I came before you here, a man prepar'd
To take this offer: But Mark Antony
Put me to fome impatience :-Though I lofe
The praise of it by telling, You must know,
When Cæfar and your brother were at blows,
Your mother came to Sicily, and did find
Her welcome friendly.

Ant. I have heard it, Pompey;

And am well studied for a liberal thanks,
Which I do owe you.

Pom. Let me have your hand :

I did not think, fir, to have met you here.

Ant. The beds i' the eaft are foft; and thanks to you, That call'd me, timelier than my purpose, hither

For I have gain'd by it.

Caf. Since I faw you laft,

There is a change upon you.

Pom. Well, I know not,

What counts harsh fortune cafts upon my face? ;

But in my bofom fhall the never come,

To make my heart her vassal.

Lep. Well met here.

Pom. I hope fo, Lepidus.

Thus we are agreed:

I crave, our compofition may be written,

And feal'd between us.

Caf. That's the next to do.

Pom. We'll feast each other, ere we part; and let us

Draw lots, who fhall begin.

Ant. That will I, Pompey.

Pom. No, Antony, take the lot: but, firft,

Or laft, your fine Egyptian cookery

Shall have the fame. I have heard, that Julius Cæfar
Grew fat with feafting there.

Ant. You have heard much.

Pom. I have fair meanings, fir✨.

3 What counts bard fortune cafts, &c.] Metaphor from making marks or lines in cafting accounts in arithmetick. WARBURTON.

4 I bave fair meanings, fir.] The old copy has meaning; the tranfcriber's ear being probably deceived, in confequence of the next word beginning with the final letter of this. The correction was fuggested by Mr. Heath. MALONE.

I i4

Ant.

Ant. And fair words to them.

Pom. Then fo much have I heard:

And I have heard, Apollodorus carried-
Eno. No more of that :-He did fo.

Pom. What, I pray you?

Eno. A certain queen to Cæfar 5 in a mattress.

Pom I know thee now; How far'ft thou, soldier ?
Eno. Well;

And well am like to do; for, I perceive,

Four feafts are toward.

Pom. Let me shake thy hand;

I never hated thee: I have feen thee fight,
When I have envied thy behaviour.

Eno. Sir,

I never lov'd you much; but I have prais'd you,
When you have well deferv'd ten times as much
As I have faid you did.

Pom. Enjoy thy plainnefs,

It nothing ill becomes thee.

Aboard my galley I invite you all:

Will you lead, lords?

Caf. Ant. Lep. Shew us the way, fir.

Pom. Come. [Exeunt POMPEY, CESAR, ANTONY, LEPIDUS, Soldiers, and Attendants.

Men. Thy father, Pompey, would ne'er have made this treaty.-[afide.]-You and I have known, fir.

Eno. At fea, I think.

Men. We have, fir.

Eno. You have done well by water.

Men. And you by land.

Eno. I will praise any man that will praise me: though it cannot be denied what I have done by land.

5

to Cæfar-] i, e. to Julius Cæfar. STEEVENS.

6 Iwill praise any man that will praise me ;] The poet's art in delivering this humourous sentiment (which gives us so very true and naural a picture of the commerce of the world) can never be fufficiently admired. The confeffion could come from none but a frank and rough character like the fpeaker's: and the moral leffon infinuated under it, that flattery can make its way through the most stubborn manners, deferves our ferious reflection. WARBURTON.

Men.

Men. Nor what I have done by water.

Eno. Yes, fomething you can deny for your own fafety: you have been a great thief by fea.

Men. And you by land.

Eno. There I deny my land fervice. But give me your hand, Menas: If our eyes had authority, here they might take two thieves kiffing.

Men. All men's faces are true, whatfoe'er their hands

are.

Eno. But there is never a fair woman has a true face.
Men. No flander; they steal hearts.

Eno. We came hither to fight with you.'

Men. For my part, I am forry it is turn'd to a drink,
ing. Pompey doth this day laugh away his fortune.
Eno. If he do, fure, he cannot weep it back again.
Men. You have faid, fir. We look'd not for Mark
Antony here; Pray you, is he married to Cleopatra ?
Eno. Cæfar's fifter is call'd Octavia.

Men. True, fir; fhe was the wife of Caius Marcellus.
Eno. But he is now the wife of Marcus Antonius.
Men. Pray you, fir?

Eno. 'Tis true.

Men. Then is Cæfar, and he, for ever knit together. Eno. If I were bound to divine of this unity, I would not prophefy fo.

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

Eno. I think fo too. But you fhall find, the band that feems to tie their friendship together, will be the very ftrangler of their amity: Octavia is of a holy, cold, and ftill converfation.

