Document: All > Shakespeare > Tragedies > Antony and Cleopatra > Act I, scene V
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[Enter CLEOPATRA, CHARMIAN, IRAS, and MARDIAN]
CLEOPATRA: Charmian!
CHARMIAN: Madam?
CLEOPATRA: Ha, ha!
Give me to drink mandragora.
CHARMIAN: Why, madam?
CLEOPATRA: That I might sleep out this great gap of time
My Antony is away.
CHARMIAN: You think of him too much.
CLEOPATRA: O, 'tis treason!
CHARMIAN: Madam, I trust, not so.
CLEOPATRA: Thou, eunuch Mardian!
MARDIAN: What's your highness' pleasure?
CLEOPATRA: Not now to hear thee sing; I take no pleasure
In aught an eunuch has: 'tis well for thee,
That, being unseminar'd, thy freer thoughts
May not fly forth of Egypt. Hast thou affections?
MARDIAN: Yes, gracious madam.
CLEOPATRA: Indeed!
MARDIAN: Not in deed, madam; for I can do nothing
But what indeed is honest to be done:
Yet have I fierce affections, and think
What Venus did with Mars.
CLEOPATRA: O Charmian,
Where think'st thou he is now? Stands he, or sits he?
Or does he walk? or is he on his horse?
O happy horse, to bear the weight of Antony!
Do bravely, horse! for wot'st thou whom thou movest?
The demi-Atlas of this earth, the arm
And burgonet of men. He's speaking now,
Or murmuring 'Where's my serpent of old Nile?'
For so he calls me: now I feed myself
With most delicious poison. Think on me,
That am with Phoebus' amorous pinches black,
And wrinkled deep in time? Broad-fronted Caesar,
When thou wast here above the ground, I was
A morsel for a monarch: and great Pompey
Would stand and make his eyes grow in my brow;
There would he anchor his aspect and die
With looking on his life.
[Enter ALEXAS, from OCTAVIUS CAESAR]
ALEXAS: Sovereign of Egypt, hail!
CLEOPATRA: How much unlike art thou Mark Antony!
Yet, coming from him, that great medicine hath
With his tinct gilded thee.
How goes it with my brave Mark Antony?
ALEXAS: Last thing he did, dear queen,
He kiss'd,--the last of many doubled kisses,--
This orient pearl. His speech sticks in my heart.
CLEOPATRA: Mine ear must pluck it thence.
ALEXAS: 'Good friend,' quoth he,
'Say, the firm Roman to great Egypt sends
This treasure of an oyster; at whose foot,
To mend the petty present, I will piece
Her opulent throne with kingdoms; all the east,
Say thou, shall call her mistress.' So he nodded,
And soberly did mount an arm-gaunt steed,
Who neigh'd so high, that what I would have spoke
Was beastly dumb'd by him.
CLEOPATRA: What, was he sad or merry?
ALEXAS: Like to the time o' the year between the extremes
Of hot and cold, he was nor sad nor merry.
CLEOPATRA: O well-divided disposition! Note him,
Note him good Charmian, 'tis the man; but note him:
He was not sad, for he would shine on those
That make their looks by his; he was not merry,
Which seem'd to tell them his remembrance lay
In Egypt with his joy; but between both:
O heavenly mingle! Be'st thou sad or merry,
The violence of either thee becomes,
So does it no man else. Met'st thou my posts?
ALEXAS: Ay, madam, twenty several messengers:
Why do you send so thick?
CLEOPATRA: Who's born that day
When I forget to send to Antony,
Shall die a beggar. Ink and paper, Charmian.
Welcome, my good Alexas. Did I, Charmian,
Ever love Caesar so?
CHARMIAN: O that brave Caesar!
CLEOPATRA: Be choked with such another emphasis!
Say, the brave Antony.
CHARMIAN: The valiant Caesar!
CLEOPATRA: By Isis, I will give thee bloody teeth,
If thou with Caesar paragon again
My man of men.
CHARMIAN: By your most gracious pardon,
I sing but after you.
CLEOPATRA: My salad days,
When I was green in judgment: cold in blood,
To say as I said then! But, come, away;
Get me ink and paper:
He shall have every day a several greeting,
Or I'll unpeople Egypt.
[Exeunt]
ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA
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