By certain scales i' the pyramid: they know, By the height, the lowness, or the mean, if dearth, Lep. You have 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.] Pompey, a word. Pom. [Aside.] Say in mine ear: what is't? Men. [Aside.] Forsake thy seat, I do beseech thee, captain, And hear me speak a word. Pom. This wine for Lepidus. [Aside.] Forbear me till anon. 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 its 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 its own colour too. Lep. "Tis a strange serpent. Ant. "Tis so; and the tears of it are wet. 6 Or FOISON, follow.] "Foison" is plenty. See Vol. ii. p. 21, and Vol. vii. In the former of these instances it is used in the plural. p. 165. Cæs. Will this description satisfy him? Ant. With the health that Pompey gives him, else he is a very epicure. Pom. [To MENAS, aside.] Go, hang, sir, hang! Tell me of that? away! Do as I bid you.-Where's this cup I call'd for? hear me, Rise from thy stool. Pom. [Aside.] I think, thou'rt mad. The matter? [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 quick-sands, Lepidus, Keep off them, for 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 earthly Jove: Whate'er the ocean pales, or sky inclips', Is thine, if thou wilt have't. Pom. 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: 7 Whate'er the ocean PALES, or sky INCLIPS,] Whatever the ocean incloses, or the sky embraces. See Vol. iii. p. 533 ; Vol. iv. p. 85 ; Vol. v. p. 180 ; Vol. vi. p. 233. All there is thines. Pom. Ah! this thou should'st have done, And not have spoke on't. In me, 'tis villainy; In thee, 't had been good service. Thou must know, 'Tis 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. Men. [Aside.] For this, Desist, and drink. 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. Pom. This health to Lepidus. Ant. Bear him ashore.-I'll pledge it for him, Pom pey. Eno. Here's to thee, Menas. Men. Pom. Fill, till the cup be hid. Enobarbus, welcome. Eno. There's a strong fellow, Menas. [Pointing to the Attendant who carries off LEPIDUS. Men. Eno. Why? He bears The third part of the world, man: see'st not? Men. The third part, then, he is drunk: would it were all, That it might go on wheels'! Eno. Drink thou; increase the reels. Men. Come. Pom. This is not yet an Alexandrian feast. Ant. It ripens towards it.-Strike the vessels, ho! Here is to Cæsar. Cæs. I could well forbear it. * All THERE is thine.] So every old copy, which it is needless to alter, although Southern, in his copy of the folio, 1685, substituted then for "there." 9 That it might go on wheels !] A proverbial expression: a pamphlet on the use of carriages, by Taylor, the Water-poet, printed in 1623, is entitled, "The Wold runs (not goes, as Malone gives it) on Wheels." It's monstrous labour, when I wash my brain, And it grows fouler. Ant. Be a child o' the time. Cas. Possess it, I'll make answer; but I had rather fast From all four days, than drink so much in one. Eno. Ha, my brave emperor! Shall we dance now the Egyptian Bacchanals, Pom. [TO ANTONY. 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. Eno. All take hands. Make battery to our ears with the loud music; The while I'll place you: then, the boy shall sing ; As his strong sides can volley. [Music plays. ENOBARBUS places them hand in hand. SONG. Come, thou monarch of the vine, Cæs. What would you more?-Pompey, good night. 1 The HOLDING every man shall BEAR,] The old reading is beat for "bear," a change which Theobald introduced, and no misprint is perhaps more common than to substitute t for r: "the holding" is the burden, or, as it is sometimes called, the foot (see "Patient Grissell," reprinted by the Shakespeare Society, Act. i. sc. 1.) of a song; and to bear the holding is very intelligible, while to beat the holding is the reverse, unless the allusion be to beating time. The words, as loud as his strong sides can volley," seem to warrant the slight change. 66 Let me request you off: our graver business Good I'll try you on the shore. your hand. Ant. And shall, sir. Give's Pom. O, Antony! You have my father's house. But what? friends. Come down into the boat. Eno. Menas, I'll not on shore. [Exeunt POMPEY, CÆSAR, ANTONY, and Attendants. Take heed you fall not.— No, to my cabin3.— Men. 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! Eno. Ho, says 'a!-There's my cap. [A Flourish. Ho!-noble captain! come. [Exeunt. * SPLITS what it speaks:] In the three earliest folios "splits" is spelt spleets, and we are not sure that the orthography of the word ought not to be preserved. Spleets was not the old mode of spelling "splits," and the variation might be intentional. 3 No, to my cabin, &c.] It is surprising to see with what coolness important variations from the folio, 1623, are sometimes made by modern editors, without any information as to the defects of that copy. These words, and the three lines following them, are part of the speech of Enobarbus in the folio, 1623, and there is no doubt that they belong to Menas, but it is surely fit to notice the change. It is not pointed out by Malone, (Shakspeare by Boswell, vol. xii. p. 272) whose text seems to have here been implicitly followed by later editors. |