ARKCODEX
Act II, Scene 7
1On board Pompey’s galley, off Misenum.
2Music plays. Enter two or three Servants with a banquet.
3First ServantHere they’ll be, man. Some o’ their plants are ill-rooted already; the least wind i’ the world will blow them down.
4Second ServantLepidus is high-coloured.
5First ServantThey have made him drink alms-drink.
6Second ServantAs they pinch one another by the disposition, he cries out “No more;” reconciles them to his entreaty, and himself to the drink.
7First ServantBut it raises the greater war between him and his discretion.
8Second ServantWhy, 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.
9First ServantTo 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.
10A sennet sounded. Enter Caesar, Antony, Lepidus, Pompey, Agrippa, Mecaenas, Enobarbas, Menas, with other captains.
11AntonyTo 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.
12LepidusYou’ve strange serpents there.
13AntonyAy, Lepidus.
14LepidusYour serpent of Egypt is bred now of your mud by the operation of your sun: so is your crocodile.
15AntonyThey are so.
16PompeySit—and some wine! A health to Lepidus!
17LepidusI am not so well as I should be, but I’ll ne’er out.
18EnobarbasNot till you have slept; I fear me you’ll be in till then.
19LepidusNay, certainly, I have heard the Ptolemies’ pyramises are very goodly things; without contradiction, I have heard that.
20MenasAside to Pompey. Pompey, a word.
21PompeyAside to Menas. Say in mine ear: what is’t?
22MenasAside to Pompey. Forsake thy seat, I do beseech thee, captain,
And hear me speak a word.
23PompeyAside to Menas. Forbear me till anon.
This wine for Lepidus!
24LepidusWhat manner o’ thing is your crocodile?
25AntonyIt 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.
26LepidusWhat colour is it of?
27AntonyOf it own colour too.
28Lepidus’Tis a strange serpent.
29Antony’Tis so. And the tears of it are wet.
30CaesarWill this description satisfy him?
31AntonyWith the health that Pompey gives him, else he is a very epicure.
32PompeyAside to Menas. Go hang, sir, hang! Tell me of that? away!
Do as I bid you. Where’s this cup I call’d for?
33MenasAside to Pompey. If for the sake of merit thou wilt hear me,
Rise from thy stool.
34PompeyAside to Menas. I think thou’rt mad. The matter? Rises, and walks aside.
35MenasI have ever held my cap off to thy fortunes.
36PompeyThou hast served me with much faith. What’s else to say?
Be jolly, lords.
37AntonyThese quick-sands, Lepidus,
Keep off them, for you sink.
38MenasWilt thou be lord of all the world?
39PompeyWhat say’st thou?
40MenasWilt thou be lord of the whole world? That’s twice.
41PompeyHow should that be?
42MenasBut entertain it,
And, though thou think me poor, I am the man
Will give thee all the world.
43PompeyHast thou drunk well?
44MenasNo, 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.
45PompeyShow me which way.
46MenasThese 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.
47PompeyAh, 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.
48MenasAside. 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.
49PompeyThis health to Lepidus!
50AntonyBear him ashore. I’ll pledge it for him, Pompey.
51EnobarbasHere’s to thee, Menas!
52MenasEnobarbus, welcome!
53PompeyFill till the cup be hid.
54EnobarbasThere’s a strong fellow, Menas. Pointing to the Attendant who carries off Lepidus.
55MenasWhy?
56EnobarbasA’ bears the third part of the world, man; see’st not?
57MenasThe third part, then, is drunk: would it were all,
That it might go on wheels!
58EnobarbasDrink thou; increase the reels.
59MenasCome.
60PompeyThis is not yet an Alexandrian feast.
61AntonyIt ripens towards it. Strike the vessels, ho!
Here is to Caesar!
62CaesarI could well forbear’t.
It’s monstrous labour, when I wash my brain,
And it grows fouler.
63AntonyBe a child o’ the time.
64CaesarPossess it, I’ll make answer:
But I had rather fast from all four days
Than drink so much in one.
65EnobarbasHa, my brave emperor! To Antony.
Shall we dance now the Egyptian Bacchanals,
And celebrate our drink?
66PompeyLet’s ha’t, good soldier.
67AntonyCome, let’s all take hands,
Till that the conquering wine hath steep’d our sense
In soft and delicate Lethe.
68EnobarbasAll 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. Enobarbas places them hand in hand.
69The Song.
70Come, 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!
71CaesarWhat 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.
72PompeyI’ll try you on the shore.
73AntonyAnd shall, sir; give’s your hand.
74PompeyO Antony,
You have my father’s house—But, what? we are friends.
Come, down into the boat.
75EnobarbasTake heed you fall not. Exeunt all but Enobarbas and Menas.
Menas, I’ll not on shore.
76MenasNo, 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.
77EnobarbasHo! says a’. There’s my cap.
78MenasHo! Noble captain, come. Exeunt.