SCENE VII. On board POMPEY's galley, off Misenum. Antony and Cleopatra  Shakespeare homepage  |  Antony and Cleopatra  | Act 2, Scene 7 

 Previous scene  |  Next scene  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 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 OCTAVIUS CAESAR, MARK  ANTONY, LEPIDUS, POMPEY, AGRIPPA, MECAENAS, DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS, MENAS, with other captains  MARK ANTONY  [To OCTAVIUS 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. 

 MARK ANTONY  Ay, Lepidus. 

 LEPIDUS  Your serpent of Egypt is bred now of your mud by the 

 operation of your sun: so is your crocodile. 

 MARK 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. 

 DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS  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? 

 MARK 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? 

 MARK ANTONY  Of it own colour too. 

 LEPIDUS  'Tis a strange serpent. 

 MARK ANTONY  'Tis so. And the tears of it are wet. 

 OCTAVIUS CAESAR  Will this description satisfy him? 

 MARK 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. 

 MARK 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  Now, 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! 

 MARK ANTONY  Bear him ashore. I'll pledge it for him, Pompey. 

 DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS  Here's to thee, Menas! 

 MENAS  Enobarbus, welcome! 

 POMPEY  Fill till the cup be hid. 

 DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS  There's a strong fellow, Menas. 



 Pointing to the Attendant who carries off LEPIDUS  MENAS  Why? 

 DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS  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! 

 DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS  Drink thou; increase the reels. 

 MENAS  Come. 

 POMPEY  This is not yet an Alexandrian feast. 

 MARK ANTONY  It ripens towards it. Strike the vessels, ho? 

 Here is to Caesar! 

 OCTAVIUS CAESAR  I could well forbear't. 

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

 And it grows fouler. 

 MARK ANTONY  Be a child o' the time. 

 OCTAVIUS CAESAR  Possess it, I'll make answer: 

 But I had rather fast from all four days 

 Than drink so much in one. 

 DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS  Ha, my brave emperor! 



 To MARK ANTONY  Shall we dance now the Egyptian Bacchanals, 

 And celebrate our drink? 

 POMPEY  Let's ha't, good soldier. 

 MARK ANTONY  Come, let's all take hands, 

 Till that the conquering wine hath steep'd our sense 

 In soft and delicate Lethe. 

 DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS  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. DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS places them hand in hand  THE SONG. 

 Come, thou monarch of the vine, 

 Plumpy Bacchus with pink eyne! 

 In thy fats 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! 

 OCTAVIUS CAESAR  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 Enobarb 

 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. 

 POMPEY  I'll try you on the shore. 

 MARK ANTONY  And shall, sir; give's your hand. 

 POMPEY  O Antony, 

 You have my father's house,--But, what? we are friends. 

 Come, down into the boat. 

 DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS  Take heed you fall not. 



 Exeunt all but DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS and MENAS  Menas, I'll not on shore. 

 MENAS  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! 



 Sound a flourish, with drums  DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS  Ho! says a' There's my cap. 

 MENAS  Ho! Noble captain, come. 



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