ACT II SCENE VII

Antony and Cleopatra

ACT II 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’ the world
	will blow them down.
Second Servant	Lepidus is high-coloured.
First Servant	They have made him drink alms-drink.	5
Second Servant	As they pinch one another by the disposition, he
	cries out ‘No more;’ reconciles them to his
	entreaty, and himself to the drink.
First Servant	But it raises the greater war between him and
	his discretion.	10
Second Servant	Why, this 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 partisan I could not heave.
First Servant	To be called into a huge sphere, and not to be seen
	to move in’t, are the holes where eyes should be,	15
	which pitifully disaster the cheeks.
[ A sennet sounded. Enter OCTAVIUS CAESAR, MARK ANTONY, LEPIDUS, POMPEY, AGRIPPA, MECAENAS, DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS, MENAS, with other captains ]
MARK ANTONY	[To OCTAVIUS CAESAR] Thus do they, sir: they take
	the flow o’ the Nile
	By certain scales i’ the pyramid; they know,
	By the height, the lowness, or the mean, if dearth	20
	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	You’ve strange serpents there.	25
MARK ANTONY	Ay, Lepidus.
LEPIDUS	Your serpent of Egypt is bred now of your mud by the
	operation of your sun: so is your crocodile.
MARK ANTONY	They are so.
POMPEY	Sit,–and some wine! A health to Lepidus!	30
LEPIDUS	I am not so well as I should be, but I’ll ne’er out.
DOMITIUS 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.	35
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,	40
	And hear me speak a word.
POMPEY	[Aside to MENAS] Forbear me till anon.
	This wine for Lepidus!
LEPIDUS	What manner o’ thing is your crocodile?
MARK ANTONY	It is shaped, sir, like itself; and it is as broad	45
	as it hath breadth: it is just so high as it is,
	and moves with its own organs: it lives by that
	which nourisheth it; and the elements once out of
	it, it transmigrates.
LEPIDUS	What colour is it of?	50
MARK ANTONY	Of it own colour too.
LEPIDUS	‘Tis a strange serpent.
MARK ANTONY	‘Tis so. And the tears of it are wet.
OCTAVIUS CAESAR	Will this description satisfy him?
MARK ANTONY	With the health that Pompey gives him, else he is a	55
	very epicure.
POMPEY	[Aside to MENAS] Go hang, sir, hang! Tell me of
	that? away!
	Do as I bid you. Where’s this cup I call’d for?
MENAS	[Aside to POMPEY] If for the sake of merit thou	60
	wilt hear me,
	Rise from thy stool.
POMPEY	[Aside to MENAS] I think thou’rt mad.
	The matter?
[Rises, and walks aside]
MENAS	I have ever held my cap off to thy fortunes.	65
POMPEY	Thou hast served me with much faith. What’s else to say?
	Be jolly, lords.
MARK ANTONY	These quick-sands, Lepidus,
	Keep off them, for you sink.
MENAS	Wilt thou be lord of all the world?	70
POMPEY	What say’st thou?
MENAS	Wilt thou be lord of the whole world? That’s twice.
POMPEY	How should that be?
MENAS	But entertain it,
	And, though thou think me poor, I am the man	75
	Will give thee all the world.
POMPEY	Hast thou drunk well?
MENAS	Now, Pompey, I have kept me from the cup.
	Thou art, if thou darest be, the earthly Jove:
	Whate’er the ocean pales, or sky inclips,	80
	Is thine, if thou wilt ha’t.
POMPEY	Show me which way.
MENAS	These three world-sharers, these competitors,
	Are in thy vessel: let me cut the cable;
	And, when we are put off, fall to their throats:	85
	All there is thine.
POMPEY	Ah, this thou shouldst have done,
	And not have spoke on’t! In me ’tis villany;
	In thee’t had been good service. Thou must know,
	‘Tis not my profit that does lead mine honour;	90
	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. Desist, and drink.
MENAS	[Aside] For this,	95
	I’ll never follow thy pall’d fortunes more.
	Who seeks, and will not take when once ’tis offer’d,
	Shall never find it more.
POMPEY	This health to Lepidus!
MARK ANTONY	Bear him ashore. I’ll pledge it for him, Pompey.	100
DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS	Here’s to thee, Menas!
MENAS	Enobarbus, welcome!
POMPEY	Fill till the cup be hid.
DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS	There’s a strong fellow, Menas.
[Pointing to the Attendant who carries off LEPIDUS]
MENAS	Why?	105
DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS	A’ bears the third part of the world, man; see’st
	not?
MENAS	The third part, then, is drunk: would it were all,
	That it might go on wheels!
DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS	Drink thou; increase the reels.	110
MENAS	Come.
POMPEY	This is not yet an Alexandrian feast.
MARK ANTONY	It ripens towards it. Strike the vessels, ho?
	Here is to Caesar!
OCTAVIUS CAESAR	I could well forbear’t.	115
	It’s monstrous labour, when I wash my brain,
	And it grows fouler.
MARK ANTONY	Be a child o’ the time.
OCTAVIUS CAESAR	Possess it, I’ll make answer:
	But I had rather fast from all four days	120
	Than drink so much in one.
DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS	Ha, my brave emperor!
[To MARK ANTONY]
	Shall we dance now the Egyptian Bacchanals,
	And celebrate our drink?
POMPEY	Let’s ha’t, good soldier.	125
MARK ANTONY	Come, let’s all take hands,
	Till that the conquering wine hath steep’d our sense
	In soft and delicate Lethe.
DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS	All take hands.
	Make battery to our ears with the loud music:	130
	The while I’ll place you: then the boy shall sing;
	The holding every man shall bear as loud
	As his strong sides can volley.
[ Music plays. DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS places them hand in hand ]
THE SONG.
	Come, thou monarch of the vine,
	Plumpy Bacchus with pink eyne!	135
	In thy fats our cares be drown’d,
	With thy grapes our hairs be crown’d:
	Cup us, till the world go round,
	Cup us, till the world go round!
OCTAVIUS CAESAR	What would you more? Pompey, good night. Good brother,	140
	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	145
	Antick’d us all. What needs more words? Good night.
	Good Antony, your hand.
POMPEY	I’ll try you on the shore.
MARK ANTONY	And shall, sir; give’s your hand.
POMPEY	O Antony,	150
	You have my father’s house,–But, what? we are friends.
	Come, down into the boat.
DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS	Take heed you fall not.
[Exeunt all but DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS and MENAS]
	Menas, I’ll not on shore.
MENAS	No, to my cabin.	155
	These drums! these trumpets, flutes! what!
	Let Neptune hear we bid a loud farewell
	To these great fellows: sound and be hang’d, sound out!
[Sound a flourish, with drums]
DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS	Ho! says a’ There’s my cap.
MENAS	Ho! Noble captain, come.	160
[Exeunt]

