Enter Antony CHARMIAN                 But here comes Antony. CLEOPATRA   I am sick and sullen. ANTONY         I am sorry to give breathing to my purpose. CLEOPATRA   Help me away, dear Charmian, I shall fall. It cannot be thus long—the sides of nature Will not sustain it. ANTONY                     Now, my dearest queen. CLEOPATRA   Pray you, stand farther from […]

CHARMIAN     Madam, methinks, if you did love him dearly, You do not hold the method to enforce The like from him. CLEOPATRA   What should I do I do not? CHARMIAN     In each thing give him way; cross him in nothing. CLEOPATRA   Thou teachest like a fool, the way to lose him. CHARMIAN     Tempt him not […]

Enter Cleopatra, Charmian, Alexas, and Iras CLEOPATRA   Where is he? CHARMIAN                                         I did not see him since. CLEOPATRA   See where he is, who’s with him, what he does. I did not send you. If you find him sad, Say I am dancing: if in mirth, report That I am sudden sick. Quick, and return. [Exit […]

ANTONY                                 Sextus Pompeius Hath given the dare to Caesar and commands The empire of the sea. Our slippery people, Whose love is never linked to the deserver Till his deserts are past, begin to throw Pompey the Great and all his dignities Upon his son, who—high in name and power, Higher than both in blood […]

ANTONY         The business she hath broachèd in the state Cannot endure my absence. ENOBARBUS  And the business you have broached here cannot be without you, especially that of Cleopatra’s, which wholly depends on your abode. ANTONY         No more light answers. Let our officers Have notice what we purpose. I shall break The cause of our expedience to […]

ANTONY         Fulvia is dead. ENOBARBUS              Sir. ANTONY         Fulvia is dead. ENOBARBUS              Fulvia? ANTONY         Dead. ENOBARBUS  Why, sir, give the gods a thankful sacrifice. When it pleaseth their deities to take the wife of a man from him, it shows to man the tailors of the earth; comforting therein that when old robes are worn out there are members […]

ANTONY         She is cunning past man’s thought. ENOBARBUS  Alack, sir, no—her passions are made of nothing but the finest part of pure love. We cannot call her winds and waters sighs and tears; they are greater storms and tempests than almanacs can report. This cannot be cunning in her; if it be, she makes a shower of rain as […]

Enter Enobarbus ENOBARBUS  What’s your pleasure, sir? ANTONY         I must with haste from hence. ENOBARBUS  Why then we kill all our women. We see how mortal an unkindness is to them; if they suffer our departure, death’s the word. ANTONY         I must be gone. ENOBARBUS  Under a compelling occasion let women die. It were pity to cast […]

ANTONY         There’s a great spirit gone. Thus did I desire it. What our contempts doth often hurl from us, We wish it ours again. The present pleasure, By revolution low’ring, does become The opposite of itself. She’s good being gone— The hand could pluck her back that shoved her on. I must from this enchanting […]

Enter another Messenger ANTONY         From Sicyon, ho, the news? Speak there. SECOND MESSENGER           The man from Sicyon— ANTONY         Is there such a one? SECOND MESSENGER           He stays upon your will. ANTONY         Let him appear. [Exit Second Messenger] These strong Egyptian fetters I must break, Or lose myself in dotage. Enter another Messenger with a letter […]