Antony and Cleopatra Act 5, Scene 1

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Caesar's Camp before Alexandria.  

(Enter Caesar, Agrippa, Dolabella, Maecenas, Gallus, Proculeius, and Others.)

Caesar: Go to him, Dolabella, bid him yield; /Being so frustrate, tell him he mocks /The pauses that he makes.

Dolabella: Caesar, I shall.

(Exit.)

(Enter Dercetas with the sword of Antony.)

Caesar: Wherefore is that? And what art thou that dar'st /Appear thus to us?

Dercetas: I am call'd Dercetas; /Mark Antony I serv'd, who best was worthy /Best to be serv'd: whilst he stood up and spoke, /He was my master, and I wore my life /To spend upon his haters. If thou please /To take me to thee, as I was to him /I'll be to Caesar; if thou pleasest not, /I yield thee up my life.

Caesar: What is't thou say'st?

Dercetas: I say, O Caesar, Antony is dead.

Caesar: The breaking of so great a thing should make /A greater crack: the round world /Should have shook lions into civil streets, /And citizens to their dens. The death of Antony /Is not a single doom; in the name lay /A moiety of the world.

Dercetas: He is dead, Caesar; /Not by a public minister of justice, /Nor by a hired knife; but that self hand /Which writ his honour in the acts it did /Hath, with the courage which the heart did lend it, /Splitted the heart. This is his sword; /I robb'd his wound of it; behold it stain'd /With his most noble blood.

Caesar: Look you sad, friends? /The gods rebuke me, but it is tidings /To wash the eyes of kings.

Agrippa: And strange it is /That nature must compel us to lament /Our most persisted deeds.

Maecenas: His taints and honours /Weigh'd equal with him.

Agrippa: A rarer spirit never /Did steer humanity. But you, gods, will give us /Some faults to make us men. Caesar is touch'd.

Maecenas: When such a spacious mirror's set before him, /He needs must see himself.

Caesar: O Antony! /I have follow'd thee to this! But we do lance /Diseases in our bodies: I must perforce /Have shown to thee such a declining day /Or look on thine; we could not stall together /In the whole world: but yet let me lament, /With tears as sovereign as the blood of hearts, /That thou, my brother, my competitor /In top of all design, my mate in empire, /Friend and companion in the front of war, /The arm of mine own body, and the heart /Where mine his thoughts did kindle, that our stars, /Unreconciliable, should divide /Our equalness to this. Hear me, good friends, /But I will tell you at some meeter season.

(Enter a Messenger.)

The business of this man looks out of him; /We'll hear him what he says.Whence are you?

Messenger: A poor Egyptian yet. The queen, my mistress, /Confin'd in all she has, her monument, /Of thy intents desires instruction, /That she preparedly may frame herself /To the way she's forc'd to.

Caesar: Bid her have good heart: /She soon shall know of us, by some of ours, /How honourable and how kindly we /Determine for her; for Caesar cannot learn /To be ungentle.

Messenger: So the gods preserve thee!

(Exit.)

Caesar: Come hither, Proculeius. Go and say /We purpose her no shame: give her what comforts /The quality of her passion shall require /Lest, in her greatness, by some mortal stroke /She do defeat us; for her life in Rome /Would be eternal in our triumph: go, /And with your speediest bring us what she says, /And how you find her.

Proculeius: Caesar, I shall.

(Exit.)

Caesar: Gallus, go you along./(Exit Gallus.)/Where's Dolabella, to second Proculeius?

All: Dolabella!

Caesar: Let him alone, for I remember now /How he's employ'd; he shall in time be ready. /Go with me to my tent; where you shall see /How hardly I was drawn into this war; /How calm and gentle I proceeded still /In all my writings: go with me, and see /What I can show in this.

(Exeunt.)

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