ENOBARBUS Ay, sir, we did sleep day out of countenance, and made the night light with drinking.

MAECENAS Eight wild boars roasted whole at a breakfast and but twelve persons there—is this true?

ENOBARBUS This was but as a fly by an eagle. We had much more monstrous matter of feast, which worthily deserved noting.

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

ENOBARBUS When she first met Mark Antony, she pursed up his heart upon the river of Cydnus.

AGRiPPA There she appeared indeed, or my reporter devised well for her.

ENOBARBUS I will tell you.

The barge she sat in, like a burnished throne

Burned on the water. The poop was beaten gold;

Purple the sails, and so perfumed that

The winds were love-sick with them. The oars were

silver,

Which to the tune of flutes kept stroke, and made

The water which they beat to follow faster,

As amorous of their strokes. For her own person,

It beggared all description. She did lie

In her pavilion—cloth of gold, of tissue—

O’er-picturing that Venus where we see

The fancy outwork nature. On each side her

Stood pretty dimpled boys, like smiling Cupids,

With divers-coloured fans whose wind did seem

To glow the delicate cheeks which they did cool,

And what they undid did.

AGRIPPA O, rare for Antony!

ENOBARBUS

Her gentlewomen, like the Nereides,

So many mermaids, tended her i‘th’ eyes,

And made their bends adornings. At the helm

A seeming mermaid steers. The silken tackle

Swell with the touches of those flower-soft hands

That yarely frame the office. From the barge

A strange invisible perfume hits the sense

Of the adjacent wharfs. The city cast

Her people out upon her, and Antony,

Enthroned i’th’ market-place, did sit alone,

Whistling to th’air, which but for vacancy

Had gone to gaze on Cleopatra too,

And made a gap in nature.

AGRIPPA Rare Egyptian!

ENOBARBUS

Upon her landing Antony sent to her,

Invited her to supper. She replied

It should be better he became her guest,

Which she entreated. Our courteous Antony,

Whom ne‘er the word of ‘No’ woman heard speak,

Being barbered ten times o’er, goes to the feast,

And for his ordinary pays his heart

For what his eyes eat only.

AGRIPPA

Royal wench!

She made great Caesar lay his sword to bed.

He ploughed her, and she cropped.

ENOBARBUS

I saw her once

Hop forty paces through the public street,

And having lost her breath, she spoke and panted,

That she did make defect perfection,

And breathless, pour breath forth.

MAECENAS

Now Antony

Must leave her utterly.

ENOBARBUS

Never. He will not.

Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale

Her infinite variety. Other women cloy

The appetites they feed, but she makes hungry

Where most she satisfies. For vilest things

Become themselves in her, that the holy priests

Bless her when she is riggish.

MAECENAS

If beauty, wisdom, modesty can settle

The heart of Antony, Octavia is

A blessed lottery to him.

AGRIPPA

Let us go.

Good Enobarbus, make yourself my guest

Whilst you abide here.

ENOBARBUS Humbly, sir, I thank you.

Exeunt

2.3 Enter Antony and Caesar; Octavia between them

ANTONY

The world and my great office will sometimes

Divide me from your bosom.

OCTAVIA

All which time, Before the gods my knee shall bow my prayers

To them for you.

ANTONY

Good night, sir. My Octavia, Read not my blemishes in the world’s report.

I have not kept my square, but that to come

Shall all be done by th’ rule. Good night, dear lady.

Good night, sir.

CAESAR Good night.

Exeunt Caesar and Octavia

Enter Soothsayer

ANTONY

Now, sirrah. You do wish yourself in Egypt?

SOOTHSAYER

Would I had never come from thence, nor you

Gone thither.

ANTONY If you can, your reason?

SOOTHSAYER

I see it in my motion, have it not in my tongue.

But yet hie you to Egypt again.

ANTONY

Say to me

Whose fortunes shall rise higher: Caesar’s or mine?

SOOTHSAYER

Caesar’s. Therefore, O Antony, stay not by his side.

Thy daemon, that thy spirit which keeps thee, is

Noble, courageous, high, unmatchable,

Where Caesar’s is not. But near him thy angel

Becomes afeard, as being o’erpowered. Therefore

Make space enough between you.

ANTONY Speak this no more.

SOOTHSAYER

To none but thee; no more but when to thee.

If thou dost play with him at any game

Thou art sure to lose; and of that natural luck

He beats thee ‘gainst the odds. Thy lustre thickens

When he shines by. I say again, thy spirit

Is all afraid to govern thee near him;

But he away, ’tis noble.

ANTONY

Get thee gone.

Say to Ventidius I would speak with him.

Exit Soothsayer

He shall to Parthia; be it art or hap,

He hath spoken true. The very dice obey him,

And in our sports my better cunning faints

Under his chance. If we draw lots, he speeds.

His cocks do win the battle still of mine

When it is all to nought, and his quails ever