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On board POMPEY'S galley, off Misenum

Music plays. Enter two or three SERVANTS with a banquet

FIRST SERVANT.

Here they'll be, man. Some o' their plants are

ill-rooted already; the least wind i' th' world will blow them down.

SECOND SERVANT.

Lepidus is high-colour'd.

FIRST SERVANT.

They have made him drink alms-drink.

SECOND SERVANT.

As they pinch one another by the disposition, he

cries out 'No more!'; reconciles them to his entreaty and himself to th' drink.

FIRST SERVANT.

But it raises the greater war between him and his discretion.

SECOND SERVANT.

Why, this it is to have a name in great men's

fellowship. I had as lief have a reed that will do me no service

as a partizan I could not heave.

FIRST SERVANT.

To be call'd into a huge sphere, and not to be seen

to move in't, are the holes where eyes should be, which pitifully

disaster the cheeks.

A sennet sounded. Enter CAESAR, ANTONY, LEPIDUS,

POMPEY, AGRIPPA, MAECENAS, ENOBARBUS, MENAS,

with other CAPTAINS

ANTONY.

[To CAESAR] 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 it ebbs, the seedsman

Upon the slime and ooze scatters his grain,

And shortly comes to harvest.

LEPIDUS.

Y'have 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.

ENOBARBUS.

Not till you have slept. I fear me you'll be in till then.

LEPIDUS.

Nay, certainly, I have heard the Ptolemies' pyramises are

very goodly things. Without contradiction I have heard that.

MENAS.

[Aside to POMPEY] Pompey, a word.

POMPEY.

[Aside to MENAS] Say in mine ear; what is't?

MENAS.

[Aside to POMPEY] Forsake thy seat, I do beseech thee,

Captain,

And hear me speak a word.

POMPEY.

[Whispers in's ear ] Forbear me till anon-

This wine for Lepidus!

LEPIDUS.

What manner o' thing is your crocodile?

ANTONY.

It is shap'd, 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 colour is it of?

ANTONY.

Of it own colour too.

LEPIDUS.

'Tis a strange serpent.

ANTONY.

'Tis so. And the tears of it are wet.

CAESAR.

Will this description satisfy him?

ANTONY.

With the health that Pompey gives him, else he is a very epicure.

POMPEY.

[Aside to MENAS] Go, hang, sir, hang! Tell me of that!

Away!

Do as I bid you.- Where's this cup I call'd for?

MENAS.

[Aside to POMPEY] If for the sake of merit thou wilt hear me,

Rise from thy stool.

POMPEY.

[Aside to MENAS] I think th'art mad. [Rises and walks

aside] The matter?

MENAS.

I have ever held my cap off to thy fortunes.

POMPEY.

Thou hast serv'd me with much faith. What's else to

say?-

Be jolly, lords.

ANTONY.

These quicksands, Lepidus,

Keep off them, for you sink.

MENAS.

Wilt thou be lord of all the world?

POMPEY.

What say'st thou?

MENAS.

Wilt thou be lord of the whole world? That's twice.

POMPEY.

How should that be?

MENAS.

But entertain it,

And though you think me poor, I am the man

Will give thee all the world.

POMPEY.

Hast thou drunk well?

MENAS.

No, Pompey, I have kept me from the cup.

Thou art, if thou dar'st be, the earthly Jove;

Whate'er the ocean pales or sky inclips

Is thine, if thou wilt ha't.

POMPEY.

Show me which way.

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 there 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

'Tis not my profit that