Act 3, Scene 3
Cleopatra, Charmian, Iras, and Alexas enter the scene in Egypt. Cleopatra has sent for the messenger who, Alexas says, is afraid to come back. The messenger enters, greets the queen, and Cleopatra asks him if he has seen Octavia in Rome, and prompts him to tell her that Octavia is not as tall as she is, and has a low voice.
Cleopatra takes this as an indication that Antony will tire of her quickly. Knowing what Cleopatra wants to hear, the messenger goes on to say that Octavia does not walk majestically, she has no apparent life to her, she is thirty years old with a face that is too round, brown hair, and a low forehead (a colloquial expression for being ugly). Cleopatra gives him gold for this, and tells him to forget the way she treated him when he first came to her. She says she will use him again, and sends him away. Cleopatra muses to Charmian that if the messenger is right, she has nothing to worry about.
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