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Enter ANTONY and
EROS
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ANTONY and EROS
enter.
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ANTONY Eros, thou yet behold’st me?
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ANTONY Eros, can you still see me?
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EROS Ay, noble
lord.
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EROS Yes, noble lord.
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ANTONY Sometimes we see a cloud that’s dragonish,
A vapor sometime like a bear or lion,
A towered citadel, a pendant rock,
5A forkèd mountain, or blue promontory
With trees upon ’t that nod unto the world
And mock our eyes with air. Thou hast seen these signs.
They are black vesper’s pageants.
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ANTONY Sometimes we see a cloud that looks like a dragon. Sometimes
there’s a cloud like a bear or a lion, a castle, a floating rock, a
craggy mountain. Or it might look like a blue cliff with trees on it
that bow to the ground. These things fool our eyes by seeming solid,
when they are actually only air. You’ve seen these illusions.
They’re spectacles that appear at sunset.
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EROS Ay,
my lord.
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EROS Yes, my lord.
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ANTONY That which is now a horse, even with a thought
10The rack dislimns and makes it indistinct
As water is in water.
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ANTONY What looks like a horse is quick as thought disfigured by the
wind, made as difficult to distinguish as water poured into
water.
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EROS It does, my lord.
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EROS That’s true, my lord.
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ANTONY My good knave Eros, now thy captain is
Even such a body. Here I am Antony,
Yet cannot hold this visible shape, my knave.
15I made these wars for Egypt, and the Queen,
Whose heart I thought I had, for she had mine—
Which whilst it was mine had annexed unto ’t
A million more, now lost—she, Eros, has
Packed cards with Caesar and false-played my glory
20Unto an enemy’s triumph.
Nay, weep not, gentle Eros. There is left us
Ourselves to end ourselves.
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ANTONY Eros, my young friend, your captain is now just like that cloud.
Here and now I seem like Antony, but I can’t keep myself in this
form, my boy. I went to war to save Cleopatra, whose love I thought
I had, since she had mine—and mine carried with it a million others,
those of my soldiers, now lost. The Queen conspired with Caesar to
undermine my success and assure his victory. No, don’t cry, kind
Eros. We still have the option of killing ourselves.
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