Act II, Scene 7

On board POMPEY’s galley, off Misenum

[Music plays. Enter two or three Servants with] [p]a banquet]

First Servant - Here they'll be, man. Some o' their plants are ill-rooted already: the least wind i' the 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 the drink.

First Servant - But it raises the greater war between him and his discretion.

Second Servant - Why, this 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 OCTAVIUS CAESAR, MARK, ANTONY, LEPIDUS, POMPEY, AGRIPPA, MECAENAS, DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS, MENAS, with other captains]

Antony - [To OCTAVIUS 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.

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!

Lepidus - I am not so well as I should be, but I'll ne'er out.

Domitius Enobarus - 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. This wine for Lepidus!

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 its 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.

Octavius - 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 ofthat? away! Do as I bid you. Where's this cup I call'd for?

Menas - [Aside to POMPEY] If for the sake of merit thou wilt hear me, Rise from thy stool.

Pompey - [Aside to MENAS] I think thou'rt mad. The matter?

[Rises, and walks aside]

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 quick-sands, Lepidus, Keep off them, for you sink.

Menas - Wilt thou be lord of all the world?

Pompey - What say'st 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 - Now, 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.

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 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.

Menas - [Aside] 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.

Pompey - This health to Lepidus!

Antony - Bear him ashore. I'll pledge it for him, Pompey.

Domitius Enobarus - Here's to thee, Menas!

Menas - Enobarbus, welcome!

Pompey - Fill till the cup be hid.

Domitius Enobarus - There's a strong fellow, Menas.

[Pointing to the Attendant who carries off LEPIDUS]

Menas - Why?

Domitius Enobarus - A' bears the third part of the world, man; see'st not?

Menas - The third part, then, is drunk: would it were all, That it might go on wheels!

Domitius Enobarus - 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 is to Caesar!

Octavius - I could well forbear't. It's monstrous labour, when I wash my brain, And it grows fouler.

Antony - Be a child o' the time.

Octavius - Possess it, I'll make answer: But I had rather fast from all four days Than drink so much in one.

Domitius Enobarus - Ha, my brave emperor!

[To MARK ANTONY]

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 steep'd our sense In soft and delicate Lethe.

Domitius Enobarus - 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 bear as loud As his strong sides can volley.

[Music plays. DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS places them hand in hand]

THE SONG. Come, 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!

Octavius - What 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.

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.

Domitius Enobarus - Take heed you fall not.

[Exeunt all but DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS and MENAS]

Menas, I'll not on shore.

Menas - 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 hang'd, sound out!

[Sound a flourish, with drums]

Domitius Enobarus - Ho! says a' There's my cap.

Menas - Ho! Noble captain, come.

[Exeunt]