Faculty of English

DEMETRIUS               Is Caesar with Antonius prized so slight? PHILO Sir, sometimes when he is not Antony He comes too short of that great property Which still should go with Antony. DEMETRIUS               I am full sorry That he approves the common liar who Thus speaks of him at Rome; but I will hope Of better deeds […]

ANTONY                     Fie, wrangling queen, Whom everything becomes—to chide, to laugh, To weep; how every passion fully strives To make itself, in thee, fair and admired! No messenger but thine; and all alone Tonight we’ll wander through the streets and note The qualities of people. Come, my queen. Last night you did desire it. [To Messenger] Speak not […]

CLEOPATRA   Excellent falsehood! Why did he marry Fulvia and not love her? I’ll seem the fool I am not. Antony Will be himself. ANTONY                     But stirred by Cleopatra. Now, for the love of Love and her soft hours Let’s not confound the time with conference harsh. There’s not a minute of our lives should stretch […]

ANTONY         Let Rome in Tiber melt, and the wide arch Of the ranged empire fall. Here is my space. Kingdoms are clay. Our dungy earth alike Feeds beast as man. The nobleness of life Is to do thus; when such a mutual pair And such a twain can do’t—in which I bind On pain of […]

ANTONY                                 How, my love? CLEOPATRA   Perchance? Nay, and most like. You must not stay here longer. Your dismission Is come from Caesar, therefore hear it, Antony. Where’s Fulvia’s process—Caesar’s, I would say—both? Call in the messengers. As I am Egypt’s queen, Thou blushest, Antony, and that blood of thine Is Caesar’s homager; else so thy […]

Enter a Messenger MESSENGER  News, my good Lord, from Rome. ANTONY         Grates me—the sum. CLEOPATRA               Nay, hear them, Antony. Fulvia perchance is angry; or who knows If the scarce-bearded Caesar have not sent His powerful mandate to you: ‘Do this, or this, Take in that kingdom, and enfranchise that. Perform’t, or else we damn thee.’   […]

CLEOPATRA   [to Antony] If it be love indeed, tell me how much. ANTONY         There’s beggary in the love that can be reckoned. CLEOPATRA   I’ll set a bourn how far to be beloved. ANTONY         Then must thou needs find out new heaven, new earth. (1.1.14-17)   Despite the train, the women, the eunuchs, and the two censorious […]

PHILO             Look where they come. Take but good note, and you shall see in him The triple pillar of the world transformed Into a strumpet’s fool. Behold and see.      (1.1.10-13) Look, note, see, behold: this is spectacle, and of a complex kind, because Philo wants to disparage what’s going on (although actually he’s fascinated, he […]

PHILO                         His captain’s heart, Which in the scuffles of great fights hath burst The buckles on his breast, reneges all temper, And is become the bellows and the fan To cool a gipsy’s lust. Flourish. Enter Antony, Cleopatra, her ladies [Charmian and Iras], the train, with eunuchs fanning her.   (1.1.6-10SD) Philo continues his dismayed? […]

Enter Demetrius and Philo PHILO Nay, but this dotage of our General’s O’erflows the measure. Those his goodly eyes, That o’er the files and musters of the war Have glowed like plated Mars, now bend, now turn The office and devotion of their view Upon a tawny front.              (1.1.1-6)   Starting like this – with […]