SCENE I.
Messina. Pompey's House.
Enter 1 notePompey, Menecrates, and Menas.
Pomp.
If the great gods be just, they shall assist
The deeds of justest men.
Men.
Know, worthy Pompey,
That what they do delay, they not deny.
Pomp.
2 note
Whiles we are suitors to their throne, decays
The thing we sue for.
-- 157 --
Men.
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.
Pomp.
I shall do well:
The people love me, and the sea is mine;
3 note
My power's a crescent, and my auguring hope
Says, it will come to the full. Mark Antony
In Ægypt 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.
Pomp.
Where have you this? 'tis false.
Men.
From Silvius, sir.
Pomp.
He dreams; I know, they are in Rome together,
Looking for Antony: But all the charms of love,
-- 158 --
Salt Cleopatra, soften 4 note
thy wan lip!
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:
-- 159 --
Mark Antony is every hour in Rome
Expected; since he went from Ægypt, 'tis
A space for farther travel5 note
.
Pomp.
I could have given less matter
A better ear.—Menas, I did not think,
This amorous surfeiter would have don'd his helm6 note
For such a petty war: his soldiership
Is twice the other twain: 7 note
But let us rear
The higher our opinion, that our stirring
Can from the lap of Ægypt's widow pluck
The ne'er lust-wearied Antony.
-- 160 --
Men.
I cannot hope8 note
,
Cæsar and Antony shall well greet together:
His wife, that's dead, did trespasses to Cæsar;
His brother warr'd upon him9 note; although, I think,
Not mov'd by Antony.
Pomp.
I know not, Menas,
How lesser enmities may give way to greater.
Were't not that we stand up against them all,
'Twere pregnant they should 1 note
square between themselves;
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 it! It only stands
2 noteOur lives upon, to use our strongest hands.
Come, Menas.
[Exeunt.
-- 161 --
Samuel Johnson [1778], The plays of William Shakspeare. In ten volumes. With the corrections and illustrations of various commentators; to which are added notes by Samuel Johnson and George Steevens. The second edition, Revised and Augmented (Printed for C. Bathurst [and] W. Strahan [etc.], London) [word count] [S10901].
