In the second
scene of the third act Thyreus comes to her with Caesar's message:
"
Thyr. He knows that you embrace not Antony
As you did love but as you feared him.
Cleo. O!
Thyr. The scars upon your honour therefore he
Does pity as constrained blemishes,
Not as deserved.
Cleo. He is a god, and knows
What is most right. Mine honour was not yielded,
But conquered merely.
Eno. [
Aside.] To be sure of that
I will ask Antony.--Sir, sir, thou'rt so leaky
That we must leave thee to thy sinking, for
Thy dearest quit thee."
And when Thyreus asks her to leave Antony and put herself under Caesar's
protection, who "desires to give," she tells him:
"I am prompt
To lay my crown at his feet, and there to kneel."
Thyreus then asks for grace to lay his duty on her hand. She gives it to
him with the words:
"Your Caesar's father oft,
When he hath mused of taking kingdoms in,
Bestowed his lips on that unworthy place
As it rained kisses.
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