O, that I knew this husband, which, you say,

must charge his horns with garlands!

Eno. Bring in the banquet quickly; wine enough
Cleopatra's health to drink.

Char. Good sir, give me good fortune.

Sooth. I make not, but foresee.

Char. Pray then, foresee me one.

Sooth. You shall be yet far fairer than you are.

Char. He means in flesh.

Iras. No, you shall paint when you are old.
Char. Wrinkles forbid !

Alex. Vex not his prescience; be attentive.

Char. Hush!

Sooth. You shall be more beloving than beloved.
Char. I had rather heat my liver with drinking.

Alex. Nay, hear him.

Char. Good now, some excellent fortune! Let me

20

be married to three kings in a forenoon, and
widow them all: let me have a child at fifty, to
whom Herod of Jewry may do homage: find me
to marry me with Octavius Cæsar, and companion
me with my mistress.

Sooth. You shall outlive the lady whom you serve.
Char. O excellent! I love long life better than figs.

30

Sooth. You have seen and proved a fairer former fortune

Than that which is to approach.

Char. Then belike my children shall have no names : prithee, how many boys and wenches must I have?

Sooth. If every of your wishes had a womb,

And fertile every wish, a million.

Char. Out, fool! I forgive thee for a witch.

Alex. You think none but your sheets are privy to 40

your wishes.

Char. Nay, come, tell Iras hers.

Alex. We'll know all our fortunes.

Eno. Mine and most of our fortunes to-night shall be

-drunk to bed.

Iras. There's a palm presages chastity, if nothing else.
Char. E'en as the o'erflowing Nilus presageth famine.
Iras. Go, you wild bedfellow, you cannot soothsay.
Char. Nay, if an oily palm be not a fruitful prog-

nostication, I cannot scratch mine ear. Prithee, 50
tell her but a worky-day fortune.

Sooth. Your fortunes are alike.

Iras. But how, but how? give me particulars.
Sooth. I have said.

Iras. Am I not an inch of fortune better than she?
Char. Well, if you were but an inch of fortune better
than I, where would you choose it?

Iras. Not in my husband's nose.

Char. Our worser thoughts heavens mend! Alexas,

-come, his fortune, his fortune! O, let him 60
marry a woman that cannot go, sweet Isis, I
beseech thee! and let her die too, and give him
a worse! and let worse follow worse, till the
worst of all follow him laughing to his grave,

fifty-fold a cuckold! Good Isis, hear me this
prayer, though thou deny me a matter of more
weight; good Isis, I beseech thee!

Iras. Amen. Dear goddess, hear that prayer of the
people! for, as it is a heart-breaking to see a
handsome man loose-wived, so it is a deadly 70
sorrow to behold a foul knave uncuckolded:
therefore, dear Isis, keep decorum, and fortune
him accordingly !

Char. Amen.

Alex. Lo, now, if it lay in their hands to make me a cuckold, they would make themselves whores, but they'ld do't!

Eno. Hush! here comes Antony.

Cleo. He was disposed to mirth; but on the sudden
A Roman thought hath struck him. Enobarbus!

Eno. Madam?

Cleo. Seek him, and bring him hither.

80

Where's Alexas ?

Alex. Here, at your service. My lord approaches.

Cleo. We will not look upon him: go with us. [Exeunt.

Enter Antony with a Messenger and Attendants.

Mess. Fulvia thy wife first came into the field.
Ant. Against my brother Lucius ?
Mess. Ay:

90 Ant.

But soon that war had end, and the time's state
Made friends of them, jointing their force 'gainst Cæsar,

Whose better issue in the war from Italy

Upon the first encounter drave them.

Well, what worst?

Mess. The nature of bad news infects the teller.

Ant. When it concerns the fool, or coward.

Mess.

On:

Things that are past are done with me. 'Tis thus;
Who tells me true, though in his tale lie death,

I hear him as he flatter'd.

Labienus

This is stiff news-hath with his Parthian force

Extended Asia from Euphrates,

His conquering banner shook from Syria

To Lydia and to Ionia,

Whilst

Ant. Antony, thou wouldst say,

Mess.

O, my lord!

Ant. Speak to me home, mince not the general tongue :

Name Cleopatra as she is call'd in Rome;

Rail thou in Fulvia's phrase, and taunt my faults

With such full license as both truth and malice

100

109

Have power to utter. O, then we bring forth weeds
When our quick minds lie still, and our ills told us

Is as our earing. Fare thee well awhile.

Mess. At your noble pleasure.

[Exit.

Ant. From Sicyon, ho, the news! Speak there!
First Att. The man from Sicyon, is there such an one?

Sec. Att. He stays upon your will.

Ant.

Let him appear.

These strong Egyptian fetters I must break,
Or lose myself in dotage.

Enter another Messenger.

What are you ?

Sec. Mess. Fulvia thy wife is dead.
Ant.

Where died she?

120

Sec. Mess. In Sicyon:
Her length of sickness, with what else more serious
Importeth thee to know, this bears. [Gives a letter.

Ant.

Forbear me.

[Exit Sec. Messenger.

There's a great spirit gone! Thus did I desire it :
What our contempts do often hurl from us,
We wish it ours again; the present pleasure,
By revolution lowering, does become

The opposite of itself: she's good, being gone;
The hand could pluck her back that shoved her on.
I must from this enchanting queen break off:
Ten thousand harms, more than the ills I know, 130
My idleness doth hatch. How now! Enobarbus!

Re-enter Enobarbus.

Eno. What's your pleasure, sir?
Ant. I must with haste from hence.
Eno. Why then we kill all our women.

We see how

mortal an unkindness is to them; if they suffer
our departure, death's the word.

Ant. I must be gone.

Eno. Under a compelling occasion let women die: it were pity to cast them away for nothing; though, between them and a great cause, they 140 should be esteemed nothing. Cleopatra, catching but the least noise of this, dies instantly; I have seen her die twenty times upon far poorer