Antony and Cleopatra - Act 5, scene 2
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Antony and Cleopatra - Act 5, scene 2Act 5, scene 2
Synopsis:
While Proculeius is delivering Caesar’s message of comfort to Cleopatra, other of Caesar’s soldiers surprise and capture her. Dolabella enters and admits to her that Caesar means to lead her in triumph. Caesar enters and Cleopatra gives him a record of her possessions; her treasurer says that she has reported only a fraction of her worth. Caesar assures her of his goodwill and leaves. A countryman enters bringing asps in a basket of figs. Cleopatra dresses in her finest regalia and applies asps to her breast and arm. Iras falls dead, then Cleopatra dies. As the guards enter, Charmian applies an asp to herself and dies. Caesar promises to bury Cleopatra by Antony.
Enter Cleopatra, Charmian, ⌜and⌝ Iras.CLEOPATRA
3183 My desolation does begin to make
3184 A better life. ’Tis paltry to be Caesar;
3185 Not being Fortune, he’s but Fortune’s knave,
3186 A minister of her will. And it is great
3187 5 To do that thing that ends all other deeds,
3188 Which shackles accidents and bolts up change,
3189 Which sleeps and never palates more the dung,
3190 The beggar’s nurse, and Caesar’s.
Enter Proculeius.
PROCULEIUS
3191 Caesar sends greeting to the Queen of Egypt,
3192 10 And bids thee study on what fair demands
3193 Thou mean’st to have him grant thee.
CLEOPATRA 3194 What’s thy name?
PROCULEIUS
3195 My name is Proculeius.
3197 15 Did tell me of you, bade me trust you, but
3198 I do not greatly care to be deceived
3199 That have no use for trusting. If your master
3200 Would have a queen his beggar, you must tell him
3201 That majesty, to keep decorum, must
3202 20 No less beg than a kingdom. If he please
3203 To give me conquered Egypt for my son,
3204 He gives me so much of mine own as I
3205 Will kneel to him with thanks.
PROCULEIUS 3206 Be of good cheer.
3207 25 You’re fall’n into a princely hand; fear nothing.
3208 Make your full reference freely to my lord,
3209 Who is so full of grace that it flows over
3210 On all that need. Let me report to him
3211 Your sweet dependency, and you shall find
3212 30 A conqueror that will pray in aid for kindness
3213 Where he for grace is kneeled to.
CLEOPATRA 3214 Pray you tell him
3215 I am his fortune’s vassal and I send him
3216 The greatness he has got. I hourly learn
3217 35 A doctrine of obedience, and would gladly
3218 Look him i’ th’ face.
PROCULEIUS 3219 This I’ll report, dear lady.
3220 Have comfort, for I know your plight is pitied
3221 Of him that caused it.
⌜Gallus and Soldiers enter and seize Cleopatra.⌝
⌜GALLUS⌝
3222 40 You see how easily she may be surprised.
3223 Guard her till Caesar come.
IRAS 3224 Royal queen!
CHARMIAN
3225 O, Cleopatra, thou art taken, queen!
CLEOPATRA, ⌜drawing a dagger⌝
3226 Quick, quick, good hands!
3228 Do not yourself such wrong, who are in this
3229 Relieved, but not betrayed.
CLEOPATRA 3230 What, of death, too,
3231 That rids our dogs of languish?
PROCULEIUS 3232 50 Cleopatra,
3233 Do not abuse my master’s bounty by
3234 Th’ undoing of yourself. Let the world see
3235 His nobleness well acted, which your death
3236 Will never let come forth.
CLEOPATRA 3237 55 Where art thou, Death?
3238 Come hither, come! Come, come, and take a queen
3239 Worth many babes and beggars.
PROCULEIUS 3240 O, temperance, lady!
