SCENE VII.

On Board POMPEY'S Galley, lying near Misenum.

Music. Enter two or three Servants, with a banquet.

1 Servant. Here they'll be, man. Some o' their plants are ill-rooted already; the least wind i̇'th' world will blow them down.

2 Serv.

Lepidus is high-coloured.

1 Serv. They have made him drink alms-drink. 2 Serv. As they pinch one another by the disposition, he cries out, "No more; reconciles them to his entreaty, and himself to th' drink.

1 Serv. But it raises the greater war between him and his discretion.

2 Serv. 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 partisan I could not heave.

1 Serv. To be call'd 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 CESAR, ANTONY, POMPEY, LEPIDUS, AGRIPPA, MECENAS, ENOBARBUS, MENAS, with other Captains.

Ant. Thus do they, sir. [To CÆSAR.] They take the flow o' th' Nile

:

By certain scales i' th' 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.

Lep. You have strange serpents there.

Ant.

Ay, Lepidus. Lep. Your serpent of Egypt is bred, now, of your mud by the operation of your sun: so is your crocodile. Ant. They are so.

Pom. Sit,—and some wine!— A health to Lepidus. Lep. I am not so well as I should be, but I'll

ne'er out.

Eno. Not till you have slept: I fear me you'll be in till then.

Lep. Nay, certainly, I have heard, the Ptolemies' pyramises are very goodly things; without contradiction, I have heard that.

Men. [Aside.] Pompey, a word.

Pom. [Aside.] Say in mine ear: what is 't? Men. [Aside.] Forsake thy seat, I do beseech thee, Captain,

And hear me speak a word.

Pom.

[Aside.] Forbear me till anon.

This wine for Lepidus.

Lep. What manner o' thing is your crocodile ? Ant. It is shap'd, 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.

Lep. What colour is it of?

Ant. Of its own colour too.

Lep. 'Tis a strange serpent.

Ant. 'Tis so; and the tears of it are wet.

Cæs. Will this description satisfy him?

Ant. With the health that Pompey gives him, else

he is a very epicure.

Pom. [To MENAS, aside.] Go hang, sir, hang! Tell me of that? away!

Do as I bid you. Where's this cup I call'd for?

Men. [Aside.] If for the sake of merit thou wilt

hear me,

Rise from thy stool.

Pom. [Aside.] I think thou'rt mad.

The matter? [Walks aside

Men. I have ever held my cap off to thy fortunes. Pom. Thou hast serv'd me with much faith. What's else to say?

Be jolly, lords.

Ant.

These quick-sands, Lepidus,

Keep off them, for you sink.

Men. Wilt thou be lord of all the world?

Pom.

What say'st thou ?

Men. Wilt thou be lord of the whole world?

That's twice.

Pom. How should that be?

Men.

But entertain it,

And though thou think me poor, I am the man

Will give thee all the world.

Pom.

Hast thou drunk well?

Men. 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.

Pom.
Men.

Shew me which way.

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.

Pom.
Ah! this thou should'st 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.

Men. [Aside.] For this,

Desist, and drink.

I'll never follow thy pall'd fortunes more.

Who seeks, and will not take when once 'tis of

Eno.

There's a strong fellow, Menas.

[Pointing to the Attendant who carries off

The third part of the world, man: see'st not?

Men. The third part, then, is drunk: would it

were all,

That it might go on wheels!

Eno. Drink thou; increase the reels.

Men. Come.

Pom.

This is not yet an Alexandrian feast.

Ant. It ripens towards it. - Strike the vessels, ho! Here is to Cæsar.

Cæs.

I could well forbear it.

It's monstrous labour, when I wash my brain,
And it grows fouler.

Ant.

Be a child o' th' time.

Cas. Possess it; I'll make answer; but I had

rather fast

From all four days, than drink so much in one.

Eno. Ha, my brave emperor !

[To ANTONY.

Shall we dance now the Egyptian Bacchanals,
And celebrate our drink?

Pom.

Let's ha't, good soldier.

Ant. Come, let us all take hands,

Till that the conquering wine hath steep'd our sense

In soft and delicate Lethe.

Eno.

Make battery to our ears

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 vats 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!

Cæs. What would you more ?

night. Good brother,

Pompey, good

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 Enobarbe
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.

Pom.

Ant.

I'll try you on the shore. And shall, sir. Give 's your hand.

Pom.

O Antony!