Page 2555 - Shakespeare - Vol. 3

That grew the more by reaping: his delights
Were dolphin-like, they show’d his back above
The element they lived in: in his livery [90]
Walk’d crowns and crownets: realms and islands were

As plates dropp’d from his pocket.

DOLABELLA
Cleopatra!

CLEOPATRA
Think you there was, or might be such a man
As this I dreamt of?

DOLABELLA
Gentle madam, no.

CLEOPATRA
You lie up to the hearing of the gods. [95]

But if there be, or ever were one such,
It’s past the size of dreaming: nature wants stuff
To vie strange forms with fancy, yet to imagine
An Antony were nature’s piece, ’gainst fancy,

Condemning shadows quite.

DOLABELLA
Hear me, good madam: [100]
Your loss is as yourself, great; and you bear it
As answering to the weight: would I might never

O’ertake pursued success, but I do feel,
By the rebound of yours, a grief that smites
My very heart at root.

CLEOPATRA
I thank you, sir: [105]
Know you what Cæsar means to do with me?

DOLABELLA