What hoop should hold us stanch, from edge to edge
O’ the world I would pursue it.
AGRIPPA Give me leave, Caesar,–
OCTAVIUS CAESAR Speak, Agrippa.
AGRIPPA Thou hast a sister by the mother’s side,
Admired Octavia: great Mark Antony
Is now a widower.
OCTAVIUS CAESAR Say not so, Agrippa:
If Cleopatra heard you, your reproof
Were well deserved of rashness.
MARK ANTONY I am not married, Caesar: let me hear
Agrippa further speak.
AGRIPPA To hold you in perpetual amity,
To make you brothers, and to knit your hearts
With an unslipping knot, take Antony
Octavia to his wife; whose beauty claims
No worse a husband than the best of men;
Whose virtue and whose general graces speak
That which none else can utter. By this marriage,
All little jealousies, which now seem great,
And all great fears, which now import their dangers,
Would then be nothing: truths would be tales,
Where now half tales be truths: her love to both
Would, each to other and all loves to both,
Draw after her. Pardon what I have spoke;
For ’tis a studied, not a present thought,
By duty ruminated.
MARK ANTONY Will Caesar speak?
OCTAVIUS CAESAR Not till he hears how Antony is touch’d
With what is spoke already.
MARK ANTONY What power is in Agrippa,
If I would say, ‘Agrippa, be it so,’
To make this good?
OCTAVIUS CAESAR The power of Caesar, and
His power unto Octavia.
MARK ANTONY May I never
To this good purpose, that so fairly shows,
Dream of impediment! Let me have thy hand:
Further this act of grace: and from this hour
The heart of brothers govern in our loves
And sway our great designs!
OCTAVIUS CAESAR There is my hand.
A sister I bequeath you, whom no brother
Did ever love so dearly: let her live
To join our kingdoms and our hearts; and never
Fly off our loves again!
LEPIDUS Happily, amen!
MARK ANTONY I did not think to draw my sword ‘gainst Pompey;
For he hath laid strange courtesies and great
Of late upon me: I must thank him only,
Lest my remembrance suffer ill report;
At heel of that, defy him.
LEPIDUS Time calls upon’s:
Of us must Pompey presently be sought,
Or else he seeks out us.
MARK ANTONY Where lies he?
OCTAVIUS CAESAR About the mount Misenum.
MARK ANTONY What is his strength by land?
OCTAVIUS CAESAR Great and increasing: but by sea
He is an absolute master.
MARK ANTONY So is the fame.
Would we had spoke together! Haste we for it:
Yet, ere we put ourselves in arms, dispatch we
The business we have talk’d of.
OCTAVIUS CAESAR With most gladness:
And do invite you to my sister’s view,
Whither straight I’ll lead you.
MARK ANTONY Let us, Lepidus,
Not lack your company.
LEPIDUS Noble Antony,
Not sickness should detain me.
Flourish. Exeunt OCTAVIUS CAESAR, MARK ANTONY, and LEPIDUS
MECAENAS Welcome from Egypt, sir.
DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS Half the heart of Caesar, worthy Mecaenas! My
honourable friend, Agrippa!
AGRIPPA Good Enobarbus!
MECAENAS We have cause to be glad that matters are so well
digested. You stayed well by ‘t in Egypt.
DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS Ay, sir; we did sleep day out of countenance, and
made the night light with drinking.
MECAENAS Eight wild-boars roasted whole at a breakfast, and
but twelve persons there; is this true?
DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS This was but as a fly by an eagle: we had much more
monstrous matter of feast, which worthily deserved noting.
MECAENAS She’s a most triumphant lady, if report be square to
her.
DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS When she first met Mark Antony, she pursed up
his heart, upon the river of Cydnus.
AGRIPPA There she appeared indeed; or my reporter devised
well for her.
DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS I will tell you.
The barge she sat in, like a burnish’d throne,
Burn’d on the water: the poop was beaten gold;
Purple the sails, and so perfumed that
The winds were love-sick with them; the oars were silver,
Which to the tune of flutes kept stroke, and made
The water which they beat to follow faster,
As amorous of their strokes. For her own person,
It beggar’d all description: she did lie
In her pavilion–cloth-of-gold of tissue–
O’er-picturing that Venus where we see
The fancy outwork nature: on each side her
Stood pretty dimpled boys, like smiling Cupids,
With divers-colour’d fans, whose wind did seem
To glow the delicate cheeks which they did cool,
And what they undid did.
AGRIPPA O, rare for Antony!
DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS Her gentlewomen, like the Nereides,
So many mermaids, tended her i’ the eyes,
And made their bends adornings: at the helm
A seeming mermaid steers: the silken tackle
Swell with the touches of those flower-soft hands,
That yarely frame the office. From the barge
A strange invisible perfume hits the sense
Of the adjacent wharfs. The city cast
Her people out upon her; and Antony,
Enthroned i’ the market-place, did sit alone,
Whistling to the air; which, but for vacancy,
Had gone to gaze on Cleopatra too,
And made a gap in nature.
AGRIPPA Rare Egyptian!
DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS Upon her landing, Antony sent to her,
Invited her to supper: she replied,
It should be better he became her guest;
Which she entreated: our courteous Antony,
Whom ne’er the word of ‘No’ woman heard speak,
Being barber’d ten times o’er, goes to the feast,
And for his ordinary pays his heart
For what his eyes eat only.
AGRIPPA Royal wench!
She made great Caesar lay his sword to bed:
He plough’d her, and she cropp’d.
DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS I saw her once
Hop forty paces through the public street;
And having lost her breath, she spoke, and panted,
That she did make defect perfection,
And, breathless, power breathe forth.
MECAENAS Now Antony must leave her utterly.
DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS Never; he will not:
Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale
Her infinite variety: other women cloy
The appetites they feed: but she makes hungry
Where most she satisfies; for vilest things
Become themselves in her: that the holy priests
Bless her when she is riggish.
MECAENAS If beauty, wisdom, modesty, can settle
The heart of Antony, Octavia is
A blessed lottery to him.
AGRIPPA Let us go.
Good Enobarbus, make yourself my guest
Whilst you abide here.
DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS Humbly, sir, I thank you.
Exeunt
Scene 3
The same. OCTAVIUS CAESAR’s house.
Enter MARK ANTONY, OCTAVIUS CAESAR, OCTAVIA between them, and Attendants
MARK ANTONY The world and my great office will sometimes
Divide me from your bosom.
OCTAVIA All which time
Before the gods my knee shall bow my prayers
To them for you.
MARK ANTONY Good night, sir. My Octavia,
Read not my blemishes in the world’s report:
I have not kept my square; but that to come
Shall all be done by the rule. Good night, dear lady.
Good night, sir.
OCTAVIUS CAESAR Good night.
Exeunt OCTAVIUS CAESAR and OCTAVIA
Enter Soothsayer
MARK ANTONY Now, sirrah; you do wish yourself in Egypt?
Soothsayer Would I had never come from thence, nor you Thither!
MARK ANTONY If you can, your reason?
Soothsayer I see it in
My motion, have it not in my tongue: but yet
Hie you to Egypt again.
MARK ANTONY Say to me,
Whose fortunes shall rise higher, Caesar’s or mine?
Soothsayer Caesar’s.
Therefore, O Antony, stay not by his side:
Thy demon, that’s thy spirit which keeps thee, is
Noble, courageous high, unmatchable,
Where Caesar’s is not; but, near him, thy angel
Becomes a fear, as being o’erpower’d: therefore
Make space enough between you.
MARK ANTONY Speak this no more.
Soothsayer To none but thee; no more, but when to thee.
If thou dost play with him at any game,
Thou art sure to lose; and, of that natural luck,
He beats thee ‘gainst the odds: thy lustre thickens,
When he shines by: I say again, thy spirit
Is all afraid to govern thee near him;
But, he away, ’tis noble.
MARK ANTONY Get thee gone:
Say to Ventidius I would speak with him:
Exit Soothsayer
He shall to Parthia. Be it art or hap,
He hath spoken true: the very dice obey him;
And in our sports my better cunning faints
Under his chance: if we draw lots, he speeds;
His cocks do win the battle still of mine,
When it is all to nought; and his quails ever
Beat mine, inhoop’d, at odds. I will to Egypt:
And though I make this marriage for my peace,
I’ the east my pleasure lies.
Enter VENTIDIUS
O, come, Ventidius,
You must to Parthia: your commission’s ready;
Follow me, and receive’t.
Exeunt
Scene 4
The same. A street.
Enter LEPIDUS, MECAENAS, and AGRIPPA
LEPIDUS Trouble yourselves no further: pray you, hasten
Your generals after.
AGRIPPA Sir, Mark Antony
Will e’en but kiss Octavia, and we’ll follow.
LEPIDUS Till I shall see you in your soldier’s dress,
Which will become you both, farewell.
MECAENAS We shall,
As I conceive the journey, be at the Mount
Before you, Lepidus.