Antony and Cleopatra
Act III, Scene 11
Alexandria. Cleopatra’s palace.
O my lord, my lord,
Forgive my fearful sails! I little thought
You would have followed.
From: Cassell's Illustrated Shakespeare
Charles Cowden Clarke, Mary Cowden Clarke, 1866
- Enter Antony with Attendants.
Mark Antony
1 - 6- Hark, the land bids me tread no more upon’t,
- It is asham’d to bear me. Friends, come hither:
- I am so lated in the world, that I
- Have lost my way forever. I have a ship
- Laden with gold, take that, divide it; fly,
- And make your peace with Caesar.
All Antony’s Attendants
7- Fly? Not we.
Mark Antony
8 - 25- I have fled myself, and have instructed cowards
- To run and show their shoulders. Friends, be gone,
- I have myself resolv’d upon a course
- Which has no need of you. Be gone.
- My treasure’s in the harbor; take it. O,
- I follow’d that I blush to look upon.
- My very hairs do mutiny; for the white
- Reprove the brown for rashness, and they them
- For fear and doting. Friends, be gone, you shall
- Have letters from me to some friends that will
- Sweep your way for you. Pray you look not sad,
- Nor make replies of loathness; take the hint
- Which my despair proclaims: let that be left
- Which leaves itself. To the sea-side straightway;
- I will possess you of that ship and treasure.
- Leave me, I pray, a little; pray you now,
- Nay, do so; for indeed I have lost command,
- Therefore I pray you. I’ll see you by and by.
- Sits down.
- Enter Cleopatra led by Charmian and Eros, Iras following.
Eros
26- Nay, gentle madam, to him, comfort him.
Iras
27- Do, most dear Queen.
Charmian
28- Do? Why, what else?
Cleopatra
29- Let me sit down. O Juno!
Mark Antony
30- No, no, no, no, no.
Eros
31- See you here, sir?
Mark Antony
32- O fie, fie, fie!
Charmian
33- Madam!
Iras
34- Madam, O good Empress!
Eros
35- Sir, sir!
Mark Antony
36 - 41- Yes, my lord, yes; he at Philippi kept
- His sword e’en like a dancer, while I struck
- The lean and wrinkled Cassius, and ’twas I
- That the mad Brutus ended. He alone
- Dealt on lieutenantry, and no practice had
- In the brave squares of war; yet now—No matter.
Cleopatra
42- Ah, stand by.
Fall not a tear, I say
Antony & Cleopatra
Georg Goldberg, Petter & Galpin Cassell, Francis Bernard Dicksee, late 19th century
Eros
43- The Queen, my lord, the Queen.
Iras
44 - 45- Go to him, madam, speak to him,
- He’s unqualited with very shame.
Cleopatra
46- Well then, sustain me. O!
Eros
47 - 49- Most noble sir, arise, the Queen approaches.
- Her head’s declin’d, and death will seize her, but
- Your comfort makes the rescue.
Mark Antony
50 - 51- I have offended reputation,
- A most unnoble swerving.
Eros
52- Sir, the Queen.
Mark Antony
53 - 56- O, whither hast thou led me, Egypt? See
- How I convey my shame out of thine eyes
- By looking back what I have left behind
- ’Stroy’d in dishonor.
Cleopatra
57 - 59- O my lord, my lord,
- Forgive my fearful sails! I little thought
- You would have followed.
Mark Antony
60 - 65- Egypt, thou knew’st too well
- My heart was to thy rudder tied by th’ strings,
- And thou shouldst tow me after. O’er my spirit
- Thy full supremacy thou knew’st, and that
- Thy beck might from the bidding of the gods
- Command me.
Cleopatra
66- O, my pardon!
Mark Antony
67 - 74- Now I must
- To the young man send humble treaties, dodge
- And palter in the shifts of lowness, who
- With half the bulk o’ th’ world play’d as I pleas’d,
- Making and marring fortunes. You did know
- How much you were my conqueror, and that
- My sword, made weak by my affection, would
- Obey it on all cause.
Cleopatra
75- Pardon, pardon!
Mark Antony
76 - 81- Fall not a tear, I say, one of them rates
- All that is won and lost. Give me a kiss.
- Even this repays me. We sent our schoolmaster,
- Is ’a come back? Love, I am full of lead.
- Some wine, within there, and our viands! Fortune knows
- We scorn her most when most she offers blows.
- Exeunt.