The Oxford Shakespeare: The Complete Works

by William Shakespeare

  ANTONY

  Thou canst not fear us, Pompey, with thy sails.

  We’ll speak with thee at sea. At land thou know’st

  How much we do o’ercount thee.

  POMPEY

  At land indeed Thou dost o’ercount me of my father’s house,

  But since the cuckoo builds not for himself,

  Remain in’t as thou mayst.

  LEPIDUS

  Be pleased to tell us—

  For this is from the present—how you take

  The offers we have sent you.

  CAESAR

  There’s the point.

  ANTONY

  Which do not be entreated to, but weigh

  What it is worth, embraced.

  CAESAR

  And what may follow, To try a larger fortune?

  POMPEY

  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 unhacked edges, and bear back

  Our targes undinted.

  CAESAR, ANTONY, and LEPIDUS That’s our offer.

  POMPEY

  Know, then, I came before you here a man prepared

  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 Caesar and your brother were at blows,

  Your mother came to Sicily, and did find

  Her welcome friendly.

  ANTONY

  I have heard it, Pompey, And am well studied for a liberal thanks

  Which I do owe you.

  POMPEY

  Let me have your hand.

  Pompey and Antony shake hands

  I did not think, sir, to have met you here.

  ANTONY

  The beds i’th’ East are soft; and thanks to you,

  That called me timelier than my purpose hither;

  For I have gained by’t.

  CAESAR (to Pompey) Since I saw you last

  There is a change upon you.

  POMPEY

  Well, I know not

  What counts harsh fortune casts upon my face,

  But in my bosom shall she never come

  To make my heart her vassal.

  LEPIDUS

  Well met here.

  POMPEY

  I hope so, Lepidus. Thus we are agreed.

  I crave our composition may be written

  And sealed between us.

  CAESAR

  That’s the next to do.

  POMPEY

  We’ll feast each other ere we part, and let’s

  Draw lots who shall begin.

  ANTONY That will I, Pompey.

  POMPEY No, Antony, take the lot.

  But, first or last, your fine Egyptian cookery

  Shall have the fame. I have heard that Julius Caesar

  Grew fat with feasting there.

  ANTONY

  You have heard much.

  POMPEY I have fair meanings, sir.

  ANTONY And fair words to them.

  POMPEY Then so much have I heard,

  And I have heard Apollodorus carried—

  ENOBARBUS

  No more o’ that, he did so.

  POMPEY

  What, I pray you?

  ENOBARBUS

  A certain queen to Caesar in a mattress.

  POMPEY

  I know thee now. How far’st thou, soldier?

  ENOBARBUS

  Well, and well am like to do, for I perceive

  Four feasts are toward.

  POMPEY

  Let me shake thy hand.

  Pompey and Enobarbus shake hands

  I never hated thee. I have seen thee fight

  When I have envied thy behaviour.

  ENOBARBUS

  Sir, I never loved you much, but I ha’ praised ye

  When you have well deserved ten times as much

  As I have said you did.

  POMPEY

  Enjoy thy plainness. It nothing ill becomes thee.

  Aboard my galley I invite you all.

  Will you lead, lords?

  CAESAR, ANTONY, and LEPIDUS Show’s the way, sir.

  POMPEY

  Come.

  Exeunt all but Enobarbus and Menas

  MENAS (aside)

  Thy father, Pompey, would ne’er have made this

  treaty.

  (To Enobarbus) You and I have known, sir.

  ENOBARBUS At sea, I think.

  MENAS We have, sir.

  ENOBARBUS You have done well by water.

  MENAS And you by land.

  ENOBARBUS I will praise any man that will praise me, though it cannot be denied what I have done by land.

  MENAS Nor what I have done by water.

  ENOBARBUS Yes, something you can deny for your own safety. You have been a great thief by sea.

  MENAS And you by land.

  ENOBARBUS There I deny my land service; but give me your hand, Menas. If our eyes had authority, here they might take two thieves kissing.

  They shake hands

  MENAS All men’s faces are true, whatsome’er their hands are.

  ENOBARBUS But there is never a fair woman has a true face.

  MENAS No slander; they steal hearts.

  ENOBARBUS We came hither to fight with you.

  MENAS For my part, I am sorry it is turned to a drinking.

  Pompey doth this day laugh away his fortune.

  ENOBARBUS If he do, sure he cannot weep’t back again.

  MENAS You’ve said, sir. We looked not for Mark Antony here. Pray you, is he married to Cleopatra?

  ENOBARBUS Caesar’s sister is called Octavia.

  MENAS True, sir. She was the wife of Caius Marcellus.

  ENOBARBUS But she is now the wife of Marcus Antonius.

  MENAS Pray ye, sir?

  ENOBARBUS ’Tis true.

  MENAS Then is Caesar and he for ever knit together.

  ENOBARBUS If I were bound to divine of this unity I would not prophesy so.

  MENAS I think the policy of that purpose made more in the marriage than the love of the parties.

  ENOBARBUS 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.

  MENAS Who would not have his wife so?

  ENOBARBUS 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 Caesar, 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.

  MENAS And thus it may be. Come, sir, will you aboard? I have a health for you.

  ENOBARBUS I shall take it, sir. We have used our throats in Egypt.

