Cæs. The breaking of so great a thing should make A greater crack. The round world should have shook Lions into civil streets,

And citizens to their dens.-The death of Antony
Is not a single doom; in the name lay

A moiety of the world.

Der.

He is dead, Cæsar;

Not by a public minister of justice,

Nor by a hired knife; but that self hand,
Which writ his honor in the acts it did,

Heth, with the courage which the heart did lend it
Splitted the heart.-This is his sword;

I robbed his wound of it; behold it stained

With his most noble blood.

Cæs.

The gods rebuke me, but it
To wash the eyes of kings.
Agr.

Look you sad, friends?

is tidings

And strange it is,

His taints and honors

A rarer spirit never

That nature must compel us to lament
Our most persisted deeds.

Mec.

Waged equal with him.
Agr.

Did steer humanity: but you, gods, will give us
Some faults to make us men.

Cæsar is touched.

Mec. When such a spacious mirror's set before him, He needs must see himself.

Cæs.

O Antony!

I have followed thee to this;-but we do lance
Diseases in our bodies. I must perforce
Have shown to thee such a declining day,
Or look on thine: we could not stall together
In the whole world. But yet let me lament,
With tears as sovereign as the blood of hearts,
That thou, my brother, my competitor
In top of all design, my mate in empire,
Friend and companion in the front of war,
The arm of mine own body, and the heart

Where mine his thoughts did kindle-that our stars,
Unreconcilable, should divide

Our equalness to this.-Hear me, good friends,-
But I will tell you at some meeter season;

Enter a Messenger.

The business of this man looks out of him;
We'll hear him what he says.-Whence are you?

Mess. A poor Egyptian yet. The queen, my mistress, Confined in all she has, her monument,

Of thy intents desires instruction;
That she preparedly may frame herself
To the way she's forced to.

Cæs.

Bid her have good heart;

She soon shall know of us, by some of ours,
How honorable and how kindly we

Determine for her; for Cæsar cannot live
To be ungentle.

Mess.

So the gods preserve thee!

Cæs. Come hither, Proculeius. Go, and say,

We purpose her no shame; give her what comforts
The quality of her passion shall require;

Lest, in her greatness, by some mortal stroke
She do defeat us; for her life in Rome
Would be eternal in our triumph. Go,

And with your speediest, bring us what she says,
And how you find of her.

Pro.

Cæsar, I shall.

[Exit.

[Exit PROCULEIUS.

[Exit GALLUS.

Cæs. Gallus, go you along.-Where's Dolabella, To second Proculeius?

Cæs. Let him alone, for I remember now
How he's employed; he shall in time be ready.
Go with me to my tent; where you shall see
How hardly I was drawn into this war;
How calm and gentle I proceeded still
In all my writings. Go with me, and see
What I can show in this.

[Exeunt.

SCENE II. Alexandria. A Room in the Monument.

Enter CLEOPATRA, CHARMIAN, and IRAS.

Cleo. My desolation does begin to make
A better life. 'Tis paltry to be Cæsar;
Not being fortune, he's but fortune's knave,
A minister of her will. And it is great
To do that thing that ends all other deeds;
Which shackles accidents, and bolts up change;
Which sleeps, and never palates more the dung,
The beggar's nurse and Cæsar's.

Enter, to the gates cf the monument, PROCULEIUS, Gallus, and Soldiers.

Pro. Cæsar sends greeting to the queen of Egypt; And bids thee study on what fair demands

Thou mean'st to have him grant thee.

Cleo. [Within.]

Pro. My name is Proculeius.

Cleo. [Within.]

What's thy name?

Antony

Did tell me of you, bade me trust you; but

I do not greatly care to be deceived, •

That have no use for trusting. If your master

Would have a queen his beggar, you must tell him,
That majesty, to keep decorum, must

No less beg than a kingdom. If he please
To give me conquered Egypt for my son,
He gives me so much of mine own, as I
Will kneel to him with thanks.

Pro.
Be of good cheer;
You are fallen into a princely hand; fear nothing.
Make your full reference freely to my lord,
Who is so full of grace, that it flows over
On all that need. Let me report to him
Your sweet dependency; and you shall find
A conqueror, that will pray in aid for kindness,
Where he for grace is kneeled to.
Cleo. [Within.]

