University of Virginia Library

SCENE THE SECOND.

Soothsayer and Cleopatra.
Soothsayer.
Our lord Antonius wafts away all doubt
Of his success.

Cleopatra.
What! against signs and tokens?

Soothsayer.
Even so!

Cleopatra.
Perhaps he trusts himself to Hercules,
Become of late progenitor to him.

Soothsayer.
Ah! that sweet smile might bring him back; he once
Was flexible to the bland warmth of smiles.

Cleopatra.
If Hercules is hail'd by men below
For strength and goodness, why not Antony?
Why not succeed as lawful heir? why not
Exchange the myrtle for the poplar crown?

Antony enters. Soothsayer goes.
Cleopatra.
Antony! is not Cæsar now a god?

Antony.
We hear so.

Cleopatra.
Nay, we know it. Why not thou?
Men would not venture then to strike a blow
At thee: the laws declare it sacrilege.

Antony.
Julius, if I knew Julius, had been rather
First among men and last among the Gods.

Cleopatra.
At least put on thy head a kingly crown.

Antony.
I have put on a laurel one already;
As many kingly crowns as should half cover
The Lybian desert are not worth this one.

Cleopatra.
But all would bend before thee.

Antony.
'Twas the fault
Of Cæsar to adopt it; 'twas his death.

Cleopatra.
Be then what Cæsar is.
O Antony!
To laugh so loud becomes not state so high.

Antony.
He is a star, we see; so is the hair
Of Berenice: stars and Gods are rife.
What worth, my love, are crowns? Thou givest pearls,
I give the circlet that encloses them.
Handmaidens don such gear, and valets snatch it
Sportively off, and toss it back again.

Cleopatra.
But graver men gaze up with awful eyes.

Antony.
And never gaze at that artificer,
Who turns his heel and fashions out his vase
From the Nile clay! 'Tis easy work for him;
Easy was mine to turn forth kings from stuff
As vile and ductile: he still plies his trade,
But mine, with all my customers, is gone.
Ever by me let enemies be awed,
None else: bring round me many, near me few,
Keeping afar those shaven knaves obscene
Who lord it with humility, who press
Men's shoulders down, glue their two hands together,
And cut a cubit off, and tuck their heels
Against the cushion mother Nature gave.

Cleopatra.
Incomprehensible! incorrigible!
O wretch! if queens were ever taught to blush,
I should at such unseemly phrase as thine.
I think I must forgive it.
What! and take
Before I grant? Again! You violent man!
Will you for ever drive me thus away?