The Works of Shakespeare

As we were sickly prey; their shadows seem
A canopy most fatal, under which

Our army lies, ready to give up the ghost.
Mes. Believe not so.
Cas.
I but believe it partly;
For I am fresh of spirit, and resolv'd
To meet all perils very constantly.

Bru. Even so, Lucilius. Cas.

Now, most noble Brutus, The gods to-day stand friendly; that we may, Lovers in peace, lead on our days to age! But, since the affairs of men rest still uncertain, Let's reason with the worst that may befall. If we do lose this battle, then is this The very last time we shall speak together: What are you then determined to do?

Bru. Even by the rule of that philosophy,
By which I did blame Cato for the death
Which he did give himself:-I know not how,
But I do fiud it cowardly and vile,

For fear of what might fall, so to prevent
The time of life:-arming myself with patience,
To stay the providence of some high powers,
That govern us below.

Cas.
Then, if we lose this battle,
You are contented to be led in triumph
Thorough the streets of Rome ?

[man, Bru. No, Cassius, no: think not, thou noble RoThat ever Brutus will go bound to Rome;

He bears too great a mind. But this same day
Must end that work, the ides of March began;
And whether we shall meet again, I know not.
Therefore our everlasting farewell take :-
For ever, and for ever, farewell, Cassius!
If we do meet again, why we shall smile;
If not, why then this parting was well made.

Cas. For ever, and for ever, farewell, Brutus !
If we do meet again, we'll smile indeed;
If not, 'tis true, this parting was well made.
Bru. Why then lead on.-O, that a man might

know

SCENE II.-The same. The Field of Battle.

Alarum. Enter BRUTUS and MESSALA.

Cas. This hill is far enough. Look, look, TitiAre those my tents where I perceive the fire? Tit. They are, my lord. Cas. Titinius, if thou lov'st me, Mount thou my horse, and hide thy spurs in him, Till he have brought thee up to yonder troops, And here again; that I may rest assur'd, Whether yond' troops are friend or enemy. Tit. I will be here again, even with a thought. [Exit.

Cas. Go, Pindarus, get higher on that hill;
My sight was ever thick; regard Titinius,
And tell me what thou not'st about the field.-
[Exit PINDARUS.

This day I breathed first: time is come round,
And where I did begin, there shall I end;
My life is run his compass.-Sirrah, what news?
Pin. [Above.] O my lord!

Cas. What news?

Pin. Titinius is

Enclosed round about with horsemen, that
Make to him on the spur;-yet he spurs on.-
Now they are almost on him; now, Titinius!-
Now some 'light :-0, he 'lights too :-he's ta'en;
[Shout.

-and hark!

They shout for joy.

Cas.

Come down, behold no more.O, coward that I am, to live so long, To see my best friend ta'en before my face! Enter PINDARUS,

Come hither, sirrah :

In Parthia did I take thee prisoner;
And then I swore thee, saving of thy life,
That whatsoever I did bid thee do,
[onth!
Thou should'st attempt it. Come now, keep thine
Now be a freeman; and, with this good sword,
That ran through Cæsar's bowels, search this bosom.
Stand not to answer: Here, take thou the hilts;
And, when my face is cover'd-as 'tis now,
Guide thou the sword.-Cæsar thou art reveng'd,
Even with the sword that kill'd thee.
Dies.

Pin. So, I am free; yet would not so have been,
Durst I have done my will. O Cassius!
Far from this country Pindarus shall run,

Bru. Ride, ride, Messala, ride, and give these bills Where never Roman shall take note of him. [Exit. Unto the legions on the other side:

[Loud alarum.

Let them set on at once; for I perceive
But cold demeanour in Octavius' wing,
And sudden push gives them the overthrow.
Ride, ride, Messala: let them all come down.

[Exeunt.

SCENE III.-The same. Another Part of the Field.

Alarum. Enter CASSIUS and TITINIUS.

Cas. O, look, Titinius, look, the villains fly! Myself have to mine own turn'd enemy: This ensign here of mine was turning back; I slew the coward, and did take it from him. Tit. O Cassius, Brutus gave the word too early: Who having some advantage on Octavius, Took it too eagerly: his soldiers fell to spoil, Whilst we by Antony are all enclos'd.

Re-enter TITINIUS, with MESSALA.

Mes. It is but change, Titinius; for Octavius
Is overthrown by noble Brutus' power,
As Cassius' legions are by Antony.

Tit. These tidings will well comfort Cassius.
Mes. Where did you leave him?
Tit.

All disconsolate,
With Pindarus his bondman, on this hill.
Mes. Is not that he that lies upon the ground?
Tit. He lies not like the living. O my heart!
Mes. Is not that he?

