Antony and Cleopatra by William Shakespeare (english novels to read txt) 📕

eyes had authority, here they might take two thieves kissing.

MENAS.
All men's faces are true, whatsome'er their hands are.

ENOBARBUS.
But there is never a fair woman has a true face.

MENAS.
No slander; they steal hearts.

ENOBARBUS.
We came hither to fight with you.

MENAS.
For my part, I am sorry it is turn'd to a drinking. Pompey doth
this day laugh away his fortune.

ENOBARBUS.
If he do, sure he cannot weep it back again.

MENAS.
You have said, sir. We look'd not for Mark Antony here: pray you,
is he married to Cleopatra?

ENOBARBUS.
Caesar's sister is called Octavia.

MENAS.
True, sir; she was the wife of Caius Marcellus.

ENOBARBUS.
But she is now the wife of Marcus Antonius.

MENAS.
Pray you, sir?

ENOBARBUS.
'Tis true.

MENAS.
Then is Caesar and he for ever knit together.

ENOBARBUS.
If I were bound to divine of this unity, I would not prophesy so.

MENAS.
I think the policy of that purpose made more in the marriage than
the love of the parties.

ENOBARBUS.
I think so too. But you shall find the band that seems to tie
their friendship together will be the very strangler of their
amity: Octavia is of a holy, cold, and still conversation.

MENAS.
Who would not have his wife so?

ENOBARBUS.
Not he that himself is not so; which is Mark Antony. He will to
his Egyptian dish again: then shall the sighs of Octavia blow the
fire up in Caesar; and, as I said before, that which is the
strength of their amity shall prove the immediate author of their
variance. Antony will use his affection where it is: he married
but his occasion here.

MENAS.
And thus it may be. Come, sir, will you aboard? I have a health
for you.

ENOBARBUS.
I shall take it, sir: we have used our throats in Egypt.

MENAS.
Come, let's away.

[Exeunt.]


SCENE VII. On board POMPEY'S Galley, lying near Misenum.

[Music. Enter two or three SERVANTS with 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 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 partizan 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 CAESAR, ANTONY, LEPIDUS, POMPEY,
AGRIPPA, MAECENAS, ENOBARBUS, MENAS, with other Captains.]

ANTONY.
[To 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.

ENOBARBUS.
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 ano.n--
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 it 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 its own colour too.

LEPIDUS.
'Tis a strange serpent.

ANTONY.
'Tis so. And the tears of it are wet.

CAESAR.
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 of that! 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.

[Rises and walks aside.]

The matter?

MENAS.
I have ever held my cap off to thy fortunes.

POMPEY.
Thou hast serv'd me with much faith.
What's else to say?--
Be jolly, lords.

ANTONY.
These quicksands, 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 you think me poor, I am the man
Will give thee all the world.

POMPEY.
Hast thou drunk well?

MENAS.
No, Pompey, I have kept me from the cup.
Thou art, if thou dar'st be, the earthly Jove:
Whate'er the ocean pales or sky inclips
Is thine, if thou wilt have'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 then is thine.

POMPEY.
Ah, this thou shouldst have done,
And not have spoke on't! In me 'tis villainy:
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.

ENOBARBUS.
Here's to thee, Menas!

MENAS.
Enobarbus, welcome!

POMPEY.
Fill till the cup be hid.

ENOBARBUS.
There's a strong fellow, Menas.

[Pointing to the servant who carries off LEPIDUS.]

MENAS.
Why?

ENOBARBUS.
'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!

ENOBARBUS.
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!

CAESAR.
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.

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

ENOBARBUS.
[To ANTONY.] Ha, my brave emperor!
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.

ENOBARBUS.
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. ENOBARBUS places them hand in hand.]

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!

CAESAR.
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.

ENOBARBUS.
Take heed you fall not.

[Exeunt POMPEY, CAESAR, ANTONY, and Attendants.]

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!

[A flourish of trumpets, with drums.]

ENOBARBUS.
Hoo! says 'a.--There's my cap.

MENAS.
Hoo!--noble captain, come.

[Exeunt.]


ACT III.

SCENE I. A plain in Syria.

[Enter VENTIDIUS, in triumph, with SILIUS and other Romans,
Officers and Soldiers; the dead body of PACORUS borne in front.]

VENTIDIUS.
Now, darting Parthia, art thou struck; and now
Pleas'd fortune does of Marcus Crassus' death
Make me revenger.--Bear the king's son's body
Before our army.--Thy Pacorus, Orodes,
Pays this for Marcus Crassus.

SILIUS.
Noble Ventidius,
Whilst yet with Parthian blood thy sword is warm
The fugitive Parthians follow; spur through Media,
Mesopotamia, and the shelters whither
The routed fly: so thy grand captain Antony
Shall set thee on triumphant chariots, and
Put garlands on thy head.

VENTIDIUS.
O Silius, Silius,
I have done enough: a lower place, note well,
May make too great an act; for learn this, Silius,--
Better to leave undone, than by our deed
Acquire too high a fame when him we serve's away.
Caesar and Antony have ever won
More in their officer, than person: Sossius,
One of my place in Syria, his lieutenant,
For quick accumulation of renown,
Which he achiev'd by the minute, lost his favour.
Who does i' the wars more than his captain can
Becomes his captain's captain; and ambition,
The soldier's virtue, rather makes choice of loss
Than gain which darkens him.
I could do more to do Antonius good,
But 'twould offend him; and in his offence
Should my performance perish.

SILIUS.
Thou hast, Ventidius, that
Without the which a soldier and his sword
Grants scarce distinction. Thou wilt write to Antony?

VENTIDIUS.
I'll humbly signify what in his name,
That magical word of war, we have effected;
How, with his banners, and his well-paid ranks,
The ne'er-yet-beaten horse of Parthia
We have jaded out o' the field.

SILIUS.
Where is he now?

VENTIDIUS.
He purposeth to Athens: whither, with what haste
The weight we must convey with's will permit,
We shall appear before him.--On, there; pass along!

[Exeunt.]


SCENE II. Rome. An Ante-chamber in CAESAR'S house.

[Enter AGRIPPA and ENOBARBUS, meeting.]

AGRIPPA.
What, are the