How much she loves me. And should I
Forsake this Beauty? This all-perfect Creature?
Dolla.I could not, were she mine.
Ant.And yet you first
Perswaded me: how come you alter'd since?
Dolla.I said at first I was not fit to go;
I could not hear her sighs, and see her tears,
But Pity must prevail: and so, perhaps,
It may again with you; for I have promis'd
That she should take her last farewel: and, see,
She comes to claim my word.
Enter Cleopatra.
Ant.False Dollabella!
Dolla.What's false, my Lord?
Ant.Why, Dollabella's false;
And Cleopatra's false; both false and faithless.
Draw near, you well-join'd wickedness, you Serpents,
Whom I have, in my kindly bosom, warm'd
Till I am stung to death.
Dolla.My Lord, have I
Deserv'd to be thus us'd?
Cleop.Can Heav'n prepare
A newer Torment? Can it find a Curse
Beyond our Separation?
Ant.Yes, if Fate
Be just, much greater: Heav'n should be ingenious
In punishing such crimes. The rowling Stone,
And gnawing Vulture, we slight pains, invented
When Jove was young, and no examples known
Of mighty ills; but you have ripen'd sin
To such a monstrous growth, 'twill pose the Gods
To find an equal Torture. Two, two such,
Oh there's no farther name, two such———to me,
To me, who lock'd my Soul within your breasts,
Had no desires, no joys, no life, but you;
When half the Globe was mine, I gave it you
In Dowry with my heart; I had no use,
No fruit of all, but you: a Friend and Mistress
Was what the World could give. Oh, Cleopatra!