Let me have your hand:
I did not think, sir, to have met you here.
ANTONY.
The beds i’ the East are soft; and, thanks to you,
That call’d me, timelier than my purpose, hither;
For I have gained by it.
CAESAR.
Since I saw you last
There is a change upon you.
POMPEY.
Well, I know not
What counts harsh fortune casts upon my face;
But in my bosom shall she never come
To make my heart her vassal.
LEPIDUS.
Well met here.
POMPEY.
I hope so, Lepidus.—Thus we are agreed:
I crave our composition may be written,
And seal’d between us.
CAESAR.
That’s the next to do.
POMPEY.
We’ll feast each other ere we part; and let’s
Draw lots who shall begin.
ANTONY.
That will I, Pompey.
POMPEY.
No, Antony, take the lot: but, first
Or last, your fine Egyptian cookery
Shall have the fame. I have heard that Julius Caesar
Grew fat with feasting there.
ANTONY.
You have heard much.
POMPEY.
I have fair meanings, sir.
ANTONY.
And fair words to them.
POMPEY.
Then so much have I heard;
And I have heard Apollodorus carried,—
ENOBARBUS.
No more of that:—he did so.
POMPEY.
What, I pray you?
ENOBARBUS.
A certain queen to Caesar in a mattress.
POMPEY.
I know thee now: how far’st thou, soldier?
ENOBARBUS.
Well;
And well am like to do; for I perceive
Four feasts are toward.
POMPEY.
Let me shake thy hand;
I never hated thee: I have seen thee fight,
When I have envied thy behaviour.
ENOBARBUS.
Sir,
I never lov’d you much; but I ha’ prais’d ye
When you have well deserv’d ten times as much
As I have said you did.
POMPEY.
Enjoy thy plainness;
It nothing ill becomes thee.—
Aboard my galley I invite you all:
Will you lead, lords?
CAESAR, ANTONY, and LEPIDUS.
Show’s the way, sir.
POMPEY.
Come.
[Exeunt all but ENOBARBUS and MENAS.]
MENAS.
[Aside.] Thy father, Pompey, would ne’er have made this treaty.—
You and I have known, sir.
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, here they might take two thieves kissing.
MENAS.
All men’s faces are true, whatsome’er their hands are.
ENOBARBUS.
But there is never a fair woman has a true face.
MENAS.
No slander; they steal hearts.
ENOBARBUS.
We came hither to fight with you.
MENAS. For my part, I am sorry it is turn’d to a drinking. Pompey doth this day laugh away his fortune.
ENOBARBUS.
If he do, sure he cannot weep it back again.
MENAS. You have said, sir. We look’d 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 you, sir?
ENOBARBUS.
‘Tis true.
MENAS.
Then is Caesar and he for ever knit together.
ENOBARBUS.
If I were bound to divine of this unity, I would not prophesy so.
MENAS. I think the policy of that purpose made more in the marriage than the love of the parties.
ENOBARBUS. I think so too. But you shall find the band that seems to tie their friendship together will be the very strangler of their amity: Octavia is of a holy, cold, and still conversation.
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 dish again: then shall the sighs of Octavia blow the fire up in Caesar; and, as I said before, that which is the strength of their amity shall prove the immediate author of their variance. Antony will use his affection where it is: he married but his occasion here.
MENAS. And thus it may be. Come, sir, will you aboard? I have a health for you.
ENOBARBUS.
I shall take it, sir: we have used our throats in Egypt.
MENAS.
Come, let’s away.
[Exeunt.]
SCENE VII. On board POMPEY’S Galley, lying near Misenum.
[Music. Enter two or three SERVANTS with a banquet.]
FIRST SERVANT. Here