Act IIScene II
Rome. A Room in the House of Lepidus
Enter Enobarbus and Lepidus.
Lepidus
Good Enobarbus, ’tis a worthy deed,And shall become you well, to entreat your captainTo soft and gentle speech.
Enobarbus
I shall entreat himTo answer like himself. If Caesar move him,Let Antony look over Caesar’s headAnd speak as loud as Mars. By Jupiter,Were I the wearer of Antonius’ beard,I would not shave’t today.
Lepidus
’Tis not a timeFor private stomaching.
Enobarbus
Every timeServes for the matter that is then born in’t.
Lepidus
But small to greater matters must give way.
Enobarbus
Not if the small come first.
Lepidus
Your speech is passion;But pray you stir no embers up. Here comesThe noble Antony.
Enter Antony and Ventidius.
Enobarbus
And yonder Caesar.
Enter Caesar, Maecenas and Agrippa.
Antony
If we compose well here, to Parthia.Hark, Ventidius.
Caesar
I do not know, Maecenas. Ask Agrippa.
Lepidus
Noble friends,That which combined us was most great, and let notA leaner action rend us. What’s amiss,May it be gently heard. When we debateOur trivial difference loud, we do commitMurder in healing wounds. Then, noble partners,The rather for I earnestly beseech,Touch you the sourest points with sweetest terms,Nor curstness grow to th’ matter.
Antony
’Tis spoken well.Were we before our armies, and to fight,I should do thus.
Caesar
Welcome to Rome.
Antony
Thank you.
Caesar
Sit.
Antony
Sit, sir.
Caesar
Nay, then.
Antony
I learn you take things ill which are not so,Or being, concern you not.
Caesar
I must be laughed atIf, or for nothing or a little, IShould say myself offended, and with youChiefly i’ th’ world; more laughed at that I shouldOnce name you derogately when to sound your nameIt not concerned me.
Antony
My being in Egypt, Caesar,What was’t to you?
Caesar
No more than my residing here at RomeMight be to you in Egypt. Yet if you thereDid practise on my state, your being in EgyptMight be my question.
Antony
How intend you, practised?
Caesar
You may be pleased to catch at mine intentBy what did here befall me. Your wife and brotherMade wars upon me, and their contestationWas theme for you; you were the word of war.
Antony
You do mistake your business. My brother neverDid urge me in his act. I did inquire it,And have my learning from some true reportsThat drew their swords with you. Did he not ratherDiscredit my authority with yours,And make the wars alike against my stomach,Having alike your cause? Of this my lettersBefore did satisfy you. If you’ll patch a quarrel,As matter whole you have not to make it with,It must not be with this.
Caesar
You praise yourselfBy laying defects of judgment to me; butYou patched up your excuses.
Antony
Not so, not so.I know you could not lack—I am certain on’t—Very necessity of this thought, that I,Your partner in the cause ’gainst which he fought,Could not with graceful eyes attend those warsWhich fronted mine own peace. As for my wife,I would you had her spirit in such another.The third o’ th’ world is yours, which with a snaffleYou may pace easy, but not such a wife.
Enobarbus
Would we had all such wives, that the menMight go to wars with the women.
Antony
So much uncurbable, her garboils, Caesar,Made out of her impatience—which not wantedShrewdness of policy too—I grieving grantDid you too much disquiet. For that you mustBut say I could not help it.
Caesar
I wrote to youWhen rioting in Alexandria; youDid pocket up my letters, and with tauntsDid gibe my missive out of audience.
Antony
Sir,He fell upon me ere admitted, then.Three kings I had newly feasted, and did wantOf what I was i’ th’ morning. But next dayI told him of myself, which was as muchAs to have asked him pardon. Let this fellowBe nothing of our strife; if we contend,Out of our question wipe him.
Caesar
You have brokenThe article of your oath, which you shall neverHave tongue to charge me with.
Lepidus
Soft, Caesar!
Antony
No, Lepidus, let him speak.The honour is sacred which he talks on now,Supposing that I lacked it. But on, Caesar:The article of my oath?
Caesar
To lend me arms and aid when I required them,The which you both denied.
Antony
Neglected, rather;And then when poisoned hours had bound me upFrom mine own knowledge. As nearly as I mayI’ll play the penitent to you. But mine honestyShall not make poor my greatness, nor my powerWork without it. Truth is that Fulvia,To have me out of Egypt, made wars here,For which myself, the ignorant motive, doSo far ask pardon as befits mine honourTo stoop in such a case.
Lepidus
’Tis noble spoken.
Maecenas
If it might please you to enforce no furtherThe griefs between ye; to forget them quiteWere to remember that the present needSpeaks to atone you.
Lepidus
Worthily spoken, Maecenas.
Enobarbus
Or, if you borrow one another’s love for the instant, you may, when you hear no more words of Pompey, return it again. You shall have time to wrangle in when you have nothing else to do.
Antony
Thou art a soldier only. Speak no more.
Enobarbus
That truth should be silent I had almost forgot.
Antony
You wrong this presence; therefore speak no more.
Enobarbus
Go to, then. Your considerate stone!
Caesar
I do not much dislike the matter, butThe manner of his speech; for’t cannot beWe shall remain in friendship, our conditionsSo differing in their acts. Yet if I knewWhat hoop should hold us staunch, from edge to edgeO’ th’ world I would pursue it.
