Speeches (Lines) for DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS in "Antony and Cleopatra"

ALEXAS. Show him your hand.

DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS. Bring in the banquet quickly; wine enough
Cleopatra's health to drink.

ALEXAS. We'll know all our fortunes.

DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS. Mine, and most of our fortunes, to-night, shall
be--drunk to bed.

ALEXAS. Lo, now, if it lay in their hands to make me a
cuckold, they would make themselves whores, but
they'ld do't!

DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS. Hush! here comes Antony.

CLEOPATRA. Saw you my lord?

DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS. No, lady.

CLEOPATRA. He was disposed to mirth; but on the sudden
A Roman thought hath struck him. Enobarbus!

DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS. Madam?

ANTONY. Forbear me.
[Exit Second Messenger]
There's a great spirit gone! Thus did I desire it:
What our contempt doth often hurl from us,
We wish it ours again; the present pleasure,
By revolution lowering, does become
The opposite of itself: she's good, being gone;
The hand could pluck her back that shoved her on.
I must from this enchanting queen break off:
Ten thousand harms, more than the ills I know,
My idleness doth hatch. How now! Enobarbus!

DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS. What's your pleasure, sir?

ANTONY. I must with haste from hence.

DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS. Why, then, we kill all our women:
we see how mortal an unkindness is to them;
if they suffer our departure, death's the word.

ANTONY. I must be gone.

DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS. Under a compelling occasion, let women die; it were
pity to cast them away for nothing; though, between
them and a great cause, they should be esteemed
nothing. Cleopatra, catching but the least noise of
this, dies instantly; I have seen her die twenty
times upon far poorer moment: I do think there is
mettle in death, which commits some loving act upon
her, she hath such a celerity in dying.

ANTONY. She is cunning past man's thought.

DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS. Alack, sir, no; her passions are made of nothing but
the finest part of pure love: we cannot call her
winds and waters sighs and tears; they are greater
storms and tempests than almanacs can report: this
cannot be cunning in her; if it be, she makes a
shower of rain as well as Jove.

ANTONY. Would I had never seen her.

DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS. O, sir, you had then left unseen a wonderful piece
of work; which not to have been blest withal would
have discredited your travel.

ANTONY. Fulvia is dead.

DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS. Sir?

ANTONY. Fulvia is dead.

DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS. Fulvia!

ANTONY. Dead.

DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS. Why, sir, give the gods a thankful sacrifice. When
it pleaseth their deities to take the wife of a man
from him, it shows to man the tailors of the earth;
comforting therein, that when old robes are worn
out, there are members to make new. If there were
no more women but Fulvia, then had you indeed a cut,
and the case to be lamented: this grief is crowned
with consolation; your old smock brings forth a new
petticoat: and indeed the tears live in an onion
that should water this sorrow.

ANTONY. The business she hath broached in the state
Cannot endure my absence.

DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS. And the business you have broached here cannot be
without you; especially that of Cleopatra's, which
wholly depends on your abode.

ANTONY. No more light answers. Let our officers
Have notice what we purpose. I shall break
The cause of our expedience to the queen,
And get her leave to part. For not alone
The death of Fulvia, with more urgent touches,
Do strongly speak to us; but the letters too
Of many our contriving friends in Rome
Petition us at home: Sextus Pompeius
Hath given the dare to Caesar, and commands
The empire of the sea: our slippery people,
Whose love is never link'd to the deserver
Till his deserts are past, begin to throw
Pompey the Great and all his dignities
Upon his son; who, high in name and power,
Higher than both in blood and life, stands up
For the main soldier: whose quality, going on,
The sides o' the world may danger: much is breeding,
Which, like the courser's hair, hath yet but life,
And not a serpent's poison. Say, our pleasure,
To such whose place is under us, requires
Our quick remove from hence.

DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS. I shall do't.

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

DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS. I shall entreat him
To answer like himself: if Caesar move him,
Let Antony look over Caesar's head
And speak as loud as Mars. By Jupiter,
Were I the wearer of Antonius' beard,
I would not shave't to-day.

LEPIDUS. 'Tis not a time
For private stomaching.

DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS. Every time
Serves for the matter that is then born in't.

LEPIDUS. But small to greater matters must give way.

DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS. Not if the small come first.

