act 1, scene 5
Alexandria. A Room in the Palace.

[Enter CLEOPATRA, CHARMIAN, IRAS, and MARDIAN.]

CLEOPATRA.
Charmian,--

CHARMIAN.
Madam?

CLEOPATRA.
Ha, ha!--
Give me to drink mandragora.

CHARMIAN.
Why, madam?

CLEOPATRA.
That I might sleep out this great gap of time
My Antony is away.

CHARMIAN.
You think of him too much.

CLEOPATRA.
O, 'tis treason!

CHARMIAN.
Madam, I trust, not so.

CLEOPATRA.
Thou, eunuch Mardian!

MARDIAN.
What's your highness' pleasure?

CLEOPATRA.
Not now to hear thee sing; I take no pleasure
In aught an eunuch has; 'tis well for thee
That, being unseminar'd, thy freer thoughts
May not fly forth of Egypt. Hast thou affections?

MARDIAN.
Yes, gracious madam.

CLEOPATRA.
Indeed!

MARDIAN.
Not in deed, madam; for I can do nothing
But what indeed is honest to be done:
Yet have I fierce affections, and think
What Venus did with Mars.

CLEOPATRA.
O Charmian,
Where think'st thou he is now? Stands he or sits he?
Or does he walk? or is he on his horse?
O happy horse, to bear the weight of Antony!
Do bravely, horse! for wott'st thou whom thou mov'st?
The demi-Atlas of this earth, the arm
And burgonet of men.--He's speaking now,
Or murmuring 'Where's my serpent of old Nile?'
For so he calls me.--Now I feed myself
With most delicious poison:--think on me,
That am with Phoebus' amorous pinches black,
And wrinkled deep in time? Broad-fronted Caesar,
When thou wast here above the ground I was
A morsel for a monarch: and great Pompey
Would stand and make his eyes grow in my brow;
There would he anchor his aspect and die
With looking on his life.

[Enter ALEXAS.]

ALEXAS.
Sovereign of Egypt, hail!

CLEOPATRA.
How much unlike art thou Mark Antony!
Yet, coming from him, that great medicine hath
With his tinct gilded thee.--
How goes it with my brave Mark Antony?

ALEXAS.
Last thing he did, dear queen,
He kiss'd,--the last of many doubled kisses,--
This orient pearl: his speech sticks in my heart.

CLEOPATRA.
Mine ear must pluck it thence.

ALEXAS.
'Good friend,' quoth he
'Say, the firm Roman to great Egypt sends
This treasure of an oyster; at whose foot,
To mend the petty present, I will piece
Her opulent throne with kingdoms; all the east,
Say thou, shall call her mistress.' So he nodded,
And soberly did mount an arm-girt steed,
Who neigh'd so high that what I would have spoke
Was beastly dumb'd by him.

CLEOPATRA.
What, was he sad or merry?

ALEXAS.
Like to the time o' the year between the extremes
Of hot and cold, he was nor sad nor merry.

CLEOPATRA.
O well-divided disposition!--Note him,
Note him, good Charmian; 'tis the man; but note him:
He was not sad,--for he would shine on those
That make their looks by his; he was not merry,--
Which seem'd to tell them his remembrance lay
In Egypt with his joy; but between both:
O heavenly mingle!--Be'st thou sad or merry,
The violence of either thee becomes,
So does it no man else.--Mett'st thou my posts?

ALEXAS.
Ay, madam, twenty several messengers.
Why do you send so thick?

CLEOPATRA.
Who's born that day
When I forget to send to Antony
Shall die a beggar.--Ink and paper, Charmian.--
Welcome, my good Alexas.--Did I, Charmian,
Ever love Caesar so?

CHARMIAN.
O that brave Caesar!

CLEOPATRA.
Be chok'd with such another emphasis!
Say 'the brave Antony.'

CHARMIAN.
The valiant Caesar!

CLEOPATRA.
By Isis, I will give thee bloody teeth
If thou with Caesar paragon again
My man of men.

CHARMIAN.
By your most gracious pardon,
I sing but after you.

CLEOPATRA.
My salad days,
When I was green in judgment:--cold in blood,
To say as I said then!--But come, away;
Get me ink and paper: he shall have every day
A several greeting,
Or I'll unpeople Egypt.

