hich he could ill resist; yet he should ever
Respect you, as he ought.

_Cleo._ Is that a word
For Antony to use to Cleopatra?
Oh that faint word, _respect_! how I disdain it!
Disdain myself, for loving after it!
He should have kept that word for cold Octavia.
Respect is for a wife: Am I that thing,
That dull insipid lump, without desires,
And without power to give them?

_Alex._ You misjudge;
You see through love, and that deludes your sight;
As, what is straight, seems crooked through the water:
But I, who bear my reason undisturbed,
Can see this Antony, this dreaded man,
A fearful slave, who fain would run away,
And shuns his master's eyes: If you pursue him,
My life on't, he still drags a chain along,
That needs must clog his flight.

_Cleo._ Could I believe thee!--

_Alex._ By every circumstance I know he loves.
True, he's hard prest, by interest and by honour;
Yet he but doubts, and parleys, and casts out
Many a long look for succour.

_Cleo._ He sends word,
He fears to see my face.

_Alex._ And would you more?
He shows his weakness, who declines the combat,
And you must urge your fortune. Could he speak
More plainly? To my ears, the message sounds--
Come to my rescue, Cleopatra, come;
Come, free me from Ventidius; from my tyrant:
See me, and give me a pretence to leave him!--
I hear his trumpets. This way he must pass.
Please you, retire a while; I'll work him first,
That he may bend more easy.

_Cleo._ You shall rule me;
But all, I fear, in vain. [_Exit with_ CHAR. _and_ IRAS.

_Alex._ I fear so too;
Though I concealed my thoughts, to make her bold;
But 'tis our utmost means, and fate befriend it! [_Withdraws._

_Enter Lictors with Fasces; one bearing the Eagle; then enter_
ANTONY _with_ VENTIDIUS, _followed by other Commanders._

_Ant._ Octavius is the minion of blind chance,
But holds from virtue nothing.

_Vent._ Has he courage?

_Ant._ But just enough to season him from coward.
O, 'tis the coldest youth upon a charge,
The most deliberate fighter! if he ventures,
(As in Illyria once, they say, he did,
To storm a town) 'tis when he cannot chuse;
When all the world have fixt their eyes upon him;
And then he lives on that for seven years after;
But, at a close revenge he never fails.

_Vent._ I heard you challenged him.

_Ant._ I did, Ventidius.
What think'st thou was his answer? 'Twas so tame!--
He said, he had more ways than one to die;
I had not.