e; [_Bowing._
I mean of goodness; for in beauty, madam,
You make all wonders cease.

_Cleo._ I was too rash:
Take this in part of recompense. But, oh, [_Giving a ring._
I fear thou flatterest me.

_Char._ She comes! she's here!

_Iras._ Fly, madam, Caesar's sister!

_Cleo._ Were she the sister of the thunderer Jove,
And bore her brother's lightning in her eyes,
Thus would I face my rival.

_Meets_ OCTAVIA _with_ VENTIDIUS. OCTAVIA _bears up to her. Their
Trains come up on either side._

_Octav._ I need not ask if you are Cleopatra;
Your haughty carriage--

_Cleo._ Shows I am a queen:
Nor need I ask you, who you are.

_Octav._ A Roman:
A name, that makes and can unmake a queen.

_Cleo._ Your lord, the man who serves me, is a Roman.

_Octav._ He was a Roman, till he lost that name,
To be a slave in Egypt; but I come
To free him thence.

_Cleo._ Peace, peace, my lover's Juno.
When he grew weary of that household-clog,
He chose my easier bonds.

_Octav._ I wonder not
Your bonds are easy; you have long been practised
In that lascivious art: He's not the first,
For whom you spread your snares: Let Caesar witness.

_Cleo._ I loved not Caesar; 'twas but gratitude
I paid his love: The worst your malice can,
Is but to say, the greatest of mankind
Has been my slave. The next, but far above him
In my esteem, is he whom law calls yours,
But whom his love made mine.

_Octav._ I would view nearer [_Coming up close to her._
That face, which has so long usurped my right,
To find the inevitable charms, that catch
Mankind so sure, that ruined my dear lord.

_Cleo._ O, you do well to search; for had you known
But half these charms, you had not lost his heart.

_Octav._ Far be their knowledge from a Roman lady,
Far from a modest wife! Shame of your sex,
Dost thou not blush, to own those black endearments,
That make sin pleasing?

_Cleo._ You may blush, who want them.
If bounteous nature, if indulgent heaven
Have given me charms to please the bravest man,
Should I not thank them? should I be ashamed,
And not be proud? I am, that he has loved me;
And, when I love not him, heaven change this face
For one like that.

_Octav._ Thou lov'st him not so well.

_Cleo._ I love him better, and deserve him more.

_Octav._ You do not; cannot: You have been his ruin.
Who made him cheap at Rome, but Cleopatra?
Who made him scorned abroad, but Cleo