Enter four or five of the guard of Antony ANTONY         Bear me, good friends, where Cleopatra bides. ’Tis the last service that I shall command you. FIRST GUARD             Woe, woe are we, sir, you may not live to wear All your true followers out. ALL THE GUARDS      Most heavy day! ANTONY Nay, good my […]

ANTONY                                 Where is she? DIOMEDES     Locked in her monument. She had a prophesying fear Of what hath come to pass; for when she saw— Which never shall be found—you did suspect She had disposed with Caesar, and that your rage Would not be purged, she sent word she was dead; But fearing since how it […]

Enter Diomedes DIOMEDES                 Where’s Antony? DERCETUS     There, Diomed, there. DIOMEDES Lives he? Wilt thou not answer, man? [Exit Dercetus] ANTONY         Art thou there, Diomed? Draw thy sword, and give me Sufficing strokes for death. DIOMEDES Most absolute lord, My mistress Cleopatra sent me to thee. ANTONY When did she send thee? DIOMEDES Now, my lord.    […]

Enter a guard [and Dercetus] FIRST GUARD                         What’s the noise? ANTONY         I have done my work ill, friends. O, make an end Of what I have begun! SECOND GUARD                    The star is fall’n. FIRST GUARD And time is at his period. ALL GUARDS                                      Alas And woe! ANTONY Let him that loves me strike me dead. […]

ANTONY                     Thrice nobler than myself, Thou teachest me, O, valiant Eros, what I should and thou couldst not. My queen and Eros Have by their brave instruction got upon me A nobleness in record. But I will be A bridegroom in my death, and run into’t As to a lover’s bed. Come then, and, Eros, […]

CW: suicide EROS   My sword is drawn. ANTONY                                 Then let it do at once The thing why thou hast drawn it. EROS                                       My dear master, My captain, and my Emperor: let me say, Before I strike this bloody stroke, farewell. ANTONY ’Tis said, man; and farewell. EROS Farewell, great chief. Shall I strike now? […]

EROS                                       O, sir, pardon me! ANTONY         When I did make thee free, swor’st thou not then To do this when I bade thee? Do it at once, Or thy precedent services are all But accidents unpurposed. Draw, and come. EROS   Turn from me then that noble countenance Wherein the worship of the whole world lies. […]

ANTONY                                 Eros, Wouldst thou be windowed in great Rome and see Thy master thus with pleached arms, bending down His corrigible neck, his face subdued To penetrative shame, whilst the wheeled seat Of fortunate Caesar, drawn before him, branded His baseness that ensued? EROS                                       I would not see’t. ANTONY         Come then; for with a wound […]

ANTONY                                 Thou art sworn, Eros, That when the exigent should come, which now Is come indeed—when I should see behind me Th’inevitable prosecution of Disgrace and horror—that on my command Thou then wouldst kill me. Do’t. The time is come. Thou strik’st not me; ’tis Caesar thou defeat’st. Put colour in thy cheek. EROS                           The […]

CW: discussion of suicide Enter Eros EROS               What would my lord? ANTONY                                 Since Cleopatra died I have lived in such dishonour that the gods Detest my baseness. I, that with my sword Quartered the world, and o’er green Neptune’s back With ships made cities, condemn myself to lack The courage of a woman; less noble […]