The Tragedie of Anthony and Cleopatra E-Book

William Shakespeare

• Herausgeber: Ktoczyta.pl
• Kategorie: Poesie und Drama
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2019

Beschreibung

With a strong spirit and body, people who are ready to endure all sorts of hardships and difficulties for the sake of the cause of their whole life, their blood, their feats inscribing their names in the history of mankind, also end up being tested, which turn out to be stronger than them. And for the sake of this, a person is able to erase his entire former life overnight. This happens with Anthony, an honorary Roman who fell in love with the proud queen of Egypt. For his sake he forgot Rome and the family, and Caesar.

Leseprobe

Contents

DRAMATIS PERSONAE

ACT I

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

SCENE II. Alexandria. Another Room in CLEOPATRA'S palace.

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

SCENE IV. Rome. An Apartment in CAESAR'S House.

SCENE V. Alexandria. A Room in the Palace.

ACT II

SCENE I. Messina. A Room in POMPEY'S house.

SCENE II. Rome. A Room in the House of LEPIDUS.

SCENE III. Rome. A Room in CAESAR'S House.

SCENE IV. Rome. A street.

SCENE V. Alexandria. A Room in the Palace.

SCENE VI. Near Misenum.

SCENE VII. On board POMPEY'S Galley, lying near Misenum.

ACT III

SCENE I. A plain in Syria.

SCENE II. Rome. An Ante-chamber in CAESAR'S house.

SCENE III. Alexandria. A Room in the Palace.

SCENE IV. Athens. A Room in ANTONY'S House.

SCENE V. Athens. Another Room in ANTONY'S House.

SCENE VI. Rome. A Room in CAESAR'S House.

SCENE VII. ANTONY'S Camp near the Promontory of Actium.

SCENE VIII. A plain near Actium.

SCENE IX. Another part of the Plain.

SCENE X. Another part of the Plain.

SCENE XI. Alexandria. A Room in the Palace.

SCENE XII. CAESAR'S camp in Egypt.

SCENE XIII. Alexandria. A Room in the Palace.

ACT IV

SCENE I. CAESAR'S Camp at Alexandria.

SCENE II. Alexandria. A Room in the Palace.

SCENE III. Alexandria. Before the Palace.

SCENE IV. Alexandria. A Room in the Palace.

SCENE V. ANTONY'S camp near Alexandria.

SCENE VI. Alexandria. CAESAR'S camp.

SCENE VII. Field of battle between the Camps.

SCENE VIII. Under the Walls of Alexandria.

SCENE IX. CAESAR'S camp.

SCENE X. Ground between the two Camps.

SCENE XI. Another part of the Ground.

SCENE XII. Another part of the Ground.

SCENE XIII. Alexandria. A Room in the Palace.

SCENE XIV. Alexandria. Another Room.

SCENE XV. Alexandria. A monument.

ACT V

SCENE I. CAESAR'S Camp before Alexandria.

SCENE II. Alexandria. A Room in the Monument.

DRAMATIS PERSONAE

M.ANTONY, Triumvir

OCTAVIUS CAESAR, Triumvir

M. AEMIL. LEPIDUS, Triumvir

SEXTUS POMPEIUS

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, treasurer to Cleopatra

DIOMEDES, attendant on Cleopatra

A SOOTHSAYER

A CLOWN

CLEOPATRA, Queen of Egypt

OCTAVIA, Sister to Caesar

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.

Nay, hear them, Antony:

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.’

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,

Thou blushest, Antony; and that blood of thine

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

When shrill-tongu’d Fulvia scolds.–The messengers!

ANTONY.

Let Rome in Tiber melt, and the wide arch

Of the rang’d 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 [Embracing]; when such a mutual pair

And such a twain can do’t, in which I bind,

On pain of punishment, the world to weet

We stand up peerless.

CLEOPATRA.

Excellent falsehood!

Why did he marry Fulvia, and not love her?–

I’ll seem the fool I am not; Antony

Will be himself.

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 to-night?

CLEOPATRA.

Hear the ambassadors.

ANTONY.

Fie, wrangling queen!

Whom everything becomes,–to chide, to laugh,

To weep; whose every passion fully strives

To make itself in thee fair and admir’d!

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 ANTONY and CLEOPATRA, with their Train.]

DEMETRIUS.

Is Caesar with Antonius priz’d 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

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. Alexandria. Another Room in CLEOPATRA’S palace

[Enter CHARMIAN, IRAS, ALEXAS, and a Soothsayer.]

CHARMIAN.

Lord Alexas, sweet Alexas, most anything 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.

ALEXAS.

Show him your hand.

[Enter ENOBARBUS.]

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!

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 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 prov’d a fairer former fortune

Than that which is to approach.

CHARMIAN.

Then belike my children shall have no names:–pr’ythee, 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.

ENOBARBUS.

Mine, and most of our fortunes, to-night, shall be–

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 fruitful prognostication, I cannot

scratch mine ear.–Pr’ythee, tell her but 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 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 worse follow worse, till the worst of all follow him

laughing to his grave, fiftyfold a cuckold! Good 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’d do’t!

ENOBARBUS.

Hush! Here comes Antony.

CHARMIAN.

Not he; the queen.

[Enter CLEOPATRA.]

CLEOPATRA.

Saw you my lord?

ENOBARBUS.

No, lady.

CLEOPATRA.

Was he not here?

CHARMIAN.

No, madam.

CLEOPATRA.

He was dispos’d to mirth; but on the sudden

A Roman thought hath struck him.–Enobarbus,–

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 CLEOPATRA, ENOBARBUS, CHAR., IRAS, ALEX., and Soothsayer.]

[Enter ANTONY, with a MESSENGER and Attendants.]

MESSENGER.

Fulvia thy wife first came into the field.

ANTONY.

Against my brother Lucius.

MESSENGER.

Ay:

But soon that war had end, and the time’s state

Made friends of them, jointing their force ‘gainst Caesar;

Whose better issue in the war, from Italy

Upon the first encounter, drave them.

ANTONY.

Well, what worst?

MESSENGER.

The nature of bad news infects the teller.

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,–

ANTONY.

Antony, thou wouldst say,–

MESSENGER.

O, my lord!

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 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.]

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.

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.

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.]

ANTONY.

Forbear me.

[Exit MESSENGER.]

There’s a great spirit gone! Thus did I desire it:

What our contempts doth often hurl from us,

We wish it ours again; the present pleasure,

By revolution lowering, does become

The opposite of itself: she’s good, being gone;

The hand could pluck her back that shov’d her on.

I must from this enchanting queen break off:

Ten thousand harms, more than the ills I know,

My idleness doth hatch–ho, Enobarbus!

[Re-enter ENOBARBUS.]

ENOBARBUS.

What’s your pleasure, sir?

ANTONY.

I must with haste from hence.

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.

ANTONY.

I must be gone.

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.

ANTONY.