The Complete Works of William Shakespeare Part 31

En.o.bARBUS. 'Tis true.

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

En.o.bARBUS. 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.

En.o.bARBUS. 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?

En.o.bARBUS. 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.

En.o.bARBUS. 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, En.o.bARBUS, 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.

En.o.bARBUS. 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 compet.i.tors, 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: 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 ash.o.r.e. I'll pledge it for him, Pompey.

En.o.bARBUS. Here's to thee, Menas!

MENAS. En.o.barbus, welcome!

POMPEY. Fill till the cup be hid.

En.o.bARBUS. There's a strong fellow, Menas.

[Pointing to the servant who carries off LEPIDUS]

MENAS. Why?

En.o.bARBUS. '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!

En.o.bARBUS. 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's 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' th' time.

CAESAR. Possess it, I'll make answer.

But I had rather fast from all four days Than drink so much in one.

En.o.bARBUS. [To ANTONY] Ha, my brave emperor!

Shall we dance now the Egyptian Baccha.n.a.ls 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.

En.o.bARBUS. 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. En.o.bARBUS places them hand in hand]

THE 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.