Read Complete Plays, The Online
Authors: William Shakespeare
Complete Plays, The (171 page)
The gods forbid!
Cleopatra
Nay, ’tis most certain, Iras: saucy lictors
Will catch at us, like strumpets; and scald rhymers
Ballad us out o’ tune: the quick comedians
Extemporally will stage us, and present
Our Alexandrian revels; Antony
Shall be brought drunken forth, and I shall see
Some squeaking Cleopatra boy my greatness
I’ the posture of a whore.
Iras
O the good gods!
Cleopatra
Nay, that’s certain.
Iras
I’ll never see ’t; for, I am sure, my nails
Are stronger than mine eyes.
Cleopatra
Why, that’s the way
To fool their preparation, and to conquer
Their most absurd intents.
Re-enter Charmian
Now, Charmian!
Show me, my women, like a queen: go fetch
My best attires: I am again for Cydnus,
To meet Mark Antony: sirrah Iras, go.
Now, noble Charmian, we’ll dispatch indeed;
And, when thou hast done this chare, I’ll give thee leave
To play till doomsday. Bring our crown and all.
Wherefore’s this noise?
Exit Iras. A noise within
Enter a Guardsman
Guard
Here is a rural fellow
That will not be denied your highness presence:
He brings you figs.
Cleopatra
Let him come in.
Exit Guardsman
What poor an instrument
May do a noble deed! he brings me liberty.
My resolution’s placed, and I have nothing
Of woman in me: now from head to foot
I am marble-constant; now the fleeting moon
No planet is of mine.
Re-enter Guardsman, with Clown bringing in a basket
Guard
This is the man.
Cleopatra
Avoid, and leave him.
Exit Guardsman
Hast thou the pretty worm of Nilus there,
That kills and pains not?
Clown
Truly, I have him: but I would not be the party that should desire you to touch him, for his biting is immortal; those that do die of it do seldom or never recover.
Cleopatra
Rememberest thou any that have died on’t?
Clown
Very many, men and women too. I heard of one of them no longer than yesterday: a very honest woman, but something given to lie; as a woman should not do, but in the way of honesty: how she died of the biting of it, what pain she felt: truly, she makes a very good report o’ the worm; but he that will believe all that they say, shall never be saved by half that they do: but this is most fallible, the worm’s an odd worm.
Cleopatra
Get thee hence; farewell.
Clown
I wish you all joy of the worm.
Setting down his basket
Cleopatra
Farewell.
Clown
You must think this, look you, that the worm will do his kind.
Cleopatra
Ay, ay; farewell.
Clown
Look you, the worm is not to be trusted but in the keeping of wise people; for, indeed, there is no goodness in worm.
Cleopatra
Take thou no care; it shall be heeded.
Clown
Very good. Give it nothing, I pray you, for it is not worth the feeding.
Cleopatra
Will it eat me?
Clown
You must not think I am so simple but I know the devil himself will not eat a woman: I know that a woman is a dish for the gods, if the devil dress her not. But, truly, these same whoreson devils do the gods great harm in their women; for in every ten that they make, the devils mar five.
Cleopatra
Well, get thee gone; farewell.
Clown
Yes, forsooth: I wish you joy o’ the worm.
Exit
Re-enter Iras with a robe, crown, & c
Cleopatra
Give me my robe, put on my crown; I have
Immortal longings in me: now no more
The juice of Egypt’s grape shall moist this lip:
Yare, yare, good Iras; quick. Methinks I hear
Antony call; I see him rouse himself
To praise my noble act; I hear him mock
The luck of Caesar, which the gods give men
To excuse their after wrath: husband, I come:
Now to that name my courage prove my title!
I am fire and air; my other elements
I give to baser life. So; have you done?
Come then, and take the last warmth of my lips.
Farewell, kind Charmian; Iras, long farewell.
Kisses them. Iras falls and dies
Have I the aspic in my lips? Dost fall?
If thou and nature can so gently part,
The stroke of death is as a lover’s pinch,
Which hurts, and is desired. Dost thou lie still?
If thus thou vanishest, thou tell’st the world
It is not worth leave-taking.
Charmian
Dissolve, thick cloud, and rain; that I may say,
The gods themselves do weep!
Cleopatra
This proves me base:
If she first meet the curled Antony,
He’ll make demand of her, and spend that kiss
Which is my heaven to have. Come, thou mortal wretch,
To an asp, which she applies to her breast
With thy sharp teeth this knot intrinsicate
Of life at once untie: poor venomous fool
Be angry, and dispatch. O, couldst thou speak,
That I might hear thee call great Caesar ass
Unpolicied!
Charmian
O eastern star!
Cleopatra
Peace, peace!
Dost thou not see my baby at my breast,
That sucks the nurse asleep?
Charmian
O, break! O, break!
Cleopatra
As sweet as balm, as soft as air, as gentle,—
O Antony!— Nay, I will take thee too.
Applying another asp to her arm
What should I stay —
Dies
Charmian
In this vile world? So, fare thee well.
Now boast thee, death, in thy possession lies
A lass unparallel’d. Downy windows, close;
And golden Phoebus never be beheld
Of eyes again so royal! Your crown’s awry;
I’ll mend it, and then play.
Enter the Guard, rushing in
First Guard
Where is the queen?
Charmian
Speak softly, wake her not.
First Guard
Caesar hath sent —
Charmian
Too slow a messenger.
Applies an asp
O, come apace, dispatch! I partly feel thee.
First Guard
Approach, ho! All’s not well: Caesar’s beguiled.
Second Guard
There’s Dolabella sent from Caesar; call him.
First Guard
What work is here! Charmian, is this well done?
Charmian
It is well done, and fitting for a princess
Descended of so many royal kings.
Ah, soldier!
Dies
Re-enter Dolabella
Dolabella
How goes it here?
Second Guard
All dead.
Dolabella
Caesar, thy thoughts
Touch their effects in this: thyself art coming
To see perform’d the dreaded act which thou
So sought’st to hinder.
[Within]
‘A way there, a way for Caesar!’
Re-enter Octavius Caesar and all his train marching
Dolabella
O sir, you are too sure an augurer;
That you did fear is done.
Octavius Caesar
Bravest at the last,
She levell’d at our purposes, and, being royal,
Took her own way. The manner of their deaths?
I do not see them bleed.
Dolabella
Who was last with them?
First Guard
A simple countryman, that brought her figs:
This was his basket.
Octavius Caesar
Poison’d, then.
First Guard
O Caesar,
This Charmian lived but now; she stood and spake:
I found her trimming up the diadem
On her dead mistress; tremblingly she stood
And on the sudden dropp’d.
Octavius Caesar
O noble weakness!
If they had swallow’d poison, ’twould appear
By external swelling: but she looks like sleep,
As she would catch another Antony
In her strong toil of grace.
Dolabella
Here, on her breast,
There is a vent of blood and something blown:
The like is on her arm.
First Guard
This is an aspic’s trail: and these fig-leaves
Have slime upon them, such as the aspic leaves
Upon the caves of Nile.
Octavius Caesar
Most probable
That so she died; for her physician tells me
She hath pursued conclusions infinite
Of easy ways to die. Take up her bed;
And bear her women from the monument:
She shall be buried by her Antony:
No grave upon the earth shall clip in it
A pair so famous. High events as these
Strike those that make them; and their story is
No less in pity than his glory which
Brought them to be lamented. Our army shall
In solemn show attend this funeral;
And then to Rome. Come, Dolabella, see
High order in this great solemnity.
Exeunt
The Tragedy of Coriolanus
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