Complete Plays, The (163 page)

Domitius Enobarbus

Here’s to thee, Menas!

Menas

Enobarbus, welcome!

Pompey

Fill till the cup be hid.

Domitius Enobarbus

There’s a strong fellow, Menas.

Pointing to the Attendant who carries off Lepidus

Menas

Why?

Domitius 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!

Domitius Enobarbus

Drink thou; increase the reels.

Menas

Come.

Pompey

This is not yet an Alexandrian feast.

Mark Antony

It ripens towards it. Strike the vessels, ho?
Here is to Caesar!

Octavius Caesar

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

Mark Antony

Be a child o’ the time.

Octavius Caesar

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

Domitius Enobarbus

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.

Mark Antony

Come, let’s all take hands,
Till that the conquering wine hath steep’d our sense
In soft and delicate Lethe.

Domitius 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. 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 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.

Mark 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 Enobarbus

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 Enobarbus

Ho! says a’ There’s my cap.

Menas

Ho! Noble captain, come.

Exeunt

A
CT
III

S
CENE
I. A
PLAIN
IN
S
YRIA
.

Enter Ventidius as it were in triumph, with Silius, and other Romans, Officers, and Soldiers; the dead body of Pacorus borne before him

Ventidius

Now, darting Parthia, art thou struck; and now
Pleased 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 achieved 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

S
CENE
II. R
OME
. A
N
ANTE
-
CHAMBER
IN
O
CTAVIUS
C
AESAR
’
S
HOUSE
.

Enter Agrippa at one door, Domitius Enobarbus at another

Agrippa

What, are the brothers parted?

Domitius Enobarbus

They have dispatch’d with Pompey, he is gone;
The other three are sealing. Octavia weeps
To part from Rome; Caesar is sad; and Lepidus,
Since Pompey’s feast, as Menas says, is troubled
With the green sickness.

Agrippa

’Tis a noble Lepidus.

Domitius Enobarbus

A very fine one: O, how he loves Caesar!

Agrippa

Nay, but how dearly he adores Mark Antony!

Domitius Enobarbus

Caesar? Why, he’s the Jupiter of men.

Agrippa

What’s Antony? The god of Jupiter.

Domitius Enobarbus

Spake you of Caesar? How! the non-pareil!

Agrippa

O Antony! O thou Arabian bird!

Domitius Enobarbus

Would you praise Caesar, say ‘Caesar:’ go no further.

Agrippa

Indeed, he plied them both with excellent praises.

Domitius Enobarbus

But he loves Caesar best; yet he loves Antony:
Ho! hearts, tongues, figures, scribes, bards, poets, cannot
Think, speak, cast, write, sing, number, ho!
His love to Antony. But as for Caesar,
Kneel down, kneel down, and wonder.

Agrippa

Both he loves.

Domitius Enobarbus

They are his shards, and he their beetle.

Trumpets within

So;
This is to horse. Adieu, noble Agrippa.

Agrippa

Good fortune, worthy soldier; and farewell.

Enter Octavius Caesar, Mark Antony, Lepidus, and Octavia

Mark Antony

No further, sir.

Octavius Caesar

You take from me a great part of myself;
Use me well in ’t. Sister, prove such a wife
As my thoughts make thee, and as my farthest band
Shall pass on thy approof. Most noble Antony,
Let not the piece of virtue, which is set
Betwixt us as the cement of our love,
To keep it builded, be the ram to batter
The fortress of it; for better might we
Have loved without this mean, if on both parts
This be not cherish’d.

Mark Antony

Make me not offended
In your distrust.

Octavius Caesar

 
I have said.

Mark Antony

You shall not find,
Though you be therein curious, the least cause
For what you seem to fear: so, the gods keep you,
And make the hearts of Romans serve your ends!
We will here part.

Octavius Caesar

Farewell, my dearest sister, fare thee well:
The elements be kind to thee, and make
Thy spirits all of comfort! fare thee well.

Octavia

My noble brother!

