Welcome, my good Alexas. Did I, Charmian,
Ever love Cæsar so?

Cleo. By Isis, I will give thee bloody teeth,
If thou with Cæsar paragon again

70

When I was green in judgment: cold in blood,
To say as I said then! But come, away;
Get me ink and paper:

He shall have every day a several greeting,
Or I'll unpeople Egypt.

[Exeunt.

ACT SECOND

SCENE I

Messina. Pompey's house.

Enter Pompey, Menecrates, and Menas, in warlike

manner.

Pom. If the great gods be just, they shall assist The deeds of justest men.

Mene.

Know, worthy Pompey, That what they do delay, they not deny.

Pom. Whiles we are suitors to their throne, decays The thing we sue for.

Mene.

We, ignorant of ourselves,

Beg often our own harms, which the wise pow

ers

Deny us for our good; so find we profit

By losing of our prayers.

Pom.

I shall do well:

9

The people love me, and the sea is mine;
My powers are crescent, and my auguring hope
Says it will come to the full. Mark Antony
In Egypt sits at dinner, and will make

No wars without doors: Cæsar gets money
where

10. "powers are crescent"; Theobald reads "pow'r's a crescent"; Becket conj. "power is crescent"; Anon. conj. "power's a-crescent.” -I. G.

He loses hearts: Lepidus flatters both,
Of both is flatter'd, but he neither loves,
Nor either cares for him.

Men.

Cæsar and Lepidus

Are in the field: a mighty strength they carry. Pom. Where have you this? 'tis false.

Men.

From Silvius, sir.

Pom. He dreams: I know they are in Rome to

gether,

Looking for Antony. But all the charms of love,

Salt Cleopatra, soften thy waned lip!

20

Let witchcraft join with beauty, lust with both!
Tie up the libertine in a field of feasts,
Keep his brain fuming; Epicurean cooks
Sharpen with cloyless sauce his appetite;

That sleep and feeding may prorogue his honor
Even till a Lethe'd dullness!

Var. This is most certain that I shall deliver:

Mark Antony is every hour in Rome

Expected: since he went from Egypt 'tis

30

21. "waned lip" is pale or faint colored lip; a lip that shows age or sickness; waned being a participle of the verb wane. Cleopatra has spoken of the waning of her beauty: "Think on me, that am with Phoebus' amorous pinches black, and wrinkled deep in time!" Mr. Dyce quotes an apt though comic passage from Fletcher's Queen of Corinth: “Oh, ruby lips, love hath to you been like wine-vinegar; now you look wan and pale, lips' ghosts ye are." There were no occasion for so much note, but that Mr. Collier would read wand-lip, as if Cleopatra's lip were a wand, and had magic in it. The context plainly requires the sense of waned.-H. N. H. 27. "till" was formerly used for to.-H. N. H.

A space for farther travel.

Pom.

A better ear.

I could have given less matter Menas, I did not think

This amorous surfeiter would have donn'd his helm

For such a petty war: his soldiership

Is twice the other twain: but let us rear
The higher our opinion, that our stirring
Can from the lap of Egypt's widow pluck
The ne'er-lust-wearied Antony.

Men.

I cannot hope
Cæsar and Antony shall well greet together:
His wife that's dead did trespasses to Cæsar; 40
His brother warr'd upon him; although, I think,
Not moved by Antony.

Pom.

I know not, Menas, How lesser enmities may give way to greater. Were 't not that we stand up against them all, 'Twere pregnant they should square between themselves;

For they have entertained cause enough

To draw their swords: but how the fear of us
May cement their divisions and bind up
The petty difference, we yet not know.

Be 't as our gods will have 't! It only stands 50
Our lives upon to use our strongest hands.
Come, Menas.

[Exeunt.

35. "rear the higher our opinion"; deem our reputation the greater.-C. H. H.

SCENE II

Rome. The house of Lepidus.

Enter Enobarbus and Lepidus.

Lep. Good Enobarbus, 'tis a worthy deed, And shall become you well, to entreat your captain

To soft and gentle speech.

Eno.

I shall entreat him

To answer like himself: if Cæsar move him,
Let Antony look over Cæsar's head

And speak as loud as Mars. By Jupiter,
Were I the wearer of Antonius' beard,

I would not shave 't to-day.

Lep.

"Tis not a time

Every time

For private stomaching.

Eno.

Serves for the matter that is then born in 't. 10 Lep. But small to greater matters must give way. Eno. Not if the small come first. Lep. Your speech is passion: But, pray you, stir no embers up. Here comes The noble Antony.

Eno.

Enter Antony and Ventidius.

And yonder, Cæsar.

Enter Cæsar, Maecenas, and Agrippa.

8. "would not shave"; that is, I would meet him undressed, without any show of respect.-H. N. H.