Antony and Cleopatra E-Book

William Shakespeare

• Herausgeber: Sovereign
• Kategorie: Poesie und Drama
• Serie: Timeless Classic
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 135

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2015

Beschreibung

The tragedy is set in Rome and Egypt, characterised by swift, panoramic shifts in geographical locations and in registers. The story follows the relationship between Cleopatra and Mark Antony from the time of the Sicilian revolt to Cleopatra's suicide during the Final War of the Roman Republic. The major antagonist is Octavius Caesar, one of Antony's fellow triumviri of the Second Triumvirate and the first emperor of the Roman Empire.

Leseprobe

William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare

Antony and Cleopatra

LONDON ∙ NEW YORK ∙ TORONTO ∙ SAO PAULO ∙ MOSCOW

PARIS ∙ MADRID ∙ BERLIN ∙ ROME ∙ MEXICO CITY ∙ MUMBAI ∙ SEOUL ∙ DOHA

TOKYO ∙ SYDNEY ∙ CAPE TOWN ∙ AUCKLAND ∙ BEIJING

New Edition

Published by Sovereign Classic

www.sovereignclassic.net

This Edition

First published in 2015

Copyright © 2015 Sovereign Classic

Contents

DRAMATIS PERSONAE

ACT I

ACT II

ACT III

ACT IV

ACT V

DRAMATIS PERSONAE

MARK ANTONY, Triumvirs

OCTAVIUS CAESAR,

M. AEMILIUS LEPIDUS,

SEXTUS POMPEIUS,

DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS, friend to Antony

VENTIDIUS,

EROS,

SCARUS,

DERCETAS,

DEMETRIUS,

PHILO,

MAECENAS, friend to Caesar

AGRIPPA,

DOLABELLA,

PROCULEIUS,

THYREUS,

GALLUS,

MENAS, friend to Pompey

MENECRATES,

VARRIUS,

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,

SELEUCUS,

DIOMEDES,

A SOOTHSAYER

A CLOWN

CLEOPATRA, Queen of Egypt

OCTAVIA, sister to Caesar and wife to Antony

CHARMIAN, lady attending on Cleopatra

IRAS,

Officers, Soldiers, Messengers, and Attendants

SCENE: 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’sO’erflows the measure: those his goodly eyes,That o’er the files and musters of the warHave glow’d like plated Mars, now bend, now turn,The office and devotion of their viewUpon a tawny front: his captain’s heart,Which in the scuffles of great fights hath burstThe buckles on his breast, reneges all temper,And is become the bellows and the fanTo cool a gipsy’s lust.

Flourish. Enter ANTONY, CLEOPATRA, her Ladies, the Train, with Eunuchs fanning her

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

CLEOPATRA

If it be love indeed, tell me how much.

MARK ANTONY

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

CLEOPATRA

I’ll set a bourn how far to be beloved.

MARK ANTONY

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

Enter an Attendant

Attendant

News, my good lord, from Rome.

MARK ANTONY

Grates me: the sum.

CLEOPATRA

Nay, hear them, Antony:Fulvia perchance is angry; or, who knowsIf the scarce-bearded Caesar have not sentHis powerful mandate to you, ‘Do this, or this;Take in that kingdom, and enfranchise that;Perform ‘t, or else we damn thee.’

MARK ANTONY

How, my love!

CLEOPATRA

Perchance! nay, and most like:You must not stay here longer, your dismissionIs come from Caesar; therefore hear it, Antony.Where’s Fulvia’s process? Caesar’s I would say? both?Call in the messengers. As I am Egypt’s queen,Thou blushest, Antony; and that blood of thineIs Caesar’s homager: else so thy cheek pays shameWhen shrill-tongued Fulvia scolds. The messengers!

MARK ANTONY

Let Rome in Tiber melt, and the wide archOf the ranged empire fall! Here is my space.Kingdoms are clay: our dungy earth alikeFeeds beast as man: the nobleness of lifeIs to do thus; when such a mutual pair

Embracing

And such a twain can do’t, in which I bind,On pain of punishment, the world to weetWe stand up peerless.

CLEOPATRA

Excellent falsehood!Why did he marry Fulvia, and not love her?I’ll seem the fool I am not; AntonyWill be himself.

MARK ANTONY

But stirr’d by Cleopatra.Now, for the love of Love and her soft hours,Let’s not confound the time with conference harsh:There’s not a minute of our lives should stretchWithout some pleasure now. What sport tonight?

