The Tragedy of Antony and Cleopatra

you, is he married to Cleopatra?
ENOBARBUS. Caesar' sister is call'd Octavia.
MENAS. True, sir; she was the wife of Caius Marcellus.
ENOBARBUS. But she is now the wife of Marcus Antonius.
MENAS. Pray ye, sir?
ENOBARBUS. 'Tis true.
MENAS. Then is Caesar and he for ever knit together.
ENOBARBUS. If I were bound to divine of this unity, I would not
prophesy so.
MENAS. I think the policy of that purpose made more in the
marriage
than the love of the parties.
ENOBARBUS. 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.
MENAS. Who would not have his wife so?
ENOBARBUS. 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 Caesar, 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.
MENAS. And thus it may be. Come, sir, will you aboard? I have a
health for you.
ENOBARBUS. I shall take it, sir. We have us'd our throats in
Egypt.
MENAS. Come, let's away. Exeunt

SCENE VII

On board POMPEY'S galley, off Misenum

Music plays. Enter two or three SERVANTS with a banquet

FIRST SERVANT. Here they'll be, man. Some o' their plants are
ill-rooted already; the least wind i' th' world will blow
them
down.
SECOND SERVANT. Lepidus is high-colour'd.
FIRST SERVANT. They have made him drink alms-drink.
SECOND SERVANT. As they pinch one another by the disposition,
he
cries out 'No more!'; reconciles them to his entreaty and
himself
to th' drink.
FIRST SERVANT. But it raises the greater war between him and
his
discretion.
SECOND SERVANT. Why, this it is to have a name in great men's
fellowship. I had as lief have a reed that will do me no
service
as a partizan I could not heave.
FIRST SERVANT. To be call'd into a huge sphere, and not to be
seen
to move in't, are the holes where eyes should be, which
pitifully
disaster the cheeks.

A sennet sounded. Enter CAESAR, ANTONY, LEPIDUS, POMPEY, AGRIPPA, MAECENAS, ENOBARBUS, MENAS, with other CAPTAINS

ANTONY. [To CAESAR] Thus do they, sir: they take the flow o'
th'
Nile
By certain scales i' th' pyramid; they know
By th' 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.
LEPIDUS. Y'have strange serpents there.
ANTONY. Ay, Lepidus.
LEPIDUS. Your serpent of Egypt is bred now of your mud by the
operation of your sun; so is your crocodile.
ANTONY. They are so.
POMPEY. Sit- and some wine! A health to Lepidus!
LEPIDUS. I am not so well as I should be, but I'll ne'er out.
ENOBARBUS. Not till you have slept. I fear me you'll be in till
then.
LEPIDUS. Nay, certainly, I have heard the Ptolemies' pyramises
are
very goodly things. Without contradiction I have heard that.
MENAS. [Aside to POMPEY] Pompey, a word.
POMPEY. [Aside to MENAS] Say in mine ear; what is't?
MENAS. [Aside to POMPEY] Forsake thy seat, I do beseech thee,
Captain,
And hear me speak a word.
POMPEY. [ Whispers in's ear] Forbear me till anon-
This wine for Lepidus!
LEPIDUS. What manner o' thing is your crocodile?
ANTONY. It is shap'd, 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