Antony and Cleopatra
Act II. Scene VII.
On board POMPEY’S Galley off Misenum.
Music. 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’ the world will blow them down.
- SECOND SERVANT
- Lepidus is high-coloured.
- FIRST SERVANT
- They have made him drink almsdrink.
- SECOND SERVANT
- As they pinch one another by the disposition, he cries out, ‘No more;’ reconciles them to his entreaty, and himself to the 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 partisan I could not heave.
- FIRST SERVANT
- To be called 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, MECÆNAS, ENOBARBUS, MENAS, with other Captains.
- ANTONY
- Thus do they, sir. They take the flow o’ the Nile
By certain scales i’ the pyramid; they know
By the 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
- You’ve 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
- Pompey, a word.
- POMPEY
- Say in mine ear; what is’t?
- MENAS
- Forsake thy seat, I do beseech thee, captain,
And hear me speak a word.
- POMPEY
- Forbear me till anon.
This wine for Lepidus!
- LEPIDUS
- What manner o’ thing is your crocodile?
- ANTONY
- It is shaped, 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
- Go hang, sir, hang! Tell me of that? away!
Do as I bid you. Where’s this cup I call’d for?
- MENAS
- If for the sake of merit thou wilt hear me,
Rise from thy stool.
- POMPEY
- I think thou’rt mad. The matter? [Walks aside.]
- 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 quick-sands, Lepidus,
Keep off them, for you sink.
- MENAS
- Wilt thou be lord of all the world?
- POMPEY
- What sayst thou?
- MENAS
- Wilt thou be lord of the whole world? That’s twice.
- POMPEY
- How should that be?
- MENAS
- But entertain it,
And though thou 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 villany;
In thee’t had been good service. Thou must know
’Tis not my profit that does lead mine honour;
Mine honour it. Repent that e’er thy tongue
Hath so betray’d thine act; being done unknown,
I should have found it afterwards well done,
But must condemn it now. Desist, and drink.
- MENAS
- [Aside.] For this,
I’ll never follow thy pall’d fortunes more.
Who seeks, and will not take when once ’tis offer’d,
Shall never find it more.
- POMPEY
- This health to Lepidus!
- ANTONY
- Bear him ashore. I’ll pledge it for him, Pompey.
- ENOBARBUS
- Here’s to thee, Menas!
- MENAS
- Enobarbus, welcome!
- POMPEY
- Fill till the cup be hid.
- ENOBARBUS
- There’s a strong fellow, Menas. [Pointing to the Attendant who carries off LEPIDUS.]
- MENAS
- Why?
- ENOBARBUS
- A’ bears the third part of the world, man; see’st not?
- MENAS
- The third part then is drunk; would it were all,
That it might go on wheels!
- ENOBARBUS
- Drink thou; increase the reels.
- MENAS
- Come.
- POMPEY
- This is not yet an Alexandrian feast.
- ANTONY
- It ripens towards it. Strike the vessels, ho!
Here is to Caesar!
- CAESAR
- I could well forbear’t.
It’s monstrous labour, when I wash my brain,
And it grows fouler.
- ANTONY
- Be a child o’ the time.
- CAESAR
- Possess it, I’ll make answer;
But I had rather fast from all four days
Than drink so much in one.
- ENOBARBUS
- [To ANTONY.] Ha! my brave emperor;
Shall we dance now the Egyptian Bacchanals,
And celebrate our drink?
- POMPEY
- Let’s ha’t, good soldier.
- ANTONY
- Come, let’s all take hands,
Till that the conquering wine hath steep’d our sense
In soft and delicate Lethe.
- ENOBARBUS
- All take hands.
Make battery to our ears with the loud music;
The while I’ll place you; then the boy shall sing,
The holding every man shall bear as loud
As his strong sides can volley. [Music plays. ENOBARBUS places them hand in hand.]
SONG.
Come, thou monarch of the vine,
Plumpy Bacchus, with pink eyne!
In thy fats our cares be drown’d,
With thy grapes our hairs be crown’d:
Cup us, till the world go round,
Cup us, till the world go round!
- CAESAR
- What would you more? Pompey, good night. Good brother,
Let me request you off; our graver business
Frowns at this levity. Gentle lords, let’s part;
You see we have burnt our cheeks; strong Enobarb
Is weaker than the wine, and mine own tongue
Splits what it speaks; the wild disguise hath almost
Antick’d us all. What needs more words? Good night.
Good Antony, your hand.
- POMPEY
- I’ll try you on the shore.
- ANTONY
- And shall, sir. Give’s your hand.
- POMPEY
- O, Antony!
You have my father’s house,—But, what? we are friends.
Come down into the boat.
- ENOBARBUS
- Take heed you fall not. [Exeunt POMPEY, CAESAR, ANTONY, and Attendants.]
Menas, I’ll not on shore.
- MENAS
- No, to my cabin.
These drums! these trumpets, flutes! what!
Let Neptune hear we bid a loud farewell
To these great fellows: sound and be hang’d! sound out! [A flourish of trumpets with drums.]
- ENOBARBUS
- Hoo! says a’. There’s my cap.
- MENAS
- Hoo! noble captain! come. [Exeunt]
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