CLEOPATRA
Caesar’s will?
THIDIAS
Hear it apart.
CLEOPATRA
None but friends; say boldly.
THIDIAS
So haply are they friends to Antony.
ENOBARBUS
He needs as many, sir, as Caesar has,
Or needs not us. If Caesar please, our master
Will leap to be his friend. For us, you know,
Whose he is, we are: and that is Caesar’s.
THIDIAS
So. (To Cleopatra) Thus, then, thou most renowned:
Caesar entreats
Not to consider in what case thou stand’st
Further than he is Caesar.
CLEOPATRA
Go on; right royal.
THIDIAS
He knows that you embraced not Antony
As you did love, but as you feared him.
CLEOPATRA 0.
THIDIAS
The scars upon your honour therefore he
Does pity as constrained blemishes,
Not as deserved.
CLEOPATRA
He is a god, and knows
What is most right. Mine honour was not yielded,
But conquered merely.
ENOBARBUS (aside)
To be sure of that
I will ask Antony. Sir, sir, thou art so leaky
That we must leave thee to thy sinking, for
Thy dearest quit thee.
Exit
THIDIAS
Shall I say to Caesar
What you require of him?—For he partly begs
To be desired to give. It much would please him
That of his fortunes you should make a staff
To lean upon. But it would warm his spirits
To hear from me you had left Antony,
And put your self under his shroud,
The universal landlord.
CLEOPATRA
What’s your name?
THIDIAS
My name is Thidias.
CLEOPATRA
Most kind messenger,
Say to great Caesar this in deputation:
I kiss his conqu’ring hand. Tell him I am prompt
To lay my crown at’s feet, and there to kneel
Till from his all-obeying breath I hear
The doom of Egypt.
THIDIAS
’Tis your noblest course.
Wisdom and fortune combating together,
If that the former dare but what it can,
No chance may shake it. Give me grace to lay
My duty on your hand.
He kisses Cleopatra’s hand
CLEOPATRA
Your Caesar’s father oft,
When he hath mused of taking kingdoms in,
Bestowed his lips on that unworthy place,
As it rained kisses.
Enter Antony and Enobarbus
ANTONY
Favours, by Jove that thunders!
What art thou, fellow?
THIDIAS
One that but performs
The bidding of the fullest man, and worthiest
To have command obeyed.
ENOBARBUS
You will be whipped.
ANTONY (calling)
Approach, there!—Ah, you kite! Now, gods and
devils,
Authority melts from me of late. When I cried ‘Ho!’,
Like boys unto a muss kings would start forth,
And cry ‘Your will?’—Have you no ears? I am
Antony yet.
Enter servants
Take hence this jack, and whip him.
ENOBARBUS ⌈aside to Thidias⌉
’Tis better playing with a lion’s whelp
Than with an old one dying.
ANTONY
Moon and stars!
Whip him! Were’t twenty of the greatest tributaries
That do acknowledge Caesar, should I find them
So saucy with the hand of she here—what’s her name
Since she was Cleopatra? Whip him, fellows,
Till like a boy you see him cringe his face,
And whine aloud for mercy. Take him hence.
THIDIAS
Mark Antony—
ANTONY
Tug him away. Being whipped,
Bring him again. This jack of Caesar’s shall
Bear us an errand to him.
Exeunt servants with Thidias
You were half blasted ere I knew you. Ha,
Have I my pillow left unpressed in Rome,
Forborne the getting of a lawful race,
And by a gem of women, to be abused
By one that looks on feeders?
CLEOPATRA Good my lord—
ANTONY You have been a boggler ever.
But when we in our viciousness grow hard—
O misery on’t!—the wise gods seel our eyes,
In our own filth drop our clear judgements, make us
Adore our errors, laugh at’s while we strut
To our confusion.
CLEOPATRA
O, is’t come to this?
ANTONY
I found you as a morsel cold upon
Dead Caesar’s trencher; nay, you were a fragment
Of Gnaeus Pompey’s, besides what hotter hours
Unregistered in vulgar fame you have
Luxuriously picked out. For I am sure,
Though you can guess what temperance should be,
You know not what it is.
CLEOPATRA
Wherefore is this?
ANTONY
To let a fellow that will take rewards
And say ’God quit you’ be familiar with
My playfellow your hand, this kingly seal
And plighter of high hearts! O that I were
Upon the hill of Basan to outroar
The hornèd herd! For I have savage cause,
And to proclaim it civilly were like
A haltered neck which does the hangman thank
For being yare about him.
Enter a Servant with Thidias
Is he whipped?
SERVANT Soundly, my lord.
ANTONY Cried he, and begged a pardon?
SERVANT He did ask favour.
ANTONY (to Thidias)
If that thy father live, let him repent
Thou wast not made his daughter; and be thou sorry
To follow Caesar in his triumph, since
Thou hast been whipped for following him. Henceforth
The white hand of a lady fever thee,
Shake thou to look on’t. Get thee back to Caesar;
Tell him thy entertainment. Look thou say
He makes me angry with him, for he seems
Proud and disdainful, harping on what I am,