Act 1, Scene 5 Summary

The scene switches back to Cleopatra's palace. Cleopatra asks for a strong drink so that she might sleep for the duration of her separation from Antony; when Charmian suggests that she thinks of her lover too much, the Queen calls for her eunuch (castrated male singer) Mardian, and tells him to stop singing, because she takes no pleasure in him. She asks him if he has natural "affections" (sexual impulses). Her thoughts turn to Antony again, and she indulges in a little speculation about what he might be doing as she waits. Alexas arrives with a pearl, sent from Antony to Cleopatra with a message that he will win territory for her. She talks fondly of Antony, and compares her feelings to those we discover she once had for Caesar, when she describes herself as having been young and "green in...