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Alexandria. A Room in the Palace.
(Enter Cleopatra, Charmian, Iras, and Mardian.)
Cleopatra: Charmian,
Charmian: Madam?
Cleopatra: Ha, ha! /Give me to drink mandragora.
Charmian: Why, madam?
Cleopatra: That I might sleep out this great gap of time /My Antony is away.
Charmian: You think of him too much.
Cleopatra: O, 'tis treason!
Charmian: Madam, I trust, not so.
Cleopatra: Thou, eunuch Mardian!
Mardian: What's your highness' pleasure?
Cleopatra: Not now to hear thee sing; I take no pleasure /In aught an eunuch has; 'tis well for thee /That, being unseminar'd, thy freer thoughts /May not fly forth of Egypt. Hast thou affections?
Mardian: Yes, gracious madam.
Cleopatra: Indeed!
Mardian: Not in deed, madam; for I can do nothing /But what indeed is honest to be done: /Yet have I fierce affections, and think /What Venus did with Mars.
Cleopatra: O Charmian, /Where think'st thou he is now? Stands he or sits he? /Or does he walk? or is he on his horse? /O happy horse, to bear the weight of Antony! /Do bravely, horse! for wott'st thou whom thou mov'st? /The demi-Atlas of this earth, the arm /And burgonet of men. He's speaking now, /Or murmuring 'Where's my serpent of old Nile?' /For so he calls me. Now I feed myself /With most delicious poison: think on me, /That am with Phoebus' amorous pinches black, /And wrinkled deep in time? Broad-fronted Caesar, /When thou wast here above the ground I was /A morsel for a monarch: and great Pompey /Would stand and make his eyes grow in my brow; /There would he anchor his aspect and die /With looking on his life.
(Enter Alexas.)
Alexas: Sovereign of Egypt, hail!
Cleopatra: How much unlike art thou Mark Antony! /Yet, coming from him, that great medicine hath /With his tinct gilded thee. /How goes it with my brave Mark Antony?
Alexas: Last thing he did, dear queen, /He kiss'd, the last of many doubled kisses, /This orient pearl: his speech sticks in my heart.
Cleopatra: Mine ear must pluck it thence.
Alexas: 'Good friend,' quoth he /’say, the firm Roman to great Egypt sends /This treasure of an oyster; at whose foot, /To mend the petty present, I will piece /Her opulent throne with kingdoms; all the east, /Say thou, shall call her mistress.' So he nodded, /And soberly did mount an arm-girt steed, /Who neigh'd so high that what I would have spoke /Was beastly dumb'd by him.
Cleopatra: What, was he sad or merry?
Alexas: Like to the time o' the year between the extremes /Of hot and cold, he was nor sad nor merry.
Cleopatra: O well-divided disposition! Note him, /Note him, good Charmian; 'tis the man; but note him: /He was not sad, for he would shine on those /That make their looks by his; he was not merry, /Which seem'd to tell them his remembrance lay /In Egypt with his joy; but between both: /O heavenly mingle! Be'st thou sad or merry, /The violence of either thee becomes, /So does it no man else. Mett'st thou my posts?
Alexas: Ay, madam, twenty several messengers. /Why do you send so thick?
Cleopatra: Who's born that day /When I forget to send to Antony /Shall die a beggar.Ink and paper, Charmian. /Welcome, my good Alexas. Did I, Charmian, /Ever love Caesar so?
Charmian: O that brave Caesar!
Cleopatra: Be chok'd with such another emphasis! /Say 'the brave Antony.'
Charmian: The valiant Caesar!
Cleopatra: By Isis, I will give thee bloody teeth /If thou with Caesar paragon again /My man of men.
Charmian: By your most gracious pardon, /I sing but after you.
Cleopatra: My salad days, /When I was green in judgment: cold in blood, /To say as I said then!But come, away; /Get me ink and paper: he shall have every day /A several greeting, /Or I'll unpeople Egypt.
(Exeunt.)
Go to: Next scene (Act 2, Scene 1), or Antony and Cleopatra Table of Contents, where you can also read the CLASSICS REVITALIZED paraphrase of this scene
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