In William Shakespeare's "Antony and Cleopatra," the first part of this scene is Cleopatra missing Antony and wanting to see him, the second half of the scene is about Antony's message to Cleopatra, and Cleopatra ranting about their love, and wanting to send him a message back.

In line 4, Cleopatra asks Charmian for mandragora. Which is a narcotic, which will presumable put her to sleep, so that she `might sleep out this great gap of time'; whilst Antony is away. However narcotics also change the way a person feels. Narcotics can make only feel euphoric, and not feel miserable and think about what's going on. This is typical decadence. She is trying to drowse her misery with superficial joys. This is very similar to what Antony does all the time. He takes pleasures in Egypt so that he can forget about Rome and hard work.

This is ironic...