CLEOPATRA
3241 Sir, I will eat no meat; I’ll not drink, sir.
3242 60 If idle talk will once be necessary—
3243 I’ll not sleep neither. This mortal house I’ll ruin,
3244 Do Caesar what he can. Know, sir, that I
3245 Will not wait pinioned at your master’s court,
3246 Nor once be chastised with the sober eye
3247 65 Of dull Octavia. Shall they hoist me up
3248 And show me to the shouting varletry
3249 Of censuring Rome? Rather a ditch in Egypt
3250 Be gentle grave unto me; rather on Nilus’ mud
3251 Lay me stark naked, and let the waterflies
3252 70 Blow me into abhorring; rather make
3253 My country’s high pyramides my gibbet
3254 And hang me up in chains!
PROCULEIUS 3255 You do extend
3256 These thoughts of horror further than you shall
3257 75 Find cause in Caesar.
Enter Dolabella.
DOLABELLA 3258 Proculeius,
3259 What thou hast done thy master Caesar knows,
3261 I’ll take her to my guard.
PROCULEIUS 3262 80 So, Dolabella,
3263 It shall content me best. Be gentle to her.
3264 ⌜To Cleopatra.⌝ To Caesar I will speak what you
3265 shall please,
3266 If you’ll employ me to him.
CLEOPATRA 3267 85 Say I would die.
Proculeius, ⌜Gallus, and Soldiers⌝ exit.
DOLABELLA
3268 Most noble empress, you have heard of me.
CLEOPATRA
3269 I cannot tell.
DOLABELLA 3270 Assuredly you know me.
CLEOPATRA
3271 No matter, sir, what I have heard or known.
3272 90 You laugh when boys or women tell their dreams;
3273 Is ’t not your trick?
DOLABELLA 3274 I understand not, madam.
CLEOPATRA
3275 I dreamt there was an emperor Antony.
3276 O, such another sleep, that I might see
3277 95 But such another man.
DOLABELLA 3278 If it might please you—
CLEOPATRA
3279 His face was as the heavens, and therein stuck
3280 A sun and moon, which kept their course and
3281 lighted
3282 100 The little O, the Earth.
DOLABELLA 3283 Most sovereign creature—
CLEOPATRA
3284 His legs bestrid the ocean, his reared arm
3285 Crested the world. His voice was propertied
3286 As all the tunèd spheres, and that to friends;
3287 105 But when he meant to quail and shake the orb,
3289 There was no winter in ’t; an ⌜autumn ’twas⌝
3290 That grew the more by reaping. His delights
3291 Were dolphin-like; they showed his back above
3292 110 The element they lived in. In his livery
3293 Walked crowns and crownets; realms and islands
3294 were
3295 As plates dropped from his pocket.
DOLABELLA 3296 Cleopatra—
CLEOPATRA
3297 115 Think you there was, or might be, such a man
3298 As this I dreamt of?
DOLABELLA 3299 Gentle madam, no.
CLEOPATRA
3300 You lie up to the hearing of the gods!
3301 But if there be nor ever were one such,
3302 120 It’s past the size of dreaming. Nature wants stuff
3303 To vie strange forms with fancy, yet t’ imagine
3304 An Antony were nature’s piece ’gainst fancy,
3305 Condemning shadows quite.
DOLABELLA 3306 Hear me, good madam.
3307 125 Your loss is as yourself, great; and you bear it
3308 As answering to the weight. Would I might never
3309 O’ertake pursued success but I do feel,
3310 By the rebound of yours, a grief that ⌜smites⌝
3311 My very heart at root.
CLEOPATRA 3312 130 I thank you, sir.
3313 Know you what Caesar means to do with me?
DOLABELLA
3314 I am loath to tell you what I would you knew.
CLEOPATRA
3315 Nay, pray you, sir.
DOLABELLA 3316 Though he be honorable—
CLEOPATRA 3317 135He’ll lead me, then, in triumph.
DOLABELLA 3318 Madam, he will. I know ’t.
and others of his train.
ALL 3319 Make way there! Caesar!
CAESAR 3320 Which is the Queen of Egypt?
DOLABELLA 3321 It is the Emperor, madam.
Cleopatra kneels.
