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.
Exeunt
Act 3
Scene 1
A plain in Syria.
Enter VENTIDIUS as it were in triumph, with SILIUS, and other Romans, Officers, and Soldiers; the dead body of PACORUS borne before him
VENTIDIUS Now, darting Parthia, art thou struck; and now
Pleased fortune does of Marcus Crassus’ death
Make me revenger. Bear the king’s son’s body
Before our army. Thy Pacorus, Orodes,
Pays this for Marcus Crassus.
SILIUS Noble Ventidius,
Whilst yet with Parthian blood thy sword is warm,
The fugitive Parthians follow; spur through Media,
Mesopotamia, and the shelters whither
The routed fly: so thy grand captain Antony
Shall set thee on triumphant chariots and
Put garlands on thy head.
VENTIDIUS O Silius, Silius,
I have done enough; a lower place, note well,
May make too great an act: for learn this, Silius;
Better to leave undone, than by our deed
Acquire too high a fame when him we serve’s away.
Caesar and Antony have ever won
More in their officer than person: Sossius,
One of my place in Syria, his lieutenant,
For quick accumulation of renown,
Which he achieved by the minute, lost his favour.
Who does i’ the wars more than his captain can
Becomes his captain’s captain: and ambition,
The soldier’s virtue, rather makes choice of loss,
Than gain which darkens him.
I could do more to do Antonius good,
But ‘twould offend him; and in his offence
Should my performance perish.
SILIUS Thou hast, Ventidius,
that
Without the which a soldier, and his sword,
Grants scarce distinction. Thou wilt write to Antony!
VENTIDIUS I’ll humbly signify what in his name,
That magical word of war, we have effected;
How, with his banners and his well-paid ranks,
The ne’er-yet-beaten horse of Parthia
We have jaded out o’ the field.
SILIUS Where is he now?
VENTIDIUS He purposeth to Athens: whither, with what haste
The weight we must convey with’s will permit,
We shall appear before him. On there; pass along!
Exeunt
Scene 2
Rome. An ante-chamber in OCTAVIUS CAESAR’s house.
Enter AGRIPPA at one door, DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS at another
AGRIPPA What, are the brothers parted?
DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS They have dispatch’d with Pompey, he is gone;
The other three are sealing. Octavia weeps
To part from Rome; Caesar is sad; and Lepidus,
Since Pompey’s feast, as Menas says, is troubled
With the green sickness.
AGRIPPA ‘Tis a noble Lepidus.
DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS A very fine one: O, how he loves Caesar!
AGRIPPA Nay, but how dearly he adores Mark Antony!
DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS Caesar? Why, he’s the Jupiter of men.
AGRIPPA What’s Antony? The god of Jupiter.
DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS Spake you of Caesar? How! the non-pareil!
AGRIPPA O Antony! O thou Arabian bird!
DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS Would you praise Caesar, say ‘Caesar:’ go no further.
AGRIPPA Indeed, he plied them both with excellent praises.
DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS But he loves Caesar best; yet he loves Antony:
Ho! hearts, tongues, figures, scribes, bards,
poets, cannot
Think, speak, cast, write, sing, number, ho!
His love to Antony. But as for Caesar,
Kneel down, kneel down, and wonder.
AGRIPPA Both he loves.
DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS They are his shards, and he their beetle.
Trumpets within
So;
This is to horse. Adieu, noble Agrippa.
AGRIPPA Good fortune, worthy soldier; and farewell.
Enter OCTAVIUS CAESAR, MARK ANTONY, LEPIDUS, and OCTAVIA
MARK ANTONY No further, sir.
OCTAVIUS CAESAR You take from me a great part of myself;
Use me well in ‘t. Sister, prove such a wife
As my thoughts make thee, and as my farthest band
Shall pass on thy approof. Most noble Antony,
Let not the piece of virtue, which is set
Betwixt us as the cement of our love,
To keep it builded, be the ram to batter
The fortress of it; for better might we
Have loved without this mean, if on both parts
This be not cherish’d.
MARK ANTONY Make me not offended
In your distrust.
OCTAVIUS CAESAR I have said.
MARK ANTONY You shall not find,
Though you be therein curious, the least cause
For what you seem to fear: so, the gods keep you,
And make the hearts of Romans serve your ends!
We will here part.
OCTAVIUS CAESAR Farewell, my dearest sister, fare thee well:
The elements be kind to thee, and make
Thy spirits all of comfort! fare thee well.
OCTAVIA My noble brother!
MARK ANTONY The April ‘s in her eyes: it is love’s spring,
And these the showers to bring it on. Be cheerful.
OCTAVIA Sir, look well to my husband’s house; and–
OCTAVIUS CAESAR What, Octavia?
OCTAVIA I’ll tell you in your ear.
MARK ANTONY Her tongue will not obey her heart, nor can
Her heart inform her tongue,–the swan’s
down-feather,
That stands upon the swell at full of tide,
And neither way inclines.
DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS [Aside to AGRIPPA]
Will Caesar weep?
AGRIPPA [Aside to DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS]
He has a cloud in ‘s face.
DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS [Aside to AGRIPPA]
He were the worse for that,
were he a horse;
So is he, being a man.
AGRIPPA [Aside to DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS]
Why, Enobarbus,
When Antony found Julius Caesar dead,
He cried almost to roaring; and he wept
When at Philippi he found Brutus slain.
DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS [Aside to AGRIPPA]
That year, indeed, he was
troubled with a rheum;
What willingly he did confound he wail’d,
Believe’t, till I wept too.
OCTAVIUS CAESAR No, sweet Octavia,
You shall hear from me still; the time shall not
Out-go my thinking on you.
MARK ANTONY Come, sir, come;
I’ll wrestle with you in my strength of love:
Look, here I have you; thus I let you go,
And give you to the gods.
OCTAVIUS CAESAR Adieu; be happy!
LEPIDUS Let all the number of the stars give light
To thy fair way!
OCTAVIUS CAESAR Farewell, farewell!
Kisses OCTAVIA
MARK ANTONY Farewell!