ACT II SCENE II

Antony and Cleopatra

ACT II SCENE II	Rome. The house of Lepidus
[Enter DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS and LEPIDUS]
LEPIDUS	Good Enobarbus, ’tis a worthy deed,
	And shall become you well, to entreat your captain
	To soft and gentle speech.
DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS	I shall entreat him
	To answer like himself: if Caesar move him,	5
	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	10
	For private stomaching.
DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS	Every time
	Serves for the matter that is then born in’t.
LEPIDUS	But small to greater matters must give way.
DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS	Not if the small come first.	15
LEPIDUS	Your speech is passion:
	But, pray you, stir no embers up. Here comes
	The noble Antony.
[Enter MARK ANTONY and VENTIDIUS]
DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS	And yonder, Caesar.
[Enter OCTAVIUS CAESAR, MECAENAS, and AGRIPPA]
MARK ANTONY	If we compose well here, to Parthia:	20
	Hark, Ventidius.
OCTAVIUS CAESAR	I do not know,
	Mecaenas; ask Agrippa.
LEPIDUS	Noble friends,
	That which combined us was most great, and let not	25
	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,	30
	Touch you the sourest points with sweetest terms,
	Nor curstness grow to the matter.
MARK ANTONY	‘Tis spoken well.
	Were we before our armies, and to fight.
	I should do thus.	35
[Flourish]
OCTAVIUS CAESAR	Welcome to Rome.
MARK ANTONY	Thank you.
OCTAVIUS CAESAR	Sit.
MARK ANTONY	Sit, sir.
OCTAVIUS CAESAR	Nay, then.	40
MARK ANTONY	I learn, you take things ill which are not so,
	Or being, concern you not.
OCTAVIUS CAESAR	I must be laugh’d at,
	If, or for nothing or a little, I
	Should say myself offended, and with you	45
	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.
MARK ANTONY	My being in Egypt, Caesar,
	What was’t to you?	50
OCTAVIUS 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.
MARK ANTONY	How intend you, practised?	55
OCTAVIUS CAESAR	You may be pleased to catch at mine intent
	By what did here befal me. Your wife and brother
	Made wars upon me; and their contestation
	Was theme for you, you were the word of war.
MARK ANTONY	You do mistake your business; my brother never	60
	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,	65
	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.
OCTAVIUS CAESAR	You praise yourself	70
	By laying defects of judgment to me; but
	You patch’d up your excuses.
MARK ANTONY	Not so, not so;
	I know you could not lack, I am certain on’t,
	Very necessity of this thought, that I,	75
	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	80
	You may pace easy, but not such a wife.
DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS	Would we had all such wives, that the men might go
	to wars with the women!
MARK ANTONY	So much uncurbable, her garboils, Caesar
	Made out of her impatience, which not wanted	85
	Shrewdness of policy too, I grieving grant
	Did you too much disquiet: for that you must
	But say, I could not help it.
OCTAVIUS CAESAR	I wrote to you
	When rioting in Alexandria; you	90
	Did pocket up my letters, and with taunts
	Did gibe my missive out of audience.
MARK ANTONY	Sir,
	He fell upon me ere admitted: then
	Three kings I had newly feasted, and did want	95
	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.	100
OCTAVIUS CAESAR	You have broken
	The article of your oath; which you shall never
	Have tongue to charge me with.
LEPIDUS	Soft, Caesar!
MARK ANTONY	No,	105
	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.
OCTAVIUS CAESAR	To lend me arms and aid when I required them;	110
	The which you both denied.
MARK 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	115
	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	120
	To stoop in such a case.
LEPIDUS	‘Tis noble spoken.
MECAENAS	If it might please you, to enforce no further
	The griefs between ye: to forget them quite
	Were to remember that the present need	125
	Speaks to atone you.
LEPIDUS	Worthily spoken, Mecaenas.
DOMITIUS 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	130
	wrangle in when you have nothing else to do.
MARK ANTONY	Thou art a soldier only: speak no more.
DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS	That truth should be silent I had almost forgot.
MARK ANTONY	You wrong this presence; therefore speak no more.
DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS	Go to, then; your considerate stone.	135
OCTAVIUS 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	140
	O’ the world I would pursue it.
AGRIPPA	Give me leave, Caesar,–
OCTAVIUS CAESAR	Speak, Agrippa.
AGRIPPA	Thou hast a sister by the mother’s side,
	Admired Octavia: great Mark Antony	145
	Is now a widower.
OCTAVIUS CAESAR	Say not so, Agrippa:
	If Cleopatra heard you, your reproof
	Were well deserved of rashness.
MARK ANTONY	I am not married, Caesar: let me hear	150
	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	155
	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,	160
	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,	165
	By duty ruminated.
MARK ANTONY	Will Caesar speak?
OCTAVIUS CAESAR	Not till he hears how Antony is touch’d
	With what is spoke already.
MARK ANTONY	What power is in Agrippa,	170
	If I would say, ‘Agrippa, be it so,’
	To make this good?
OCTAVIUS CAESAR	The power of Caesar, and
	His power unto Octavia.
MARK ANTONY	May I never	175
	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!	180
OCTAVIUS 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!	185
LEPIDUS	Happily, amen!
MARK 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;	190
	At heel of that, defy him.
LEPIDUS	Time calls upon’s:
	Of us must Pompey presently be sought,
	Or else he seeks out us.
MARK ANTONY	Where lies he?	195
OCTAVIUS CAESAR	About the mount Misenum.
MARK ANTONY	What is his strength by land?
OCTAVIUS CAESAR	Great and increasing: but by sea
	He is an absolute master.
MARK ANTONY	So is the fame.	200
	Would we had spoke together! Haste we for it:
	Yet, ere we put ourselves in arms, dispatch we
	The business we have talk’d of.
OCTAVIUS CAESAR	With most gladness:
	And do invite you to my sister’s view,	205
	Whither straight I’ll lead you.
MARK ANTONY	Let us, Lepidus,
	Not lack your company.
LEPIDUS	Noble Antony,
	Not sickness should detain me.	210
[ Flourish. Exeunt OCTAVIUS CAESAR, MARK ANTONY, and LEPIDUS ]
MECAENAS	Welcome from Egypt, sir.
DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS	Half the heart of Caesar, worthy Mecaenas! My
	honourable friend, Agrippa!
AGRIPPA	Good Enobarbus!
MECAENAS	We have cause to be glad that matters are so well	215
	digested. You stayed well by ‘t in Egypt.
DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS	Ay, sir; we did sleep day out of countenance, and
	made the night light with drinking.
MECAENAS	Eight wild-boars roasted whole at a breakfast, and
	but twelve persons there; is this true?	220
DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS	This was but as a fly by an eagle: we had much more
	monstrous matter of feast, which worthily deserved noting.
MECAENAS	She’s a most triumphant lady, if report be square to
	her.
DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS	When she first met Mark Antony, she pursed up	225
	his heart, upon the river of Cydnus.
AGRIPPA	There she appeared indeed; or my reporter devised
	well for her.
DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS	I will tell you.
	The barge she sat in, like a burnish’d throne,	230
	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,	235
	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 outwork nature: on each side her	240
	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!	245
DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS	Her gentlewomen, like the Nereides,
	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,	250
	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,
	Enthroned i’ the market-place, did sit alone,	255
	Whistling to the air; which, but for vacancy,
	Had gone to gaze on Cleopatra too,
	And made a gap in nature.
AGRIPPA	Rare Egyptian!
DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS	Upon her landing, Antony sent to her,	260
	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,	265
	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 plough’d her, and she cropp’d.	270
DOMITIUS 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.	275
MECAENAS	Now Antony must leave her utterly.
DOMITIUS 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	280
	Where most she satisfies; for vilest things
	Become themselves in her: that the holy priests
	Bless her when she is riggish.
MECAENAS	If beauty, wisdom, modesty, can settle
	The heart of Antony, Octavia is	285
	A blessed lottery to him.
AGRIPPA	Let us go.
	Good Enobarbus, make yourself my guest
	Whilst you abide here.
DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS	Humbly, sir, I thank you.	290
[Exeunt]

