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Antony and Cleopatra: Act I, Scene 1

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Antony and Cleopatra
Act I, Scene 1

Scene 1

Alexandria. A room in Cleopatra’s palace.

  1. Enter Demetrius and Philo.

Philo

1 - 14
  1. Nay, but this dotage of our general’s
  2. O’erflows the measure. Those his goodly eyes,
  3. That o’er the files and musters of the war
  4. Have glow’d like plated Mars, now bend, now turn
  5. The office and devotion of their view
  6. Upon a tawny front; his captain’s heart,
  7. Which in the scuffles of great fights hath burst
  8. The buckles on his breast, reneges all temper,
  9. And is become the bellows and the fan
  10. To cool a gypsy’s lust.
  11. Flourish. Enter Antony, Cleopatra, her Ladies, the Train,
  12. with eunuchs fanning her.
  13.                         Look where they come!
  14. Take but good note, and you shall see in him
  15. The triple pillar of the world transform’d
  16. Into a strumpet’s fool. Behold and see.

Cleopatra

15
  1. If it be love indeed, tell me how much.

Mark Antony

16
  1. There’s beggary in the love that can be reckon’d.

Cleopatra

17
  1. I’ll set a bourn how far to be belov’d.

Mark Antony

18
  1. Then must thou needs find out new heaven, new earth.
  1. Enter First Roman Messenger.

First Roman Messenger

19
  1. News, my good lord, from Rome.

Mark Antony

20
  1.                                Grates me, the sum.

Cleopatra

21 - 26
  1. Nay, hear them, Antony.
  2. Fulvia perchance is angry; or who knows
  3. If the scarce-bearded Caesar have not sent
  4. His pow’rful mandate to you: “Do this, or this;
  5. Take in that kingdom, and enfranchise that;
  6. Perform’t, or else we damn thee.”
The Meeting of Antony and Cleopatra

The Meeting of Antony and Cleopatra

Lawrence Alma-Tadema, 1885

Mark Antony

27
  1.                                   How, my love?

Cleopatra

28 - 35
  1. Perchance? Nay, and most like.
  2. You must not stay here longer, your dismission
  3. Is come from Caesar, therefore hear it, Antony.
  4. Where’s Fulvia’s process?—Caesar’s, I would say—both?
  5. Call in the messengers. As I am Egypt’s queen,
  6. Thou blushest, Antony, and that blood of thine
  7. Is Caesar’s homager; else so thy cheek pays shame
  8. When shrill-tongu’d Fulvia scolds. The messengers!

Mark Antony

36 - 44
  1. Let Rome in Tiber melt, and the wide arch
  2. Of the rang’d empire fall! Here is my space,
  3. Kingdoms are clay; our dungy earth alike
  4. Feeds beast as man; the nobleness of life
  5. Is to do thus
  6. Embracing.
  7.               —when such a mutual pair
  8. And such a twain can do’t, in which I bind,
  9. On pain of punishment, the world to weet
  10. We stand up peerless.

Cleopatra

45 - 48
  1.                       Excellent falsehood!
  2. Why did he marry Fulvia, and not love her?
  3. I’ll seem the fool I am not. Antony
  4. Will be himself.

Mark Antony

49 - 53
  1.                  But stirr’d by Cleopatra.
  2. Now for the love of Love, and her soft hours,
  3. Let’s not confound the time with conference harsh;
  4. There’s not a minute of our lives should stretch
  5. Without some pleasure now. What sport tonight?
Antony and Cleopatra

Antony and Cleopatra

A. M. Faulkner, 1906

Cleopatra

54
  1. Hear the ambassadors.

Mark Antony

55 - 63
  1.                       Fie, wrangling queen!
  2. Whom every thing becomes—to chide, to laugh,
  3. To weep; whose every passion fully strives
  4. To make itself (in thee) fair and admir’d!
  5. No messenger but thine, and all alone,
  6. Tonight we’ll wander through the streets and note
  7. The qualities of people. Come, my queen,
  8. Last night you did desire it.
  9. To the Messenger.
  10.                               Speak not to us.
  1. Exeunt Antony and Cleopatra with the Train, followed by the
  2. Messenger.

Demetrius

64
  1. Is Caesar with Antonius priz’d so slight?

Philo

65 - 67
  1. Sir, sometimes when he is not Antony,
  2. He comes too short of that great property
  3. Which still should go with Antony.

Demetrius

68 - 71
  1.                                    I am full sorry
  2. That he approves the common liar, who
  3. Thus speaks of him at Rome; but I will hope
  4. Of better deeds tomorrow. Rest you happy!
  1. Exeunt.
The Meeting of Anthony and Cleopatra

The Meeting of Anthony and Cleopatra

Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, 1747

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