CLEOPATRA

Hear the ambassadors.

MARK ANTONY

Fie, wrangling queen!Whom every thing becomes, to chide, to laugh,To weep; whose every passion fully strivesTo make itself, in thee, fair and admired!No messenger, but thine; and all aloneTo-night we’ll wander through the streets and noteThe qualities of people. Come, my queen;Last night you did desire it: speak not to us.

Exeunt MARK ANTONY and CLEOPATRA with their train

DEMETRIUS

Is Caesar with Antonius prized so slight?

PHILO

Sir, sometimes, when he is not Antony,He comes too short of that great propertyWhich still should go with Antony.

DEMETRIUS

I am full sorryThat he approves the common liar, whoThus speaks of him at Rome: but I will hopeOf better deeds to-morrow. Rest you happy!

Exeunt

SCENE II. THE SAME. ANOTHER ROOM.

Enter CHARMIAN, IRAS, ALEXAS, and a Soothsayer

CHARMIAN

Lord Alexas, sweet Alexas, most any thing Alexas,almost most absolute Alexas, where’s the soothsayerthat you praised so to the queen? O, that I knewthis husband, which, you say, must charge his hornswith garlands!

ALEXAS

Soothsayer!

Soothsayer

Your will?

CHARMIAN

Is this the man? Is’t you, sir, that know things?

Soothsayer

In nature’s infinite book of secrecyA little I can read.

ALEXAS

Show him your hand.

Enter DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS

DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS

Bring in the banquet quickly; wine enoughCleopatra’s health to drink.

CHARMIAN

Good sir, give me good fortune.

Soothsayer

I make not, but foresee.

CHARMIAN

Pray, then, foresee me one.

Soothsayer

You shall be yet far fairer than you are.

CHARMIAN

He means in flesh.

IRAS

No, you shall paint when you are old.

CHARMIAN

Wrinkles forbid!

ALEXAS

Vex not his prescience; be attentive.

CHARMIAN

Hush!

Soothsayer

You shall be more beloving than beloved.

CHARMIAN

I had rather heat my liver with drinking.

ALEXAS

Nay, hear him.

CHARMIAN

Good now, some excellent fortune! Let me be marriedto three kings in a forenoon, and widow them all:let me have a child at fifty, to whom Herod of Jewrymay do homage: find me to marry me with OctaviusCaesar, and companion me with my mistress.

Soothsayer

You shall outlive the lady whom you serve.

CHARMIAN

O excellent! I love long life better than figs.

Soothsayer

You have seen and proved a fairer former fortuneThan that which is to approach.

CHARMIAN

Then belike my children shall have no names:prithee, how many boys and wenches must I have?

Soothsayer

If every of your wishes had a womb.And fertile every wish, a million.

CHARMIAN

Out, fool! I forgive thee for a witch.

ALEXAS

You think none but your sheets are privy to your wishes.

CHARMIAN

Nay, come, tell Iras hers.

ALEXAS

We’ll know all our fortunes.

DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS

Mine, and most of our fortunes, to-night, shallbe--drunk to bed.

IRAS

There’s a palm presages chastity, if nothing else.

CHARMIAN

E’en as the o’erflowing Nilus presageth famine.

IRAS

Go, you wild bedfellow, you cannot soothsay.

CHARMIAN

Nay, if an oily palm be not a fruitfulprognostication, I cannot scratch mine ear. Prithee,tell her but a worky-day fortune.

Soothsayer

Your fortunes are alike.

IRAS

But how, but how? give me particulars.

Soothsayer

I have said.

IRAS

Am I not an inch of fortune better than she?

CHARMIAN

Well, if you were but an inch of fortune better thanI, where would you choose it?

IRAS

Not in my husband’s nose.

CHARMIAN

Our worser thoughts heavens mend! Alexas,--come,his fortune, his fortune! O, let him marry a womanthat cannot go, sweet Isis, I beseech thee! and lether die too, and give him a worse! and let worstfollow worse, till the worst of all follow himlaughing to his grave, fifty-fold a cuckold! GoodIsis, hear me this prayer, though thou deny me amatter of more weight; good Isis, I beseech thee!

