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On board POMPEY’S Galley off Misenum. | |
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Music. Enter two or three Servants, with a banquet. | |
| First Serv. Here they’ll be, man. Some o’ their plants are ill-rooted already; the least wind i’ the world will blow them down. | |
| Sec. Serv. Lepidus is high-coloured. | |
| First Serv. They have made him drink almsdrink. | 5 |
| Sec. Serv. As they pinch one another by the disposition, he cries out, ‘No more;’ reconciles them to his entreaty, and himself to the drink. | |
| First Serv. But it raises the greater war between him and his discretion. | |
| Sec. 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 I could not heave. | |
| First 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. | |
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A sennet sounded. Enter CÆSAR, ANTONY, LEPIDUS, POMPEY, AGRIPPA, MECÆNAS, ENOBARBUS, MENAS, with other Captains. | 10 |
| Ant. 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 | 15 |
| Upon the slime and ooze scatters his grain, | |
| And shortly comes to harvest. | |
| Lep. You’ve strange serpents there. | |
| Ant. Ay, Lepidus. | |
| Lep. Your serpent of Egypt is bred now of your mud by the operation of your sun; so is your crocodile. | 20 |
| Ant. They are so. | |
| Pom. Sit,—and some wine! A health to Lepidus! | |
| Lep. I am not so well as I should be, but I’ll ne’er out. | |
| Eno. Not till you have slept; I fear me you’ll be in till then. | |
| Lep. Nay, certainly, I have heard the Ptolemies’ pyramises are very goodly things; without contradiction, I have heard that. | 25 |
| Men. Pompey, a word. | |
| Pom. Say in mine ear; what is ’t? | |
| Men. Forsake thy seat, I do beseech thee, captain, | |
| And hear me speak a word. | |
| Pom. Forbear me till anon. | 30 |
| This wine for Lepidus! | |
| 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 it own organs; it lives by that which nourisheth it; and the elements once out of it, it transmigrates. | |
| Lep. What colour is it of? | |
| Ant. Of it own colour too. | 35 |
| Lep. ’Tis a strange serpent. | |
| 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. | |
| Pom. Go hang, sir, hang! Tell me of that? away! | 40 |
| Do as I bid you. Where’s this cup I call’d for? | |
| Men. If for the sake of merit thou wilt hear me, | |
| Rise from thy stool. | |
| Pom. I think thou’rt mad. The matter? [Walks aside. | |
| Men. I have ever held my cap off to thy fortunes. | 45 |
| Pom. Thou hast serv’d me with much faith. What’s else to say? | |
| Be jolly, lords. | |
| Ant. These quick-sands, Lepidus, | |
| Keep off them, for you sink. | |
| Men. Wilt thou be lord of all the world? | 50 |
| Pom. What sayst thou? | |
| Men. Wilt thou be lord of the whole world? That’s twice. | |
| Pom. How should that be? | |
| Men. But entertain it, | |
| And though thou think me poor, I am the man | 55 |
| Will give thee all the world. | |
| Pom. Hast thou drunk well? | |
| Men. 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, | 60 |
| Is thine, if thou wilt ha ’t. | |
| Pom. Show me which way. | |
| Men. 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: | 65 |
| All there is thine. | |
| Pom. 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; | 70 |
| 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. | |
| Men. [Aside.] For this, | 75 |
| 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. | |
| Pom. This health to Lepidus! | |
| Ant. Bear him ashore. I’ll pledge it for him, Pompey. | 80 |
| Eno. Here’s to thee, Menas! | |
| Men. Enobarbus, welcome! | |
| Pom. Fill till the cup be hid. | |
| Eno. There’s a strong fellow, Menas. [Pointing to the Attendant who carries off LEPIDUS. | |
| Men. Why? | 85 |
| Eno. A’ bears the third part of the world, man; see’st not? | |
| Men. The third part then is drunk; would it were all, | |
| That it might go on wheels! | |
| Eno. Drink thou; increase the reels. | |
| Men. Come. | 90 |
| Pom. This is not yet an Alexandrian feast. | |
| Ant. It ripens towards it. Strike the vessels, ho! | |
| Here is to Cæsar! | |
| Cæs. I could well forbear ’t. | |
| It’s monstrous labour, when I wash my brain, | 95 |
| And it grows fouler. | |
| Ant. Be a child o’ the time. | |
| Cæs. Possess it, I’ll make answer; | |
| But I had rather fast from all four days | |
| Than drink so much in one. | 100 |
| Eno. [To ANTONY.] Ha! my brave emperor; | |
| Shall we dance now the Egyptian Bacchanals, | |
| And celebrate our drink? | |
| Pom. Let’s ha ’t, good soldier. | |
| Ant. Come, let’s all take hands, | 105 |
| Till that the conquering wine hath steep’d our sense | |
| In soft and delicate Lethe. | |
| Eno. All take hands. | |
| Make battery to our ears with the loud music; | |
| The while I’ll place you; then the boy shall sing, | 110 |
| 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! |
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| Cæs. What would you more? Pompey, good night. Good brother, | |
| Let me request you off; our graver business | 115 |
| 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. | 120 |
| Good Antony, your hand. | |
| Pom. I’ll try you on the shore. | |
| Ant. And shall, sir. Give ’s your hand. | |
| Pom. O, Antony! | |
| You have my father’s house,—But, what? we are friends. | 125 |
| Come down into the boat. | |
| Eno. Take heed you fall not. [Exeunt POMPEY, CÆSAR, ANTONY, and Attendants. | |
| Menas, I’ll not on shore. | |
| Men. No, to my cabin. | |
| These drums! these trumpets, flutes! what! | 130 |
| 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. | |
| Eno. Hoo! says a’. There’s my cap. | |
| Men. Hoo! noble captain! come. [Exeunt | |
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