ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA. ACT THE FIRST. SCENE I. Alexandria. A Room in Cleopatra's Palace. Enter Thyreus and DOLABELLA; sent from CÆSAR. Upon a tawny front.—Look, where they come. Flourish. Enter Antony, Cleopatra, and their Take but good note, and you shall see in him Cleo. If it be love, indeed, tell me how much. Cleo. I'll set a bourn how far to be belov'd. Ant. Then must thou needs find out new heaven, new earth. Enter an Attendant. Attcn. News, my good lord, from Rome. Ant. It grates me. Cleo. Nay, hear them, Antony: Fulvia, perchance, is angry: Or, who knows Ant. How, my love? Cleo. Perchance! nay, and most like :— Call in the messengers.—As I am Egypt's queen, Cleo. Excellent falshood! Why did he marry Fulvia, and not love her?— Will be himself. Ant. But, stirr'd by Cleopatra,— Now for the love of love, and his soft hours; Let's not confound the time with conference harsh : There's not a minute of our lives would stretch Without some pleasure now: What sport to-night? Cleo. Hear the ambassadors. Ant. Fie, wrangling queen! Whom every thing becomes—to chide, to laugh, [Exeunt Antony, Cleopatra, and Trains. Dol. Triumphant lady!—Fame, I see, is true. Thyr. Too true: since she first met Mark Antony Upon the river Cydnus, he has been hers. Dol. There she appear'd indeed; or my reporter Devis'd well for her. Thyr. I will tell you, sir. The barge she sat in, like a burnish'd throne, The winds were love-sick with them: the oars were silver; Which to the tune of flutes kept stroke, and made In her pavilion (cloth of gold, of tissue), The fancy outwork nature; on each side her Dol. O, rare for Antony! Thyr. Her gentlewomen, like the Nereids, So many mermaids, tended her i'the eyes, And made their bends adornings: at the helm A seeming mermaid steers; the silken tackle Swells with the touches of those flower-soft hands, That yarely frame the office. From the barge, |