No Fear Shakespeare
Antony and Cleopatra
Get this No Fear to go!
Act 1, Scene 1
Original Text |
Modern Text |
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Enter DEMETRIUS and
PHILO
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DEMETRIUS and PHILO
enter. |
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5 10 |
PHILO
Nay, but this dotage of our general’s
O’erflows the measure. Those his goodly eyes,
That o’er the files and musters of the war
Have glowed like plated Mars, now bend, now turn
The office and devotion of their view
Upon a tawny front. His captain’s heart,
Which in the scuffles of great fights hath burst
The buckles on his breast, reneges all temper
And is become the bellows and the fan
To cool a gypsy’s lust.
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PHILO
No, our general’s infatuation is out of control. His eyes used to
glow with pride when he reviewed his troops. Now his eyes devote
themselves exclusively to a certain brown-skinned face. His heart
used to burst the buckles on his breastplate in great fights, but
now he’s lost all temperance and dedicates his heart to satisfying
the lust of an Egyptian whore.
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Flourish. Enter ANTONY,
CLEOPATRA, her ladies, the train, with eunuchs
fanning her |
A trumpet fanfare announces the entrance of
ANTONY, CLEOPATRA, her ladies and attendants, and
eunuchs with fans. |
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Look where they
come.
Take but good note, and you shall see in him
The triple pillar of the world transformed
Into a strumpet’s fool. Behold and see.
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Look at them. Take a good look, and you’ll see that one of the
three men who rule the world has turned into a whore’s jester. Look
and see.
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CLEOPATRA
If it be love indeed, tell me how much.
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CLEOPATRA
If what you feel is really love, tell me how much.
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15 |
ANTONY
There’s beggary in the love that can be reckoned.
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ANTONY
It would be a pretty stingy love if it could be counted and
calculated.
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CLEOPATRA
I’ll set a bourn how far to be beloved.
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CLEOPATRA
I want to measure the extent of your love, to see how far it
stretches.
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ANTONY
Then must thou needs find out new heaven, new earth.
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ANTONY
Then you would have to go beyond heaven, beyond earth.
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Enter a
MESSENGER
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A MESSENGER
enters. |
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MESSENGER
News, my good lord, from Rome.
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MESSENGER
I have news from Rome, my good lord.
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ANTONY
Grates me, the sum.
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ANTONY
Which irritaties me. Give me a summary.
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