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    Antony And Cleopatra: A Tragedy
    Antony And Cleopatra: A Tragedy
    Antony And Cleopatra: A Tragedy
    Ebook190 pages1 hour

    Antony And Cleopatra: A Tragedy

    By William Shakespeare

    3.5/5

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    About this ebook

    The loyalties of Antony and Cleopatra are tested with tragic outcomes as the soldier of Rome and the queen of Egypt struggle against the power and authority of the emerging Roman Empire. During a mission to Egypt, Antony falls immediately and irrevocably in love with its queen, the beautiful Cleopatra. As Cleopatra returns his favour, their fates and that of Egypt are sealed forever.

    Known as “The Bard of Avon,” William Shakespeare is arguably the greatest English-language writer known. Enormously popular during his life, Shakespeare’s works continue to resonate more than three centuries after his death, as has his influence on theatre and literature. Shakespeare’s innovative use of character, language, and experimentation with romance as tragedy served as a foundation for later playwrights and dramatists, and some of his most famous lines of dialogue have become part of everyday speech.

    HarperPerennialClassics brings great works of literature to life in digital format, upholding the highest standards in ebook production and celebrating reading in all its forms. Look for more titles in the HarperPerennial Classics collection to build your digital library.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateDec 16, 2014
    ISBN9781443443258
    Antony And Cleopatra: A Tragedy
    Author

    William Shakespeare

    William Shakespeare was an English poet, playwright, and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest dramatist in the English language. Shakespeare is often called England’s national poet and the “Bard of Avon.”  

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    Reviews for Antony And Cleopatra

