| [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 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 OCTAVIUS CAESAR, MARK ANTONY, LEPIDUS, POMPEY, AGRIPPA, MECAENAS, DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS, MENAS, with other captains] |
|
| MARK ANTONY | [To OCTAVIUS 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. |
| MARK ANTONY | Ay, Lepidus. |
| LEPIDUS | Your serpent of Egypt is bred now of your mud by the operation of your sun: so is your crocodile. |
| MARK 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. |
| DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS | 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? |
| MARK 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? |
| MARK ANTONY | Of it own colour too. |
| LEPIDUS | 'Tis a strange serpent. |
| MARK ANTONY | 'Tis so. And the tears of it are wet. |
| OCTAVIUS CAESAR | Will this description satisfy him? |
| MARK 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. |
| MARK 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 | Now, 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! |
| MARK ANTONY | Bear him ashore. I'll pledge it for him, Pompey. |
| DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS | Here's to thee, Menas! |
| MENAS | Enobarbus, welcome! |
| POMPEY | Fill till the cup be hid. |
| DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS | There's a strong fellow, Menas. |
| [Pointing to the Attendant who carries off LEPIDUS] | |
| MENAS | Why? |
| DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS | 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! |
| DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS | Drink thou; increase the reels. |
| MENAS | Come. |
| POMPEY | This is not yet an Alexandrian feast. |
| MARK ANTONY | It ripens towards it. Strike the vessels, ho? Here is to Caesar! |
| OCTAVIUS CAESAR | I could well forbear't. It's monstrous labour, when I wash my brain, And it grows fouler. |
| MARK ANTONY | Be a child o' the time. |
| OCTAVIUS CAESAR | Possess it, I'll make answer: But I had rather fast from all four days Than drink so much in one. |
| DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS | Ha, my brave emperor! |
| [To MARK ANTONY] | |
| Shall we dance now the Egyptian Bacchanals, And celebrate our drink? |
|
| POMPEY | Let's ha't, good soldier. |
| MARK ANTONY | Come, let's all take hands, Till that the conquering wine hath steep'd our sense In soft and delicate Lethe. |
| DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS | 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. DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS 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! |
|
| OCTAVIUS 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. |
| MARK 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. |
| DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS | Take heed you fall not. |
| [Exeunt all but DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS 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] | |
| DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS | Ho! says a' There's my cap. |
| MENAS | Ho! Noble captain, come. |
| [Exeunt] |