CLEOPATRA Met’st thou my posts?
ALEXAS Ay, madam, twenty several messengers.
Why do you send so thick?
CLEOPATRA Who’s born that day
When I forget to send to Antony
Shall die a beggar. Ink and paper, Charmian!
Welcome, my good Alexas. Did I, Charmian,
Ever love Caesar so?
CHARMIAN O, that brave Caesar!
CLEOPATRA Be choked with such another emphasis!
Say ‘the brave Antony’.
CHARMIAN The valiant Caesar. (1.5.60-68)
Another thought strikes Cleopatra, as she asks met’st thou my posts? That is, did Alexas encounter her messengers to Antony on the road, presumably in both directions, there and back? Ay, madam, twenty several messengers. Why do you send so thick? SO many messengers, why are you sending so many? Who’s born that day when I forget to send to Antony—perhaps with the implication that she’s writing every day, and he’s therefore been away about three weeks? But that’s unknowable, Alexas is mostly plucking twenty from the air as a large, even excessive number, a positive stream of messengers in constant motion, there and back again. The day I don’t write to Antony is an unlucky day; anyone born that day shall die a beggar. Time to write again, therefore! Ink and paper, Charmian! (An interesting point: is Cleopatra writing herself, and therefore instructing Charmian to bring her writing materials, or is she going to dictate to Charmian? A modern audience assumes the former, an early seventeenth-century audience might as readily imagine that she’s going to dictate to a secretary, even to Charmian herself.) So, welcome my good Alexas, the closest he’s getting to being thanked for his news and his services. The point is, look at me, look at how devoted I am, writing every day. Did I, Charmian, ever love Caesar so? Caesar, whose greatness I’ve just recalled. It’s a rhetorical question, but Charmian’s on mischievous, sparring form: O, that brave Caesar! he was HOT, AMAZING, such a great guy. Be choked with such another emphasis! Eat your words and wash your mouth out. Say ‘the brave Antony’! Antony’s much hotter, more amazing, the total love of my life, in a completely different ball-park, another kind of man entirely. Charmian doubles down, because this is fun. The valiant Caesar! he was just so awesome, that Caesar…