Enter the Ambassador with Antony ANTONY                     Is that his answer? AMBASSADOR                       Ay, my lord. ANTONY         The Queen shall then have courtesy, so she Will yield us up. AMBASSADOR           He says so. ANTONY                                             Let her know’t. [To Cleopatra] To the boy Caesar send this grizzled head, And he will fill thy wishes to the brim […]

AMBASSADOR           Next, Cleopatra does confess thy greatness, Submits her to thy might, and of thee craves The circle of the Ptolemies for her heirs, Now hazarded to thy grace. CAESAR                      For Antony, I have no ears to his request. The Queen Of audience nor desire shall fail, so she From Egypt drive her all-disgracèd friend, […]

AMBASSADOR           Such as I am, I come from Antony. I was of late as petty to his ends As is the morn-dew on the myrtle leaf To his grand sea. CAESAR                      Be’t so. Declare thine office. AMBASSADOR           Lord of his fortunes he salutes thee, and Requires to live in Egypt; which not granted, He lessens […]

Enter Caesar, Agrippa, and Dolabella, with others [including Thidias] CAESAR          Let him appear that’s come from Antony. Know you him? DOLABELLA   Caesar, ’tis his schoolmaster; An argument that he is plucked, when hither He sends so poor a pinion of his wing, Which had superfluous kings for messengers Not many moons gone by. Enter Ambassador […]

ANTONY         Fall not a tear, I say. One of them rates All that is won and lost. Give me a kiss. [He kisses her] Even this repays me. We sent our schoolmaster; Is a come back? Love, I am full of lead. Some wine within there, and our viands! Fortune knows We scorn her most when […]

ANTONY                     Now I must To the young man send humble treaties, dodge And palter in the shifts of lowness, who With half the bulk o’th’ world played as I pleased, Making and marring fortunes. You did know How much you were my conqueror, and that My sword, made weak by my affection, would Obey it […]

CLEOPATRA  O, my lord, my lord, Forgive my fearful sails! I little thought You would have followed. ANTONY         Egypt, thou knew’st too well My heart was to thy rudder tied by th’ strings, And thou shouldst tow me after. O’er my spirit Thy full supremacy thou knew’st, and that Thy beck might from the bidding […]

EROS   Most noble sir, arise. The Queen approaches. Her head’s declined, and death will seize her but Your comfort makes the rescue. ANTONY         I have offended reputation; A most unnoble swerving. EROS   Sir, the Queen. ANTONY         O, whither hast thou led me, Egypt? See How I convey my shame out of thine eyes By looking […]

ANTONY         Yes, my lord, yes. He at Philippi kept His sword e’en like a dancer, while I struck The lean and wrinkled Cassius; and ’twas I That the mad Brutus ended. He alone Dealt on lieutenantry, and no practice had In the brave squares of war. Yet now—no matter. CLEOPATRA  [rising, to Charmian and Iras] Ah, […]