  MENAS Come, let’s away.

  Exeunt

  2.7 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’th’ 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 th’ 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, Pompey, Lepidus, Agrippa, Maecenas,.Enobarbus, and Menas,
with other captains ⌈and a boy⌉

  ANTONY (to Caesar)

  Thus do they, sir: they take the flow o’th’ Nile

  By certain scales i’th’ pyramid. They know

  By th’ 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!

  ⌈Antony, Pompey, and Lepidus sit⌉

  LEPIDUS I am not so well as I should be, but I’ll ne’er out.

  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.

  (Aloud) This wine for Lepidus!

  Menas whispers in Pompey’s ear

  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 it 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 (to Antony)

  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. (Aloud) Where’s this cup I called for?

  MENAS (aside to Pompey)

  If for the sake of merit thou wilt hear me,

  Rise from thy stool.

  POMPEY ⌈rising⌉ I think thou’rt mad. The matter?

  ⌈Menas⌉ and Pompey stand apart⌉

  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 quicksands, Lepidus,

  Keep off them, for you sink.

  MENAS

  Wilt thou be lord of all the world?

  POMPEY

  What sayst 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 dar‘st 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 villainy,

  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 betrayed thine act. Being done unknown,

  I should have found it afterwards well done,

  But must condemn it now. Desist, and drink.

  He returns to the others

  MENAS (aside)

  For this, I’ll never follow thy palled fortunes more.

  Who seeks and will not take when once ’tis offered,

  Shall never find it more.

  POMPEY

  This health to Lepidus!

  ANTONY

  Bear him ashore.—I’ll pledge it for him, Pompey.

  ENOBARBUS

  Here’s to thee, Menas!

  MENAS

  Enobarbus, welcome.

  POMPEY

  Fill till the cup be hid.

  One lifts Lepidus, drunk, and carries him off

  ENOBARBUS

  There’s a strong fellow, Menas.

  MENAS Why? 86

  ENOBARBUS

  A bears the third part of the world, man; seest not?

  MENAS

  The third part then is drunk. Would it were all,

  That it might go on wheels.

  ENOBARBUS

  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’s to Caesar!

  CAESAR

  I could well forbear’t.

  It’s monstrous labour when I wash my brain,

  An it grow fouler.

  ANTONY Be a child o’th’ time.

  CAESAR Possess it, I’ll make answer.

  But I had rather fast from all, four days,

  Than drink so much in one.

  ENOBARBUS (to Antony)

  Ha, my brave Emperor, 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 steeped our sense

  In soft and delicate Lethe.

  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 beat as loud

  As his strong sides can volley.

  Music plays. Enobarbus places them hand in hand

  ⌈Boy⌉ (sings)

  Come, thou monarch of the vine,

  Plumpy Bacchus, with pink eyne!

  In thy vats our cares be drowned,

  With thy grapes our hairs be crowned!

  Cup us till the world go round,

  Cup us till the world go round!

  CAESAR

  What would you more? Pompey, good night.

  (To Antony)

  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

  Anticked 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.

  Exeunt all but Enobarbus and Menas

  ENOBARBUS

  Take heed you fall not, Menas.

  MENAS

  I’ll not on shore.

 
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 hanged, sound out!

  Sound a flourish, with drums

  ENOBARBUS (throwing his cap in the air)

  Hoo, says a! There’s my cap.

  MENAS

  Ho, noble captain, come!

  Exeunt

  3.1 Enter Ventidius, with Silius and other Roman soldiers, as it were in triumph; the dead body of Pacorus borne before him

  VENTIDIUS

  Now, darting Parthia, art thou struck; and now

  Pleased fortune does of Marcus Crassus’ death

  Make me revenger. Bear the King’s son’s body

  Before our army. Thy Pacorus, Orodes,

  Pays this for Marcus Crassus.

  SILIUS

  Noble Ventidius,

  Whilst yet with Parthian blood thy sword is warm,

  The fugitive Parthians follow. Spur through Media,

  Mesopotamia, and the shelters whither

  The routed fly. So thy grand captain, Antony,

  Shall set thee on triumphant chariots and

  Put garlands on thy head.

  VENTIDIUS

  O Silius, Silius,

  I have done enough. A lower place, note well,

  May make too great an act. For learn this, Silius:

  Better to leave undone than by our deed

  Acquire too high a fame when him we serve’s away.

  Caesar and Antony have ever won

  More in their officer than person. Sossius,

  One of my place in Syria, his lieutenant,

  For quick accumulation of renown,

  Which he achieved by th’ minute, lost his favour.

  Who does 4’th’ wars more than his captain can

  Becomes his captain’s captain; and ambition,

  The soldier’s virtue, rather makes choice of loss

  Than gain which darkens him.

  I could do more to do Antonius good,

  But ’twould offend him, and in his offence

  Should my performance perish.

  SILIUS

  Thou hast, Ventidius, that

  Without the which a soldier and his sword

  Grants scarce distinction. Thou wilt write to Antony?

  VENTIDIUS

  I’ll humbly signify what in his name,

  That magical word of war, we have effected;

  How, with his banners and his well-paid ranks,

  The ne‘er-yet-beaten horse of Parthia

  We have jaded out o’th’ field.