Act 1, Scene 3

Alexandria. A Room in CLEOPATRA'S palace.

[Enter CLEOPATRA, CHARMIAN, IRAS, and ALEXAS.]
Cleopatra
263 Where is he?
Charmian
264 I did not see him since.
Cleopatra
265 See where he is, who's with him, what he does:—
266 I did not send you:—if you find him sad,
267 Say I am dancing; if in mirth, report
268 That I am sudden sick: quick, and return.
[Exit ALEXAS.]
Charmian
269 Madam, methinks, if you did love him dearly,
270 You do not hold the method to enforce
271 The like from him.
Cleopatra
272 What should I do, I do not?
Charmian
273 In each thing give him way; cross him in nothing.
Cleopatra
274 Thou teachest like a fool,—the way to lose him.
Charmian
275 Tempt him not so too far; I wish, forbear;
276 In time we hate that which we often fear.
277 But here comes Antony.
[Enter ANTONY.]
Cleopatra
278 I am sick and sullen.
Mark Antony
279 I am sorry to give breathing to my purpose,—
Cleopatra
280 Help me away, dear Charmian; I shall fall;
281 It cannot be thus long, the sides of nature
282 Will not sustain it.
Mark Antony
283 Now, my dearest queen,—
Cleopatra
284 Pray you, stand farther from me.
Mark Antony
285 What's the matter?
Cleopatra
286 I know by that same eye there's some good news.
287 What says the married woman?—You may go.
288 Would she had never given you leave to come!
289 Let her not say 'tis I that keep you here,—
290 I have no power upon you; hers you are.
Mark Antony
291 The gods best know,—
Cleopatra
292 O, never was there queen
293 So mightily betray'd! Yet at the first
294 I saw the treasons planted.
Mark Antony
295 Cleopatra,—
Cleopatra
296 Why should I think you can be mine and true,
297 Though you in swearing shake the throned gods,
298 Who have been false to Fulvia? Riotous madness,
299 To be entangled with those mouth-made vows,
300 Which break themselves in swearing!
Mark Antony
301 Most sweet queen,—
Cleopatra
302 Nay, pray you, seek no colour for your going,
303 But bid farewell, and go: when you su'd staying,
304 Then was the time for words: no going then;—
305 Eternity was in our lips and eyes,
306 Bliss in our brows' bent; none our parts so poor
307 But was a race of heaven: they are so still,
308 Or thou, the greatest soldier of the world,
309 Art turn'd the greatest liar.
Mark Antony
310 How now, lady!
Cleopatra
311 I would I had thy inches; thou shouldst know
312 There were a heart in Egypt.
Mark Antony
313 Hear me, queen:
314 The strong necessity of time commands
315 Our services awhile; but my full heart
316 Remains in use with you. Our Italy
317 Shines o'er with civil swords: Sextus Pompeius
318 Makes his approaches to the port of Rome;
319 Equality of two domestic powers
320 Breed scrupulous faction: the hated, grown to strength,
321 Are newly grown to love: the condemn'd Pompey,
322 Rich in his father's honour, creeps apace
323 Into the hearts of such as have not thriv'd
324 Upon the present state, whose numbers threaten;
325 And quietness, grown sick of rest, would purge
326 By any desperate change. My more particular,
327 And that which most with you should safe my going,
328 Is Fulvia's death.
Cleopatra
329 Though age from folly could not give me freedom,
330 It does from childishness:—can Fulvia die?
Mark Antony
331 She's dead, my queen.
332 Look here, and, at thy sovereign leisure, read
333 The garboils she awak'd; at the last, best.
334 See when and where she died.
Cleopatra
335 O most false love!
336 Where be the sacred vials thou shouldst fill
337 With sorrowful water? Now I see, I see,
338 In Fulvia's death how mine receiv'd shall be.
Mark Antony
339 Quarrel no more, but be prepar'd to know
340 The purposes I bear; which are, or cease,
341 As you shall give theadvice. By the fire
342 That quickens Nilus' slime, I go from hence
343 Thy soldier, servant, making peace or war
344 As thou affect'st.
Cleopatra
345 Cut my lace, Charmian, come;—
346 But let it be: I am quickly ill and well,
347 So Antony loves.
Mark Antony
348 My precious queen, forbear;
349 And give true evidence to his love, which stands
350 An honourable trial.
Cleopatra
351 So Fulvia told me.
352 I pr'ythee, turn aside and weep for her;
353 Then bid adieu to me, and say the tears
354 Belong to Egypt: good now, play one scene
355 Of excellent dissembling; and let it look
356 Like perfect honour.
Mark Antony
357 You'll heat my blood: no more.
Cleopatra
358 You can do better yet; but this is meetly.
Mark Antony
359 Now, by my sword,—
Cleopatra
360 And target.—Still he mends;
361 But this is not the best:—look, pr'ythee, Charmian,
362 How this Herculean Roman does become
363 The carriage of his chafe.
Mark Antony
364 I'll leave you, lady.
Cleopatra
365 Courteous lord, one word.
366 Sir, you and I must part,—but that's not it;
367 Sir, you and I have lov'd,—but there's not it;
368 That you know well: something it is I would,—
369 O, my oblivion is a very Antony,
370 And I am all forgotten.
Mark Antony
371 But that your royalty
372 Holds idleness your subject, I should take you
373 For idleness itself.
Cleopatra
374 'Tis sweating labour
375 To bear such idleness so near the heart
376 As Cleopatra this. But, sir, forgive me;
377 Since my becomings kill me, when they do not
378 Eye well to you: your honour calls you hence;
379 Therefore be deaf to my unpitied folly,
380 And all the gods go with you! upon your sword
381 Sit laurel victory! and smooth success
382 Be strew'd before your feet!
Mark Antony
383 Let us go. Come;
384 Our separation so abides, and flies,
385 That thou, residing here, goes yet with me,
386 And I, hence fleeting, here remain with thee.
387 Away!
[Exeunt.]