LEPIDUS. Your speech is passion:
But, pray you, stir no embers up. Here comes
The noble Antony.

DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS. And yonder, Caesar.

ANTONY. 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
Which fronted mine own peace. As for my wife,
I would you had her spirit in such another:
The third o' the world is yours; which with a snaffle
You may pace easy, but not such a wife.

DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS. Would we had all such wives, that the men might go
to wars with the women!

LEPIDUS. Worthily spoken, Mecaenas.

DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS. Or, if you borrow one another's love for the
instant, you may, when you hear no more words of
Pompey, return it again: you shall have time to
wrangle in when you have nothing else to do.

ANTONY. Thou art a soldier only: speak no more.

DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS. That truth should be silent I had almost forgot.

ANTONY. You wrong this presence; therefore speak no more.

DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS. Go to, then; your considerate stone.

MECAENAS. Welcome from Egypt, sir.

DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS. Half the heart of Caesar, worthy Mecaenas! My
honourable friend, Agrippa!

MECAENAS. We have cause to be glad that matters are so well
digested. You stayed well by 't in Egypt.

DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS. Ay, sir; we did sleep day out of countenance, and
made the night light with drinking.

MECAENAS. Eight wild-boars roasted whole at a breakfast, and
but twelve persons there; is this true?

DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS. This was but as a fly by an eagle: we had much more
monstrous matter of feast, which worthily deserved noting.

MECAENAS. She's a most triumphant lady, if report be square to
her.

DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS. When she first met Mark Antony, she pursed up
his heart, upon the river of Cydnus.

AGRIPPA. There she appeared indeed; or my reporter devised
well for her.

DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS. I will tell you.
The barge she sat in, like a burnish'd throne,
Burn'd on the water: the poop was beaten gold;
Purple the sails, and so perfumed that
The winds were love-sick with them; the oars were silver,
Which to the tune of flutes kept stroke, and made
The water which they beat to follow faster,
As amorous of their strokes. For her own person,
It beggar'd all description: she did lie
In her pavilion--cloth-of-gold of tissue--
O'er-picturing that Venus where we see
The fancy outwork nature: on each side her
Stood pretty dimpled boys, like smiling Cupids,
With divers-colour'd fans, whose wind did seem
To glow the delicate cheeks which they did cool,
And what they undid did.

AGRIPPA. O, rare for Antony!

DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS. Her gentlewomen, like the Nereides,
So many mermaids, tended her i' the eyes,
And made their bends adornings: at the helm
A seeming mermaid steers: the silken tackle
Swell with the touches of those flower-soft hands,
That yarely frame the office. From the barge
A strange invisible perfume hits the sense
Of the adjacent wharfs. The city cast
Her people out upon her; and Antony,
Enthroned i' the market-place, did sit alone,
Whistling to the air; which, but for vacancy,
Had gone to gaze on Cleopatra too,
And made a gap in nature.

AGRIPPA. Rare Egyptian!

DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS. Upon her landing, Antony sent to her,
Invited her to supper: she replied,
It should be better he became her guest;
Which she entreated: our courteous Antony,
Whom ne'er the word of 'No' woman heard speak,
Being barber'd ten times o'er, goes to the feast,
And for his ordinary pays his heart
For what his eyes eat only.

AGRIPPA. Royal wench!
She made great Caesar lay his sword to bed:
He plough'd her, and she cropp'd.

DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS. I saw her once
Hop forty paces through the public street;
And having lost her breath, she spoke, and panted,
That she did make defect perfection,
And, breathless, power breathe forth.

MECAENAS. Now Antony must leave her utterly.

DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS. Never; he will not:
Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale
Her infinite variety: other women cloy
The appetites they feed: but she makes hungry
Where most she satisfies; for vilest things
Become themselves in her: that the holy priests
Bless her when she is riggish.

AGRIPPA. Let us go.
Good Enobarbus, make yourself my guest
Whilst you abide here.

DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS. Humbly, sir, I thank you.

POMPEY. Then so much have I heard:
And I have heard, Apollodorus carried--

DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS. No more of that: he did so.

POMPEY. What, I pray you?

DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS. A certain queen to Caesar in a mattress.

POMPEY. I know thee now: how farest thou, soldier?

DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS. Well;
And well am like to do; for, I perceive,
Four feasts are toward.

