Mojo, The Bard, & Me

 Today’s Totally Random Lines

 

Thou hast forespoke my being in these wars,

And say'st it is not fit.

 

Cleopatra

Antony and Cleopatra    Act III, Scene vii, Line 3

 

This is Cleopatra talking to Enobarbus, Antony’s right-hand man. Since we’re only on line three of the scene, I’m going to give it to you from the beginning. The setting is Antony’s camp near Actium and it’s just the two of them there.

Cleo

I will be even with thee, doubt it not.

Eno

But why, why, why?

Cleo

Thou hast forespoke my being in these wars,
And say’st it is not fit.

Eno
                                           Well, is it, is it?

Cleo
If not denounced against us, why should not we
Be there in person?

Eno
                               [Aside] Well, I could reply:—
If we should serve with horse and mares together,
The horse were merely lost; the mares would bear
A soldier and his horse.

Cleo
                                              What is’t you say?

Eno
Your presence needs must puzzle Antony;
Take from his heart, take from his brain, from’s time,
What should not then be spared. He is already
Traduced for levity; and ‘tis said in Rome
That Photinus an eunuch, and your maids
Manage this war.

Cleo
Sink Rome, and their tongues rot
That speak against us! A charge we bear i’the war,
And, as the president of my kingdom, will
Appear there for a man. Speak not against it;
I will not stay behind.

Eno
                                         Nay, I have done.
Here comes the emperor.

Enter Antony and Canidius.


Enobarbus is telling Cleopatra that she does not belong at the wars with Antony. She gives reasons why she should be there, and eventually Enobarbus gives up.

A couple of things.
Once again we start a scene with a conversation already well underway. Clearly Cleopatra had previously said something else that Enobarbus was saying Why, why, why to. Will loves to start us in the middle of things.
Secondly, the line Sink Rome, and their tongues rot/That speak against us. Great line!