ACT II. SCENE I.

Messina. A Room in POMPEY'S House.

Enter POMPEY, MENECRATES, and MENAS.

Pom. If the great gods be just, they shall assist The deeds of justest men.

Mene.

Know, worthy Pompey,

That what they do delay, they not deny.

Pom. Whiles we are suitors to their throne, decays

The thing we sue for.

Mene.

We, ignorant of ourselves,

Beg often our own harms, which the wise powers
Deny us for our good; so find we profit,

By losing of our prayers.

Pom.

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 the full. Mark Antony
In Egypt sits at dinner, and will make

No wars without doors: Cæsar gets money, where
He loses hearts: Lepidus flatters both,

Of both is flatter'd; but he neither loves,

Nor either cares for him.

Men.

Cæsar and Lepidus

Are in the field: a mighty strength they carry.
Pom. Where have you this? 'tis false.

Men.

From Silvius, sir.

Pom. He dreams: I know, they are in Rome toge

ther,

Looking for Antony. But all the charms of love,

2 My powers ARE crescent,] Every old copy has " are crescent," which modern editors arbitrarily change to "a crescent:" thus we say, the moon is crescent, and will come to the full.

Salt Cleopatra, soften thy wand lip3!

Let witchcraft join with beauty, lust with both:
Tie up the libertine in a field of feasts,
Keep his brain fuming; Epicurean cooks,
Sharpen with cloyless sauce his appetite,

That sleep and feeding may prorogue his honour,
Even till a Lethe'd dulness.-How now, Varrius!
Enter VARRIUS.

Var. This is most certain, that I shall deliver.
Mark Antony is every hour in Rome

Expected; since he went from Egypt, 'tis
A space for farther travel.

Pom.

I could have given less matter

A better ear.-Menas, I did not think,

This amorous surfeiter would have don'd his helm
For such a petty war: his soldiership

Is twice the other twain. But let us rear
The higher our opinion, that our stirring
Can from the lap of Egypt's widow pluck
The ne'er lust-wearied Antony.

Men.
I cannot hope,
Cæsar and Antony shall well greet together:
His wife that's dead did trespasses to Cæsar;
His brother warr'd upon him', although, I think,
Not mov'd by Antony.

I know not, Menas,

Pom.
How lesser enmities may give way to greater.
Were't not that we stand up against them all,

3

soften thy wAND lip!] It may be doubted whether "wand" and "lip" ought not to be united by a hyphen : "wand" probably has reference to Cleopatra's power of enchantment--that her lip is as potent as a magician's wand: and this construction seems warranted by what immediately follows, "Let witchcraft join with beauty." "Wand" is the "witchcraft," and "lip" the "beauty." The conjectures that "wand" is misprinted for fond, or warm seem little better than idle; although, as Mr. B. Field suggests, waned or wan'd might, possibly, be the true reading.

His brother WARR'D upon him,] Misprinted "wan'd upon him" in the folio, 1623; but “warr'd upon him” in the folio, 1632.

'Twere pregnant they should squares between them

selves;

For they have entertained cause enough

To draw their swords: but how the fear of us
May cement their divisions, and bind up
The petty difference, we yet not know.
Be it as our gods will have 't! It only stands
Our lives upon, to use our strongest hands.
Come, Menas.

[Exeunt.

SCENE II.

Rome. A Room in the House of Lepidus.

Enter ENOBARBUS and LEPIDUS.

Lep. Good Enobarbus, 'tis a worthy deed,
And shall become you well, to entreat your captain
To soft and gentle speech.

Eno.

I shall entreat him

To answer like himself: if Cæsar move him,

Let Antony look over Cæsar's head,

And speak as loud as Mars. By Jupiter,
Were I the wearer of Antonius' beard,

I would not shave't to-day.

Lep.

Eno.

For private stomaching.

"Tis not a time

Every time

Serves for the matter that is then born in 't.

Lep. But small to greater matters must give way.
Eno. Not if the small come first.

Lep.

Your speech is passion:

they should sQUARE—] i. e. quarrel. See Vol. ii. p. 405. Mr. Bruce refers me to the following passage, exactly in point, in one of the Earl of Leicester's letters, Harl. MS. No. 285, fo. 66, "How thinges haue bredd this lytle square, between these two so well affected princes, I cannott tell.”

But, pray you, stir no embers up. Here comes
The noble Antony.

Enter ANTONY and VENTIDIUS.

Eno.

And yonder, Cæsar.

Enter CESAR, MECENAS, and AGRIPPA.

Ant. If we compose well here, to Parthia: Hark you, Ventidius.

That which combin'd us was most great, and let not

A leaner action rend us.

What's amiss,

May it be gently heard: when we debate

Our trivial difference loud, we do commit

Murder in healing wounds. Then, noble partners,
(The rather, for I earnestly beseech)

Touch you the sourest points with sweetest terms,
Nor curstness grow to the matter.

Ant.

"Tis spoken well.

Were we before our armies, and to fight,

I should do thus.

Cæs. Welcome to Rome.

Ant.

Cæs. Sit.

Ant. Sit, sir.

Cæs. Nay, then

Thank you.

Ant. I learn, you take things ill, which are not so;

Or, being, concern you not.

Cæs.

If, or for nothing, or a little, I

I must be laugh'd at,

Should say myself offended; and with you

Chiefly i' the world: more laugh'd at, that I should Once name you derogately, when to sound your name It not concern'd me.

Ant.

What was't to you?

My being in Egypt, Cæsar,

Cæs. No more than my residing here at Rome
Might be to you in Egypt: yet, if you there
Did practise on my state, your being in Egypt
Might be my question.

Ant.

How intend you, practis'd?

Cæs. You may be pleas'd to catch at mine intent, By what did here befal me. Your wife, and brother, Made wars upon me, and their contestation

Was theme for you; you were the word of war.

Ant. You do mistake your business: my brother

never

Did urge me in his act: I did enquire it;

And have my learning from some true reports,

That drew their swords with you. Did he not rather
Discredit my authority with yours;

And make the wars alike against my stomach,
Having alike your cause? Of this my letters
Before did satisfy you. If you'll patch a quarrel,
As matter whole you have to make it witho,
It must not be with this.

Cæs.

You praise yourself By laying defects of judgment to me; but You patch'd up your excuses.

Ant.

Not so, not so;

I know you could not lack, I am certain on't,
Very necessity of this thought, that I,

Your partner in the cause 'gainst which he fought,
Could not with graceful eyes attend those wars

6 As matter whole you have to make it with,] The meaning seems to be, "Do not find out a cause of quarrel where none exists: do not patch a quarrel when no patching is required, because the matter is whole." Rowe put a negative into the line, "You have not to make it with ;" but Southern seems to have found no deficiency, and therefore made no correction, in his folio, 1685. All the folios, subsequent to the first, corruptly read, "to take it with." I am warranted by the opinion of Mr. Amyot in not, in this instance, deviating from the old text, which seems sufficiently intelligible, although nearly every editor since Rowe has deserted it.