So far ask pardon, as befits mine Honour

To stoop in such a cafe.

Lep. 'Tis nobly spoken.

Mec. If it might please you, to enforce no further

The griefs between ye: to forget them quite,

Were to remember, that the present need,

Speaks to arone you.

Lep. Worthily spoken, Mecenas.

Ene. 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 wrangle in, when you have nothing else to do.

Ant. Thou art a Soldier, only speak no more.

Eno. That truth should be filent, I had almost forgot. Ant. You wrong this prefence, therefore speak no more. Eno. Go to then: your confiderate Stone,

Caf.

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 Aas. Yet if I knew,

What Hoop should hold us staunch, from edge to edge

Ath' the World, I would pursue it.

Agr. Give me leave, Cafar.

Cafar. Speak, Agrippa.

Agr. Thou hast a Sister by thy Mother's fide,

Admir'd Octavia! Great Mark Antony

Is now a Widower.

Caf. Say not fo, Agrippa; if Cleopatra heard you, your

proof were well deserved of rasiness,

Ant. I am not married, Cafar; let me hear

Agrippa further speak.

Agr. To hold you in perpetual amity,
To make you Brothers, and to knit your Hearts
With an unflipping Knot, take Antony

:

Octavia to his Wife; whose beauty claims
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 Jealoufies which now feem great,
And all great fears, which now import their dangers,
Would then be nothing. Truths would be tales,

:

7

Where

1

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,
By duty ruminated,

Ant. Will Cafar speak?

Cas. Not 'til he hears how Antony is touch'd,

With what is spoken already.

Ant. What power is in Agrippa,

If I would say Agrippa, be it fo,
To make this good?

Cas. The power of Cafar,
And his power unto Octavia.
Ant. May I never

To this good purpose, that fo fairly shews,
Dream of impediment; let me havethy hand
Further this A& of Grace: and from this hour,
The Heart of Brothers govern in our Loves,

And sway our great Designs.

Caf. There's my hand:

A Sifter 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.

Lep. Happily, Amen.

Ant. I did not think to draw my Sword against Pompey,

For he hath laid strange Courtesies, and great

Of late upon me. I must thank him only,

Left my remembrance suffer ill report;

At heel of that defie him.

Lep. Time calls upon's,

Of us must Pompey presently be fought,

Or else he seeks out us.

Ant. Where lyes he?

Caf. About the Mount-Misenum.

Ant: What is his strength by Land ?

Caf. Great, and increasing :

But by Sea he is an absolute Master.
Ant. So is the Frame,

Would we had spoke together. Haste we for it,
Yet e'er we put our selves in Arms, dispatch we

The

Whither straight I'll lead you.

Ant. Let us, Lepidus, not lack your Company.
Lep. Noble Antony, not sickness should detain me.

Manent Enobarbus, Agrippa, Mecenas.

Mec. Welcome from Ægypt, Sir.

[Exeunt.

Eno. Half the Heart of Cesars worthy Mecanas. My Honourable Friend Agrippa.

Agr. Good Enobarbus.

Mec. We have cause to be glad, that matters are so well digefted: you stay'd well by't in Ægypt.

Eno. Ay Sir, we did fleep day out of countenance, and made the Night light with drinking.

Mec: Eight Wild-boars roasted whole at a breakfast: and but twelve Persons there. Is this true?

Eno. This was but a Fly by an Eagle: we had much more monstrous matter of Feaft, which worthily deferved noting.

Mec. She's a most triumphant Lady, if report be square to her.

Eno. When the first met Mark Antony, the purs'd up his Heart upon the River of Cydnus.

Agr. There she appear'd indeed: or my reporter devis'd well for her.

Eno. I will tell you;

The Barge the fat in, like a Burnish'd Throne
Burnt on the water; the Poop was beaten Gold,
Purple the Sails, and fo 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 fafter,
As amorous of their strokes. For her own Person,
It beggar'd all defcription; she did lye
In her Pavillion, Cloth of Gold, of Tissue,
O'er-picturing that Venus, where we fee
The he Fancy
Stood pretty dimpled Boys, like smiling Cupids,

out-work Nature. On each fide her

With

With divers colour'd Fans, whose wind did feem
To glow the delicate Cheeks which they did cool,
And what they undid did.

Agr. Oh rare for Antony.

Eno. Her Gentlewomen, like the Nereides,
So many Mere-maids tended her i'th' Eyes,
And made their bends adornings. At the Helm,
A feeming Meer-maid steers; the Silken Tackles
Swell with the touches of those Flower-soft hands,
That yearly frame the Office. From the Barge
A strage invisible perfume hits the Sense
Of the adjacent Wharfs. The City caft
Her People out upon her; and Antony
Enthroan'd i'th' Market-place, did fit alone,
Whistling to th' Air; which but for vacancy,
Had gone to gaze on Cleopatra 100,
And make a gap in Nature.
Agr. Rare Ægyptian!

Ene. Upon her landing, Antony sent to her,
Invited her to Supper: she replyed,
It should be better, he became her Guest;
Which the 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:
And for his Ordinary, pays his Heart,
For what his Eyes eat only.

Agr. Royal wench!

She made great Cafar lay his Sword to Bed,

He ploughed her, and she cropt.

Eno. I faw her once

Hop forty Paces through the publick Street.

And having loft her breath, she spoke, and panted,

That she did make defect, perfection,

And breathless power breath forth.

Mec. Now Antony must leave her utterly..

Eno. Never, he will not.

Age cannot wither her, nor custom steal
Her infinite variety: Other Women cloy
The Appetites they feed, but the makes hungry,
Where most she satisfies. For vilest things
Become themselves in her, that the holy Priests

:

Blef

Bless her, when she is Riggish.
Mec. If Beauty, Wisdom, Modesty, can fettle

The Heart of Antony, Octavia is

A blessed Lottery to him.

Agr. Let us go.

Good Enobarbas, make your self my Guest,

Whilft you abide here.

Eno. Humbly, Sir, I thank you.

Enter Antony, Cæfar, Octavia between them. Ant. The World, and my great Office, will fometimes

Divide me from your Bofom

Ofta. All which time;

Before the Gods my Knee shall bow in Prayers

To them for you.

Ant. Good Night Sir. My Octavia,

Read not my blemishes in the World's report:

I have not kept my square, but that to come

Shall all be done by the Rule; good Night, dear Lady.

Octa. Good Night, Sir.

Caf. Good Night.

[Exeunt Cæfar and Octavia.

Enter Soothsayer.

Ant. Now Sirrah! do you wish your self in Ægypt?

Sooth. Would I had never come from thence, nor you

thither.

Ant. If you can, your reafon?

Sooth. I fee it in my motion, have it not in my Tongue; But yet hie you to Ægypt again.

Ant. Say to me, whose Fortune shall rise higher, Cafar's

or mine?

Sooth. Cafar's. Therefore, oh Antony, stay not by his side.

Thy Damen, that's thy Spirit which keeps thee, is

Noble, Cagious, High, Unmatchable,

Where Cafar's is not.. But near him thy Angel
Becomes a fears as being o'erpower'd, and therefore

Make space enough between you.

Ant. Speak this no more.

Sooth. To none but thee, no more, but when to thee,

If thou dost play with him at any Game,

Thou art fure to lose: And of that Natural luck
He beats thee 'gainst the odds. Thy Lustre thickens,
When he shines by: I say again, thy Spirit

Is