Act 3, Scene 13

Alexandria. A Room in the Palace.

[Enter CLEOPATRA, ENOBARBUS, CHARMIAN, and IRAS.]
Cleopatra
2080 What shall we do, Enobarbus?
Enobarbus
2081 Think, and die.
Cleopatra
2082 Is Antony or we in fault for this?
Enobarbus
2083 Antony only, that would make his will
2084 Lord of his reason. What though you fled
2085 From that great face of war, whose several ranges
2086 Frighted each other? why should he follow?
2087 The itch of his affection should not then
2088 Have nick'd his captainship; at such a point,
2089 When half to half the world oppos'd, he being
2090 The mered question; 'twas a shame no less
2091 Than was his loss, to course your flying flags
2092 And leave his navy gazing.
Cleopatra
2093 Pr'ythee, peace.
[Enter ANTONY, with EUPHRONIUS.]
Mark Antony
2094 Is that his answer?
Euphronius (the Ambassador)
2095 Ay, my lord.
Mark Antony
2096 The queen shall then have courtesy, so she
2097 Will yield us up.
Euphronius (the Ambassador)
2098 He says so.
Mark Antony
2099 Let her know't.—
2100 To the boy Caesar send this grizzled head,
2101 And he will fill thy wishes to the brim
2102 With principalities.
Cleopatra
2103 That head, my lord?
Mark Antony
2104 To him again: tell him he wears the rose
2105 Of youth upon him; from which the world should note
2106 Something particular: his coins, ships, legions,
2107 May be a coward's; whose ministers would prevail
2108 Under the service of a child as soon
2109 As i' the command of Caesar: I dare him therefore
2110 To lay his gay comparisons apart,
2111 And answer me declin'd, sword against sword,
2112 Ourselves alone. I'll write it: follow me.
[Exeunt ANTONY and EUPHRONIUS.]
Euphronius (the Ambassador)
2113 Yes, like enough high-battled Caesar will
2114 Unstate his happiness, and be stag'd to the show
2115 Against a sworder.—I see men's judgments are
2116 A parcel of their fortunes; and things outward
2117 Do draw the inward quality after them,
2118 To suffer all alike. That he should dream,
2119 Knowing all measures, the full Caesar will
2120 Answer his emptiness!—Caesar, thou hast subdu'd
2121 His judgment too.
[Enter an Attendant.]
Attendant
2122 A messenger from Caesar.
Cleopatra
2123 What, no more ceremony?—See, my women!—
2124 Against the blown rose may they stop their nose
2125 That kneel'd unto the buds.—Admit him, sir.
[Exit Attendant.]
[Aside.]
Enobarbus
2126 Mine honesty and I begin to square.
2127 The loyalty well held to fools does make
2128 Our faith mere folly:—yet he that can endure
2129 To follow with allegiance a fallen lord
2130 Does conquer him that did his master conquer,
2131 And earns a place i' the story.
[Enter THYREUS.]
Cleopatra
2132 Caesar's will?
Thyreus
2133 Hear it apart.
Cleopatra
2134 None but friends: say boldly.
Thyreus
2135 So, haply, are they friends to Antony.
Enobarbus
2136 He needs as many, sir, as Caesar has;
2137 Or needs not us. If Caesar please, our master
2138 Will leap to be his friend: for us, you know
2139 Whose he is we are, and that is Caesar's.
Thyreus
2140 So.—
2141 Thus then, thou most renown'd: Caesar entreats
2142 Not to consider in what case thou stand'st
2143 Further than he is Caesar.
Cleopatra
2144 Go on: right royal.
Thyreus
2145 He knows that you embrace not Antony
2146 As you did love, but as you fear'd him.
Cleopatra
2147 O!
Thyreus
2148 The scars upon your honour, therefore, he
2149 Does pity, as constrained blemishes,
2150 Not as deserv'd.
Cleopatra
2151 He is a god, and knows
2152 What is most right: mine honour was not yielded,
2153 But conquer'd merely.
[Aside.]
Enobarbus
2154 To be sure of that,
2155 I will ask Antony.—Sir, sir, thou art so leaky
2156 That we must leave thee to thy sinking, for
2157 Thy dearest quit thee.
[Exit.]
