Antony and Cleopatra
Act III, Scene 2
Rome. An ante-chamber in Octavius Caesar’s house.
Charles Kemble as Marc Antony
d'Ash, circa 1900
- Enter Agrippa at one door, Enobarbus at another.
Agrippa
1- What, are the brothers parted?
Domitius Enobarbus
2 - 6- They have dispatch’d with Pompey, he is gone;
- The other three are sealing. Octavia weeps
- To part from Rome; Caesar is sad, and Lepidus,
- Since Pompey’s feast, as Menas says, is troubled
- With the green-sickness.
Agrippa
7- ’Tis a noble Lepidus.
Domitius Enobarbus
8- A very fine one. O, how he loves Caesar!
Agrippa
9- Nay, but how dearly he adores Mark Antony!
Domitius Enobarbus
10- Caesar? Why, he’s the Jupiter of men.
Agrippa
11- What’s Antony? The god of Jupiter.
Domitius Enobarbus
12- Spake you of Caesar? How, the nonpareil!
Agrippa
13- O Antony! O thou Arabian bird!
Domitius Enobarbus
14- Would you praise Caesar, say “Caesar,” go no further.
Agrippa
15- Indeed he plied them both with excellent praises.
Domitius Enobarbus
16 - 20- But he loves Caesar best, yet he loves Antony.
- Hoo, hearts, tongues, figures, scribes, bards, poets, cannot
- Think, speak, cast, write, sing, number, hoo!
- His love to Antony. But as for Caesar,
- Kneel down, kneel down, and wonder.
Agrippa
21- Both he loves.
Domitius Enobarbus
22 - 23- They are his shards, and he their beetle, so.
- Trumpet within.
- This is to horse. Adieu, noble Agrippa.
Agrippa
24- Good fortune, worthy soldier, and farewell.
- Enter Caesar, Antony, Lepidus, and Octavia.
Mark Antony
25- No further, sir.
Caesar
26 - 35- You take from me a great part of myself;
- Use me well in’t. Sister, prove such a wife
- As my thoughts make thee, and as my farthest band
- Shall pass on thy approof. Most noble Antony,
- Let not the piece of virtue which is set
- Betwixt us, as the cement of our love
- To keep it builded, be the ram to batter
- The fortress of it; for better might we
- Have lov’d without this mean, if on both parts
- This be not cherish’d.
Mark Antony
36 - 37- Make me not offended
- In your distrust.
Caesar
38- I have said.
Mark Antony
39 - 43- You shall not find,
- Though you be therein curious, the least cause
- For what you seem to fear. So the gods keep you,
- And make the hearts of Romans serve your ends!
- We will here part.
Caesar
44 - 46- Farewell, my dearest sister, fare thee well,
- The elements be kind to thee, and make
- Thy spirits all of comfort! Fare thee well.
Octavia
47- My noble brother!
Mark Antony
48 - 49- The April’s in her eyes, it is love’s spring,
- And these the showers to bring it on. Be cheerful.
Octavia
50- Sir, look well to my husband’s house; and—
Caesar
51 - 52- What,
- Octavia?
Octavia
53- I’ll tell you in your ear.
Mark Antony
54 - 57- Her tongue will not obey her heart, nor can
- Her heart inform her tongue—the swan’s down feather,
- That stands upon the swell at the full of tide,
- And neither way inclines.
Domitius Enobarbus
58- Aside to Agrippa.
- Will Caesar weep?
Agrippa
59- Aside to Enobarbus.
- He has a cloud in ’s face.
Domitius Enobarbus
60 - 61- Aside to Agrippa.
- He were the worse for that were he a horse;
- So is he being a man.
Agrippa
62 - 65- Aside to Enobarbus.
- Why, Enobarbus?
- When Antony found Julius Caesar dead,
- He cried almost to roaring; and he wept
- When at Philippi he found Brutus slain.
Domitius Enobarbus
66 - 68- Aside to Agrippa.
- That year indeed he was troubled with a rheum;
- What willingly he did confound he wail’d,
- Believe’t—till I weep too.
Caesar
69 - 71- No, sweet Octavia,
- You shall hear from me still; the time shall not
- Outgo my thinking on you.
Mark Antony
72 - 75- Come, sir, come,
- I’ll wrestle with you in my strength of love.
- Look, here I have you, thus I let you go,
- And give you to the gods.
Caesar
76- Adieu, be happy.
Lepidus
77 - 78- Let all the number of the stars give light
- To thy fair way.
Caesar
79- Farewell, farewell.
- Kisses Octavia.
Mark Antony
80- Farewell.
- Trumpets sound. Exeunt.