Page images
PDF
EPUB
[graphic]

Let your Egyptian timbrels play alone, Nor mix effeminate sounds with Roman trumpets. You dare not fight for Antony; go pray, And keep your cowards' holiday in temples. [Exeunt ALEX. SER. Re-enter the Gentleman of MARC ANTONY. 2 Gent. The emperor approaches, and commands,

On pain of death, that none presume to stay. 1 Gent. I dare not disobey him. [Going out with the other. Vent. Well, I dare: But I'll observe him first, unseen, and find Which way his humour drives: the rest I'll ven

[blocks in formation]

Ant. They tell me, 'tis my birth-day; and I'll Where have you learnt that answer? Who am I? keep it

With double pomp of sadness:

'Tis what the day deserves, which gave me breath. Why was I raised the meteor of the world, Hung in the skies, and blazing as I travelled,

Vent. My emperor; the man I love next hea

ven:

If I said more, I think 'twere scarce a sin:
You're all that's good and godlike.
Ant. All that's wretched.

Till all my fires were spent, and then cast down-You will not leave me then?

To be trod out by Cæsar?

Vent. [Aside] On my soul

'Tis mournful, wond'rous mournful!

Ant. Count thy gains

Now, Antony; wouldst thou be born for this?
Glutton of fortune, thy devouring youth
Has starved thy wanting age.

Vent. Aside] How sorrow shakes him!
So, now the tempest tears him up by the roots,
And on the ground extends the noble ruin.
Ant. [Having thrown himself down.] Lie there,
thou shadow of an emperor;

The place, thou pressest on thy mother earth,
Is all thy empire now: now it contains thee;
Some few days hence, and then 'twill be too large,
When thou art contracted in thy narrow urn,
Shrunk to a few cold ashes; then Octavia,
(For Cleopatra will not live to see it)
Octavia then will have thee all her own,
And bear thee in her widowed hand to Cæsar;
Cæsar will weep, the crocodile will weep,
To see his rival of the universe

Lje still and peaceful there, I'll think no more

"Tis somewhat to my humour. Stay, I fancy I'm now turned wild, a commoner of nature; Of all forsaken, and forsaking all,

Live in a shady forest's sylvan scene;

Stretched at my length beneath some blasted oak,

I lean my head upon the mossy bark,
And look just of a piece as I grew from it:
My uncombed locks, matted like misletoe,
Hang o'er my hoary face; a murmuring brook
Runs at my foot-

Vent. 'Twas too presuming

To say I would not; but I dare not leave you;
And 'tis unkind in you to chide me hence
So soon, when I so far have come to see you.
Ant. Now thou hast seen me, art thou satis-
fied?

For, if a friend, thou hast beheld enough,
And, if a foe, too much.

Vent. Look, emperor, this is no common dew:

[Weeping.

I have not wept this forty years, but now
My mother comes afresh into my eyes;
I cannot help her softness.

Ant. By heaven he weeps! Poor good old man, he weeps!

The big round drops course one another down The furrows of his cheeks. Stop them, Ventidius, Or I shall blush to death; they set my shame, That caused them, full before me.

Vent. I'll do my best.

Ant. Sure there's contagion in the tears of friends;

See, I have caught it too. Believe me, 'tis not For my own griefs, but thine-Nay, fatherVent. Emperor.

Ant. Emperor! why that's the style of vic

tory:

[blocks in formation]

карый

[merged small][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][ocr errors][graphic][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][ocr errors][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][ocr errors]
[graphic]
[ocr errors]
[subsumed][merged small][subsumed][merged small][graphic][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed]

You see through love, and that deludes your sight,

As what is straight seems crooked through the

water;

But I, who bear my reason undisturbed,
Can see this Antony, this dreaded man,
A fearful slave, who fain would run away,
And shuns his master's eves; if you pursue him,
My le on't, he still drags a chain along,
That needs must clog his flight.

Cleo. Could I believe thee

Alex. By every circumstance I know he loves. True, he's hard prest by interest and honour; Yet he but doubts and parleys, and casts out Many a long look for succour.

Cleo. He sends word

He fears to see my face.

Alex. And would you more?

Heshows his weakness, who declines the combat;
And you must urge your fortune. Could he speak
More plainly? to my ears the message sounds,
Come to my rescue, Cleopatra, come!
Come, free me from Ventidius, from my tyrant;
See me, and give me a pretence to leave him.'
[A march.
I hear his trumpets. This way he must pass.
Please you retire a while; I'll work him first,
That he may bend more easy.

Cleo. You shall rule me,

But all, I fear, in vain.

[blocks in formation]

Oh! 'tis the coldest youth upon a charge, The most deliberate fighter! if he ventures (As in Illyria once they said he did)

To storm a town, 'tis when he cannot chuse, When all the world have fixed their eyes upon him ;

And then he lives on that for seven years after:
But at a close revenge he never fails.

Vent. I heard you challenged him.
Ant. I did, Ventidius:

What think'st thouwas his answer? 'twas so tame!
-He said, he had more ways than one to die,
I had not.

Vent. Poor!

Ant. He has more ways than one, But he would chuse them all before that one. Vent. He first would chuse an ague or a fever. Ant. No, it must be an ague, not a fever; He has not warmth enough to die by that. Vent. Or old age and a bed.

[merged small][merged small][graphic][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small]

Alex. Great emperor,

In mighty arms renowned above mankind,
But, in soft pity to the oppressed, a god,
This message sends the mournful Cleopatra
To her departing lord.

Vent. Smooth sycophant!

Alex. A thousand wishes, and ten thousand prayers,

Millions of blessings, wait you to the wars;
Millions of sighs and tears she sends you too,
And would have sent

As many embraces to your arms,
As many parting kisses to your lips,
But those, she fears, have wearied you already.
Vent, [Aside.] False crocodile!

Alex. And yet she begs not now, you would not leave her;

That were a wish too mighty for her hopes, And too presuming for her low fortune and your ebbing love;

That were a wish for her most prosperous days, Her blooming beauty, and your growing kindness. Ant. [Aside.] Well, I must man it out-What

would the queen?

Alex. First to these noble warriors, who attend Your daring courage in the chase of fame, (Too daring and too dangerous for her quiet) She humbly recommends all she holds dear, All her own cares and fears,-the care of you. Vent. Yes, witness Actium.

Ant. Let him speak, Ventidius.

Alex. You, when his matchless valour bears him forward

With ardour too heroic on his foes,
Fall down, as she would do, before his feet,
Lie in his way, and stop the paths of death;

« PreviousContinue »