ENOBARBUS  [calling] Bring in the banquet quickly,

Wine enough Cleopatra’s health to drink.

[Servants bring food and wine]

CHARMIAN     [to Soothsayer] Good sir, give me good fortune.

SOOTHSAYER                        I make not, but foresee.

CHARMIAN     Pray then, foresee me one.

SOOTHSAYER                        You shall be yet

Far fairer than you are.

CHARMIAN                             He means in flesh.

IRAS    No, you shall paint when you are old.

CHARMIAN                 Wrinkles forbid!

ALEXAS           Vex not his prescience. Be attentive.

CHARMIAN     Hush!              (1.2.11-17)

The general impression is of happily indulgent babble and semi-chaos: Enobarbus (still recognisably Roman?) calls for the banquet, the sweetmeats and wine which would be served after dinner at court and in well-to-do houses. As well as helping to establish an atmosphere of consumption and luxury, it’s reinforcing the time of day, evening, after dinner. And that Enobarbus specifies that there must be wine enough Cleopatra’s health to drink keeps her at the centre of things even when she’s absent, as well as suggesting that she is customarily the life and soul of any party.

But the main business is the fortune-telling. The Soothsayer is unexpectedly austere, even stern: he cannot give good fortune, as Charmian requests, but admonishes her that he can only foresee. Charmian’s not in the least put off, OK, foresee me a good fortune then. You shall be yet far fairer than you are. A positive fortune indeed, even a compliment, of sorts? You’ll grow more beautiful as you age. Charmian, however, is performatively glum: he means in flesh, I’m going to put on weight. Iras is more cynical: no, you shall paint when you are old. That’s why you’ll be more beautiful, it’ll all be fake, a nip and tuck here, a bit of slap and grouting there. Wrinkles forbid! says Charmian. An arch response: no wrinkles for me! Or else pretend horror at the unimaginable prospect of age. But Alexas—who, after all, is apparently the one who’s gone to the trouble of sourcing a soothsayer in the first place—tells her to take it more seriously. Vex not his prescience, don’t mock his ability. Be attentive. Oh SHUSH, says Charmian.