Char.

Lord ^note Alexas, sweet ^note Alexas, most any thing Alexas, almost most ^note absolute Alexas, where's the soothsayer that you praised so ^note to the queen? O, that I knew this husband, which, you say, must charge ^note his horns with ^note garlands! ^{note note}

Alex.

Soothsayer! ^note

Sooth.

Your will?

Char.
Is this the man? Is't you, sir, that know things?

Sooth.
In nature's infinite book of secrecy
A little I can read. ^note

Alex.
Show him your hand. Enter Enobarbus. ^note

Eno. ^note

Bring in the banquet quickly; wine enough Cleopatra's health to drink.

Char.

Good sir, give me good fortune.

Sooth.

I ^note make not, but foresee.

Char.

Pray then, foresee me one.

Sooth.

You shall be yet far fairer than you are.

Char.

He means in flesh. ^note

Iras.

No, you shall paint when you are old ^note.

Char.

Wrinkles forbid!

Alex.

Vex not his prescience ^note; be attentive.

Char.

Hush!

Sooth.

You shall be more beloving than beloved.

Char.

I had rather heat my liver with drinking. ^note

Alex.

Nay, hear him.

Char.

Good now, some excellent fortune! Let me be married to three kings in a forenoon, and widow them all: let me have a child at fifty, to whom Herod of Jewry may do homage: find me to marry me with ^note Octavius Cæsar, and companion me with my mistress.

Sooth.
You shall outlive the lady whom you serve.

Char.
O excellent! I love long life better than figs.

Sooth.
You have seen and proved a fairer former fortune
Than that which is to approach. ^note

Char.

Then belike my children shall have no names: prithee, how many boys and wenches must I have? ^note

Sooth.
If every of your wishes had a womb,
And fertile ^note every wish, a million. ^note

Char.

Out ^note, fool! I forgive thee for a witch.

Alex.

You think none but your sheets are privy to your wishes.

Char.

Nay, come, tell ^note Iras hers. ^note

Alex.

We'll know all our fortunes.

Eno.

Mine and most of our fortunes to-night shall be— ^notedrunk to bed.

Iras.

There's ^note a palm presages chastity, if nothing else.

Char.

E'en as the o'erflowing Nilus ^note presageth famine.

Iras.

Go, you wild bedfellow, you cannot soothsay.

Char.

Nay, if an oily palm be not a fruitful prognostication, I cannot scratch mine ear. Prithee, tell her but a worky-day fortune.

Sooth.

Your fortunes are alike.

Iras.

But how, but how? ^note give me particulars.

Sooth.

I have said.

Iras.

Am I not an inch of fortune better than she?

Char.

Well, if you were but an inch of fortune better than I, where would you choose it?

Iras.

Not in my husband's nose.

Char.

Our worser thoughts heavens mend! Alexas,—

come, ^note his fortune, his fortune! O, let him marry a woman that cannot go, sweet Isis, I beseech thee! and let her die too, and give him a worse! and let worse follow worse, till the worst of all follow him laughing to his grave, fifty-fold a cuckold! Good Isis, hear me this prayer, though thou deny me a matter of more weight; good Isis, I beseech thee!

Iras.

Amen. Dear goddess, hear that prayer of the ^note people! for, as it is a heart-breaking to see a handsome man loose-wived, so it is a deadly sorrow to behold a foul knave uncuckolded: therefore, dear Isis, keep decorum ^note, and fortune him accordingly!

Char. ^note

Amen.

Alex.

Lo, now, if it lay in their hands to make me a cuckold, they would make themselves whores, but they'ld do't!

Eno.
Hush! here comes Antony.

Char.
Not he; the queen. Enter Cleopatra. ^note

Cleo.
Saw you my lord? ^note

Eno.
No, lady.

Cleo.
Was he not here?

Char.
No, madam.

Cleo.
He was disposed to mirth; but on the sudden
A Roman ^note thought hath ^note struck him. Enobarbus! ^{note note}

Eno.
Madam?

Cleo.
Seek him, and bring him hither. Where's Alexas ^note?

Alex.
Here, ^note at your service. My ^note lord approaches. ^note

Cleo.
We will not look upon him: go with us. ^note [Exeunt. ^note Enter Antony with a Messenger and Attendants. ^note

Mess.
Fulvia thy wife first came into the field. ^note

Ant.
Against my brother Lucius? ^note

Mess.
Ay: ^note
But soon that war had end, and the time's state
Made friends of them, jointing their force 'gainst ^note Cæsar, ^note
Whose better issue in the war from Italy ^note
Upon the first encounter drave them.

Ant.
Well, what worst? ^note

Mess.
The nature of bad news infects the teller.

Ant.
When it concerns the fool or coward. On:
Things that are past are done with me. 'Tis thus;
Who tells me true, though in his tale ^note lie death,
I hear him as ^note he flatter'd.

