Complete Plays, The (160 page)

Enter Varrius

How now, Varrius!

Varrius

This is most certain that I shall deliver:
Mark Antony is every hour in Rome
Expected: since he went from Egypt ’tis
A space for further travel.

Pompey

I could have given less matter
A better ear. Menas, I did not think
This amorous surfeiter would have donn’d his helm
For such a petty war: his soldiership
Is twice the other twain: but let us rear
The higher our opinion, that our stirring
Can from the lap of Egypt’s widow pluck
The ne’er-lust-wearied Antony.

Menas

I cannot hope
Caesar and Antony shall well greet together:
His wife that’s dead did trespasses to Caesar;
His brother warr’d upon him; although, I think,
Not moved by Antony.

Pompey

I know not, Menas,
How lesser enmities may give way to greater.
Were’t not that we stand up against them all,
’Twere pregnant they should square between themselves;
For they have entertained cause enough
To draw their swords: but how the fear of us
May cement their divisions and bind up
The petty difference, we yet not know.
Be’t as our gods will have’t! It only stands
Our lives upon to use our strongest hands.
Come, Menas.

Exeunt

S
CENE
II. R
OME
. T
HE
HOUSE
OF
L
EPIDUS
.

Enter Domitius Enobarbus and Lepidus

Lepidus

Good Enobarbus, ’tis a worthy deed,
And shall become you well, to entreat your captain
To soft and gentle speech.

Domitius Enobarbus

I shall entreat him
To answer like himself: if Caesar move him,
Let Antony look over Caesar’s head
And speak as loud as Mars. By Jupiter,
Were I the wearer of Antonius’ beard,
I would not shave’t to-day.

Lepidus

’Tis not a time
For private stomaching.

Domitius Enobarbus

Every time
Serves for the matter that is then born in’t.

Lepidus

But small to greater matters must give way.

Domitius Enobarbus

Not if the small come first.

Lepidus

Your speech is passion:
But, pray you, stir no embers up. Here comes
The noble Antony.

Enter Mark Antony and Ventidius

Domitius Enobarbus

 
And yonder, Caesar.

Enter Octavius Caesar, Mecaenas, and Agrippa

Mark Antony

If we compose well here, to Parthia:
Hark, Ventidius.

Octavius Caesar

 
I do not know,
Mecaenas; ask Agrippa.

Lepidus

Noble friends,
That which combined us was most great, and let not
A leaner action rend us. What’s amiss,
May it be gently heard: when we debate
Our trivial difference loud, we do commit
Murder in healing wounds: then, noble partners,
The rather, for I earnestly beseech,
Touch you the sourest points with sweetest terms,
Nor curstness grow to the matter.

Mark Antony

’Tis spoken well.
Were we before our armies, and to fight.
I should do thus.

Flourish

Octavius Caesar

Welcome to Rome.

Mark Antony

 
Thank you.

Octavius Caesar

Sit.

Mark Antony

Sit, sir.

Octavius Caesar

Nay, then.

Mark Antony

I learn, you take things ill which are not so,
Or being, concern you not.

Octavius Caesar

I must be laugh’d at,
If, or for nothing or a little, I
Should say myself offended, and with you
Chiefly i’ the world; more laugh’d at, that I should
Once name you derogately, when to sound your name
It not concern’d me.

Mark Antony

My being in Egypt, Caesar,
What was’t to you?

Octavius Caesar

No more than my residing here at Rome
Might be to you in Egypt: yet, if you there
Did practise on my state, your being in Egypt
Might be my question.

Mark Antony

How intend you, practised?

Octavius Caesar

You may be pleased to catch at mine intent
By what did here befal me. Your wife and brother
Made wars upon me; and their contestation
Was theme for you, you were the word of war.

Mark Antony

You do mistake your business; my brother never
Did urge me in his act: I did inquire it;
And have my learning from some true reports,
That drew their swords with you. Did he not rather
Discredit my authority with yours;
And make the wars alike against my stomach,
Having alike your cause? Of this my letters
Before did satisfy you. If you’ll patch a quarrel,
As matter whole you have not to make it with,
It must not be with this.

