Antony and Cleopatra William Shakespeare (easy readers TXT) 📖

too. But you shall find, the band that seems to tie their friendship together will be the very strangler of their amity: Octavia is of a holy, cold, and still conversation. Menas Who would not have his wife so? Enobarbas Not he that himself is not so; which is Mark Antony. He will to his Egyptian dish again: then shall the sighs of Octavia blow the fire up in Caesar; and, as I said before, that which is the strength of their amity shall prove the immediate author of their variance. Antony will use his affection where it is: he married but his occasion here. Menas And thus it may be. Come, sir, will you aboard? I have a health for you. Enobarbas I shall take it, sir: we have used our throats in Egypt. Menas Come, let’s away. Exeunt. Scene VII

On board Pompey’s galley, off Misenum.

Music plays. Enter two or three Servants with a banquet. First Servant Here they’ll be, man. Some o’ their plants are ill-rooted already; the least wind i’ the world will blow them down. Second Servant Lepidus is high-coloured. First Servant They have made him drink alms-drink. Second Servant As they pinch one another by the disposition, he cries out “No more;” reconciles them to his entreaty, and himself to the drink. First Servant But it raises the greater war between him and his discretion. Second Servant 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. First Servant To be called 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 Caesar, Antony, Lepidus, Pompey, Agrippa, Mecaenas, Enobarbas, Menas, with other captains. Antony

To Caesar. Thus do they, sir: they take the flow o’ the Nile
By certain scales i’ the 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.

Lepidus You’ve strange serpents there. Antony Ay, Lepidus. Lepidus Your serpent of Egypt is bred now of your mud by the operation of your sun: so is your crocodile. Antony They are so. Pompey Sit⁠—and some wine! A health to Lepidus! Lepidus I am not so well as I should be, but I’ll ne’er out. Enobarbas Not till you have slept; I fear me you’ll be in till then. Lepidus Nay, certainly, I have heard the Ptolemies’ pyramises are very goodly things; without contradiction, I have heard that. Menas Aside to Pompey. Pompey, a word. Pompey Aside to Menas. Say in mine ear: what is’t? Menas

Aside to Pompey. Forsake thy seat, I do beseech thee, captain,
And hear me speak a word.

Pompey

Aside to Menas. Forbear me till anon.
This wine for Lepidus!

Lepidus What manner o’ thing is your crocodile? Antony 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. Lepidus What colour is it of? Antony Of it own colour too. Lepidus ’Tis a strange serpent. Antony ’Tis so. And the tears of it are wet. Caesar Will this description satisfy him? Antony With the health that Pompey gives him, else he is a very epicure. Pompey

Aside to Menas. Go hang, sir, hang! Tell me of that? away!
Do as I bid you. Where’s this cup I call’d for?

Menas

Aside to Pompey. If for the sake of merit thou wilt hear me,
Rise from thy stool.

Pompey Aside to Menas. I think thou’rt mad. The matter? Rises, and walks aside. Menas I have ever held my cap off to thy fortunes. Pompey

Thou hast served me with much faith. What’s else to say?
Be jolly, lords.

Antony

These quick-sands, Lepidus,
Keep off them, for you sink.

Menas Wilt thou be lord of all the world? Pompey What say’st thou? Menas Wilt thou be lord of the whole world? That’s twice. Pompey How should that be? Menas

But entertain it,
And, though thou think me poor, I am the man
Will give thee all the world.

Pompey Hast thou drunk well? Menas

No, Pompey, I have kept me from the cup.
Thou art, if thou darest be, the earthly Jove:
Whate’er the ocean pales, or sky inclips,
Is thine, if thou wilt ha’t.

Pompey Show me which way. Menas

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.

Pompey

Ah, this thou shouldst have done,
And not have spoke on’t! In me ’tis villany;
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. Desist, and drink.

Menas

Aside. For this,
I’ll never follow thy pall’d fortunes more.
Who seeks, and will not take when once ’tis offer’d,
Shall never find it more.

Pompey This health to Lepidus! Antony Bear him ashore. I’ll pledge it for him, Pompey. Enobarbas Here’s to thee, Menas! Menas Enobarbus, welcome! Pompey Fill till the cup be hid. Enobarbas There’s a strong fellow, Menas. Pointing to the Attendant who carries off Lepidus. Menas Why? Enobarbas 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!

Enobarbas Drink thou; increase the reels. Menas Come. Pompey This is not yet an Alexandrian feast. Antony

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

Caesar

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

Antony Be a child o’ the time. Caesar

Possess it, I’ll make answer:
But I had rather fast