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Antony and Cleopatra: Act II, Scene 2

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Antony and Cleopatra
Act II, Scene 2

Rome. The house of Lepidus.

Byam Shaw, 1901

  1. Enter Enobarbus and Lepidus.

Lepidus

1 - 3
  1. Good Enobarbus, ’tis a worthy deed,
  2. And shall become you well, to entreat your captain
  3. To soft and gentle speech.

Domitius Enobarbus

4 - 9
  1.                            I shall entreat him
  2. To answer like himself. If Caesar move him,
  3. Let Antony look over Caesar’s head
  4. And speak as loud as Mars. By Jupiter,
  5. Were I the wearer of Antonio’s beard,
  6. I would not shave’t today.

Lepidus

10 - 11
  1.                            ’Tis not a time
  2. For private stomaching.

Domitius Enobarbus

12 - 13
  1.                         Every time
  2. Serves for the matter that is then born in’t.

Lepidus

14
  1. But small to greater matters must give way.

Domitius Enobarbus

15
  1. Not if the small come first.

Lepidus

16 - 18
  1.                              Your speech is passion;
  2. But pray you stir no embers up. Here comes
  3. The noble Antony.
  1. Enter Antony and Ventidius.

Domitius Enobarbus

19
  1.                   And yonder, Caesar.
  1. Enter Caesar, Maecenas, and Agrippa.

Mark Antony

20 - 21
  1. If we compose well here, to Parthia.
  2. Hark, Ventidius.

Caesar

22 - 23
  1.                  I do not know,
  2. Maecenas; ask Agrippa.

Lepidus

24 - 32
  1.                        Noble friends,
  2. That which combin’d us was most great, and let not
  3. A leaner action rend us. What’s amiss,
  4. May it be gently heard. When we debate
  5. Our trivial difference loud, we do commit
  6. Murder in healing wounds. Then, noble partners,
  7. The rather for I earnestly beseech,
  8. Touch you the sourest points with sweetest terms,
  9. Nor curstness grow to th’ matter.

Mark Antony

33 - 35
  1.                                   ’Tis spoken well.
  2. Were we before our armies, and to fight,
  3. I should do thus.
  1. Flourish.

Caesar

36
  1. Welcome to Rome.

Mark Antony

37
  1.                  Thank you.

Caesar

38
  1.            Sit.

Mark Antony

39
  1.      Sit, sir.

Caesar

40
  1.           Nay then.

Mark Antony

41 - 42
  1. I learn you take things ill which are not so—
  2. Or being, concern you not.

Caesar

43 - 48
  1.                            I must be laugh’d at
  2. If, or for nothing or a little, I
  3. Should say myself offended, and with you
  4. Chiefly i’ th’ world; more laugh’d at, that I should
  5. Once name you derogately, when to sound your name
  6. It not concern’d me.

Mark Antony

49 - 50
  1.                      My being in Egypt, Caesar,
  2. What was’t to you?

Caesar

51 - 54
  1. No more than my residing here at Rome
  2. Might be to you in Egypt; yet if you there
  3. Did practice on my state, your being in Egypt
  4. Might be my question.

Mark Antony

55
  1.                       How intend you, practic’d?

Caesar

56 - 59
  1. You may be pleas’d to catch at mine intent
  2. By what did here befall me. Your wife and brother
  3. Made wars upon me, and their contestation
  4. Was theme for you—you were the word of war.

Mark Antony

60 - 69
  1. You do mistake your business, my brother never
  2. Did urge me in his act. I did inquire it,
  3. And have my learning from some true reports
  4. That drew their swords with you. Did he not rather
  5. Discredit my authority with yours,
  6. And make the wars alike against my stomach,
  7. Having alike your cause? Of this my letters
  8. Before did satisfy you. If you’ll patch a quarrel,
  9. As matter whole you have to make it with,
  10. It must not be with this.

Caesar

70 - 72
  1.                           You praise yourself
  2. By laying defects of judgment to me; but
  3. You patch’d up your excuses.