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Notes

TLN 266rhetorical device
“if you find him sad, Say I am dancing”
Cleopatra instructs Charmian to spy on Antony and report back with a contradictory story: if he looks sad, tell him she is dancing; if he seems cheerful, tell him she is sick. This deliberate, calculated inconsistency is a tactic to keep him off balance and emotionally focused on her rather than on Rome.
classical Plutarch's Lives (North's Translation)
TLN 276rhetorical device
“In time we hate that which we often fear”
Charmian offers a sententious maxim — a compressed general truth — to warn Cleopatra: excessive possessiveness creates fear in the beloved, and fear eventually curdles into hatred. The rhyming couplet gives the line the feel of a proverb used to close an argument.
TLN 297rhetorical device
“shake the throned gods, Who have been false to Fulvia”
Cleopatra uses hyperbole and a logical trap in the same breath: Antony can swear oaths powerful enough to shake the gods on their thrones, yet even that cannot make his vows credible, since he has already broken his oaths to Fulvia, his first Roman wife. 'Mouth-made vows' are oaths spoken with the lips only, not felt in the heart.
TLN 305rhetorical device
“Eternity was in our lips and eyes, Bliss in our brows' bent; none our parts so poor But was a race of heaven”
Cleopatra claims that in the height of their love every part of their two bodies, no matter how minor, was a 'race of heaven' — a breed or lineage of the divine, a piece of eternity. 'Brows' bent' means the arch of the brow; 'race' is used in the sense of family stock, implying their love was of divine descent.
TLN 311archaic vocab
“I would I had thy inches; thou shouldst know There were a heart in Egypt”
Cleopatra says she wishes she were as tall and physically imposing as Antony; if she were, he would feel how much courage and feeling ('heart') there is in Egypt. 'Inches' simply means height or physical stature. She addresses him as 'Egypt' stands for herself — as she is often called in the play.
TLN 317historical topical
“Sextus Pompeius Makes his approaches to the port of Rome”
Sextus Pompeius — the young Pompey — was the son of Pompey the Great, Rome's greatest general before Julius Caesar, who was defeated and killed in 48 BCE. The young Sextus has inherited his father's name and popular support, and commands a powerful fleet that is blockading or threatening Rome's harbours. He is a character in the play; his famous dead father is a separate figure.
historical The Second Triumvirate
TLN 341classical allusion
“By the fire That quickens Nilus' slime”
Antony swears by the sun's warmth ('fire') that animates the mud ('slime') of the Nile, from which life was believed to spontaneously generate — a famous ancient theory. The ancient Egyptians and Greeks believed that when the Nile flooded and then receded, leaving behind rich black silt, the sun's heat caused living creatures to breed directly from the mud.
historical The Ptolemies and Egypt
TLN 345historical topical
“Cut my lace, Charmian, come”
Cleopatra calls for the lace of her bodice or stays to be cut, a conventional signal of being overcome with emotion — the tightening of laced clothing was thought to restrict breathing and cause faintness. Whether she is genuinely feeling faint or performing distress to regain Antony's attention, the gesture itself is theatrical.
TLN 362classical allusion
“this Herculean Roman does become The carriage of his chafe”
Cleopatra calls Antony 'Herculean' because he was believed to be a descendant of Hercules, the greatest hero of classical myth — and because his physical power and fierce temper match the god. 'Carriage of his chafe' means the bearing or manner of his anger. She is mocking him to Charmian even as he storms off: look how well this great hero wears his rage.
classical Hercules and his labours
TLN 377archaic vocab
“my becomings kill me, when they do not Eye well to you”
'Becomings' is a rare Shakespearean noun meaning the qualities, graces, or behaviors that suit or become a person. Cleopatra is saying: my own characteristic ways — my moods, my performances, my arts — are destroying me when they fail to please you or look well in your eyes. The word occurs nowhere else in the canon.
TLN 380historical topical
“upon your sword Sit laurel victory”
Cleopatra blesses Antony with a wish that the laurel wreath of Roman victory — the crown awarded to a triumphant general — may perch on his very sword. The laurel wreath was the specific emblem of military triumph in Rome; victorious commanders and emperors were depicted wearing it.
historical The Roman Triumph