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Dramatis Personae
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/ Home / Library / Complete Shakespeare / Antony and Cleopatra / Act I Scene V
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Antony and Cleopatra: Act 1 Scene 5
Scene V Alexandria. CLEOPATRA's 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 wot'st thou whom thou movest?
- 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, from OCTAVIUS CAESAR]
- 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-gaunt 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. Met'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 choked 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]
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