Antony: one last kiss! Cleopatra: I’m not risking giving Caesar (and your wife) the SATISFACTION (4.16.19-30) #BurningBarge #SlowShakespeare

ANTONY         I am dying, Egypt, dying. Only I here importune death awhile until Of many thousand kisses the poor last I lay upon thy lips. CLEOPATRA   I dare not, dear, Dear, my lord, pardon. I dare not, Lest I be taken. Not th’imperious show Of the full-fortuned Caesar ever shall Be brooched with me, if […]

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Cleopatra: darkling stand the varying shore o’th’ world; Antony: I am UNCONQUERED (4.16.9-18) #BurningBarge #SlowShakespeare

Enter [below] Antony, [carried by] the guard CLEOPATRA   O, sun, Burn the great sphere thou mov’st in; darkling stand The varying shore o’th’ world. O, Antony, Antony, Antony! Help, Charmian, Help, Iras, help, help, friends below! Let’s draw him hither. ANTONY                     Peace. Not Caesar’s valour Hath o’erthrown Antony, but Antony’s Hath triumphed on itself. CLEOPATRA   […]

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Cleopatra: nothing can make this better; Diomedes: here’s Antony, come to you (4.16.1-9) #BurningBarge #SlowShakespeare

Enter Cleopatra aloft with Charmian and Iras CLEOPATRA   O Charmian, I will never go from hence. CHARMIAN     Be comforted, dear madam. CLEOPATRA                           No, I will not. All strange and terrible events are welcome, But comforts we despise. Our size of sorrow, Proportioned to our cause, must be as great As that which makes it. Enter […]

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Cleopatra thought something terrible like this might happen! and it has! (4.15.116-127) #BurningBarge #SlowShakespeare

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 […]

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I’ve just this minute come from Cleopatra, says Diomedes… (4.15.111-116) #BurningBarge #SlowShakespeare

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.    […]

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Antony: I’ve totally botched this; kill me now! (4.15.103-111) #BurningBarge #SlowShakespeare

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. […]

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Eros: farewell, beloved master; this is the only way (4.15.87-94) #BurningBarge #SlowShakespeare

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? […]

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