Original Text |
Translated Text |
| Source: Folger Shakespeare Library |
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Enter Cleopatra and her maids aloft, with
Charmian and Iras. CLEOPATRA
O Charmian, I will never go from hence. CHARMIAN
Be comforted, dear madam. CLEOPATRA No, I will not.
All strange and terrible events are welcome,
But comforts we despise. Our size of sorrow, 5
Proportioned to our cause, must be as great
As that which makes it. Enter Diomedes below. How now? Is he dead? DIOMEDES
His death’s upon him, but not dead.
Look out o’ th’ other side your monument. 10
His guard have brought him thither. | Cleopatra waits at the monument and declares she’ll never leave, although she's super anxious about Antony. Right about then Diomedes declares that Antony is not quite dead, but mostly dying. |
Enter Antony below, and the Guard bearing him. CLEOPATRA O sun,
Burn the great sphere thou mov’st in. Darkling stand
The varying shore o’ th’ world! O Antony, Antony,
Antony! Help, Charmian! Help, Iras, help! 15
Help, friends below! Let’s draw him hither. ANTONY Peace!
Not Caesar’s valor hath o’erthrown Antony,
But Antony’s hath triumphed on itself. CLEOPATRA
So it should be that none but Antony 20
Should conquer Antony, but woe ’tis so! | The lovers call to each other, and Antony announces that it can never be said that Caesar’s valor overthrew Antony; rather, Antony’s valor made him overthrow himself. Cleopatra agrees that there’s nobility in the fact that no man conquered Antony except Antony himself. |
ANTONY
I am dying, Egypt, dying. Only
I here importune death awhile until
Of many thousand kisses the poor last
I lay upon thy lips. 25 CLEOPATRA I dare not, dear,
Dear my lord, pardon, I dare not,
Lest I be taken. Not th’ imperious show
Of the full-fortuned Caesar ever shall
Be brooched with me; if knife, drugs, serpents have 30
Edge, sting, or operation, I am safe.
Your wife Octavia, with her modest eyes
And still conclusion, shall acquire no honor
Demuring upon me. But come, come, Antony.—
Help me, my women!—We must draw thee up.— 35
Assist, good friends. They begin lifting him. | Antony calls out to her to come down and give him a final kiss, but she dares not leave the monument for fear that Caesar will catch her and place her in his victory parade. Instead, she begs those around her to help pull her lover’s dying body to her. |
ANTONY O, quick, or I am gone. CLEOPATRA
Here’s sport indeed. How heavy weighs my lord!
Our strength is all gone into heaviness;
That makes the weight. Had I great Juno’s power, 40
The strong-winged Mercury should fetch thee up
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 lived;
Quicken with kissing. Had my lips that power, 45
Thus would I wear them out. She kisses him. ALL A heavy sight! 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 50
That the false huswife Fortune break her wheel,
Provoked by my offense. | She notes he’s heavy, his strength having turned into dull weight, and she wishes her kisses might bring him back to life. Everyone watching is rather moved. |
ANTONY One word, sweet queen:
Of Caesar seek your honor with your safety—O! CLEOPATRA
They do not go together. 55 ANTONY Gentle, hear me.
None about Caesar trust but Proculeius. CLEOPATRA
My resolution and my hands I’ll trust,
None about Caesar. | Antony begs Cleopatra, with his dying breaths, to seek her honor and safety with Caesar and the one trustworthy man around Caesar—Proculeius. She replies she can’t have both her honor and her safety, and that she will resolve this matter with her own hands, rather than seeking pardon from Caesar. |
ANTONY
The miserable change now at my end 60
Lament nor sorrow at, but please your thoughts
In feeding them with those my former fortunes
Wherein I lived the greatest prince o’ th’ world,
The noblest, and do now not basely die,
Not cowardly put off my helmet to 65
My countryman—a Roman by a Roman
Valiantly vanquished. Now my spirit is going;
I can no more. | As he’s dying, Antony bids Cleopatra to remember him when he was the prince of the world. Then he says he dies a noble death, at the hand of no other man, but on his own terms. |
CLEOPATRA Noblest of men, woo’t die?
Hast thou no care of me? Shall I abide 70
In this dull world, which in thy absence is
No better than a sty? O see, my women,
The crown o’ th’ Earth doth melt.—My lord! Antony dies. O, withered is the garland of the war;
The soldier’s pole is fall’n; young boys and girls 75
Are level now with men. The odds is gone,
And there is nothing left remarkable
Beneath the visiting moon. CHARMIAN O, quietness, lady! Cleopatra swoons. IRAS She’s dead, too, our sovereign. 80 CHARMIAN Lady! IRAS Madam! CHARMIAN O madam, madam, madam! | In the moment of his death, Cleopatra wails, and asks if he does not care for her. By dying and leaving her alone, she's left in a world worthless without him. She faints, and the maids worry she’s died, too. |
IRAS Royal Egypt! Empress! Cleopatra stirs. CHARMIAN Peace, peace, Iras! 85 CLEOPATRA
No more but e’en a woman, and commanded
By such poor passion as the maid that milks
And does the meanest chares. It were for me
To throw my scepter at the injurious gods,
To tell them that this world did equal theirs 90
Till they had stolen our jewel. All’s but naught.
Patience is sottish, and impatience does
Become a dog that’s mad. Then is it sin
To rush into the secret house of death
Ere death dare come to us? How do you, women? 95
What, what, good cheer! Why, how now, Charmian?
My noble girls! Ah, women, women! Look,
Our lamp is spent; it’s out. Good sirs, take heart.
We’ll bury him; and then, what’s brave, what’s
noble, 100
Let’s do ’t after the high Roman fashion
And make death proud to take us. Come, away.
This case of that huge spirit now is cold.
Ah women, women! Come, we have no friend
But resolution and the briefest end. 105 They exit, bearing off Antony’s body. | When Cleopatra comes to, she declares that it is no sin to rush to death before death rushes to her. Thus she’s resolved to kill herself. She declares they’ll bury Antony in the noble Roman fashion, giving him a funeral he deserves. She is now all business, as her course is laid out clearly before her. |