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    Anthony and Cleopatra
    Anthony and Cleopatra
    Anthony and Cleopatra
    Ebook199 pages2 hours

    Anthony and Cleopatra

    By William Shakespeare

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    About this ebook

    "Anthony and Cleopatra" is a well-known tragedy of William Shakespeare, based on a marvelous and dramatic, fateful love story of a Roman soldier, triumvirate member Mark Antony and Queen Cleopatra of Egypt. First performed in 1607.

    This newly edited version of the play includes essay questioning identity of Shakespeare based on two most authoritative books of the century.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisheriBooks
    Release dateDec 2, 2019
    Author

    William Shakespeare

    William Shakespeare (1564 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon" (or simply "the Bard"). His extant works, including collaborations, consist of some 39 plays, 154 sonnets, three long narrative poems, and a few other verses, some of uncertain authorship. His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright. Shakespeare remains arguably the most influential writer in the English language, and his works continue to be studied and reinterpreted.

    Read more from William Shakespeare

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      Anthony and Cleopatra - William Shakespeare

      TABLE OF CONTENTS

      Dramatis Personae

      ACT I

      SCENE I

      SCENE II

      SCENE III

      SCENE IV

      SCENE V

      ACT II

      SCENE I

      SCENE II

      SCENE III

      SCENE IV

      SCENE V

      SCENE VI

      SCENE VII

      ACT III

      SCENE I

      SCENE II

      SCENE III

      SCENE IV

      SCENE V

      SCENE VI

      SCENE VII

      SCENE VIII

      SCENE IX

      SCENE X

      SCENE XI

      SCENE XII

      SCENE XIII

      ACT IV

      SCENE I

      SCENE II

      SCENE III

      SCENE IV

      SCENE V

      SCENE VI

      SCENE VII

      SCENE VIII

      SCENE IX

      SCENE X

      SCENE XI

      SCENE XII

      SCENE XIII

      SCENE XIV

      SCENE XV

      ACT V

      SCENE I

      SCENE II

      SHAKESPEARE – IS HE A REAL AUTHOR?

      DRAMATIS PERSONAE

      ANTONY, a triumvir of Rome

      CLEOPATRA, Queen of Egypt

      OCTAVIUS CAESAR, a triumvir of Rome

      OCTAVIA, sister to Caesar, later wife to Antony

      LEPIDUS, a triumvir of Rome

      ENOBARBUS, also called DOMITIUS

      VENTIDIUS, SILIUS, EROS, CANIDIUS, SCARUS, DERCETUS, DEMETRIUS, PHILO, accompanying Antony in Egypt and elsewhere

      A SCHOOLMASTER, Antony’s AMBASSADOR to Caesar

      CHARMIAN, IRAS, ALEXAS, MARDIAN, a Eunuch, SELEUCUS, Cleopatra’s treasurer, DIOMEDES,  serving in Cleopatra’s court

      MECaENAS, AGRIPPA, TAURUS, THYREUS, DOLABELLA, GALLUS, PROCULEIUS, supporting and accompanying Caesar

      SEXTUS POMPEIUS, also called POMPEY

      MENAS

      MENECRATES

      VARRIUS

      MESSENGERS

      SOLDIERS

      SENTRIES

      GUARDSMEN

      A SOOTHSAYER

      SERVANTS

      A BOY

      A CAPTAIN

      AN EGYPTIAN

      A COUNTRYMAN

      Ladies, Eunuchs, Captains, Officers, Soldiers, Attendants, Servants.

      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. 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'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:

      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,

      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.

      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,

      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

      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

      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.

      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!

      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 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.

      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.

      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.

      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

      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!

      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?

      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

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