Scene 1
Caesar, with all the assurance of expected victory, laughs at Antony's challenge of personal combat. His aide Maecenus says that Antony is now vulnerable because he is angry, a view typical of Roman repression. Caesar instructs Maecenus that the men who have deserted Antony and come to fight for them instead should be place at the front of their ranks in order to demoralize Antony further; a creul and calculating tactic. He then states that the army should be feasted, except in a very different way to Antony's preceeding rash liberality: "We have store to do't / And they have earned the waste."
Scene 2
This scene is a kind of last supper for Antony, where he commends those who have been loyal to him. He seems to temporarily regain his former dignity, and the men complain that he is making them weep. Cleopatra either does not understand the whole male ritual, or cannot, unlike the others, see that their chances of success in the battle are minimal ("What means this?").
Scene 3
A very sinister, portentous scene, set at nightfall outside Cleopatra's palace where the guards are patrolling. The soldiers begin by exchanging slightly forced optimistic comments about the approaching battle, but then a mournful and mysterious noise interrupts them. They interpret it as the noise of the god Hercules, Antony's guiding spirit and reputed ancestor, abandoning him. The soldiers find it deeply unnerving and the fact that they choose to interpret it as a bad omen shows their lack of confidence.
Scene 4
Cleopatra, it seems, never learns. On the morning of the deciding battle Antony is calling for his armour, but she is saying "Sleep a little". However, she soon tries to help him prepare for the fight, and bids him and his men farewell. Antony is still full of dignity: "I'll leave thee/ Now like a man of steel."
Scene 5
Just as Antony is embarking for the battle, news is brought to him that Enobarbus has abandoned him. Antony responds benevolently, sending his belongings on after him and blaming himself - "Oh, my fortunes have / Corrupted honest men"
Scene 6
Caesar instructs that Antony be captured alive; although he proclaims that "the time of universal peace is near" we suspect that this is propaganda and that Caesar intends to taunt the live and vanquished Antony. Enobarbus, now in no-man's land between camps, is informed of Antony's generosity to him, and disgraced by his act of calumny in the face of bounty, determines to commit suicide.
Scene 7
Antony and Scarus, who is wounded, exchange spirited words in the midst of the battle. Antony will reward his for his "good valour".
Scene 8
Antony returns in victory, praising his men. He calls Cleopatra "Oh thou day of the world" and he is her "Lord of lords!". (not that their private relationship seems to correspond with their public successes / failures). Antony says that the victory indicates that their old age can outwit Caesar's boyishness; "[we] can get goal for goal with youth". Scarus is introduced to Cleopatra as a new feted warrior, and it is implied he is replacing Enobarbus. Their celebrations are to be loud "Trumpeters, with brazen din blast you the city's ear", and perhaps hubristic.
Scene 9
The Roman sentries are discussing the battle, calling is not devastating but only "shrewd". They then notice Enobarbus, (though of course they don't recognize him) and listen to him as all alone he asks the moon to witness his repentance. He asks the night to poison him "That life, a very rebel to my will/ May hang no longer on me." He appears to die by strength of will rather than any physical cause, and the Romans drag his body away.
Scene 10
"I would they'd fight i'th'fire or i'th'air
We'd fight there too" (Antony)
Antony responds in a wildly aggressive way to Scarus' question of whether to fight by sea or land, his phrase belying the fact that his judgement is skewed. It also indictes that Antony is not really of human elements any more, but living on borrowed time.
Scene 11
The corresponding short Roman exchange is, by contrast, short, realistic, and lucid: "To the vales, and hold our best advantage"
Scene 12
Sounds of a sea battle in progress. Scarus states that the augurs (fortune tellers) are not hopeful. Antony enters bellowing that "All is lost" and blaming it on Cleopatra - "This foul Egyptian hath betrayed me". It seems that Antony's fleet has "yielded to the foe" and that his men are carousing with the enemy. Cleopatra is perhaps the butt of his wrath because of what he witnessed occurring with Thidias. Antony despairs, describing himself as a felled tree: "this pine is stripped / That overtopped them all". Cleopatra appearing, seeming innocent: "Why is my lord enraged against his love?" but Antony is relentless: "The witch must die".
Scene 13
Cleopatra calls her women for help, and Charmian suddenly decides "To th'monument!" (i.e. her pyramid or sepulchre). The plan is to have Antony informed that Cleopatra has killed herself, so that he will repent with grief at her death. Cleopatra seems to respond to the drama of the situation - "Say the last word I spoke was 'Antony'".
Scene 14
Antony soliloquizes on the transience of life by describing the shapes clouds make. He feels himself only Antony in name. He receives Mardian, Cleopatra's woman, rudely, yet her (false) news regarding Cleopatra's death does inspire him to kill himself. He envisages their happiness together in the Elysian fields: "Where souls do couch on flowers we'll hand in hand... ". Antony tries to persuade Eros to kill him, and Eros at first refuses, suddenly appearing to change his mind "My sword is drawn" yet stabbing himself instead, in a very dramatic gesture - "Thus I do escape the sorrow/ Of Antony's death". Antony now endeavors to fall on his own sword, but manages to fail to kill himself outright. Seeing a guard approaching, he asks him to dispatch him; Antony's death is hardly the heroic one his life deserves. He is informed that Cleopatra is still living, and the guards bear him to her.
Scene 15
Cleopatra is informing her maids how "she will never go from hence", a line which could be interpreted as a brave resolution to die, or as a despondent moan demanding pity. When Antony appears below, she hauls him up into the monument, an action that can be pantomime in the midst of tragedy, depending upon a director's decision. Many productions choose to cut the lines "Help Iras, help! Help friends below! Let's draw him hither... Here's sport indeed! How heavy weighs my lord!" since the procedure can be problematic in terms of staging, and can appear to ruin the atmosphere, although the episode is extremely relevant to the play's contribution to the humanization of great kings and queens. Antony warns that she should trust none of Caesar's men but Dolabella, then bids her not grieve as they exchange final intimate speeches, and as he dies Cleopatra pronounces that the world without Antony is "no better than a sty" and that "The crown o'th'earth doth melt." After his death, Cleopatra states that all her values are turned on their head and that she has now no need for life.