Antony and Cleopatra by William Shakespeare Read Free Book Online Page B

Caesar’s sentries hear a noise and withdraw to watch. Enobarbus, in shame, begs to be allowed to die. With a cry of “OAntony!” he collapses, and when the sentries try to rouse him, they find that he has died.
ACT 4 SCENE 10
    Antony sees that Caesar’s troops are preparing to fight by sea.
ACT 4 SCENE 11
    Caesar prepares for battle.
ACT 4 SCENE 12
    Antony leaves to watch the sea battle. Alone, Scarrus criticizes the condition of the Egyptian fleet. He dwells on the fortune-tellers’ reluctance to comment on events and Antony’s once-more divided self, that is both “valiant and dejected,” has “hope and fear,” and “has and has not.” Antony returns with news that “All is lost”: the Egyptian fleet has surrendered. He blames Cleopatra entirely: she is a “Triple-turned whore” who has “sold” him to Caesar. When she arrives, he threatens to kill her.
ACT 4 SCENE 13
    Cleopatra and her attendants flee to her monument and she sends Mardian the eunuch to tell Antony that she is dead. Again, we see her in a role akin to that of the director of a play, as she gives Mardian his lines and tells him how he must deliver them: “word it—prithee—piteously.”
ACT 4 SCENE 14
    Antony tells Eros that he does not know himself now that Cleopatra has betrayed him: he “cannot hold” his “visible shape.” Mardian enters and Antony tells him that his “vile lady” has “robbed” him of his sword, but Mardian argues that Cleopatra loved Antony. Antony declares his intention to kill Cleopatra, but Mardian claims that sheis already dead and that her last words were “Most noble Antony!” Antony tells Eros to “unarm” him and leave. Alone and filled with grief, Antony decides to die so that he can be reconciled with Cleopatra “Where souls do couch on flowers.” Calling Eros back, he asks him to kill him, but Eros refuses, killing himself instead so as to “escape the sorrow / Of Antony’s death.” Antony declares that both Cleopatra and “valiant Eros” have shown themselves more noble than he. He stabs himself. Wounded, he is found by Dercetus, who takes his sword to give to Caesar, and then by Diomedes, sent by Cleopatra who has had “a prophesying fear” that Antony would kill himself. Diomedes explains that Cleopatra is in fact still alive. He calls Antony’s guards to carry him to her.
ACT 4 SCENE 15
    Cleopatra declares that she will never leave her monument. Diomedes arrives and explains that Antony is dying and is being brought to her. They call to each other and once again an intimate moment is played out in public with the guards and attendants as audience. Antony tells Cleopatra that he is “dying, Egypt, dying,” but that he is waiting until he has kissed her. Cleopatra is too afraid to leave her monument, fearing capture by Caesar, and so they draw him up to her. They kiss, and Antony tells her to trust only Proculeius. He declares that he is “A Roman by a Roman / Valiantly vanquished,” thus restoring himself, at least in his own mind, to his original status. He dies. Cleopatra faints. When she comes around, it becomes clear she does not intend to entrust herself to Caesar as she announces that she will bury Antony and then do “what’s brave, what’s noble” and take her own life.
ACT 5 SCENE 1
    Dercetus brings Caesar Antony’s sword and explains that he is dead. Caesar feels that this news “should make / A greater crack”: after all, Antony represented half the world. He declares that he will mourn Antony because, even though their stars were “Unreconciliable,” they were once friends and companions “in the front of war.” AnEgyptian arrives from Cleopatra to ask what Caesar intends for her and he sends assurance that he means to be “honourable” and “kindly” toward her. After her messenger has gone, however, he sends Proculeius to prevent Cleopatra committing suicide, as he wants her to be brought to Rome as a symbol of his “triumph.”
ACT 5 SCENE