Antony and Cleopatra William Shakespeare (easy readers TXT) 📖

Antony. Enobarbas

He needs as many, sir, as Caesar has;
Or needs not us. If Caesar please, our master
Will leap to be his friend: for us, you know
Whose he is we are, and that is, Caesar’s.

Thyreus

So.
Thus then, thou most renown’d: Caesar entreats,
Not to consider in what case thou stand’st,
Further than he is Caesar.

Cleopatra Go on: right royal. Thyreus

He knows that you embrace not Antony
As you did love, but as you fear’d him.

Cleopatra O! Thyreus

The scars upon your honour, therefore, he
Does pity, as constrained blemishes,
Not as deserved.

Cleopatra

He is a god, and knows
What is most right: mine honour was not yielded,
But conquer’d merely.

Enobarbas

Aside. To be sure of that,
I will ask Antony. Sir, sir, thou art so leaky,
That we must leave thee to thy sinking, for
Thy dearest quit thee. Exit.

Thyreus

Shall I say to Caesar
What you require of him? for he partly begs
To be desired to give. It much would please him,
That of his fortunes you should make a staff
To lean upon: but it would warm his spirits,
To hear from me you had left Antony,
And put yourself under his shrowd,
The universal landlord.

Cleopatra What’s your name? Thyreus My name is Thyreus. Cleopatra

Most kind messenger,
Say to great Caesar this: in deputation
I kiss his conquering hand: tell him, I am prompt
To lay my crown at’s feet, and there to kneel:
Tell him, from his all-obeying breath I hear
The doom of Egypt.

Thyreus

’Tis your noblest course.
Wisdom and fortune combating together,
If that the former dare but what it can,
No chance may shake it. Give me grace to lay
My duty on your hand.

Cleopatra

Your Caesar’s father oft,
When he hath mused of taking kingdoms in,
Bestow’d his lips on that unworthy place,
As it rain’d kisses.

Re-enter Antony and Enobarbas. Antony

Favours, by Jove that thunders!
What art thou, fellow?

Thyreus

One that but performs
The bidding of the fullest man, and worthiest
To have command obey’d.

Enobarbas Aside. You will be whipp’d. Antony

Approach, there! Ah, you kite! Now, gods and devils!
Authority melts from me: of late, when I cried “Ho!”
Like boys unto a muss, kings would start forth,
And cry “Your will?” Have you no ears? I am
Antony yet.

Enter Attendants. Take hence this Jack, and whip him. Enobarbas

Aside. ’Tis better playing with a lion’s whelp
Than with an old one dying.

Antony

Moon and stars!
Whip him. Were’t twenty of the greatest tributaries
That do acknowledge Caesar, should I find them
So saucy with the hand of she here⁠—what’s her name,
Since she was Cleopatra? Whip him, fellows,
Till, like a boy, you see him cringe his face,
And whine aloud for mercy: take him hence.

Thyreus Mark Antony! Antony

Tug him away: being whipp’d,
Bring him again: this Jack of Caesar’s shall
Bear us an errand to him. Exeunt Attendants with Thyreus.
You were half blasted ere I knew you: ha!
Have I my pillow left unpress’d in Rome,
Forborne the getting of a lawful race,
And by a gem of women, to be abused
By one that looks on feeders?

Cleopatra Good my lord⁠— Antony

You have been a boggler ever:
But when we in our viciousness grow hard⁠—
O misery on’t!⁠—the wise gods seel our eyes
In our own filth drop our clear judgments; make us
Adore our errors; laugh at’s, while we strut
To our confusion.

Cleopatra O, is’t come to this? Antony

I found you as a morsel cold upon
Dead Caesar’s trencher; nay, you were a fragment
Of Cneius Pompey’s; besides what hotter hours,
Unregister’d in vulgar fame, you have
Luxuriously pick’d out: for, I am sure,
Though you can guess what temperance should be,
You know not what it is.

Cleopatra Wherefore is this? Antony

To let a fellow that will take rewards
And say “God quit you!” be familiar with
My playfellow, your hand; this kingly seal
And plighter of high hearts! O, that I were
Upon the hill of Basan, to outroar
The horned herd! for I have savage cause;
And to proclaim it civilly, were like
A halter’d neck which does the hangman thank
For being yare about him.

Re-enter Attendants with Thyreus. Is he whipp’d? First Attendant Soundly, my lord. Antony Cried he? and begg’d a’ pardon? First Attendant He did ask favour. 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 whipp’d 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 the 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, begone! Exit Thyreus.

Cleopatra Have you done yet? Antony

Alack, our terrene moon
Is now eclipsed; and it portends alone
The fall of Antony!

Cleopatra I must stay his time. Antony

To flatter Caesar, would you mingle eyes
With one that ties his points?

Cleopatra Not know me yet? Antony Cold-hearted toward me? Cleopatra

Ah, dear, if I be so,
From my cold heart let heaven engender hail,
And poison it in the source; and the first stone
Drop in my neck: as it determines, so
Dissolve my life! The next Caesarion smite!
Till by degrees the memory of my womb,
Together with my brave Egyptians all,
By the discandying of this pelleted storm,
Lie graveless, till the flies and gnats of Nile
Have buried them for prey!

Antony

I am satisfied.
Caesar sits down in Alexandria; where
I will oppose his fate. Our force by land
Hath nobly held; our sever’d navy too
Have knit again, and fleet, threatening most sea-like.
Where hast thou been, my heart? Dost thou hear, lady?
If from the field I shall return once more
To kiss these lips, I will appear in blood;
I and my sword will earn our chronicle:
There’s hope in’t yet.

Cleopatra That’s my brave lord! Antony

I will be treble-sinew’d, hearted,