The Tragedy of Antony and Cleopatra: ACT I
Introduction 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 ACT III ACT IV ACT V About the Play Feedback			Search: All the plays Hamlet Coriolanus Julius Caesar King Lear Macbeth Othello Romeo and Juliet Richard II Richard III Titus Andronicus Antony and Cleopatra Timon of Athens Henry IV Part 1 Henry IV Part 2 Henry the Fifth Henry VI Part 1 Henry VI Part 2 Henry VI Part 3 Henry VIII King John Pericles Troilus and Cressida All's Well... As You Like It The Comedy of Errors Cymbeline A Midsummer... Love's Labour's Lost Measure for Measure The Merry Wives... Much Ado about Nothing The Merchant of Venice Twelfth Night The Taming of... The Tempest The Two Gentlemen... The Winter's Tale    for: SCENE IV. Rome. OCTAVIUS CAESAR's house. Enter OCTAVIUS CAESAR, reading a letter, LEPIDUS, and their Train OCTAVIUS CAESAR       You may see, Lepidus, and henceforth know,       It is not Caesar's natural vice to hate       Our great competitor: from Alexandria       This is the news: he fishes, drinks, and wastes 5     The lamps of night in revel; is not more man-like       Than Cleopatra; nor the queen of Ptolemy       More womanly than he; hardly gave audience, or       Vouchsafed to think he had partners: you shall find there       A man who is the abstract of all faults 10    That all men follow. LEPIDUS       I must not think there are       Evils enow to darken all his goodness:       His faults in him seem as the spots of heaven,       More fiery by night's blackness; hereditary, 15    Rather than purchased; what he cannot change,       Than what he chooses. OCTAVIUS CAESAR       You are too indulgent. Let us grant, it is not       Amiss to tumble on the bed of Ptolemy;       To give a kingdom for a mirth; to sit 20    And keep the turn of tippling with a slave;       To reel the streets at noon, and stand the buffet       With knaves that smell of sweat: say this       becomes him,--       As his composure must be rare indeed 25    Whom these things cannot blemish,--yet must Antony       No way excuse his soils, when we do bear       So great weight in his lightness. If he fill'd       His vacancy with his voluptuousness,       Full surfeits, and the dryness of his bones, 30    Call on him for't: but to confound such time,       That drums him from his sport, and speaks as loud       As his own state and ours,--'tis to be chid       As we rate boys, who, being mature in knowledge,       Pawn their experience to their present pleasure, 35    And so rebel to judgment. Enter a Messenger LEPIDUS       Here's more news. Messenger       Thy biddings have been done; and every hour,       Most noble Caesar, shalt thou have report       How 'tis abroad. Pompey is strong at sea; 40    And it appears he is beloved of those       That only have fear'd Caesar: to the ports       The discontents repair, and men's reports       Give him much wrong'd. OCTAVIUS CAESAR       I should have known no less. 45    It hath been taught us from the primal state,       That he which is was wish'd until he were;       And the ebb'd man, ne'er loved till ne'er worth love,       Comes dear'd by being lack'd. This common body,       Like to a vagabond flag upon the stream, 50    Goes to and back, lackeying the varying tide,       To rot itself with motion. Messenger       Caesar, I bring thee word,       Menecrates and Menas, famous pirates,       Make the sea serve them, which they ear and wound 55    With keels of every kind: many hot inroads       They make in Italy; the borders maritime       Lack blood to think on't, and flush youth revolt:       No vessel can peep forth, but 'tis as soon       Taken as seen; for Pompey's name strikes more 60    Than could his war resisted. OCTAVIUS CAESAR       Antony,       Leave thy lascivious wassails. When thou once       Wast beaten from Modena, where thou slew'st       Hirtius and Pansa, consuls, at thy heel 65    Did famine follow; whom thou fought'st against,       Though daintily brought up, with patience more       Than savages could suffer: thou didst drink       The stale of horses, and the gilded puddle       Which beasts would cough at: thy palate then did deign 70    The roughest berry on the rudest hedge;       Yea, like the stag, when snow the pasture sheets,       The barks of trees thou browsed'st; on the Alps       It is reported thou didst eat strange flesh,       Which some did die to look on: and all this-- 75    It wounds thine honour that I speak it now--       Was borne so like a soldier, that thy cheek       So much as lank'd not. LEPIDUS       'Tis pity of him. OCTAVIUS CAESAR       Let his shames quickly 80    Drive him to Rome: 'tis time we twain       Did show ourselves i' the field; and to that end       Assemble we immediate council: Pompey       Thrives in our idleness. LEPIDUS       To-morrow, Caesar, 85    I shall be furnish'd to inform you rightly       Both what by sea and land I can be able       To front this present time. OCTAVIUS CAESAR       Till which encounter,       It is my business too. Farewell. LEPIDUS 90    Farewell, my lord: what you shall know meantime       Of stirs abroad, I shall beseech you, sir,       To let me be partaker. OCTAVIUS CAESAR       Doubt not, sir;       I knew it for my bond. Exeunt Return to top of page ... or ... Go to next scene