(Which never shall be found) you did suspect

She had disposed with Cæsar, and that your rage Would not be purged, she sent you word she was dead:

But, fearing since how it might work, hath sent
Me to proclaim the truth; and I am come,
I dread, too late.

Ant. Too late, good Diomed.-Call my guard,
I pr'y thee.

Dio. What, ho! the emperor's guard! The guard! what, ho!

Come your lord calls.

Enter some of the Guard.

Ant. Bear me good friends, where Cleopatra bides:

"T is the last service that I shall command you.

Char. Be comforted, dear madam.
Cleo. No, I will not:

All strange and terrible events are welcome;
But comforts we despise: our size of sorrow,
Proportioned to our cause, must be as great

Enter DIOMEDES.

As that which makes it.-How now; is he dead?
Dio. His death 's upon him, but not dead.
Look out o' the other side your monument;
His guard have brought him hither.

Enter ANTONY, borne by the Guard.
Cleo.

O sun, Burn the great sphere thou mov'st in! darkling stand

The varying shore o' the world!-O Antony!
Antony, Antony!-Charmian, help; help, Iras;
Help, friends below: let 's draw him hither.
Ant.
Peace:

Not Cæsar's valour hath o'erthrown Antony;
But Antony's hath triumphed on itself.

Cleo. So it should be, that none but Antony
Should conquer Antony: but woe 't is so!
Ant. I am dying, Egypt, dying: only
I here impórtune death awhile, until
Of many thousand kisses the poor last
I lay upon thy lips.

Cleo.

I dare not, dear

(Dear my lord, pardon); I dare not,
Lest I be taken. Not the imperious show
Of the full-fortuned Cæsar ever shall

Be brooched with me: ifknife, drugs, serpents, have
Edge, sting, or operation, I am safe :
Your wife Octavia, with her modest eyes
And still conclusion, shall acquire no honour
Demurring upon me.-But come, come, Antony :-
Help me, my women,—we must draw thee up :-
Assist, good friends.

Ant.

O quick, or I am gone.

Cleo. Here's sport indeed!-How heavy weighs my lord!

Our strength is all gone into heaviness:
That makes the weight!-Had I great Juno's power,
The strong-winged Mercury should fetch thee up,
And set thee by Jove's side. Yet come a little :-
Wishers were ever fools:-O, come, come, come;
[They draw ANTONY up.
And welcome, welcome! die where thou hast lived:
Quicken with kissing: had my lips that power,
Thus would I wear them out.

To my countryman:-a Roman, by a Roman
Valiantly vanquished. Now my spirit is going!
I can no more.
[Dies.

Cleo.

Noblest of men, woo't die? Hast thou no care of me? shall I abide In this dull world, which in thy absence is No better than a sty?-O see, my women, The crown o' the earth doth melt!-My lord!O, withered is the garland of the war; The soldier's pole is fallen: young boys and girls Are level now with men: the odds is gone, And there is nothing left remarkable Beneath the visiting moon!

Char. O, quietness, lady!

[She faints.

Iras. She is dead too, our sovereign. Char. Lady!

Iras. Madam!

Char. O madam, madam, madam!
Iras. Royal Egypt! Empress!
Char. Peace, peace, Iras.

Cleo. No more, but e'en a woman! and commanded

By such poor passion as the maid that milks,
And does the meanest chares.-It were for me
To throw my sceptre at the injurious gods,
To tell them that this world did equal theirs
Till they had stolen our jewel. All's but naught:
Patience is sottish, and impatience does
Become a dog that's mad: then is it sin
To rush into the secret house of death,
Ere death dare come to us?-How do you, women?
What, what? good cheer! Why, how now,

Charmian?

My noble girls!—Ah, women, women! look,
Our lamp is spent; it's out.-Good sirs, take
heart.-
[To the Guard below.
We'll bury him: and then, what 's brave, what 's
noble,

Let's do it after the high Roman fashion,
And make death proud to take us. Come, away:
This case of that huge spirit now is cold.
Ah, women, women! come: we have no friend
But resolution and the briefest end.

[Exeunt; those above bearing off ANTONY's body.

Marc Antony I served, who best was worthy
Best to be served: whilst he stood up and spoke
He was my master, and I wore my life
To spend upon his haters. If thou please
To take me to thee, as I was to him
I'll be to Cæsar: if thou pleasest not,

I yield thee up my life.

Caes. What is 't thou sayst?

Der. I say, O Cæsar, Antony is dead.
Cæs. The breaking of so great a thing should
make

A greater crack: the round world
Should have shook lions into civil streets,
And citizens to their dens. The death of Antony
Is not a single doom: in the name lay

A moiety of the world.

Der. He is dead, Cæsar;

Not by a public minister of justice,
Nor by a hired knife: but that self hand
Which writ his honour in the acts it did,

Hath, with the courage which the heart did lend it,
Splitted the heart. This is his sword;

I robbed his wound of it: behold it stained With his most noble blood.

Cæs.

Look you sad, friends? The gods rebuke me, but it is tidings To wash the eyes of kings.

