So far afk pardon, as befits mine honour
To stoop in fuch a cafe.

Lep. 'Tis nobly spoken.

Mec. 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 attone you.

Lep. Worthily fpoken, Mecanas.

Eno. Or, if you borrow one another's love for the inftant, you may, when you hear no more words of Pompey, return it again. You fhall have time to wrangle in, when you have nothing else to do. Ant. Thou art a foldier only; speak no more. Eno. That truth fhould be filent, I had almoft forgot.

Ant. You wrong this prefence, therefore speak

no more.

Eno. Go to then: your confiderate stone *.Caf. 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 would hold us ftaunch, from edge to edge O'th' world I would pursue it.

Agr. Give me leave, Cæfar.

Caf. Speak, Agrippa.

Agr. Thou haft a fifter by the mother's fide, Admir'd Octavia! great Mark Antony

Is now a widower.

Caf. Say not fo, Agrippa:

If Cleopatra heard you, your reproof
Were well deferv'd of rafhness.

Ant. I am not married, Cæfar; let me hear
Agrippa further speak.

Agr. To hold you in perpetual amity,

To make you brothers, and to knit your hearts
With an unflipping knot, take Antony
Octavia to his wife, whofe beauty claims
No worse a husband than the best of men;

1

Go to then, you confiderate ones. Johnson. Perhaps

you confederate ones; ie. the triumvirate.

Whose virtue and whose general graces speak
That which none elfe can utter. By this marriage,
All little jealousies, which now feem great,

And all great fears, which now import their dangers,
Would then be nothing. Truths would be but 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 fpoke;
For 'tis a ftudied, not a prefent thought,
By duty ruminated.

Ant. Will Cæfar speak?

Caf. Not 'till he hears how Antony is touch'd With what is fspoke already.

Ant. What power is in Agrippa, If I would fay, Agrippa, be it fo, To make this good?

Caf. The power of Cæfar, and His power unto Octavia.

Ant. May I never

To this good purpose, that fo fairly fhews,
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 fway our great defigns!

Cef. There is my hand:

A fifter I bequeath you, whom no brother
Did ever love fo dearly. Let her live

To join our kingdoms and our hearts, and never
Fly off our loves again!

Lep. Happily amen.

Ant. I did not think to draw my fword 'gainst Pom. For he hath laid ftrange courtefies and great [pey, Of late upon me. I must thank him only,

Left my remembrance fuffer ill report;

At heel of that, defy him.

Lep. Time calls upon's :

Of us muft Pompey presently be fought,
Or else he seeks out us.

Ant. Where lyes he?

Caf. About the mount Mifenus.

Ant. What is his ftrength by land?
Caf. Great, and increafing; but by fea

He is an abfolute master.

Ant. So is the fame.

'Would we had spoke together! hafte we for it. Yet, ere we put ourselves in arms, dispatch we The bufinefs we have talk'd of.

Caf. With most gladness;

And do invite you to my fifter's view,
Whither straight I will lead you.

Ant. Let us, Lepidus, not lack your company.
Lep. Noble Antony, not fickness fhould detain me

SCENE

[Flourife. Exeunt.

III.

Manent Enobarbus, Agrippa, Mecanas.

Mec. Welcome from Egypt, Sir.

Eno. Half the heart of Cæfar, worthy Mecanas! My honourable friend Agrippa!

Agr. Good Enobarbus!

Mec. We have caufe to be glad that matters are fo well digested. You ftay'd well by't in Ægypt: Eno. Ay, Sir, we did fleep day out of countenance, and made the night light with drinking.

Mec. Eight wild boars roafted whole at a breakfaft, and but twelve perfons there !—Is this true? Eno. This was but as a fly by an eagle; we had much more monftrous matter of feaft, which wor thily deferved noting.

Mec. She's a most triumphant lady, if report be fquare to her.

Eno. When the first met Mark Antony, she purs'd up his heart, upon the river of Cydnus.

Agr. There the appear'd, indeed; or my repor☛ ter devis'd well for her:

Eno. I will tell you.

The barge fhe fat in, like a burnish'd throne,
Burnt on the water; the poop was beaten gold,
Purple the fails, and fo perfumed, that

The winds were love-fick with 'em; th' oars were filver,

Which to the tune of flutes kept ftroke, and made The water, which they beat, to follow fafter,.

As amorous of their strokes. For her own perfon,
It beggar'd all defcription; fhe did ly
In her pavilion, cloth of gold, of tiflue,
O'er-picturing that Venus where we fee

The fancy out-work nature. On each side her,
Stood pretty dimpled boys, like fmiling Cupids,
With divers-colour'd fans, whose wind did feem
To glow the delicate cheeks which they did cool,
And what they undid, did.

Agr. Oh, rare for Antony!

Eno. Her gentlewomen, like the Nereids,
So many mermaids, tended her i' th' eyes,
And made their bends adorings *. At the helm,
A feeming mermaid fteers; the filken tackles
Swell with the touches of thofe flower-loft hands
That yarely frame the office. From the barge
A ftrange invifible perfume hits the fenfe
Of the adjacant wharfs. The city caft
Her people out upon her; and Antony,
Enthron'd i' th' market-place, did fit alone,
Whistling to th' air; which, but for vacancy,
Had gone to gaze on Cleopatra too,
And made a gap in nature.

Agr. Rare Egyptian!

Eno. Upon her landing, Antony fent to her
Invited her to fupper: fhe reply'd,

It should be better he became her gueft;
Which fire intreated. Our courteous Antony,
Whom ne'er the word of No woman heard fpeak,
Being barber'd ten times o'er, goes to the feast;
And, for his ordinary, pays his heart,

For what his eyes eat only.

Agr. Royal wench!

The common reading was,

And made their bends adornings.

The word, bend, is here used for an arch, and the bends of the eyes are the eye-brows. Thus the fenfe will be, that thefe feeming nereids were employed in adjusting Cleopatra's eye-brows, as often as they happened to be difcompofed by the fanning of the boys, or any other accident. Revifal.

She made great Cæfar lay his fword to-bed;
He plough'd her, and the cropt.

Eno. I faw her once

Hop forty paces through the public street:

And having loft her breath, the fpoke, and panted,. That he did make defect perfection,

And breathless power breathe forth.

Mec. Now Antony muft leave her utterly.
Eno. Never, he will not.

Age cannot wither her, nor custom ftale
Her infinite variety. Other women cloy

The appetites they feed; but fhe makes hungry
Where most fhe fatisfies. For vileft things
Become themselves in her, that the holy priests
Bless her when she is riggish.

Mec. If beauty, wisdom, modefty, can settle The heart of Antony, Octavia is

A bleffed lottery to him.

Agr. Let us go.

Good Enobarbus, make yourfelf my guest,

Whilft you abide here.

Eno. Humbly, Sir, I thank you.

[Exeunt.

Enter Antony, Cæfar, Octavia between them.

Ant. The world, and my great office, will fome Divide me from your bofom.

Octa. All which time,

[times

Before the gods my knee fhall bow in prayers
To them for you.

Ant. Good night, Sir. My Octavia,

Read not my blemishes in the world's report,
I have not kept my fquare; but that to come
Shall all be done by th' rule. Good night, dear Lady.
Octa. Good night, Sir.

Caf. Good night.

[Exeunt Cæf. and Octa.

Ant. Now, firrah? you do with yourself in Ægypt? Sooth. 'Would I had never come from thence, nor you thither!