Antony and Cleopatra, with line numbers E-Book

William Shakespeare

• Herausgeber: Seltzer Books
• Kategorie: Poesie und Drama
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2018

Seitenzahl: 138

Beschreibung

The classic tragedy. According to Wikipedia: "Antony and Cleopatra is a tragedy by William Shakespeare. It was first printed in the First Folio of 1623. The plot is based on Thomas North's translation of Plutarch's Life of Markus Antonius and follows the relationship between Cleopatra and Mark Antony from the time of the Parthian War to Cleopatra's suicide. The major antagonist is Octavius Caesar, one of Antony's fellow triumvirs and the future first emperor of Rome. The tragedy is a Roman play characterized by swift, panoramic shifts in geographical locations and in registers, alternating between sensual, imaginative Alexandria and the more pragmatic, austere Rome. Many consider the role of Cleopatra in this play one of the most complex female roles in Shakespeare's work. She is frequently vain and histrionic, provoking an audience almost to scorn; at the same time, Shakespeare's efforts invest both her and Antony with tragic grandeur. These contradictory features have led to famously divided critical responses.["

Leseprobe

Antony And Cleopatra By William Shakespeare

published by Samizdat Express, Orange, CT, USA

established in 1974, offering over 14,000 books

Other tragedies by William Shakespeare:

Coriolanus

Hamlet

Julius Caesar

King Lear

Macbeth

Othello

Romeo and Juliet

Timon of Athens

Titus Andronicus

Troilus and Cressida

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Dramatis Personae

Antony And Cleopatra

Act I

Scene I Alexandria. A room in Cleopatra's palace.

Scene II The same. Another room.

Scene III The same. Another room.

Scene IV Rome. Octavius Caesar's house.

Scene V Alexandria. Cleopatra's palace.

Act II

Scene I Messina. Pompey's house.

Scene II Rome. The house of Lepidus.

Scene III The same. Octavius Caesar's house.

Scene IV The same. A street.

Scene V Alexandria. Cleopatra's palace.

Scene VI Near Misenum.

Scene VII On board Pompey's galley, off Misenum.

Act III

Scene I A plain in Syria.

Scene II Rome. An ante-chamber in Octavius Caesar's house.

Scene III Alexandria. Cleopatra's palace.

Scene IV Athens. A room in Mark Antony's house.

Scene V The same. Another room.

Scene VI Rome. Octavius Caesar's house.

Scene VII Near Actium. Mark Antony's camp.

Scene VIII A plain near Actium.

Scene IX Another part of the plain.

Scene X Another part of the plain.

Scene XI Alexandria. Cleopatra's palace.

Scene XII Egypt. Octavius Caesar's camp.

Scene XIII Alexandria. Cleopatra's palace.

Act IV

Scene I Before Alexandria. Octavius Caesar's camp.

Scene II Alexandria. Cleopatra's palace.

Scene III The same. Before the palace.

Scene IV The same. A room in the palace.

Scene V Alexandria. Mark Antony's camp.

Scene VI Alexandria. Octavius Caesar's camp.

Scene VII Field of battle between the camps.

Scene VIII Under the walls of Alexandria.

Scene IX Octavius Caesar's camp.

Scene X Between the two camps.

Scene XI Another part of the same.

Scene XII Another part of the same.

Scene XIII Alexandria. Cleopatra's palace.

Scene XIV The same. Another room.

Scene XV The same. A monument.

Act V

Scene I Alexandria. Octavius Caesar's camp.

Scene II Alexandria. A room in the monument.

DRAMATIS PERSONAE

Triumvirs

Mark Antony

Octavius Caesar

M. Aemilius

Lepidus (Lepidus:) |

Sextus Pompeius (Pompey:)

Friends To Antony

Domitius Enobarbus

Ventidius

Eros

Scarus

Dercetas

Demetrius

Philo |

Friends To Caesar

Mecaenas

Agrippa

Dolabella

Proculeius

Thyreus

Gallus

Friends To Pompey

Menas

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.

Attendants On Cleopatra

Alexas

Mardian, A Eunuch.

Seleucus

Diomedes|

A Soothsayer. (Soothsayer:)

A Clown. (Clown:)

Cleopatra, Queen Of Egypt.

Octavia, Sister To Caesar And Wife To Antony.

Attendants On Cleopatra

Charmian

Iras

 Officers, Soldiers, Messengers, and other Attendants.

 (First Officer:)

 (Second Officer:)

 (Third Officer:)

 (Messenger:)

 (Second Messenger:)

 (First Servant:)

 (Second Servant:)

 (Egyptian:)

 (Guard:)

 (First Guard:)

 (Second Guard:)

 (Attendant:)

 (First Attendant:)

 (Second Attendant:)

SCENE In several parts of the Roman empire.

ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA

ACT I

SCENE I Alexandria. A room in Cleopatra's palace.

 [Enter DEMETRIUS and PHILO]

(1) 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. Enter ANTONY, CLEOPATRA, her Ladies,

 the Train, with Eunuchs fanning her]

(10)    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.

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:

(20) Fulvia perchance is angry; or, who knows

 If the scarce-bearded Caesar have not sent

 His 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 dismission

 Is 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,

(30) Thou blushest, Antony; and that blood of thine

 Is Caesar's homager: else so thy cheek pays shame

 When shrill-tongued Fulvia scolds. The messengers!

MARK ANTONY Let Rome in Tiber melt, and the wide arch

 Of the ranged empire fall! Here is my space.

