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Full speech
Oh Caesar, not for that I fly thy fight My soul this sad retire of sorrow chosen: But that my' oppressed thoughts ab horring light, Like best in darkness, my disgrace t'inclose. And here to these close limits of despair, This solitary horror where I bide: Caesar, I thought no Roman should repair, More after him, who here oppressed died. Yet now, here at thy conquering feet I lie, Poor captive soul, that never thought to bow: Whose happy foot of rule and majesty, Stood late on y to same ground thou standest now. To me? Caesar what should a woman do Oppressed with greatness? What was it for me To contradict my Lord, being bent thereto? I was by love, by fear, by weakness, made And instrument to such designs as these. For when the Lord of all the Orient bade, Who but obeyed? who was not glad to please? And how could I withdraw my succouring hand, From him that had my heart, or what was mine? Interest of my faith in straightest band, My love to his most firmly did combine. Oh Caesar, see how easy 'tis t'accuse Whom fortune hath made faulty by their fallen, The wretched conquered may not refuse The titles of reproach he's charged withal. The conquering cause hath right, wherein y u art, The vanquished, still is judged the worse partly. Which partly is mine, because I lost my partly. No lesser then the portion of a Crown. Enough for me, alas what needed art To gain by others, but to keep mine own? But here let weaker powers note what it is, To neighbour great Competitors too near, If we take partly, we oft do perish thus, If neutral bide, both parties we must fear. Alas, what shall the forced partakers do, When following none, yet must they perish to? But Caesar. sith thy right and cause is such, Be not a heavy weight upon calamity: Depress not the afflicted overmuch, The chiefest glory is the Victor's lenity. Inheritance of mercy from him take, Of whom thou hast thy fortune and thy name: Great Caesar me a Queen at first did make, And let not Caesar now confound the same. Read here these lines which still I keep with me, The witness of his love and favours ever: And God forbid this should be said of thee, That Caesar wronged the favoured of Caesar. For look what I have been to Anthony, Think thou the same I might have been to thee. And here I do present thee with the note, Of all the treasure, all the Jewels rare That Egypt hath in many ages God; And look what Cleopatra hath, is there. What vile ȝung grateful wretch, darest thou continued ̄ troule Thy Queen & sovereign? caitiff as thou art. Ah Caesar, what a great indignity hands. Is this, that here my vassal subject stands, to accuse me to my Lord of treachery? If I reserved some certain women's toys, Alas it was not for my self (God knows,) Poor miserable soul, that little joys In trifling ornaments, in outward shows. But what I kept, I kept to make my way Unto thy Livia, and Octavia's grace. That thereby in compassion moved, they Might mediat thy favour in my case.
Plot summary
Plot — Cleopatra
Antony is dead, but Cleopatra still lives, holed up in her monument. She wants to join her lover in death, but is restrained by fear of how her children will be treated afterwards. Egypt has been conquered by Caesar, who visits the defeated Queen; she asks for mercy and hands over an inventory of her treasure, but her secretary Seleucus betrays her by notifying Caesar that she has kept some items back. Attempting to get her son Caesario out of Egypt, she entrusts him to his tutor Rhodon; but Rhodon is bribed by Caesar’s agents and hands the boy over to be killed by the Romans. Charmed by her beauty, Dolabella warns Cleopatra that Caesar intends to display her in his triumph, so she procures two asps and kills herself with them. ‘ —— ° ; 1593 B-Text In this version, more is told of the death of Antony before the start of the action: how Cleopatra sent him a false report of her death, which precipitated his attempted suicide, and how he was hoisted up into the monument to die. Cleopatra’s wish to kill herself is initially kept secret: she is first seen making arrangements to send Caesario to India, intending that he should one day return to supplant Caesar as the ruler of the Roman Empire.