Original Text
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Modern Text
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Enter CLEOPATRA and her maids aloft,
with CHARMIAN
and IRAS
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CLEOPATRA, CHARMIAN,
and IRAS enter with Cleopatra’s maids in the upper
gallery.
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CLEOPATRA
O Charmian, I will never go from hence.
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CLEOPATRA
Oh, Charmian, I will never leave this tomb!
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CHARMIAN
Be comforted, dear madam.
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CHARMIAN
Be calm, dear lady.
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CLEOPATRA
No, I will
not.
All strange and terrible events are welcome,
But comforts we despise. Our size of sorrow,
5Proportioned to our cause, must be as great
As that which makes it.
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CLEOPATRA
No, I won’t. Strange and terrible events are all welcome, but I
despise comforts. The size of my sorrow must be as great as its
source.
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Enter below
DIOMEDES
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DIOMEDES enters
below.
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How now? Is he
dead?
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What’s the news! Is he dead?
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DIOMEDES
His death’s upon him, but not dead.
Look out o’ th’ other side your monument.
His guard have brought him thither.
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DIOMEDES
He is close to death, but not dead yet. Look out the other window;
his guard has brought him here.
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Enter below ANTONY, and the guard
bearing him
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Guards enter, carrying
ANTONY.
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CLEOPATRA
O
sun,
10Burn the great sphere thou mov’st in. Darkling
stand
The varying shore o’ th’ world! O Antony,
Antony, Antony! Help, Charmian, help, Iras, help!
Help, friends below! Let’s draw him hither.
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CLEOPATRA
Oh, sun, burn up the orbit in which you move, so that the world
may be dark forever! Oh, Antony, Antony, Antony! Help, Charmian,
help, Iras, help! Help, friends below; lift him up here.
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ANTONY
Peace!
Not Caesar’s valor hath o’erthrown Antony,
15But Antony’s hath triumphed on itself.
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ANTONY
Be calm! It was not Caesar’s bravery that conquered Antony but
Antony’s that has triumphed over himself.
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CLEOPATRA
So it should be, that none but Antony
Should conquer Antony, but woe ’tis so!
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CLEOPATRA
That’s the way it should be—only Antony should conquer Antony. But
how terrible that it has happened!
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