So far ask pardon, as befits mine Honour

To stoop in fuch a case.

Lep. Tis nobly fpoken.

Mec. If it might pleafe you, to enforce no further The griefs between ye: to forget them quite,

Were to remember, that the prefent need,

Speaks to arone you.

Lep. Worthily spoken, Mecanas.

Eno. Or if you borrow one another's Love for the inftant, you may when you hear no more words of Pompey return it again: you fhall have time to wrangle in, when you have nothing elfe to do.

Ant. Thou art a Soldier, only speak no more.

Eno. That truth fhould be filent, I had almost forgot.
Ant. You wrong this prefence, therefore fpeak no more.
Eno. Go to then your confiderate Stone,
Caf. I do not much diflike the matter, but
The manner of his Speech: for't cannot be,
We fhall remain in friendship, our conditions
So differing in their Acts. Yet if I knew,

What Hoop fhould hold us ftaunch, from edge to edge
Ath' the World, I would purfue it.

Agr. Give me leave, Cafar.

Cafar. Speak, Agrippa.

Agr. Thou hafta Sifter by thy Mother's fide, Admir'd Octavia! Great Mark Antony

Is now a Widower.

Caf. Say not fo, Agrippa; if Cleopatra heard you, your proof were well deferved of rafhness,

Ant. I am not married, Cafar; let me hear

Agrippa further speak.

Agr. To hold you in perpetual amity,

To make you Brothers, and to knit your Hearts
With an unflipping Knot, take Antony
Octavia to his Wife; whofe beauty claims
No worse a Husband than the beft of Men;
Whofe Virtue, and whofe general Graces (peak
That which none elfe can utter. By this Marriage,
All little Jealoufies which now feem great,
And all great fears, which now import their dangers,
Would then be nothing. Truths would be tales,

Where

Where now half tales be truths: her love to both
Would each to other, and all loves to both
Draw after her, Pardon what I have spoke,
For 'tis a ftudied, not a prefent Thought,
By duty ruminated.

Ant. Will Cafar fpeak?

Caf. Not 'til he hears how Antony is touch'd, With what is fpoken already.

Ant. What power is in Agrippa, If I would fay Agrippa, be it fo, To make this good?"

Caf. The power of Cafar,
And his power unto Octavia,
Ant. May I never

To this good purpose, that fo fairly fhews,
Dream of impediment; let me have thy hand
Further this A& of Grace: and from this hour,
The Heart of Brothers govern in our Loves,
And fway our great Defigns.

Caf. There's my hand:

A Sifter I bequeath you, whom no Brother

Did ever love fo dearly. Let her live

To join our Kingdoms, and our Hearts, and never

Fly off our Loves again.

Lep. Happily, Amen.

Ant. I did not think to draw my Sword against Pompey, For he hath laid ftrange Courtefies, and great

Of late upon me.

I must thank him only,

Left my remembrance fuffer ill report;

At heel of that defie him.

Lep. Time calls upon's,

Of us muft Pompey presently be fought,

Or else he feeks out us.

Ant. Where lyes he?

Caf. About the Mount-Mifenum.

Ant: What is his ftrength by Land?

Caf. Great, and increasing:

But by Sea he is an abfolute Master.

Ant. So is the Frame,

Would we had spoke together. Hafte we for it,
Yet e'er we put our felvés in Arms, dispatch we

The

The Bufinefs we have talk'd of.

Caf. With moft gladness.

And do invite you to my Sifter's view,

Whither straight I'll lead you.

Ant. Let us, Lepidus, not lack your Company.
Lep. Noble Antony, not ficknefs fhould detain me.

Manent Enobarbus, Agrippa, Mecenas.

Mec. Welcome from Egypt, Sir.

[Exeunt.

Exo. Half the Heart of Cefar, worthy Mecanas. My Honourable Friend Agrippa.

Agr. Good Enobarbus.

Mec. We have cause to be glad, that matters are so well digefted: you ftay'd well by't in Egypt.

Eno. Ay Sir, we did fleep day out of countenance, and made the Night light with drinking.

Mec. Eight Wild-boars roafted whole at a breakfast: and but twelve Perfons there. Is this true?

Eno. This was but a Fly by an Eagle: we had much more monstrous matter of Feaft, which worthily deferved noting.

Mec. She's a moft triumphant Lady, if report be fquare to her.