CAESAR 3322 140Arise. You shall not kneel.
3323 I pray you, rise. Rise, Egypt.
CLEOPATRA 3324 Sir, the gods
3325 Will have it thus. My master and my lord
3326 I must obey.⌜She stands.⌝
CAESAR 3327 145 Take to you no hard thoughts.
3328 The record of what injuries you did us,
3329 Though written in our flesh, we shall remember
3330 As things but done by chance.
CLEOPATRA 3331 Sole sir o’ th’ world,
3332 150 I cannot project mine own cause so well
3333 To make it clear, but do confess I have
3334 Been laden with like frailties which before
3335 Have often shamed our sex.
CAESAR 3336 Cleopatra, know
3337 155 We will extenuate rather than enforce.
3338 If you apply yourself to our intents,
3339 Which towards you are most gentle, you shall find
3340 A benefit in this change; but if you seek
3341 To lay on me a cruelty by taking
3342 160 Antony’s course, you shall bereave yourself
3343 Of my good purposes, and put your children
3344 To that destruction which I’ll guard them from
3345 If thereon you rely. I’ll take my leave.
CLEOPATRA
3346 And may through all the world. ’Tis yours, and we,
3347 165 Your scutcheons and your signs of conquest, shall
3348 Hang in what place you please. Here, my good lord.
⌜She holds out a paper.⌝
3349 You shall advise me in all for Cleopatra.
CLEOPATRA
3350 This is the brief of money, plate, and jewels
3351 I am possessed of. ’Tis exactly valued,
3352 170 Not petty things admitted.—Where’s Seleucus?
⌜Enter Seleucus.⌝
SELEUCUS 3353 Here, madam.
CLEOPATRA
3354 This is my treasurer. Let him speak, my lord,
3355 Upon his peril, that I have reserved
3356 To myself nothing.—Speak the truth, Seleucus.
SELEUCUS
3357 175 Madam, I had rather seel my lips
3358 Than to my peril speak that which is not.
CLEOPATRA 3359 What have I kept back?
SELEUCUS
3360 Enough to purchase what you have made known.
CAESAR
3361 Nay, blush not, Cleopatra. I approve
3362 180 Your wisdom in the deed.
CLEOPATRA 3363 See, Caesar, O, behold
3364 How pomp is followed! Mine will now be yours,
3365 And should we shift estates, yours would be mine.
3366 The ingratitude of this Seleucus does
3367 185 Even make me wild.—O slave, of no more trust
3368 Than love that’s hired! What, goest thou back? Thou
3369 shalt
3370 Go back, I warrant thee! But I’ll catch thine eyes
3371 Though they had wings. Slave, soulless villain, dog!
3372 190 O rarely base!
CAESAR 3373 Good queen, let us entreat you—
CLEOPATRA
3374 O Caesar, what a wounding shame is this,
3375 That thou vouchsafing here to visit me,
3377 195 To one so meek, that mine own servant should
3378 Parcel the sum of my disgraces by
3379 Addition of his envy! Say, good Caesar,
3380 That I some lady trifles have reserved,
3381 Immoment toys, things of such dignity
3382 200 As we greet modern friends withal, and say
3383 Some nobler token I have kept apart
3384 For Livia and Octavia, to induce
3385 Their mediation, must I be unfolded
3386 With one that I have bred? The gods! It smites me
3387 205 Beneath the fall I have. ⌜To Seleucus.⌝ Prithee, go
3388 hence,
3389 Or I shall show the cinders of my spirits
3390 Through th’ ashes of my chance. Wert thou a man,
3391 Thou wouldst have mercy on me.
CAESAR 3392 210 Forbear, Seleucus.
⌜Seleucus exits.⌝
CLEOPATRA
3393 Be it known that we, the greatest, are misthought
3394 For things that others do; and when we fall,
3395 We answer others’ merits in our name—
3396 Are therefore to be pitied.
CAESAR 3397 215 Cleopatra,
3398 Not what you have reserved nor what acknowledged
3399 Put we i’ th’ roll of conquest. Still be ’t yours!
3400 Bestow it at your pleasure, and believe
3401 Caesar’s no merchant to make prize with you
3402 220 Of things that merchants sold. Therefore be
3403 cheered.
