Shakespeare also seems to have known Samuel Daniel’s Cleopatra (1594, a play written to be read rather than performed); Daniel, in turn, seems to have been influenced by Shakespeare when revising his play in 1607.
TEXT: The First Folio of 1623 is the only early text. Apparently set from a scribal transcript of Shakespeare’s manuscript, it is notably inconsistent in the spelling of proper names and has a plethora of minor errors but few major ones.
THE TRAGEDY
OF ANTONY
AND CLEOPATRA
LIST OF PARTS
Act 1 Scene 1
running scene 1
Location: Alexandria, the Egyptian capital
Enter Demetrius and Philo
PHILO Nay, but this dotage1 of our general’s
O’erflows the measure2: those his goodly eyes,
That o’er the files and musters3 of the war
Have glowed like plated4 Mars, now bend, now turn
The office5 and devotion of their view
Upon a tawny6 front. His captain’s heart,
Which in the scuffles of great fights hath burst
The buckles on his breast, reneges8 all temper
And is become the bellows and the fan
To cool a gipsy’s10 lust.
Flourish. Enter Antony, Cleopatra, her Ladies [Charmian and Iras], the Train, with Eunuchs fanning her
Look where they come:
Take but good note, and you shall see in him
The triple pillar of the world12 transformed
Into a strumpet13’s fool. Behold and see.
CLEOPATRA If it be love indeed, tell14 me how much.
ANTONY There’s beggary in the love that can be reckoned15.
CLEOPATRA I’ll set a bourn16 how far to be beloved.
ANTONY Then must thou needs find out new heaven, new
earth17.
Enter a Messenger
MESSENGER News, my good lord, from Rome.
ANTONY Grates me!19 The sum.
CLEOPATRA Nay, hear them20, Antony.
Fulvia21 perchance is angry, or who knows
If the scarce-bearded Caesar22 have not sent
His powerful mandate23 to you: ‘Do this, or this;
Take in24 that kingdom, and enfranchise that:
Perform’t, or else we damn thee.’
ANTONY How26, my love?
CLEOPATRA Perchance? Nay, and most like27.
You must not stay here longer: your dismission28
Is come from Caesar, therefore hear it, Antony.
Where’s Fulvia’s process30? — Caesar’s I would say. Both?
Call in the messengers. As I am Egypt’s queen,
Thou blushest, Antony, and that blood of thine
Is Caesar’s homager33: else so thy cheek pays shame
When shrill-tongued Fulvia scolds34. The messengers!
They embrace
ANTONY Let Rome in Tiber35 melt, and the wide arch
Of the ranged36 empire fall: here is my space.
Kingdoms are clay: our dungy37 earth alike
Feeds beast as man. The nobleness of life
Is to do thus: when such a mutual39 pair
And such a twain40 can do’t, in which I bind,
On pain of punishment41, the world to weet
We stand up peerless42.
CLEOPATRA Excellent falsehood!
Why did he marry Fulvia and not44 love her?
I’ll seem45 the fool I am not. Antony
Will be himself.
ANTONY But stirred47 by Cleopatra.
Now, for the love of Love and her soft hours,
Let’s not confound49 the time with conference harsh;
There’s not a minute of our lives should stretch50
Without some pleasure now. What sport51 tonight?
CLEOPATRA Hear the ambassadors.
ANTONY Fie53, wrangling queen,
Whom everything becomes54, to chide, to laugh,
To weep, whose every passion fully strives
To make itself in thee fair and admired.
No57 messenger but thine, and all alone
Tonight we’ll wander through the streets and note
The qualities59 of people. Come, my queen,
Last night you did desire it.—Speak not to us.
To the Messenger
Exeunt [Antony and Cleopatra] with the Train
DEMETRIUS Is Caesar with61 Antonius prized so slight?
PHILO Sir, sometimes when he is not Antony62,
He comes too short of that great property63
Which still64 should go with Antony.
DEMETRIUS I am full65 sorry
That he approves66 the common liar who
Thus speaks of him at Rome; but I will hope
Of better deeds tomorrow. Rest you happy68.
Exeunt
[Act 1 Scene 2]
running scene 1 continues
Enter Enobarbus, Lamprius, a Soothsayer, Rannius, Lucillius, Charmian, Iras, Mardian the Eunuch and Alexas
CHARMIAN Lord Alexas, sweet Alexas, most anything Alexas,
almost most absolute2 Alexas, where’s the soothsayer that
you praised so to th’queen? O, that I knew this husband
which you say must charge4 his horns with garlands!
ALEXAS Soothsayer.
SOOTHSAYER Your will?
CHARMIAN Is this the man? Is’t you, sir, that know things?
SOOTHSAYER In nature’s infinite book of secrecy
A little I can read.
ALEXAS Show him your hand.
To Charmian
ENOBARBUS Bring in the banquet11 quickly: wine
To Servants within
enough Cleopatra’s health to drink.
Servants bring fruit and wine
CHARMIAN Good sir, give me good fortune.
Holds out her hand
SOOTHSAYER I make not, but foresee.
CHARMIAN Pray then foresee me one.
SOOTHSAYER You shall be yet far fairer16 than you are.
CHARMIAN He means in flesh.
IRAS No, you shall paint18 when you are old.
