Page:Antony and Cleopatra (1921) Yale.djvu/17

Antony and Cleopatra, I. ii

Char. I had rather heat my liver with drinking.

Alex. Nay, hear him.

Char. Good now, some excellent fortune!

Let me be married to three kings in a forenoon,

and widow them all; let me have a child at fifty,

to whom Herod of Jewry may do homage; find

me to marry me with Octavius Cæsar, and com-

panion me with my mistress.

Sooth. You shall outlive the lady whom you serve.

Char. O excellent! I love long life better than figs.

Sooth. You have seen and prov'd a fairer former fortune

Than that which is to approach.

Char. Then, belike, my children shall have

no names; prithee, how many boys and wenches

must I have?

Sooth. If every of your wishes had a womb,

And fertile every wish, a million.

Char. Out, fool! I forgive thee for a witch.

Alex. You think none but your sheets are

privy to your wishes.

Char. Nay, come, tell Iras hers.

Alex. We'll know all our fortunes.

Eno. Mine, and most of our fortunes, to-

night, shall be,—drunk to bed.

Iras. There's a palm presages chastity, if

nothing else.

Char. E'en as the o'erflowing Nilus presageth

famine.

Iras. Go, you wild bedfellow, you cannot

soothsay.

Char. Nay, if an oily palm be not a fruitful

 30 Herod of Jewry; cf. n.

31 marry Cæsar; cf. n. on V. ii. 168