Thyreus
2158 Shall I say to Caesar
2159 What you require of him? for he partly begs
2160 To be desir'd to give. It much would please him
2161 That of his fortunes you should make a staff
2162 To lean upon: but it would warm his spirits
2163 To hear from me you had left Antony,
2164 And put yourself under his shroud, who is
2165 The universal landlord.
Cleopatra
2166 What's your name?
Thyreus
2167 My name is Thyreus.
Cleopatra
2168 Most kind messenger,
2169 Say to great Caesar this:—in deputation
2170 I kiss his conquring hand: tell him I am prompt
2171 To lay my crown at's feet, and there to kneel:
2172 Tell him, from his all-obeying breath I hear
2173 The doom of Egypt.
Thyreus
2174 'Tis your noblest course.
2175 Wisdom and fortune combating together,
2176 If that the former dare but what it can,
2177 No chance may shake it. Give me grace to lay
2178 My duty on your hand.
Cleopatra
2179 Your Caesar's father
2180 Oft, when he hath mus'd of taking kingdoms in,
2181 Bestow'd his lips on that unworthy place,
2182 As it rain'd kisses.
[Re-enter ANTONY and ENOBARBUS.]
Mark Antony
2183 Favours, by Jove that thunders!—
2184 What art thou, fellow?
Thyreus
2185 One that but performs
2186 The bidding of the fullest man, and worthiest
2187 To have command obey'd.
[Aside.]
Enobarbus
2188 You will be whipp'd.
Mark Antony
2189 Approach there.—Ah, you kite!—Now, gods and devils!
2190 Authority melts from me: of late, when I cried 'Ho!'
2191 Like boys unto a muss, kings would start forth
2192 And cry 'Your will?' Have you no ears? I am
2193 Antony yet.
[Enter Attendants.]
Mark Antony
2194 Take hence this Jack and whip him.
Enobarbus
2195 'Tis better playing with a lion's whelp
2196 Than with an old one dying.
Mark Antony
2197 Moon and stars!
2198 Whip him.—Were't twenty of the greatest tributaries
2199 That do acknowledge Caesar, should I find them
2200 So saucy with the hand of she here,—what's her name
2201 Since she was Cleopatra?—Whip him, fellows,
2202 Till like a boy you see him cringe his face,
2203 And whine aloud for mercy: take him hence.
Thyreus
2204 Mark Antony,—
Mark Antony
2205 Tug him away: being whipp'd,
2206 Bring him again.—This Jack of Caesar's shall
2207 Bear us an errand to him.—
[Exeunt Attendants with THYREUS.]
Mark Antony
2208 You were half blasted ere I knew you.—Ha!
2209 Have I my pillow left unpress'd in Rome,
2210 Forborne the getting of a lawful race,
2211 And by a gem of women, to be abus'd
2212 By one that looks on feeders?
Cleopatra
2213 Good my lord,—
Mark Antony
2214 You have been a boggler ever:—
2215 But when we in our viciousness grow hard,—
2216 O misery on't!—the wise gods seal our eyes;
2217 In our own filth drop our clear judgments: make us
2218 Adore our errors; laugh at's while we strut
2219 To our confusion.
Cleopatra
2220 O, is't come to this?
Mark Antony
2221 I found you as a morsel cold upon
2222 Dead Caesar's trencher; nay, you were a fragment
2223 Of Cneius Pompey's; besides what hotter hours,
2224 Unregist'red in vulgar fame, you have
2225 Luxuriously pick'd out:—for I am sure,
2226 Though you can guess what temperance should be,
2227 You know not what it is.
Cleopatra
2228 Wherefore is this?
Mark Antony
2229 To let a fellow that will take rewards,
2230 And say 'God quit you!' be familiar with
2231 My playfellow, your hand; this kingly seal
2232 And plighter of high hearts!—O that I were
2233 Upon the hill of Basan, to outroar
2234 The horned herd! for I have savage cause;
2235 And to proclaim it civilly were like
2236 A halter'd neck which does the hangman thank
2237 For being yare about him.
[Re-enter Attendants with THYREUS.]
