feat_summary_path: finished_summaries/shmoop/The Tragedy of Antony and Cleopatra/section_4_part_0.txt
feat_book_id: The Tragedy of Antony and Cleopatra.act i.scene v
feat_summary_id: act i, scene v
feat_summary: {"name": "Act I, Scene v", "url": "https://web.archive.org/web/20210116191009/https://www.shmoop.com/study-guides/literature/antony-cleopatra/summary/act-i-scene-v", "summary": "We're back with Cleopatra in Alexandria. She's verbally toying with Mardian, her eunuch , about whether he can feel anything for women, alluding to her self, obviously. She then returns to sighing over Antony, and laments that when she was Julius Caesar's mistress, she was \"a morsel fit for a monarch.\" Her other lover, one of the elder Pompeys, was overcome by her looks alone. She worries she's past her prime. Just then, Alexas, another of her servants, enters with a pearl. It's a gift from Antony, who made a big deal about the thing before giving it to Alexas to take to the Queen. Antony promises Cleopatra will soon be called mistress of the East, because of the kingdoms he'll win for her. Cleopatra asks Alexas how Antony looked, and is glad to hear he wasn't really sad or really happy. She praises his moderation: seeming sad would make his followers sad, while seeming merry would make it seem like he took his job in Rome lightly. She's so pleased that she demands twenty messengers immediately, so she can write a ton of love letters to Antony. She claims she never loved Julius Caesar this way, but Charmian points out she has a habit of being in and out of love. Cleopatra dismisses her sighs over Caesar as youthful folly, and goes back to penning her affections for Antony.", "analysis": ""}
text: SCENE V.
  Alexandria. CLEOPATRA'S palace
  
  Enter CLEOPATRA, CHARMIAN, IRAS, and MARDIAN
  
    CLEOPATRA. Charmian!
    CHARMIAN. Madam?
    CLEOPATRA. Ha, ha!
      Give me to drink mandragora.
    CHARMIAN. Why, madam?
    CLEOPATRA. That I might sleep out this great gap of time
      My Antony is away.
    CHARMIAN. You think of him too much.
    CLEOPATRA. O, 'tis treason!
    CHARMIAN. Madam, I trust, not so.
    CLEOPATRA. Thou, eunuch Mardian!
    MARDIAN. What's your Highness' pleasure?
    CLEOPATRA. Not now to hear thee sing; I take no pleasure
      In aught an eunuch has. 'Tis well for thee
      That, being unseminar'd, thy freer thoughts
      May not fly forth of Egypt. Hast thou affections?
    MARDIAN. Yes, gracious madam.
    CLEOPATRA. Indeed?
    MARDIAN. Not in deed, madam; for I can do nothing
      But what indeed is honest to be done.
      Yet have I fierce affections, and think
      What Venus did with Mars.
    CLEOPATRA. O Charmian,
      Where think'st thou he is now? Stands he or sits he?
      Or does he walk? or is he on his horse?
      O happy horse, to bear the weight of Antony!
      Do bravely, horse; for wot'st thou whom thou mov'st?
      The demi-Atlas of this earth, the arm
      And burgonet of men. He's speaking now,
      Or murmuring 'Where's my serpent of old Nile?'
      For so he calls me. Now I feed myself
      With most delicious poison. Think on me,
      That am with Phoebus' amorous pinches black,
      And wrinkled deep in time? Broad-fronted Caesar,
      When thou wast here above the ground, I was
      A morsel for a monarch; and great Pompey
      Would stand and make his eyes grow in my brow;
      There would he anchor his aspect and die
      With looking on his life.
  
                           Enter ALEXAS
  
    ALEXAS. Sovereign of Egypt, hail!
    CLEOPATRA. How much unlike art thou Mark Antony!
      Yet, coming from him, that great med'cine hath
      With his tinct gilded thee.
      How goes it with my brave Mark Antony?
    ALEXAS. Last thing he did, dear Queen,
      He kiss'd- the last of many doubled kisses-
      This orient pearl. His speech sticks in my heart.
    CLEOPATRA. Mine ear must pluck it thence.
    ALEXAS. 'Good friend,' quoth he
      'Say the firm Roman to great Egypt sends
      This treasure of an oyster; at whose foot,
      To mend the petty present, I will piece
      Her opulent throne with kingdoms. All the East,
      Say thou, shall call her mistress.' So he nodded,
      And soberly did mount an arm-gaunt steed,
      Who neigh'd so high that what I would have spoke
      Was beastly dumb'd by him.
    CLEOPATRA. What, was he sad or merry?
    ALEXAS. Like to the time o' th' year between the extremes
      Of hot and cold; he was nor sad nor merry.
    CLEOPATRA. O well-divided disposition! Note him,
      Note him, good Charmian; 'tis the man; but note him!
      He was not sad, for he would shine on those
      That make their looks by his; he was not merry,
      Which seem'd to tell them his remembrance lay
      In Egypt with his joy; but between both.
      O heavenly mingle! Be'st thou sad or merry,
      The violence of either thee becomes,
      So does it no man else. Met'st thou my posts?
    ALEXAS. Ay, madam, twenty several messengers.
      Why do you send so thick?
    CLEOPATRA. Who's born that day
      When I forget to send to Antony
      Shall die a beggar. Ink and paper, Charmian.
      Welcome, my good Alexas. Did I, Charmian,
      Ever love Caesar so?
    CHARMIAN. O that brave Caesar!
    CLEOPATRA. Be chok'd with such another emphasis!
      Say 'the brave Antony.'
    CHARMIAN. The valiant Caesar!
    CLEOPATRA. By Isis, I will give thee bloody teeth
      If thou with Caesar paragon again
      My man of men.
    CHARMIAN. By your most gracious pardon,
      I sing but after you.
    CLEOPATRA. My salad days,
      When I was green in judgment, cold in blood,
      To say as I said then. But come, away!
      Get me ink and paper.
      He shall have every day a several greeting,
      Or I'll unpeople Egypt.                               Exeunt
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
feat_summary_name: Act I, Scene v
target: We're back with Cleopatra in Alexandria. She's verbally toying with Mardian, her eunuch , about whether he can feel anything for women, alluding to her self, obviously. She then returns to sighing over Antony, and laments that when she was Julius Caesar's mistress, she was "a morsel fit for a monarch." Her other lover, one of the elder Pompeys, was overcome by her looks alone. She worries she's past her prime. Just then, Alexas, another of her servants, enters with a pearl. It's a gift from Antony, who made a big deal about the thing before giving it to Alexas to take to the Queen. Antony promises Cleopatra will soon be called mistress of the East, because of the kingdoms he'll win for her. Cleopatra asks Alexas how Antony looked, and is glad to hear he wasn't really sad or really happy. She praises his moderation: seeming sad would make his followers sad, while seeming merry would make it seem like he took his job in Rome lightly. She's so pleased that she demands twenty messengers immediately, so she can write a ton of love letters to Antony. She claims she never loved Julius Caesar this way, but Charmian points out she has a habit of being in and out of love. Cleopatra dismisses her sighs over Caesar as youthful folly, and goes back to penning her affections for Antony.