William Shakespeare - William Shakespeare - Complete Works

ANTONY. You have heard much.

POMPEY. I have fair meanings, sir.

ANTONY. And fair words to them.

POMPEY. Then so much have I heard;

And I have heard Apollodorus carried-

ENOBARBUS. No more of that! He did so.

POMPEY. What, I pray you?

ENOBARBUS. A certain queen to Caesar in a mattress.

POMPEY. I know thee now. How far'st thou, soldier?

ENOBARBUS. Well;

And well am like to do, for I perceive

Four feasts are toward.

POMPEY. Let me shake thy hand.

I never hated thee; I have seen thee fight,

When I have envied thy behaviour.

ENOBARBUS. Sir,

I never lov'd you much; but I ha' prais'd ye

When you have well deserv'd ten times as much

As I have said you did.

POMPEY. Enjoy thy plainness;

It nothing ill becomes thee.

Aboard my galley I invite you all.

Will you lead, lords?

ALL. Show's the way, sir.

POMPEY. Come. Exeunt all but ENOBARBUS and MENAS

MENAS. [Aside] Thy father, Pompey, would ne'er have made this

treaty.- You and I have known, sir.

ENOBARBUS. At sea, I think.

MENAS. We have, sir.

ENOBARBUS. You have done well by water.

MENAS. And you by land.

ENOBARBUS. I Will praise any man that will praise me; though it

cannot be denied what I have done by land.

MENAS. Nor what I have done by water.

ENOBARBUS. Yes, something you can deny for your own safety: you

have been a great thief by sea.

MENAS. And you by land.

ENOBARBUS. There I deny my land service. But give me your hand,

Menas; if our eyes had authority, here they might take two

thieves kissing.

MENAS. All men's faces are true, whatsome'er their hands are.

ENOBARBUS. But there is never a fair woman has a true face.

MENAS. No slander: they steal hearts.

ENOBARBUS. We came hither to fight with you.

MENAS. For my part, I am sorry it is turn'd to a drinking.

Pompey doth this day laugh away his fortune.

ENOBARBUS. If he do, sure he cannot weep't back again.

MENAS. Y'have said, sir. We look'd not for Mark Antony here. Pray

you, is he married to Cleopatra?

ENOBARBUS. Caesar' sister is call'd Octavia.

MENAS. True, sir; she was the wife of Caius Marcellus.

ENOBARBUS. But she is now the wife of Marcus Antonius.

MENAS. Pray ye, sir?

ENOBARBUS. 'Tis true.

MENAS. Then is Caesar and he for ever knit together.

ENOBARBUS. If I were bound to divine of this unity, I would not

prophesy so.

MENAS. I think the policy of that purpose made more in the marriage

than the love of the parties.

ENOBARBUS. I think so too. But you shall find the band that seems

to tie their friendship together will be the very strangler of

their amity: Octavia is of a holy, cold, and still conversation.

MENAS. Who would not have his wife so?

ENOBARBUS. Not he that himself is not so; which is Mark Antony. He

will to his Egyptian dish again; then shall the sighs of Octavia

blow the fire up in Caesar, and, as I said before, that which is

the strength of their amity shall prove the immediate author of

their variance. Antony will use his affection where it is; he

married but his occasion here.

MENAS. And thus it may be. Come, sir, will you aboard? I have a

health for you.

ENOBARBUS. I shall take it, sir. We have us'd our throats in Egypt.

MENAS. Come, let's away. Exeunt

ACT_2|SC_7

SCENE VII.

On board POMPEY'S galley, off Misenum

Music plays. Enter two or three SERVANTS with a banquet

FIRST SERVANT. Here they'll be, man. Some o' their plants are

ill-rooted already; the least wind i' th' world will blow them

down.

SECOND SERVANT. Lepidus is high-colour'd.

FIRST SERVANT. They have made him drink alms-drink.

SECOND SERVANT. As they pinch one another by the disposition, he

cries out 'No more!'; reconciles them to his entreaty and himself

to th' drink.

