OCTAVIA. O blest hour!
DOLABELLA. O happy change!
VENTIDIUS. My joy stops at my tongue;
But it has found two channels here for one, And bubbles out above.
ANTONY. [to OCTAVIA]
This is thy triumph; lead me where thou wilt;Even to thy brother's camp.
OCTAVIA. All there are yours.
Enter ALEXAS hastily ALEXAS. The queen, my mistress, sir, and yours--ANTONY. 'Tis past.--
Octavia, you shall stay this night: To-morrow, Caesar and we are one.
[Exit leading OCTAVIA; DOLABELLA and the CHILDREN follow.]
VENTIDIUS. There's news for you; run, my officious eunuch, Be sure to be the first; haste forward:
Haste, my dear eunuch, haste.
[Exit.]
ALEXAS. This downright fighting fool, this thick-skulled hero, This blunt, unthinking instrument of death, With plain dull virtue has outgone my wit.
Pleasure forsook my earliest infancy;
The luxury of others robbed my cradle, And ravished thence the promise of a man.
Cast out from nature, disinherited Of what her meanest children claim by kind, Yet greatness kept me from contempt: that's gone.
Had Cleopatra followed my advice, Then he had been betrayed who now forsakes.
She dies for love; but she has known its joys:
Gods, is this just, that I, who know no joys, Must die, because she loves?
Enter CLEOPATRA, CHARMION, IRAS, and Train O madam, I have seen what blasts my eyes!
Octavia's here.
CLEOPATRA. Peace with that raven's note.
I know it too; and now am in The pangs of death.
ALEXAS. You are no more a queen;
Egypt is lost.
CLEOPATRA. What tell'st thou me of Egypt?
My life, my soul is lost! Octavia has him!--O fatal name to Cleopatra's love!
My kisses, my embraces now are hers;
While I--But thou hast seen my rival; speak, Does she deserve this blessing? Is she fair?
Bright as a goddess? and is all perfection Confined to her? It is. Poor I was made Of that coarse matter, which, when she was finished, The gods threw by for rubbish.
ALEXAS. She is indeed a very miracle.
CLEOPATRA. Death to my hopes, a miracle!
ALEXAS. A miracle;
[Bowing.]
I mean of goodness; for in beauty, madam, You make all wonders cease.
CLEOPATRA. I was too rash:
Take this in part of recompense. But, oh!
[Giving a ring.]
I fear thou flatterest me.
CHARMION. She comes! she's here!
IRAS. Fly, madam, Caesar's sister!
CLEOPATRA. Were she the sister of the thunderer Jove, And bore her brother's lightning in her eyes, Thus would I face my rival.
[Meets OCTAVIA with VENTIDIUS. OCTAVIA bears up to her. Their Trains come up on either side.]
OCTAVIA. I need not ask if you are Cleopatra;Your haughty carriage--
CLEOPATRA. Shows I am a queen:
Nor need I ask you, who you are.
OCTAVIA. A Roman:
A name, that makes and can unmake a queen.
CLEOPATRA. Your lord, the man who serves me, is a Roman.
OCTAVIA. He was a Roman, till he lost that name, To be a slave in Egypt; but I come To free him thence.
CLEOPATRA. Peace, peace, my lover's Juno.
When he grew weary of that household clog, He chose my easier bonds.
OCTAVIA. I wonder not Your bonds are easy: you have long been practised In that lascivious art: He's not the first For whom you spread your snares: Let Caesar witness.
CLEOPATRA. I loved not Caesar; 'twas but gratitude I paid his love: The worst your malice can, Is but to say the greatest of mankind Has been my slave. The next, but far above him In my esteem, is he whom law calls yours, But whom his love made mine.
OCTAVIA. I would view nearer.
[Coming up close to her.]
That face, which has so long usurped my right, To find the inevitable charms, that catch Mankind so sure, that ruined my dear lord.
CLEOPATRA. Oh, you do well to search; for had you known But half these charms, you had not lost his heart.
OCTAVIA. Far be their knowledge from a Roman lady, Far from a modest wife! Shame of our ***, Dost thou not blush to own those black endearments, That make sin pleasing?
CLEOPATRA. You may blush, who want them.
If bounteous nature, if indulgent Heaven Have given me charms to please the bravest man, Should I not thank them? Should I be ashamed, And not be proud? I am, that he has loved me;And, when I love not him, Heaven change this face For one like that.
OCTAVIA. Thou lov'st him not so well.
CLEOPATRA. I love him better, and deserve him more.
OCTAVIA. You do not; cannot: You have been his ruin.
Who made him cheap at Rome, but Cleopatra?
Who made him scorned abroad, but Cleopatra?
At Actium, who betrayed him? Cleopatra.
Who made his children orphans, and poor me A wretched widow? only Cleopatra.
CLEOPATRA. Yet she, who loves him best, is Cleopatra.
If you have suffered, I have suffered more.
You bear the specious title of a wife, To gild your cause, and draw the pitying world To favour it: the world condemns poor me.
For I have lost my honour, lost my fame, And stained the glory of my royal house, And all to bear the branded name of mistress.
There wants but life, and that too I would lose For him I love.
OCTAVIA. Be't so, then; take thy wish.
[Exit with her Train.]
CLEOPATRA. And 'tis my wish, Now he is lost for whom alone I lived.
My sight grows dim, and every object dances, And swims before me, in the maze of death.
My spirits, while they were opposed, kept up;They could not sink beneath a rival's scorn!
But now she's gone, they faint.
ALEXAS. Mine have had leisure To recollect their strength, and furnish counsel, To ruin her, who else must ruin you.
CLEOPATRA. Vain promiser!
Lead me, my Charmion; nay, your hand too, Iras.
My grief has weight enough to sink you both.
Conduct me to some solitary chamber, And draw the curtains round;Then leave me to myself, to take alone My fill of grief:
There I till death will his unkindness weep;As harmless infants moan themselves asleep.
[Exeunt.]