_Cleopatra._ _Euphron._ _Children of Cleopatra._
_Charmion._ _Eras._
_Cleop._
O cruell Fortune! ô accursed lott!
O plaguy loue! ô most detested brand!
O wretched ioyes! ô beauties miserable!
O deadlie state! ô deadly roialtie!
O hatefull life! ô Queene most lamentable!
O _Antonie_ by my fault buriable!
O hellish worke of heau'n! alas! the wrath
Of all the Gods at once on vs is falne.
Vnhappie Queene! ô would I in this world
The wandring light of day had neuer sene?
Alas! of mine the plague and poison I
The crowne haue lost my ancestors me left,
This Realme I haue to straungers subiect made,
And robd my children of their heritage.
Yet this is nought (alas!) vnto the price
Of you deare husband, whome my snares entrap'd:
Of you, whom I haue plagu'd, whom I haue made
With bloudie hand a guest of mouldie Tombe:
Of you, whome I destroid, of you, deare Lord,
Whome I of Empire, honor, life haue spoil'd.
O hurtfull woman! and can I yet liue,
Yet longer liue in this Ghost-haunted tombe?
Can I yet breathe! can yet in such annoy,
Yet can my Soule within this bodie dwell?
O Sisters you that spinne the thredes of death!
O _Styx_! ô _Phlegethon_! you brookes of hell!
O Impes of _Night_!
_Euph._ Liue for your childrens sake:
Let not your death of kingdome them depriue.
Alas what shall they do? who will haue care?
Who will preserue this royall race of yours?
Who pittie take? euen now me seemes I see
These little soules to seruile bondage falne,
And borne in triumph.
_Cl._ Ah most miserable!
_Euph._ Their tender armes with cursed corde fast bound
At their weake backs.
_Cl._ Ah Gods what pittie more!
_Eph._ Their seelie necks to ground with weaknesse bend.
_Cl._ Neuer on vs, good Gods, such mischiefe sende.
_Euph._ And pointed at with fingers as they go.
_Cl._ Rather a thousand deaths.
_Euph._ Lastly his knife
Some cruell caytiue in their bloud embrue.
_Cl._ Ah my heart breaks. By shadie bankes of hell,
By fieldes wheron the lonely Ghosts do treade,
By my soule, and the soule of _Antonie_
I you beseche, _Euphron_, of them haue care.
Be their good Father, let your wisedome lett
That they fall not into this Tyrants handes.
Rather conduct them where their freezed locks
Black _Æthiopes_ to neighbour Sunne do shewe;
On wauie _Ocean_ at the waters will;
On barraine cliffes of snowie _Caucasus_;
To Tigers swift, to Lions, and to Beares;
And rather, rather vnto euery coaste,
To eu'rie land and sea: for nought I feare
As rage of him, whose thirst no bloud can quench.
Adieu deare children, children deare adieu:
Good _Isis_ you to place of safetie guide,
Farre from our foes, where you your liues may leade
In free estate deuoid of seruile dread.
Remember not, my children, you were borne
Of such a Princelie race: remember not
So manie braue Kings which haue _Egipt_ rul'de
In right descent your ancestors haue bene:
That this great _Antonie_ your Father was,
_Hercules_ bloud, and more then he in praise.
For your high courage such remembrance will,
Seing your fall with burning rages fill.
Who knowes if that your hands false _Destinie_
The Scepters promis'd of imperiouse _Rome_,
In stede of them shall crooked shepehookes beare,
Needles or forkes, or guide the carte, or plough?
Ah learne t' endure: your birth and high estate
Forget, my babes, and bend to force of fate.
Farwell, my babes, farwell, my hart is clos'de
With pitie and paine, my self with death enclos'de,
My breath doth faile. Farwell for euermore,
Your Sire and me you shall see neuer more.
Farwell swete care, farwell.
_Chil._ Madame Adieu.
_Cl._ Ah this voice killes me. Ah good Gods! I swounde.
I can no more, I die.
_Eras._ Madame, alas!
And will you yeld to woe? Ah speake to vs.
_Eup._ Come children.
_Chil._ We come.
_Eup._ Follow we our chaunce.
The Gods shall guide vs.
_Char._ O too cruell lott!
O too hard chaunce! Sister what shall we do,
What shall we do, alas! if murthring darte
Of death arriue while that in slumbring swound
Half dead she lie with anguish ouergone?
_Er._ Her face is frozen.
_Ch._ Madame for Gods loue
Leaue vs not thus: bidd vs yet first farwell.
Alas! wepe ouer _Antonie_: Let not
His bodie be without due rites entomb'de.