3404 Make not your thoughts your prisons. No, dear
3405 queen,
3406 For we intend so to dispose you as
3407 225 Yourself shall give us counsel. Feed and sleep.
3408 Our care and pity is so much upon you
3409 That we remain your friend. And so adieu.
3410 My master and my lord!
CAESAR 3411 Not so. Adieu.
Flourish. Caesar and his train exit.
CLEOPATRA
3412 230 He words me, girls, he words me, that I should not
3413 Be noble to myself. But hark thee, Charmian.
⌜She whispers to Charmian.⌝
IRAS
3414 Finish, good lady. The bright day is done,
3415 And we are for the dark.
CLEOPATRA, ⌜to Charmian⌝ 3416 Hie thee again.
3417 235 I have spoke already, and it is provided.
3418 Go put it to the haste.
CHARMIAN 3419 Madam, I will.
Enter Dolabella.
DOLABELLA
3420 Where’s the Queen?
CHARMIAN 3421 Behold, sir.⌜She exits.⌝
CLEOPATRA 3422 240 Dolabella.
DOLABELLA
3423 Madam, as thereto sworn by your command,
3424 Which my love makes religion to obey,
3425 I tell you this: Caesar through Syria
3426 Intends his journey, and within three days
3427 245 You with your children will he send before.
3428 Make your best use of this. I have performed
3429 Your pleasure and my promise.
CLEOPATRA 3430 Dolabella,
3431 I shall remain your debtor.
DOLABELLA 3432 250 I your servant.
3433 Adieu, good queen. I must attend on Caesar.
CLEOPATRA
3434 Farewell, and thanks.He exits.
3435 Now, Iras, what think’st thou?
3437 255 In Rome as well as I. Mechanic slaves
3438 With greasy aprons, rules, and hammers shall
3439 Uplift us to the view. In their thick breaths,
3440 Rank of gross diet, shall we be enclouded
3441 And forced to drink their vapor.
IRAS 3442 260 The gods forbid!
CLEOPATRA
3443 Nay, ’tis most certain, Iras. Saucy lictors
3444 Will catch at us like strumpets, and scald rhymers
3445 ⌜Ballad⌝ us out o’ tune. The quick comedians
3446 Extemporally will stage us and present
3447 265 Our Alexandrian revels. Antony
3448 Shall be brought drunken forth, and I shall see
3449 Some squeaking Cleopatra boy my greatness
3450 I’ th’ posture of a whore.
IRAS 3451 O the good gods!
CLEOPATRA 3452 270Nay, that’s certain.
IRAS
3453 I’ll never see ’t! For I am sure mine nails
3454 Are stronger than mine eyes.
CLEOPATRA 3455 Why, that’s the way
3456 To fool their preparation and to conquer
3457 275 Their most absurd intents.
Enter Charmian.
3458 Now, Charmian!
3459 Show me, my women, like a queen. Go fetch
3460 My best attires. I am again for Cydnus
3461 To meet Mark Antony. Sirrah Iras, go.—
3462 280 Now, noble Charmian, we’ll dispatch indeed,
3463 And when thou hast done this chare, I’ll give thee
3464 leave
3465 To play till Doomsday.—Bring our crown and all.
⌜Iras exits.⌝ A noise within.
3466 Wherefore’s this noise?
GUARDSMAN 3467 285 Here is a rural fellow
3468 That will not be denied your Highness’ presence.
3469 He brings you figs.
CLEOPATRA
3470 Let him come in.Guardsman exits.
3471 What poor an instrument
3472 290 May do a noble deed! He brings me liberty.
3473 My resolution’s placed, and I have nothing
3474 Of woman in me. Now from head to foot
3475 I am marble-constant. Now the fleeting moon
3476 No planet is of mine.
Enter Guardsman and ⌜Countryman, with a basket.⌝
GUARDSMAN 3477 295 This is the man.