    3.5/5

    19 ratings21 reviews

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    • 3/5
      I found this so-so. Both Antony and Cleopatra are portrayed as fickle individuals absorbed in their love-making to the exclusion of everything else. Cleopatra in particular is whiny and manipulative; Antony plainly gives up on all duties. The play only becomes tragic and imbued with grandeur once I allow myself to not think of these people as, well, humans but as larger-than-life figures, household names straight out of Great (Wo)Man History. I’m not sure I want to do that. The quality picks up towards the end, but the earlier acts contain some good back-and-forth banter and penis jokes.
    • 3/5
      The classical tragic romance.
      I found Cleopatra a little annoying but overall enjoyed this doomed tale.
    • 4/5
      First reading of this play. For me it is definitely a play of two halves. The first three acts felt rather tedious and the dialogue unmemorable. But the fourth act, divided into no less than 13 scenes, mostly very short, contained the famous meat of the drama. Act 5 scene 2 also served as a dramatic conclusion.
    • 3/5
      Although a classic story, the characters came across to me as very mono-dimensional. I didn't really care about any of them. Antony just seemed whipped and Cleo didn't seem to have anything to inspire his devotion. Too melodramatic without much substance.
    • 3/5
      I do like the bit where Antony gives a grandiose speech, stabs himself, and then is mortified with annoyed surprise at the fact that he's still alive afterward.
    • 3/5
      Read on my Kindle as part of Shakespeare's "The Complete Works".While the plot of this tragedy had plenty of action, somehow it just didn't work for me. I don't know if it was the language, my mood, or reading it instead of watching a performance... I'll have to try this one again sometime
    • 3/5
      I know it's anathema for an English major, but this play was ho hum to me. Probably the et tu Brute....
    • 4/5
      This is truly a play of epic proportions, moving from the centre of Rome to her periphery, including places such as Egypt and the borders of Parthia. It is one of Shakespeare's later works, and the skill in which he brings so much together onto the stage simply goes to show how skillful he was at producing historical drama. Now, some scholars like to argue that Shakespeare could not have been responsible for so many plays of such high quality, however I personally find such research and argument to be quite useless. In the end, I tend to, and have always tended to, lean towards the mythological than the scientific, and while it may be the case that Shakespeare was not responsible for the plays, I personally see no benefit in such argument and speculation.One of the things that I struggle with these plays is that they can be difficult to follow at times with the poetical language of the 17th Century and the difficulties in determining which character is who (which in some cases involves flipping back to the dramatis personae). I have also been watching the series Rome, and the characters of Mark Antony and Cleopatra seem to invade my mind from that show making it a little difficult differentiating Shakespeare's characters. The Mark Antony of the TV series is a much more brutal and despotic character than is Shakespeare's. However, we must remember two things, and they are that Shakespeare is not attempting to give us an insight into the culture and lifestyles of Ancient Romans, while Bruno Heller is not trying to produce, or even rewrite Shakespeare. In fact it is very clear that Heller, in his TV series, is giving Shakespeare a very wide berth.I find the topics of Shakespeare's plays quite interesting though because I have noted that Shakespeare seems to steer clear of writing any plays based upon biblical stories, even tragedies (and there are many stories in the bible that a skillful playwright could transform into a tragedy of Shakespearian proportions), but rather he seems to lean much closer to the secular world of Ancient Rome. Further, he does not seem to go to rewrite the ancient tragedies, even those of Seneca (Shakespeare did not know Greek therefore he only had access to Greek texts that had been translated, such as Plutarch's Lives). Even then, Shakespeare only borrowed three stories from Plutarch's Lives, that being Coriolanus, Julius Ceaser, and Mark Antony (even though Julius Ceaser is the tragedy of Brutus).I am almost inclined to suggest that if it was not for this play or for Julius Ceaser, that the characters of Ceaser, Brutus, Antony, and Cleopatra, would probably not be as dominant in our culture as they are. In a way, Shakespeare took one of the defining periods of Roman History, namely the period in which the republic collapsed and was replaced by the empire, and placed them onto the stage. Whether this play is supposed to be a 'sequal' to Julius Ceaser is difficult to determine, though it is interesting to note that Bernard Shaw later wrote a third play, Ceaser and Cleopatra, to turn this into a trilogy.The background of these events is when Ceaser Augustus defeated his enemies and ascended to the throne as the first emperor of Rome. However, it is also interesting that after this we have another great shift in European history: we shift from the west, back to the east, to the birth, life, and death, of the messiah - Jesus Christ. However, this is not mentioned in the play, though there are some hints to the appearance of Herod the Great.It is difficult to tell whether there is truly a fatal flaw in Mark Antony, and it is also difficult to determine whether Cleopatra actually loved him. Her trick at the end of the play, where she feigns death, and as a result Antony kills himself, is not the action of somebody in love, even chivalrous love. In a way she has been testing Antony's love throughout the play, but whether she loved him, or simply lusted after him, is difficult to tell. Many of us like to see this as a love story, but to me, it is not. It is a story about a man who let himself become possessed by a wiry woman which in turn brought about his downfall. Remember two things about Egypt of this period: it was not a part of Rome, rather it was a protectorate, and secondly Cleopatra considered herself a god. While she was subservient to Rome, she still did not recognise Rome as her ruler. As such, by sinking her claws into Antony proved a way of enabling her to shift the balance of power back to her.It is interesting that Shakespeare uses the serpent as the means of her death. It is almost as if the serpent is submitting herself to a serpent. She wrapped her coils around Antony and enchanted him, and in doing so set his downfall in motion (remembering that this is not the Mark Antony that is portrayed elsewhere). Ceaser tries everything to break her spell, including marrying him to his sister, but he fails. In the middle of an important battle with the pirates that are preventing wheat shipments from reaching Rome, Antony deserts and travels to Egypt. In Egypt he finds that his soldiers are deserting him, and even though he wins the first battle, he makes a tactical error, by fighting at sea instead of land, and as a result he is defeated.However, it is interesting that Ceaser does not condemn or punish him for his crimes. It appears that Ceaser understands that it was Cleopatra's whiles that dragged him to this point and has his body carried off in honour and leaves his legacy intact. However Cleopatra, recognising that her life of luxury and as a queen of Egypt is over instead of going into slavery she poisons herself. We hear her speak of being a slave and of watching plays where she is turned into a whore and mocked on stage. It is not her position that leads her to her death, but her legacy. However, this is not the legacy that has come down to us because we, today, know of Cleopatra as the beautiful queen of Egypt.
    • 3/5
      I've never read the play before, and it was really interesting.
    • 5/5
      Cleopatra: the fiercest, most fabulous queen in Shakespeare.
      Marc Antony: can't even commit suicide right.
    • 3/5
      Why do men do what they do when they're totally in love with women? Read this to find out...or at least dwell on it. Maybe we'll never come to a conclusion.
    • 4/5
      Shakespeare here writes about two historical characters far more famous and important that Lear or Macbeth but he doesn't treat them in a monumental tragic fashion. He instead portrays them as rather ordinary mortals: Antony, a pliable politician and unfocused warrior; Cleopatra, a passionate but insecure cougar. The most interesting scene is a on-boat banquet where the shrewd politicos of Rome persuade a young revolutionary to abandon a rebellion he is winning. The most memorable character (to me) is Enobarbus, a close, intelligent friend of Antony who betrays him when he decides he has no chance to win and then cannot live with himself.
    • 4/5
      Huh. I'd have put money on my having read this before, though quite a while back, but I sure don't remember finding Cleopatra so loathsome before. I've read enough histories that cover the whole Julius Caesar/Mark Antony/Cleopatra/Octavius/death by asps thing that maybe I hadn't read Shakespeare's version before. At any rate, history suggests that Cleopatra was canny, intelligent, and deliberate, but Shakespeare's Cleopatra is a silly, fickle, whining brat. Character after character tells us that she is bewitching, glorious, and desirable, but every time we meet her she is whimpering and simpering, telling silly lies to manipulate Antony, swanning around in a way that would embarrass a sensible teenager, much less a matronly queen. And Antony isn't much better. Far from taking his position in the triumvirate seriously, he tosses his responsibilities to Rome and his family there aside to frisk, puppy-like, around his Egyptian mistress. Yuck. Neither one comes off as grown-up, much less as noble figures whose tragic fates we should find regrettable. And yet...Despite the characters' manifold flaws, the play is deeply compelling. Somehow both Antony and Cleopatra, for all their foolish choices and pettinesses, transcend all and appear, in the end, to be outsize, even archetypal figures. Their bad decisions, which so many other people must pay for, somehow end with a sort of grandeur and mythic feel that, logically, the details don't support. They are so convinced of the earth shattering significance of their lives that they convince us it is so. Having turned these historical figures into melodramatic children Shakespeare uses his art to transform them further into great tragic lovers.Part of my extreme distaste for Cleopatra may be thanks to the very excellent Arkangel recording of the play that I listened to along with my reading of the Arden Shakespeare edition. Estelle Kohler, who plays Cleopatra, doesn't hold back anything in her emotional performance. All the weeping, whining, wheedling, and cattiness is going full throttle. The asp could have showed up in, say, Act 2, and Antony could have settled down with Octavia, who seemed a nice, sensible sort of woman, and things would have been much simpler. But that wouldn't have made much of a story, would it? Marjorie Garber's wonderful essay, in her “Shakespeare After All,” helped me appreciate the play, though she couldn't make the main characters any less annoying. Highly recommended.
    • 4/5
      I didn't like Antony and Cleopatra very much at the beginning -- but then, it always seems to take about an act for me to get into the swing of a Shakespeare play. It helps with Julius Caesar and Antony and Cleopatra that I'm familiar with the history it's based on. It took me a while to warm to the characters of Antony and Cleopatra, though, but for all that there's something very human about the way Cleopatra reacts to Antony -- now this, now that -- and how he responds to her.

