The Plays of Shakespeare

Cæsar and Lepidus

Are in the field: a mighty strength they carry.
Pom. Where have you this? 'tis false.
Men.
From Silvius, sir,
Pom. He dreams: I know, they are in Rome together,
Looking for Antony. But all the charms of love,
Salt Cleopatra, soften thy warm lip!

Let witchcraft join with beauty, lust with both :
Lay up.
the libertine in a flood of feasts,
Keep his brain fuming; Epicurean cooks,
Sharpen with cloyless sauce his appetite,
That sleep and feeding may prorogue his honour,
Even till a Lethe'd dulness.-How now, Varrius!
Enter VARRIUS.

Var. This is most certain, that I shall deliver.
Mark Antony is every hour in Rome
Expected; since he went from Egypt, 'tis
A space for farther travel.

Pom.

May cement their divisions, and bind up
The petty difference, we yet not know.
Be it as our gods will have 't! It only stands
Our lives upon to use our strongest hands.
Come, Menas.

[Exeunt.

SCENE II.-Rome. A Room in the House of LEPIDUS.
Enter ENOBARBUS and LEPidus.

Lep. Good Enobarbus, 'tis a worthy deed,
And shall become you well, to entreat your captain
To soft and gentle speech.

Eno.

I shall entreat him

To answer like himself: if Cæsar move him,
Let Antony look over Cæsar's head,

And speak as lond as Mars. By Jupiter,
Were I the wearer of Antonius' beard,

I would not shave 't to-day.

Lep.

For private stomaching.

Eno.

"Tis not a time

Every time

Serves for the matter that is then born in 't.

Lep. But small to greater matters must give way.
Eno. Not if the small come first.
Lep.

Your speech is passion:
But, pray you, stir no embers up. Here comes
The noble Antony.

Eno.

Enter ANTONY and VENTIDIUS.
And yonder, Cæsar.

Enter CESAR, MECENAS, and AGRIPPA.
Ant. If we compose well here, to Parthia:
Hark you, Ventidius.

Cæs.

Mecænas; ask Agrippa.

Lep.

I do not know,

Noble friends,

That which combin'd us was most great, and let not
A leaner action rend us. What's amiss,

May it be gently heard: when we debate
Our trivial difference loud, we do commit
Murder in healing wounds. Then, noble partners,
(The rather, for I earnestly beseech)

I could have given less matter Touch you the sourest points with sweetest terms,

A better ear.-Menas, I did not think,
This amorous surfeiter would have don'd his helm
For such a petty war: his soldiership

Is twice the other twain. But let us rear
The higher our opinion, that our stirring
Can from the lap of Egypt's widow pluck
The ne'er lust-wearied Antony.
Men.

I cannot hope,
Cæsar and Antony shall well greet together:
His wife that's dead did trespasses to Cæsar;
His brother warr'd upon him, although, I think,
Not mov'd by Antony.

Pom.
I know not, Menas,
How lesser enmities may give way to greater.
Were't not that we stand up against them all,
"Twere pregnant they should square between them-
selves;

For they have entertained cause enough

To draw their swords: but how the fear of us

Cæs. No more than my residing here at Rome
Might be to you in Egypt: yet, if you there
Did practise on my state, your being in Egypt
Might be my question.

Ant.
How intend you, practis'd?
Cæs. You may be pleas'd to catch at mine intent,
By what did here befal me. Your wife, and brother,
Made wars upon me, and their contestation
Was theme for you; you were the word of war.

Ant. You do mistake your business: my brother never
Did urge me in his act: I did enquire it;
And have my learning from some true reports,
That drew their swords with you. Did he not rather
Discredit my authority with yours;

And make the wars alike against my stomach,
Having alike your cause? Of this my letters
Before did satisfy you. If you'll patch a quarrel,
No matter whole you have to make it with,
It must not be with this.

Cæs.

You praise yourself By laying defects of judgment to me; but You patch'd up your excuses.

Ant.

Not so; not so;
I know you could not lack, I am certain on't,
Very necessity of this thought, that I,

Your partner in the cause 'gainst which he fought,
Could not with graceful eyes attend those wars
Which fronted mine own peace. As for my wife,
I would you had her spirit in such another:
The third o' the world is yours, which with a snaffle
You may pace easy, but not such a wife.

Eno. Would we had all such wives, that the men might go to wars with the women!

Ant. So much uncurbable, her garboils, Cæsar,
Made out of her impatience, (which not wanted
Shrewdness of policy too) I grieving grant,
Did you too much disquiet: for that, you must
But say, I could not help it.
Cæs.

I wrote to you,
When rioting in Alexandria; you
Did pocket up my letters, and with taunts
Did gibe my missive out of audience.

