William Shakespeare: Antony and Cleopatra

ACT I. 2. SCENE II. Alexandria. Another Room in CLEOPATRA'S palace. (continued)

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:--pr'ythee, 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.--Pr'ythee, 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.