Tit. No, this was he, Messala, But Cassius is no more.-O setting sun! As in thy red rays thou dost sink to-night, So in his red blood Cassius' day is set; The sun of Rome is set! Our day is gone; Clouds, dews, and dangers come; our deeds are done! Mistrust of my success hath done this deed.

Mes. Mistrust of good success hath done this deed O hateful error, melancholy's child! Why dost tho show to the apt thoughts of men

The things that are not? O error, soon conceiv'd,
Thou never com'st unto a happy birth,
But kill'st the mother that engender'd thee.

Tit. What, Pindarus! Where art thou, Pindarus?
Mes. Seek him, Titinius: whilst I go to meet
The noble Brutus, thrusting this report
Into his ears: I may say, thrusting it;
For piercing steel, and darts envenomed,
Shall be as welcome to the ears of Brutus
As tidings of this sight.
Tit.
Hie you, Messala,
And I will seek for Pindarus the while.

Exit MESSALA. Why didst thou send me forth, brave Cassius? Did I not meet thy friends? and did not they Put on my brows this wreath of victory, [shouts? And bid me giv't thee? Didst thou not hear their Alas, thou hast misconstrued every thing. But hold thee, take this garland on thy brow; Thy Brutus bid me give it thee, and I Will do his bidding.-Brutus, come apace, And see how I regarded Caius Cassius.By your leave, gods:-This is a Roman's part: Come, Cassius' sword, and find Titinius' heart.

Aarum.

[Dies.

Re-enter MESSALA, with BRUTUS, young CATO, STRATO, VOLUMNIUS, and LUCILIUS. Bru. Where, where, Messala, doth his body lie? Mes. Lo, yonder; and Titinius mourning it. Bru. Titinius' face is upward. Cato.

He is slain.

Bru. O Julius Caesar, thou art mighty yet!
Thy spirit walks abroad, and turns our swords
In our own proper entrails.
Low alarums.
Cato.
Brave Titinius!
Look, whe'r he have not crown'd dead Cassius !
Bru. Are yet two Romans living such as these?—
The last of all the Romans, fare thee well!
It is impossible, that ever Rome

Should breed thy fellow.-Friends, I owe more tears
To this dead man, than you shall see me pay.-
I shall find time, Cassius, I shall find time.-
Come, therefore, and to Thassos send his body;
His funeral shall not be in our camp,
Lest it discomfort us.-Lucilius, come;-
And come, young Cato; let us to the field.-
Labeo, and Flavius, set our battles on:-
'Tis three o'clock; and, Romans, yet ere night,
We shall try fortune in a second fight.

[Exeunt.

I will proclaim my name about the field :

I am the son of Marcus Cato, ho!
A foe to tyrants, and my country's friend;
I am the son of Marcus Cato, ho!

[Charges the enemy. Bru. And I am Brutus, Marcus Brutus, I; Brutus, my country's friend; know me for Brutus. Exit, charging the enemy. CATO is overpowered, and falls.

Luc. O young and noble Cato, art thou down? Why, now thou diest as bravely as Titinius; And may'st be honour'd, being Cato's son. 1 Sold. Yield, or thou diest. Luc.

Luc. Safe, Antony; Brutus is safe enough;
I dare assure thee, that no enemy
Shall ever take alive the noble Brutus :
The gods defend him from so great a shame!
When you do find him, or alive, or dead,
He will be found like Brutus, like himself.

Ant. This is not Brutus, friend; but, I assure you,
A prize no less in worth: keep this man safe,
Give him all kindness: I had rather have
Such men my friends than enemies. Go on,
And see whe'r Brutus be alive, or dead:
And bring us word, unto Octavius' tent,
How every thing is chanc'd.

[Exeunt.

Cli. What ill request did Brutus make to thee? Dar. To kill him, Clitus; Look, he meditates. Cli. Now is that noble vessel full of grief, That it runs over even at his eyes.

Bru. Come hither, good Volumnius: list a word. Vol. What says my lord?

Bru.

Why this, Volumnius: The ghost of Cæsar hath appeared to me Two several times by night: at Sardis, once; And, this last night, here in Philippi' fields. I know, my hour is come.

Vol. Not so, my lord. Bru. Nay, I am sure it is, Volumnius. Thou see'st the world, Volumnius, how it goes; Our enemies have beat us to the pit: It is more worthy, to leap in ourselves, Than tarry till they push us. Good Volumnius, Thou know'st, that we two went to school together; Even for that our love of old, I pray thee, Hold thou my sword-hilts, whilst I run on it.

