ACT III - Scene II Antony and Cleopatra


Previous Chapter Next Chapter

Rome. An ante-chamber in Caesar’s house.

Enter Agrippa at one door, Enobarbas at another.
Agrippa What, are the brothers parted?
Enobarbas

They have dispatch’d with Pompey, he is gone;
The other three are sealing. Octavia weeps
To part from Rome; Caesar is sad; and Lepidus,
Since Pompey’s feast, as Menas says, is troubled
With the green sickness.

Agrippa ’Tis a noble Lepidus.
Enobarbas A very fine one: O, how he loves Caesar!
Agrippa Nay, but how dearly he adores Mark Antony!
Enobarbas Caesar? Why, he’s the Jupiter of men.
Agrippa What’s Antony? The god of Jupiter.
Enobarbas Spake you of Caesar? How! the non-pareil!
Agrippa O Antony! O thou Arabian bird!
Enobarbas Would you praise Caesar, say “Caesar:” go no further.
Agrippa Indeed, he plied them both with excellent praises.
Enobarbas

But he loves Caesar best; yet he loves Antony:
Ho! hearts, tongues, figures, scribes, bards, poets, cannot
Think, speak, cast, write, sing, number, ho!
His love to Antony. But as for Caesar,
Kneel down, kneel down, and wonder.

Agrippa Both he loves.
Enobarbas

They are his shards, and he their beetle. Trumpets within. So;
This is to horse. Adieu, noble Agrippa.

Agrippa Good fortune, worthy soldier; and farewell.
Enter Caesar, Antony, Lepidus, and Octavia.
Antony No further, sir.
Caesar

You take from me a great part of myself;
Use me well in’t. Sister, prove such a wife
As my thoughts make thee, and as my farthest band
Shall pass on thy approof. Most noble Antony,
Let not the piece of virtue, which is set
Betwixt us as the cement of our love,
To keep it builded, be the ram to batter
The fortress of it; for better might we
Have loved without this mean, if on both parts
This be not cherish’d.

Antony

Make me not offended
In your distrust.

Caesar I have said.
Antony

You shall not find,
Though you be therein curious, the least cause
For what you seem to fear: so, the gods keep you,
And make the hearts of Romans serve your ends!
We will here part.

Caesar

Farewell, my dearest sister, fare thee well:
The elements be kind to thee, and make
Thy spirits all of comfort! fare thee well.

Octavia My noble brother!
Antony

The April’s in her eyes: it is love’s spring,
And these the showers to bring it on. Be cheerful.

Octavia Sir, look well to my husband’s house; and⁠—
Caesar What, Octavia?
Octavia I’ll tell you in your ear.
Antony

Her tongue will not obey her heart, nor can
Her heart inform her tongue⁠—the swan’s down-feather,
That stands upon the swell at full of tide,
And neither way inclines.

Enobarbas Aside to Agrippa. Will Caesar weep?
Agrippa Aside to Enobarbas. He has a cloud in’s face.
Enobarbas

Aside to Agrippa. He were the worse for that, were he a horse;
So is he, being a man.

Agrippa

Aside to Enobarbas. Why, Enobarbus,
When Antony found Julius Caesar dead,
He cried almost to roaring; and he wept
When at Philippi he found Brutus slain.

Enobarbas

Aside to Agrippa. That year, indeed, he was troubled with a rheum;
What willingly he did confound he wail’d,
Believe’t, till I wept too.

Caesar

No, sweet Octavia,
You shall hear from me still; the time shall not
Out-go my thinking on you.

Antony

Come, sir, come;
I’ll wrestle with you in my strength of love:
Look, here I have you; thus I let you go,
And give you to the gods.

Caesar Adieu; be happy!
Lepidus

Let all the number of the stars give light
To thy fair way!

Caesar Farewell, farewell! Kisses Octavia.
Antony Farewell! Trumpets sound. Exeunt.

 

Previous Chapter Next Chapter
Return to the Antony and Cleopatra Summary Return to the William Shakespeare Library