Mark Antony
2238 Is he whipp'd?
First Attendant
2239 Soundly, my lord.
Mark Antony
2240 Cried he? and begg'd he pardon?
First Attendant
2241 He did ask favour.
Mark Antony
2242 If that thy father live, let him repent
2243 Thou wast not made his daughter; and be thou sorry
2244 To follow Caesar in his triumph, since
2245 Thou hast been whipp'd for following him: henceforth
2246 The white hand of a lady fever thee,
2247 Shake thou to look on't.—Get thee back to Caesar;
2248 Tell him thy entertainment: look thou say
2249 He makes me angry with him; for he seems
2250 Proud and disdainful, harping on what I am,
2251 Not what he knew I was: he makes me angry;
2252 And at this time most easy 'tis to do't,
2253 When my good stars, that were my former guides,
2254 Have empty left their orbs, and shot their fires
2255 Into the abysm of hell. If he mislike
2256 My speech and what is done, tell him he has
2257 Hipparchus, my enfranched bondman, whom
2258 He may at pleasure, whip, or hang, or torture,
2259 As he shall like, to quit me: urge it thou:
2260 Hence with thy stripes, be gone.
[Exit THYREUS.]
Cleopatra
2261 Have you done yet?
Mark Antony
2262 Alack, our terrene moon
2263 Is now eclips'd, and it portends alone
2264 The fall of Antony!
Cleopatra
2265 I must stay his time.
Mark Antony
2266 To flatter Caesar, would you mingle eyes
2267 With one that ties his points?
Cleopatra
2268 Not know me yet?
Mark Antony
2269 Cold-hearted toward me?
Cleopatra
2270 Ah, dear, if I be so,
2271 From my cold heart let heaven engender hail,
2272 And poison it in the source; and the first stone
2273 Drop in my neck: as it determines, so
2274 Dissolve my life! The next Caesarion smite!
2275 Till, by degrees, the memory of my womb,
2276 Together with my brave Egyptians all,
2277 By the discandying of this pelleted storm,
2278 Lie graveless,—till the flies and gnats of Nile
2279 Have buried them for prey!
Mark Antony
2280 I am satisfied.
2281 Caesar sits down in Alexandria; where
2282 I will oppose his fate. Our force by land
2283 Hath nobly held: our sever'd navy to
2284 Have knit again, and fleet, threat'ning most sea-like.
2285 Where hast thou been, my heart?—Dost thou hear, lady?
2286 If from the field I shall return once more
2287 To kiss these lips, I will appear in blood:
2288 I and my sword will earn our chronicle:
2289 There's hope in't yet.
Cleopatra
2290 That's my brave lord!
Mark Antony
2291 I will be treble-sinew'd, hearted, breath'd,
2292 And fight maliciously: for when mine hours
2293 Were nice and lucky, men did ransom lives
2294 Of me for jests; but now I'll set my teeth,
2295 And send to darkness all that stop me.—Come,
2296 Let's have one other gaudy night: call to me
2297 All my sad captains; fill our bowls; once more
2298 Let's mock the midnight bell.
Cleopatra
2299 It is my birthday.
2300 I had thought t'have held it poor; but since my lord
2301 Is Antony again I will be Cleopatra.
Mark Antony
2302 We will yet do well.
Cleopatra
2303 Call all his noble captains to my lord.
Mark Antony
2304 Do so; we'll speak to them: and to-night I'll force
2305 The wine peep through their scars.—Come on, my queen;
2306 There's sap in't yet. The next time I do fight
2307 I'll make death love me; for I will contend
2308 Even with his pestilent scythe.
[Exeunt all but ENOBARBUS.]
Enobarbus
2309 Now he'll outstare the lightning. To be furious
2310 Is to be frighted out of fear; and in that mood
2311 The dove will peck the estridge; and I see still
2312 A diminution in our captain's brain
2313 Restores his heart: when valour preys on reason,
2314 It eats the sword it fights with. I will seek
2315 Some way to leave him.
[Exit.]

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Notes

TLN 2081rhetorical device
“Think, and die.”
Enobarbus's brutal two-word answer compresses the scene's dilemma: the only logical conclusion of thinking through their ruined position is that death follows. The blunt aphorism strips away any comforting evasion.
TLN 2083archaic vocab
“would make his will / Lord of his reason”
'Will' here means desire or appetite, not a legal testament. Enobarbus argues that Antony's fault was letting personal desire ('his will') override military judgment ('his reason') — choosing to follow Cleopatra at Actium rather than command his fleet.
