ENOBARBUS              How appears the fight?

SCARUS          On our side like the tokened pestilence,

Where death is sure. Yonder ribald nag of Egypt—

Whom leprosy o’ertake!—i’th’ midst o’th’ fight—

When vantage like a pair of twins appeared,

Both as the same, or rather ours the elder—

The breese upon her, like a cow in June,

Hoists sails and flies.

ENOBARBUS              That I beheld.

Mine eyes did sicken at the sight, and could not

Endure a further view.         (3.10.8-17)

How appears the fight? So, what’s the very latest? asks Enobarbus. And Scarus doesn’t hold back; he, unlike Enobarbus (at least sometimes) seems entirely impervious to Cleopatra’s charms. Well, so far as we’re concerned, on our side it looks like the tokened pestilence, where death is sure. You know that nasty rash, those big red blotches that are the incontrovertible confirmation that someone’s about to die of the plague? That’s what it looks like. Yonder ribald nag of Egypt, that clapped out (literally) rotten whore—whom leprosy o’ertake! (may she die of leprosy, even before the syphilis gets her, leprosy being even longer in its association with sexual licence and, via Cressida, with betrayal)—in the midst of the fight, right in the thick of things, at the crucial moment, when vantage like a pair of twins appeared, both as the same, or rather ours the elder—when it seemed as if the battle could go either way, but the advantage was just, just a little on our side, when things were just, just tending in our favour—it was if she, Cleopatra (still imagined as that disease-ridden horse) was attacked by a gadfly, the breese upon her, like a cow in June (all trace of grace and nobility gone, Cleopatra is now a cow)—and so she hoists sails and flies. She was off, lumbering away from the field, spooked by the smallest thing into turning tail and running away, her galleys under sail for speed rather than powered by oars to keep their battle formation and remain in the fight. Yeah, I saw that; that I beheld, confirms Enobarbus. It was grim, so grim that mine eyes did sicken at the sight, and could not endure a further view. I couldn’t bear to watch any longer: that’s why I’m here, and that’s why I’m asking you what happened next…