Pray you, tell him
I am his fortune's vassal, and I send him
The greatness he has got. I hourly learn
A doctrine of obedience; and would gladly
Look him i' the face.

Pro.
This I'll report, dear lady.
Have comfort; for, I know, your plight is pitied
Of him that caused it.

Gal. You see how easily she may be surprised;
[Here PROCULEIUS, and two of the Guard, ascend the
monument by a ladder placed against a window, and,
having descended, come behind CLEOPATRA. Some
of the Guard unbar and open the gates.

Guard her till Cæsar come.

[TO PROCULEIUS and the Guard Exit GALLUS.

Iras. Royal queen!

Char. O Cleopatra! thou art taken, queen!-
Cleo. Quick, quick, good hands. [Drawing a dagger.

Pro.

Hold, worthy lady, hold.

[Sizes and disarms her.

Do not yourself such wrong, who are in this
Relieved, but not betrayed.

Cleo.

What, of death too

That rids our dogs of languish.

Pro.

Cleopatra,

Do not abuse my master's bounty, by
The undoing of yourself. Let the world see
His nobleness well acted, which your death
Will never let come forth.

Cleo.
Where art thou, death?
Come hither, come! come, come, and take a queen.
Worth many babes and beggars!

Pro.

O, temperance, lady! Cleo. Sir, I will eat no meat, I'll not drink, sir, (If idle talk will once be necessary;)

I'll not sleep neither. This mortal house I'll ruin,
Do Cæsar what he can. Know, sir, that I
Will not wait pinioned at your master's court;
Nor once be chastised with the sober eye
Of dull Octavia. Shall they hoist me up,
And show me to the shouting varletry
Of censuring Rome? Rather a ditch in Egypt
Be gentle grave to me! rather on Nilus' mud
Lay me stark naked, and let the water-flies
Blow me into abhorring! rather make
My country's high pyramides my gibbet,
And hang me up in chains!

Pro.

You do extend

These thoughts of horror further than you shall
Find cause in Cæsar.

Dol.

Enter DOLABELLA.

Proculeius,

What thou hast done thy master Cæsar knows,
And he hath sent for thee. For the queen,
I'll take her to my guard.

So, Dolabella,

Pro.
It shall content me best; be gentle to her.-
To Cæsar I will speak what you shall please

If you'll employ me to him.
Cleo.

[To CLEOPATRA.

Say, I would die.

[Exeunt PROCULEIUS and Soldiers.

Dol. Most noble empress, you have heard of me?

Cleo. I cannot tell.

Dol. Assuredly, you know me.

H

Cleo. No matter, sir, what I have heard, or known: You laugh, when boys or women tell their dreams. Is't not your trick?

Dol.

I understand not, madam. Cleo. I dreamed there was an emperor Antony. O, such another sleep, that I might see

But such another man!

If it might please you,

Dol. Cleo. His face was as the heavens; and therein stuck A sun and moon; which kept their course, and lighted The little O, the earth.

Dol.

Most sovereign creature,-
Cleo. His legs bestrid the ocean: his reared arm
Crested the world; his voice was propertied
As all the tuned spheres, and that to friends;
But when he meant to quail and shake the orb,
He was as rattling thunder. For his bounty,
There was no winter in't; an autumn 'twas,
That grew the more by reaping. His delights
Were dolphin-like; they showed his back above
The element they lived in. In his livery

Walked crowns, and crownets; realms and islands were
As plates dropped from his pocket.

Dol.

Cleopatra,

Cleo. Think you, there was, or might be, such a man As this I dreamed of?

Dol.

Gentle madam, no.

Cleo. You lie, up to the hearing of the gods.
But, if there be, or ever were one such,

It's past the size of dreaming. Nature wants stuff
To vie strange forms with fancy; yet, to imagine
An Antony, were nature's piece 'gainst fancy,
Condemning shadows quite.

Dol.
Hear me, good madam.
Your loss is as yourself, great; and you bear it
As answering to the weight. 'Would I might never
O'ertake pursued success, but I do feel,

By the rebound of yours, a grief that shoots.
My very heart at root.

Cleo.

I thank you, sir.

Know you what Cæsar means to do with me?

Dol. I am loath to tell you what I would you knew. Cleo. Nay, pray you, sir,

Dol.

Though he be honorable,

Cleo. He'l lead me then in triumph?