Antony and Cleopatra, Act 3, Scene 1
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Explanatory Notes for Act 2, Scene 7
From Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra. Ed. M. Eaton. Boston: Educational Publishing Company.
(Line numbers have been altered.)
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* Banquet. This word generally means the dessert.

1. Plants. A play on words, as plants also means the soles of the feet.

5. Alms’ drink. The leavings, liquor that one drinks to accommodate a companion.

6. Disposition. That is, banter one another.

13. Partisan. A kind of halberd or battle axe.

14. Huge sphere. The comparison is expressed elliptically. The meaning is, for a man such as Lepidus to be called to a high position, and remain a mere nonentity in it, is to be no better than are empty sockets where eyes should be, which only disfigure the face.

* Sennet. A series of notes sounded on the trumpet or cornet.

19. Scales. That is, they measure the rise of the Nile by marks made on the pyramid for that purpose.

20. Mean. That is, the average height, neither very high nor very low.

21. Foison. Plenty.

24. Shortly comes. That is, is soon rewarded by a harvest without any further trouble on his part.

28. Your. A colloquial use of the pronoun, not indicat- ing, of course, actual possession.

31. Out. Never refuse to drink a toast.

32. In. That is, in a state of drunkenness; a play on the word “out.”

34. Pyramises. This form of the plural is of Shakespeare’s own coining, although the singular, pyramis — the Greek form for pyramid — was in common use. Shakespeare probably uses it here to show that Lepidus was already fast getting “in.”

42. Anon. For a few moments.

47. It own. It was an old provincial genitive, usually used with own.

48. Elements. Principles of life.

49. Transmigrates. The ancients beheved that the spirit, on leaving the body, passed into some other body to live again.

56. Epicure. A skillful judge of physical delights.

60. Merit. That is, out of regard for my merit.

65. Cap off. That is, I have ever been your faithful follower.

79. Jove. That is, ruler of the world, as Jove is ruler of the heavens.

80. Pales. Encloses, bounds.

80. Inclips. Embraces.

83. Competitors. Associates.

86. There. This has been variously explained; some change it to then or theirs, some think it means “by that act,” and some simply, “All there is in the vessel is thine.”

90. Mine honor. Mine honor leads it.

96. Pall’d. Waning, declining.

97. Seeks. Compare the proverb, “He who will not when he may, when he will, he shall have nay.”

106. A’. He.

109. Wheels. “The World Goes Upon Wheels” was the title of a pamphlet written by Taylor, a poet of the period.

110. Reels. That is, help to make the world go round faster.

112. Alexandrian. It cannot compare with Cleopatra’s feasts at Alexandria.

113. Strike the vessels. Open fresh casks of wine.

115. Forbear’t Desist.

119. Possess. That is, master the times rather than be guided by them.

120. From. That is, from drinking.

123. Bacchanals. Dances performed in honor of Bacchus, the god of wine; wild orgies.

132. Holding. The burden or refrain of a song.

132. Bear. Shout the refrain.

135. Pink eyne. Eyne is the old plural of “eye.” Pink probably means small or half-closed eyes.

136. Fats. A dialect form of “vats.”

141. Off. To be off, to leave the vessel.

143. Burnt. Flushed them with wine.

146. Antick’d. This motley dress of drunkenness has made buffoons, or fools, of us.

Try. That is, test your friendship.

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