Your mother came to Sicily, and did find Ant. I have heard it, Pompey; And am well studied for a liberal thanks, Which I do owe you. Pom. Let me have your hand. I did not think, sir, to have met you here. Ant. The beds i'the East are soft; and thanks to you, That called me, timelier than my purpose, hither; What counts1 harsh fortune casts upon my face; But in my bosom shall she never come, To make my heart her vassal. Lep. Well met here. Pom. I hope so, Lepidus.-Thus we are agreed; I crave our composition may be written, And sealed between us. Cæs. That's the next to do. Pom. We'll feast each other, ere we part; and let us Draw lots who shall begin. Ant. That will I, Pompey. Pom. No, Antony, take the lot; but, first, Or last, your fine Egyptian cookery Shall have the fame. I have heard that Julius Cæsar Grew fat with feasting there. Ant. You have heard much. Pom. I have fair meanings, sir. And fair words to them. Pom. Then so much have I heard ;And I have heard Apollodorus carriedEno. No more of that ;-he did so. Pom. What, I pray you? Eno. A certain queen to Cæsar in a mattress.2 1 A metaphor from making marks or lines in casting accounts in arithmetic. 2 i. e. to Julius Cæsar. This is derived from the margin of North's Pom. I know thee now ;-how far'st thou, soldier? Eno. Well; And well am like to do; for, I perceive, Four feasts are toward. Pom. Let me shake thy hand. I never hated thee; I have seen thee fight, Eno. Sir, I never loved you much; but I have praised you, Pom. Enjoy thy plainness; It nothing ill becomes thee. Aboard my galley I invite you all. Will you lead, lords? Cæs. Ant. Lep. Pom. Show us the way, sir. Come. [Exeunt POMPEY, CÆSAR, ANTONy, Lepidus, Soldiers, and Attendants. Men. Thy father, Pompey, would ne'er have made this treaty.[Aside.]-You and I have known,' sir. Eno. At sea, I think. Men. We have, sir. Eno. You have done well by water. Men. And you by land. Eno. I will praise any man that will praise me; though it cannot be denied what I have done by land. Men. Nor what I have done by water. Eno. Yes, something you can deny for your own safety; you have been a great thief by sea. Men. And you by land. Eno. There I deny my land service. But give me your hand, Menas; if our eyes had authority, here they might take two thieves kissing. Men. All men's faces are true, whatsoe'er their hands are. Plutarch, 1579:-" Cleopatra trussed up in a mattrasse, and so brought to Cæsar upon Appollodorus' backe." 1 i. e. been acquainted. So in Cymbeline:-"Sir, we have known together at Orleans." Eno. But there is never a fair woman has a true face. Men. No slander; they steal hearts. Eno. We came hither to fight with you. Men. For my part, I am sorry it is turned to a drinking. Pompey doth this day laugh away his fortune. Eno. If he do, sure he cannot weep it back again. Men. You have said, sir. We looked not for Mark Antony here. Pray you, is he married to Cleopatra ? Eno. Cæsar's sister is called Octavia. Men. True, sir; she was the wife of Caius Marcellus. Eno. But she is now the wife of Marcus Antonius. Men. Pray you, sir? Eno. 'Tis true. Men. Then is Cæsar and he forever knit together. Eno. If I were bound to divine of this unity, I would not prophesy so. Men. I think the policy of that purpose made more in the marriage, than the love of the parties. Eno. 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.1 Men. Who would not have his wife so? ; Eno. 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 Cæsar 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. Men. And thus it may be. Come, sir, will you aboard? I have a health for you. Eno. I shall take it, sir; we have used our throats in Egypt. Men. Come; let's away. [Exeunt. 1 Conversation is behavior, manner of acting in common life. SCENE VII. On board Pompey's Galley, lying near Misenum. Music. Enter two or three Servants, with a 1 Serv. Here they'll be, man. Some o' their plants 2 are ill rooted already; the least wind i' the world will blow them down. 2 Serv. Lepidus is high-colored. 1 Serv. They have made him drink alms-drink.3 4 2 Serv. As they pinch one another by the disposition, he cries out, No more; reconciles them to his entreaty, and himself to the drink. 1 Serv. But it raises the greater war between him and his discretion. 2 Serv. 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 5 I could not heave. 1 Serv. 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 CESAR, ANTONY, Pompey, LEPIDUS, AGRIPPA, MECENAS, ENOBARBUS, Menas, with other Captains. Ant. Thus do they, sir. [To CESAR.] They take the flow o' the Nile By certain scales i'the pyramid; they know, 1 A banquet here is a refection, similar to our dessert. 2 Plants, besides its common meaning, is used here for the foot, from he Latin. 3" A phrase (says Warburton) among good fellows, to signify that liquor of another's share which his companions drink to ease him.” 4 Warburton explains this phrase as equivalent to one still in use, of "touching one in a sore place." 5 A partisan was a weapon between a pike and a halberd. 6 "To be called into a huge sphere, and not to be seen to move in it, is a sight as unseemly as the holes where the eyes should be, without the animating presence of the eye to fill them.” By the height, the lowness, or the mean, if dearth, And shortly comes to harvest. Lep. You have strange serpents there. Lep. Your serpent of Egypt is bred now of your - mud by the operation of your sun; so is your crocodile. Ant. They are so. Pom. Sit, and some wine.-A health to Lepidus. out. Eno. Not till you have slept. I fear me, you'll be in, till then. Lep. Nay, certainly, I have heard the Ptolemies' pyramises2 are very goodly things; without contradiction, I have heard that. Men. Pompey, a word. [Aside. Say in mine ear; what is't? Men. Forsake thy seat, I do beseech thee, captain, And hear me speak a word. This wine for Lepidus. [Aside. Forbear me till anon. Lep. What manner o' thing is your crocodile? Ant. 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 its own organs; it lives by that which nourisheth it; and the elements once out of it, it transmigrates. Lep. What color is it of? Ant. Of its own color too. Ant. "Tis so. And the tears of it are wet. Cæs. Will this description satisfy him? Ant. With the health that Pompey gives him; else he is a very epicure. 1 Foizon is plenty, abundance. 2 Pyramis, for pyramid, was in common use formerly. |