William Shakespeare: Antony and Cleopatra

ACT V. 2. SCENE II. Alexandria. A Room in the Monument. (continued)

DOLABELLA.
Gentle madam, no.

CLEOPATRA.
You lie, up to the hearing of the gods.
But if there be, or ever were, one such,
It's past the size of dreaming: nature wants stuff
To vie strange forms with fancy: yet to imagine
An Antony were nature's piece 'gainst fancy,
Condemning shadows quite.

DOLABELLA.
Hear me, good madam.
Your loss is, as yourself, great; and you bear it
As answering to the weight: would I might never
O'ertake pursu'd success, but I do feel,
By the rebound of yours, a grief that smites
My very heart at root.

CLEOPATRA.
I thank you, sir.
Know you what Caesar means to do with me?

DOLABELLA.
I am loath to tell you what I would you knew.

CLEOPATRA.
Nay, pray you, sir,--

DOLABELLA.
Though he be honourable,--

CLEOPATRA.
He'll lead me, then, in triumph?

DOLABELLA.
Madam, he will;
I know it.

[Flourish within.]

[Within.] Make way there,--Caesar!

[Enter CAESAR, GALLUS, PROCULEIUS, MAECENAS, SELEUCUS, and
Attendants.]

CAESAR.
Which is the queen of Egypt?

DOLABELLA.
It is the emperor, madam.

[CLEOPATRA kneels.]

CAESAR.
Arise, you shall not kneel:--
I pray you, rise; rise, Egypt.

CLEOPATRA.
Sir, the gods
Will have it thus; my master and my lord
I must obey.

CAESAR.
Take to you no hard thoughts;
The record of what injuries you did us,
Though written in our flesh, we shall remember
As things but done by chance.

CLEOPATRA.
Sole sir o' the world,
I cannot project mine own cause so well
To make it clear: but do confess I have
Been laden with like frailties which before
Have often sham'd our sex.