By certain scales i'the pyramid; they know,
By the height, the lowness, or the mean, if dearth,
Or foizon, 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. Pompey, a word.

Pom. Say in mine ear: What is't?

Men. Forsake thy seat, I do beseech thee, captain,

And hear me speak a word.

[Aside,

[Aside.

Pom. Forbear me till anon.

This wine for Lepidus.

Lep. What manner o'thing is your crocodile ?

Ant. 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.

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.
Cas. Will this description satisfy him?

Ant. With the health that Pompey gives him, else he is

a very epicure.

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

[8] Foizon is a French word signifying plenty, abundance. I am told that it is still in common use in the North. STEEVENS.

[9] Pyramis for pyramids was in common use in our author's time. From this word Shakespeare formed the English plural, pyramises, to mark the indistinct pronunciation of a man nearly intoxicated whose tongue is now beginning to "split what it speaks." In other places he has introduced the Latin plural pyramides, which was constantly used by our ancient writers. MALONE.

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

Men. If for the sake of merit thou wilt hear me,

Rise from thy stool.

Pom. I think, thou'rt mad.

The matter?

[Aside.

[Rises, and 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,

Although 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. Show me which way.

Men. 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 villany;
In thee, it 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.
Men. For this,

I'll never follow thy pall'd fortunes more.9

[Aside.

Who seeks, and will not take, when once 'tis offer'd,
Shall never find it more.

[8] Competitors---Confederates, partners.

STEEVENS.

[9] Palled---is vapid, past its time of excellence; palled wine, is wine that has lost

its original sprightliness. JOHNSON.

Pom. This health to Lepidus.

Ant. Bear him ashore. I'll pledge it for him, Pompey. Eno. Here's to thee, Menas.

Men. Enobarbus, welcome.

Pom. Fill, till the cup be hid.

Eno. There's a strong fellow, Menas.

[Pointing to the attendant who carries of LEPIDUS.

Men. Why?

Eno. He bears

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.

Cas. I could well forbear it.

It's monstrous labour, when I wash my brain,

And it grows fouler.

Ant. Be a child o'the 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!

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;

[To ANT.

Till that the conquering wine hath steep'd our sense
In soft and delicate Lethe.

Eno. 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. ENO. places them hand in hand,

[1] Strike the vessels---means chink the vessels one against the other as a mark of our unanimity in drinking, as we now say, chink glasses. STEEVENS.

So, in one of Iago's songs:

"And let me the cannikin alink."

RITSON.

Vessels probably meant kettle-drums, which were beaten when the health of a person of eminence was drank; immediately after we have," make battery to our ears with the loud music." They are called kettles in Hamlet:

"Give me the cups;

And let the kettle to the trumpet speak."

HOLT WHITE.

SONG.

Come, thou monarch of the vine,
Plumpy Bacchus, with pink eyne :3
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!

Cas. 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 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, I'll try you o'the shore.

Ant. And shall, sir; give's your hand.
Pom. O, Antony,

You have my father's house,-
Come, down into the boat.

-

-But what? we are friends :

Eno. Take heed you fall not.

[Exeunt Poм, CES. ANT, and Attendants.

Menas, I'll not on shore.

Men. 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.

Eno. Ho, says 'a !There's my cap.

Men. Ho!-noble captain!

Come!

[Exeunt.

[S] Dr. Johnson, in his Dictionary, says a pink eye is a small eye, and quotes this passage for his authority. Pink eyne, however, may mean red eyes: eyes inflamed with drinking, are very well appropriated to Bacchus. So, in Julius Cæsar:

------such ferret and such fiery eyes."

It should be observed, however, that from the following passage in P. Holland's translation of the 11th Book of Pliny's Natural History, it appears that pink-eyed signified the smallness of eyes: "also them that were pinke-eyed and had verie small eies, they termed ocella"

STEEVENS.
VOL. VIII.

F

АСТ III.

SCENE I.—A Plain in Syria.

Enter VENTIDIUS, as after conquest, with SILIUS and other Romans, Officers, and Soldiers; the dead body of PACORUS borne before him.

Ven. 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.

Sil. 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.

Ven. O Silius, Silius,

I have done enough: A lower place, note well,
May make too great an act: For learn this, Silius ;
Better leave undone, than by our deeds acquire
Too high a fame, when him we serve's away.
Cæsar, 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.

Sil. Thou hast, Ventidius,

That without which a soldier, and his sword,

Grants scarce distinction."

Thou wilt write to Antony?

[4] Struck--alludes to darting. Thou whose darts have so often struck others art struck now thyself.

JOHNSON.

[5] Pacorus was the son of Orodes, king of Parthia. STEEVENS.

6 Grant--for afford. It is badly and obscurely expressed; but the sense is this, "thou hast that, Ventidius, which, if thou didst want, there would be no distinction between thee and thy sword. You would be both equally cutting and senseless."