The Tragedy Of Antony And Cleopatra

1 Flourish. Enter Pompey and Menas at one door, with drum and trumpet;
2 at another, Caesar, Lepidus, Antony, Enobarbus, Maecenas, Agrippa,
3 with Soldiers marching.
4 POMPEY.
5 Your hostages I have, so have you mine,
6 And we shall talk before we fight.
7 CAESAR.
8 Most meet
9 That first we come to words, and therefore have we
10 Our written purposes before us sent,
11 Which if thou hast considered, let us know
12 If ’twill tie up thy discontented sword
13 And carry back to Sicily much tall youth
14 That else must perish here.
15 POMPEY.
16 To you all three,
17 The senators alone of this great world,
18 Chief factors for the gods: I do not know
19 Wherefore my father should revengers want,
20 Having a son and friends, since Julius Caesar,
21 Who at Philippi the good Brutus ghosted,
22 There saw you labouring for him. What was’t
23 That moved pale Cassius to conspire? And what
24 Made the all-honoured, honest Roman, Brutus,
25 With the armed rest, courtiers of beauteous freedom,
26 To drench the Capitol, but that they would
27 Have one man but a man? And that is it
28 Hath made me rig my navy, at whose burden
29 The angered ocean foams, with which I meant
30 To scourge th’ ingratitude that despiteful Rome
31 Cast on my noble father.
32 CAESAR.
33 Take your time.
34 ANTONY.
35 Thou canst not fear us, Pompey, with thy sails.
36 We’ll speak with thee at sea. At land thou know’st
37 How much we do o’ercount thee.
38 POMPEY.
39 At land indeed
40 Thou dost o’ercount me of my father’s house;
41 But since the cuckoo builds not for himself,
42 Remain in’t as thou mayst.
43 LEPIDUS.
44 Be pleased to tell us—
45 For this is from the present—how you take
46 The offers we have sent you.
47 CAESAR.
48 There’s the point.
49 ANTONY.
50 Which do not be entreated to, but weigh
51 What it is worth embraced.
52 CAESAR.
53 And what may follow
54 To try a larger fortune.
55 POMPEY.
56 You have made me offer
57 Of Sicily, Sardinia; and I must
58 Rid all the sea of pirates; then to send
59 Measures of wheat to Rome. This ’greed upon,
60 To part with unhacked edges and bear back
61 Our targes undinted.
62 CAESAR, ANTONY, and LEPIDUS.
63 That’s our offer.
64 POMPEY.
65 Know, then,
66 I came before you here a man prepared
67 To take this offer. But Mark Antony
68 Put me to some impatience. Though I lose
69 The praise of it by telling, you must know
70 When Caesar and your brother were at blows,
71 Your mother came to Sicily and did find
72 Her welcome friendly.
73 ANTONY.
74 I have heard it, Pompey,
75 And am well studied for a liberal thanks
76 Which I do owe you.
77 POMPEY.
78 Let me have your hand.
79 I did not think, sir, to have met you here.
80 ANTONY.
81 The beds i’ th’ East are soft; and thanks to you,
82 That called me timelier than my purpose hither,
83 For I have gained by ’t.
84 CAESAR.
85 Since I saw you last,
86 There is a change upon you.
87 POMPEY.
88 Well, I know not
89 What counts harsh Fortune casts upon my face,
90 But in my bosom shall she never come
91 To make my heart her vassal.
92 LEPIDUS.
93 Well met here.
94 POMPEY.
95 I hope so, Lepidus. Thus we are agreed.
96 I crave our composition may be written
97 And sealed between us.
98 CAESAR.
99 That’s the next to do.
100 POMPEY.
101 We’ll feast each other ere we part, and let’s
102 Draw lots who shall begin.
103 ANTONY.
104 That will I, Pompey.
105 POMPEY.
106 No, Antony, take the lot.
107 But, first or last, your fine Egyptian cookery
108 Shall have the fame. I have heard that Julius Caesar
109 Grew fat with feasting there.
110 ANTONY.
111 You have heard much.
