SCENE II. The same. Another Room. Enter CHARMIAN, IRAS, ALEXAS, and a 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, Inust change 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. Alex. Show him your hand, Enter ENOBARBUS. Eno. Bring in the banquet quickly; wine enough, Cleopatra's health to drink. Char. Good Sir, give me good fortune. Char. Pray then, foresee ne 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! Sooth. You shall be more beloving, than be lov'd. Char. I had rather heat my liver with drinking. Alex. Nay, hear him. Char. Good now, some excellent fortune! Let me be married to three Kings in a forenoon, and widow them all: let me have a child at fifty, to whom Herod of Jewry may do homage: find me to marry me with Octavius Caesar, and companion me with my mistress. Sooth. You shall outlive the lady whom you serve. Char. O excellent! I love long life better than figs. Sooth. You have seen and prov❜d a fairer former fortune Than that which is to approach. Char. Then, belike, my children shall have no names: Pr'ythee, how many boys and wenches must I have? Sooth. If every of your wishes had a womb, And fertile every wish, a million. Char. Out, fool; 1 forgive thee for a witch. Alex. You think, none but your sheets are privy to your wishes. Char. Nay, come, tell Iras hers. Alex. We'll know all our fortunes. Eno. Mine, and most of our fortunes, to night, shall be drunk to bed, Iras. There's a palin presages chastity, if nothing else. Char. Even as the o'erflowing Nilus presageth famine. Iras. Go, you wild bedfellow, you cannot soothsay. Pr'y Char. Nay, if an oily palm be not a fruitful prognostication, I cannot scratch mine ear. thee, tell her but a worky-day fortune. Sooth. Your fortunes are alike... * Iras. But how, but how? give me particulars. Sooth. I have said. Iras. Am I not an inch of fortune better than she? Char. Well, if you were but an inch of fortune better than I, where would you choose it? Iras. Not in my husband's nose. Char. Our worser thoughts heavens mend! 0, Alexas, come, his fortune, his fortune. let him marry a woman that cannot go, sweet Isis, I beseech thee! And let her die too, and and let worse follow worse, give him a worse, till the worst of all follow laughing to his grave, fifty-fold a cuckold! Isis, hear me matter of that this prayer, though thon deny me, a more weight; good Isis, 1 beseech thee! Iras. Amen. Dear Goddess, hear prayer of the people! for, as it is a heart-breaking to see a handsome man loose-wiv'd, so it is a deadly a foul knave inc uncuckolded; There sorrow to besis, keep decorum, and fortune fore, dear Char. Ainen. C Alex. Lo, now! if it lay in their hands to make me a cuckold, they would make themselves whores, but they'd do't. Eno. Hush! heres comes Antony..... 1 esa di Enter CLEOPATRA.-8 Cleo, Saw you my lord 2 Eno. No, Lady. Cleo. Was be not here? Char. No Madam w Cleo. He was dispos'd to mirth; but on the sudden A Roman thought hath struck him. Eno. Madam... bus, Enobar Cleo. Seek him, and bring him hither. Where's Alexas? Alex. Here, Madam, at your service. lord approaches. My Cleo. We will not look upon him: Go with us. Mes. Fulvia thy wife first came into the field. e Mes. Ay: But soop that war had end, and the time's state". Made friends of them, jointing their force 'gainst Caesar; Whose better issue in the war, from Italy, Upon the first encounter, drave them. Ant. Well, What worst? Mes. The nature of bad news infects the teller. Qn: Things, that are past, are done, with mes 'Tis thus: Who tells me true, though in his tale lie death, I hear him as he flatter'd. A (This is stiff news) hath, with his Parthian force, Extended Asia from Euphrates; His conquering banner shook, from Syria Whilst Ant. Antony, thou would'st s say, Ant. Speak to me home, mince not the` gene- weeds, When our quick winds lie still; and our ills told us, Is as our earing, Fare thee well a while. Mes. At your noble pleasure. [Exit. Ant. From Sicy on how the news? Speak there. 1. Att. The man from Sicyon. 2. Att. He stays upon your will. Ant. Let him appear, Is there such These strong Egyptian fetters I must break, Enter another Messenger. Or lose myself in dotage. - What are you? 2. Mes. Fulvia thy wife is dead. 2. Mes. In Sicyon: Her length of sickness, with what else more se❤ [gives a Letter. [Exit Messenger. There's a great spirit gone! Thus did 1 desire it: What our contempts do often hurl from us, |