Vol. That's not an office for a friend, my lord. Alarum still Cli. Fly, fly, my lord; there is no tarrying here. Bru. Farewell to you-and you ;-and you, Vo

lumnius.

Strato, thou hast been all this while asleep; Farewell to thee too, Strato.-Countrymen, My heart doth joy, that yet, in all my life, Only I yield to die: I found no man, but he was true to me,

For Brutus only overcame himself,

I shall have glory by this losing day,
More than Octavius, and Mark Antony,
By their vile conquest shall attain unto.
So fare you well at once; for Brutus' tongue
Hath almost ended his life's history:

Night hangs upon mine eyes; my bones would rest,
That have but labour'd to attain this hour.
[Alarum. Cry within; Fly, fly, fly.

Cli. Fly, my lord, fly.

Bru.

Hence; I will follow thee.
[Exeunt CLITUS, DARDANIUS, and VOLUMNIUS.
I pr'ythee, Strato, stay thou by thy lord:
Thou art a fellow of a good respect;

Thy life hath had some smatch of honour in it:
Hold then my sword, and turn away thy face,
While I do run upon it. Wilt thou, Strato?
Stra. Give me your hand first: Fare you well, my
lord.

Bru. Farewell, good Strato.-Cæsar, now be still:
I kill'd not thee with half so good a will.
[He runs on his sword, and dies.
ANTONY,

And no man else hath honour by his death.
Luc. So Brutus should be found.-I thank thee,
Brutus,

That thou hast prov'd Lucilius' saying true,

Oct. All that serv'd Brutus, I will entertain them.
Fellow, wilt thou bestow thy time with me?
Stra. Ay, if Messala will prefer me to you.
Oct. Do So, Messala.
Mes.

How died my master, Strato?
Stra. I held the sword, and he did run on it.
Mes. Octavius, then take him to follow thee,
That did the latest service to my master.

Ant. This was the noblest Roman of them all:
All the conspirators, save only he,
Did that they did in envy of great Cæsar;
He, only, in a general honest thought,
And common good to all, made one of them.
His life was gentle; and the elements
So mix'd in him, that Nature might stand up,
And say to all the world, This was a man!
Oct. According to his virtue let us use him,
With all respect, and rites of burial.
Within my tent his bones to-night shall lie,
Most like a soldier, order'd honourably.-
Mes. My master's man.-Strato, where is thy mas-So, call the field to rest: and let's away,
Stra. Free from the bondage you are in, Messala; To part the glories of this happy day.
The conquerors can but make a fire of him;

Alarum. Retreat.

Enter OCTAVIUS, MESSALA, LUCILIUS, and their army. Oct. What man is that?

[ter?

[Exeunt.

GALLUS,

MENAS,

ACT I.

SCENE I.-Alexandria. A Room in Cleopatra's

Palace.

Enter DEMETRIUS and PHILO.

Phi. 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 gipsey's lust. Look, where they come !

Att. News, my good lord, from Rome. Grates me:Cleo. Nay, hear them, Antony: Fulvia, perchance, is angry; Or, who knows If the scarce-bearded Cæsar 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.

Ant.

How, my love!
Cleo. Perchance,-nay, and most like,
You must not stay here longer, your dismission
Is come from Cæsar; 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.
Ant. Let Rome in Tyber 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; 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.

Excellent falsehood!

Cleo. Why did he marry Fulvia, and not love her?I'll seem the fool I am not; Antony

Will be himself.

Ant.

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 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 ANT. and CLEOP. with their Train. Dem. Is Cæsar with Antonius priz'd so slight? Phi. Sir, sometimes, when he is not Antony, He comes too short of that great property Which still should go with Antony.

Dem.

I'm full

That be approves the common liar, who
Thus speaks of him at Rome: But I will hope
Of better deeds to-morrow. Rest you happy!

sorry,

[Exeunt.

Eno. Bring in the banquet quickly; wine enough, Cleopatra's health to drink.

Char. Good sir, give me good fortune.
Sooth. I make not, but foresee.

Char. Pray then, foresee me one.

Sooth. You shall be yet far fairer than you are.
Char. He means in flesh.

Iras. No, you shall paint when you are old.
Char. Wrinkles forbid!

Alex. Vex not his prescience; be attentive.
Char. Hush!

Sooth. You shall be more beloving, than beloved,
Char. I had rather heat my liver with drinking.
Alex. Nay, hear him.

Char. 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 Cæsar, and companion me with my mistress.

Sooth. You shall outlive the lady whom you

serve.

Char. O excellent! I love long life better than figs.

Sooth. You've seen and proved a fairer former fortune

Than that, is to approach.

