Cha.
&lblank; Alexas, sweet Alexas,
Most any thing Alexas, nay, almost
Most absolute Alexas, where's the soothsayer
That you prais'd so to the queen?

O, that I knew this husband, which, you say,
Must charge ^note his horns14Q1054 with garlands!

Ale.
Soothsayer,—

Soo.
Your will?

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

Soo.
In nature's infinite book of secrecy
A little I can read.

Ale.

Shew him your hand.

Eno.

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

Cha.

Good sir, give me good fortune.

Soo.

I make not, but foresee.

Cha.

Pray then, foresee me one.

Soo.

You shall be yet far fairer than you are.

Cha.

He means, in flesh.

Ira.

No, you shall paint when you are old.

Cha.

Wrinkles forbid!

Ale.

Vex not his prescience, be attentive.

Cha.

Hush!

Soo.

You shall be more beloving, than belov'd.

Cha.

I had rather heat my liver with drinking.

Ale.

Nay, hear him.

Cha.

Good now, some excellent fortune: Let me be marry'd 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 with Octavius Cæsar, and companion me with my mistress.

Soo.

You shall outlive the lady whom you serve.

Cha.

O excellent!14Q1055 I love long life better than figs.

Soo.

You have seen and prov'd a fairer former fortune Than that which is to approach.

Cha.

Then, belike, my children shall have no names: Pr'ythee, how many boys and wenches must I have?

Soo.
If every of your wishes had a womb,
And fertil every ^note wish, a million.

Cha.

Out, fool! I forgive thee for a witch.

Ale.

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

Cha.

Nay, come, tell Iras hers.

Ale.

We'll know all our fortunes.

Eno.

Mine, and most of our fortunes, to-night, shall be—drunk to bed.

Ira.

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

Cha.

E'en as the o'er-flowing Nilus presageth famine.

Ira.

Go, you wild bed-fellow, you cannot soothsay.

Cha.

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

Soo.

Your fortunes are alike.

Ira.

But how, but how? give me particulars.

Soo.

I have said.

Ira.

Am I not an inch of fortune better than she?

Cha.

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

Ira.

Not in my husband's nose.

Cha.

Our worser thoughts heavens mend!—Alexas— come,14Q1056 his fortune, his fortune.—O, let him marry a woman that cannot go, sweet Isis, I beseech thee! And let her dye too, and give him a worse! and let worse follow worse, 'till the worse 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!

Ira.

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

Cha.

Amen.

Ale.

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

Eno.
Hush! here comes Antony.

Cha.
Not he, the queen. Enter Cleopatra, attended.

Cle.
Saw you ^note my lord?

Eno.
No, lady.

Cle.
Was he not here?

Cha.
No, madam.

Cle.
He was dispos'd to mirth; but on the sudden
A Roman thought hath strook him.—Enobarbus,—

Eno.
Madam.

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

Ale.
Here, lady, at your service.—My lord approaches. Enter Antony, with a Messenger; Attendants following.

Cle.
We will not look upon him; Go with us. [Exeunt Cleopatra, Enobarbus, Alexas, Iras, Charmian, Soothsayer, and the rest.

Mes.
Fulvia thy wife first came into the field.

Ant.
Against my brother Lucius?

Mes.
Ay: but soon
That war had end, and the time's state made friends

Of them, jointing their forces against ^note Cæsar;
Whose better issue in the war from Italy,
Upon the first encounter, drave them.

Ant.
Well,
What worst?

Mes.
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 lye death,
I hear him as he flatter'd.

Mes.
Labienus
(This is stiff news)14Q1057
Hath with his Parthian force, through extended Asia,
From Eúphrates his conquering banner shook,
From Syria, to Lydia, and Ionia ^note;
Whilst—

Ant.
Antony, thou would'st say,—

Mes.
O my lord!

Ant.
Speak to me home, mince not the general tongue;
Name Cleopatra as she's call'd in Rome:
Rail thou in Fulvia's phrase; and taunt my faults
With such full licence, as both truth and malice
Have power to utter. O, then we bring forth weeds,
When our quick winds lye still;14Q1058 and our ills told us,
Is as our earing. Fare thee well a while.

Mes.
At your noble pleasure. [Exit.

Ant.
From Sicyon how the news? Speak there.

1. A.
The man from Sicyon,—Is there such a one?

2. A.
He stays upon your will.

Ant.
Let him appear.—
These strong Egyptian fetters I must break, Enter another Messenger.

Or lose myself in dotage.—What are you?

Mes.
Fulvia thy wife is dead.

Ant.
Where dy'd she?

Mes.
In Sicyon:
Her length of sickness, with what else more serious
Importeth thee to know, this &dagger2; bears.

Ant.
Forbear me. [Exit Messenger.
There's a great spirit gone: Thus did I desire it:
What our contempts do often ^note hurl from us,
We wish it ours again; the present pleasure,14Q1059
By revolution lowering, does become
The opposite of itself: she's good, being gone;
The hand could pluck her back, that shov'd her on.
I must from this enchanting ^note queen break off;
Ten thousand harms, more than the ills I know,
My idleness doth hatch—Ho! Enobarbus ^note! Enter 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, let women dye: It were pity to cast them away for nothing; though, between them and a great cause, they should be esteem'd nothing. Cleopatra, catching but the least noise of this, dyes instantly; I have seen her dye 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; they are greater storms and tempests than almanacks 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.

Ant.

Fulvia is dead.

Eno.

Sir?

Ant.

Fulvia is dead.

Eno.

Fulvia?

Ant.

Dead.

Eno.

Why, sir, give the gods a thankful sacrifice. When it pleaseth their deities14Q1060 to take the wife of a man from him, it shews to man the tailors of the earth; comforting therein, that, when old robes are worn out, there are members to make new. If there were no more women but Fulvia, then had you indeed a cut, and the case to be lamented: this grief is crown'd with consolation; your old smock brings forth a new petticoat: and, indeed, the tears live 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 broach'd here cannot be without you; especially that of Cleopatra's, which wholly depends on your abode.

Ant.
No more light answers ^note. Let our officers
Have notice what we purpose: I shall break

The cause of our expedience to the queen,
And get her love to ^note part.14Q1061 For not alone
The death of Fulvia, with more urgent touches,
Do strongly speak to us; but the letters too
Of many our contriving friends in Rome
Petition us at home: Sextus Pompeius
Hath given ^note 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,14Q1062 hath yet but life,
And not a serpent's poison. Say, our pleasure,
To such whose place is under us, requires ^note
Our quick remove from hence.

Eno.
I shall do't. [Exeunt.

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