 Kingdoms are clay: our dungy earth alike

 Feeds beast as man: the nobleness of life

 Is 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 weet

 We stand up peerless.

(40) CLEOPATRA Excellent falsehood!

 Why did he marry Fulvia, and not love her?

 I'll seem the fool I am not; Antony

 Will 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 stretch

 Without some pleasure now. What sport tonight?

CLEOPATRA Hear the ambassadors.

MARK ANTONY Fie, wrangling queen!

 Whom every thing becomes, to chide, to laugh,

(50) To weep; whose every passion fully strives

 To make itself, in thee, fair and admired!

 No messenger, but thine; and all alone

 To-night we'll wander through the streets and note

 The 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 property

 Which still should go with Antony.

DEMETRIUS I am full sorry

(60) That he approves the common liar, who

 Thus speaks of him at Rome: but I will hope

 Of better deeds to-morrow. Rest you happy!

 [Exeunt]

SCENE II The same. Another room.

 [Enter CHARMIAN, IRAS, ALEXAS, and a SOOTHSAYER]

(1) CHARMIAN Lord Alexas, sweet Alexas, most any thing Alexas,

 almost most absolute Alexas, where's the soothsayer

 that you praised so to the queen? O, that I knew

 this husband, which, you say, must charge his horns

 with 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 secrecy

 A little I can read.

(10) ALEXAS Show him your hand.

 [Enter DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS]

DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS Bring in the banquet quickly; wine enough

 Cleopatra'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!

(20) 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 married

 to three kings in a forenoon, and widow them all:

 let me have a child at fifty, to whom Herod of Jewry

 may do homage: find me to marry me with Octavius

(30) Caesar, 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 fortune

 Than 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.

(40) 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, shall

 be--drunk to bed.

IRAS There's a palm presages chastity, if nothing else.

(50) 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 fruitful

 prognostication, 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.

(60) IRAS Am I not an inch of fortune better than she?

CHARMIAN Well, if you were but an inch of fortune better than

 I, 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 woman

 that cannot go, sweet Isis, I beseech thee! and let

 her die too, and give him a worse! and let worst

 follow worse, till the worst of all follow him

 laughing to his grave, fifty-fold a cuckold! Good

(70) Isis, hear me this prayer, though thou deny me a

 matter 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 man

 loose-wived, so it is a deadly sorrow to behold a

 foul knave uncuckolded: therefore, dear Isis, keep

 decorum, and fortune him accordingly!

CHARMIAN Amen.

ALEXAS Lo, now, if it lay in their hands to make me a

 cuckold, they would make themselves whores, but

 they'ld do't!

(80) 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 sudden

 A Roman thought hath struck him. Enobarbus!

DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS Madam?

CLEOPATRA Seek him, and bring him hither.

 Where's Alexas?

(90) 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 state

 Made 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.

(100) 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 Syria

 To 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:

(110) Name Cleopatra as she is call'd in Rome;

 Rail thou in Fulvia's phrase; and taunt my faults

 With such full licence as both truth and malice

 Have power to utter. O, then we bring forth weeds,

 When our quick minds lie still; and our ills told us

 Is 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.

(120) 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 serious

 Importeth 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 become

(130) The 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.

(140) MARK ANTONY I must be gone.

DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS Under a compelling occasion, let women die; it were

 pity to cast them away for nothing; though, between

 them and a great cause, they should be esteemed

 nothing. Cleopatra, catching but the least noise of

 this, dies instantly; I have seen her die twenty

 times upon far poorer moment: I do think there is

 mettle in death, which commits some loving act upon

 her, she hath such a celerity in dying.

(150) MARK ANTONY She is cunning past man's thought.

 [Exit ALEXAS]

DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS Alack, sir, no; her passions are made of nothing but

 the finest part of pure love: we cannot call her

 winds and waters sighs and tears; they are greater

 storms and tempests than almanacs can report: this

 cannot be cunning in her; if it be, she makes a

 shower 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 piece

(160) of work; which not to have been blest withal would

 have 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. When

 it pleaseth their deities to take the wife of a man

 from him, it shows to man the tailors of the earth;

(170) comforting therein, that when old robes are worn

 out, there are members to make new. If there were

 no more women but Fulvia, then had you indeed a cut,

 and the case to be lamented: this grief is crowned

 with consolation; your old smock brings forth a new

 petticoat: and indeed the tears live in an onion

 that should water this sorrow.

MARK ANTONY The business she hath broached in the state

 Cannot endure my absence.

(180) DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS And the business you have broached here cannot be

 without you; especially that of Cleopatra's, which

 wholly depends on your abode.

MARK ANTONY No more light answers. Let our officers

 Have notice what we purpose. I shall break

 The cause of our expedience to the queen,

 And get her leave to part. For not alone

 The death of Fulvia, with more urgent touches,

 Do strongly speak to us; but the letters too

 Of many our contriving friends in Rome

(190) Petition us at home: Sextus Pompeius

 Hath given the dare to Caesar, and commands

 The empire of the sea: our slippery people,

 Whose love is never link'd to the deserver

 Till his deserts are past, begin to throw

 Pompey the Great and all his dignities

 Upon his son; who, high in name and power,

 Higher than both in blood and life, stands up

 For the main soldier: whose quality, going on,

 The sides o' the world may danger: much is breeding,

(200) 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, requires

 Our quick remove from hence.

DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS I shall do't.

 [Exeunt]

SCENE III The same. Another room.

 [Enter CLEOPATRA, CHARMIAN, IRAS, and ALEXAS]

(1) 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,