University of Virginia Library

SCENE IX.

Enobarbus enters.
Enob.
Did my lord call?

Ant.
Hast e'er a galley ready?

Enob.
Yes, as you order'd, the Antonia spreads
Her sail for Sicily.

Ant.
I'll straight aboard.

Enob.
Aboard, my lord,—whither?

Ant.
No matter,—see that all things be in readiness;
[Exit Enobarbus.
I'll follow.—
But hark!

[He re-enters.
Enob.
My lord!

Ant.
Ask not, nor answer questions by the way.
Dispatch!—
[Exit Enobarbus.
And dost thou hear?

[He returns.
Enob.
Your pleasure, sir!

Ant.
Few officers will serve—
And no leave-taking—mark you that—Away!—
[Exit.
Yet stay—If any—but it matters not.
[He returns.
Away, I say—I follow on the instant!
[Exit Enobarbus.
Yet—one departing look—to wring her heart!
Once, and no more, for ever!—Who attends?

Serv.
What would my lord?

Ant.
Haste, call me back Domitius Enobarbus!
Hold!—No—Perdition on the strumpet!
To speak, were to capitulate!—
But, O, my little play-fellows!
Must I then leave ye?

[Herald enters.
Her.

My lord, ambassadors from several eastern
satraps, and the new king of—

Ant.
Damn your ambassadors,
Kings, satraps, and their subjects, east and west.
Avoid!—
[Exit Herald.
To go, to part—to leave her here, at large,
To the high ramps and broadness of her strumpetting—
'Twill breed contagions in the very elements;
And the hot airs that shall exhale from Egypt,
Shall bear her rankness through the world.—
To kill, to cool.—Ay, that—