[Exeunt all but Menas and Enobarbus.

Men. [Aside] Thy father, Pompey, would ne'er have made this treaty. - You and I have known, sir.

Eno. At sea, I think.

Men. We have, sir.

Eno. You have done well by water.

Men. And you by land.

Eno. I will praise any man that will praise me; though 90

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.

Eno. But there is never a fair woman has a true face.
Men. No slander; they steal hearts.

Eno. We came hither to fight with you.

Men. For my part, I am sorry it is turned to a drink

ing. Pompey doth this day laugh away his fortune.

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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 120 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?

Eno. 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 130 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, off Misenum.

Music plays. Enter two or three Servants, with a banquet.
First Serv. Here they'll be, man. Some o' their
plants are ill-rooted already; the least wind i'
the world will blow them down.

Sec. Serv. Lepidus is high-coloured.
First Serv. They have made him drink alms-drink.
Sec. Serv. As they pinch one another by the dis-
position, he cries out 'No more'; reconciles
them to his entreaty and himself to the drink.
First Serv. But it raises the greater war between him
and his discretion.

Sec. Serv. 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 partisan I could not
heave.

First Serv. To be called 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 Casar, Antony, Lepidus, Pompey, Agrippa, Macenas, Enobarbus, Menas, with other captains. Ant. [To Casar] 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.

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. 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.

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[Aside to Men.] Say in mine ear: what is 't?

Men. [Aside to Pom.] Forsake thy seat, I do beseech thee,

Pom.

captain,

And hear me speak a word.

[Aside 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. 'Tis a strange serpent.

Ant. 'Tis so.

And the tears of it are wet.

Cas. Will this description satisfy him?

40

50 Ant. 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.

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.

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Pom. Thou hast served me with much faith. What's else

to say?

Be jolly, lords.

Ant.

These quick-sands, Lepidus,

Pom.

What say'st thou?

Keep off them, for you sink.

Men. Wilt thou be lord of all the world?

Men. Wilt thou be lord of the whole world? That's twice.

Pom. How should that be?

Men.

Pom.

But entertain it,

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

Hast thou drunk well?

Men. No, 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,

Pom.

Is thine, if thou wilt ha't.

Show me which way.

Men. 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 :

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