CHARMIAN Wrinkles forbid!
ALEXAS Vex not his prescience20: be attentive.
CHARMIAN Hush!
SOOTHSAYER You shall be more beloving22 than beloved.
CHARMIAN I had rather heat my liver23 with drinking.
ALEXAS Nay, hear him.
CHARMIAN Good now25, some excellent fortune: let me be
married to three kings in a forenoon26 and widow them all: let
me have a child at fifty to whom Herod of Jewry27 may do
homage28. Find me to marry me with Octavius Caesar and
companion me with my mistress.
SOOTHSAYER You shall outlive the lady whom you serve.
CHARMIAN O, excellent! I love long life better than figs31.
SOOTHSAYER You have seen and proved32 a fairer former fortune
Than that which is to approach.
CHARMIAN Then belike34 my children shall have no names:
prithee, how many boys and wenches35 must I have?
SOOTHSAYER If every of your wishes had a womb,
And fertile every wish, a million.
CHARMIAN Out38, fool! I forgive thee for a witch.
ALEXAS You think none but your sheets are privy to39 your
wishes.
CHARMIAN Nay, come, tell Iras hers.
ALEXAS We’ll know all our fortunes.
ENOBARBUS Mine, and most of our fortunes tonight, shall be
drunk to bed44.
IRAS There’s a palm presages45 chastity, if
Holds out her hand
nothing else.
CHARMIAN E’en as the o’erflowing Nilus presageth famine47.
IRAS Go, you wild48 bedfellow, you cannot soothsay.
CHARMIAN Nay, if an oily palm49 be not a fruitful prognostication,
I cannot scratch mine ear50. Prithee tell her but a workaday
fortune.
SOOTHSAYER Your fortunes are alike.
IRAS But how? But how? Give me particulars.
SOOTHSAYER I have said54.
IRAS Am I not an inch of fortune better than she?
CHARMIAN Well, if you were but an inch of fortune better than
I, where would you choose it?
IRAS Not in my husband’s nose58.
CHARMIAN Our worser thoughts heavens mend. Alexas —
come, his fortune, his fortune! O, let him marry a woman
that cannot go61, 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-fold63 a
cuckold64! Good Isis, hear me this prayer, though thou deny
me a matter of more weight65: good Isis, I beseech thee!
IRAS Amen, dear goddess, hear that prayer of the people!
For as it is a heartbreaking to see a handsome man loose-wived67,
so it is a deadly sorrow to behold a foul68 knave
uncuckolded69: therefore, dear Isis, keep decorum and fortune
him accordingly.
CHARMIAN Amen.
ALEXAS Lo, now, if it lay in their hands to make me a cuckold,
they would make themselves whores, but they’d do’t73!
Enter Cleopatra
ENOBARBUS Hush, here comes Antony.
CHARMIAN Not he, the queen.
CLEOPATRA Saw you my lord?
ENOBARBUS No, lady.
CLEOPATRA Was he not here?
CHARMIAN No, madam.
CLEOPATRA He was disposed to mirth, but on the sudden
A Roman thought81 hath struck him. Enobarbus?
ENOBARBUS Madam?
CLEOPATRA Seek him and bring him hither.
[Exit Enobarbus]
Where’s Alexas?
ALEXAS Here, at your service. My lord approaches.
Enter Antony with a Messenger
CLEOPATRA We85 will not look upon him: go with us.
Exeunt. [Antony and Messenger remain]
MESSENGER Fulvia thy wife first came into the field86.
ANTONY Against my brother Lucius?
MESSENGER Ay,
But soon that war had end, and the time’s state89
Made friends of them, jointing their force90 gainst Caesar,
Whose better issue91 in the war from Italy
Upon the first encounter92, drave them.
ANTONY Well, what worst?
MESSENGER The nature of bad news infects the teller.
ANTONY When it concerns the fool or coward. 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 flattered97.
MESSENGER Labienus99 —
This is stiff100 news — hath with his Parthian force
Extended101 Asia: from Euphrates
His conquering banner shook, from Syria
To Lydia103 and to Ionia, whilst—
ANTONY Antony, thou wouldst104 say.
MESSENGER O, my lord!
ANTONY Speak to me home106, mince not the general tongue,
Name Cleopatra as she is called in Rome,
Rail thou in Fulvia’s phrase108, and taunt my faults
With such full licence as both truth and malice
Have power to utter. O, then we bring forth weeds
When our quick111 minds lie still, and our ills told us
Is as our earing. Fare thee well awhile.
MESSENGER At your noble pleasure. Exit Messenger
Enter another Messenger
ANTONY From Sicyon114 how the news? Speak there.
SECOND MESSENGER The man from Sicyon—
ANTONY Is there such an one?
SECOND MESSENGER He stays upon your will117.
ANTONY Let him appear.—
[Exit Second Messenger]
These strong Egyptian fetters I must break,
Or lose myself in dotage.—
Enter another Messenger with a letter
What120 are you?
THIRD MESSENGER Fulvia thy wife is dead.
ANTONY Where died she?
THIRD MESSENGER In Sicyon.
Her length of sickness, with what else more serious
Importeth125 thee to know, this bears. Gives him the letter
ANTONY Forbear me126.—[Exit Third Messenger]
There’s a great spirit gone.
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