Antony

“ And their voices, whose echoes, rolling forth, fill the horizon, become so powerful that Antony falls backward.
A shock, from time to time, causes him to half open his eyes; and he perceives, in the midst of the darkness, a kind of monster before him.
It is a death's-head with a crown of roses. It rises above the torso of a woman white as mother-of-pearl. Beneath, a winding-sheet, starred with points of gold, makes a kind of train;—and the entire body undulates, like a gigantic worm holding itself erect. ”

“ ANTONY. Tug him away: being whipp'd, Bring him again.—This Jack of Caesar's shall Bear us an errand to him.—
[Exeunt Attendants with THYREUS.]
You were half blasted ere I knew you.—Ha! Have I my pillow left unpress'd in Rome, Forborne the getting of a lawful race, And by a gem of women, to be abus'd By one that looks on feeders?
CLEOPATRA. Good my lord,—
ANTONY. You have been a boggler ever:— But when we in our viciousness grow hard,— O misery on't!—the wise gods seal our eyes; In our own filth drop our clear judgments: make us Adore our errors; laugh at's while we strut To our confusion. ”

“ Therefore, O Antony! stay not by his side;
Thy demon, that thy spirit which keeps thee, is
Noble, courageous, high, unmatchable, 20
Where Cæsar's is not; but near him thy angel
Becomes a fear, as being o'erpower'd; therefore
Make space enough between you.
Ant. ⁠Speak this no more.
Sooth. To none but thee; no more but when to thee. 24
If thou dost play with him at any game
Thou art sure to lose, and, of that natural luck,
He beats thee 'gainst the odds; thy lustre thickens
When he shines by. I say again, thy spirit 28
Is all afraid to govern thee near him,
But he away, 'tis noble. ”

“ CAESAR. Possess it, I'll make answer.
But I had rather fast from all four days
Than drink so much in one.
ENOBARBUS. [To ANTONY] Ha, my brave emperor!
Shall we dance now the Egyptian Bacchanals
And celebrate our drink?
POMPEY. Let's ha't, good soldier.
ANTONY. Come, let's all take hands,
Till that the conquering wine hath steep'd our sense
In soft and delicate Lethe.
ENOBARBUS. All take hands.
Make battery to our ears with the loud music,
The while I'll place you; then the boy shall sing;
The holding every man shall bear as loud
As his strong sides can volley. ”

“ CLEOPATRA. He is a god, and knows What is most right: mine honour was not yielded, But conquer'd merely.
ENOBARBUS. [Aside.] To be sure of that, I will ask Antony.—Sir, sir, thou art so leaky That we must leave thee to thy sinking, for Thy dearest quit thee.
[Exit.]
THYREUS. Shall I say to Caesar What you require of him? for he partly begs To be desir'd to give. It much would please him That of his fortunes you should make a staff To lean upon: but it would warm his spirits To hear from me you had left Antony, And put yourself under his shroud, who is The universal landlord. ”

“ ANTONY. Fie, wrangling queen! Whom everything becomes,—to chide, to laugh, To weep; whose every passion fully strives To make itself in thee fair and admir'd! 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 ANTONY and CLEOPATRA, with their Train.]
DEMETRIUS. Is Caesar with Antonius priz'd so slight?
PHILO. Sir, sometimes when he is not Antony, He comes too short of that great property Which still should go with Antony. ”

“ Behaving thus, Antony was beloved by all; and submitted truly to the earnest men to whom he used to go. And from each of them he learnt some improvement in his earnestness and his training: he contemplated the courtesy of one, and another's assiduity in prayer; another's freedom from anger; another's love of mankind: he took heed to one as he watched; to another as he studied: one he admired for his endurance, another for his fasting and sleeping on the ground; he laid to heart the meekness of one, and the long-suffering of another ”

“ ANTONY. Quarrel no more, but be prepar'd to know The purposes I bear; which are, or cease, As you shall give theadvice. By the fire That quickens Nilus' slime, I go from hence Thy soldier, servant, making peace or war As thou affect'st.
CLEOPATRA. Cut my lace, Charmian, come;— But let it be: I am quickly ill and well, So Antony loves.
ANTONY. My precious queen, forbear; And give true evidence to his love, which stands An honourable trial.
CLEOPATRA. So Fulvia told me. I pr'ythee, turn aside and weep for her ”