FIRST SERVANT. But it raises the greater war between him and his

discretion.

SECOND SERVANT. Why, this it is to have a name in great men's

fellowship. I had as lief have a reed that will do me no service

as a partizan I could not heave.

FIRST SERVANT. To be call'd into a huge sphere, and not to be seen

to move in't, are the holes where eyes should be, which pitifully

disaster the cheeks.

A sennet sounded. Enter CAESAR, ANTONY, LEPIDUS,

POMPEY, AGRIPPA, MAECENAS, ENOBARBUS, MENAS,

with other CAPTAINS

ANTONY. [To CAESAR] Thus do they, sir: they take the flow o' th'

Nile

By certain scales i' th' pyramid; they know

By th' height, the lowness, or the mean, if dearth

Or foison follow. The higher Nilus swells

The more it promises; as it ebbs, the seedsman

Upon the slime and ooze scatters his grain,

And shortly comes to harvest.

LEPIDUS. Y'have strange serpents there.

ANTONY. Ay, Lepidus.

LEPIDUS. Your serpent of Egypt is bred now of your mud by the

operation of your sun; so is your crocodile.

ANTONY. They are so.

POMPEY. Sit- and some wine! A health to Lepidus!

LEPIDUS. I am not so well as I should be, but I'll ne'er out.

ENOBARBUS. Not till you have slept. I fear me you'll be in till

then.

LEPIDUS. Nay, certainly, I have heard the Ptolemies' pyramises are

very goodly things. Without contradiction I have heard that.

MENAS. [Aside to POMPEY] Pompey, a word.

POMPEY. [Aside to MENAS] Say in mine ear; what is't?

MENAS. [Aside to POMPEY] Forsake thy seat, I do beseech thee,

Captain,

And hear me speak a word.

POMPEY. [ Whispers in's ear ] Forbear me till anon-

This wine for Lepidus!

LEPIDUS. What manner o' thing is your crocodile?

ANTONY. It is shap'd, sir, like itself, and it is as broad as it

hath breadth; it is just so high as it is, and moves with it own

organs. It lives by that which nourisheth it, and the elements

once out of it, it transmigrates.

LEPIDUS. What colour is it of?

ANTONY. Of it own colour too.

LEPIDUS. 'Tis a strange serpent.

ANTONY. 'Tis so. And the tears of it are wet.

CAESAR. Will this description satisfy him?

ANTONY. With the health that Pompey gives him, else he is a very

epicure.

POMPEY. [Aside to MENAS] Go, hang, sir, hang! Tell me of that!

Away!

Do as I bid you.- Where's this cup I call'd for?

MENAS. [Aside to POMPEY] If for the sake of merit thou wilt hear

me,

Rise from thy stool.

POMPEY. [Aside to MENAS] I think th'art mad. [Rises and walks

aside] The matter?

MENAS. I have ever held my cap off to thy fortunes.

POMPEY. Thou hast serv'd me with much faith. What's else to say?-

Be jolly, lords.

ANTONY. These quicksands, Lepidus,

Keep off them, for you sink.

MENAS. Wilt thou be lord of all the world?

POMPEY. What say'st thou?

MENAS. Wilt thou be lord of the whole world? That's twice.

POMPEY. How should that be?

MENAS. But entertain it,

And though you think me poor, I am the man

Will give thee all the world.

POMPEY. Hast thou drunk well?

MENAS. No, Pompey, I have kept me from the cup.

Thou art, if thou dar'st be, the earthly Jove;

Whate'er the ocean pales or sky inclips

Is thine, if thou wilt ha't.

POMPEY. Show me which way.

MENAS. These three world-sharers, these competitors,

Are in thy vessel. Let me cut the cable;

And when we are put off, fall to their throats.

All there is thine.

POMPEY. Ah, this thou shouldst have done,

And not have spoke on't. In me 'tis villainy:

In thee't had been good service. Thou must know

'Tis not my profit that does lead mine honour: