CLEOPATRA.
[ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA.]
Yes, this is the famed Queen of Egypt who ruined Antony.
He knew perfectly that this woman was leading him to destruction, and he would fain tear himself away from the magic fetters:—
"I must with haste from hence!"
He flies—only to return all the sooner to the flesh-pots of Egypt, to his serpent of old Nile, as he calls her; soon finding himself again with her in the luxurious mud of Alexandria, and there, as Octavius relates—
"I' the market-place, on a tribunal silver'd,
Cleopatra and himself in chairs of gold
Were publicly enthron'd : at the feet sat
Cæsarion, whom they call my father's son,
And all the unlawful issue, that their lust
Since then hath made between them. Unto her
He gave the 'stablishment of Egypt; made her
Of lower Syria, Cyprus, Lydia,
Absolute queen.. . .
I' the common show-place, where they exercise,
His sons he there proclaim'd the kings of kings:
Great Media, Parthia, and Armenia,
He gave to Alexander; to Ptolemy he assign'd
Syria, Cilicia, and Phœnicia: she
