SIDE 1 ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA
CHARACTERS: Cleopatra, Messenger, Charmian
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Cleopatra: [Enter a Messenger]
O, A messenger
Ram thou thy fruitful tidings in mine ears.
Messenger: Madam, madam,--
Cleopatra: Antonius dead!--If thou say so, villain,
Thou kill'st thy mistress: but well and free,
If thou so yield him, there is gold.
Messenger: First, madam, he is well.
Cleopatra: Why, there's more gold.
But, sirrah, mark, we use
To say the dead are well: bring it to that,
The gold I give thee will I melt and pour
Down thy ill-uttering throat.
Messenger: Good madam, hear me.
Cleopatra: Well, go to, I will;
But there's no goodness in thy face: if Antony
Be free and healthful,--so tart a favour
To trumpet such good tidings! If not well,
Thou shouldst come like a Fury crown'd with snakes,
Not like a formal man.
Messenger: Will't please you hear me?
Cleopatra: I have a mind to strike thee ere thou speak'st:
Yet if thou say Antony lives, is well,
Or friends with Caesar, or not captive to him,
I'll set thee in a shower of gold, and hail
Rich pearls upon thee.
Messenger: Madam, he's well.
Cleopatra: Well said.
Messenger: And friends with Caesar.
Cleopatra: Thou'rt an honest man.
Messenger: Caesar and he are greater friends than ever.
Cleopatra: Make thee a fortune from me.
Messenger: But yet, madam,--
Cleopatra: I do not like 'But yet,' it does allay
The good precedence; fie upon 'But yet'!
The good and bad together: he's friends with Caesar:
In state of health thou say'st; and thou say'st free.
Messenger: Free, madam! no; I made no such report:
Madam, he's married to Octavia.
Cleopatra: The most infectious pestilence upon thee!
[Strikes him down]
Messenger: Good madam, patience.
Cleopatra: What say you? Hence,
[Strikes him again]
Horrible villain! I'll unhair thy head:
[She hales him up and down]
Thou shalt be whipp’d with wire, and stew’d in brine,
Smarting in lingering pickle.
Messenger: Gracious madam,
I that do bring the news made not the match.
Cleopatra: Say 'tis not so, a province I will give thee,
And make thy fortunes proud: the blow thou hadst
Shall make thy peace for moving me to rage;
And I will boot thee with what gift beside
Thy modesty can beg.
Messenger: He's married, madam.
Cleopatra: Rogue, thou hast lived too long.
[Draws a knife]
Messenger: Nay, then I'll run.
SIDE 2 HENRY VI, PART III (AND SOME RICHARD III)
CHARACTERS: Richard, Henry
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[Enter Henry]
Richard. Good day, my Lord, what at your Book so hard? 2210
Henry VI. Aye my good Lord: my Lord I should say rather,
Tis sin to flatter, Good was little better:
'Good Richard, and good Devil, were alike,
And both preposterous: therefore, not Good Lord.
What Scene of death hath Richard now to Act? 2215
Richard. Suspicion always haunts the guilty mind.
Henry VI. But wherefore dost thou come? Is't for my Life?
Richard. Think'st thou I am an Executioner?
Henry VI. A Persecutor I am sure thou art.
Richard. Thy Son I killed for his presumption. 2220
Henry VI. Hadst thou bin killed, when first thou didst presume,
Thou had'st not lived to kill a Son of mine.
The Owl shrieked at thy birth, an evil sign,
Dogs howled, and hideous Tempest shook down Trees:
Thy Mother felt more then a Mother’s pain, 2225
And yet brought forth less then a Mother’s hope,
To wit, an indigested and deformed lump.
Teeth had'st thou in thy head, when thou was't born,
To signify, thou cam'st to bite the world:
And if the rest be true, which I have heard, 2230
Thou cam'st===
Richard. I’ll hear no more: Die Prophet in thy speech,
[Stabs him.]
For this (amongst the rest) was I ordained.
Henry VI. Aye, and for much more slaughter after this,
O God forgive my sins, and pardon thee.
[Dies.]
Richard. What? Will the aspiring blood of Lancaster 2235
Sink in the ground? I thought it would have mounted.
See how my blade weeps for the poor King’s death.
Now is the Winter of our Discontent,
Made glorious Summer by this Son of York.
Now are our brows bound with Victorious Wreaths, 2240
Our bruised arms hung up for Monuments.
But, say there is no Kingdom then for Richard:
What other Pleasure can the World afford?
I’ll make my Heaven in a Lady’s Lap.
Oh miserable Thought! and more unlikely, 2245
Then to accomplish twenty Golden Crowns.
Then since this Earth affords no Joy to me,
I’ll make my Heaven, to dream upon the Crown,
And yet I know not how to get the Crown,
For many Lives stand between me and home: 2250
Why I can smile, and murder whiles I smile.
And if King Edward be as true and just,
As I am Subtle, False, and Treacherous.
And if I fail not in my deep intent,
Clarence hath not another day to live: 2255
Which done, God take King Edward to his mercy,
And leave the world for me to bustle in.
For then, I’ll marry Warwick’s lovely daughter.
What though I killed her Husband, and her Father,
The readiest way to make the Wench amends, 2260
Is to become her Husband, and her Father.
Can I do this, and cannot get a Crown?
Tut, were it farther off, I’d plucke it downe.
SIDE 3 JULIUS CAESAR
CHARACTERS: Antony
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Antony: Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears;
I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him.
The evil that men do lives after them;
The good is oft interred with their bones;
So let it be with Caesar. The noble Brutus
Hath told you Caesar was ambitious:
If it were so, it was a grievous fault,
And grievously hath Caesar answer'd it.
Here, under leave of Brutus and the rest--
For Brutus is an honorable man;
So are they all, all honorable men--
Come I to speak in Caesar's funeral.
He was my friend, faithful and just to me:
But Brutus says he was ambitious;
And Brutus is an honorable man.
He hath brought many captives home to Rome
Whose ransoms did the general coffers fill:
Did this in Caesar seem ambitious?
When that the poor have cried, Caesar hath wept:
Ambition should be made of sterner stuff:
Yet Brutus says he was ambitious;
And Brutus is an honorable man.
You all did see that on the Lupercal
I thrice presented him a kingly crown,
Which he did thrice refuse: was this ambition?
Yet Brutus says he was ambitious;
And, sure, he is an honorable man.
I speak not to disprove what Brutus spoke,
But here I am to speak what I do know.
You all did love him once, not without cause:
What cause withholds you then, to mourn for him?
O judgment! thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason. Bear with me;
My heart is in the coffin there with Caesar,
And I must pause till it come back to me.