      There are, of course, some beautiful speeches and descriptions here: I was nudged into reading this by reading a reference just yesterday to Cleopatra burning upon the water. I don't think I've seen this one as often quoted as I have the other Shakespeare plays I've been reading lately, though...
    • 3/5
      "Antony & Cleopatra" is definitely not one of my favorite Shakespeare plays. It is a slow starter that sort of meanders about setting the scene for several acts before getting to the meat of the story. The ending, however, is terrific.... it just takes a long while to get there.In the play, Cleopatra has fallen in love with Antony, one of the triumverate of Roman rulers. Of course, the rulers can't see to get along and end up in conflict with each other. War, destruction and death ensue.It's an interesting story but not one of Shakespeare's most entertaining, unfortunately.
    • 4/5
      I didn't like it as much as Shakespeare's other plays, probably because, for some reason, I had a harder time understanding it and it took me most of the first half of the play to really get into it. The very last scene is definitely my favorite, and I wish the rest of the play was that good.Cleopatra is probably one of my favorite female Shakespeare characters, though, along with her maids.
    • 4/5
      *If you actually don't know the story of this play, just a warning, this review will probably contain some spoilers.This Shakespeare play tells the famous love story of Marcus Antonius and Cleopatra VII. Their countries, the crumbling kingdom of Egypt and the rising, powerful kingdom of Rome, are at war, and relations are hostile between them. Despite all this, Antony and Cleopatra, who should have been enemies, are in love. Caesar is beginning to take desperate measures in order to lure Antony back to his homeland, where they need him as a general.This play contained a lot of interesting motives, with the love story between enemies as the most noticeable, of course. Caesar's many efforts to direct Antony's love back to Rome were also interesting - after the man had slighted him, insulted him, and defied him so many times, Caesar remains hopeful, and continues his attempts to reclaim his best general. Besides being in need of a strong commander for his war, Caesar obviously also loves Antony. He has him marry into his family, making Antony officially family, but he clearly thought of the young man as family far before the marriage.Cleopatra was also interesting, and one of those characters who you can't quite predict (besides knowing the story beforehand, that is). She is at times hard and cool, at other times warm. Cruel and kind, angry and happy. With Antony, her mind and moods change like the wind. I wondered, exasperated at times, how he could possibly put up with her. However, Antony seems to view this as evidence of how passionate Cleopatra is, how unique, and how mysterious she is. Antony is fascinated with her, and would have been no matter what.Like many hopeless romances that cannot possibly end well, this one doesn't. The scene where Antony flees from battle to follow Cleopatra was a sad one. On one hand, his ultimate, absolute devotion to her was touching. Being a soldier and a warrior was what he had been trained to do for all his life. Undoubtedly, he dreamed of one day being a general. He knows nothing else, and he has worked for nothing else. He will have had men in his charge on other ships, probably friends, perhaps men he grew up with. Yet he leaves them, to follow Cleopatra's ship. It was a terrible choice that had tragic consequences, one that was neither right nor wrong. Though he does not regret his love for Cleopatra, Antony acknowledges after his desertion from battle that he betrayed his men and himself. Cleopatra understands his shame.A tragic romance from Shakespeare.
    • 3/5
      Not my favorite of the bard's work but he really can't write poorly. I am not as fascinated by this 'epic' love story as some may be.
    • 4/5
      Despite its length and myriads of scene changes and characters to keep track of, I really enjoyed this play. I feel like it's not performed often enough on the Shakepeare circuits, but that helps to keep it fresh for me when I read it. The Folger edition contains footnotes to explain some of the archaic language and references, which is extremely helpful when reading.
    • 4/5
      We had a free-choice play for my Shakespeare class, so I thought this would be a good one because Cleopatra is a great character. I also attempted to make a beaded headpiece to wear during my presentation, which didn't entirely work. The play is long and goes all over the place, but it's one of the greatest romances of all time, and worth reading.
    • 3/5
      Had to read the play, cause I love the history. Im not a big fan of Shakespeare, but the loved the play because of the charectors.