Antony and Cleopatra, Act 2, Scene 3
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Explanatory Notes for Act 2, Scene 2
From Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra. Ed. M. Eaton. Boston: Educational Publishing Company.
(Line numbers have been altered.)
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7. Mars. The god of war.

9. Shave’t. I would not show him even so small a mark of respect.

11. Stomaching. Resentment, quarreling.

20. Compose. Agree well together, come to terms.

20. Parthia. We will set out for Parthia.

22. I do not know. Said in answer to some question without the scenes.

25. Combined. United.

26. Leaner. Lesser, more trivial.

28. Loud. In angry words.

30. Rather. All the more because.

32. Curstness. Do not let anger make our differences greater.

34. To fight. About to fight.

47. Derogately. In disparaging terms.

48. It. Did.

53. Practise. Plotted against me.

54. Question. That is, a question that concerned me.

56. Intend. What do you mean by “practiced”?

58. Contestation. Quarrel.

59. Theme. Had you for its theme or cause.

59. Word. Watchword of the war.

60. Business. Misunderstood the matter.

61. Urge me. Urge my name as a pretext for making war.

61. Inquire. Make inquiries about it.

62. Reports. Reporters, people who supported you.

64. Discredit. Throw discredit over me as well as you.

65. Stomach. Desire.

66. Alike. Since I am engaged in the same cause with yourself.

67. Patch. If you insist upon patching up a quarrel with me out of mere trivialities, for you have no real cause, you must find some better ground than this.