TLN 2087archaic vocab
“itch of his affection should not then / Have nick'd his captainship”
'Nick'd' means notched or cut into — as in nicking a score on a tally-stick — but carries the stronger sense of ruined or nullified. Enobarbus says Antony's sexual craving ('itch of his affection') should not have been allowed to slice into and destroy his command skills at the critical moment.
TLN 2089archaic vocab
“half to half the world oppos'd, he being / The mered question”
'Mered' (from 'mere,' a boundary) means sole or purely undivided. 'The mered question' means Antony was the entire, undivided issue of the conflict — all that was truly at stake, the single point around which the whole world-war turned.
historical The Battle of Actium
TLN 2100historical topical
“boy Caesar”
Antony dismisses Octavius Caesar as a 'boy' — Octavius was in his early thirties at this point, but Antony is older, a veteran soldier, and uses the term contemptuously to attack his rival's inexperience. This is Octavius Caesar (the future emperor Augustus), not the dead Julius Caesar.
historical The Second Triumvirate
TLN 2110archaic vocab
“lay his gay comparisons apart, / And answer me declin'd”
'Gay comparisons' means showy advantages — Octavius's superior numbers, his fleet, his officers. Antony dares him to set all those aside. 'Declin'd' means in decline or fallen from one's peak; Antony acknowledges he is no longer at his height but challenges Caesar to face him on equal, man-to-man terms anyway.
TLN 2113rhetorical device
“high-battled Caesar will / Unstate his happiness, and be stag'd to the show / Against a sworder”
Enobarbus speaks this aside dripping with sarcasm. 'High-battled' means one who commands great armies. He says it is laughable to imagine that a man who controls such forces would throw away his advantage ('unstate his happiness') to fight one-on-one in a public spectacle ('be stag'd to the show') against a swordsman ('sworder,' a duellist or gladiator).
TLN 2124rhetorical device
“Against the blown rose may they stop their nose / That kneel'd unto the buds”
Cleopatra compares herself to a fully open ('blown') rose — past its peak — and bitterly observes that those who flattered and kneeled to her when she was a bud now turn away their noses from her. The image captures her awareness of how quickly favor deserts the powerful when they lose.
TLN 2126archaic vocab
“Mine honesty and I begin to square.”
'Square' means to quarrel or fall out. Enobarbus says that his sense of personal honor ('honesty') and his actual conduct are starting to conflict — he is beginning to consider betraying Antony, and his conscience is resisting. The aside marks the beginning of his decision to desert.
TLN 2141syntax grammar
“thou most renown'd: Caesar entreats / Not to consider in what case thou stand'st / Further than he is Caesar”
Thyreus's phrasing is diplomatically tangled: 'not to consider... further than he is Caesar' means Octavius Caesar asks Cleopatra not to dwell on her circumstances beyond the simple fact that it is Caesar (all-powerful, merciful) she is dealing with. He presents his master's authority as itself the answer to her problem, bypassing any explicit demand.
TLN 2151historical topical
“He is a god, and knows / What is most right: mine honour was not yielded, / But conquer'd merely”
Cleopatra tells Thyreus that she submits not out of willingness but because she was 'merely' (purely, entirely) conquered — her honor was taken by force, not given. She simultaneously flatters Octavius Caesar as godlike and builds a legal-diplomatic defense: she is a victim, not a traitor.
TLN 2179historical topical
“Your Caesar's father / Oft, when he hath mus'd of taking kingdoms in, / Bestow'd his lips on that unworthy place, / As it rain'd kisses”
Cleopatra tells Caesar's messenger Thyreus that Julius Caesar — Octavius Caesar's adoptive father — often kissed her hand when he was dreaming of conquest. She is not referring to Octavius (the man in the scene) but to the dead Julius Caesar, her former lover. The scene marks Thyreus's attempt to kiss her hand as something she endured from a far greater man.
historical The Second Triumvirate
TLN 2183classical allusion
“Favours, by Jove that thunders!”
Antony bursts in swearing by Jove (Jupiter), king of the Roman gods and the god of thunder and lightning. The oath is fittingly Roman and violent: Jove's thunderbolt was how he punished the presumptuous. Antony invokes the highest Roman deity at the moment he discovers Thyreus about to kiss Cleopatra's hand.
TLN 2189archaic vocab
“Ah, you kite!”