Agrippa
Give me leave, Caesar.
Caesar
Speak, Agrippa.
Agrippa
Thou hast a sister by the mother’s side,Admired Octavia. Great Mark AntonyIs now a widower.
Caesar
Say not so, Agrippa.If Cleopatra heard you, your reproofWere well deserved of rashness.
Antony
I am not married, Caesar. Let me hearAgrippa further speak.
Agrippa
To hold you in perpetual amity,To make you brothers, and to knit your heartsWith an unslipping knot, take AntonyOctavia to his wife; whose beauty claimsNo worse a husband than the best of men;Whose virtue and whose general graces speakThat which none else can utter. By this marriageAll 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 bothWould 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.
Antony
Will Caesar speak?
Caesar
Not till he hears how Antony is touchedWith what is spoke already.
Antony
What power is in Agrippa,If I would say “Agrippa, be it so,”To make this good?
Caesar
The power of Caesar, andHis power unto Octavia.
Antony
May I neverTo this good purpose, that so fairly shows,Dream of impediment! Let me have thy hand.Further this act of grace; and from this hourThe heart of brothers govern in our lovesAnd sway our great designs!
Caesar
There’s my hand.A sister I bequeath you, whom no brotherDid ever love so dearly. Let her liveTo join our kingdoms and our hearts; and neverFly off our loves again!
Lepidus
Happily, amen!
Antony
I did not think to draw my sword ’gainst Pompey,For he hath laid strange courtesies and greatOf 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.
Antony
Where lies he?
Caesar
About the Mount Misena.
Antony
What is his strength by land?
Caesar
Great and increasing; but by seaHe is an absolute master.
Antony
So is the fame.Would we had spoke together! Haste we for it.Yet, ere we put ourselves in arms, dispatch weThe business we have talked of.
Caesar
With most gladness,And do invite you to my sister’s view,Whither straight I’ll lead you.
Antony
Let us, Lepidus, not lack your company.
Lepidus
Noble Antony, not sickness should detain me.
Flourish. Exeunt all except Enobarbus, Agrippa and Maecenas.
Maecenas
Welcome from Egypt, sir.
Enobarbus
Half the heart of Caesar, worthy Maecenas! My honourable friend, Agrippa!
Agrippa
Good Enobarbus!
Maecenas
We have cause to be glad that matters are so well digested. You stayed well by ’t in Egypt.
Enobarbus
Ay, sir, we did sleep day out of countenance and made the night light with drinking.
Maecenas
Eight wild boars roasted whole at a breakfast, and but twelve persons there. Is this true?
Enobarbus
This was but as a fly by an eagle. We had much more monstrous matter of feast, which worthily deserved noting.
Maecenas
She’s a most triumphant lady, if report be square to her.
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.
Enobarbus
I will tell you.The barge she sat in, like a burnished throne,Burned on the water. The poop was beaten gold;Purple the sails, and so perfumed thatThe winds were love-sick with them; the oars were silver,Which to the tune of flutes kept stroke, and madeThe water which they beat to follow faster,As amorous of their strokes. For her own person,It beggared all description: she did lieIn her pavilion, cloth-of-gold of tissue,O’erpicturing that Venus where we seeThe fancy outwork nature. On each side herStood pretty dimpled boys, like smiling Cupids,With divers-coloured fans, whose wind did seemTo glow the delicate cheeks which they did cool,And what they undid did.
Agrippa
O, rare for Antony!
Enobarbus
Her gentlewomen, like the Nereides,So many mermaids, tended her i’ th’ eyes,And made their bends adornings. At the helmA seeming mermaid steers. The silken tackleSwell with the touches of those flower-soft handsThat yarely frame the office. From the bargeA strange invisible perfume hits the senseOf the adjacent wharfs. The city castHer people out upon her, and Antony,Enthroned i’ th’ market-place, did sit alone,Whistling to th’ air, which, but for vacancy,Had gone to gaze on Cleopatra too,And made a gap in nature.
Agrippa
Rare Egyptian!
Enobarbus
Upon her landing, Antony sent to her,Invited her to supper. She repliedIt should be better he became her guest,Which she entreated. Our courteous Antony,Whom ne’er the word of “No” woman heard speak,Being barbered ten times o’er, goes to the feast,And, for his ordinary, pays his heartFor what his eyes eat only.
Agrippa
Royal wench!She made great Caesar lay his sword to bed.He ploughed her, and she cropped.
Enobarbus
I saw her onceHop forty paces through the public streetAnd, having lost her breath, she spoke and panted,That she did make defect perfection,And, breathless, pour breath forth.
Maecenas
Now Antony must leave her utterly.
Enobarbus
Never. He will not.Age cannot wither her, nor custom staleHer infinite variety. Other women cloyThe appetites they feed, but she makes hungryWhere most she satisfies. For vilest thingsBecome themselves in her, that the holy priestsBless her when she is riggish.
Maecenas
If beauty, wisdom, modesty can settleThe heart of Antony, Octavia isA blessed lottery to him.
Agrippa
Let us go.Good Enobarbus, make yourself my guestWhilst you abide here.
Enobarbus
Humbly, sir, I thank you.
Exeunt.