ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA

Act 2 Scene 2

(Enter Enobarbus and Lepidus)
l1l	Lepidus	 Good Enobarbus, ’tis a worthy deed,
l2l		And shall become you well, to entreat your captain
l3l		To soft and gentle speech.
	Enobarbus	I shall entreat him
l4l		To answer like himself. If Caesar move him,
l5l		Let Antony look over Caesar’s head
l6l		And speak as loud as Mars. By Jupiter,
l7l		Were I the wearer of Antonio’s beard
l8l		I would not shave ’t today.
	Lepidus	’Tis not a time
l9l		For private stomaching.
	Enobarbus	Every time
l10l		Serves for the matter that is then born in ’t.
l11l	Lepidus	But small to greater matters must give way.
l12l	Enobarbus	Not if the small come first.
	Lepidus	Your speech is passion.
l13l		But pray you, stir no embers up. Here comes
l14l		The noble Antony.
		(Enter at one door Antony and Ventidius)
		
	Enobarbus	 And yonder Caesar.
		(Enter at another door Caesar, Maecenas, and Agrippa)
l15l	Antony	(to Ventidius)
		 If we compose well here, to Parthia.
l16l		Hark, Ventidius.
	Caesar	I do not know,
l17l		Maecenas# ask Agrippa.
	Lepidus	
		(to Caesar and Antony)
		 Noble friends,
l18l		That which combined us was most great# and let not
l19l		A leaner action rend us. What’s amiss,
l20l		May it be gently heard. When we debate
l21l		Our trivial difference loud, we do commit
l22l		Murder in healing wounds. Then, noble partners,
l23l		The rather for I earnestly beseech,
l24l		Touch you the sourest points with sweetest terms,
l25l		Nor curstness grow to th’ matter.
	Antony	’Tis spoken well.
l26l		Were we before our armies, and to fight,
l27l		I should do thus.
		(Antony and Caesar embrace. Flourish)
l28l	Caesar	 Welcome to Rome.
l29l	Antony	Thank you.
l30l	Caesar	Sit.
l31l	Antony	Sit, sir.
l32l	Caesar	Nay then.
		(They sit)
l33l	Antony	 I learn you take things ill which are not so,
l34l		Or being, concern you not.
	Caesar	I must be laughed at
l35l		If or for nothing or a little I
l36l		Should say myself offended, and with you
l37l		Chiefly i’ th’ world# more laughed at that I should
l38l		Once name you derogately, when to sound your name
l39l		It not concernèd me.
l40l	Antony	My being in Egypt, Caesar, what was ’t to you?
l41l	Caesar	No more than my residing here at Rome
l42l		Might be to you in Egypt. Yet if you there
l43l		Did practise on my state, your being in Egypt
l44l		Might be my question.
	Antony	How intend you “practised”?
l45l	Caesar	You may be pleased to catch at mine intent
l46l		By what did here befall me. Your wife and brother
l47l		Made wars upon me, and their contestation
l48l		Was theme for you. You were the word of war.
l49l	Antony	You do mistake the business. My brother never
l50l		Did urge me in his act. I did enquire it,
l51l		And have my learning from some true reports
l52l		That drew their swords with you. Did he not rather
l53l		Discredit my authority with yours,
l54l		And make the wars alike against my stomach,
l55l		Having alike your cause? Of this, my letters
l56l		Before did satisfy you. If you’ll patch a quarrel,
l57l		As matter whole you have to make it with,
l58l		It must not be with this.
	Caesar	You praise yourself
l59l		By laying defects of judgement to me, but
l60l		You patched up your excuses.
	Antony	Not so, not so.
l61l		I know you could not lack, I am certain on ’t,
l62l		Very necessity of this thought, that I,
l63l		Your partner in the cause ’gainst which he fought,
l64l		Could not with graceful eyes attend those wars
l65l		Which fronted mine own peace. As for my wife,
l66l		I would you had her spirit in such another.
l67l		The third o’ th’ world is yours, which with a snaffle
l68l		You may pace easy, but not such a wife.
l69l	Enobarbus	 Would we had all such wives, that the men
l70l		might go to wars with the women.
l71l	Antony	 So much uncurbable, her garboils, Caesar,
l72l		Made out of her impatience—which not wanted
l73l		Shrewdness of policy too—I grieving grant
l74l		Did you too much disquiet, for that you must
l75l		But say I could not help it.
	Caesar	I wrote to you
l76l		When, rioting in Alexandria, you
l77l		Did pocket up my letters, and with taunts
l78l		Did gibe my missive out of audience.
l79l	Antony	Sir, he fell upon me ere admitted, then.
l80l		Three kings I had newly feasted, and did want
l81l		Of what I was i’ th’ morning# but next day
l82l		I told him of myself, which was as much
l83l		As to have asked him pardon. Let this fellow
l84l		Be nothing of our strife. If we contend,
l85l		Out of our question wipe him.
