Ant. Let him appeare: These strong Egyptian Fetters I must breake, Or loose my selfe in dotage.
Enter another Messenger with a Letter.
What are you?
3.Mes. Fuluia thy wife is dead
Ant. Where dyed she
Mes. In Scicion, her length of sicknesse, With what else more serious, Importeth thee to know, this beares
Antho. Forbeare me There"s a great Spirit gone, thus did I desire it: What our contempts doth often hurle from vs, We wish it ours againe. The present pleasure, By reuolution lowring, does become The opposite of it selfe: she"s good being gon, The hand could plucke her backe, that shou"d her on.
I must from this enchanting Queene breake off, Ten thousand harmes, more then the illes I know My idlenesse doth hatch.
Enter En.o.barbus.
How now En.o.barbus
Eno. What"s your pleasure, Sir?
Anth. I must with haste from hence
Eno. Why then we kill all our Women. We see how mortall an vnkindnesse is to them, if they suffer our departure death"s the word
Ant. I must be gone
Eno. Vnder a compelling an occasion, let women die.
It were pitty to cast them away for nothing, though betweene them and a great cause, they should be esteemed nothing. Cleopatra catching but the least noyse of this, dies instantly: I haue seene her dye twenty times vppon farre poorer moment: I do think there is mettle in death, which commits some louing acte vpon her, she hath such a celerity in dying
Ant. She is cunning past mans thought
Eno. Alacke Sir no, her pa.s.sions are made of nothing but the finest part of pure Loue. We cannot cal her winds and waters, sighes and teares: They are greater stormes and Tempests then Almanackes can report. This cannot be cunning in her; if it be, she makes a showre of Raine as well as Ioue
Ant. Would I had neuer seene her
Eno. Oh sir, you had then left vnseene a wonderfull peece of worke, which not to haue beene blest withall, would haue discredited your Trauaile
Ant. Fuluia is dead
Eno. Sir
Ant. Fuluia is dead
Eno. Fuluia?
Ant. Dead
Eno. Why sir, giue the G.o.ds a thankefull Sacrifice: when it pleaseth their Deities to take the wife of a man from him, it shewes to man the Tailors of the earth: comforting therein, that when olde Robes are worne out, there are members to make new. If there were no more Women but Fuluia, then had you indeede a cut, and the case to be lamented: This greefe is crown"d with Consolation, your old Smocke brings foorth a new Petticoate, and indeed the teares liue in an Onion, that should water this sorrow
Ant. The businesse she hath broached in the State, Cannot endure my absence
Eno. And the businesse you haue broach"d heere cannot be without you, especially that of Cleopatra"s, which wholly depends on your abode
Ant. No more light Answeres: Let our Officers Haue notice what we purpose. I shall breake The cause of our Expedience to the Queene, And get her loue to part. For not alone The death of Fuluia, with more vrgent touches Do strongly speake to vs: but the Letters too Of many our contriuing Friends in Rome, Pet.i.tion vs at home. s.e.xtus Pompeius Haue giuen the dare to Caesar, and commands The Empire of the Sea. Our slippery people, Whose Loue is neuer link"d to the deseruer, Till his deserts are past, begin to throw Pompey the great, and all his Dignities Vpon his Sonne, who high in Name and Power, Higher then both in Blood and Life, stands vp For the maine Souldier. Whose quality going on, The sides o"th" world may danger. Much is breeding,
Which like the Coursers heire, hath yet but life, And not a Serpents poyson. Say our pleasure, To such whose places vnder vs, require Our quicke remoue from hence
En.o.b. I shall doo"t.
Enter Cleopatra, Charmian, Alexas, and Iras.
Cleo. Where is he?
Char. I did not see him since
Cleo. See where he is, Whose with him, what he does: I did not send you. If you finde him sad, Say I am dauncing: if in Myrth, report That I am sodaine sicke. Quicke, and returne
Char. Madam, me thinkes if you did loue him deerly, You do not hold the method, to enforce The like from him
Cleo. What should I do, I do not?
Ch. In each thing giue him way, crosse him in nothing
Cleo. Thou teachest like a foole: the way to lose him
Char. Tempt him not so too farre. I wish forbeare, In time we hate that which we often feare.
Enter Anthony.
But heere comes Anthony
Cleo. I am sicke, and sullen
An. I am sorry to giue breathing to my purpose
Cleo. Helpe me away deere Charmian, I shall fall, It cannot be thus long, the sides of Nature Will not sustaine it
Ant. Now my deerest Queene
Cleo. Pray you stand farther from mee
Ant. What"s the matter?
Cleo. I know by that same eye ther"s some good news.
What sayes the married woman you may goe?
Would she had neuer giuen you leaue to come.
Let her not say "tis I that keepe you heere, I haue no power vpon you: Hers you are
Ant. The G.o.ds best know
Cleo. Oh neuer was there Queene So mightily betrayed: yet at the first I saw the Treasons planted
Ant. Cleopatra
Cleo. Why should I thinke you can be mine, & true, (Though you in swearing shake the Throaned G.o.ds) Who haue beene false to Fuluia?
Riotous madnesse, To be entangled with those mouth-made vowes, Which breake themselues in swearing
Ant. Most sweet Queene