Enter Enobarbus, Lamprius, a Soothsayer, Rannius, Lucillius, Charmian, Iras, Mardian the eunuch, and Alexas
CHARMIAN Lord Alexas, sweet Alexas, most anything Alexas, almost most absolute Alexas, where’s the soothsayer that you praised so to th’ Queen?
O that I knew this husband, which you say
Must charge 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 [to Charmian] Show him your hand. (1.2.1-10)
It’s worth noting, perhaps, that Rannius, Lucillius, and Lamprius, listed in the Folio entry direction, are silent characters and may well not appear. On paper, though, there are more or less even numbers of Romans and Egyptians in the scene—but the Egyptians do most of the talking, at least initially in prose, and with an excess of fulsome flattery. There might be a suggestion that Charmian and Alexas are another version of Antony and Cleopatra, through Charmian’s exaggerated addresses here, but it’s an impression that’s quickly dispelled: this is mostly Cleopatra’s gang, and their lives and affections revolve around her, although that doesn’t stop most of their interactions sounding flirty. Alexas is of higher status than the rest—hence Lord—a chamberlain or secretary, but the matter at hand here is not a weighty matter of state but rather (it seems) telling the fortunes, erotic and otherwise, of Cleopatra’s women and, implicitly, the queen herself. It seems as if Charmian’s already had her fortune told, but she wants a second opinion, and this particular soothsayer comes highly recommended, highly praised by Alexas himself.
Charmian wants to know more about her future husband, the man who must, apparently charge his horns with garlands. The line’s tricky, meaning either a cuckold who must also wear a bridegroom’s garland, or else a cuckold who will be a champion cuckold, cuckolded more than anyone. Regardless, the joke’s mostly the same, a horn joke about female sexual insatiability and inconstancy, helping to establish Egypt as a place of licence and lust. The Soothsayer is right there—how spooky he or she looks is a matter of taste—so Egypt is also a place of magic and superstition, in comparison with the rational real politik of Rome. But such binaries are only ever a useful starting point. And the Soothsayer will indeed speak truth as he reads Charmian’s hand, despite making only modest claims for his abilities.