CLEOPATRA Saw you my lord?

ENOBARBUS

No, lady.

CLEOPATRA Was he not here?

CHARMIAN No, madam.

CLEOPATRA

He was disposed to mirth, but on the sudden

A Roman thought hath struck him. Enobarbus!

ENOBARBUS Madam?

CLEOPATRA

Seek him, and bring him hither. Where’s Alexas?

ALEXAS

Here at your service. My lord approaches.

Enter Antony with a Messenger

CLEOPATRA

We will not look upon him. Go with us.

Exeunt all but Antony and the Messenger

MESSENGER

Fulvia thy wife first came into the field.

ANTONY Against my brother Lucius?

MESSENGER

Ay, but soon that war had end, and the time’s state

Made friends of them, jointing their force ’gainst

Caesar,

Whose better issue in the war from Italy

Upon the first encounter drave them.

ANTONY

Well, what worst?

MESSENGER

The nature of bad news infects the teller.

ANTONY

When it concerns the fool or coward. On.

Things that are past are done. With me ’tis thus:

Who tells me true, though in his tale lie death,

I hear him as he flattered.

MESSENGER Labienus—

This is stiff news—hath with his Parthian force

Extended Asia; from Euphrates

His conquering banner shook, from Syria

To Lydia and to Ionia,

Whilst—

ANTONYAntony, thou wouldst say—

MESSENGER O, my lord!

ANTONY

Speak to me home. Mince not the general tongue.

Name Cleopatra as she is called in Rome.

Rail thou in Fulvia’s phrase, and taunt my faults

With such full licence as both truth and malice

Have power to utter. O, then we bring forth weeds

When our quick winds lie still, and our ills told us

Is as our earing. Fare thee well a while.

MESSENGER At your noble pleasure.

Exit Messenger

Enter another Messenger

ANTONY

From Sicyon, ho, the news? Speak there.

⌈SECOND MESSENGER⌉

The man from Sicyon—

⌈ANTONY⌉ Is there such a one?

⌈SECOND MESSENGER⌉

He stays upon your will.

ANTONY Let him appear.

Exit Second Messenger

These strong Egyptian fetters I must break,

Or lose myself in dotage.

Enter another Messenger with a letter

What are you?

⌈THIRD MESSENGER⌉

Fulvia thy wife is dead.

ANTONY Where died she?

THIRD MESSENGER In Sicyon.

Her length of sickness, with what else more serious

Importeth thee to know, this bears.

He gives Antony the letter

ANTONY Forbear me.

⌈Exit Third Messenger⌉

There’s a great spirit gone. Thus did I desire it.

What our contempts doth often hurl from us

We wish it ours again. The present pleasure,

By revolution low’ring, does become

The opposite of itself. She’s good being gone;

The hand could pluck her back that shoved 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⌉

ENOBARBUS

What’s your pleasure, sir?

ANTONY

I must with haste from hence.

ENOBARBUS 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.

ANTONY I must be gone.

ENOBARBUS 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.

ANTONY She is cunning past man’s thought.

ENOBARBUS 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 almanacs can report. This cannot be cunning in her; if it be, she makes a shower of rain as well as Jove.

ANTONY Would I had never seen her!

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

ANTONY Fulvia is dead.

ENOBARBUS Sir.

ANTONY Fulvia is dead.

ENOBARBUS Fulvia?

ANTONY Dead.

ENOBARBUS 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.

ANTONY

The business she hath broached in the state

Cannot endure my absence.

ENOBARBUS And the business you have broached here cannot be without you, especially that of Cleopatra’s, which wholly depends on your abode.

ANTONY

No more light answers. Let our officers

Have notice what we purpose. I shall break

The cause of our expedience to the Queen,

And get her leave to part; for not alone

The death of Fulvia, with more urgent touches,

Do strongly speak to us, but the letters too

Of many our contriving friends in Rome

Petition us at home. Sextus Pompeius

Hath given the dare to Caesar and commands

The empire of the sea. Our slippery people,

Whose love is never linked to the deserver

Till his deserts are past, begin to throw

Pompey the Great and all his dignities

Upon his son, who—high in name and power,

Higher than both in blood and life—stands up

For the main soldier; whose quality, going on,

The sides o’th’ world may danger. Much is breeding

Which, like the courser’s hair, hath yet but life,

And not a serpent’s poison. Say our pleasure,

To such whose place is under us, requires

Our quick remove from hence.