Act 2, Scene 5

Alexandria. A Room in the Palace.

[Enter CLEOPATRA, CHARMIAN, IRAS, ALEXAS, and Attendants.]
Cleopatra
982 Give me some music,—music, moody food
983 Of us that trade in love.
All
984 The music, ho!
[Enter MARDIAN.]
Cleopatra
985 Let it alone; let's to billiards:
986 Come, Charmian.
Charmian
987 My arm is sore; best play with Mardian.
Cleopatra
988 As well a woman with an eunuch play'd
989 As with a woman.—Come, you'll play with me, sir?
Mardian
990 As well as I can, madam.
Cleopatra
991 And when good will is show'd, though't come too short,
992 The actor may plead pardon. I'll none now:—
993 Give me mine angle,—we'll to the river. There,
994 My music playing far off, I will betray
995 Tawny-finn'd fishes; my bended hook shall pierce
996 Their slimy jaws; and as I draw them up
997 I'll think them every one an Antony,
998 And say 'Ah ha! You're caught.'
Charmian
999 'Twas merry when
1000 You wager'd on your angling; when your diver
1001 Did hang a salt fish on his hook, which he
1002 With fervency drew up.
Cleopatra
1003 That time?—O times!—
1004 I laughed him out of patience; and that night
1005 I laugh'd him into patience: and next morn,
1006 Ere the ninth hour, I drunk him to his bed;
1007 Then put my tires and mantles on him, whilst
1008 I wore his sword Philippan.
[Enter a MESSENGER.]
Cleopatra
1009 O! from Italy!—
1010 Ram thou thy fruitful tidings in mine ears,
1011 That long time have been barren.
Messenger
1012 Madam, madam,—
Cleopatra
1013 Antony's dead!—
1014 If thou say so, villain, thou kill'st thy mistress;
1015 But well and free,
1016 If thou so yield him, there is gold, and here
1017 My bluest veins to kiss,—a hand that kings
1018 Have lipp'd, and trembled kissing.
Messenger
1019 First, madam, he's well.
Cleopatra
1020 Why, there's more gold.
1021 But, sirrah, mark, we use
1022 To say the dead are well: bring it to that,
1023 The gold I give thee will I melt and pour
1024 Down thy ill-uttering throat.
Messenger
1025 Good madam, hear me.
Cleopatra
1026 Well, go to, I will;
1027 But there's no goodness in thy face: if Antony
1028 Be free and healthful,—why so tart a favour
1029 To trumpet such good tidings! If not well,
1030 Thou shouldst come like a fury crown'd with snakes,
1031 Not like a formal man.
Messenger
1032 Will't please you hear me?
Cleopatra
1033 I have a mind to strike thee ere thou speak'st:
1034 Yet, if thou say Antony lives, is well,
1035 Or friends with Caesar, or not captive to him,
1036 I'll set thee in a shower of gold, and hail
1037 Rich pearls upon thee.
Messenger
1038 Madam, he's well.
Cleopatra
1039 Well said.
Messenger
1040 And friends with Caesar.
Cleopatra
1041 Th'art an honest man.
Messenger
1042 Caesar and he are greater friends than ever.
Cleopatra
1043 Make thee a fortune from me.
Messenger
1044 But yet, madam,—
Cleopatra
1045 I do not like 'but yet', it does allay
1046 The good precedence; fie upon 'but yet'!
1047 'But yet' is as a gaoler to bring forth
1048 Some monstrous malefactor. Pr'ythee, friend,
1049 Pour out the pack of matter to mine ear,
1050 The good and bad together: he's friends with Caesar;
1051 In state of health, thou say'st; and, thou say'st, free.
Messenger
1052 Free, madam! no; I made no such report:
1053 He's bound unto Octavia.
Cleopatra
1054 For what good turn?
Messenger
1055 For the best turn i' the bed.
Cleopatra
1056 I am pale, Charmian.
Messenger
1057 Madam, he's married to Octavia.
Cleopatra
1058 The most infectious pestilence upon thee!
[Strikes him down.]
Messenger
1059 Good madam, patience.
Cleopatra
1060 What say you?—Hence,
[Strikes him again.]
Cleopatra
1061 Horrible villain! or I'll spurn thine eyes
1062 Like balls before me; I'll unhair thy head:
[She hales him up and down.]
Cleopatra
1063 Thou shalt be whipp'd with wire and stew'd in brine,
1064 Smarting in ling'ring pickle.
Messenger
1065 Gracious madam,
1066 I that do bring the news made not the match.
Cleopatra
1067 Say 'tis not so, a province I will give thee,
1068 And make thy fortunes proud: the blow thou hadst
1069 Shall make thy peace for moving me to rage;
1070 And I will boot thee with what gift beside
1071 Thy modesty can beg.
Messenger
1072 He's married, madam.
Cleopatra
1073 Rogue, thou hast liv'd too long.
[Draws a dagger.]
Messenger
1074 Nay, then I'll run.—
1075 What mean you, madam? I have made no fault.
[Exit.]
Charmian
1076 Good madam, keep yourself within yourself:
1077 The man is innocent.
Cleopatra
1078 Some innocents scape not the thunderbolt.—
1079 Melt Egypt into Nile! and kindly creatures
1080 Turn all to serpents!—Call the slave again:—
1081 Though I am mad, I will not bite him:—call!
Charmian
1082 He is afear'd to come.
Cleopatra
1083 I will not hurt him.
[Exit CHARMIAN.]
Cleopatra
1084 These hands do lack nobility, that they strike
1085 A meaner than myself; since I myself
1086 Have given myself the cause.
[Re-enter CHARMIAN and Messenger.]
Cleopatra
1087 Come hither, sir.
1088 Though it be honest, it is never good
1089 To bring bad news: give to a gracious message
1090 An host of tongues; but let ill tidings tell
1091 Themselves when they be felt.
Messenger
1092 I have done my duty.
Cleopatra
1093 Is he married?
1094 I cannot hate thee worser than I do
1095 If thou again say 'Yes.'
Messenger
1096 He's married, madam.
Cleopatra
1097 The gods confound thee! dost thou hold there still!
Messenger
1098 Should I lie, madam?
Cleopatra
1099 O, I would thou didst,
1100 So half my Egypt were submerg'd, and made
1101 A cistern for scal'd snakes! Go, get thee hence:
1102 Hadst thou Narcissus in thy face, to me
1103 Thou wouldst appear most ugly. He is married?
Messenger
1104 I crave your highness' pardon.
Cleopatra
1105 He is married?
Messenger
1106 Take no offence that I would not offend you:
1107 To punish me for what you make me do
1108 Seems much unequal: he's married to Octavia.
Cleopatra
1109 O, that his fault should make a knave of thee
1110 That art not what tho'rt sure of!—Get thee hence:
1111 The merchandise which thou hast brought from Rome
1112 Are all too dear for me: lie they upon thy hand,
1113 And be undone by 'em!
[Exit Messenger.]
Charmian
1114 Good your highness, patience.
Cleopatra
1115 In praising Antony I have disprais'd Caesar.
Charmian
1116 Many times, madam.
Cleopatra
1117 I am paid for't now.
1118 Lead me from hence;
1119 I faint:—O Iras, Charmian!—'tis no matter.—
1120 Go to the fellow, good Alexas; bid him
1121 Report the feature of Octavia, her years,
1122 Her inclination; let him not leave out
1123 The colour of her hair:—bring me word quickly.
[Exit ALEXAS.]
Cleopatra
1124 Let him for ever go:—let him not, Charmian—
1125 Though he be painted one way like a Gorgon,
1126 T'other way he's a Mars.—
[To MARDIAN]
Cleopatra
1127 Bid you Alexas
1128 Bring me word how tall she is.—Pity me, Charmian,
1129 But do not speak to me.—Lead me to my chamber.
[Exeunt.]

