VENTIDIUS. [aside.] Oh, wheel you there?
Observe him now; the man begins to mend, And talk substantial reason.--Fear not, eunuch;The emperor has given thee leave to speak.
ALEXAS. Else had I never dared to offend his ears With what the last necessity has urged On my forsaken mistress; yet I must not Presume to say, her heart is wholly altered.
ANTONY. No, dare not for thy life, I charge thee dare not Pronounce that fatal word!
OCTAVIA. Must I bear this? Good Heaven, afford me patience.
[Aside.]
VENTIDIUS. On, sweet eunuch; my dear half-man, proceed.
ALEXAS. Yet Dolabella Has loved her long; he, next my god-like lord, Deserves her best; and should she meet his passion, Rejected, as she is, by him she loved----ANTONY. Hence from my sight! for I can bear no more:
Let furies drag thee quick to hell; let all The longer damned have rest; each torturing hand Do thou employ, till Cleopatra comes;Then join thou too, and help to torture her!
[Exit ALEXAS, thrust out by ANTONY.]
OCTAVIA. 'Tis not well.
Indeed, my lord, 'tis much unkind to me, To show this passion, this extreme concernment, For an abandoned, faithless prostitute.
ANTONY. Octavia, leave me; I am much disordered:
Leave me, I say.
OCTAVIA. My lord!
ANTONY. I bid you leave me.
VENTIDIUS. Obey him, madam: best withdraw a while, And see how this will work.
OCTAVIA. Wherein have I offended you, my lord, That I am bid to leave you? Am I false, Or infamous? Am I a Cleopatra?
Were I she, Base as she is, you would not bid me leave you;But hang upon my neck, take slight excuses, And fawn upon my falsehood.
ANTONY. 'Tis too much.
Too much, Octavia; I am pressed with sorrows Too heavy to be borne; and you add more:
I would retire, and recollect what's left Of man within, to aid me.
OCTAVIA. You would mourn, In private, for your love, who has betrayed you.
You did but half return to me: your kindness Lingered behind with her, I hear, my lord, You make conditions for her, And would include her treaty. Wondrous proofs Of love to me!
ANTONY. Are you my friend, Ventidius?
Or are you turned a Dolabella too, And let this fury loose?
VENTIDIUS. Oh, be advised, Sweet madam, and retire.
OCTAVIA. Yes, I will go; but never to return.
You shall no more be haunted with this Fury.
My lord, my lord, love will not always last, When urged with long unkindness and disdain:
Take her again, whom you prefer to me;
She stays but to be called. Poor cozened man!
Let a feigned parting give her back your heart, Which a feigned love first got; for injured me, Though my just sense of wrongs forbid my stay, My duty shall be yours.
To the dear pledges of our former love My tenderness and care shall be transferred, And they shall cheer, by turns, my widowed nights:
So, take my last farewell; for I despair To have you whole, and scorn to take you half.
[Exit.]
VENTIDIUS. I combat Heaven, which blasts my best designs;My last attempt must be to win her back;
But oh! I fear in vain.
[Exit.]
ANTONY. Why was I framed with this plain, honest heart, Which knows not to disguise its griefs and weakness, But bears its workings outward to the world?
I should have kept the mighty anguish in, And forced a smile at Cleopatra's falsehood:
Octavia had believed it, and had stayed.
But I am made a shallow-forded stream, Seen to the bottom: all my clearness scorned, And all my faults exposed.--See where he comes, Enter DOLLABELLAWho has profaned the sacred name of friend, And worn it into vileness!
With how secure a brow, and specious form, He gilds the secret villain! Sure that face Was meant for honesty; but Heaven mismatched it, And furnished treason out with nature's pomp, To make its work more easy.
DOLABELLA. O my friend!
ANTONY. Well, Dolabella, you performed my message?
DOLABELLA. I did, unwillingly.
ANTONY. Unwillingly?
Was it so hard for you to bear our parting?
You should have wished it.
DOLABELLA. Why?
ANTONY. Because you love me.
And she received my message with as true, With as unfeigned a sorrow as you brought it?
DOLABELLA. She loves you, even to madness.
ANTONY. Oh, I know it.
You, Dolabella, do not better know How much she loves me. And should IForsake this beauty? This all-perfect creature?
DOLABELLA. I could not, were she mine.
ANTONY. And yet you first Persuaded me: How come you altered since?
DOLABELLA. I said at first I was not fit to go:
I could not hear her sighs, and see her tears, But pity must prevail: And so, perhaps, It may again with you; for I have promised, That she should take her last farewell: And, see, She comes to claim my word.
Enter CLEOPATRA
ANTONY. False Dolabella!
DOLABELLA. What's false, my lord?
ANTONY. Why, Dolabella's false, And Cleopatra's false; both false and faithless.
Draw near, you well-joined wickedness, you serpents, Whom I have in my kindly bosom warmed, Till I am stung to death.
DOLABELLA. My lord, have I
Deserved to be thus used?
CLEOPATRA. Can Heaven prepare A newer torment? Can it find a curse Beyond our separation?