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Happy Shakespeare's birthday, everyone!
... Or Shakespeare's sort-of-birthday-and-definitely-deathday, anyhow. This bit from Antony and Cleopatra seemed appropriate for both occasions, and besides, I'm a complete sucker for "Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die" passages.
MARK ANTONY
I will be treble-sinew'd, hearted, breathed,
And fight maliciously: for when mine hours
Were nice and lucky, men did ransom lives
Of me for jests; but now I'll set my teeth,
And send to darkness all that stop me. Come,
Let's have one other gaudy night: call to me
All my sad captains; fill our bowls once more;
Let's mock the midnight bell.
CLEOPATRA
It is my birth-day:
I had thought to have held it poor: but, since my lord
Is Antony again, I will be Cleopatra.
MARK ANTONY
We will yet do well.
CLEOPATRA
Call all his noble captains to my lord.
MARK ANTONY
Do so, we'll speak to them; and to-night I'll force
The wine peep through their scars. Come on, my queen;
There's sap in't yet. The next time I do fight,
I'll make death love me; for I will contend
Even with his pestilent scythe.
Exeunt all but DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS
DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS
Now he'll outstare the lightning. To be furious,
Is to be frighted out of fear; and in that mood
The dove will peck the estridge; and I see still,
A diminution in our captain's brain
Restores his heart: when valour preys on reason,
It eats the sword it fights with. I will seek
Some way to leave him.
As a side note, this would have been my birthday too if I had arrived on time. (As my mother was planning to give me the middle name "Bard," it is just as well that I didn't.)
MARK ANTONY
I will be treble-sinew'd, hearted, breathed,
And fight maliciously: for when mine hours
Were nice and lucky, men did ransom lives
Of me for jests; but now I'll set my teeth,
And send to darkness all that stop me. Come,
Let's have one other gaudy night: call to me
All my sad captains; fill our bowls once more;
Let's mock the midnight bell.
CLEOPATRA
It is my birth-day:
I had thought to have held it poor: but, since my lord
Is Antony again, I will be Cleopatra.
MARK ANTONY
We will yet do well.
CLEOPATRA
Call all his noble captains to my lord.
MARK ANTONY
Do so, we'll speak to them; and to-night I'll force
The wine peep through their scars. Come on, my queen;
There's sap in't yet. The next time I do fight,
I'll make death love me; for I will contend
Even with his pestilent scythe.
Exeunt all but DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS
DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS
Now he'll outstare the lightning. To be furious,
Is to be frighted out of fear; and in that mood
The dove will peck the estridge; and I see still,
A diminution in our captain's brain
Restores his heart: when valour preys on reason,
It eats the sword it fights with. I will seek
Some way to leave him.
As a side note, this would have been my birthday too if I had arrived on time. (As my mother was planning to give me the middle name "Bard," it is just as well that I didn't.)
no subject
I have great affection for Anthony & Cleopatra as I played Charmian in a modern-dress production early on in my amateur acting career.
Enobarbus's speech at the end of that scene in that always made me go cold inside.
MM