Men. Who would not have his wife fo?

Eno. Not he, that himself is not fo; which is Mark Antony. He will to his Egyptian dish again: then shall the fighs of Octavia blow the fire up in Cæfar; and, as I faid before, that which is the ftrength of their amity, shall prove the immediate author of their variance. tony will use his affection where it is; he marry'd but his occafion here.

Men. And thus it may be. Come, fir,

An

will you

aboard?

I have

I have a health for you.

Eno. I fhall take it, fir: we have us'd our throats in Egypt.

Men. Come; let's away.

[Exeunt.

On board Pompey's Galley, lying near Misenum. Mufick. Enter two or three Servants, with a banquet 7.

1. Serv. Here they'll be, man: Some o' their plants are ill-rooted already, the leaft wind i' the world will blow them down.

2. Serv. Lepidus is high-colour'd.

1. Serv. They have made him drink alms-drink?.

2. Serv. As they pinch one another by the difpofition', he cries out, no more; reconciles them to his entreaty, and himself to the drink.

1. Serv. But it raises the greater war between him and his difcretion.

2. Serv. 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 fervice, as a partizan I could not heave.

1. Serv. To be call'd into a huge sphere, and not to be

7 with a banquet.] A banquet in our authour's time frequently fignified what we now call a defert; and from the following dialogue the word must here be understood in that sense. So, in Lord Cromwell, 1602: "Their dinner is our banquet after dinner." Again, in Heath's Chronicle of the Civil Wars, 1661: "After dinner, he was served with a banquet, in the conclufion whereof he knighted Alderman Viner." MALONE.

8 Some o' their plants-] Plants, befides its common meaning, is here ufed for the foot, from the Latin. JOHNSON.

They have made him drink alms-drink.] A phrafe amongst good fellows, to fignify that liquor of another's fhare which his companion drinks to eafe him. But it fatirically alludes to Cæfar and Antony's admitting him into the triumvirate, in order to take off from them. felves the load of envy. WARBURTON.

As they pinch one another by the difpofition,-] A phrafe equivalent to that now in ufe, of Touching one in a fore place. WARRURTON. 2-a partizan-] A pike. JOHNSON.

fee a

feen to move in't, are the holes where eyes fhould be, which pitifully difafter the cheeks 3.

A fennet founded. Enter CESAR, ANTONY, POMPEY, LEPIDUS, AGRIPPA, MECENAS, ENOBARBUS, MENAS, with other Captains.

Ant. Thus do they, fir: [to Cæfar.] They take the flow o' the Nile+

By certain fcales i' the pyramid; they know,
By the height, the lowness, or the mean, if dearth,

3 To be call'd into a buge sphere, and not to be feen to move in't, are the boles where eyes fhould be, which pitifully difafler the cheeks]. This Speech seems to be mutilated; to fupply the deficiencies is impoffible, but perhaps the fenfe was originally approaching to this.

To be called into a buge sphere, and not to be feen to move in it, is a very ignominious ftate; great offices are the holes where eyes should be, which, if eyes be wanting, pitifully difafter the checks. JOHNSON.

I do not believe a fingle word has been omitted. The being called into a huge sphere, and not being feen to move in it, these two circumftances, fays the fpeaker, refemble fockets in a face where eyes should be, [but are not,] which empty fockets, or holes without eyes, pitifully disfigure the countenance.

The fphere in which the eye moves, is an expreffion which Shakfpeare has often ufed. Thus, in his 119th Sonnet:

"How have mine eyes out of theirfpberes been fitted, &c. Again, in Hamlet;

"Make thy two eyes, like stars, start from their spheres."

MALONE.

4 They take the flow of the Nile, &c.] Pliny speaking of the Nile fays, "How it rifeth, is known by markes and measures taken of certain pits. The ordinary height of it is fixteen cubits. Under that gage the waters overflow not all. Above that flint, there are a let and hindrance, by reafon that the later it is ere they bee fallen and downe againe. By these the feed-time is much of it spent, for that the earth is too wet. By the other there is none at all, by reafon that the ground is dry and thirstie. The province taketh good keepe and reckoning of both, the one as well as the other. But when it is no higher than 12 cubits, it findeth extreme famine; yea, and at 13 it feelech hunger fill: 14 cubits comforts their hearts, 15 bids them take no care, but 16 affordeth them plentie and delicious dainties.-And fo foon as any part of the land is freed from the water, ftraight waies it is fowed." Philemon Holland's Tranflation, 1601, B. V. c. 9. REED.

5 she mean,-] i. e. the middle. STEEVENS.

Or