Mark Antony

73 - 81
  1.                              Not so, not so:
  2. I know you could not lack, I am certain on’t,
  3. Very necessity of this thought, that I,
  4. Your partner in the cause ’gainst which he fought,
  5. Could not with graceful eyes attend those wars
  6. Which fronted mine own peace. As for my wife,
  7. I would you had her spirit in such another;
  8. The third o’ th’ world is yours, which with a snaffle
  9. You may pace easy, but not such a wife.
Gilt chain with blue and amber-stoned medallion

Gilt chain with blue and amber-stoned medallion

Worn by E.H. Sothern as Antony in Antony and Cleopatra.

unknown date

Domitius Enobarbus

82 - 83
  1. Would we had all such wives, that the men might go to wars
  2. with the women!

Mark Antony

84 - 88
  1. So much uncurbable, her garboils, Caesar,
  2. Made out of her impatience—which not wanted
  3. Shrewdness of policy too—I grieving grant
  4. Did you too much disquiet. For that you must
  5. But say I could not help it.

Caesar

89 - 92
  1.                              I wrote to you,
  2. When rioting in Alexandria you
  3. Did pocket up my letters; and with taunts
  4. Did gibe my missive out of audience.

Mark Antony

93 - 100
  1.                                      Sir,
  2. He fell upon me, ere admitted, then;
  3. Three kings I had newly feasted, and did want
  4. Of what I was i’ th’ morning; but next day
  5. I told him of myself, which was as much
  6. As to have ask’d him pardon. Let this fellow
  7. Be nothing of our strife; if we contend,
  8. Out of our question wipe him.

Caesar

101 - 103
  1.                               You have broken
  2. The article of your oath, which you shall never
  3. Have tongue to charge me with.

Lepidus

104
  1.                                Soft, Caesar!

Mark Antony

105 - 108
  1. No, Lepidus, let him speak.
  2. The honor is sacred which he talks on now,
  3. Supposing that I lack’d it. But on, Caesar,
  4. The article of my oath.

Caesar

109 - 110
  1. To lend me arms and aid when I requir’d them,
  2. The which you both denied.

Mark Antony

111 - 120
  1.                            Neglected, rather;
  2. And then when poisoned hours had bound me up
  3. From mine own knowledge. As nearly as I may,
  4. I’ll play the penitent to you; but mine honesty
  5. Shall not make poor my greatness, nor my power
  6. Work without it. Truth is, that Fulvia,
  7. To have me out of Egypt, made wars here;
  8. For which myself, the ignorant motive, do
  9. So far ask pardon as befits mine honor
  10. To stoop in such a case.

Lepidus

121
  1.                          ’Tis noble spoken.

Maecenas

122 - 125
  1. If it might please you, to enforce no further
  2. The griefs between ye: to forget them quite
  3. Were to remember that the present need
  4. Speaks to atone you.

Lepidus

126
  1.                      Worthily spoken, Maecenas.

Domitius Enobarbus

127 - 130
  1. Or, if you borrow one another’s love for the instant, you
  2. may, when you hear no more words of Pompey, return it again.
  3. You shall have time to wrangle in when you have nothing else
  4. to do.

Mark Antony

131
  1. Thou art a soldier only, speak no more.

Domitius Enobarbus

132
  1. That truth should be silent I had almost forgot.

Mark Antony

133
  1. You wrong this presence, therefore speak no more.

Domitius Enobarbus

134
  1. Go to then—your considerate stone.

Caesar

135 - 140
  1. I do not much dislike the matter, but
  2. The manner of his speech; for’t cannot be
  3. We shall remain in friendship, our conditions
  4. So diff’ring in their acts. Yet if I knew
  5. What hoop should hold us staunch from edge to edge
  6. A’ th’ world, I would pursue it.

Agrippa

141
  1.                                  Give me leave, Caesar—

Caesar

142
  1. Speak, Agrippa.

Agrippa

143 - 145
  1. Thou hast a sister by the mother’s side,
  2. Admir’d Octavia. Great Mark Antony
  3. Is now a widower.

