Imagens das páginas
PDF
ePub

You have my father's house. But what? we

friends.

Come down into the boat.

Eno.

[ocr errors]

are

Take heed, you fall not. [Exeunt POMPEY, CESAR, ANTONY, and At

Menas, I'll not on shore.

Men.

tendants.

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!

Eno. Hoo, says 'a! — There's my cap.

[A flourish.

Men.

Hoo!-noble Captain! come.

[Exeunt.

ACT III.

SCENE 1. A Plain in Syria.

Enter VENTIDIUS, as it were in triumph, with SILIUS, and other Romans, Officers, and Soldiers; the dead body of PACORUS borne before him.

VENTIDIUS.

NOW, darting Parthia, art thou struck; and now

Pleas'd fortune does of Marcus Crassus' death

Make me revenger. Bear the King's son's body

[ocr errors]

Thy Pacorus, Orodes,

Before our army.
Pays this for Marcus Crassus.

Silius.

Noble Ventidius,

Whilst yet with Parthian blood thy sword is warm, The fugitive Parthians follow: spur through Media,

Mesopotamia, and the shelters whither

The routed fly: so thy grand captain, Antony,
Shall set thee on triumphant chariots, and

Put garlands on thy head.

O Silius, Silius !

Ven.
I have done enough: a lower place, note well,
May make too great an act; for learn this, Silius,
Better to leave undone, than by our deeds acquire
Too high a fame, when him we serve 's away.
Cæsar and Antony have ever won

More in their officer than person: Sossius,
One of my place in Syria, his lieutenant,
For quick accumulation of renown,
Which he achiev'd by th' minute, lost his favour.
Who does i' th' wars more than his captain can,
Becomes his captain's captain; and ambition,
The soldier's virtue, rather makes choice of loss,
Than gain which darkens him.

I could do more to do Antonius good,

But 'twould offend him; and in his offence
Should my performance perish.

Sil.

Thou hast, Ventidius, that

Without the which a soldier and his sword

Grants scarce distinction. Thou wilt write to Antony ?
Ven. I'll humbly signify what in his name,
That magical word of war, we have effected;
How, with his banners and his well-paid ranks,
The ne'er-yet-beaten horse of Parthia

We have jaded out o'th' field.

Where is he now?

Sil.
Ven. He purposeth to Athens; whither, with what

haste

The weight we must convey with 's will permit,
We shall appear before him. On, there; pass along.

[Exeunt.

SCENE II.

Rome. An Ante-Chamber in CÆSAR'S House.

Enter AGRIPPA and ENOBARBUS, meeting.

Agr. What! are the brothers parted?

Eno. They have dispatch'd with Pompey: he is

gone;

The other three are sealing. Octavia weeps

To part from Rome; Cæsar is sad; and Lepidus,
Since Pompey's feast, as Menas says, is troubled
With the green sickness.

'Tis a noble Lepidus.

Agr.
Eno. A very fine one. O, how he loves Cæsar!
Agr. Nay, but how dearly he adores Mark Antony!
Eno. Cæsar? Why, he's the Jupiter of men.
Agr. What's Antony? The god of Jupiter.
Eno.

Spake you of Cæsar? How! the nonpareil!
Agr. O Antony! O thou Arabian bird!
Eno. Would you praise Cæsar, say, - Cæsar ;

go no farther.

Agr. Indeed, he ply'd them both with excellent praises.

Eno. But he loves Cæsar best

Antony.

yet he loves

Ho! hearts, tongues, figures, scribes, bards, poets cannot Think, speak, cast, write, sing, number, hoo!His love to Antony. But as for Cæsar,

Kneel down, kneel down, and wonder.

Agr.
Eno.

So,

They are his shards, and he their beetle.

Both he loves.

[Trumpets.

This is to horse. Adieu, noble Agrippa.

Agr. Good fortune, worthy soldier; and farewell.

Enter CÆSAR, ANTONY, LEPIDUS, and OCTAVIA. Ant. No farther, sir.

Cæs. You take from me a great part of myself; Use me well in 't. Sister, prove such a wife As my thoughts make thee, and as my farthest band Shall pass on thy approof. Most noble Antony, Let not the piece of virtue which is set Betwixt us as the cement of our love,

To keep it builded be the ram to batter
The fortress of it; for better might we

Have loved without this mean, if on both parts
This be not cherish'd.

[blocks in formation]

Though you be therein curious, the least cause

For what you seem to fear. So, the gods keep you, And make the hearts of Romans serve your ends!

We will here part.

Cæs. Farewell, my dearest sister, fare thee well: The elements be kind to thee, and make

Thy spirits all of comfort! fare thee well.

Octa. My noble brother!

Ant. The April's in her eyes; it is love's spring, And these the showers to bring it on.

Be cheerful.

Octa. Sir, look well to my husband's house;

and

Cæs. What, Octavia?

Octa. I'll tell you in your ear.

Ant. 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 th' full of tide,
And neither way inclines.

Eno. Will Cæsar weep?

Agr.

[Speaking aside with AGRIPPA.

He has a cloud in 's face.

Eno. He were the worse for that, were he a

horse;

So is he, being a man.

Agr.

Why, Enobarbus,

When Antony found Julius Cæsar dead,

He cried almost to roaring; and he wept,

When at Philippi he found Brutus slain.

Eno. That year, indeed, he was troubled with a

rheum ;

What willingly he did confound, he wail'd,

Believe 't, till I wept too.

Cæs.

No, sweet Octavia,

You shall hear from me still the time shall not

Out-go my thinking on you.

Ant.

Come, sir, come;

I'll wrestle with you in my strength of love :

Look, here I have you; thus I let you go, [Embracing. And give you to the gods.

Cæs.

Adieu; be happy!

Lep. Let all the number of the stars give light

[blocks in formation]
« AnteriorContinuar »