    Book preview

    Antony And Cleopatra - William Shakespeare

    DRAMATIS PERSONAE

    MARK ANTONY, OCTAVIUS CAESAR, M. AEMILIUS LEPIDUS

    Triumvirs

    SEXTUS POMPEIUS

    DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS, VENTIDIUS, EROS, SCARUS, DERCETAS, DEMETRIUS, PHILO

    friends to Antony

    MAECENAS, AGRIPPA, DOLABELLA, PROCULEIUS, THYREUS, GALLUS

    friends to Caesar

    MENAS, MENECRATES, VARRIUS

    friends to Pompey

    TAURUS

    Lieutenant-General to Caesar

    CANIDIUS

    Lieutenant-General to Antony

    SILIUS

    an Officer in Ventidius’s army

    EUPHRONIUS

    an ambassador from Antony to Caesar

    ALEXAS, MARDIAN, SELEUCUS, DIOMEDES

    attendants on Cleopatra

    A Soothsayer

    A Clown

    CLEOPATRA

    Queen of Egypt

    OCTAVIA

    sister to Caesar and wife to Antony

    CHARMIAN, IRAS

    ladies attending on Cleopatra

    Officers, Soldiers, Messengers, and Attendants.

    THE SCENE: THE ROMAN EMPIRE.

    ACT ONE

    SCENE I. Alexandria. Cleopatra’s palace. Enter DEMETRIUS and PHILO.

