Oth.

O the pernicious caitiff!

I found it in my chamber:

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How came you, Cassio, by that handkerchief

That was my wife's?

Cas.
And he himself confess'd but even now
That there he dropp'd it for a special purpose
Which wrought to his desire.

Oth.
O fool! fool! fool!
Cas. There is besides in Roderigo's letter,
How he upbraids Iago, that he made him
Brave me upon the watch; whereon it came
That I was cast: and even but now he spake,
After long seeming dead, Iago hurt him,

Iago set him on.

Lod. You must forsake this room, and go with us: Your power and your command is taken off,

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And Cassio rules in Cyprus. For this slave,

If there be any cunning cruelty

That can torment him much and hold him long,
It shall be his. You shall close prisoner rest,

Till that the nature of your fault be known

To the Venetian state. Come, bring him away.
Oth. Soft you; a word or two before you go.

I have done the state some service, and they know't.

No more of that. I pray you, in your letters,
When you shall these unlucky deeds relate,
Speak of me as I am; nothing extenuate,

Nor set down aught in malice: then must you speak

Of one that loved not wisely but too well;

Of one not easily jealous, but being wrought

Perplex'd in the extreme; of one whose hand,
Like the base Indian, threw a pearl away

Richer than all his tribe; of one whose subdued eyes,
Albeit unused to the melting mood,

Drop tears as fast as the Arabian trees

Their medicinal gum. Set you down this;

And say besides, that in Aleppo once,

Where a malignant and a turban'd Turk
Beat a Venetian and traduced the state,

I took by the throat the circumcised dog,
And smote him, thus.

Lod. O bloody period!

Gra.

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350

[Stabs himself.

All that's spoke is marr'd.
Oth. I kiss'd thee ere I kill'd thee: no way but this;
Killing myself, to die upon a kiss.

[Falls on the bed, and dies.

Cas. This did I fear, but thought he had no weapon; For he was great of heart.

Lod.

[To Lago] O Spartan dog,

More fell than anguish, hunger, or the sea!
Look on the tragic loading of this bed;
This is thy work: the object poisons sight;
Let it be hid. Gratiano, keep the house,
And seize upon the fortunes of the Moor,

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For they succeed on you. To you, lord governor,
Remains the censure of this hellish villain;

The time, the place, the torture O, enforce it!
Myself will straight abroad; and to the state
This heavy act with heavy heart relate.

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MENECRATES,
VARRIUS,

friends to Cæsar.

TAURUS, lieutenant-general to
Cæsar.

CANIDIUS, lieutenant-general to
Antony.

SILIUS, an officer in Ventidius's
army.

EUPHRONIUS, an ambassador from

Antony to Cæsar.

ALEXAS,

MARDIAN, a Eunuch,
SELEUCUS,

DIOMEDES,

A Soothsayer.

A Clown.

attendants

on Cleo.

patra.

CLEOPATRA, queen of Egypt.

OCTAVIA, Sister to Cæsar and wife

to Antony.

CHARMIAN, attendants on Cleo

IRAS,

friends to
Pompey.

patra.

Officers. Soldiers, Messengers, and other Attendants.

SCENE: In several parts of the Roman empire.

ACT I.

SCENE I. Alexandria. A room in Cleopatra's palace. Enter DEMETRIUS and PHILO.

Phi. Nay, but this dotage of our general's

O'erflows the measure: those his goodly eyes,

That o'er the files and musters of the war

Have glow'd like plated Mars, now bend, now turn,
The office and devotion of their view

Upon a tawny front: his captain's heart,

Which in the scuffles of great fights hath burst
The buckles on his breast, reneges all temper,
And is become the bellows and the fan

To cool a gipsy's lust.

Flourish.

Enter ANTONY, CLEOPATRA, her Ladies, the
Train, with Eunuchs fanning her.

Look, where they come:
Take but good note, and you shall see in him
The triple pillar of the world transform'd
Into a strumpet's fool: behold and see.

Cleo. If it be love indeed, tell me how much.

Ant. There's beggary in the love that can be reckon'd. Cleo. I'll set a bourn how far to be beloved.

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Ant. Then must thou needs find out new heaven, new earth.

Enter an Attendant.

Att. News, my good lord, from Rome.
Ant.

Cleo. Nay, hear them, Antony:

Grates me. the sum.

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Fulvia perchance is angry; or, who knows

If the scarce-bearded Cæsar have not sent

His powerful mandate to you, "Do this, or this;
Take in that kingdom, and enfranchise that;
Perform't, or else we damn thee."

Ant.

How, my love!
Cleo. Perchance! nay, and most like.

You must not stay here longer, your dismission
Is come from Cæsar; therefore hear it, Antony.

Where's Fulvia's process? Cæsar's I would say? both?
Call in the messengers. As I am Egypt's queen,
Thou blushest, Antony; and that blood of thine
Is Cæsar's homager: else so thy cheek pays shame
When shrill-tongued Fulvia scolds. The messengers!
Ant. Let Rome in Tiber melt, and the wide arch
Of the ranged empire fall! Here is my space.
Kingdoms are clay: our dungy earth alike
Feeds beast as man: the nobleness of life
Is to do thus; when such a mutual pair
And such a twain can do't, in which I bind,
On pain of punishment, the world to weet
We stand up peerless.

Cleo.
Excellent falsehood!
Why did he marry Fulvia, and not love her?
I'll seem the fool I am not; Antony

Will be himself.

Ant.

But stirr'd by Cleopatra.

[Embracing.

Now, for the love of Love and her soft hours,
Let's not confound the time with conference harsh:
There's not a minute of our lives should stretch
Without some pleasure now. What sport to-night?

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Cleo. Hear the ambassadors.
Ant.
Fie, wrangling queen!
Whom every thing becomes, to chide, to laugh,

To weep; whose every passion fully strives
To make itself, in thee, fair and admired!
No messenger, but thine; and all alone
To-night we'll wander through the streets and note
The qualities of people. Come, my queen;
Last night you did desire it. speak not to us.

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[Exeunt Ant. and Cleo. with their train. Dem. Is Cæsar with Antonius prized so slight? Phi. Sir, sometimes, when he is not Antony, He comes too short of that great property Which still should go with Antony.

Dem.

I am full sorry
That he approves the common liar, who

Thus speaks of him at Rome: but I will hope
Of better deeds to-morrow. Rest you happy!

SCENE II. The same. Another room.

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[Exeunt.

Enter CHARMIAN, IRAS, ALEXAS, and a Soothsayer. Char. Lord Alexas, sweet Alexas, most any thing Alexas, almost most absolute Alexas, where's the soothsayer that you praised so to the queen? O, that I knew this husband, which, you say, must charge his horns with garlands!

Alex. Soothsayer!

Sooth. Your will?

Char. Is this the man? Is't you, sir, that know things? Sooth. In nature's infinite book of secrecy

A little I can read.

Eno. Bring in the banquet quickly; wine enough

Cleopatra's health to drink.

Char. Good sir, give me good fortune.

Sooth, I make not, but foresee.

Char. Pray, then, foresee me one.

Sooth. You shall be yet far fairer than you are.
Char. He means in flesh.

Iras. No, you shall paint when you are old.

Char, Wrinkles forbid!

Alex. Vex not his prescience; be attentive.
Char. Hush!

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