And strange it is

Agr. That nature must compel us to lament Our most persisted deeds.

Mec.

His taints and honours

Waged equal with him.

Agr.

A rarer spirit never

Did steer humanity: but you, gods, will give us Some faults will make us men.-Cæsar is touched. [Aside.

Mec. When such a spacious mirror's set before

I have followed thee to this!-But we do lance
Diseases in our bodies: I must perforce
Have shewn to thee such a declining day,
Or look on thine; we could not stall together
In the whole world: but yet let me lament,
With tears as sovereign as the blood of hearts,
That thou, my brother, my competitor
In top of all design, my mate in empire,
Friend and companion in the front of war,
The arm of mine own body, and the heart
Where mine his thoughts did kindle,-that our stars
Unreconcileable, should divide

Our equalness to this.-Hear me, good friends,-
But I will tell you at some meeter season:

Enter a Messenger.

The business of this man looks out of him; We'll hear him what he says.-Whence are you?

Mess. A poor Egyptian yet. The queen my mistress,

Confined in all she has (her monument),

Of thy intents desires instruction :

That she preparédly may frame herself
To the way she 's forced to.

Cæs.

Bid her have good heart :

She soon shall know of us, by some of ours,
How honourable and how kindly we
Determine for her: for Cæsar cannot live
To be ungentle.

Mess. So the gods preserve thee! [Exit.
Cas. Come hither, Proculeius: go, and say
We purpose her no shame: give her what comforts
The quality of her passion shall require;
Lest, in her greatness, by some mortal stroke
She do defeat us: for her life in Rome
Would be eternal in our triumph. Go;
And, with your speediest, bring us what she says,
And how you find of her.

Pro. Cæsar, I shall. [Exit PROCULEIUS. Cæs. Gallus, go you along.-Where's Dolabella, To second Proculeius? [Exit GALLUS.

Enter CLEOPATRA, CHARMIAN, and IRAS. Cleo. My desolation does begin to make A better life. Tis paltry to be Cæsar: Not being fortune, he's but fortune's knave; A minister of her will. And it is great To do that thing that ends all other deeds; Which shackles accidents, and bolts up change; Which sleeps, and never palates more the dung, The beggar's nurse and Cæsar's.

Enter, to the gates of the Monument, PROCULEIUS, GALLUS, and Soldiers.

Pro. Cæsar sends greeting to the Queen of
Egypt;

And bids thee study on what fair demands
Thou mean'st to have him grant thee.

Cleo. [within].

What's thy name? Pro. My name is Proculeius.

Cleo. [within].

Antony

Did tell me of you, bade me trust you: but

I am his fortune's vassal, and I send him
The greatness he has got. I hourly learn
A doctrine of obedience, and would gladly
Look him i' the face.

Pro. This I'll report, dear lady.
Have comfort; for I know your plight is pitied
Of him that caused it.

Gal. You see how easily she may be surprised.[PROCULEIUS and two of the Guard enter the Monument by a ladder placed against a window, and come behind CLEOPATRA. Others unbar and open the gates. Guard her till Cæsar come. Iras. Royal queen!

[Exit GALLUS.

Char. O Cleopatra, thou art taken, queen! Cleo. Quick, quick, good hands!

[Draws a dagger. Pro. Hold, worthy lady, hold! [Disarms her. Do not yourself such wrong, who are in this Relieved, but not betrayed. What, of death too, That rids our dogs of languish? Cleopatra,

Cleo.

Pro.

Do not abuse my master's bounty by
The undoing of yourself: let the world see
His nobleness well acted, which your death
Will never let come forth.

Cleo. Where art thou, death?
Come hither, come! come, come, and take a queen
Worth many babes and beggars!

Dol.

Most sovereign creature,—

Cleo. His legs bestrid the ocean: his reared arm Crested the world: his voice was propertied As all the tunéd spheres, and that to friends; But when he meant to quail and shake the orb, He was a rattling thunder. For his bounty, There was no winter in 't; an autumn 't was, That grew the more by reaping his delights Were dolphin-like; they shewed his back above The element they lived in: in his livery Walked crowns and crownets; realms and islands were

As plates dropped from his pocket.

Dol.

Cleopatra,

Know you what Cæsar means to do with me? Dol. I am loth to tell you what I would you knew.

Cleo. Nay, pray you, sir,—

Dol. Though he be honourable,

Cleo. He'll lead me, then, in triumph?

Dol. Madam, he will: I know it.
Within. Make way there :-Cæsar!

Enter CESAR, GALLUS, PROCULEIUS, MECENAS,
SELEUCUS, and Attendants.

Cas. Which is the Queen of Egypt?
Dol. It is the emperor, madam.

[CLEOPATRA kneels.

A benefit in this change: but if you seek
To lay on me a cruelty, by taking
Antony's course, you shall bereave yourself
Of my good purposes, and put your children
To that destruction which I'll guard them from
If thereon you rely. I'll take my leave.

Cleo. And may through all the world: 't is yours; and we,

Your 'scutcheons and your signs of conquest,

shall