William Shakespeare: Antony and Cleopatra

ACT III. 7. SCENE VII. ANTONY'S Camp near the Promontory of Actium.

[Enter CLEOPATRA and ENOBARBUS.]

CLEOPATRA.
I will be even with thee, doubt it not.

ENOBARBUS.
But why, why, why?

CLEOPATRA.
Thou hast forspoke my being in these wars,
And say'st it is not fit.

ENOBARBUS.
Well, is it, is it?

CLEOPATRA.
If not denounc'd against us, why should not we
Be there in person?

ENOBARBUS.
[Aside.] Well, I could reply:--
If we should serve with horse and mares together
The horse were merely lost; the mares would bear
A soldier and his horse.

CLEOPATRA.
What is't you say?

ENOBARBUS.
Your presence needs must puzzle Antony;
Take from his heart, take from his brain, from's time,
What should not then be spar'd. He is already
Traduc'd for levity: and 'tis said in Rome
That Photinus an eunuch and your maids
Manage this war.

CLEOPATRA.
Sink Rome, and their tongues rot
That speak against us! A charge we bear i' the war,
And, as the president of my kingdom, will
Appear there for a man. Speak not against it;
I will not stay behind.

ENOBARBUS.
Nay, I have done.
Here comes the emperor.

[Enter ANTONY and CANIDIUS.]

ANTONY.
Is it not strange, Canidius,
That from Tarentum and Brundusium
He could so quickly cut the Ionian sea,
And take in Toryne?--You have heard on't, sweet?

CLEOPATRA.
Celerity is never more admir'd
Than by the negligent.

ANTONY.
A good rebuke,
Which might have well becom'd the best of men
To taunt at slackness.--Canidius, we
Will fight with him by sea.

CLEOPATRA.
By sea! what else?

CANIDIUS.
Why will my lord do so?