Caesar

146 - 148
  1.                   Say not so, Agrippa;
  2. If Cleopatra heard you, your reproof
  3. Were well deserv’d of rashness.
Kyrle Bellew as Antony

Kyrle Bellew as Antony

Alexander Dyce, 1880

Mark Antony

149 - 150
  1.                                 I am not married, Caesar;
  2. Let me hear Agrippa further speak.

Agrippa

151 - 165
  1. To hold you in perpetual amity,
  2. To make you brothers, and to knit your hearts
  3. With an unslipping knot, take Antony
  4. Octavia to his wife; whose beauty claims
  5. No worse a husband than the best of men;
  6. Whose virtue and whose general graces speak
  7. That which none else can utter. By this marriage,
  8. All little jealousies, which now seem great,
  9. And all great fears, which now import their dangers,
  10. Would then be nothing. Truths would be tales,
  11. Where now half tales be truths. Her love to both
  12. Would each to other and all loves to both
  13. Draw after her. Pardon what I have spoke,
  14. For ’tis a studied, not a present thought,
  15. By duty ruminated.

Mark Antony

166
  1.                    Will Caesar speak?

Caesar

167 - 168
  1. Not till he hears how Antony is touch’d
  2. With what is spoke already.

Mark Antony

169 - 171
  1.                             What power is in Agrippa,
  2. If I would say, “Agrippa, be it so,”
  3. To make this good?

Caesar

172 - 173
  1.                    The power of Caesar, and
  2. His power unto Octavia.

Mark Antony

174 - 179
  1.                         May I never
  2. (To this good purpose, that so fairly shows)
  3. Dream of impediment! Let me have thy hand
  4. Further this act of grace; and from this hour
  5. The heart of brothers govern in our loves,
  6. And sway our great designs!

Caesar

180 - 184
  1.                             There’s my hand.
  2. A sister I bequeath you, whom no brother
  3. Did ever love so dearly. Let her live
  4. To join our kingdoms and our hearts, and never
  5. Fly off our loves again!

Lepidus

185
  1.                          Happily, amen!

Mark Antony

186 - 190
  1. I did not think to draw my sword ’gainst Pompey,
  2. For he hath laid strange courtesies and great
  3. Of late upon me. I must thank him only,
  4. Lest my remembrance suffer ill report;
  5. At heel of that, defy him.

Lepidus

191 - 193
  1.                            Time calls upon ’s.
  2. Of us must Pompey presently be sought,
  3. Or else he seeks out us.

Mark Antony

194
  1.                          Where lies he?

Caesar

195
  1. About the Mount Misena.

Mark Antony

196
  1. What is his strength by land?

Caesar

197 - 198
  1. Great, and increasing; but by sea
  2. He is an absolute master.

Mark Antony

199 - 202
  1.                           So is the fame.
  2. Would we had spoke together! Haste we for it,
  3. Yet ere we put ourselves in arms, dispatch we
  4. The business we have talk’d of.

Caesar

203 - 205
  1.                                 With most gladness,
  2. And do invite you to my sister’s view,
  3. Whither straight I’ll lead you.

Mark Antony

206 - 207
  1.                                 Let us, Lepidus,
  2. Not lack your company.

Lepidus

208 - 209
  1.                        Noble Antony,
  2. Not sickness should detain me.
  1. Flourish. Exeunt omnes. Manent Enobarbus, Agrippa, Maecenas.

Maecenas

210
  1. Welcome from Egypt, sir.

Domitius Enobarbus

211 - 212
  1. Half the heart of Caesar, worthy Maecenas! My honorable
  2. friend, Agrippa!

Agrippa

213
  1. Good Enobarbus!

Maecenas

214 - 215
  1. We have cause to be glad that matters are so well digested.
  2. You stay’d well by’t in Egypt.

Domitius Enobarbus

216 - 217
  1. Ay, sir, we did sleep day out of countenance, and made the
  2. night light with drinking.