Ant.

Sir,

Ant. Thou art a soldier only: speak no more.
Eno. That truth should be silent I had almost forgot.
Ant. You wrong this presence; therefore, speak no

Is now a widower.

Cæs.

Say not so, Agrippa: If Cleopatra heard you, your reproof Were well deserv'd for rashness.

Ant. I am not married, Cæsar: let me hear Agrippa farther speak.

Agr. To hold you in perpetual amity, To make you brothers, and to knit your hearts With an unslipping knot, take Antony Octavia to his wife; whose beauty claims No worse a husband than the best of men, Whose virtue and whose general graces speak That which none else can utter. By this marriage, All little jealousies, which now seem great, And all great fears, which now import their dangers, Would then be nothing: truths would be tales, Where now half tales be truths: her love to both, Would, each to other, and all loves to both, Draw after her. Pardon what I have spoke, For 'tis a studied, not a present thought, My duty ruminated.

Ant.

Will Cæsar speak? Cæs. Not till he hears how Antony is touch'd With what is spoke already.

Ant.

What power is in Agrippa, If I would say, "Agrippa, be it so," To make this good?

Cæs.

The power of Cæsar, and

His power unto Octavia.

Ant.

May I never To this good purpose, that so fairly shows, Dream of impediment!-Let me have thy hand: Further this act of grace, and from this hour, The hearts of brothers govern in our loves, And sway our great designs.

Cæs.

There is my

hand.

A sister I bequeath you, whom no brother [ANT. takes it.

Did ever love so dearly: let her live
To join our kingdoms, and our hearts; and never
Fly off our loves again!

Lep.

Happily, amen. Ant. I did not think to draw my sword 'gainst Pom

pey;

For he hath laid strange courtesies, and great, Of late upon me: I must thank him, only

Would we had spoke together! Haste we for it;
Yet, ere we put ourselves in arms, despatch we
The business we have talk'd of.

Cæs.
And do invite you to my sister's view,
Whither straight I'll lead you.

Ant.

Not lack your company. Lep.

With most gladness;

Let us, Lepidus,

Noble Antony,

Not sickness should detain me.
[Flourish. Exeunt CESAR, ANTONY, and LEPIDUS.
Mec. Welcome from Egypt, sir.

Eno. Half the heart of Cæsar, worthy Mecænas!my honourable friend, Agrippa !—

Agr. Good Enobarbus!

Mec. We have cause to be glad, that matters are so well digested. You stay'd well by it in Egypt.

Eno. Ay, sir; we did sleep day out of countenance, and made the night light with drinking.

Mec. Eight wild boars roasted whole at a breakfast, and but twelve persons there; is this true?

Eno. This was but as a fly by an eagle: we had much more monstrous matter of feast, which worthily deserved noting.

Mec. She's a most triumphant lady, if report be square to her.

Eno. When she first met Mark Antony, she pursed up his heart, upon the river of Cydnus.

Agr. There she appeared indeed, or my reporter

devised well for her.

Eno. I will tell you.

The barge she sat in, like a burnish'd throne,
Burn'd on the water: the poop was beaten gold;
Purple the sails, and so perfumed, that

The winds were love-sick with them: the oars were silver;
Which to the tune of flutes kept stroke, and made
The water, which they beat, to follow faster,
As amorous of their strokes. For her own person,
It beggar'd all description: she did lie
In her pavilion, (cloth of gold and tissue)
O'er-picturing that Venus, where we see,
The fancy out-work nature on each side her,
Stood pretty dimpled boys, like smiling Cupids,
With diverse-colour'd fans, whose wind did seem
To glow the delicate cheeks which they did cool,
And what they undid, did.

Agr.
O, rare for Antony!
Eno. Her gentlewomen, like the Nereides,
So many mermaids, tended her i' the eyes,
And made their bends adornings: at the helm
A seeming mermaid steers; the silken tackle
Smell with the touches of those flower-soft hands,
That yarely frame the office. From the barge
A strange invisible perfume hits the sense
Of the adjacent wharfs. The city cast
Her people out upon her; and Antony,
Enthron'd i' the market-place, did sit alone,
Whistling to the air; which, but for vacancy,

For what his eyes eat only.

Agr.

Royal wench! She made great Cæsar lay his sword to bed; He plough'd her, and she cropp'd. Eno.

I saw her once

Hop forty paces through the public street;
And having lost her breath, she spoke, and panted,
That she did make defect perfection,

And, breathless, power breathe forth.

Mec. Now Antony must leave her utterly.
Eno. Never; he will not.

Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale
Her infinite variety: other women cloy
The appetites they feed, but she makes hungry,
Where most she satisfies; for vilest things
Become themselves in her, that the holy priests
Bless her when she is riggish.

Mec. If beauty, wisdom, modesty, can settle
The heart of Antony, Octavia is
A blessed lottery to him.

Agr.

Let us go.

Good Enobarbus, make yourself my guest, Whilst you abide here.

Eno.

SCENE III.-The Same. A Room in CÆSAR's House. Humbly, sir, I thank you. [Exeunt. Enter CESAR, ANTONY, OCTAVIA between them;

Attendants.

Ant. The world, and my great office, will sometimes Divide me from your bosom. Octa. All which time, Before the gods my knee shall bow with prayers To them for you. Ant.

Good night, sir.—My Octavia, Read not my blemishes in the world's report: I have not kept my square, but that to come Shall all be done by the rule. Good night, dear lady.— Good night, sir.

Cæs. Good night. [Exeunt CESAR and OCTAVIA. Enter a Soothsayer.

Ant. Now, sirrah: you do wish yourself in Egypt. Sooth. Would I had never come from thence, nor you thither!

Ant. If you can, your reason?

Sooth. I see it in my motion, have it not in my tongue but yet hie you to Egypt again.

Ant. Say to me, whose fortune shall rise higher, Cæsar's, or mine?

Sooth. Cæsar's.

Therefore, O Antony! stay not by his side:
Thy dæmon, that's thy spirit which keeps thee, is
Noble, courageous, high, unmatchable,
Where Cæsar's is not; but near him thy angel
Becomes afeard, as being o'erpower'd: therefore,
Make space enough between you.

Ant.
Speak this no more.
Sooth. To none but thee; no more, but when to thee.
If thou dost play with him at any game,
Thou art sure to lose; and, of that natural luck,
He beats thee 'gainst the odds: thy lustre thickens,

When he shines by. I say again, thy spirit
Is all afraid to govern thee near him,
But, he away, 'tis noble.

Get thee gone:

Ant.
Say to Ventidius, I would speak with him.—

[Exit Soothsayer.
He shall to Parthia.-Be it art, or hap,
He hath spoken true: the very dice obey him;
And in our sports my better cunning faints
Under his chance: if we draw lots, he speeds:
His cocks do win the battle still of mine,
When it is all to nought; and his quails ever
Beat mine, inhoop'd, at odds. I will to Egypt:
And though I make this marriage for my peace,
Enter VENTIDIUS.

I' the east my pleasure lies.-O! come, Ventidius, You must to Parthia: your commission's ready; Follow me, and receive it.

[Exeunt.

Cleo. Let it alone; let 's to billiards: come, Charmian. Char. My arm is sore, best play with Mardian. Cleo. As well a woman with an eunuch play'd, As with a woman.-Come, you'll play with me, sir? Mar. As well as I can, madam.

Mess. First, madam, he is well.
Cleo.

But, sirrah, mark, we use

Why, there's more gold.

To say, the dead are well: bring it to that, The gold I give thee will I melt, and pour Down thy ill-uttering throat.

Mess. Good madam, hear me.
Cleo,

Well, go to, I will;
But there's no goodness in thy face. If Antony
Be free, and healthful, why so tart a favour
To trumpet such good tidings? if not well,
Thou should'st come like a fury crown'd with snakes,
Not like a formal man.

'Twas merry, when You wager'd on your angling; when your diver Did hang a salt-fish on his hook, which he With fervency drew up.

Cleo.

That time,-O times!I laugh'd him out of patience; and that night I laugh'd him into patience and next morn, Ere the ninth hour, I drunk him to his bed; Then, put my tires and mantles on him, whilst I wore his sword Philippian.

Enter ELIS, a Messenger.

Mess. Will't please you hear me? Cleo. I have a mind to strike thee, ere thou speak'st: Yet, if thou say, Antony lives, 'tis well; Or friends with Cæsar, or not captive to him, I'll set thee in a shower of gold, and hail Rich pearls upon thee.

O! from Italy?— Ram thou thy fruitful tidings in mine ears, That long time have been barren.

Mess.

Cleo.

Madam, he's well.

Well said.

But yet, madam,Cleo. I do not like "but yet," it does allay The good precedence; fie upon "but yet!" "But yet" is as a gaoler to bring forth Some monstrous malefactor. Pr'ythee, friend, Pour out the pack of matter to mine ear, The good and bad together. He's friends with Cæsar; In state of health, thou say'st; and, thou say'st, free. Mess. Free, madam? no; I made no such report: He's bound unto Octavia.

