The Dungy Earth

Let Rome in Tiber melt and the wide arch
Of the ranged empire fall. Here is my space.
Kingdoms are clay.
Our dungy earth alike feeds beast as man.
The nobleness of life is to do thus.

He's down in the dirt - or rather in the clay of Cleopatra's Egypt. This is how he shows himself the 'Strumpet's fool' for the messengers Philo (Father of Pastries) and Demetrius. He crawls in the clay, abasing himself before her beauty, and then climbs up her body to give her a kiss.

This is his answer to the demand she makes at the top of the scene: "If it be love," she says, right off the top, "tell me how much." Game-playing, he refuses. "There's beggery in the love that can be reckoned."

But then later he does beggar himself before her to reckon it, to tell her how much. She wins the first battle, though she lets him think he's won it, since the argument seems to be about whether or not he hears the messengers. She demands that he hear the messengers who have come from Rome. He refuses. He'll leave the messengers for the next morning (or, more likely, afternoon) and she'll keep the Roman thought at bay for one more (last) day.