caesar, When thou wast here above the ground, I was A morsel for a monarch; and great Pompey Would stand and make his eyes grow in my brow; There would he anchor his aspect and die With looking on his life.

 

Enter ALEXAS

 

ALEXAS. Sovereign of Egypt, hail!

CLEOPATRA. How much unlike art thou Mark Antony!

Yet, coming from him, that great med’cine hath With his tinct gilded thee.

How goes it with my brave Mark Antony?

ALEXAS. Last thing he did, dear Queen,

He kiss’d-the last of many doubled kisses-This orient pearl. His speech sticks in my heart.

CLEOPATRA. Mine ear must pluck it thence.

ALEXAS. ‘Good friend,’ quoth he

‘Say the firm Roman to great Egypt sends This treasure of an oyster; at whose foot, To mend the petty present, I will piece Her opulent throne with kingdoms. All the East, Say thou, shall call her mistress.’ So he nodded, And soberly did mount an arm-gaunt steed, Who neigh’d so high that what I would have spoke Was beastly dumb’d by him.

CLEOPATRA. What, was he sad or merry?

ALEXAS. Like to the time o’ th’ year between the extremes Of hot and cold; he was nor sad nor merry.

CLEOPATRA. O well-divided disposition! Note him, Note him, good Charmian; ‘tis the man; but note him!

He was not sad, for he would shine on those That make their looks by his; he was not merry, Which seem’d to tell them his remembrance lay In Egypt with his joy; but between both.

O heavenly mingle! Be’st thou sad or merry, The violence of either thee becomes,

So does it no man else. Met’st thou my posts?

ALEXAS. Ay, madam, twenty several messengers.

Why do you send so thick?

CLEOPATRA. Who’s born that day

When I forget to send to Antony

Shall die a beggar. Ink and paper, Charmian.

Welcome, my good Alexas. Did I, Charmian, Ever love Caesar so?

CHARMIAN. O that brave Caesar!

CLEOPATRA. Be chok’d with such another emphasis!

Say ‘the brave Antony.’

CHARMIAN. The valiant Caesar!

CLEOPATRA. By Isis, I will give thee bloody teeth If thou with Caesar paragon again

My man of men.

CHARMIAN. By your most gracious pardon, I sing but after you.

CLEOPATRA. My salad days,

When I was green in judgment, cold in blood, To say as I said then. But come, away!

Get me ink and paper.

He shall have every day a several greeting, Or I’ll unpeople Egypt. Exeunt <<THIS ELECTRONIC VERSION OF THE COMPLETE WORKS OF WILLIAM

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ACT II. SCENE I.

Messina. POMPEY’S house

 

Enter POMPEY, MENECRATES, and MENAS, in warlike manner POMPEY. If the great gods be just, they shall assist The deeds of justest men.

MENECRATES. Know, worthy Pompey,

That what they do delay they not deny.

POMPEY. Whiles we are suitors to their throne, decays The thing we sue for.

MENECRATES. We, ignorant of ourselves,

Beg often our own harms, which the wise pow’rs Deny us for our good; so find we profit By losing of our prayers.

POMPEY. I shall do well.

The people love me, and the sea is mine; My powers are crescent, and my auguring hope Says it will come to th’ full. Mark Antony In Egypt sits at dinner, and will make No wars without doors. Caesar gets money where He loses hearts. Lepidus flatters both, Of both is flatter’d; but he neither loves, Nor either cares for him.

MENAS. Caesar and Lepidus

Are in the field. A mighty strength they carry.

POMPEY. Where have you this? ‘Tis false.

MENAS. From Silvius, sir.

POMPEY. He dreams. I know they are in Rome together, Looking for Antony. But all the charms of love, Salt Cleopatra, soften thy wan’d lip!

Let witchcraft join with beauty, lust with both; Tie up the libertine in a field of feasts, Keep his brain fuming. Epicurean cooks Sharpen with cloyless sauce his appetite, That sleep and feeding may prorogue his honour Even till a Lethe’d dullness-Enter VARRIUS

 

How now, Varrius!

VARRIUS. This is most certain that I shall deliver: Mark Antony is every hour in Rome

Expected. Since he went from Egypt ‘tis A space for farther travel.

POMPEY. I could have given less matter

A better ear. Menas, I did not think

This amorous surfeiter would have donn’d his helm For such a petty war; his soldiership Is twice the other twain. But let us rear The higher our opinion, that our stirring Can from the lap of Egypt’s widow pluck The ne’er-lust-wearied Antony.

MENAS. I cannot hope

Caesar and Antony shall well greet together.

His wife that’s dead did trespasses to Caesar; His brother warr’d upon him; although, I think, Not mov’d by Antony.

POMPEY. I know not, Menas,

How lesser enmities may give way to greater.

Were’t not that we stand up against them all, ‘Twere pregnant they should square between themselves; For they have entertained cause enough To draw their swords. But how the fear of us May cement their divisions, and bind up The petty difference we yet not know.

Be’t as our gods will have’t! It only stands Our lives upon to use our strongest hands.

Come, Menas. Exeunt

SCENE II.

Rome. The house of LEPIDUS

 

Enter ENOBARBUS and LEPIDUS

 

LEPIDUS. Good Enobarbus, ‘tis a worthy deed, And shall become you well, to entreat your captain To soft and gentle speech.

ENOBARBUS. I shall entreat him

To answer like himself. If Caesar move him, Let Antony look over Caesar’s head

And speak as loud as Mars. By Jupiter, Were I the wearer of Antonius’ beard, I would not shave’t to-day.

LEPIDUS. ‘Tis not a time

For private stomaching.

ENOBARBUS. Every time

Serves for the matter that is then born in’t.

LEPIDUS. But small to greater matters must give way.

ENOBARBUS. Not if the small come first.

LEPIDUS. Your speech is passion;

But pray you stir no embers up. Here comes The noble Antony.

 

Enter ANTONY and VENTIDIUS

 

ENOBARBUS. And yonder, Caesar.

 

Enter CAESAR, MAECENAS, and AGRIPPA ANTONY. If we compose well here, to Parthia.

Hark, Ventidius.

CAESAR. I do not know, Maecenas. Ask Agrippa.

LEPIDUS. Noble friends,

That which combin’d us was most great, and let not A leaner action rend us. What’s amiss, May it be gently heard. When we debate Our trivial difference loud, we