A market-maid to Rome; and have prevented
The ostent of our love, which, left unshown
Is often left unlov'd: we should have met you
By sea, and land; supplying every stage
With an augmented greeting.

Oct. Good my lord,

To come thus was I not constrain'd, but did it
On my free-will. My lord, Mark Antony,
Hearing that you prepar'd for war, acquainted
My grieved ear withal; whereon, I begg'd
His pardon for return.

Caes. Which soon he granted,

Being an obstruct 'tween his lust and him."
Oct. Do not say so, my lord.

Cas. I have eyes upon him,

And his affairs come to me on the wind.

Where is he now ?

Oct. My lord, in Athens.

Cæs. No, my most wronged sister; Cleopatra

Hath nodded him to her. He hath given his empire

Up to a whore; who now are levying

The kings o'the earth for war: He hath assembled
Bocchus, the king of Lybia; Archelaus,

Of Cappadocia, Philadelphos, king

Of Paphlagonia; the Tracian king, Adallas ;
King Malchus of Arabia; king of Pont;

Herod of Jewry; Mithridates, king

Of Comagene; Polemon and Amintas,

The kings of Mede, and Lycaonia, with a

More larger list of scepters.

Oct. Ah me, most wretched,

That have my heart parted betwixt two friends,
That do afflict each other!

Cues. Welcome hither:

Your letters did withhold our breaking forth;
Till we perceiv'd, both how you were wrong led,
And we in negligent danger. Cheer your heart:
Be you not troubled with the time, which drives
O'er your content these strong necessities;
But let determin'd things to destiny

Hold unbewail'd their way.

Nothing more dear to me.

Welcome to Rome :
You are abus'd

[6] That is, his wife being an obstruction, a bar to the prosecution of his wantog pleasures with Cleopatra.

WARBURTON.

By certain scales i'the pyramid; they know,
By the height, the lowness, or the mean, if dearth,
Or foizon, 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 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 crocodile. Ant. They are so.

your

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. Pompey, a word.

Pom. Say in mine ear: What is't?

Men. Forsake thy seat, I do beseech thee, captain,

And hear me speak a word.

[Aside.

[Aside.

Pom. 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 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.
Cæs. Will this description satisfy him?

Ant. With the health that Pompey gives him, else he is a very epicure.

Pom. [To MENUS aside.] Go, hang, sir, hang! Tell me of that? away!

[8] Foizon is a French word signifying plenty, abundance. I am told that it is still in common use in the North. STEEVENS.

[9] Pyramis for pyramids was in common use in our author's time. From this word Shakespeare formed the English plural, pyramises, to mark the indistinct pronunciation of a man nearly intoxicated whose tongue is now beginning to "split what it speaks." In other places he has introduced the Latin plural pyramides, which was constantly used by our ancient writers. MALONE.

Do as I bid you.-Where's this cup I call'd for?

Men. If for the sake of merit thou wilt hear me,

Rise from thy stool.

Pom. I think, thou'rt mad.

The matter?

[Aside.

[Rises, and 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,

Although 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:
All there is thine.

Pom. Ah, this thou should'st have done,

And not have spoke on't! In me, 'tis villany;
In thee, it 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. Desist, and drink.

Men. For this,

I'll never follow thy pall'd fortunes more.9

Who seeks, and will not take, when once 'tis offer'd,

[Aside.

Competitors---Confederates, partners.

Shall never find it more.

STEEVENS.

Palled--is vapid, past its time of excellence; palled wine, is wine that has lost

its original sprightliness. JOHNSON.

Pom. This health to Lepidus.

Ant. Bear him ashore.-I'll pledge it for him, Pompey. Eno. Here's to thee, Menas.

Men. Enobarbus, welcome.

Pom. Fill, till the cup be hid.

Eno. There's a strong fellow, Menas.

[Pointing to the attendant who carries off LEPIDUS.

Men. Why?

Eno. He bears

The third part of the world, mah; See'st not?

Men. The third part then 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.

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,
And celebrate our drink?

Pom. Let's ha't, good soldier. "

་

Ant. Come, let us all take hands ;

[TO ANT.

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;
The holding every man shall bear, as loud

As his strong sides can volley.

[Music plays. ENO. places them hand in hand.

[1] Strike the vessels--means chink the vessels one against the other as a mark of our unanimity in drinking, as we now say, chink glasses. STEEVENS.

So, in one of Iago's songs:

RITSON.

"And let me the cannikin clink." Vessels probably meant kettle-drums, which were beaten when the health of a person of eminence was drank; immediately after we have," make battery to our ears with the loud music." They are called kettles in Hamlet:

"Give me the cups;

And let the kettle to the trumpet speak."

HOLT WHITE.

SONG.

Come, thou monarch of the vine,
Plumpy Bacchus, with pink eyne
In thy vats 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!

Cas. What would you more?Pompey, good night.
-Good brother,

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 Enobarbe
Is weaker than the wine; and mine own tongue
Splits what it speaks: the wild disguise hath almost
Antick'd us all. What needs more words? Good night.
-Good Antony, your hand.

Pom. I'll try you o'the shore.

Ant. And shall, sir: give's your hand.

Pom. O, Antony,

You have my father's house,-But what? we are friends : Come, down into the boat.

Eno. Take heed you fall not.

[Exeunt Pox, CES. ANT, and Attendants.

Menas, I'll not on shore.

Men. No, to my cabin.

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.

[A flourish of trumpets, with drums.

Eno. Ho, says 'a!-There's my cap.

Men. Ho-noble captain!

Come!

[Exeunt.

[3] Dr. Johnson, in his Dictionary, says a pink eye is a small eye, and quotes this passage for his authority. Pink eyne, however, may mean red eyes: eyes inflamed with drinking, are very well appropriated to Bacchus. So, in Julius Caesar:

such ferret and such fiery eyes."

It should be observed, however, that from the following passage in P. Holland's translation of the 11th Book of Pliny's Natural History, it appears that pink eyed bignified the smallness of eyes: "also them that were pinke-eyed and had verie small eies, they termed ocella."

STEEVENS.

VOL. VIII.

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