Enobarbus and Menas remain

MENAS    Thy father, Pompey, would ne’er have made
Aside
        this treaty.—You and I have known108, sir.
To Enobarbus

ENOBARBUS    At sea, I think.

MENAS    We have, sir.

ENOBARBUS    You have done well by water.

MENAS    And you by land.

ENOBARBUS    I will praise any man that will praise me, though it
        cannot be denied what I have done by land.

MENAS    Nor what I have done by water.

ENOBARBUS    Yes, something you can deny for your own safety:
    you have been a great thief by sea.

MENAS    And you by land.

ENOBARBUS    There I deny my land service. But give me your
        hand, Menas. If our eyes had authority,
They shake hands
        here they might take121 two thieves kissing.

MENAS    All men’s faces are true122, whatsome’er their hands
        are.

ENOBARBUS    But there is never a fair woman has a true124 face.

MENAS    No slander. They steal hearts.

ENOBARBUS    We came hither to fight with you.

MENAS    For my part, I am sorry it is turned to a drinking.
        Pompey doth this day laugh away his fortune.

ENOBARBUS    If he do, sure he cannot weep’t back again.

MENAS    You’ve said130, sir. We looked not for Mark Antony
        here. Pray you, is he married to Cleopatra?

ENOBARBUS    Caesar’s sister is called 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?135

ENOBARBUS    ’Tis true.

MENAS    Then is Caesar and he forever knit together.

ENOBARBUS    If I were bound to divine138 of this unity, I would not
        prophesy so.

MENAS    I think the policy of that purpose made more in140 the
        marriage than the love of the parties.

ENOBARBUS    I think so too. But you shall find, the band142 that
        seems to tie their friendship together will be the very
        strangler of their amity: Octavia is of a holy, cold and still144
        conversation145.

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 dish148 again: then shall the
        sighs of Octavia blow the fire up149 in Caesar, and — as I said
        before — that which is the strength of their amity shall
        prove the immediate author151 of their variance. Antony will
        use his affection where it is152. He married but his occasion
        here.

MENAS    And thus it may be. Come, sir, will you aboard? I
        have a health155 for you.

ENOBARBUS    I shall take it, sir: we have used our throats in
        Egypt.

MENAS    Come, let’s away.
Exeunt

[Act 2 Scene 7]                               
running scene 8

Location: on board Pompey’s galley, off Misena (Misenum) in southern Italy   

Music plays. Enter two or three Servants with a banquet

FIRST SERVANT    Here they’ll be, man. Some o’their plants1 are ill-rooted
        already: the least wind i’th’world will blow them
        down.

SECOND SERVANT    Lepidus is high-coloured4.

FIRST SERVANT    They have made him drink alms-drink5.

SECOND SERVANT    As they pinch one another by the disposition6,
        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
        discretion10.

SECOND SERVANT    Why, this it is to have a name in great men’s
        fellowship11: I had as lief12 have a reed that will do me no service
        as a partisan13 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, which
        pitifully16 disaster the cheeks14.

A sennet sounded. Enter Caesar, Antony, Pompey, Lepidus, Agrippa, Maecenas, Enobarbus, Menas, with other Captains [and a Boy Singer]

ANTONY    Thus do they, sir: they take17 the flow o’th’Nile
        By certain scales18 i’th’pyramid. They know,
        By th’height, the lowness, or the mean19, if dearth
        Or foison20 follow. The higher Nilus swells,
        The more it promises. As it ebbs, the seedsman
        Upon the slime and ooze22 scatters his grain,
        And shortly comes to harvest.

LEPIDUS    You’ve 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 crocodile26.

ANTONY    They are so.

POMPEY    Sit, and some wine! A health to
They sit and drink
        Lepidus!

LEPIDUS    I am not so well as I should be, but I’ll ne’er out31.

ENOBARBUS    Not till you have slept.—I fear me you’ll be
Aside
        in33 till then.

LEPIDUS    Nay, certainly, I have heard the Ptolemies34’ pyramises
        are very goodly things: without contradiction, I have heard
        that.

MENAS    Pompey, a word.
Aside to Pompey

POMPEY    Say in mine ear what is’t.
Aside to Menas

MENAS    Forsake39 thy seat, I do beseech thee,
Aside to Pompey

    captain,
        And hear me speak a word.

POMPEY    Whispers in’s ear     Forbear me till anon41.—
        This wine for Lepidus!

LEPIDUS    What manner o’thing is your crocodile?

ANTONY    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 transmigrates45.

LEPIDUS    What colour is it of?

ANTONY    Of it48 own colour too.

LEPIDUS    ’Tis a strange serpent.

ANTONY    ’Tis so. And the tears50 of it are wet.

CAESAR    Will this description satisfy him?

Menas whispers again

ANTONY    With the health that Pompey gives him,
        else53 he is a very epicure.

Aside to Menas

POMPEY    Go hang, sir, hang! Tell me of that?
        Away!
        Do as I bid you.—Where’s this cup I called for?

MENAS    If for the sake of merit56 thou wilt
Aside to Pompey
        hear me,
        Rise from thy stool.

POMPEY    I think thou’rt mad. The matter?58
Aside to Menas
        
Pompey and Menas step aside and converse apart

MENAS    I have ever held my cap off59 to thy fortunes.

POMPEY    Thou hast served me with much faith60. What’s
        else to say?—
        Be jolly, lords.
To the others

ANTONY    These quicksands62, Lepidus,
        Keep off them, for you sink.

MENAS    Wilt thou be lord of all the world?

POMPEY    What say’st thou?

MENAS    Wilt thou be lord of the whole world? That’s twice.

POMPEY    How should that be?

MENAS    But entertain68 it,
        And, though thou think me poor, I am the man
        Will give thee all the world.

POMPEY    Hast thou drunk well?

MENAS    No, Pompey, I have kept me from the cup.
        Thou art, if thou dar’st be, the earthly Jove:
        Whate’er the ocean pales74 or sky inclips
        Is thine, if thou wilt ha’t.

POMPEY    Show me which way.

MENAS    These three world-sharers, these competitors77,
        Are in thy vessel. Let me cut the cable78,
        And when we are put off79, fall to their throats:
        All there is thine.

POMPEY    Ah, this thou shouldst have done
        And not have spoke on’t82. 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, it84. Repent that e’er thy tongue
        Hath so betrayed86 thine act: being done unknown,
        I should have found it afterwards well done,
        But must condemn it now. Desist88, and drink.