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Notes

TLN 982archaic vocab
“music, moody food Of us that trade in love”
Cleopatra calls music the 'moody food' of those who live in love -- that is, the nourishment that feeds and sustains a melancholy or emotionally overwrought state. 'Moody' in Elizabethan usage means given to strong, unsettled feeling, not merely sulky.
TLN 985historical topical
“let's to billiards”
Billiards was a fashionable Elizabethan parlour game played with a cue and balls on a cloth-covered table. It is an anachronism here -- the game was unknown in ancient Egypt -- but Shakespeare casually furnishes Cleopatra's palace with contemporary English leisure.
TLN 993archaic vocab
“Give me mine angle”
An 'angle' is a fishing rod and line -- from Old English 'angel,' a hook. Cleopatra asks for her fishing tackle so they can go to the Nile.
TLN 1000historical topical
“You wager'd on your angling; when your diver Did hang a salt fish on his hook”
Charmian recalls a prank: Antony and Cleopatra once made a bet on fishing, and Antony's hired diver secretly attached a dried salt-fish to his hook so that he appeared to have caught something, making the queen and her court laugh at his expense. The story comes from Plutarch and serves as part of Shakespeare's portrait of their playful rivalry.
classical Plutarch's Lives (North's Translation)
TLN 1007historical topical
“put my tires and mantles on him, whilst I wore his sword Philippan”
Cleopatra recalls dressing Antony in her 'tires' (headdresses) and 'mantles' (robes) while she put on his sword -- a reversal of gendered clothing that was a mark of intimacy and play, but also, to Roman eyes, a sign of his humiliating submission. 'Philippan' identifies the sword by the battle of Philippi (42 BCE), where Antony won his greatest military glory against the assassins of Julius Caesar.
TLN 1030classical allusion
“come like a fury crown'd with snakes, Not like a formal man”
Cleopatra invokes the Furies -- the snake-haired goddesses of vengeance from classical myth -- as the proper form for a bearer of catastrophic news. If Antony is in trouble, the messenger should look like a supernatural agent of doom, not like an ordinary ('formal') man.
TLN 1045rhetorical device
“I do not like 'but yet', it does allay The good precedence”
Cleopatra objects to the phrase 'but yet' because it qualifies (or 'allays,' meaning weakens and cancels) the good news that came before it. She personifies the phrase as a gaoler escorting a prisoner -- what follows 'but yet' is always something monstrous. The speech is an instance of antanaclasis (repeated use of a word) and a small meditation on how language signals disaster.
TLN 1063archaic vocab
“whipp'd with wire and stew'd in brine, Smarting in ling'ring pickle”
Cleopatra threatens to have the messenger whipped with metal wire (more painful than a leather strap), then soaked ('stew'd') in brine -- salt water or pickling solution -- so that the cuts would sting ('smart') prolongedly. 'Pickle' means a preserving liquid, typically brine with salt and vinegar; to be 'in pickle' is to be in a painful, difficult situation.
TLN 1102classical allusion
“Hadst thou Narcissus in thy face, to me Thou wouldst appear most ugly”
Narcissus was a youth in Greek myth so beautiful he fell in love with his own reflection and wasted away staring at it. Cleopatra tells the messenger that even if he had the face of the most beautiful man in mythology, she would still find him ugly -- because he has told her Antony is married to Octavia.
TLN 1125classical allusion
“Though he be painted one way like a Gorgon, T'other way he's a Mars”
Cleopatra describes Antony using two classical figures seen from opposite perspectives: from one angle he is a Gorgon (a hideous, monstrous face that turns viewers to stone -- specifically Medusa, the most famous of the three Gorgons) and from another he is Mars, the god of war and an ideal of masculine beauty and power. The image may refer to a perspective painting, a Renaissance trick in which a picture looked different depending on the angle of view.