Antony: you promised! Eros: OK but don’t make me look at you (4.15.81-7) #BurningBarge #SlowShakespeare

EROS                                       O, sir, pardon me! ANTONY         When I did make thee free, swor’st thou not then To do this when I bade thee? Do it at once, Or thy precedent services are all But accidents unpurposed. Draw, and come. EROS   Turn from me then that noble countenance Wherein the worship of the whole world lies. […]

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Eros, do you want to see me humiliated? now’s the time to be so brave (4.15.71-80) #BurningBarge #SlowShakespeare

ANTONY                                 Eros, Wouldst thou be windowed in great Rome and see Thy master thus with pleached arms, bending down His corrigible neck, his face subdued To penetrative shame, whilst the wheeled seat Of fortunate Caesar, drawn before him, branded His baseness that ensued? EROS                                       I would not see’t. ANTONY         Come then; for with a wound […]

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Antony: Eros, you promised! Eros, aghast: I CAN’T! (4.15.62-71) #BurningBarge #SlowShakespeare

ANTONY                                 Thou art sworn, Eros, That when the exigent should come, which now Is come indeed—when I should see behind me Th’inevitable prosecution of Disgrace and horror—that on my command Thou then wouldst kill me. Do’t. The time is come. Thou strik’st not me; ’tis Caesar thou defeat’st. Put colour in thy cheek. EROS                           The […]

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Antony: Cleopatra’s shown me the way, how to die unconquered (4.15.55-62) #BurningBarge #SlowShakespeare

CW: discussion of suicide Enter Eros EROS               What would my lord? ANTONY                                 Since Cleopatra died I have lived in such dishonour that the gods Detest my baseness. I, that with my sword Quartered the world, and o’er green Neptune’s back With ships made cities, condemn myself to lack The courage of a woman; less noble […]

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Unarm me, Eros. And then leave me. Burst now, heart… (4.15.34-43) #BurningBarge #SlowShakespeare

ANTONY                                 Dead, then? MARDIAN                                                       Dead. ANTONY Unarm, Eros. The long day’s task is done, And we must sleep. [To Mardian] That thou depart’st hence safe Does pay thy labour richly. Go.                             Exit Mardian Off, pluck off. The seven-fold shield of Ajax cannot keep […]

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Mardian to Antony: Cleopatra’s dead, died with your name on her lips (4.15.22-34) #BurningBarge #SlowShakespeare

Enter Mardian ANTONY                     O thy vile lady, She has robbed me of my sword! MARDIAN                   No, Antony, My mistress loved thee, and her fortunes mingled With thine entirely. ANTONY                     Hence, saucy eunuch, peace! She hath betrayed me, and shall die the death. MARDIAN       Death of one person can be paid but once, And that she […]

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It’s over; Cleopatra’s utterly betrayed me. But we’re still the masters of our fate… (4.15.15-22) #BurningBarge #SlowShakespeare

ANTONY         I made these wars for Egypt, and the Queen— Whose heart I thought I had, for she had mine, Which whilst it was mine had annexed unto’t A million more, now lost—she, Eros, has Packed cards with Caesar, and false-played my glory Unto an enemy’s triumph. Nay, weep not, gentle Eros. There is left […]

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Eros, my lad: I can’t hold it together any more… (4.15.9-14) #BurningBarge #SlowShakespeare

ANTONY         That which is now a horse even with a thought The rack dislimns, and makes it indistinct As water is in water. EROS                                       It does, my lord. ANTONY         My good knave Eros, now thy captain is Even such a body. Here I am Antony, Yet cannot hold this visible shape, my knave.       (4.15.9-14)   […]

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Antony and Eros, talking about clouds… (4.15.1-8) #BurningBarge #SlowShakespeare

Enter Antony and Eros ANTONY         Eros, thou yet behold’st me? EROS                                       Ay, noble lord. ANTONY         Sometime we see a cloud that’s dragonish, A vapour sometime like a bear or lion, A towered citadel, a pendent rock, A forkèd mountain, or blue promontory With trees upon’t that nod unto the world And mock our eyes with […]

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