| [Enter CLEOPATRA, CHARMIAN, IRAS, and MARDIAN] | |
| CLEOPATRA | Charmian! |
| CHARMIAN | Madam? |
| CLEOPATRA | Ha, ha! Give me to drink mandragora. |
| CHARMIAN | Why, madam? |
| CLEOPATRA | That I might sleep out this great gap of time My Antony is away. |
| CHARMIAN | You think of him too much. |
| CLEOPATRA | O, 'tis treason! |
| CHARMIAN | Madam, I trust, not so. |
| CLEOPATRA | Thou, eunuch Mardian! |
| MARDIAN | What's your highness' pleasure? |
| CLEOPATRA | Not now to hear thee sing; I take no pleasure In aught an eunuch has: 'tis well for thee, That, being unseminar'd, thy freer thoughts May not fly forth of Egypt. Hast thou affections? |
| MARDIAN | Yes, gracious madam. |
| CLEOPATRA | Indeed! |
| MARDIAN | Not in deed, madam; for I can do nothing But what indeed is honest to be done: Yet have I fierce affections, and think What Venus did with Mars. |
| CLEOPATRA | O Charmian, Where think'st thou he is now? Stands he, or sits he? Or does he walk? or is he on his horse? O happy horse, to bear the weight of Antony! Do bravely, horse! for wot'st thou whom thou movest? The demi-Atlas of this earth, the arm And burgonet of men. He's speaking now, Or murmuring 'Where's my serpent of old Nile?' For so he calls me: now I feed myself With most delicious poison. Think on me, That am with Phoebus' amorous pinches black, And wrinkled deep in time? Broad-fronted Caesar, When thou wast here above the ground, I was A morsel for a monarch: and great Pompey Would stand and make his eyes grow in my brow; There would he anchor his aspect and die With looking on his life. |
| [Enter ALEXAS, from OCTAVIUS CAESAR] | |
| ALEXAS | Sovereign of Egypt, hail! |
| CLEOPATRA | How much unlike art thou Mark Antony! Yet, coming from him, that great medicine hath With his tinct gilded thee. How goes it with my brave Mark Antony? |
| ALEXAS | Last thing he did, dear queen, He kiss'd,--the last of many doubled kisses,-- This orient pearl. His speech sticks in my heart. |
| CLEOPATRA | Mine ear must pluck it thence. |
| ALEXAS | 'Good friend,' quoth he, 'Say, the firm Roman to great Egypt sends This treasure of an oyster; at whose foot, To mend the petty present, I will piece Her opulent throne with kingdoms; all the east, Say thou, shall call her mistress.' So he nodded, And soberly did mount an arm-gaunt steed, Who neigh'd so high, that what I would have spoke Was beastly dumb'd by him. |
| CLEOPATRA | What, was he sad or merry? |
| ALEXAS | Like to the time o' the year between the extremes Of hot and cold, he was nor sad nor merry. |
| CLEOPATRA | O well-divided disposition! Note him, Note him good Charmian, 'tis the man; but note him: He was not sad, for he would shine on those That make their looks by his; he was not merry, Which seem'd to tell them his remembrance lay In Egypt with his joy; but between both: O heavenly mingle! Be'st thou sad or merry, The violence of either thee becomes, So does it no man else. Met'st thou my posts? |
| ALEXAS | Ay, madam, twenty several messengers: Why do you send so thick? |
| CLEOPATRA | Who's born that day When I forget to send to Antony, Shall die a beggar. Ink and paper, Charmian. Welcome, my good Alexas. Did I, Charmian, Ever love Caesar so? |
| CHARMIAN | O that brave Caesar! |
| CLEOPATRA | Be choked with such another emphasis! Say, the brave Antony. |
| CHARMIAN | The valiant Caesar! |
| CLEOPATRA | By Isis, I will give thee bloody teeth, If thou with Caesar paragon again My man of men. |
| CHARMIAN | By your most gracious pardon, I sing but after you. |
| CLEOPATRA | My salad days, When I was green in judgment: cold in blood, To say as I said then! But, come, away; Get me ink and paper: He shall have every day a several greeting, Or I'll unpeople Egypt. |
| [Exeunt] |