Well;

ANT.

That will I, Pompey.
Pom. No, Antony, take the lot: but, first or last, your fine
Egyptian cookery shall have the fame. I have heard that Julius
Cæsar grew fat with feasting there.

ANT. You have heard much.
Pom. I have fair meanings,* sir.
ANT.

And fair words to them.
Pom. Then so much have I heard :-
And I have heard, Apollodorus carried —

Exo. No more of that :-he did so.
Pom.

What, I pray you?
Exo. A certain queen to Cæsar in a mattress.
Pom. I know thee now: how far'st thou, soldier ?

Exo.
And well am like to do; for I perceive
Four feasts are toward.
Pom.

Let me shake thy hand ;
I never hated thee: I have seen thee fight,
When I have envied thy behaviour.
Exo.

Sir,
I never lov'd you much; but I have prais'd ye,
When you have well deserv'd ten times as much
As I have said

you

did. Pom.

Enjoy thy plainness,
It nothing ill becomes thee. —
Aboard my galley I invite you all:
Will you lead, lords?
CÆS., ANT., LEP. Show us the way, sir.

. Ром.

Come.

[E.ceunt all exccept MENAS and ENOBARBUS. MEN. [Aside.] Thy father, Pompey, would ne'er have made this treaty.--You and I have known, sir.

Exo. At sea, I think.
MEN. We have, sir.
Eno. You have done well by water.
MEN. And you by land.

Eso. I will praise any man that will praise me; though it cannot be denied what I have done by land.

MEN. Nor what I have done by water.

Eno. Yes, something you can deny for your own safety; you have been a great thief by sea.

MEN. And you by land.
Eno. There I deny my land service. But give me your hand,
Menas: if our eyes had authority, here they might take two thieves
kissing.

MEN. All men's faces are true, whatsoe'er their hands are.
Exo. But there is never a fair woman has a true face.
MEN. No slander ; they steal hearts.
Exo. We came hither to fight with you.

(*) Old text, meaning ; corrected by Heath.

MEN. For my part, I am sorry it is turned to a drinking. Pompey doth this day laugh away his fortune.

Eno. If he do, sure, he cannot weep't back again.

MEN. You've said, sir. We looked not for Mark Antony here. Pray you, is he married to Cleopatra ?

Eno. Cæsar's sister is called Octavia.
MEN. True, sir; she was the wife of Caius Marcellus.
Eno. But she is now the wife of Marcus Antonius.
MEN. Pray ye, sir?
ENO. 'Tis true.
MEN. Then is Cæsar and he for ever knit together.

Eno. If I were bound to divine of this unity, I would not prophesy so.

MEN. I think the policy of that purpose made more in the marriage than the love of the parties.

Eno. 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.

MEN. Who would not have his wife so ?

Exo. Not he that himself is not so; which is Mark Antony. He will to his Egyptian dish again: then shall the sighs of Octavia blow the fire up in Cæsar ; 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.

MEN. And thus it may be. Come, sir, will you aboard? I have a health for you.

Eno. I shall take it, sir; we have used our throats in Egypt.
MEN. Come, let's away.

(Exeunt.

SCENE VII.-On board Pompey's Galley, lying of Misenum.

A banquet set out, Servants attending. Music. 1 SERV. Here they'll be, man. Some o' their plants are ill-rooted already, the least wind i' the world will blow them down.

2 SERV. Lepidus is high-coloured.
1 SERV. They have made him drink alms-drink.b

2 SERV. As they pinch one another by the disposition, he cries out, no more; reconciles them to his entreaty, and himself to the drink.

1 SERV. But it raises the greater war between him and his discretion.

2 SERV. Why this it is to have a name in great men's fellowship:

b

* - plants-] An equivoque; “plants” being used here, besides its ordinary meaning, for the soles of the feet.

alms-drink.) According to Warburton, “That liquor of another's share which his companion drinks to ease him."

by the disposition - A very questionable expression. We ought perhaps to read,— by the disputation, that is, in the controversy.

I had as lief have a reed that will do me no service, as a partisana I could not heave.

1 SERV. To be called into a huge sphere, and not be seen to move in 't, are the holes where eyes should be, which pitifully disaster the cheeks. Sennet. Enter CÆSAR, ANTONY, POMPEY, LEPIDUS, AGRIPPA,

MECÆNAS, ENOBARBUS, MENAS, with other Captains.
ANT. [To CÆSAR.] Thus do they, sir: they take the flow o' the

Nile (5)
By certain scales i' the pyramid; they know,
By the height, the lowness, or the mean, if dearth
Or foison follow. The higher Nilus swells,
The more it promises : as it ebbs, the seedsman
Upon the slime and ooze scatters his grain,
And shortly comes to harvest.

LEP. You've strange serpents there.
ANT. Ay, Lepidus.

LEP. Your serpent of Egypt is bred now of your mud by the operation of your sun: so is your crocodile.

ANT. They are so.
Pom. Sit, -and some wine! A health to Lepidus !
LEP. I am not so well as I should be, but I'll ne'er out.

Eno. [Asile.] Not till you have slept; I fear me you 'll be in till then.

LEP. Nay, certainly, I have heard the Ptolemies' pyramises are very goodly things; without contradiction, I have heard that.