Mark Antony

The April ’s in her eyes: it is love’s spring,
And these the showers to bring it on. Be cheerful.

Octavia

Sir, look well to my husband’s house; and —

Octavius Caesar

What, Octavia?

Octavia

 
I’ll tell you in your ear.

Mark Antony

Her tongue will not obey her heart, nor can
Her heart inform her tongue,— the swan’s down-feather,
That stands upon the swell at full of tide,
And neither way inclines.

Domitius Enobarbus

[Aside to Agrippa]
 
Will Caesar weep?

Agrippa

[Aside to Domitius Enobarbus]
 
He has a cloud in ’s face.

Domitius Enobarbus

[Aside to Agrippa]
 
He were the worse for that, were he a horse; So is he, being a man.

Agrippa

[Aside to Domitius Enobarbus]
 
Why, Enobarbus,
When Antony found Julius Caesar dead,
He cried almost to roaring; and he wept
When at Philippi he found Brutus slain.

Domitius Enobarbus

[Aside to Agrippa]
 
That year, indeed, he was troubled with a rheum;
What willingly he did confound he wail’d,
Believe’t, till I wept too.

Octavius Caesar

No, sweet Octavia,
You shall hear from me still; the time shall not
Out-go my thinking on you.

Mark Antony

Come, sir, come;
I’ll wrestle with you in my strength of love:
Look, here I have you; thus I let you go,
And give you to the gods.

Octavius Caesar

Adieu; be happy!

Lepidus

Let all the number of the stars give light
To thy fair way!

Octavius Caesar

Farewell, fa rewell!

Kisses Octavia

Mark Antony

Farewell!

Trumpets sound. Exeunt

S
CENE
III. A
LEXANDRIA
. C
LEOPATRA
’
S
PALACE
.

Enter Cleopatra, Charmian, Iras, and Alexas

Cleopatra

Where is the fellow?

Alexas

Half afeard to come.

Cleopatra

Go to, go to.

Enter the Messenger as before

Come hither, sir.

Alexas

Good majesty,
Herod of Jewry dare not look upon you
But when you are well pleased.

Cleopatra

That Herod’s head
I’ll have: but how, when Antony is gone
Through whom I might command it? Come thou near.

Messenger

Most gracious majesty,—

Cleopatra

Didst thou behold Octavia?

Messenger

Ay, dread queen.

Cleopatra

Where?

Messenger

Madam, in Rome;
I look’d her in the face, and saw her led
Between her brother and Mark Antony.

Cleopatra

Is she as tall as me?

Messenger

She is not, madam.

Cleopatra

Didst hear her speak? is she shrill-tongued or low?

Messenger

Madam, I heard her speak; she is low-voiced.

Cleopatra

That’s not so good: he cannot like her long.

Charmian

Like her! O Isis! ’tis impossible.

Cleopatra

I think so, Charmian: dull of tongue, and dwarfish!
What majesty is in her gait? Remember,
If e’er thou look’dst on majesty.

Messenger

She creeps:
Her motion and her station are as one;
She shows a body rather than a life,
A statue than a breather.

Cleopatra

Is this certain?

Messenger

Or I have no observance.

Charmian

Three in Egypt
Cannot make better note.

Cleopatra

He’s very knowing;
I do perceive’t: there’s nothing in her yet:
The fellow has good judgment.

Charmian

Excellent.

Cleopatra

Guess at her years, I prithee.

Messenger

Madam,
She was a widow,—

Cleopatra

 
Widow! Charmian, hark.

Messenger

And I do think she’s thirty.

Cleopatra

Bear’st thou her face in mind? is’t long or round?

Messenger

Round even to faultiness.

Cleopatra

For the most part, too, they are foolish that are so.
Her hair, what colour?

Messenger

Brown, madam: and her forehead
As low as she would wish it.

Cleopatra

There’s gold for thee.
Thou must not take my former sharpness ill:
I will employ thee back again; I find thee
Most fit for business: go make thee ready;
Our letters are prepared.