Antony and Cleopatra
Act II, Scene 6

Near Misenum.

Gaius Maecenas

0. Flourish. Enter Pompey, Menas at one door, with Drum and
0. Trumpet: at another, Caesar, Lepidus, Antony, Enobarbus,
0. Maecenas, Agrippa, with Soldiers marching.

Pompeius

1 - 2

1. Your hostages I have, so have you mine;
2. And we shall talk before we fight.

Caesar

3 - 9

3.                                    Most meet
4. That first we come to words, and therefore have we
5. Our written purposes before us sent,
6. Which if thou hast considered, let us know
7. If ’twill tie up thy discontented sword,
8. And carry back to Sicily much tall youth
9. That else must perish here.

Pompeius

10 - 25

10.                             To you all three,
11. The senators alone of this great world,
12. Chief factors for the gods: I do not know
13. Wherefore my father should revengers want,
14. Having a son and friends, since Julius Caesar,
15. Who at Philippi the good Brutus ghosted,
16. There saw you laboring for him. What was’t
17. That mov’d pale Cassius to conspire? And what
18. Made all-honor’d, honest, Roman Brutus,
19. With the arm’d rest, courtiers of beauteous freedom,
20. To drench the Capitol, but that they would
21. Have one man but a man? And that is it
22. Hath made me rig my navy, at whose burden
23. The anger’d ocean foams, with which I meant
24. To scourge th’ ingratitude that despiteful Rome
25. Cast on my noble father.

Caesar

26

26.                          Take your time.

Mark Antony

27 - 29

27. Thou canst not fear us, Pompey, with thy sails;
28. We’ll speak with thee at sea. At land, thou know’st
29. How much we do o’er-count thee.

Pompeius

30 - 33

30.                                 At land indeed
31. Thou dost o’er-count me of my father’s house;
32. But since the cuckoo builds not for himself,
33. Remain in’t as thou mayst.

Lepidus

34 - 36

34.                            Be pleas’d to tell us
35. (For this is from the present) how you take
36. The offers we have sent you.

Caesar

37

37.                              There’s the point.

Mark Antony

38 - 39

38. Which do not be entreated to, but weigh
39. What it is worth embrac’d.

Caesar

40 - 41

40.                            And what may follow,
41. To try a larger fortune.

Pompeius

42 - 47

42.                          You have made me offer
43. Of Sicily, Sardinia; and I must
44. Rid all the sea of pirates; then, to send
45. Measures of wheat to Rome. This ’greed upon,
46. To part with unhack’d edges and bear back
47. Our targes undinted.

Caesar, Antony and Lepidus

48

48.                      That’s our offer.

Pompeius

49 - 56

49.                   Know then
50. I came before you here a man prepar’d
51. To take this offer; but Mark Antony
52. Put me to some impatience. Though I lose
53. The praise of it by telling, you must know,
54. When Caesar and your brother were at blows,
55. Your mother came to Sicily and did find
56. Her welcome friendly.

Mark Antony

57 - 59

57.                       I have heard it, Pompey,
58. And am well studied for a liberal thanks,
59. Which I do owe you.

Pompeius

60 - 61

60.                     Let me have your hand.
61. I did not think, sir, to have met you here.

Mark Antony

62 - 64

62. The beds i’ th’ East are soft, and thanks to you,
63. That call’d me timelier than my purpose hither;
64. For I have gain’d by’t.

Caesar

65 - 66

65.                         Since I saw you last,
66. There’s a change upon you.

Pompeius

67 - 70

67.                            Well, I know not
68. What counts harsh Fortune casts upon my face,
69. But in my bosom shall she never come,
70. To make my heart her vassal.

Lepidus

71

71.                              Well met here.

Pompeius

72 - 74

72. I hope so, Lepidus. Thus we are agreed.
73. I crave our composition may be written
74. And seal’d between us.

Caesar

75

75.                        That’s the next to do.

Pompeius

76 - 77

76. We’ll feast each other ere we part, and let’s
77. Draw lots who shall begin.

Mark Antony

78

78.                            That will I, Pompey.

Pompeius

79 - 82

79. No, Antony, take the lot; but first
80. Or last, your fine Egyptian cookery
81. Shall have the fame. I have heard that Julius Caesar
82. Grew fat with feasting there.

