The Tragedy Of Antony And Cleopatra

1 Music. Enter two or three Servants with a banquet.
2 FIRST SERVANT.
3 Here they’ll be, man. Some o’ their plants are ill-rooted already; the
4 least wind i’ th’ world will blow them down.
5 SECOND SERVANT.
6 Lepidus is high-coloured.
7 FIRST SERVANT.
8 They have made him drink alms-drink.
9 SECOND SERVANT.
10 As they pinch one another by the disposition, he cries out “no more”,
11 reconciles them to his entreaty and himself to th’ drink.
12 FIRST SERVANT.
13 But it raises the greater war between him and his discretion.
14 SECOND SERVANT.
15 Why, this it is to have a name in great men’s fellowship. I had as lief
16 have a reed that will do me no service as a partisan I could not heave.
17 FIRST SERVANT.
18 To be called into a huge sphere, and not to be seen to move in ’t, are
19 the holes where eyes should be, which pitifully disaster the cheeks.
20 A sennet sounded. Enter Caesar, Antony, Pompey, Lepidus, Agrippa,
21 Maecenas, Enobarbus, Menas with other Captains.
22 ANTONY.
23 [_To Caesar_.] Thus do they, sir: they take the flow o’ th’ Nile
24 By certain scales i’ th’ pyramid; they know
25 By th’ height, the lowness, or the mean, if dearth
26 Or foison follow. The higher Nilus swells,
27 The more it promises. As it ebbs, the seedsman
28 Upon the slime and ooze scatters his grain,
29 And shortly comes to harvest.
30 LEPIDUS.
31 You’ve strange serpents there?
32 ANTONY.
33 Ay, Lepidus.
34 LEPIDUS.
35 Your serpent of Egypt is bred now of your mud by the operation of your
36 sun; so is your crocodile.
37 ANTONY.
38 They are so.
39 POMPEY.
40 Sit, and some wine! A health to Lepidus!
41 LEPIDUS.
42 I am not so well as I should be, but I’ll ne’er out.
43 ENOBARBUS.
44 Not till you have slept. I fear me you’ll be in till then.
45 LEPIDUS.
46 Nay, certainly, I have heard the Ptolemies’ pyramises are very goodly
47 things. Without contradiction I have heard that.
48 MENAS.
49 [_Aside to Pompey_.] Pompey, a word.
50 POMPEY.
51 [_Aside to Menas_.] Say in mine ear what is ’t?
52 MENAS.
53 [_Whispers in ’s ear._] Forsake thy seat, I do beseech thee, captain,
54 And hear me speak a word.
55 POMPEY.
56 [_Aside to Menas._] Forbear me till anon.—
57 This wine for Lepidus!
58 LEPIDUS.
59 What manner o’ thing is your crocodile?
60 ANTONY.
61 It is shaped, sir, like itself, and it is as broad as it hath breadth.
62 It is just so high as it is, and moves with it own organs. It lives by
63 that which nourisheth it, and the elements once out of it, it
64 transmigrates.
65 LEPIDUS.
66 What colour is it of?
67 ANTONY.
68 Of its own colour too.
69 LEPIDUS.
70 ’Tis a strange serpent.
71 ANTONY.
72 ’Tis so, and the tears of it are wet.
73 CAESAR.
74 Will this description satisfy him?
75 ANTONY.
76 With the health that Pompey gives him, else he is a very epicure.
77 POMPEY.
78 [_Aside to Menas._] Go hang, sir, hang! Tell me of that? Away!
79 Do as I bid you.—Where’s this cup I called for?
80 MENAS.
81 [_Aside to Pompey_.] If for the sake of merit thou wilt hear me,
82 Rise from thy stool.
83 POMPEY.
84 [_Aside to Menas_.] I think thou’rt mad.
85 [_Rises and walks aside._]