    PHILO Nay, but this dotage of our general’s

    O’erflows the measure. Those his goodly eyes,

    That o’er the files and musters of the war

    Have glow’d like plated Mars, now bend, now turn,

    [5]

    The office and devotion of their view

    Upon a tawny front. His captain’s heart,

    Which in the scuffles of great fights hath burst

    The buckles on his breast, reneges all temper,

    And is become the bellows and the fan

    To cool a gipsy’s lust.

    Flourish. Enter ANTONY, CLEOPATRA, her Ladies, the Train, with Eunuchs fanning her.

    [10]

    Look where they come!

    Take but good note, and you shall see in him

    The triple pillar of the world transform’d

    Into a strumpet’s fool. Behold and see.

    CLEOPATRA If it be love indeed, tell me how much.

    [15]

    ANTONY There’s beggary in the love that can be reckon’d.

    CLEOPATRA I’ll set a bourn how far to be belov’d.

    ANTONY Then must thou needs find out new heaven, new earth.

    Enter a Messenger.

    MESSENGER News, my good lord, from Rome.

    ANTONY Grates me the sum.

    CLEOPATRA Nay, hear them, Antony.

    [20]

    Fulvia perchance is angry; or who knows

    If the scarce-bearded Caesar have not sent

    His pow’rful mandate to you: ‘Do this or this;

    Take in that kingdom and enfranchise that;

    Perform’t, or else we damn thee’.

    ANTONY How, my love?

    [25]

    CLEOPATRA Perchance? Nay, and most like,

    You must not stay here longer; your dismission

    Is come from Caesar; therefore hear it, Antony.

    Where’s Fulvia’s process? Caesar’s I would say?

    Both?

    Call in the messengers. As I am Egypt’s queen,

    [30]

    Thou blushest, Antony, and that blood of thine

    Is Caesar’s homager. Else so thy cheek pays shame

    When shrill-tongu’d Fulvia scolds. The messengers!

    ANTONY Let Rome in Tiber melt, and the wide arch

    [35]

    Of the rang’d empire fall! Here is my space.

    Kingdoms are clay; our dungy earth alike

    Feeds beast as man. The nobleness of life

    Is to do thus [embracing], when such a mutual pair

    And such a twain can do’t, in which I bind,

    On pain of punishment, the world to weet

    We stand up peerless.

    [40]

    CLEOPATRA Excellent falsehood!

    Why did he marry Fulvia, and not love her?

    I’ll seem the fool I am not. Antony

    Will be himself.

    ANTONY But stirr’d by Cleopatra.

    Now for the love of Love and her soft hours,

    [45]

    Let’s not confound the time with conference harsh;

    There’s not a minute of our lives should stretch

    Without some pleasure now. What sport to-night?

    CLEOPATRA Hear the ambassadors.

    ANTONY Fie, wrangling queen!

    Whom everything becomes – to chide, to laugh,

    [50]

    To weep; whose every passion fully strives

    To make itself in thee fair and admir’d.

    No messenger but thine, and all alone

    To-night we’ll wander through the streets and note

    The qualities of people. Come, my queen;

    [55]

    Last night you did desire it. Speak not to us.

    [Exeunt Antony and Cleopatra, with the Train.

    DEMETRIUS Is Caesar with Antonius priz’d so slight?

    PHILO Sir, sometimes when he is not Antony,

    He comes too short of that great property

    Which still should go with Antony.

    DEMETRIUS I am full sorry

    [60]

    That he approves the common liar, who

    Thus speaks of him at Rome; but I will hope

    Of better deeds to-morrow. Rest you happy!

    [Exeunt.

    SCENE II. Alexandria. Cleopatra’s palace.

    Enter CHARMIAN, IRAS, ALEXAS, and a Soothsayer.

    CHARMIAN Lord Alexas, sweet Alexas, most anything Alexas, almost most absolute Alexas, where’s the soothsayer that you prais’d so to th’

    [5]

    Queen? O that I knew this husband, which you say must charge his horns with garlands!

    ALEXAS Soothsayer!

    SOOTHSAYER Your will?

    CHARMIAN Is this the man? Is’t you, sir, that know things?

    SOOTHSAYER In nature’s infinite book of secrecy

    A little I can read.

    [10]

    ALEXAS Show him your hand.

    Enter ENOBARBUS.