Maecenas

218 - 219
  1. Eight wild-boars roasted whole at a breakfast, and but
  2. twelve persons there; is this true?

Domitius Enobarbus

220 - 221
  1. This was but as a fly by an eagle; we had much more
  2. monstrous matter of feast, which worthily deserv’d noting.
Cassell's Illustrated Shakespeare

There’s my hand.

From: Cassell's Illustrated Shakespeare

Charles Cowden Clarke, Mary Cowden Clarke, 1866

Maecenas

222
  1. She’s a most triumphant lady, if report be square to her.

Domitius Enobarbus

223 - 224
  1. When she first met Mark Antony, she purs’d up his heart upon
  2. the river of Cydnus.

Agrippa

225 - 226
  1. There she appear’d indeed; or my reporter devis’d well for
  2. her.

Domitius Enobarbus

227 - 242
  1. I will tell you.
  2. The barge she sat in, like a burnish’d throne,
  3. Burnt on the water. The poop was beaten gold,
  4. Purple the sails, and so perfumed that
  5. The winds were love-sick with them; the oars were silver,
  6. Which to the tune of flutes kept stroke, and made
  7. The water which they beat to follow faster,
  8. As amorous of their strokes. For her own person,
  9. It beggar’d all description: she did lie
  10. In her pavilion—cloth of gold, of tissue—
  11. O’er-picturing that Venus where we see
  12. The fancy outwork nature. On each side her
  13. Stood pretty dimpled boys, like smiling Cupids,
  14. With divers-color’d fans, whose wind did seem
  15. To glow the delicate cheeks which they did cool,
  16. And what they undid did.

Agrippa

243
  1.                          O, rare for Antony!

Domitius Enobarbus

244 - 256
  1. Her gentlewomen, like the Nereides,
  2. So many mermaids, tended her i’ th’ eyes,
  3. And made their bends adornings. At the helm
  4. A seeming mermaid steers; the silken tackle
  5. Swell with the touches of those flower-soft hands,
  6. That yarely frame the office. From the barge
  7. A strange invisible perfume hits the sense
  8. Of the adjacent wharfs. The city cast
  9. Her people out upon her; and Antony
  10. Enthron’d i’ th’ market-place, did sit alone,
  11. Whistling to th’ air, which, but for vacancy,
  12. Had gone to gaze on Cleopatra too,
  13. And made a gap in nature.

Agrippa

257
  1.                           Rare Egyptian!

Domitius Enobarbus

258 - 265
  1. Upon her landing, Antony sent to her,
  2. Invited her to supper. She replied,
  3. It should be better he became her guest;
  4. Which she entreated. Our courteous Antony,
  5. Whom ne’er the word of “No” woman heard speak,
  6. Being barber’d ten times o’er, goes to the feast;
  7. And for his ordinary pays his heart
  8. For what his eyes eat only.

Agrippa

266 - 268
  1.                             Royal wench!
  2. She made great Caesar lay his sword to bed;
  3. He ploughed her, and she cropp’d.

Domitius Enobarbus

269 - 273
  1.                                   I saw her once
  2. Hop forty paces through the public street;
  3. And having lost her breath, she spoke, and panted,
  4. That she did make defect perfection,
  5. And breathless, pow’r breathe forth.

Maecenas

274 - 275
  1.                                      Now Antony
  2. Must leave her utterly.

Domitius Enobarbus

276 - 282
  1.                         Never, he will not:
  2. Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale
  3. Her infinite variety. Other women cloy
  4. The appetites they feed, but she makes hungry
  5. Where most she satisfies; for vildest things
  6. Become themselves in her, that the holy priests
  7. Bless her when she is riggish.

Maecenas

283 - 285
  1. If beauty, wisdom, modesty, can settle
  2. The heart of Antony, Octavia is
  3. A blessed lottery to him.

Agrippa

286 - 288
  1.                           Let us go.
  2. Good Enobarbus, make yourself my guest
  3. Whilst you abide here.

Domitius Enobarbus

289
  1.                        Humbly, sir, I thank you.
  1. Exeunt.
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