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Anthony and Cleopatra (Folio 1, 1623)

Author: William Shakespeare
Editor: Randall Martin
Not Peer Reviewed
350
The Tragedie of
Foure Feasts are toward.
Pom. Let me shake thy hand,
I neuer hated thee: I haue seene thee fight,
1270When I haue enuied thy behauiour.
Enob. Sir, I neuer lou'd you much, but I ha'prais'd ye,
When you haue well deseru'd ten times as much,
As I haue said you did.
Pom. Inioy thy plainnesse,
1275It nothing ill becomes thee:
Aboord my Gally, I inuite you all.
Will you leade Lords?
All. Shew's the way, sir.
Pom. Come.
Exeunt.Manet Enob. & Menas
1280Men. Thy Father Pompey would ne're haue made this
Treaty. You, and I haue knowne sir.
Enob. At Sea, I thinke.
Men. We haue Sir.
Enob. You haue done well by water.
1285Men. And you by Land.
Enob. I will praise any man that will praise me, thogh
it cannot be denied what I haue done by Land.
Men. Nor what I haue done by water.
Enob. Yes some-thing you can deny for your owne
1290safety: you haue bin a great Theefe by Sea.
Men. And you by Land.
Enob. There I deny my Land seruice: but giue mee
your hand Menas, if our eyes had authority, heere they
might take two Theeues kissing.
1295Men. All mens faces are true, whatsomere their hands
are.
Enob. But there is neuer a fayre Woman, ha's a true
Face.
Men. No slander, they steale hearts.
1300Enob. We came hither to fight with you.
Men. For my part, I am sorry it is turn'd to a Drink-
ing. Pompey doth this day laugh away his Fortune.
Enob. If he do, sure he cannot weep't backe againe.
Men. Y'haue said Sir, we look'd not for Marke An-
1305thony heere, pray you, is he married to Cleopatra?
Enob. Cæsars Sister is call'd Octauia.
Men. True Sir, she was the wife of Caius Marcellus.
Enob. But she is now the wife of Marcus Anthonius.
Men. Pray'ye sir.
1310Enob. 'Tis true.
Men. Then is Cæsar and he, for euer knit together.
Enob. If I were bound to Diuine of this vnity, I wold
not Prophesie so.
Men. I thinke the policy of that purpose, made more
1315in the Marriage, then the loue of the parties.
Enob. I thinke so too. But you shall finde the band
that seemes to tye their friendship together, will bee the
very strangler of their Amity: Octauia is of a holy, cold,
and still conuersation.
1320Men. Who would not haue his wife so?
Eno. Not he that himselfe is not so: which is Marke
Anthony: he will to his Egyptian dish againe: then shall
the sighes of Octauia blow the fire vp in Caesar, and (as I
said before) that which is the strength of their Amity,
1325shall proue the immediate Author of their variance. An-
thony will vse his affection where it is. Hee married but
his occasion heere.
Men. And thus it may be. Come Sir, will you aboord?
I haue a health for you.
1330Enob. I shall take it sir: we haue vs'd our Throats in
Egypt.
Men. Come, let's away.
Exeunt.

Musicke playes.
Enter two or three Seruants with a Banket.

13351 Heere they'l be man: some o'th'their Plants are ill
rooted already, the least winde i'th'world wil blow them
downe.
2 Lepidus is high Conlord.
1 They haue made him drinke Almes drinke.
13402 As they pinch one another by the disposition, hee
cries out, no more; reconciles them to his entreatie, and
himselfe to'th'drinke.
1 But it raises the greatet warre betweene him & his
discretion.
13452 Why this it is to haue a name in great mens Fel-
lowship: I had as liue haue a Reede that will doe me no
seruice, as a Partizan I could not heaue.
1 To be call'd into a huge Sphere, and not to be seene
to moue in't, are the holes where eyes should bee, which
1350pittifully disaster the cheekes.

A Sennet sounded.
Enter Caesar, Anthony, Pompey, Lepidus, Agrippa, Mecenas,
Enobarbus, Menes, with other Captaines.

Ant. Thus do they Sir: they take the flow o'th'Nyle
1355By certaine scales i'th' Pyramid: they know
By'th'height, the lownesse, or the meane: If dearth
Or Foizon follow. The higher Nilus swels,
The more it promises: as it ebbes, the Seedsman
Vpon the slime and Ooze scatters his graine,
1360And shortly comes to Haruest.
Lep. Y'haue strange Serpents there?
Anth. I Lepidus.
Lep. Your Serpent of Egypt, is bred now of your mud
by the operation of your Sun: so is your Crocodile.
1365Ant. They are so.
Pom. Sit, and some Wine: A health to Lepidus.
Lep. I am not so well as I should be:
But Ile ne're out.
Enob. Not till you haue slept: I feare me you'l bee in
1370till then.
Lep. Nay certainly, I haue heard the Ptolomies Pyra-
misis are very goodly things: without contradiction I
haue heard that.
Menas. Pompey, a word.
1375Pomp. Say in mine eare, what is't.
Men. Forsake thy seate I do beseech thee Captaine,
And heare me speake a word.
Pom. Forbeare me till anon.
Whispers in's Eare.
This Wine for Lepidus.
1380Lep. Whar manner o'thing is your Crocodile?
Ant. It is shap'd sir like it selfe, and it is as broad as it
hath bredth; It is iust so high as it is, and mooues with it
owne organs. It liues by that which nourisheth it, and
the Elements once out of it, it Transmigrates.
1385Lep. What colour is it of?
Ant. Of it owne colour too.
Lep. 'Tis a strange Serpent.
Ant. 'Tis so, and the teares of it are wet.
Cæs. Will this description satisfie him?
1390Ant. With the Health that Pompey giues him, else he
is a very Epicure.
Pomp. Go hang sir, hang: tell me of that? Away:
Do as I bid you. Where's this Cup I call'd for?
Men. If for the sake of Merit thou wilt heare mee,
Rise