A 'kite' was a common scavenger bird (the red kite), associated with theft and feeding on carrion. Antony hurls it at Thyreus as a term of contempt — a low creature that steals what it can from others' carcasses. The insult fits: Thyreus has come to pick off Cleopatra from the ruins of Antony's cause.
TLN 2191archaic vocab
“Like boys unto a muss”
A 'muss' was a children's game in which coins or small objects were thrown down in a scatter for players to scramble and grab. Antony recalls how kings would come running at his call like boys diving for scattered coins — now no one answers. The image captures his lost authority through a childhood game.
TLN 2221historical topical
“I found you as a morsel cold upon / Dead Caesar's trencher; nay, you were a fragment / Of Cneius Pompey's”
Antony, in his jealous fury, reduces Cleopatra to a leftover on the dinner-plates of past lovers. 'Dead Caesar' is the assassinated Julius Caesar — Cleopatra's former lover, not Octavius. 'Cneius Pompey' is Gnaeus Pompey, the eldest son of Pompey the Great, who was also reported to have been involved with Cleopatra. A 'trencher' is a wooden plate or platter.
historical Pompey the Great
TLN 2233biblical allusion
“Upon the hill of Basan, to outroar / The horned herd! for I have savage cause”
Bashan (spelled 'Basan' in the Geneva Bible) was a fertile plateau east of the Jordan famous for its strong, well-fed bulls. Psalm 22 uses 'many bulls of Basan' as an image of enemies surrounding the sufferer. Antony wishes he could bellow louder than this whole herd of horned beasts — partly because 'horned' carries the double meaning of a cuckolded husband.
TLN 2262cultural context
“our terrene moon / Is now eclips'd, and it portends alone / The fall of Antony”
Antony addresses Cleopatra as 'our terrene moon' — the earthly moon, as opposed to the celestial one. A lunar eclipse was held to be a dire omen foretelling catastrophe for kings. By casting himself as the moon's subject, he acknowledges that his fate is tied to Cleopatra, and an eclipse of her favor portends his own ruin.
classical Cleopatra as the goddess Isis
TLN 2267archaic vocab
“one that ties his points”
'Points' were the laced ties that fastened a man's doublet (jacket) to his hose (trousers) in Elizabethan dress. Someone who 'ties his points' is a menial body-servant — a dresser or lackey. Antony accuses Cleopatra of flirting with one of Caesar's most trivial attendants.
TLN 2271rhetorical device
“let heaven engender hail, / And poison it in the source; and the first stone / Drop in my neck”
Cleopatra calls down a curse on herself as proof of her loyalty: if her heart is cold toward Antony, let heaven breed hailstones from it, poison them at their source in her heart, and let the first stone fall on her own neck. The oath escalates into a self-destruction prayer that extends to her children and her people.
TLN 2274historical topical
“The next Caesarion smite!”
Caesarion ('little Caesar') was the name of Cleopatra's son by Julius Caesar — not Octavius Caesar. He was about thirteen years old at this point in the play's action. Cleopatra invokes him as the ultimate measure of her sincerity: she would rather have hail destroy her own son than be false to Antony.
TLN 2307cultural context
“I'll make death love me; for I will contend / Even with his pestilent scythe”
Antony personifies Death as a figure armed with a scythe — the medieval and Renaissance image of Death the Reaper who cuts down all lives. He resolves to fight so ferociously that even Death will admire him. 'Pestilent' means plague-bearing; Death's scythe was imagined as carrying pestilence as well as cutting men down.
TLN 2311archaic vocab
“The dove will peck the estridge”
An 'estridge' is an ostrich (sometimes also used for a goshawk in this period). Enobarbus uses a proverb: when a person is 'frighted out of fear' — transported into a beyond-fear recklessness by rage — even the gentlest creature (the dove) will attack the fiercest (the ostrich or hawk). He is describing Antony's newly manic bravery as the courage of a creature that has passed through terror into something beyond normal calculation.
TLN 2313rhetorical device
“when valour preys on reason, / It eats the sword it fights with. I will seek / Some way to leave him.”
Enobarbus closes the scene with a vivid paradox: when courage feeds on (destroys) reason, it devours the very instrument — rational judgment — that makes courage effective. A fearless man without judgment is self-destructive. This is his final verdict on Antony, and his decision to desert follows immediately.