ACT II

Sc. II

60

By laying defects of judgment to me; but

You patch'd up your excuses. ANT.

Not so, not so;
I know you could not lack, I am certain on 't,
Very necessity of this thought, that I,

Your partner in the cause 'gainst which he fought,
Could not with graceful eyes attend those wars
Which fronted mine own peace. As for my wife,
I would you had her spirit in such another:

The third o' the World is your's; which with a snaffle
You may pace easy, but not such a wife.

ENO. Would we had all such wives, that the men might
go to wars with the women!

ANT. So much uncurbable, her garboils, Cæsar,
Made out of her impatience (which not wanted
Shrewdness of policy too) I grieving grant
Did you too much disquiet: for that you must
But say, I could not help it.

CES.

I wrote to you
When rioting in Alexandria; you
Did pocket up my letters, and with taunts
Did gibe my missive out of audience.

He fell upon me ere admitted: then
Three Kings I had newly feasted, and did want
Of what I was i' the morning: but next day
I told him of myself; which was as much
As to have ask'd him pardon. Let this fellow
Be nothing of our strife; if we contend,

Out of our question wipe him.
CÆS.

The article of your oath; which Have tongue to charge me with. LEP.

ANT. No, Lepidus, let him speak :

You have broken
you

shall never

Soft, Cæsar!

CAS. To lend me arms and aid when I requir'd them;

The which you both denied.

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ACT II
Sc. II

ANT.

may,

Neglected, rather;
And then when poison'd hours had bound me up
From mine own knowledge. As nearly as I
I'll play the penitent to you: but mine honesty
Shall not make poor my greatness, nor my power
Work without it. Truth is, that Fulvia,

To have me out of Egypt, made wars here;
For which myself, the ignorant motive, do
So far ask pardon as befits mine honour
To stoop in such a case.

LEP.

'Tis noble spoken.

MEC. If it might please you, to enforce no further

The griefs between ye: to forget them quite
Were to remember that the present need

Speaks to atone you.

LEP.

Worthily spoken, Mecænas.

ENO. Or, if you borrow one another's love for the instant, you may, when you hear no more words of Pompey, return it again: you shall have time to wrangle in when you have nothing else to do.

ANT. Thou art a soldier only; speak no more.
ENO. That truth should be silent I had almost forgot.
ANT. You wrong this presence; therefore speak no more.
ENO. Go to, then; your consideratest one.

CES. I do not much dislike the matter, but

The manner of his speech; for 't cannot be
We shall remain in friendship, our conditions
So differing in their acts. Yet, if I knew

What hoop should hold us stanch, from edge to edge
O' the World I would pursue it.

AGR. To hold you in perpetual amity,

To make you brothers, and to knit your hearts
With an unslipping knot, take Antony
Octavia to his wife; whose beauty claims
No worse a husband than the best of men ;
Whose virtue and whose general graces speak
That which none else can utter. By this marriage,
All little jealousies, which now seem great,
And all great fears, which now import their dangers,
Would then be nothing: truths would be tales,
Where now half tales be truths: her love to both
Would each to other, and all loves to both,
Draw after her. Pardon what I have spoke ;
For 'tis a studied, not a present thought,
By duty ruminated.

ANT.

Will Cæsar speak?

CAS. Not till he hears how Antony is touch'd

With what is spoke already.

ANT.

If I would say Agrippa, be it so,

To make this good?

140

What power is in Agrippa,

To this good purpose, that so fairly shews,
Dream of impediment! Let me have thy hand:
Further this act of grace; and from this hour
The heart of brothers govern in our loves

And sway our great designs!

CAS.

There is my hand

A sister I bequeath you, whom no brother

Did ever love so dearly: let her live

To join our kingdoms and our hearts; and never

150

ANT. I did not think to draw my sword 'gainst Pompey;

For he hath laid strange courtesies and great

Of late upon me; I must thank him only,
Lest my remembrance suffer ill report;

At heel of that, defy him.

160

Would we had spoke together! Haste we for it:
Yet, ere we put ourselves in arms, dispatch we

The business we have talk'd of.
CES.

And do invite you to my sister's view,
Whither straight I'll lead

ANT.

Not lack your company.

LEP.

With most gladness;

171

you.

Let us, Lepidus,

Noble Antony,

Not sickness should detain me.

[Flourish. Exeunt CESAR, ANTONY, and LEPIDUS.

MEC. Welcome from Egypt, Sir.

ENO. Half the heart of Cæsar, worthy Mecænas! My honourable friend, Agrippa!

AGR. Good Enobarbus!

MEC. We have cause to be glad that matters are so well digested. You stay'd well by 't in Egypt.

180

ENO. Ay, Sir; we did sleep day out of countenance, and made the night light with drinking.

MEC. Eight wild-boars roasted whole at a breakfast, and but twelve persons there! is this true?

ENO. This was but as a fly by an eagle: we had much more monstrous matter of feast, which worthily deserv'd noting.

MEC. She's a most triumphant lady, if report be square to her.

ENO. When she first met Mark Antony, she purs'd up his heart upon the river of Cydnus.

AGR. There she appear'd indeed; or my reporter devis'd well for her.

ENO. I will tell you.

The barge she sat in, like a burnish'd throne,
Burn'd on the water: the poop was beaten gold;

Purple the sails, and so perfumed that

The winds were love-sick with them; the oars were

silver,

Which to the tune of flutes kept stroke, and made
The water which they beat to follow faster,
As amorous of their strokes. For her own person,
It beggar'd all description: she did lie
In her pavilion (cloth-of-gold of tissue)
O'er-picturing that Venus where we see
The fancy outwork Nature: on each side her
Stood pretty dimpled boys, like smiling Cupids,
With divers-colour'd fans, whose wind did seem
To glow the delicate cheeks which they did cool,
And what they undid did.

AGR.

O, rare for Antony!

ENO. Her gentlewomen, like the Nereides,
So many mermaids, tended her i' the eyes,1
And made their bends adornings: at the helm
A seeming mermaid steers: the silken tackle
Swell with the touches of those flower-soft hands,
That yarely frame the office. From the barge
A strange invisible perfume hits the sense
Of the adjacent wharfs. The city cast
Her people out upon her; and Antony,
Enthron'd i' the Market-Place, did sit alone,
Whistling to the air; which, but for vacancy,
Had gone to gaze on Cleopatra too,

And made a gap in Nature.

AGR.

Rare Egyptian!

ENO. Upon her landing, Antony sent to her,
Invited her to supper: she replied,

It should be better he became her guest;

Which she entreated. Our courteous Antony,
Whom ne'er the word of No woman heard speak,

Being barber'd ten times o'er, goes to the feast,
And for his ordinary pays his heart

For what his eyes eat only.

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Sc. II

1 i.e. ministered in her presence.

T