“ 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-tongu'd Fulvia scolds.—The messengers!
ANTONY. Let Rome in Tiber melt, and the wide arch Of the rang'd 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 [Embracing] ”

“ O! from Italy!— Ram thou thy fruitful tidings in mine ears, That long time have been barren.
MESSENGER. Madam, madam,—
CLEOPATRA. Antony's dead!— If thou say so, villain, thou kill'st thy mistress; But well and free, If thou so yield him, there is gold, and here My bluest veins to kiss,—a hand that kings Have lipp'd, and trembled kissing.
MESSENGER. First, madam, he's well.
CLEOPATRA. Why, there's more gold. But, sirrah, mark, we use To say the dead are well: bring it to that, The gold I give thee will I melt and pour Down thy ill-uttering throat. ”

“ AGRIPPA.
Welcome, lady.
MAECENAS.
Welcome, dear madam.
Each heart in Rome does love and pity you.
Only th’ adulterous Antony, most large
In his abominations, turns you off
And gives his potent regiment to a trull
That noises it against us.
OCTAVIA.
Is it so, sir?
CAESAR.
Most certain. Sister, welcome. Pray you
Be ever known to patience. My dear’st sister!
[Exeunt.]
SCENE VII. Antony’s Camp near the Promontory of Actium. Enter Cleopatra and Enobarbus. ”

“ EROS.
It does, my lord.
ANTONY.
My good knave Eros, now thy captain is
Even such a body. Here I am Antony,
Yet cannot hold this visible shape, my knave.
I made these wars for Egypt, and the Queen,
Whose heart I thought I had, for she had mine,
Which, whilst it was mine, had annexed unto’t
A million more, now lost—she, Eros, has
Packed cards with Caesar, and false-played my glory
Unto an enemy’s triumph.
Nay, weep not, gentle Eros. There is left us
Ourselves to end ourselves.
Enter Mardian. ”

“ Here, Antony, is true wisdom. True, indeed, is it that no one can take away from you your merry countenance, your cheerful spirit, and your good conscience unless you choose; keep all three, Antony, throughout your life, and you will be happy yourself and make everyone about you happy, and that is to make a little heaven of your earthly home. ”

“ Again Antony felt that odd little thrill run through him, this time intensified, while his heart beat and pounded under his immaculate white shirt-front.
Perhaps it is a mercy that shirt-fronts, to say nothing of other things, do hide the vagaries of our hearts. It would be a sorry thing for us if the world at large could perceive them,—the joy, the anguish, the remorse, and the bitter little disappointments. ”

“ And forthwith a voice came to Antony, ‘Understandest thou what thou seest?’ And his understanding was opened, and he understood that it was the passing of souls, and that the tall being who stood was the enemy who envies the faithful. ”

“ ENOBARBUS. Your presence needs must puzzle Antony; Take from his heart, take from his brain, from's time, What should not then be spar'd. He is already Traduc'd for levity: and 'tis said in Rome That Photinus an eunuch and your maids Manage this war.
CLEOPATRA. Sink Rome, and their tongues rot That speak against us! A charge we bear i' the war, And, as the president of my kingdom, will Appear there for a man. Speak not against it; I will not stay behind. ”

“ When one so great begins to rage, he’s hunted
Even to falling. Give him no breath, but now
Make boot of his distraction. Never anger
Made good guard for itself.
CAESAR.
Let our best heads
Know that tomorrow the last of many battles
We mean to fight. Within our files there are,
Of those that served Mark Antony but late,
Enough to fetch him in. See it done,
And feast the army; we have store to do’t,
And they have earned the waste. Poor Antony!
[Exeunt.]
SCENE II. Alexandria. A Room in the Palace. Enter Antony, Cleopatra, Enobarbus, Charmian, Iras, Alexas with others. ”

“ He had been about to wonder aloud as to why on earth Antony should have accepted the conditions, why he should have exchanged the freedom and untrammelled spaces of the veldt for the conventional life of England, even with the Hall and a goodly income, at the end of the year, to the balance. He knew most assuredly that nine hundred and ninety-nine men out of a thousand would have done so, and he knew that he himself was the thousandth who would not. His exceedingly brief acquaintance with Antony had given him the impression that he, also, was a thousandth man. ”