MEN. [Aside to Pom.] Pompey, a word.
Pom. [Asile to MEN.] Say in mine ear: what is’t ?

MEN. (A side to Pom.j Forsake thy seat, I do beseech thee, captain, And hear me speak a word.

Pom. [Asile to MEN.] Forbear me till anon.This wine for Lepidus!

LEP. What manner o' thing is your crocodile ?

Ant. It is shaped, sir, like itself; and it is as broad as it hath breadth: it is just so high as it is, and moves with it own organs: it lives by that which nourisheth it; and the elements once out of it, it transmigrates.

LEP. What colour is it of?
ANT. Of it own colour too.
LEP. "T is a strange serpent.
ANT. 'Tis so. And the tears of it are wet.
CÆs. [Aside to ANT.] Will this description satisfy him?

Ant. (Aside to Cæs. With the health that Pompey gives him, else he is a very epicure. Pom. [Aside to MEN.] Go hang, sir, hang! Tell me of that?

away! Do as I bid you.-- Where's this cup I call'd for?

MEN. [Aside to Pom.] If for the sake of merit thou wilt hear me, Rise from thy stool.

4 — a partisan-] A weapon, half pike and half halberd.

Pom. [Aside to MEN.] I think thou’rt mad. The matter?

[Rises, and walks aside. MEN. I have ever held my cap off to thy fortunes.

Pom. Thou hast serv'd me with much faith. What's else to say?Be jolly, lords. ANT.

These quicksands, Lepidus,
Keep off them, fora you sink.

MEN. Wilt thou be lord of all the world?
POM.

What say'st thou ?
MEN. Wilt thou be lord of the whole world ? That's twice.
POM. How should that be?
MEN.

But entertain it,
And, though thou think me poor, I am the man
Will give thee all the world.
Pom.

Hast thou drunk well?
Men. No, Pompey, I have kept me from the cup.
Thou art, if thou dar'st be, the eartbly Jove:
Whate'er the ocean pales, or sky inclips,
Is thine, if thou wilt ha't.
Ром.

Show me which way.
MEN. These three world-sharers, these competitors,
Are in thy ressel: let me cut the cable ;
And, when we are put off, fall to their throats ;
All thereb is thine.
Pom.

Ah, this thou shouldst have done,
And not have spoke on 't! In me 't is villany;
In thee 't had been good service. Thou must know,
”T is 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.(6) Desist, and drink.

MEN. (A side.] For this, I'll never follow thy palld fortunes more.-
Who seeks, and will not take when once 't is offer'd,
Shall never find it more.
Pom.

This health to Lepidus!
ANT. Bear him ashore.-I 'll pledge it for him, Pompey.
Eno. Here's to thee, Menas.
MEN.

Enobarbus, welcome!
Pom. Fill till the cup be hid.
Exo. There's a strong fellow, Menas.

[Pointing to the Attendant who carries of LEPIDUS
MEN. Why?
Eno. ’A bears the third part of the world, man; see’st not?
MEN. The third part, then, is* drunk: would it were all,
That it might go on wheels!

(*) Old text, then he is. for you sink.] Here, possibly, as in two or three other instances, “ for" is a misprint of fore.

b – All there is thine.] Southern changed this to "All then," &c., and Mr. Collier's annotator availed himself of the alteration.

Evo. Drink thou ; increase the reels.
MEN. Come.
Pom. This is not yet an Alexandrian feast.

ANT. It ripens towards it.-Strikea the vessels, ho!-
Here is to Cæsar.
CES.

I could well forbear't.
It's monstrous labour when I wash my brain
And it grows* fouler.
ANT.

Be a child o' the time.
CÆs. Possess it, I'll make answer:b
But I had rather fast from all four days,
Than drink so much in one.

Exo. [To ANTONY.] Ha, my brave emperor!
Shall we dance now the Egyptian Bacchanals,
And celebrate our drink?
Pom.

Let's ha't, good soldier.
ANT. Come, let us all take hands,
Till that the conquering wine hath steep'd our sense
In soft and delicate Lethe.
Exo.

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 bearf as loud
As his strong sides can volley.
[Music plays. ENOBARBUS places them hand in hand.

SONG.
Come, thou monarch of the vine,
Plumpy Bacchus with pink eyne!
In thy vats our cares be drown'd;

With thy grapes our hairs be crown'd;
ALL.

Cup us, till the world go round;

Cup us, till the world go round! CÆs. 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

{

:

(*) First folio, grow.

(+) Old text, beat; corrected by Theobald. • Strike the ressels,-) To strike means to tap, to broach, or pierce a cask.

• Possess it, I'll make answer:] There is some ambiguity in the word "possess," which, if not a misprint, is employed here in a sense we are unaccustomed to; but the meaning of the passage is plain enough. In former days it was the practice, when one good fellow drank to another, for the latter to “do him right” by imbibing a quantity of wine equal to that quaffed by the health-giver. Antony proposes a health to Cæsar, but Cæsar endeavours to excuse himself, whereupon Antony urges him by saying, “ Bé a child o' the time," i. e. do as others do; indulge for once. Cæsar then consents to pledge the health, and says, “possess it,” or propose it, --I'll do it justice. Mr. Collier's in notator suggests that we should read, " Profess it,” &c. c - pink eyne . ] Small eyes.