ANTONY. Yes, if fate Be just, much greater: Heaven should be ingenious In punishing such crimes. The rolling stone, And gnawing vulture, were slight pains, invented When Jove was young, and no examples known Of mighty ills; but you have ripened sin, To such a monstrous growth, 'twill pose the gods To find an equal torture. Two, two such!--Oh, there's no further name,--two such! to me, To me, who locked my soul within your breasts, Had no desires, no joys, no life, but you;When half the globe was mine, I gave it you In dowry with my heart; I had no use, No fruit of all, but you: A friend and mistress Was what the world could give. O Cleopatra!
O Dolabella! how could you betray This tender heart, which with an infant fondness Lay lulled betwixt your bosoms, and there slept, Secure of injured faith?
DOLABELLA. If she has wronged you, Heaven, hell, and you revenge it.
ANTONY. If she has wronged me!
Thou wouldst evade thy part of guilt; but swear Thou lov'st not her.
DOLABELLA. Not so as I love you.
ANTONY. Not so? Swear, swear, I say, thou dost not love her.
DOLABELLA. No more than friendship will allow.
ANTONY. No more?
Friendship allows thee nothing: Thou art perjured--And yet thou didst not swear thou lov'st her not;But not so much, no more. O trifling hypocrite, Who dar'st not own to her, thou dost not love, Nor own to me, thou dost! Ventidius heard it;Octavia saw it.
CLEOPATRA. They are enemies.
ANTONY. Alexas is not so: He, he confessed it;He, who, next hell, best knew it, he avowed it.
Why do I seek a proof beyond yourself?
[To DOLABELLA.]
You, whom I sent to bear my last farewell, Returned, to plead her stay.
DOLABELLA. What shall I answer?
If to have loved be guilt, then I have sinned;But if to have repented of that love Can wash away my crime, I have repented.
Yet, if I have offended past forgiveness, Let not her suffer: She is innocent.
CLEOPATRA. Ah, what will not a woman do, who loves?
What means will she refuse, to keep that heart, Where all her joys are placed? 'Twas I encouraged, 'Twas I blew up the fire that scorched his soul, To make you jealous, and by that regain you.
But all in vain; I could not counterfeit:
In spite of all the dams my love broke o'er, And drowned by heart again: fate took the occasion;And thus one minute's feigning has destroyed My whole life's truth.
ANTONY. Thin cobweb arts of falsehood;
Seen, and broke through at first.
DOLABELLA. Forgive your mistress.
CLEOPATRA. Forgive your friend.
ANTONY. You have convinced yourselves.
You plead each other's cause: What witness have you, That you but meant to raise my jealousy?
CLEOPATRA. Ourselves, and Heaven.
ANTONY. Guilt witnesses for guilt. Hence, love and friendship!
You have no longer place in human breasts, These two have driven you out: Avoid my sight!
I would not kill the man whom I have loved, And cannot hurt the woman; but avoid me:
I do not know how long I can be tame;
For, if I stay one minute more, to think How I am wronged, my justice and revenge Will cry so loud within me, that my pity Will not be heard for either.
DOLABELLA. Heaven has but Our sorrow for our sins; and then delights To pardon erring man: Sweet mercy seems Its darling attribute, which limits justice;As if there were degrees in infinite, And infinite would rather want perfection Than punish to extent.
ANTONY. I can forgive A foe; but not a mistress and a friend.
Treason is there in its most horrid shape, Where trust is greatest; and the soul resigned, Is stabbed by its own guards: I'll hear no more;Hence from my sight for ever!
CLEOPATRA. How? for ever!
I cannot go one moment from your sight, And must I go for ever?
My joys, my only joys, are centred here:
What place have I to go to? My own kingdom?
That I have lost for you: Or to the Romans?
They hate me for your sake: Or must I wander The wide world o'er, a helpless, banished woman, Banished for love of you; banished from you?
Ay, there's the banishment! Oh, hear me; hear me, With strictest justice: For I beg no favour;And if I have offended you, then kill me, But do not banish me.
ANTONY. I must not hear you.
I have a fool within me takes your part;
But honour stops my ears.
CLEOPATRA. For pity hear me!
Would you cast off a slave who followed you?
Who crouched beneath your spurn?--He has no pity!
See, if he gives one tear to my departure;One look, one kind farewell: O iron heart!
Let all the gods look down, and judge betwixt us, If he did ever love!
ANTONY. No more: Alexas!
DOLABELLA. A perjured villain!
ANTONY. [to CLEOPATRA.] Your Alexas; yours.
CLEOPATRA. Oh, 'twas his plot; his ruinous design, To engage you in my love by jealousy.
Hear him; confront him with me; let him speak.
ANTONY. I have; I have.
CLEOPATRA. And if he clear me not--
ANTONY. Your creature! one, who hangs upon your smiles!
Watches your eye, to say or to unsay, Whate'er you please! I am not to be moved.
CLEOPATRA. Then must we part? Farewell, my cruel lord!
The appearance is against me; and I go, Unjustified, for ever from your sight.
How I have loved, you know; how yet I love, My only comfort is, I know myself:
I love you more, even now you are unkind, Then when you loved me most; so well, so truly I'll never strive against it; but die pleased, To think you once were mine.
ANTONY. Good heaven, they weep at parting!
Must I weep too? that calls them innocent.
I must not weep; and yet I must, to think That I must not forgive.--Live, but live wretched; 'tis but just you should, Who made me so: Live from each other's sight:
Let me not hear you meet. Set all the earth, And all the seas, betwixt your sundered loves:
View nothing common but the sun and skies.
Now, all take several ways;
And each your own sad fate, with mine, deplore;That you were false, and I could trust no more.
[Exeunt severally.]