University of Virginia Library

SCENE VII.

Charmian enters with Alexander and Cleopatra.
They run to them.
Cleo.
Will you not kiss your play-fellows, my Antony?
One parting farewell from your Cyprian Queen,
And little Macedonian?—Come, my prattlers,
Help me to hold a truant husband here!

Alex.

We'll warrant you, mother.—Do you go
on one side, Patty, and I'll keep on t'other; and,
if he offers to stir, we'll hang to him like a pair of
bobbins.

Ant.
Oh!—if there are fathers here—
They will excuse me!

Cleo.
There bind him fast, and chain me down this Mars,
Even with the links of his paternal love,
Forged on the vital anvil of his heart!

Ant.
Shame, shame on manhood!—infants overmatch
The force of Antony.

Cleo.
Why shame, great sir?
Were you the Jove, and seated on Olympus,
Could your Latona bring to your embraces,
A brighter pair than these?

Ant.
No!—Ye are all my pride, and all my empire!
Demetrius, flout not at a soldier's feelings.
'Tis such a love, as I do bear to these,
That binds the world together.—But O, my Queen,
Our world is rent thereby—we have loved away
Kingdoms and provinces; and now the spot
I press, is haply all that's left on earth
Of Antony's domain!

Trumpets sound, Eros enters.
Eros.

Tidings, great emperor!—
Your lieutenant, Sossius, has reduced the two
kingdoms of Iberia and Albania to your obedience,
and sends you the crown'd heads of the two revolted
monarchs.

Ant.

Then we are still a king!

Trumpets. Scarus enters.
Scar.

Tidings, most mighty Antony!—Your
lieutenant, Canidius, has recovered all Armenia;
and sends, to adorn your triumph, their boasted monarch,
the haughty Artuasdes, with one thousand
of his nobles, in chains of gold.

Trumpets. Three Messengers enter.
1st Mess.
Hail, emperor! the traitor Labienus,
With his apostate host of recreant Romans,
Lies in the field of death.—So sends Ventidius.

2d Mess.
Hail, glory of the Roman name!—Pacorus
Takes his last sleep in Syria, and the ghost
Of Crassus is appeas'd. So sends Ventidius.

3d Mess.
Hail, sovereign of the earth!—We bring, from Parthia,
Rome's captive honours, and her drooping eagles,
With twenty scepter'd hands, in golden shackles,
And half the treasures of the gorgeous East.
This sends the great Ventidius.

Ant.
So—fortune's in the mood to save us trouble,
And leaves but little of the world to win.—
Proclaim for Sossius and Canidius, each,
Through Alexandria, a three days ovation!
But, for Ventidius, a full jubilee,
And triumph of a moon!—To all our friends
We destine realms, rich tracts, and fair domains;
To all our servants gifts; to all our slaves
Enfranchisement.

Cleo.
The Jove of affluent heaven
Alone can match the bounty of our emperor,
His substitute on earth!

Ant.
High in the center of the market-place,
Set me two thrones of gold, where we may crown
This sun and moon, our son and daughter here,
Twin emblems of the two bright luminaries,
That light the world.—
Our Alexander here, we do create
King of Armenia, Media, and Phænice,
And Cœlosyria.
Our filial Cleopatra here, we crown
Queen of the blest Arabia, breathing odours;
And of the Cytherean isle of Cyprus,
Devote and sacred to the power of beauty.

Cleo.
Let heralds trumpet, through the lands of Egypt,
That, for the space of one and thirty days,
All occupation cease: during that term,
I feast the nation.

Ant.
Demetrius, does your purpose bend to Rome,
Or would you stay, and share our power in Egypt?

Dem.
My noble lord, I am, as you were, once,
My country's property—I must to Rome.

Ant.
Should you e'er seek a friend, look on this toy—
It will instruct your search!

[Gives a jewel.
Dem.
Most bounteous Antony!
May I be warranted, without offence,
To tell you bold, but wholesome tidings?

Ant.
Speak!—
It were a task, at such a time as this,
To put us to ill temper.

Dem.
Your colleague, Cæsar, and the senate, talk
Of citing you to Rome; and, on refusal,
To vote you shorn of all your governments,
And the arch enemy of the state.

Ant.
Cite me?—The foe they vote me, they shall find me.
Should your grey beards presume to scan my conduct,
I shall not fear, no more than Julius did,
To pass the Rubicon—So tell the boy Octavius.
When Rome shall dare to whisper such a sentence.
Expect me at your gates!

[Exeunt.