Читать книгу The Tragedy of Antony and Cleopatra - Уильям Шекспир, William Szekspir, the Simon Studio - Страница 5

SCENE: The Roman Empire
ACT I. SCENE I. Alexandria. CLEOPATRA'S palace
SCENE IV. Rome. CAESAR'S house

Оглавление

Enter OCTAVIUS CAESAR, reading a letter; LEPIDUS, and their train

  CAESAR. You may see, Lepidus, and henceforth know,

    It is not Caesar's natural vice to hate

    Our great competitor. From Alexandria

    This is the news: he fishes, drinks, and wastes

    The lamps of night in revel; is not more manlike

    Than Cleopatra, nor the queen of Ptolemy

    More womanly than he; hardly gave audience, or

    Vouchsaf'd to think he had partners. You shall find there

    A man who is the abstract of all faults

    That all men follow.

  LEPIDUS. I must not think there are

    Evils enow to darken all his goodness.

    His faults, in him, seem as the spots of heaven,

    More fiery by night's blackness; hereditary

    Rather than purchas'd; what he cannot change

    Than what he chooses.

  CAESAR. You are too indulgent. Let's grant it is not

    Amiss to tumble on the bed of Ptolemy,

    To give a kingdom for a mirth, to sit

    And keep the turn of tippling with a slave,

    To reel the streets at noon, and stand the buffet

    With knaves that smell of sweat. Say this becomes him-

    As his composure must be rare indeed

    Whom these things cannot blemish- yet must Antony

    No way excuse his foils when we do bear

    So great weight in his lightness. If he fill'd

    His vacancy with his voluptuousness,

    Full surfeits and the dryness of his bones

    Call on him for't! But to confound such time

    That drums him from his sport and speaks as loud

    As his own state and ours- 'tis to be chid

    As we rate boys who, being mature in knowledge,

    Pawn their experience to their present pleasure,

    And so rebel to judgment.


Enter a MESSENGER

  LEPIDUS. Here's more news.

  MESSENGER. Thy biddings have been done; and every hour,

    Most noble Caesar, shalt thou have report

    How 'tis abroad. Pompey is strong at sea,

    And it appears he is belov'd of those

    That only have fear'd Caesar. To the ports

    The discontents repair, and men's reports

    Give him much wrong'd.

  CAESAR. I should have known no less.

    It hath been taught us from the primal state

    That he which is was wish'd until he were;

    And the ebb'd man, ne'er lov'd till ne'er worth love,

    Comes dear'd by being lack'd. This common body,

    Like to a vagabond flag upon the stream,

    Goes to and back, lackeying the varying tide,

    To rot itself with motion.

  MESSENGER. Caesar, I bring thee word

    Menecrates and Menas, famous pirates,

    Make the sea serve them, which they ear and wound

    With keels of every kind. Many hot inroads

    They make in Italy; the borders maritime

    Lack blood to think on't, and flush youth revolt.

    No vessel can peep forth but 'tis as soon

    Taken as seen; for Pompey's name strikes more

    Than could his war resisted.

  CAESAR. Antony,

    Leave thy lascivious wassails. When thou once

    Was beaten from Modena, where thou slew'st

    Hirtius and Pansa, consuls, at thy heel

    Did famine follow; whom thou fought'st against,

    Though daintily brought up, with patience more

    Than savages could suffer. Thou didst drink

    The stale of horses and the gilded puddle

    Which beasts would cough at. Thy palate then did deign

    The roughest berry on the rudest hedge;

    Yea, like the stag when snow the pasture sheets,

    The barks of trees thou brows'd. On the Alps

    It is reported thou didst eat strange flesh,

    Which some did die to look on. And all this-

    It wounds thine honour that I speak it now-

    Was borne so like a soldier that thy cheek

    So much as lank'd not.

  LEPIDUS. 'Tis pity of him.

  CAESAR. Let his shames quickly

    Drive him to Rome. 'Tis time we twain

    Did show ourselves i' th' field; and to that end

    Assemble we immediate council. Pompey

    Thrives in our idleness.

  LEPIDUS. To-morrow, Caesar,

    I shall be furnish'd to inform you rightly

    Both what by sea and land I can be able

    To front this present time.

  CAESAR. Till which encounter

    It is my business too. Farewell.

  LEPIDUS. Farewell, my lord. What you shall know meantime

    Of stirs abroad, I shall beseech you, sir,

    To let me be partaker.

  CAESAR. Doubt not, sir;

    I knew it for my bond. Exeunt


The Tragedy of Antony and Cleopatra

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