Mark Antony

83

83.                               You have heard much.

Pompeius

84

84. I have fair meanings, sir.

Mark Antony

85

85.                            And fair words to them.

Pompeius

86 - 87

86. Then so much have I heard;
87. And I have heard, Apollodorus carried—

Domitius Enobarbus

88

88. No more of that; he did so.

Pompeius

89

89.                             What, I pray you?

Domitius Enobarbus

90

90. A certain queen to Caesar in a mattress.

Pompeius

91

91. I know thee now: how far’st thou, soldier?

Domitius Enobarbus

92 - 94

92.                                            Well,
93. And well am like to do, for I perceive
94. Four feasts are toward.

Pompeius

95 - 97

95.                         Let me shake thy hand,
96. I never hated thee. I have seen thee fight,
97. When I have envied thy behavior.

Domitius Enobarbus

98 - 101

98.                                  Sir,
99. I never lov’d you much, but I ha’ prais’d ye
100. When you have well deserv’d ten times as much
101. As I have said you did.

Pompeius

102 - 105

102.                         Enjoy thy plainness,
103. It nothing ill becomes thee.
104. Aboard my galley I invite you all.
105. Will you lead, lords?

Caesar, Antony and Lepidus

106

106.                       Show ’s the way, sir.

Pompeius

107

107.                       Come.

0. Exeunt. Manent Enobarbus and Menas.

Menas

108 - 109

0. Aside.
108. Thy father, Pompey, would ne’er have made this treaty.—You
109. and I have known, sir.

Domitius Enobarbus

110

110. At sea, I think.

Menas

111

111. We have, sir.

Domitius Enobarbus

112

112. You have done well by water.

Menas

113

113. And you by land.

Domitius Enobarbus

114 - 115

114. I will praise any man that will praise me, though it cannot
115. be denied what I have done by land.

Menas

116

116. Nor what I have done by water.

Domitius Enobarbus

117 - 118

117. Yes, something you can deny for your own safety: you have
118. been a great thief by sea.

Menas

119

119. And you by land.

Domitius Enobarbus

120 - 122

120. There I deny my land service. But give me your hand, Menas;
121. if our eyes had authority, here they might take two thieves
122. kissing.

Menas

123

123. All men’s faces are true, whatsome’er their hands are.

Domitius Enobarbus

124

124. But there is never a fair woman has a true face.

Menas

125

125. No slander, they steal hearts.

Domitius Enobarbus

126

126. We came hither to fight with you.

Menas

127 - 128

127. For my part, I am sorry it is turn’d to a drinking. Pompey
128. doth this day laugh away his fortune.

Domitius Enobarbus

129

129. If he do, sure he cannot weep’t back again.

Menas

130 - 131

130. Y’ have said, sir. We look’d not for Mark Antony here. Pray
131. you, is he married to Cleopatra?

Domitius Enobarbus

132

132. Caesar’s sister is call’d Octavia.

Menas

133

133. True, sir, she was the wife of Caius Marcellus.

Domitius Enobarbus

134

134. But she is now the wife of Marcus Antonius.

Menas

135

135. Pray ye, sir?

Domitius Enobarbus

136

136. ’Tis true.

Menas

137

137. Then is Caesar and he forever knit together.

Domitius Enobarbus

138 - 139

138. If I were bound to divine of this unity, I would not
139. prophesy so.

Menas

140 - 141

140. I think the policy of that purpose made more in the marriage
141. than the love of the parties.

Domitius Enobarbus

142 - 145

142. I think so too. But you shall find the band that seems to
143. tie their friendship together will be the very strangler of
144. their amity. Octavia is of a holy, cold, and still
145. conversation.

Menas

146

146. Who would not have his wife so?

Domitius Enobarbus

147 - 152

147. Not he that himself is not so; which is Mark Antony. He will
148. to his Egyptian dish again. Then shall the sighs of Octavia
149. blow the fire up in Caesar, and (as I said before) that
150. which is the strength of their amity shall prove the
151. immediate author of their variance. Antony will use his
152. affection where it is; he married but his occasion here.

Menas

153 - 154

153. And thus it may be. Come, sir, will you aboard? I have a
154. health for you.

Domitius Enobarbus

155

155. I shall take it, sir; we have us’d our throats in Egypt.

Menas

156

156. Come, let’s away.

0. Exeunt.