Antony and Cleopatra

ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA

by William Shakespeare




PERSONS REPRESENTED.

M.ANTONY,          Triumvir
OCTAVIUS CAESAR,   Triumvir
M. AEMIL. LEPIDUS, Triumvir
SEXTUS POMPEIUS    Triumvir
DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS, friend to Antony
VENTIDIUS,          friend to Antony
EROS,               friend to Antony
SCARUS,             friend to Antony
DERCETAS,           friend to Antony
DEMETRIUS,          friend to Antony
PHILO,              friend to Antony
MAECENAS,   friend to Caesar
AGRIPPA,    friend to Caesar
DOLABELLA,  friend to Caesar
PROCULEIUS, friend to Caesar
THYREUS,    friend to Caesar
GALLUS,     friend to Caesar
MENAS,        friend to Pompey
MENECRATES,   friend to Pompey
VARRIUS,      friend to Pompey
TAURUS, Lieutenant-General to Caesar
CANIDIUS, Lieutenant-General to Antony
SILIUS, an Officer in Ventidius's army
EUPHRONIUS, an Ambassador from Antony to Caesar
ALEXAS,   attendant on Cleopatra
MARDIAN,  attendant on Cleopatra
SELEUCUS, attendant on Cleopatra
DIOMEDES, attendant on Cleopatra
A SOOTHSAYER
A CLOWN

CLEOPATRA, Queen of Egypt
OCTAVIA,   sister to Caesar and wife to Antony
CHARMIAN,  Attendant on Cleopatra
IRAS,      Attendant on Cleopatra

Officers, Soldiers, Messengers, and other Attendants


SCENE: Dispersed, in several parts of the Roman Empire.


ACT I.

SCENE I. Alexandria. A Room in CLEOPATRA'S palace.

[Enter DEMETRIUS and PHILO.]

PHILO.
Nay, but this dotage of our general's
O'erflows the measure: those his goodly eyes,
That o'er the files and musters of the war
Have glow'd like plated Mars, now bend, now turn,
The office and devotion of their view
Upon a tawny front: his captain's heart,
Which in the scuffles of great fights hath burst
The buckles on his breast, reneges all temper,
And is become the bellows and the fan
To cool a gipsy's lust.

[Flourish within.]

Look where they come:
Take but good note, and you shall see in him
The triple pillar of the world transform'd
Into a strumpet's fool: behold and see.

[Enter ANTONY and CLEOPATRA, with their trains; Eunuchs fanning
her.]

CLEOPATRA.
If it be love indeed, tell me how much.

ANTONY.
There's beggary in the love that can be reckon'd.

CLEOPATRA.
I'll set a bourn how far to be belov'd.

ANTONY.
Then must thou needs find out new heaven, new earth.

[Enter an Attendant.]

ATTENDANT.
News, my good lord, from Rome.

ANTONY.
Grates me:--the sum.

CLEOPATRA.