Enter Soothsayer ANTONY         Now, sirrah. You do wish yourself in Egypt? SOOTHSAYER                        Would I had never come from thence, nor you Gone thither. ANTONY                     If you can, your reason? SOOTHSAYER                        I see it in my motion, have it not in my tongue. But yet hie you again to Egypt. ANTONY                     Say to me […]

Enter Antony, Caesar, and Octavia between them ANTONY         The world and my great office will sometimes Divide me from your bosom. OCTAVIA                                All which time, Before the gods my knee shall bow my prayers To them for you. ANTONY         [to Caesar] Good night, sir.— My Octavia, Read not my blemishes in the world’s report. I have […]

MAECENAS    If beauty, wisdom, modesty can settle The heart of Antony, Octavia is A blessèd lottery to him. AGRIPPA                                 Let us go. Good Enobarbus, make yourself my guest Whilst you abide here. ENOBARBUS              Humbly, sir, I thank you. Exeunt             (2.2.239-243)   Maecenas is stubborn, and stubbornly Roman: he has to believe that Octavia is superior […]

ENOBARBUS              I saw her once Hop forty paces through the public street, And having lost her breath, she spoke and panted, That she did make defect perfectïon, And breathless, pour breath forth. MAECENAS                            Now Antony Must leave her utterly. ENOBARBUS              Never. He will not. Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale Her infinite variety. Other […]

ENOBARBUS  Upon her landing Antony sent to her, Invited her to supper. She replied It should be better he became her guest, Which she entreated. Our courteous Antony, Whom ne’er the word of ‘No’ woman heard speak, Being barbered ten times o’er, goes to the feast, And for his ordinary pays his heart For what […]

ENOBARBUS              From the barge A strange invisible perfume hits the sense Of the adjacent wharfs. The city cast Her people out upon her, and Antony, Enthroned i’th’ market-place, did sit alone, Whistling to th’air, which but for vacancy Had gone to gaze on Cleopatra too, And made a gap in nature. AGRIPPA                                 Rare Egyptian!           (2.2.210-217) […]

ENOBARBUS              On each side her Stood pretty dimpled boys, like smiling Cupids, With divers-coloured fans whose wind did seem To glow the delicate cheeks which they did cool, And what they undid did. AGRIPPA                                 O, rare for Antony! ENOBARBUS  Her gentlewomen, like the Nereïdes, So many mermaids, tended her i’th’ eyes, And made their bends […]

ENOBARBUS              The poop was beaten gold; Purple the sails, and so perfumèd that The winds were love-sick with them. The oars were silver, Which to the tune of flutes kept stroke, and made The water which they beat to follow faster, As amorous of their strokes. For her own person, It beggared all description. She […]

MAECENAS    She’s a most triumphant lady, if report be square to her. ENOBARBUS  When she first met Mark Antony, she pursed up his heart upon the river of Cydnus. AGRIPPA         There she appeared indeed, or my reporter devised well for her. ENOBARBUS  I will tell you. The barge she sat in, like a burnished throne Burned on […]

MAECENAS    [to Enobarbus] Welcome from Egypt, sir. ENOBARBUS  Half the heart of Caesar, worthy Maecenas! My honourable friend, Agrippa! AGRIPPA         Good Enobarbus! MAECENAS    We have cause to be glad that matters are so well digested. You stayed well by’t in Egypt. ENOBARBUS  Ay, sir, we did sleep day out of countenance, and made the night light with drinking. MAECENAS    […]