feat_summary_path: finished_summaries/shmoop/The Tragedy of Antony and Cleopatra/section_0_part_0.txt
feat_book_id: The Tragedy of Antony and Cleopatra.act i.scene i
feat_summary_id: act i, scene i
feat_summary: {"name": "Act I, Scene i", "url": "https://web.archive.org/web/20210116191009/https://www.shmoop.com/study-guides/literature/antony-cleopatra/summary/act-i-scene-i", "summary": "Two Roman soldiers, Demetrius and Philo, are at Cleopatra's palace in Alexandria, Egypt. They discuss how their dear leader and friend, Mark Antony, is totally smitten with Egypt's queen, Cleopatra. Because of this, he acts less like a ruler and more like a teenager in love. Cleopatra and Antony show up, and Cleopatra demands that Antony tells her how much he loves her. He does so with much fawning. A messenger arrives with news from Rome, and Cleopatra taunts him that the message is either from Antony's wife Fulvia, who's angry about his absence, or maybe orders from Octavius Caesar in Rome. Antony insists he won't hear the message, because everything he cares about is in front of him. Cleopatra again taunts her love: she wonders whether Antony might care as little for her as for Fulvia, his wife back home. Antony scolds her for being so hot and cold. They leave the messenger without hearing the message, and Demetrius and Philo lament that all the rumors in Rome about Antony having fallen off the manly wagon are true.", "analysis": ""}
text: ACT I. SCENE I.
  Alexandria. CLEOPATRA'S palace
  
  Enter DEMETRIUS and PHILO
  
    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 glow'd 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 gipsy's lust.
  
       Flourish. Enter ANTONY, CLEOPATRA, her LADIES, the train,
                      with eunuchs fanning her
  
      Look where they come!
      Take but good note, and you shall see in him
      The triple pillar of the world transform'd
      Into a strumpet's fool. Behold and see.
    CLEOPATRA. If it be love indeed, tell me how much.
    ANTONY. There's beggary in the love that can be reckon'd.
    CLEOPATRA. I'll set a bourn how far to be belov'd.
    ANTONY. Then must thou needs find out new heaven, new earth.
  
                         Enter a MESSENGER
  
    MESSENGER. News, my good lord, from Rome.
    ANTONY. Grates me the sum.
    CLEOPATRA. Nay, hear them, Antony.
      Fulvia perchance is angry; or who knows
      If the scarce-bearded Caesar have not sent
      His pow'rful mandate to you: 'Do this or this;
      Take in that kingdom and enfranchise that;
      Perform't, or else we damn thee.'
    ANTONY. How, my love?
    CLEOPATRA. Perchance? Nay, and most like,
      You must not stay here longer; your dismission
      Is come from Caesar; therefore hear it, Antony.
      Where's Fulvia's process? Caesar's I would say? Both?
      Call in the messengers. As I am Egypt's Queen,
      Thou blushest, Antony, and that blood of thine
      Is Caesar's homager. Else so thy cheek pays shame
      When shrill-tongu'd Fulvia scolds. The messengers!
    ANTONY. Let Rome in Tiber melt, and the wide arch
      Of the rang'd empire fall! Here is my space.
      Kingdoms are clay; our dungy earth alike
      Feeds beast as man. The nobleness of life
      Is to do thus [emhracing], when such a mutual pair
      And such a twain can do't, in which I bind,
      On pain of punishment, the world to weet
      We stand up peerless.
    CLEOPATRA. Excellent falsehood!
      Why did he marry Fulvia, and not love her?
      I'll seem the fool I am not. Antony
      Will be himself.
    ANTONY. But stirr'd by Cleopatra.
      Now for the love of Love and her soft hours,
      Let's not confound the time with conference harsh;
      There's not a minute of our lives should stretch
      Without some pleasure now. What sport to-night?
    CLEOPATRA. Hear the ambassadors.
    ANTONY. Fie, wrangling queen!
      Whom everything becomes- to chide, to laugh,
      To weep; whose every passion fully strives
      To make itself in thee fair and admir'd.
      No messenger but thine, and all alone
      To-night we'll wander through the streets and note
      The qualities of people. Come, my queen;
      Last night you did desire it. Speak not to us.
                       Exeunt ANTONY and CLEOPATRA, with the train
    DEMETRIUS. Is Caesar with Antonius priz'd so slight?
    PHILO. Sir, sometimes when he is not Antony,
      He comes too short of that great property
      Which still should go with Antony.
    DEMETRIUS. I am full sorry
      That he approves the common liar, who
      Thus speaks of him at Rome; but I will hope
      Of better deeds to-morrow. Rest you happy!            Exeunt
  
  
  
  
  
  
feat_summary_name: Act I, Scene i
target: Two Roman soldiers, Demetrius and Philo, are at Cleopatra's palace in Alexandria, Egypt. They discuss how their dear leader and friend, Mark Antony, is totally smitten with Egypt's queen, Cleopatra. Because of this, he acts less like a ruler and more like a teenager in love. Cleopatra and Antony show up, and Cleopatra demands that Antony tells her how much he loves her. He does so with much fawning. A messenger arrives with news from Rome, and Cleopatra taunts him that the message is either from Antony's wife Fulvia, who's angry about his absence, or maybe orders from Octavius Caesar in Rome. Antony insists he won't hear the message, because everything he cares about is in front of him. Cleopatra again taunts her love: she wonders whether Antony might care as little for her as for Fulvia, his wife back home. Antony scolds her for being so hot and cold. They leave the messenger without hearing the message, and Demetrius and Philo lament that all the rumors in Rome about Antony having fallen off the manly wagon are true.