[Exeunt.]

gradesaver
Cleopatra, attended by Charmian, Iras, and Mardian, languishes without Antony. Alexas arrives with news from Antony, assuring her of his continued devotion and that his martial endeavors will make her mistress of the East. Cleopatra seems delighted to have news from her lover, and asks Charmian if ever she loved Caesar so. When Charmian teases her mistress, saying that once Julius Caesar was considered to be a paragon of men, Cleopatra replies that those were "salad days," when she was green, and therefore younger and knew less.
In scenes three through five, we leap from Egypt to Rome to Egypt again. The concerns in these two places could not be more different. Note that when Romans speak to each other, the concern is over empire, duty, and politics. The theme of Rome versus Egypt becomes clear here. Octavius and Lepidus exhibit none of the sense of play seen in Egypt, where even servants play along wittily with their masters. Both scenes four and five show characters discussing Antony. Octavius and Lepidus evaluate him as a soldier, and Octavius condemns him roundly as a "man who is th'abstract of all faults / That all men follow". When Cleopatra and her attendants speak of Antony, it is entirely within the context of her love affair with him. The vast leaps in space constitute one of Antony and Cleopatra's famous characteristics. No other play of Shakespeare's makes such vast leaps, from one edge of the known world to the other, and back again. These leaps in space parallel the jumps in perspective: in scenes four and five, we get two completely different descriptions of Antony. While Lepidus praises Antony, defending him against Caesar's charges of moral failure, he does not use the same criteria of judgment as Cleopatra. These leaps in perspective help to create great portraits of character, even though the play that has more talk than action: while we don't see the kind of amazing drama of Macbeth or King Lear, we are treated to eloquent discussions of characters by other characters. Compare in 1. 1 the difference between Philo's descriptions of Antony and Cleopatra and the description Antony and Cleopatra give themselves. Compare the Romans' different descriptions of Cleopatra. Enobarbus' description of Cleopatra in 1. 2 is different from Philo's easy label of "strumpet" in 1. 1. Antony describes her quite differently at different points in the play. Throughout the play, pay attention to the descriptions characters give other characters, and the portraits that emerge
cliffnotes
Again we return to Alexandria; Cleopatra is in her palace with her attendants, Charmian and Iras, and Mardian, a eunuch. Now that Antony has departed, Cleopatra is at a loss for something to occupy her time. Primarily, she spends most of her time thinking of him and worrying about what he is doing; she seems to be more like a lovesick adolescent in this scene than the ruler of a great country. She asks for mandragora, a sleeping potion, so that she can "sleep out this great gap of time Antony is away." She asks Mardian, perhaps only half-jokingly, if he has any "affections" or passionate feelings at all. He tells her that he does, although he can "do nothing"; yet, there are acts that he thinks about "fiercely." This is a play on words to some extent, for Cleopatra may be referring to any strong emotional feeling. Although Mardian's answer is ambiguous, one gets the impression that he is conscious of both meanings, and his answer seems to hint that although his sexual role in life is limited, he is as capable of passion and feeling as his mistress, Cleopatra, is. Cleopatra then turns to Charmian and asks her to imagine what Antony is doing at this moment, how he looks, and what he is thinking. She can think of nothing that is not concerned with her love for Antony. She is about to swallow the "delicious poison" when one of her servants, Alexas, enters with news of Antony. Cleopatra is delighted, and she tells Alexas that the mere fact that he has been near Antony makes him more precious in her eyes. Alexas gives the Queen a pearl, a gift from Antony. It is a particularly valuable pearl for Alexas says that Antony kissed it; in fact, Antony bestowed upon it "many doubled kisses." In addition, Alexas says that Antony will "piece / throne with kingdoms. All the East . . . shall call her mistress." Cleopatra then eagerly questions Alexas about Antony: how he appeared and what sort of mood he was in. She also asks Alexas whether Antony seemed sad or merry, but Alexas quickly perceives that both potential responses could be wrong answers at this point; therefore, he diplomatically states that Antony seemed neither very sad nor very happy. This seems to satisfy Cleopatra, who would have been disturbed if Antony were distressed, but she would have been furious if he seemed too happy -- without her. She then gives Alexas a message to deliver to Antony. Cleopatra asks Charmian, as proof of Cleopatra's love for Antony, if she ever saw Cleopatra love Caesar so well. Charmian, not as clever nor as astute as Alexas in gauging Cleopatra's moods, gives an answer that praises Caesar. That is a mistake; Cleopatra wants unqualified assurance that she never loved anyone as much as she loves Antony; she wants to hear it confirmed that every lover she had before Antony was a mere trifle, a flirtation. Only now has Cleopatra discovered true love. In response to Charmian's comment, Cleopatra orders Charmian never to compare Antony with Caesar again, nor even to suggest that they are equal in any way.
