All For Love [35]
cries,--He's betrayed. Should he now find you--
ALEXAS. Shun him; seek your safety, Till you can clear your innocence.
CLEOPATRA. I'll stay.
ALEXAS. You must not; haste you to your monument, While I make speed to Caesar.
CLEOPATRA. Caesar! No, I have no business with him.
ALEXAS. I can work him To spare your life, and let this madman perish.
CLEOPATRA. Base fawning wretch! wouldst thou betray him too? Hence from my sight! I will not hear a traitor; 'Twas thy design brought all this ruin on us.-- Serapion, thou art honest; counsel me: But haste, each moment's precious.
SERAPION. Retire; you must not yet see Antony. He who began this mischief, 'Tis just he tempt the danger; let him clear you: And, since he offered you his servile tongue, To gain a poor precarious life from Caesar, Let him expose that fawning eloquence, And speak to Antony.
ALEXAS. O heavens! I dare not; I meet my certain death.
CLEOPATRA. Slave, thou deservest it.-- Not that I fear my lord, will I avoid him; I know him noble: when he banished me, And thought me false, he scorned to take my life; But I'll be justified, and then die with him.
ALEXAS. O pity me, and let me follow you.
CLEOPATRA. To death, if thou stir hence. Speak, if thou canst, Now for thy life, which basely thou wouldst save; While mine I prize at--this! Come, good Serapion. [Exeunt CLEOPATRA, SERAPION, CHARMION, and IRAS.]
ALEXAS. O that I less could fear to lose this being, Which, like a snowball in my coward hand, The more 'tis grasped, the faster melts away. Poor reason! what a wretched aid art thou! For still, in spite of thee, These two long lovers, soul and body, dread Their final separation. Let me think: What can I say, to save myself from death? No matter what becomes of Cleopatra.
ANTONY. Which way? where? [Within.]
VENTIDIUS. This leads to the monument. [Within.]
ALEXAS. Ah me! I hear him; yet I'm unprepared: My gift of lying's gone; And this court-devil, which I so oft have raised, Forsakes me at my need. I dare not stay; Yet cannot far go hence. [Exit.]
Enter ANTONY and VENTIDIUS
ANTONY. O happy Caesar! thou hast men to lead: Think not 'tis thou hast conquered Antony; But Rome has conquered Egypt. I'm betrayed.
VENTIDIUS. Curse on this treacherous train! Their soil and heaven infect them all with baseness: And their young souls come tainted to the world With the first breath they draw.
ANTONY. The original villain sure no god created; He was a bastard of the sun, by Nile, Aped into man; with all his mother's mud Crusted about his soul.
VENTIDIUS. The nation is One universal traitor; and their queen The very spirit and extract of them all.
ANTONY. Is there yet left A possibility of aid from valour? Is there one god unsworn to my destruction? The least unmortgaged hope? for, if there be, Methinks I cannot fall beneath the fate Of such a boy as Caesar. The world's one half is yet in Antony; And from each limb of it, that's hewed away, The soul comes back to me.
VENTIDIUS. There yet remain Three legions in the town. The last assault Lopt off the rest; if death be your design,-- As I must wish it now,--these are sufficient To make a heap about us of dead foes, An honest pile for burial.
ANTONY. They are enough. We'll not divide our stars; but, side by side, Fight emulous, and with malicious eyes Survey each other's acts: So every death Thou giv'st, I'll take on me, as a just debt, And pay thee back a soul.
VENTIDIUS. Now you shall see I love you. Not a word Of chiding more. By my few hours of life, I am so pleased with this brave Roman fate, That I would not be Caesar, to outlive you. When we put off this flesh, and mount together, I shall be shown to all the ethereal crowd,-- Lo, this is he who died with Antony!
ANTONY. Who knows, but we may pierce through all their troops, And reach my veterans yet? 'tis worth the 'tempting, To o'erleap this gulf of fate, And leave our wandering destinies behind.
