home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search
- $Unique_ID{SSP01461}
- $Title{Antony and Cleopatra: Act II, Scene VI}
- $Author{Shakespeare, William}
- $Subject{}
- $Log{Dramatis Personae*01450.txt}
-
- Portions copyright (c) CMC ReSearch, Inc., 1989
-
- The Complete Works of William Shakespeare
-
- ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA
-
-
- ACT II
- ................................................................................
-
-
- SCENE VI: Near Misenum.
- . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
-
- {Flourish. Enter POMPEY and MENAS at one door,
- with drum and trumpet: at another, OCTAVIUS CAESAR,
- MARK ANTONY, LEPIDUS, DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS, MECAENAS,
- with Soldiers marching.}
-
- POMPEY: Your hostages I have, so have you mine;
- And we shall talk before we fight.
-
- OCTAVIUS CAESAR: Most meet
- That first we come to words; and therefore have we
- Our written purposes before us sent;
- Which, if thou hast consider'd, let us know
- If 'twill tie up thy discontented sword,
- And carry back to Sicily much tall youth
- That else must perish here.
-
- POMPEY: To you all three,
- The senators alone of this great world,
- Chief factors for the gods, I do not know 10
- Wherefore my father should revengers want,
- Having a son and friends; since Julius Caesar,
- Who at Philippi the good Brutus ghosted,
- There saw you laboring for him. What was't
- That moved pale Cassius to conspire; and what
- Made the all-honor'd, honest Roman, Brutus,
- With the arm'd rest, courtiers and beauteous
- freedom,
- To drench the Capitol; but that they would
- Have one man but a man? And that is it
- Hath made me rig my navy; at whose burthen 20
- The anger'd ocean foams; with which I meant
- To scourge the ingratitude that despiteful Rome
- Cast on my noble father.
-
- OCTAVIUS CAESAR: Take your time.
-
- MARK ANTONY: Thou canst not fear us, Pompey, with thy sails;
- We'll speak with thee at sea: at land, thou know'st
- How much we do o'er-count thee.
-
- POMPEY: At land, indeed,
- Thou dost o'er-count me of my father's house:
- But, since the cuckoo builds not for himself,
- Remain in't as thou mayst.
-
- LEPIDUS: Be pleased to tell us--
- For this is from the present--how you take 30
- The offers we have sent you.
-
- OCTAVIUS CAESAR: There's the point.
-
- MARK ANTONY: Which do not be entreated to, but weigh
- What it is worth embraced.
-
- OCTAVIUS CAESAR: And what may follow,
- To try a larger fortune.
-
- POMPEY: You have made me offer
- Of Sicily, Sardinia; and I must
- Rid all the sea of pirates; then, to send
- Measures of wheat to Rome; this 'greed upon
- To part with unhack'd edges, and bear back
- Our targes undinted.
-
-
- OCTAVIUS CAESAR: \
- \
- MARK ANTONY: } That's our offer. 40
- /
- LEPIDUS: /
-
-
- POMPEY: Know, then,
- I came before you here a man prepared
- To take this offer: but Mark Antony
- Put me to some impatience: though I lose
- The praise of it by telling, you must know,
- When Caesar and your brother were at blows,
- Your mother came to Sicily and did find
- Her welcome friendly.
-
- MARK ANTONY: I have heard it, Pompey;
- And am well studied for a liberal thanks
- Which I do owe you.
-
- POMPEY: Let me have your hand:
- I did not think, sir, to have met you here.
-
- MARK ANTONY: The beds i' the east are soft; and thanks to you, 50
- That call'd me timelier than my purpose hither;
- For I have gain'd by 't.
-
- OCTAVIUS CAESAR: Since I saw you last,
- There is a change upon you.
-
- POMPEY: Well, I know not
- What counts harsh fortune casts upon my face;
- But in my bosom shall she never come,
- To make my heart her vassal.
-
- LEPIDUS: Well met here.
-
- POMPEY: I hope so, Lepidus. Thus we are agreed:
- I crave our composition may be written,
- And seal'd between us.
-
- OCTAVIUS CAESAR: That's the next to do. 60
-
- POMPEY: We'll feast each other ere we part; and let's
- Draw lots who shall begin.
-
- MARK ANTONY: That will I, Pompey.
-
- POMPEY: No, Antony, take the lot: but, first
- Or last, your fine Egyptian cookery
- Shall have the fame. I have heard that Julius Caesar
- Grew fat with feasting there.
-
- MARK ANTONY: You have heard much.
-
- POMPEY: I have fair meanings, sir.
-
- MARK ANTONY: And fair words to them.
-
- POMPEY: Then so much have I heard:
- And I have heard, Apollodorus carried--
-
- DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS: No more of that: he did so.
-
- POMPEY: What, I pray you? 70
-
- DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS: A certain queen to Caesar in a mattress.
-
- POMPEY: I know thee now: how farest thou, soldier?
-
- DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS: Well;
- And well am like to do; for, I perceive,
- Four feasts are toward.
-
- POMPEY: Let me shake thy hand;
- I never hated thee: I have seen thee fight,
- When I have envied thy behavior.
-
- DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS: Sir,
- I never loved you much; but I ha' praised ye,
- When you have well deserved ten times as much
- As I have said you did.
-
- POMPEY: Enjoy thy plainness,
- It nothing ill becomes thee.
- Aboard my galley I invite you all: 80
- Will you lead, lords?
-
-
- OCTAVIUS CAESAR: \
- \
- MARK ANTONY: } Show us the way, sir.
- /
- LEPIDUS: /
-
-
- POMPEY: Come.
-
- [Exeunt all but MENAS and ENOBARBUS.]
-
- MENAS: [Aside] Thy father, Pompey, would ne'er have
- made this treaty.--You and I have known, sir.
-
- DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS: At sea, I think.
-
- MENAS: We have, sir.
-
- DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS: You have done well by water.
-
- MENAS: And you by land.
-
- DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS: I will praise any man that will praise me; though it
- cannot be denied what I have done by land.
-
- MENAS: Nor what I have done by water.
-
- DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS: Yes, something you can deny for your own 90
- safety: you have been a great thief by sea.
-
- MENAS: And you by land.
-
- DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS: There I deny my land service. But give me your
- hand, Menas: if our eyes had authority, here they
- might take two thieves kissing.
-
- MENAS: All men's faces are true, whatsome'er their hands are.
-
- DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS: But there is never a fair woman has a true face.
-
- MENAS: No slander; they steal hearts.
-
- DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS: We came hither to fight with you.
-
- MENAS: For my part, I am sorry it is turned to a drinking. 100
- Pompey doth this day laugh away his fortune.
-
- DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS: If he do, sure, he cannot weep't back again.
-
- MENAS: You've said, sir. We looked not for Mark Antony
- here: pray you, is he married to Cleopatra?
-
- DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS: Caesar's sister is called Octavia.
-
- MENAS: True, sir; she was the wife of Caius Marcellus.
-
- DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS: But she is now the wife of Marcus Antonius.
-
- MENAS: Pray ye, sir?
-
- DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS: 'Tis true.
-
- MENAS: Then is Caesar and he for ever knit together. 110
-
- DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS: If I were bound to divine of this unity, I would
- not prophesy so.
-
- MENAS: I think the policy of that purpose made more in the
- marriage than the love of the parties.
-
- DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS: I think so 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?
-
- DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS: Not he that himself is not so; which is Mark Antony. 120
- 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.
-
- DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS: I shall take it, sir: we have used our throats in
- Egypt. 130
-
- MENAS: Come, let's away.
-
- [Exeunt.]
-