POMPEY. Let me shake thy hand;
I never hated thee: I have seen thee fight,
When I have envied thy behavior.

DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS. Sir,
I never loved you much; but I ha' praised ye,
When you have well deserved ten times as much
As I have said you did.

MENAS. [Aside] Thy father, Pompey, would ne'er have
made this treaty.--You and I have known, sir.

DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS. At sea, I think.

MENAS. We have, sir.

DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS. You have done well by water.

MENAS. And you by land.

DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS. I will praise any man that will praise me; though it
cannot be denied what I have done by land.

MENAS. Nor what I have done by water.

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

MENAS. And you by land.

DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS. There I deny my land service. But give me your
hand, Menas: if our eyes had authority, here they
might take two thieves kissing.

MENAS. All men's faces are true, whatsome'er their hands are.

DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS. But there is never a fair woman has a true face.

MENAS. No slander; they steal hearts.

DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS. We came hither to fight with you.

MENAS. For my part, I am sorry it is turned to a drinking.
Pompey doth this day laugh away his fortune.

DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS. If he do, sure, he cannot weep't back again.

MENAS. You've said, sir. We looked not for Mark Antony
here: pray you, is he married to Cleopatra?

DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS. Caesar's sister is called Octavia.

MENAS. True, sir; she was the wife of Caius Marcellus.

DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS. But she is now the wife of Marcus Antonius.

MENAS. Pray ye, sir?

DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS. 'Tis true.

MENAS. Then is Caesar and he for ever knit together.

DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS. If I were bound to divine of this unity, I would
not prophesy so.

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

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

MENAS. Who would not have his wife so?

DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS. Not he that himself is not so; which is Mark Antony.
He will to his Egyptian dish again: then shall the
sighs of Octavia blow the fire up in Caesar; and, as
I said before, that which is the strength of their
amity shall prove the immediate author of their
variance. Antony will use his affection where it is:
he married but his occasion here.

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

DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS. I shall take it, sir: we have used our throats in Egypt.

LEPIDUS. I am not so well as I should be, but I'll ne'er out.

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

ANTONY. Bear him ashore. I'll pledge it for him, Pompey.

DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS. Here's to thee, Menas!

POMPEY. Fill till the cup be hid.

DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS. There's a strong fellow, Menas.

MENAS. Why?

DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS. A' bears the third part of the world, man; see'st
not?

MENAS. The third part, then, is drunk: would it were all,
That it might go on wheels!

DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS. Drink thou; increase the reels.

OCTAVIUS. Possess it, I'll make answer:
But I had rather fast from all four days
Than drink so much in one.

DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS. Ha, my brave emperor!
[To MARK ANTONY]
Shall we dance now the Egyptian Bacchanals,
And celebrate our drink?

ANTONY. Come, let's all take hands,
Till that the conquering wine hath steep'd our sense
In soft and delicate Lethe.

DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS. All take hands.
Make battery to our ears with the loud music:
The while I'll place you: then the boy shall sing;
The holding every man shall bear as loud
As his strong sides can volley.
[Music plays. DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS places them]
hand in hand]
THE SONG.
Come, thou monarch of the vine,
Plumpy Bacchus with pink eyne!
In thy fats our cares be drown'd,
With thy grapes our hairs be crown'd:
Cup us, till the world go round,
Cup us, till the world go round!

POMPEY. O Antony,
You have my father's house,--But, what? we are friends.
Come, down into the boat.

DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS. Take heed you fall not.
[Exeunt all but DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS and MENAS]
Menas, I'll not on shore.

MENAS. No, to my cabin.
These drums! these trumpets, flutes! what!
Let Neptune hear we bid a loud farewell
To these great fellows: sound and be hang'd, sound out!

DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS. Ho! says a' There's my cap.

AGRIPPA. What, are the brothers parted?

DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS. They have dispatch'd with Pompey, he is gone;
The other three are sealing. Octavia weeps
To part from Rome; Caesar is sad; and Lepidus,
Since Pompey's feast, as Menas says, is troubled
With the green sickness.

AGRIPPA. 'Tis a noble Lepidus.

DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS. A very fine one: O, how he loves Caesar!

AGRIPPA. Nay, but how dearly he adores Mark Antony!

DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS. Caesar? Why, he's the Jupiter of men.

AGRIPPA. What's Antony? The god of Jupiter.

DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS. Spake you of Caesar? How! the non-pareil!

AGRIPPA. O Antony! O thou Arabian bird!

DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS. Would you praise Caesar, say 'Caesar:' go no further.

AGRIPPA. Indeed, he plied them both with excellent praises.

DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS. But he loves Caesar best; yet he loves Antony:
Ho! hearts, tongues, figures, scribes, bards,
poets, cannot
Think, speak, cast, write, sing, number, ho!
His love to Antony. But as for Caesar,
Kneel down, kneel down, and wonder.

AGRIPPA. Both he loves.

DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS. They are his shards, and he their beetle.
[Trumpets within]
So;
This is to horse. Adieu, noble Agrippa.

ANTONY. Her tongue will not obey her heart, nor can
Her heart inform her tongue,--the swan's
down-feather,
That stands upon the swell at full of tide,
And neither way inclines.

DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS. [Aside to AGRIPPA] Will Caesar weep?

AGRIPPA. [Aside to DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS] He has a cloud in 's face.

DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS. [Aside to AGRIPPA] He were the worse for that,
were he a horse;
So is he, being a man.

AGRIPPA. [Aside to DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS] Why, Enobarbus,
When Antony found Julius Caesar dead,
He cried almost to roaring; and he wept
When at Philippi he found Brutus slain.

DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS. [Aside to AGRIPPA] That year, indeed, he was
troubled with a rheum;
What willingly he did confound he wail'd,
Believe't, till I wept too.

ANTONY. When it appears to you where this begins,
Turn your displeasure that way: for our faults
Can never be so equal, that your love
Can equally move with them. Provide your going;
Choose your own company, and command what cost
Your heart has mind to.

DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS. How now, friend Eros!

EROS. There's strange news come, sir.

DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS. What, man?

EROS. Caesar and Lepidus have made wars upon Pompey.

DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS. This is old: what is the success?

EROS. Caesar, having made use of him in the wars 'gainst
Pompey, presently denied him rivality; would not let
him partake in the glory of the action: and not
resting here, accuses him of letters he had formerly
wrote to Pompey; upon his own appeal, seizes him: so
the poor third is up, till death enlarge his confine.

DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS. Then, world, thou hast a pair of chaps, no more;
And throw between them all the food thou hast,
They'll grind the one the other. Where's Antony?

EROS. He's walking in the garden--thus; and spurns
The rush that lies before him; cries, 'Fool Lepidus!'
And threats the throat of that his officer
That murder'd Pompey.

DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS. Our great navy's rigg'd.

EROS. For Italy and Caesar. More, Domitius;
My lord desires you presently: my news
I might have told hereafter.

DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS. 'Twill be naught:
But let it be. Bring me to Antony.

CLEOPATRA. I will be even with thee, doubt it not.

DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS. But why, why, why?

CLEOPATRA. Thou hast forspoke my being in these wars,
And say'st it is not fit.

DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS. Well, is it, is it?

CLEOPATRA. If not denounced against us, why should not we
Be there in person?

DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS. [Aside] Well, I could reply:
If we should serve with horse and mares together,
The horse were merely lost; the mares would bear
A soldier and his horse.

CLEOPATRA. What is't you say?

DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS. Your presence needs must puzzle Antony;
Take from his heart, take from his brain,
from's time,
What should not then be spared. He is already
Traduced for levity; and 'tis said in Rome
That Photinus an eunuch and your maids
Manage this war.

CLEOPATRA. Sink Rome, and their tongues rot
That speak against us! A charge we bear i' the war,
And, as the president of my kingdom, will
Appear there for a man. Speak not against it:
I will not stay behind.

DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS. Nay, I have done.
Here comes the emperor.

ANTONY. For that he dares us to't.

DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS. So hath my lord dared him to single fight.

CANIDIUS. Ay, and to wage this battle at Pharsalia.
Where Caesar fought with Pompey: but these offers,
Which serve not for his vantage, be shakes off;
And so should you.

DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS. Your ships are not well mann'd;
Your mariners are muleters, reapers, people
Ingross'd by swift impress; in Caesar's fleet
Are those that often have 'gainst Pompey fought:
Their ships are yare; yours, heavy: no disgrace
Shall fall you for refusing him at sea,
Being prepared for land.

ANTONY. By sea, by sea.

DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS. Most worthy sir, you therein throw away
The absolute soldiership you have by land;
Distract your army, which doth most consist
Of war-mark'd footmen; leave unexecuted
Your own renowned knowledge; quite forego
The way which promises assurance; and
Give up yourself merely to chance and hazard,
From firm security.

ANTONY. Set we our squadrons on yond side o' the hill,
In eye of Caesar's battle; from which place
We may the number of the ships behold,
And so proceed accordingly.

DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS. Naught, naught all, naught! I can behold no longer:
The Antoniad, the Egyptian admiral,
With all their sixty, fly and turn the rudder:
To see't mine eyes are blasted.

SCARUS. Gods and goddesses,
All the whole synod of them!

DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS. What's thy passion!

SCARUS. The greater cantle of the world is lost
With very ignorance; we have kiss'd away
Kingdoms and provinces.

DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS. How appears the fight?

SCARUS. On our side like the token'd pestilence,
Where death is sure. Yon ribaudred nag of Egypt,--
Whom leprosy o'ertake!--i' the midst o' the fight,
When vantage like a pair of twins appear'd,
Both as the same, or rather ours the elder,
The breese upon her, like a cow in June,
Hoists sails and flies.

DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS. That I beheld:
Mine eyes did sicken at the sight, and could not
Endure a further view.

SCARUS. She once being loof'd,
The noble ruin of her magic, Antony,
Claps on his sea-wing, and, like a doting mallard,
Leaving the fight in height, flies after her:
I never saw an action of such shame;
Experience, manhood, honour, ne'er before
Did violate so itself.

DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS. Alack, alack!

CANIDIUS. Our fortune on the sea is out of breath,
And sinks most lamentably. Had our general
Been what he knew himself, it had gone well:
O, he has given example for our flight,
Most grossly, by his own!

DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS. Ay, are you thereabouts?
Why, then, good night indeed.

CANIDIUS. To Caesar will I render
My legions and my horse: six kings already
Show me the way of yielding.

DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS. I'll yet follow
The wounded chance of Antony, though my reason
Sits in the wind against me.

CLEOPATRA. What shall we do, Enobarbus?

DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS. Think, and die.

CLEOPATRA. Is Antony or we in fault for this?

DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS. Antony only, that would make his will
Lord of his reason. What though you fled
From that great face of war, whose several ranges
Frighted each other? why should he follow?
The itch of his affection should not then
Have nick'd his captainship; at such a point,
When half to half the world opposed, he being
The meered question: 'twas a shame no less
Than was his loss, to course your flying flags,
And leave his navy gazing.

ANTONY. To him again: tell him he wears the rose
Of youth upon him; from which the world should note
Something particular: his coin, ships, legions,
May be a coward's; whose ministers would prevail
Under the service of a child as soon
As i' the command of Caesar: I dare him therefore
To lay his gay comparisons apart,
And answer me declined, sword against sword,
Ourselves alone. I'll write it: follow me.

DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS. [Aside] Yes, like enough, high-battled Caesar will
Unstate his happiness, and be staged to the show,
Against a sworder! I see men's judgments are
A parcel of their fortunes; and things outward
Do draw the inward quality after them,
To suffer all alike. That he should dream,
Knowing all measures, the full Caesar will
Answer his emptiness! Caesar, thou hast subdued
His judgment too.

CLEOPATRA. What, no more ceremony? See, my women!
Against the blown rose may they stop their nose
That kneel'd unto the buds. Admit him, sir.

DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS. [Aside] Mine honesty and I begin to square.
The loyalty well held to fools does make
Our faith mere folly: yet he that can endure
To follow with allegiance a fall'n lord
Does conquer him that did his master conquer
And earns a place i' the story.

THYREUS. So, haply, are they friends to Antony.

DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS. He needs as many, sir, as Caesar has;
Or needs not us. If Caesar please, our master
Will leap to be his friend: for us, you know,
Whose he is we are, and that is, Caesar's.

CLEOPATRA. He is a god, and knows
What is most right: mine honour was not yielded,
But conquer'd merely.

DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS. [Aside] To be sure of that,
I will ask Antony. Sir, sir, thou art so leaky,
That we must leave thee to thy sinking, for
Thy dearest quit thee.

THYREUS. One that but performs
The bidding of the fullest man, and worthiest
To have command obey'd.

DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS. [Aside] You will be whipp'd.

ANTONY. Approach, there! Ah, you kite! Now, gods
and devils!
Authority melts from me: of late, when I cried 'Ho!'
Like boys unto a muss, kings would start forth,
And cry 'Your will?' Have you no ears? I am
Antony yet.
[Enter Attendants]
Take hence this Jack, and whip him.

DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS. [Aside] 'Tis better playing with a lion's whelp
Than with an old one dying.

ANTONY. Do so, we'll speak to them; and to-night I'll force
The wine peep through their scars. Come on, my queen;
There's sap in't yet. The next time I do fight,
I'll make death love me; for I will contend
Even with his pestilent scythe.

DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS. Now he'll outstare the lightning. To be furious,
Is to be frighted out of fear; and in that mood
The dove will peck the estridge; and I see still,
A diminution in our captain's brain
Restores his heart: when valour preys on reason,
It eats the sword it fights with. I will seek
Some way to leave him.

ANTONY. He will not fight with me, Domitius.

DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS. No.

ANTONY. Why should he not?

DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS. He thinks, being twenty times of better fortune,
He is twenty men to one.

ANTONY. To-morrow, soldier,
By sea and land I'll fight: or I will live,
Or bathe my dying honour in the blood
Shall make it live again. Woo't thou fight well?

DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS. I'll strike, and cry 'Take all.'

CLEOPATRA. [Aside to DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS] What means this?

DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS. [Aside to CLEOPATRA] 'Tis one of those odd
tricks which sorrow shoots
Out of the mind.

CLEOPATRA. [Aside to DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS] What does he mean?

DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS. [Aside to CLEOPATRA] To make his followers weep.

ANTONY. Tend me to-night;
May be it is the period of your duty:
Haply you shall not see me more; or if,
A mangled shadow: perchance to-morrow
You'll serve another master. I look on you
As one that takes his leave. Mine honest friends,
I turn you not away; but, like a master
Married to your good service, stay till death:
Tend me to-night two hours, I ask no more,
And the gods yield you for't!

DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS. What mean you, sir,
To give them this discomfort? Look, they weep;
And I, an ass, am onion-eyed: for shame,
Transform us not to women.

OCTAVIUS. Go charge Agrippa
Plant those that have revolted in the van,
That Antony may seem to spend his fury
Upon himself.

DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS. Alexas did revolt; and went to Jewry on
Affairs of Antony; there did persuade
Great Herod to incline himself to Caesar,
And leave his master Antony: for this pains
Caesar hath hang'd him. Canidius and the rest
That fell away have entertainment, but
No honourable trust. I have done ill;
Of which I do accuse myself so sorely,
That I will joy no more.

Soldier. Enobarbus, Antony
Hath after thee sent all thy treasure, with
His bounty overplus: the messenger
Came on my guard; and at thy tent is now
Unloading of his mules.

DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS. I give it you.

Soldier. Mock not, Enobarbus.
I tell you true: best you safed the bringer
Out of the host; I must attend mine office,
Or would have done't myself. Your emperor
Continues still a Jove.

DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS. I am alone the villain of the earth,
And feel I am so most. O Antony,
Thou mine of bounty, how wouldst thou have paid
My better service, when my turpitude
Thou dost so crown with gold! This blows my heart:
If swift thought break it not, a swifter mean
Shall outstrike thought: but thought will do't, I feel.
I fight against thee! No: I will go seek
Some ditch wherein to die; the foul'st best fits
My latter part of life.

Second Soldier. This last day was
A shrewd one to's.

DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS. O, bear me witness, night,--

Second Soldier. Stand close, and list him.

DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS. Be witness to me, O thou blessed moon,
When men revolted shall upon record
Bear hateful memory, poor Enobarbus did
Before thy face repent!

Third Soldier. Peace!
Hark further.

DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS. O sovereign mistress of true melancholy,
The poisonous damp of night disponge upon me,
That life, a very rebel to my will,
May hang no longer on me: throw my heart
Against the flint and hardness of my fault:
Which, being dried with grief, will break to powder,
And finish all foul thoughts. O Antony,
Nobler than my revolt is infamous,
Forgive me in thine own particular;
But let the world rank me in register
A master-leaver and a fugitive:
O Antony! O Antony!