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I dreamt there was an emperor Antony

Cleopatra
I dreamt there was an emperor Antony.
O, such another sleep, that I might see
But such another man.
Dolabella
If it might please you—
Cleopatra
His face was as the heavens, and therein stuck
A sun and moon, which kept their course and lighted
The little O, the Earth.

Think you there was, or might be, such a man
As this I dreamt of?

Dolabella
Most sovereign creature—
Cleopatra
His legs bestrid the ocean, his reared arm
Crested the world. His voice was propertied
As all the tunèd spheres, and that to friends;
But when he meant to quail and shake the orb,
He was as rattling thunder. For his bounty,
There was no winter in ‘t; an autumn 'twas
That grew the more by reaping. His delights
Were dolphin-like; they showed his back above
The element they lived in. In his livery
Walked crowns and crownets; realms and islands were
As plates dropped from his pocket.
Dolabella
Cleopatra—
Cleopatra
Think you there was, or might be, such a man
As this I dreamt of?
Dolabella
Gentle madam, no.
Cleopatra
You lie up to the hearing of the gods!
But if there be nor ever were one such,
It's past the size of dreaming. Nature wants stuff
To vie strange forms with fancy, yet t' imagine
An Antony were nature's piece ‘gainst fancy,
Condemning shadows quite.

Source:
Act 5
Scene 2
Line 93

Source Type:

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