86 The matter?
87 MENAS.
88 I have ever held my cap off to thy fortunes.
89 POMPEY.
90 Thou hast served me with much faith. What’s else to say?—
91 Be jolly, lords.
92 ANTONY.
93 These quicksands, Lepidus,
94 Keep off them, for you sink.
95 MENAS.
96 Wilt thou be lord of all the world?
97 POMPEY.
98 What sayst thou?
99 MENAS.
100 Wilt thou be lord of the whole world?
101 That’s twice.
102 POMPEY.
103 How should that be?
104 MENAS.
105 But entertain it,
106 And though you think me poor, I am the man
107 Will give thee all the world.
108 POMPEY.
109 Hast thou drunk well?
110 MENAS.
111 No, Pompey, I have kept me from the cup.
112 Thou art, if thou dar’st be, the earthly Jove.
113 Whate’er the ocean pales or sky inclips
114 Is thine, if thou wilt have’t.
115 POMPEY.
116 Show me which way.
117 MENAS.
118 These three world-sharers, these competitors,
119 Are in thy vessel. Let me cut the cable,
120 And when we are put off, fall to their throats.
121 All then is thine.
122 POMPEY.
123 Ah, this thou shouldst have done
124 And not have spoke on ’t! In me ’tis villainy;
125 In thee ’t had been good service. Thou must know
126 ’Tis not my profit that does lead mine honour;
127 Mine honour it. Repent that e’er thy tongue
128 Hath so betray’d thine act. Being done unknown,
129 I should have found it afterwards well done,
130 But must condemn it now. Desist, and drink.
131 MENAS.
132 [_Aside_.] For this,
133 I’ll never follow thy palled fortunes more.
134 Who seeks, and will not take when once ’tis offered,
135 Shall never find it more.
136 POMPEY.
137 This health to Lepidus!
138 ANTONY.
139 Bear him ashore. I’ll pledge it for him, Pompey.
140 ENOBARBUS.
141 Here’s to thee, Menas!
142 MENAS.
143 Enobarbus, welcome!
144 POMPEY.
145 Fill till the cup be hid.
146 ENOBARBUS.
147 There’s a strong fellow, Menas.
148 [_Pointing to the servant who carries off Lepidus._]
149 MENAS.
150 Why?
151 ENOBARBUS.
152 ’A bears the third part of the world, man. Seest not?
153 MENAS.
154 The third part, then, is drunk. Would it were all,
155 That it might go on wheels!
156 ENOBARBUS.
157 Drink thou. Increase the reels.
158 MENAS.
159 Come.
160 POMPEY.
161 This is not yet an Alexandrian feast.
162 ANTONY.
163 It ripens towards it. Strike the vessels, ho!
164 Here is to Caesar!
165 CAESAR.
166 I could well forbear’t.
167 It’s monstrous labour when I wash my brain
168 And it grows fouler.
169 ANTONY.
170 Be a child o’ the time.
171 CAESAR.
172 Possess it, I’ll make answer.
173 But I had rather fast from all, four days,
174 Than drink so much in one.
175 ENOBARBUS.
176 [_To Antony_.] Ha, my brave emperor,
177 Shall we dance now the Egyptian Bacchanals
178 And celebrate our drink?
179 POMPEY.
180 Let’s ha’t, good soldier.
181 ANTONY.
182 Come, let’s all take hands
183 Till that the conquering wine hath steeped our sense
184 In soft and delicate Lethe.
185 ENOBARBUS.
186 All take hands.
187 Make battery to our ears with the loud music,
188 The while I’ll place you; then the boy shall sing.
189 The holding every man shall beat as loud
190 As his strong sides can volley.
191 Music plays. Enobarbus places them hand in hand.
192 THE SONG.
193 Come, thou monarch of the vine,
194 Plumpy Bacchus with pink eyne!
195 In thy vats our cares be drowned,
196 With thy grapes our hairs be crowned.
197 Cup us till the world go round,
198 Cup us till the world go round!
199 CAESAR.
200 What would you more? Pompey, good night. Good brother,
201 Let me request you off. Our graver business
202 Frowns at this levity.—Gentle lords, let’s part.
203 You see we have burnt our cheeks. Strong Enobarb
204 Is weaker than the wine, and mine own tongue
205 Splits what it speaks. The wild disguise hath almost
206 Anticked us all. What needs more words. Good night.
207 Good Antony, your hand.
208 POMPEY.
209 I’ll try you on the shore.
210 ANTONY.
211 And shall, sir. Give’s your hand.
212 POMPEY.
213 O Antony,
214 You have my father’s house.
215 But, what? We are friends. Come, down into the boat.
216 ENOBARBUS.
217 Take heed you fall not.
218 [_Exeunt Pompey, Caesar, Antony and Attendants._]
219 Menas, I’ll not on shore.
220 MENAS.
221 No, to my cabin. These drums, these trumpets, flutes! What!
222 Let Neptune hear we bid a loud farewell
223 To these great fellows. Sound and be hanged, sound out!
224 [_Sound a flourish with drums._]
225 ENOBARBUS.
226 Hoo, says ’a! There’s my cap!
227 MENAS.
228 Hoo! Noble captain, come.
229 [_Exeunt._]