IRAS

Amen. Dear goddess, hear that prayer of the people!for, as it is a heartbreaking to see a handsome manloose-wived, so it is a deadly sorrow to behold afoul knave uncuckolded: therefore, dear Isis, keepdecorum, and fortune him accordingly!

CHARMIAN

Amen.

ALEXAS

Lo, now, if it lay in their hands to make me acuckold, they would make themselves whores, butthey’ld do’t!

DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS

Hush! here comes Antony.

CHARMIAN

Not he; the queen.

Enter CLEOPATRA

CLEOPATRA

Saw you my lord?

DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS

No, lady.

CLEOPATRA

Was he not here?

CHARMIAN

No, madam.

CLEOPATRA

He was disposed to mirth; but on the suddenA Roman thought hath struck him. Enobarbus!

DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS

Madam?

CLEOPATRA

Seek him, and bring him hither.Where’s Alexas?

ALEXAS

Here, at your service. My lord approaches.

CLEOPATRA

We will not look upon him: go with us.

Exeunt

Enter MARK ANTONY with a Messenger and Attendants

Messenger

Fulvia thy wife first came into the field.

MARK ANTONY

Against my brother Lucius?

Messenger

Ay:But soon that war had end, and the time’s stateMade friends of them, joining their force ‘gainst Caesar;Whose better issue in the war, from Italy,Upon the first encounter, drave them.

MARK ANTONY

Well, what worst?

Messenger

The nature of bad news infects the teller.

MARK ANTONY

When it concerns the fool or coward. On:Things that are past are done with me. ‘Tis thus:Who tells me true, though in his tale lie death,I hear him as he flatter’d.

Messenger

Labienus--This is stiff news--hath, with his Parthian force,Extended Asia from Euphrates;His conquering banner shook from SyriaTo Lydia and to Ionia; Whilst--

MARK ANTONY

Antony, thou wouldst say,--

Messenger

O, my lord!

MARK ANTONY

Speak to me home, mince not the general tongue:Name Cleopatra as she is call’d in Rome;Rail thou in Fulvia’s phrase; and taunt my faultsWith such full licence as both truth and maliceHave power to utter. O, then we bring forth weeds,When our quick minds lie still; and our ills told usIs as our earing. Fare thee well awhile.

Messenger

At your noble pleasure.

Exit

MARK ANTONY

From Sicyon, ho, the news! Speak there!

First Attendant

The man from Sicyon,--is there such an one?

Second Attendant

He stays upon your will.

MARK ANTONY

Let him appear.These strong Egyptian fetters I must break,Or lose myself in dotage.

Enter another Messenger

What are you?

Second Messenger

Fulvia thy wife is dead.

MARK ANTONY

Where died she?

Second Messenger

In Sicyon:Her length of sickness, with what else more seriousImporteth thee to know, this bears.

Gives a letter

MARK ANTONY

Forbear me.

Exit Second Messenger

There’s a great spirit gone! Thus did I desire it:What our contempt doth often hurl from us,We wish it ours again; the present pleasure,By revolution lowering, does becomeThe opposite of itself: she’s good, being gone;The hand could pluck her back that shoved her on.I must from this enchanting queen break off:Ten thousand harms, more than the ills I know,My idleness doth hatch. How now! Enobarbus!

Re-enter DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS

DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS

What’s your pleasure, sir?

MARK ANTONY

I must with haste from hence.

DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS

Why, then, we kill all our women:we see how mortal an unkindness is to them;if they suffer our departure, death’s the word.

MARK ANTONY

I must be gone.

DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS

Under a compelling occasion, let women die; it werepity to cast them away for nothing; though, betweenthem and a great cause, they should be esteemednothing. Cleopatra, catching but the least noise ofthis, dies instantly; I have seen her die twentytimes upon far poorer moment: I do think there ismettle in death, which commits some loving act uponher, she hath such a celerity in dying.

MARK ANTONY

She is cunning past man’s thought.

Exit ALEXAS

DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS

Alack, sir, no; her passions are made of nothing butthe finest part of pure love: we cannot call herwinds and waters sighs and tears; they are greaterstorms and tempests than almanacs can report: thiscannot be cunning in her; if it be, she makes ashower of rain as well as Jove.

MARK ANTONY

Would I had never seen her.

DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS

O, sir, you had then left unseen a wonderful pieceof work; which not to have been blest withal wouldhave discredited your travel.

MARK ANTONY

Fulvia is dead.

DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS

Sir?

MARK ANTONY

Fulvia is dead.

DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS

Fulvia!

MARK ANTONY

Dead.

DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS

Why, sir, give the gods a thankful sacrifice. Whenit pleaseth their deities to take the wife of a manfrom him, it shows to man the tailors of the earth;comforting therein, that when old robes are wornout, there are members to make new. If there wereno more women but Fulvia, then had you indeed a cut,and the case to be lamented: this grief is crownedwith consolation; your old smock brings forth a newpetticoat: and indeed the tears live in an onionthat should water this sorrow.

MARK ANTONY

The business she hath broached in the stateCannot endure my absence.

DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS

And the business you have broached here cannot bewithout you; especially that of Cleopatra’s, whichwholly depends on your abode.

MARK ANTONY

No more light answers. Let our officersHave notice what we purpose. I shall breakThe cause of our expedience to the queen,And get her leave to part. For not aloneThe death of Fulvia, with more urgent touches,Do strongly speak to us; but the letters tooOf many our contriving friends in RomePetition us at home: Sextus PompeiusHath given the dare to Caesar, and commandsThe empire of the sea: our slippery people,Whose love is never link’d to the deserverTill his deserts are past, begin to throwPompey the Great and all his dignitiesUpon his son; who, high in name and power,Higher than both in blood and life, stands upFor the main soldier: whose quality, going on,The sides o’ the world may danger: much is breeding,Which, like the courser’s hair, hath yet but life,And not a serpent’s poison. Say, our pleasure,To such whose place is under us, requiresOur quick remove from hence.

DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS

I shall do’t.

Exeunt

SCENE III. THE SAME. ANOTHER ROOM.

Enter CLEOPATRA, CHARMIAN, IRAS, and ALEXAS

CLEOPATRA

Where is he?

CHARMIAN

I did not see him since.

CLEOPATRA

See where he is, who’s with him, what he does:I did not send you: if you find him sad,Say I am dancing; if in mirth, reportThat I am sudden sick: quick, and return.

Exit ALEXAS

CHARMIAN

Madam, methinks, if you did love him dearly,You do not hold the method to enforceThe like from him.

CLEOPATRA

What should I do, I do not?

CHARMIAN

In each thing give him way, cross him nothing.

CLEOPATRA

Thou teachest like a fool; the way to lose him.

CHARMIAN

Tempt him not so too far; I wish, forbear:In time we hate that which we often fear.But here comes Antony.

Enter MARK ANTONY

CLEOPATRA

I am sick and sullen.

MARK ANTONY

I am sorry to give breathing to my purpose,--

CLEOPATRA

Help me away, dear Charmian; I shall fall:It cannot be thus long, the sides of natureWill not sustain it.

MARK ANTONY

Now, my dearest queen,--

CLEOPATRA

Pray you, stand further from me.

MARK ANTONY

What’s the matter?

CLEOPATRA

I know, by that same eye, there’s some good news.What says the married woman? You may go:Would she had never given you leave to come!Let her not say ‘tis I that keep you here:I have no power upon you; hers you are.

MARK ANTONY

The gods best know,--

CLEOPATRA

O, never was there queenSo mightily betray’d! yet at the firstI saw the treasons planted.

MARK ANTONY

Cleopatra,--

CLEOPATRA

Why should I think you can be mine and true,Though you in swearing shake the throned gods,Who have been false to Fulvia? Riotous madness,To be entangled with those mouth-made vows,Which break themselves in swearing!

MARK ANTONY

Most sweet queen,--

CLEOPATRA

Nay, pray you, seek no colour for your going,But bid farewell, and go: when you sued staying,Then was the time for words: no going then;Eternity was in our lips and eyes,Bliss in our brows’ bent; none our parts so poor,But was a race of heaven: they are so still,Or thou, the greatest soldier of the world,Art turn’d the greatest liar.

MARK ANTONY

How now, lady!

CLEOPATRA

I would I had thy inches; thou shouldst knowThere were a heart in Egypt.

MARK ANTONY

Hear me, queen:The strong necessity of time commandsOur services awhile; but my full heartRemains in use with you. Our ItalyShines o’er with civil swords: Sextus PompeiusMakes his approaches to the port of Rome:Equality of two domestic powersBreed scrupulous faction: the hated, grown to strength,Are newly grown to love: the condemn’d Pompey,