feat_summary_path: finished_summaries/shmoop/The Tragedy of Antony and Cleopatra/section_1_part_0.txt
feat_book_id: The Tragedy of Antony and Cleopatra.act i.scene ii
feat_summary_id: act i, scene ii
feat_summary: {"name": "Act I, Scene ii", "url": "https://web.archive.org/web/20210116191009/https://www.shmoop.com/study-guides/literature/antony-cleopatra/summary/act-i-scene-ii", "summary": "Charmian and Iras, Cleopatra's maids, chat with a soothsayer . He tells them their fortunes are alike in that their pasts are better than their futures and that they'll both outlive the woman they serve. They tease the soothsayer and dismiss his prophecies. The giggle-fest is broken up when Cleopatra comes in looking for Antony, who was all revelry until he suddenly went into a bad mood thinking about Rome. Cleopatra is a feisty one: she exits when Antony enters so as not to see him, even though she had just sent his man Enobarbus to go find him. Oh, the games! A messenger is telling Antony some bad news: his wife Fulvia went to war with his brother Lucius, but then joined forces with Lucius against Octavius Caesar, who promptly beat them both. Further, Labienus, an old enemy of the Roman triumvirate, has begun to conquer the territories of Asia and the east that Antony is supposed to be ruling. The servant hesitates to hint that maybe this wouldn't have happened if somebody had been paying attention, and Antony admits he needs to hear about his faults. Antony resolves to leave Egypt when he gets the news that his wife is dead. He's often wished for her to be dead, but now that she is, he wishes that it hadn't happened. When Antony tells Enobarbus that he has to leave Egypt, Enobarbus says that will kill Cleopatra. He also suggests to Antony that the death of his wife, Fulvia, is actually a blessing. It makes things far less complicated. Still, Antony is resolved to finish the business Fulvia started in Rome. To make matters worse, Sextus Pompeius, son of Pompey , has begun to gain power at sea and is now challenging Octavius Caesar. Someone's got to help. Antony sends Enobarbus to let Cleopatra know he's got work to attend to in Rome. He's got to go.", "analysis": ""}
text: 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' 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.
    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.
    CHARMIAN. Pray, then, foresee 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!
    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! Let me be married
  to
      three kings in a forenoon, 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.
    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.
    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, to-night, shall be-
      drunk to bed.
    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.
    CHARMIAN. Nay, if an oily palm be not a fruitful
  prognostication, I
      cannot scratch mine ear. Prithee, tell her but 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?
    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!
    IRAS. Amen. Dear goddess, hear that prayer of the people! For,
  as
      it is a heartbreaking 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!
    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
      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
    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 force 'gainst Caesar,
      Whose better issue in the war from Italy
      Upon the first encounter drave them.
    ANTONY. Well, what worst?
    MESSENGER. The nature of bad news infects the teller.
    ANTONY. When it concerns the fool or coward. On!
      Things that are past are done with me. 'Tis thus:
      Who tells me true, though in his tale lie death,
      I hear him as he flatter'd.
    MESSENGER. Labienus-
      This is stiff news- hath with his Parthian force
      Extended Asia from Euphrates,
      His conquering banner shook from Syria
      To Lydia and to Ionia,
      Whilst-
    ANTONY. Antony, thou wouldst say.
    MESSENGER. O, my lord!
    ANTONY. Speak to me home; mince not the general tongue;
      Name Cleopatra as she is call'd in Rome.
      Rail thou in Fulvia's phrase, and taunt my faults
      With such full licence as both truth and malice
      Have power to utter. O, then we bring forth weeds
      When our quick minds lie still, and our ills told us
      Is as our earing. Fare thee well awhile.
    MESSENGER. At your noble pleasure.                        Exit
    ANTONY. From Sicyon, ho, the news! Speak there!
    FIRST ATTENDANT. The man from Sicyon- is there such an one?
    SECOND ATTENDANT. He stays upon your will.
    ANTONY. Let him appear.
      These strong Egyptian fetters I must break,
      Or lose myself in dotage.
  
                   Enter another MESSENGER with a letter
  
      What are you?
    SECOND MESSENGER. Fulvia thy wife is dead.
    ANTONY. Where died she?
    SECOND MESSENGER. In Sicyon.
      Her length of sickness, with what else more serious
      Importeth thee to know, this bears.       [Gives the letter]
    ANTONY. Forbear me.                             Exit MESSENGER
      There's a great spirit gone! Thus did I desire it.
      What our contempts doth often hurl from us
      We wish it ours again; the present pleasure,
      By revolution low'ring, does become
      The opposite of itself. She's good, being gone;
      The hand could pluck her back that shov'd her on.
      I must from this enchanting queen break off.
      Ten thousand harms, more than the ills I know,
      My idleness doth hatch. How now, Enobarbus!
  
                      Re-enter ENOBARBUS
  
    ENOBARBUS. What's your pleasure, sir?
    ANTONY. I must with haste from hence.
    ENOBARBUS. Why, then we kill all our women. We see how mortal
  an
      unkindness is to them; if they suffer our departure, death's
  the
      word.
    ANTONY. I must be gone.
    ENOBARBUS. Under a compelling occasion, let women die. It were
  pity
      to cast them away for nothing, though between them and a
  great
      cause they should be esteemed nothing. Cleopatra, catching
  but
      the least noise of this, dies instantly; I have seen her die
  
      twenty times upon far poorer moment. I do think there is
  mettle
      in death, which commits some loving act upon her, she hath
  such a
      celerity in dying.
    ANTONY. She is cunning past man's thought.
    ENOBARBUS. Alack, sir, no! Her passions are made of nothing but
  the
      finest part of pure love. We cannot call her winds and waters
      sighs and tears; they are greater storms and tempests than
      almanacs can report. This cannot be cunning in her; if it be,
  she
      makes a show'r of rain as well as Jove.
    ANTONY. Would I had never seen her!
    ENOBARBUS. O Sir, you had then left unseen a wonderful piece of
      work, which not to have been blest withal would have
  discredited
      your travel.
    ANTONY. Fulvia is dead.
    ENOBARBUS. Sir?
    ANTONY. Fulvia is dead.
    ENOBARBUS. Fulvia?
    ANTONY. Dead.
    ENOBARBUS. Why, sir, give the gods a thankful sacrifice. When
  it
      pleaseth their deities to take the wife of a man from him, it
  
  
      shows to man the tailors of the earth; comforting therein
  that
      when old robes are worn out there are members to make new. If
      there were no more women but Fulvia, then had you indeed a
  cut,
      and the case to be lamented. This grief is crown'd with
      consolation: your old smock brings forth a new petticoat; and
      indeed the tears live in an onion that should water this
  sorrow.
    ANTONY. The business she hath broached in the state
      Cannot endure my absence.
    ENOBARBUS. And the business you have broach'd here cannot be
      without you; especially that of Cleopatra's, which wholly
  depends
      on your abode.
    ANTONY. No more light answers. Let our officers
      Have notice what we purpose. I shall break
      The cause of our expedience to the Queen,
      And get her leave to part. For not alone
      The death of Fulvia, with more urgent touches,
      Do strongly speak to us; but the letters to
      Of many our contriving friends in Rome
      Petition us at home. Sextus Pompeius
      Hath given the dare to Caesar, and commands
      The empire of the sea; our slippery people,
      Whose love is never link'd to the deserver
      Till his deserts are past, begin to throw
      Pompey the Great and all his dignities
      Upon his son; who, high in name and power,
      Higher than both in blood and life, stands up
      For the main soldier; whose quality, going on,
      The sides o' th' world may danger. Much is breeding
      Which, like the courser's hair, hath yet but life
      And not a serpent's poison. Say our pleasure,
      To such whose place is under us, requires
      Our quick remove from hence.
    ENOBARBUS. I shall do't.                                Exeunt
  
  
  
  
  
  
feat_summary_name: Act I, Scene ii
target: Charmian and Iras, Cleopatra's maids, chat with a soothsayer . He tells them their fortunes are alike in that their pasts are better than their futures and that they'll both outlive the woman they serve. They tease the soothsayer and dismiss his prophecies. The giggle-fest is broken up when Cleopatra comes in looking for Antony, who was all revelry until he suddenly went into a bad mood thinking about Rome. Cleopatra is a feisty one: she exits when Antony enters so as not to see him, even though she had just sent his man Enobarbus to go find him. Oh, the games! A messenger is telling Antony some bad news: his wife Fulvia went to war with his brother Lucius, but then joined forces with Lucius against Octavius Caesar, who promptly beat them both. Further, Labienus, an old enemy of the Roman triumvirate, has begun to conquer the territories of Asia and the east that Antony is supposed to be ruling. The servant hesitates to hint that maybe this wouldn't have happened if somebody had been paying attention, and Antony admits he needs to hear about his faults. Antony resolves to leave Egypt when he gets the news that his wife is dead. He's often wished for her to be dead, but now that she is, he wishes that it hadn't happened. When Antony tells Enobarbus that he has to leave Egypt, Enobarbus says that will kill Cleopatra. He also suggests to Antony that the death of his wife, Fulvia, is actually a blessing. It makes things far less complicated. Still, Antony is resolved to finish the business Fulvia started in Rome. To make matters worse, Sextus Pompeius, son of Pompey , has begun to gain power at sea and is now challenging Octavius Caesar. Someone's got to help. Antony sends Enobarbus to let Cleopatra know he's got work to attend to in Rome. He's got to go.