Page 2542 - Shakespeare - Vol. 3

CLEOPATRA

I dare not, dear,
Dear my lord, pardon: I dare not,
Lest I be taken: not the imperious show

Of the full-fortun’d Cæsar ever shall
Be brooch’d with me, if knife, drugs, serpents, have [25]
Edge, sting, or operation. I am safe:
Your wife Octavia, with her modest eyes,
And still conclusion, shall acquire no honour

Demuring upon me: but come, come, Antony, −
Help me, my women, − we must draw thee up: [30]
Assist, good friends.

ANTONY
O quick, or I am gone.

CLEOPATRA

Here’s sport indeed! How heavy weights my lord!
Our strength is all gone into heaviness,
That makes the weight. Had I great Juno’s power,
The strong-wing’d Mercury should fetch thee up, [35]
And set thee by Jove’s side. Yet come a little,

Wishers were ever fools, O, come, come, come.
(They heave Antony aloft to Cleopatra.)
And welcome, welcome! Die when thou hast liv’d,

Quicken with kissing: had my lips that power,
Thus would I wear them out.

ALL
A heavy sight! [40]

ANTONY
I am dying, Egypt, dying.
Give me some wine, and let me speak a little.

CLEOPATRA
No, let me speak, and let me rail so high,

That the false huswife Fortune break her wheel,