ACT II - Scene VII Antony and Cleopatra

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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’ the world will blow them down.
Second Servant	Lepidus is high-coloured.
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 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, Mecaenas, Enobarbas, Menas, with other captains.
Antony	To Caesar. 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.
Enobarbas	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	Aside to Menas. 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 its 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 thou’rt mad. The matter? Rises, and walks aside.
Menas	I have ever held my cap off to thy fortunes.
Pompey	Thou hast served 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 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 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 darest 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.
Enobarbas	Here’s to thee, Menas!
Menas	Enobarbus, welcome!
Pompey	Fill till the cup be hid.
Enobarbas	There’s a strong fellow, Menas. Pointing to the Attendant* who carries off Lepidus.*
Menas	Why?
Enobarbas	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!
Enobarbas	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.
Enobarbas	Ha, my brave emperor! To Antony. 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.
Enobarbas	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. Enobarbas* 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: 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.
Enobarbas	Take heed you fall not. Exeunt all but Enobarbas* and Menas.* 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! Sound a flourish, with drums.
Enobarbas	Ho! says a’. There’s my cap.
Menas	Ho! Noble captain, come. Exeunt.

ACT II - Scene VII Antony and Cleopatra

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