“ He, believing it, cried out, "Now, Antony, why delay longer? Fate has snatched away the only pretext for which you could say you desired yet to live." Going into his chamber, and there loosening and opening his coat of armor, "I am not," said he, "troubled, Cleopatra, to be at present bereaved of you, for I shall soon be with you; but it distresses me that so great a general should be found of a tardier courage than a woman." ”

“ So is he, being a man.
AGRIPPA. [Aside to ENOBARBUS.] Why, Enobarbus, When Antony found Julius Caesar dead, He cried almost to roaring; and he wept When at Philippi he found Brutus slain.
ENOBARBUS. [Aside to AGRIPPA.] That year, indeed, he was troubled with a rheum; What willingly he did confound he wail'd: Believe't till I weep 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. ”

“ CLEOPATRA'S palace
Enter ANTONY with attendants
ANTONY. Hark! the land bids me tread no more upon't;
It is asham'd to bear me. Friends, come hither.
I am so lated in the world that I
Have lost my way for ever. I have a ship
Laden with gold; take that; divide it. Fly,
And make your peace with Caesar.
ALL. Fly? Not we!
ANTONY. I have fled myself, and have instructed cowards
To run and show their shoulders. Friends, be gone ”

“ Like Richard II., he sees his own fall with the eyes of a poet, but a poet much greater than the young Shakespeare, who could never have written Antony’s marvellous speech about the sunset clouds. But we listen to Antony, as we do not to Richard, with entire sympathy, partly because he is never unmanly, partly because he himself is sympathetic and longs for sympathy.
The first of living soldiers, an able politician, a most persuasive orator, Antony nevertheless was not born to rule the world. He enjoys being a great man, but he has not the love of rule for rule’s sake. ”

“ Mark Antony In Egypt sits at dinner, and will make No wars without doors: Caesar gets money where He loses hearts: Lepidus flatters both, Of both is flatter'd; but he neither loves Nor either cares for him.
MENAS. Caesar and Lepidus Are in the field: a mighty strength they carry.
POMPEY. Where have you this? 'tis false.
MENAS. From Silvius, sir.
POMPEY. He dreams: I know they are in Rome together, Looking for Antony. But all the charms of love, Salt Cleopatra, soften thy wan'd lip! Let witchcraft join with beauty, lust with both! ”

“ Antony, dazzled—"What a number of them there are! What do they wish?"
Hilarion—"The one who is scratching his abdomen with his elephant's trunk is the solar god, the inspirer of wisdom. That other, whose six heads carry towers and fourteen handles of javelins, is the prince of armies, the fire-devourer. The old man riding on a crocodile is going to bathe the souls of the dead on the seashore. They will be tormented by this black woman with rotten teeth, the governess of hell. ”

“ This, I grew to realise, was the secret of the contradiction that was Antony—this pose of strength where he himself knew he was weak: the most penalising pose that ever bolstered a man's vanity the more completely to wreck him. For the world might have allowed Antony a certain length of forgiveness if he could have been brought to reveal himself as he actually was, if he could only have bowed his head and revealed the hesitancies of his nature, and his contrition ”

“ Quoth Antony, “I wonder that a prudent man grieves over the loss of a thing which ants, and flies, and gnats have, instead of rejoicing in that possession which the holy Apostles earned. For it is better to see with the spirit than with the flesh.”
A Father asked Antony, “What shall I do?” Quoth the old man, “Trust not in thine own righteousness; regret not the thing which is past; bridle thy tongue and thy stomach.”
Quoth Antony, “He who sits still in the desert is safe from three enemies: from hearing, from speech, from sight: and has to fight against only one, his own heart.” ”

“ Our will is Antony be took alive;
Make it so known.
AGRIPPA. Caesar, I shall. Exit
CAESAR. The time of universal peace is near.
Prove this a prosp'rous day, the three-nook'd world
Shall bear the olive freely.
Enter A MESSENGER
MESSENGER. Antony
Is come into the field.
CAESAR. Go charge Agrippa
Plant those that have revolted in the vant,
That Antony may seem to spend his fury
Upon himself. Exeunt all but ENOBARBUS
ENOBARBUS. Alexas did revolt and went to Jewry on
Affairs of Antony; there did dissuade
Great Herod to incline himself to Caesar
And leave his master Antony. ”