Mess.
Labienus—
This is stiff news—hath with his Parthian force
Extended Asia from Euphrates,
His conquering banner shook from Syria
To Lydia and to Ionia,

Whilst— ^note

Ant.
Antony, thou wouldst say,— ^note

Mess.
O, ^note my lord!

Ant.
Speak to me home, mince not the general tongue:
Name Cleopatra as she is ^note call'd in Rome; ^note
Rail thou in Fulvia's phrase, and taunt my faults
With such full license as both truth and malice
Have power to utter. O, then we bring forth weeds
When our quick minds ^note lie still, and our ills ^note told us
Is as our earing ^note. Fare thee well awhile. ^note

Mess.
At your noble pleasure. [Exit. ^note

Ant.
From Sicyon ^note, ho, the ^note news! Speak there!

First Att. ^note
The man from Sicyon ^note, is there such an ^note one? ^note

Sec. Att. ^note
He stays upon your will.

Ant.
Let him appear.
These strong Egyptian fetters I must break,
Or lose myself in dotage. Enter ^note another Messenger.
What are you?

Sec. Mess. ^note
Fulvia thy wife is dead.

Ant.
Where died she?

Sec. Mess.
In Sicyon:

Her length of sickness, with what else more serious
Importeth thee to know, this bears. ^note [Gives a letter. ^note

Ant.
Forbear me. [Exit Sec. Messenger. ^note
There's a great spirit gone! Thus did I desire ^note it:
What our contempts do ^{note note} often hurl from us, ^note
We wish it ours again; the present pleasure,
By revolution lowering ^note, does become
The opposite of itself: she's good, being gone;
The hand could pluck her back that shoved her on.
I must from this enchanting ^note queen break off:
Ten thousand harms, more than the ills I know,
My idleness doth hatch. How now! ^note Enobarbus! Re-enter ^note Enobarbus.

Eno.

What's your pleasure, sir?

Ant.

I must with haste from hence.

Eno.

Why then we kill all our women. We see how mortal an unkindness is to them; if they suffer our departure, death's the word.

Ant.

I must be gone.

Eno.

Under a compelling occasion ^note let women die: it were pity to cast them away for nothing; though, between them and a great cause, they should be esteemed nothing. Cleopatra, catching but the least noise of this, dies instantly; I have seen her die twenty times upon far poorer moment: I do think there is mettle in death, which commits some loving act upon her, she hath such a celerity ^note in dying.

Ant.

She is cunning past man's thought.

Eno.

Alack, sir, no; her passions are made of nothing but the finest part of pure love: we cannot call her winds and waters sighs and tears ^note; they are greater storms and tempests than almanacs can report: this cannot be cunning in her; if it be, she makes a shower of rain as well as Jove.

Ant.

Would I had never seen her!

Eno.

O, sir, you had then left unseen a wonderful piece of work; which not to have been blest withal would have discredited your travel ^note.

Ant.

Fulvia is dead.

Eno.

Sir? ^note

Ant.

Fulvia is dead.

Eno.

Fulvia! ^note

Ant.

Dead.

Eno.

Why, sir, give the gods a thankful sacrifice. When it pleaseth their deities to take the wife of a man from him, it shows ^note to man ^note the tailors ^note of the earth, comforting ^note therein ^note, that when old robes are worn out there are members ^note to make new. If there were no more women but Fulvia, then had you indeed a cut, and the case ^note to be lamented: this grief is crowned with consolation; your old smock brings forth ^note a new petticoat: and indeed the tears live ^note in an onion that should water this sorrow.

Ant.
The business she hath broached in the state
Cannot endure my absence.

Eno.

And the business you have broached here cannot be ^note without you; especially that of Cleopatra's ^note, which wholly depends on your abode.

Ant.
No more light ^note answers. Let our officers ^note
Have notice what we purpose. I shall break
The cause of our expedience to the queen
And get her leave ^note to part. For not alone
The death of Fulvia, with more urgent touches,
Do ^note strongly speak to us, but the letters too
Of many our contriving friends in Rome
Petition us at home: Sextus Pompeius
Hath ^note given the dare to Cæsar and commands
The empire of the sea: our slippery people,
Whose love is never link'd to the deserver
Till his deserts are past, begin to throw
Pompey the Great and all his dignities
Upon his son; who, high in name and power,
Higher than both in blood and life, stands up
For the main soldier: whose quality, going on,
The sides o' the world may danger. Much is breeding,
Which, like the courser's hair ^note, hath yet but life
And not a serpent's poison. Say, our pleasure,
To such whose place is under us, requires ^note
Our ^note quick remove from hence.

Eno.
I shall ^note do't. ^note [Exeunt.

^note

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