CAESAR Good queen, let us entreat you. CLEOPATRA O, Caesar, what a wounding shame is this, That thou vouchsafing here to visit me, Doing the honour of thy lordliness To one so meek—that mine own servant should Parcel the sum of my disgraces by Addition of his envy. Say, good Caesar, That I some lady […]
Continue ReadingAuthor: Hester Lees-Jeffries
Cleopatra: such disloyalty! SCUM! (5.2.146-154) #BurningBarge #SlowShakespeare
CLEOPATRA See, Caesar! O, behold How pomp is followed! Mine will now be yours, And should we shift estates, yours would be mine. The ingratitude of this Seleucus does Even make me wild.—O slave, of no more trust Than love that’s hired! What, go’st thou back? Thou shalt Go back, I warrant thee; but I’ll […]
Continue ReadingCleopatra, double-crossing Caesar? or more complex sleight of hand? (5.2.141-6) #BurningBarge #SlowShakespeare
SELEUCUS Madam, I had rather seal my lips Than to my peril speak that which is not. CLEOPATRA What have I kept back? SELEUCUS Enough to purchase what you have made known. CAESAR Nay, blush not, Cleopatra. I approve Your wisdom in the deed. (5.2.141-146) A tiny little exchange—and in fact the whole Seleucus […]
Continue ReadingCleopatra: and here’s a list I made earlier of all my worldly goods (5.2.130-140) #BurningBarge #SlowShakespeare
CLEOPATRA And may through all the world! ’Tis yours, and we, Your scutcheons and your signs of conquest, shall Hang in what place you please. Here, my good lord. [She gives him a document] CAESAR You shall advise me in all for Cleopatra. CLEOPATRA This is the brief of money, plate, and jewels I am […]
Continue ReadingCaesar: I’m making you an offer you can’t refuse (5.2.120-129) #BurningBarge #SlowShakespeare
CAESAR Cleopatra, know We will extenuate rather than enforce. If you apply yourself to our intents, Which towards you are most gentle, you shall find A benefit in this change; but if you seek To lay on me a cruelty by taking Antony’s course, you shall bereave yourself Of my good purposes and put your […]
Continue ReadingCaesar: no hard feelings; Cleopatra: well I’m just a girl (5.2.113-120) #BurningBarge #SlowShakespeare
CAESAR Take to you no hard thoughts. The record of what injuries you did us, Though written in our flesh, we shall remember As things but done by chance. CLEOPATRA Sole sir o’th’ world, I cannot project mine own cause so well To make it clear, but do confess I have Been laden with like […]
Continue ReadingCaesar: oh no don’t kneel to me; Cleopatra: what do you want? (5.2.109-113) #BurningBarge #SlowShakespeare
Flourish. Enter Proculeius, Caesar, Gallus, Maecenas, and others of his train ALL Make way, there! Caesar! CAESAR Which is the Queen of Egypt? DOLABELLA [to Cleopatra] It is the Emperor, madam. Cleopatra kneels CAESAR Arise! You shall not kneel. I pray you rise, rise, Egypt. CLEOPATRA [rising] Sir, the gods Will have it thus. My master and […]
Continue ReadingDolabella: I feel your pain; Cleopatra: what’s Caesar going to do with me? (5.2.99-108) #BurningBarge #SlowShakespeare
DOLABELLA Hear me, good madam: Your loss is as yourself, great, and you bear it As answering to the weight. Would I might never O’ertake pursued success but I do feel, By the rebound of yours, a grief that smites My very heart at root. CLEOPATRA I thank you, sir. Know you what Caesar means […]
Continue ReadingCleopatra: Antony was my dream, and he was MINE (5.2.91-9) #BurningBarge #SlowShakespeare
DOLABELLA Cleopatra— CLEOPATRA Think you there was, or might be, such a man As this I dreamt of? DOLABELLA Gentle madam, no. CLEOPATRA You lie, up to the hearing of the gods. But if there be, or ever were one such, It’s past the size of dreaming. Nature wants stuff To vie strange forms […]
Continue ReadingCleopatra: an ecstatic dream of Antony, godlike, golden, giving (5.2.78-91) #BurningBarge #SlowShakespeare
CLEOPATRA His face was as the heav’ns, and therein stuck A sun and moon, which kept their course and lighted The little O o’th’ earth. DOLABELLA Most sovereign creature— CLEOPATRA His legs bestrid the ocean; his reared arm Crested the world. His voice was propertied As all the tunèd spheres, and that to friends; But […]
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