Music of the hautboys is under the stage SECOND SOLDIER     Peace, what noise? FIRST SOLDIER          List, list! SECOND SOLDIER Hark! FIRST SOLDIER Music i’th’ air. THIRD SOLDIER        Under the earth. FOURTH SOLDIER     It signs well, does it not? THIRD SOLDIER No. FIRST SOLDIER Peace, I say! What should this mean? SECOND SOLDIER ’Tis the god […]

Enter a company of Soldiers FIRST SOLDIER         Brother, good night. Tomorrow is the day. SECOND SOLDIER     It will determine one way. Fare you well. Heard you of nothing strange about the streets? FIRST SOLDIER Nothing. What news? SECOND SOLDIER Belike ’tis but a rumour. Good night to you. FIRST SOLDIER Well, sir, good night. They […]

ENOBARBUS              What mean you, sir, To give them this discomfort? Look, they weep, And I, an ass, am onion-eyed. For shame, Transform us not to women. ANTONY                                 Ho, ho, ho, Now the witch take me if I meant it thus! Grace grow where those drops fall. My hearty friends, You take me in too dolorous […]

ANTONY         Well, my good fellows, wait on me tonight. Scant not my cups, and make as much of me As when mine empire was your fellow too, And suffered my command. CLEOPATRA  [aside to Enobarbus] What does he mean? ENOBARBUS  [aside to Cleopatra] To make his followers weep. ANTONY                                 Tend me tonight. Maybe it is the period […]

ANTONY                                 Come on! Call forth my household servants. Let’s tonight Enter three or four Servitors Be bounteous at our meal. Give me thy hand. Thou hast been rightly honest; so hast thou, Thou, and thou, and thou; you have served me well, And kings have been your fellows. CLEOPATRA  [to Enobarbus] What means this? ENOBARBUS  [to […]

Enter Antony, Cleopatra, Enobarbus, Charmian, Iras, with others ANTONY         He will not fight with me, Domitius? ENOBARBUS  No. ANTONY                                 Why should he not? ENOBARBUS  He thinks, being twenty times of better fortune, He is twenty men to one. ANTONY                                 Tomorrow, soldier, By sea and land I’ll fight. Or I will live Or bathe my dying […]

CAESAR                                  Let our best heads Know that tomorrow the last of many battles We mean to fight. Within our files there are, Of those that served Mark Antony but late, Enough to fetch him in. See it done, And feast the army. We have store to do’t, And they have earned the waste. Poor Antony! […]

MAECENAS                            Caesar must think, When one so great begins to rage, he’s hunted Even to falling. Give him no breath, but now Make boot of his distraction. Never anger Made good guard for itself.              (4.1.6-10)   The loyal Maecenas picks up from Caesar with economy and efficiency; the sense is that Caesar runs not just […]

Enter Caesar with Agrippa, Maecenas, and his army, Caesar reading a letter   CAESAR          He calls me boy, and chides as he had power To beat me out of Egypt. My messenger He hath whipped with rods, dares me to personal combat, Caesar to Antony. Let the old ruffian know I have many other ways […]

ENOBARBUS  Now he’ll outstare the lightning. To be furious Is to be frighted out of fear, and in that mood The dove will peck the estridge; and I see still A diminution in our captain’s brain Restores his heart. When valour preys on reason, It eats the sword it fights with. I will seek Some […]