72. Patch’d. You had just as little real ground for your excuses.

74. Lack. I know you could not help thinking.

77. Graceful eyes. Look favorably upon.

78. Fronted. Opposed.

80. Snaffle. Light rein.

81. Pace. Teach to go lightly.

81. Wife. That is, if you were married to a woman of such spirit you would find that, although you may easily govern a third of the world, you cannot govern her.

84. Uncurbable. Ungovernable as she was, her commotions, etc.

87. Did you. Gave you too much reason for disquiet.

87. For that. As for all that.

92. Gibe. Drive out with gibes.

92. Missive. The bearer of my missive.

95. Want. Was not myself.

97. Myself. What my condition had been.

100. Question. Let us put him out of the question.

102. Article. The promise, that to which you swore.

107. Sacred. My honor, about which he is now speaking, is a sacred matter; let him say all that he has to say, therefore, that I may vindicate it.

113. Poison’d. Tainted with slothfulness and pleasure.

117. It. That is, my honesty.

122. Noble. Nobly.

123. Enforce. Lay stress upon, urge.

124. Griefs. Grievances.

126. Atone. Reconcile, make friends.

129. Instant. Time being.

135. Stone. That is, I will be as silent as a stone; I am discretion itself.

138. Conditions. Dispositions, temperaments.

140. Hoop. Bond would hold us in friendship.

149. Rashness. That is, your rashness would deserve reproof.

154. Unslipping. A slip knot is one that will come untied if one of its ends is pulled.

155. To. For.

157. General. All her various virtues.

160. Import. Carry with them dangers.

161. Tales. Only idle reports.

165. Studied. One that has been duly pondered.

165. Present. Uttered on the spur of the moment.

166. Ruminated. One which my sense of duty has made me carefully consider.

174. Unto. Over.

176. Fairly. Shows so fair, plausible.

178. Further. Help on.

185. Fly off. May our affections never become estranged again.

189. Only. I must just thank him, lest I seem forgetful of his courtesies.

191. Calls. Presses.

193. Of. By.

196. Misenum. A promontory in the province of Campania where there was an excellent harbor.

200. Fame. Report.

204. Most. The utmost.

205. View. To come to see my sister.

216. Digested. Settled.

216. Well by’t. Had a capital time.

219. Wild-boars. Plutarch says: “When he (Philotus) was in the kitchen and saw . . . eight wild boars roasted whole, he began to wonder at it, and said: ‘Sure you have a great number of guests to supper.’ . . . ‘No,’ quoth he (the cook), ‘not many guests, not above twelve in all.'”

221. By. In comparison with.

223. Square. Do her justice.

225. Pursed. Took it captive.

226. Cydnus. A river flowing through the city of Tarsus. “Upon” means “on the banks of.”

227. Reporter. Informant made up the story.

230. The barge, etc. This follows Plutarch’s description.

231. Poop. Stem.

238. Of tissue. Probably cloth of gold on a ground-work of tissue.

239. O’er-picturing. Outdoing that picture of Venus. According to Warburton, this was the Venus of Protogenes, a celebrated Greek painter, mentioned by the Latin poet, Pliny.

240. Outwork. Where the fancy of the artist exceeds the beauty of nature.

241. Cupids. Cupid was god of love.

244. Undid did. That is, made the cheeks glow whose warmth they were intended to cool.

246. Nereides. Mermaids, the fifty daughters of Nereus.

247. i’ the eyes. Waited upon her, observant of her every look.

248. Bends adornings. Pages of commentary have been written on this passage, but the simplest explanation seems the best. Their very acts of observance in waiting upon her were so graceful as to add a fresh charrn to their beauty.

251. Yarely. Deftly, nimbly.

251. Office. Perform the duty.

253. Wharfs. Banks.

254. Upon. Rushed forth to greet her.

256. Vacancy. An allusion to the doctrine then in vogue, that nature abhors a vacuum.

262. Should. Would.

265. barber’d. A sign of great respect.

266. Ordinary. Meal.

268. Wench. Girl, not necessarily in a bad sense.

274. Defect perfection. That is, her breathlessness only made her seem more lovely.

278. Stale. Render stale, destroy the charm.

282. Becomes. Seem becoming.

282. That. So that.

283. Riggish. Wanton. Rig means a frolic.

284. Settle. Content.

286. Lottery. Prize.

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How to cite the explanatory notes:Shakespeare, William. Antony and Cleopatra. Ed. M. Eaton. Boston: Educational Publishing Company, 1908.