Faculty of English

SELEUCUS      Madam, I had rather seal my lips Than to my peril speak that which is not. CLEOPATRA   What have I kept back? SELEUCUS Enough to purchase what you have made known. CAESAR          Nay, blush not, Cleopatra. I approve Your wisdom in the deed.    (5.2.141-146)   A tiny little exchange—and in fact the whole Seleucus […]

CLEOPATRA   And may through all the world! ’Tis yours, and we, Your scutcheons and your signs of conquest, shall Hang in what place you please. Here, my good lord. [She gives him a document] CAESAR          You shall advise me in all for Cleopatra. CLEOPATRA This is the brief of money, plate, and jewels I am […]

CAESAR                      Cleopatra, know We will extenuate rather than enforce. If you apply yourself to our intents, Which towards you are most gentle, you shall find A benefit in this change; but if you seek To lay on me a cruelty by taking Antony’s course, you shall bereave yourself Of my good purposes and put your […]

CAESAR          Take to you no hard thoughts. The record of what injuries you did us, Though written in our flesh, we shall remember As things but done by chance. CLEOPATRA   Sole sir o’th’ world, I cannot project mine own cause so well To make it clear, but do confess I have Been laden with like […]

Flourish. Enter Proculeius, Caesar, Gallus, Maecenas, and others of his train ALL                  Make way, there! Caesar! CAESAR          Which is the Queen of Egypt? DOLABELLA   [to Cleopatra] It is the Emperor, madam. Cleopatra kneels CAESAR          Arise! You shall not kneel. I pray you rise, rise, Egypt. CLEOPATRA               [rising] Sir, the gods Will have it thus. My master and […]

DOLABELLA   Hear me, good madam: Your loss is as yourself, great, and you bear it As answering to the weight. Would I might never O’ertake pursued success but I do feel, By the rebound of yours, a grief that smites My very heart at root. CLEOPATRA  I thank you, sir. Know you what Caesar means […]

DOLABELLA                           Cleopatra— CLEOPATRA   Think you there was, or might be, such a man As this I dreamt of? DOLABELLA                           Gentle madam, no. CLEOPATRA   You lie, up to the hearing of the gods. But if there be, or ever were one such, It’s past the size of dreaming. Nature wants stuff To vie strange forms […]

CLEOPATRA   His face was as the heav’ns, and therein stuck A sun and moon, which kept their course and lighted The little O o’th’ earth. DOLABELLA               Most sovereign creature— CLEOPATRA His legs bestrid the ocean; his reared arm Crested the world. His voice was propertied As all the tunèd spheres, and that to friends; But […]

DOLABELLA   Most noble Empress, you have heard of me. CLEOPATRA   I cannot tell. DOLABELLA                           Assuredly you know me. CLEOPATRA No matter, sir, what I have heard or known. You laugh when boys or women tell their dreams; Is’t not your trick? DOLABELLA   I understand not, madam. CLEOPATRA I dreamt there was an Emperor […]

PROCULEIUS             You do extend These thoughts of horror further than you shall Find cause in Caesar. Enter Dolabella DOLABELLA               Proculeius, What thou hast done thy master Caesar knows, And he hath sent for thee. For the Queen, I’ll take her to my guard. PROCULEIUS So, Dolabella, It shall content me best. Be gentle to her. […]