Char. Then, belike my children shall have no names: Pr'ythee, how many boys and wenches must I have?

Sooth. If every of your wishes had a womb, And fertile every wish, a million.

Char. Out, fool! I forgive thee for a witch. Aler. You think, none but your sheets are privy to your wishes.

Char. Nay, come, tell Iras hers.

Alex. We'll know all our fortunes.

Eno. Mine, and most of our fortunes, to-night, shall be-drunk to bed.

Iras. There's a palm presages chastity, if nothing else.

Char. Even as the o'erflowing Nilus presageth famine.

Iras. Go, you wild bedfellow, you cannot soothsay, Char. Nay, if an oily palin be not a fruitful prognostication, I cannot scratch mine ear. Pr'ythee, tell her but a worky-day fortune.

Sooth. Your fortunes are alike,

Iras. But how, but how? give me particulars. Sooth. I have said.

Iras. Am I not an inch of fortune better than she?

Char. Well, if you were but an inch of fortune better than I, where would you choose it?

Iras. Not in my husband's nose.

Char. 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 worse follow worse, till the worst of all follow him laughing to his grave, fifty-fold a cuckold! Good Isis, hear ine 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 heart-breaking 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!

Char. Amen.

Alex. Lo, now! if it lay in their hands to make me a cuckold, they would make themselves whores, but they'd do't.

Eno. Hush! here comes Antony.
Char.

Ant.

Where died she?

Her length of sickness, with what else more seriou
Importeth thee to know, this bears. [Gives a letter.
Forbear me.-
[Exit Messenger.
There's a great spirit gone: Thus did I desire it:
What our contempts do often hurl from us,
We wish it ours again; the present pleasure,
By revolution lowering, does become

Not he, the queen. The opposite of itself: she's good, being gone;
The hand could pluck her back, that shov'd her on.
I must from this enchanting queen break off;
Ten thousand harms, more than the ills I know,
My idleness doth hatch.-How now! Enobarbus!
Enter ENOBARBUS.

Enter CLEOPATRA.
Cleo. Saw you my lord?
Eno.
Cleo. Was he not here?
Char. No, madam.

No, lady.

Cleo. He was dispos'd to mirth; but on the sudden A Roman thought hath struck him.-Enobarbus,Eno. Madam.

[Alexas? Cleo. Seek him, and bring him hither. Where's Alex. Here, madam, at your service. My lord approaches.

Enter ANTONY, with a Messenger and Attendants.
Cleo. We will not look upon him: Go with us.
[Exeunt CLEOPATRA, ENOBARBUS, ALEXAS,
IRAS, CHARMIAN, Soothsayer, and
Attendants.

Mess. Fulvia thy wife first came into the field.
Ant. Against my brother Lucius ?
Mess. Ay:

But soon that war had end, and the time's state
Made friends of them, jointing their force 'gainst
Cæsar;

Whose better issue in the war, from Italy
Upon the first encounter, drave them.

Ant. What worst?

Well,

Eno. What's your pleasure, sir?
Ant. I must with haste from hence.

Eno. Why, then, we kill all our women: We see how mortal an unkindness is to them; if they suffer our departure, death's the word.

Ant. I must be gone.

Eno. Under a compelling occasion, let women die: it were pity to cast them away for nothing; though, between them and a great cause, they should be esteemed nothing. Cleopatra, catching but the least noise of this, dies instantly; I have seen her die twenty times upon far poorer moment: I do think, there is mettle in death, which commits some loving act upon her, she hath such a celerity in dying.

Ant. She is cunning past man's thought.

Eno. Alack, sir, no; her passions are made of nothing but the finest part of pure love: We cannot call her winds and waters, sighs and tears; they are greater storms and tempests than almanacks can report this cannot be cunning in her; if it be, she makes a shower of rain as well as Jove.

Ant. 'Would I had never seen her!

Eno. O, sir, you had then left unseen a wonderful piece of work; which not to have been blessed withal, would have discredited your travel.

Ant. Fulvia is dead.

Eno. Sir?

Ant. Fulvia is dead.
Eno. Fulvia ?

Ant. Dead.

Eno. Why, sir, give the gods a thankful sacrifice, When it pleaseth their deities to take the wife of a man from him, it shows to man the tailors of the earth; comforting therein, that when old robes are worn out, there are members to make new. If there were no more women but Fulvia, then had you indeed a cut, and the case to be lamented; this grief is crowned with consolation; your old smock brings forth a new petticoat: and, indeed, the tears live in an onion, that should water this sorrow. Ant. The business she hath broached in the state. Cannot endure my absence.

Eno. And the business you have broached here

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