The world and my great office will sometimes
Divide me from your bosom.
The world and my great office will sometimes Divide me from your bosom.
The world and my great office will sometimes Divide me from your bosom.
the world and my great office will sometimes divide me from your bosom.
All which time
Before the gods my knee shall bow my prayers
To them for you.
All which time Before the gods my knee shall bow my prayers To them for you.
All which time Before the gods my knee shall bow my prayers To them for you.
all which time before the gods my knee shall bow my prayers to them for you.
Good night, sir.—My Octavia,
Read not my blemishes in the world’s report.
I have not kept my square, but that to come
Shall all be done by th’ rule. Good night, dear lady.
Good night, sir.—My Octavia, Read not my blemishes in the world’s report. I have not kept my square, but that to come Shall all be done by th’ rule. Good night, dear lady.
Good night, sir.—My Octavia, Read not my blemishes in the world’s report. I have not kept my square, but that to come Shall all be done by th’ rule. Good night, dear lady.
good night, sir.—my octavia, read not my blemishes in the world’s report. i have not kept my square, but that to come shall all be done by th’ rule. g
Good night, sir.
Good night, sir.
Good night, sir.
good night, sir.
Good night.
Good night.
Good night.
good night.
The Soothsayer appears twice in this play — here and in 1.2, where he told Charmian and Iras that their future would be less bright than their present. Both times, he says things people already half-know but don't want to face. Here, he's not revealing a hidden truth so much as naming a truth Antony is actively suppressing. Antony already knows he plays smaller near Caesar — he's seen it, felt it, heard it whispered. The Soothsayer just gives him permission to act on it. This is Shakespeare's genius: the prophecy doesn't determine the future; it names the present. Antony's response — 'Speak this no more' — is the response of a man who recognizes a truth he'd rather not acknowledge.
Now, sirrah, you do wish yourself in Egypt?
Now, sirrah, you do wish yourself in Egypt?
Now, sirrah, you do wish yourself in Egypt?
now, sirrah, you do wish yourself in egypt?
Would I had never come from thence, nor you thither!
Would I had never come from thence, nor you thither!
Would I had never come from thence, nor you thither!
would i had never come from thence, nor you thither!
If you can, your reason.
If you can, your reason.
If you can, your reason.
if you can, your reason.
I see it in my motion, have it not in my tongue.
But yet hie you to Egypt again.
I see it in my motion, have it not in my tongue. But yet hie you to Egypt again.
I see it in my motion, have it not in my tongue. But yet hie you to Egypt again.
i see it in my motion, have it not in my tongue. but yet hie you to egypt again.
Say to me,
Whose fortunes shall rise higher, Caesar’s or mine?
Say to me, Whose fortunes shall rise higher, Caesar’s or mine?
Say to me, Whose fortunes shall rise higher, Caesar’s or mine?
say to me, whose fortunes shall rise higher, caesar’s or mine?
Caesar’s.
Therefore, O Antony, stay not by his side.
Thy dæmon—that thy spirit which keeps thee—is
Noble, courageous, high, unmatchable,
Where Caesar’s is not. But near him, thy angel
Becomes afeard, as being o’erpowered. Therefore
Make space enough between you.
Caesar’s. Therefore, O Antony, stay not by his side. Thy dæmon—that thy spirit which keeps thee—is Noble, courageous, high, unmatchable, Where Caesar’s is not. But near him, thy angel Becomes afeard, as being o’erpowered. Therefore Make space enough between you.
Caesar’s. Therefore, O Antony, stay not by his side. Thy dæmon—that thy spirit which keeps thee—is Noble, courageous, high, unmatchable, Where Caesar’s is not. But near him, thy angel Becomes afeard, as being o’erpowered. Therefore Make space enough between you.
caesar’s. therefore, o antony, stay not by his side. thy dæmon—that thy spirit which keeps thee—is noble, courageous, high, unmatchable, where caesar’
Speak this no more.
Speak this no more.
Speak this no more.
speak this no more.
To none but thee; no more but when to thee.
If thou dost play with him at any game,
Thou art sure to lose; and of that natural luck
He beats thee ’gainst the odds. Thy lustre thickens
When he shines by. I say again, thy spirit
Is all afraid to govern thee near him;
But, he away, ’tis noble.
To none but thee; no more but when to thee. If thou dost play with him at any game, Thou art sure to lose; and of that natural luck He beats thee ’gainst the odds. Thy lustre thickens When he shines by. I say again, thy spirit Is all afraid to govern thee near him; But, he away, ’tis noble.
To none but thee; no more but when to thee. If thou dost play with him at any game, Thou art sure to lose; and of that natural luck He beats thee ’gainst the odds. Thy lustre thickens When he shines by. I say again, thy spirit Is all afraid to govern thee near him; But, he away, ’tis noble.
to none but thee; no more but when to thee. if thou dost play with him at any game, thou art sure to lose; and of that natural luck he beats thee ’gai
Antony's dispatch of Ventidius to Parthia is the first exercise of his generalship we've seen in Rome — and it's brisk, decisive, and entirely correct. The Parthian frontier was one of Rome's most pressing military problems: in 53 BC, Crassus (the third triumvir of the earlier alliance) had been disastrously defeated there. Antony sending Ventidius is a real strategic move. Ventidius will succeed — we'll see him in Act 3. But there's an irony in it: Antony is dispatching his best lieutenant to do the honorable Roman military work while he himself is already mentally headed back to Alexandria. He's keeping up the appearance of imperial responsibility while abandoning its substance.
Get thee gone.
Say to Ventidius I would speak with him.
Get thee gone. Say to Ventidius I would speak with him.
Get thee gone. Say to Ventidius I would speak with him.
get thee gone. say to ventidius i would speak with him.
Antony's private resolution — 'I will to Egypt / And though I make this marriage for my peace / I' th' East my pleasure lies' — appears in the stage directions of this text, not as a labeled speech. This is a feature of early modern staging conventions that the First Folio sometimes preserves awkwardly. The lines are clearly Antony's private thoughts, delivered to the audience after the Soothsayer exits. In performance, they function as a soliloquy — a direct confession. Shakespeare places the confession immediately after Antony has sworn to Octavia that he'll live 'by the rule.' The structural juxtaposition is the point: the vow and the betrayal occupy the same scene.
The Reckoning
This is one of the most quietly devastating scenes in the play. Antony has just made a political marriage that was supposed to solve everything — and within the same scene, before the ink is dry, he decides to abandon it. The Soothsayer doesn't tell him anything he doesn't know. That's the point. Antony uses the prophecy as permission to do what he already wants. He hears 'your luck always fails near Caesar' and thinks: right, so I should go where my luck is good — and his luck, his life, his self, is in Egypt. The scene is short, but it contains the engine of everything that follows.
If this happened today…
A senior executive has just been brought back into the firm and given a high-profile partner assignment with a rival he's always envied. His mentor pulls him aside: 'Look, whenever you're around him, you play small. You've seen it. Even when you're objectively better, you lose.' The executive nods, says nothing, thanks the mentor, and walks away already booking flights to the city where he actually thrives. The partnership is already over in his mind.