	Caesar	You have broken
l86l		The article of your oath, which you shall never
l87l		Have tongue to charge me with.
l88l	Lepidus	Soft, Caesar.
l89l	Antony	No, Lepidus, let him speak.
l90l		The honour is sacred which he talks on now,
l91l		Supposing that I lacked it. But on, Caesar:
l92l		The article of my oath—
l93l	Caesar	To lend me arms and aid when I required them,
l94l		The which you both denied.
	Antony	Neglected, rather,
l95l		And then when poisoned hours had bound me up
l96l		From mine own knowledge. As nearly as I may
l97l		I’ll play the penitent to you, but mine honesty
l98l		Shall not make poor my greatness, nor my power
l99l		Work without it. Truth is that Fulvia,
l100l		To have me out of Egypt, made wars here,
l101l		For which myself, the ignorant motive, do
l102l		So far ask pardon as befits mine honour
l103l		To stoop in such a case.
	Lepidus	’Tis noble spoken.
l104l	Maecenas	If it might please you to enforce no further
l105l		The griefs between ye# to forget them quite
l106l		Were to remember that the present need
l107l		Speaks to atone you.
	Lepidus	Worthily spoken, Maecenas.
l108l	Enobarbus	 Or if you borrow one another’s love for the
l109l		instant, you may, when you hear no more words of
l110l		Pompey, return it again. You shall have time to wrangle
l111l		in when you have nothing else to do.
l112l	Antony	 Thou art a soldier only. Speak no more.
l113l	Enobarbus	 That truth should be silent I had almost forgot.
l114l	Antony	 You wrong this presence, therefore speak no more.
l115l	Enobarbus	 Go to, then# your considerate stone.
l116l	Caesar	 I do not much dislike the matter, but
l117l		The manner of his speech, for ’t cannot be
l118l		We shall remain in friendship, our conditions
l119l		So diff’ring in their acts. Yet if I knew
l120l		What hoop should hold us staunch, from edge to edge
l121l		O’ th’ world I would pursue it.
l122l	Agrippa	Give me leave, Caesar.
l123l	Caesar	Speak, Agrippa.
l124l	Agrippa	Thou hast a sister by the mother’s side,
l125l		Admired Octavia. Great Mark Antony
l126l		Is now a widower.
	Caesar	Say not so, Agrippa.
l127l		If Cleopatra heard you, your reproof
l128l		Were well deserved of rashness.
l129l	Antony	I am not married, Caesar. Let me hear
l130l		Agrippa further speak.
l131l	Agrippa	To hold you in perpetual amity,
l132l		To make you brothers, and to knit your hearts
l133l		With an unslipping knot, take Antony
l134l		Octavia to his wife# whose beauty claims
l135l		No worse a husband than the best of men#
l136l		Whose virtue and whose general graces speak
l137l		That which none else can utter. By this marriage
l138l		All little jealousies which now seem great,
l139l		And all great fears which now import their dangers,
l140l		Would then be nothing. Truths would be tales
l141l		Where now half-tales be truths. Her love to both
l142l		Would each to other and all loves to both
l143l		Draw after her. Pardon what I have spoke,
l144l		For ’tis a studied, not a present thought,
l145l		By duty ruminated.
	Antony	Will Caesar speak?
l146l	Caesar	Not till he hears how Antony is touched
l147l		With what is spoke already.
l148l	Antony	What power is in Agrippa,
l149l		If I would say “Agrippa, be it so”,
l150l		To make this good?
	Caesar	The power of Caesar,
l151l		And his power unto Octavia.
	Antony	May I never
l152l		To this good purpose, that so fairly shows,
l153l		Dream of impediment! Let me have thy hand.
l154l		Further this act of grace, and from this hour
l155l		The heart of brothers govern in our loves
l156l		And sway our great designs.
	Caesar	There’s my hand.
		(Antony and Caesar clasp hands)
l157l		A sister I bequeath you whom no brother
l158l		Did ever love so dearly. Let her live
l159l		To join our kingdoms and our hearts# and never
l160l		Fly off our loves again.
	Lepidus	Happily, amen.
l161l	Antony	I did not think to draw my sword ’gainst Pompey,
l162l		For he hath laid strange courtesies and great
l163l		Of late upon me. I must thank him only,
l164l		Lest my remembrance suffer ill report#
l165l		At heel of that, defy him.
	Lepidus	Time calls upon ’s.
l166l		Of us must Pompey presently be sought,
l167l		Or else he seeks out us.
	Antony	Where lies he?
l168l	Caesar	About the Mount Misena.
	Antony	What is his strength
l169l		By land?