Enter ALEXAS, trembling
VENTIDIUS.
ALEXAS. Shun him; seek your safety, Till you can clear your innocence.
CLEOPATRA. I'll stay.
ALEXAS. You must not; haste you to your monument, While I make speed to Caesar.
CLEOPATRA. Caesar! No, I have no business with him.
ALEXAS. I can work him To spare your life, and let this madman perish.
CLEOPATRA. Base fawning wretch! wouldst thou betray him too? Hence from my sight! I will not hear a traitor; 'Twas thy design brought all this ruin on us.-- Serapion, thou art honest; counsel me: But haste, each moment's precious.
SERAPION. Retire; you must not yet see Antony. He who began this mischief, 'Tis just he tempt the danger; let him clear you: And, since he offered you his servile tongue, To gain a poor precarious life from Caesar, Let him expose that fawning eloquence, And speak to Antony.
ALEXAS. O heavens! I dare not; I meet my certain death.
CLEOPATRA. Slave, thou deservest it.-- Not that I fear my lord, will I avoid him; I know him noble: when he banished me, And thought me false, he scorned to take my life; But I'll be justified, and then die with him.
ALEXAS. O pity me, and let me follow you.
CLEOPATRA. To death, if thou stir hence. Speak, if thou canst, Now for thy life, which basely thou wouldst save; While mine I prize at--this! Come, good Serapion. [Exeunt CLEOPATRA, SERAPION, CHARMION, and IRAS.]
ALEXAS. O that I less could fear to lose this being, Which, like a snowball in my coward hand, The more 'tis grasped, the faster melts away. Poor reason! what a wretched aid art thou! For still, in spite of thee, These two long lovers, soul and body, dread Their final separation. Let me think: What can I say, to save myself from death? No matter what becomes of Cleopatra.
ANTONY. Which way? where? [Within.]
VENTIDIUS. This leads to the monument. [Within.]
ALEXAS. Ah me! I hear him; yet I'm unprepared: My gift of lying's gone; And this court-devil, which I so oft have raised, Forsakes me at my need. I dare not stay; Yet cannot far go hence. [Exit.]
Enter ANTONY and VENTIDIUS
ANTONY. O happy Caesar! thou hast men to lead: Think not 'tis thou hast conquered Antony; But Rome has conquered Egypt. I'm betrayed.
VENTIDIUS. Curse on this treacherous train! Their soil and heaven infect them all with baseness: And their young souls come tainted to the world With the first breath they draw.
ANTONY. The original villain sure no god created; He was a bastard of the sun, by Nile, Aped into man; with all his mother's mud Crusted about his soul.
VENTIDIUS. The nation is One universal traitor; and their queen The very spirit and extract of them all.
ANTONY. Is there yet left A possibility of aid from valour? Is there one god unsworn to my destruction? The least unmortgaged hope? for, if there be, Methinks I cannot fall beneath the fate Of such a boy as Caesar. The world's one half is yet in Antony; And from each limb of it, that's hewed away, The soul comes back to me.
VENTIDIUS. There yet remain Three legions in the town. The last assault Lopt off the rest; if death be your design,-- As I must wish it now,--these are sufficient To make a heap about us of dead foes, An honest pile for burial.
ANTONY. They are enough. We'll not divide our stars; but, side by side, Fight emulous, and with malicious eyes Survey each other's acts: So every death Thou giv'st, I'll take on me, as a just debt, And pay thee back a soul.
VENTIDIUS. Now you shall see I love you. Not a word Of chiding more. By my few hours of life, I am so pleased with this brave Roman fate, That I would not be Caesar, to outlive you. When we put off this flesh, and mount together, I shall be shown to all the ethereal crowd,-- Lo, this is he who died with Antony!
ANTONY. Who knows, but we may pierce through all their troops, And reach my veterans yet? 'tis worth the 'tempting, To o'erleap this gulf of fate, And leave our wandering destinies behind.
Enter ALEXAS, trembling
VENTIDIUS.