POMPEY I shall do well:
The people love me, and the sea is mine.
My powers are crescent, and my auguring hope
Says it will come to th’ full. Mark Antony
In Egypt sits at dinner, and will make
No wars without doors. Caesar gets money where
He loses hearts. Lepidus flatters both,
Of both is flattered; but he neither loves,
Nor either cares for him. (2.1.8-16)
Pompey’s got a grip now, both reassuring and asserting himself; complacent even. Actually things are OK: I shall do well, he says, I’m positive about the situation really. The people love me and the sea is mine: this reflects the news that’s been heard already at Rome, that Pompey is popular, and that he’s dominating the sea, winning his battles there. My powers are crescent, like a waxing moon, and my auguring hope, my optimism and my ability to anticipate the future (my prophetic soul, as Hamlet would say) tells me that I will triumph, come to the full, as the moon must. My fortunes are on the up and my success in time is inevitable. In the meantime, Mark Antony in Egypt sits at dinner, rather a curiously staid and domestic image for the libidinous sensuality in which Antony wallows, as if he were more akin to Toby Belch than the obsessed lover portrayed thus far. But it’s the usual early modern conflation of appetites, food and sex; Pompey could make clear, even, that at dinner is a euphemism for other forms of sensual indulgence, or perhaps it’s a slightly prissy reluctance to say what Antony’s actually up to, making him more like Octavius Caesar. (Antony is definitely eating well in Egypt, that he’s at dinner is more often than not literally true, as well as standing for all the sex.) He makes no wars without doors, a slightly odd way of saying that Antony’s not going anywhere, not going abroad at all, but also perhaps suggesting that he’s domestically enthralled, to Cleopatra that is. All his energies are focused inwards. Caesar gets money where he loses hearts; he’s not popular like me, says Pompey, even though he’s doing OK in terms of financial support. And Lepidus—well, he’s a write-off. He flatters both Antony and Caesar, and they flatter him in return, but really it’s lip-service on both sides; he dislikes them, and they don’t rate him at all. No, it’s my time, says Pompey, I can feel it…