CLEOPATRA 3478 Avoid, and leave him.Guardsman exits.
3479 Hast thou the pretty worm of Nilus there
3480 That kills and pains not?
⌜COUNTRYMAN⌝ 3481 Truly I have him, but I would not be
3482 300 the party that should desire you to touch him, for
3483 his biting is immortal. Those that do die of it do
3484 seldom or never recover.
CLEOPATRA 3485 Remember’st thou any that have died on ’t?
⌜COUNTRYMAN⌝ 3486 Very many, men and women too. I
3487 305 heard of one of them no longer than yesterday—a
3488 very honest woman, but something given to lie, as a
3489 woman should not do but in the way of honesty—
3490 how she died of the biting of it, what pain she felt.
3491 Truly, she makes a very good report o’ th’ worm.
3492 310 But he that will believe all that they say shall never
3493 be saved by half that they do. But this is most
3494 falliable, the worm’s an odd worm.
CLEOPATRA 3495 Get thee hence. Farewell.
⌜COUNTRYMAN⌝ 3496 I wish you all joy of the worm.
⌜He sets down the basket.⌝
⌜COUNTRYMAN⌝ 3498 You must think this, look you, that the
3499 worm will do his kind.
CLEOPATRA 3500 Ay, ay, farewell.
⌜COUNTRYMAN⌝ 3501 Look you, the worm is not to be trusted
3502 320 but in the keeping of wise people, for indeed there
3503 is no goodness in the worm.
CLEOPATRA 3504 Take thou no care; it shall be heeded.
⌜COUNTRYMAN⌝ 3505 Very good. Give it nothing, I pray you,
3506 for it is not worth the feeding.
CLEOPATRA 3507 325Will it eat me?
⌜COUNTRYMAN⌝ 3508 You must not think I am so simple but
3509 I know the devil himself will not eat a woman. I
3510 know that a woman is a dish for the gods if the devil
3511 dress her not. But truly these same whoreson devils
3512 330 do the gods great harm in their women, for in every
3513 ten that they make, the devils mar five.
CLEOPATRA 3514 Well, get thee gone. Farewell.
⌜COUNTRYMAN⌝ 3515 Yes, forsooth. I wish you joy o’ th’
3516 worm.He exits.
⌜Enter Iras bearing Cleopatra’s royal regalia.⌝
CLEOPATRA
3517 335 Give me my robe. Put on my crown. I have
3518 Immortal longings in me. Now no more
3519 The juice of Egypt’s grape shall moist this lip.
⌜Charmian and Iras begin to dress her.⌝
3520 Yare, yare, good Iras, quick. Methinks I hear
3521 Antony call. I see him rouse himself
3522 340 To praise my noble act. I hear him mock
3523 The luck of Caesar, which the gods give men
3524 To excuse their after wrath.—Husband, I come!
3525 Now to that name my courage prove my title.
3526 I am fire and air; my other elements
3527 345 I give to baser life.—So, have you done?
3529 Farewell, kind Charmian.—Iras, long farewell.
⌜She kisses them. Iras falls and dies.⌝
3530 Have I the aspic in my lips? Dost fall?
3531 If thou and nature can so gently part,
3532 350 The stroke of death is as a lover’s pinch,
3533 Which hurts and is desired. Dost thou lie still?
3534 If thus thou vanishest, thou tell’st the world
3535 It is not worth leave-taking.
CHARMIAN
3536 Dissolve, thick cloud, and rain, that I may say
3537 355 The gods themselves do weep!
CLEOPATRA 3538 This proves me base.
3539 If she first meet the curlèd Antony,
3540 He’ll make demand of her, and spend that kiss
3541 Which is my heaven to have.—Come, thou mortal
3542 360 wretch,⌜She places an asp on her breast.⌝
3543 With thy sharp teeth this knot intrinsicate
3544 Of life at once untie. Poor venomous fool,
3545 Be angry and dispatch. O, couldst thou speak,
3546 That I might hear thee call great Caesar ass
3547 365 Unpolicied!
