CHARMIAN. Well, go up to the top of the lighthouse; and get somebody to take you by the hair and throw you into the sea. (The ladies laugh.)
CLEOPATRA. She is right, Pothinus: you will come to the shore with much conceit washed out of you. (The ladies laugh. Cleopatra rises impatiently.) Begone, all of you. I will speak with Pothinus alone. Drive them out, Ftatateeta. (They run out laughing. Ftatateeta shuts the door on them.) What are you waiting for?
FTATATEETA. It is not meet that the Queen remain alone with——
CLEOPATRA (interrupting her). Ftatateeta: must I sacrifice you to your father’s gods to teach you that I am Queen of Egypt, and not you?
FTATATEETA (indignantly). You are like the rest of them. You want to be what these Romans call a New Woman. (She goes out, banging the door.)
CLEOPATRA (sitting down again). Now, Pothinus: why did you bribe Ftatateeta to bring you hither?
POTHINUS (studying her gravely). Cleopatra: what they tell me is true. You are changed.
CLEOPATRA. Do you speak with Caesar every day for six months: and you will be changed.
POTHINUS. It is the common talk that you are infatuated with this old man.
CLEOPATRA. Infatuated? What does that mean? Made foolish, is it not? Oh no: I wish I were.