This portrait of Cleopatra is, to a great extent, very much like her legendary reputation -- that is, Cleopatra is a beautiful seductress, whose power to charm men is derived, in part, from her beauty and, in part, from her beguiling craftiness. Shakespeare doesn't deviate far from this characterization, one which was well known in his day. But beneath Cleopatra's whims and her girlish melodramatics over her absent lover, there is a hint that the very strength of her feeling portends a deeper affection than her behavior would indicate. It is as if adversity and tragedy must work their magic on this all-too-earthly pair before they and we, the audience, realize that the love which they profess may, in fact, be almost a supernatural love, a force ultimately more powerful to Antony than the fate of the Roman Empire itself.
sparknotes
Cleopatra complains to Charmian that she misses Antony. She wonders what he is doing and whether he, in turn, is thinking of her. Alexas enters and presents her with a gift from Antony: a pearl. He tells the queen that Antony kissed the gemstone upon leaving Egypt and ordered it be delivered to Cleopatra as a token of his love. Cleopatra asks if he appeared sad or happy, and she rejoices when Alexas responds that Antony seemed neither: to appear sad, Cleopatra says, might have contaminated the moods of his followers, while a happy countenance could have jeopardized his followers' belief in his resolve. Cleopatra orders Alexas to prepare twenty messengers, so that she can write to Antony on each day of his absence. She promises, if need be, to "unpeople Egypt" by turning all of its citizens into messengers
Act I, scenes iv-v; Act II, scenes i-ii  Unlike Shakespeare's other great tragedies, Antony and Cleopatra is not confined to a single geographical location. Whereas Macbeth unfolds in Scotland and Hamlet in Denmark's Elsinore castle, Antony and Cleopatra takes the audience from one end of the Mediterranean Sea to the other in the course of a scene change. This technique is noteworthy for several reasons. First, it shows the global concerns of the play: traveling from Alexandria to Athens to Rome to Syria demonstrates the scope of the empire for which Antony, Cleopatra, and Caesar struggle. Second, the use of rapidly shifting locales shows that Shakespeare has become less interested in the deep psychological recesses that he examines in his greatest tragedies and is now addressing more public concerns. A stylistic result of Shakespeare's interest in the broader world is that Antony and Cleopatra lacks soliloquies, a device that Shakespeare elsewhere uses to reveal his characters' hidden thoughts to the audience. As he shuttles the audience from Egypt to Rome, Shakespeare introduces the other members of the triumvirate who, with Antony, have ruled the Roman Empire since Julius Caesar's death. Octavius Caesar, Julius's nephew, stands in stark contrast to Antony. His first lines establish him as a man ruled by reason rather than passion, duty rather than desire. He complains that Antony neglects affairs of state in order to fish, drink, and waste the night away in revelry. Even though he lacks the military prowess that he praises in Antony, Caesar is, politically speaking, ever practical and efficient. That he disapproves so strongly of Antony's relationship with Cleopatra foreshadows the collapse of the triumvirate and forecasts Caesar's role as a worthy adversary. Although he speaks little in Act I, scene iv, Lepidus emerges as the weakest of the three Roman leaders. Neither heroic like Antony nor politically astute like Caesar, Lepidus lacks the power and command of his fellow triumvirs. Ledipus works desperately to maintain a balance of power by keeping Caesar and Antony on amiable terms. When Caesar criticizes Antony, Lepidus urges him not to condemn their fellow triumvir so harshly, and later entreats Antony to speak gently when speaking to Caesar. The triumvirate is a triangular form of government, and it is little wonder, given the extreme weakness of one of its sides, that it soon collapses. The focus on Roman politics and the rising threat of war in Act I, scene iv and Act II, scene i threatens to overshadow the romantic interests of the title characters. To prevent this eclipse, Shakespeare returns the audience to Egypt, in the brief interlude of Act I, scene v. This interlude reminds the audience of Cleopatra's passion and the threat it poses to the stability of the empire. Enobarbus's lengthy description of Cleopatra in Act II, scene ii testifies to Cleopatra's power. Her beauty is so incomparable, her charms so strong that the "vilest things / Become themselves in her, that the holy priests / Bless her when she is riggish " . Her talent for transforming the "vilest things" into things of beauty, and for overturning entire systems of morality so that priests alter their understanding of what is holy and what is sinful, is Cleopatra's greatest strength.