CHARMIAN 3548 O eastern star!
CLEOPATRA 3549 Peace, peace!
3550 Dost thou not see my baby at my breast,
3551 That sucks the nurse asleep?
CHARMIAN 3552 370 O, break! O, break!
CLEOPATRA
3553 As sweet as balm, as soft as air, as gentle—
3554 O Antony!—Nay, I will take thee too.
⌜She places an asp on her arm.⌝
3555 What should I stay—Dies.
CHARMIAN 3556 In this wild world? So, fare thee well.
3557 375 Now boast thee, Death, in thy possession lies
3558 A lass unparalleled. Downy windows, close,
⌜She closes Cleopatra’s eyes.⌝
3560 Of eyes again so royal. Your crown’s ⌜awry.⌝
3561 I’ll mend it, and then play—
Enter the Guard rustling in.
FIRST GUARD
3562 380 Where’s the Queen?
CHARMIAN 3563 Speak softly. Wake her not.
FIRST GUARD
3564 Caesar hath sent—
CHARMIAN 3565 Too slow a messenger.
⌜She takes out an asp.⌝
3566 O, come apace, dispatch! I partly feel thee.
FIRST GUARD
3567 385 Approach, ho! All’s not well. Caesar’s beguiled.
SECOND GUARD
3568 There’s Dolabella sent from Caesar. Call him.
⌜A Guardsman exits.⌝
FIRST GUARD
3569 What work is here, Charmian? Is this well done?
CHARMIAN
3570 It is well done, and fitting for a princess
3571 Descended of so many royal kings.
3572 390 Ah, soldier!Charmian dies.
Enter Dolabella.
DOLABELLA
3573 How goes it here?
SECOND GUARD 3574 All dead.
DOLABELLA 3575 Caesar, thy thoughts
3576 Touch their effects in this. Thyself art coming
3577 395 To see performed the dreaded act which thou
3578 So sought’st to hinder.
Enter Caesar and all his train, marching.
ALL 3579 A way there, a way for Caesar!
3580 O sir, you are too sure an augurer:
3581 That you did fear is done.
CAESAR 3582 400Bravest at the last,
3583 She leveled at our purposes and, being royal,
3584 Took her own way. The manner of their deaths?
3585 I do not see them bleed.
DOLABELLA 3586 Who was last with them?
FIRST GUARD
3587 405 A simple countryman that brought her figs.
3588 This was his basket.
CAESAR 3589 Poisoned, then.
FIRST GUARD 3590 O Caesar,
3591 This Charmian lived but now; she stood and spake.
3592 410 I found her trimming up the diadem
3593 On her dead mistress; tremblingly she stood,
3594 And on the sudden dropped.
CAESAR 3595 O, noble weakness!
3596 If they had swallowed poison, ’twould appear
3597 415 By external swelling; but she looks like sleep,
3598 As she would catch another Antony
3599 In her strong toil of grace.
DOLABELLA 3600 Here on her breast
3601 There is a vent of blood, and something blown.
3602 420 The like is on her arm.
FIRST GUARD
3603 This is an aspic’s trail, and these fig leaves
3604 Have slime upon them, such as th’ aspic leaves
3605 Upon the caves of Nile.
CAESAR 3606 Most probable
3607 425 That so she died, for her physician tells me
3608 She hath pursued conclusions infinite
3609 Of easy ways to die. Take up her bed,
3610 And bear her women from the monument.
3611 She shall be buried by her Antony.
3613 A pair so famous. High events as these
3614 Strike those that make them; and their story is
3615 No less in pity than his glory which
3616 Brought them to be lamented. Our army shall
3617 435 In solemn show attend this funeral,
3618 And then to Rome. Come, Dolabella, see
3619 High order in this great solemnity.
They all exit, ⌜the Guards
bearing the dead bodies.⌝