_Cl._ Ah, ah.
_Char._ Madame.
_Cle._ Ay me!
_Cl._ How fainte she is?
_Cl._ My Sisters, holde me vp. How wretched I,
How cursed am! and was ther euer one
By Fortunes hate into more dolours throwne?
Ah, weeping _Niobe_, although thy hart
Beholdes itselfe enwrap'd in causefull woe
For thy dead children, that a senceless rocke
With griefe become, on _Sipylus_ thou stand'st
In endles teares: yet didst thou neuer feele
The weights of griefe that on my heart do lie.
Thy Children thou, mine I poore soule haue lost,
And lost their Father, more then them I waile,
Lost this faire realme; yet me the heauens wrathe
Into a Stone not yet transformed hath.
_Phaetons_ sisters, daughters of the Sunne,
Which waile your brother falne into the streames
Of stately _Po_: the Gods vpon the bankes
Your bodies to banke-louing Alders turn'd.
For me, I sigh, I ceasles wepe, and waile,
And heauen pittiles laughes at my woe,
Reuiues, renewes it still: and in the ende
(Oh crueltie!) doth death for comfort lende.
Die _Cleopatra_ then, no longer stay
From _Antonie_, who thee at _Styx_ attends:
Goe ioine thy Ghost with his, and sobbe no more
Without his loue within these tombes enclos'd.
_Eras._ Alas! yet let vs wepe, lest sodaine death
From him our teares, and those last duties take
Vnto his tombe we owe. _Ch._ Ah let vs wepe
While moisture lasts, then die before his feete.
_Cl._ who furnish will mine eies with streaming teares
My boiling anguish worthilie to waile,
Waile thee _Antonie_, _Antonie_ my heart?
Alas, how much I weeping liquor want!
Yet haue mine eies quite drawne their Conduits drie
By long beweeping my disastred harmes.
Now reason is that from my side they sucke
First vitall moisture, then the vitall bloud.
Then let the bloud from my sad eies out flowe,
And smoking yet with thine in mixture growe.
Moist it, and heate it newe, and neuer stopp,
All watring thee, while yet remaines one dropp.
_Cha._ _Antonie_ take our teares: this is the last
Of all the duties we to thee can yelde,
Before we die.
_Er._ These sacred obsequies
Take _Antony_, and take them in good parte.
_Cl._ O Goddesse thou whom _Cyprus_ doth adore,
_Venus_ of _Paphos_, bent to worke vs harme
For olde _Iulus_ broode, if thou take care
Of _Cæsar_, why of vs tak'st thou no care?
_Antonie_ did descend, as well as he,
From thine own Sonne by long enchained line:
And might haue rul'd by one and self same fate,
True _Troian_ bloud, the statelie _Romain_ state.
_Antonie_, poore _Antonie_, my deare soule,
Now but a blocke, the bootie of a tombe,
Thy life, thy heate is lost, thy coullor gone,
And hideous palenes on thy face hath seaz'd.
Thy eies, two Sunnes, the lodging place of loue,
Which yet for tents to warlike _Mars_ did serue,
Lock'd vp in lidds (as faire daies cherefull light
Which darknesse flies) do winking hide in night.
_Antonie_ by our true loues I thee beseche,
And by our hearts swete sparks haue sett on fire,
Our holy mariage, and the tender ruthe
Of our deare babes, knot of our amitie:
My dolefull voice thy eare let entertaine,
And take me with thee to the hellish plaine,
Thy wife, thy frend: heare _Antonie_, ô heare
My sobbing sighes, if here thou be, or there.
Liued thus long, the winged race of yeares
Ended I haue as _Destinie_ decreed,
Flourish'd and raign'd, and taken iust reuenge
Of him who me both hated and despisde.
Happie, alas too happie! if of _Rome_
Only the fleete had hither neuer come.
And now of me an Image great shall goe
Vnder the earth to bury there my woe.
What say I? where am I? ô _Cleopatra_,
Poore _Cleopatra_, griefe thy reason reaues.
No, no, most happie in this happles case,
To die with thee, and dieng thee embrace:
My bodie ioynde with thine, my mouth with thine,
My mouth, whose moisture burning sighes haue dried:
To be in one selfe tombe, and one selfe chest,
And wrapt with thee in one selfe sheete to rest.
The sharpest torment in my heart I feele
Is that I staie from thee, my heart, this while.
Die will I straight now, now streight will I die,
And streight with thee a wandring shade will be,
Vnder the _Cypres_ trees thou haunt'st alone,
Where brookes of hell do falling seeme to mone.
