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!

        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.

        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.