Antony and Cleopatra by William Shakespeare
Act 2 - Scene 6
Near Misenum.
Pompey : Your hostages I have, so have you mine;
[p]And we shall talk before we
fight.
Pompey : To you all three,
[p]The senators alone of this great world,
[p]Chief
factors for the gods, I do not know
[p]Wherefore my father should
revengers want,
[p]Having a son and friends; since Julius
Caesar,
[p]Who at Philippi the good Brutus ghosted,
[p]There saw you
labouring for him. What was't
[p]That moved pale Cassius to conspire;
and what
[p]Made the all-honour'd, honest Roman, Brutus,
[p]With the
arm'd rest, courtiers and beauteous freedom,
[p]To drench the Capitol;
but that they would
[p]Have one man but a man? And that is it
[p]Hath
made me rig my navy; at whose burthen
[p]The anger'd ocean foams; with
which I meant
[p]To scourge the ingratitude that despiteful
Rome
[p]Cast on my noble father.
Pompey : At land, indeed,
[p]Thou dost o'er-count me of my father's
house:
[p]But, since the cuckoo builds not for himself,
[p]Remain in't
as thou mayst.
Pompey : You have made me offer
[p]Of Sicily, Sardinia; and I must
[p]Rid all
the sea of pirates; then, to send
[p]Measures of wheat to Rome; this
'greed upon
[p]To part with unhack'd edges, and bear back
[p]Our
targes undinted.
Pompey : Know, then,
[p]I came before you here a man prepared
[p]To take this
offer: but Mark Antony
[p]Put me to some impatience: though I
lose
[p]The praise of it by telling, you must know,
[p]When Caesar and
your brother were at blows,
[p]Your mother came to Sicily and did
find
[p]Her welcome friendly.
Pompey : Let me have your hand:
[p]I did not think, sir, to have met you here.
Pompey : Well, I know not
[p]What counts harsh fortune casts upon my
face;
[p]But in my bosom shall she never come,
[p]To make my heart her
vassal.
Pompey : I hope so, Lepidus. Thus we are agreed:
[p]I crave our composition may
be written,
[p]And seal'd between us.
Pompey : We'll feast each other ere we part; and let's
[p]Draw lots who shall
begin.
Pompey : No, Antony, take the lot: but, first
[p]Or last, your fine Egyptian
cookery
[p]Shall have the fame. I have heard that Julius
Caesar
[p]Grew fat with feasting there.
Pompey : I have fair meanings, sir.
Pompey : Then so much have I heard:
[p]And I have heard, Apollodorus carried--
Domitius Enobarus : No more of that: he did so.
Pompey : What, I pray you?
Domitius Enobarus : A certain queen to Caesar in a mattress.
Pompey : I know thee now: how farest thou, soldier?
Domitius Enobarus : Well;
[p]And well am like to do; for, I perceive,
[p]Four feasts are
toward.
Pompey : Let me shake thy hand;
[p]I never hated thee: I have seen thee
fight,
[p]When I have envied thy behavior.
Domitius Enobarus : Sir,
[p]I never loved you much; but I ha' praised ye,
[p]When you have
well deserved ten times as much
[p]As I have said you did.
Pompey : Enjoy thy plainness,
[p]It nothing ill becomes thee.
[p]Aboard my
galley I invite you all:
[p]Will you lead, lords?
Pompey : Come.
Menas : [Aside] Thy father, Pompey, would ne'er have
[p]made this treaty.--You
and I have known, sir.
Domitius Enobarus : At sea, I think.
Menas : We have, sir.
Domitius Enobarus : You have done well by water.
Menas : And you by land.
Domitius Enobarus : I will praise any man that will praise me; though it
[p]cannot be
denied what I have done by land.
Menas : Nor what I have done by water.
Domitius Enobarus : Yes, something you can deny for your own
[p]safety: you have been a
great thief by sea.
Menas : And you by land.
Domitius Enobarus : There I deny my land service. But give me your
[p]hand, Menas: if our
eyes had authority, here they
[p]might take two thieves kissing.
Menas : All men's faces are true, whatsome'er their hands are.
Domitius Enobarus : But there is never a fair woman has a true face.
Menas : No slander; they steal hearts.
Domitius Enobarus : We came hither to fight with you.
Menas : For my part, I am sorry it is turned to a drinking.
[p]Pompey doth
this day laugh away his fortune.
Domitius Enobarus : If he do, sure, he cannot weep't back again.
Menas : You've said, sir. We looked not for Mark Antony
[p]here: pray you, is
he married to Cleopatra?
Domitius Enobarus : Caesar's sister is called Octavia.
Menas : True, sir; she was the wife of Caius Marcellus.
Domitius Enobarus : But she is now the wife of Marcus Antonius.
Menas : Pray ye, sir?
Domitius Enobarus : 'Tis true.
Menas : Then is Caesar and he for ever knit together.
Domitius Enobarus : If I were bound to divine of this unity, I would
[p]not prophesy so.
Menas : I think the policy of that purpose made more in the
[p]marriage than
the love of the parties.
Domitius Enobarus : I think so too. But you shall find, the band that
[p]seems to tie
their friendship together will be the
[p]very strangler of their
amity: Octavia is of a
[p]holy, cold, and still conversation.
Menas : Who would not have his wife so?
Domitius Enobarus : Not he that himself is not so; which is Mark Antony.
[p]He will to his
Egyptian dish again: then shall the
[p]sighs of Octavia blow the fire
up in Caesar; and, as
[p]I said before, that which is the strength of
their
[p]amity shall prove the immediate author of their
[p]variance.
Antony will use his affection where it is:
[p]he married but his
occasion here.
Menas : And thus it may be. Come, sir, will you aboard?
[p]I have a health for
you.
Domitius Enobarus : I shall take it, sir: we have used our throats in Egypt.
Menas : Come, let's away.
Previous: Act 2 - Scene 5
Next: Act 2 - Scene 7