112 POMPEY.
113 I have fair meanings, sir.
114 ANTONY.
115 And fair words to them.
116 POMPEY.
117 Then so much have I heard.
118 And I have heard Apollodorus carried—
119 ENOBARBUS.
120 No more of that. He did so.
121 POMPEY.
122 What, I pray you?
123 ENOBARBUS.
124 A certain queen to Caesar in a mattress.
125 POMPEY.
126 I know thee now. How far’st thou, soldier?
127 ENOBARBUS.
128 Well;
129 And well am like to do, for I perceive
130 Four feasts are toward.
131 POMPEY.
132 Let me shake thy hand.
133 I never hated thee. I have seen thee fight
134 When I have envied thy behaviour.
135 ENOBARBUS.
136 Sir,
137 I never loved you much, but I ha’ praised ye
138 When you have well deserved ten times as much
139 As I have said you did.
140 POMPEY.
141 Enjoy thy plainness;
142 It nothing ill becomes thee.
143 Aboard my galley I invite you all.
144 Will you lead, lords?
145 CAESAR, ANTONY, and LEPIDUS.
146 Show’s the way, sir.
147 POMPEY.
148 Come.
149 [_Exeunt all but Enobarbus and Menas._]
150 MENAS.
151 [_Aside_.] Thy father, Pompey, would ne’er have made this treaty.—
152 You and I have known, sir.
153 ENOBARBUS.
154 At sea, I think.
155 MENAS.
156 We have, sir.
157 ENOBARBUS.
158 You have done well by water.
159 MENAS.
160 And you by land.
161 ENOBARBUS.
162 I will praise any man that will praise me, though it cannot be denied
163 what I have done by land.
164 MENAS.
165 Nor what I have done by water.
166 ENOBARBUS.
167 Yes, something you can deny for your own safety: you have been a great
168 thief by sea.
169 MENAS.
170 And you by land.
171 ENOBARBUS.
172 There I deny my land service. But give me your hand, Menas. If our eyes
173 had authority, here they might take two thieves kissing.
174 MENAS.
175 All men’s faces are true, whatsome’er their hands are.
176 ENOBARBUS.
177 But there is never a fair woman has a true face.
178 MENAS.
179 No slander. They steal hearts.
180 ENOBARBUS.
181 We came hither to fight with you.
182 MENAS.
183 For my part, I am sorry it is turned to a drinking. Pompey doth this
184 day laugh away his fortune.
185 ENOBARBUS.
186 If he do, sure he cannot weep ’t back again.
187 MENAS.
188 You have said, sir. We looked not for Mark Antony here. Pray you, is he
189 married to Cleopatra?
190 ENOBARBUS.
191 Caesar’s sister is called Octavia.
192 MENAS.
193 True, sir. She was the wife of Caius Marcellus.
194 ENOBARBUS.
195 But she is now the wife of Marcus Antonius.
196 MENAS.
197 Pray you, sir?
198 ENOBARBUS.
199 ’Tis true.
200 MENAS.
201 Then is Caesar and he for ever knit together.
202 ENOBARBUS.
203 If I were bound to divine of this unity, I would not prophesy so.
204 MENAS.
205 I think the policy of that purpose made more in the marriage than the
206 love of the parties.
207 ENOBARBUS.
208 I think so too. But you shall find the band that seems to tie their
209 friendship together will be the very strangler of their amity. Octavia
210 is of a holy, cold, and still conversation.
211 MENAS.
212 Who would not have his wife so?
213 ENOBARBUS.
214 Not he that himself is not so; which is Mark Antony. He will to his
215 Egyptian dish again. Then shall the sighs of Octavia blow the fire up
216 in Caesar, and, as I said before, that which is the strength of their
217 amity shall prove the immediate author of their variance. Antony will
218 use his affection where it is. He married but his occasion here.
219 MENAS.
220 And thus it may be. Come, sir, will you aboard? I have a health for
221 you.
222 ENOBARBUS.
223 I shall take it, sir. We have used our throats in Egypt.
224 MENAS.
225 Come, let’s away.
226 [_Exeunt._]