Still he mends,
        But this is not the best. Look, prithee, Charmian,
        How this Herculean100 Roman does become
        The carriage of his chafe.

ANTONY    I’ll leave you, lady.

CLEOPATRA    Courteous lord, one word:
        Sir, you and I must part, but that’s not it:
        Sir, you and I have loved, but there’s not it:
        That you know well. Something it is I would:
        O, my oblivion107 is a very Antony,
        And I am all forgotten108.

ANTONY    But109 that your royalty
        Holds idleness your subject110, I should take you
        For idleness itself.

CLEOPATRA    ’Tis sweating labour112
        To bear such idleness so near the heart
        As Cleopatra this. But, sir, forgive me,
        Since my becomings115 kill me when they do not
        Eye116 well to you. Your honour calls you hence:
        Therefore be deaf to my unpitied folly,
        And all the gods go with you. Upon your sword
        Sit laurel victory, and smooth success
        Be strewed before your feet119.

ANTONY    Let us go. Come:
        Our separation so abides and flies
        That thou, residing here, goes yet with me,
        And I, hence fleeting, here remain with thee122.
        Away!
Exeunt

[Act 1 Scene 4]                               
running scene 2

Location: Rome, Italy   

Enter Octavius [Caesar] reading a letter, Lepidus and their Train

CAESAR    You may see, Lepidus, and henceforth know
        It is not Caesar’s natural vice to hate
        Our great competitor3. From Alexandria
        This is the news: he fishes, drinks and wastes
        The lamps of night in revel. Is5 not more manlike
        Than Cleopatra, nor the Queen of Ptolemy6
        More womanly than he. Hardly gave audience7, or
        Vouchsafed8 to think he had partners. You shall find there
        A man who is th’abstract9 of all faults
        That all men follow.

LEPIDUS    I must not think there are
        Evils enough to darken all his goodness:
        His faults in him seem as the spots of heaven13,
        More fiery by night’s blackness; hereditary
        Rather than purchased15, what he cannot change,
        Than what he chooses.

CAESAR    You are too indulgent. Let’s grant it is not
        Amiss to tumble18 on the bed of Ptolemy,
        To give a kingdom for a mirth19, to sit
        And keep the turn of tippling20 with a slave,
        To reel21 the streets at noon, and stand the buffet
        With knaves that smell of sweat: say this becomes him —
        As23 his composure must be rare indeed
        Whom these things cannot blemish — yet must Antony
        No way excuse his foils25 when we do bear
        So great weight in his lightness. If he filled
        His vacancy27 with his voluptuousness,
        Full surfeits28 and the dryness of his bones
        Call on him for’t. But to confound29 such time
        That drums30 him from his sport, and speaks as loud
        As his own state and ours31, ’tis to be chid
        As we rate32 boys, who, being mature in knowledge,
        Pawn their experience to their present pleasure
        And so rebel to34 judgement.

Enter a Messenger

LEPIDUS    Here’s more news.

MESSENGER    Thy biddings36 have been done, and every hour,
        Most noble Caesar, shalt thou have report
        How ’tis38 abroad. Pompey is strong at sea,
        And it appears he is beloved of those
        That only have feared40 Caesar: to the ports
        The discontents41 repair, and men’s reports
        Give him42 much wronged.

CAESAR    I should have known no less.
        It hath been taught us from the primal state44
        That he which is was wished until he were45,
        And the ebbed46 man, ne’er loved till ne’er worth love,
        Comes deared47 by being lacked. This common body,
        Like to a vagabond48 flag upon the stream,
        Goes to and back, lackeying49 the varying tide,
        To rot itself with motion.

[Enter another Messenger]

SECOND MESSENGER    Caesar, I bring thee word
        Menecrates and Menas, famous52 pirates,
        Make the sea serve them, which they ear53 and wound
        With keels of every kind. Many hot inroads54
        They make in Italy: the borders maritime55
        Lack blood56 to think on’t, and flush youth revolt.
        No vessel can peep forth but ’tis as soon
        Taken58 as seen, for Pompey’s name strikes more
        Than could his war resisted.

CAESAR    Antony,
        Leave thy lascivious wassails61. When thou once
        Was beaten from Modena62, where thou slew’st
        Hirtius and Pansa, consuls, at thy heel
        Did famine follow, whom64 thou fought’st against —
        Though daintily65 brought up — with patience more
        Than savages could suffer. Thou didst drink
        The stale67 of horses and the gilded puddle
        Which beasts would cough at. Thy palate then did deign68
        The roughest berry on the rudest69 hedge.
        Yea, like the stag when snow the pasture sheets70,
        The barks of trees thou browsèd71. 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 lanked not76.

LEPIDUS    ’Tis pity of77 him.

CAESAR    Let his shames quickly
        Drive him to Rome: ’tis time we twain79
        Did show ourselves i’th’field80, and to that end
        Assemble we immediate council. Pompey
        Thrives in our idleness.

LEPIDUS    Tomorrow, Caesar,
        I shall be furnished to inform you rightly
        Both what by sea and land I can be able85
        To front86 this present time.

CAESAR    Till which encounter,
        It is my business too. Farewell.

LEPIDUS    Farewell, my lord. What you shall know meantime
        Of stirs90 abroad, I shall beseech you, sir,
        To let me be partaker.

CAESAR    Doubt not, sir,
        I knew it for my bond93.
Exeunt

[Act 1 Scene 5]                               
running scene 3

Location: Alexandria   

Enter Cleopatra, Charmian, Iras and Mardian

CLEOPATRA    Charmian!

CHARMIAN    Madam?

CLEOPATRA    Ha, ha.
Yawns
        Give me to drink mandragora4.

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 sing13. I take no pleasure
        In aught an eunuch has: ’tis well for thee
        That, being unseminared15, thy freer thoughts
        May not fly forth of Egypt. Hast thou affections16?

MARDIAN    Yes, gracious madam.

CLEOPATRA    Indeed?

MARDIAN    Not in deed19, madam, for I can do nothing
        But what in deed is honest20 to be done:
        Yet have I fierce affections, and think
        What Venus did with Mars22.

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 bravely27, horse, for wot’st thou whom thou mov’st?
        The demi-Atlas28 of this earth, the arm
        And burgonet29 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.