BOY                 [sings] Come, thou monarch of the vine, Plumpy Bacchus, with pink eyne! In thy vats our cares be drowned, With thy grapes our hairs be crowned! Cup us till the world go round, Cup us till the world go round! CAESAR          What would you more? Pompey, good night.        (2.7.106-112)   On the page it looks […]

ENOBARBUS  [to Antony]     Ha, my brave Emperor, Shall we dance now the Egyptian bacchanals, And celebrate our drink? POMPEY                     Let’s ha’t, good soldier. ANTONY         Come, let’s all take hands Till that the conquering wine hath steeped our sense In soft and delicate Lethe. ENOBARBUS              All take hands. Make battery to our ears with the loud […]

POMPEY         This is not yet an Alexandrian feast. ANTONY         It ripens towards it. Strike the vessels, ho! Here’s to Caesar! CAESAR                      I could well forbear’t. It’s monstrous labour when I wash my brain, An it grow fouler. ANTONY                     Be a child o’th’ time. CAESAR          Possess it, I’ll make answer. But I had rather fast from […]

MENAS           [aside] For this, I’ll never follow thy palled fortunes more. Who seeks and will not take when once ’tis offered, Shall never find it more. POMPEY                     This health to Lepidus! ANTONY         Bear him ashore.—I’ll pledge it for him, Pompey. ENOBARBUS  Here’s to thee, Menas! MENAS           Enobarbus, welcome. POMPEY                     Fill till the cup be hid. [One […]

MENAS           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 then is thine. POMPEY         Ah, this thou shouldst have done And not have spoke on’t. In me ’tis villainy, In thee ’t had been good service. Thou must know […]

MENAS           Wilt thou be lord of all the world? POMPEY         What sayst thou? MENAS           Wilt thou be lord of the whole world? That’s twice. POMPEY         How should that be? MENAS                                               But entertain it And, though thou think me poor, I am the man Will give thee all the world. POMPEY         Hast thou drunk well? MENAS           […]

POMPEY         [aside to Menas] Go hang, sir, hang! Tell me of that? Away, Do as I bid you. [Aloud] Where’s this cup I called for? MENAS           [aside to Pompey] If for the sake of merit thou wilt hear me, Rise from thy stool. POMPEY         [rising] I think thou’rt mad. The matter? MENAS           I have ever held my cap off to […]

LEPIDUS         What manner o’ thing is your crocodile? ANTONY         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 it own organs. It lives by that which nourisheth it, and the elements once out of it, it transmigrates. LEPIDUS         What […]

LEPIDUS         You’ve strange serpents there? ANTONY         Ay, Lepidus. LEPIDUS         Your serpent of Egypt is bred now of your mud by the operation of your sun; so is your crocodile. ANTONY         They are so. POMPEY         Sit, and some wine. A health to Lepidus! LEPIDUS         I am not so well as I should be, but I’ll ne’er out. […]

A sennet sounded. Enter Caesar, Antony, Pompey, Lepidus, Agrippa, Maecenas, Enobarbus, [and] Menas, with other captains ANTONY         Thus do they, sir: they take the flow o’th’ Nile By certain scales i’th’ pyramid. They know By th’ height, the lowness, or the mean, if dearth Or foison follow. The higher Nilus swells The more it promises; as […]