Antony and Cleopatra
Act III, Scene 10
Another part of the plain near Actium.
Titus Statilius Taurus
Guillaume Rouille, 1553
- Canidius marcheth with his land army one way over the stage,
- and Taurus, the lieutenant of Caesar, the other way. After
- their going in, is heard the noise of a sea-fight.
- Alarum. Enter Enobarbus.
Domitius Enobarbus
1 - 4- Naught, naught, all naught! I can behold no longer.
- Th’ Antoniad, the Egyptian admiral,
- With all their sixty, fly and turn the rudder.
- To see’t mine eyes are blasted.
- Enter Scarus.
Scarus
5 - 6- Gods and goddesses,
- All the whole synod of them!
Domitius Enobarbus
7- What’s thy passion?
Scarus
8 - 10- The greater cantle of the world is lost
- With very ignorance, we have kiss’d away
- Kingdoms and provinces.
Domitius Enobarbus
11- How appears the fight?
Scarus
12 - 18- On our side like the token’d pestilence,
- Where death is sure. Yon ribaudred nag of Egypt
- (Whom leprosy o’ertake!) i’ th’ midst o’ th’ fight,
- When vantage like a pair of twins appear’d,
- Both as the same, or rather ours the elder—
- The breeze upon her, like a cow in June—
- Hoists sails and flies.
Domitius Enobarbus
19 - 21- That I beheld.
- Mine eyes did sicken at the sight and could not
- Endure a further view.
Scarus
22 - 28- She once being loof’d,
- The noble ruin of her magic, Antony,
- Claps on his sea-wing, and (like a doting mallard),
- Leaving the fight in height, flies after her.
- I never saw an action of such shame;
- Experience, manhood, honor, ne’er before
- Did violate so itself.
Domitius Enobarbus
29- Alack, alack!
- Enter Canidius.
Canidius
30 - 34- Our fortune on the sea is out of breath,
- And sinks most lamentably. Had our general
- Been what he knew himself, it had gone well.
- O, he has given example for our flight,
- Most grossly, by his own!
Domitius Enobarbus
35 - 36- Ay, are you thereabouts?
- Why then good night indeed.
Canidius
37- Toward Peloponnesus are they fled.
Scarus
38 - 39- ’Tis easy to’t, and there I will attend
- What further comes.
Canidius
40 - 42- To Caesar will I render
- My legions and my horse: six kings already
- Show me the way of yielding.
Domitius Enobarbus
43 - 45- I’ll yet follow
- The wounded chance of Antony, though my reason
- Sits in the wind against me.
- Exeunt severally.