Go to: Antony and Cleopatra Table of Contents, where you can also read the CLASSICS REVITALIZED paraphrase of this scene
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 captain /To soft and gentle speech.
Enobarbus: I shall entreat him /To answer like himself: if Caesar move him, /Let Antony look over Caesar's head, /And speak as loud as Mars. By Jupiter, /Were I the wearer of Antonius' beard, /I would not shave't to-day.
Lepidus: 'Tis not a time /For private stomaching.
Enobarbus: Every time /Serves 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 comes /The 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 combin'd us was most great, and let not /A leaner action rend us. What's amiss, /May it be gently heard: when we debate /Our trivial difference loud, we do commit /Murder in healing wounds: then, noble partners, /The rather for I earnestly beseech, /Touch you the sourest points with sweetest terms, /Nor curstness grow to the 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 laugh'd at /If, or for nothing or a little, I /Should say myself offended, and with you /Chiefly i' the world; more laugh'd at that I should /Once name you derogately, when to sound your name /It not concern'd me.
Antony: My being in Egypt, Caesar, /What was't to you?
Caesar: No more than my residing here at Rome /Might be to you in Egypt: yet, if you there /Did practise on my state, your being in Egypt /Might be my question.
Antony: How intend you practis'd?
Caesar: You may be pleas'd to catch at mine intent /By what did here befall me. Your wife and brother /Made wars upon me; and their contestation /Was theme for you, you were the word of war.
Antony: You do mistake your business; my brother never /Did urge me in his act: I did inquire it; /And have my learning from some true reports /That drew their swords with you. Did he not rather /Discredit my authority with yours; /And make the wars alike against my stomach, /Having alike your cause? Of this my letters /Before 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 yourself /By laying defects of judgment to me; but /You patch'd 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 wars /Which 'fronted mine own peace. As for my wife, /I would you had her spirit in such another: /The third o' the world is yours; which with a snaffle /You may pace easy, but not such a wife.
Enobarbus: Would we had all such wives, that the men /Might go to wars with the women.
Antony: So much uncurbable, her garboils, Caesar, /Made out of her impatience, which not wanted /Shrewdness of policy too, I grieving grant /Did you too much disquiet: for that you must /But say I could not help it.
Caesar: I wrote to you /When rioting in Alexandria; you /Did pocket up my letters, and with taunts /Did gibe my missive out of audience.
Antony: Sir, /He fell upon me ere admitted: then /Three kings I had newly feasted, and did want /Of what I was i' the morning: but next day /I told him of myself; which was as much /As to have ask'd him pardon. Let this fellow /Be nothing of our strife; if we contend, /Out of our question wipe him.
Caesar: You have broken /The article of your oath; which you shall never /Have 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 lack'd it. But on, Caesar; /The article of my oath.
Caesar: To lend me arms and aid when I requir'd them; /The which you both denied.
Antony: Neglected, rather; /And then when poison'd hours had bound me up /From mine own knowledge. As nearly as I may, /I'll play the penitent to you: but mine honesty /Shall not make poor my greatness, nor my power /Work without it. Truth is, that Fulvia, /To have me out of Egypt, made wars here; /For which myself, the ignorant motive, do /So far ask pardon as befits mine honour /To stoop in such a case.
Lepidus: 'Tis noble spoken.
Maecenas: If it might please you to enforce no further /The griefs between ye: to forget them quite /Were to remember that the present need /Speaks 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, but /The manner of his speech; for't cannot be /We shall remain in friendship, our conditions /So differing in their acts. Yet if I knew /What hoop should hold us stanch, from edge to edge /O' the world, I would pursue it.
Agrippa: Give me leave, Caesar,
Caesar: Speak, Agrippa.
Agrippa: Thou hast a sister by the mother's side, /Admir'd Octavia: great Mark Antony /Is now a widower.
Caesar: Say not so, Agrippa: /If Cleopatra heard you, your reproof /Were well deserv'd of rashness.
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.
Antony: Will Caesar speak?
Caesar: Not till he hears how Antony is touch'd /With 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, and /His power unto Octavia.
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!
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!
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.
Antony: Where lies he?
Caesar: About the Mount Misenum.
Antony: What is his strength /By land?
Caesar: Great and increasing; but by sea /He 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, despatch we /The business we have talk'd 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 Caesar, Antony, and Lepidus.)
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 /stay'd well by it 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 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 out-work 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!
Enobarbus: Her gentlewomen, like the Nereids, /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, /Enthron'd 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!
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 ploughed her, and she cropp'd.
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.
Maecenas: Now Antony must leave her utterly.
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.
Maecenas: 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.
Enobarbus: Humbly, sir, I thank you.
(Exeunt.)
Go to: Next scene (Act 2, Scene 3), or Antony and Cleopatra Table of Contents, where you can also read the CLASSICS REVITALIZED paraphrase of this scene
No comments:
Post a Comment