But yet I stay, and yet thee ouerliue,
That ere I die due rites I may thee giue.
A thousand sobbes I from my brest will teare,
With thousand plaints thy funeralles adorne:
My haire shall serue for thy oblations,
My boiling teares for thy effusions,
Mine eies thy fire: for out of them the flame
(Which burnt thy heart on me enamour'd) came.
Wepe my companions, wepe, and from your eies
Raine downe on him of teares a brinish streame.
Mine can no more, consumed by the coales
Which from my breast, as from a furnace, rise.
Martir your breasts with multiplied blowes,
With violent hands teare of your hanging haire,
Outrage your face: alas! why should we seeke
(Since now we die) our beawties more to kepe?
I spent in teares, not able more to spende,
But kisse him now, what rests me more to doe?
Then lett me kisse you, you faire eies, my light,
Front seate of honor, face most fierce, most faire!
O neck, ô armes, ô hands, ô breast where death
(Oh mischief) comes to choake vp vitall breath.
A thousand kisses, thousand thousand more
Let you my mouth for honors farewell giue:
That in this office weake my limmes may growe,
Fainting on you, and fourth my soule may flowe.
At Ramsburie. 26. of Nouember.
1590.
* * * * *
* * * *
* * * * *
ERRATA
_Discourse_
C2v
so gredelie it seekes to murther them.
_formatting ambiguous: short line, but following word not indented_
C3
not withdrawen
_no space in printed text_
C3v
We folow solitarines, to flie carefulnes.
_text reads "carefulues"_
C4
applied to mans naturall disposition
_text reads "to / to" at line break_
D
and this feeles the euill present
_text unchanged: error for "thus"?_
this great and incurable disease of olde age
_text reads "iucurable"_
Dv
what good I pray can hee haue but onlie
_text reads "bnt"_
D2v
of the paines we felt at our birth?
_question mark printed upside-down)
_Antonius_
Spelling and capitalization are unchanged. Forms such as "Phæbus" and
"Phænician" (for "Phoebus" and "Phoenician") are used consistently;
since names are in Roman type, there is no chance of error or ambiguity.
F2v
Yelded _Pelusium_ on this Countries shore
_text reads "_Pelusuim_"_
F3v
To see at once so many Romanes there
_text reads "Komanes"_
F4
Betraies thy loue, thy life alas! betraies
_text reads "alas!)"_
Gv
(As curse may blessing haue)
_text reads ") As"_
G2v
Fi'ring a brand
_text unchanged_
H
No humain force can them withstand, but death.
_text reads "bnt"_
Hv
_Er._ Feare of a woman troubled so his sprite?
_comma for period_
H2
If we therin sometimes some faultes commit
_no space in printed text_
Before they be in this our worlde borne:
_text reads "wordle"_
H3
That giue them vp to aduersaries handes
_text reads "adnersaries"_
H3v
His legions led to drinke _Euphrates_ streames
_text reads "legious"_
_Ch._ Our first affection to our selfe is due.
_second "e" in "selfe" invisible_
H4
Yet if his harme by yours redresse might haue,
_punctuation unchanged_
H4v
And high st ate:
_text unchanged: error for "high estate"?_
I2
The Allablaster couering of hir face
_common variant spelling_
Yet this is nothing th'e'nchaunting skilles
_text unchanged_
I4v
Which of my greatnes greatest good receiu'd
_text reads "Wbich"_
_Lu._ So long time you her constant loue haue tri'de.
_text reads "Li."_
K3
Fortune may chaunge againe,
_punctuation unchanged_
K4v
She doth frequent _Ballonas_ bloudie trade:
_text unchanged: normal spelling "Bellona" occurs later_
Mv
_Agr._ What? Robbing his owne countrie of her due
_flyspeck or ambiguous punctuation at end of line_
M3
_Ag._ What sodaine chaunce thee towards vs hath brought?
_text reads "towar ds"_
M3v
Accuse the Queene, himselfe of hir lament
_text reads "Qneene"_
M4 [consecutive lines]
_Dir._ What dost thou more attend?
_punctuation at end of line unclear_
Ah _Antonie_! why dost thou death deferre?
_question mark unclear_
Nv
_Agr._ But best we sought into the tombe to gett
_comma for period_
N2
The glorious triumph _Rome_ prepares for me._
_invisible period_
Shall ever civile hate
_text reads "bate"_
N3
The _Parthians_ fayned flight,
_text reads "fligbt"_
Therby our matchles _Rome_
_letter "m" in "Rome" italicized_
O2v
That in this office weake my limmes may growe,
_initial "T" in "that" not italicized_