Eno. When she first met Mark Antony, the purs'd up his upon the River of Cydnus.

Heart

Agr. There the appear'd indeed: or my reporter devis'd well for her.

Eno. I will tell you;

The Barge the fat in, like a Burnish'd Throne

Burnt on the water; the Poop was beaten Gold,
Purple the Sails, and fo perfumed, that

The Winds were Love-fick.

With them the Oars were Silver,

Which to the tune of Flutes kept ftroke, and made
The water which they beat, to follow faster,

As

amorous of their ftrokes. For her own Perfon,

It beggar'd all defcription; fhe did lye

In her Pavillion, Cloth of Gold, of Tiffue,
O'er-picturing that Venus, where we fee

The Fancy out-work Nature. On each fide her
pretty dimpled Boys, like fmiling Cupids,

Stood

With divers-colour'd Fans, whose wind did feem
To glow the delicate Cheeks which they did cool,
And what they undid did.

Agr. Oh rare for Antony.

Eno. Her Gentlewomen, like the Nereides,
So many Mere-maids tended her i' th' Eyes,
And made their bends adornings. At the Helm,
A feeming Meet-maid fteers; the Silken Tackles
Swell with the touches of those Flower-foft hands,
That yearly frame the Office. From the Barge
A ftrage invifible perfume hits the Sense
Of the adjacent Wharfs. The City caft
Her People out upon her; and Antony
Enthroan'd i'th' Market-place, did fit alone,
Whistling to th' Air; which but for vacancy,
Had gone to gaze on Cleopatra 100,
And make a gap in Nature.

Agr. Rare Egyptian!

Eno. Upon her landing, Antony fent to her,
Invited her to Supper: fhe replyed,

It should be better, he became her Gueft;
Which the entreated. Our Courteous Antony,
Whom ne'er, the word of no, Woman heard speak,
Being barber'd ten times o'er, goes to the Feaft:
And for his Ordinary, pays his Heart,

For what his Eyes eat only.

Agr. Royal wench!

She made great Cafar lay his Sword to Bed,
He ploughed her, and fhe cropt.

Eno. I faw her once

Hop forty Paces through the publick Street.

And having loft her breath, the fpoke, and panted,
That she did make defect, perfection,

And breathless power breath forth.

Mec. Now Antony muft leave her utterly.

Eno. Never, he will not.

Age cannot wither her, nor custom steal
Her infinite variety: Other Women cloy
The Appetites they feed, but the makes hungry,
Where moft the fatisfies. For vileft things
Become themselves in her, that the holy Priests

Blef

Blefs her, when he is Riggifh.

Mec. If Beauty, Wisdom, Modefty, can settle The Heart of Antony, Octavia is

A bleffed Lottery to him.

Agr. Let us go.

Good Enobarbas, make

your

felf my

Gueft,

Whilft you abide here.

Eno. Humbly, Sir, I thank you.

Enter Antony, Cæsar, O&avia between them.

Ast. The World, and my great Office, will fometimes Divide me from your Bofom

Ota. All which time;

Before the Gods my Knee fhall bow in Prayers

To them for you.

Ant. Good Night Sir. My Octavia,

Read not my blemishes in the World's report:
I have not kept my fquare, but that to come

Shall all be done by th' Rule; good Night, dear Lady.
Octa. Good Night, Sir.

Caf. Good Night.

[Exeunt Cæfar and Octavia.

Enter Soothsayer.

Ant. Now Sirrah! do you wish your felf in Ægypt? Sooth. Would I had never come from thence, nor you thither.

Ant. If you can, your reafon?

Sooth. I fee it in my motion, have it not in my Tongue; But yet hie you to Egypt again.

Ant. Say to me, whofe Fortune fhall rife higher, Cafar's

or mine?

Sooth. Cafar's. Therefore, oh Antony, ftay not by his fide.
Thy Demen, that's thy Spirit which keeps thee, is
Noble, Cagious, High, Unmatchable,

Where Cafar's is not.. But near him thy Angel
Becomes a fears as being o'erpower'd, and therefore

Make space enough between you.

Ant. Speak this no more.

Sooth. To none but thee, no more, but when to thee,

If thou doft play with him at any Game,

Thou art fure to lofe: And of that Natural luck

He beats thee 'gainft the odds. Thy Luftre thickens,
When he fhines by: I fay again, thy Spirit