Melt Egypt into Nile! and kindly creatures
Turn all to serpents!-Call the slave again :
Though I am mad, I will not bite him.-Call.
Char. He is afeard to come.
Cleo.
I will not hurt him.
These hands do lack nobility, that they strike
A meaner than myself; since I myself
Have given myself the cause.-Come hither, sir.
Re-enter ELIS, the Messenger.

Though it be honest, it is never good
To bring bad news: give to a gracious message
An host of tongues; but let ill tidings tell
Themselves, when they be felt.

Mess. I have done my duty.
Cleo.

Is he married?

I cannot hate thee worser than I do,

If thou again say, Yes.
Mess.

He's married, madam.

Cleo. The gods confound thee! dost thou hold there still?

Mess. Should I lie, madam? Cleo. O! I would, thou didst, So half my Egypt were submerg'd, and made A cistern for scal'd snakes. Go, get thee hence: Hadst thou Narcissus in thy face, to me Thou would'st appear most ugly. He is married? Mess. I crave your highness' pardon. Cleo.

He is married?

Mess. Take no offence, that I would not offend you: To punish me for what you make me do, Seems much unequal. He is married to Octavia.

Cleo. O! that his fault should make a knave of thee, That art not! What! thou'rt sure of?-Get thee hence: The merchandise which thou hast brought from Rome, Are all too dear for me: lie they upon thy hand, And be undone by 'em! [Exit Messenger. Char. Good your highness, patience. Cleo. In praising Antony, I have disprais'd Cæsar. Char. Many times, madam. Cleo.

Lead me from hence;

I am paid for't now.

I faint.-O Iras! Charmian!-'Tis no matter.-
Go to the fellow, good Alexas; bid him
Report the feature of Octavia, her years,
Her inclination, let him not leave out

The colour of her hair: bring me word quickly.—

[Exit ALEXAS.

Let him for ever go?-let him not-Charmian,
Though he be painted one way like a Gorgon,
The other way he's a Mars.-Bid you Alexas

[To MARDIAN. Bring me word, how tall she is.-Pity me, Charmian, But do not speak to me.-Lead me to my chamber. [Exeunt.

SCENE VI.-Near Misenum. Flourish. Enter POMPEY and MENAS, at one side, with Drum and Trumpet: at another, CESAR, LEPIDUS, ANTONY, ENOBARBUS, MECENAS, with Soldiers marching.

Pom. Your hostages I have, so have you mine; And we shall talk before we fight.

Cæs.

Most meet,

That first we come to words; and therefore have we
Our written purposes before us sent,
Which, if thou hast consider'd, let us know
If 'twill tie up thy discontented sword,
And carry back to Sicily much tall youth,
That else must perish here.

Pom.

Το you all three,

815

The senators alone of this great world, Chief factors for the gods.-I do not know, Wherefore my father should revengers want, Having a son, and friends; since Julius Cæsar, Who at Philippi the good Brutus ghosted, There saw you labouring for him. What was it, That mov'd pale Cassius to conspire? And what Made the all-honour'd, honest, Roman Brutus, With the arm'd rest, courtiers of beauteous freedom, To drench the Capitol, but that they would Have one man but a man? And that is it Hath made me rig my navy, at whose burden The anger'd ocean foams; with which I meant To scourge th' ingratitude that despiteful Rome Cast on my noble father.

Cæs.

Take your time. Ant. Thou canst not fear us, Pompey, with thy sails; How much we do o'er-count thee. We'll speak with thee at sea at land, thou know'st

Pom.

At land, indeed, Thou dost o'er-count me of my father's house: But, since the cuckoo builds not for himself, Remain in't as thou may'st.

Lep.

(For this is from the present) The offers we have sent you.

Cæs.

how you take Be pleas'd to tell us,

There's the point.

Ant. Which do not be entreated to, but weigh What it is worth embrac'd. Cæs.

To try a larger fortune.

Pom.

And what
may follow,
You have made me offer

Of Sicily, Sardinia; and I must
Rid all the sea of pirates; then, to send
Measures of wheat to Rome: this 'greed upon,
To part with unhack'd edges, and bear back
Targes undinted.

Cæs. Ant. Lep. That's our offer.
Pom.

Know then,

I came before you here, a man prepar'd
To take this offer; but Mark Antony
Put me to some impatience.-Though I lose
The praise of it by telling, you must know,
When Cæsar and your brother were at blows,
Your mother came to Sicily, and did find
Her welcome friendly.
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.

[They take Hands. Ant. The beds i' the east are soft; and thanks to you, That call'd me timelier than my purpose hither, For I have gain'd by it.

Cæs.

There is a change upon you.
Since I saw you last,

Pom.

What counts harsh fortune casts upon my face,
Well, I know not
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 seal'd 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

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