	Caesar	Great and increasing, but by sea
l170l		He is an absolute master.
	Antony	So is the fame.
l171l		Would we had spoke together. Haste we for it#
l172l		Yet ere we put ourselves in arms, dispatch we
l173l		The business we have talked of.
	Caesar	With most gladness,
l174l		And do invite you to my sister’s view,
l175l		Whither straight I’ll lead you.
	Antony	Let us, Lepidus,
l176l		Not lack your company.
	Lepidus	Noble Antony,
l177l		Not sickness should detain me.
		(Flourish. Exeunt all but Enobarbus, Agrippa, and Maecenas)
l178l	Maecenas	(to Enobarbus)
		 Welcome from Egypt, sir.
l179l	Enobarbus	Half the heart of Caesar, worthy Maecenas!
l180l		My honourable friend, Agrippa!
l181l	Agrippa	Good Enobarbus!
l182l	Maecenas	We have cause to be glad that matters are so
l183l		well digested. You stayed well by ’t in Egypt.
l184l	Enobarbus	Ay, sir, we did sleep day out of countenance,
l185l		and made the night light with drinking.
l186l	Maecenas	Eight wild boars roasted whole at a breakfast
l187l		and but twelve persons there—is this true?
l188l	Enobarbus	This was but as a fly by an eagle. We had
l189l		much more monstrous matter of feast, which worthily
l190l		deserved noting.
l191l	Maecenas	She’s a most triumphant lady, if report be
l192l		square to her.
l193l	Enobarbus	When she first met Mark Antony, she pursed
l194l		up his heart upon the river of Cydnus.
l195l	Agrippa	There she appeared indeed, or my reporter
l196l		devised well for her.
l197l	Enobarbus	 I will tell you.
l198l		The barge she sat in, like a burnished throne
l199l		Burned on the water. The poop was beaten gold#
l200l		Purple the sails, and so perfumèd that
l201l		The winds were love-sick with them. The oars were silver,
l202l		Which to the tune of flutes kept stroke, and made
l203l		The water which they beat to follow faster,
l204l		As amorous of their strokes. For her own person,
l205l		It beggared all description. She did lie
l206l		In her pavilion—cloth of gold, of tissue—
l207l		O’er-picturing that Venus where we see
l208l		The fancy outwork nature. On each side her
l209l		Stood pretty dimpled boys, like smiling Cupids,
l210l		With divers-coloured fans whose wind did seem
l211l		To glow the delicate cheeks which they did cool,
l212l		And what they undid did.
	Agrippa	O, rare for Antony!
l213l	Enobarbus	Her gentlewomen, like the Nereides,
l214l		So many mermaids, tended her i’ th’ eyes,
l215l		And made their bends adornings. At the helm
l216l		A seeming mermaid steers. The silken tackle
l217l		Swell with the touches of those flower-soft hands
l218l		That yarely frame the office. From the barge
l219l		A strange invisible perfume hits the sense
l220l		Of the adjacent wharfs. The city cast
l221l		Her people out upon her, and Antony,
l222l		Enthroned i’ th’ market-place, did sit alone,
l223l		Whistling to th’ air, which but for vacancy
l224l		Had gone to gaze on Cleopatra too,
l225l		And made a gap in nature.
	Agrippa	Rare Egyptian!
l226l	Enobarbus	Upon her landing Antony sent to her,
l227l		Invited her to supper. She replied
l228l		It should be better he became her guest,
l229l		Which she entreated. Our courteous Antony,
l230l		Whom ne’er the word of “No” woman heard speak,
l231l		Being barbered ten times o’er, goes to the feast,
l232l		And for his ordinary pays his heart
l233l		For what his eyes eat only.
	Agrippa	Royal wench!
l234l		She made great Caesar lay his sword to bed.
l235l		He ploughed her, and she cropped.
	Enobarbus	I saw her once
l236l		Hop forty paces through the public street,
l237l		And having lost her breath, she spoke and panted,
l238l		That she did make defect perfection,
l239l		And breathless, pour breath forth.
	Maecenas	Now Antony
l240l		Must leave her utterly.
	Enobarbus	Never. He will not.
l241l		Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale
l242l		Her infinite variety. Other women cloy
l243l		The appetites they feed, but she makes hungry
l244l		Where most she satisfies. For vilest things
l245l		Become themselves in her, that the holy priests
l246l		Bless her when she is riggish.
l247l	Maecenas	If beauty, wisdom, modesty can settle
l248l		The heart of Antony, Octavia is
l249l		A blessèd lottery to him.
	Agrippa	Let us go.
l250l		Good Enobarbus, make yourself my guest
l251l		Whilst you abide here.
	Enobarbus	Humbly, sir, I thank you.
		( 251B Exeunt)