SCENE II.
Enter Enobarbus, Charmian, Iras, Alexas, and a Sooth-sayer.
Char.
Alexas, sweet Alexas, most any thing Alexas,
almost most absolute Alexas, where's the Sooth-sayer
that you prais'd so to th' Queen? 7 noteOh! that I knew
this husband, which you say, must charge his horns
with garlands.
Alex.
Soothsayer,—
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.
Alex.
Shew him your hand.
Eno.
Bring in the banquet quickly: wine enough,
Cleopatra's health to drink.
Char.
Good Sir, give me good fortune.
Sooth.
I make not, but foresee.
-- 101 --
Char.
Pray then, foresee me one.
Sooth.
You shall be yet far fairer than you are.
Char.
He means, in flesh.
Iras.
No, you shall paint when you are old.
Char.
Wrinkles forbid!
Alex.
Vex not his prescience, be attentive.
Char.
Hush!
Sooth.
You shall be more beloving, than beloved.
Char.
I had rather heat my liver with drinking.
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 Octavius Cæsar, and companion me with my
mistress.
Sooth.
You shall out-live the Lady whom you serve.
8 noteChar.
Oh, excellent! I love long life better than figs.
Sooth.
You have seen, and proved, a fairer former
fortune, than that which is to approach.
Char.
9 noteThen, belike, my children shall have no names;
-- 102 --
Pr'ythee, how many boys and wenches must I have?
Sooth.
1 note
If every of your wishes had a womb,
And fertil every wish, a million.
Char.
Out, fool! I forgive thee for a witch.
Alex.
You think, none but your sheets are privy to
your wishes.
Char.
Nay, come, tell Iras hers.—
Alex.
We'll know all our fortunes.
Eno.
Mine, and most of our fortunes to night, shall
be to go drunk to bed.
Iras.
There's a palm presages chastity, if nothing
else.
Char.
Ev'n as the o'erflowing Nilus 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. Pr'ythee, tell
her but a workyday fortune.
Sooth.
Your fortunes are alike.
Iras.
But how, but how?—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 chuse it?
Iras.
Not in my Husband's nose.
Char.
Our worser thoughts heav'ns mend! Alexas,
—Come, 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 worst, 'till the worst of all follow
-- 103 --
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
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.
Char.
Amen!
Alex.
Lo, now! if it lay in their hands to make me
a cuckold, they would make themselves whores, but
they'd do't.
Alexander Pope [1747], The works of Shakespear in eight volumes. The Genuine Text (collated with all the former Editions, and then corrected and emended) is here settled: Being restored from the Blunders of the first Editors, and the Interpolations of the two Last: with A Comment and Notes, Critical and Explanatory. By Mr. Pope and Mr. Warburton (Printed for J. and P. Knapton, [and] S. Birt [etc.], London) [word count] [S11301].