Octavius Caesar

You praise yourself
By laying defects of judgment to me; but
You patch’d up your excuses.

Mark Antony

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 yours; which with a snaffle
You may pace easy, but not such a wife.

Domitius Enobarbus

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

Mark Antony

So much uncurbable, her garboils, Caesar
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.

Octavius Caesar

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

Mark Antony

Sir,
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.

Octavius Caesar

You have broken
The article of your oath; which you shall never
Have tongue to charge me with.

Lepidus

Soft, Caesar!

Mark Antony

No,
Lepidus, let him speak:
The honour is sacred which he talks on now,
Supposing that I lack’d it. But, on, Caesar;
The article of my oath.

Octavius Caesar

To lend me arms and aid when I required them;
The which you both denied.

Mark Antony

Neglected, rather;
And then when poison’d hours had bound me up
From mine own knowledge. As nearly as I may,
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.

Lepidus

’Tis noble spoken.

Mecaenas

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.

Lepidus

Worthily spoken, Mecaenas.

Domitius Enobarbus

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.

Mark Antony

Thou art a soldier only: speak no more.

Domitius Enobarbus

That truth should be silent I had almost forgot.

Mark Antony

You wrong this presence; therefore speak no more.

Domitius Enobarbus

Go to, then; your considerate stone.

Octavius Caesar

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.

Agrippa

Give me leave, Caesar,—

Octavius Caesar

Speak, Agrippa.

Agrippa

Thou hast a sister by the mother’s side,
Admired Octavia: great Mark Antony
Is now a widower.

Octavius Caesar

 
Say not so, Agrippa:
If Cleopatra heard you, your reproof
Were well deserved of rashness.

Mark Antony

I am not married, Caesar: let me hear
Agrippa further speak.

Agrippa

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.

Mark Antony

 
Will Caesar speak?

Octavius Caesar

Not till he hears how Antony is touch’d
With what is spoke already.

Mark Antony

What power is in Agrippa,
If I would say, ‘Agrippa, be it so,’
To make this good?

Octavius Caesar

 
The power of Caesar, and
His power unto Octavia.

Mark Antony

May I never
To this good purpose, that so fairly shows,
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!

Octavius Caesar

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
Fly off our loves again!

Lepidus

Happily, amen!

Mark Antony

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.

Lepidus

Time calls upon’s:
Of us must Pompey presently be sought,
Or else he seeks out us.

Mark Antony

Where lies he?

Octavius Caesar

About the mount Misenum.

Mark Antony

What is his strength by land?

Octavius Caesar

Great and increasing: but by sea
He is an absolute master.

Mark Antony

So is the fame.
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.

Octavius Caesar

With most gladness:
And do invite you to my sister’s view,
Whither straight I’ll lead you.

Mark Antony

Let us, Lepidus,
Not lack your company.

Lepidus

Noble Antony,
Not sickness should detain me.

Flourish. Exeunt Octavius Caesar, Mark Antony, and Lepidus

Mecaenas

Welcome from Egypt, sir.

Domitius Enobarbus

Half the heart of Caesar, worthy Mecaenas! My honourable friend, Agrippa!

Agrippa

Good Enobarbus!

Mecaenas

We have cause to be glad that matters are so well digested. You stayed well by ’t in Egypt.

Domitius Enobarbus

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

Mecaenas

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

Domitius Enobarbus

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

Mecaenas

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

Domitius Enobarbus

When she first met Mark Antony, she pursed up his heart, upon the river of Cydnus.

Agrippa

There she appeared indeed; or my reporter devised well for her.

Domitius Enobarbus

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.

Agrippa

O, rare for Antony!

Domitius Enobarbus

Her gentlewomen, like the Nereides,
So many mermaids, tended her i’ the eyes,
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,
Enthroned 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.