She has hitherto lived only to temporise with Caesar for the sake of her children, but to her late-born love for Antony her death is due. She remembers his doting affection, and exclaims:
And yet thou cam’st but in my beauties waine,
When new appearing wrinckles of declining
Wrought with the hand of yeares, seem’d to detaine
My graces light, as now but dimly shining ...
Then, and but thus, thou didst loue most sincerely,
O Antony, that best deseru’d it better,
This autumn of my beauty bought so dearely,
For which in more then death, I stand thy debter.
In the second act Proculeius gives an account of Cleopatra’s capture, and describes her apparent submission, to Caesar, who suspects that it is pretence. In the first scene of the third act Philostratus and Arius philosophise on their own misfortunes, the misfortunes of the land, and the probable fate of Cleopatra’s children. The next scene presents the famous interview between Caesar and Cleopatra, with the disclosures of Seleucus, to which are added Dolabella’s avowal of his admiration, and Caesar’s decision to carry his prisoner to Rome. In the fourth act Seleucus, who has betrayed the confidence of his mistress, bewails his disloyalty, to Rodon, who has delivered up Caesarion to death; but they depart to avoid Cleopatra, whom Dolabella has informed of the victor’s intentions, and who enters, exclaiming: