If I mix a lie With any truth, reproach me freely with it;Else, favour me with silence.
CLEOPATRA. You command me, And I am dumb.
VENTIDIUS. I like this well; he shows authority.
ANTONY. That I derive my ruin >From you alone----CLEOPATRA. O heavens! I ruin you!
ANTONY. You promised me your silence, and you break it Ere I have scarce begun.
CLEOPATRA. Well, I obey you.
ANTONY. When I beheld you first, it was in Egypt.
Ere Caesar saw your eyes, you gave me love, And were too young to know it; that I settled Your father in his throne, was for your sake;I left the acknowledgment for time to ripen.
Caesar stept in, and, with a greedy hand, Plucked the green fruit, ere the first blush of red, Yet cleaving to the bough. He was my lord, And was, beside, too great for me to rival;But, I deserved you first, though he enjoyed you.
When, after, I beheld you in Cilicia, An enemy to Rome, I pardoned you.
CLEOPATRA. I cleared myself----
ANTONY. Again you break your promise.
I loved you still, and took your weak excuses, Took you into my bosom, stained by Caesar, And not half mine: I went to Egypt with you, And hid me from the business of the world, Shut out inquiring nations from my sight, To give whole years to you.
VENTIDIUS. Yes, to your shame be't spoken.
[Aside.]
ANTONY. How I loved.
Witness, ye days and nights, and all ye hours, That danced away with down upon your feet, As all your business were to count my passion!
One day passed by, and nothing saw but love;Another came, and still 'twas only love:
The suns were wearied out with looking on, And I untired with loving.
I saw you every day, and all the day;
And every day was still but as the first, So eager was I still to see you more.
VENTIDIUS. 'Tis all too true.
ANTONY. Fulvia, my wife, grew jealous, (As she indeed had reason) raised a war In Italy, to call me back.
VENTIDIUS. But yet You went not.
ANTONY. While within your arms I lay, The world fell mouldering from my hands each hour, And left me scarce a grasp--I thank your love for't.
VENTIDIUS. Well pushed: that last was home.
CLEOPATRA. Yet may I speak?
ANTONY. If I have urged a falsehood, yes; else, not.
Your silence says, I have not. Fulvia died, (Pardon, you gods, with my unkindness died);To set the world at peace, I took Octavia, This Caesar's sister; in her pride of youth, And flower of beauty, did I wed that lady, Whom blushing I must praise, because I left her.
You called; my love obeyed the fatal summons:
This raised the Roman arms; the cause was yours.
I would have fought by land, where I was stronger;You hindered it: yet, when I fought at sea, Forsook me fighting; and (O stain to honour!
O lasting shame!) I knew not that I fled;But fled to follow you.
VENTIDIUS. What haste she made to hoist her purple sails!
And, to appear magnificent in flight, Drew half our strength away.
ANTONY. All this you caused.
And, would you multiply more ruins on me?
This honest man, my best, my only friend, Has gathered up the shipwreck of my fortunes;Twelve legions I have left, my last recruits.
And you have watched the news, and bring your eyes To seize them too. If you have aught to answer, Now speak, you have free leave.
ALEXAS. [aside.] She stands confounded:
Despair is in her eyes.
VENTIDIUS. Now lay a sigh in the way to stop his passage:
Prepare a tear, and bid it for his legions;'Tis like they shall be sold.
CLEOPATRA. How shall I plead my cause, when you, my judge, Already have condemned me? Shall I bring The love you bore me for my advocate?
That now is turned against me, that destroys me;For love, once past, is, at the best, forgotten;But oftener sours to hate: 'twill please my lord To ruin me, and therefore I'll be guilty.
But, could I once have thought it would have pleased you, That you would pry, with narrow searching eyes, Into my faults, severe to my destruction, And watching all advantages with care, That serve to make me wretched? Speak, my lord, For I end here. Though I deserved this usage, Was it like you to give it?
ANTONY. Oh, you wrong me, To think I sought this parting, or desired To accuse you more than what will clear myself, And justify this breach.
CLEOPATRA. Thus low I thank you;
And, since my innocence will not offend, I shall not blush to own it.
VENTIDIUS. After this, I think she'll blush at nothing.
CLEOPATRA. You seem grieved (And therein you are kind) that Caesar first Enjoyed my love, though you deserved it better:
I grieve for that, my lord, much more than you;For, had I first been yours, it would have saved My second choice: I never had been his, And ne'er had been but yours. But Caesar first, You say, possessed my love. Not so, my lord:
He first possessed my person; you, my love:
Caesar loved me; but I loved Antony.