    ENOBARBUS Bring in the banquet quickly; wine enough

    Cleopatra’s health to drink.

    CHARMIAN Good sir, give me good fortune.

    SOOTHSAYER I make not, but foresee.

    [15]

    CHARMIAN Pray, then, forsee me one.

    SOOTHSAYER You shall be yet far fairer than you are.

    CHARMIAN He means in flesh.

    IRAS No, you shall paint when you are old.

    CHARMIAN Wrinkles forbid!

    [20]

    ALEXAS Vex not his prescience; be attentive.

    CHARMIAN Hush!

    SOOTHSAYER You shall be more beloving than beloved.

    CHARMIAN I had rather heat my liver with drinking.

    ALEXAS Nay, hear him.

    CHARMIAN Good now, some excellent fortune! 25 Let me be married to three kings in a fore-noon, and widow them all. Let me have a child at fifty, to whom Herod of Jewry may do homage. Find me to marry me with Octavius Caesar, and companion me with my mistress.

    SOOTHSAYER You shall outlive the lady whom you serve.

    CHARMIAN O, excellent! I love long life better than figs.

    SOOTHSAYER You have seen and prov’d a fairer former fortune

    Than that which is to approach.

    [35]

    CHARMIAN Then belike my children shall have no names. Prithee, how many boys and wenches must I have?

    SOOTHSAYER If every of your wishes had a womb,

    And fertile every wish, a million.

    CHARMIAN Out, fool! I forgive thee for a witch.

    [40]

    ALEXAS You think none but your sheets are privy to your wishes.

    CHARMIAN Nay, come, tell Iras hers.

    ALEXAS We’ll know all our fortunes.

    ENOBARBUS Mine, and most of our fortunes, tonight, shall be – drunk to bed.

    [45]

    IRAS There’s a palm presages chastity, if nothing else.

    CHARMIAN E’en as the o’erflowing Nilus presageth famine.

    IRAS Go, you wild bedfellow, you cannot soothsay.

    [50]

    CHARMIAN Nay, if an oily palm be not a fruitful prognostication, I cannot scratch mine ear. Prithee, tell her but a worky-day fortune.

    SOOTHSAYER Your fortunes are alike.

    IRAS But how, but how? Give me particulars.

    SOOTHSAYER I have said.

    IRAS Am I not an inch of fortune better than she?

    [55]

    CHARMIAN Well, if you were but an inch of fortune better than I, where would you choose it?

    IRAS Not in my husband’s nose.

    CHARMIAN Our worser thoughts heavens mend! Alexas – come, his fortune, his fortune! O, let him marry a woman that cannot go, sweet Isis, I beseech thee! And let her die too, and give him a worse! And let worse follow worse, till the worst of all follow him laughing to his grave, fiftyfold a cuckold! Good Isis, hear me this prayer, though thou deny me a matter of more weight; good Isis, I beseech thee!

    [64]

    IRAS Amen. Dear goddess, hear that prayer of the people! For, as it is a heart-breaking to see a handsome man loose-wiv’d, so it is a deadly sorrow to behold a foul knave uncuckolded. Therefore, dear Isis, keep decorum, and fortune him accordingly!

    [70]

    CHARMIAN Amen.

    ALEXAS Lo now, if it lay in their hands to make me a cuckold, they would make themselves whores but they’ld do’t!

    Enter CLEOPATRA.

    ENOBARBUS Hush! Here comes Antony.

    CHARMIAN Not he; the Queen.

    CLEOPATRA Saw you my lord?

    ENOBARBUS No, lady.

    CLEOPATRA Was he not here?

    CHARMIAN No, madam.

    CLEOPATRA He was dispos’d to mirth; but on the sudden

    [80]

    A Roman thought hath struck him. Enobarbus!

    ENOBARBUS Madam?

    CLEOPATRA Seek him, and bring him hither.

    Where’s Alexas?

    ALEXAS Here, at your service. My lord approaches.

    Enter ANTONY, with a Messenger and Attendants.

    CLEOPATRA We will not look upon him. Go with us.

    [Exeunt Cleopatra, Enobarbus, and the rest.

    [85]

    MESSENGER Fulvia thy wife first came into the field.

    ANTONY Against my brother Lucius?

    MESSENGER Ay.

    But soon that war had end, and the time’s state

    Made friends of them, jointing their

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